Here we are… the second adventure for all the characters from Dalek Invasion of Earth: 2007. It may get a bit confusing… but please bear with it… everything will eventually make sense. Please review… I like feedback. Hobey ho…
To Dream of Memory
Prologue
"Tegan, Bry, are you there?" called Alan Jackson's voice from my laptop.
"Yes, Alan?" I yawned, sitting down at the table to find his face on the Instant Messenger webcam. I had just gotten out of the shower. Bry had just gotten in. "Do you know what time it is here?"
"Sorry about that. Anyway, Sec called us a few minutes ago. He said he found something in the Australian Outback that he wants us to investigate," Alan explained.
I grinned. "Anything for him."
"We thought you'd say that."
"Where's Sarah?"
"She and the rest of them are packing for a few days in Australia. I have to do that soon too. Will you and Bry be joining us?"
"Of course. Give us an hour before we T-mat over."
"I'll tell Sarah. See you in an hour," Alan waved before logging off the webcam.
I finished drying my hair, then banged on the bathroom door.
"What is it?" Bry shouted over the running water.
"Hurry up! We have to pack."
"What?"
"Just hurry up."
Bry came out fifteen minutes later, towel wrapped around his waist as he walked into the bedroom. "What's going on?" he said, after seeing my half-filled suitcase. "We haven't been invited to any digs, have we?"
I shook my head. "Alan called. We're going to Australia. I told him we'd be over in an hour." I threw a pair of his boxers, jeans, and a shirt at him. "Please put some clothes on."
"Oh, so now you don't like me in the buff?" Bry teased.
I smiled and shook my head before going back to my packing. We were ready forty-five minutes later. We materialized in Sarah Jane's attic after calling ahead to have Clyde operate the T-mat controls on their end.
"Ah, hello, Tegan and Bry," Sarah greeted before turning to her supercomputer. "Mr Smith, I need you to book seven tickets on a flight leaving for Sydney, then a connecting flight to…" she looked over to Maria and asked, "Where did Sec say he was?"
"Perth," answered Maria.
Sarah turned back to Mr Smith. "Make a connecting flight from Sydney to Perth."
"One moment, please," said the pleasant masculine voice of the alien supercomputer.
"K9," Sarah addressed her robotic dog.
"Yes, Mistress?"
"I can't take you with us. Will you be a good dog and guard the house?"
"Affirmative, Mistress," replied K9, his metal tail wagging.
"Sarah Jane, I have booked both flights. The flight to Sydney leaves in three hours," said Mr Smith.
"Thank you very much. Right, is everyone packed and ready to go?"
A chorus of "Yes" answered Sarah.
She nodded her head. "Let's go."
I drove Sarah Jane's car with Sarah in the passenger seat and Bry and Luke in the back. Alan and Maria went in their car. We arrived at Gatwick Airport with an hour and thirty minutes to spare. While waiting to board the plane, we discussed what Sec could possibly have in store for us.
The flight to Sydney wasn't eventful, other than a bad bit of turbulence. The connecting flight to Perth had even more turbulence. If I hadn't been so excited, I would have listened to the potential foreshadowing.
Sec Diagoras met us at the airport and took us to two desert jeeps that he had rented. He explained that it would take about a day-and-a-half to reach the site. Sarah, Sec, Luke, and I were in the first jeep, with Sarah driving. Alan was driving the rest of our group across the desert terrain.
Bry's voice crackled through the radio link between the two jeeps. "So, Sec, what's the surprise you have planned for us?"
"I was walking through the Outback a few days ago when I saw a purple light streak across the sky. I followed its trajectory and found that the unidentifiable object had crashed into a mountain," Sec explained. "But it did not really crash… it'll be easier to show you."
We had to spend a night sleeping under the stars. I stayed up, talking with Sec. we had taken off his holo-projector wrist strap when we had left the city of Perth behind. Truth be told, I preferred seeing him as a Human-Dalek. It made me more comfortable.
We woke up early the next morning and made it to our destination in the afternoon. Sec led us on a climb partway up the mountain.
Alan and Clyde let out a low whistle. In the side of the mountain was a gaping hole. It was too perfectly round to be from a natural cause.
"I haven't gone inside yet," said Sec. "But I did find this." He took a crystal from his pocket.
The crystal was of good size, but it was constantly changing colors. It was also emitting a high-pitched whine. Sec explained, "It only changes color and makes that noise when it's in the light."
"Well, why don't we go in?" said Bry before lowering himself into the large hole and dropping down into the darkness. We heard him curse. He called up, "Be careful. It's a big drop."
I followed and immediately turned on my flashlight to get a look around. Once we were all in the perfectly-rounded tunnel, we started walking. After a good ten minutes, we didn't need our flashlights. The tunnel was now illuminated by an eerie purple light.
The tunnel opened into a small, perfectly-shaped cavern. The purple light was coming from an alien spaceship that had been parked in the middle of the cavern.
"Well, they couldn't have crashed," concluded Alan. "The perfectly rounded tunnel and cavern prove that.
"Or maybe they did make an emergency landing, and their weapons system had enough power to make a safer landing," Sarah replied.
We walked around the ship, admiring it. We looked inside the pilot station through the large front window. I noticed an orange light silently flashing inside.
I remarked, "No matter where or when you are, flashing lights are always a bad thing."
"Did we trip a silent alarm somewhere?" asked Maria when they all noticed the light.
"I say we get out of here before whoever this ship belongs to comes back," said Bry.
"We will have to find another way out," Sec responded. "The way we came earlier is too high to climb back out."
Clyde mumbled, "Of course, you tell us this now."
We followed the Human-Dalek, who had put his wrist-strap back on in case of any trouble. It wasn't long before we heard angry cries and weapons fire behind us.
"Maria, we definitely tripped an alarm," her father said.
Our hurried walk instantly became a sprint. We were nearly to the opening of a cave that led to the outside when several streaks of blue went over our heads and into the rocks above the cave mouth. A rumble filled the tunnel and the ground shook beneath our feet. All the weapons fire was causing the tunnel and cave opening to collapse. Rocks started to fall from the ceiling. One hit Alan on his head. He was able to stumble into the cave before falling to the rocky floor. I tripped and fell to my knees. Sec noticed Alan and I on the ground and stopped to help us up. By the time I was back on my feet, the tunnel and cave mouth had caved in. And our five friends were nowhere to be seen. I knew that they hadn't seen the three of us fall and kept going.
My guess was confirmed when Sec, Alan, and I heard Bry, Sarah, Maria, Clyde, and Luke call our names from the outside.
"They have us trapped in here," I stated to Sec and Alan.
Sec shouted to our friends, "We're alright."
"Hang on, we'll get you-" Bry started to say.
Sarah yelped in surprise and pain.
A feminine voice threatened, "Touch those rocks and the woman dies."
Sarah replied, "Please, our friends are in there. One of them might be injured."
"Be silent," repeated the voice.
"But-" Sarah started.
There was the sound of a firearm being shot and a startled scream.
"Maria!" Alan called through the rock wall.
"I'm alright, Dad," she called back.
More rough voices joined the group outside. Rocks shifted behind us. The aliens who had directly chased us were getting through. We were cornered.
"I'm sorry," said Sec. "I should not have-"
"No, Sec, you did the right thing by calling us here," I interrupted. "We just weren't prepared."
Sec's Human face was the last thing I saw before the aliens broke through the collapsed tunnel.