The Pickpocket Chapter 4: Game Station, a doctor who fanfic

— Chapter 4 —

I'm hanging out, enjoying my awesome room, messing around with some clay in my art space, listening to music, and trying to forget that the Doctor, Rose and Jack are all out having an adventure on Alfava Metraxis. They get to hang out with the two-headed Aplans; I get to hang out in my room. Sure, I'd still have the run of the Tardis if I hadn't been pushing buttons and pulling levers on the console the last time they left me alone - I was annoyed with him and it's not like the Tardis would let me mess with anything important. He could have just barred me from the console room. Instead, I'm stuck in my room.

This really isn't looking like a dog. Maybe I should just try for a vase.

I don't think the Doctor and I see the Tardis the same way. Sometimes I say things and he gets a weird look. Like when I argued that she wouldn't have let me mess with anything dangerous on the console - that claim definitely made my situation worse. Or when my room changed to make the study its own little room, and he thought I'd figured out how to change it. I didn't even know I'd like it like that. 100% Tardis. And there was his initial shock at seeing my room when I first arrived. And he didn't believe me when I told him she had pinned me against the wall.

Maybe clay just isn't the medium for me. This vase looks like… not a vase.

The Doctor, Rose and Jack go out on adventures without me all the time. The Doctor won't let me join unless it's "safe". But, we do get to hang out a lot while Rose and Jack sleep, so I tend to sleep while they're out having fun. Jack and I get along great. But I try to avoid Rose. The Doctor told me to make the effort to get along with her, but I'm pretty sure she wants nothing to do with me. Best to just stay away.

This "vase" is getting trashed. The best I can do with clay is apparently a lump.

The Doctor has me going to school, sort of. He's got a long list of things I need to learn. Most of which are pretty interesting. It's way, way better than actual school. We spend a lot of time in the console room with the Doctor working on something and me studying. Or I just watch him work, handing him stuff as he explains what he's doing.

Sometimes though, he gets broody. Disappears for a day or two. Rose gets snippy, but Jack doesn't seem to mind. He even does a pretty good job of distracting me. He's always telling me it's got nothing to do with me, but…when the Doctor comes back he's all big fake smiles and hyperactive, immediately taking Rose and Jack on a trip somewhere, leaving me behind.

Just banging the clay on the table now. Hulk smash!

At least I've always got the Tardis. She's awesome, except when she's snitching on me. I'm still figuring out what she'll let me get away with. It's definitely more than the Doctor. I think she knows she can keep me safe when I do something stupid, so she lets me experiment and explore. The Doctor on the other hand gets all angsty about explosions and stuff. I call it learning. He calls it reckless and stupid. He has no idea that the Tardis is frequently my partner in crime on these educational ventures.

I'm just going to make lots of marbles. Can't screw up a marble, can I.

I'm not allowed to look ahead or bend time without the Doctor supervising. I found out the hard way that the Tardis can tell if I try. And that she can be a little snitch! So, on only my second day in the Tardis, I get to find out where his study is. Yea me. He should rename it "The Yell at Ash Room". He lectured me forever, gave me a book I've got to read, and postponed our trip to go see dinosaurs for a day. I guess it wasn't all bad, the book is interesting, all about the dangers of messing with time. I'm definitely going to need to learn some more math to really understand it though. But postponing the dinosaur trip, that was just cruel.

Yep. I'm good at marbles. Take that clay.

When we finally got to go, the dinosaur trip was awesome. Rose didn't want to come, so it was just the Doctor, Jack and I. We went to the late Jurassic so I could see some of the really huge dinosaurs. The air then is supercharged with oxygen which felt weird. And it was strange, knowing we were on Earth, but having everything look so different. The plants were crazy. I climbed a tree and got an awesome view of some Brontosaurus, Jurassic Park style. We even saw an Archaeopteryx.

We ended up running for our lives from a pack of Compsognathus. Well, they were probably just chasing us out of their territory. They're only about the size of a turkey, not much of a threat. It was fun though.

Neat, the marbles will stick to the wall if I throw them hard enough.

Despite promising to tell me about what's going on with me, he won't. He's always saying, "I don't know" when I ask him stuff, but I'm pretty sure he's lying. I do know I'm only partly human, and that my DNA is in flux. I'm changing, and that's why I get the headaches and nosebleeds. They're getting worse. The headaches are lasting longer and sometimes the nosebleeds leave me feeling weak. The Doctor says he's going to fix it, but…

I'm trying to throw the clay at the wall to make a smiley face. It's harder than it sounds.

Someday I'm going to convince him to take me to the moon. He says the moon is boring. How can the moon be boring? It's the MOON. I want to pretend to be Neil Armstrong. Bounce around in 1/10 gravity. And I really want to watch the Earth rise over the horizon. Ohhh, and ride a dune buggy! on the moon! I bet I could make myself some wings and I could fly… wait… I'd need an atmosphere. Still, I should make some wings, there's got to be a planet out there where I can fly like a bird.

Okay, so not a smiley face. It's abstract art!

The Tardis lets me know they're back. Time to go hear about the Aplans. I bet I can talk the Doctor into making me some banana pancakes.

—

Something's wrong. I feel like I'm stretching. Being pulled elsewhere, but something is holding me here. I try to hold on to where I am, but it's slipping. I can feel the Tardis holding me inside of her. I try to copy what she's doing, to tie myself more strongly to the here. I feel like I'm about to snap in two when the force pulling me suddenly lets go.

—

I'm lying on the ground? What? My head! Nosebleed too. It slowly comes back to me, but there are no words to adequately describe it. It felt a little bit like the first time I entered the Tardis, if instead of fully entering I got stuck in both spaces at once. Sort of. I'm certain that without the Tardis I would have been pulled to wherever.

I pat the wall in gratitude as I leave my room to look for the Doctor. Surprised he isn't here already acting all mother hen. But the console room is empty. I scan for the Doctor and realize I'm the only one on the Tardis. And of course the outer doors are locked.

Where is everybody? Usually they let me know they're leaving, or at least leave a note. Guess I'll just wait. I run back to my room to grab a book and lay out on the platform overlooking the center console.

—

Forever later. Seriously, I'm almost finished reading the book, I hear the door and Jack enters.

"Look who the cat dragged in!" I call out, sliding down the ladder. He grabs me in a hug and squeezes like he can't believe I'm alive.

"You're safe. Thank God! We couldn't find you."

"What do you mean?"

"Rose. She's gone."

"What do you mean gone? What's happening? Where's the Doctor?"

Jack explains how they were all transmatted out of the Tardis and into games with deadly consequences. They weren't fast enough to save Rose. Meanwhile he's typing at the console, looking like he's trying to figure something out.

"What the hell?" Jack says, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the Tardis at a run, "Come on, there's someone who is going to be very happy to see you."

—

Jack drags me out of the closet the Tardis is in, "You'll never guess who I found!"

The Doctor looks over and comes running. I swear he's trying to break my already sore ribs.

"Enough already!" I squirm around trying to get him to let go. He loses the hug, but won't actually let go.

"Where the hell have you been!" He yells at me. Is he serious?

"Me? You left me. I've been in the Tardis this whole time."

"The Tardis is here?"

"Yup! And she's worked it out." Jack adds. "You'll want to watch this. Lynda, could you stand over there for me please?"

"I just want to go home."

"It'll only take a second. Could you stand in that spot, quick as you can. Everybody watching? Okay. Three, two, one."

And Lynda is gone, a pile of ash in her place. Jack? He killed her! No way, it's got to be a trick.

"But you killed her!" Hollers the Doctor.

"Oh, do you think?" Jack says, flipping another switch.

Lynda, standing back where she was, "What the hell was that?" Okay, she's not dead. What?

"It's a transmat beam. Not a disintegrator, a secondary transmat system. People don't get killed in the games. they get transported across space. Doctor, Rose is still alive!" Jack explains. The Doctor lets go of me to give Jack a hug, ecstatic.

Way too much hugging going on here.

The Doctor runs back over to the terminals. "She's out there somewhere."

A woman, all hooked up to tubes, is sort of hanging, surrounded by monitors in the center of everything. I walk over to her as she calls out, "Doctor. Coordinates five point six point one…"

"Don't, the solar flare's gone. They'll hear you." The Doctor says, trying to save her.

"Point four three four. No, my masters, no! I defy you! Stigma seven seven." She finishes. I reach out, but she disappears, screaming. Who was she? I look over at the Doctor, hopeful he can save her when he saves Rose.

The Doctor, Jack, Lynda and male and female station worker are crowding round one of the terminals. I stay back from the workers, moving over to stand beside the Doctor. They're the ones responsible for all this. One of them hands Jack a data disk, "Look, use that. It might contain the final numbers. I kept a log of all the unscheduled transmissions."

"Nice, Thanks. Captain Jack Harkness, by the way." He says, reaching out to shake the guy's hand, obviously flirting.

"I'm Davitch Pavale." And he's flirting back.

"Nice to meet you, Davitch Pavale."

"Eww Jack, is now really the time?" I butt in. He sticks his tongue out at me.

"Are you saying this entire set up's been a disguise all along?" The woman asks, ignoring Jack and I.

The Doctor explains, "Going way back. Installing the Jagrafess a hundred years ago. Someone's been playing a long game, controlling the human race from behind the scenes for generations."

"Click on this. The transmat delivers to that point, right on the edge of the solar system." Jack says, handing the Doctor a device to control the large central monitor. He turns it on and we can see a view of the stars.

"There's nothing there." Lynda states.

"It looks like nothing because that's what this satellite does. Underneath the transmission there's another signal." The doctor explains.

"Doing what?" Pavel asks.

"Hiding whatever's out there. Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner. There's something sitting right on top of planet Earth, but it's completely invisible. If I cancel the signal…"

He messes with the computer and a ship is revealed. "Daleks." I whisper. I don't know how I know that word, but I am now very afraid.

The Doctor looks down at me, confused, and pulls me into a hug, burying my face in his jacket. I'm trembling, focusing on his heart beats and the smell of his jacket, trying to calm down, blocking everything but the Doctor out.

"Obviously, they survived."

"Two hundred ships. More than two thousand on board each one. That's just about half a million of them."

"Daleks."

—

A voice, a terrifying voice, calls out, "I will talk to the Doctor."

The Doctor pushes me behind him and I start backing away, towards the Tardis.

"Oh, will you? That's nice. Hello!"

"The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene."

"Oh, really? Why's that, then?"

"We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated."

Rose IS alive! I sit down against a wall near the closet the Tardis is in, wanting to hide, but also needing to know what's happening.

"No."

"Explain yourself."

"I said no."

"What is the meaning of this negative?"

"It means no."

"But she will be destroyed."

"No! Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet. And then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!"

If I wasn't terrified, I'd be cheering. But, I'm really, really sure I don't want to be noticed by the Daleks.

"But you have no weapons, no defenses, no plan."

"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death. Rose?"

"Yes, Doctor?"

"I'm coming to get you." The emotion in his voice… I think he might actually love her.

The Doctor and Jack run to the Tardis, the Doctor grabbing my hand on the way by.

"You. Sit down and hang on." The Doctor says, pushing me towards the seat before going to the console to get the Tardis moving. They're both flipping witches and turning knobs like crazy, piloting the tardis towards the fleet. I start laughing quietly. Kind of a funny image. The tiny tardis, flying towards hundreds of huge ships. David threatening Goliath. The doctor briefly looks over at me, frowning.

"We've got incoming!" Jack yells,

The impact almost knocks me off my seat but we're still alive!

Jack, looking almost as surprised as me, comments, "The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional forcefield. Try saying that when you're drunk."

"And for my next trick." the Doctor pulls the big lever. As we're materializing, Rose and a Dalek become visible inside the Tardis. What the hell! I didn't know that was a thing.

"Rose, get down!" She hesitates, "Get down, Rose!" the Doctor yells as the Dalek and Jack fire their weapons.

"Exterminate!" I can feel the energy discharge pass by me, missing the Doctor and hitting the wall. Jack, however, doesn't miss.

"You did it." Rose says, as the Doctor walks over to give her a hug.

I approach the Dalek. Fascinated. Terrified. Why do I recognize it? They are my enemy, but I don't know why. I go to touch the octopus like thing inside the metal casing, only for Jack to yank me back by the collar, "What the hell are you doing?! Don't touch the Dalek!" He yells, shaking me a little, then hugging me. "We did it."

I look over at Rose and the Doctor having a moment…

"Feels like I haven't seen you in years."

"I told you I'd come and get you."

"Never doubted it."

"I did. You all right?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Not bad, been better."

Finally they separate and the Doctor goes to take a closer look at the Dalek. I join him, and grab hold of his hand. Just to offer him some comfort. I'm totally fine!

"Oh, you were lucky. That was just a one shot wonder. Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk." I hear as Jack tosses the weapon on the ground.

—

I start laughing again, sort of.

"What?" Jack asks, looking over at me.

"We're standing around a blown up Dalek having a little chat while the Tardis is just hanging out on the flagship of the Dalek fleet." I pause, laughter dying, "Aren't they going to get in?"

"The assembled hordes of Gengis Khan couldn't get through those doors." The Doctor replies, trying to be reassuring.

"But the Daleks aren't exactly 13th century horseback archers." I shoot back, unconvinced. I sense reassurance from the Tardis that she can protect us as Jack puts his hand on my shoulder, "Don't worry Ash, the extrapolator is still working. We're not just in the Tardis, we're also behind a force field that almost nothing can get through."

"You said they were extinct. How come they're still alive?" Rose asks.

Jack is also confused, "One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe, the next minute they vanished out of time and space."

"They went off to fight a bigger war. The Time War." The Doctor explains.

At the mention of the Time War, I feel like an ice pick has just been shoved into my temple. I stumble, steadying myself against the Dalek, only to scramble away, struggling with a surge of images. I can't single out anything well enough to actually see it, but it's overwhelming me. I back into the console, and manage to grab it to steady myself despite not being able to see anything through the lightning fast series of images.

I can feel the Doctor's hands on my face. And I can feel him, sort of like how I can feel the Tardis, inside my head, pushing the images away, blocking them off. I lean into his chest as he removes his hands from my head and hugs me. He's softly saying something. I can't understand it, but it's soothing, comforting.

Jack turns towards us, quietly stating, "I thought that was just a legend."

"I was there. The war between the Daleks and the Time Lords, with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed, but they took the Daleks with them. I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."

Rose steps away from the Dalek, "There's thousands of them now. We could hardly stop one. What're we going to do?"

"No good stood round here, chin wagging. Human race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers. Let's go and meet the neighbours."

I go to follow the Doctor, but he stops me. "Ash, I need you to stay here, out of sight. The Daleks can't find out about you."

"But…"

"Stay here." The Doctor repeats, in his I really mean it voice.

The Doctor steps out of the Tardis and I can hear the Daleks firing. "Exterminate!", "Exterminate!", "Exterminate!"

"Is that it? Useless! Nul points. It's all right, come on out. That force field can hold back anything."

After Rose and Jack have left I sneak over to the door, thankful it's still cracked open.

"Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might've removed all your emotions but I reckon right down deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left, and that's fear. Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So tell me. How did you survive the Time War?"

"They survived through me." That voice. It's even creepier than the other Daleks, more commanding.

"Rose, Captain, this is the Emperor of the Daleks."

"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek race died in your inferno, but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive."

"I get it."

"Do not interrupt.

"Do not interrupt."

"I think you're forgetting something. I'm the Doctor, and if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages, and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So if anybody's going to shut up, it's you! Okey doke. So, where were we?"

"We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed, and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."

"So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead."

"That makes them half human." Rose interjects.

"Those words are blasphemy."

"Do not blaspheme."

What is this, some kind of Dalek cult?

"Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."

"Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?"

"I reached into the dirt and made new life. I am the God of all Daleks!"

"Worship him."

Definitely a cult.

"They're insane. Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence. And that makes them more deadly than ever."

I shift a little, accidentally causing the door to open. I freeze, now in full sight of all of the Daleks.

"You are the Weapon." The Emperor screams. All of the Daleks turn to look directly at me.

"Exterminate!"

"We're going." The Doctor says, walking back into the Tardis, and yanking me to my feet, clearly furious. He's radiating anger almost as strongly as he did back in Cardiff.

"But, I just wanted…I didn't mean…"

"I don't care." The Doctor interrupts, draggin me over to the seat. "You will stay here until I tell you otherwise. Understood?" I nod and pull my knees into my chest. Why did the Dalek Emperor call me the Weapon?

—

We arrive back on the station and the Doctor, Rose and Jack leave the Tardis. This time I am not moving. Scary Doctor is scary. Not going to piss him off even more. At least I can watch the action on the scanner. It's not nearly as good as actually seeing but it'll have to do.

"Turn everything up. All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!" The Doctor yells, running over to the terminals.

"What does this do?" Asks Pavel.

"Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?"

"Well, we tried to warn them, but all they did was suspend our license because we stopped the programmes."

"And the planet's just sitting there, defenseless. Lynda, what're you still doing on board? I told you to evacuate everyone."

"She wouldn't go."

"Didn't want to leave you." Lynda explains.

"There weren't enough shuttles anyway, or I wouldn't be here. We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero.

Watching a screen, Pavale sees motion, "Oh, my God. The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."

—

The Doctor is yanking things out and sonicing and generally making a mess as he comments, "Dalek plan. Big mistake, because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"

"You've got to be kidding." Jack says, catching on.

"Give the man a medal."

"A Delta Wave?"

"A Delta Wave!"

Rose, confused, asks, "What's a Delta Wave?"

"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy. It fries your brain. Stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbequed." Jack explains.

"And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks!" The Doctor finishes.

Lynda tells him to get on with it but he dithers, "Trouble is, wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about, oh, three days? How long till the Fleet arrive?"

Pavale, still at the monitor replies, "Twenty two minutes."

I guess the Doctor's tinkering has accomplished something because Jack eagerly states, "We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky, but that doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."

"Do they know about the Delta Wave?" Asks Pavale.

"They'll have worked it out at the same time. So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, five hundred to four nine five. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level four nine four and fight their way up."

"Who are they fighting?"

"Us."

"And what are we fighting with?"

"The guards had guns with bastic bullets. That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open." Jack lies. Why is he lying? He's got a plan, right? Of course he does. Everythings going to be fine.

The woman station worker complains, "There's five of us." She looks even more disappointed when the Doctor tells Rose to stay and help him. "Right, now there's four of us."

Jack, taking charge, "Then let's move it. Into the lift. Isolate the lift controls."

Lynda pauses to talk to the Doctor, "I just want to say, er, thanks, I suppose, and I'll do my best."

"Me too." He replies, awkwardly shaking her hand after almost going in for a hug.

Now it's Jack's turn, "It's been fun, but I guess this is goodbye." He says to Rose and the Doctor.

"Don't talk like that. The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him."

"Rose, you are worth fighting for." He grabs her and kisses her.

"Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward." And he kissed the Doctor too. Seriously Jack.

"See you in hell."

I sit back down, no longer wanting to watch,. Jack doesn't think he's coming back. The Doctor's going to figure it out though. He always does. I curl up into a ball on the chair and start doing math, trying to keep my brain from thinking about what's going on.

—

The Doctor and Rose come running back into the Tardis.

He tells Rose to hold a button down.

"What's it do?" She asks.

"Cancels the buffers. If I'm very clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart" He's lying. I can't help it. I'm crying. He knows it's not going to work.

"I'd go for the first one."

"Me too. Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station. Hold on!"

The look he gives me as he leaves the Tardis breaks my heart. I can hear Rose yelling, and the Tardis dematerializing, but it can't be real. He's not sending us away. He can't. He wouldn't.