'Are you alright?' mimed Sexy. 'What's with the Daleks?' she whispered.
The Daleks had shut down.
'They were harping on about how they had supposedly "failed in their
mission" and could do no good trapped inside here,' replied the Keeper. ‘So
now they know how I felt.'
'Hurry!' urged Zahra, standing on guard. Sexy pressed her hand against a
switch, and the cell door slid open. 'Come on!' she yelled again.
'There are Daleks coming!' bellowed a voice, another civilian in the crowd.
The Keeper's rescue had been a success, but it had come at a price. The switch
Sexy had pressed was meant for Daleks only. Activating it had resulted in an
alarm sounding from somewhere within the mothership. The Dalek Supreme had
ordered all life forms be found and exterminated.
Sexy grabbed hold of the Keeper, and demanded he tell her where to find
Light. But the Keeper had some very sad news. Light was dead.
'How do you know this?' asked Zahra. 'Did you see the Daleks do away with
him?'
'Calm down,' said Sexy, 'we haven't time for this.'
'Oh? That's easy for you to say, and with a name like "Sexy", you
couldn't care less!'
'Actually,' huffed Sexy, glaring at Zahra, 'I am truly known as TARDIS!'
'The Doctor's ship?' mouthed Zahra.
'The very same!' stated Sexy, 'So don't you dare insult me. The Keeper,
Light, and I are all as one with one another, so Light may have been of this
world, but he means the universe to us as well!'
'I'm sorry,' mumbled Zahra. 'I didn't know.'
'The Daleks are right behind us!' yelled another civilian, 'We must keep
moving.'
~~~
The Doctor was unconscious. His mind had been badly damaged, the machine
had done its work, but the lies he had told had angered the Daleks. They had considered
using the machine again, but feared they might kill him a second time.
'The Doctor is no longer of any use to us!' barked the Supreme Dalek. 'His friends are trouble and must die!'
it continued.
'But if you kill us,' reckoned Clara, 'think of what you've lost. All our
minds are filled with stuff about you.'
'But the Doctor is the only intelligent life
form,' bellowed the Dalek.'We have no desire for you!'
'Pity,' replied Clara, 'because I was once a Dalek.' She said it as though
hiding something from her captor. But it was intrigued. It wanted to know more.
'Take the female to the machine!' ordered the Supreme Dalek.
'Clara…no,' grumbled the Doctor, stirring in his sleep. 'What have you
done?' he shrieked, painfully, drifting slowly on into the night.
~~~
Sexy was a woman of considerable beauty. In her long, flowing gown, she
glided across the floor. Zahra was tall and slim. She was a woman of mystery.
The Keeper was keen to find the Doctor, and rescue the key from the Daleks.
Travelling with them was a rowdy crowd all intent on stopping the Daleks. When
they had reached the control centre, the Doctor, Clara, and the Daleks had
vanished.
'Where is everyone?' wondered Zahra. 'There's no-one here.'
'Come on!' mouthed Sexy, 'We must find them.'
'But what if it's a trap?' murmured Zahra.
'I don't think so,' whispered Sexy, 'Something else is going on!'
The Keeper had heard screams coming from the Dalek Supreme's chamber. When
Sexy and Zahra heard them, they knew who it was.
'It's Clara!' shrieked Sexy, 'We must get her out of there!'
'Out of where?' mimed Zahra.
'The Dalek Supreme's chamber!' declared Sexy. 'They must be using the
machine again.'
'I have an idea,' said Zahra. 'We use a grenade!'
'And risk harming Clara?' wondered Sexy. 'No. No we can't!'
'On the door, I mean,' she replied. 'Then we can use an EMP pulse on the
Daleks.'
'Or draw them out from the chamber and deal with them ourselves,' added
Sexy. 'If we set off an EMP pulse, we risk the alarm going off and alerting the
Supreme Dalek.'
'Good idea,' said Zahra.
She rummaged around for an explosive and strapped it to the door. She and
the others took cover and set off the bomb. Daleks poured out from within the
chamber, firing into the darkness causing sparks and flames. Smoke quickly filled
the control centre, and the civilians opened fire. Eye stalks exploded and Daleks crashed into one another in a panic.
Meanwhile; the Keeper crept into the chamber and found Clara unconscious. He
released the clamps she was in and helped her over his shoulder. 'Come along,'
he said, 'we're getting out of here!'
The civilians had over turned the Daleks and set their remains on fire.
They were demanding the presence of the Supreme Dalek but he couldn't be found.
As Clara came around, the Keeper sat her down and asked if she knew where the
Doctor was.
'He's with the Supreme Dalek.' she murmured, still waking from her sleep.
'Whereabouts?' asked the Keeper. 'Can you tell us where, exactly?' he
whispered. Sexy and Zahra had now joined them.
The civilians had set fire to the ship and smashed up the controls. There
were bullet holes in the machinery and small fires were burning throughout the
mothership.
'We've got to get out of here!' urged Zahra. 'This ship will rip apart at
any minute if they try to take off.'
But the Keeper was still uncertain of the Doctor's location. He urged Clara
to give him some kind of answer, but there was little time. He had to drag her
from the control centre before time ran out. Jumping from the shaft and out
onto the surface of Solace, the Keeper, Zahra, Sexy, and the civilians quickly
took cover as the ship, trying to take off, exploded behind them.
The up-rising had been a success, the Daleks were defeated. But their
mission had failed. The Doctor was lost, and the disappearance of the Supreme
Dalek was also of some concern.
'Are you alright?' asked the Keeper, speaking with Clara. He could see that
she was fine, but she was still recovering from the machine. None of them knew
what she was going through.
'I didn't tell them anything,' she muttered, 'Let's just hurry and find the
Doctor!'
~~~
Able to stand, the Doctor was being urged to hurry along through the
jungle. The Supreme Dalek was with him, as was the Dalek Archivist.
'So do you still hold the Key?' asked the Doctor, holding up the Daleks.
'Because if you do, I'd like to know where it is.'
'The Key is now part of us,' they bellowed. 'It is stored in our memory banks.'
'Thanks for that,' said the Doctor, 'at least now I know.' He paused and
looked around. 'By the way, where are we heading?' he asked.
The Daleks did not answer.
'Oh, I see,' said the Doctor. 'There is no rescue. You're waiting for my
friends to catch up with us so can have but one last victory. You may have the
Key, but what good is it to you now?'
The Dalek Archivist anger was echoed in its harsh voice: 'You will be silent!' he ordered.
He was still yelling. His shouts had drawn an audience. Two members of the
attack party who had stormed the mother ship had found them.
'They're over here!' they called, signaling they had found the Doctor to
their leader, Zahra who rushed across the rocky terrain towards them.
'You're right!' she said, 'Get some men and arm yourselves. These are the
only surviving Daleks, who will no doubt put up a fight!'
They ran to gather their associates, as Clara, Sexy, and the Keeper had
joined Zahra at her side. They were only a short distance from the Doctor and
his captors.
'It's him, isn't it?' wondered Zahra.
'It is,' replied Clara. 'We must rescue him.'
'But we can't all rush in there and attempt to save him!' stated the
Keeper. 'If we do, his chances of survival are slim.'
'We may need a long range weapon, a rocket launcher perhaps?'
'You know,' said Clara, 'I think you may be right!'
'That's a first coming from you,' remarked Zahra, 'I thought you didn't
agree with my tactics?'
'But that was before.' answered Clara. 'We've more reason to use force now
than ever before!'
Some civilians had come to their rescue, armed with as many weapons as they
could carry. Among them, was something similar to a rocket launcher.
'We'll use this then!' said the Keeper.
The Doctor caught a glimpse of his friends in the jungle. The Daleks had no
idea. As they trundled along, they knew nothing of the danger ahead. When a
missile hurtled through the Archivist, it sent the dome of the Dalek into the
air and crashing down on to the ground with a thump.
'What is happening?' demanded the Supreme Dalek.
'You're under attack!' cried the Doctor. 'It's over for you, Dalek.'
Another missile was fired and the Supreme Dalek exploded. The Doctor looked
up and saw his friends rushing towards him.
'Oh well done!' he bellowed. 'You clever, clever people!' He congratulated
them, with an embrace 'Come on!' said the Doctor, with his arms around Clara,
'Let's get going.'
'Where?' she asked.
'Sexy knows!' he stated, 'And I suppose the Keeper does to.'
'The TARDIS?' she countered. 'Oh good!' she mused.
'What about the Key?' asked Zahra.
'It was stored in the Dalek's memory banks,' explained the Doctor, 'And
thanks to you, they may never know who I am.'
'But who are you, exactly?' asked Zahra.
He smiled and answered: 'The Doctor.'
And so it left Clara to ask the ultimate question. A question that must
never be answered. She took his hands and asked, 'Doctor who?'
The Doctor frowned.
'Time will tell,' he answered, 'It always does!'
written by
NATHAN MULLINS
copyright 2013
artwork by
COLIN JOHN
copyright 2013