Chapter 4: Eye To Eye
The Doctor clambered over the bundle of cables and nerve fibres that extended out of the section that housed the Kaled mutant. Here, Rusty itself was lying in a squidgy mass, extending its tentacles out through larger holes to operate the controls. Its single eye was following readouts on an array of holographic screens.
The Doctor stepped in front of the screens. "Well, here we are Rusty. Eye to eye."
Rusty considered retracting a tentacle to swat him but decided to finnish the job first. "YOU CANNOT SAV THE HUMANS. I WILL JOIN THE OTHER DALEKS IN THE FINAL ATTACK. ALL WILL BE EXTERMINATED."
Two feet above them, Clara and Journey had found the cortex vault. "Ok. So what do we do?" Said Journey.
Clara looked at the display of lights on the wall before her. "Something clever, think, think think, er... some of the lights are out." Then it snapped in her mind. "Some of the lights are out!"
"Yeah, we got a damaged Dalek. So what?"
"But this section isn't damaged." She waved around at the wall. Not one panel was bent out of shape. "The Doctor said this was a memory bank and some of the memories are suppressed. What if one of the suppressed memories is the Dalek seeing the star."
"Seriously?" Cried Journey.
"Yeah, either that or the bulbs need changing."
"It could be the bulbs."
"Got a better idea?"
Journey had a mental image of herself grabbing a big hammer and re structuring Rusty's memory in the most fundamental way possible. "No. I wish I did."
"Yeah, me too. Ah ha!" Clara found a seam round the edge of one of the darkest panels and pulled it loose, revealing a passageway, just wide enough to crawl through. "Watch for antibodies. Let's see if there's an off switch."
The Doctor busied himself stripping of some wire insulation. "I've saved your life Rusty. Now I'm going to go one better. Save your soul."
"DALEKS DO NOT HAVE SOULS."
"But what if they did?" The Doctor couldn't resist the slight jab. "What then?"
Clara wriggled her way down the passageway. Behind her, she heard Journey call "If there's a pack of spare bulbs in there. Break it to me gently." She found the cables too thick to grip on so she pushed off the walls instead, but she needed some speed. Seeing a copper nub ahead of her, she grabbed it for some purchase, only to envelopd in a blue flash as some energy conducted through her.
The new signals shot out from where she was, down the links and into Rusty's housing. New images came up on the screens. Images of Daleks exterminating the peace loving people of the Elpi System.
"Your memories." Said the Doctor. "I'm about to give some back to you."
"Are you alright Clara?" Said Journey.
"Yeah. Some sort of energy discharge." Said Clara, as she wondered why she felt no different. Whatever it was that had conducted through her had done so without harming her.
"You got some of the lights back on." Said Journey.
"Of course. Like a brain. And a brain's a collection of neural pathways. That's what I'm doing. Linking them up. Turning the memories back on!" Seeing two more such nubs further down, she crawled faster, seized with new purpose.
The rebels were pressed against the back of the hold by now, barely peeking out from cover. The Daleks had taken to shooting out gas lines and light panels to disorientate them further. Morgan decided to use that to their advantage. "Everyone fall back!"
They fled, using the smoke as cover. Dalek energy weapons zipping past their ears. There was no particular structure to the retreat, the officers just led whoever was nearest to the nearest door and took up position.
Morgan himself led twelve soldiers through the main door and hit a button that activated the security door. They fled down the corridor and activated a second door, just as they heard a clang of metal on metal. Behind them, five Daleks had gone to deal with them, the lead of which had got itself jammed under the door. The rest glided past. Now clear of the smoke, they took out two more of the defenders before the second door slammed shut before them.
Journey heard an unmistakable buzzing rapidly getting closer. "Hurry up in there! We're about to get some company!" As the first antibody rounded the corner, she shot it to pieces, only for three more to follow it.
Clara had reached the second terminal. "Show me a star Rusty." She grabbed it and felt annother rush of energy flying through her.
Once more, new memories came to the screens. This time, it showed a Dalek fleet in the process of annihilating the fourth Terran fleet outside the Lambert Nebula.
The Doctor frowned. That was still the wrong one. But at least Clara was making progress. "Oh, look. It's your memories again. It's like somebody's mucking about up there. Memories, all those memories. Do you remember the star you saw being born?"
"Hurry up Clara! Hurry up!" Journey was firing more fiercely than ever, but she was beginning to feel like she was trying to catch every flake in a snowfall.
"Just one more." Clara hauled herself forward and grabbed the last terminal.
The moment she did, every light on the wall came on and the antibodies retreated.
"You did it. It's rebooting." Said Journey.
"I... I REMEMBER." Said Rusty.
"You remember the star Rusty."
"NO..."
"You saw a star being born. The endless rebirth of the universe. You saw the truth."
"TRUTH? WHAT IS THE TRUTH?" Rusty spun its casing round.
As a means of answering, the Doctor held up the ends of two nerve cables he'd stripped. "I've opened your mind Rusty. Now I'm coming in." He grabbed hold of the end of each. Both of them felt a moment of pain, followed by a sudden feeling of tranquility. Then the Doctor's voice spoke in Rusty's head. "I'm part of you. My mind is in your mind."
There was little point in retreating further. The Daleks were worming their way throughout the ship. Try to run and they'd only collide with a group of rebels fleeing the other way.
The door was beginning to glow. Morgan cocked his gun dramticaly. "That door's not going to hold. But I'm dammed if I'm making it easy for them."
The Doctor was using this mind link to flood Rusty's memories with his own.
Rusty saw the great cobalt pyramid, the mountains of Gallifrey, every one of the 700 wonders of the universe. "I see your memories, Doctor, and I see... beauty."
"Isn't the universe beautiful? Hold on to that." The Doctor smiled.
"I see... endless perfection."
"Make it a part of you. Remember how you feel right now. Put it inside you and live by it."
"I see into your soul Doctor and I see... hatred."
"Hatred?"
Images came of the Daleks exterminating one world after another. Of a man determined to wipe their scum from the cosmos, by any means necessary. And it felt good. "Hatred of the Daleks is good."
This wasn't in the Doctor's plan at all. "No, no, no. You must see more than that, there must be more than that."
"Death to the Daleks! Death to the Daleks! Death to the Daleks!"
"No, there must be more than that. There must be more than that. Please!"
"Daleks are evil! Daleks must be exterminated! Daleks are evil!"
Morgan watched as a chunk in the centre of the door peeled away and collapsed. Behind it, one of the Daleks was lining up to batter its way through.
"God help us all." He said.
But seconds before the Dalek reached the door, it was abruptly blasted into pieces. Rusty was gliding up behind them, having made up its mind that it hated Daleks above all else.
The three remaining Daleks took a few seconds to piece together what was happening. In that time, Rusty had taken out another of them. The others spun round to deal with it. Rusty wouldn't have time to take out both. However, as Rusty shot the first, the second realised that it had forgotten about the rebels, who came charging forward, pouring shot into it until it too went up in smoke.
Rusty then turned to the Dalek that was holding up the door. It was desperately trying to bring its gun round, but the pressure prevented it from doing so. Rusty lazily blasted it, allowing the door to come down and cutting off any reinforcements the Daleks might send.
"DALEKS ARE EXTERMINATED!" Said Rusty.
"Of course." The Doctor sighed. "That's what you do, isn't it."
Rusty glided over to the nearest console and unlocked all the defence systems. It also transmitted a retreat signal to the other Daleks, to make them think the ship had activated the self destruct.
A few minutes later, the Doctor, Journey and Clara sat on top of the eyestalk and pulled off their wrist straps to return to normal size. Journey looked happy to be alive and hugged her uncle, briefly. The Doctor looked disappointed. Clara looked at Rusty almost affectionately. "So what are you doing now then?"
"I MUST GO WITH THEM."
"Of course you must." The Doctor muttered. "You've got work to finish."
Rusty turned to look at the timelord. "VICTORY IS YOURS. BUT IT DOES NOT PLEASE YOU?"
"You looked inside me and saw hatred. That's not victory. Victory would have been a good Dalek." A good Dalek could have spread its ideas throughout the Dalek mind, completely rejuvenated the species. The best he could hope was that this one could disrupt their plans for a while. Adding a little self loathing to their hive mind was likely to achieve nothing.
"I AM NOT A GOOD DALEK. YOU ARE A GOOD DALEK."
The Doctor flinched slightly at that remark, as Rusty turned to leave. As the Dalek reached the end of the corridor, it stopped and turned to regard them for a few moments. It occurred to the Doctor that this was the closest he'd ever got to a goodbye wave from a Dalek.
"'till next time." He said, and went through a door, away from the others. Rusty went round the corner, out of sight.
"Is he leaving? Isn't he going to say goodbye?" Said Journey.
"I think that was it." Said Clara. "Yeah, that was it. Got to run." She hurried after the Doctor.
Journey had a thought and kissed Morgan on the cheek. "I'm sorry." She hurried after them.
The Doctor and Clara were walking back to the TARDIS in silence when she caught them. "Doctor. Take me with you." Until she met him, she'd never believed that anything she did could make a difference. Somehow, he'd shown that it could. She wanted to see more.
The Doctor thought for a moment and smiled. "I think you're probably nice. Underneath it all, I think you're kind and you're definitely brave. I just wish you hadn't been a soldier."
He stepped into the TARDIS. Clara and Journey exchanged sheepish smiles before she followed him in.
An hour later, Clara hurried into the console room, having had a wash and a change of clothes. "How do I look?"
The Doctor was stood at the console, looking glum. "Short and roundish, but with a good personality."
"I meant my clothes. I just changed."
"Well, good for you to make the effort." With a thump, the TARDIS came to a halt. "You're back in your cupboard, about 30 seconds after you left."
"When will I see you again?"
"Oh, soon I expect. Or later. One of those."
Clara had been thinking over something to say all the time she was getting changed. "I don't know."
"What?"
"You asked me if you're a good man and the answer is, I don't know. But I think you try to be and I think that's probably the point."
The Doctor smiled. "I think you'll be an amazing teacher."
"I think I'd better be." She left and walked out of the cupboard, to find Danny waiting outside. "Danny, hi!" She said, trying hard not to look like she'd just been crawling around inside a Dalek and had, in fact, seen him minutes before.
"Did you change your clothes?" Said Danny.
"Yes... well noticed. You pass the test."
Danny smiled awkwardly. "Are you realy going for a drink with me?"
"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I?"
"I just thought..."
"Thought what?"
"You might have a rule against soldiers."
"No. Not at all." She said. "Not me."
Next Time: Army Of Ghosts/Doomsday