History Repeats | Chapter 15
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Chapter Summary:
Once again in Van Statten’s underground bunker, Rose must make a terrible decision when she comes face to face with the Dalek once more. How will she be able to stop the massive slaughter ahead?
Dalek
The Lone Dalek
“What’s that, then?!” the Doctor said in surprise. He was leaning in, squinting at the console screen in confusion. There was a persistent beeping sound, almost like a warning.
“What is it?” Rose asked him, attempting to look too. As usual, she couldn’t understand a thing, since the writing was all in Gallifreyan, but the screen was flashing red. “That doesn’t look good, yeah?”
“I don’t know. Maybe we should take a look.” Immediately, he began to race around the console, hitting buttons and flicking switches. Pausing with one hand on a lever, he looked up at her curiously. “What do you think it is?”
She looked back up at the screen. “Um… I don’t know. It’s not a problem with the TARDIS, is it?”
“No, it’s from outside,” he told her.
“Some sort of distress signal?” she guessed.
“Could be. Let’s find out.” As he spoke, the TARDIS gave one final lurch, and they landed. He took one last look at the screen before instantly headed for the door and she followed him out.
“So, what is it? What’s wrong?” she asked. “Is it a distress signal?”
“I don’t know, but it’s certainly some kind of signal, drawing the TARDIS off course…”
He began to look about, and Rose’s stomach lurched as she did the same. She knew this place. It was Van Statten’s Museum. Oh god, the Dalek. She didn’t know if she was ready for this. She didn’t know if she was ready to face a Dalek again. Or if she could even stop the devastation this one Dalek caused.
She felt sick.
“What is this place?” she asked, despite the nausea. “Where are we?”
“Earth, Utah, North America. About half a mile underground.”
“Right, underground base. Not ominous at all,” she muttered. “And when are we?”
“2012.”
“That’s so close,” she said. “That’s… what, only seven years away? I should be…” She tried to do the maths in her head. She was twenty-three, so it would make her 30. No! No, she was nineteen! Biological time. Why was her age so confusing now? “Twenty-six.”
Still looking around as she spoke, the Doctor found a light switch and turned it on, flooding the halls with light and illuminating the sick, alien museum. Many glass cabinets were spaced throughout the enormous room.
“Blimey, this place is huge!” she exclaimed. “Look at this stuff. Is that alien?”
“Yeah. A big old alien museum. Someone’s got a hobby.” They began to walk down the row, looking in the cases. “They must’ve spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust… That’s the milometer from the Rosewell Spaceship.”
“Look! That’s a Slitheen arm!” she cried, pointing it out. “That’s from a Raxocorocofalipatorian! Look at it, it’s been stuffed! How on earth did they even get it? Do you think it’s from when we bombed Downing Street?”
“Most likely,” the Doctor said. Then something else grabbed his attention and he quickly approached the case. “Oh, look at you!” he said to it.
Rose followed him over, staying a step behind him as she looked at the case he was. Inside was the head of a Cyberman. Her heart began to beat rapidly in fear as she gazed at it. This had been the first place she had ever seen a Cyberman. At the time, she could never fully comprehend just how terrible they were. Looking at it, it almost looked a little silly. The design was different to they Cybermen she knew. The head rounder and skinnier, the ‘handles’ on the side were thicker and ribbed. It didn’t look as aggressive and intimidating as the ones from the other dimension, but she knew that they were probably just as deadly.
“I don’t like that thing…” she found herself saying.
“Mmm, with good reason,” he said quietly. “This is an old friend of mine… Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I’m getting old.”
“Well, yeah. That kind of happens when you’re 900 years old and jump about time willy-nilly.”
“Oi! I’m actually still pretty young for my species, thank you very much. Time Lords can live for thousands and thousands of years! Well, if they’re carful, which most of them are… were.”
Sensing his mood dropping as he thought of his people, Rose went with her favourite tactic of distraction. “So, where do you think the signal is coming from?”
“I’m not sure,” he said, still staring at the Cyberman head. “Everything here looks like it’s well and truly dead. The signal’s alive. Something’s reaching out… Calling for help.” He gently reached up, and before Rose could say anything to caution him, he tapped the glass.
Instantly, alarms went off and men with guns ran into the room so fast she’s surprised they hadn’t come in earlier simply from just hearing them talk. There were at least a dozen of them, and within a few seconds, they were completely surrounded, guns pointing directly at them.
“If someone’s collecting aliens, that makes you Exhibit A,” she commented. The Doctor just gave them a tight-lipped smile as if to say ‘oops’. Rose frowned. “No, really. I don’t trust this place. Might be a good idea to not let them know…”
Knowing what Van Statten was like, knowing what he was doing to that Dalek as they spoke, she could just imagine what he would do if he ever found out that the Doctor was alien when they weren’t in the middle of a crisis. She could practically see the Doctor strapped to an angled, upright table, his shirt stripped off and writhing in pain as they tortured and experimented on him.
Again, she felt so worried that it made her feel sick. She wanted out of this place as soon as possible. Taking the Doctor’s hand, the attempted to calm herself, telling her self that she was over reacting and imagining things. The Doctor would be fine. He was last time.
She just had to deal with the Dalek, and everything would be okay.
Everything was okay.
One of the armed men grabbed a radio and spoke to someone. “Sir, we have two intruders on Level Sub 53. One male, one female. They look like civilians, but we’re not sure how they got down here undetected. Can’t see anything on them.”
After a moment’s pause, the radio made a static sound as a reply came through. “Alright, check them. I’ll make sure the boss is informed.”
“Yes, Sir.” He turned to a couple of the other men. “Search them.”
The two men came over to them, instructing them to hold their hands over their head and began to pat them down. Rose was reluctant to let go of the Doctor’s hand, but complied. She would be worried that they would find the alien tech that the Doctor carried on him, like the sonic screwdriver and more, but this had happened enough times in her past that she knew by now that anything in his trans-dimensional pockets wouldn’t be felt or picked up on any scans. The only thing they found in Rose’s pockets was her phone, which, after a brief glance at her messages, was handed back to her.
“People still have these?” the man who’d grabbed it asked, staring at it like it was an old relic.
“I miss those things,” another guy commented. “Trusty old phones, like bricks. I used to have a Noikia, my wife accidentally backed over it with the car. Perfectly fine! These days you drop your phone on the ground and it’s unusable!”
“I got my dad a new phone,” someone else said. “Fell out of his back pocket into the toilet. Won’t work anymore and he’s sitting there wondering why.”
“Humans,” the Doctor sighed quietly. “Make something better and you’re still not happy with it. Still, that’s how you evolve.”
Rose smirked, but her attention was diverted by someone’s radio going off.
“Attention all personnel. Bad Wolf One, descending. Bad Wolf One, descending.”
“What’s that, then?” she asked. “What’s Bad Wolf?”
“It’s one of our choppers,” the man replied. “The big boss’s chopper. He’s just arrived. He’s the one who’s going to decide what to do with you.”
“Right… and he named his helicopter after a fairytale?” She knew that they were her words, and she realised that she was probably the one to put the words in his head, but it was Van Statten, and she felt that wanker deserved all the teasing he could get.
“I wouldn’t make light of him, if I were you,” the man warned her. “He’s got a short temper. I heard that when he fires people, he has their memories erased and just leaves them out on the street in a random place around the country, and they’re just left there with nothing and no clue who they are.”
“Charming,” the Doctor grumbled sarcastically.
“Palmer, come in,” a voice crackled through the radio, cutting off any more conversation.
“Palmer here,” the man in charge answered.
“Bring the intruders to Mr Van Statten’s office. He wants to see them.”
“Yes, sir.” He looked up at them. “Right you two, follow us. And no funny business.”
“Funny business? Me?” the Doctor said innocently. Rose could only grin and shake her head.
Silently, they were led from the museum and into a lift, only a couple of the guards with them now. The lift went up ten or so floors before they were led out, down the corridor. Van Statten’s PA met them outside and escorted them into the lavish office. On the back wall was a large painting of Van Statten, she instantly recognised the style of a famous contemporary painter but couldn’t for the life of her put a name to the artist. It was clearly a recreation of one of the lady’s most famous paintings. And sitting at his desk in front of the gaudy, self-gratuitous painting was the man himself, taking an alien artefact from Adam.
“…Paid $800,000 for it,” he was saying.
“What does it do?” Van Statten asked, taking it from him.
“W-well, you see, the tubes on the side must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel-”
“I really wouldn’t hold it like that,” the Doctor said, cutting him off.
“Shut it,” the PA commanded harshly.
“Really, though. That’s wrong,” he continued.
“Is it dangerous?” Adam asked.
“No. Just looks silly.” He leaned forward to put his hand out for the item, but paused when they heard the sound of multiple guns cocking. Van Statten held up a and to stay them, then cautiously handed it over. The Doctor looked pleased as he lay it out flat on his palm and brought his other hand up to stroke the top. “You just need to be…” As he ran his fingers over it, it lit up and sounds came from it, like someone running their finger around a wine glass. “…delicate.”
Everyone looked impressed by his talent, and he just looked smug.
“Oh, that’s beautiful,” Rose said. “Can I…?”
Before anyone could protest, the Doctor handed it over to her. She hadn’t gotten the chance to play one quite like this, but the Doctor had taken her somewhere where she’d played something similar. With the most gentle of touches, she ran her fingers over the top, going through the scales. And then she began to play a tune. It was an easy, beautiful tune. One that she had heard almost every day for years. The song of the TARDIS. Even when she was no longer with them, the song stayed in her heart and she would often wake up in the morning with the tune dancing through her head.
She was so engrossed in playing the instrument, she didn’t see the Doctor’s brow furrow.
“It’s a musical instrument!” Van Statten said in wonder.
The Doctor nodded. “And it’s a long way from home.”
“Here, let me,” he said. He held out his hand and Rose handed the instrument back, trying to hide a pout of disappointment. Unfortunately, it was his.
She wondered if she could convince the Doctor to come back for it for her.
They watched as he took the instrument and odd, static-like sounds came out as he pressed too hard.
“I did say ‘delicate’,” the Doctor told him. “It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision.” Van Statten listened to the Doctor’s advice and soon a few ringing notes came from it. “Very good,” he congratulated him. “Quite the expert.”
“As are you.” He suddenly callously tossed the instrument behind him and all eyes followed it as it clattered to the ground. Rose could tell by the look in the Doctor’s eyes that this was the exact moment he decided he did not like this man. “Who exactly are you?”
“I’m the Doctor. And who are you?”
“Like you don’t know,” Van Statten snarked. “We’re hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artefacts in the world and you just stumbled in by mistake.
“Pretty much sums me up, yeah.”
“You’d be surprised by how often it happens,” Rose put in.
“Question is, how did you get in?” He walked around the desk, so he was standing closer to them. “53 floors down with your little cat burglar accomplice.” He leered down at her and Rose scowled. “Quite the collector yourself, she’s rather pretty.”
“She has a name, you know,” she snapped at him. “It’s Rose, and she’s gonna slap you if you don’t use it.”
“Ooh, and she’s spunky too. I like her. Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy, we might have found you a little English girlfriend.”
“Yeah, no thanks,” she muttered, shooting a glare at Adam. The Doctor looked between them with raised eyebrows, looking highly amused.
“Ah, this is Mr Henry Van Statten,” Adam introduced the smug man.
“What, and he can’t introduce himself?” she snarked. “And who’s he when he’s at home anyway? Other than some smug, rich twat with a hobby as weird as stamp collecting?”
Adam frowned in surprise at her comment, but soldiered on regardless. “Mr Van Statten owns the internet.”
“Oh, I see… That would be impressive if that was how the internet actually worked. No one can own the internet.”
“And let’s just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?” Van Statten said. Rose just rolled her eyes.
“So, you’re an expert on just about everything except the things in your museum,” the Doctor observed. “Anything you don’t understand, you lock up.”
“And you claim greater knowledge?”
“I don’t need to make claims, I know how good I am.”
“And yet, I captured you,” Van Statten said smugly. “Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?”
“You tell me.”
“The cage contains my one living specimen.”
“And what’s that?”
“Like you don’t know.”
“Show me”
“You wanna see it?”
The exchange was so quick, each man rapidly coming back with their reply in a way that reminded Rose of men showing off their toys.
“Blimey, just whip them out and measure them already!” she huffed jokingly.
“Rose!” the Doctor said, aghast.
“What, we both know you’d win,” she said to him with a smirk. “He’s clearly compensating for something.” This drew a small guffaw from the Doctor and Van Statten glared at her. Oh, she had hit the nail on the head.
“Goddard, inform the cage. We’re heading down,” Van Statten said to his assistant. He turned to Adam. “You, English. Look after the girl. Canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do.”
“No, thanks!”
“And you, doctor with no name…” He nodded towards the lift. “Come and see my pet.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Rose said. “I’m going with him.”
“Nope. You’re staying up here. I don’t just let anyone see my pet, and he’s the expert. So, the mouthy teen stays here.”
“Aww, but you said you liked me,” she pouted teasingly as they walked out the door.
The Doctor grinned, enjoying it probably more than he should. “Behave, you.”
“Never.”
He shot her one last brilliant grin before he turned and climbed into the elevator with the others, leaving just her and Adam in the room. She turned to face him expectantly, and for a moment, Adam just stood there, awkwardly hitting a fist into the palm of his hand. The expression he wore was clearly one of someone who had no clue what to do or say.
“Blimey, you’re a clever one, aren’t ya?”
“Oh, thank you!” he said, brightening up.
“That was sarcasm, Mate. Come on, you’re babysitting me. What are we going to do for entertainment?”
“I… Um, how-how about I show you my workroom?” he asked. “It’s no museum or Metaltron, but there’s some pretty cool things in there.”
“Metaltron?”
“It’s what Mr Van Statten has called his living specimen. See, no one knows what it is, and since we can’t get it to communicate we have no way of knowing. The alien seems to be a living creature, but it’s encased in this large, metal structure. So… Metaltron.”
“Ah, I see,” she said, trying not to laugh imagining a Dalek’s reaction to being called a Metaltron.
“Anyway, it’s ah… this way.” He led her out of the office into the hall, and into another elevator, making a belated introduction and small talk. They went down a few floors, along another few corridors, and finally into his small, cluttered workspace. “Sorry about the mess,” he said. “Mr Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods…”
Rose looked about the space, taking in all the objects around the room. She was quite pleased to find that she recognised a lot of them or could at least roughly identify what most of them were. She could also see quite a few objects she was sure were from Earth, and even something she knew was from the 51st century. She wasn’t sure if it fell through a rift, or if it had been dropped by a Time Agent, but she knew exactly what it was… and she should probably get it out of the hands of this greedy, arrogant git.
“What do you think this is?”
His voice caught her attention, and she turned around to see him holding something out to her. As she took it off him, she could see it in his eyes. That look that was practically begging her to ask him what it was so he could explain his ‘amazing’ theories to her and show off just how smart he was. She remembered how last time, even though she hadn’t had a clue what half of this stuff was, she had still played ignorant so he could show off. It was something she had sometimes done with the Doctor, just so she could listen to the sound of his voice and see how excited he got while explaining things. She had wanted to see Adam get that excited and passionate about something he clearly loved. But this time, she knew better. She knew what he was really like, and she had later realised that he had been rather condescending to her, just because she wasn’t ‘smart’. Well, she wasn’t going to let that happen again.
“Hmm….” She studied the chunk of metal carefully. “It’s porous, which would make it lighter than it would be if it where solid… Naturally occurring. But it’s been shaped. These bits are clearly broken and torn,” she traced her fingers around the edges, “but this part is smoothed flat, like it’s been worked. It’s an odd metal… definitely not from Earth. The colour is off from anything we have, and the pattern in the metal is an effect we’ve only seen on meteorites. Actually, there isn’t a metal like this in our entire galaxy, so it’s from somewhere beyond the Milky Way. It’s undoubtedly from a spacecraft of some kind, but I’m not sure which bit. The lightness of the material would definitely be good for flight, but probably not sturdy enough for the hull.”
“You-you don’t think it’s from a hull of a spacecraft?” he asked, baffled.
“No. Spacecraft, definitely. Hull… probably not. Then again… if they crashed, might be why.” She gently placed it back down on his desk.
“Oh.” He seemed quite put out, not only that he hadn’t been able to explain what it was, but also that she seemed to know more than he had about it. It brought a small smile to her lips. “You, ah… you seem to know a lot about… well, this stuff. Usually I have to try and convince people that aliens are real and that I’m not just a crazy person.”
“Are you kidding me?” she said. “After everything that happened back home? Aliens crashing into Big Ben, the Christmas spaceship, Cybermen and Daleks in the streets?!” She wondered if he would pick up on the memory of the Daleks and realise what it was Van Statten was hiding down in his basement, but he didn’t react at all. Still, that was all six or seven years ago for him, there had to be something more recent he would remember. Oh! It was 2012! “Everyone disappearing into thin air at the Olympics?!”
“In Bejing?”
“No, the London Olympics!”
“…Th-the Olympics haven’t happened yet. They’re a few months away.”
“Right. Right, yeah. They are, aren’t they. Still, how could you not know about all these things?!”
“Seems America missed the memo,” he said, rolling his eyes. “They didn’t get a lot of what we did back home. And they thought the Cybermen were a big practical joke, like a flashmob or terrorist group or something. I was actually on a plane to Japan for a foreign exchange programme. Totally missed it… But I was there that first Christmas, that one with the spaceship. One moment there’s aliens on TV, the next I’m waking up, standing on the edge of the roof with my mum and no idea how we got there.” Rose nodded. “What about you? Where were you that Christmas?”
“Oh, I was on the ship. So was the Doctor. He fought single combat to get them to leave Earth and won.”
“I… wow. Okay. Are-are you and he…”
“Yep,” she replied, nodding enthusiastically.
She knew what he was asking. If they were involved. And they may not be yet, but they hopefully would be in the future. And she was most definitely emotionally involved with him. And she was going to stop that boy’s train of thought right there.
He was obviously perplexed by this idea and a little put out to have his attempts of possible flirting shut down. She just continued to glance around the room.
“So, how did you end up here anyway? Doing a job like this?”
“Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit.”
“Oh, okay. So, you’re a genius?”
“Sorry, but yeah. Can’t help it. I was born clever.”
See. Smug, arrogant, condescending git. The Doctor was incredibly intelligent, but he didn’t rub it in everyone’s faces quite like that. It made her want to knock him down a peg.
“Why does a genius have a hairdryer in with a crate of guns?”
“What?”
“That one,” she said, pointing to the device that very clearly was not a gun. “I’m pretty sure that one’s a hairdryer.”
His brow furrowed. “How can you tell?”
She went over and pulled the crate out, grabbing it for a closer inspection. “Well, for one thing, this is a switch, not a trigger. These dials here are for temperature and pressure. And both sides are covered with vents and grates… It’s clearly not meant to have something fired out of it, and wants to prevent anything getting in. Plus, it just… generally looks like a hairdryer…”
“Oh.” Being shown up was making him at a loss for words, and Rose was loving it. She enjoyed watching as he looked about, practically searching for a way to try and one-up her. “You wanted to be down there looking at the alien with your doctor friend, right? Well, if you’re a genius, it doesn’t take long to patch in on the comms system.”
Trying not to roll her eyes, Rose smiled and relented. “Oh, alright then. Let’s have a look.” She came around to stand beside him at the desk, watching over his shoulder as he tapped at the keys and hacked into the camera down in the ‘cage’.
“To be honest, it doesn’t really do much. The alien. It’s weird. It’s kind of… useless. It’s just like this… great big pepper pot.”
The feed flicked up and despite herself, Rose felt herself tense up at the sight on the screen. In the middle of the room, chained up, was a Dalek. Just one regular Dalek. The first she had ever seen. Back then, she had been so naïve and had no kind of clue what creature Van Statten had imprisoned in his basement. But now she did. She had seen the horrors they had caused. The people this one would kill if she let it out. The billions of people they had killed over the course of 90 years on Satellite Five. Canary Wharf…
She despised this thing for what it was. For the things she knew it would do.
It could stay down there and rot for all she cared.
She didn’t care that that horrible man was torturing it. She didn’t. It deserved it. It deserved whatever was happening to it for all the pain it had and would cause. She didn’t care. She didn’t. It deserved it. It did…
It-it could rot here forever for all she cared… She wasn’t going near it this time.
Suddenly, she was no longer in Adam’s workroom. She was down in the cage, looking at the Dalek as time passed rapidly around her. She watched as days and months of torture was inflicted upon it. She watched as Van Statten shouted at it, demanding it talk to him and be a good pet. She watched as it screamed in agony, its hatred for mankind growing even stronger than it had already been. She watched as it bided its time. As a terrible storm raged, destroying the levels above ground and sending a powerful lightning strike right down through the bunker’s electrical system, giving the Dalek enough of a boost to recharge its systems and heal itself. It wasn’t perfect, still damaged and broken from years’ worth of torture and experiments, but its gun worked, and it was strong enough to break free. She watched as the Dalek moved its way through the bunker, killing everyone in sight. As it found its way up to the surface and out into the world. She watched as it made its way across Utah, across South Western America, killing billions before the military were able to bring it down with a nuke. So much of America decimated, the land radiated and uninhabitable for decades to come. All because of one brutal creature. All because she didn’t show it the compassion and mercy she should would almost anything else.
Rose gasped as she came back to herself, leaning heavily on the desk, her eyes fixed on the screen.
“We have to go!” she gasped. “We have to get down there!”
“We’re not supposed to-”
“They’re torturing it! I don’t care if it’s a Dalek or not! It’s wrong and we have to stop it!”
“Wait, that’s a Dalek?!” he cried as she ran from the room.
“Hold it right there!” a guard said firmly as Rose charged into the room, Adam jogging in after her, trying to keep up.
“Level three access,” he panted, flashing his ID. “Special clearance from Mr Van Statten.”
He walked past her and led her into the cage. On their way, they passed Simmons. After seeing the possible timeline where he spent years upon years torturing that Dalek, she felt herself fill with rage, and before she could stop herself, she lashed out and slapped him.
“Fucking sadistic tosser!” she hissed at him. Immediately, every guard in the room was up in arms, heading towards her with their guns drawn. Thankfully, they were stayed by Adam, who held up his hand to stop them. He looked at Rose questioningly, his expression almost screaming for her to apologise. Instead, she just looked back at Simmons. “You’re worse than that creature in there,” she told him. And then she turned and pushed past Adam into the cage.
“What was all that about?” he asked as the door closed.
“I don’t condone torture,” she said shortly. “No matter how vial the victim is.”
Adam wisely said nothing, and she turned around to face the Dalek. Her heart pounded in fear, her mind racing with all the times she had gone up against them. What she knew they could do. What she knew this one would and could do. Still, she faced the chained creature and smiled sympathetically. It really looked roughed up, many of it’s domes crushed in and one of its panels pryed open. Thick chains surrounded it, keeping it teathered to four posts.
“Hello,” she said. “Are you alright? Are you in pain?” The Dalek just stared at her. She had no idea what it was feeling, with its unexpressive casing, or if it was even feeling anything at all. “My name’s Rose. Rose Tyler. I’m going to help you. Okay? My friend and I, we’re going to help you.”
“YES,” it said.
“Good. Then let’s get you out.”
“Rose, I don’t think-”
“YES… I AM IN PAIN,” the Dalek cut Adam off. “THEY TORTURED ME. BUT THEY STILL FEAR ME. DO YOU FEAR ME?”
Hesitantly, she looked it up and down, then shook her head. “Not right now.”
The Dalek lowered its eyestalk pathetically, really putting on a show. “I AM DYING.”
It almost made her laugh. Last time she met this Dalek, she had no idea what it was, nor how dangerous it was. It had played innocent and she had lapped it up in her naivety. She never realised just how much the Dalek was putting it on.
“No, don’t be silly,” she said playing along. “We can help.”
“I WELCOME DEATH. BUT I AM GLAD… THAT BEFORE I DIE… I MET A HUMAN WHO WAS NOT AFRAID…”
It was at this point, that Rose could no longer hold in her laughter. Adam balked at her reaction, too stunned to know what to do as she doubled over.
“Sorry, sorry. I’m sorry,” she said, gasping for air. “I couldn’t hold it in any longer.”
“I don’t get it…” Adam said, looking entirely lost. It was clear it was something he didn’t like feeling.
“It was just putting on the ‘poor little me’ act so strong, I couldn’t keep a straight face,” she said with a grin. Then she turned back to the Dalek. “I’m not like these other humans. I know what you are. I know what your species has done. What you do. I know that your lot commits genocide everywhere you go because you think you’re superior. But I have seen all of your existence before. I’ve wiped you from existence before. Daleks are monsters… but you don’t deserve this. Nothing deserves this. So, I’m going to get you out of here.” She began looking about for some controls or some way to let it out. “My friend and I will take you somewhere you can’t hurt anyone. Somewhere you can build a life and do… whatever it is Daleks do when they aren’t planning or committing invasions and genocide.”
“THAT IS MY PURPOSE!”
“Yeah, well, not anymore. You know there’s no more Daleks left, right? Not anywhere else in the universe!” She wasn’t entirely sure if it was true, but she knew that the Doctor had once been utterly convinced of it. “You don’t have any higher authority. You have no objective. And no weaponry. But you have your life. So, I suggest you take it.” When she couldn’t see any controls nearby, she walked over to one of the pillars chaining it up and started looking over it. “Okay, how do I get you out of here…?” She tug on the chains, looking about for a lock or some kind of release switch. “Adam, can you do something? I can’t touch it, or it will be able to repair itself, including its weapons and probably go on a killing spree.”
“Rose, I don’t think this is such a good id-”
“What do you think you’re doing?” The door burst open, and the horrible torturer guy rushed in, glaring at her.
“Getting this Dalek away from you!” she growled. “It might be one of the most instinctively evil creatures I know of, but it still deserves better than what you’ve done to it!”
“Get away from there!” he ordered her, stalking over to her in a few strides and grabbing her wrist away from the chains.
“Let go of me!” she hissed, trying to pull away from him. She tugged as hard as she could, and he let her go, sending her flying backwards… right into the Dalek. She could feel the cool metal under her hand heat up to the point of burning, and she jumped back, looking at it in panic. “Shit!”
“GENETIC MATERIAL EXTRAPOLATED,” it said. “INITIATE CELLULAR RECONSTRUCTION!”
Right before them, the Dalek began to repair itself, gaining strength enough to burst out of the chains like it was no more than silly string, sparks flying around the room, making Rose scoot back as far as she could until she hit Adam’s legs. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet, eyes still glued to the Dalek.
“What the hell have you done?!” the horrible guy cried.
“That was your fault!” She shouted back. “I said I couldn’t let it touch me! Now everyone is in danger, you fucking moron!”
The Dalek moved over to the man, its plunger extended out threateningly.
The man scoffed. “Watcha gonna go? Sucker me to death?” In the next instant, the plunger shot out, encompassing the man’s nose and mouth, almost sucking it in and the sounds of the man’s muffled screams and crunching bones filled the room. Rose couldn’t even bring herself to pretend he deserved that fate.
She grabbed Adam by the arm and pulled him out of the room. “It’s killing him!” she shouted at the men in the outer room. “Do something!” Someone immediately closed and locked the door behind her and Adam, and she rushed over to the man at the intercom.
“Condition red!” he called into it. “Repeat, condition red! This is not a drill!”
“What’s happening, Bywater?” Van Statten responded.
“Metaltron has broken loose. It’s killed Simmons.”
“Do whatever you can to keep it contained, we’ll video through soon.”
Rose paced anxiously as the Bywater began hurriedly tapping and keys and flicking switches. It was minutes later that the video flickered to life and she heard the Doctor’s voice, making her rush to the screen.
“You’ve got to keep it in that cell,” he ordered.
“I’m sorry, Doctor. It was my fault. I didn’t mean to touch it, but he pushed me and I fell on it. And then it said it was absorbing genetic something or other and then it was breaking loose!”
“Rose, it’s fine. That wasn’t your fault,” he assured her. “What’s important is making sure that thing doesn’t get out.”
“I’ve sealed the compartment,” Bywater said, sliding up beside her. “It can’t get out. That lock’s got a billion combinations.”
“The Dalek’s a genius. It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat.”
A quick glance at the screen showed them that the Dalek was on its way over to the entry pad and she turned back to the screen.
“Van Staten, you need to evacuate this base, right now! Get everyone out!” she told him firmly.
“She’s right,” the Doctor said.
Van Staten shook his head. “We need all essential manpower to keep it contained.”
“God damn it, you can do that without everyone here!” she shouted. “That thing is going to kill everyone! No amount of ‘manpower’ is going to stop it. It’s gonna cut through everyone like butter! If you don’t evacuate now, they are all going to die.”
Van Sataten just snorted. “I think my men can handle it.”
“No, they can’t. I’ve seen these creatures almost completely domninate many species – including you humans - countless times throughout history. My own people didn’t even truly beat them, and by the end of the war, we were experts in killing Daleks!”
“This facility is-”
“Van Staten,” she cut over top of him. “What are you going to do? Listen to the advice of some who’s battled these deadly things and actually knows what they’re talking about, or are you going to put billions of people in danger because you’re a spoilt, rich manchild who can’t tell an alien blaster from a hairdryer and don’t want to admit how dangerous your precious little alien ‘toys’ are? No? Didn’t think so. So shut the fuck up and evacuate this entire damn base right now!”
Van Staten stared at her, offended and dumbfounded, while the Doctor full on beamed at her and Van Staten’s assistant attempted to hide a snigger.
At that moment, though, the Dalek found the right code and the door opened. The milliary personel lined up to shoot and she scooted back to the exit with them.
“Open fire!” Bywater commanded. Together, he and the woman who went with them last time began shooting at the Dalek.
“Alright! Alright! Get everyone out!” they heard Van Staten order. “Just don’t shoot it!”
“Everyone, come on!” she called to them.
“Rose, get out of there!” the Doctor told her.
“Don’t bother trying to hold it off, it won’t work! Just run, damn it!” She grabbed the two soldiers by the sleeves, tugging them with her.
“De Maggio, make sure that the civilians get out alive. That’s your job, got that?”
De Maggio nodded. “You two, make sure you stick with me!”
Right then, a voice came over the speakers. ‘Emergency evacuation – please exit the base! Emergency evacuation – please exit the base!’ The halls began to fill with the sound of footsteps as people made their way to the nearest exit.
Rose smiled even as the power failed around them and the alarm stopped. Because this time as she ran, several people ran along to safety beside her.
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