AN: You might have noticed the chapter titles in this section are all taken from the song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants. Using the first line of the Old New York/New Amsterdam verse for the first chapter was originally to contrast Old New York with New New York. Then I remembered the rest of the lines in that verse... and how they're all basically, "Don't ask me why they changed it!" which is basically how I feel about the whole concept of human Daleks.
Chapter 16: Why They Changed It…
Rose wanted to laugh at the expression on Tallulah's face, but really, the creature they'd found in the tunnels was disgusting.
"Molto bene!" the Doctor exclaimed, beaming down at Tallulah.
He spun around to face Rose, but she shook her head slightly. I might learn something more about Laszlo and the others being taken, if I stay.
The lines around his mouth tightened, but he nodded in agreement. "Stay safe," he whispered as he pressed a kiss to her forehead.
"Solomon, I could use some help," he said, and the man nodded, following him back into the hallway.
"Can you girls give me a minute to get changed into my costume?" Tallulah asked. "I've got a show starting in thirty, and I need to get ready."
Rose and Martha stepped outside her dressing room and pulled the door shut. "So," Martha said, "what do you think is behind this?"
Rose shook her head. "I honestly don't know. My gut says it's bad though—really bad."
"Of course it is," Martha said. "I'm not complaining, but do you and the Doctor ever manage to go someplace where there isn't a dire emergency?"
"Oh yeah!" Rose laughed. "I know you're four for four, but really Martha, trouble's just the bits in between." Her smile faded when she remembered where she'd picked that phrase up from.
"What is it?" Martha asked.
"The Doctor told my mum that once. Last year, after Christmas—the one with the big ship over London, not the Christmas star."
Martha raised an eyebrow. "Those were both you and the Doctor, weren't they?"
"Might have been," Rose said, feeling her good humour return.
The door opened, and Tallulah let them back in, now wearing a white dress. She sat down in front of the mirror and finished putting on her makeup and jewellery, while Rose and Martha stood behind her.
"Tell us about Laszlo," Rose requested.
Tallulah smiled; clearly, this was a favourite subject of hers. "Laszlo. He'd wait for me after the show. Walk me home like I was a lady." She struggled a bit to get an earring in, but she kept talking. "He'd leave a flower for me on my dressing table. Every day, just a single rose bud."
"Have you reported him missing?" Rose asked.
Tallulah huffed, and Rose knew what that meant. "Sure. He's just a stagehand. Who cares? The management certainly don't."
Martha picked up a wire halo from the shelves and played with it. "Can't you kick up a fuss or something?" she asked Talulah.
"Not if she wants to keep her job," Rose said, remembering all the times she'd held her tongue while working at Henrik's, because she knew she'd get fired if they thought she was too difficult.
Tallulah nodded, but Martha still didn't understand. "But they'd listen to you," she cajoled. "You're one of the stars."
Rose met Tallulah's eyes in the mirror, and they both smiled ruefully. "Oh, honey," Tallulah said, "I got one song in a back street revue and that's only because Heidi Chicane broke her ankle." She turned away from the mirror and glared up at Martha. "Which had nothing to do with me, whatever anybody says." She sighed, and some of the fight went out of her. "Ican't afford to make a fuss. If I don't make this month's rent, then before you know it, I'm in Hooverville."
"Okay, I get it," Martha said impatiently, but Rose knew she didn't, not really. She didn't know what it was like to live hand-to-mouth, to wonder if there would be enough money for rent and bills and food.
"It's the Depression, sweetie," Tallulah said, matter-of-factly. "Your heart might break, but the show goes on. Because if it stops, you starve." She stood up and looked at Martha. "Every night I have to go out there, sing, dance, keep going, hoping he's going to come back."
She started crying, and Martha wrapped her arms around her. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely.
Tallulah pulled out of the hug and looked at Rose. "Hey, you're lucky, though. I saw the way that hot potato in the sharp suit looked at you—like you're his whole world."
Rose felt the steady presence of the Doctor in her mind. "Yeah, I am lucky," she agreed.
"How long have you been married?"
Martha grinned, clearly expecting the precise answer they'd given her, but Rose shook her head. "Almost seven months," she said instead.
"Oh, I thought you were newlyweds!" Tallulah crowed while pulling on a pair of fake wings. "The way he didn't want to leave you earlier… I told myself, they haven't even been married for a year yet."
Her face fell a little. "I'd hoped me and Laszlo…" She sighed. "But hope is the only thing that's kept me going because, well, look. On my dressing table every day still." She picked up a white rosebud and handed it to Martha.
"You think it's Laszlo?" Martha asked.
She shook her head quickly. "I don't know. If he's still around, why is he being all secret like he doesn't want me to see him?"
Rose nodded slowly. That was the question of the hour.
oOoOoOoOo
An uneasy feeling settled in the Doctor's gut when he left Rose behind, but her idea of talking to Tallulah was a good one, and he needed to figure out who exactly was behind this. To do that, he needed to build a DNA scanner and he couldn't do that in Tallulah's dressing room.
"So what exactly are we doing, Doctor?" Solomon asked as they entered the props room.
The Doctor shucked his coat and tossed it over a rack."I need to figure out where this thing came from," he said, holding the green blob up. "That should tell me a little more about what's going on here."
"And then you'll be able to find the missing people?"
"Hopefully."
"So how can I help?"
The Doctor was already pulling random bits of hardware off of props. "I need a radio—a working one. Can you look through everything and find one?"
Solomon looked around the storage room. "I'll poke around the rest of the theatre. I don't think there's anything back here."
The Doctor was already so intent on what he was doing that he barely muttered a goodbye to Solomon.
Five minutes later, Solomon returned. "How about this?" he asked, holding up a small radio. "I found it backstage."
"Perfect," the Doctor exclaimed. He turned it over and opened up the back, explaining as he went. "It's the capacitors I need. I'm just rigging up a crude little DNA scan for this beastie." He pulled out the sonic and used it to unhook the capacitors, then slipped the radio casing into his coat pocket. "If I can get a chromosomal reading, I can find out where it's from."
"How about you, Doctor? Where are you from? I've been all over. I never heard anybody talk like you. Just exactly who are you?"
The Doctor didn't look Solomon in the eye, brushing his question off instead. "Oh, I'm just sort of passing by."
"I'm not a fool, Doctor," Solomon said severely.
The Doctor looked at him then. "No. Sorry."
Solomon walked over to the sewer entrance and stared at it. "I was so scared, Doctor. I let them take Frank because I was just so scared."
There was something in his eyes requesting absolution, but the Doctor couldn't give it. After a moment, Solomon nodded and pulled his coat tighter around himself.
"I got to get back to Hooverville," he said, walking towards the door. "With these creatures on the loose, we got to protect ourselves. Ain't no one else going to help us."
"Good luck."
Solomon stopped and looked back at the Doctor. "I hope you find what you're looking for, for all our sakes."
oOoOoOoOo
Faint strains of music floated into the backstage area, and Tallulah fluttered out into the hallway. "Girls, it's showtime!" she called out, a wide smile on her face.
A group of dancers dressed in red sequinned costumes pranced down the hallway. "Lois, you spoil my chassé tonight, I'm going to punch you," one said, casting a sidelong glance another another dancer.
Lois rolled her eyes. "Aw, quick complaining, Myrna. Go buy yourself some glasses."
Tallulah waved at Rose and Martha. "Come on, girls. Take a look. Ever been on stage before?"
"Oh, a little bit," Martha said, sharing an amused look with Rose. "You know, Shakespeare."
"How dull is that?" Tallulah exclaimed. "Come and see a real show."
She dragged them to a spot just behind the curtain, then got into position, standing behind the line of girls in red, hidden from view by their fans. Onstage, the master of ceremonies was announcing the act, and then it was showtime.
The curtains opened and the music started, and one by one the girls pulled back their fans, revealing Tallulah standing near the back of the stage. The crowd cheered loudly when she looked up at them through lowered lashes, then sauntered towards the front of the stage and started singing.
How are you doing, love? the Doctor asked, pulling her attention away from the show.
Okay. I hope we can find Laszlo for Tallulah—she's really broken up over it.
Working on getting more information right now.
Martha poked Rose in the shoulder and pointed to the wings on the other side of the stage. Hiding in the shadows was… Rose blinked, but the figure didn't disappear. It was definitely one of the pig men. Martha jerked her head, and Rose nodded.
Yeah… I'm following up a lead too, she told the Doctor as they started creeping across the stage, hiding behind the chorus girls as best as they could. (They weren't doing a very good job, she had to admit, but there wasn't anything else to do.)
Be careful, he admonished her.
Tallulah, Myrna, and Lois all squawked at them as they stepped on their costumes and nearly knocked them over. Rose winced, hoping they weren't going to get Tallulah fired, but they couldn't let that pig man get away.
You know me, she told the Doctor cheekily in answer to his request.
I do—that's why I worry.
Affection for the Doctor brought a smile to Rose's face. Then the pig man spotted them and started running, and she let her connection with the Doctor drift into the background.
oOoOoOoOo
The Doctor needed just one more thing to get his DNA scan to work—heat. And the best source of heat in a theatre was the lights, so he took the blob and the scanner up to the lighting gallery and pointed a spotlight directly at it.
"That's it," he said as he turned the light on. "We need to heat you up."
He got down on the floor next to his gizmo and pulled out his glasses to get a better look, adjusting the position of the sonic when he could tell it wasn't pointing at exactly the right spot.
"This is artificial," the Doctor muttered when the first results came in. He tweaked one of the controls so he could get a more precise reading, and sat back on his heels.
An announcer introduced the next show, but the Doctor was too busy with his DNA scan to pay any attention.
The sonic started giving more information. "Genetically engineered. Whoever this is, oh, you're clever."
The noise from the theatre got a little bit louder when the show started, and the Doctor looked down, momentarily distracted. How are you doing, love? he asked, checking in with Rose.
Okay. I hope we can find Laszlo for Tallulah—she's really broken up over it.
Working on getting more information right now.
He could feel her sudden distraction and was unsurprised when she said, Yeah… I'm following up a lead too.
The Doctor frowned—that feeling in his gut was back, stronger than before. Be careful.
You know me.
He smiled wryly. I do—that's why I worry.
She laughed, then faded back into the constant presence in the back of his mind, letting the Doctor focus on his readings again.
The sonic beeped, indicating it was ready, and the Doctor pulled his stethoscope out of his pocket and listened to the results. "Fundamental DNA type four six seven dash nine eight nine." He removed the earpieces and leaned back, trying to place that number—it sounded so familiar. "Nine eight nine," he repeated, rubbing at his eyes. "Hold on, that means planet of origin…" The answer came to him, and his stomach clenched. "Skaro."
oOoOoOoOo
The audience was roaring over the onstage disaster, but Tallulah wasn't amused. "Get off the stage. You're spoiling it!"
"But look. Over there!" Martha pointed. From this close, Rose could see this one was different. There were still some human qualities to the face.
Tallulah screamed when she saw the pig man, and it ran away.
Martha gave chase immediately, while Rose turned and smiled apologetically at Tallulah. "Sorry about this. Uh… good luck?" she muttered, before darting into the wings.
She was just in time to see Martha run through a door and turn right. "Wait!" Martha cried out, then started running again.
The worry that had lingered in the back of the Doctor's mind ever since they'd walked through the tunnels exploded into panic. Rose had a split second decision to make; Martha was too far ahead of her to stop. She knew the Doctor wanted her to stay safe, but she couldn't let Martha go after it alone. In the end, it wasn't a decision at all.
She had just stepped into the hallway when the Doctor's frantic worry was finally put into words. Rose, they're Daleks!
She stopped dead in her tracks for just a moment, then she realised that if there were Daleks roaming the sewers, she definitely couldn't let Martha go alone. Taking a deep breath, she followed her friend into the props room.
Martha was standing still, trying to catch her breath, and Rose took her chance. "Martha, we've got to get out of here," she said urgently.
"But that one was different, you saw!"
"I know. But the pig men aren't the real problem, and the real problem is… We've got to get out of here, Martha!"
She heard the grunt behind her a second too late to avoid being grabbed. When the cloven hooves grabbed onto their arms, Martha screamed out loud and Rose called for her Doctor.
oOoOoOoOo
The Doctor ran towards Rose, desperate to get to her before she ran straight into the plunger arm of a Dalek. Rose, they're Daleks! he told her, hoping to get her to stop. Instead, he got the distinct feeling that the information had convinced her to go into the tunnels, but why… Oh. Because Martha went first.
A crowd of showgirls was standing in the middle of the hallway gossiping. The Doctor ran through them, following his bond with Rose.
"Hey! What are you doing?" Tallulah called out.
"I have to save Rose!" he shouted back at her.
A scream echoed down the hallway from the props room, but Rose's telepathic cry terrified the Doctor even more. "Rose!" he hollered, running faster.
Inside the props room, the manhole cover was ajar. The Doctor grabbed his coat and shoved his arms into the sleeves.
Unexpectedly, Tallulah showed up right behind him. "Where are you going?" she asked.
"They've taken them," he growled, then pushed the manhole cover aside and started down the ladder.
"Who's taken them?" Tallulah demanded. "What're you doing? I said, what the hell are you doing?"
The Doctor had hoped Tallulah would go away if he ignored her, but instead, he heard her dress shoes clicking on the rungs of the ladder. He watched incredulously as the hem of a fur coat appeared, and then Tallulah's face.
"No, no, no, no, no way. You're not coming."
"Tell me what's going on."
The Doctor raked his hands through his hair. Every moment he spent talking to Tallulah was one he wasn't looking for Rose and Martha. "There's nothing you can do. Go back," he ordered.
But the showgirl met his gaze without blinking. "Look, whoever's taken Rose and Martha, they could've taken Laszlo, couldn't they?"
"Tallulah, you're not safe down here," he told her in a low voice.
"Then that's my problem." She lifted her chin. "Come on. Which way?"
She started walking in the wrong direction, and the Doctor gave up, taking off in Rose's direction. "This way," he told her, and a second later, he heard her footsteps behind him.
oOoOoOoOo
In the sewer tunnels, Martha looked over at Rose. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
Rose tilted her head. "What for?"
"You're only down here because of me. You tried to get me to stop."
"That's not your fault," Rose said, but Martha didn't believe it. "Honestly, Martha," she said seriously, "now that I know what we're facing, there was no way we were ever going to get through this without being in danger at some point."
The pig men holding onto Martha's arms jerked at her and dragged her faster through the tunnels, and she panicked. "No! Let me go!" she demanded, squirming against their tight hold.
She and Rose were shoved up against the wall, and Martha winced at the sting in her wrist. Beside her, Rose grunted slightly, and Martha guessed she'd been hurt, too. The pig man grunted in Martha's face while she held the joint, massaging it to ease the pain.
A line of men was walking past, but Martha ignored them until she heard a familiar voice call her name. "Martha."
"You're alive!" she whispered, then threw herself across the tunnel into Frank's arms. "Oh! I thought we'd lost you." A pig man slapped at Frank, and Martha glared at it over his shoulder. "All right, all right, we're moving." They all started walking, and Rose fell into step along with them, in line behind Frank.
Frank left his hand on her waist, and Martha hung onto it. "Where are they taking us?" he asked quietly.
"It's not the where, but the who that concerns me," Rose said darkly.
Martha looked back at her. "That's the second time you've talked like you know what's down here."
"Because I do. And Martha… I'm sorry, but you are in so much more danger than you've ever been before."
The serious, angry look on her friend's face scared Martha. Frank put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and together they walked deeper into the sewers.
oOoOoOoOo
The Doctor could have followed the bond all the way to Rose, but he knew he couldn't get her away from the pig men easily. He'd figured out where they were taking them, though—really, it hadn't been hard to put together, given their location in Midtown and the conveniently still-under-construction Empire State Building. So instead of following Rose, the Doctor took a parallel path, striking out towards the Empire State Building through tunnels he hadn't seen before.
"When you say they've taken her," Tallulah said as they ducked under a portcullis, "who's they exactly? And who are you anyway? I never asked."
The Doctor picked up a high-pitched whine, out of range of human ears. He paused and held up a hand to Tallulah, hushing her.
"Okay, okay," she said, her voice still dangerously loud.
The whine was joined by the lower-pitched noise of a Dalek moving, and the Doctor tried to quiet Tallulah again, but she ignored him.
She was still talking when the shadow of a Dalek was cast on the tunnel wall. "I mean you're handsome and all—"
The Doctor spun around and put one hand over Tallulah's mouth and the other on her arm, gagging her and dragging her into an alcove. As soon as she saw the Dalek, she ripped his hand off her mouth, and he assumed she understood the need for silence now. He held his breath as the Dalek rolled by them, only letting it out when it had passed completely.
The Doctor peered around the corner of the alcove, and once the Dalek turned the corner, he stepped out into the tunnel, muttering to himself. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They survived. They always survive." Discovering that the war which had ended his race had not, as he'd expected, brought the Daleks to an equally final end had been a blow. And since then, they'd twice tried to separate him from Rose. Both times, he thought they'd gotten rid of all of them, and both times, a few remained.
"That metal thing?" Tallulah asked. "What was it?"
"It's called a Dalek." The Doctor spat the name out like a curse. "And it's not just metal; it's alive."
She chuckled. "You're kidding me."
"Do I look like I'm kidding?" the Doctor said harshly. The smile disappeared from Tallulah's face, and he continued. "Inside that shell is a creature born to hate, whose only thought is to destroy everything and everyone that isn't a Dalek too. It won't stop until it's killed every human being alive."
"But if it's not a human being, that kind of implies it's from outer space." She looked at him, asking for a denial, and he just glared at her. "Yet again, that's a no with thekidding." She let out a shaky breath. "Boy. Well, what's it doing here, in New York?"
For some reason, the Doctor suddenly remembered the first time Rose had met a Dalek. It had known then; it had known exactly what she meant to him. And now…
Rose, you can't let them see you.
He could almost see her roll her eyes. How am I supposed to manage that?
The Doctor paced the sewer. I mean it. The Daleks share important information telepathically over the Pathweb. Even if we've never seen this group before, they will recognise you as my companion—possibly even my bond mate.I don't want to find out what they'd do with that information.
Her comprehension was immediately followed by dread. I told Dalek Sec that I killed the Emperor. They'll all know that, won't they?
Yes. The Doctor beat his head lightly against the sewer wall. Yet again, she was in danger because of him. He caught and locked down the guilt before she could see exactly what he was thinking. I'm hoping to get to you before you reach them.
Hurry then.
The Doctor snarled a wordless epithet. The implication was clear; there wasn't much time. He kicked at the wall, barely feeling the throbbing in his toes.
"Well that's not gonna be very helpful," Tallulah said.
The Doctor glared at her, then grabbed her by the arm and started walking back towards the theatre. "Every second you're down here, you're in danger. I'm taking you back right now."
They turned a corner and the Doctor's torch landed on a figure dressed in a jumpsuit with unmistakably porcine ears. Tallulah screamed, but the Doctor strode after the pig man with all the power of the Oncoming Storm.
"Where's Rose?" The creature cowered against the wall, and the Doctor advanced on it relentlessly. "What have you done with her? And what have you done with Martha?"
"I didn't take them."
The Doctor raised his eyebrows; none of the other pig men had been able to speak. "Can you remember your name?" he asked, some of his anger evaporating.
"Don't look at me," he insisted, without looking the Doctor in the eye.
Tallulah started walking towards them slowly. "Do you know where they are?"
"Stay back!" the pig man ordered, holding a hand up. "Don't look at me."
"What happened to you?" the Doctor asked. The face half in shadows was mostly human still, but with the ears, snout, and teeth of a pig.
The self-loathing in his voice was familiar. "They made me a monster."
"The Daleks?" the Doctor asked, not wanting to waste precious time in conversation. The pig man nodded. "Why?"
"They needed slaves." Misery radiated out of the human eyes. "They needed slaves to steal more people so they created us. Part animal, part human. I escaped before they got my mind, but it was still too late."
"Do you know what happened to Rose and Martha?"
"They took them. It's my fault. They were following me."
"Were you in the theatre?" Tallulah asked.
"I never…" He stopped and looked at her over his shoulder. "Yes," he whispered.
"Why?" she pressed, even though the Doctor thought she knew why. "Why were you there?"
"I never wanted you to see me like this."
"Why me? Whadda I got to do with this?" She walked towards the Doctor and the pig man slowly. "Were you following me? Is that why you were there?"
He turned around, but carefully stayed in the shadows. "Yes."
Tallulah took a half step back, horrified realisation on her face. "Who are you?" she asked as she started towards them again.
The Doctor ran out of patience with the reunion. Rose and Martha could run into the Daleks at any moment. "Tallulah, you know who he is," he said, barely managing to curb the bite in his voice.
Her gaze flicked up to him, then back to the half-human form leaning against the wall. She took another two steps forward, then put a hand on his shoulder. At her behest, he moved into the light, and Tallulah put a hand over her mouth. "Laszlo? My Laszlo? Oh, what have they done to you?"
"I'm sorry. So sorry," he whispered as she fidgeted with his collar and stroked the back of his neck.
"Laszlo, can you show me where they are?" the Doctor requested.
Laszlo turned to face him. "They'll kill you."
"If I don't stop them, they'll kill everyone… starting with my wife."
"Then follow me." Laszlo went around Tallulah and started down the tunnel in the opposite direction.
oOoOoOoOo
The pig men were still marching the captives through the tunnels when the Doctor contacted Rose. Rose, you can't let them see you, the Doctor told her suddenly.
Rose snorted. How am I supposed to manage that?
I mean it, he insisted. The Daleks share important information telepathically over the Pathweb. Even if we've never seen this group before, they will recognise you as my companion—possibly even my bond mate. I don't want to find out what they'd do with that information.
The first Dalek she'd met had called her the woman the Doctor loved. If it had passed that information along… A worse thought followed fast on the heels of that one.
I told Dalek Sec that I killed the Emperor. They'll all know that, won't they?
Yes. I'm hoping to get to you before you reach them.
A gust of damp air brushed over Rose's neck, and she shivered. Hurry then, she told her Doctor, unsure of how much further they had to go.
Five minutes later, the muscles in Rose's neck and shoulders tensed as the pig men corralled all the humans into a junction point of the sewer tunnels. None of this seemed right. Lurking in sewers? Kidnapping humans? That wasn't exactly the way Daleks operated, was it?
Except sometimes they do steal humans, she reminded herself, thinking of the Game Station. When they can't generate pure Dalek DNA…
The idea that they might be Dalek breeding stock sickened her, and the Doctor's barely contained panic and rage didn't help her nerves. It was hard not to wrap her own fear into it and send it back to him, escalating the emotions. Some of her anxiety dissipated when she could tell he was moving towards her, but only a little.
Trying to steady herself, Rose concentrated on the sting in her palms where she'd hit the wall earlier. It was fading, but if she ran her fingers over the sensitive skin, the uncomfortable sensation was enough to distract her.
"What are they keeping us here for?" Frank asked.
"I don't know," Martha said, and Rose noticed she was still massaging her wrist. "I've got a nasty feeling we're being kept in the larder."
Rose opened her mouth to correct her, but the pig men started grunting and fidgeting. When she caught a familiar noise, she ducked into the middle of the group.
I can see you, Rose, the Doctor said, and some of the tension left her body, just knowing he was close by.
"What're they doing?" Frank asked. "What's wrong? What's wrong?"
"Silence. Silence," a Dalek ordered as it rolled into sight.
Martha crouched down and looked around Frank at the Dalek. "What the hell is that?"
"You will form a line." At their master's orders, the pig men started pulling the humans into a neat line. "Move. Move."
Rose sucked in a breath. In a straight line, there wouldn't be any place to hide, but she couldn't draw attention to herself by refusing.
Martha kept a level head and directed the others. "Just do what it says, everyone, okay? Just obey."
"The female is wise. Obey."
The Dalek rolled further into the tunnel, and a second appeared. "Report."
"These are strong specimens. They will help the Dalek cause."
"Dalek?" Martha repeated, and Rose realised she remembered the Doctor mentioning them the day before.
The Daleks continued to talk, and Rose was both amazed and frightened by how much of their plan they were willing to talk freely about in front of their prisoners.
"What is the status of the final experiment?"
"The Dalekanium is in place. The energy conductor is now complete."
"Then I will extract prisoners for selection." A pig man dragged an older black man out of the line. "Intelligence scan, initiate." The Dalek held its plunger arm up to its face. "Reading brain waves. Low intelligence."
"You calling me stupid?" the man asked indignantly.
"Silence!" the Dalek ordered. "This one will become a pig slave. Next."
The man struggled against the pig men as they dragged him away. "No, let go of me. I'm not becoming one of them. No! No."
It continued that way down the line. The closer they got to Rose, the more nervous she became. But maybe the Daleks wouldn't look at her timelines? They wouldn't be thinking any time travellers would be close by…
Her attention snapped back to the Daleks when Martha was pulled forward. "Intelligence scan, initiate." Martha held still while the plunger spun in front of her face. "Superiorintelligence. This one will become part of the final experiment."
"You can't just experiment on people," Martha protested. "It's insane! It's inhuman!"
"We are not human," the Dalek said, in Dalek fashion.
Rose felt the harsh grip of the pig men on her arms and drew a deep breath. Hopefully… hopefully they wouldn't notice…
But when the Dalek's eyestalk looked at Rose, it rolled back half a step. "You are the Doctor's mate," it declared.
Rose smiled and tipped her head back. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."
The other Dalek rolled over. "Where is the Doctor?"
"Not here," she said breezily, smiling at them both. "We got a distress call from a planet in the Dagomar Cluster, and he said something about the air not being healthy for humans, so he brought me here for a little holiday while he went and took care of whatever they needed." She looked at the Daleks and raised an eyebrow. "You can bet he didn't know you were here," she added disdainfully, "or he never woulda left."
The Dalek eyestalks rotated to look at each other, and then they both looked back at Rose. She held her breath, hoping they would believe her story. Finally, the first one raised its plunger arm to her face and performed the same brain scan it had on the other prisoners. "Superior intelligence," it declared, then turned to the pig men. "Prisoners of high intelligence will be taken to the transgenic laboratory."
oOoOoOoOo
The Doctor's hearts were still pounding in his chest when the Dalek scanned Rose. Her story had fooled them. After scanning her, the pig men started moving the line forward.
"Look out, they're moving!" he said, ducking out of sight.
Laszlo started escorting Tallulah back down the tunnel, but stopped when he realised the Doctor wasn't following. "Doctor. Doctor, quickly!"
"I'm not coming," the Doctor whispered. "I've got an idea. You go."
"Laszlo, come on," Tallulah said.
"Can you remember the way?" asked Laszlo.
The Doctor watched the Daleks' approach while Laszlo talked Tallulah into leaving, and he shook his head. You're a more persuasive man than I am, Laszlo. Laszlo joined him at the corner, and together they watched the Daleks pass by, followed by the line of humans waiting to be experimented on.
When Rose was in front of him, he darted out of cover to join the line behind her. Right here, love, he told her. Excellent bluff by the way.
She held a hand out behind her, and he grabbed it. I'm so glad to see you.
Rose tapped Martha on the shoulder, and a relieved smile spread across their friend's face when she saw him. "I'm so glad to see you," she breathed out.
"Yeah, that seems to be the general consensus," the Doctor said. "What about you, Frank? Are you glad to see me, too?"
"If you can get us out of here, then yeah."
They were led through a service door into a sub basement. Two more Daleks brought the count up to four, and when the Doctor noticed one was black, the pieces came together. The Cult of Skaro—the Daleks behind the Battle of Canary Wharf, where he'd almost lost Rose—had managed to escape. He gritted his teeth and glared at the end of the room, where Dalek Sec was shaking, with steam coming out of him, like a kettle about to boil.
One of the bronze Daleks in charge of the prisoners rolled forward. "Report."
The bronze Dalek standing beside the black Dalek answered. "Dalek Sec is in the final stage of evolution."
"Scan him. Prepare for birth."
The Doctor stared at the Daleks in bafflement. "Evolution?"
"What's wrong with old Charlie boy over there?" Martha wondered out loud.
"Ask them," the Doctor and Rose told her in unison.
"What, me?" She looked back at them. "Don't be daft."
"We don't exactly want to get noticed," the Doctor hissed. "Ask them what's going on."
Martha's back went ramrod straight and her hands clenched into fists, but she stepped out of the line and faced the Daleks. "Daleks, I demand to be told."
The Daleks rolled towards Martha, and the Doctor and Rose skulked against the equipment on the edge of the room, trying not to be noticed.
"What is this final experiment?" Martha stumbled over the words, then straightened up. "Report!"
"You will bear witness," the Dalek told her.
Martha shook her head. "To what?"
"This is the dawn of a new age."
"What does that mean?" Martha's voice had lost the demanding edge and now sounded merely curious and confused.
"We are the only four Daleks in existence, so the species must evolve a life outside the shell. The Children of Skaro must walk again."
The Doctor sucked in a breath. It had been thousands of years—hundreds of thousands even—since the Kaleds had walked the surface of Skaro. They didn't have the physical form for it anymore; Davros had seen to that.
And if they need humans of high intelligence to complete the final experiment… He had a sickening feeling that he knew where they would get the bodies.
Dalek Sec's shell stopped smoking, and the constant hum quieted to nothing as the light in the eyestalk went dead. The casing opened, but where the Dalek mutant would normally be, a new kind of creature was curled up inside.
It stumbled out of the shell on two legs, and the Doctor could see what it was now: a human/Dalek hybrid. The mollusk face of the Dalek was over the man's head and his fingers looked more like fat tentacles, but the rest of his body was human.
The casing shut, and the new Dalek Sec stood up straight.
"What is it?" Rose gasped.
Dalek Sec answered before the Doctor could. It raised its head up so they could see the single eye staring at them from the tentacle head. "I am a human Dalek. I am your future."