2-18-2
Big Steve
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2019
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Outside of Canary Wharf, the Daleks were filling the London sky. Energy fire from Cybermen below crossed with the Daleks firing down into them and into any resident of the city that they came across.
Inside of the top floor, this sight and what it meant wasn't lost on Pete Tyler. "We can't save this world," he declared. He made a hand motion toward Jake and stepped away from the window to face Jackie. "But we'll be safe in mine. Jacks, let's go."
"What are you talking about? Are you just going to leave?" she asked. "They're destroying the city!"
"Not just London, they're going to destroy the whole world. I can't stop that. But our world will be safe. For you and for Rose." Pete looked to the Doctor. "If the Doctor seals the breach."
"We've got other concerns right now," Robert retorted. "Those things are after my ship! We've got to warn them!" Under ordinary circumstances Robert wouldn't be worried. The Aurora could simply warp out or keep the shields up and shoot Daleks until they were destroyed.
But the Aurora as she was now, with all of those hull breaches and no armor self-repair system and no shields? They were sitting ducks.
"I have to get them to safety!" Pete protested. "I have to protect my world! Doctor, you…"
The Doctor let out a loud whistle. "Alright, hold it!" he shouted. "One thing at a time." He pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "Captain, your omni-tool?"
Robert reached down and activated it. The Doctor held his screwdriver up to it for a moment. The tip lit up and a whirring sound started. "What are you doing?" Robert asked.
"Altering your communication system. You should be able to talk to someone on your ship. You might not be able to receive back from them, true, but for now the warning's the important part." The whirring stopped and the Doctor pulled his device away. "There. Now try."
Robert hit his comm key. "Dale to Aurora."
There was no immediate answer.
"Dale to Aurora, please respond."
There was no hiding his relief when a reply of "Aurora here," came. It was crackly and slightly distorted, but Robert was certain it was Julia on the other end. "We don't have anything beyond intraship, how are you doing this?"
"The Doctor," Robert answered. "Commander, call an alert to repel boarders, now. You've got trouble coming your way."
"We already defeated the Cybermen," Julia answered. "The ship is clear."
"I'm not talking about the Cybermen," Robert said over the line, his voice scratchy from distortion. "It's…" The line garbled into static.
Julia, again in the command chair, felt bewildered at that remark. The bridge was partly-manned again. Jarod was at Ops, checking on things, while Angel was having her leg tended to by a medic while at tactical. Al-Rashad was again at sensors and Violeta had assumed helm control, although for the moment there was little use for it. "Wait, what's going…"
"Commander, I've got power signatures exiting the upper atmosphere," al-Rashad said. "It looks like they're on an intercept course."
"Put them on screen."
The screen changed to show orbital space above London. Forms were rising up through the atmosphere and heading toward them. "Magnifying," Jarod said.
The image of their pursuers was now clear. And Julia would always recognize what they were. She'd had her own nightmares about them since the day the Facility was destroyed.
"Daleks," Jarod said grimly.
Julia's jaw dropped open. "That many?"
Angel's response was perhaps the most fitting. "Oh shit."
Julia's finger stabbed back down on the comm control. "All hands, prepare for boarding action! Prepare to repel enemy boarding parties! I say again, prepare to repel enemy boarding parties!" After this was done she called Engineering. "I need shields or impulsors back online, now."
"It cannae be done, lass," Scotty protested. "We were hours away before even before those metal scunners showed up."
Julia tried not to let the fear and frustration get to her. "Dammit, Scotty, we've got worse coming!"
"So?" This was from Barnes. "I'll just beam 'em to join the Cyberfrackers in low orbit, they'll burn up…"
"They're Daleks, Tom!"
In Main Engineering, Barnes' face paled. He and Scott exchanged bewildered looks. "How many?" he asked.
"Dozens, easy!"
For a moment Barnes thought his heart had stopped. When he finally found his voice again, he could say only one thing.
"Oh shit!"
Kane's reaction was less emphatic. "All squads and platoons, heavy weapons are now authorized. I repeat, heavy weapons are authorized."
Barker gave him a bewildered look. "We're going to wreck everything in this ship if we go free-fire with heavy weapons, sir," she pointed out.
"Did you ever listen to the testimonies from the Dalek Incursion into the H1E4 Facility, Barker?" Kane asked.
"No sir."
"I have." Kane frowned. "Trust me. We'll need 'em to stop those damn things."
Julia watched the approaching Daleks with a growing terror. "I wish we had fighters ready to launch," she said. "Jarod?"
"All fighters were destroyed or critically damaged when the Shadow ship shot through our launch and hanger decks," Jarod replied. "The same thing with the main and secondary shuttle bays. Given time we could have repaired a few, but I was too busy fixing the ship itself."
Julia nodded at that. "So we don't have that going for us. Weapons?"
Angel checked over her panel. As she expected, none of her weapons were back online. "Phasers and plasma cannons are still out. And I've got no power to the torpedo launchers." Angel smacked her hand to her useless console. Dammit, we've got a full torpedo load and no launchers," she said. "If I had a way to deliver them…"
Jarod turned and nodded. "We do." He tapped a key at Ops. "Tom, start transporting our torpedoes into their flight path, now!"
"Ha! That'll show the bastards!"
On the viewscreen, small bursts of light appeared in the Dalek flight path. "Remote arming sequence complete," Angel said.
"Detonate!"
Even without Julia's command, Angel's finger was already in motion. The screen filled with light as the torpedoes began to detonate. The Daleks closest to the detonations were outright vaporized. Further away they were damaged, some beyond repair, others trying to re-orientate themselves.
But some were far enough away from the blast radius to suffer minimal, if any, damage. They continued onward.
This did not go unnoticed. "Send more!" Jarod shouted into the comm link.
Julia issued her own order. "Ensign Arterria, fire maneuvering thrusters, get us as much distance as you can!"
"Aye ma'am," she said, while triggering the necessary thrusters to turn to present the port side to the Daleks. "Given the state of the other thrusters it's going to take at least a minute to execute the turn. Most of our intact thrusters are on the port side as it is."
The screen showed more of the Daleks approaching before another series of torpedo blasts lit the screen up.
"I've still got more incoming, they're evading," al-Rashad reported.
"Keep it up, Tom!" Jarod urged over the line.
"Mister Scott, I need more thrusters, anything, to get this ship moving!" Julia added.
"We're doin' what we can, sir!" was the response.
Lucy and Meridina were surprised when they led the escaped Torchwood survivors toward the front of the building. The Cybermen now seemed to pay them no heed, rushing outside to the ongoing battle. "What's happened out there?" Lucy wondered. She and Meridina stepped up toward the door.
"Exterminate!"
Daleks came crashing through the door. The two sensed the shots coming their way and caught them with their lightsabers. Their first deflections hit nothing, but the second shots from the three Daleks deflected blasts back into one of them. Its protective shield was overwhelmed and the Dalek's top blew off like a firecracker had gone off inside, spewing fluid and debris everywhere.
"Back inside!" Meridina cried to the survivors. "Get back!" She deflected another blast that took out a second Dalek.
The last Dalek focused on her instead of Lucy, who dashed forward and brought her lightsaber down on its eyestalk. The Dalek's protective field made it feel like she was trying to shove a dull knife through an overcooked steak. She had to jump over it when it prepared to fire at her, point blank. The shot hit the far wall and spewed flames.
Lucy's next cut had the same problem. Given time and effort her lightsaber would penetrate the field, but that meant keeping the Dalek still. Meridina reached out with her swevyra and gripped the Dalek to accomplish just that. "Tactical alert!" it cried. "Tactical alert to all Dalek units. Metacapable targets located!"
As it finished its warning Lucy's blade finally finished cutting into its shields, and then into its armor. The Dalek made a death scream that filled the Torchwood Tower lobby before it went silent.
"Perhaps we should withdraw, I sense Robert near the top of the building," Meridina stated.
Lucy nodded and approached her. A sense of warning from behind prompted her to turn and swing her lightsaber, deflecting a shot from an arriving Dalek back into it. The deflection was a direct hit, causing the Dalek's upper body to explode.
But there were yet more Daleks behind it. "Exterminate!" they cried.
There was no time to escape. Meridina and Lucy could only slowly back up as they focused entirely on deflecting the Dalek's attacks.
In the Torchwood Tower, Pete grabbed one of the world-jumping devices from a pouch on one of his men and handed it to Jackie. "Okay Jacks, we need to go. Please."
"But we can't just run…!"
He put his hands on her face and drew close. "Oh, I forgot how much you could argue. Jacks, we can't save this world. But there's a safe world for you and Rose so long as the Doctor closes the breach." Pete looked to where the Doctor was again staring out the window at the exchange of energy fire between the Cybermen and Daleks. "Doctor, it's time."
When the Doctor turned, he was grinning. A pair of 3D glasses were on his face. "Oh, I'm ready." He dashed from the office and went for one of the computer keyboards. "I've got the equipment right here, thank you Torchwood." His fingers moved over the keyboard, clack-clack-clack. "Slam it down and close off both universes."
"But we can't just leave. What about the Daleks and Cybermen?" Rose looked at Caterina and Robert. "What about their ship? If the Daleks get ahold of it…"
"They're part of the problem and that makes them part of the solution, oh yes!" the Doctor answered, making a wild gesture with his hand and acting very much like they weren't on the cusp of disaster.
"In what way?" asked Robert.
"Isn't anyone going to ask?" The Doctor looked around at them. "Come on, you know you want to ask. 'What is it with the glasses?'"
"What is it with the glasses?" Rose and Cat asked, at virtually the same moment.
"I can see, that's what!" the Doctor proclaimed. "'Cause we've got two separate worlds, and in between those two separate worlds we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding and the Cybermen traveled through the Void to get here." He gestured to Pete, Mickey, and Jake next. "And you lot, one world to another, via the Void." He raised his chin in consideration. "Oh, I like that. 'Via the Void!' His hand made a little gesture in the air as he quoted the line again.
"You're taking this awfully lightly," Robert accused. He looked around at the others. Yvonne was busy at her desk, apparently trying to get in contact with the British government or military or maybe just her remaining Torchwood teams.
"Look." The Doctor handed his glasses to Robert. He accepted them and put them on. "I've been through it. What do you see?"
Robert looked at him with the glasses and blinked. The 3D panes caused the Doctor to look a tad blurry, but the confusing bit was some kind of dark matter or energy that had coalesced around him. The Doctor moved side to side, allowing Robert to see that the particles of black moved with him. He took the glasses off and handed them to Cat, who saw the same thing. "What is it?" she asked as she handed the glasses to Rose, who raised a hand toward the Doctor's head.
"Void stuff," the Doctor said.
"Like, um, background radiation," Rose suggested.
"Or something like…" Cat stopped herself. "Background radiation works, really."
"That's it." The Doctor turned Rose around. "Look at the others."
Rose did so. Mickey, Jake, and Pete also had the Void stuff shifting around them. "And the only one who hasn't been through the Void," the Doctor pointed to Jackie, "your mother. First time she's looked normal in her life."
"Oi," Jackie protested.
"What about them?" Rose was looking at Robert and Cat with the glasses now. "I don't see any Void stuff on them. Don't they travel universes?"
"Yes, but not through the Void," the Doctor explained. Around them the Computer intoned "Reboot in three minutes." "They move through sixth-dimensional space. The Void exists between fifth dimensional space."
"Cat said something about that earlier," Rose said, and Cat nodded in agreement. "That they're not linked by time or something?"
"Exactly."
"How does that work?" Mickey asked, now confused.
The Doctor spun to him. "We haven't got time for the full explanation, Mickey. But to lay it out, imagine the BIg Bang. You know the Big Bang, you all do, right?"
"Yeah." Mickey said, with the others nodding.
"So the Big Bang happens and all of space and time form," the Doctor said. "But what many civilizations never even learn is that the Big Bang wasn't just one 'BANG!'" He mimicked an explosion. "It started with one, but at the point of the Bang it got sort of stuck in time, or rather in this knot of timey-wimeyness. Bang, bang, over and over again, each bang creating one new universe at a new sixth dimensional layer of reality."
"Which is why different universes, to our experience, have different points in time," Caterina added.
"Exactly! But once each new universe formed, time started flowing, and over billions and billions of years increasing number of random chances started building up. Quantum decision points were formed, creating fifth dimensional copies, and the Void formed between them."
"I thought you were giving the short explanation?" asked Pete.
"This is the short one," the Doctor answered defensively. "The long explanation would require a subatomic particle accelerator inside a refractive temporal field, twenty hours of talking, and probably a lot of tea for us to sit through it."
"So let's go with the short, short version," Robert suggested impatiently.
"There's not really one, and we're almost done," Cat insisted. "Interuniversal jump drives don't go through the Void, or the 5th Dimensional barrier. It's also why our drives are even possible without having to worry about things like entropic cascade or the effects of dimensional barrier collapse."
"Like what's happening on your world," the Doctor said to Pete. "But to continue… the Daleks lived inside the Void. They're bristling with it!" The Doctor turned and rushed toward the far wall. He turned to face Rose as she followed. "Cybermen, all of them, I just open the Void and trigger a reversal." He held out his hand and made a pulling gesture. "The Void stuff gets sucked back inside."
"Pulling them all in!" Rose added ecstatically.
"Pulling them all in!" the Doctor repeated in just as ecstatic a tone.
"Sorry, but what's the Void?" Mickey asked. "You said all this stuff about dimensions but what's the Void actually?"
"The dead space," the Doctor said. "Some people call it hell."
"So you're sending the Cybermen and Daleks to hell?" Mickey grinned and looked at Jake. "Man, I told you he was good."
Rose was no longer so enthusiastic, however. "But it's like you said. We've all got Void stuff. Me too because we went to that parallel world." She studied her own hand, seeing the void bits whirling around her hand and fingers, not quite touching her. "We're all contaminated. We'll all get pulled in."
"That's why you've got to go," the Doctor explained somberly. "Back to Pete's world." For a moment he showed a glimmer of cheer again. "Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World!" He pointed to Pete briefly before looking at Rose. He could see, they all could see, she was upset. "I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side."
"And you close it?" The Doctor looked to Pete, who spoke now. "For good?" Pete asked.
"The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff," the Doctor replied. "It'll close itself in the end. And that'll be it."
"But you stay on this side?" Rose asked.
"But you'll get pulled in," Mickey pointed out.
"No, he won't," Caterina said. "That's why he picked up these things." She pointed to the magna-clamps.
The Doctor pointed to her and nodded, smiling a little. "Exactly." He ran into Yvonne's room, ignoring her conversation, and picked up a clamp. He looked at Mickey and said, "I'll just have to hold on tight. Been doing it all my life."
"Or we could catch you," Robert suggested.
"Not a good idea," the Doctor said. "The breach is going to be exerting a lot of force to draw me in. Besides, I'll need you to watch my back. If the Daleks or Cybermen realize what's going on, well, they're not going to like it very much."
"And that's it? I'm supposed to go?"
It was easy to sense Rose's displeasure with the idea. Robert felt resentment and frustration and sadness roiling through her.
"Yeah." The Doctor set the clamp down.
"To another world? And then it gets sealed off?"
"Yeah," the Doctor repeated.
"Forever?" Rose asked, her eyes pleading with the Doctor. Pleading for him to reverse this decision.
He didn't answer.
On the Aurora bridge another sequence of torpedoes went off, destroying more Daleks. The Aurora continued to pull away steadily.
But, as it turned out, not fast enough.
"Several Daleks have evaded the torpedo blasts," Jarod said. "They're approaching minimum safe distance for the torpedoes."
"Meaning that if we set one off, we damage ourselves too," Julia said.
"Oh yeah."
"Engineering t' Bridge. We cannae keep this transportin' up for tae long, Commander, th' systems we're usin' cannae take th' strain!"
"Maintain it as long as you can, Mister Scott," Julia insisted. "Every Dalek you blow up is one not shooting its way aboard this ship!" Julia tapped a key to open a second channel. "Commander Kane, we've got Daleks overtaking the ship. Are your Marines ready?"
"Ready and able, ma'am. I've got all platoons positioned to respond rapidly to any incursion. Let me know where they're coming in and I'll get my people on it."
"It looks like they're trying to approach the drive hull." Al-Rashad consulted her functioning sensors again. "They're still evading as they come in."
"Kane, did you hear that?"
"I'm sending my platoons down. Lieutenant Richmond's deploying security teams to back us up. Just to let you know, Commander, I've authorized heavy weapons."
Julia nodded. "You'll need them. It took overcharged rifles and naqia charges to kill these things the last time."
"Roger that then, Kane out."
Many Daleks had died and were still dying to get this far. But some had still gotten through.
Dalek Thay approached the scarred, blackened hull of the Aurora. "Scans confirm hull damage sufficient to enable entry," it said. "All Daleks converge on primary target."
Another Dalek moved into place beside Thay as they, together, came to a tear in the ship's hull. "Sensors detect forcefield in place," said the Dalek.
"An atmospheric containment forcefield. It is insufficient to prevent entry," Thay said. Thay pressed itself up against the flickering blue light, which flickered further and gave way to Thay's own force shield. Within seconds he was inside of the ship. The Daleks followed him in.
Thay moved up to a sealed door panel and pressed its manipulator arm against the control. "Access overridden. Door opening."
The dark blue door slid open. On the other side energy fire immediately converted on Thay and the other Daleks. "Life forms detected!" Thay declared. "Exterminate!"
"Exterminate!" The Daleks began to open fire on their attackers.
In the opening exchange, one thing became clear; the standard firearms of their opponents could not easily penetrate their shields, although they were a greater danger than the Cybermen blasters had been. On the other hand, the Daleks' weapons could break through the personal shields or protection of most of the opposing life forms. The Daleks pressed onward and maintained a high level of fire sufficient to force their opponents back. Those who were unlucky were hit by the second shot necessary to kill them, falling in a surge of X-Ray energy that lit up their skeletons in the process.
Kane ran down the corridor with all of the speed his heavy armor suit granted him. Behind him more Marines in armor, including Sergeant Hakimzade and a squad of heavy powered armor Marines, followed. "They're heading for Deck 30 Section I-Bravo," he said. "All teams, back off and let us hit them from the rear! Heavy weapons use has been authorized!" The latter wasn't just a reminder to his own team to use said weapons, but a warning to the other teams that they might get hit if they were too close.
"Where are these things going?" asked Hakimzade. "They're not heading for Main Engineering."
"I don't know, but I don't aim to let them get there."
They made contact with the Daleks in the hall outside one of the machinery spaces for the navigational deflector. The Daleks had already turned to face them. Kane activated his shoulder-mounted RPG launcher's high-explosive penetrator function and leveled the weapon. With a single button press his weapon and two others fired. In the seconds before impact they sought to acquire their targets for direct hits. The Daleks' active countermeasures to such weapons caused two of the shots to be indirect hits, which blew out chunks of the corridor ahead.
The one direct hit struck the shields of a Dalek and went off. The blast blew the infernal creature and its machine onto its back and left much of the chassis burned and blackened. The manipulator arm ended in a broken stump and the firing arm's connector joint sparked from the damage.
"Exterminate!" The Daleks opened fire, but not before Kane and two of the power armored Marines dropped to their knees and projected hardlight shields from their left arms to catch the return fire. The hits were not easily taken. Kane's systems confirmed that a single hit degraded his shields by nearly a third. He returned fire with the pulse cannons built into the armor suit's right arm, at the wrist, which were quickly proven unable to break through even partially-degraded Dalek shields.
But it provided cover for the next rank of Marines to open up with their RPGs. Again two out of three rounds were spoofed. This time the one direct hit blew the Dalek in half, sending a jet of fluid and flame and debris into the ceiling of the corridor.
With his RPG launcher reloaded, Kane opened up again. This time none of the volley hit home directly, but a glancing hit and the proximity of the resulting explosion knocked out enough of a Dalek's shield that the suppression fire being laid down ripped into it, causing the top half of the Dalek to pop open destructively.
"Exterminate!" the Daleks cried out, as another volley hit the Marines. Kane watched his hardlight shield virtually collapse, forcing him to step back and allow one of the other heavy armored Marines to take the front row. A cry of pain came from the Marine beside him, who had taken enough hits to completely collapse his hardlight shield and deliver a direct hit to his armor. The Marine collapsed. Kane grabbed him and pulled him to safety. The humming of servos indicated the only way this was physically possible for him given the mass of a heavy armored Marine. "Medic!" he shouted. "We have wounded!" Above him another Marine, in standard armor, fell into place. The Dorei woman quickly leveled her rocket launcher in both arms and fired. The rocket nearly hit one of the Daleks before going off behind it. The corridor in question was now truly a blasted wreck, and the explosion degraded the shields of the Dalek in question enough that it was damaged by the continuous pulse fire.
But the Daleks, as expected, were giving as good as they were getting, and two more of Kane's Marines went down to their next series of shots. "Commander, we're inflicting some losses, but they're holding us back," he warned Julia. "Barker, send a squad from the stern, I think their leader is still moving!"
"Roger," said Barker.
"Security breach in the computers, Deck 30," Jarod announced on the bridge. His hands flew over his console. "I'm trying to cut him off."
"What's the Dalek doing?" Julia asked. On the screen another group of torpedoes went off, even as the Aurora continued to rise to higher orbit with her port thrusters.
"It looks like he's trying to get into… oh no."
"Jarod?!"
"He's trying to get physical access to the jump drive," Jarod said. "I'm trying to stop him but this Dalek is even faster than the one that hacked Control. He's isolating my command paths…" For several moments Jarod worked frantically before letting out a breath. "I couldn't stop him. He's in."
"Commander Kane, they're going for the jump drive. Stop them!"
"Trying, Commander. Definitely trying!" Kane replied over the sounds of battle and "Exterminate!"
Dalek Thay entered the jump drive access room on the Aurora in the company of one more Dalek. "Scans show device is damaged. Commence repair immediately," Thay ordered.
"I obey," stated the other Dalek.
They moved to different sections of the chamber and used their anti-gravs to lift themselves to the appropriate points. The second Dalek started on a power connection while Thay found the drive's projector. After examining the damage Thay commenced the repair.
He also gave another order. "Dalek units, secure vessel's navigational deflector system. Prepare to connect to interuniversal jump drive system."
Outside of the Aurora another force of Daleks approached the hull. The reply from the lead Dalek to Thay came: "Confirmed. Finding access point."
They split up. Half entered the same way Thay and his group had. The others went toward the gold-colored navigational deflector at the front of the drive hull. A hull breach near the bottom of the ship gave them entry. An emergency bulkhead barred their way, so the lead Dalek accessed its control.
"Emergency bulkhead on Deck 32 is being released," Jarod reported on the bridge. "It looks like another group of Daleks."
"Security teams and Marine platoon to Deck 32, section F, now," Julia ordered.
Rose kept looking at the Doctor intently. "It's not going to happen, okay?" she said. "I'm not leaving you."
Again, the Doctor didn't react. Even as a tear formed in Rose's eyes.
The building rumbled with enough force that everyone shook from the force of it. This was enough to send Pete into motion. "We don't have time to argue. The plan works. We're going." He looked at Rose and Jackie. "You too."
"I'm not leaving him," insisted Rose.
"And I'm not leaving her!" Jackie added.
"Oh my God," Pete said with exasperation. He glared directly at Jackie and declared, "We're going!"
"I've had twenty years without you, so button it!" retorted Jackie. "I'm not leaving her!"
Rose grabbed her mother's arm, causing her to turn and face Rose. 'But you've got to."
"Well, that's tough!"
"Mum…"
For a moment they simply stared at each other. The computer voice broke the silence. "Reboot in one minute."
Rose's eyes were pleading as she addressed her mother. "Mum, i've had a life with you for nineteen years. But then I met the Doctor. And all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us, for the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, Mum."
As she spoke, neither seemed to recognize that both Pete and the Doctor were pulling the transporter devices to jump between worlds. Each looked intently at each other and at the two Tylers. Robert and Caterina exchanged glances. They could speak, they could call attention to this, just as Jake or Mickey might, but they couldn't bring themselves to. It didn't seem like their place.
"But not anymore," continued Rose. She stepped back from her mother. "'Cause now he's got me."
As she finished her line, the Doctor made his move, setting the transporter over Rose's neck.
Before she could react, Pete stepped up to Jackie and hit a master switch on his transporter. All three Tylers, Mickey, Jake, and the rest of his remaining team disappeared in a burst of distortion that seemed to draw itself inward.
Robert and Caterina looked at the Doctor. Robert could feel that the old being was not happy with what he had just done. He liked Rose. Perhaps… even more than that, he may have loved her. But he had made his decision to put her safety first.
"She wanted to stay with you," Caterina said to the Doctor.
"I know," he answered, his voice soft and tinged with regret.
"Why couldn't she?"
"It all has to end at some point." He looked to Caterina intently. "It's the harshest lesson I've learned over the centuries. It all ends. They find new lives, or I have to walk away, or something takes their lives before their time. But that fate, I can't let her go through with that."
"But shouldn't the choice…"
Another burst of sound filled the air. Rose reappeared in the room. "I think this is the on switch," she remarked.
The Doctor looked at her somberly. Caterina smiled and nodded. "I knew you'd come back," she said.
"He wasn't doing that to me again," Rose insisted. She gave the Doctor a defiant look.
He stepped up and gripped her arms. "Once the breach collapses, that's it. You'll never be able to see her again. Your own mother!" He said the last sentence like Robert might have, with the pain of someone who knew that loss.
"I made my choice a long time ago. I'm never going to leave you." Rose never let her eyes leave his. "So what can I do to help?"
"Systems rebooted," said the computer. "Open access."
The Doctor let go of her and drew in a breath. He pointed to one of the computers on the right side of the room facing the breach. "Those computers over there. Set all of the coordinates to six." After she started moving he barked, "And hurry up."
"And us?" Cat asked.
"Caterina, since you don't need to worry about being sucked in, I need you on the computers, make sure the systems remain stable. Captain." The Doctor looked at Robert. "You and Miss Hartman will watch our backs. I expect the Daleks or the Cybermen will figure out what we're doing, and they're not going to like it."
Robert nodded and turned to walk to Miss Hartman's office. She was getting off the phone with someone. "Military forces across the globe are dealing with the Cybermen," she said. "We won't have support for some time. I can only hope London survives."
"The Doctor is preparing to draw them back into the breach," Robert said. "You and I need to…"
Before he could finish speaking, Robert cried out and fell over. His mind filled with images of stars dying, galaxies going dark, worlds burning… Yvonne went over to see what was wrong.
"We've got Cybermen on the way up," Rose said.
"How close?" asked the Doctor.
"Just one floor down."
Yvonne heard that. She moved away from Robert and picked up her particle gun. "I'll hold them off," she said. "Get the breach open." She stepped out of the door and went toward the staircase.
The door to the Deflector Control on the Aurora blew open. Pulse fire filled the new gap as the Daleks swept in, firing all the way. "Exterminate!"
"Concentrate fire!" shouted Sergeant Barker. "Overwhelm their shields!"
The heavy armor opened up with their RPGs. Dalek countermeasures sent all but two flying into the wall, where they caused massive damage. A glancing hit damaged two Daleks slightly and one direct hit blew the top pieces off if its target.
The Dalek return fire was fierce. Two Daleks focused and delivered enough shots to blast through one heavy armor Marine's protection, killing her. A security team officer, a Dorei man, died from a direct hit. Then an Alakin.
Barker triggered her RPG again. This time her shot hit home, blasting into another Dalek with its naqia charge. The blasts smashed the nearby equipment and panels. "They're going for the controls!" she shouted. "Maintain fire!"
Over it all, the Daleks were still shouting, "Exterminate!"
While the holo-viewscreen on the bridge showed the latest blasts on the viewscreen, Julia was watching her tactical holotank display. It showed a representation of the Aurora and the current Dalek progress. "They're hitting deflector control and they've gotten to the jump drive itself," she noted. "What are they doing?"
"I'm not sure," Jarod said. "Theoretically you could tie the jump drive to the deflector, but it doesn't need it to operate."
"More Daleks incoming," warned al-Rashad.
Julia briefly looked back to the screen. She waited for the flash of more torpedoes detonating.
None did.
Red light filled the makeshift transporter control Tom Barnes had been using. "Dammit" He hit several keys. "I just lost the Goddamned power relay on Deck 30. The fracking transporters are offline!"
Scott was on it right away. "Try the F relay on Deck 29!"
Barnes did so. "It's still damaged from the Goddamned Shadow attack. Can you reroute…?"
Scotty tried. "It's nae good, th' power system's taken tae much strain."
"Bridge to Engineering. Where are those torpedoes?"
"We've lost transporters, lass!" Scotty answered. "Tryin' tae get them back online now, but I dinnae hold much hope o' that, th' ship's taken tae much damage!"
Julia swallowed and watched the cloud of Daleks grow closer. Could they defeat them all? "All decks standby for Dalek boarders. We'll wreck this entire ship if we have to, but I'm not giving up the Aurora to the Daleks," she vowed.
Dalek Thay's eyestalk shifted after sparks finishing coming from an open panel on the Aurora's jump drive. "Repairs sufficient for operation complete. Ready to initiate upon control of deflector systems."
The other Dalek turned away from the jump drive. "What are your orders?"
"Return to the battle. Exterminate all life forms. This vessel will belong to the Daleks."
"I obey." The Dalek returned to the door and left.
Dalek blasts converged on the heavy armor Marine beside Hakimzade, enough to overwhelm that Marine's protective field and damage the armor. He cried out and collapsed. The tactical linkup confirmed he was alive, barely, and Kane pulled him free while Hakimzade fired another RPG. She'd set the charges to proximity so that her blasts at least damaged the Daleks, even when wide. The blue corridors of the Aurora were, here, now almost entirely black, with twisted wreckage and blown out walls from the heavy weapons fire that had destroyed some fo the enemy.
Despite everything, Kane felt he would soon get to drive access. It was barely ten meters away, in fact, and the Dalek numbers were thin enough. Even down two heavy armor troops, Kane's numbers and fire volume gave him an advantage.
"Commander, they're in your rear!" Julia Andreys cried over the comm system.
For a moment Kane didn't react to that. Not until his ears confirmed what she had sent. He turned his head and saw the Dalek blasts upon his vanguard. It was a new group, freshly arrived, and they had him and his force in a pincer. "This is Commander Kane on Deck 32, we're surrounded by Daleks, we need urgent help!" he said into his radio. "I repeat, Deck 32 Section F. We need help now." He turned. "About face!" he ordered, as he wondered if he could get his forces out of this predicament.
The current Cyberleader and his squad approached the last stairs before they would be on the top floor. "We will retreat through the breach and reclaim the home world," it ordered over the Cybermen comm channels. "All units follow…"
A beam of blue energy smashed into the Cyberleader and blew it apart. Yvonne Hartman turned her weapon and fired again, killing a second, before she was forced to duck beneath the railing to avoid the pale red blasts of the Cybermen.
In the Torchwood control room, the words "Levers operational" brought a smile to the Doctor's face. "That's more like it," Rose said. "A bit of a smile. The old team."
The Doctor picked up a magna-clamp. "Hope and Glory. Mutt and Jeff. Shiver and Shake."
"Which one's Shiver?" Rose asked, smiling as well.
"Oh, I'm Shake," the Doctor insisted. He handed the magna-clamp to Rose. She brought hers to the wall near the right-side lever and pressed it to the wall. The Doctor did the same on his side. "Press the red button," he said.
She did so, as did he. Red lights appeared on both.
"When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us, but the Daleks and Cybermen are steeped in the Void stuff." He pointed to Cat, who was kneeling by Robert. "How's he?"
"I don't know. His vitals are okay, but his heart's racing and…"
"He's fine for the moment then. I need you at your place, Cat!" The Doctor crouched by the lever and looked to Rose. "Are you ready?"
Rose turned toward the window and frowned. "So are they."
Four Daleks were approaching at the window.
In Deflector Control Barker fired a grenade that skittered just past a Dalek and blew up behind it, shattering a support console and blackening the hull plate and bulkhead in the process. The Dalek returned fire on her and clipped her shoulder with its blast. Pain surged through the limb and made Barker's left arm freeze up. She cried out and dropped down. Her face twisted with frustration and agony. The others could see the sweat droplets glistening on her dark skin through her faceplate. "Medic!" one of her subordinates called. A moment later the Human man's body lit up with energy, his skeleton made briefly visible, before he collapsed.
Meanwhile a lone Dalek had slipped through the firefight to reach the main controls. Its manipulator arm pressed down on the control, the plunger-like shape shifting until it was a square. "Assuming control of navigational deflector. Connecting to jump drive system."
Jarod noticed the system activity. "The Daleks are overriding control of the navigational deflector. They're… they're connecting it to the jump drive."
"How?" demanded Julia.
"It looks like they're using a wireless link. I've… I've never seen anything like it. The jump drive's emissions are going to be channeled into the deflector."
"Why would they even do that?" asked Angel.
"I've got no idea," Jarod replied.
"Let's do it!" shouted the Doctor.
Together the Doctor and Rose pushed the levers to fire the Torchwood particle engines into the breach. At the computer the Doctor had directed her to, Caterina called out, "The particle engines are operating under the desired parameters." She looked up and saw her report was wasted for the moment. The Doctor and Rose were wholly concentrated on the levers, their faces showing the strain of pushing them as quickly as they could until they activated. The breach began to glow bright with white light.
"Online," said the computer.
The Doctor and Rose immediately let go and rushed to the magna-clamps. They hooked their arms through the handles.
Air began to rush. There was a crashing of glass and electronic screams as the four Daleks sent after them went careening through the air and into the breach.
"The breach is open!" cried the Doctor. "Into the Void!"
"Sensors indicate Void breach has been opened," declared Dalek Thay. "Activating jump drive system." The Dalek's manipulator arm attached to a manual control panel on the jump drive.
"The Daleks are powering up the jump drive!" Jarod said. "Particles are feeding into the deflector…"
The gold and blue-lined deflector dish on the Aurora lit up with energy. Within a second the energy bursted ahead of the Aurora for about two kilometers until, in a brilliant white flash, it expanded into an open tear in space.
"I'm detecting an energy flow from the spatial tear," Jarod said. "I don't know what it's doing."
"Nothing good if the Daleks are behind it," Angel grumbled.
Cat noticed the readings and shouted, "Something's wrong!"
It was fairly clear as her sentence finished. While the breach remained as bright as ever, the Doctor and Rose found their feet again planted firmly on the ground, as if they hadn't just been holding on for dear life to avoid being pulled in. A panicked look came to the Doctor's face as he rushed to another computer. "Why isn't it working…?!"
"Torchwood's remaining systems are picking up a massive spatial distortion in orbit," Caterina said. "Looking at these readings… I think…"
"The Daleks blew open another hole into the Void," the Doctor said with clenched teeth. "It's counteracting the pull of this breach!" He looked to Caterina. "That's why they attacked your ship! The Cult of Skaro realized they were vulnerable to the breach so they made another!"
"So the Daleks and Cybermen aren't going to be pulled in?" Rose looked at the Doctor with worry. "Well, what do we do now?" she asked.
"There's nothing we can do from down here," the Doctor said. He looked to Caterina. "It's all up to your shipmates to stop the Daleks."
And then, from Yvonne's office, came a loud cry. All three turned to see where Robert was slumped against the doorway, eyes half open, sweat dripping from his brow. "No," he muttered. "No no no…"
"Rob?" Caterina was the first to his side. "Are you okay?"
"He's having visions," the Doctor said. "Bad ones." He knelt beside Robert and set his hands on Robert's shoulders. "Wake up, Captain! You've got to snap out of it!"
"It's all going out," Robert mumbled. "All of it."
"What's going on?" asked Rose.
"The stars. The light. All gone. It's going dark."
"Rob, wake up!"
Maybe it was Caterina's voice. She thought it might even be the Doctor's presence. But whatever it was, Robert's eyes opened fully. His face was clammy with sweat and terror. His eyes were wide, as if he had just witnessed the most terrible horrors.
"Robert, what's wrong?"
"They're waking up," he said. "It's waking them up!"
"Who's waking up?" asked Rose.
Robert opened his mouth, but whether he was going to answer or continue speaking wouldn't be known as another voice answered Rose's question.
The Doctor's face had grown pale. His look matched Robert's in horror and realization. He drew out a forced breath before he answered Rose.
"The Darkness."
Inside of the top floor, this sight and what it meant wasn't lost on Pete Tyler. "We can't save this world," he declared. He made a hand motion toward Jake and stepped away from the window to face Jackie. "But we'll be safe in mine. Jacks, let's go."
"What are you talking about? Are you just going to leave?" she asked. "They're destroying the city!"
"Not just London, they're going to destroy the whole world. I can't stop that. But our world will be safe. For you and for Rose." Pete looked to the Doctor. "If the Doctor seals the breach."
"We've got other concerns right now," Robert retorted. "Those things are after my ship! We've got to warn them!" Under ordinary circumstances Robert wouldn't be worried. The Aurora could simply warp out or keep the shields up and shoot Daleks until they were destroyed.
But the Aurora as she was now, with all of those hull breaches and no armor self-repair system and no shields? They were sitting ducks.
"I have to get them to safety!" Pete protested. "I have to protect my world! Doctor, you…"
The Doctor let out a loud whistle. "Alright, hold it!" he shouted. "One thing at a time." He pulled out his sonic screwdriver. "Captain, your omni-tool?"
Robert reached down and activated it. The Doctor held his screwdriver up to it for a moment. The tip lit up and a whirring sound started. "What are you doing?" Robert asked.
"Altering your communication system. You should be able to talk to someone on your ship. You might not be able to receive back from them, true, but for now the warning's the important part." The whirring stopped and the Doctor pulled his device away. "There. Now try."
Robert hit his comm key. "Dale to Aurora."
There was no immediate answer.
"Dale to Aurora, please respond."
There was no hiding his relief when a reply of "Aurora here," came. It was crackly and slightly distorted, but Robert was certain it was Julia on the other end. "We don't have anything beyond intraship, how are you doing this?"
"The Doctor," Robert answered. "Commander, call an alert to repel boarders, now. You've got trouble coming your way."
"We already defeated the Cybermen," Julia answered. "The ship is clear."
"I'm not talking about the Cybermen," Robert said over the line, his voice scratchy from distortion. "It's…" The line garbled into static.
Julia, again in the command chair, felt bewildered at that remark. The bridge was partly-manned again. Jarod was at Ops, checking on things, while Angel was having her leg tended to by a medic while at tactical. Al-Rashad was again at sensors and Violeta had assumed helm control, although for the moment there was little use for it. "Wait, what's going…"
"Commander, I've got power signatures exiting the upper atmosphere," al-Rashad said. "It looks like they're on an intercept course."
"Put them on screen."
The screen changed to show orbital space above London. Forms were rising up through the atmosphere and heading toward them. "Magnifying," Jarod said.
The image of their pursuers was now clear. And Julia would always recognize what they were. She'd had her own nightmares about them since the day the Facility was destroyed.
"Daleks," Jarod said grimly.
Julia's jaw dropped open. "That many?"
Angel's response was perhaps the most fitting. "Oh shit."
Julia's finger stabbed back down on the comm control. "All hands, prepare for boarding action! Prepare to repel enemy boarding parties! I say again, prepare to repel enemy boarding parties!" After this was done she called Engineering. "I need shields or impulsors back online, now."
"It cannae be done, lass," Scotty protested. "We were hours away before even before those metal scunners showed up."
Julia tried not to let the fear and frustration get to her. "Dammit, Scotty, we've got worse coming!"
"So?" This was from Barnes. "I'll just beam 'em to join the Cyberfrackers in low orbit, they'll burn up…"
"They're Daleks, Tom!"
In Main Engineering, Barnes' face paled. He and Scott exchanged bewildered looks. "How many?" he asked.
"Dozens, easy!"
For a moment Barnes thought his heart had stopped. When he finally found his voice again, he could say only one thing.
"Oh shit!"
Kane's reaction was less emphatic. "All squads and platoons, heavy weapons are now authorized. I repeat, heavy weapons are authorized."
Barker gave him a bewildered look. "We're going to wreck everything in this ship if we go free-fire with heavy weapons, sir," she pointed out.
"Did you ever listen to the testimonies from the Dalek Incursion into the H1E4 Facility, Barker?" Kane asked.
"No sir."
"I have." Kane frowned. "Trust me. We'll need 'em to stop those damn things."
Julia watched the approaching Daleks with a growing terror. "I wish we had fighters ready to launch," she said. "Jarod?"
"All fighters were destroyed or critically damaged when the Shadow ship shot through our launch and hanger decks," Jarod replied. "The same thing with the main and secondary shuttle bays. Given time we could have repaired a few, but I was too busy fixing the ship itself."
Julia nodded at that. "So we don't have that going for us. Weapons?"
Angel checked over her panel. As she expected, none of her weapons were back online. "Phasers and plasma cannons are still out. And I've got no power to the torpedo launchers." Angel smacked her hand to her useless console. Dammit, we've got a full torpedo load and no launchers," she said. "If I had a way to deliver them…"
Jarod turned and nodded. "We do." He tapped a key at Ops. "Tom, start transporting our torpedoes into their flight path, now!"
"Ha! That'll show the bastards!"
On the viewscreen, small bursts of light appeared in the Dalek flight path. "Remote arming sequence complete," Angel said.
"Detonate!"
Even without Julia's command, Angel's finger was already in motion. The screen filled with light as the torpedoes began to detonate. The Daleks closest to the detonations were outright vaporized. Further away they were damaged, some beyond repair, others trying to re-orientate themselves.
But some were far enough away from the blast radius to suffer minimal, if any, damage. They continued onward.
This did not go unnoticed. "Send more!" Jarod shouted into the comm link.
Julia issued her own order. "Ensign Arterria, fire maneuvering thrusters, get us as much distance as you can!"
"Aye ma'am," she said, while triggering the necessary thrusters to turn to present the port side to the Daleks. "Given the state of the other thrusters it's going to take at least a minute to execute the turn. Most of our intact thrusters are on the port side as it is."
The screen showed more of the Daleks approaching before another series of torpedo blasts lit the screen up.
"I've still got more incoming, they're evading," al-Rashad reported.
"Keep it up, Tom!" Jarod urged over the line.
"Mister Scott, I need more thrusters, anything, to get this ship moving!" Julia added.
"We're doin' what we can, sir!" was the response.
Lucy and Meridina were surprised when they led the escaped Torchwood survivors toward the front of the building. The Cybermen now seemed to pay them no heed, rushing outside to the ongoing battle. "What's happened out there?" Lucy wondered. She and Meridina stepped up toward the door.
"Exterminate!"
Daleks came crashing through the door. The two sensed the shots coming their way and caught them with their lightsabers. Their first deflections hit nothing, but the second shots from the three Daleks deflected blasts back into one of them. Its protective shield was overwhelmed and the Dalek's top blew off like a firecracker had gone off inside, spewing fluid and debris everywhere.
"Back inside!" Meridina cried to the survivors. "Get back!" She deflected another blast that took out a second Dalek.
The last Dalek focused on her instead of Lucy, who dashed forward and brought her lightsaber down on its eyestalk. The Dalek's protective field made it feel like she was trying to shove a dull knife through an overcooked steak. She had to jump over it when it prepared to fire at her, point blank. The shot hit the far wall and spewed flames.
Lucy's next cut had the same problem. Given time and effort her lightsaber would penetrate the field, but that meant keeping the Dalek still. Meridina reached out with her swevyra and gripped the Dalek to accomplish just that. "Tactical alert!" it cried. "Tactical alert to all Dalek units. Metacapable targets located!"
As it finished its warning Lucy's blade finally finished cutting into its shields, and then into its armor. The Dalek made a death scream that filled the Torchwood Tower lobby before it went silent.
"Perhaps we should withdraw, I sense Robert near the top of the building," Meridina stated.
Lucy nodded and approached her. A sense of warning from behind prompted her to turn and swing her lightsaber, deflecting a shot from an arriving Dalek back into it. The deflection was a direct hit, causing the Dalek's upper body to explode.
But there were yet more Daleks behind it. "Exterminate!" they cried.
There was no time to escape. Meridina and Lucy could only slowly back up as they focused entirely on deflecting the Dalek's attacks.
In the Torchwood Tower, Pete grabbed one of the world-jumping devices from a pouch on one of his men and handed it to Jackie. "Okay Jacks, we need to go. Please."
"But we can't just run…!"
He put his hands on her face and drew close. "Oh, I forgot how much you could argue. Jacks, we can't save this world. But there's a safe world for you and Rose so long as the Doctor closes the breach." Pete looked to where the Doctor was again staring out the window at the exchange of energy fire between the Cybermen and Daleks. "Doctor, it's time."
When the Doctor turned, he was grinning. A pair of 3D glasses were on his face. "Oh, I'm ready." He dashed from the office and went for one of the computer keyboards. "I've got the equipment right here, thank you Torchwood." His fingers moved over the keyboard, clack-clack-clack. "Slam it down and close off both universes."
"But we can't just leave. What about the Daleks and Cybermen?" Rose looked at Caterina and Robert. "What about their ship? If the Daleks get ahold of it…"
"They're part of the problem and that makes them part of the solution, oh yes!" the Doctor answered, making a wild gesture with his hand and acting very much like they weren't on the cusp of disaster.
"In what way?" asked Robert.
"Isn't anyone going to ask?" The Doctor looked around at them. "Come on, you know you want to ask. 'What is it with the glasses?'"
"What is it with the glasses?" Rose and Cat asked, at virtually the same moment.
"I can see, that's what!" the Doctor proclaimed. "'Cause we've got two separate worlds, and in between those two separate worlds we've got the Void. That's where the Daleks were hiding and the Cybermen traveled through the Void to get here." He gestured to Pete, Mickey, and Jake next. "And you lot, one world to another, via the Void." He raised his chin in consideration. "Oh, I like that. 'Via the Void!' His hand made a little gesture in the air as he quoted the line again.
"You're taking this awfully lightly," Robert accused. He looked around at the others. Yvonne was busy at her desk, apparently trying to get in contact with the British government or military or maybe just her remaining Torchwood teams.
"Look." The Doctor handed his glasses to Robert. He accepted them and put them on. "I've been through it. What do you see?"
Robert looked at him with the glasses and blinked. The 3D panes caused the Doctor to look a tad blurry, but the confusing bit was some kind of dark matter or energy that had coalesced around him. The Doctor moved side to side, allowing Robert to see that the particles of black moved with him. He took the glasses off and handed them to Cat, who saw the same thing. "What is it?" she asked as she handed the glasses to Rose, who raised a hand toward the Doctor's head.
"Void stuff," the Doctor said.
"Like, um, background radiation," Rose suggested.
"Or something like…" Cat stopped herself. "Background radiation works, really."
"That's it." The Doctor turned Rose around. "Look at the others."
Rose did so. Mickey, Jake, and Pete also had the Void stuff shifting around them. "And the only one who hasn't been through the Void," the Doctor pointed to Jackie, "your mother. First time she's looked normal in her life."
"Oi," Jackie protested.
"What about them?" Rose was looking at Robert and Cat with the glasses now. "I don't see any Void stuff on them. Don't they travel universes?"
"Yes, but not through the Void," the Doctor explained. Around them the Computer intoned "Reboot in three minutes." "They move through sixth-dimensional space. The Void exists between fifth dimensional space."
"Cat said something about that earlier," Rose said, and Cat nodded in agreement. "That they're not linked by time or something?"
"Exactly."
"How does that work?" Mickey asked, now confused.
The Doctor spun to him. "We haven't got time for the full explanation, Mickey. But to lay it out, imagine the BIg Bang. You know the Big Bang, you all do, right?"
"Yeah." Mickey said, with the others nodding.
"So the Big Bang happens and all of space and time form," the Doctor said. "But what many civilizations never even learn is that the Big Bang wasn't just one 'BANG!'" He mimicked an explosion. "It started with one, but at the point of the Bang it got sort of stuck in time, or rather in this knot of timey-wimeyness. Bang, bang, over and over again, each bang creating one new universe at a new sixth dimensional layer of reality."
"Which is why different universes, to our experience, have different points in time," Caterina added.
"Exactly! But once each new universe formed, time started flowing, and over billions and billions of years increasing number of random chances started building up. Quantum decision points were formed, creating fifth dimensional copies, and the Void formed between them."
"I thought you were giving the short explanation?" asked Pete.
"This is the short one," the Doctor answered defensively. "The long explanation would require a subatomic particle accelerator inside a refractive temporal field, twenty hours of talking, and probably a lot of tea for us to sit through it."
"So let's go with the short, short version," Robert suggested impatiently.
"There's not really one, and we're almost done," Cat insisted. "Interuniversal jump drives don't go through the Void, or the 5th Dimensional barrier. It's also why our drives are even possible without having to worry about things like entropic cascade or the effects of dimensional barrier collapse."
"Like what's happening on your world," the Doctor said to Pete. "But to continue… the Daleks lived inside the Void. They're bristling with it!" The Doctor turned and rushed toward the far wall. He turned to face Rose as she followed. "Cybermen, all of them, I just open the Void and trigger a reversal." He held out his hand and made a pulling gesture. "The Void stuff gets sucked back inside."
"Pulling them all in!" Rose added ecstatically.
"Pulling them all in!" the Doctor repeated in just as ecstatic a tone.
"Sorry, but what's the Void?" Mickey asked. "You said all this stuff about dimensions but what's the Void actually?"
"The dead space," the Doctor said. "Some people call it hell."
"So you're sending the Cybermen and Daleks to hell?" Mickey grinned and looked at Jake. "Man, I told you he was good."
Rose was no longer so enthusiastic, however. "But it's like you said. We've all got Void stuff. Me too because we went to that parallel world." She studied her own hand, seeing the void bits whirling around her hand and fingers, not quite touching her. "We're all contaminated. We'll all get pulled in."
"That's why you've got to go," the Doctor explained somberly. "Back to Pete's world." For a moment he showed a glimmer of cheer again. "Hey, we should call it that. Pete's World!" He pointed to Pete briefly before looking at Rose. He could see, they all could see, she was upset. "I'm opening the Void, but only on this side. You'll be safe on that side."
"And you close it?" The Doctor looked to Pete, who spoke now. "For good?" Pete asked.
"The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff," the Doctor replied. "It'll close itself in the end. And that'll be it."
"But you stay on this side?" Rose asked.
"But you'll get pulled in," Mickey pointed out.
"No, he won't," Caterina said. "That's why he picked up these things." She pointed to the magna-clamps.
The Doctor pointed to her and nodded, smiling a little. "Exactly." He ran into Yvonne's room, ignoring her conversation, and picked up a clamp. He looked at Mickey and said, "I'll just have to hold on tight. Been doing it all my life."
"Or we could catch you," Robert suggested.
"Not a good idea," the Doctor said. "The breach is going to be exerting a lot of force to draw me in. Besides, I'll need you to watch my back. If the Daleks or Cybermen realize what's going on, well, they're not going to like it very much."
"And that's it? I'm supposed to go?"
It was easy to sense Rose's displeasure with the idea. Robert felt resentment and frustration and sadness roiling through her.
"Yeah." The Doctor set the clamp down.
"To another world? And then it gets sealed off?"
"Yeah," the Doctor repeated.
"Forever?" Rose asked, her eyes pleading with the Doctor. Pleading for him to reverse this decision.
He didn't answer.
On the Aurora bridge another sequence of torpedoes went off, destroying more Daleks. The Aurora continued to pull away steadily.
But, as it turned out, not fast enough.
"Several Daleks have evaded the torpedo blasts," Jarod said. "They're approaching minimum safe distance for the torpedoes."
"Meaning that if we set one off, we damage ourselves too," Julia said.
"Oh yeah."
"Engineering t' Bridge. We cannae keep this transportin' up for tae long, Commander, th' systems we're usin' cannae take th' strain!"
"Maintain it as long as you can, Mister Scott," Julia insisted. "Every Dalek you blow up is one not shooting its way aboard this ship!" Julia tapped a key to open a second channel. "Commander Kane, we've got Daleks overtaking the ship. Are your Marines ready?"
"Ready and able, ma'am. I've got all platoons positioned to respond rapidly to any incursion. Let me know where they're coming in and I'll get my people on it."
"It looks like they're trying to approach the drive hull." Al-Rashad consulted her functioning sensors again. "They're still evading as they come in."
"Kane, did you hear that?"
"I'm sending my platoons down. Lieutenant Richmond's deploying security teams to back us up. Just to let you know, Commander, I've authorized heavy weapons."
Julia nodded. "You'll need them. It took overcharged rifles and naqia charges to kill these things the last time."
"Roger that then, Kane out."
Many Daleks had died and were still dying to get this far. But some had still gotten through.
Dalek Thay approached the scarred, blackened hull of the Aurora. "Scans confirm hull damage sufficient to enable entry," it said. "All Daleks converge on primary target."
Another Dalek moved into place beside Thay as they, together, came to a tear in the ship's hull. "Sensors detect forcefield in place," said the Dalek.
"An atmospheric containment forcefield. It is insufficient to prevent entry," Thay said. Thay pressed itself up against the flickering blue light, which flickered further and gave way to Thay's own force shield. Within seconds he was inside of the ship. The Daleks followed him in.
Thay moved up to a sealed door panel and pressed its manipulator arm against the control. "Access overridden. Door opening."
The dark blue door slid open. On the other side energy fire immediately converted on Thay and the other Daleks. "Life forms detected!" Thay declared. "Exterminate!"
"Exterminate!" The Daleks began to open fire on their attackers.
In the opening exchange, one thing became clear; the standard firearms of their opponents could not easily penetrate their shields, although they were a greater danger than the Cybermen blasters had been. On the other hand, the Daleks' weapons could break through the personal shields or protection of most of the opposing life forms. The Daleks pressed onward and maintained a high level of fire sufficient to force their opponents back. Those who were unlucky were hit by the second shot necessary to kill them, falling in a surge of X-Ray energy that lit up their skeletons in the process.
Kane ran down the corridor with all of the speed his heavy armor suit granted him. Behind him more Marines in armor, including Sergeant Hakimzade and a squad of heavy powered armor Marines, followed. "They're heading for Deck 30 Section I-Bravo," he said. "All teams, back off and let us hit them from the rear! Heavy weapons use has been authorized!" The latter wasn't just a reminder to his own team to use said weapons, but a warning to the other teams that they might get hit if they were too close.
"Where are these things going?" asked Hakimzade. "They're not heading for Main Engineering."
"I don't know, but I don't aim to let them get there."
They made contact with the Daleks in the hall outside one of the machinery spaces for the navigational deflector. The Daleks had already turned to face them. Kane activated his shoulder-mounted RPG launcher's high-explosive penetrator function and leveled the weapon. With a single button press his weapon and two others fired. In the seconds before impact they sought to acquire their targets for direct hits. The Daleks' active countermeasures to such weapons caused two of the shots to be indirect hits, which blew out chunks of the corridor ahead.
The one direct hit struck the shields of a Dalek and went off. The blast blew the infernal creature and its machine onto its back and left much of the chassis burned and blackened. The manipulator arm ended in a broken stump and the firing arm's connector joint sparked from the damage.
"Exterminate!" The Daleks opened fire, but not before Kane and two of the power armored Marines dropped to their knees and projected hardlight shields from their left arms to catch the return fire. The hits were not easily taken. Kane's systems confirmed that a single hit degraded his shields by nearly a third. He returned fire with the pulse cannons built into the armor suit's right arm, at the wrist, which were quickly proven unable to break through even partially-degraded Dalek shields.
But it provided cover for the next rank of Marines to open up with their RPGs. Again two out of three rounds were spoofed. This time the one direct hit blew the Dalek in half, sending a jet of fluid and flame and debris into the ceiling of the corridor.
With his RPG launcher reloaded, Kane opened up again. This time none of the volley hit home directly, but a glancing hit and the proximity of the resulting explosion knocked out enough of a Dalek's shield that the suppression fire being laid down ripped into it, causing the top half of the Dalek to pop open destructively.
"Exterminate!" the Daleks cried out, as another volley hit the Marines. Kane watched his hardlight shield virtually collapse, forcing him to step back and allow one of the other heavy armored Marines to take the front row. A cry of pain came from the Marine beside him, who had taken enough hits to completely collapse his hardlight shield and deliver a direct hit to his armor. The Marine collapsed. Kane grabbed him and pulled him to safety. The humming of servos indicated the only way this was physically possible for him given the mass of a heavy armored Marine. "Medic!" he shouted. "We have wounded!" Above him another Marine, in standard armor, fell into place. The Dorei woman quickly leveled her rocket launcher in both arms and fired. The rocket nearly hit one of the Daleks before going off behind it. The corridor in question was now truly a blasted wreck, and the explosion degraded the shields of the Dalek in question enough that it was damaged by the continuous pulse fire.
But the Daleks, as expected, were giving as good as they were getting, and two more of Kane's Marines went down to their next series of shots. "Commander, we're inflicting some losses, but they're holding us back," he warned Julia. "Barker, send a squad from the stern, I think their leader is still moving!"
"Roger," said Barker.
"Security breach in the computers, Deck 30," Jarod announced on the bridge. His hands flew over his console. "I'm trying to cut him off."
"What's the Dalek doing?" Julia asked. On the screen another group of torpedoes went off, even as the Aurora continued to rise to higher orbit with her port thrusters.
"It looks like he's trying to get into… oh no."
"Jarod?!"
"He's trying to get physical access to the jump drive," Jarod said. "I'm trying to stop him but this Dalek is even faster than the one that hacked Control. He's isolating my command paths…" For several moments Jarod worked frantically before letting out a breath. "I couldn't stop him. He's in."
"Commander Kane, they're going for the jump drive. Stop them!"
"Trying, Commander. Definitely trying!" Kane replied over the sounds of battle and "Exterminate!"
Dalek Thay entered the jump drive access room on the Aurora in the company of one more Dalek. "Scans show device is damaged. Commence repair immediately," Thay ordered.
"I obey," stated the other Dalek.
They moved to different sections of the chamber and used their anti-gravs to lift themselves to the appropriate points. The second Dalek started on a power connection while Thay found the drive's projector. After examining the damage Thay commenced the repair.
He also gave another order. "Dalek units, secure vessel's navigational deflector system. Prepare to connect to interuniversal jump drive system."
Outside of the Aurora another force of Daleks approached the hull. The reply from the lead Dalek to Thay came: "Confirmed. Finding access point."
They split up. Half entered the same way Thay and his group had. The others went toward the gold-colored navigational deflector at the front of the drive hull. A hull breach near the bottom of the ship gave them entry. An emergency bulkhead barred their way, so the lead Dalek accessed its control.
"Emergency bulkhead on Deck 32 is being released," Jarod reported on the bridge. "It looks like another group of Daleks."
"Security teams and Marine platoon to Deck 32, section F, now," Julia ordered.
Rose kept looking at the Doctor intently. "It's not going to happen, okay?" she said. "I'm not leaving you."
Again, the Doctor didn't react. Even as a tear formed in Rose's eyes.
The building rumbled with enough force that everyone shook from the force of it. This was enough to send Pete into motion. "We don't have time to argue. The plan works. We're going." He looked at Rose and Jackie. "You too."
"I'm not leaving him," insisted Rose.
"And I'm not leaving her!" Jackie added.
"Oh my God," Pete said with exasperation. He glared directly at Jackie and declared, "We're going!"
"I've had twenty years without you, so button it!" retorted Jackie. "I'm not leaving her!"
Rose grabbed her mother's arm, causing her to turn and face Rose. 'But you've got to."
"Well, that's tough!"
"Mum…"
For a moment they simply stared at each other. The computer voice broke the silence. "Reboot in one minute."
Rose's eyes were pleading as she addressed her mother. "Mum, i've had a life with you for nineteen years. But then I met the Doctor. And all the things I've seen him do for me, for you, for all of us, for the whole stupid planet and every planet out there. He does it alone, Mum."
As she spoke, neither seemed to recognize that both Pete and the Doctor were pulling the transporter devices to jump between worlds. Each looked intently at each other and at the two Tylers. Robert and Caterina exchanged glances. They could speak, they could call attention to this, just as Jake or Mickey might, but they couldn't bring themselves to. It didn't seem like their place.
"But not anymore," continued Rose. She stepped back from her mother. "'Cause now he's got me."
As she finished her line, the Doctor made his move, setting the transporter over Rose's neck.
Before she could react, Pete stepped up to Jackie and hit a master switch on his transporter. All three Tylers, Mickey, Jake, and the rest of his remaining team disappeared in a burst of distortion that seemed to draw itself inward.
Robert and Caterina looked at the Doctor. Robert could feel that the old being was not happy with what he had just done. He liked Rose. Perhaps… even more than that, he may have loved her. But he had made his decision to put her safety first.
"She wanted to stay with you," Caterina said to the Doctor.
"I know," he answered, his voice soft and tinged with regret.
"Why couldn't she?"
"It all has to end at some point." He looked to Caterina intently. "It's the harshest lesson I've learned over the centuries. It all ends. They find new lives, or I have to walk away, or something takes their lives before their time. But that fate, I can't let her go through with that."
"But shouldn't the choice…"
Another burst of sound filled the air. Rose reappeared in the room. "I think this is the on switch," she remarked.
The Doctor looked at her somberly. Caterina smiled and nodded. "I knew you'd come back," she said.
"He wasn't doing that to me again," Rose insisted. She gave the Doctor a defiant look.
He stepped up and gripped her arms. "Once the breach collapses, that's it. You'll never be able to see her again. Your own mother!" He said the last sentence like Robert might have, with the pain of someone who knew that loss.
"I made my choice a long time ago. I'm never going to leave you." Rose never let her eyes leave his. "So what can I do to help?"
"Systems rebooted," said the computer. "Open access."
The Doctor let go of her and drew in a breath. He pointed to one of the computers on the right side of the room facing the breach. "Those computers over there. Set all of the coordinates to six." After she started moving he barked, "And hurry up."
"And us?" Cat asked.
"Caterina, since you don't need to worry about being sucked in, I need you on the computers, make sure the systems remain stable. Captain." The Doctor looked at Robert. "You and Miss Hartman will watch our backs. I expect the Daleks or the Cybermen will figure out what we're doing, and they're not going to like it."
Robert nodded and turned to walk to Miss Hartman's office. She was getting off the phone with someone. "Military forces across the globe are dealing with the Cybermen," she said. "We won't have support for some time. I can only hope London survives."
"The Doctor is preparing to draw them back into the breach," Robert said. "You and I need to…"
Before he could finish speaking, Robert cried out and fell over. His mind filled with images of stars dying, galaxies going dark, worlds burning… Yvonne went over to see what was wrong.
"We've got Cybermen on the way up," Rose said.
"How close?" asked the Doctor.
"Just one floor down."
Yvonne heard that. She moved away from Robert and picked up her particle gun. "I'll hold them off," she said. "Get the breach open." She stepped out of the door and went toward the staircase.
The door to the Deflector Control on the Aurora blew open. Pulse fire filled the new gap as the Daleks swept in, firing all the way. "Exterminate!"
"Concentrate fire!" shouted Sergeant Barker. "Overwhelm their shields!"
The heavy armor opened up with their RPGs. Dalek countermeasures sent all but two flying into the wall, where they caused massive damage. A glancing hit damaged two Daleks slightly and one direct hit blew the top pieces off if its target.
The Dalek return fire was fierce. Two Daleks focused and delivered enough shots to blast through one heavy armor Marine's protection, killing her. A security team officer, a Dorei man, died from a direct hit. Then an Alakin.
Barker triggered her RPG again. This time her shot hit home, blasting into another Dalek with its naqia charge. The blasts smashed the nearby equipment and panels. "They're going for the controls!" she shouted. "Maintain fire!"
Over it all, the Daleks were still shouting, "Exterminate!"
While the holo-viewscreen on the bridge showed the latest blasts on the viewscreen, Julia was watching her tactical holotank display. It showed a representation of the Aurora and the current Dalek progress. "They're hitting deflector control and they've gotten to the jump drive itself," she noted. "What are they doing?"
"I'm not sure," Jarod said. "Theoretically you could tie the jump drive to the deflector, but it doesn't need it to operate."
"More Daleks incoming," warned al-Rashad.
Julia briefly looked back to the screen. She waited for the flash of more torpedoes detonating.
None did.
Red light filled the makeshift transporter control Tom Barnes had been using. "Dammit" He hit several keys. "I just lost the Goddamned power relay on Deck 30. The fracking transporters are offline!"
Scott was on it right away. "Try the F relay on Deck 29!"
Barnes did so. "It's still damaged from the Goddamned Shadow attack. Can you reroute…?"
Scotty tried. "It's nae good, th' power system's taken tae much strain."
"Bridge to Engineering. Where are those torpedoes?"
"We've lost transporters, lass!" Scotty answered. "Tryin' tae get them back online now, but I dinnae hold much hope o' that, th' ship's taken tae much damage!"
Julia swallowed and watched the cloud of Daleks grow closer. Could they defeat them all? "All decks standby for Dalek boarders. We'll wreck this entire ship if we have to, but I'm not giving up the Aurora to the Daleks," she vowed.
Dalek Thay's eyestalk shifted after sparks finishing coming from an open panel on the Aurora's jump drive. "Repairs sufficient for operation complete. Ready to initiate upon control of deflector systems."
The other Dalek turned away from the jump drive. "What are your orders?"
"Return to the battle. Exterminate all life forms. This vessel will belong to the Daleks."
"I obey." The Dalek returned to the door and left.
Dalek blasts converged on the heavy armor Marine beside Hakimzade, enough to overwhelm that Marine's protective field and damage the armor. He cried out and collapsed. The tactical linkup confirmed he was alive, barely, and Kane pulled him free while Hakimzade fired another RPG. She'd set the charges to proximity so that her blasts at least damaged the Daleks, even when wide. The blue corridors of the Aurora were, here, now almost entirely black, with twisted wreckage and blown out walls from the heavy weapons fire that had destroyed some fo the enemy.
Despite everything, Kane felt he would soon get to drive access. It was barely ten meters away, in fact, and the Dalek numbers were thin enough. Even down two heavy armor troops, Kane's numbers and fire volume gave him an advantage.
"Commander, they're in your rear!" Julia Andreys cried over the comm system.
For a moment Kane didn't react to that. Not until his ears confirmed what she had sent. He turned his head and saw the Dalek blasts upon his vanguard. It was a new group, freshly arrived, and they had him and his force in a pincer. "This is Commander Kane on Deck 32, we're surrounded by Daleks, we need urgent help!" he said into his radio. "I repeat, Deck 32 Section F. We need help now." He turned. "About face!" he ordered, as he wondered if he could get his forces out of this predicament.
The current Cyberleader and his squad approached the last stairs before they would be on the top floor. "We will retreat through the breach and reclaim the home world," it ordered over the Cybermen comm channels. "All units follow…"
A beam of blue energy smashed into the Cyberleader and blew it apart. Yvonne Hartman turned her weapon and fired again, killing a second, before she was forced to duck beneath the railing to avoid the pale red blasts of the Cybermen.
In the Torchwood control room, the words "Levers operational" brought a smile to the Doctor's face. "That's more like it," Rose said. "A bit of a smile. The old team."
The Doctor picked up a magna-clamp. "Hope and Glory. Mutt and Jeff. Shiver and Shake."
"Which one's Shiver?" Rose asked, smiling as well.
"Oh, I'm Shake," the Doctor insisted. He handed the magna-clamp to Rose. She brought hers to the wall near the right-side lever and pressed it to the wall. The Doctor did the same on his side. "Press the red button," he said.
She did so, as did he. Red lights appeared on both.
"When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn't be too bad for us, but the Daleks and Cybermen are steeped in the Void stuff." He pointed to Cat, who was kneeling by Robert. "How's he?"
"I don't know. His vitals are okay, but his heart's racing and…"
"He's fine for the moment then. I need you at your place, Cat!" The Doctor crouched by the lever and looked to Rose. "Are you ready?"
Rose turned toward the window and frowned. "So are they."
Four Daleks were approaching at the window.
In Deflector Control Barker fired a grenade that skittered just past a Dalek and blew up behind it, shattering a support console and blackening the hull plate and bulkhead in the process. The Dalek returned fire on her and clipped her shoulder with its blast. Pain surged through the limb and made Barker's left arm freeze up. She cried out and dropped down. Her face twisted with frustration and agony. The others could see the sweat droplets glistening on her dark skin through her faceplate. "Medic!" one of her subordinates called. A moment later the Human man's body lit up with energy, his skeleton made briefly visible, before he collapsed.
Meanwhile a lone Dalek had slipped through the firefight to reach the main controls. Its manipulator arm pressed down on the control, the plunger-like shape shifting until it was a square. "Assuming control of navigational deflector. Connecting to jump drive system."
Jarod noticed the system activity. "The Daleks are overriding control of the navigational deflector. They're… they're connecting it to the jump drive."
"How?" demanded Julia.
"It looks like they're using a wireless link. I've… I've never seen anything like it. The jump drive's emissions are going to be channeled into the deflector."
"Why would they even do that?" asked Angel.
"I've got no idea," Jarod replied.
"Let's do it!" shouted the Doctor.
Together the Doctor and Rose pushed the levers to fire the Torchwood particle engines into the breach. At the computer the Doctor had directed her to, Caterina called out, "The particle engines are operating under the desired parameters." She looked up and saw her report was wasted for the moment. The Doctor and Rose were wholly concentrated on the levers, their faces showing the strain of pushing them as quickly as they could until they activated. The breach began to glow bright with white light.
"Online," said the computer.
The Doctor and Rose immediately let go and rushed to the magna-clamps. They hooked their arms through the handles.
Air began to rush. There was a crashing of glass and electronic screams as the four Daleks sent after them went careening through the air and into the breach.
"The breach is open!" cried the Doctor. "Into the Void!"
"Sensors indicate Void breach has been opened," declared Dalek Thay. "Activating jump drive system." The Dalek's manipulator arm attached to a manual control panel on the jump drive.
"The Daleks are powering up the jump drive!" Jarod said. "Particles are feeding into the deflector…"
The gold and blue-lined deflector dish on the Aurora lit up with energy. Within a second the energy bursted ahead of the Aurora for about two kilometers until, in a brilliant white flash, it expanded into an open tear in space.
"I'm detecting an energy flow from the spatial tear," Jarod said. "I don't know what it's doing."
"Nothing good if the Daleks are behind it," Angel grumbled.
Cat noticed the readings and shouted, "Something's wrong!"
It was fairly clear as her sentence finished. While the breach remained as bright as ever, the Doctor and Rose found their feet again planted firmly on the ground, as if they hadn't just been holding on for dear life to avoid being pulled in. A panicked look came to the Doctor's face as he rushed to another computer. "Why isn't it working…?!"
"Torchwood's remaining systems are picking up a massive spatial distortion in orbit," Caterina said. "Looking at these readings… I think…"
"The Daleks blew open another hole into the Void," the Doctor said with clenched teeth. "It's counteracting the pull of this breach!" He looked to Caterina. "That's why they attacked your ship! The Cult of Skaro realized they were vulnerable to the breach so they made another!"
"So the Daleks and Cybermen aren't going to be pulled in?" Rose looked at the Doctor with worry. "Well, what do we do now?" she asked.
"There's nothing we can do from down here," the Doctor said. He looked to Caterina. "It's all up to your shipmates to stop the Daleks."
And then, from Yvonne's office, came a loud cry. All three turned to see where Robert was slumped against the doorway, eyes half open, sweat dripping from his brow. "No," he muttered. "No no no…"
"Rob?" Caterina was the first to his side. "Are you okay?"
"He's having visions," the Doctor said. "Bad ones." He knelt beside Robert and set his hands on Robert's shoulders. "Wake up, Captain! You've got to snap out of it!"
"It's all going out," Robert mumbled. "All of it."
"What's going on?" asked Rose.
"The stars. The light. All gone. It's going dark."
"Rob, wake up!"
Maybe it was Caterina's voice. She thought it might even be the Doctor's presence. But whatever it was, Robert's eyes opened fully. His face was clammy with sweat and terror. His eyes were wide, as if he had just witnessed the most terrible horrors.
"Robert, what's wrong?"
"They're waking up," he said. "It's waking them up!"
"Who's waking up?" asked Rose.
Robert opened his mouth, but whether he was going to answer or continue speaking wouldn't be known as another voice answered Rose's question.
The Doctor's face had grown pale. His look matched Robert's in horror and realization. He drew out a forced breath before he answered Rose.
"The Darkness."