Dreaming of a Blue Box ✧ Doctor Who ¹ ✓

55 - The Doctor Dances (Part V)

Continuing from 'The Doctor Dances - Part IV'

✧

WHEN LILY, ROSE, AND NANCY REGROUPED WITH THE TWO MEN, the ambulance was now open with an alarm sounding. "It's empty!" Jack exclaimed. "Look at it!"

"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter?" The Doctor asked. "Bandages? Cough drops?" He spotted the ginger. "Lily?"

"I don't know."

"Yes, you do."

She thought for a second and then snapped her fingers. "Nanogenes!"

"It wasn't empty, Captain." The Doctor told Jack. "There was enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

Jack finally got it, bringing a hand up to his forehead. "Oh, God."

"Getting it now, are we?" The Doctor asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night and wearing a gas mask."

"And they brought him back to life?" Rose walked over so she was closer to her sister. "They can do that?"

"What's life?" The Doctor started pacing. "Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship." He looked at Jack. "This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's a gas mask and what's a skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. "

"Because you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"

"I didn't know!" Jack protested.

The Doctor started checking the ambulance. "Lily! Rose!" Nancy cried out for them as patients started to crowd them from the other side of the gates.

Lily pulled Nancy and Rose behind herself, backing them up. "It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?"

"The ship thinks it's under attack." The Doctor explained. "It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."

"But the gas mask people aren't troops!" Rose shouted, moving to Lily's side and grabbing a fist full of her jacket.

"They are now. This is a battle-field ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, program you."

"That's why the child's so strong," Lily said, finally understanding. "Why it could do that phoning thing."

"It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes." The Doctor confirmed. "All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four-year-old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them."

"Why don't they attack?" Jack asked.

"Good little soldiers." The Doctor spoke. "Waiting for their commander."

"The child?"

"Jamie," Nancy muttered.

"What?" Jack looked at her.