The Doctor wasted no time rushing back through the building to the carpark. He pulled out his screwdriver and scanned the interior of the car again. Faint, but it's there, he thought. Now I just need to get the coordinates to interface with the teleport's system and… BINGO! A light began blinking on the large silver bracelet, indicating that the connection was made and ready to bring the Doctor to Rose and Teddy. Just as he was about to hit the "Transport" button, he spied something on the floor of the car. He grabbed it, then hit the button and disappeared.
Rose was growing impatient. She had been there for what felt like hours, and all that was happening was Daleks rolling past her cell and the occasional barked order from the lead Dalek, a black and silver creature called General Bas. Other Daleks came and went, but Dalek Bas remained in the control room, in front of a glowing screen. The screen was blurred through the force field that held her captive, but Rose could make out a diagram dotted with small objects. It seemed somewhat familiar, but Rose couldn't see clearly enough to be sure. Every so often, one of the machines in the room would beep, the picture would shift, or a Dalek would glide in with some news about source levels or fleet percentages. Rose went from worry to intrigue to boredom. She narrated along to herself as the next Dalek conversation unfolded.
"GENERAL BAS, THE SOURCE HARVEST IS AT 55%."
"Looks like we'll be having some delicious corn this year, and a nice crop of potatoes too," Rose muttered under her breath.
"GOOD. INCREASE DRONE PRODUCTION AND GATHER THE COMMAND HEADS."
"We can have some lovely chips made from our potatoes and not offer Rose any. It'll be good fun."
"AND CONFIRM DEFENSE MECHANISMS. MAXIMISE SHIELD CAPACITY."
"Couldn't confirm some dinner for me, eh?" Now that she thought about it, Rose was getting very hungry. She hadn't eaten since before she left for Torchwood, so she stood and walked to the forcefield.
"Oi! You there! Dalek! Any chance of you having some chips or something? I mean, if you're gonna keep me prisoner here, you've gotta at least keep me alive! I'm eating for two, remember!"
Dalek Bas turned to her and began to wheel towards her cell. She started to regret opening her mouth when an alarm went off on the monitor. Both Daleks turned to the screen as three more rushed into the room - the command heads, Rose assumed. One Dalek, a bronze coloured one, began reading the instruments at the control panel.
"INTRUDERS ENTERING SOURCE HARVEST SPACE! INTRUDERS ENTERING SOURCE HARVEST SPACE! 15 SHIPS DETECTED! IDENTIFY ORIGIN! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
The Daleks buzzed around the control room, using their mechanical arms to press buttons and turn knobs. The view on the fuzzy monitor suddenly showed a group of the same ships Rose had seen earlier, with whirling symbols on the hulls. Suddenly, yet another alarm blared.
"INTRUDER ON BOARD! ENGINE ROOM 5! CAPTURE AND BRING HERE FOR IDENTIFICATION AND EXTERMINATION!" Dalek Bas's deep, computerised voice sounded impatient and possibly a little worried, Rose thought. That's the Doctor! I knew he'd come! I just hope he knows what he's up against, and doesn't do anything stupid. He hasn't got another heart or a hand this time…
Two of the Daleks sped from the room, the other three remaining at the controls. Dalek Bas barked out orders over the ship's intercom system.
"PREPARE THE ARMY. ALL DALEKS TO THE SOURCE. WE WILL DESTROY THE ENEMY AND RULE THE UNIVERSE!"
"SOURCE HARVEST AT 70%, GENERAL BAS."
The black and silver Dalek gave a nod of his eyestalk, then turned back to Rose.
"WE WILL BRING THIS INTRUDER HERE. WE WILL MEET THIS DOCTOR. THEN HE AND YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"
Rose shrank back to the corner of her cell, sitting with her back against the wall. She put a hand up to grasp her TARDIS key for courage. She found it strangely hot. Pulling it out, she found it emitted a faint glow in her palm. What the hell's going on with this, she thought. I thought this only happened when the TARDIS was around… maybe it's because of some alien technology on the ship? She quickly tucked it back under her shirt before the Daleks noticed. Strange….
Just then, a Dalek entered with his laser pointed at the back of a man. A tall man with tousled hair dressed in a suit and trainers, wearing the biggest grin she had ever seen on his face.
"Doctor!"
"Hello, Rose! Long time no see! How've you been? I hope you know Teddy was not happy to be left on the side of the road like that. And hello there big fella!" The Doctor turned to Dalek Bas, who was waiting by the control panel, flanked by his command heads.
"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR?"
"That's me, I'm afraid." The Doctor clasped his hands behind his back and transformed his face into a disappointed expression, as if he were chastening Tony for wiping his hands on his sleeves or leaving his Legos strewn across the living room.
"And I'm afraid you're gonna have to stop this right now. You don't belong here. Something else does."
"WE DO NOT TAKE ORDERS FROM HUMANS. WHAT DO YOU KNOW OF OUR PLANS?"
"Well, I know that where you really belong is across the galaxy in the Time War. I know that you used a matter-displacement teleport and ripped the star from this solar system to bring yourselves here. And I know that you're using the second star to harvest energy. Now allow me to tell you what you don't know. You don't know that by displacing one star in a binary solar system, you leave that system at an imbalance. Like one kid jumping off a teeter-totter, it doesn't really go well for the other bloke who's left hanging. And this "harvest" that you're doing, well, not really making things better now, is it? So what you don't know is that this whole system is in a state of collapse, and if you don't teleport back and return the second star to it's place, you and the star and every planet and ship here will collapse into a massive black hole in…. oh, I'd say about an hour?"
The Doctor turned from Dalek Bas to survey the monitor as the Daleks eyed him. Then Dalek Bas spoke.
"WE DO NOT BELIEVE YOU. NOTHING CAN STOP THE MIGHTY DALEK RACE. WE WILL EXTERMINATE YOUR PLANET TO PREVENT ANY FURTHER ATTACKS. YOU WILL BE THE FIRST TO DIE. EXTERMINATE!"
The Doctor threw up his finger.
"Wait wait wait! What have we here? Have you got some company?" He peered at the screen, which showed the small fleet of ships suspended above what looked like a gaseous planet. Though Rose could still not see properly through the force field, she thought it looked like the ships were… sparkling? The Doctor turned back to Dalek Bas, and Rose saw his hands begin to fiddle with a large silver bracelet clasped around his wrist.
"Who is that? Why are you attacking them? Who else could be here?"
Dalek Bas remained silent, but another Dalek behind him spoke up.
"THE ENEMY OF THE DALEK IS NO MATCH FOR OUR NEW FLEET. THEY WILL PERISH AND THE SOURCE HARVEST WILL BE COMPLETE."
"ENOUGH TALK" Dalek Bas interrupted. "AN ENEMY OF THE DALEK IS HERE. COMMAND HEADS, EXTERMINATE THESE AND PREPARE TO DESCEND."
With those words, the Dalek who had been holding the Doctor hostage raised his laser to take aim at the Doctor's shoulders.
"Doctor look out!" Rose's heart began to race. This was what she had dreaded. That the Doctor would get himself into one of these situations with no way out and she would be left alone, again. But the Doctor dropped to his knees and the laser beam shot over his head. He hopped up again and dashed toward Rose's cell. Unable to follow his zigzag running, the Dalek's lasers missed again. One of them hit a control panel and the force field blocking Rose's vision shimmered then disappeared.
"Ha!" The Doctor's exclamation was what drove Rose to her feet, and she sprinted from the cell towards her husband.
"Where's Tony?" the Doctor shouted they both ran for the exit, dodging laser blasts.
"What?!"
"Where's Tony!"
"Doctor, are you ok? Did you hit your head? Look, we've got to get out of here!"
Rose suddenly felt a burning against her chest. She gasped and put her hands over her heart. The Doctor stopped running and pulled them both into a small alcove in one of the corridors.
"Rose?! What is it what's wrong did they hit you?"
"No," she gasped, out of air from running. She grabbed the chain that hung around her neck and wrenched it over her head. The TARDIS key dangling from it burned bright and hot.
"Doctor, I think there must be some alien technology or something on board that's making the TARDIS key react like this. I felt it earlier too, in my cell. It must have been getting hotter and I just didn't notice it."
The Doctor stared at the TARDIS key for a moment. Rose knew that he knew she'd kept it all these years, but she also knew he didn't like seeing it. It was too painful for him, she supposed. Sometimes it was painful for her too, but usually it was the comfort she needed to get through a tough situation. She felt bad for bringing it out now, of all times, to remind him that he no longer was what he used to be. She went to tuck it away in her pocket, safely away from her skin, but he grabbed it from her.
"No, it's not possible…" His whisper was just barely audible. Then he looked up at Rose with an expression she could not interpret.
"Look, Rose, we need to get out of here. I don't have an answer to this yet, but I think I can find one. But first we need to get Tony. Did you hear where they're keeping him?"
"Doctor, what are you on about? Tony's not here… well not as far as I know. Has he gone missing too?!" Rose's heart twisted as she thought of her sweet baby brother being threatened and held captive by these horrible creatures.
"But they said… the Daleks said they had a child."
Realisation dawned on Rose, but before she could speak, they heard a robotic voice echo down the corridor.
"FIND THE PRISONERS AND EXTERMINATE THEM IMMEDIATELY!"
"Doctor, we've gotta get out of here, NOW! Forget about Tony, he's not here, now I saw you playing with that thing in the control room, what is it? What does it do?" She indicated the bracelet blinking on his wrist.
"Oh, this? It's a long-range teleport device. I've reset the coordinates to those ships the Daleks are fighting, thought we'd go have a chat with whoever's out there. But it's really only supposed to carry one person, so you'll have to hold on to me very tightly or you could go flying off into space. But I have a feeling about those ships…"
"PRISONERS LOCATED! EXTERMINATE!"
The Doctor and Rose leapt from their hiding space just as it was bombarded by laser bursts. They ran hand-in-hand down corridor after corridor, narrowly avoiding Daleks at every turn.
"Teleport us, Doctor! NOW!" Rose fought to keep up with his long legs as they sprinted through the ship.
The Doctor reached over to the wrist that was holding Rose's hand and pressed a button on his bracelet. At that moment, Rose tripped over a grate in the floor, lost her footing, and fell to the ground.
"NO!..." Rose heard the Doctor's shout fade away as he became transparent, then disappeared entirely.