‘Are we going to run away?’ asked Jenibeth.
‘I definitely think we should run away,’ said Sabel. ‘Ollus, turn this thing around and—’
‘No,’ said the Doctor, giving the Blakely children a broad smile and a wink. ‘I’ve got a plan.’
‘What plan?’ asked Sabel, looking terrified.
‘Ollus,’ the Doctor said. ‘Hand me your spaceship.’
Hellic Dansard had clambered aboard another police skimmer, which the police had summoned to the orphanage. It was his plan to be instrumental in recapturing the Doctor. Not exactly a traditional role for a defence lawyer, but frankly he was prepared to do anything to win back favour with the police court judge.
As the skimmer rose high above the city, Hellic bobbed up and down to see if there was any sign of the escaping Doctor.
‘Sit still, will ya?’ one of the policemen snapped. ‘You’re rockin’ the boat!’
‘Any sign of them?’ persisted Hellic. Then he looked over his shoulder as he heard several, deep whooshing sounds from behind. Out of the rear windows, he could see about ten other police skimmers approaching.
‘Now that’s what I call back-up,’ said the other policeman.
‘Squad Leader to all skimmers,’ squawked a throaty voice from the comms-link speaker. ‘Fugitive skimmer has been located approaching the main spaceport terminal. We are to proceed to intercept immediately. Let’s get moving!’
Hellic hung on to his seat as his stomach seemed to rise unpleasantly towards his throat. He looked around him. All the skimmers, including the one he was in, were peeling off and heading downwards, as if to attack. He didn’t know whether to feel excited or sick.
The Dalek guarding the TARDIS was scanning around the immediate vicinity. It had received command signals instructing it to prevent anyone from entering this craft at all costs. It knew that there was a whole squad of Daleks patrolling the area. If it came under attack, assistance would be close by.
Suddenly, for just a fraction of a second, its audio perceptors detected a noise from above. It recognised the sound as that of a Carthedian police skimmer. The Dalek scanned upwards. Nothing. Just the grey sky, rain falling and sporadic, distant skimmer traffic. This caused a disconnect in the Dalek’s reasoning. If it sounded as if a Carthedian police skimmer was there, then why was it not there?
As it was about to transmit a report to its command unit, its perceptors were bombarded with an excess of unexpected information. Fizzing across its entire visual spectrum, an energy field of some kind was opening up directly above it. The Dalek creature went into emergency mode; the fusion between its physical brain and the mass of technological assistance available to it was immediately being supplied with maximum adrenalin and processor speeds. Super-fast decisions had to be made. Data records instantly accessed from its memory bank showed the most likely match for the phenomenon unfolding above it was … a space-time warp.
Immediate conclusion: something was attacking Carthedia, arriving from another space-time location.
‘Emergency! Emergency!’ the Dalek instinctively squawked, beaming this message down all its internal comms network transmitters, informing every Dalek in the area. ‘Space-time warp materialisation—’
But suddenly it stopped speaking and transmitting. The space warp was mutating into a cascade of freezing, falling objects, hurling themselves through a darkened void towards the Dalek. Data records instantly accessed from its memory bank showed the most likely match: comets. Comets were on a collision course with Carthedia.
But then, before the Dalek could sound the alert about this, three gigantic planets heaved impossibly into view. One was orange, one blue and the other a dazzling rainbow mix – all were pulsing with light of such intensity that the Dalek felt itself thrown into utter confusion.
Abandoning all attempts at accurately identifying the threat, it simply squawked, ‘General alert! General alert! Under attack! Under attack!’
It immediately started firing its gun wildly; discharging full power beams, re-angling its gun, firing, re-angling, firing again and again and again in quick succession.
Hellic Dansard was feeling the charge of excitement from the sure and certain knowledge that his irritating ex-client was about to be apprehended. Hellic had never been on a police operation before, and he was starting to find this one pretty thrilling.
A whole squad of police skimmers were accompanying the skimmer in which he was flying. They were swooping down to the spaceport. The Doctor and the children would be hopelessly outnumbered. It would be a very easy arrest. And this time, he would make sure the Doctor was searched for offensive devices that had the capability to knock walls down!
His reputation would be saved and his career put back on track. No nasty surprises this time.
Then everything went wrong.
The skimmer shook violently as something impacted on it.
‘What the hell?’ screamed one of the policemen as the dashboard exploded in a shower of sparks. ‘We’ve been hit! By what?’
Panic-stricken, Hellic looked out of the windscreen and through the windows all around the skimmer. Screeching up towards them from ground level were flashes of energy, seemingly fired at random. To the left, one of them caught a nearby police skimmer front and centre. The entire vehicle burst into a crackling mass of piercing blue light, with the officers inside horribly illuminated like X-ray images, their mouths wide open in silent screams of agony drowned out by the explosion.
Hellic could see that all the other skimmers were peeling off and flying away as fast as they could. He noticed, however, that his skimmer was rapidly losing height. The thrum of the engine had stopped. They were free falling.
The policemen were flicking switches and pressing buttons, but to no avail.
All at once, the thought struck Hellic that this might well be the end of his chances of promotion.
The Dalek guard by the TARDIS was still firing wildly into the air as the Doctor’s stolen skimmer came into land just a few feet away from the gigantic Dalek saucer, expertly piloted by young Ollus Blakely. The doors immediately opened.
‘Well done, Ollus!’ said the Doctor, leaping out and getting his bearings.
‘General alert! General alert!’ the Dalek was squawking, more and more agitatedly.
Jenibeth stood close to the Doctor, pulling at his trouser leg.
‘Why’s it gone bonkers?’ she asked.
‘I did something clever,’ said the Doctor.
‘With Ollus’s spaceship?’ asked Sabel.
‘Yes,’ said the Doctor, already trying to work out how they were going to get into the TARDIS. It was directly behind the Dalek. The trouble was, the Dalek was, indeed, behaving as if it were ‘bonkers’. It seemed to be almost shadow-boxing with an invisible opponent, moving back and forth and side to side, swivelling its dome and waving its eyestalk around crazily, firing its gun upwards, spraying energy beams in all directions. Even though it was clearly thoroughly occupied and not at all likely to notice them, creeping round it to get into the TARDIS was going to be tricky. There was the danger, for instance, that it might suddenly reverse into them or accidentally blast them with its gun.
At that moment, another police skimmer came screaming out of the sky and thudded into the Dalek. Both exploded on impact, the Dalek screeching a high-pitched squawk as its casing burst open into thousands of white hot fragments.
‘Down!’ screamed the Doctor, dragging the children as fast as he could behind the huge curved hull of the parked Dalek saucer. He crashed to the landing-pad floor with them just in time, as debris from the explosion smashed into their skimmer. The shrapnel whistled past, superheating the air around it. The Doctor felt a couple of near misses just above his hair and grasped the children as tightly and as close as he could, shielding them with his body.
Fairly quickly, the cacophony subsided and the Doctor stood bolt upright, pulling the children up with him. Their own skimmer was distinctly shredded; but t
here was almost nothing left of the Dalek or indeed the skimmer that had crashed into it.
‘That was … lucky,’ said the Doctor, breathlessly. ‘About time we had some luck. Thought I’d run out of it for a moment there.’
Jenibeth screamed. The Doctor winced. ‘What’s the mat—’ he began.
‘That’s not!’ said Sabel, pointing to a walkway beyond the landing pad.
‘Not what?’ asked the Doctor as he followed her gaze. ‘Oh.’
‘Not lucky,’ said Ollus.
A whole squad of Daleks was heading towards them.
‘Halt! You are our prisoners!’ screamed the Squad Leader. ‘You have trespassed on Dalek sovereign territory! Halt!’
‘Dalek sovereign …?’ mumbled the Doctor, scoffing at such a term. ‘What a load of rubbish.’ He raised his voice to them. ‘You don’t fool me, you know!’
‘Are we going to get into your crate?’ asked Ollus, gently cradling his beloved toy spaceship.
‘Yes, come on,’ said the Doctor, leading them across the landing pad, past the smouldering debris and towards the inviting blue doors of his ship.
‘Hadn’t we better hurry?’ asked Sabel.
‘Nah,’ said the Doctor. ‘We’re standing right in front of a Dalek flying saucer. They won’t risk damaging that.’
Suddenly, several scorching beams of energy tore through the air and exploded into the saucer hull, just a few feet away from them.
‘Blimey, they are in a mood today!’ cried the Doctor as he suddenly started sprinting, dragging the children with him. ‘Come ooooon!’
And they ran for their lives, beams shooting past them as every Dalek in the squad opened fire. Impacts seared across the landing pad, ruptured the concrete surface, sent chunks of dust and debris into the air. Direct hits to the saucer tore open the outer plating of its hull, ripping the ship apart.
The Doctor and the children rolled and scrambled their way to safety. All the while, the thought pounded through the Doctor’s mind … Have I miscalculated this time? Is this how it ends? A stupid bit of over-confidence on some depressing human colony planet where everyone thought the Daleks were the good guys?
Miraculously, they made it to the TARDIS and slammed themselves against it, hiding from the barrage of Dalek fire. The police box shuddered and shook as beams impacted on the other side of it, crackling and spitting like a collision of iced water and white hot larva, the sharp smell of relentless combustion stinging the nostrils.
The children got their breath back, but then all three of them looked confused.
‘How come the Dalek guns aren’t affecting your crate?’ asked Sabel, straining to be heard over the terrible noise.
‘She’s indestructible!’ said the Doctor, patting the TARDIS … which shuddered again as another eardrum-splitting impact slammed into it. ‘Well, more or less.’
The trouble was, they couldn’t stay hidden here indefinitely, reasoned the Doctor, because the Daleks were getting closer and closer. The angle of their fire was getting wider and wider and soon the beams would reach them, even on this side of the TARDIS. Worse still …
‘Oh great! The doors are on the other side!’ shouted the Doctor. He was, of course, referring to the side that was currently being blasted.
Suddenly having an idea, the Doctor fixed all three children in turn with the sternest look he could muster. ‘Stay here!’ he said. ‘You understand me?’
They all nodded.
‘No matter what happens … you – don’t – move! Understand?’
They all nodded again.
‘Right,’ he said, and crouched down, daring to poke his head around to the side of the TARDIS that was being bombarded with deadly rays. He immediately ducked back to the safe side, as several blasts impacted close enough to singe his eyebrows.
‘Ow!’ he cried out, more for effect than anything else. ‘When I need my eyebrows trimming,’ he shouted out to the Daleks, ‘I’ll let you know!’ He bit his thumbnail and slapped his hand against the shell of the TARDIS in frustration.
‘Are you going to have another plan?’ asked Ollus’s little voice, barely audible above the screaming Dalek onslaught.
Of course he was going to have another plan. That’s what he did! And what’s more, thought the Doctor, all of a sudden, it was going to be the same plan.
‘Give me your spaceship again, please, Ollus,’ asked the Doctor, holding out his hand.
Ollus shook his head.
Sabel gave him a sharp look. ‘Ollus, be a good boy! The Doctor is having a plan!’
‘I let him have my spaceship already today, I did!’ protested Ollus. ‘He can’t have it again. He might break it!’
‘Ah, but you didn’t see what I did with it, did you?’ asked the Doctor, trying to sound as tantalisingly interesting as possible.
‘No,’ said Ollus and turned his back on the Doctor, folding his arms, keeping the little toy inside his jumper.
‘You just fiddled with it and your magic wand and then did a clever thing to the skimmer controls,’ offered Jenibeth.
‘Er … yes, that’s right,’ said the Doctor, slightly wrong-footed. ‘But wouldn’t you like to know exactly what that clever thing was?’
The three children all turned and faced the Doctor. Ollus was considering, his nose wrinkled and his mouth squidging from side to side. Sabel was anxious, clearly aware of the encroaching beams. Jenibeth was full of enthusiasm.
‘Oooh, yes please,’ said Jenibeth, as if she were volunteering for an extra piece of birthday cake. ‘Go on, Ollus, give the Doctor your spaceship again.’
Ollus was still considering.
The searing beams were getting closer. Sabel edged away from the blasts. The Doctor ran his fingers through his hair, trying not to look tense, starting to worry that they might all be fried alive by deadly Dalek death-rays simply because a 4-year-old boy had got into a mood! Not exactly the least humiliating thing to have on your tombstone, he thought …
‘Tell me the clever thing you did before,’ said Ollus, coming to a conclusion.
‘And then will you give me your spaceship?’ asked the Doctor, now really trying his utmost not to sound cross or scared.
‘Er … probably,’ said Ollus, giving a little shrug.
‘Oh, Ollus! We’re going to d—’ Sabel screamed.
The Doctor raised a placating hand. ‘No need to frighten anyone, Sabel,’ he said, as calmly as he could. Then he gathered his thoughts for a light-speed explanation of the ‘clever thing’ he had done. ‘OK … Well, it’s like this … I-adjusted-the-hologram-projector-of-your-toy-and-the-radio-wave-transmitter-of-the-skimmer. I-transmitted-the-holograms-from-your-toy-directly-at-that-Dalek-on-its-command-frequency … Which-meant-it-ended-up-thinking-it-could-see-space-warps-and-comets-and-big-colourful-planets. In short, it thought it was under attack from something it couldn’t understand. What do you say to that?’
Ollus nodded, smiling a big smile. He immediately handed over the toy spaceship to the Doctor. ‘That was great,’ he said. ‘Are you going to do it again?’
The Doctor was already at work with his sonic screwdriver, clicking the controls and provoking various buzzes and bleeps. ‘Sort of,’ he said, concentrating hard. He flicked a glance to the edge of the safe side of the TARDIS. It was fizzing with burning energy. The beams were starting to move round the corner. The Daleks would soon be able to get a direct shot at them.
He could see that Sabel was fully aware of this. She stared right into his eyes with a fierce combination of fear and hope that was as tangible as a scream for help. He nodded at her, darting his eyes to Jenibeth and Ollus. Sabel, bright as a button, took the hint and gathered her brother and sister into her little arms, hugged them tight and edged them sideways, as far from danger as she dared.
‘All right!’ said the Doctor, completing his work. ‘Same as before … no matter what happens, you stay here!’
He pointed the little toy up at the light on top of the TARDIS. Activati
ng the spaceship and the sonic screwdriver at the same time, he tensed, hoping that he had got his adjustments right. There would be no time left to readjust anything now.
For several, excruciating moments, nothing seemed to happen. Sabel and the children fixed their eyes on him. The Doctor kept pointing the toy at the TARDIS’s light, willing it to work with all his might. Sabel gave a little, desperate smile of crumbling encouragement.
Then, just when the Doctor was convinced he had failed and tears were starting to flood down Sabel’s face …
A beautiful funnel of compressed, swirling, rainbow light leapt out from the toy towards the top of the TARDIS. As it hit the glass of the TARDIS’s lamp, it blossomed into a plume of burgeoning colour, refracting wildly. Then, with a sparkling, dazzling flash, the sky around them was suddenly filled with a huge, holographic projection of space warps, comets, planets, all swirling around each other in a giddying, spectacular display.
The approaching Dalek Squad Leader knew now that it would be mere moments before the Doctor and the children would be visible and in range. The squad’s approach had taken them across a vast distance of walkways. They had been under orders to approach at ground level and to maintain a steady, slow course. It did not know why these oddly cautious tactics had been specified, nor did it dare to question. It obeyed. And soon that obedience would be rewarded, it felt sure, with the extermination of the Doctor.
Then …
Nothing seemed to make sense.
Suddenly, a giant space warp was opening up in front of the squad.
A space warp.
Comets thundered towards them.
Gigantic, multi-coloured planets …
For a moment, the Squad Leader and its squad were frozen in indecision. They came to a halt and stopped firing.
All at once, the Doctor suddenly remembered he had succeeded … in the first part of the plan, at least. Now, he, realised, he was wasting precious seconds staring in awe at the beautiful holograms all around.
‘Remember … stay!’ he shouted to the children, as he dashed round the other side of the TARDIS, already brandishing his key.
Doctor Who: The Dalek Generation Page 9
