Part 7: Deus Ex Machina.
Even though her mind was still fogged up from the recent trauma she had endured and the forced sleep that followed it, Rose still had the presence of mind to get what the Doctor was doing. So she started rambling, just talking about anything that came to mind, which was mostly complaining about, and insulting, the Daleks while stalking backwards and forwards in the cell.
The Doctor, while listening to what Rose was saying, soon finished the hastily constructed Sonic Screwdriver. He activated it and scanned the walls, locating at least three listening devices hidden around the room. He set the devices to build up a static charge which would appear to be interference from the surrounding EM Field and then moved over to the door and unlocked it. Then he folded his arms, leaned against the door frame and watched Rose pace.
When Rose finally noticed him, she held her arms out to the side in a gesture that said 'What you doing?'
"All done." Said the Doctor with a smile. "You feel better now?"
Rose glanced around the room before making her way over to the Doctor. "What do we do now?"
"Now, we go." He said as he opened the door and checked to see if any Daleks could see them. He ducked back into the room and grabbed Rose's hand. "Come on." He said as he lead her out into the corridor.
Keeping low, they headed towards the chamber and ducked down behind a stack of crates. Rose looked up at the crates stacked above her and whispered, "How do Daleks manage to stack things?"
The Doctor turned and put his finger to his lips. When he looked back at the chamber, his head suddenly spun back to her and he gave her a quizzical look before returning his concentration to the chamber. A minute or two later, there was the sound of a near-by explosion. Although the sound of the explosion was muffled, the ground shook and dust cascaded down from the cracks between the copper plates on the ceiling. A siren began wailing and Rose grabbed the Doctor's arm.
"What was that?" She hissed.
"That was the sound of a Dalek spaceship blowing up." Replied the Doctor with a glint in his eye. "Basically, I had four generators. I wired the second generator to the third and left it for the Daleks to find. Then I wired the fourth back to the first and hid the connection. I set the fourth generator to build up gradually so that I would have the time to get back here to you before it blew." He looked into the chamber and saw the Daleks milling around in confusion. "Now," he said as he looked back at Rose and indicated over his shoulder with his thumb, "there's no power running through the metal plates and those Daleks are running on their power cells, which won't last very long. Especially...!" He left the sentence hanging as he spotted the one thing he had been looking for. He turned back to Rose and the look on his face was grim. "Do not move from here!" He ordered.
With the look on his face and the tone of his voice, Rose dared not disobey him, so she watched him as he made his way into the chamber and take something out of his pocket.
Using the chaotic confusion to his advantage, The Doctor crept into the chamber and took out his make-shift Sonic Screwdriver from his pocket. When he was close to his quarry, he leapt out and, holding the Sonic Screwdriver like a dagger, he rammed it into the glowing orb of the Dalek's eye-stalk, smashing it and extinguishing the blue glow. "Told you I'd be back!" He growled.
Blinded, the Dalek went into a frenzy. "Al-arm! Al-arm! Pri-son-ers at-tack-ing! Ass-ist! Al-ert! Al-ert!" It screeched.
The Doctor grabbed the Dalek's weapon with one hand and the eye-stalk with the other and began manoeuvring it. He knew that if one thing could be said about the Daleks, it was that they were predictable. Their one instinct when attacked was to open fire with their weapon and the Doctor turned that to his advantage. As the Dalek began firing blindly, the Doctor pushed and pulled it around, targeting all the other Daleks in the chamber. Within the space of a single minute, all the other Daleks had been destroyed. As the ball of flame from the last exploding Dalek died away, another Dalek emerged from the tunnel that led to the Penopticon and began rolling down the ramp into the chamber. The Doctor pulled the still shooting Dalek around and the new Dalek erupted in a ball of flame and continued to roll into the chamber, colliding with the still smoking remains of another Dalek.
Rose suddenly shouted. "Doctor, behind you!"
The Doctor pulled the weakening Dalek around as it fired again. By now the Daleks power cell was almost depleted and took two hits to detroy the new Dalek. After a few more shots blazed from the weapon, the Dalek stopped firing altogether and it's panic-stricken voice became drawn out and slurred.
The Doctor put his face close to the domed head of the Dalek. "I cut the power to this place. All that shooting has drained your power cell and you have no way of re-charging it. Now, I leave you to die. Alone. That is what you get for torturing a friend of mine."
"Heeeellllp meeeeeee."
The Doctor pushed the Dalek away and it rolled into the chamber where it bumped into the remains of one of it's brethren and remained motionless. He indicated for Rose to come to him. "We have to get back to the TARDIS and fast!" He said as he grabbed her hand and almost dragged her into a tunnel.
"But you cut the power. The Daleks are dieing aren't they?" Asked Rose as she ran to keep up.
"Some of them will still have power in their cells. That one depleted it's cell quickly because of all the shooting it was doing. But the Daleks aren't the problem. I didn't hook up the Resonance Field Matrix. So, when the Eye Of Harmony builds up enough charge and flares, it will create another Black Hole and swallow this place, and the Daleks, in an instant. So, we have to go."
Rose didn't even bother answering. She ran down tunnel after tunnel, following where-ever the Doctor led her. Rose was amazed because, now that the power was cut, all the tunnels were in total darkness. Yet the Doctor knew exactly where to go and when to turn. Eventually, she could see a feint light ahead of her in the perpetual gloom.
"That's the entrance where we came in." Said the Doctor. "Quickly, follow me."
Rose almost ran up the ladder as, below her, there was a small explosion. Back in the tunnel, she could hear a Dalek screaming. "Pri-son-ers ha-lt! You will be ex-ter-min-ated!"
On the surface, the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand and pulled her along. "Come on!" He yelled. "I don't know how much time we have left, but it won't be much!"
"Is it ever?" Shouted Rose.
Together, they ran through the ruins of the city of Gallifrey. After running through the darkness of the sewers, Rose never even questioned the Doctors sense of direction and, sure enough, she soon saw the hill they had slid down to get to the city.
There was a sudden explosion to the side of Rose and dust, ash and chunks of debris plumed into the air. Rose turned and saw three airborne Daleks closing in on them. "There's more of them!" She shouted.
"Just keep going!" Shouted the Doctor as more explosions erupted all around them.
They reached the bottom of the hill and began climbing. Rose glanced behind them just in time to see the pursuing Daleks fall out of the sky. The act of flying and shooting had rapidly depleted their power cells and now they smashed into the ground, nothing more than falling chunks of metal. "Hah, serves you right." Said Rose as she chased the Doctor up the hill.
When they were half way up the hill, they saw a Dalek tumbling down the hill, crying out weakly as it passed them. They both watched it bounce pass them, looked at each other, raised their eyebrows and then continued up the hill.
When they reached the top, Rose had to stop to try and get some breath back in the thin atmosphere. They both looked back at the ruined city and could see the flames and smoke from the burning Dalek ship. However, instead of going straight up into the sky, the flames and smoke were curling over towards the Penopticon.
"The Eye is generating Gravity, it's starting to pull everything in. And it's building." Said the Doctor. Even from this distance, they could feel the effects of the growing Gravity Well. Rose could feel it tugging at her hair and dust and ash were beginning to stream towards the ruined city. "The Gravity Well will get stronger with every passing second. The Eye is getting ready to flare. We have to keep going."
Rose nodded and ran after the Doctor. She felt as though she were being toyed with. That as soon as she felt safe for the first time since arriving here, then the Eye Of Harmony would flare and suck them in, crushing them to oblivion. The increasing strength of the Gravity Well didn't help either. By now, the streaming dust and ash was a blinding fog as it rushed past them, obscuring everything and choking as well as blinding them both.
By now, Rose was fighting against the pull of Gravity as well as the burn in her lungs and the terror in her soul. She often prided herself on her stamina and strength of spirit, but now she felt as though both had fled from her. "Doctor!" She shouted weakly as she fought for a choking breath. "I.. I can't..!" She said as she toppled forwards.
Then the Doctor was there. He lifted her up into his arms and ran on. How far he ran, Rose didn't know, but suddenly the choking ash, the blinding dust, the deafening howl of the debris rushing past them and the frantic pulling of the Gravity Well, all disappeared in an instant and, in the silence and calm that followed, Rose realised that they were inside the TARDIS. "I don't believe it." Said Rose, marvelling at the sight of the TARDIS all around her.
"Hold tight." Said the Doctor from the control console. Suddenly a familiar green light flared and the sound of the TARDIS ' engines kicked in.
As soon as the engines reached a certain pitch, Rose knew they were moving. "We did it!" She shouted, her jubilation rising.
"Not yet." Said the Doctor. He grabbed the console as the TARDIS suddenly bucked violently. The TARDIS shuddered and shook for a few moments, causing sparks to erupt from the console on the opposite side of the Doctor, then settled down again. The Doctor looked at Rose and a grin spread across his face. "Fantastic."
"We did it!" Shouted Rose as she jumped up, ran over to the Doctor and threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. Then she kissed him on his cheek.
The Doctor gave her a surprised look. "What was that for?"
"For coming back for me, and for not giving up on me." Said Rose quietly as she gazed at him.
"Never." Said the Doctor before smiling again.
Rose looked him up and down. "You're filthy." She said with a grin.
"Look who's talking."
Revelation: Epilogue.
The Doctor walked into the control room with a towel around his neck and his hair still wet. He saw Rose, with similar wet hair, looking up at the viewer. "Do you feel better now?"
"Mmm, much." She replied, looking over at him and then turning back to the viewer. She frowned. "I can't see it."
"Can't see what?" Asked the Doctor as he rubbed an ear with the towel.
"The Black Hole."
"That's because it's pitch black out there and it's a 'Black' Hole."
"But I thought you could see the stuff around it?" Asked Rose.
"The Accretion Disc? That's matter that's been caught in the Gravity Well and is being pulled into the hole. That one isn't pulling any matter in just yet.
Rose thought for a moment. "Oh." She said simply before looking back at the viewer.
"Right!" Shouted the Doctor as he slapped his hands on the console. "I'm not asking you where 'you' want to go." He said in mock severity. He frowned as he looked down at the controls. "Ah, I know. Let's go... here!" He said as he punched in some co-ordinates.
As the engines cycled up and the TARDIS began moving, there was a loud bump and a jolt ran through the TARDIS. Rose looked at the Doctor. "Was that supposed to happen?" She asked.
The Doctor just shook his head. "No."
"Could be a problem." Said Rose.
The Doctor nodded. "Could be."
Rose grinned. "Fantastic."
The End.
