Halfway Out Of The Dark || The Doctor

Evolution of the Daleks

The Doctor and the Artist quietly slipped away from the prisoners as Sec recovered his bearings. "These humans will become like me." he said. "Prepare them for hybridisation." he ordered the pig slaves, who jumped to it.

Martha and Frank were the first to be grabbed. "Leave me alone! Don't you dare!" Martha protested.

Suddenly, Happy Days Are Here Again began to play, and everyone looked around to see where the music was coming from. "What is that sound?" Sec demanded and the Doctor came out of his hiding place, holding a wireless in his hand.

"Ah, well, that would be us. Hello!" he said, putting the radio down, "Surprise! Boo! Etc."

"Doctor!" Sec snarled.

"The enemy of the Daleks!" Dalek Caan roared.

"Exterminate!" Dalek Jast shrieked, raising it's gun ready to fire.

"Wait!" Sec ordered, and Dalek Jast obeyed.

"Well then, a new form of Dalek." the Doctor remarked, eyeing Sec with disgust, "Fascinating. Very clever."

"The Cult of Skaro escaped yours and your concubine's slaughter." Sec sneered.

"Who are you calling a concubine?!" the Artist snapped, coming out of her hiding place, "And how did you lot escape being pulled into hell with the rest of your kind?"

"Emergency Temporal Shift."

"Oh, oh, that must've roasted up ya power cells, yeah?" the Doctor mocked, "Time was, four Daleks could've conquered the world. But instead, ya skulking away, hidden in the dark... experimenting. All of which results in you."

"I am Dalek in human form!" Sec snapped.

"And your certainly not gonna win any beauty contests with that ugly mug." the Artist snarked, "How does it feel, Dalek Sec, eh? Enlighten us, what's like to be a human Dalek?"

"It is Dalek Sec, isn't it?" the Doctor prodded, "That's your name. You've got a name, a mind of ya own. Tell us what ya thinking right now."

"I feel humanity." Sec answered.

"Good, that's good." the Doctor said.

"I... feel... everything we wanted from mankind." Sec continued, "Which is ambition, hatred, aggression, and war! Such a genius for war!"

"No, that's not what humanity means." the Doctor countered.

"I think it does!" Sec retorted, "At heart, this species is so very... Dalek."

"Well then, you know nothing about humanity." the Artist said, "There was a time, long ago, when we thought of humans as stupid apes, but then we spent time around them, got to know them, and we saw that humans are actually brilliant, intelligent, compassionate and resourceful people. And if you can't see that, then your so-called 'Final Experiment' has failed. We could show you what humanity means just with this." She picked up the wireless.

"What is the purpose of that device?" Dalek Thay demanded.

"Well, exactly, it plays music, what's the point?" the Doctor said, inwardly feeling very proud of the Artist for her speech singing the praises of humans, "Oh, with music, you can dance to it, sing with it, fall in love to it." He winked at the Artist, recalling their first kiss. "Unless ya a Dalek, of course, then it's just noise." He nodded to the Artist, who aimed her sonic screwdriver at the wireless, creating a terrible high-pitched wail that had Sec and the pig slaves covering their ears and the Daleks rolling back and forth in discomfort. "RUN!" the Doctor shouted to the humans, who all did so.

"Protect the hybrid!" Dalek Caan demanded to the other Daleks as the prisoners all fled from the lab.

"Protect! Protect! Protect!" the Daleks all chanted.