Ties Between Freedom and Love

✦17✦ - Dalek

Chapter Seventeen
Dalek

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"So, what is it? What's wrong?" Emma asked as they walked out of the TARDIS. They were supposed to be going back in time to the dinosaur ages but something happened that changed their plans.

"I don't know," the Doctor replied glancing around the dark hallway they landed up in. "Some kind of signal, drawing the TARDIS off course."

"Great," Emma muttered.

"Where are we?" Rose asked.

"Earth, Utah. North America," the Doctor answered like an automatic GPS, "about half a mile underground," he added.

"And when are we?" Emma asked.

"2012."

"Chuck, that's so close. So I should be twenty-seven," Emma said and grinned, "Finally at legal drinking age."

The Doctor scoffed in amusement as Rose laughed, "Yeah, and I'd be twenty-six."

Emma watched as the Doctor inspected a glass case his eyes narrowing slightly as she found a light switch on the nearby wall and flipped it. Lights flooded the place and they saw they weren't just stuck in a dark room but a really large one with glass cases displayed against every wall.

"Blimey!" Rose breathed out.

"It's a museum," Emma said in surprise, "the TARDIS went off course for a museum tour?"

"An alien museum," the Doctor replied. "Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune," he commented as they started walking. "Chunks of meteorite, moondust... that's the milometer from the Rosewell spaceship," he pointed out each thing as they walked past it.

"Wait, is that a bit of Slitheen?" Rose looked at one of the cases a little disgusted.

"It's a Slitheen's arm," Emma said the same expression on her face, "it's been stuffed."

"Oh! Look at you."

Emma followed the Doctor as he walked over to one of the cases, "What is it?" she asked softly, seeing the look on his face.

"An old friend of mine - well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares, reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old," he said.

"Is that where the signal's coming from?" Rose asked as she appeared beside them.

"No," he replied. "It's stone dead. The signal's alive." He continued to stare at the exhibit, almost entranced. "Something's reaching out, calling for help," he lifted his fingers to the glass and alarms started blaring.

Emma pulled Rose behind her as guards bolted into the room, guns at the ready. She looked over her shoulder at the Doctor, "If someone's collecting aliens... that makes you Exhibit A."

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The guards escorted them down a hallway before handing them off to a woman they called Goddard and she led the trio into an office. Where two men, stood over something, probably another alien exhibit.

The one man was middle-aged, while the other was young the same age as Rose and he had an English accent they detected as soon as they heard him speak. ". . . It must be to channel something - maybe fuel."

They stopped in front of the desk, "I really wouldn't hold it like that," the Doctor told them.

"Shut it," Goddard ordered sharply.

"Chill, Red," Emma smiled cheekily at her and she glared.

"Really, though, that's wrong," the Doctor insisted and the older man looked up at him.