The End of the Road XIV

16. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

The Doctor is escorted in by the Dalek. Davros revolves to face him.

DOCTOR
Afternoon Lytton. You’re looking well.

DAVROS
Doctor. Now you are here, Doctor, NOTHING stands in the way of the New Dalek Order!

DOCTOR
We humanoids generally just say “Hello”.

DAVROS
It appears the rumors of your death have been slightly exaggerated.

DOCTOR
Have they? I liked the statue by the way. It was like being in Soviet Russia when it fell on my head like that.

DAVROS
It was meant to kill you.

DOCTOR
It very nearly succeeded. Which is still a failure, but ten out of ten for style. A very good likeness too, though you shouldn’t have bothered. That pack of lies about Netora wasn’t in the least bit convincing.

DAVROS
Was it not? Perhaps that is because truth is stranger than any fiction. I spent my first few years here researching you, Doctor. This particular enfleshment of yours is the most famous – or at least, the most well known after your activities in the 30th century.

The Doctor shrugs.

DOCTOR
He walked by himself and all times were alike to him.

DAVROS
I found your apparent death from the Sleeper on Netora extremely convincing.

DOCTOR
Ah, well, that hasn’t happened to me yet. Which means you best let me go. If I were to die here there’d be all sorts of unrealized destinies and collapsing time lines. The Web of Time would splinter.

DAVROS
What should I care of your beliefs in history, Doctor? You and your people have changed the course of events. You rewrote time to leave the Daleks puny, defeated and uncontrollable wretches. You stole their destiny!

DOCTOR
Be glad I didn’t take anything else. I could have erased them completely.

DAVROS
But you lacked the courage.

DOCTOR
Davros, you are under the misconception I care what you think. Your courage rendered all life on your planet extinct. Your courage got you blasted by your own creations at point blank range. Your courage has left you a severed head in a second-hand chapel on an ice-coated world where people visit it with the express purpose of dying. I am not impressed by you or anything you have ever done. You’re an insane megalomaniac that hasn’t got the hint the universe doesn’t want you. You should have expired a million years ago.

The Doctor strides around the chamber, acting like he owns the place.

DOCTOR
Oh, I’ll grant you the statue was clever. A temporal trap I had to investigate. Well, I wouldn’t come here for a holiday, would I? Nekros during the Long Cold? Not exactly an ideal spot. Speaking of spots, the last one I saw you in seemed pretty terminal. The Dalek battle cruiser and that space station – what was it called?

LYTTON
Cassius Four.

DOCTOR
Yes, thank you. Cassius Four. Blown to smithereens.

DAVROS
Cassius Four contained several escape capsules, Doctor. I survived.

DOCTOR
In somewhat reduced circumstances.

DAVROS
The Movellan virus was released on the station. Dalek tissue is similar enough to untreated Kaled tissue. My body was ravaged. The explosion of the station bathed the capsule in a heavy radiation shadow. The virus burned out, but my body was left useless. My life support system began to fail.

DOCTOR
And you crashed here?

DAVROS
There I was fortunate. Jobel and Takis found me, were able to repair my chair enough to keep me alive. In return, I discovered a temporary cure for Takis’ sister. I was unable to save her life. But in her last months, she did not suffer.

DOCTOR
And that was the inspiration for Tranquil Repose.

DAVROS
Takis was absolutely right. Had I been able to stop the progress of the disease, to pause it, Silmarina would have been saved. Jobel handled the proposal. As an elaborate assassination service to keep the resting ones resting, the government at the time gave us all the funding we needed before the plagues wrecked the galactic community.

DOCTOR
Such a long time. And so subtle!

The Doctor pauses by a beheaded statue.

DOCTOR
Does this signify something?

DAVROS
Surviving the Movellan virus has changed me, Doctor. In more ways than just physical. The universe is not the predictable realm I knew on Skaro. Strategy and subtlety is needed. I have modified my approach.

DOCTOR
Have you? Last time we met you did promise to create Daleks with conscience.

DAVROS
Did you really think I would? What do Daleks need of a conscience! Already my new Daleks have crushed resistance to my power here on Nekros. Once I have transformed the human race, I will reconquer Skaro and take my rightful place as ruler of all Daleks!

The Doctor laughs in his face.

DOCTOR
Yes! You’ve changed SO dramatically I barely recognize you!

Davros growls with anger.

DAVROS
Your arrogance will be your undoing, Time Lord.

Lytton looks down at the box on the white console. It is the unit Kara gave him. The Doctor catches this and looks curiously at the box. Lytton nods. So does the Doctor – and all the while he speaks.

DOCTOR
I’m not the one who wants to rule the universe, ‘Great Healer’. ‘Great Healer’? How pretentious! Couldn’t you have used an anagram or something? Sorvad? Vasord? Rodavs? VS Road? Dr. Vaso? It pays to improve your word power...


17. INT. INCUBATION ROOM

Natasha is now inside a cubicle and is illuminated as well. Lilt enters. The Dalek swings to face him.

DALEK 3
ENTER THE CUBICLE!

Lilt does so and the door shuts him in. There is a chiming noise.

DALEK 3
MUTAGENIC COMPOUND FOR FIRST SUBJECT COMPLETE. BEGIN SATURATION!

Grigory looks panicked and starts bashing his fists on the glass no noise can be heard. The Dalek plugs its sucker arm into the computer panel. A liquid throbbing fills the air. Grigory is screaming silently.


18. INT. CATACOMBS (DAY)

A Dalek escorts a subdued Peri down the tunnel. Just before they are out of sight there is a low whining buzz. A red glow forms and in it appears another Dalek. The glow fades and the Dalek glides out into the light.

It is a GREY DALEK. The old design and colour scheme. It looks around and crosses straight to the double doors leading to the Incubator room. As it enters we see the white Dalek and Peri turn a corner and out of sight, oblivious.


19. INT. INCUBATOR ROOM (DAY)

We see the Glass Dalek is still on its podium. The doors open and the Grey Dalek enters.

STENGOS
ALERT! HOSTILE DALEK UNIT RECOGNIZED! ALERT!

The white Dalek spins around and fires at the Grey Dalek.

DALEK 3
EXTERMINATE!

There is a small explosion, but the red beam just clips the intruder. The Grey Dalek fires back – an emerald green ray that strikes the white Dalek, the negative colour turning the Dalek black. The white Dalek screams and explodes. Green slime turned purple by the red light gushes through pipes towards Grigory’s cubicle. He tries to escape. It is useless. The green slime heads towards Natasha’s cubicle.

STENGOS
YOU ARE TRAITORS TO THE CAUSE OF THE NEW ORDER! NOTHING MUST INTERFERE WITH THE TRUE DESTINY OF THE DALEKS! YOU MUST SERVE THE GREAT HEALER! YOU MUST SERVE DAVROS!

The Grey Dalek stares at the Glass Dalek.

STENGOS
DAVROS MUST BE HONORED! OBEY HIM FOR ALL TIME! EXTERMINATE!

The glass gun-stick aims at the Grey Dalek. The Grey Dalek fires first. The Glass Dalek turns negative then a dazzling white. The Glass Dalek ruptures and collapses, there is an electrical short-out explosion. The blob inside melts.

GREY DALEK
THE NEW ORDER ENDS HERE.

The heartbeat noise fades to silence and the red light disperses. The creatures inside stop floating. The glass cubicles crack open. Grigory and Lilt scramble out as green slime floods the former’s cubicle. They frantically grab Natasha and haul her free. There is a familiar buzzing of teleport.

LILT
Whatever you do, don’t let that stuff touch you!

They hurry away as green slime spills out of Grigory’s cubicle onto the floor. More flows into Natasha’s open casket. Lilt looks up – there’s no sign of the Grey Dalek. Grigory can barely support Natasha.

LILT
Where’s it gone?

GRIGORY
Who cares! We’ve got to get out of here!

LILT
It can’t have gone far, we’d have heard it leave. Wouldn’t we?

GRIGORY
SHUT UP AND HELP ME!

More of the bubbling green slime spills out of the casket.


20. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

As before. The Doctor is standing on a statue, peering out the barred window. Above him, the screen shows the reception area. Attendants are milling around.

DAVROS
Now Jobel is dead, Tranquil Repose stops. He would appreciate that. The staff will be too confused and panic to resist when the time comes to transform them.

The screen blinks off. The Doctor hasn’t been listening.

DOCTOR
Very inclement weather. I am glad we’re indoors, I hate getting chill blains.

DAVROS
Your casual demeanor is not impressing me, Doctor.

DOCTOR
I’m casual because you’re not impressing ME, Davros.

DAVROS
I have been busy over the last decade, Doctor. Not just the statue in the Garden of Fond Memories and the sight of Stengos on display.

DOCTOR
Grave-robbing. Whatever next?

DAVROS
I am no grave robber, Doctor. You cannot steal what has already been abandoned. No one is interested in the clients of Tranquil Repose.

DOCTOR
That’s not what I’ve heard.

DAVROS
You will not hear the complaint again. Your grave-robbing friends are already undergoing conversion into new Dalek units.

The Doctor drops the act. He’s angry. And ever-so-slightly-scared.

DOCTOR
Why not just kill them? It’s what they’d want!

DAVROS
I no longer kill. I am known as the Great Healer. A somewhat flippant title, created by the late Mr. Jobel – but not without foundation. I have conquered the diseases that have brought their victims to Nekros. Those who came here anticipated being cured and one day brought back to life. I have complied in their wishes in every way.

DOCTOR
Was their wish to come back as Daleks? Yes, if ‘wishes’ is your way of saying ‘never in their worst nightmares’.

DAVROS
All the bodies are people of status, of ambition. They have no place in the galaxy at present – they are out of date and training, paupers unwanted by the present population. They would understand. Especially as I have given them the opportunity to rule the universe itself.

DOCTOR
But they will have to be ruled by you. It’s where this scheme always falls down.

DAVROS
You would prefer I had killed them all.

DOCTOR
You might as well have.

DAVROS
They still live on as Daleks.

DOCTOR
That is not life. Their organic content has been recycled. Stengos, Carnavon, Aarglok, Tasker, Morlko, Darak, Ficus, Darin and all the rest are dead. Their thoughts, their feelings gone forever!

DAVROS
Those thoughts and feelings exist but are... suppressed. Utilized. A personality print override has caged each and every mind into the perfect Dalek.

DOCTOR
Then you have condemned them to hell.

DAVROS
Hell? An outdated concept, Doctor. The afterlife no longer has relevance. Because now no one will die. All life will become immortal. All life will become Dalek!

DOCTOR
What about the lives lost? Hmm?

The Doctor angrily points at the area where the screen was.

DAVROS
If they refused immortality, it means they embraced death. Like the late Jobel.

DOCTOR
Oh, he hurt your pride, did he? It’s nice to know the God of the New Order would let something as petty as polite rejection justify cold-blooded murder.

DAVROS
Tasambeker killed Jobel. Not I.

DOCTOR
And what about the Daleks – how many lives have they extinguished?


21. INT. CATACOMBS (DAY)

A quartet of Grey Daleks are present.

GREY DALEK
SEEK AND LOCATE DAVROS. ALL NON-ALIGNED DALEKS ARE TO BE EXTERMINATED!

They move off. At that moment, a groggy DJ and Takis are shoved down the corridor by another white Dalek. The Grey Daleks turn to see this.

TAKIS
Oh, no, now what...?

DJ
Get down, Takis!

They dive. The white Dalek opens fire. A volley of shots, but one strikes and a grey Dalek explodes spectacularly. The white Dalek let out a terrifying howl, like a thousand voices screaming at once. It fires again. The humans crawl out of sight as the Grey Daleks combine their fire. The white Dalek explodes.


22. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

As before. Vargos is now present. He approaches the Doctor, who is leaning forward, thoughtfully studying the glass tube containing Davros. Vogel and the Doctor catch each other’s eye. The Doctor winks craftily.

DAVROS
The Daleks left me for dead on Skaro before human civilization began. All ties between us were severed. I can no longer be held responsible for their actions during my slumber. Can your parents be held accountable for what you have done? These new Daleks do not take life. They preserve it at all costs.

DOCTOR
And when you have the biggest army in the galaxy, what then?

DAVROS
The Movellans.

DOCTOR
Oh, of course. Petty revenge, first Jobel, then the Movellans, then the Daleks that rejected you and then anyone who looks at you in a funny way!

DAVROS
Your mockery is unimpressive, Doctor. Do you think it is coincidence that Lazar’s Disease is cured the exact same way as the Movellan Virus? That the sudden outbreaks of killer viruses in the galaxy so soon after the Movellan triumph is a coincidence?

DOCTOR
The Movellans have caused this?

DAVROS
Oh yes, Doctor. I have checked and confirmed this. The plagues were meant to wipe out all life it found – whether it be humanoid or simple food. If it were not for my work as the Great Healer, the few survivors would now be enslaved by the Movellans. They used the tactic successfully on the Daleks, and now will do it to the rest of the universe.

DOCTOR
And so you’ve decided to turn everyone into disease-proof Daleks?

DAVROS
A New Order. The Movellans are android hoards – not LIVING. I cannot upgrade them. But when all organic life in the universe is elevated to being Dalek, when the Movellans are utterly annihilated, there will be peace. And we can rest at last.

DOCTOR
Immortal? Invincible? Unending?

DAVROS
Yes.

The Doctor folds his arms.

DOCTOR
Then the end of the road is here for you, Davros. The Daleks are a cul-de-sac. They won’t advance, they won’t change and they won’t improve. They’ll just be frozen – like the bodies you used to create your oh-so-magnificent army. Death is the price we pay for progress, “Great Healer”!

DAVROS
And Progress is in the culture of your favorite species the Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse.

DOCTOR
Is that what you’re up to? Turn everyone into Daleks and there’s no death, pestilence, famine or war? What fascinating... self-justifying... claptrap!

DAVROS
When you finally become a Dalek, Doctor, you will suffer for every indignity that you ever caused me!

DOCTOR
Every indignity I cause YOU! Wake up, Davros! I didn’t start the war on Skaro, I didn’t fire the shell that wrecked your body, I didn’t force you to invent the Daleks, I didn’t ask you to wipe out your own people, and I didn’t turn the Daleks against you. You dug your own grave and you’ve spent the last dozen millennia trying to stay out of it. Ironic that you would end up running a funeral home.

DAVROS
A funeral home containing the largest army of Daleks anywhere ever! Observe!

The screen changes, showing a cavern lined with row upon row of catwalks. There are hundreds of white and gold Daleks. The screen pans over them.

DOCTOR
Are they hibernating?

DAVROS
Yes, Doctor. All of them frozen in cryogenic suspension. Only the final signal is needed and they will awake.

Kara and a drunk-looking Vogel are escorted in from the upper entrance by a Dalek. They scale the steps while the white Dalek glides away. Kara steps forward, trying to sound confident and act innocent.

KARA
Ah, my dear Great Healer...

Davros revolves to face her. Kara swallows.

KARA
Thank you for sparing my secretary, Great Healer.

DAVROS
It is a mere respite. The box on the console.

Kara looks at the black box. Vogel swallows.

DAVROS
Yours, I believe?

KARA
Oh, what a pretty little box. What does it do?

LYTTON
It is a transmitter you gave me to signal you once the Great Healer was dead.

DAVROS
Lytton is your assassin.

KARA
How can you say such a thing, Great Healer? There are none more loyal to you than I.

VOGEL
Except me, madam.

KARA
Except Vogel, but I definitely come a close second!

DAVROS
If that were true I would be very, very depressed. I have never trusted you, Kara. That is why I could never show you my face.

Kara’s anger covers her fear.

KARA
Good! Because you’re utterly disgusting! No one should see that excuse for a face! And I refuse to be drawn into whatever conspiracy you’re cooking up to cheat me out of further funds that are mine by right!

DAVROS
If you are expecting your factory workers to rescue you, you are mistaken. They are, at present being taken to Tranquil Repose to be converted into more Daleks.

He revolves to face Lytton.

DAVROS
Well, Commander. Please take this box.

Lytton nods and takes the box in his hand.

VOGEL
Is that wise, Great Healer?

DAVROS
Please. Call me Davros. While you still breathe.

VOGEL
Davros?!

KARA
Whatever your name, that man is a murderer, a common assassin, you said so yourself!

DAVROS
This is Commander Gustave Lytton from Riften Five, one of the Charnel House’s finest warriors – until the plagues destroyed the Charnel House and everything in it.

Lytton closes his eyes in pain. The Doctor looks up sharply.

DOCTOR
That wasn’t the Movellans, was it?

DAVROS
No. It was me. I infected a researcher with a very specific virus, sent them to the Charnel House. It was one of the earliest plagues I cured.

DOCTOR
Because you designed it yourself!

DAVROS
Curing a major outbreak before it could in my first year here proved an immediate dividend. The governments of the galaxy realized what I could offer them.

The Doctor looks to Lytton.

DOCTOR
I’m sorry.

LYTTON
I’m not.

DAVROS
But to return to my point - Lytton is the last of his kind, if not his race. A mercenary capable of surviving in different time zones, one who was employed by the Daleks, double-crossed them and survived. A dedicated follower of the Wadifalayeen Grand Design. There is little that is “common” about him as you claim, Kara. Now Commander. What were you to do with this transmitter?

Lytton stares at Kara.

LYTTON
I was to type in a code. 1-1-8-6-4.

DAVROS
Do so, please.

DOCTOR
Don’t be stupid, Lytton...

DAVROS
Do it.

Not taking his eyes off Kara, Lytton slowly and deliberately punches a button.

LYTTON
One... One...

Kara’s eyes dart to Vogel. He’s as scared as she is.

LYTTON
Eight...


23. INT. CATACOMBS (DAY)

Grey Daleks head down the corridor. Three white Daleks are waiting. There is an ambush. There is a flurry of emerald and ruby laser beams. One Grey Dalek explodes. Then two white ones. There is another horrible wailing noise. The remaining white Dalek is destroyed. The surviving Grey Daleks advance. Another horrible wailing noise. The Grey Daleks stop and turn around. The wailing continues. They look up. A white Dalek hangs over them like a ghost, making the noise. It fires a volley of red bolts...


24. INT. CHAPEL (DAY)

As before. Kara is now sweating. Vogel holds her hand. Lytton presses another button.

LYTTON
Six... Four...

He moves to press the final button.

KARA
NO! IT’S A BOMB! IT’S A GREAT BIG BOMB TO BLOW US ALL INTO A THOUSAND TINY PIECES!

Vargos and the Doctor are startled, but Davros and Lytton are unfazed. He casually drops the box onto the console.

LYTTON
I suspected as much.

Davros chuckles.

DAVROS
Thank you, Kara.

Vogel glares angrily at Lytton.

VOGEL
You fool! How dare you let Madam down, you IMBECILE! I thought you were a professional and now my Madam is going to die! ARE YOU SATISFIED? We’re all going to die!

LYTTON
You before me.

DAVROS
An excellent suggestion Commander.

The Daleks move around towards Kara and Vogel who back away.

DAVROS
You have a desire to feed the whole galaxy, Kara. I respect that. When I am finished with you, your body will be taken back to your precious factory and be thrown into the processing machines. You SHALL feed the galaxy.

KARA
You can’t be serious! It’s monstrous!

DAVROS
The Great Healer never wastes a valuable commodity. The humanoid form makes an excellent concentrated protein – almost as excellent as the true product.

VOGEL
You can’t turn us into food!

DAVROS
I could feed you to the spielsnapes and voltroxes that live outside. This way, the others in the Pherran system will be allowed to go on living. With gratitude!

VARGOS
And what happens to me?

DAVROS
You, President Vargos? Nothing so crude. Even with my genius to convert the population of the Pherran system’s seven planets will take many years – and will be far smoother with your cooperation. I don’t expect you to do this willingly. But I can be very persuasive.

VARGOS
Mental conditioning?

DAVROS
At first.

VARGOS
You’ll be disappointed Davros. Takis contacted me several months ago about his concerns for Tranquil Repose. The government that set up this façade is not mine. I wanted this place closed down and left precise instructions back on Earth. No matter what you do to me, the reputation of Tranquil Repose and its Great Healer will never be restored.

DAVROS
Then you shall join your wife... in death!

VARGOS
Ronya isn’t dead. I needed an excuse to come here without attracting undue suspicion, “Great Healer”. What better than a dead wife? It was all a ploy.

Davros sounds rather annoyed.

DAVROS
Not a clever enough one!

The Doctor yawns exaggeratedly, his voice dripping with contempt.

DOCTOR
It fooled you. I’m sorry, Davros, but I’m bored rigid here. You’ve been droning on and on about your tedious desires to conquer the universe which, bar the odd novelty, might as well come out of the mouth at a convention of Cyber Controllers and renegade Time Lords. Enough is enough!

DAVROS
I am not a man to cross, Doctor. You know that.

DOCTOR
Do I? I’ve changed since we last met, Davros. My outward appearance is the least of it. No more delusions, disillusionment, dementia or depression for this Time Lord. I am not the man I was. You’re older than I am, Davros. You’ve been clinging to life for longer than the recorded history of mankind. I think you’ve had quite enough. The end of the road beckons.

DAVROS
You couldn’t kill me in cold blood, Doctor. Not then, not now.

DOCTOR
NOW is different. If you think I’ll sacrifice every single person in the galaxy if not the universe itself just because you batter your non-existent eyelids, you are VERY much mistaken!

Davros lets out his gurgling chuckle.

DAVROS
I suggest you turn around, Doctor.

The Doctor, refusing to be impressed, turns around. Peri stands there, with a Dalek behind her, its gun-stick aimed in her back.

DAVROS
Do you wish me to transform her into a Dalek – or dissect her right before your eyes?

The Doctor looks ill. Peri swallows, trying to stay brave.

PERI
Don’t worry, Doctor. We got the message through. To the Daleks!

She directs that with scorn at Davros.

DAVROS
What?!

DOCTOR
Peri. Please don’t tell me that...

PERI
The Daleks know Davros is here on Nekros! All the proof they need! They’re probably already on their way here right now!

Davros is silent.

- to be continued...