As yet un-beta'd.
Chapter 2 - What Makes a Dalek?
Solomon turned to Martha as soon as the Daleks and their two prisoners had disappeared from sight. "So what do we do first, Doctor Jones?"
"Doctor?" asked Tallulah. "You're a physician?"
Martha nodded.
"Really?" Tallulah asked.
"I was trainin'," Martha explained. "Still am, if I ever get back home." She turned a circle to survey the damage to the settlement. "Risk of loss of life, limb or eyesight, or undue suffering," she murmured to herself, trying to call up triage procedures.
"What was that?" asked Solomon.
She shook her head. "Nothin'. We'll start by gettin' the walkin' wounded situated here, around the fire. Then spread out an' search for anyone else that needs help."
Solomon immediately gave instructions to those standing nearby.
"I could use some shelter, so I'm not treatin' people in the open," she said when he gave her his attention again. "An' clean bandages. We can just boil strips of cloth if we have to -"
"I can help with that," Tallulah volunteered.
"And we can set you up here," said Solomon, indicating a tent near the fire that had not been targeted by the Daleks.
Martha saw that already space was being made to allow the wounded to sit near the fire; the first victims approaching cradling bleeding arms, or hobbling on injured legs.
"Let's get to work," Martha said, crouching next to the nearest injured man to examine his wound.
Rose walked closely beside the Doctor as they were led through the sewers, one Dalek ahead, one behind, and pig-men on either side; the only illumination coming from the blue light of the Daleks' eyestalks, or the occasional streetlight, above.
"You think it's 'cause of Sec?" she asked in a quiet voice. She had been just as surprised as the Doctor by the Dalek's sudden change of heart.
"It's what the Cult of Skaro was originally meant to do," the Doctor answered, his voice equally hushed. "Find new ways of thinking. Maybe Dalek Sec is getting more out of humanity than just ambition and war..."
"But ya don't think he's, I dunno, turned good?" Rose asked, the question sounding strange to her own ears.
The Doctor scoffed. "We may have been spared for the time being," he said, "but they certainly weren't showing any concern for Hooverville; not before Solomon spoke up. And these," he nodded at the Dalek ahead of them, "they still seem very much the same."
As if on cue, the rear Dalek ordered, "The pris-on-ers will be SI-LENT!"
Rose felt the Doctor tighten his grip on her hand as they neared the door to the underground laboratory.
They were led before Dalek Sec.
The Doctor's few moments of enforced silence seemed to have compounded his anger, as he burst out, "Those people were defenseless! But you just had to start killing 'cause that's the only thing a Dalek's good for."
"The deaths were wrong," Sec answered him, calmly.
"Come again?" said Rose.
"I'm sorry?" asked the Doctor, simultaneously.
"They stood together," Sec replied. "They showed courage."
"And that's good?" the Doctor clarified, obviously taken aback.
"That's excellent," declared Sec.
"Is it me," asked the Doctor, "or are you just becoming a little bit more human?"
"You are the last of your kind," he told the Doctor, "and now I am the first of mine."
Rose watched and listened as Sec explained his plan.
What it seemed to boil down to, was that a giant solar flare was going to hit the Empire State Building. The entire building was going to act as an energy converter, conductor, lightning rod thing, zapping the thousands of mostly-dead humans with gamma rays, Frankenstein-ing them into mini Dalek Secs. She still didn't know why he wanted the Doctor alive...
Neither did the Doctor, it seemed. "I still don't know what you need us for," he said.
To her surprise, Sec turned to Rose. "You destroyed the Emperor?" She nodded. "You can help make these new Daleks impervious."
"Su-ure," she told him, glancing at the Doctor, uncertainly.
"And you, Doctor," Sec continued, "we need your genius. Your knowledge of genetic engineering is even greater than ours. The new race must be ready by the time the solar flare erupts."
"But you're the template," the Doctor told him. "I thought they were getting a dose of you."
"I want to change the gene sequence," Sec answered.
"To make them even more human? You wouldn't be the supreme beings anymore," said the Doctor.
"And that is good," Sec answered.
"That is in-cor-rect!" one of the Daleks interjected, causing Rose to jump slightly. She and the Doctor stepped back as another Dalek rolled forward.
"Da-leks are SU-PREME!" it declared.
Sec turned towards the other Daleks. "No, not anymore," he told them.
"But that is our pur-pose!" argued the second Dalek.
"Then our purpose is wrong!" Sec told them, forcefully. "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."
Rose gasped, remembering so clearly a Dalek begging her for orders to die, rather than lose its Dalek-ness.
The Daleks quieted. The Doctor stepped nearer to Sec. "So, you want to change everything that makes a Dalek a Dalek," he clarified quietly. Sec nodded.
Rose looked at the other Daleks, barely restrained by Sec's impassioned speech. "There's no way this lot are gonna let you do it," she said.
"I am their leader," Sec told her, confidently.
The Doctor asked the other Daleks, "And that's enough for you, is it?"
"Da-leks must fol-low or-ders," confirmed one.
"Da-lek Sec com-mands, we ob-ey," another answered.
"If you don't help me," Sec pleaded with them, "nothing will change."
Only a moment passed, but Rose could see the Doctor weighing the possibilities and every one of his options.
"When's that solar flare?" the Doctor asked, at last.
"Eighteen minutes," Sec informed him.
The Doctor clapped his hands. "Right, then. Better get to work."
The Doctor began by setting Rose to work on something obviously unnecessary, but she was grateful. If the Daleks thought they needed her alive, she had no complaints. She gazed around the chamber at the innumerable bodies, awaiting their Dalek download. She was glad, so glad, that Sec wanted to change things, but still... When the Doctor came back to her side, she asked him, "I gotta know, how is this not the Gelth, all over?"
His eyes snapped to hers.
"Please, tell me?" she asked, honestly hoping he could explain. Because the more she thought about Sec's proposition, the worse she felt. "Just 'cause all these people are empty, 'blank', whatever that means; why does that mean we can let 'em become Daleks?"
"What would you rather I do?" he asked quietly, eyes focused on the chemicals he was carefully measuring. "Kill them?"
"Let 'em go," Rose corrected. "The Daleks are keepin' 'em alive, only barely enough to Frankenstein 'em. So jus' stop it."
The Doctor exhaled, heavily. "The Daleks aren't taking over these people's bodies," he reasoned. "They're literally blank slates, now. If Dalek Sec can impart his intelligence without the Dalek genetic imperative to hate, kill, follow orders; their humanity will be able to re-emerge." He turned to look at Rose, eyes pleading for her to understand, for her blessing. "They'll be free to start again. On a new world."
"With the Daleks," Rose clarified.
"That's the plan," the Doctor confirmed.
"An' they won't jus' hate themselves?" Rose asked. "Stink of humanity an' all that?"
"Sec is using himself as a template. That'll give them the willingness, the imagination to accept that part of themselves, like he has."
Rose chewed on her lip, thinking. "Alright," she allowed, "maybe Sec's changin', now he's already part-human; but what about the others? Are they gonna... meld, too? 'Cause right now, I really don't think they're buyin' what he's sellin'."
"I'm not exterminated," he offered as evidence to the contrary, before moving off to confer again with Dalek Sec.
When the pig slaves were ordered to bring in a component for the experiment, Rose was relieved to spot Laszlo among them. The Doctor had noticed him, too, she saw.
"What's gonna happen to the pig slaves after all this?" She asked.
"Nothing," Sec answered. "They're just simple beasts," he said, dismissively. Rose saw Laszlo duck his head at that comment, obviously within earshot. "Their lifespan is limited. None survive beyond a few weeks."
Rose looked to the Doctor.
"I can't undo what they've done to him," he told her, quietly. "But they won't do it to anyone else," he added, and she saw Laszlo give the Doctor an understanding nod.
After only a few more moments' work, buttons were pushed, levers were thrown, and the Doctor and Sec watched triumphantly as the line feeds were activated, sending the Doctor's not-so-Dalek concoction off to the waiting humans.
Suddenly, a klaxon began sounding, accompanied by red warning lights.
"What's goin' on?" Rose asked, shouting over the noise.
The Doctor moved to check the equipment as Sec turned to the other Daleks. "Is there a malfunction?" Sec asked.
The armored Daleks were suspiciously silent.
"Answer me!" Sec commanded.
"No, no, no! The gene feed!" the Doctor announced. "They're overriding the gene feed!"
"Impossible," Sec told him. "They cannot disobey orders."
The Doctor moved towards the controls to rectify the situation, but a Dalek intercepted him, holding him at gunstick-point. He quickly raised his hands and backed away.
"The Doc-tor will step a-way from the con-trols!" it ordered.
"So much for that theory," Rose muttered, as another Dalek raised its weapon to her.
"Stop!" Sec commanded. "You will not fire."
"They are en-e-mies of the Da-leks!" announced the Dalek by Rose.
"And so are you!" the third Dalek informed him, aiming his weapon at Sec.
"I am your commander. I am Dalek Sec," he replied.
"You have lost your au-thor-i-ty!" the Dalek told him.
"You are no long-er a Da-lek!" said the Dalek nearest the Doctor.
"The new bo-dies will be one hun-dred per-cent Da-lek!" declared the third Dalek. "Pig slaves, re-strain Da-lek Sec and the oth-ers!"
Two pig-men moved to Dalek Sec, and one to the Doctor.
It was Laszlo who took Rose's arm. Several of the Dalek-style guns were slung at his back.
The Daleks turned away from their captives to make the final preparations for the experiment. As soon as their backs were turned, Laszlo released Rose and brought up one of the guns to shoot the pig slave holding the Doctor. At that moment, the lift bell dinged.
"There's the elevator," said Laszlo.
"After you," said the Doctor, snatching Rose's hand as they dodged the remaining guards.
"The pris-on-ers are es-cap-ing!" came the cries of the Daleks behind them. "Stop them! Stop them!"
But they were safe inside the lift before any of the pig-men could reach the doors.
"Going up," said the Doctor. "We've only got minutes before the gamma radiation reaches the earth," he said, turning from the lift doors. "We need to get to the top of the building."
Laszlo was leaning heavily against the side of the lift, panting.
Rose moved to support him. "Laszlo, what's wrong?" she asked.
"Out of breath," Laszlo told her. "It's nothing. We've escaped them. That's all that matters."
"Thanks for that, by the way," she told him.
Laszlo gave her a weak smile.
Rose turned to the Doctor, but the look on his face was not encouraging.
To be continued...
As per the episode, I've gone along with the illusion that there is an elevator in the Empire State building that goes all the way from the basement to the top floor. In reality, the longest shafts only connect the lobby and floor 80. (They would have had to take another from 80 to 86, then yet another up through the mast to to top.) I'm also ignoring the fact that the elevators were manually operated back in the 30's, since I didn't see an elevator operator in the car when the Doctor and Laszlo escaped...