As yet un-beta'd.
Chapter 3 - The End of the Daleks?
The Doctor couldn't help it. He was bouncing nervously on his toes, counting down - or up - the floors as the lift climbed. Eighteen minutes until the gamma strike from when they had started working on the genetic splicing; thirty-eight seconds of being held prisoner (again); lift ascending at 700 feet per minute...
He glanced over to see Rose easing Laszlo's burden by slinging a Dalek Tommy gun over her own shoulder. "Think these'd work on a Dalek?" she asked.
He swallowed hard, trying to banish the images of himself in the Time War, in Van Statten's alien museum; wondering what he was doing to Rose... "In their weakened state, with the chinks in their armor? Might do," he answered, anyway.
She looked up at him. "I'm really, really sorry," she said, moving to take the Doctor's hand. "I know how much you wanted this to work," she told him, soothing his fears with a glance.
"It's moot, now," he told her, needing to focus on the solution rather than the massive, glaring problem of Dalek tenacity. "The Daleks are going full Gelth, and I am not going to let that happen," he promised her.
"What can we do?" Rose asked. "What's at the top? Couldn't we sneak back down to the lab?"
"Just the opposite," he told her. "Even with the chromatin solution, a pure gamma strike would still destroy all the would-be Daleks. The energy converter itself has to contain elements of the Daleks, specifically the Dalekanium panels that were missing from their battle armor," he explained. "If we can remove it, the solar flare, itself, will destroy the waiting hosts." Genocide? Mercy? No other choice...
"An' it's at the top of the building?" she asked.
"Best bet," the Doctor answered. "The Daleks have been working in hiding. This should be a last-minute modification to the tower, which means the new construction on the mast."
The bell finally dinged, and the lift doors opened. The Doctor sucked in a breath, clearing his mind. "Hundred-first floor, perfumery," he announced lightly, sonic'ing the lift's controls. "Should buy us some time," he said, before racing out onto the top floor.
He took in the scene before him: papers, piping, the opposite side of the room open to the scaffolding outside. He quickly found what appeared to be blueprints. He gathered the pages, then started scanning them. "Ah-ha!" he exclaimed. "There it is, right on the base of the spire," he explained, laying down the page and jabbing a finger at the illustration. "Last-minute change to add the Dalekanium to the top of the tower." Another mental calculation... "Six minutes to go. We've got to remove the Dalekanium before the gamma radiation hits."
He moved quickly out to the edge of the floor, overlooking the city. "Oh, that's high. That's very - blimey, that's high." He really liked to tell himself that heights didn't affect him, but in the dark, with the bitter wind...
"And we've got to go even higher?" asked Rose. "Nice."
Just then, Laszlo collapsed against a pillar.
Rose was at his side in an instant. "Laszlo? What is it?"
He tried to stand, but slumped back to the floor. "No, it's nothing," he said, waving her off. "I'm fine. Just leave me."
Rose put her hand to his forehead. "He's burnin' up," she said, turning to the Doctor.
The seconds were slipping away from him. "Stay with him," the Doctor told her, moving to climb the scaffolding. "I can handle this."
At Rose's nod, he ascended the scaffolding.
The wind seemed to be picking up, and a nearly freezing rain was beginning to fall.
After almost losing his footing twice, he climbed up onto the top platform. He moved to the spire, holding on for dear life with one arm. With the other, he pulled out the sonic screwdriver and began un-fastening the rivets holding the Dalekanium panels in place.
Rose helped Laszlo sit more comfortably, leaning back against a pillar. The wind of the approaching storm was cutting into the room from its open end. Rose walked over to the scaffolding, but the Doctor was already out of sight, above.
Laszlo leaned his head back, eyes closed, breath labored.
"Tallulah's safe," Rose volunteered, moving back over to him. He opened his eyes. "The Daleks were shootin' up Hooverville, but she wasn't hurt."
"'S good," Laszlo breathed, with a weak smile. "That's good."
Rose looked away, unable to offer any further comfort. She continued her pacing, exploring the rest of the floor. The Daleks hadn't overridden the Doctor's sonic'ing, yet; the lift doors still stood open. Further back, the walls were lined with huge, observation windows, allowing an incredible view of the city, below. She turned the corner - "You've gotta be kiddin' me."
Rose raced back to Laszlo.
"There's a service lift!" she told him. "I called it up, but that won't last long. You're on guard, if you're able," she told him. "I've gotta get to the Doctor; see if we can sonic that one, too. See if he needs help..."
"Just... gimme a hand," Laszlo said, trying to unsling the weapons. "I can do it."
Rose helped him to adjust, criss-crossing the slings so that he had one weapon in each hand. "I'll be back as soon as I can," Rose told him, shifting her own gun to her back, and moving out to climb the scaffolding to the Doctor.
One panel down, the Doctor shifted around to work on the next. But only halfway through, the sonic slipped from his chilled fingers, falling right over the edge of the platform. He nearly dove after it, but looking down, saw that it was gone.
Rose glanced up, hearing a distinctive metallic clang from the scaffolding above her.
She knew that sound. On board the TARDIS, it would usually be followed by some sort of shout or a string of untranslated curses. Sure enough, looking up into the scaffolding, Rose spotted the sonic screwdriver lying several feet above her head. The Doctor must have dropped it.
The Doctor tried to pull the second panel free with his bare hands, knowing it was useless, but desperate enough to try anything.
"Lose somethin'?" a voice called, barely audible above the howling wind.
He turned and saw a blonde head just poking up over the edge of the platform.
"Rose!" he shouted, moving cautiously over the now slick platform to help her up over the edge.
He tried to take the sonic from her when she held it out, but his hand was too numb to close around it.
"You're almost frozen!" she said, then moved to the base of the spire. "Here, what settin'?" she asked him.
They got to work, Rose sonic'ing the rivets, and the Doctor helping to pry the panels free. At last, the final panel was removed.
Time was up.
"Now, go, Rose!" the Doctor told her. "The gamma strike is going to hit any sec-"
Lightning struck the mast, sending them both flying to the platform's edge.
"Rose?!" the Doctor called, blinking to clear his vision. He spotting her, unconscious, lying to his left.
To his relief, she awoke at just a slight touch. "What happened?" she asked as he helped her to sit.
"We did it!" he told her, glancing back at the mast to reassure himself that the Dalekanium had, indeed, been removed. "Thanks to you," he added, pulling her into a hug.
"I think you just said somethin'," she said, into his shoulder.
The Doctor held her at arms' length, studying her carefully as she shook her head, and wiggled a finger in her ear. "Can you hear me, now?" he asked.
She smiled. "Yeah, that's better."
He released her, and reached for the sonic, but she withheld it.
"Forget it," she told him, before he could ask. "You dropped it, you can wait 'til we're back at the TARDIS to get your spare."
"What?"
"I know you've got at least one extra," she said, moving back over to the ladder. "I've seen the drawer."
The Doctor was dumbfounded.
"This would ha' been a whole lot less last-minute if I'd had my own, dontcha think?" she added, before climbing over the edge of the platform and disappearing down the scaffolding.
The Doctor followed in disbelief.
The climb down the scaffolding was even more difficult than the ascent, Rose found. The freezing rain and the howling wind - not to mention their close call with the lightning - were not exactly helpful.
At long last, she and the Doctor were safely back on the top floor. Rose swatted the Doctor's hand away with a smile as he tried ineffectually to pull the sonic screwdriver from her jeans pocket.
The smile disappeared from her face, however, when she saw that Laszlo had gone. "Laszlo?" she called.
"Here," Laszlo weakly replied. He had maneuvered himself to a corner where he could better see both the main lift and the corridor from the service lift. Rose moved to make her way over to him. "Stay back, both of you," Laszlo gasped. "If they send pig slaves, they're trained to kill."
The Doctor put his hand on Rose's shoulder. "The lift," he said.
To her horror, Rose saw that the doors had somehow closed. She glanced to the counter, noticing it was climbing up, nearly to floor ninety.
"Laszlo -" the Doctor tried, but Laszlo cut him off.
"You said it yourself, Doctor. You can't undo what the Daleks have done. They're savages," he went on. "I should know. They're trained to slit your throat with their bare teeth."
Despite the chill wind from the storm outside, Rose could see Laszlo sweating, straining to stay upright.
The lift bell dinged, but the lift was still climbing. "Get back," Laszlo told them once more, leveling his Dalek-made weapons towards the corridor. "They're coming from the service elevator."
Before Rose could argue - or help - the Doctor pulled her around behind a pillar.
It seemed Laszlo had been right about the Daleks sending pig-men. Their squeals quickly turned to screams as the distinctive sound of Dalek energy beams rang out.
Almost as soon as the battle had begun, it was over. "Laszlo?" Rose called into the silence.
It wasn't Laszlo that spoke, but a cold, synthesized voice. "The Doc-tor and the A-bom-i-na-tion will stand be-fore the DA-LEKS!"
She couldn't help a bit of cheek as she summoned her courage and peeked at the lift. "Not much of a ring to it," she said. "Prob'ly shoulda kept that particular title to myself."
The main lift had arrived. Two Daleks appeared, gliding out of the lift, driving Dalek Sec before them, chained and crawling on all fours.
To be continued...