Chapter LXXII

Mira's POV

They wouldn't stop. Even after killing him, they wouldn't stop. A part of her managed to even be surprised by the fact that she was able to think, at least on a basic level, even though everything - including her brain and time itself - seemed to be frozen.

They would just kill him, and then a few more, just to prove their point, just as they had done on Skaro, and take the rest with them for their experiments.

That's it.

She had no idea how often she had been in a similar situation, thinking more or less the same thing. That's it.

And now, just as always, her mind refused to believe it. Refused to believe that within the next second she would be dead, just like the Doctor and who knew who else. Did the others feel the same? Or was it just her, who had gotten away time and time again, no matter how close it had been. And it had been close – too close, way too often.

And now she had run out of options. Nothing left to do, nothing but to wait for the Dalek to open fire.

But he didn't. Instead, he started to speak again in his screaming voice, making her almost jump out of her skin.

"I do not understand. It is the Doctor."

Then – silence for the next seconds, again. She didn't dare to breathe, but slowly but surely her logical thinking kicked in again.

"The urge to kill is too strong," the Dalek yelled now.

So he actually was talking to someone, receiving orders. Sec, the human Dalek? Who else?

"I obey," the Dalek yelled after another few seconds of silence.

"What's going on?" the Doctor asked, as confused as she herself was feeling.

"You will follow," the Dalek yelled, and it was more than clear who he meant.

"No! You can't go," she heard Martha's voice, still on the edge of panic.

"I've got to go," the Doctor said and turned around to Martha. "The Daleks just changed their minds. Daleks never change their minds."

"But what about us?" Martha asked.

She exchanged a quick look with the Doctor. She was everything but convinced that he wouldn't do anything stupid when going with the Daleks, but then again it wasn't really his choice.

"I stay here with them," she said quietly.

She would rather follow him, but she couldn't just leave Martha here on her own. What if something happened to the Doctor and to herself, and Martha was stuck here all alone? Even though she couldn't pilot the TARDIS back home, she wouldn't leave Martha all on her own in a strange time and a strange place.

Her thoughts got rudely disturbed by the Dalek, screaming, "You will follow too!"

Great. Not.

Even though she had to admit that she was indeed glad to follow the Doctor, having been afraid to see him alive for the last time, her sense of duty protested rather loudly.

"And what's happening with them?" she asked, facing the Dalek, pointing at Martha and the others.

But before the Dalek could reply, the Doctor yelled at him, still with a hint of rage in his voice, "Only under one condition! If we come with you, you spare the lives of everyone here! Do you hear me?"

"Humans will be spared. Follow!" the Dalek replied after a few seconds.

"Then I'm coming with you," Martha hurried to say.

"Martha, stay here," the Doctor turned around to her. "Do what you do best. People are hurt. You can help them. Let me go." He took her hand and added, "Oh, and can I just say, thank you very much."

She had seen out of the corner of her eye that he had handed the psychic paper to Martha, whatever good that would do. Probably it would have been better to give her the key to the TARDIS, so that she had at least a place to stay. Who knew what plans the Dalek had for them and their final experiment.


Doctor's POV

He could feel Mira's eyes on him almost the whole time as they were following the Daleks. He avoided looking at her, and his hands were buried in the pockets of his coat – he didn't want to take her hand right now. Not so much because of he wanted to avoid the simple physical contact; he was more afraid that she would try to get into telepathic contact with him, even though he would certainly be able to block that. He had lost it, back in the camp with the Daleks, and he really couldn't stand her questions or compassion or whatever just now.

Well, no. If he was completely honest with himself, he hadn't lost it. He was just done, so absolutely done. Those humans there died because of him, because the Daleks always survived - no matter what he did, always following in his wake. They had gotten away because of him, after he had sacrificed his homeworld, his people, sacrificed basically everything, and now, despite all this, they were on Earth. And if he could stop them once and for all by handing himself over, then so be it.

But deep inside he knew that this wouldn't have ended it. They were Daleks, and not even finally getting him would stop them in their quest to conquer the universe. He knew it and yet he had almost got himself killed by them. He was just feeling so incredibly tired sometimes. Tired, defeated and frustrated. What else was there to sacrifice? What else did he have to sacrifice, if himself wasn't enough, to finally make them stop?

Finally they reached the laboratory again, Sec awaiting them. He didn't bother to himself with greetings or any exchange of pleasantries, but got straight to the point.

"Those people were defenceless!" he yelled at Sec. "You only wanted me, but no, that wasn't enough for you. You had to start killing, because that's the only thing a Dalek's good for!"

"The deaths were wrong," Sec said simply and quietly, just as he was about to go on in his rant.

He stopped dead in his tracks, asking, "I'm sorry?"

"That man, their leader, Solomon," Sec said, "He showed... Courage."

"And that's good?" he asked carefully. What were they up to now?

"That's excellent," Sec confirmed.

"Is it me or are you just becoming a little bit more human?"

"You are the last of your kind, and now I am the first of mine," Sec said.

"You're not a kind," Mira spat at Sec. "That's not evolution, that's sick. Mixing – integrating one species without their consent into your own, that's-"

"What do you want us for?" he interrupted her, before it could escalate.

"We tried everything to survive when we found ourselves stranded in this ignorant age," Sec said. "First we tried growing new Dalek embryos, but their flesh was too weak."

"Yeah, I found one of your experiments," he replied in distaste. "Just left to die out there in the dark."

"It forced us to conclude what is the greatest resource of this planet. Its people," Sec said before he threw a breaker switch.

The whole place suddenly lid up. He looked around and up. For the fracture of a second he couldn't believe what he was seeing, but it couldn't be anything else. It looked too much like covered bodies lying on stretchers. His head flung around to Mira, but she was just staring up, obviously trying to comprehend what was going on.

The greatest resource of this planet.

"We stole them," Sec explained. "We stole human beings for our purpose. Look inside."

He watched as Sec uncovered the face of a man who was lying on one of the stretchers. His face was white and dead looking.

"This is the true extent of the Final Experiment," Sec said quietly.

"They are all dead," Mira said flatly, staring at the man's face.

"Near death," Sec said. "With his mind wiped, ready to be filled with new ideas."

That explained why Mira thought they were dead. No emotions, no thoughts, nothing. Most likely not even the basic level of subconsciousness every living being was emanating, even in a state of deepest coma.

"Dalek ideas," he said between gritted teeth.

"The Human Dalek race," Sec said.

"All of these people. How many?" he asked, observing with growing concern the change of expression in Mira's face. He just hoped she wouldn't do anything stupid. As far as I knew her, she would have herself under control – at least he hoped so.

"We have caverns beyond this storing more than a thousand," Sec said.

"Is there any way to restore them? Make them human again?"

"Everything they were has been lost."

"So they're like shells," he said. "You've got empty human beings ready to be converted. That's going to take a hell of a lot of power. This planet hasn't even split the atom yet. How're you going to do it?"


Martha's POV

She was in Solomon's tent, wrapping up a man's wrist and then sending him on his way as Tallulah entered.

"So what about us? What do we do now?"

She had thought about that herself – or more likely, tried to avoid thinking about it. Would she ever see the Doctor again? She couldn't even stand the thought of it. And, above all, she would be stranded here. In the past, her past, a time that was over and dead. She wasn't even born yet. She should have gone with him, no matter if he wanted her to stay here or not.

But then again, he had left her his psychic paper. She remembered all to well how she had made a fool of her self when meeting Shakespeare.

"The Doctor gave me this," she said to Tallulah and waved the leather cover. "He must have had a reason."

"What's that for?" Tallulah asked.

"It gets you into places. Buildings and things. But where? He must want me to go somewhere but, what am I supposed to do?" She was completely lost. If he would have given her a hint, only one word, then-

"Wait a minute," she said, suddenly having a spontaneous intuition. "Down in the sewers, the Daleks mentioned this energy conductor."

"What does that mean?" Tallulah asked, completely clueless.

"I don't know. Maybe like a lightening conductor or. Dalekanium!"

"Oh."

"They said the Dalekanium was in place."

"In place where?

"Frank might know," she said and jumped up.

She found Frank in mourning over the loss of Solomon. He must have been a father figure for him, she suddenly realised.

"Frank?"

"Hmm?" he lifted his had and looked at her sadly.

"That Mister Diagoras, he was like some sort of fixer, yeah? Get you jobs all over town?" she asked.

"Yeah. He could find a profit anywhere."

"But where, though? What sort of things?"

"You name it," Frank said and shrugged. "We're all so desperate for work, you just hoped Diagoras would pick you for something good. Building work, that pays the best."

"But what sort of building work?"

"Mainly building that."

She followed his finger with her eyes. He was pointing right at the almost finished Empire State Building.


Mira's POV

She stood next to the Doctor and Sec, looking at a big screen with the Empire State Building on it, trying to ignore the fact that she was surrounded by almost dead people; people of her own species, prepared to be enhanced with a not so little bit of Dalek. Otherwise she would lose it, she was certain of that.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Empire State Building," the Doctor said. "We're right underneath that. I worked that out already, thanks. But what, you've hijacked the whole building?"

"We needed an energy conductor," Sec replied.

Something was going on with Sec. Something that hadn't gone as planned. There were doubts in his mind, and the excitement of new ideas. Ideas that didn't quite go together with the ideas of his former fellow Daleks. She could sense their distrust and how alarmed they were.

"What for?" the Doctor asked.

"I am the genetic template," Sec explained. "My altered DNA was to be administered to each human body. A strong enough blast of gamma radiation can splice the Dalek and human genetic codes, and waken each body from its sleep."

She wished there would be a way to save them. But it was as Sec had said, their minds were wiped, cleared of everything that had made them who they were. But wasn't it more kind to let them die in peace instead of getting turned into a new generation of Daleks? Certainly the Doctor was thinking the same. It had to be that way, at least that was what she tried to convince herself of. He could not actually consider to be part in that sick experiment.

"Gamma radiation?" the Doctor asked.

"It's the sun then, isn't it?" she asked, turning her head to look at Sec. The only source for that amount of Gamma radiation in this age she could think of.

"Soon the greatest solar flare for a thousand years will hit the Earth," Sec confirmed. "Gamma radiation will be drawn to the energy conductor and when it strikes-"

"The army wakes," the Doctor said. "I still don't know what you need us for."

"Your genius," Sec said. "Consider a pure Dalek, intelligent but emotionless."

"Apart from pure hatred, huh?" she said under her breath.

And it actually seemed to hit home with Sec. Only for a moment, but the emotion she received from him was almost overwhelming.

"Removing the emotions makes you stronger," the Doctor said. "That's what your creator thought, all those years ago."

"He was wrong," Sec said.

"He was what?" the Doctor said as if he couldn't believe it.

She turned her head to Sec as well, though it didn't come as a complete surprise to her.

"It makes us lesser than our enemies," Sec said. "We must return to the flesh, and also the heart."

So that was it then. He simply felt saddened that the Daleks were inferior, not because they only knew hatred.

"But you wouldn't be the supreme beings any more," the Doctor said.

"And that is good," Sec replied.

"That is incorrect!" one of the Daleks yelled.

"Daleks are supreme!" the other one screamed.

"No, not any more," Sec said.

"But that is our purpose!"

"Then our purpose is wrong!" Sec didn't give up. "Where has our quest for supremacy led us? To this. Hiding in the sewers on a primitive world, just four of us left. If we do not change now then we deserve extinction."

"Sounds like you're only sugarcoating the fact that you've reached a dead end in your so called evolution," she said to Sec, staring directly into his single eye.

"I think your species calls it survival of the fittest," Sec replied. "One has to adapt to survive."

"So you want to change everything that makes a Dalek a Dalek," the Doctor cut her short.

Oh, she would have had so much more to say to Sec, if she only got the chance to. Apart from that, the Doctor didn't really plan to help Sec, did he?

"If you can help me," Sec said.


Doctor's POV

If one thing was clear then that Mira didn't agree with Sec's plans. But if there was only a slight change to give them a new impulse, to change the Dalek race, or what was left of it, then he had to take it. He just wasn't too sure about the Daleks, and how great the influence Sec had really was. They didn't quite agree with him.

"Your knowledge of genetic engineering is even greater than ours," Sec said. "The new race must be ready by the time the solar flare erupts."

"But you're the template. I thought they were getting a dose of you," he said.

"I want to change the gene sequence."

"To make them even more human?" he asked.

"Humans are the great survivors," Sec replied. "We need that ability."

"Hold on a minute," he said. It seemed as if Sec in all his – human – enthusiasm had no idea that maybe his fellow Daleks didn't quite see it like he did. "There's no way this lot are going to let you do it."

"I am their leader," Sec said, quite convinced.

"Oh, and that's enough for you, is it?" he asked, turning around to the Daleks.

"Daleks must follow orders!"

"Dalek Sec commands, we obey!"

"Well, we're certainly going to see some evolution," Mira whispered under her breath.

"If you don't help me, nothing will change," Sec turned to him.

"There's no room on Earth for another race of people," he said determined.

"You have your TARDIS," Sec replied. "Take us across the stars. Find us a new home and allow the new Daleks to start again."

Fair enough.

"When's that solar flare?" he asked.

"Eleven minutes."

"Right then. Better get to work."

...

They were working for a while, and, to his surprise, Mira was assisting him, albeit reluctantly. She tried to tell him something, but there was no chance with Sec and the Daleks around. He could guess what it was anyway, it was all too clear that the Daleks weren't quite approving with Sec's plans. And, well, Mira wasn't quite approving with his plans. It hadn't been that long ago when she had tried to blow up Skaro. And now he wanted to give the Daleks another change to change tack.

"There's no point in chromosomal grafting, it's too erratic," he said to Sec, reading some scales. "You need to split the genome and force the Dalek human sequence right into the cortex."

"We need more chromatin solution," Sec replied.

"The pig slaves have it!" one of the Daleks yelled.

Not much later some pigmen carried in a large crate. He saw Laszlo among them.

"These pig slaves, what happens to them in the grand plan?" he asked Sec.

"Nothing," Sec replied. "They're just simple beasts. Their lifespan is limited. None survive beyond a few weeks. Power up the line feeds."

He could see Mira literally bite her tongue as she was working at the crate and preparing it, together with the pigmen.

"Laszlo," he whispered as Sec looked away for a moment, "I can't undo what they've done to you, but they won't do it to anyone else."

"Do you trust him?" Laszlo asked.

"I know that one man can change the course of history," he said, knowing it wasn't really an answer. "Right idea in the right place at the right time, it's all it takes. I've got to believe it's possible."

He had no idea if he could trust him. He just had to. It was his – and their, and humanities – only chance.

"The line feeds are ready!" a Dalek screamed.

"Then it's all systems go," he said.

"The solar flare is imminent. The radiation will reach Earth in a matter of minutes," Sec said, looking at one of the screens.

"We'll be ready for it," he said.

And they would be, indeed. But different than the Daleks were still thinking. Maybe it was just that. More humanity, even more than Dalek Sec had gotten. Which was more than he had bargained for, anyway.

He filled a large syringe with the blue, liquid compound that would do the trick, and put it into a brass still.

"That compound will allow the gene bonds to reconfigure in a brand new pattern," he said. "Power up!"

A pigman threw one set of breakers, and Laszlo threw the others.

"Start the line feeds," Sec said.

They all watched the liquid going up tubes leading to the bodies which were still hanging above them.

"There goes the gene solution," he said.

"The life blood," Sec confirmed.

Suddenly, the all startled as a klaxon sounded. Something had gone wrong. But what?


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