Chapter 13:
The Enemy Reveals Himself
"Bugger!" The Doctor growled. The couplings just didn't want to join up it seemed. He kept forcing, and forcing, and finally, they connected with a SNAP and a small shock.
The group of friends sat in the conference room, watching the Doctor bury his head in a massive pile of wires and screens. His message of "We're all going to die really soon" had Trouble put up a Code Yellow around the manor. And now here they were, waiting for the Doctor to finish building…whatever it was he was building.
Finally, Holly said; "Do you think it would help at all if, oh, I don't know, you actually told us what you were doing over there?"
"Tell you what," the Doctor retorted. "You tell me, and then I'll tell you." Luskar started snickering. Holly looked confused for a second, then turned a shade of white paler than Artemis, who began sweat a little bit.
Foaly would have immediately taken note of this, but fortunately for them, he was too preoccupied with trying to figure out what the Doctor was building. Why don't you just ask him?" Mulch said, as if he could read the centaur's mind.
Artemis wiped his brow with a small chuckle. "Because, Mulch, asking another scientist for a hint is the ultimate shame for Foaly."
"Really?"
"Indeed. You should see the look on his face whenever he calls me up to ask a question. It's like he's dying inside." In return for that, Foaly treated the young genius to a centaur stink eye.
At the end of the table at the back of the room, Artemis Sr. and Angeline sat side by side, watching their son bicker with the centaur.
"Tell me, dear, " Artemis Sr. began, "why didn't he tell me sooner?"
Because he didn't want scare you or cause you to worry, Timmy. God knows he gets enough of that from me."
"That's the other thing. He didn't tell me why you know before I did. Why is that, exactly?"
"Again, not to worry you dear…"
SSSSSSSSZZZZZZZZZZZZKKKKKKKK ! A current of electricity ran down the machine, and the Doctor popped his head out. "Finally," he grunted, slamming the hatch shut.
Perhaps a description would be appropriate. The machine itself was the size of a slide projector, with wires running from it to the TARDIS, which the Doctor had parked in the room, much to the dismay of Mr. and Mrs. Fowl. It had a wide, angular lens that protruded out from a mass of wires, and on one side sat something that looked like a keyboard and screen.
The Doctor typed something into the key board, and the machine hummed to life with a low drone.
Trouble leaned forward, impatient to get started. "Okay, space-monkey," he said, letting his impatient be made clear, "What brilliance have you decide to grace upon us?"
"Oh, hush, Trubbs" Foaly said. "I for one am extremely excited."
"Well noted, Foaly. Thank you. Seeing as you're all the reason I decided to build this."
Butler felt the need to raise an eyebrow. "How so?"
The Doctor, with an impassive look on his face, pointed his sonic screwdriver at the machine, and clicked the button. It whirred for a moment, and then, a beam of light shot from the lens of the machine. It twisted for a moment, and formed a screen that hovered above the table.
Mulch was, to say the least, unimpressed. "A T.V? Wow, Really impressive space-man."
"My kid has one of those" Foaly chimed in.
The Doctor clicked his screwdriver again, and a video began playing on the screen, which ended up being one of the few occasions Foaly shut up completely.
It was the video. The one that brought them to the manor in the first place. The same metal room, the same eye, the same voice. Those of them who had not seen it just stared; it took Angeline all she had not to scream when the eye can on.
Finally, the video finished playing, and the Doctor just stood beside the machine, no emotions playing across his face. "I thought we agreed," he said, "that there weren't going to be any secrets. I told you who I am, what I am, I showed you my ship, my home, and you go and try to hide this?"
Trouble put on his best stern face. "It was in the interest of-"
"INTEREST?!" the Doctor roared. At that moment, he strode up to Trouble, picked him up by his collar, and proceeded to let his rage out in the man's face.
"THIS COULD HAVE HELPED ME! YOU WANTED MY HELP, AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME! I NEEDED TO KNOW THIS! AND NOW, THANKS TO YOUR STUPIDITY, THERE IS NO DOUBT IN MY MIND THAT WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!"
CLICK. The Doctor turned around to see Holly pointing her gun in his face. As if he was coming out of a stupor, he noticed that all the fighters in the room were out of their chairs and ready to go, should The Doctor get violent.
The Doctor let go of Trouble, and, with all guns still trained on him, stumbled his way to a recliner at the edge of the room and collapsed into it, holding his head in his hands.
Artemis had thought to brew a pot of Earl Grey before the meeting started. He reached for the pot, poured to cups, and carried them over to The Doctor.
"You say we shouldn't keep secrets from each other," he said, handing the alien in his chair a cup of tea, "And yet it seems you're keeping a fairly big one to yourself."
The Doctor opened his mouth to say something, but Artemis raised his hand to cut him off. "You have your reasons, and undoubtedly an excuse, but I wish to hear neither. Now out with it, man; what is it that we are dealing with?"
The Doctor took a sip of his tea, and let out a heavy sigh. "It's not a pretty story, mind you."
Juliet shrugged. "Well, we're used to that, so…."
Te Doctor chuckled. "I bet you are….but not like this." He took in a deep breath, and began to tell the story he had told Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy and every one he'd met before.
"What they are is things called Daleks. They used to be Kaleds long ago, but a plague of sorts spread across their planet, so they only way for them to survive was to adapt. They had a scientist, Davros, altered them to survive. But the thing is, Davros was mad, and he ended up mutating them beyond recognition. Now their nothing more than squid-blobs in a suit of armor. The really horrible part is that Davros had muted them, so to speak. He removed any and all emotions from them. And now that they were what they were, the Daleks decided that they were the ultimate species. A master race, above all the others species in the universe. So they built weapons, ships, and they spread out. They became the most feared creatures in the entire universe. My people, the Time Lords, saw this happening and tried to stop it. Their plan was to send some one back to prevent the Daleks from ever being created. And just my luck, the person they picked was me. Not only did I fail, I ended up becoming Dalek enemy Number One. They hated me, and in turn, hated all Time Lords. So one day, they decided to rid themselves of us. They came down upon Gallifrey with legions of warships, blasting away at our cities, our homes. We knew we had top fight back, but the thing is, as the war went along, we knew we were outmatched. The Daleks kept breeding new Daleks, creating new weapons, enslaving more races to fight us. So the Council of Gallifrey came up with an ultimatum; let the Daleks have the universe, our destroy everything. They were going to open the Rift, the hole into time at the center of our world, and let the universe be destroyed. Their plan was to "evolve" themselves into beings of pure thought, and keep living even after the Universe was gone. I knew they were going to do it, so I did they only thing I could; I Time-Locked the War. The Daleks couldn't travel through time to save themselves, and neither could the Time Lords. And when the final phase of the lock had been activated…the energy destroyed everything in side the lock. Legions of ships just exploded in space, two great civilizations burned right in front of me, and I was left alone. But even after every thing I did, the Dalek's survived anyway…."
The Doctor went silent, apparently finished with his tale. Everyone just stared at him, mouths hung open. Finally;
"Well, that was amusing. I think I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of my life."
Holly looked at Mulch. "You really can't be serious about anything, can you?"
Mulch shook his head. "I find keeps me sane."
Butler went over all the facts he had just absorbed. "You say they think of themselves as a superior race. A superior race doesn't just hang around in the sky, or land on an Irish manor."
"Land on an Irish manor?" Artemis Sr. echoed.
"Yeah, sorry. It's going to land here, as far as we can tell." Holly said. "And apparently it's full of angry, genocidal aliens."
"But Butler is correct" Artemis interjected. "They wouldn't come here unless we had something they wanted. It makes no sense logically."
"Maybe they aren't thinking logically" said Foaly. "Maybe they know he's here," he pointed to the Doctor, "and just think it's a good time to let loose with an old grudge."
The Doctor couldn't help but chuckle. "Actually, that might not be so far off."
Artemis looked at all his friends with determination. "We can debate all we want, but know that we know what exactly we're dealing with we can start trying to find a way to-"
"To what, exactly?" said a voice from nowhere. Everyone looked shocked for a second, and then realized that the voice was coming from the machine.
"Well? What exactly are you going to do? Try to find a way to stop us? Oh, it's much too late for that."
"Is it supposed to do that?" Mulch asked.
"I can't believe you have to ask that" Holly said.
The machine continued to talk. "Oh, my poor, deluded Doctor. You've gone soft in your old age, old friend, and yet you're still as arrogant as you always were. Hacking into this little box was as easy as strangling an infant."
The Doctor turned a pale shade of white. He recognized that voice; that pompous, mocking voice…
The machine began to whir again, and every one took a step back, as if it were going to explode. Another beam of light shot out the lens and began to take on an odd shape.
"Did you really think I wouldn't know what you were doing?" the voice continued. "It's obvious that this box is a transmitter. What was your plan? Send us up a little message? Show us you were here and make us run scared with our tails between our legs like always?"
The hologram had finished reshaping, and it sat hovering a few inches above the conference table. It seemed to be a man, sitting in some sort of machine. The machine looked like a bulky cylinder, with silver knobs running up and down its length. It stopped at the man's torso, and went up his spine. The man himself had only on arm, and a horrible, wrinkled face with a large, pulsating blue light at the center of his forehead. His machine seemed to be a control board, with little buttons, switches, levers laid out before him like a dinner tray.
The man pulled his gums back in what looked like a smile. His teeth were black. "Always so confident in your abilities, aren't you Doctor? How I love tearing down your feelings of security. It really is the only thing that warms my little black heart."
Artemis leaned in to The Doctor. "A friend of yours, I hope?"
The Doctor shook his head. He stood up, and said the two words he hoped he never had to say for a long, long time.
"Hello, Davros…"
…Meanwhile, unknown to everyone, something was going on beneath the manor. Ghor, who, in spite of recent events, had been largely forgotten about, sat in his cell, waiting for the agent.
Suddenly, a yelp came from behind the cell door. The agent, no doubt, had dispatched the guards. The door creaked open, and there stood the agent, his body obscured by shadows.
"You're late, as usual" Ghor grunted.
The agent said nothing, but instead raised his weapon. He fired off eight shots, each for the eight major weak spots of the octo-bonds. Ghor shrugged them off, and stretched his massive limbs.
"You are aware of the plan?" the agent asked.
"Of course" Ghor snapped. "Is the master delaying them?"
"Right on schedule. Now hurry up, your over sized thro-rug. The Nightmare Child will be here soon, along with the master."
The odd pair exited the cell, stepping over the now dead bodies of the Retrieval officers that were standing guard. Time for Phase Two….