Chapter 6: Asylum of the Daleks – part two
The Doctor and Rose landed side by side in the snow. Both immediately started laughing at the ridiculousness of their life.
"Oooh, that was fun. Can we do that again?" Rose teased.
"Maybe I'll take you somewhere we can zip line instead, eh?" the Doctor suggested.
"Probably a better idea. Where are the others?" Rose wondered.
Beside them, a small camera popped out of the snow. It looked a lot like a Dalek's eye and turned to look back and forth between them before they suddenly heard the sounds of Carmen again. The music stopped almost as suddenly as it had started.
"Sorry, sorry. Pressed the wrong switch," Aria called through a hidden comm system.
"Aria?" the Doctor questioned.
"Yeah, yeah, it's me. You two okay?" she asked.
"How are you doing that, eh? This is Dalek technology," he wondered.
"It's very easy to hack. Well, this part is. The shields, no so much," she replied.
"No, it isn't. Where are you?" he demanded.
"I have a ship. Parked it near the computer core underground. There was a Starliner that crashed about a year ago and their distress call was what alerted me to this place. I followed them in to try and hack the system. Now we're a bit stuck," she answered.
"You've been here for a year?!" Rose gasped.
"Not exactly. It's, well, complicated," she told them.
"Doctor? Rose?" Amy shouted as she ran over the snowy hill towards them.
"Oops! Talk to you later!" Aria said and the little camera disappeared into the snow.
"Oi! Come back!" the Doctor shouted and dug into the snow to try and find the device again.
"Doctor!" Amy gasped as she reached them finally. There was a man in a white parka following her and they wondered where he might have come from.
"Amy! Are you alright? Where's Rory?" Rose asked, checking her over for any injuries from the landing.
"There was another beam. There. Over there," the man told them and pointed over the next hill. "Are you the rescue team?" he called after them as the trio ran towards where he was pointing.
There was a large hole that looked as though it had been drilled straight through the snow and ground cleanly, though they couldn't see the bottom.
"Rory? Rory! Rory!" Amy shouted down the hole, getting louder as her panic increased.
"Did the gravity beam take him all the way down there? He should be fine then, yeah?" Rose suggested.
"Should be. We'll find him, Amy. Don't worry," the Doctor assured her, glad to see that she was still at least concerned about him, even if they weren't their usual lovey-dovey selves.
"I'm Harvey. Our escape pod crashed just over here," the man directed them, once he caught up with the group. "We came down two days ago. There's twelve of our escape pods. I don't know what happened to the rest of them."
"I'm Rose. That's the Doctor and Amy. We need to find our friend, Rory," Rose told him as they followed him back to the escape pod.
He opened the hatch on the pod and climbed down the ladder. Rose grabbed both Amy and the Doctor's sleeves before they could follow him. "Didn't Aria say that it crashed a year ago? And Doctor, what did they mean by nanocloud?" she questioned worriedly.
"Yes, she said a year. He thinks it's only been two days. We'll figure this out," he told her and led them both down into the ship to follow the only life they'd met so far.
"We should have some climbing rope long enough for that hole," Harvey called as they descended the ladder. He was searching through a cabinet full of supplies.
They looked around the cabin and saw several people sitting in some of the chairs. Their hoods were all up, as if they were trying to keep out the cold, even inside, but none of them moved at the sound of the new arrivals.
"Won't you introduce us to your crew?" the Doctor prompted.
"Ah, yes, sorry. Guys, this is the Doctor, Rose, and Amy," he announced, but all of the figures remained completely still in their seats. "Guys?"
The Doctor moved to look at one of them and pulled back the hood. The people were all dead and apparently had been for quite some time from the looks of them. Rose and Amy moved closer to see as well, when the Doctor only looked at them worriedly. He scanned the others, but it only confirmed that the rest of them had been dead just as long; about a year.
"Oh, my god," Harvey gasped.
"They're dead. All of them," the Doctor told him.
"That's not possible. I just spoke to them. Two hours ago. We were doing engine repairs," Harvey insisted.
"You're sure about that, are you? Because I'd say they've all been dead for a very long time," the Doctor replied.
"But they can't have been," he denied.
"Well, they didn't get in this state in two hours," Amy said, disgusted by what she was seeing.
"Doctor, what's going on?" Rose asked.
"No, of course. Stupid me," Harvey said, his panic suddenly disappearing to be replaced by an eerie calm.
"Of course what?" Amy asked.
"I died outside, and the cold preserved my body. I forgot about dying," he told them before they heard the tell tale cracking sound and a Dalek eyepiece popped out of his forehead.
"Doctor!" Rose shouted as she backed away toward the cockpit door, pulling Amy along with her.
"Got it!" he called back as he grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and fired it at Harvey before he could reach them. The Doctor used the force of it to direct the confused puppet towards a closet and Rose dashed forward to seal the thing inside.
"Nice work, love," the Doctor sighed in relief and kissed her quickly on the forehead.
"Explain," Amy demanded, coughing from the gas of the extinguisher. "That's what you're good at. How'd he get all Daleked?"
"Because he wasn't wearing one of these," the Doctor realized. "Oh, ho, ho. That's clever. The nanocloud. Microorganisms that automatically process any organic matter, living or dead, into a Dalek puppet. Anything attacks this place, it automatically becomes part of the on-site security."
"That's what they were talking about, then? Like nanogenes, yeah?" Rose asked.
"Living or dead?" Amy questioned worriedly.
"Yeah, see we ran into these things a long time ago called nanogenes. They were like a medical thing that would just kind of fix you up, even from death sometimes," Rose told her.
"These wristbands protect us. The only thing stopping us going exactly the way he did," the Doctor explained.
"Doctor, shut up! Living or dead?" Amy prompted.
"Oh my god," Rose gasped and looked at the crew.
"Yes, exactly. Living or, or," the Doctor began but paused when he heard the cracking of the Dalek eyepieces piercing the skulls of the bodies around them. "Dead. Oh dear."
The three of them managed to dodge the zombie-like things as they dashed into the cockpit, right up to the last minute. One of them grasped Amy's arm before they could seal the door, but the Doctor pulled her free and pulled the lever to lock them in. They all sighed in relief despite the sound of banging coming from the other side of the door.
"Is it bad that I've really missed this?" Amy asked with a grin.
"Yes," the Doctor scolded.
"It's good," she laughed.
"Oh yeah," Rose agreed.
"You two," he responded, shaking his head.
"Unauthorized personnel may not enter the cockpit," came the sound of Aria's voice over the comm system.
"Shut up," the Doctor called back.
"Oh, Mr. Grumpy," she grumbled. "Bad combo. No sense of humour and that chin."
"Aria? Did you hack into this too?" Rose questioned.
"Oi, what is wrong with my chin?" the Doctor protested, prompting a giggle from Amy and Rose.
"Careful, dear. You'll put someone's eye out," Aria teased. "Scanning you. You're in one of the escape pods from the Alaska, right?"
"How can you hack into everything? It should be impossible. None of these things are connected," the Doctor argued.
"I've got some really impressive technology of my own. Besides, I'm a bit awesome with computers. Is there a word for total screaming genius that sounds modest and a tiny bit sexy?" Aria bragged.
"Doctor. You call me the Doctor," he teased.
"Oi! No flirting!" Rose told him with a smack on the arm.
"See what you did there," Aria responded, ignoring the argument. "I managed to hack into the internal teleports of the escape pod since we last spoke, and I think I can get you from that pod down into the lower levels. You might be able to find Rory down there."
"How did you know his name?" Amy questioned suspiciously.
"He, umm, told me. I spoke to him on one of the other computer things down there," she answered. They got the sense though that she may have been lying about that somehow. "Just a tick and I'll teleport the three of you."
"Speaking of Rory, is there anything you want to tell me?" the Doctor asked Amy.
"Are we going to do this now?" she grumbled.
"What happened?"
"Oh, stuff. You know. We split up. What can you do?" Amy deflected.
"What can I do?" he asked, really wanting to help his friends.
"Nothing," she insisted.
"This isn't about that thing we talked about at Christmas, is it?" Rose questioned. Amy just looked at her sadly for a moment before turning away.
The banging from outside stopped suddenly and the Doctor noticed the Dalek puppets holding something up to the camera feeding into the cockpit.
"Oh, hello, hello, hello. What are they up to?" he wondered and examined the small screen.
"What's that?" Amy asked, looking over his shoulder.
"One of these," he replied, holding up his wristband. "But where did they get it?"
"Doctor, they got it from me," Amy gasped as she realized that hers was missing.
"Oh my god, Amy!" Rose cried.
"Doctor, what's going to happen to me? Seriously. Tell me what," she asked, starting to panic.
They were all engulfed in a bright blue light for a moment before finding themselves in a dark, damp hallway.
"So tell me, what's going to happen to me? And don't lie. Because I know when you're lying to me," Amy demanded as they walked, cautiously, down the corridor.
"The air all around is full of micro-machines. Robots the size of molecules. Just like the nanogenes that Rose mentioned. Now that you're unprotected, you're being re-written," the Doctor explained.
"So, what happens? I get one of those things sticking out of my head?" Amy deduced from what they had seen.
"Physical changes come later," he told her.
"What comes first? How does it start?" she asked.
"With your mind. Your feelings, your memories, and I'm sorry but it's started already," he said as he scanned her with his sonic screwdriver.
"How long before we can't fix it, Doctor?" Rose questioned.
"Hard to say. Depends how hard she fights it," he answered.
"How do I fight it, then?" Amy growled in frustration.
"Hold onto your feelings, Amy. Feelings that aren't Dalek. Scared, or happy, or or or," he floundered.
"Love, Amy. Daleks don't feel love," Rose added and they exchanged a knowing look between them.
"I've seen this before," the Doctor told them, trying to give a bit of distraction as they made their way through the narrow hallways.
"Daleks taking over humans as slaves you mean?" Rose wondered.
"Yeah. Used to call them Robomen. First, they used these big metal things on their heads to control them, but they developed a surgical implant later on. Using nanotechnology only started during the War," he explained.
Rose squeezed his hand in support, when their bracelets clicked together, she sent him a wave of love and reassurance that they'd get out of this with everyone safe. He still had nightmares from the Time War, even centuries later. Meeting Daleks like this meant that they were likely to increase again for a while.
They walked through a doorway, but could hear the sound of Daleks ahead of them and backed out of the room.
"You two, stay here, don't open that door," the Doctor instructed as he went back down the hall to a computer terminal that they had just passed. "Aria! Aria, can you hear me?" he called out, hoping that she had been monitoring their progress through the asylum.
"Hello, the chin. I have visual on you," she answered as the screen activated, displaying a few readouts in the Dalek language.
"Why don't I have a visual on you? Why can't I ever see you?" he wondered.
"Limited power, bad hair, take your pick. I'm going to send you a map to that screen. I put your little friend somewhere safe. I can get you to him," she informed him.
"Rory. You found Rory?" he asked quickly.
"He's just fine. Here we are," she replied, a map of the area appearing on the screen.
Amy was looking through the window into the room ahead curiously as Rose watched her.
"Amy? What is it, sweetheart?" she asked.
"Hello? Who are you?" she whispered.
"Amy! Are you alright?" Rose called, grasping her arm to get her attention.
Amy clenched her eyes shut and pressed her hands to the sides of her head as if in terrible pain all of a sudden. Her knees buckled and she almost fell to the floor.
"Doctor! It's getting worse," Rose shouted to her husband.
"I'm coming!" he called back to her. "Aria, how many Daleks directly ahead of us right now?"
"Ten, twenty? Hard to say. Some of them are catatonic but they do have firepower," she answered and several dots appeared on the screen to indicate the Daleks identified on the sensors.
"Doctor, you've got to come check on her, please," Rose said, suddenly at his side.
"Right, but there's Daleks ahead of us, how do we get past them? Amy!" he suddenly shouted as he saw her walking into the room on her own. Pulling Rose with him, they chased after her.
"Shush. It's okay, it's just people in here. It's just people," Amy told them placatingly.
"Amy, it's the nanocloud, it's altering your perception. Look again. Look again. Those aren't people," he insisted.
They could see the moment that she realized they were surrounded by dozens of Daleks. She tensed, frozen in fear and Rose grabbed her to pull her back out of the room with them. There wasn't time to seal the door again and one of the Daleks followed them down the hall. The three of them ducked into an alcove, knowing that it wouldn't give them cover for long.
"INTRUDER," it repeated nearby, but the sound that should have sent energy beams blasting down the corridor, simply fizzled, over and over again.
"It's damaged," the Doctor realized when they peeked out to look.
"Stupid, rusty, tin cans. What do we do with you then?" Rose growled.
"Identify me. Access your files. Who am I? Come on. Who's your daddy?" the Doctor ordered.
After a moment for it to access its files, the Dalek replied, "YOU ARE THE PREDATORS. THE DOCTOR AND THE ABOMINATION."
"I really wish you guys would stop calling me that," Rose complained. It was really ridiculous. All Daleks called her that, as well as some Cybermen, and other species were starting to do it as well.
"Access your standing orders concerning the Predators," the Doctor demanded, ignoring his wife's irritation for the moment.
"THE PREDATORS MUST BE DESTROYED."
"Is this a good idea, love?" Rose questioned worriedly.
"And how are you going to do that, Dalek? Without a gun you're a tricycle with a roof. How are you going to destroy us?" the Doctor taunted it.
"Self-destruct initiated," it announced as an alarm began to sound.
"What's it doing?" Amy asked.
"Not something that I was hoping for, hope you've got a plan, my love," Rose responded.
"It's going to blow itself up, and us with it. Only weapon it's got left," he explained quickly as he pulled open the top of the Dalek and used his sonic to access the controls.
"SELF-DESTRUCT CANNOT BE COUNTERMANDED," the Dalek told him.
"I'm not looking for a countermand, dear. I'm looking for reverse," he replied smugly and they watched as the machine housing an insane alien began to roll back into the room with the others at an alarming rate.
"FORWARD, FORWARD," the Dalek argued with its own commands, but couldn't change course before crashing into several other Daleks. The Doctor, Rose, and Amy all ducked back into the alcove as a blast of flames rolled down the corridor.
The Doctor lifted the now unconscious Amy into his arms as he and Rose made their way into the room that they needed to cross. There were the exploded remains of Daleks everywhere.
Through the smoke, they could hear Rory calling out in confusion, "Aria? What happened? Who killed all the Daleks?"
When he came into sight of them, the Doctor responded, "Who do you think?"
