The Reality Bomb
The Doctor, Romana and Rose watched the display showing the prisoners in the Testing Area being crammed together underneath a foreboding-looking machine. This, Romana thought, must be the Reality Bomb...the weapon they will use to destroy Reality in its entirety. The Doctor had begged Davros not to use the device on the test subjects, but as usual, his words had fallen on deaf ears. All the trio could do was watch as the prisoners were disintegrated by the Reality Bomb.
"What just happened?" Rose asked the pair of Time Lords.
"That's what's going to destroy the whole of Reality, Rose," Romana told her grimly, her blood boiling with rage. "Atoms can only hold together through Electromagnetism – if you fire compressed Zed Neutrino Energy onto the atomic nuclei, the Electromagnetism fails...and the atoms fall apart."
"That test was focused on the prisoners alone," Davros cut in. "Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter."
"The stars are goin' out..." Rose realised, horror in her voice.
"Add to this the fact that the Crucible is sitting at the very heart of the Medusa Cascade, and it won't just be confined to this Universe," Romana confirmed. "Planets...stars...people...all turned to dust, then to atoms...then nothing. And it will happen all over again in every other Universe..."
"...breaking through the rift at the heart of the Medusa Cascade, into every Dimension...every parallel...every single corner of Creation!" Davros broke into a victory rant. "This is my Ultimate Victory, Time Lords! THE DESTRUCTION...OF REALITY...ITSELF!"
*DW* ...13 Bannerman Road... *DW*
"What exactly are we doing?!" Maria asked curiously. She was still stumped as to how they could stop the Daleks from using their Zed Neutrino Megaweapon, and she wanted to understand the plan.
"The Daleks are going to broadcast a wave of compressed Zed Neutrino Energy across the whole of Reality," Jonathan explained. "If they do that, everything turns to dust and dies. What we're trying to do is create a Space-time Warp Field around the Megaweapon and the Dalek Battlefleet. The energy from the Reality Bomb – for a lack of a better phrase – will be refocused onto the Ships, turning them into dust instead. It'll take a while for the Megaweapon to charge up again...but by then, Mr Smith will have uploaded a computer virus into the Daleks' Main Computer, deactivating everything except the Life Support Systems – that includes the Daleks' Weapons Control."
"You're an absolute genius, you know that?" Alan told the boy. "Maybe Sarah Jane should let you join her little group..."
Jonathan paused before turning to look at Luke and Maria. The former gave Maria a look that asked; "What do you think?" She nodded, smiling. "We'd love to have him around."
Jonathan grinned his toothy grin, before turning his attention back to Mr Smith. "We can't just use the Space-time Warp Field against them, however. There's one more thing my father-"
"Your dad," Maria told him. "'Father' is too formal...and so is 'Mother.' Call them 'Dad' and 'Mum.'
"Is that a rule I have to follow to fit in?" Jonathan asked her with a smile. Maria nodded. "Well then," he continued, "there's one more thing Mum and Dad would do..."
*DW* ...back onboard the Crucible...the Bridge... *DW*
"IN-CO-MING TRANS-MIS-SION!" reported a Dalek Drone. "O-RI-GIN; PLA-NET EARTH!"
"DIS-PLAY!" ordered the Supreme Dalek. At once, the face of a Human woman rang throughout the Comm Systems.
"This message is for the Dalek Crucible..."
"RE-LAY TRANS-MIS-SION TO THE VAULT," the Supreme instructed the Drones...
*DW* ...the Vault... *DW*
"Put me through!" the Doctor told the Daleks in the Vault. He'd recognised the caller as Martha Jones.
"It begins as Dalek Caan foretold," Davros whispered, his voice filled with pride for the mad Dalek.
"The Children of Time will gather...and one of them will die!" Caan chuckled insanely.
"SHUT IT!" Romana shouted angrily. "NOW PUT US THROUGH!"
"Doctor! Romana!" called Martha, her voice full of resigned sorrow. "I'm sorry...I had no choice..."
"Oh...but these Time Lords are powerless..." Davros called up at the Screen. "My prisoners...state your intent."
"I've got the Osterhagen Key," Martha told the occupants of the Vault. "Leave this planet and its people alone...or I'll use it!" The last four words were the ones that conveyed the threat.
"Martha...what, exactly is the Osterhagen Key?" Romana demanded impatiently.
"There's a chain of 25 Nuclear Warheads positioned at strategic point underneath the Earth's crust," Martha explained grimly. "If I use the Key...they detonate...and the Earth gets ripped apart..."
"What? No!" the Time Lady shouted. "That's insane! You can't do that!"
"Romana, the Osterhagen Key is to be used," the young Human woman told her sadly. "If the suffering of the Human Race is so great...so without hope...then this becomes the final option..."
"Martha, you can't!" Romana protested in frustration.
"That's never an option!" the Doctor pressed the point angrily.
"Don't argue with me, Doctor!" snapped Martha. "Cos there's more than that...Romana said so herself...the Daleks need the twenty-seven planets to create the Megaweapon they've been working on – but what if it becomes twenty-six? What happens then? Daleks? Would you risk it?"
"She's good," Rose commented, smiling at Martha's resolve. Martha turned her attention to her predecessor.
"Are you Rose Tyler?" she asked, shock in her voice. Rose nodded. "Welcome back..."
*DW* ...the Bridge... *DW*
"SE-COND TRANS-MIS-SION; IN-TER-NAL!"
"DIS-PLAY!"
*DW ...the Vault... *DW*
At once, a male American voice blared throughout the Comm System as four people appeared on the Screen. "Captain Jack Harkness, calling all Dalek boys an' girls – are you receiving me?!" Jack called, his right hand clasped around a diamond connected to wiring. He was accompanied by Sarah Jane, Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler. "Don't send in your goons, or I'll let this thing off!"
"Oh my God, he's alive!" Rose cried in relief.
"That's how he's lived for over a hundred years, Rose," Romana told the young blonde. "He's immortal...although I'm not sure how..."
"Captain, what are you doing?" the Doctor demanded of him.
"I've got a Warp Star wired into the mainframe," the rogue Time Agent told him. "If I break the shell...the entire Crucible goes up!"
"You can't! Where'd you get a Warp Star?!" cried the Doctor.
"From me!" called Sarah Jane. "We had no choice – we saw what happened to the prisoners!"
"Impossible!" Davros whispered. "That face...after so very long!"
"Davros!" Sarah Jane spoke in horror. She thought she'd seen the last of him when the early Daleks had blasted him at point-blank range. "It's been a while! Sarah Jane Smith, remember?!"
"Oh, this is meant to be!" cried Davros in mad joy. "The Circle of Time is closing! You were there on Skaro, at the very beginning of my creation!"
"And I've learnt how to fight since then!" Sarah Jane spat venomously. "You let the Doctor and Romana go, or this Warp Star...it gets opened!"
"I'll do it," Jack told them, smiling mockingly. "Don't imagine I wouldn't!"
"Now that's what I call a ransom!" Rose quipped with a wry smile.
Just then a third transmission came through. This time, it was Jonathan's voice ringing out. "Hello? Dalek Crucible? Respond!" Once the image was displayed, everyone gave him their undivided attention. They noticed that Luke Smith and Maria Jackson were either side of him. "Ah...there you are."
"Jonathan!" cried Romana. "What are you doing?!"
"I'm sorry, Mum," the boy told him. "There's no choice anymore..."
"What is this?" demanded Davros. "How is this possible?" He recognised the face – it was a face that once belonged to the Doctor. But it couldn't be the first one he'd met! "What is this novelty?" The last word was a sneer.
"This is an ultimatum for the Dalek Race," Jonathan told the audience. "If you do not dismantle your Reality Bomb at once...your Battlefleet will be destroyed...utterly!"
"You are in no position to be threatening me, boy!" spat the Daleks' creator.
"Try me!" Jonathan shot right back. "I will do it if I must!"
"You have not the weaponry to destroy the Dalek Battlefleet!" taunted Davros. "Unless I am very much mistaken, you are the Doctor's child, are you not?" Jonathan nodded. His opponent then began to rant. "You have proven my point, Jonathan! You, like your father, are weak! The Daleks are all-"
But Jonathan then took a different track. "POWERFUL!" he shouted, doing his best impersonation of a Dalek voice. "CRUSH THE LESSER RACES! DESTROY REALITY! UNCHALLENGED SUPREMACY! UNLIMITED JELLYBABIES! ET CETERA, ET CETERA!" At this, every non-Dalek individual except the Doctor and Romana burst out laughing.
"DO NOT MOCK ME, YOU MEDDLING BRAT!" snarled Davros angrily. "THE DALEKS CAN NOW EXTERMINATE ALL INFERIOR LIFE!"
"GO ON THEN!" the boy challenged him. "You might be able to destroy the whole of Reality – but it won't belittle the sad, unfortunate truth – THAT OF YOUR OWN IMPOTENCE!" Now the Doctor was scared – his son was showing some traits that belonged to his own 7th incarnation.
"Jonathan, what are you doing?!" Maria cried in a hushed whisper. He just whispered; "Watch."
By this point, Davros was fuming, hatred boiling in his veins. But when he caught sight of the Doctor, he managed to translate some of that hatred into sadistic joy. "And the prophecy unfolds!"
"The Doctor's soul is revealed!" Dalek Caan cried insanely. "See him...see the heart of him!"
"The man who abhors violence...never carrying a gun..." Davros sneered, though the rage was still detectable. "But this is the truth, Doctor...you take ordinary people and fashion them into weapons...and it seems Romana has done much the same with your son...behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers! I made the Daleks, Doctor...you made this."
But Romana wasn't going to have this – the man she loved was not a murderer, and nor were the Children of Time. "Shut it, you!" she spat. But the command fell on deaf ears.
"And how many others have you caused to die?" Davros taunted the centuries-old Time Lord. "Just think, Doctor – how many have died in your name?"
A mere moment later, Romana sensed the Doctor's mind wander back to all those he had seen die over his current life and the last. Doctor, stop it! She called to him. Don't listen to this twisted abomination of the truth! But he wasn't listening to her. Romana felt the remorse and the regret threaten to overcome him. No! Romana cried.
"The Doctor...the man who keeps running," Davros mocked, "never looking back, because he dare not...out of shame! This is my Final Victory, Doctor...I have shown you...yourself."
"E-NOUGH!" the Supreme Dalek shouted. "EN-GAGE DE-FENSE ZE-RO-FIVE!"
"Get ready, Mr Smith!" Jonathan told his aunt's Supercomputer.
"TRANS-MAT EN-GAGED!" a Dalek Drone announced, placing its appendage into the corresponding controls. At once, Martha, Jack, Sarah Jane, Mickey, Jackie, Jonathan, Maria and Luke were transported directly to the Vault.
"STAY WHERE YOU ARE! DON'T MOVE!" the Doctor shouted.
"ON YOUR KNEES, ALL OF YOU!" Davros snarled commandingly. "SURRENDER!"
"Do as he says!" the Doctor implored. They did so. Then Rose spotted her mother among them.
"Mum, I told you not to!" she sighed in exasperation.
"I wouldn't leave ya," Jackie told her adamantly.
Everyone turned their attention to Davros. There was no mistaking his facial expression – it was a mask of mingled megalomania and rage. The Daleks' creator had his attention trained on Jonathan for the moment.
"Now I shall teach you the folly of your words, Jonathan!" he spat in insane fury. "While the Detonation takes place, I will destroy you...AND YOUR FATHER WILL BE MADE TO WATCH!"
"Davros, final warning...do not use the Bomb," Jonathan told him, his tone of voice perfectly serious. But he was ignored, as to be expected from the likes of Davros, whose attention was now turned to the Supreme Dalek.
"Supreme Dalek...the Time has come!" Davros called up to the leading Dalek. "Now...DETONATE THE REALITY BOMB!" The last words were a scream of mania.
*DW*
As the Countdown began, Davros turned his attention back to Jonathan, who just stared at him. "Now...you will suffer for your insolence, boy!" he spat the last word with the utmost contempt as he flicked a Control Switch on his wheelchair.
Merely a second later, Jonathan cried out in unbearable pain, falling to the floor. He could barely hear the voices of his friends screaming in protest. All of his senses had failed him. He couldn't see, nor hear, nor feel anything but the agony. His entire nervous system was aflame, and felt as though this was all it would know when...
So...what did you think of Jonathan's "Unlimited Jellybabies" mocking rant? For those of you who don't know, it's a parody of the 7th Doctor's "Unlimited Rice-pudding" mocking rant from "Remembrance of the Daleks." However, I'd like to know what you thought of it.