Alyssa sat on the floor, back against the wall staring at the Daleks, trying to not let what she was picking up from them get to her. But it was difficult, she'd never felt so much hatred from anybody. Plus she couldn't believe there were more Daleks.
She nearly cried in relief when one Dalek announced that the Doctor had located them. Alyssa was forced to her feet a large screen popped up.
On floor 500 the Doctor was glaring at the 3 Dalek's flanking Alyssa with distaste. "I will talk to the Doctor"
"The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene", one of the Dalek stated.
"Oh, really? Why's that, then?" the Doctor asked.
"We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated", the Dalek said.
"No"
Everyone looked at the Doctor surprised by his answer. Even Alyssa was a bit surprised by that. He must have a plan she thought, really hoping that was the case. He wouldn't leave her in the Dalek's clutches, he just wouldn't. "Explain yourself"
"I said no", the Doctor repeated.
"What is the meaning of this negative?" the Dalek asked.
"It means no", the Doctor simply said.
"But she will be destroyed", the Dalek said.
The Doctor stood up "No! 'Cos this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Alyssa Palmer from the middle of the Dalek fleet. And then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!"
Alyssa grinned hearing the passion in his voice. "But you have no weapons, no defences, no plan", one of the Daleks pointed out.
"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death", the Doctor taunted "Ali?"
"Yes, Doctor?" Alyssa said eagerly
"I'm coming to get you" the Doctor promised, raising his sonic screwdriver ending the transmission.
"The Doctor is initiating hostile action!" one of the Daleks stated.
"The stratagem must advance. Begin the invasion of Earth!" another ordered.
Alyssa was startled when they started to spin around wildly. She stepped back when one of them rounded on her "You know the Doctor. You understand him. You will predict his actions", it ordered.
"No", Alyssa shot back.
"Predict! Predict! Predict!" the Dalek demanded sounding hysterical.
"Never", she said firmly.
"TARDIS detected in flight", a second Dalek said moments after Alyssa had refused to help them a second time.
"Launch missiles! Exterminate!"
Alyssa bit her lip, fiddling with her charm bracelet, hoping that the next words she heard wasn't 'the TARDIS is destroyed'. Instead of hearing those words being declared by the Dalek's, she heard something far more wonderful. The sound of the TARDIS.
She smiled when she saw the faint outline of the blue box slowly appearing around her. Unfortunately she wasn't the only one the TARDIS materialised around, it appeared around the Dalek that was right next to her.
"Ali, get down!" the Doctor shouted at her. Alyssa immediately dropped to the grilled floor.
"Exterminate!" the Dalek shouted firing its laser. It completely misses which enables Jack to take it out with the modified Defabricator.
The Doctor hugged Alyssa tightly when she got to her feet "I told you I'd come and get you", he said, his hearts no slowing down to an normal rate, now that she was in his arms.
"Yes you did", she said smiling at him.
"You alright?" he asked her.
"I am now", she replied.
"Hey, don't I get a hug?" Jack asked.
"Of course you do", Alyssa said going over and hugged him.
"Shall we go meet the neighbours then?" the Doctor asked the pair and without waiting for a reply, he left the TARDIS. Alyssa ran after him knowing that he would be shot on sight. She was surprised when the Dalek rays were stopped by a force field that surrounded the blue box.
The Doctor took several steps forward while Jack and Alyssa hung back "Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions…but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear" the Dalek's eye stalks twitch nervously "Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So tell me. How did you survive the Time War?"
"They survived through me"
The Doctor turned towards the voice and was startled when Dalek Emperor was illuminated, towering above all of them. "Ali… Captain…this is the Emperor of the Daleks", the Doctor said staring at the Emperor in awe.
"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive"
"I get it", the Doctor said.
"Do not interrupt!"
"Do not interrupt!"
"Do not interrupt!"
"I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor. And there's one thing I can do- its talk" you've got that right Alyssa thought. Despite the fact she couldn't understand most of what he was saying, she loved to listen to him talk/ramble. Especially when it was something he was passionate about.
"I've got 5 billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody is gonna shut up, it's you!" The Doctor grinned when the Daleks rolled back slightly from his words. "Okey doke. So, where were we?" the Doctor asked turning back to the Emperor.
"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured", the Emperor explained.
"So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead", the Doctor surmised.
"That makes them half human", Jack said.
"Those words are blasphemy", the Emperor declared.
"Do not blaspheme"
"Do not blaspheme"
"Do not blaspheme"
"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek", the Emperor said.
"Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?" Alyssa asked.
"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!"
"Worship him! Worship him! Worship him!"
"They're insane! Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad", the Doctor said quietly to Alyssa and Jack. He looked at the Daleks with pity as he walked forward "But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity" the Doctor shook his head "You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever. We're going"
The Doctor turned around and went back to where Alyssa and Jack stood. He took the girl's hand and walked back to the TARDIS without looking back at the Emperor. Once the Doctor had closed the door, he leans his head against it no longer looking as confident as he was before. Alyssa went over and hugged him, getting the feeling that he needed it.
When the TARDIS appeared back on floor 500, the Doctor strode out, heading straight for the controls. "Turn everything up. All transmissions, wide open, full power. Now! Do it!" he ordered.
"What does it do?" the Male Programmer asked doing what the Doctor asked.
"Stops the Daleks from transmitting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?" the Doctor asked.
"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programmes", the Male Programmer explained.
"So the planet's defenceless", Alyssa said not happy about that.
The Doctor then noticed Lynda, one of the housemates from Big Brother was still there. "What are you still doing on board?" he turned to the Male Programmer "I told you to evacuate everyone".
"She wouldn't go"
"Didn't wanna leave ya", Lynda told the Doctor.
"Who exactly are you?" Alyssa asked curious about the woman who seemed to know the Doctor. The Time Lord in question walked over to another set of desks.
"Lynda Moss" Lynda replied holding out her hand "and you're Ali right?"
"That's right", Alyssa confirmed shaking her hand.
"The Doctor's told me quite a bit about you", Lynda told her "Jack too", and she added nodding to the American man.
"Oh really?" Alyssa asked looking at Jack.
"It was all good things", he assured her. Alyssa nodded, sensing he was telling the truth. They all looked over at the Doctor was he started ripping out wires from the desks.
"Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone?" the Doctor looked at them all expecting someone to answer him. "Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter, this station"
Jack stared at him trying to work it out "If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"
"You've got to be kidding", he said finally figuring it out.
"Give the man a medal!"
"A Delta Wave?" Jack said incredulous.
"A Delta Wave!" the Doctor said rather excitedly.
"What's a Delta Wave?" Alyssa asked not knowing what that was.
"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed", Jack explained.
"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!" the Doctor added.
"Well, get started and do it then", Lynda said.
"Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, ooh, 3 days?" the Doctor said quickly working it out "How long till the Fleet arrive?"
"Twenty two minutes", the Male Programmer replied.
The Doctor frantically pulled out another cable from underneath a desk, stared at the end for a second before he looked up and beamed at them all.
A little while later they were all gathered around the computer, the Doctor having used the extrapolator, wiring it up in a way that created a forcefield around Satellite 5. "The forcefield doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading", Jack told them all with the exception of the Doctor who was still working away at the desks.
"Do they know about the Delta Wave?" the Male Programmer asked hoping they didn't.
"They'll have worked it out at the same time. So, if they want to stop the Doctor that means they've got to get to this level, 500" he indicates on the illustrative diagram on the screen "Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top 6 levels, 500 to 495. So, they'll penetrate the station below that at level 494 and fight their way up"
"Who're they fighting?" the male programmer asked
"Us", Jack replied.
"And…what're we fighting with?" the male programmer asked worriedly. He'd never fought a day in his life.
"The guards had guns with bastic bullets, that's enough to blow a Dalek wide open", Jack explained.
"There's 5 of us", the female programmer said skeptically.
"Ali, you can help me", the Doctor called to the red head who went over to where he was working.
"What do you need me to do?" she asked.
"Strip those wires for me", the Doctor replied nodding to a bundle of wires, holding out a tool for her to use. Alyssa took the tool, sat down and started stripping the wires. She looked up when Lynda came over.
The woman gave them both a brief goodbye before leaving. Then Jack came over to say goodbye. He gave the Doctor a kiss on the lips which didn't surprise Alyssa as much as it should have. She was used to Jack Harkness and his flirting ways. Although he no longer flirted with her, they had more of a sibling relationship. "I'm glad to have met you Ali", Jack said hugging her.
"Me too. Thanks for being my big brother"
"You're welcome", Jack said kissing the top of her head. He stepped back and placed a hand on both of their shoulders "see ya both in hell", he said and ran off. Alyssa watched him go with a heavy heart. She knew that she wasn't going to see him again. Even if the Doctor was able to finish the Delta Wave in time, there was no guarantee that they'd even survive it.
Alyssa could guess that the Doctor would try to do something to trick her into the TARDIS, to send her home in order to keep her safe. She wouldn't be angry at him for doing that, she would understand his reasoning. So instead of waiting for the Doctor to trick her into the TARDIS, she was going to make the first move.
"Doctor is it possible to send the TARDIS away without you being in it to pilot her?" Alyssa asked.
"It is", the Doctor replied "Why do you ask?"
"Because I want you to send me home", Alyssa said.
The Doctor stopped what he was doing and looked at her in surprise. That had been the last thing he'd expected her to say. "You want me to send you home", the Doctor repeated slightly hoping that he'd just misheard what she said.
"Yes, I do", Alyssa confirmed "Don't look at me like that, you had to have been considering it yourself".
"I have", the Doctor admitted "I just didn't expect you to tell me you wanted to go home. I thought I'd have to…"
"Trick me somehow?" the Doctor nodded "I figured you might be thinking of doing that so I decided to make the first move. If I'm going home, it's going to be on my terms, not yours. Besides I know the odds of us surviving this are smaller than the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field, and those odds are very small" the Doctor had to smile at her reference to Star Wars, he knew she was a big fan "Besides, I have my mother to think about. She'd be devastated if I didn't come home".
"I understand Ali" the Doctor said standing up "when you get home there's a few of things you can do for me".
"Name it"
"Firstly, leave the TARDIS wherever she lands. Let her die, gather dust and become a strange little thing on a street corner. Secondly, have a fantastic life. And finally, spare me a thought once in a while, ok?"
Alyssa nodded "I promise that I'll do all those things", she vowed. She knew it was going to be hard living a normal life, especially after what she'd experienced travelling with the Doctor. But a stranger once told her…
"We also need to live for those we have lost too for they're never truly gone. They still live within our memories and our hearts"
With that in mind, she would try to live as a fantastic life as she could possibly manage. The Doctor hugged her "thank you", he said kissing the top of her head. They stayed there in each other's arms trying to make this hug last as long as they could, seeing as it was the last one.
Eventually Alyssa moved away and walked over to the TARDIS. She gave him one last smile before she stepped inside, closing the door. The Doctor took out his sonic, pointed it at the box and pressed the button. He watched as the TARDIS faded away taking with it the young woman who'd stolen his hearts.