Chapter Eleven
In the school cellar, the Doctor plugs a camera and microphone into the television and transmat. He switches on the television set and bangs it a few times. "Hello, hello, hello? Dalek mothership, come in please. Come in, please."
A grainy image of the Emperor Dalek appears on the television screen.
"Ah, there you are. This is the Doctor, President Elect of the High Council of Time Lords, Keeper of the legacy of Rassilon, Defender of the Laws of Time, Protector of Gallifrey. I call upon you to surrender the Hand of Omega and return to your customary time and place."
Rachel was staring at him in awe.
"Ah, Doctor!" replies the Emperor. "You have changed again. Your appearance is as inconstant as your intelligence. You have confounded me for the last time!"
The Emperor's dome swings up to reveal –
"Davros. I should have known. I see you've discarded the last vestige of your human form. Still no improvement."
"Save your insults for the weak-minded, Doctor."
"Will you return the Hand of Omega or not?"
"Are you threatening me? If so, it is most unwise."
"Every time our paths have crossed, I have defeated you."
Davros makes a gurgling sound that is supposed to be a laugh.
"You flatter yourself, Doctor. In the end, you are merely another Time Lord."
"Oh, Davros, I am far more than just another Time Lord."
Ace and Nita have followed Mike to the boarding house. Ace lets them in with the latch key and they look around cautiously. Ace closes the front door quietly. Nita opens the door to the front room and they go in quietly. They hear the door close behind them and spin around. Mike is waiting with a gun.
"Hello, girls."
"Would you really shoot us?" Ace asks.
"If I had to."
"You might have to," Nita says.
"Davros, the Hand of Omega is not to be trifled with."
"I think I am quite capable of handling the technology."
"I sincerely doubt that."
"Does it worry you, Doctor, that with it I will transform Skaro's sun into a source of unimaginable power? And with that power at my disposal, the Daleks shall sweep away Gallifrey and its impotent quorum of Time Lords! The Daleks shall become Lords of Time! We shall become all…"
The Doctor finishes Davros' sentence for him. "Powerful. Crush the lesser races. Conquer the galaxy. Unimaginable power. Unlimited rice pudding, et cetera, et cetera."
"Do not anger me, Doctor. I can destroy you and this miserable, insignificant planet."
The Doctor turns to the others as he continues to talk to Davros. Rachel and Allison are watching Davros, while Gilmore is looking at the Doctor with a frown. "Oh, wonderful. What power, what brilliance. You can wipe out the odd civilisation, enslave the occasional culture, but it still won't detract from the basic fundamental truth of your own impotence!"
Rachel grabs his shoulder. "Careful, Doctor."
The Doctor covers the microphone and leans back to Rachel. "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
"I will teach you the folly of your words, Doctor. I will destroy you and demonstrate the power of the Daleks!"
"Davros, I beg of you, don't use the Hand."
"Ah, Doctor, now you begin to fear."
"You're making a grave mistake."
"Activate the Omega device!"
"Omega device activated," a Dalek replies.
A little star flies out of the Mothership.
"Plotting course to home planet Skaro," reports a second Dalek.
"Now the Daleks shall become the Lords of Time!" Davros screams.
"Entering Skaro time zone. First stage expansion. Primary neutrino release," the second Dalek reports.
"Core collapse instigated," the first Dalek says.
"Danger! Instability!" the second Dalek shouts. "Reaction out of control."
"No, this cannot be correct!"
"Home planet Skaro about to vapourise," a Dalek reports.
The Hand leaves the system as the star goes supernova and takes the planets with it.
"You have tricked me!" Davros screams.
"No, Davros. You tricked yourself."
"Omega device returning," reports the second Dalek.
"Impact minus twenty five," the first Dalek warns.
"Do you think I would let you have control of the Hand of Omega?"
"Do not do this, I beg of you."
"Nothing can stop it now."
"Have pity on me."
"I have pity for you."
"Fifteen," a Dalek counts down.
"Goodbye, Davros. It hasn't been pleasant." The Doctor turns off the transmission.
Davros lowers the Emperor's dome and backs off the bridge.
"Emperor abandoning bridge."
"Eight, seven."
"Emperor activating escape pod."
"Four, three."
"Escape pod leaving mothership."
"Two, one."
The Hand slams into the mothership. KaBOOM!
The Doctor is packing up the camera.
"What happened?" asks Rachel.
"I programmed the Hand of Omega to fly into Skaro's sun and turn it supernova."
"Super what?" asks Gilmore.
"He blew it up," Allison explains.
The Doctor folds up the camera and puts it in his pocket. "The resulting explosion destroyed Skaro," he flips his hat onto his head. "And the feedback destroyed the mothership. The Hand of Omega is now returning to Gallifrey."
At the boarding house, Mike is still pointing his gun at the girls. They sit down on the sofa. The doorbell rings.
Mike turns and walks toward the door with his gun still pointed at the girls. "You stay there."
"It might be the Doctor. Put the gun down, Mike. It's too late for that. Come on, Mike, who are you going to shoot with it, anyway?"
Mike opens the door to the foyer. "Just stay there."
"What a shame he turned out to be such a loser," Nita says, after Mike leaves the room. "He's a deadset spunk."
"Yeah," Ace sighs miserably.
"I'm sorry, I know you were wrapped in him. And I really thought he was trying to crack onto you."
"So did I."
Mike opens the front door. It is the little girl. She zaps him and he is thrown back onto the staircase. She walks into the house with a smirk on her face.
The Black Dalek is in the street when the Doctor, Gilmore, Rachel and Allison arrive in Red 4 from one direction, and the RAF lorry comes from the other. The Doctor gets out of the van.
Meanwhile the little girl enters the front room and smiles at Ace and Nita. They shrink back into the sofa.
The walks down the street towards the Dalek with this hand in his pocket. Gilmore and his soldiers gave him cover from behind the truck. "Dalek, you have been defeated. Surrender. You have failed." The RAF men were covering him from their lorry.
The BLACK was rocking from side to side. "Insufficient data."
"Your forces are destroyed. Your home planet a burnt cinder circling a dead sun."
"There is no data."
The Doctor stopped. "Even Davros, your creator, is dead."
The little girl is slowly walking towards Ace and Nita. The stand up and move in front of the fireplace. The girl raises her arms and sends energy bolts towards Ace and Nita. They duck just in time for the little girl to miss them and smash the mirror instead. She scowls at them.
"You have no superiors, no inferiors, no reinforcement, no hope, no rescue," the Doctor continues.
"You are lying. There is insufficient data."
"You're trapped a trillion miles and a thousand years from a disintegrated home."
The Black Dalek starts twirling around, groaning. "Out of control!"
"I have defeated you. You no longer serve any purpose."
"Cannot compute. Unstable."
The little girl grabs her head and starts swinging back and forth, squealing.
"Unstable." The Black Dalek atomises gently.
The little girl collapses. Ace and Nita pop their heads up from behind the sofa. Ace comes out from behind the sofa to pick her up and hug her, sitting on the sofa. Nita sits next to them and strokes the girl's hair. "It's all right. Don't worry. It's all over now."
The Doctor walks over and prods the smoking remains of the Black Dalek with his umbrella. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." He blows ashes off the tip of his umbrella and walks away.
At the cemetery, the chapel bell tolls and an organ plays as a coffin is carried in for the service. Group Captain Gilmore escorts Mrs Smith, with Allison and Rachel behind. The Doctor stops Ace and Nita at the threshold. "Time to leave."
"Yes," Ace agrees.
Nita turns and looks at him. "Doctor?"
The Doctor looks at her. "Yes?"
"We did good, didn't we?"
"Perhaps. Time will tell. It always does."
They turn to leave as the chapel door is closed.
A/N So there you have it. The Doctor pretty much admits to Davros that he is "The Other". Remember how he slipped up when telling Ace and Nita about the Time Lords creating time travel, and talked about how "we" had a hard time with it, and then quickly corrected himself? Anyway, just an epilogue to go now.