The Stolen Earth Incident - Chapter Thirty
30 April 2009
The Dalek Crucible
Rose let herself be led away from the dead body of her friend, and toward what felt like hell.
She wasn’t a stranger to death. She’d seen more of it than most, travelling with the Doctor and getting into all sorts of messes. Shit, the main reason she’d never really warmed to the other Pete Tyler was because she still vividly remembered sitting beside the dying body of her real father, her knees sore from the asphalt and weeping so hard she’d had a headache for hours afterward. That had been her father, and not the lookalike who’d married her mother and who’d started a new family with her.
But this…this was too much.
Four deaths, one right after the other, and yes, she was including the TARDIS. Of them all, she’d known the time machine the longest, having travelled within her for years. She’d been a comforting presence in her life, and Rose had found that she’d missed the TARDIS nearly as much as she had the Doctor. That one had hit her with the force of a sledgehammer, because she’d believed that nothing could destroy the TARDIS.
And yet, the Daleks had done it.
With two innocents onboard her.
She didn’t know either Donna Noble or Clint Barton. Of them both, Donna hurt the worst because it meant the Doctor had lost one more companion to circumstances beyond his control. If Rose hadn’t found a way back, it also would have meant that the Doctor would have been alone, and the Time Lord never did well when he was by himself. He needed someone with him, to ground him and to give him the support he needed to get things done. The Doctor being on his own was a recipe for disaster.
But she’d been led to Clint Barton through the Dimension Cannon, and through his being a part of Jack’s Torchwood. Him being friends with Jack automatically made him a friend of hers, and she would miss not being able to get to know him better. Plus, she’d really wanted to ask him about the bow and arrow. It was an odd weapon to use, at least to her mind.
Then there was Jack.
The first time he’d died she’d used the heart of the TARDIS to resurrect him, because she hadn’t been able to stand the idea of him being gone. When she’d eventually recovered from having all that power in her head Jack had been gone, staying behind to help humanity rebuild after the Daleks - or so the Doctor said, and she was beginning to think there was much more to that story than she’d thought - and while she’d been disappointed she’d thought he would be doing good work in the future, and had wished him well. The Doctor had even claimed that they might go back and visit one day, but that had never happened and Rose had ended up cut off from almost everything she’d known.
She’d wanted to find out how he’d gotten back to this time, although she assumed it had to do with his Vortex Manipulator. The question though has been why, when the Doctor had been so certain he’d be staying in the future.
There was also the issue of the obvious coldness between the two.
Rose supposed she’d have to ask the Doctor now…if they got out of this somehow. And if he’d give her the answers she wanted.
The Daleks herded them down into the bowels of the Crucible. The farther they went, the less hope Rose had. Surely the Doctor had some sort of plan? She’d seen him get captured before, sometimes on purpose in order to get deeper into enemy territory before going all Oncoming Storm on them, but there was something very different about this situation. She glanced at the Doctor, and she could see it in his face: the pain, and the despair.
All of a sudden, Rose wished for nothing more than to be back on the other side of the dimensional wall, with her Mum and Mickey, and even with Pete. She should never have talked him into using Torchwood finances in order to build the Dimension Cannon. She wanted the memories of an unbeaten Doctor, instead of this sad, damaged Time Lord who only resembled the man she’d fallen in love with.
The red Dalek had called this place the Vault, and that was what it looked like: dark, and dingy, and more like a cellar than the lair of the being who’d created the Daleks. Rose would have thought that Davros would have been more revered, instead of being stuck away where no one would see him.
There was a large device in the middle of the room. It looked almost as if it had been grown there, with tubes connecting it to the ceiling. Rose could tell the Doctor wanted to go over and examine it, but the Daleks guarding them kept him at her side; so did the hand on her elbow, where it had stayed ever since they’d been taken away from Jack.
Rose swallowed hard. Yeah, she didn’t want to think of it as Jack’s body.
Waiting for them was Davros.
Rose had seen him on the sub-wave, but in person he had a presence that was hard to ignore. Davros might have been a wizened-looking alien in a sort of wheelchair that was too much like a Dalek body for her peace of mind, but Rose could practically feel the crazy coming off of him in waves. Where someone else in his position might have engendered pity in her, Davros only instilled fear.
“Activate the holding cells,” Davros ordered. Compared to the Daleks’ grating tones, Davros sounded almost…paternal, even with that undertone of the mechanical it had. It was disturbing in so many ways, and despite not wanting to show weakness in front of him Rose couldn’t help but shiver.
Light flared around her, and then faded. Even though there didn’t appear to be anything surrounding her, Rose could feel the static of it against her skin, the hairs on her arms standing up. She tentatively reached out, and her fingers touched the energy barrier, sending tingles down into her spine.
Davros rolled toward the Doctor, who was in his own holding cell. He looked up at the Time Lord, and a smirk decorated his twisted lips. “Excellent,” he murmured. “Even when powerless, a Time Lord is best contained.”
The Doctor crossed his arms, meeting Davros’ gaze with one that had lost the inner pain and had gained a steady anger. “Still afraid of me then?”
In anyone else that phrase would have sounded cocky, but with the Doctor he was simply stating a truth. Rose wondered at the history between these two, because there obviously was one, and if she had to guess it most likely went back at least centuries.
Davros didn’t dignify that with a response. “It’s time we talked, you and I. After all the time that has passed.”
“Oh, no no no no,” the Doctor snorted. “We’re not doing the nostalgia tour. I want to know what’s happening, right here and right now, because the Supreme Dalek said this was the Vault, yeah?” He uncrossed his arms, his own smirk a rival of Davros’. “As in a dungeon...or cellar…or maybe prison? You’re not in charge of the Daleks, are you?”
Rose was surprised by the outburst, but at the same time she realised the Doctor was right. Someone as important as Davros wasn’t kept away from the action. She’d felt the same thing when she’d seen the Vault, and she felt pleased that the Doctor had noticed it as well.
“They’ve got you locked away down here,” the Doctor went on mercilessly, “in the basement, so to speak, like…what, a servant?” The smirk grew into a knowing smile. “Slave?” He leaned as far forward as he could without touching the side of the cell. “Court jester?”
Davros actually jerked his chair away from the Doctor, as if he was afraid that he was going to break out and come after him. Rose couldn’t help her grin; it was just too much like the Doctor to turn the tables like that.
Davros had been right: even when helpless, the Doctor still had power.
Just with that exchange, Rose’s doubts eased. Yes, she still mourned all of their losses, but she was starting to see that this could, indeed, end in their favour.
“We have an…arrangement,” Davros answered, almost defensively.
The Doctor’s smile went pleased. “No, I have the word…you’re the Daleks’ pet!”
Davros wasn’t happy about that at all, and Rose could see it. She wished she could give him a fist bump in celebration.
Instead of haranguing the Doctor once more, Davros turned his attention onto her. “He’s so full of ire. And you travel with him?” He sounded dismissive, and it had Rose bristling even though intellectually she knew he was just trying to push her buttons.
“Leave her alone,” the Doctor snapped.
“She’s mine to do with as I please,” Davros answered.
“Oi!” Rose finally rose to her own defence. “I’m not anybody’s, least of all yours!”
Davros moved his chair back toward the Doctor, and Rose took a breath to calm herself down. Davros had wanted to get a rise out of her, and he’d succeeded. Now that he’d done that, his attention was back on the Doctor.
“You are here just in time to see my final triumph,” he said.
The Doctor scoffed. “Can’t be much of a triumph if even your creations are ignoring you.”
“And this is the Time Lord who has butchered millions,” Davros practically sang. “I wonder what else we’ll see of you before I kill you.”
“You’re more likely going to bore me to death before you get on with it.”
Rose wanted to jump up and down and applaud at the anger that raged across Davros’ wrinkled face. “Oh no, Doctor, you won’t be bored at all when you see what my ultimate plan is.”
“We are ready to begin the test,” one of the Daleks that had stayed after bringing them in.
“What test?” the Doctor asked, and Rose could see he was honestly curious. “What are you testing?”
The smirk was back on Davros’ face. “My Reality Bomb.”
“Testing calibration of the Reality Bomb in ten rels,” another Dalek voice said over what must have been an intercom system piped into the Vault.
The Dalek on the speaker began to count down.
“Behold,” Davros announced in an almost reverent tone, “the apotheosis of my genius.” He used one metallic finger to flick a control on his chair.
In front of them a large screen blinked on, revealing a large room with about two dozen people standing in the centre, hands on their heads and under the guard of several Daleks. Each of them was obviously terrified, from the expressions on their faces and their body language.
Rose held her breath. Something terrible was going to happen, and all she could do was watch.
When the countdown reached zero, a green light flashed from something in the ceiling of the room.
The people within began to disintegrate.
It was horrible, having to stand there and watch. Rose could tell those innocent people were in agony, and yet they couldn’t move, or do anything to escape. Their bodies appeared to break down, particles floating away, until nothing was left.
Rose was gasping with the sheer revulsion that flooded through her. She couldn’t even begin to contemplate what had just happened. Davros had created something so appalling it was indescribable. “Doctor,” she whispered, “what happened?”
“Energy,” Davros answered instead. It was obvious that the Doctor had been struck speechless by what they’d just witnessed. “Every atom in existence is bound by an electrical field. The Reality Bomb cancels it out. Structure falls apart.” He was gloating, but then it was possible that he had every right to do so. “That test was focussed on the prisoners alone. Full transmission will dissolve every form of matter.”
In that moment, everything that she’d seen in the alternate dimension made sense. “The stars going out,” she gasped.
Time moved differently in that other place. Rose knew that it was faster; she’d come from the year 2012 and into 2009. What happened here had affected that universe quicker, even though the Reality Bomb hadn’t been activated here as yet.
She’d seen the endgame of Davros’ plan. The Reality Bomb had destroyed the walls between the universes even before it had been set off.
All that hope she’d gained back was gone once more. If they Reality Bomb was already affecting other dimensions and hadn’t even been set off yet, what hope did they have in stopping it?
“The twenty-seven planets,” the Doctor was saying, yet she barely paid attention. “They become one vast transmitter, blasting that wavelength throughout the multi-verse.”
“Across the entirety of the universe,” Davros confirmed. “Never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and stars will become dust, and the dust will become atoms, and the atoms will become nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through into every dimension, every parallel world, every single corner of creation.” His voice had gone up and louder all throughout his speech, until he was practically shouting. “This is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The destruction of reality itself!”
Davros was mad. If Rose hadn’t already known it, this would have been the tipping point in the favour of complete insanity. Destroying all of reality? How did that make any sense?
“We are receiving a message from the planet Earth,” the Dalek said over the intercom.
The image from the now-empty chamber where the test had taken place changed to reveal a control room, small and narrow and lined with banks of computers. In the centre of the screen was a young woman, and Rose recognised her as Martha Jones, who Harriet had claimed had also travelled with the Doctor. It must have been after Rose had become trapped in the other dimension; she couldn’t be jealous, because the Doctor really was rubbish on his own.
“This is Doctor Martha Jones,” she said, “representing the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, on behalf of the Human race…”