Doctor Who: Engines of War (6 page)

It had been Coyne who had plucked her from the dustbin in the burning ruins of her homestead, and Coyne who had taught her how to survive, how to fight.

‘Aren’t you going to introduce us?’ he said, with a wary look at the Doctor.

‘This is…’ She hesitated. ‘This is—’

‘John Smith,’ said the Doctor, extending his hand.

‘Well, John Smith,’ said Coyne, looking the Doctor up and down. ‘Where have you been hiding?’

‘Anywhere the Daleks can’t find me,’ said the Doctor, with a thin smile. ‘Moving about from place to place, never staying still for very long.’ He glanced at Cinder, and she could tell this wasn’t a lie. ‘I found Cinder here trying to singlehandedly take down a Dalek patrol,’ he continued, ‘and decided to drop in and help.’

Coyne laughed amiably. ‘Yes, that sounds like Cinder.’ He put a protective arm around her shoulder. ‘But why didn’t you take anyone with you? You know the rules. It’s not safe to go out there alone.’

‘I wasn’t alone,’ she replied. ‘I had John Smith here, didn’t I?’

Coyne rolled his eyes. ‘You know precisely what I mean, Cinder,’ he said. ‘Look, I bet you could both do with something to eat. Come on, the stew’s almost ready.’

Cinder glanced apologetically at the Doctor. ‘Well, we…’

‘That sounds like a marvellous idea,’ said the Doctor.

The stew was a thick broth made from vegetables and herbs, but it was hot and welcome, and Cinder gulped it down, enjoying the rare sensation of a full belly.

It was now what passed for night on Moldox, and the strange, ethereal light of the Eye rippled across the sky, an aurora of yellow, pink and blue striations. It bubbled like the surface of some unfathomable lake, like a colourful oil painting being smeared across the sky.

The Doctor, who’d been deep in conversation with Coyne for the last half an hour gleaning details about the Dalek occupation force, came to sit down beside her on an overturned drum. He followed her gaze, looking up at the sky.

‘Beautiful, isn’t it?’ she said.

‘Do you know what they are?’ he replied. She shook her head. ‘Time winds.’ He took a long swig from a metal mug of tea. ‘Temporal radiation from the Eye. What you’re seeing up there is a billion years of history, a glimpse into the night sky of the ancient past and the furthest reaches of the future. The radiation causes anomalies, glitches in space-time. It’s a window right through to another time, only the world on the other side is shifting in constant flux. And yes, you’re right – it is rather beautiful.’

Cinder glanced up at it again, this time with new eyes. ‘All that time, all those years of peace. Now there’s only the War.’

‘The universe is full of wonders, Cinder. The things I’ve seen… the glass moons of Socho, the Red Veil of the Eastern Parabola, the sky beaches of Altros. There are things out there that would make you weep with joy.’ He was watching her intently.

‘Moldox was like that once,’ she said. ‘Before your war. Before the Daleks came. The skies used to be filled with transport ships, bringing in new and exotic people every day. The cities heaved with life. People were happy. Out on the plains they erected pleasure palaces that overlooked the Barian Sea, with its golden water and beaches formed from grains of ice. They built towers that seemed to reach almost all the way up to the Eye itself, and machines that looked and thought like men. It was an empire to behold. Now it lies in ruins.’

She shuffled the dirt around with the edge of her shoe. ‘All those other places you mentioned, those wondrous worlds – you’re going to destroy them all, aren’t you? Every last corner of the universe. By the time you’ve finished there’s going to be nothing left.’

‘Not if I can help it,’ said the Doctor. ‘That’s why I’m here, Cinder. That’s what I’m trying to stop, why I need to see what the Daleks are doing here on Moldox.’

She nodded. Could she really trust this man – this
Time Lord
? There was something about him, something different. Spending time in his company, she felt herself starting to believe, for the first time in years, that there might be a way out of this mess they’d found themselves in; that there might be hope. It was an unfamiliar emotion, and she wasn’t yet ready to embrace it.

‘Did you get what you came for?’ he said, after a moment. The question pulled her right back to the here and now.

‘Yes,’ she said, indicating her backpack, which she’d dumped on her bunk a few metres away beneath a canvas awning. ‘Just a few mementoes. Things I didn’t want to leave behind.’ She held up her arm, showing him the bracelet encircling her wrist. It was nothing, really, just a hoop of twisted copper wires, burnished with age. It had been made for her by her brother, all those many years ago, and she’d held on to it ever since. She wouldn’t leave Moldox without it. It was all she had left of him, save for her memories.

‘I understand,’ said the Doctor. He frowned, catching sight of something. ‘Tell me, whose is that bunk over there, beside yours?’

Cinder glanced at the other makeshift cot, only a metre or two from her own. It seemed oddly familiar. ‘I don’t…’ She hesitated. ‘I feel as if I should know, but I don’t,’ she said. ‘It’s the strangest feeling. Like something’s missing.’

The Doctor nodded, his expression grave. ‘Well, it’s nothing to worry about now. It’s time to drink up and go and find out what the Daleks are up to at Andor.’

Cinder placed her beaker down and swept up her backpack, slinging it over one shoulder. All she really wanted to do now was sleep, but she’d made a promise to the Doctor, and he in turn had made a promise to her. She was going to see this through, one way or another.

Chapter Six

‘Shhh!’

‘I didn’t say anything!’ said the Doctor.

‘No, your feet,’ hissed Cinder. ‘On the gravel. Walk on the mud instead.’

The Doctor looked at her as if she were mad. ‘But then my boots would get filthy,’ he said. ‘It’ll get all over the TARDIS. Who’s going to clear it up? You?’

Cinder rolled her eyes. ‘Yes, if I must. Just do it. It’s better to have muddy boots than to be lying in a ditch with a hole in your chest. We’re nearly there. The place will be swarming with Daleks.’

The Doctor tutted dramatically, but did as she said and stepped up onto the verge, abandoning the gravel path.

They were standing on the outskirts of Andor, just beyond the boundary of the city walls. The walls themselves had been largely torn down during the years of Dalek occupation, and now formed heaps of rubble and broken slabs. It looked disturbingly like a painting she’d seen as a child in one of her picture books, of a citadel from old Earth, sitting on a craggy outcrop above the ocean.

The net result was that any approach to the city would prove hazardous and, more troubling, exposed.

It was clear to see that Andor had once been spectacular, a jewel at the heart of the colony. What had begun in the early days of the human occupation as a rag-tag collection of functional architecture – hab-blocs, basic schools and boxy civic halls – had, over the years, evolved into a picturesque metropolis.

Buildings from a myriad of original Earth cultures stood shoulder-to-shoulder, here – churches, skyscrapers, theatres and mosques – and the thin bands of aerial walkways crisscrossed the sky. Many of them were now broken, splintered during the shelling. The buildings were largely abandoned, too, with any survivors like Cinder, left to fend for themselves in the outlying ruins whilst the Daleks had taken up residence in the city.

Cinder beckoned the Doctor over to where she was crouching inside the shell of a homestead, peering over a tumbledown wall. Creeping ivy clung to the brickwork, running rampant, the only thing left alive in this forsaken place.

Ducking down so to stay out of sight, the Doctor crept over to crouch beside her. ‘Over there,’ she said, pointing to a large breach in the city walls. ‘Can you see those domes?’ The Doctor nodded. ‘Those are the Dalek buildings. They’ve co-opted an old school, adapting it and adding to it. We think it’s their base of operations.’

‘What about the people?’ said the Doctor. ‘The ones they’re bringing here to the city. Where are they?’

Cinder shrugged. ‘No one knows. They’re taken into those domes for “processing” and never seen again. In the early days we used to speculate about what was happening to them in there, but after a while everyone stopped talking about it. I think we all just assumed they were dead. I’ve never heard of anyone making it out alive.’

‘Then that’s where we need to go,’ said the Doctor.

Cinder shook her head. ‘Oh no, that’s not what we agreed. You said you needed to take a
look
. You’ve seen it now. It’s time to head back to your TARDIS and get as far away from here as possible.’

‘Cinder, I need to see what they’re doing to those people. If the Daleks are simply killing them, why are they going to the effort of rounding them up and leading them here? Why not just exterminate them on sight? That’s the Daleks’ modus operandi, isn’t it? They’re not exactly known for their mercy.’ He stroked his beard thoughtfully. ‘They’re up to something, and I want to get to the bottom of what it is.’

Cinder kicked out at a rock in frustration. It bounced away across the gravel path, striking the opposing wall. Deep down, though, she’d always assumed that this was going to happen.

‘You can wait here, if you like,’ said the Doctor. ‘I won’t be long.’

‘I can’t let you go in there alone,’ she said. ‘Especially unarmed.’ What she was thinking, however, was:
if the Daleks find you sneaking about, I have no chance of figuring out how to operate your ship
. And besides – despite all of that, she was starting to like him.

She heard a dull, mechanical whirr from around ten metres away, and hurriedly ducked back behind the wall. The Doctor had clearly heard it too, as he did the same. He peered over the top of the wall, his eyes gleaming.

‘What was that?’ she whispered. ‘Can you see anything?’

‘Over there,’ said the Doctor, inclining his head. ‘They’re coming this way.’

Cinder twisted, peeking through a hole in the wall. Through the bushy ivy, she could see a long line of humans, around fifteen or twenty of them, being marched toward the city gates. They looked exhausted, pale and close to death. They were flanked by at least five Daleks, two of which were hovering, one on either side of the line, scanning the surrounding ruins for any signs of resistance.

She dipped her head as an eyestalk swivelled in her direction. She held her breath, waiting for the bark of a Dalek voice, or the blast of an energy weapon. Thankfully, none came. It seemed the Daleks were preoccupied with transporting their prisoners.

Four, five minutes passed, with neither Cinder nor the Doctor daring to move or speak. Then came the sounds of the city gates creaking open, the distant squawk of two Daleks exchanging orders and the wail of a human finally succumbing to fear or fatigue. Cinder wanted to stick her fingers in her ears and drown it all out.

The Daleks rasped more orders at their prisoners, and a minute or two later the gates closed again behind them. Cinder slowly exhaled, for what felt like the first time in hours.

‘They’ve gone,’ said the Doctor, taking a quick look. ‘We should move quickly, see if we can find a way to sneak in behind them.’

He stood, offering her his hand, and as she took it she froze in horror at the sight of the glowing tip of a Dalek eyestalk, peering over the wall at them.

‘Intru-der! Alert! Alert!’

Only its head and eyestalk were visible, its manipulator arm and weapon hidden behind the ruined wall.

‘Elevate! Elevate!’

‘Come on!’ The Doctor wrenched her up from where she was crouched. ‘Run!’

‘No!’ she yelled, twisting out of his grip. Her weapon was slung over her shoulder and a makeshift leather strap, and she swung it around, sliding it into her hands and searching for the trigger.

The Dalek was rising steadily into the air. ‘Extermina—’

There was a tremendous explosion as a lance of energy burst from the end of Cinder’s gun, taking off the Dalek’s head and sending the remaining shell spinning to the floor. It crashed into the side of a nearby building and bounced across the ground, finally coming to rest a few metres from them. Steam curled from the crater where its head had been.

The Doctor stared at her. ‘I thought that thing had run out of power,’ he said, surprised but clearly relieved.

‘I picked up a new power pack at the camp,’ she said, with a grin. ‘Thought it might come in handy.’

The Doctor smiled. ‘Well, you’ve certainly given them something to talk about. They’ll be on us in moments. Come on, while we’ve got a distraction. Now’s our chance to get inside.’

‘
Really
?’ said Cinder. ‘You really want to go in there?’

‘I thought we’d been through this,’ said the Doctor.

‘Just checking,’ said Cinder. ‘Because it is about the worst plan I’ve ever heard.’

A chorus of Dalek voices rose in the distance, coming from behind the city walls.

‘I don’t see that we have much choice,’ replied the Doctor. He started off, his boots crunching in the gravel. ‘Come on. This way.’

As the Daleks converged on the spot where they’d been standing just a few moments before, the Doctor and Cinder made a mad, panicked dash for the city walls.

The Doctor led the way, keeping to the muddy verge – somewhat ironically, Cinder noted – and sticking close to the walls of the abandoned homesteads, hiding in the shadows.

Behind them, she heard a Dalek issuing a tirade of instructions to its vile kin. ‘Seek. Locate. Exterminate!’

This was utter, unadulterated madness. She’d never done anything quite so reckless in her entire life. She was certain there was only one way this way going to end… and yet, it was exhilarating, too. For the first time in as long as she could remember she had a purpose other than simply destroying as many Daleks as she could before she died. She had something to live for. Which, she supposed, was
also
ironic, given that she was charging headlong into enemy territory, where the most likely outcome was the bolt of an energy weapon between her shoulder blades.