Free Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks by Ben Aaronovitch, Nicholas Briggs, Terry Molloy

transistor out of its socket. ‘I suspect we are dealing with two possibly antagonistic Dalek factions.’
    ‘Two?’ queried Allison.
    ‘But both come from outer space?’ asked Gilmore.
    ‘From another planet,’ said the Doctor, ‘and the distant future. We must try to contain both factions and let them destroy each other.’
    Gilmore looked at the maps again and the big red circle that defined the evacuation zone. ‘Shouldn’t we bring in reinforcements?’ he asked. ‘Armoured units...’
    The Doctor cut him off. ‘Haven’t you listened to me, Group Captain? The ship up there has surveillance equipment that can spot a sparrow fall fifteen thousand kilometres away. Any sign of a military build up and they may decide to sterilize the area.’
    Rachel suppressed a shudder at the word sterilize. It brought sudden pictures of Hiroshima to her mind: fabric patterns etched into flesh, people burnt away to nothing with only their shadows left to mark their existence.
    ‘And we have no defence,’ said Gilmore. It was a statement, not a question.
    ‘Frightening, isn’t it,’ said the Doctor, ‘to find that there are others better versed in death then human beings.’
    The Doctor was making final adjustments to his contraption. It was an ungainly mixture of parts: there was a parabolic reflector of an electric fire at the front, from which wires led back into a maze of tubing.
    ‘What does it do?’ asked Rachel.
    ‘At best it will interfere with a Dalek’s internal controls,’ said the Doctor. ‘I rigged up something similar once on Spiridon.’
    ‘And at worst?’
    ‘It will do absolutely nothing.’
    Spiridon, thought Rachel, fine.
    Allison called over from the radio. ‘Red Nine reports an increase in modulated signalling.’
    The Doctor asked where. As Allison talked back to Red Nine the Doctor beckoned Mike over. ‘Call Ace and tell her that someone will pick her up.’
    ‘The signal emanates from Coal Hill School,’ called Allison. ‘Multiple signals in close proximity.’
    ‘Multiple?’ said the Doctor. ‘The transmat must be operational again.’
    ‘Transmat?’ asked Rachel. ‘What does that mean?’
    ‘Daleks,’ said the Doctor.
    Gilmore strode into the room, ‘There’s no reply from my men at the school.’
    The Doctor stood up suddenly and started stuffing toolsinto his pockets, ‘Get a vehicle ready and load it up with plastic explosives with integral detonators.’
    Gilmore nodded and left.
    ‘Why explosives?’ asked Rachel.
    The Doctor held up his contraption. ‘This just disables them. What do you expect us to do then? Talk to them sternly?’
    ‘Doctor,’ said Mike, hanging up the phone, ‘my mum says that Ace left ages ago.’
    The Doctor was suddenly running for the door. Rachel and Mike looked at each other for a moment and ran after him. They caught up at the stairwell; the Doctor was taking the steps three at a time. He turned at the bottom and yelled up that Ace must be at the school.
    ‘What makes you think she’s got herself in danger?’
    gasped Rachel as she reached him.
    The Doctor looked at her with such ferocious intensity that she recoiled. ‘Of course she’s got herself in danger,’ he snapped, ‘they always do.’
     

8
    Saturday, 14:15
    The dreamers awoke. Crab-shaped servo-robots scuttled over polycarbide armour, testing for defects. Power cables disengaged and retreated into the floor, clamps retracted and the warriors began gliding to the staging post.
    Command data-net came on line; instructions in microsecond pulses flashed from relays. The last of the servo-robots dismounted, leaping from the warriors into their wall niches with cybernetic precision.
    Doors opened.
    The Daleks entered their designated transmat broadcast zones. Power shifted from the mothership’s immense fusion reactor and energized the travelling field.
    The first Dalek prepared to enter the combat zone.
    Ace might have died.
    Might have.
    She had slipped into the quarantine