The Stolen Earth Incident - Chapter Twenty-Seven
30 April 2009
The Dalek Crucible
Mickey wasn’t happy, but then that had been the tone of the entire fucking day so far, so he didn’t feel like it was all a big deal at this point.
He thought about his favourite gun, tucked under an abandoned vehicle back on Earth. He’d most likely never get it back, and that weapon had seen him through the Cybermen invasion on the alternate Earth. He’d never even considered that he’d lose it like that.
Still, being without it meant he hadn’t gotten exterminated. He missed it something fierce but at least he was still alive.
The Daleks had hustled them into a spaceship that that should have been a set-piece in a 50’s sci-fi movie. It was round, and it was what would have given all UFO’s the nickname “flying saucer”. They’d been crowded with about two dozen other humans, all of them scared shitless. He couldn’t blame them. Chances were they were all gonna get shot at some point in the day.
Or something worse. With the Daleks, getting exterminated was the lesser of all the evils Mickey could come up with, and a lot of people would have said he wasn’t particularly imaginative.
But those were the ones who didn’t know about that trap they’d set for that one Cyber-Leader in Bath, that involved a ball of yarn and the half a dozen rubber ducks. Mickey was particularly proud of that one.
He had to admit that Sarah Jane’s idea had been a good one. They needed to get onboard this Dalek space station thing if they were going to figure out what the hell was going on. Plus, there’s the Doctor, because if they found him they’d find Rose and that would mean Jackie could let her strop out. She’d been really hurt that Rose had gone without saying goodbye. Mickey didn’t feel that way, since he’d been expecting something along those lines for years, but he could certainly understand where Jackie was coming from. It wasn’t fair to her, for Rose to just take off like that and not let her know.
Mickey loved Rose. He’d never really stop loving her. But he could recognise that she could be really selfish and thoughtless at times. And those times usually had to do with the Doctor.
Really, he just couldn’t see the attraction himself.
The Doctor might be an alien and really smart and could travel in time but he was such a bloody git.
“Well,” Jackie mused softly, “this seems to be going well.”
For a certain degree of well, sure.
Only Mickey didn’t say that out loud.
The Daleks keep them all crammed together in what had to have been the hold of their ship. After all, why keep them comfortable? They were prisoners, after all. Plus, Mickey was pretty sure the Daleks didn’t have the word ‘comfortable’ in their databanks.
It didn’t seem long before they arrived at the space station, which Mickey understood was called the Crucible. Pretty poncy name in Mickey’s opinion. He wondered who’d named it that, because it certainly wasn’t the Daleks.
Once they were docked, the prisoners were ushered out into a blank corridor. Sarah Jane seemed pleased with the whole thing, and Mickey thought she was being mental. Yeah, he liked her and all, but in his opinion she was just a bit too happy to be a prisoner of a homicidal race of pepper pots. Mickey was positive it was because they were getting close to the Doctor. Honestly, he didn’t get all this worship of the Time Lord.
To say that Mickey disliked the Doctor was an understatement.
They’d gotten along, and Mickey did respect him for the things he could accomplish. And hell, he could be downright scary. Rose had once told him that one of his many nicknames was the Oncoming Storm, and Mickey could see it.
At the same time the man could be a condescending arse. He really wanted to ask the Doctor why he hung around humans if he didn’t think they were worth it. Personally, he thought it was a bit skeevy that a nine hundred your-old alien hung out with teenage girls. But at least there wasn’t any sort of hanky panky going on that he could tell.
He just didn’t get it.
Anyway.
The Daleks herded them into this huge room. Mickey took a good look around, trying to map out an escape route because there was something making every single instinct he had yell at him that this was some sort of trap. He glanced up, and there was some sort of device in the ceiling, aimed right down at their heads. It was dark, but he could just imagine that thing lighting up like a Christmas tree when it was turned on.
The room itself was bare. Daleks patrolled the outer walls, their gun sticks aimed at the prisoners that were ordered to stand in the ‘designated area’, whatever the fuck that was. As they all clumped together in the centre, Mickey felt movement beside him; as he watched, Sarah Jane dodged through the prisoners toward a door in the wall, with a large flywheel sort of control in the middle of it, just under a thick window.
Once she was at the door - and it was a bloody miracle that none of the Daleks were paying the least bit of attention, most likely thinking they had everyone cowed - she pulled something out of her pocket that Mickey couldn’t see, but she must have used it to open the door. She ducked inside, motioning to Mickey to follow her.
He reached toward Jackie…but she wasn’t by his side any longer. One of the female prisoners had stumbled and fallen, and she was helping her to her feet, under the unemotional derision of one of the Daleks demanding that she stand. The woman was terrified, gibbering to Jackie, and Mickey couldn’t make it out.
He didn’t want to leave her. She was the closest thing he had to a Mum. Of them all in that other dimension - besides Jake, but he was off doing whatever the hell at the moment - Jackie had been the one to understand and to support him in his crusade to rid the world of the Cybermen. She’d been his lifeline, his rock…and the idea of her getting shot by the Daleks was just wrong.
He managed to get her attention, jerking his head toward the now unlocked door. Jackie nodded, silently agreeing to follow him, and so Mickey moved, ducking through the group of scared people and making his way toward the door, trusting that Jackie would be right behind him.
He was out into the hall beyond the door when he realised that Jackie hadn’t followed him at all.
Mickey cursed, turning back toward that room that had given him such a case of the creeps. Sarah Jane grabbed his sleeve. “Wait,” she hissed.
He wanted to argue with her, but then a Dalek rolled right in front of the door.
His heart in his throat, Mickey craned his neck in order to see past it. Jackie had been held back by the woman she’d stopped to help, and she threw a look at Mickey that expressed her sorrow and apology that she hadn’t been able to go with him. The woman was speaking to her, and Jackie turned back, and while Mickey couldn’t hear what they were saying he could tell that she was trying to soothe the other woman.
Even while in extreme danger, Jackie Tyler just had to mother someone.
The device in the ceiling began to glow a sickly green colour.
Mickey could make out the Daleks on the other side of that door announcing a countdown, calling that thing hanging over their heads a ‘Reality Bomb’. No, that didn’t sound at all ominous, and it set Mickey’s nerves itching under his skin as it took everything in him not to race back out there, grab Jackie, and physically drag her to safety.
She was staring up at the green thing in the ceiling. Jackie’s mouth moved, but once again Mickey couldn’t make out a word she’d said. He hasn’t a lip reader, damnit.
A loud beeping sound came from his pocket.
Mickey thought his heart was gonna stop.
He dug the offending thing from his pocket. It was the dimension jump, and the centre button was once again a pale yellow.
It had finished charging.
He suddenly couldn’t breathe.
Leaning on the thick glass panel, Mickey began to wave the jumper around, trying to get Jackie’s attention. “It’s charged!” he shouted, needing her to hear him but at the same time knowing they’d be dead if the Daleks figured out they were just on the other side of that door.
Her eyes widened. She’d seen him, and she knew what he was telling her.
Mickey let out of breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding as she took her own dimension jumper from the pocket of her coat.
The green glow was getting stronger. She didn’t have much time.
Jackie turned to the woman she’d helped and said something to her that Mickey thought was an apology.
Then she was pressing the button on her device.
The usual blue flash of light was subsumed in the green that suddenly flared from that thing in the ceiling.
Mickey barely had time to grab her in a hug as whatever the hell it was in that room went off.
All three of them watched as the humans in there began to disintegrate.
It was as if they were being unravelled, pulled into their individual atoms by that thing the Daleks had invented. Mickey was horrified but he couldn’t turn away.
It was slow, and far more terrible than anything he’d seen the Cybermen do.
He wondered if they were in any pain. For some reason, it didn’t seem that they were but it had to hurt, being taken apart like that.
And then it was over.
Every single human being that had been brought into that chamber was gone. There wasn’t even any dust left to show there’d been anyone in there.
One of the Daleks proclaimed that the test was complete.
That scared Mickey more than anything, that this was simply a test and not the real thing.
The Dalek Crucible
Mickey wasn’t happy, but then that had been the tone of the entire fucking day so far, so he didn’t feel like it was all a big deal at this point.
He thought about his favourite gun, tucked under an abandoned vehicle back on Earth. He’d most likely never get it back, and that weapon had seen him through the Cybermen invasion on the alternate Earth. He’d never even considered that he’d lose it like that.
Still, being without it meant he hadn’t gotten exterminated. He missed it something fierce but at least he was still alive.
The Daleks had hustled them into a spaceship that that should have been a set-piece in a 50’s sci-fi movie. It was round, and it was what would have given all UFO’s the nickname “flying saucer”. They’d been crowded with about two dozen other humans, all of them scared shitless. He couldn’t blame them. Chances were they were all gonna get shot at some point in the day.
Or something worse. With the Daleks, getting exterminated was the lesser of all the evils Mickey could come up with, and a lot of people would have said he wasn’t particularly imaginative.
But those were the ones who didn’t know about that trap they’d set for that one Cyber-Leader in Bath, that involved a ball of yarn and the half a dozen rubber ducks. Mickey was particularly proud of that one.
He had to admit that Sarah Jane’s idea had been a good one. They needed to get onboard this Dalek space station thing if they were going to figure out what the hell was going on. Plus, there’s the Doctor, because if they found him they’d find Rose and that would mean Jackie could let her strop out. She’d been really hurt that Rose had gone without saying goodbye. Mickey didn’t feel that way, since he’d been expecting something along those lines for years, but he could certainly understand where Jackie was coming from. It wasn’t fair to her, for Rose to just take off like that and not let her know.
Mickey loved Rose. He’d never really stop loving her. But he could recognise that she could be really selfish and thoughtless at times. And those times usually had to do with the Doctor.
Really, he just couldn’t see the attraction himself.
The Doctor might be an alien and really smart and could travel in time but he was such a bloody git.
“Well,” Jackie mused softly, “this seems to be going well.”
For a certain degree of well, sure.
Only Mickey didn’t say that out loud.
The Daleks keep them all crammed together in what had to have been the hold of their ship. After all, why keep them comfortable? They were prisoners, after all. Plus, Mickey was pretty sure the Daleks didn’t have the word ‘comfortable’ in their databanks.
It didn’t seem long before they arrived at the space station, which Mickey understood was called the Crucible. Pretty poncy name in Mickey’s opinion. He wondered who’d named it that, because it certainly wasn’t the Daleks.
Once they were docked, the prisoners were ushered out into a blank corridor. Sarah Jane seemed pleased with the whole thing, and Mickey thought she was being mental. Yeah, he liked her and all, but in his opinion she was just a bit too happy to be a prisoner of a homicidal race of pepper pots. Mickey was positive it was because they were getting close to the Doctor. Honestly, he didn’t get all this worship of the Time Lord.
To say that Mickey disliked the Doctor was an understatement.
They’d gotten along, and Mickey did respect him for the things he could accomplish. And hell, he could be downright scary. Rose had once told him that one of his many nicknames was the Oncoming Storm, and Mickey could see it.
At the same time the man could be a condescending arse. He really wanted to ask the Doctor why he hung around humans if he didn’t think they were worth it. Personally, he thought it was a bit skeevy that a nine hundred your-old alien hung out with teenage girls. But at least there wasn’t any sort of hanky panky going on that he could tell.
He just didn’t get it.
Anyway.
The Daleks herded them into this huge room. Mickey took a good look around, trying to map out an escape route because there was something making every single instinct he had yell at him that this was some sort of trap. He glanced up, and there was some sort of device in the ceiling, aimed right down at their heads. It was dark, but he could just imagine that thing lighting up like a Christmas tree when it was turned on.
The room itself was bare. Daleks patrolled the outer walls, their gun sticks aimed at the prisoners that were ordered to stand in the ‘designated area’, whatever the fuck that was. As they all clumped together in the centre, Mickey felt movement beside him; as he watched, Sarah Jane dodged through the prisoners toward a door in the wall, with a large flywheel sort of control in the middle of it, just under a thick window.
Once she was at the door - and it was a bloody miracle that none of the Daleks were paying the least bit of attention, most likely thinking they had everyone cowed - she pulled something out of her pocket that Mickey couldn’t see, but she must have used it to open the door. She ducked inside, motioning to Mickey to follow her.
He reached toward Jackie…but she wasn’t by his side any longer. One of the female prisoners had stumbled and fallen, and she was helping her to her feet, under the unemotional derision of one of the Daleks demanding that she stand. The woman was terrified, gibbering to Jackie, and Mickey couldn’t make it out.
He didn’t want to leave her. She was the closest thing he had to a Mum. Of them all in that other dimension - besides Jake, but he was off doing whatever the hell at the moment - Jackie had been the one to understand and to support him in his crusade to rid the world of the Cybermen. She’d been his lifeline, his rock…and the idea of her getting shot by the Daleks was just wrong.
He managed to get her attention, jerking his head toward the now unlocked door. Jackie nodded, silently agreeing to follow him, and so Mickey moved, ducking through the group of scared people and making his way toward the door, trusting that Jackie would be right behind him.
He was out into the hall beyond the door when he realised that Jackie hadn’t followed him at all.
Mickey cursed, turning back toward that room that had given him such a case of the creeps. Sarah Jane grabbed his sleeve. “Wait,” she hissed.
He wanted to argue with her, but then a Dalek rolled right in front of the door.
His heart in his throat, Mickey craned his neck in order to see past it. Jackie had been held back by the woman she’d stopped to help, and she threw a look at Mickey that expressed her sorrow and apology that she hadn’t been able to go with him. The woman was speaking to her, and Jackie turned back, and while Mickey couldn’t hear what they were saying he could tell that she was trying to soothe the other woman.
Even while in extreme danger, Jackie Tyler just had to mother someone.
The device in the ceiling began to glow a sickly green colour.
Mickey could make out the Daleks on the other side of that door announcing a countdown, calling that thing hanging over their heads a ‘Reality Bomb’. No, that didn’t sound at all ominous, and it set Mickey’s nerves itching under his skin as it took everything in him not to race back out there, grab Jackie, and physically drag her to safety.
She was staring up at the green thing in the ceiling. Jackie’s mouth moved, but once again Mickey couldn’t make out a word she’d said. He hasn’t a lip reader, damnit.
A loud beeping sound came from his pocket.
Mickey thought his heart was gonna stop.
He dug the offending thing from his pocket. It was the dimension jump, and the centre button was once again a pale yellow.
It had finished charging.
He suddenly couldn’t breathe.
Leaning on the thick glass panel, Mickey began to wave the jumper around, trying to get Jackie’s attention. “It’s charged!” he shouted, needing her to hear him but at the same time knowing they’d be dead if the Daleks figured out they were just on the other side of that door.
Her eyes widened. She’d seen him, and she knew what he was telling her.
Mickey let out of breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding as she took her own dimension jumper from the pocket of her coat.
The green glow was getting stronger. She didn’t have much time.
Jackie turned to the woman she’d helped and said something to her that Mickey thought was an apology.
Then she was pressing the button on her device.
The usual blue flash of light was subsumed in the green that suddenly flared from that thing in the ceiling.
Mickey barely had time to grab her in a hug as whatever the hell it was in that room went off.
All three of them watched as the humans in there began to disintegrate.
It was as if they were being unravelled, pulled into their individual atoms by that thing the Daleks had invented. Mickey was horrified but he couldn’t turn away.
It was slow, and far more terrible than anything he’d seen the Cybermen do.
He wondered if they were in any pain. For some reason, it didn’t seem that they were but it had to hurt, being taken apart like that.
And then it was over.
Every single human being that had been brought into that chamber was gone. There wasn’t even any dust left to show there’d been anyone in there.
One of the Daleks proclaimed that the test was complete.
That scared Mickey more than anything, that this was simply a test and not the real thing.