Travellers' Tales
Author: Soledad
For disclaimer, rating, etc. see the Introduction.
Author's notes: This is practically a retelling of the episodes "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday", from Toshiko's POV, assuming that she experienced some of the events from the sidelines. Slightly AU, so certain events will be a tad different. Some lines of dialogue are borrowed from the actual episodes, though.
Chapter Three – Desolation
"What the hell are those things?" Trevor stared at the screen showing the sphere room with unabashed horror.
"They're called the Daleks," Tosh replied shooing him away from the security server so that she could take over security controls; if she could hack into the system, that is. "The Time Lords – that is, the people of the Doctor – and the Daleks have been enemies for… well, just about forever. Until the Time War brought everything to an end," she glanced back at him over her shoulder. "You work for Torchwood and never heard about the Daleks?"
"Hey, I'm just a loan from Cybernetics," Trevor said defensively. "I never studied actual aliens. What's the Time War?"
"Something that ought to have gotten rid of the Daleks, yet obviously failed to do so," Tosh replied, not willing to go into any details right now. She needed to focus on the task at her hands. The security system of Torchwood Tower was extremely redundant.
It seemed that Samuel – or rather Mickey Smith, whoever he might have been – was almost as clueless as Trevor. He was still trying to pretend in the face of the Daleks, to whom Rose was talking in a goading manner. The evil pepper shakers of Hell were, in the meantime, preoccupied with more important things.
"Report," one of them screeched. "What is the status of the Genesis Ark?"
"Status – hibernation," the other one answered.
"Commence awakening," the first one said.
"The Genesis Ark must be protected above all else," the fourth one added, turning to the conical device that was emerging from the sphere and clamping its suction arm to the side of it.
"I thought you said the garbage bins were all dead," Mickey commented, still pointing his gun at the Daleks.
"Never mind that," Rose was barely listening to him. "What the hell's a Genesis Ark?"
"That's a good question," Trevor muttered; then he glanced at Tosh. "I don't suppose you've heard about it, have you?"
Tosh shook her head. "No; but somehow I've got the feeling that it's nothing good. The name alone makes my skin crawl. What's going on in the rift chamber?"
"Yvonne exchanging witty remarks with the robots," Trevor replied.
"Cybermen," Tosh corrected. "They still have some organic components; usually the brain. Robots don't."
Trevor shrugged. "Whatever. Tell me about those Daleks. What the hell are they that they could stand up to the Doctor and his people?"
"Cyborgs, from a planet named Skaro," Tosh replied, still wrestling with the security system. "Once they were a highly advanced race called the Kaleds that fought a thousand-year-war – with nuclear, biological and chemical weapons – against another race called the Thals. Those weapons led to widespread mutations among the Kaleds, making them essentially incapable of surviving without artificial help. In the last days of the war, a crippled Kaled chief scientist experimented on living cells to find the ultimate mutated form of the species, and placed the subjects in those machines that look like enormous pepper shakers. It's assumed that the design was based on his own life-support chair."
"And you know all this – how exactly?" Trevor asked, impressed yet suspicious at the same time.
"We at Torchwood Three do a great deal more research on alien species than Headquarters," Tosh replied, not looking back at him. She wasn't about to reveal him her – or Jack's – close connection to the Doctor. "Daleks are arch enemies of the Doctor; we collected as much data on them as we could."
"If you know so much," Trevor said, "then you ought to know what would kill these things."
"That's a good question," Tosh gritted her teeth; the security system seemed to have a mind of its own. Whenever she thought she'd outwitted it, it suddenly adapted. No human-made program could do that; not even the alien ones she had got to see so far. This must have been something completely new Headquarters had either come across or had custom-made, based on extremely advanced alien technology.
Of course, the system hadn't faced Toshiko Sato before. She got around the safeguards and plunged into the depths of the intelligent programme, dealing the artificial intelligence a crippling blow and took control.
"All right," she said. "I'm in. I'll transfer control to my laptop, so that I can open all the doors in our way."
"Why don't you open the lab doors by remote now?" Trevor asked in bewilderment. "The people in there may be in danger."
"Because right now, that security door is the only thing that keeps the Daleks inside," Tosh answered grimly. "It won't hold tem for long; but if we manage to buy some time, the Doctor might be able to think of something. They're his enemies, after all, not ours."
She tried to silence the tiny voice of doubt nagging on her, telling her that she couldn't be sure of anything where this new Doctor was concerned, since he clearly wasn't himself.
"Is there nothing we could do?" Trevor asked. Tosh shook her head.
"Even if Headquarters allowed visitors to carry weapons, my gun would be completely useless against the Daleks. Their casings are made of bonded polycarbide and they have a forcefield that evaporates most bullets and resists most types of energy weapon, except perhaps their own."
"They have weapons?" Trevor leaned closer to the security screen to see the aliens in question better. "Where? They look like pepper pots with a sink plunger on one side and a whisk on the other one."
"That whisk holds an energy weapon, capable of firing a beam with electrical tendencies and if propagating through water; perhaps a form of plasma," Tosh corrected grimly. "And they can interface with all sorts of technology with their plungers. Their only vulnerable spot is that eyestalk, but that's not easy to hit."
"But if they're so invincible, what could the Doctor possibly do against them?" Trevor asked. Tosh shrugged.
"I don't know. But I do know that the Doctor is one of the very few beings that Daleks fear," she closed her laptop and hung it over her shoulder. "Let's go."
"Go where?" Trevor asked, baffled.
"Back to the lab," Tosh replied. "We need to buy time for the Doctor – and the two idiots with Rajesh won't be able to do so."
She started to climb the metal stars that led up to the lab, with a very reluctant Trevor in trail.
Her estimate about the complete uselessness of Rose and her little self-proclaimed superhero proved tragically right, as soon as the Daleks began to investigate their captives.
"Which of you is least important?" one of them asked.
Rose stared at it as if she'd been spoken to in Mandarin Chinese. Or in Czech. Or in any other language aside from cockney English, without the TARDIS to translate for her.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.
Tosh, reaching the lab level at the same moment, rolled her eyes. Really, how stupid had one to be for not understanding such a simple question? Or was the girl tying to buy time before the pepper pots would realize just how expendable she really was?
"Which of you is least important?" the Dalek repeated the questions.
Rose assumed a very unconvincingly defiant posture. "No, we don't work like that," she protested angrily. "None of us."
Which, of course, was not an answer a Dalek would even have understood. For them, only two sorts of non-Daleks existed: the sort that would be exterminated on the spot, and the sort that might be useful for a short while and then exterminated, when their usefulness had run out.
"Designate the least important!" the same Dalek demanded.
The stupid blonde girl opened her big mouth to argue with the tin monster some more (and hopefully get killed in the process), but Rajesh stalled her with a raised hand.
"This is my responsibility," he stated simply and stepped forth.
Oh, Raji! Tosh whispered, her heart overcome with love, pride… and sorrow at the same time, as she knew all too well how this would end for him. Jack had told her enough to be able to predict the outcome. Please, don't do this! These… things won't spare you. It's not their nature!
Rose, in apparent agreement with Tosh's thoughts, grabbed Rajesh's arm, trying to hold him back. "No, don't!"
Rajesh simply ignored her, because honestly, what else could he have done? Whatever happened in the sphere lab was his responsibility, and even though he was actually the most important person present, he could not, with good conscience, sacrifice these two idiots. So he stepped before the Dalek, dejectedly but with a dignity that would have put any other human – or even a certain wayward Time Lord – to shame.
"I represent the Torchwood Institute," he declared calmly. "Anything you need, you come through me. Leave these two alone."
"You will kneel," the Dalek replied, seemingly without any context.
Rajesh raised a sarcastic eyebrow. "What for? Are you after worship now?"
"Kneel!" the Dalek screeched.
Rajesh shrugged and slowly lowered himself onto his knees. The surrounding Daleks directed their eye stalks onto him. Tosh looked around frantically for something she might have used as a weapon, but the only thing she could see within reach was a laser torch.
"Well, Toshiko," she muttered to herself, "you've got weapons training. Let's see how good your aim is."
The Dalek that seemed to be the chief honcho among the tin cans went on with its self-appointed task.
"The Daleks need information about current Earth history," it announced.
"Yeah, well, I can give you a certain amount of intelligence," Rajesh shrugged, "but nothing that will compromise Home Land security…"
"Speech is not necessary," the thing declared. "We will extract brainwaves."
The three Daleks advanced upon Rajesh and positioned their suction arms around his head. For the first time since the opening of the Void Ship, Tosh could see Rajesh showing signs of fear.
"Violence won't be necessary," he told them with considerable self-discipline, despite the trembling of his voice. "I'll tell you everything you need. No! Don't, please..."
Now or never, Tosh thought with grim determination, as the Daleks pressed their suction arms against Rajesh's head, with the fairly obvious intention to crush his skull after they had been finished with him. She aimed carefully and hit the eye stalk of the closest Dalek with a tightly bundled laser beam. The… thing screeched and let go of Rajesh, who quickly clambered out of the way on all fours to hide somewhere, and started spinning and shooting around itself in blind panic.
"My vision is impaired!" it shrieked, and – as unlikely as it seemed – Tosh could hear the very real panic in that inhuman voice. Although, considering that the actual Dalek creature was practically trapped in that metal cage, its only connection with the outside world being the single eyestalk, it probably wasn't so surprising. "My vision is impaired; I cannot see!"
The other Daleks wrapped themselves into shimmering force fields against the weapons of their out-of-control comrade until it finally calmed down enough to listen to the orders of its leader.
"Initiate emergency shutdown until necessary repairs can be provided," the chief honcho screeched.
"I... obey…" the crazed pepper pot replied and went silent at once. The head Dalek now turned to Tosh.
"You offered resistance," it said. "You will be exterminated."
"Go on, then!" Tosh shrugged, throwing the laser torch away, in an angle that would hurl it right to Rajesh's feet who was wisely keeping a low profile. "Go on and kill me as long as you still have the time!"
"Explain," the Dalek demanded.
"If you weren't so wrapped up in your own affairs, you'd have realized by now that this planet is being invaded by a second species at this very moment," Tosh told him.
"What second species?" the Dalek asked.
"How should I know?" Tosh lied. "I never saw one of them before. But they're everywhere. In every house, on every street, armed and ready to defend their conquest."
One couldn't even guess what the creature within the oversized pepper pot might be thinking, but the head Dalek appeared to consider Tosh's words. Then it rotated towards one of its underlings. "Dalek Thay – investigate outside," it ordered.
"I obey," replied the other one, whose name was apparently Thay – and since when did the homicidal maniacs have names anyway? – simply blowing the security door out of its way as it rolled out to the corridor.
"Establish visual contact," the head Dalek ordered. "Lower communications barrier."
A projection appeared promptly in the area previously occupied by the sphere, showing Dalek Thay's point of view. Tosh secretly marvelled about the advanced technology built into those unspectacular Dalek cases, itching for the chance to take a closer look. Her attention was soon turned away from geeky interests, however, and towards the two Cybermen that marched into the focus of the projection, the floor trembling slightly under their heavy footsteps.
"Identify yourselves," Dalek Thay demanded.
"You will identify first," the two Cybermen replied in unison. Even their voices were so similar that Tosh found it hard to determine whether she was hearing one voice or two.
"State your identity!" Dalek Thay, whose hearing was obviously selective, demanded again.
"You will identify first," the two Cybermen repeated; clearly, the Dalek wasn't the only one with selective hearing.
"Identify!" Dalek Thay screeched, its voice, originally considerably deeper than that of their leader, rising by about an octave.
Samuel aka Mickey Smith, the self-proclaimed superhero, rolled his eyes,
"It's like Stephen Hawkins meets the Speaking Clock," he commented. He didn't seem afraid, which either meant he was very brave or that he was stupid and reckless. Based on what Tosh had seen of his actions in Cardiff made her vote for the latter.
".. illogical, you will modify," the Cybermen chorused in those monotonous voices in the meantime.
"Daleks do not take orders," Dalek Thay replied indignantly.
"You have identified as Daleks," the monotonous voices stated; if Tosh didn't know that it was impossible, given that the homicidal cyborgs had all their emotions artificially suppressed, she'd have sworn that there was a hint of triumph in that statement."
The head Dalek rolled closer to the projection field, examining the transmitted images with its eyestalk.
"Outline resembles the inferior species known as 'Cybermen'," it announced dismissively.
At this very moment, a mobile phone began to beep; it was Rose's. She hurriedly muted it – really who was stupid enough to go on an undercover mission with their phones on? – but it was already too late. Both Daleks rotated in her direction, their weapons arms raised… but strangely enough, they didn't fire.
Seeing that their attention was focused elsewhere, Rajesh saw his moment come. He picked up the laser torch, turned it on to full power, and fired at the conical device that had come out of the sphere.
"Raji, don't!" Tosh cried.
She was fairly sure that a mere laser beam won't damage something that had crossed the Void unharmed, and she was proven right. Unfortunately, with that action Rajesh had drawn the attention – and the wrath – of the Daleks to himself again.
"We must protect the Genesis Ark!" one of them screamed.
"Exterminate!" the chief honcho shrieked. "Exterminate!"
Both Daleks fired their weapons. Rajesh was hit by two energy rays, his body becoming transparent for a moment, as if it had been made of glass, his skeleton clearly visible through the translucent flesh. Then it darkened again, and he collapsed on the floor, dead.
Ignoring the chaos around her, Tosh ran to him, fell to her knees next to him and lifted his head to see in his eyes one last time. If she had hoped to catch the last spark of life in them, she was disappointed. He was gone.
"You stupid, murderous tin cans!" she said bitterly. "You didn't need to kill him. That laser beam would never harm your precious Ark."
"Neither did we need him alive," the Dalek replied indifferently and turned back to the projection field.
During the brief, tragic event that robbed Tosh from whatever hopes she might have nurtured for her future, Dalek Thay and the two Cybermen had kept bantering in the corridor.
"Our species are similar, though your design is inelegant," the Cybermen said.
"No shit, Sherlock," Mickey commented sotto voce. Although it wouldn't have counted even if he'd spoken out loudly.
"Daleks have no concept of elegance," Dalek Thay replied with a vocal shrug for which he lacked the proper body part to actually perform. Clearly, one couldn't insult the pepper pots by criticizing their appearance.
"This is obvious," the Cybermen retorted, making Rose giggle like a silly schoolgirl. "But consider – our technologies are compatible. Cybermen plus Daleks – together, we could upgrade the universe."
Were the cyborgs proposing an alliance? The mere thought made Tosh panic in earnest. If these two ganged up against the rest of the universe, the universe wouldn't stand a chance!
"You propose an alliance?" Dalek Thay echoed her thoughts, and the Cybermen answered, making her worst fear come true.
"This is correct."
"Request denied," Dalek Thay replied promptly.
Tosh was shocked. Were the pepper pots so sure about their superiority that they thought they wouldn't need allies? And more importantly, could they be right about it? These guys beat the Time Lords, after all… what could mankind possibly do against them?
The Cybermen didn't take the refusal kindly. They immediately thrust their fists out, ready to shoot.
"Hostile elements will be deleted," they announced, shooting at the Dalek without further ado. But the rays simply bounced off its armour.
"Exterminate!" Dalek Thay screeched. It aimed at both Cybermen, one after the other, and they collapsed onto the floor.
"Uh-huh," Mickey commented softly. "I have the feeling that the Cybermen have suddenly become our lesser problem.
As if answering him, the projection screen came alive again, showing a Cyberman completely identical with all the others. Still, it must have been some sort of leader among them, as it seemed to speak for the rest.
"Daleks, be warned," it said. "You have declared war upon the Cybermen."
"This is not war," the black head Dalek replied, completely unfazed by the threat. "This is pest control."
"I kinda have to agree with the tin can in that matter," Mickey muttered.
"We have five million Cybermen," the cyber leader announced. "How many are you?"
"Four," the head Dalek answered, not elaborating about one of them being shut down and thus useless at the moment.
"You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?" the Cyber leader demanded; Tosh could see Yvonne biting her nails behind it in frame in the background.
"We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek," the black pepper pot replied. "You are superior in only one respect: you are better at dying. Raise communications barrier!" it added, and he screen went static.
"Wait!" one of the lesser Daleks screeched. "Rewind image by nine rells." Whether that was a request or a reminder for itself, Tosh couldn't tell. "Identify grid seven gamma frame." The image zoomed in on the lanky man with spiky hair in the background. "This male registers as enemy."
Rose was grinning like a loon hearing that. Trust her to ruin the element of surprise! Tosh thought angrily. She didn't know what to expect from this Doctor, but if he wanted to outsmart the Daleks, he needed to be able to move freely. Revealing his identity would have made exactly that impossible.
The Daleks had noticed Rose's excitement, of course.
"The female's heartbeat has increased," their black chief announced.
That made Mickey start grinning, too. "Yeah, tell me about it."
The black Dalek ignored him, its attention focused on Rose. "Identify him."
No! Don't! Tosh mouthed mutely in Rose's direction, but the silly git wasn't even looking at her.
"All right then," she said gleefully. "If you really wanna know... that's the Doctor."
The Daleks rolled backwards sharply, as if hit by bullets or whatnot. Rose's grin turned triumphant by that sight.
"So, that's how it works, eh?" she taunted. "Five million Cybermen – easy. One Doctor? Now you're scared."
Tosh fought the urge to slap her silly and nearly lost. The stupid bint had just destroyed their only chance to get out of here alive, slim though that chance might have been. The Daleks would go and kill the Doctor first, and then finish whatever they were planning to do. With the Doctor out of the equation, there would be no-one left to stop them.
Unless… unless somebody managed to distract them.
"She's lying," Tosh rose from Rajesh's side and approached the Daleks calmly. "I don't know who that man is, but he's most definitely not the Doctor. I've travelled with the Doctor for almost two years; I know exactly what he looks like. He's much older, has really big ears and barely any hair; and he doesn't hop around like a clown all the time. That's not him."
Rose and Mickey seemed more shocked about this revelation than the Daleks themselves. Assuming that the Daleks could be shocked by anything, of course.
"When did you travel with the Doctor?" Rose asked, clearly insulted by the mere idea of competition.
"After the Slitheen invasion, while you were paying Mummy a visit," Tosh replied,
"But-but I was only at home for the weekend!" Rose protested. Tosh rolled her eyes in exasperation. Could the girl really be so stupid?
"In case you haven't realized yet, he's got a time ship," she said dryly. "You were at home for a weekend; I travelled with him for two years in the meantime. Don't be so linear!"
"But he never told me about it!" Rose said petulantly.
Tosh gave her a disgusted look. "What are you, the navel of the universe? It was none of your business, so why should he have told you? You aren't his first companion; nor will you be his last one, believe me."
Rose's eyes teared up in indignation, but before she could have an angry answer, which she clearly intended to do, Dalek Thay rolled back into the sphere chamber.
"Cyber threat irrelevant," it announced. "Concentrate on the Genesis Ark."
The Daleks crowded around the Genesis Ark. The black one pressed its suction arm to the side of the device, as if checking its condition. That seemed to remind Rose of something, because all of a sudden her eyes became wide with fear. Mickey, distracted by his own thoughts, didn't notice it right away.
"Why are we being kept alive?" he pondered. "They could have killed us several times by now – but they didn't. Why?"
"They might need me," Rose answered as if in a trance.
"Sure, because you're so important that not even the Daleks can establish world domination without your help," Tosh commented with a derisive snort.
"What?" Mickey took hold of Rose's arm and shook her gently. "What is it?"
But Rose didn't answer him. She just kept staring at the Daleks like a rabbit caught in the headlights.
Mickey looked around, making sure that the Daleks weren't listening, then he pulled something out from under his shirt. It looked like a rectangular tray, only slightly bigger than his own palm, with an oversized yellow button in the middle. He wore it on a string around his neck.
"Look," he said. "I could transport out of here, but it only carries one and I'm not leaving you."
Tosh gave the device a sharp look. "You've got an interdimensional transponder?" she asked in shocked disbelief. "And you're planning to use it? Are you bloody insane? The fabric of reality is dangerously thin here already, due to the spatial rift above us, and you're gonna tear even more holes into it?"
"What do you know about interdimensional rifts?" Mickey asked aggressively.
"More than you could ever hope to learn!" Tosh snapped at him. "Enough to leave them bloody alone. You irresponsible fool; you're only making everything worse!"
"Well, I'm not gonna leave her alone with these monsters," Mickey returned, looking at Rose, besotted. Rose smiled at him.
"You'd follow me anywhere. What did I do to you all those years ago?"
Mickey shrugged and grinned goofily. "Guess I'm just stupid."
"No kidding," Tosh commented dryly. Rose shot her a nasty look and squeezed Mickey's hand.
"Don't listen to her. She's just being spiteful. You're the bravest man I've ever met."
That made Mickey grin even more idiotically, as if he'd just won a long-running competition against a superior adversary. Tosh made a mental note to ask Jack (assuming that she'd get out of here alive) if Mickey had always been such an idiot.
"What about the Doctor?" he teased, and Rose back-pedalled at once. Naturally.
"Oh, all right," she allowed. "Bravest human, then."
Mickey grinned in satisfaction – and Tosh had just had enough of them. Both of them.
"No, he is not," she said, surprised by the harsh tone of her own voice. "The bravest human you've ever met is that scarred corpse over there," she waved in the vague direction of Rajesh. "An ordinary guy without big guns or extraordinary abilities; a single father of two kids, a man of science and peaceful research, who offered himself up willingly for investigation by these monsters, just to save your worthless lives. So don't you speak me about being brave when all you can offer – either of you – is reckless stupidity!"
That shut them up for a while. Mickey even had the decency to look slightly ashamed as he watched the Daleks fuss about their precious Ark.
"I still can't understand what the Daleks need me for," he then said. "I'm nothing to them."
"You could be," Rose answered thoughtfully. "Whatever's inside that Ark is waking up and I've seen this happen before. Right after I'd begun travelling with the Doctor; with his previous self, that is. That was the first time I saw a Dalek. It was broken…dying. But I touched it, and the moment I did that... I brought it back to life."
"How?" Mickey asked, his mouth literally hanging open. But Tosh understood it already.
"The Artron energy," she said. Rose nodded.
"As the Doctor said," she continued for Mickey's sake, keeping her voice low, "when you travel in time in the TARDIS, you soak up all this... um... background radiation."
"Chroniton particles, actually," Tosh corrected. "They are a side product of time travel. Completely harmless for the human body, but every time traveller is saturated with them."
Rose nodded. "Yeah. But in the Time War, the Daleks evolved so they could use it as a power supply."
Mickey gazed at her in naked admiration. "I love it when you talk technical."
Tosh bit back an acerbic comment. Rose clearly had no real clue about advanced technology, despite having travelled with the Doctor for what? Two years? That didn't keep her from pretending to be oh-so-knowledgeable, of course… or Mickey from lapping up all the rubbish she was spouting.
"Shut up," she said to her faithful lapdog; impatient because she had been interrupted while trying to appear important. "The point is: if the Daleks have got something inside that thing that needs waking up..."
"They need you," Mickey finished for her in full worshipping mode.
"Actually," Tosh interrupted the admiration feast before it would give her diabetes, "you have travelled in time, too; and so have I. Technically, either one of us would do."
That was apparently new for Rose, as she stopped spewing half-digested technobabble for the time being. Mickey shook his head in befuddled amazement.
"But why would they build something they can't open themselves?" he asked.
"The technology is stolen," the black Dalek suddenly interjected, and Tosh's heart sank realizing that the pepper pots had probably heard every single word from their conversation; which was a bad thing. Really bad. "The Ark is not of Dalek design."
"Then who built it?" Rose asked.
"The Time Lords," the Dalek told her matter-of-factly. "This is all that survives of their homeworld. "
Gallifrey? The Genesis Ark came from Gallifrey? But how in seven hells had it escaped from the Time Lock, survived the Time War unharmed? All of a sudden, Tosh's initial fear regarding the artefact multiplied by the factor of, oh, about ten thousand. If this was truly Time Lord technology, only the Doctor could tell what might be hidden inside – or perhaps not even he. He'd been something of a renegade, after all. If the Ark was some sort of doomsday weapon commissioned by the High Council, its existence and true purpose might have remained a secret, even among their own people.
Now if she could only figure out what it was… and alert the Doctor somehow…
"What's inside?" Rose blurted out, staring at the Ark and the surrounding Daleks with fearful apprehension, while Tosh was still looking for the right approach to get some useful intel out of the tin cans.
"The future," the head Dalek replied.
Somehow that answer didn't reassure Tosh at all. On the contrary: since the Daleks had obviously high hopes about the Ark, it could only mean complete disaster for everyone else.
At that very moment, the Daleks backed away from the Genesis Ark.
"Final stage of awakening," one of them announced.
The black Dalek rotated, facing Rose eye-to eye… well, eye to eyestalk, as the case happened to be. "Your handprint will open the Ark," it screeched.
"Well, tough, 'cos I'm not doing it," Rose replied flippantly.
"Obey, or the male will die," the black Dalek screeched, aiming at Mickey.
That broke Rose's heroic resistance in a matter of nanoseconds. She started walking towards the Ark immediately.
"Rose, don't!" Mickey cried out; Tosh's opinion of him went up several notches. It seemed that he no longer was the coward Jack had described him.
Rose looked at him teary-eyed. "I can't let them…"
"Oh, yes, you can," Tosh said harshly, picking up the laser torch from where it had fallen off Rajesh's hand, and turned it on again. It hummed threateningly. "Take another step towards that thing and I'll blow your stupid head to pieces. I won't have Rajesh died for nothing," she gave Mickey a sideway glance. "I'm sorry, Mickey, but I can't allow her to do this. Whatever's inside, if we let it out, it will be the end of us all – and of the rest of Earth."
Mickey nodded. "I know. Do what you have to do."
"Place your hand upon the casket," the black Dalek screamed to Rose, who was still hesitating.
"Don't even think about it," Tosh warned. "And never believe that I'd have any claims killing you."
"Who the hell are you to give me orders?" Rose snapped.
"I'm Torchwood," Tosh replied coldly. "Torchwood Cardiff, to be more accurate. It's my job to defend the Earth from alien threats; and from irresponsible humans who would put the whole planet at risk, just to save their buddies. So stop where you are."
"Why?" Rose asked violently. "They're gonna kill us anyway, so what the hell?"
"My point exactly," Tosh said. "They are gonna kill us, no matter what. But if you help them before they kill you, the extinction of mankind would be your fault and yours alone."
"Place your hand upon the casket," the black Dalek repeated like some kind of broken record. Rose still seemed uncertain, her eyes flicking from Tosh, aiming at her, to the Dalek, aiming at Mickey.
"Play for time!" Tosh said in a low voice, praying that the girl would understand; the Daleks didn't care anyway. "Buy time for him to do something."
"All right!" Rose whirled around to face the head Dalek. "So, if you… ummm… escaped the Time War, don't you wanna know what happened? What really happened?"
"Place your hand…" the Dalek began again, but Rose interrupted it.
"What happened to the Emperor?"
"The Emperor survived," the Dalek answered promptly.
"Yeah… 'til he met me!" Rose countered triumphantly. "'Cos if these are gonna be my last words, then you're gonna listen. I met the Emperor. And I took the Time Vortex and I pulled it into his head and turned him into dust. Do you get that? The god of all Daleks... and I destroyed him!" She gave the Dalek a gloating smile, and laughed.
Tosh was shocked upon hearing that. Absolutely shocked. What little she could comprehend about Time Lord technology – and it wasn't much, really, as it was light years beyond her understanding, regardless of how brilliant she might be compared with other people of the twenty-first century – all told her that human flesh simply wasn't meant to survive an encounter with raw temporal energy.
"How on Earth did you do that?" she asked. Rose shrugged.
"I just opened the heart of the TARDIS," she answered nonchalantly.
"That cannot be," Tosh shook her head. "The Vortex energy would have burned you to ashes. The human body is not suited to deal with that."
"Yeah, well, the Doctor absorbed the Vortex energy," Rose said with a shrug. "I was terribly sorry to see him go, but then he came back, and I kinda like the new one even better. He's younger, better-looking and more fun to be with."
For a moment Tosh was completely thunderstruck. The thought that his old friend had to die for this selfish, immature girl to survive filled her with overwhelming grief.
"What about Jack Harkness?" she asked. "That was you, too, wasn't it? You did something to him, and he woke up on that abandoned game station, surrounded by corpses and Dalek dust. What have you done to him?"
Her harsh tone shook Rose out of gloating mode, realizing perhaps for the first time that something might have been wrong with her past actions.
"I couldn't let him die!" she protested. Tosh closed her eyes for a moment to force her anger back to manageable levels.
"You stupid, selfish cow," she said with more self-discipline she had ever thought she could bring up. "He was already dead – and you dragged him back to life. Do you know what you've done?"
"I saved him!" Rose said indignantly.
"No," Tosh replied coldly. "You damned him to go on forever while everyone else he meets will die. You've made him a permanent rock in the never-stopping flood of time. I cannot imagine a fate more cruel than being doomed to eternal loneliness."
"Girls," Mickey interrupted them, "I love a good chick fight like the next bloke, but I think we have a bigger problem right now than Captain Cheesecake," he waved in the direction of the black Dalek that was approaching Rose threateningly.
"You will be exterminated!" the thing screeched furiously.
For a moment, Tosh almost hoped the Dalek would do just that, so mad was she about what she'd just learned. In the next moment, though, she was deeply ashamed for having wished something like that upon a fellow human being. Even if said fellow human being was an annoying git.
"Oh now, hold on," a voice intervened from the doorway," wait a minute."
And with that, the Doctor sauntered into the room, wearing utterly ridiculous 3D specs. Rose, of course, started grinning like a loon at the sight of her personal deus ex machina – and so did Mickey.
The Daleks, on the other hand, rolled back, as agitated as a man-sized pepper pot could be.
"Alert, alert" the black Dalek screeched. "It is the Doctor."
"Sensors report he is unarmed," Dalek Thay said – if it was Dalek Thay, of course. The things all looked the same, save from the chief honcho, which was black.
"That's me," the Doctor said agreeably. "Always."
The black Dalek stared at him with a dismissive eyestalk. "Then you are powerless."
"Not me," the Doctor took off his stupid specs with a flourish. "Never," then he ignored the Dalek and turned to Rose with the expression of a lovesick puppy. "How are you?"
Rose grinned at him in satisfaction. "Oh, same old, you know."
Tosh felt the violent urge to get sick right there, right then. Five million Cybermen were subjugating the planet right now, killing people and turning them into their copies, the Daleks were about to open the Ark and whatever was hidden inside (and she could swear that whatever it was, it wasn't good), and these two were performing their little mating dance? Had the Doctor gotten all common sense sucked out of him during his most recent regeneration and replaced by an overdose of teenage hormones?
"Good!" he cried out with a manic gleam in his eye. "And Mickity-McMickey!" He bashed fists with Rose's self-declared little superhero. "Nice to see ya!"
"And you, boss," Mickey replied.
It seemed that even the Daleks found the silly little scene annoying.
"Social interaction will cease!" one of them screamed.
Tosh had never thought that one day she would whole-heartedly agree with a Dalek, of all possible people… creatures… things… whatever. But she did. This was getting way beyond good taste… or responsible behaviour. A whole planet was about to die, was she the only one to realize that?
Listening with one ear to the Doctor taunting the Daleks about the Time War and their mutual role in it – or, as the case of these Daleks appeared to be, the complete lack of it – she crept back to the side door. She hated to leave Rajesh behind, even dead, but getting herself killed would not help him – or his recently orphaned children. She needed to get to Trevor out of that rat trap below the sphere chamber, and she needed to find a way to get them both to someplace safe.
After that, she might find a moment to think about what could be done for the other people trapped in Torchwood Tower.
"You shouldn't have come back," Trevor said when she climbed down to the little security chamber. "We're trapped here – there's no way out, unless through the sphere chamber."
"I know," Tosh replied tiredly. "That's exactly where we're going… and then down to the factory floor."
"Why?" Trevor asked with a frown. "What is down there – save from an army of Cybermen?"
"The TARDIS," Tosh answered simply. "The only safe place on the entire planet right now. Not even the Cybermen or the Daleks would be able to break into it by force."
"And neither would we," Trevor reminded her. "Our best technicians have tried to open that box since Yvonne confiscated it, but it wouldn't give."
"Not to you, perhaps," Tosh said. "I've got my own ways, though. Now, as soon as we reach the sphere chamber, you must stay really close to me. And I mean really close. Full body contact would be the best. I don't know how wide the perception field's range is."
"The what?" Trevor asked in confusion. Tosh waved off any further questions.
"Not now. Just follow me; and stay close."
She had only discovered a short time ago that the TARDIS key was capable of generating a short-range perception filter. She hadn't had the chance to check its range yet. So it was basically now or never – as much as she hated to rely on untested technology, she didn't really have any other choice.
The way down to the factory floor was nerve-wrecking. In order to stay within the supposed range of the perception filter, they had to press tightly together; which again didn't make moving along any easier. Sneaking out in clear sight of the Daleks was almost more than Tosh could deal with, and she had to stomp down on her panic with all her might.
She could feel Trevor trembling behind her and knew that the young man, too, could lose it any moment – and then they would be both dead within seconds. She realized that she didn't want to die… not yet, not here, not like this. Not like poor Rajesh had died.
Despite her expectations, Trevor did manage to hold himself together. Even as they had to pass various troops of Cybermen marching down the corridors, herding frightened people towards a curtained area where new offices had supposedly been built. Tosh and Trevor followed the shock troops from Hell – their only way to the factory floor led directly by that area – and soon it became clear that there was something decidedly more sinister going on behind those curtains than simple construction work.
The place was full of screaming and the sound of drills and sparks flying. Vague shapes were moving behind the curtains, and the air was heavy with the stench of burnt flesh and hot metal. The whole thing reminded Tosh of a slaughterhouse, and she looked around her involuntarily, looking for splatters of blood – strangely enough, there were none. Perhaps the hot metal was being used to cauterize whatever wounds had been inflicted on the people….
The mere thought of it made her sick.
"What… what are those things doing to our people?" Trevor asked when they had finally got out of earshot in an empty corridor.
"I think…" Tosh's voice broke and she needed to swallow really hard to get her nausea under control. "I think they remove the brain and put it in a suit of armour. That's what these things are: murdered people, whose brains serve as the artificial body's central processor unit."
"Oh God…" Trevor looked as if he'd become sick any moment.
"Oh no, you don't!" Tosh grabbed him and shook him violently. "You won't throw up, and you won't panic, not now! You'll pull yourself together, dammit, and stay close, and we'll go down to the factory floor and into the TARDIS, and we'll get out of here, is that understood?"
She knew she was being too harsh to the young man – the personnel at Headquarters led a spoiled life compared with that of Torchwood Three, with the marked exception of the field agents – but she couldn't mollycoddle him right now. She needed him with all his wits about him.
Trevor nodded, albeit a bit shakily, and followed her out into the next side corridor – the one that would lead directly to the factory floor. They hurried along it, as well as they could while holding onto each other, reached the other end without any further encounters, and stepped out into the large room full of random pieces of alien technology.
The room seemed very much like it had when Tosh had crossed it in that very morning. The Jathar Sunglider was still hanging from the ceiling, the Magnaclamps were still lying in their box, and in a shadowy corner there was the TARDIS, still standing on the platform on which it had been supposed to be transported to the safe storage area. Before the Cybermen would have invaded.
"There she is," Tosh breathed in relief, heart hammering in excitement upon the sight of her old friend. "Once we've reached her, we'll be safe."
Trevor looked at the battered, old-fashioned police box with a certain amount of bewilderment. "If you say so… but how are we supposed to reach it? The entire floor is swarming with these Cyber things… I don't wanna end up as one of them."
"Neither do I," Tosh replied. "We have to try, though. It's the only way out here. Just stay close… and move carefully. The perception filter won't do us any good if they discover us by touch."
They almost managed to do it, meandering towards the TARDIS in tandem, among random groups of Cybermen, like some weird, two-headed, four-legged creature out of the old myths. But at a sharp turn to the right Trevor slipped on a smear of oil, lost his balance and fell, shattering their camouflage. Now that the Cybermen knew what to look for, they could see through the perception filter, and spotted Tosh, too.
"Stop!" one of them said and clearly transmitted some message only its own kind could perceive, because Tosh and Trevor were immediately surrounded by four of the things at once. "Personnel on this floor have been selected to be upgraded."
"I'd rather not, if you don't mind," Tosh answered with a calmness that came from the knowledge that everything was lost already. "I'm quite content with the way I'm now, thank you very much."
"Illogical," the Cyberman said. "We'll make you better. You'll become like us."
Tosh pretended to give that some thought. Then she shook her head.
"No, thanks," she said. "I prefer to remain Toshiko Sato to becoming Cyberman Number Five Million and Ten… or whatever."
"Toshiko Sato?" the Cyberman repeated, and Tosh had the eerie feeling as if she could hear something familiar through the mechanical tone of its voice. "You should not be here, Toshiko Sato," and it pointed its gun at the others. "You will let her go."
"What is the meaning of this?" one of the other Cybermen demanded.
"You will let her go!" the first one repeated – and then it pulled the trigger, destroying the other Cybermen with a bright ray of white light.
Typically for the departmentalised acting of the cyber race, the rest on the floor hadn't even noticed what happened.
"Toshiko Sato," the first Cyberman turned back to her. "You should go to someplace safe, Toshiko Sato."
Now Tosh could definitely hear the discernable human voice through the cyber-tones.
"Yvonne?" she asked tentatively. "Is that you in there… within this thing? Yvonne?"
The Cyberman didn't answer her directly.
"Go home, Toshiko Sato," it said. "Be safe. I must do my duty for Queen and Country."
And with that, it marched away to its unknown destination. Trevor stared after it in wide-eyed shock.
"That… that was Yvonne, wasn't it?" he asked. "But how…?"
"I don't know," Tosh admitted. "But she's bought us some time. Let's not waste it, shall we? Come!"
She grabbed Trevor's hand and dragged him after her, towards the TARDIS that was now almost within their reach.
~TBC~