Lindsay and Russell scrambled to their feet, Lily close behind. "I thought Daleks couldn't climb stairs!" Lily said.
"Remembrance of the Daleks," Lindsay pointed out. "Seventh Doctor."
"Right," said the Doctor, not having heard a word they said. "Everyone behind me!" They crowded into the corner of the stairwell as the Dalek glided toward them and landed on the stairs.
Lindsay felt for Russell's hand and squeezed it, unable to look away. It was real, she thought. It was really a Dalek. But they shouldn't—they're fiction. Fictional. But so's the Doctor, argued the part of her brain that wasn't panicking. You can't have one without the other.
The Doctor stepped forward, his sonic screwdriver visible but not threatening in one hand. "Hello, Dalek," he said, all the good cheer gone from his voice.
The Dalek's eyestalk twitched. It looked the Doctor up and down, and considered. Then it bellowed, "INTRUDERS MUST BE EXTERMINATED BEFORE COUNTDOWN COMMENCES!"
"I'm not any ordinary intruder," the Doctor said, taking another step forward. "D'you know who I am?"
The Dalek thought. "VISUAL IDENTIFICATION NEGATIVE," it replied, gliding back a couple of feet.
"Really?" the Doctor said. "You must be out of date, then. Look at you, you're-what, the last Emperor's model? You came straight here from the Game Station." He stepped forward again. "You don't even know what the Doctor looks like now." The Dalek moved back.
And here he is, standing up for us. Taking control. Like in the stories. That's it, Lindsay told herself firmly. They're not in real life; I'm in the story. I'm part of the story, I have a role to play, and I'm going to play it. Then she felt a little better, enough to tear her eyes away from the Dalek's eyestalk and notice that it was near the edge of the landing. "Look at the edge," she whispered to Russell and Lindsay, and wondered if the Doctor had had the same thought.
"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR?" the Dalek asked.
"Yes," the Doctor said, stepping forward. The confused Dalek moved back again. "I'm the Doctor, and I'm not going to let you exterminate my friends. And whatever it is you're doing in this building, I'm going to stop you." He took one last step forward; the Dalek moved back, and fell off the landing.
"MOTOR CONTROL IMPAIRED! MOTOR CONTROL IMPAIRED!"
The Dalek's screams were punctuated by clanks and thuds as it hit the stairs. It landed on the next landing down, breaking its firing arm, bounced off the wall, and continued down the rest of the flight, coming to rest on the floor below.
Lindsay was still staring. "Is it dead?" she asked.
"I don't think so," the Doctor said slowly, "but it won't be bothering us anymore." He started to climb the stairs again. "The next question is how many more there are."
Lindsay, Lily, and Russell followed him slowly. "There can't be many," Russell pointed out hopefully. "Otherwise they'd have attacked the school by now."
"Excellent thought, Russell," the Doctor said, turning to face them on the next landing. "Now, what do we know about their movements? You said there've been bomb threats for here and the chemistry building." Russell nodded.
"I hope there aren't many more," Lindsay confided to Lily. "It's not the same, seeing them on TV."
"I know," Lily said. "You were nervous before you left. You skipped a couple of classes in the Cathedral this week...now I get why."
Meanwhile the Doctor had begun pacing the landing between the eighth and ninth floors, putting two and two together in his head. "Cathedral...chemistry building...cathedral...stop whispering, Lily...countdown...chemistry...oh. Oh no."
"What is it?" Lindsay asked.
"This building. It's rocket-shaped."
"Well, I never thought of it that way, but yeah," Russell said, then suddenly realized what the Doctor had thought of. "Oh shit."
"What?" Lindsay demanded. She had come to the same conclusion, and still thought it was ridiculous. "You can't launch a building into space!"
"They've done weirder things," Russell reminded her. "Dalek Invasion of Earth, First Doctor."
"So they've put a rocket engine in the Cathedral..." Lily repeated.
"...and they're flying it with fuel they made in Chevron," Russell continued.
"Everyone outside the building burns, everyone inside suffocates," the Doctor said. "Now! Lily, Russell, the Daleks need someplace to set up as a control room. Somewhere near the top of the building. Any thoughts as to where that might be?"
They thought. "There's the Honors College," Lily suggested. "Thirty-fifth floor. It's got a great view."
"That's it!" the Doctor shouted. "That's where they'll be." He turned around and took the stairs two at a time to the next floor, but was stopped by a shout from Lindsay.
"Doctor? Let's take the elevator."
A/N: Perhaps the first Dalek seemed to behave oddly. Don't forget that Davros never succeeded in eliminating fear.