Chapter 2: The Heart Of The Dalek
"A good Dalek?" Said Clara, as she sipped the now-cold coffee.
"No such thing." Said the Doctor.
Clara raised an eyebrow. "Bit inflexible isn't that? Not like you. One might almost say prejudiced."
The Doctor sighed, as the TARDIS came to a halt. "Do I pay you? I should give you a raise."
"You're not my boss. You're one of my hobbies. Come on."
They stepped back into the hold of the Aristotle, where the troops looked startled to see him. "That was quick." Said Journey.
"This is gun girl." The Doctor marched past her, pointing back. They followed behind. "She's got a gun and she's a girl. This is the sort of in charge one. Are you the same one as before?"
"Yes." Said Morgan.
"I think he's her uncle. But I may have made that up to pass the time while we were talking. This is Clara. She's not my assistant. She's, my... some other thing..."
"I'm his carer." Clara helpfully supplied.
"Yes. She cares so I don't have to." Without missing a stride, he hit the button for the Dalek's room.
"DOCTOR." The Dalek greeted him.
Looking at the machine, Clara felt a bit ill. The last time she'd seen one of those, she'd been on the inside. Like all her echoes, she could no longer recall the details. But every now and then, her dreams took her back to that life and reminded her what it had felt like being trapped inside one of those machines, cold and isolated and with their mental conditioning trying to destroy everything she was.
"WILL YOU HELP ME?" Said the Dalek.
"Will you help it?" Said Clara, hoping.
"A Dalek so damaged it's turned good." Said the Doctor. "Morality as a malfunction. How can I resist?"
"ALL DALEKS MUST DIE! ALL DALEKS MUST DIE!"
"So what do you do with a moral Dalek then?" Said Clara.
"We need to get into its head."
Clara frowned. "Just how do you get into a Dalek's head?"
"That wasn't a metaphor."
The techs had explained the concept to her. Their explanation required knowledge of sciences unknown in Clara's time but she gathered that the device would increase the strong atomic force of everything in the glass tube, thus making every particle within them a bit smaller, but still serving its function.
Journey attached a couple of bracelets to her wrists "These are nanocontrollers. Once we're miniaturised, they take over the molecular compression. When the mission's over, hit the button. Are you sure you understand."
"Sure, why wouldn't I?"
"Because this is a dangerous mission and you look like a schoolteacher."
"I am a schoolteacher." She said indignantly. "I didn't catch your name by the way."
"Journey Blue."
"Blue?" Said Clara, who seemed amused.
"Blue yes. Problem?"
"Nothing. It's just, I just met a soldier called Pink."
"Lucky fella. Or girl."
"What makes you say that?"
"The way it made you smile."
Clara noticed that Journey sounded almost bitter about the whole idea. "What about you? What would make you smile."
"My brother." She said. "But he burned to death a couple of hours ago, so he's realy letting me down lately. Excuse me." She went over to Morgan, who was leading a couple of privates into the room, whom he introduced as Gretchen and Ross.
"What are they for?" Said the Doctor. "I don't need babysitters."
"We're not babysitters." Gretchen said.
"We're here to kill you if you turn out to be a Dalek spy." Snarled Ross.
"Well that's a relief. I hate babysitters." Said the Doctor.
Though the soldiers tried to hide it, this was the first mission they'd actually been given. Gretchen was calm and professional about the whole thing. She was just doing her job. Ross, on the other hand, was a lot more gung ho. He'd been itching for some action right from the start, and now it had finally come around.
"Okay, listen up." Said Journey. "Now, remember, do not hold your breath when the nanoscaler engages. You'll feel like you want to, but you must keep breathing normally during the miniaturisation process."
"Why?" Said Clara.
"Ever tried to microwave lasagne without taking the film off?" Said the Doctor.
"It explodes."
"Don't be lasagne."
The team all took their seats in the capsule and sealed the door behind them. In front of them, a robot arm lowered down an n shaped device, which hung over the capsule, shining blue lights inwards.
"Militarisation in three... two... miniaturisation now." Morgan said over the comunicator.
The blue light arm ran along the length of the capsule and back again. It repeated itself again and again. Faster and faster. Clara felt a massive rise in pressure, which made her feel like she was standing under a waterfall. Indeed her instincts did tell her to hold her breath, but she took the warnings to heart and concentrated on breathing in and out. She then looked out of the capsule and saw the bizarre image of everything getting rapidly bigger.
"Nanoscaling complete." Said Morgan. "Any problems?"
"Nobody popped." Said Journey.
A massive clang sounded on the glass as a seemingly enormous pair of tweezers grasped them, via an assistant picking the capsule up. As he did so, it tilted a millimetre one way, a difference large enough to tip everyone towards the end if they hadn't grabbed their seats. From the size of the tweezers, Clara estimated that she'd been shrunk down to about two millimetres tall.
"I can't believe it." She said.
The Doctor was looking with dread at the Dalek casing they were being carried towards. "No. Neither can I."
With a little thump, they cane to a halt. Journey slid the door back open, to reveal the blue light at the end of a Dalek eye stalk, but taking up the whole doorway.
The Doctor reached out and prodded it, whereupon it wobbled. The material was maleable and ductile enough for them to step into.
"We'll be following you all the way, Rescue One. Good luck all of you" Said Morgan.
Clara took her turn stepping through, after the others. The moment she did, she got a sensation as though she was suspended in relay thick jelly. But there was no sensation of movement. For a few moments, she thought she'd done something wrong and she'd be stuck here to drown in the covering of an eyestalk, but then she broke the surface of the far side as the material, whatever it was, self-repaired behind her.
"That was weird." She said, as they made their way through the cylindrical tunnel. All around the walls, little flashes of lights in many different colours were shooting past them, each going the same way.
"Visual impulses, travelling towards the brain." The Doctor explained.
"Beautiful." Said Clara. It was amazing that something so twisted could contain something so pretty.
"Welcome to the most dangerous place in the universe." Said the Doctor.
At the far end, they clambered out onto a ledge, which ran around the bottom of the dome section. Looking down was like looking down from the empire state building. They saw the grills below them. Below that, the skirts, sloping outwards, with the inner surfaces of the sense globes protruding through. All sorts of cables and systems ran along the walls.
Suspended in the centre, was a huge red sphere, which they knew to house the Kaled mutant itself hundreds of cables connected to the rest of the machine.
"It's amazing." Said Clara.
"It's huge." Said Ross.
Gretchen rolled her eyes. "No Ross, we're tiny."
"So how big is it now? Compared to us." Said Clara.
"See all those cables?" Said the Doctor.
"Yes."
"They're not all cables."
"So that's what invited us in." Said Journey.
The Doctor took a look round the ledge and found a large bank, containing pannels covered in lights. "Now, this is the cortex vault, a supplementary electronic brain. Memory banks, but more than that. This is what keeps the Dalek pure."
"How can a Dalek be pure?" Said Gretchen.
"Dalek mutants are born hating. This is what stokes the fire, extinguishes even the tiniest glimmer of kindness or compassion. Imagine the worst possible thing in the universe, then don't bother, because you're looking at it right now. This is evil refined as engineering."
"DOCTOR?" The Dalek's voice echoed throughout the machine.
"Oh hello Rusty." Said the Doctor. "I can call you Rusty, can't I? We need to come down there with you."
"What, with those tentacles and things?" Said Gretchen.
"How close do we have to get?" Said Journey.
"Well, you can't stick a thermometer in from here." He said. Unfortunately, while talking to the women, he'd failed to notice Ross loading up his harpoon gun. The man fired into the ledge, jamming a bolt deep into the metal. A light blue haze shot out from the point where the bolt had struck, rippling out through the metal.
"No. No, no, no, no! Stop, stop, stop, you idiot!" Shouted the Doctor, as Ross ignored him and shot another bolt in.
"We need a way down. That's the only way." Said Journey.
"It's not a simple machine, it's a Dalek! A perfect analogue of a living being. And you just hurt it! You know what comes next?"
"Oh God." Said Clara, who'd seen enough Fantastic Voyage re toolings to know the answer.
"What is it?" Said Gretchen.
"Antibodies." Said Clara.
Sure enough, a little flock of floating spheres came buzzing towards them. They were designed to deal with corrosion, and various metal eating viruses that their victims had tried to weaponise against them. But also proved deadly against any tiny creatures unlucky enough to find their way inside.
The antibodies homed in on Ross and circled around him. A cover on the front irised open, revealing a scanner eye underneath.
"Stay back!" Said the Doctor. Any attempt to help him, of harm these creatures will identify us as a secondary threat.
"But the Dalek wants us here. Why's it attacking us?" Said Clara.
"Can you control your immune system?"
Like many who are itching for danger and excitement. Ross had realised the hard way that this wasn't a game and he actually may be about to die. The soldier had gone pale and shaking.
"Ross, stay calm. We're going to get you out of this." Said Journey, trying and failing to sound confident.
"You can get him out, can't you?" Said Clara.
"Here Ross, swallow that." The Doctor took a pill from his pocket.
"What is it?" Said Ross.
"Trust me."
Ross did as he'd asked. "Ok. Now what?"
Before anyone could give an answer, the antibodies ahead of him finished their scan. They buzzed angrily and rose up. The light intensified and Ross felt a very sudden surge of heat.
The others watched in horror and screamed his name as their friend turned to dust.
"What's it doing!" Shouted Clara, as one of the machines sucked up the dust, its blue light turning red. It promptly flew away.
"The hoovering." Said the Doctor, who was hurriedly adjusting his sonic screwdriver.
"What did you just give him?"
"A spare power cell. If I can track it, I can find out where they dump the bodies."
"I thought you said you could save him!" Shouted Journey.
"He was dead already. I was saving us." A lot of the antibodies were still floating around. Aware of something non Dalek in the area. "Got it! Follow me and run."
"Run!" Shouted Clara.
The group hurried along the ledge, with the antibodies following behind. The Doctor skidded to a halt by a hole in the floor, leading to a long smooth pipe. "They've dumped him in here. Organic refuse disposal. We need to get in there."
"Why?" Said Clara.
"Those antibodies won't give up until we're inside there. I'd rather go in alive than dead."
Behind them, Journey and Gretchen had formed a position and shot several of the antibodies. They went down easily enough but they were hard to hit and more and more were swarming in behind them.
"You don't even know where it leads!" Said Journey.
"Yes I do. Away from here. Now jump!"
Clara did so, followed by Journey.
"I can hold them off." Said Gretchen.
"No you can't. Now go." Said the Doctor. He soniced a nearby coolant tube and a jet of water shot out, which was more like soup at this scale. It temporarily broke up the antibodies advance as the Doctor ushered her into the hole, jumping in behind her.
The drop could not have been more than two feet, but at this scale it felt like a mile. Gravity bing a constant, they felt like they were accelerating faster than they ever had before. Fortunately, the air resistance was also much thicker at this scale and had trouble shifting aside in this pipe. This kept them travelling slowly enough.
Clara shot out the angled end of the pipe and found herself skimming off a pool of green gunge. It would have resembled something out of a 90s kids show if it wasn't for the hideous smell. To her surprise, she failed to break the surface, instead lying there for a few moments. Unfortunately, Journey and Gretchen were larger and weighed down by equipment and ended up breaking the surface tension, causing them all to sink. Luckily, the pool was shallow. With an excited "wheee!" The Doctor splashed in behind them.
"What is this stuff?" Groaned Clara.
"People. The Daleks need protean. Sometimes they harvest from their victims. This is a feeding tube."
"Is Ross here?" Said Journey.
"Top layer. If you'd like to say a few words..."
Before he could say anything else, Journey grabbed him and shoved him against the wall. "A man has just died! Do not talk like that!"
"A lot of people have died. Everything in here is dead. Do you know why that's good?"
"Nothing here is good!"
"Nothing is alive in here, so logically this is the weakest spot in the Dalek's internal security. Nobody guards the dead. Mortuaries and larders, always the easiest to break out of. Oh, I've lived a life Tell Uncle Stupid that we're in. Ah ha! A bolt hole."
As he hurried over to sonic something on the wall, Journey and Gretchen gave Clara a How do you put up with this? Sort of look.
"He'll get us out of here." She explained. "The trick is not killing him before he does."
A huge hexagonal panel on the wall rotated as the Doctor soniced it. Finaly, it fell to the floor with a massive bang. "See, bolt hole. Literally, a hole for a bolt.
Clara rolled her eyes. "Also, there's the puns."
"Come on. And watch it. Decontamination tubes are hot." Said the Doctor.
They hauled themselves out of the pool and clambered into the new tube. Indeed it was very hot in there, and a fine haze of water vapour hung in the air. Or it would have been fine on a macro scale. As it was, some of the suspended droplets of water were the size of ping pong balls. The steam did have one positive feature though, as it was thick enough to wash away all the gunk.
As she crawled through, Journey pulled out her radio. "Rescue 1 to mission control."
"This is blue. Mission control here." Said Morgan. "What's the situation?"
"The Dalek has some sort of internal defence mechanism. We've lost Ross."
"What kind? Doesn't it know you're in there to help it?"
"Yeah, well, it's a Dalek. So who knows? We're going to continue the mission."
Behind her, the Doctor was looking over his shoulder at Clara. "Are you alright back there? It's a bit narrow."
"Any remarks about my hips will not be appreciated." She said.
"Ach. Your hips are fine. Built like a man." Said the Doctor.
"Thanks." Clara frowned.
They reached the far end and dropped down into a room lined with walls of circuit boards. They could see little blue pulses as instructions travelled along the circuits.
The Doctor heard a strange crackling noise, which seemed to be coming from Gretchen. "What's that noise? Are you wearing a Geiger counter?"
"Standard battle equipment." She said. "That's just low level."
"Stronger down here. Gimme." He grabbed it off her.
"How's he working out?" Said Morgan.
Journey thought for a moment. "It's difficult to say. He's..."
"Got it!" The Doctor interrupted. "I know what's wrong with Rusty."
"It that good?" Said Clara.
"You know how I said that the inside of a Dalek is the most dangerous place in the universe? Well, I was wrong. It's much more dangerous than that."
Journey got back on her radio. "Colonel. We have radiation indicators red lining here. Could be that the Dalek was more battle damaged than we thought."
"Roger that."
The Doctor followed the Geiger counter down through the circuit boards and into a collection of tanks and pipes none of them could identify. "Old Rusty here is suffering a trionic radiation leak. It's poisoning the Dalek and us. Just as well we're here."
"Shouldn't we get out while we can?" Said Journey, who'd been against this plan from the start. Why should we trust a Dalek? Why would it change?"
"Good question." Said the Doctor. "Rusty, what changed you?"
"I SAW BEUTY." Said Rusty.
"You saw what?"
"IN THE DARKNESS AND THE COLD. I SAW WORLDS BURNING."
"That's not beauty. That's destruction." Journey scowled.
"I SAW... MORE."
"What did you see?" Said the Doctor.
"I SAW THE BIRTH OF A STAR."
"Stars are born every day. You've seen a million stars born. So what?"
"DALEKS HAVE DESTROYED A MILLION STARS."
"Oh millions and millions. Trust me, I keep count. The Doctor rolled his eyes."
"AND YT NEW STARS ARE BORN."
"Every time."
"RESISTANCE IS FUTILE."
"Resistance to what?"
"LIFE. LIFE ALWAYS PREVAILS. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!"
"So you saw a star being born, and you learned something. Oh, Dalek, do not be lying to me. Come on."
They continued on to the very heart of the Dalek, as the Geiger counters approached 200 rads. Finally, they reached the very centre, where the disturbance was originating from. Above them, they had a much better view of Rusty's housing, with the thousands of cables and tubes strung out of it and the tentacles stretched out to operate the closer controls, namely the sucker arm and the gun.
"It's incredible." Said Clara.
The Doctor looked at the main power cell before him, with a massive glowing crack running through it.
"Power's off the scale." Said Journey. "I think its gonna blow."
"Good." Said the Doctor.
"How is that good?" Journey was rapidly getting fed up with his constant unflappability.
"I like a bit of pressure. It helps me work. Rusty, I've found the problem. There was a breach in your power cell. I'm patching it up now." He set the sonic screwdriver to resonate the material and held it up to the crack. As he'd hoped, the unstable molecules melted together, starting from the top, and pulling the rest of the divide into one piece. "There. Good as new."
"Is that it?" Said Clara.
"I like a bit of anticlimax now and again. Good for my hearts. Rusty, how do you feel?" But Rusty was silent. That wasn't a good sign. "Rusty? Rusty? Rusty?"
"THE MALFUNCTION IS CORRECTED."
"What's happening?" Said Journey.
"I'm not sure."
All around them, previously idling machinery suddenly whirred into life. "I think its waking up." Said Journey.
The Doctor's heartbeats were rapidly increasing. "Rusty, talk to me. What's happening?"
"THE MALFUNCTION IS CORRECTED. ALL SYSTEMS ARE FUNCTIONING! WEAPONS CHARGED!"
"No, no, no no no, no!"
"EXTERMINATE!" Rusty roared will all the fury of a full strength, and battle hungry Dalek.
Author's notes: I think this is the single longest chapter I've ever uploaded.
I like to add scientific observations to these novelizations, so I've added a few bits about the effects of down scaling.