Doctor Who and the Daughter of the Daleks

Part One-Linnena

Shobar watched as Linnena used the microscope to analyse the DNA of the sample on the slide. She was a very bright child, and so she should be, considering her parentage. Neither of her parents were still alive, of course, her mother being one of their great minds who had died years before, but who had, as all their people were required to, deposited some of her gametes-the eggs from her ovaries-in the reproductive banks. Her father was dead even longer, but some of his blood had been found. From that, they had garnered enough genetic material to replicate it, put it onto artificial chromosomes, and using in-vitro fertilisation techniques, introduce the material into the egg, fertilising it. They had even managed to solve the usual problem associated with hybrids, of sterility. Linnena would be able to have children. With the memory print of her father-something that had taken years to find-they were able to impart her, during her gestation and maturation within the artificial womb, with all the scientific knowledge of her father. It was hoped that she could help find a way to begin undoing the damage her father had done, to weaken his lethal creation.

Linnena, the half-human, half-Kaled daughter of Davros continued her work, unaware of the scrutiny she was under. Shobar smiled. She was such a dedicated worker, sometimes almost too dedicated. At times, Linnena seemed to be a workaholic.

With a tortured-sounding grinding and wheezing, the oddly out-of-place blue box faded gradually into view in a little-used storeroom in the facility. For a moment, nothing happened, then the right-hand door of the box opened, and a tall, thin man with dark hair cropped close to his head stepped out. He was wearing a slightly-scruffy leather jacket and a pair of black Jeans. He was followed by an attractive blonde of about nineteen years old.

"Now, we should see when and where we are." said the Doctor. "The old girl is reliable most of the time, but she has her moments, I'm afraid."

His companion, Rose, looked about. "Well, no-one in the immediate area."

"Well, let's go and find someone, shall we?" The Doctor said. "Doctor, what if it's somewhere we're not meant to be?" asked Rose, who in her recent travels had become fairly streetwise about how the TARDIS could go anywhere and anywhen, especially places that put them in danger.

We try to explain, and if that doesn't work, we try to bluff." the Doctor told her.

"What if that doesn't work? I don't fancy getting shot at again!" Rose said.

"We run back to the TARDIS, of course." said the Doctor. "Come on, it probably won't be like that this time."

"That'll be the day!" grumbled Rose. However, she shut up after that, and went along with the Doctor.

They rounded a corner, and came face to face with two white-suited figures, who called out "What are you doing in here without a lab-coat? This is a restricted area!" He raised his wrist-com to his mouth and called "Varros to Security, BL1. We have intruders!"

"Never mind us, wrong turning, sorry! We'll just be on our way." Said the Doctor, trying to walk past, but one of the figures grabbed his arm.

"Stop! If you refuse, our security teams will be instructed to shoot at you on sight!" he said, as the other figure grabbed Rose.

"Doctor!" said Rose. "You said we would explain."

"Very well. My name is the Doctor, and this is Rose…" he began.

Okay, he didn't tell the entire truth, and at some points Rose was sure he'd stretched the truth almost to breaking point, but it seemed he had convinced them to let them stay for a while. Due to some of the Doctor's omissions, they seemed to think they were there on a work-placement. Rose still thought she and the Doctor were almost as much in the dark as before, still not knowing where and when they were. Just as she thought this, the Doctor spoke.

"Can you remind me of the date? My travelling seems to have left me a bit confused. Space-sick, you know."

"Why it's March 30th, 2364." Said the man who had introduced himself as Varros once he'd heard the Doctor's explanation.

"And what's this lab known as, again?" asked Rose.

"London East Quadrant Bio and Xeno Research lab." Said Varros.

Earth of the future, then." Thought Rose.

"You may as well work with Linnena, who is experimenting with viral vectors and DNA. It'll be pretty basic tasks, but it will free Linnena up to research more effectively. Here she is. Linnena, here are two placement-students who can help with the viral shell and DNA replication while you fiddle around with sequences. This is Rose, and this is the Doctor.

The girl addressed turned around with a smile on her face. "Hi. I'm Linnena and…" As Varros finished speaking, she paled.

"Doctor!" she cried, and her vocal tone was that of an accusation. "From Gallifrey?"

"That's right." said the Doctor puzzled. He did not recall meeting her previously, but with time-travel, one could never know.

"You know this man, Linnena?" asked a middle-age scientist.

"Not precisely, but my father knew him, and as you know I have picked up a few of his memories. This man-well, he's one of several known as the Doctor-has interfered in my father's plans often enough. He's a troublemaker and a meddler."

"My dear child, I am a scientist, a serious scientist, how can you accuse me like this. Who IS your father that his opinion of me is so low?"

Linnena ignored him, and continued to speak to the scientist who had asked.

"Furthermore, Shobar, this man isn't even a human. He's of a race known as Gallifreyans, who are meddlers the world over. I'll work with this girl, but not him." She addressed the room. "Some of you are xeno-biologists, students of non-terrestrial life, he's as nonhuman as you can get. You studied me when I was born, and I'm half human. I am sure you would find him a fascinating subject." She turned her smile on the Doctor, whom three of the scientists were approaching.

"As a scientist, Doctor, I'm sure you will not want to stand in the way of progress?"

"He's not a lab animal. Leave him alone!" cried Rose.

"Is this true?" Shobar asked the Doctor.

"That I'm from off Earth? That I'm Gallifreyan?" Most assuredly." the Doctor said.

"We request that you come with us." Said Varros, who had approached, the security team he had called for earlier right behind him. "We must assess your potential threat to the planet Earth, and your purpose in coming here. The gentlemen here can carry out their preliminary studies while we question you."

"He's a hu-I mean a sentient being, he has rights!" Rose cried. "You can't treat him like-like some specimen to be probed and poked! At least ask his permission!"

"It's okay, Rose, I think that allowing these gentlemen to speak to me might be to our mutual advantage. I have a major advantage over a lab rat. I can respond to these researcher's questions, and if need be, I can poke back, twice as hard if necessary." He flashed her a reassuring smile as he was led off.

Rose turned back to Linnena. "What do you have against the Doctor?" she asked. Linnena turned to look at her.

"My father left a memory print, which these gentlemen found. They imparted my father's scientific knowledge-which is considerable-to me, using this print. Along with the knowledge, I acquired some of his memories. He features in many of them, interfering." She turned her gaze on Rose. "You, however, are not any of the companions, male or female, he often had with him when my father saw him."

"No, I joined him recently. Couldn't resist seeing the universe and helping to save the Earth, several times over." She joked weakly.

"Who is your father?" asked Rose.

"Was." Linnena corrected. "His was a great scientific mind. His name was Davros. He was from the planet Skaro. He was somewhat-misguided-but his science was sound. After an atomic conflict on the planet, the increased radiation level was causing the Kaled race to mutate. Davros speeded up the mutation of the Kaled race to the point that their continued existence was dependant on a life support system contained in a mobile casing. His intention was to use them as sentient weapons. He scrambled the name to give the new Kaleds a new name-Daleks."

"He created the Daleks?" asked Rose. She recalled the first time she'd encountered one of those stalk-eyed, psychopathic overgrown pepper-pots only too well. It still trundled, elevated, glided, flew, and 'ex-ter-min-ated' its way through her nightmares.

"Yes, and I was created to help neutralise the threat the Daleks pose to all other sentient life in the universe. Using my father's scientific knowledge and knowledge of the Daleks, I am to create viral infections, transmissible by both organic construct and machine. The prime motive is to infect the brood units whenever they are set up, and the virus will either carry a protein that should affect their behaviour, making them less aggressive, or will stop them maturing. That is why the DNA and viral replication is so important. We have talked enough. It's time to get to work! I will show you how to use the virus and prion-coat replicator. This is what you will do for me." Rose looked rebellious. Linnena fixed her with a baleful stare.

"You will obey." she stated. Then she began explaining the workings of a nearby machine. The discussion was over. Seriously wanting to smack Linnena in the mouth, Rose listened to her instructions. However, decided Rose, she and Linnena would be having a talk sometime very soon.

"I am not here to scout out your planet for invasion or to pose any threat to it!" the Doctor explained. "I am an explorer, and I let my curiosity guide me-sometimes into situations just like this!"

"Assuming that that is the truth, I am sure you will understand our caution in dealing with you. If, as you say, you mean us no harm, you surely would not object to us making absolutely certain." Varros said. "I'm afraid you'll find us humans are like that."

"Yes, suspicious bunch, aren't you?" said the Doctor, leaning back and crossing his legs. "Okay, where do you want to start?"

"How about telling us your name?" asked Varros, as one of the scientists indicated they wanted to take a blood sample from the Doctor.

"I want that back when you've finished! I'm not leaving my blood around to be tampered with." He said.

"Very well." agreed Shobar. The Doctor turned back to Varros.

"My name is The Doctor." he told him.

"Doctor...who?" he asked.

"Just The Doctor." he said.

"Doctor is a title, not a name!" snapped Varros. "What is your name, Doctor?" The Doctor nodded. This question had come up before, in other lifetimes.

"Doctor John Smith." he told them. "I am Doctor John Smith."

"That's obviously an assumed name." Varros said scornfully. "Your real name?"

"You wouldn't be able to pronounce it." the Doctor told them. "On Gallifrey, my name is as common as John Smith on Earth. That is the name I have always gone by on Earth."

"You have been on Earth before?" asked Varros.

"Oh yes, several times." The Doctor said. "Saved it for you a few times too, I may add."

"What do you mean by that?" asked Varros. "Explain that wild claim of yours."

"You know about life on other worlds." the Doctor said-a statement not a question. "If you didn't know some of it was liable to be hostile, you wouldn't be threat-assessing me. The Yetis, the Sontarans, the Slitheen, the Autons, the Daleks-they've all tried to take over your planet before and it was my job to stop them." The Doctor noticed that everyone in the room had stopped what they were doing and were staring at him.

"Was it something I said?" he asked.

"Just what do you know about the Daleks, Doctor?" asked Shobar.

"Okay, so just what am I doing here?" Rose asked.

"You are replicating casings for viruses." Linnena told her.

"So what are you doing?" asked Rose. Linnena sighed.

"I am running computer simulations of DNA sequences and what the addition of them to the Dalek's genome would do to the Daleks. We seek to either reduce their aggressive tendancies, return them to a more humanoid form and reduce their aggression to more human levels, or destroy them entirely. The third option is only for emergencies-we have no wish to commit genocide."

Rose saw that Linenna was genuinely interested in her work.

"I think the Doctor would be interested in helping your work." said Rose. "We encountered a single Dalek a few months ago." Rose shuddered at the memory of their narrow escape in Utah.

"What happened?" asked Linnena.

"It was more advanced. It could fly up stairs and in the air, it's midsection, containing the gun and sucker arm, had 180 degree mobility, so did it's headpiece. Projectile weapons-bullets from guns-were dissolved or removed by the Dalek's force-field. It slaughtered more than two hundred people-fifty or so of them fully-armed. I only just escaped with my life. I felt sorry for it at first, it was chained up and at the mercy of this collector chap who tormented it terribly. It said it was the last of it's kind."

"You felt sorry for it?" Linnena echoed, and Rose thought she heard her voice soften a little. "You cared?"

"I didn't know what it was then." Rose said. "I didn't know it was so dangerous. What that man was doing to it though was despicable. I'd still feel compassion for it, but I wouldn't go near it if I found another one."

"Why not?" Linnena asked. Because it's not human, not like you?"

"No!" protested Rose. "Because it would probably try to kill me! I don't have a problem with nonhumans, you know?" Rose remembered the Tree People, The Moxx of Balhoon, the little blue people, the Face of Boe, and the others she had met five billion years ahead. The one she's taken issue with was the only other human there, Cassandra. No, no-one could accuse Rose of xenophobia.

"I take it you are human?" asked Linnena. "Not all of The Doctor's travelling companions were, but most looked it."

"Yes, I'm human." Rose said. She was dismayed to see Linanna's face suddenly seem to close on her. Linnena had begun to open up, even to be on the verge of smiling.

"We are wasting time. Continue making the viral protein coats." Rose opened her mouth to say something, but the look on Linnena's face made her think twice, and she closed her mouthy again.

"I will obey- for now." she muttered under her breath. She sighed, and turned back to her work.

"I know a lot about the Daleks, more than you do, I should think." The Doctor said. He uncrossed his legs, straightened up, then glared at the scientist who was taking a hair sample and had accidentally pulled his hair in the process. "Hair is not that different across the galaxy! That hurt!" He looked at Shobar again. "What do you know about the Daleks? Why are they of such interest to you?" Shobar opened his mouth, as if to speak, but Varros got there first.

"That is classified, Doctor. What the Earth Defence Force knows needs to be kept between us. We can't go round giving out information like that, willy-nilly, to anyone who asks!"

"The Earth Defence Force?" mused the Doctor. "You have a united planetary army? I take it UNIT no longer exists then?"

Varros blinked.

"The Earth Defence Force has grown from UNIT. It's what UNIT became. How do you know about UNIT?"

The Doctor smiled. "Do you still have the UNIT files archived?" Varros nodded. "Then I suggest you do a search of them. Look under 'The Doctor', 'Doctor John Smith' and 'Scientific Advisers.' Cross-reference them and look at the results. Then come back to me. Don't worry, I won't be going anywhere-these gentlemen won't let me." he said, nodding a bit sourly at the scientists.

Varros stopped long enough to see the truth of this, and then set off to do as the Doctor had requested. It was only once he was running the check that he wondered how the Doctor had managed to persuade him to do so without question.

Rose stopped to watch Linnena, aware that the other woman had stopped her work. Linnena had stood back from her microscope and was rubbing her eyes. Then she sat on a stool, and put her head in her hands. It took Rose a short time to work out that Linnena was crying, and about a minute to decide to risk reaching over to tentatively touch her shoulder.

Linnena jumped, then turned to face Rose.

"What's up?" asked Rose.

"I-I'm sorry, this happens sometimes." Linnena said. "I'm very confused, sometimes I don't know quite what I'm doing." Rose felt that there was more to it that Linnena wasn't saying, but she was not going to push the issue. Instead, she took Linnena's hand in hers, searched her pockets, and found a tissue. She gave it to Linnena and watched as the other woman dried her eyes and blew her nose.

"Here I am, a scientist working on a big problem, the solution which would help other races, not just humans, and I'm not sure what I'm doing. I don't mean experience-wise or technique-wise, however. I'm well versed in DNA replication, restructuring, cloning, sequencing and re-sequencing. I know how to use the machinery in these labs, and thanks to the memory-print from Davros, certain ones that are not. Given time, the parts, and a team of engineers, I could probably build some of that machinery." She laughed. "However, I have just one life-span and a lot of work to do."

"Maybe too much work." said Rose. "When do you get time to yourself, time off from what you're doing?"

"Apart from sleeping and meal breaks and a couple of hours recreation time, I don't, but that's as much my fault as anyone else's. Shobar's always telling me I should take time off, take a break, but I never do."

"Why ever not?" asked Rose. "Maybe you should try."

"Because I'm here for a reason. It's my job to do this work. I wouldn't fit in on the social circuit, I have no social skills. I may be physically mature and know an awful lot, but my actual physical age since birth can be counted in single figures. My maturation was speeded up, but I never learned to play with other children or talk with others throughout life. I missed out on a lot of social skills. Everything I know I either learned from the people here, or the memory print. That's all I need for here. I belong here."

"I see what you're saying, and yes, I've noticed that you lack a few of the conversational niceties I'm used to but I think if you got out more, you could learn." Linnena shook her head.

"Maybe, maybe not, but again we've got sidetracked. Let's get back to work."

"See, you're improving already. That's put in a much nicer way then the last two times you set me to work. Perhaps we can try and talk while we work. I always found conversation helped a task seem short."

Linnena nodded, and the two women got to work, Rose feeling a little happier about the situation since she had landed.

Varros walked in, holding a sheaf of papers. "Well, yes, the UNIT archives are packed with references to Doctor John Smith, their scientific adviser. A very odd fellow, by all accounts, in fact they're not sure if it's the same person, as he seems to have taken at least three different forms. However, in each case, he recognized certain members of the UNIT team, and knew things he wouldn't have known otherwise. Whenever he turned up, there was usually an archaic blue police phone box somewhere in the vicinity." Varros stopped talking, and looked at the Doctor. "Such an article has recently been discovered in Storage Room 3."

"Yes, don't bother trying to get into it, it responds only to me." He said.

"The archives also state that he has top security clearance, and thus should be given any and all assistance as needed. Now, that clearance doesn't have an expiry date, but I think that we should get you a new set to update you, but after that, perhaps we can exchange what we know. We still do this the old-fashioned way, pen and paper, but also a retinal scan and thumb-print, so I'll just go and get all the bits and bobs, and we can get you up-to-date clearance. While I get that, perhaps Shobar can explain his side of things, the scientific side." Shobar nodded, and for the second time in half-an-hour, Varros dashed out, leaving the Doctor alone with the three scientists.

"Well, now we're getting that sorted out, perhaps you can fill me in on what's going on? The sooner I know what's going on, and the sooner I can give you some help if need be, the quicker I can be taken back to check on Rose."

"Rose is with Linnena, Doctor. Linnena is quite sensible, and quite capable. Your Rose is in safe enough hands," Shobar told him, smiling.

They had run out of subjects to talk about, and had worked in silence, except for the odd comment here and there about the work. Linnena had set Rose to using the virus coat replicator to turn out some new viral coats.

"We're going to need more than one form of virus, in case one doesn't work, or is a form the Dalek's immune system will recognise and can eliminate before it delivers it's DNA. There are also two or three sequences of DNA, in case one isn't effective enough despite the simulations saying it is, or in case it gets into the wrong part of the genome."

"So, these are the coats of viruses found naturally on Skaro, and the foreign DNA is put in it to be carried to the Daleks via this virus?" asked Rose.

"One is a Skaro virus, the ones you're turning out now is the coat of the human airborne influenza virus. As I said, we don't want to rely on just one viral coat. Those are just two of many we'll be using."

Rose nodded. Something at the back of her mind was bothering her, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it…

"We know the Daleks have tried to take over the Earth at least once or twice." Said Shobar. "What we are trying to do is introduce a virus that will make them less of a threat. However, the time it would take to train somebody up and teach them the scientific knowledge they'd need plus the information we have on the Daleks, it would take too long by conventional means. What we know about the Daleks is not enough. However, we have found a way to speed the whole thing up, and make available knowledge that we do not ourselves possess."

"What do you mean? asked the Doctor. "How can you make knowledge you do not possess available?"

"We do possess the knowledge, but not in a way that we can use. Our brain structure is too different." Shobar said. "That is why we created Linnana the way she is. She is the child of two great scientific minds, one from this planet, and one from another."

"Where did you get the flu viral coat?" asked Rose. "Did one of the scientists catch it, and you cultured it from him?" laughed Rose. Then she saw that Linnena wasn't laughing, and realized she thought she was being serious. "That's a joke." she explained. "I know you probably have the structure somewhere on computer." Linnena smiled.

"Yes, the structure was on file. Strangely enough, there was a flu outbreak here some weeks ago, and everyone else went down with it. I was the only one unaffected, due to my hybrid nature."

Rose's brow furrowed. Something suddenly clicked in her mind.

"Linnena is a hybrid?" asked the Doctor. "Of human and what else?"

"Human and original Kaled." said Shobar. "UNIT had some of Davros's DNA and we used it, fusing some of it with a human egg cell. Linnena will even be able to have children. We could not condemn her to a sterile existence, so we even made sure she could have offspring with another human if she so chooses."

"I don't see how her hybrid nature will help you." said the Doctor.

"It helps that her brain was less able to resist the mind print from Davros that we used to impart his scientific knowledge to her. Had we tried a fully human person, it may not have taken. It did, however, take in Linnena. Her brain structure is obviously similar enough. She knows what he did-scientific knowledge, and the most intimate knowledge of the Daleks. She can help us lessen their threat."

The Doctor paled. "You used Davros's mind print to give Linnena the knowledge? That is very dangerous!" the Doctor said. "It's not just the knowledge of Davros that will have been transferred over, but his memories and certain aspects of his personality. That's not just Linnena back there! She will have aspects of herself and aspects of Davros. Most times, she will be mostly Linnena, but Davros was a very dominant personality, and the memories and personality traits will exert themselves on Linnena, and at times she will be more Davros in mind than Linnena! She may not know whose side she's supposed to be on, or be overwhelmed by the dominant traits of Davros' personality, and that could be a very bad thing. She could be working against you, not for you. I think we need to get there, NOW. Rose is in there!"

The Doctor set off towards the lab at a sprint, the three scientists not far behind him.

Rose turned to Linnena. "If you're immune to the flu, won't the Daleks also be immune? You must know that, you have more knowledge on that subject than me, so why make flu viruses? They're no good if they can't infect the enemy."

Linnena had picked up a small glass cylinder flask. Then Linnena turned back, and Rose took an involuntary step backwards. Linnena's face had closed again, not completely, for she did wear a small smile. However, she was not smiling in a friendly manner, and as Rose backed off, she followed her.

"It depends on who you define as the enemy, Rose." Linnena hefted the cylinder flask in her hand. "Scientific equipment is marvelous stuff, you know, and the stuff in this lab is particularly well made. This is made of very strong glass, quite unbreakable, weighted at the bottom to avoid the chance of spillage if it's knocked." she said. Then she lashed out at Rose with it. Rose tried to avoid it but Linnena had moved too fast, and Rose was backed against a wall with little room for maneuver, and the weighted bottom of the flask struck her on the head.

Rose crumpled to the floor unconscious. Linnena checked that Rose was out cold, then moved to the lab door as she heard approaching footsteps. She activated the lock.

As the Doctor and the three scientists reached the door, it slid shut.