IV
The Daleks. Most evil race that the galaxy had ever seen fit to spawn. All human knew of them, the enemy of all sane races, murderers, pillagers, destroyers, the perverters of nature, the butchers of Tranquil Repose, the slaughterers of Centus Four, a race nightmare from the past that had been a tale for children since the twenty first century, the invasion of Earth in the twenty second century making them real, the Dalek wars cementing them as monsters to remember, a generation marked by the word 'Exterminate', a word reviled and hated, never used on Earth again.
And now, Captain James Kirk was up against them.
"Bugger," he said, as soon as the word escaped the Doctors lips.
"One way of putting it," McCoy murmured. "They're coming closer."
"He," the Doctor corrected. "Only one person would dare come this close. One man would dare try his luck."
"Who?" Carrie asked.
"The Daleks are genetically engineered," the Doctor said, "murderers and destroyers. They reside in bonded polycarbide Dalekanium shells, and are totally utterly ruthless. But they were engineered. By one man."
"Who?" McCoy asked. "There have never been any humanoids associated with the Daleks, have there?"
Kirk was about to correct him, but the Doctor got there first. "The creator of the Daleks was one man," he said. McCoy suddenly understood, andmade a violent gesture with his hand.
"The Great Healer," he snarled.
"War criminal," Kirk muttered. "I should have known from the start."
"We all should have," the Doctor sighed.
"They're hailing," a crewman interrupted.
"Put him on," the Doctor said, the odd emphasis throwing Carrie off. She watched the screen come alive, then her eyes widened at the image.
It was a man, or at least it had been. His face was wizened and wrinkled, with great age, and his eyes were gone – in their place was a blue eye in the centre of his forehead. His hand was replaced with a metal claw, and the other was merely gone, and he seemed to be dressed in a metal and leather straightjacket with giant buckles. He was in a black robotic wheelchair with silver balls dotting it. Surrounding this man were dozens of creatures with the same base, added with a tank-like top half with three appendages – one that was at Eye level, one that looked like a sucker and one that appeared to be a gun. Carrie noted that they were all white armored, with golden balls, and briefly suppressed a smile at the thought of David Beckham, but no one else on the bridge was laughing.
They were all thinking of Davros, the creator of the Daleks. The monster that had given birth to a whole race of them, and then returned. He was the one who had butchered the dead of Tranquil Repose. He was the one who had caused countless millions of deaths. Not one human on the bridge save Carrie could repress a shudder – for Daniel had read the UNIT file on Davros as well. He knew as much as the crew what evil the man was.
And then the Doctor spoke, shattering their reverie.
"Hello Davros," he said, politely. "Nice to see you back in humanoid form."
"Doctor," the man replied, his voice soft, with an electronic tinge. "It is hardly surprising to see you have come here. It is destiny."
"No, just luck," the Doctor said. "I always end up somewhere where I can defeat you. Fortunate."
"You will not defeat me this time," Davros smiled. "Although, I have learned not to underestimate you."
"Our last encounter will have taught you that," the Doctor sighed. "Misusing technology that you can't handle…"
"This time, it is technology I can handle," Davros said. "The Nightmare Child is the perfect weapon."
"May I beg to differ?" the Doctor asked. "One chance – leave now and say you failed."
"If I do that, I will be exterminated," Davros said. "there is nothing, Doctor, that you can say, to convince me to leave this place now."
"Davros," the Doctor sighed, "I know you. You are vain, mad, obsessed with your own knowledge, but you are not stupid. You must know that the Nightmare Child is too much for you to handle, even with the Daleks on your side."
"The 'Nightmare Child'," Davros said, scornfully. "Typical Time Lord idiocy, giving something they cannot understand a name with which to frighten children, a boogie man tale for them to wet their beds to. I am not intimidated."
"It's more than just a name," the Doctor said, glaring at the withered scientist. "It's a fact – that anomaly is more than just an anomaly."
"Then what is it, Doctor?" Davros asked, mockingly. "Alive?"
The Doctor said nothing, and Davros cackled.
"You cannot scare me away with children's tales, Doctor," Davros smiled. "I am Davros, creator of the Dalek race. Nothing can stop me now, with my creations by my side."
Kirk, now snapped beyond breaking point, stepped forward.
"If you want the anomaly, butcher," he said, voice raised in anger, "then you'll have to come through Captain James Kirk of the EES Enterprise!"
"Who are you to stand against the Daleks?" Davros asked.
"A man," Kirk said. "A human. A soldier."
Davros stared at him for a moment, then, unsettlingly enough, he laughed. It was the laughter of a maniac, a lunatic, a monster – and Carrie almost did wet her pants at the sheer horror of it. Davros laughed so hard that he looked in danger of running out of breath.
"You amuse me, human," he said, after he had calmed down. "You and all your kind do. You think that you can stop the full might of the hurricane with a little parasol of a spaceship? Fool." And then Davros was totally serious. "I will teach you the folly of your actions, and your words."
Davros looked at the Doctor again.
"We shall soon meet in person, Time Lord," he said, and then his voice took on an odd note. "And I look forward to it – a meeting of minds. I look forward to sitting down and discussing the anomaly – not as foes in war, but merely as men of science."
Then he smiled, which unsettled the Doctor more than anyone else, and the screen went blank.
"McCoy," Kirk said, "instruct all gunnery teams to go to battle positions. Arm all crewmen, even if they've only got handguns. Raise defense fields. Activate proton cannons."
The Doctor let the military talk sink away. Carrie came up behind him, and sat with him.
"Doctor?" she asked.
"The Nightmare Child," he murmured. "It's waking."
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