Doctor Who: Prisoner of the Daleks (23 page)

The Daleks were vibrating, jerking around as the entire Lodestar station began to shudder with a terrible finality. Pieces of rusting metal clattered from the ceiling and the gantry gave a loud, ominous crack. Far below, a green light suddenly flared into life.

'E
MERGENCY
! E
MERGENCY
!' cried one of the Daleks. 'R
ETREAT
!'

Bowman just laughed.

The Doctor rushed madly around the TARDIS control console. There was no time for Koral to ask any questions – like why there was such a huge chamber contained inside such a small box – and so she was just forced to watch him work. She gripped the railing, looking all around her, numb with the realisation that everything had just changed for her, more than she could ever comprehend.

'No time, no time,' the Doctor muttered, working feverishly at the controls. His teeth were gritted and his eyes wild. The ground was shaking, rattling the metal floor. Suddenly the Doctor let out a huge, '
Ha
!' and released the handbrake.

The central column erupted into bright turquoise light and an uncanny groaning noise filled the chamber.

'Oh yeah!' shouted the Doctor. '
Come on
!'

The Daleks were rattling and squawking. The bright green light – accompanied by a deep, thunderous roar – suddenly increased in intensity as the chain reaction ignited the astronic fuel below. A huge gust of wind whipped up from the depths of the silo, but Bowman kept his eyes wide open.

He'd never backed down from anything in his life. He wanted to see death coming.

But what he actually saw was a blue box materialising out of thin air, right in front of him. It was difficult to see properly in the emerald glare of the oncoming explosion, but it looked like...

The police box door opened, and there was Koral, standing inside, holding out her hand to him.

The Command Dalek saw what was happening and swivelled its gun around. 'E
XTERMINATE
!'

With a gasp Bowman launched himself through the TARDIS door. It crashed shut behind him and the Dalek blast hit nothing but empty air as the entire station was instantly and catastrophically vaporised.

The explosion ripped the planet open. The Lodestar station itself disappeared in the initial blast – a stone, metal and plastic town one moment, a gaseous mass of atoms the next. The exit wound spewed a glowing, fiery stream of astronic radiation straight up into the atmosphere. Fragments of the deep silos and rock were hurled up like a hundred thousand tonnes of shrapnel, propelled at supersonic speeds. The force fields of the Dalek Command Saucer hovering over the station absorbed the first wave, but they could not withstand the point-blank onslaught of the astronic blast.

The
Exterminator
took the blast amidships, crunching under the impact, flaring with a thousand secondary ignitions as the neutronic power source at its centre overloaded. The ship was ruptured, disembowelled, fire spurting from the rim. And then the vast saucer tipped, slowly at first, and slid into the broiling chasm below.

The crash released final detonations which caught the support ships in a second chain reaction. Each exploded in a bright star of energy, popping like flashbulbs as the
Exterminator
crashed.

The astronic flare would be seen from seven light years away.

It was a glorious day on planet Earth. High above the silver towers and walkways of London, flying cars and distant spacecraft crossed a clear blue sky. The sun glinted on the golden spires of Westminster, just visible inside its protective force bubble.

The Doctor was standing by the TARDIS, waiting for Bowman and Koral. They'd been inside Earth Command Headquarters for the best part of a day, and he had agreed to meet them here. Part of him had wanted to just drop them off and go, dematerialise and disappear, for ever and a day. Pop up some place else, in another era, a million miles and years away. See what happened.

But something compelled him to stay and see this through. Something at the back of his mind that he couldn't quite put his finger on. A lingering sense of comradeship, perhaps. Or maybe the fact that Bowman and Koral had both lost dear friends in this adventure, and the Doctor remained their only link to them now. Shared memories and experiences. Friendship.

The park was busy. The summer sun had brought the locals out. Some things never changed. Men and women strolled along the walkways, warm and relaxed, taking a tiny break from the stresses and strains of their working lives. Children played on the grass. The Doctor was dimly aware of their high, excited voices calling out to each other in pretend battle: cries of 'Exterminate! Exterminate!' and 'You're dead!' followed by the inevitable 'No I'm not. You missed!'

He smiled and shook his head, thinking that the human race would never end its love affair with war.

'I thought you'd be long gone,' said a rough voice behind him.

Bowman was there, standing on crutches, rugged and scarred and old. Koral was with him, one arm linked through his.

'Nah,' the Doctor said. 'There's something about Earth. I just can't seem to stay away.'

'Come on,' Bowman growled. 'What's the real reason? Don't tell us you weren't tempted to just take off in that TARDIS thing. What did you stay for?'

The Doctor shrugged. 'I dunno. Unfinished business, I suppose. How did it go?'

'Pretty good. The Dalek fleet is in complete disarray. The loss of the
Exterminator
has knocked them right back, along with any plans to use time-travel technology. The Supreme Dalek's Temporal Research Team bit the dust along with everything else on Hurala.'

'That's good. And the prison?'

'Earth Command has a squadron of ships on its way to seize Arkheon and liberate the prisoners.'

The Doctor watched the children playing. 'That could be quite a battle.'

'Yeah.'

'They asked Bowman to lead the mission,' said Koral. She pulled him closer. 'But he refused.'

'I'm too old for that kinda thing now.' There was a slightly pained, regretful look on the old soldier's face. 'That's what Koral says, anyway. Besides, I've got better things to be doing with my time.'

'He's taking me to meet his parents,' said Koral.

The Doctor laughed. 'You old dog.'

'Gotta start tying up some loose ends,' Bowman said. 'Earth Command's given me a full pardon. Seems I've pulled their fat out of the fire again. Now it's time to see my folks.'

'I'm glad.'

No one felt the need to mention Stella, Scrum and Cuttin' Edge. Each knew they were in their thoughts and in the quietness behind the smiles.

'Well, talking of loose ends...' began the Doctor, 'I've a few of my own to tie up before I get the TARDIS back on the right time track.' He shook hands with Bowman and kissed Koral goodbye. Then, with a final, ironic salute, he turned and headed towards the TARDIS.

It was a forgotten world.

Dusty, torn and left in darkness. Nothing and no one ever came here.

Deep below the surface of Hurala, beneath the vast black crater where the Lodestar station had once stood, all was now quiet. The carnage was silent, and there was not a sign of life.

But deeper even than that, down in the caves, in a crevice beneath the mangled wreckage of the astronic fuel silo, was a clutter of black and gold debris. It was burnt and twisted and split, and it was all that remained of Dalek X. The life-support system was smashed, the containment tank fractured. Wires trailed towards the living creature where it lay on the rocks, twitching feebly in the darkness.

A light pulsed in the shadows. The Dalek's misty eye widened fractionally, disbelievingly. A loud wheezing and groaning noise filled the little cave as an old blue police box materialised in the gloom.

The Doctor stepped out wearing his long coat, the light from the console room spilling out across the writhing remains of the Inquisitor General.

'Y
OU... LOCATED... MY... TRANSMISSION
...' the Dalek croaked.

'Yeah, that was easy.' The Doctor sat down on a rock. 'But there's no one else listening. You're finished. Arkheon is no more. The prisoners have been freed and the Daleks there all wiped out. Thanks to Space Major Bowman, of course. Earth Command is on the offensive. Your lines are in disarray. You're beaten.' He paused. 'Just thought you'd like to know.'

'T
HE
S
UPREME
D
ALEK
...'

'Oh, he's given you up for dead. Besides, I doubt he'd be in a forgiving mood if you did happen to turn up after all this. You're better off down here to be honest.'

'T
HE
A
RKHEON
T
HRESHOLD
?'

'Sealed. One of the advantages of being a Time Lord with a TARDIS. It's nice to be able to tie these loose ends up sometimes. The temporal fissure is gone. I put a stitch in time.'

'V
ERY... THOROUGH
. Y
OUR VICTORY IS... TOTAL
.'

'Almost.' The Doctor pursed his lips and frowned. 'There's still you, of course. Still here, still alive. You certainly know how to hang on, I'll give you that.'

'T
HE ASTRONIC RADIATION WILL KEEP ME ALIVE
...'

'Yeah, I thought there was a smell.' The Doctor wrinkled his nose. 'Never mind. It won't do you much good, trapped down here. There's a communications seal around Hurala, part of the radiation quarantine. Five thousand years at least before anyone will hear your cries for help. But neither you nor your batteries will last that long, I'm afraid.'

'I
WILL FIND A WAY
.' Dalek X glared at the Doctor. 'I
WILL SURVIVE
! T
HE
D
ALEKS ARE NEVER DEFEATED
!'

The Doctor shook his head. 'You can never see it, can you? You just don't get it. Daleks are
always
defeated. Always. Because you never learn. You never accept the simple truth – that every other life form in the universe is
better
than you.'

'I
NCORRECT
! D
ALEKS ARE THE SUPREME BEINGS
!'

'There's not a life form in the universe that would volunteer to become a Dalek. Doesn't that tell you anything? Well,
doesn't
it?'

Dalek X did not reply.

The Doctor stood up and turned to leave.

'D
OC–TOR
!' gasped the Dalek. 'Y
OUR FAILURE TO DESTROY ME... WILL PROVE TO BE YOUR DOWNFALL
. I
WILL HUNT YOU DOWN
...!'

'Yeah, well, good luck with that.' The Doctor paused in the TARDIS doorway, silhouetted in the golden light. His face was stony. 'Cos I'll be waiting.'

The TARDIS door clicked shut behind him and then the police box faded away.

And Dalek X was left to stare, unblinking, into the darkness.

My family, first and foremost – without whom this book wouldn't have been half so much fun to write, or so worthwhile. And my old mate Pete Stam – who never, ever believes that the book is going to be rubbish, no matter how much I try to warn him.

And, in no particular order – Justin Richards and Steve Tribe, and Russell T Davies, Steven Moffat and Gary Russell and all at Cardiff – for doing what they do, and doing it brilliantly. Thanks for asking me to write this one, and giving me the chance to play with the ultimate
Doctor Who
toy.

And while I'm on the subject of the Daleks, it is only right and proper that I offer my heartfelt thanks to Terry Nation and Raymond P. Cusick, and to all the other writers, designers, actors, artists and technicians who have helped contribute to Dalek mythology over the last forty-five years. Here's to you.

Finally, David Tennant – a
brilliant
Doctor, who will live on in the hearts and minds of kids everywhere for the rest of their lives.