Doctor Who_ War Of The Daleks Part 24

Sam understood, clearly now, the Doctor's fear and loathing of the Daleks. Look how they were affecting her here she was, all in favour of saving the whales, talking problems away, and using one's brain, now grimly determined to fry the brains of a sentient being. She realised she couldn't condemn the Thals' att.i.tudes quite as strongly now. The Daleks were evil incarnate. You had to fight back.

She crouched behind the console, staring at the columns. There was a flash of motion, and she realised that the Dalek was working its way down towards the alien altar at the far end. Maybe that was where the Doctor was hiding. Preparing a trap, perhaps?

Well, this was no time to sit around. Clutching the sonic screwdriver tightly, she shot out of hiding, heading for the end of the walkway. Maybe she could ambush the Dalek before it was aware of her...

Then she saw the Doctor. He was flattened against the final column, a tense expression on his face as he listened to the approach of the Dalek. He was obviously hoping to catch it by surprise. Sam stopped breathing, watching tensely as the Dalek drew closer to the pillar where the Doctor was hiding.

And then something made it suspicious. It moved out, whirling with surprising speed to try and catch the Doctor out. The gun was ready.

Sam knew that the Doctor didn't stand a chance, even as he dived for the cover of the altar. She screamed wordlessly to try and distract the Dalek, and rushed toward it.

The Dalek whirled and fired at her as she dived for her life. Once again, the electronic bolt barely missed her, heating the air about her. She hit the floor and winced from the impact. The blaster focused on her again as she struggled to bring the sonic screwdriver up.

Only she no longer held it. The jarring fall had shaken it from her unsteady grip, and it had gone sliding across the floor. It was now behind the Dalek, totally out of reach. For a split second, she stared into the barrel that held her death.

And then the Doctor leapt from hiding, scooping up the screwdriver and slapping it against the Dalek's dome.

The gun sputtered, the arm jerked, and the eyestick stood straight up. The Doctor did not move the sonic screwdriver from the Dalek casing for a long time. Finally he switched it off, his face ashen, slowly backing away.

Sam looked at him as she scrambled to her feet, then collapsed, emotionally and physically drained.

The Doctor hurried to her. 'Are you all right?' he asked.

'Nothing a few years in a sanitarium won't cure,' she groaned. 'I'm battered, bruised, shocked and in dire need of a bath.' Then she smiled. 'Other than that, I'm perfectly fine, thank you.'

'Good.' He helped her to her feet. 'You just sit down and I'll make you a nice cup of tea to steady your nerves. I'm going to repair the lock before I do anything else.'

Sam gestured to the frozen Dalek. 'What about Fred there?'

The Doctor thought. 'Presumably it was monitoring our existence for the Dalek Prime. When it's sensors reported we weren't blown to bits, presumably it was told to do the job instead.'

Sam shook her head, dismally. 'I meant, what do we do with it now?'

He smiled. 'We'll clean up later,' he decided.

'Do you think it'd make a good planter?' she asked. 'Knock off the top and plant some tiger lilies...' She realized she was rambling.

Sam didn't protest as he scooped her up and carried her to the chair. The Doctor busied himself making the tea, while Sam just soaked up the silence.

'Is it over this time?' she asked anxiously. She didn't think she could go through any more right now.

'Yes,' the Doctor a.s.sured her. 'It's over. For now.' He frowned slightly. 'But the Daleks won't simply give up, you know. If you stay with me, I think I can guarantee you a return match some day.'

'There's something to look forward to,' she muttered. She accepted the cup of Darjeeling he poured her and settled back to relax. 'But I'll worry about that tomorrow.'

'Yes,' the Doctor agreed. 'Tomorrow.'

EPILOGUE: SKARO.

The Dalek Prime studied the time-tracking equipment in the secondary control room. Repairs to the primary had already begun. Work crews were moving shattered Daleks, and patching the more dangerous problems. It would take quite some time for the city to return to normal. But at least it could return to normal.

The Gold Dalek next to him adjusted the tracking. 'The TARDIS has survived the attack,' it reported. 'The experimental Infiltration Unit we reactivated inside the TARDIS has also been disabled.'

'Noted.' The Dalek Prime considered. 'The Doctor is very resourceful. He has escaped us this time, but our paths will cross again.' This was a minor setback to his plans, nothing more. Even the loss of the factory from the Thal s.h.i.+p had turned out to be unimportant. That particular contingency had not, in the end, been needed. Davros was dead, and his entire faction purged from the Dalek race.

It was time to move on. Though the war had cost the Daleks much, they had survived, and would soon be stronger than ever. They were all of one mind the Dalek Prime's mind and one purpose.

'We will rebuild,' he stated. 'We will grow stronger. And then we will strike. The galaxy will be ours. Such is the destiny of the Daleks. Nothing will stand before us!

'Nothing!'

The Doctor is repairing the TARDIS systems once again when it is swept up by a garbage s.h.i.+p roving through s.p.a.ce, the Quetzel Quetzel.

When another s.h.i.+p approaches and takes the Quetzel Quetzel by force, by force, the Doctor discovers that he and Sam are not the only unwitting travellers on board there is a strangely familiar survival pod in the hold. Delani, the captain of the second s.h.i.+p, orders the pod to be opened. The Doctor is powerless to intervene as Davros is awakened once again.

But this is no out-and-out rescue of Davros. Delani and his crew are Thals, the sworn enemies of the Daleks. They intend to use Davros as a means to wipe out the Daleks, finally ridding the universe of the most aggressive, deadly race ever to exist. But the Doctor is still worried. For there is a signal beacon inside the pod, and even now a Dalek s.h.i.+p is closing in...

This book the first original Dalek story to be published since the TV show stopped transmission is another in the series of adventures featuring the Eighth Doctor and Sam.