Chapter 4
Despite his best efforts Healer Elite Sullivan had risen through the ranks of the Healer Elite. Eight years he had been on Skaro, the age, the war ages you he thought looking in the reflective surface.
It didn't age him as much as he thought. Supposedly that was the Time Ring's doing. Something Valyes hadn't told him but had written.
Sullivan had learnt, with Valyes' help to read the symbols and marks that made up Gallifreyan, but it wasn't until the years past since he'd gone that he understood all of its meaning, how to properly write in it, to understand it.
Sullivan was now even less answerable to anyone. Only to some within the Scientific Elite and the government.
He also felt like he knew much of the locations outside the dome. Drammankin Lake, the huge lake and its mountain ranges away from the dome. It was something that held a strange beauty, not that he confided this with anyone.
He'd theorised that it must also be a sink for a lot of the local radiation, or there was something lurking beneath its surface.
He'd thought of discussing these theories with Davros. But as the years had worn on Davros seemed to get more fanatical.
The complete protection of the dome had been completed barely 6 months ago after being promised to begin after his attack, its actual implementation had taken almost 4 years to complete.
It was a massive dome and a massive undertaking. Especially as those who were on the surface of the dome made for targets for the Thals.
Birth rates and mutations in population continued to slide in opposite directions from one another.
Sullivan knew this would happen, Valyes had told him. Davros and the Scientific Elite had told him. They knew better than anyone in the dome what was happening. It was what made Davros' experiments and projections so vital.
The chemical and mutagenic weapons used by the Thals over the past hundreds of years had and was continuing to have a disastrous affect on the Kaleds.
Sullivan didn't know if this problem also affected the Thals, and if he was really honest with himself he didn't care. He didn't care what happened to the Thals any more.
Sullivan wasn't sure when he stopped caring about the other side of the Kaled's war.
He knew it had begun before he had been shot by some Thals when he'd been on patrol outside the dome with some of the Kaled soldiers.
He had felt little guilt in firing back, even with the injured and surface displacement on his arm from the Thals' energy weapons fire.
He had been given tissue regeneration treatment on his left arm to replace the skin that had been warped and withered by the energy weapon the Thal had used.
Sullivan counted that incident amongst several that had gained him some further respect with the Kaled soldiers.
Ravon had said as much to him when he'd come to visit him.
Sullivan had not become friendly with many, Ravon was one of the few Kaleds that he had a good relationship with.
Sullivan had, as the years passed worked with many Kaleds, but they were still a hard people, hardened through war.
But he was counted among a very small few of the Elite be it Scientific, Military or Medical that a large amount of the soldiers of the military respected. Through both his work to keep capable intelligent soldiers out of the work factories and in other jobs and his experiences outside the dome.
With the former had had helped rehabilitate injured soldiers into medical work as nurses and then as Healers. These actions had not sat well with some in the Elite. Some believed that any imperfects within the Kaleds deserved to be tossed out into the Wastelands.
But many within the government believed this should only apply to those who had begun to mutate beyond the Kaled norm.
Sullivan hated that he had been part of this practice.
The Kaleds and he assumed the Thals did not have the capacity to care for people like the 'mutos'. Theirs was a society of survival, everyone worked to continue their society, to make sure there was a future for them.
Sometimes throughout the years Sullivan had forgotten on a few occasions that he'd had a life on Earth. A life with UNIT. Travel with the Doctor and Sarah.
Sometimes these memories had rendered him a shuddering mess on the floor.
His experiences outside the dome, his work away from the protections of the dome had earned him great respect.
Something that according to Ravon would have earned him some enemies in the government, fearful of an individual with favour in the military. Davros' supporters supposedly had viewed him as a threat for a while. But he had showed little interest in the pursuit of politics or personal power.
Again, it was something that had earned him respect amongst those young men and women who defended them all.
Although of the latter, only women proven not to be capable of birthing could pursue active military roles. All Kaleds understood this. It was something early on he had been conflicted about that women were almost genetic factories. But it was war, it always had been this way to preserve what the Kaleds had. All Kaleds understood their sacrifices.
-/
Sullivan leaned back into his chair, there were no patients at the moment that he had to directly take care of.
For now he was just waiting.
Valyes, that man who'd dropped him here. Dropped him into eight years of some of the most horrific things he had seen in his life. Who wasn't even responsible, not for what had happened, not really.
That man who he'd...
Sullivan didn't dwell on what he had done. Valyes, all those years ago had presented his case calmly and with that harsh Time Lord logic.
And Sullivan had done it because he was of sound mind and had witnessed the pain wrought to the Time Lord, multiple lifetimes worth.
Valyes, the Time Lord of the Celestial Intervention Agency had told him when the Time Lords had been aiming for with the open ended transmat beam. The signs to watch out for.
They had been diverted, but Valyes hadn't known by how much, or perhaps he hadn't wanted to tell Sullivan. He had written in the magic diary of his that he'd left to Sullivan.
Taught him how to write and read Gallifreyan.
It was only after he had...died that Sullivan really started to work out the detail of the Time Lord's language.
Then the phone rang. It wasn't a phone, no one called it that. But it was shaped like a phone and served the same function.
"Healer Elite Sullivan." He said answering it. It was Ravon. Two strangely dressed Thals had been discovered in section 101. "I see. Yes, I'll be down. It will be interesting." Sullivan said keeping his voice in the normal range. He had been suggesting for a while that there seemed to be a new type of Thal that was out in the wastelands. There had been some talk that the Thals were building robots, he'd not questioned this talk. Sullivan simply didn't want the Doctor or Sarah to be shot when they were encountered.
At least the Kaleds investigated, interrogated and then usually hanged their prisoners. The Thals tended to shoot on sight. Sometimes they took prisoners for whatever infernal war productions they used.
What the Thals got up to didn't concern him. He just didn't care about the Thals. Not after what they'd done.
"Yes. Transfer them to Command Headquarters, but put them into the isolation room Ravon. You know what the Wastelands is like this time of year and make sure your men clean themselves down." Sullivan put down the phone's receiver and tried not to become excited. There was still a long road to leaving Skaro.
A day he wasn't sure would ever come, or that he might die before the Doctor and Sarah ever turned up.
He hoped the old thing was alright. His warning to Ravon was justified, this time of year in the Wastelands produced some nasty fogs that got into the lungs.
The Doctor would be fine, respiratory bypass and other gubbins in a Time Lord's biology.
He walked around his desk and checked his sling backpack over once more and pulled on another of the soldier's gifts. It was an old coat, older than the bag, some sort of hard wearing synthetic from Skaro's past. He had sewn on patches he'd found within the medical building that identified him as a Healer not a soldier and threw the bag over himself.
He thought about not strapping the gun to his hip and then decided to. It was a Healer's weapon. That's what one of the Scientific Elite had said Gharman, Sullivan recalled the man's name had passed it onto him, one of the few energy weapons small enough for a person to hold. From what he'd gathered, whispered around the bunker a larger version would end up in one of Davros' experiments possibly even the travel machine.
-/ - \\-
Passage down to the Command Headquarters was difficult, it had taken some time to get there.
Ravon was waiting looking uncomfortable.
"Well?" Sullivan asked.
"My men have cleaned up as you ordered Healer Elite Sullivan." Ravon reported.
Sullivan nodded. "Good." Sullivan paused. "What is it Ravon?"
"The prisoners attempted to escape. They were intercepted by Nyder. He has ordered that they are released into the Scientific Elite for interrogation by his special unit."
Sullivan nodded. He had hoped to have a good chat with the Doctor, possibly even get him and Sarah back to the Medical Elite building.
"The female appeared to be suffering from the repeated exposure in the Wasteland." Ravon said.
"I see." Sullivan mused. "I'll prepare them for transfer. But I will need some time with them if they've been exposed to the cleansed air in here and then the Wastelands again." Sullivan said.
Ravon nodded. "I informed Nyder I had requested your attendance."
Sullivan nodded. He had continued to have a working association with Nyder, and to some extent Davros. Though he had not seen Davros for a few years, since Davros began to work in earnest on what Sullivan assumed to be the final Kaled mutation and the Dalek.
"I'll attend to them," Sullivan said exhaling.
"Do you need an escort?" Ravon asked.
Sullivan looked to the General and shook his head. "I am armed Ravon, two Thals will not pose a problem."
"Not for a Healer who has confronted a Slyther in the Wastelands." Ravon said, making a rare joke.
-/
As the door slid closed Sullivan found himself lost for words.
The Doctor was sat against the wall with his hat over his face. Sarah, the old thing was also slumped against the wall, breathing harshly with her eyes closed.
"Are you the tea lady?" Rumbled the Doctor.
"No. I'm not Doctor." Sullivan said calmly.
The Doctor sat bolt upright and looked at him. "Harry Sullivan." He said eyes wide.
Sarah opened her eyes. "Harry?" She asked woozily trying to stand up.
"Sit down old girl." Sullivan said with a softness to his voice he had forgotten he had in him. He tried to ignore the Doctor's gaze as he pulled off his bag and put it on the bench seat between the Doctor and Sarah.
Reaching into an internal pocket he handed the Doctor Valyes', now his diary.
"This will hopefully explain Doctor." He said as the Doctor took his cautiously.
"Harry, this is a CIA notebook." The Doctor looked at him.
"I know." Sullivan said as he placed a patch on Sarah's neck, her eyes went wide. "Stay calm Sarah. You've been exposed to the Wastelands."
"Will she be alright Harry?" The Doctor asked looking over at Sarah.
"How long were you out there?" Sullivan asked.
"No longer than half an hour." The Doctor said looking over to Sarah.
"Doctor is that all? It feels longer, wondering around that minefield." Sarah said.
The Doctor must have read something into his body language. "Harry, what is wrong with the minefield?"
Sullivan shook his head as he listened to Sarah's chest, surprising her as he slipped the stethoscope onto his chest. She looked like she was going to say something.
"Nothing more lethal than anywhere else you could have landed." He said and then looked at Sarah. "That patch has stimulated your biosystems Sarah." He paused gathering a large tube. "This will hurt." He said drawing the gas up within. "It will heal and pull out the contaminants within your lungs old thing." He said as he prepared the bag.
"Harry, you're...different." She started, her voice cracking.
"Try not to speak Sarah. I need you to hold this gas in your lungs until you think you're going to pass out, then one long breath into this." He held up a bag. "Try not to vomit." He added.
"Wh-" Sarah opened her mouth to ask. It was this action that Sullivan used to inject the gas into her mouth. The pressurised gas forced itself down her throat.
Sarah, bless her looked devilishly angry.
"Hold it old thing, for as long as you can." He ordered and gave her the bag. It contained some analysis crystals which would hopefully turn yellow to indicate it had pulled most of the contaminants out of her lungs.
-/
He turned the notebook over in his hands, it was a CIA notebook. No one other than a Time Lord should have been able to handle it. But with the familiarity that Harry handled it he had obviously been writing in it for some time.
It began in Gallifreyan, Valyes of the Celestial Intervention Agency requesting he pursue a mission for the Time Lords.
As he read of what had happened and what Valyes had omitted he looked to Harry, the human being in his charge looking after Sarah.
Skaro.
He knew it had felt familiar when they had materialised here. But the severity of landing on the surface by open ended transmat had shocked his senses for a brief period.
Then he had almost been blown up by a mine and they'd discovered they were in the middle of a minefield. Only Sarah's quick thinking had stopped him from being injured.
As he read quickly through Valyes' notes he looked again quickly to Harry Sullivan as he diagnosed Sarah's injuries.
He frowned, considering what Surgeon Lieutenant Harry Sullivan had been asked to do to Valyes. Something few Time Lords could ask another, it was something he was not sure he would have the...confidence to carry out. To kill a Time Lord, even in a regenerative crisis.
Then the writing changed, it was a human's hand, in English, but then as he flipped the pages quickly he was forced to pause.
Words of Gallifreyan intermingled with words of English, and then whole passages in Gallifreyan, but in a human's hand. Then a third language, he presumed that was the native language here. The Kaled's language.
He watched as Sarah exhaled a gas into a bag that Harry was holding.
"Just rest for a moment old girl." Harry Sullivan was saying, sounding as though he was attempting to soften a tone he had used for some time.
-/
Sullivan allowed Sarah to lean back against the wall. The gas had a slight anaesthetic effect. Studying the bag there were a satisfying amount of yellow crystals forming.
"She'll recover fully in a few moments as it wears off." He said to the Doctor who was looking to him.
"How long Harry?" He asked handing him back the diary.
"How long?" Sullivan repeated.
"Have you been here, waiting Harry?" The Doctor prompted.
"Valyes was alive for three years." Sullivan recalled. "Jolly pain in the arse." He paused and looked to the Doctor. "Eight years in this war zone." In this nightmare. He added to himself and then looked and focused on the Doctor. "You understand your task? Valyes was insistent that I should make you understand." He paused. "As he wouldn't be here."
The Doctor held his gaze for a long time, or it felt like a long time. "I understand Harry." He looked past him to Sarah. "Will Sarah recover?"
"Doctor...?" She muttered coughing.
Sullivan turned away from the Doctor replacing the diary in his sling pack and extracting a pouch of a drink.
"Here old girl, drink this. Slowly. Try not to cough." He said pressing it into her hand.
She looked blearily at him as she unscrewed the cap. "What is it?"
"No tea Harry?" The Doctor wondered.
"No. It's Drammankin fruit drink. Hardly any of it in it anymore." He mused to himself. "It'll keep you up and running." He paused.
The Doctor looked at him. "For what?"
"You're going to be transferred to the bunker." He paused listening. "You've caught the attention of Nyder when you tried to escape. I'll catch up with you later." Then the door slid open.
"Healer Elite Sullivan." General Ravon was standing outside looking concerned.
"General Ravon. I was just finishing." He reported as he zipped up his bag slinging it over his chest. "The female will need to recover."
"Very well it will need to be en-route to the bunker." He said.
Sullivan nodded. "I've cleansed her body of the Wasteland's effects." He paused stepping out of the cell as Ravon waved his soldiers in.
"Hey! Watch out!" Sarah exclaimed as she was grabbed as was the Doctor. "Doctor what about H-"
"Later Sarah." The Doctor said in a loud tone cutting her off.
"General..." Sullivan began as Sarah and the Doctor were dragged off.
"Yes?" Ravon looked to him curiously.
"I should like to be kept informed about those two." Sullivan said in a neutral, yet slightly curious tone.
"Oh, Sullivan? You care about the Thals?" Ravon asked amused.
"Hardly." Sullivan said. "But those two...something curious I think about them."
"Indeed." Ravon nodded. "Are they Mutos Sullivan?"
Sullivan pretended to consider the question. "They're very healthy if they are." He looked to Ravon. "Patrols have found Mutos in various stages recently."
"The Thals are using the healthiest for their rocket Sullivan." Ravon commented.
Sullivan nodded. "The dome will hold. I have every confidence in Davros' formula."
Ravon nodded. "I know you do Sullivan."
-/ - \\-
"Doctor why didn't Harry help us?" Sarah asked, slipping the vaguely sweet and watery drink into her jacket pocket. They'd been transported through various corridors and shoved down into some uncomfortable chairs where what looked like a bunch of scientists were sitting around working.
"Harry's been here lot longer than we have Sarah." The Doctor said looking to her.
"How long, and where is here anyway?" Sarah said looking around.
"We're on Skaro Sarah." He said.
"Skaro?" Sarah asked, she'd heard of that before.
"The home planet of the Daleks." The Doctor intoned.
"The Daleks?" Sarah whispered. "But Doctor that means..."
"Harry's been here for eight years Sarah." The Doctor continued. "A brief flash for some, but for a human..."
"Eight years." Sarah whispered to herself.
"Something we must keep to ourselves Sarah." The Doctor intoned. "It seems Harry has established a life here."
"A life? Doctor if he's been here eight years then he knows about..." Sarah began.
The Doctor cut her off. "I know Sarah." He hissed. "He knows well." He continued in a sombre tone. "The Time Lords gave me the mission. Harry was just caught waiting."
-/
Sarah watched curious as the scientist who had been interrogating them snapped to attention and then...something came into the room.
It looked like it had been a man, maybe, at some point. This it seemed was Davros.
She could see the inspiration for Daleks in the base of his chair. He looked almost not alive.
"Life support systems keep him alive." The Doctor said in a soft tone to her.
"What sort of life is that?" She asked.
"One of war." The Doctor said.
Then Davros revealed his 'Mark Three Travel Machine', the Doctor kept calling it a Dalek. It was, just not as...Sarah wasn't sure. It didn't look as refined as the ones she saw on that Exxilon planet. Even though those ones had to replace their guns to escape the power blackout.
Then it seemed to focus in on the Doctor and herself.
-/
Sarah breathed a sigh of relief having been rescued from being shot by the Dalek by the man who had been interrogating them.
-/
"Doctor, if Harry's been here for eight years why does he look the same as when we last saw him?" Sarah asked, they'd been taken to some cells. They were featureless and as far as cells she'd found herself in quite dull.
"Does he?" The Doctor asked her curiously, probing almost.
Sarah paused to consider what she'd seen of Harry, when they'd seen him, all dressed up, like the other Kaleds. "No he looked..." She trailed off. He still looked like Harry Sullivan but. "Tired. Worn out, but..."
The Doctor smiled a sad smile. "He has a Time Lord Time Ring, it slows the effect that local time has on the wearer Sarah." He explained. "He arrived here with a Time Lord. They integrated themselves into Kaled society."
"Oh." She said. That explained how he'd come to be here. "But if the Time Lord had a task, why didn't he do it?"
The answer surprised and worried her. That a Time Lord could die or be injured beyond regeneration... and the way the Doctor spoke about it.
"Do you think Harry's alright?" Sarah asked.
"As far as anyone here is concerned Sarah he is a Kaled." The Doctor replied.
"But what about-"
The Doctor shooshed her as the door made a noise and began to open. Revealing a moment later Ronson, the scientist who saved them from the Dalek earlier.
Sarah listened as he explained how Davros had announced the name of his machine; the Dalek.
As Ronson explained it they, his faction needed someone to contact their government authorities about Davros. The Doctor looked to her for a brief moment, Sarah thought he was about to tell her to stay here, she was completely ready to say no. She wasn't going to sit here and wait for him to go gallivanting off.
-/ - \\-
Healer Elite Sullivan eased the woman down, she had had a particularly difficult birth of triplets. One had needed to be destroyed, with its mutations it would not last long and the resources needed to keep it alive could not be spared. Could never be spared.
She had held the remaining babies for a few minutes before waving them away, they would be taken care of. She would be moved out of this facility shortly and onto recovery and rehabilitation.
-/
Writing in his notes later he filled in the requisite information including how many further births she might be capable of. Tapping his pen on the page he looked through her file, she had cleared most of the medical tests and was clear of mutations from Thal weaponry despite falling victim to two bombings on the dome's edge. He wrote 5 in the column, knowing the woman would probably push it to six or even seven if the Scientific Elite's new developments were approved by the government.
As he was closing the notes he realised someone was knocking on the outside of his office. Which was unusual.
Rising from his desk he walked over.
"Sarah?" He said startled to find Sarah Jane Smith standing outside looking uncomfortable. He looked around the corridor.
"There's no one here, the Doctor's off convincing the government, I said I wanted to come here, have a look around." Sarah said walking in as Sullivan closed the door.
"Have a seat." Sullivan said sitting opposite her behind his desk he shuffled away the papers.
The old thing looked at him with concerned eyes and Sullivan found him smiling uncontrollably. "It is good to see you Sarah."
Sarah looked at him, with that careful gaze of a journalist, which reminded him of the look some of the Scientific Elite gave him sometimes. "What happened Harry?"
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"Here, to you?" She pressed. "I want to..." She trailed off.
"Help?" He snorted a dark laugh. "You can't help Sarah. I've been in a war zone." He paused. "Sometimes a nightmare. Sometimes I wanted to kill myself."
Sarah looked up at him hard. "Oh, Harry I-"
He shook his head. "I didn't. I didn't even try."
"I saw Davros." She tried.
"How is he?" Sullivan asked curiously.
Sarah's eyes went wide. "You've met him?"
He nodded. "A few years ago I was injured in a Thal attack. We chatted. I've assisted Nyder and Davros in various interrogations here and there."
Sarah opened her mouth. "But Harry they're-"
He looked at her cooly. "Fascists? Evil? Deranged?" He smirked darkly.
Sarah nodded. "Yes."
"And what of bombing women's shelters, dormitories full of children? Toxic chemicals that cause dangerous mutations in the population, a declining one at that. Young soldiers fighting and dying in a battlefield against a dangerous enemy? That's evil as well?" Sullivan asked.
Sarah nodded slowly. "Yes Harry."
"That's what the Thals have done to the Kaleds Sarah. I bare the scars of those attacks." He continued coldly. "I've seen the birth rates, the mutations coming into the Kaled population. Today, a woman birthed triplets."
Sarah opened her mouth.
"One had to be destroyed Sarah. Too mutated to survive for any good amount of time." He continued in a cold tone.
"Destroyed?" She said in cracking voice.
"Resources old thing. We've been at war for a long time." Sullivan continued cooly.
"We?" She asked.
Sullivan exhaled. "I'm not deluded to think I'm a Kaled Sarah. But I have lived here for quite a while waiting."
Sarah rose from her chair. "I"m not sure I know you anymore Harry Sullivan." She said.
Sullivan also rose from his chair. "I'm not sure I know me anymore Sarah." He forced himself to soften his tone. "I hope you'll help me to work out who I was."
Sarah as about to open her mouth again when there was a knock on his door.
Waving his hand in front of the panel it revealed the Doctor.
"Doctor!" Sarah exclaimed.
"The government's agreed to halt Davros' experiments." The Doctor said as he looked around the office and went and flopped down in Sullivan's chair.
"And Davros has agreed?" Sullivan asked.
"He won't?" The Doctor looked at him curiously.
Sullivan shook his head.
"Harry's met him." Sarah provided.
"Have you now Harry?" The Doctor mused.
"A few years ago now. He's become more..." Sullivan trailed off.
"Insane?" Sarah tried.
"Driven to preserve the Kaled race," Sullivan began. "At least at first, that's what it was, according to the Medical and Scientific Elite he was one of the greatest Kaleds. He's one of the oldest Kaleds too." Sullivan paused. "During the past couple of years he's become more driven. More focused on the mutation problem. The last big project he worked on was the protective coating on the dome." Sullivan said. "That took a few years to implement completely. Now we've been safe from the Kaleds. Davros has spent most of his time on the mutation question and the travel machine. Along with most of the Scientific Elite."
The Doctor was nodding.
"If you knew what he was Harry, why didn't you do something to stop him?" Sarah asked reasonably.
Sullivan looked to her. "Turn off his life support system old girl? Kill him?" He exhaled. "To avert the Daleks is the Doctor's task. I needed to wait, to catch up with you and the Doctor."
The Doctor suddenly sat bolt upright. "What did you say about the Dome?"
"Davros created some sort of hardening solution for it?" Sarah looked to Sullivan.
"Yes." The Doctor said. "I think we should speak with the scientists. I've just had a worrying thought." The Doctor said taking off.
Sarah rushed to follow him, looking back to him. "Aren't you coming Harry?"
Sullivan looked at her. "I'll find you, when the time is right."
-/ - \\-
"Doctor, what did Harry mean?" Sarah asked as they crawled through a tunnel system towards the Thal dome on a hunch of the Doctor's.
"What did he say Sarah?" The Doctor asked her.
She'd only had time to think about what Harry had said until now, it had all been a big rush to get here. "He said 'I'll find you, when the time is right'."
"He said that?" The Doctor asked.
"Yes." Sarah confirmed.
The Doctor was silent for some time.
"Harry has been exposed to a Time Lord in crisis Sarah." He eventually said several minutes later when they crawled out into a clearing, one with lots of noises. None of them nice.
"So?" Sarah asked looking around, wrapping the coat she'd been given against the chill in the air.
"Harry knows more than he thinks. We will need to be careful Sarah." He said looking at her with intensity.
-/ - \\-
The Kaled dome, his whole world rumbled again. He'd already been told that the Thals had fired something at the Dome, that was degrading the protections on it.
Sullivan had already figured it out, what had happened and what the Doctor had worked out.
That Davros had betrayed them all, because the government had turned on him.
He was even more insane than first thought.
Sullivan quickly packed up his sling pack, itself had been a gift and something he had used and owned for a few years. He placed all the medical supplies he had within reach along with the diary, writing implements and what few menial mementos he had from his time, his years here.
Kaleds did not keep many mementoes and there were no photos to be had of his time, but his memories did fine for that. Burned into his memory, those that weren't...Sullivan dismissed the thoughts as the room shook again.
He would need to get to the bunker. It was where Davros would be. It was where the Doctor would likely be and he hoped it was where Sarah would be if she had any sense.
-/ - \\-
Sarah held her breath as a Dalek rolled past. It might look more primitive than the Daleks she'd first seen and it might seem more...she couldn't quite put her finger on it. But they were still Daleks.
Deadly creatures.
"Sarah," hissed the Doctor.
Sarah realised that the Daleks had passed them by and the Doctor had the floor up again. "Where are we going?"
"Back to the Kaled Dome." He said.
"Why?" She asked once they were 'safe' below the Thal dome.
"Because I have to complete my mission for the Time Lords." He said in a low tone.
-/ - \\-
"Healer Elite Sullivan." Nyder seemed surprised to find him.
It had taken longer than Sullivan had thought to get away from the dome and to the bunker, several of the accesses had been blocked.
Snapping to attention, Sullivan looked at Nyder. Technically he sort of outranked Nyder. Had Nyder been anyone else who wasn't special assistant to Davros that is. "I came down here Nyder, whoever the traitors they will have died in the dome from the Thal attack." Sullivan could sense Nyder's suspicion, but he did not need to fake his feelings for the Thals. He had survived multiple Thal attacks, mercy killed...Sullivan had lost count of the soldiers who had needed their lives ending after what they had been subjected to from the Thals' attacks and he had born witness to the power the Thals used against the Kaleds.
"Good." Nyder paused and gestured they continue walking. "Your services may be required. Davros is interrogating two intruders for information." Nyder explained calmly.
"A new method of information extraction and coercion?" Sullivan asked.
"Improved from the last Thal spy bombers." Nyder said simply.
Sullivan nodded. Sarah should be strong enough to hold out against a high level of interrogation from that device. "That will be efficient. They will not need much care following that." He said, telling the truth. Speaking with Nyder was often dangerous, now, especially so that the Doctor had arrived.
They came to the entrance to the main Scientific Elite area. "You may wait-"
Sullivan halted Nyder in his speech. "I would like to see the mutations Nyder." Nyder seemed surprised. "They are the future with the destruction of the dome." Sullivan tried not to think about the woman who had given birth or the countless soldiers who were in recovery, or the newest group of women who had been impregnated this very day or...any of it.
That the dome might fail, might collapse had always been a possibility, but Davros' promises had shown over the last few years that they needn't be concerned.
"Very well." Nyder gestured down the corridor. "You are aware of the location Healer Elite Sullivan."
Sullivan snapped off a quick salute.
-/ - \\-
"The future of the Kaleds." Sullivan said looking through the access window. He daren't go in. The multiple vats with the incubating mutants were what the Kaled race would become.
He knew that, the Scientific Elite knew that, even many of his fellow Medical Elite knew it.
The Kaled race was a dying, mutating one. It was why so much trust had been placed in Davros. He had shown they could survive it.
Through countless experiments into the mutations, ethics...was something Sullivan had not been required to think on for a long while...Davros had uncovered one of the final forms.
At least, a final form where most of a Kaled's intelligence, its thinking, brain and most of its nervous system would survive. Looking here at the incubators, Sullivan wondered, he had briefly been granted a year or two ago by an associate in the government of what a full size mutant, one of these mutations in the incubators, fully grown would look like. These had been based on Davros and the Scientific Elite's research and development. It had been...not bipedal, some of the mutations in the population that didn't survive suggested of that. It had spoken for the need of a travel machine. Even some sort of computer interface.
He had been asked for his opinion. This was something he had not given and eventually passed on the information and decisions to another of the Medical Elite. He could not become involved, not in this, especially with the task the Doctor had been given.
"Watching over the future of the Kaleds Harry?" Said a voice of the Doctor behind him.
"Healer Sullivan?" Gharman was with the Doctor and Sarah. Sullivan turned and saw Karvell lingering down the corridor.
"I escaped the dome before its destruction." He said closing the observation screen. "I'll accompany you." Sullivan said, he wasn't sure he wished to be present as the Doctor prepared to carry out his orders. Instead he'd accompany Gharman to confront Davros about the Daleks.
"Harry-" Sarah began.
Sullivan shook his head. "I'll be safe." His hand went to his energy weapon strapped to his thigh. Sarah made a face at him.
"I didn't mean that." Sarah said.
-/ - \\-
Sarah watched Harry go off with the other Kaleds, she turned back to the Doctor who was watching her watch Harry. "He's really changed hasn't he Doctor?"
"He arrived here a young surgeon and has spent eight years in war Sarah." The Doctor said seemingly listening through the door.
"But, they're...they're what the Daleks were." Sarah tried.
"Evil?" The Doctor wondered.
Sarah opened her mouth to agree. "He could get into trouble Doctor."
"Harry's been around these people a lot more than us Sarah." The Doctor aimed his sonic whatsit at the door.
"Doctor what are you-" She started to say as the Doctor walked into the room.
-/ - \\-
Sullivan looked to Davros who seemed to be looking around the whole room, taking them all in. It seemed too easy.
Davros was always ruthless, and had become even more so in the past few years. Perhaps as the mutations in the Kaled race became all the more obvious.
Sullivan suspected that Davros would do something, probably to weed out the remaining scientists that opposed him. Sullivan doubted that Davros would leave such a thing to chance, even though as the meeting ended and Gharman no doubt went off to find the Doctor, Davros was muttering to Nyder.
Sullivan slipped into the crowd of Scientific and Military Elite, moving along a rear corridor that linked up with several of the outer corridors. Curious to see if he was correct.
Sullivan walked calmly along the corridors, now that the Thal bombing had ended everything seemed quiet.
Hardly peaceful.
Sullivan would be glad to leave here. And, if he was honest with himself, saddened that it had ended like this. Even though he knew it would, the tales Valyes had told him of Skaro's history, or what would very likely happen.
That maybe the Doctor would interfere, he hoped he would have an effect. But as Valyes' regenerations went on he became much more honest with him.
Then as he rounded another corridor preparing to return to the Scientific Elite rooms he came upon three Daleks.
Sullivan stopped frozen for a moment.
"Halt!" Cried one of the Daleks. "Identify yourself."
"He is a Healer." Said another and Sullivan for a moment breathed a moment's of relief. Maybe, he hoped that the Kaled respect for Healers had been carried on into the Daleks?
"Healer Elite Sullivan." He said answering the first Dalek's question. "You are the future of the Kaleds."
The three Daleks turned around to give him their attention rather than the door they were lined up in front of.
"Yes. Healer." They said.
Sullivan then decided to tell them something. Because whatever Davros was, what he had done for the Kaleds, he had still, Sullivan was sure done it. "Davros gave the Thals the formula that protected the dome. Davros destroyed the Kaleds." He paused looking at the Daleks, whatever they were they would live on. "Know that you are the future of the Kaleds. But understand his role."
The Daleks stared at him for a long while, their weapons he felt were pointed at him the whole time. Then one of the Daleks spoke. "We understand Healer." It said and then the three turned around away from him to return to facing the corridor.
-/ - \\-
Sullivan regarded the Muto with some suspicion, but Sarah seemed to know him, having rescued him and other prisoners while in the Thal dome with the Doctor. Supposedly the Thals were mining the exit to the bunker with explosives.
"Go Muto, we have our own escape." Sullivan said in a short tone.
The Muto regarded him with a sneer.
"Harry, he's-" Sarah started.
Sullivan shook his head. The Mutos were...unfortunate and dangerous.
"Sevrin, it's okay, he's a friend. Listen, go, tell Bettan to blow the tunnel now." She said.
The Muto looked to the Doctor who nodded.
"Have you done everything you needed?" Sullivan asked.
"A Dalek finished off the circuit on the incubator room while you were off...where were you Harry?" Sarah asked, perhaps, demanded.
"Wandering the groves." Sullivan replied. "And the tapes of your interrogation?"
"Destroyed with a Dalek gun." The Doctor said.
Sullivan nodded. "Then this is it."
Down the corridor he could just about hear the sounds of the Daleks' weapons and the shouts of extermination.
"Doctor what's that?" Sarah exclaimed.
"Davros." Sullivan said as he slipped the Time Ring off his finger. "Touch the Time Ring." He said as he expanded out as they each touched it.
"Now what?" Sarah asked.
The Doctor looked at him curiously.
Sullivan thought thought the mental processes that Valyes had taught him, just in case the Doctor was incapacitated. Then as he opened his eyes the room, the Kaled bunker and Skaro all melted away.
-/
A/N:
I've omitted a lot of Genesis of the Daleks as I'm loathed to rewrite scenes word for word, so I'm just assuming that if you're reading this you're familiar with the story itself. Also I wanted to keep this story told (primarily) from Sullivan's point of view.
Because Sullivan isn't with the Doctor and Sarah things change and some stuff doesn't happen exactly as it does in the TV story.
Basically everything with Sarah in the Wastelands and with the Thal's rocket doesn't happen.
Omitting this doesn't change very much, Sarah's contribution to the rocket isn't significant enough that her not being there wouldn't change anything.
It's the Doctor and Sarah that go to the Thal Dome not the Doctor and Harry. Somehow Sarah still meets Sevrin and the others and that all still happens.
Basically any of the scenes that Harry and the Doctor might have had Sarah and the Doctor now have.