Chapter Seven: Because Screw Inescapable Cages
or
Daleks Will Rule, Statten Will Drool
I couldn't think of a humourous title for this chapter, so I made it a 'screw you' tribute for Henrey Van Satten.
Go jump off Bart's, you b st rd. No-one likes you.
xXx
Me no own. Why not? Nobody knows...
xXx
Kati-Rose appeared in a dimly lit area with alien artefacts on display. She lay on the carpeted floor, exhausted. The ends of her vision were black, and as she sank into unconsciousness, she heard the blaring of an alarm and saw a flash of red.
oOo
Kati-Rose awoke with a gasp, her eyes opening before slamming shut again to protect her pupils from the light.
"Finally." said a disinterested male voice, "It's awake. Doctor Smith, what is it?"
Another, higher pitched voice spoke out from above her, "It looks human, but the brain has much higher levels of activity. I would suggest keeping it sedated and confined at all times."
"You. Thing." the first voice said, "What are you, and who am I to you? Smith, turn down the lights so that it can open it's eyes."
Kati-Rose did as the man said and opened her eyes, glad to see that the lights had been dimmed. She blinked rapidly, trying to get the room into focus.
"I am human." She said confidently, cursing her croaky voice.
"Who am I? Do you know me?" the first voice asked again. She turned her head to look at the male. She recognised him from somewhere. Then it clicked.
"Mister Henry Van Statten." Kati-Rose said cautiously, "You own the Internet."
Van Statten smiled- it wasn't a nice one. "Good. Put it under."
And the world went black.
oOo
Kati-Rose spent the next few weeks? Months? Days? Hanging on a wall, drifting in and out of consciousness. If she tried to move during her brief periods of consciousness, a cool liquid would go into her bloodstream from the needle on her left. Occasionally, they would wake her up for tests, which mainly involved them scanning her brain and stabbing her with a pin to ask, 'did that hurt?'. Though, sometimes, they would give her different drugs from the needle on her right, just to see her reaction to them. Henry Van Statten was a sadistic jerk.
However, one day when she woke up, she wasn't alone. Van Statten looked over at her as she came out of the drug-induced haze.
"Hello, thing. I've found you a friend." he gestured over to the other wall, where the ninth Doctor lay chained, spread-eagled and stripped to the waist. Kati-Rose looked away, cheeks darkening. Van Statten smirked at her discomfort. "His name is the Doctor, apparently. I'm just about to do some tests." he smiled, "Should be fun."
The Doctor awoke with a gasp.
"Now, smile!" Van Statten told him, and aimed the laser at the Doctor's torso. It moved down, scanning the time-lord.
"Two hearts!" Van Statten exclaimed happily, "Binary vascular system. Oh, I am so going to patent this."
"So that's your secret." The Doctor spat, "You don't just collect this stuff, you scavenge it."
Kati-Rose would have cheered if she could use her voice, but her throat was parched and her vocal chords were hoarse from screaming.
"This technology has been falling to Earth for centuries. All it took was the right mind to use it." Van Statten boasted.
"Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk. You have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year my scientists cultivated bacteria from a Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold." he said smugly.
"Kept it strictly within the laboratory of course. No need to get people excited. Why sell one cure when I can sell a thousand palliatives? Oh, and you see doll-face over there?" he gestured over to Kati-Rose, and the Doctor's face turned from one of hatred and disgust to one of shock and sadness when he realised it was her.
"We're about to make a breakthrough on it. With a bit of it's brain tissue and some cyber technology, we'll gain the ability to teleport in a few months. However, we can't duplicate the brain tissue, so we'll have to take a fair bit of it." Van Statten said, grinning evilly. So this is what they had planned for her. Cut her up and turn her into technology.
"Do you know what a dalek is, Van Statten?" the Doctor said hatefully. "A Dalek is honest. It does what it can for the survival for it's species. That creature in your dungeon is better than you." and Kati-Rose agreed fully.
Van Statten shrugged, "In that case, I will be true to myself and continue."
The Doctor started panicking, and Kati-Rose couldn't blame him- having the bane of your race a floor below you was a worthy reason to panic.
"Listen to me!" he shouted, "That thing downstairs is going to kill every last one of us!"
"Nothing can escape the cage." Van Statten told him dismissively, and blasted him with the laser again.
"But it's woken up, it knows I'm here. It's going to get out." the Doctor pleaded. "Van Statten, I swear, no-one on this base is safe. No-one on this planet!"
Van Statten ignored him and ran the laser scan again, making the Doctor scream. Kati-Rose sobbed, but she was too dehydrated for tears. An alarm sounded, and a voice came over the intercom.
"This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill."
"Release us if you want to live." the Doctor said calmly, and Van Statten (always with his self-preservation in mind) undid the chains binding them.
Kati-Rose collapsed to the floor, too weak to stand. The Doctor pulled on his T-shirt, grabbed his jacket and rushed over to her, lifting her to a sitting position. He opened his jacket, wrapped it around her and drew her into a hug.
"It's okay, yeah? It'll be okay." he told her softly, and Kati-Rose nodded into his chest.
He lifted her up, wincing at how thin she was, and cradled her to him. Kati-Rose yawned. Drug induced unconsciousness really takes it out of you, she thought sleepily.
"You can go to sleep, if you want." the Doctor told her kindly, and she fell asleep before she could decline, her pendant heavy against her chest.