ARCADIA

Chapter Three

On the way up, Rose couldn't help but imagine the Doctor climbing these same stairs in his eighth life. She imagined him being a weary but determined warrior, doing what he always did when it looked hopeless, carrying on despite the odds. The stairs was littered with debris and the overhead lights weren't functioning so the Doctor borrowed Ianto's torch and Rose took the Doctor's torch out of his rucksack. When they got to the top floor, they had to kick aside more debris and step through another doorframe but they were inside a room with a huge monitor and several consoles. There was a large wooden table with several padded leather seats around it. The Doctor walked over to the monitor while everyone followed him. Rose came up beside him and looked at a large keyboard on the steel console below it. The language on the keyboard was a squiggly script that the TARDIS didn't decipher but the Doctor turned on the monitor and typed quickly. The squiggly language appeared on the monitor as he typed. Whenever he finished his sentence and hit what Rose figured was the enter button, a response came up under his writing and the Doctor read the sentence before typing some more. As they stood there, the lights suddenly came on and Rose and Jack turned off the torches and put them back in the Doctor and Ianto's rucksacks.

"So are you turning on the mains then?" Rose asked the Doctor.

"Yes, partly. Partly I'm getting the computers systems back online so we can use it," the Doctor said, glancing at the monitor as he typed.

"So this was the War Room, I take it?" Jack said, walking around the room.

"Yes, this was the headquarters of the resistance until the Daleks took it over," the Doctor said. "There, the building should be fully functional now," he said as he typed in another string of commands. "Electricity, water and the lavatory should be up and running."

"Great, we can crash here," Jack said.

"Not for long, we need to find Callisto," the Doctor said as he resumed typing.

The writing was suddenly replaced by an old film of someone speaking. The man was dressed in a blue military uniform. His skin was snow white with blue tribal tattoos all over his face. His hair was jet black and was cut into a stiff black Mohawk that rose up from the middle of his head.

"That is an Arcadian, his name was Romulus," the Doctor said to everyone as he pointed to the alien on the monitor.

"So this is what Callisto probably looked like?" Rose said.

"Well, the hairstyle might have been a bit different for him but yes, generally this would have been Callisto in the flesh."

"Military log 13-456," Romulus said as he spoke into the camera. "This is day 76 of the Dalek incursion and we are slowly being surrounded by the enemy. The Doctor has led our troops out to face them but we aren't sure of success. The Time Lord is valiant but even he is tiny compared to the Dalek hordes."

"Do you know what he's talking about?" Rose said.

"I believe so. I led a guerilla squad to try and plant some plasma bombs to disable them but we were overwhelmed when more ships came and we had to retreat. There were other instances where I led a doomed mission but I think he means the one I just disguised."

"Personally, I do not trust the Time Lord," Romulus said. "I believe the man is arrogant and trusting a man to fight this mission when he was the cause of it in the first place, it's disgraceful."

"I see he was a member of your fan club then," Jack said dryly.

"That's news to me. I thought he liked me," the Doctor said, switching the log off. "But then again, I kept losing battles so I'm sure by the end he thought less of me than he did at the beginning. Anyway, let's move ahead and see what the final log is…"

He typed in another set of commands. There was a pause and when another log came up, they were shocked to see a red Dalek in place of Romulus.

"THE DALEKS ARE VICTORIUS," the Dalek yelled at the camera. "WE HAVE DEFEATED THE ARCADIANS, THE PLANET IS OURS!"

"That's a Dalek?" Ianto said.

"Oh yes, that's right, you're not a member of the Dalek Haters Club, are you?" Jack said. "Me and Rose and the Doc had the pleasure of meeting them before. Ugly little buggers, aren't they?"

"WE HAVE EXTERMINATED THE REBELS BUT THE DOCTOR HAS ESCAPED," the Red Dalek said.

"Awwww, too bad, must have sucked to be you that day, huh?" Jack said while Rose giggled.

"THE DOCTOR WILL NOT SUCCEED, WE WILL HUNT HIM DOWN! WE WILL WIN THE TIME WAR. WE WILL BE VICTORIUS!"

"WE LIKE TO YELL BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS A HOLD OF OUR LITTLE DALEK BALLS AND THEY SQUEEZE, SQUEEZE, SQUEEZE ALL THE TIME!" Jack yelled, imitating the Dalek.

Rose laughed when the Doctor bent over the console laughing at that while Jack patted his friend's back.

"You sure do make things interesting when you're around, Jack," the Doctor said when he sobered up.

"That's why you shouldn't have ditched me, Doc," Jack said.

"So, the Dalek had the last log entry just so they could gloat," the Doctor said as he switched it off.

"Apparently so," the Doctor said.

"How did he turn it on with his little plunger arm?" Jack said. "And the little whisk, did he just hit the keys until something happened?"

"They can do more with the plunger than just wave it around, Jack," the Doctor said.

"Like…fix toilets?" Jack said while Rose giggled. "Pardon my sarcasm but whoever created these things didn't think things through. He or she should have given the things arms and hands."

"It was a man that created them and they're dangerous enough with adding on arms and hands," the Doctor said. "But enough of this, we should continue our exploration and see if we can find a clue."

He beckoned to his lover and his friends and they headed out of the War Room.

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