Muses of Time (Doctor Who/Muse fanfiction)

Chapter Six: Overdue

A few minutes later the TARDIS stopped suddenly. Once again, we were thrown to the floor. I noticed Chris help Dom up after he fell on yet another bruise one of the Sontarans had given him. Still shy, Dom merely nodded in reply.

"YOU WILL OPEN THE DOORS!!!" a Dalek commanded us.

The Doctor tried to take off, but the thing was sealed where it was. "Ah, well," he muttered, walking over and swinging open the doors.

We had landed in- or should I say, the Daleks had taken us to- a giant, circular atrium, expanding upwards to reveal at least a hundred daleks, all watching us with curiosity. The walls had the same look as their metal shielding, mostly rubbed bronzeish with bowl-shaped dots sticking out in rows. Before us stood a glossy black dalek, which looked like Dalek Sec, before he had combined his DNA with that of a human.

Speaking of that particular adventure...

"Doctor," I asked, nudging his arm. "Weren't there only three daleks left?"

"Time travel," he muttered, and I nodded, feeling stupid.

"THE DOCTOR, THE FEMALE, AND THE CHILDREN WILL EXIT THE TARDIS!!!"

Knowing it was pointless to disobey, we followed the Doctor as he left the TARDIS and stood off to the side. I looked back to see the TARDIS doors closed, and Chris shuffling to catch up.

"YOU WILL COME WITH ME."

We followed the Dalek through bronze tunnels, past empty meeting rooms and crossroads to other tunnels. This part of the ship/base/thing seemed less used, which was probably why it was taking us this way to wherever we were going. I looked back to see the boys in various states of fear. I decided I'd rather look forward, towards the Doctor, who looked a bit more confident.

When we reached a larger questioning area, the Dalek led us in and directed us into specific places to stand. As soon as we had reached them, it pressed a button, and a circular forcefield fell over each of us. It dissapeared after a moment, though when I reached forward, it zapped me, and the forcefield was visible again, if only for half a second.

The dalek turned to Matt, who stood next to me. I looked over, surprised to see a look of curiosity on his face, the worried, calculating face I had seen earlier completely gone. "WHY ARE YOU HERE?" the Dalek questioned him.

He looked forward to the Dalek, startled, and seemed to lose his composure for a second. Then it was back, and he said simply, "I was in the TARDIS, and you found the TARDIS and took it. Now I'm here."

"WHY ARE YOU ON EARTH?" it demanded, sounding slightly annoyed.

"Because I was born here," he stated. "My father was the timelord, my mother a human. He came here, fell in love, they got together and... you know... nine months later..."

The two older boys snickered, and I grinned. The joke may have been dirty, and not the best as well, but it showed either he was calm staring into the face of death or he was a very good actor.

"WHY DID YOUR FATHER COME TO EARTH?" it asked, unable to sense the funny(ish) side.

He leaned back on the forcefield and relaxed. "Because Gallifwey had been destroyed in the Time War, so he came here."

I noticed how Chris and Dom didn't make fun of him for how he pronounced Gallifrey. Well, they didn't know how it was pronounced, I reasoned. Still... it was kind of cute.

"WHY DID HE CHOOSE EARTH?" it pressed.

He shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. Didn't think to ask."