Dalek Part 1
Rose walked into the TARDIS kitchen, slightly surprised to see Eliza slumped over the table, dry tear trails drawing down her cheeks. Against her feet, no surprise, was Wolf, licking her toes.
"Eliza?" Rose asked as she approached. After giving no sign of awakening, she walked forward and shook the girls shoulder. "Eliza?" Rose said a little louder.
"Fryd..?" Eliza asked groggily. She squinted her eyes open to see Rose, her eyebrows rose and looking in concern at the teenager.
"You okay?" Rose asked, taking her hand off of Eliza's shoulder and sat at the other side of the table. "You look like you haven't slept much."
"There is a perfectly good reason for that." Eliza replied, still trying to find her voice. Her mind was still in the state of in between reality and dreaming. Looking over at Rose, Eliza was surprised to see that she had changed slightly, but only in age. She still had the same blond hair, brown eyes staring down at her and the same voice. But her skin had aged slightly, her eyes were the same, but more older and wiser, and small dark circles under her eyes.
"Shit… you got old…" Eliza said in wonder. She shook her head, rubbed her eyes viciously and then looked back up at her sisterly friend, returning back to normal.
"Excuse me?" Rose asked in mock hurt. "I will have you know I am only nineteen."
"Well, you looked pretty freaking old to me." Eliza complained. She walked over to the sink and ran the tap, cupping her hands to take some and rubbed it on her face, trying to refresh herself.
"Cheers." Rose thanked. "You sure you're okay?"
Before Eliza could answer, the TARDIS gave an unfamiliar tremble, one that neither of them had felt before. Looking at Rose and giving her a challenging look, they both bolted for the door.
Eliza ran into the Consol room first, who was greeted by the Doctor, who was looking intently at a T.V screen. "Morning." He said.
"Mornin'." Eliza replied, suddenly realizing the trembling had stopped. Before she could ask anything, the Doctor opened the TARDIS door and walked outside.
"So, what was that?" Rose asked as she followed him out. "What's wrong?"
"Dunno." The Doctor admitted hesitantly, looking around the room. "Some sort of signal, drawing the TARDIS off course."
Looking around the room, Rose added, "Where are we?"
"Earth." The Doctor replied confidently. "Utah, North America. About half a mile underground."
"Okay." Eliza said, looking around the room, noticing some empty and full glass cases. "And when are we?"
"2012." The Doctor replied, looking at an old dinosaur in one of the cases.
"Oh God, that's so close." Rose mused. "So I should be twenty six?"
The Doctor nodded as he flipped a switch, lighting up the whole room, which seemed to go on for miles.
"It's a museum." Rose said, looking at each of the cases.
"An alien museum." The Doctor added, looking at the amount of glass cases in the room. "Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this." He looked to his left to see a black rock, sparkling with a familiar light. "Chunks of meteorite." He looked to his left, to see another familiar object. "That's the Milometer from the Roswell spaceship."
However, only one case in particular seemed to have caught Rose's eyes, making Wolf back away behind the three. "That's a Slitheen's arm, it's been stuffed!"
"Oh… look at you…" The Doctor said dreamily, reminiscing. He walked over to another case, which had a tag on it, 'Cyberman'.
"What is it?" Rose asked.
"An old friend of mine." The Doctor said, before correcting himself. "Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit… I'm getting old." He complained.
"Is that where the signal's coming from?" Rose asked, still look at the Cyberman head.
"Nah, this things stone dead, the signals alive." The Doctor said. "Something's reaching out, calling for help." The Doctor lifted one arm and touched the glass, instantly setting off the alarms.
Out of nowhere, men with guns came and surrounded them, leaving them no chance of escape as they blocked of the path to the TARDIS.
"If someone's collecting aliens, that makes you two exhibit A." Rose commented, trying not to smile at the irony of the situation.
"How did you get in?" One of the men asked firmly. When he had no answer, he switched on his walky-talky. "Sir, I've got a few people and an animal down here, please advise." After a few seconds, the man replied, "Affirmative. Over and out.
"You lot, you're under arrest for breaking and entering. Keep quiet-"
"Well, I don't see the point in arresting us, we could have been let in." Eliza said, cutting the man off.
"Shut it!" The man bellowed, pointing his gun at her. "Move, all of you."
Reluctantly, Eliza followed the Doctor and Rose, being led out by another man.
Soon after, they came into a office, a man sat in a chair with a young man showing him an object. "Paid eight hundred thousand dollars for it." The young man, to the three's surprise, was English, while the others were all American.
"What does it do?" The man in the chair said, taking the object from his and studying it roughly.
"Well, you see, the tubes on the side might be made to channel something, maybe fuel-"
"I really wouldn't hold it like that." The Doctor intruded.
"Shut it." A woman warned.
"But, the way he's holding it is wrong." Eliza said, backing up the Doctor. She may be a memory-less teen, but she knew one of these objects when she saw one. Read about them in the TARDIS library.
"Is it dangerous?" The young man asked.
"No, just looks silly." The Doctor said, leaning forward to take the object, instantly hearing the sound of guns being trained on him.
The older man put up his finger for them to wait, and carefully handed him the object. "You just need to be…" The Doctor started as he stroked the object gently, earning a soft tune to come out of the pipes. "Delicate."
"It's a musical instrument." The older man said, now interested.
"And it's a long way from home." The Doctor said, continuing to stroke it.
"A very long way from home." Eliza added. "Didn't they come from-"
"Here, let me." Said the man, snatching the instrument from the Doctor's hands. He began to stroke it, but with much less gentleness than the Doctor had used.
"I did say 'delicate'." The Doctor supplied. "It reacts to the smallest fingerprint."
The man, now taking the Doctor advise, began to stroke the instrument more gently, causing the tune to come out of the pipes again. "Very good, quite the expert."
"As are you." The man smiled, then shoving the instrument out of his hands and against a wall.
"Not one for music then, I take it?" Eliza asked bitterly. The Doctor didn't seem all that impressed, either.
"Who exactly are you?" The man asked.
"I'm the Doctor." He spat. "And who are you?"
The older man chuckled. "Like you don't know." He turned slightly more serious and continued, "We're hidden away, with the most valuable collection alien artefacts in the world, and you lot just stumbled in by mistake."
"Pretty much sums us up, yeah." The Doctor replied.
"Question is, though, how did you get in?" The man continued. "Fifty three floors down, with your little cat burglar accomplice and little ninja girl." He looked over at Rose for a few seconds before continuing, "You've got quite a collection yourself, she's pretty."
"'She's' gonna smack you if you keep calling her 'she'." Rose spat at the man.
"Oh, and she's English, too!" The man exclaimed in delight. "Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy, I got you a girlfriend." The younger man, who was still stood behind the man's desk, blushed slightly. "This is Mister Henry Van Statten." Said the man, finding an opportunity to change the subject.
"And who's he when he's at home?" Rose asked, looking intently at the young man. Eliza looked between them and rolled her eyes, shaking her head.
"Mister Van Statten owns the internet." The man continued, ignoring her comment.
"Don't be stupid, no one owns the internet." Rose said.
"And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kid?" Van Statten said.
"So you're just about an expert in everything, except the things in your museum." The Doctor said, his eyes brightening at Van Statten's expression. "Anything you don't understand, you lock up."
"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten challenged.
"I don't need to make claims. I know how good I am." The Doctor said, a little bit smugly. "Even she knows more about the things in your museum than you do." He nodded to Eliza, who was on her knee's stroking Wolf. "Don't drag me into this." Eliza pleaded.
"And yet, I captured you." Van Statten said, smiling. "Right next to the cage. What were you doing down there?"
The Doctor smiled back, registering Van Statten's tone, not just of curiosity, but of fear as well. "You tell me."
"That cage contains by only living specimen."
"And what's that?"
"Like you don't know." Van Statten repeated.
"Show me." The Doctor said. Eliza got the feeling that the Doctor wanted to show Van Statten up, and she was all for it.
"You wanna see it?"
"Blimey, you can smell the testosterone." Rose commented, sharing a knowing look with Eliza.
"Goddard, inform the cage we're going down." Van Statten said to the woman. "You, English, look after the girl and Scooby Doo. Go and canoodle, or spoon, or whatever it is you British do." Eliza looked between all of them, noticing a very un-impressed look from the Doctor. "You, Doctor with no name and little miss ninja, come and see my pet. Show me how good you really are."
Smiling, Eliza walked into an elevator, the Doctor walking in after her, the doors closing just in time for him to look at Rose. Again, Eliza noticed the look and nudged him, smiling widely.
"What did I say? Told you someone would get her if you didn't." Eliza sang in her head.
The Doctor shook his head, just enough to be noticed by Van Statten. He looked between them, then just let the thought he had drop… for the moment.
The elevator doors opened and Van Statten pushed past the two in front of him. "We've tried everything." He said as he walked towards a door. "The creature has shielded itself, but there's definite signs of life, inside."
"Inside?" Eliza asked, as the door behind Van Statten opened.
"Inside what?" The Doctor asked when she got no answer.
"Welcome back, sir." Said a man in an orange suit, possibly to protect him from radioactive exposure. "I've had to take the power down. The Metaltron is resting."
"Metaltron?" Eliza and the Doctor said together, mimicking each others confused looks.
"Thought of it myself." Van Statten said proudly. "Good, isn't it? Although I'd much prefer to find out it's real name."
"Here, you better put these on." The man said, un gloving his hands and held them towards the Doctor, seeing that Eliza already had her hands covered in her own leather gloves. "The last guy to touch that thing burst into flames."
"We won't touch it, then." The Doctor assured the men.
Van Statten looked at both the people in front of him, eager. "Go ahead. Impress me."
Eliza went in first without hesitation, the Doctor following her in.
The room was completely dark, the only light let in was by the opened door, with quickly closed when the Doctor went into the room. Around the room were trolley's, on all of them were things such as scalpels, screwdrivers, drill bits and nails.
"Looks like they had some fun…" Eliza muttered bitterly, not wanting to imagine what the tools were for, only to let her imagination run away with her disturbing thoughts.
"Look, I'm sorry about this." The Doctor said, just about making out a large figure in the darker part of the room. "Mister Van Statten might think he's clever, but never mind him. We've come to help. I'm the Doctor, and this is Eliza."
From the darkness, a bright blue light appeared. It was quite high up, and looked like the end of a torch. Two more lights appeared, only white and placed like the devils horns, as the Metaltron spoke. "DOC…TOR?"
The Doctor looked at the blue light in horror, not wanting to believe it.
"No…" The Doctor thought, letting his thought slip through. "Impossible…" He muttered in terrifying horror.
"THE DOC...TOR?!" The voice said again, only more aggressive and desperate than last time.
"Eliza, get to the door, now!" The Doctor bellowed, but Eliza paid no mind to him.
The ceiling light bulb flooded the room with light, revealing a nightmare of the Doctor's. A Dalek. It was chained to one place in the middle of the room, the chains themselves in the walls, floor and ceiling. The Doctor watched in horror as the metal arms moved around, landing right on him as the Dalek shouted, "EXTIRMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
The Doctor, not even hesitating, bolted for the door. "Let us out!" He bellowed as he hammered on the door. "Get us out of here!"
"YOU ARE AN ENEMY OF THE DALEKS! YOU MUST BE DESTROYED!" Shouted the Dalek, its metal arms moving viciously now. The Doctor waited for the pain, but it never came. The Dalek continued to move its arms, but nothing happened.
Looking at the stumped Dalek, realization came upon the Doctor. The Doctor gave a smile and a sigh of relief, breathing out, "It's not working."
The Dalek looked from the Doctor to Eliza, then back at the Doctor when he started to laugh. "Fantastic! Fantastic! Look at you… you great space dustbin! How does it feel?!"
"KEEP BACK!" The Dalek warned, its arms still going round in circles uncontrollably. It attempted to drive backwards, but failed as the chain contained it.
The Doctor, not caring one bit, rushed up towards it and looked it in the eyestalk. "What for? What're you gonna do to me?!"
Eliza had heard legends of the Time War, and the Doctor himself. She knew what the War had done to him. She was now witnessing her first glance at the Oncoming Storm, the Lonely God. She wasn't scared, more… cautious.
The Doctor walked away from the Dalek, intending to keep on taunting it. "If you can't kill, then what are you good for, Dalek? What is the point of you?" The Doctor said as he circled the Dalek, its eyestalk trained on his at he paced. "You're nothing! What the hell are you here for?"
"I AM WAITING FOR ORDERS!" The Dalek replied, its arms now stopping.
"What does that mean?"
"I AM A SOILDER! I WAS BRED TO RECEIVE ORDERS!"
The Doctor scoffed, now back in front of the Dalek. "Well, you're never gonna get any. Not ever."
"I DEMAND ORDERS!" Shouted the Dalek, the light on top of its head flashing every time it spoke a syllable.
"Well, they're never gonna come." The Doctor shouted back. "Your race is dead! You burnt, all of you! Ten million ships, all on fire. The entire Dalek race wiped out in one second!"
"YOU LIE!"
"I watched it happen." The Doctor claimed. "I made it happen!"
"YOU DESTROYED US?!"
The Doctor, realization flooding into him, calm down considerably. He could feel that Eliza felt. Sadness, sorrow, contempt. In her mind, he could see that him taunting the Dalek was only taunting himself. This Dalek was alone, sure. But so was he.
"I… I had no choice…" The Doctor stammered.
"AND WHAT OF THE TIME LORDS?" The Dalek asked, its voice also calmer, but still had that grating sound that made Eliza's arm hair go on ends.
"Dead." The Doctor answered, his eyes distant. "They burnt with you. The end of the last great Time War. Everyone lost."
"AND THE COWARD SURVIVED." The Dalek said, some of the arrogance returning to its voice.
"Oh, and I caught your little signal." The Doctor said, smiling softy, as if talking to a child. 'Help me!' Poor little thing." The Doctor stayed silent for a few seconds before going back to his normal voice. "But there's no one coming because there's no one else left."
The Dalek, registering this, lowered its eyestalk to the ground, its light fading slightly. "I AM ALONE IN THE UNIVERSE."
"Yup."
"SO ARE YOU." The Dalek pointed out. "WE ARE THE SAME."
This is when the Oncoming Storm came back, but only for a few seconds. "We are not the same!" He bellowed, turning and walking back to the machine. "I'm not… wait. Maybe we are. You're right. Yeah okay, you've got a point. Because I know what to do. I know what should happen, what you deserve." The Doctor looked at the machine beside him, nut not the Dalek. He saw the wires which connected the machine to the chains which held the Dalek and smirked. "Exterminate." He pulled a lever on the machine, sending electrical sparks through the chains and onto the Dalek, causing it to scream.
"STOP IT!" The Dalek screamed, five hundred volts running through it.
"Why should I?" The Doctor asked, ignoring Eliza's pleas to stop the torture. "You never did." He pulled another level, intent on getting the last Dalek killed. Before he could pull another, the door opened, Van Statten walking through as well as two men with a gun, one going for the Doctor and grabbing him, the other escorting Eliza out of the room.
They were taking back into the lift, the man finally letting go of the Doctor. "The body is just an armour, the real Dalek is inside."
"What does it look like?" Van Statten asked.
"A nightmare, it's a mutation." The Doctor replied, still seething. "The Dalek race was genetically engineered. Every single emotion was removed, except hate."
"Reminds me of someone…" Eliza said to him. She wasn't at all happy about what happened in the cage, and the Doctor knew it.
"Shut it, you." He said to Eliza, causing Van Statten to raise his eye brows at the sudden comment. He'd heard about come alien races speaking through their minds, but he didn't dare hope… well, he did.
"Genetically engineered." Van Statten said in wonder. "By whom?"
"By a genius." The Doctor replied. "By a man who was king of him own little world. You'd like him."
"It's been on this planet for fifty years, going from one collection to another." Goddard said. "Why would it be a threat now?"
"Because I'm here." The Doctor replied. "How did it get to Earth, does anyone know?"
"Records say it came from the sky, like a meteorite. It fell to Earth on the Ascension islands. Burnt in its creator for three days before anyone could get near it, and for all that time, it was screaming. Must have gone insane."
The Doctor thought about how it could of gotten there. The way Goddard described it, it must have jumped through the Vortex without any protection. "Must have fallen through time, the only survivor."
"You talked about a war?" Goddard said, catching the Doctors eye.
"The Time War. The final battle between my people and the Dalek race." The Doctor replied.
"But you survived too." Van Statten piped up.
"Not by choice." The Doctor replied darkly.
"That means that the Dalek isn't the only alien on Earth." Van Statten said, mainly to himself. "There's you. And I know that human cant mind read, miss." He said to Eliza, then turned his gaze back to the Doctor. "And the only one of your kind in existence."
The Doctor and Eliza, exchanged looked before being shoved out of the elevator. The Doctor was immediately stripped from his jacket and t-shirt and pushed against a metal table, which was upright and facing some sort of camera. "Smile. Van Statten said as the camera produced a light which illuminated the Doctor, causing pain to sear through him body. As they did this, they took Eliza coat, sword and shield from her so she was just in jeans and bra.
"Two hearts!" Van Statten said in delight as he looked at the screen. "Binary Vascular system. I am so gonna patent this."
"So that's your secret?" The Doctor asked. "You don't just collect stuff, you scavenge it."
"It's technology." Van Statten replied simple. "It's been falling to Earth for centuries. All it took was the right mind to use it properly. Oh, the advances I've made from alien junk… you have no idea, Doctor. Broadband? Roswell. Just last year, my scientists collected bacteria from the Russian crater, and do you know what we found? The cure for the common cold. Kept it strictly within the laboratory, of course, no need to get people excited. Why sell one sure when I can sell palliatives?"
"Do you know what a Dalek is, Van Statten?" The Doctor asked darkly. "A Dalek is honest. It does what it is born to do, to keep its species going. That creature down there in your cage is better than you."
Van Statten looked at the Doctor fiercely, looking him straight in the eye before spitting, "Well, in that case, I will stay true to myself and continue." He walked back towards the scanner, just about to press another button.
"Listen to me! That thing down there is gonna kill every last one of us!" The Doctor pleaded.
"Nothing can escape the cage." Van Statten replied confidently before lowering his finger and pressing a big blue button, causing the scanner to go into action again.
"But it's woken up!" The Doctor gasped when the scanner stopped. "It knows I'm here! It's gonna get out. Van Statten, I swear, no one on this base is safe. No one on this planet!" The Doctor screamed as the scanner started again.
When the Doctor was knocked out, they un-strapped him from the table and struggled Eliza onto it, all the while her screaming, "You wont find out anything about me!"
True to her word, she was right. Before the scanners light even touched her flesh, it bounced back, causing the scanner to explode. A reading came up on the computer opposite the machine which said, "Unidentified species."