Repercussions (20/55)

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Chapter Twenty:  Monster in the Rubble

“A Dalek? A Dalek here?” If there is one thing that could cool the Doctor’s ardor, or for that matter mine, it is that word. Dalek. Think about that word just for a moment. It starts out hard, it ends hard, and it has no right to have the softness of the L there in the middle that way, for there is nothing soft about a Dalek. Nothing at all.

That L, that soft L, should be reserved for words like love and light. And there is no love in a Dalek. There is no light. Only darkness. There should be no L in it, either.

“How bad are the casualties?” the Doctor asks, pushing past Benton, reaching back for me and pulling me out of the TARDIS by my wrist, his grip possessive. He locks the door and turns back to the Brigadier.

“There aren’t any.”

The Doctor stops in mid-stride and turns to look at Benton.

“What?”

“There haven’t been any casualties. It’s just sitting there.”

“Is it alive?” I ask.

Benton looks at me. “We don’t know.”

“How can you not know?”

“No one’s gotten close enough. There seems to be some sort of force field.”

Benton rushes us out of the flat and into his military jeep. He sits in front with the driver, the Doctor and I behind him. The Doctor takes my hand again, but this time it is not reflexive habit. His hold is almost too tight, as if he is afraid that if he lets go I will vanish. But I will not. Nor will I allow him to vanish.  Not now.  Not ever.

My mind needs to be clear so I focus intently on what may soon happen. I have confronted Daleks before, twice now, and I have lived and they have died. But I am not so big a fool as to think I can do this again. At least not without help.

I feel faint stirrings in my mind and I remember that doorway that glows gold, one I did not dare approach too closely. I also remember the doorway next to it, the one that had the answers that wiped out the Cybermen. I shudder as I sense yet another doorway twisting open in my mind.

The words “Emergency Temporal Shift, Emergency Spatial Bypass,” scream in my mind. They scream in the voice of a Dalek, that harsh grating tone. I shut my eyes, following the path to that voice, but as I get close, I hit a wall.

I try to get past it, but it is so firmly locked. It will not budge. I know the answer I seek must be behind it, but I cannot break through. My hand tightens on the Doctors until I am gripping his as hard as he is gripping mine.

Daleks unsettle him. Him more than anyone, for what they did to his planet, his people, his life. There has to be something he can do, or I can do, or we can do together. Any Dalek is a threat. Even a dead one, because where there is one there is always another.

The jeep screeches to a halt and we scramble out of it. The Doctor and I stride forward behind Benton as we walk to the edge of the pit the Dalek sits in. As I walk around in front of the eyestalk it comes to life. The Doctor darts back just for a momen, trying to pull me away, but I stand firm.

It looks at me and for a long time it says nothing. Then it speaks and what it says shoots fear deep into my heart.