"Doctor!" Both Leela and Romana blurted. They rushed over to him.
Leela looked over the Doctor, fear and concern overwhelming her. "Doctor?" She gently shook his shoulders. "Doctor. Wake up."
Romana felt around the Doctor's chest. "He's still breathing, and his hearts are still beating, albeit faster than normal."
"So what's wrong with him?"
"I don't know." Romana shook her head. Her jaw clenched as she stared at the unconscious Doctor.
Leela made a fist. Anger pushed aside her fear. Anger at herself, for her lack of medical knowledge. All her fighting skills couldn't tell her what was wrong with the Doctor. She also aimed some of that anger at Romana. She was a Time Lord, too. Why couldn't she figure out what was wrong with the Doctor?
A roar and crash rocked the kitchen. Madame Lamia screamed. Leela swung around. Clouds of dust and smoke swept out from the large opening in the wall. A Dalek floated outside.
"Attention all Daleks. Converge on the kitchen on the first floor of the castle. The Doctor and his companions are there. Retrieve the segment to the Key to Time and exterminate all humanoid lifeforms."
"Aw, kiss my ass, garbage can." Tupper let loose with his Thompson. Proton bolts burned through the Dalek. Flames and smoke spouted from its hull. It pitched backwards and fell out of sight.
"Gimmie a hand." Tupper slung his machine gun over his shoulder and grabbed the large, silver refrigerator. Leela and Iniya came over to help.
"We are encountering resistance," a Dalek screeched from outside. "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
Leela bolted away from the refrigerator. A second Dalek floated toward the opening. She threw herself on the ground as a blue beam zipped overhead. Leela crawled under a nearby table, lifted her crossbow, and fired. Three electric bolts struck the Dalek's mid-section. All flashed harmlessly against its forcefield.
"Dammit." She bared her teeth. These Taran electric bolts did not have the sort of power her laser shield had.
"Exterminate!" the Dalek croaked. "Exterminate!"
Leela swept her gaze up and down the metal alien. She elevated the crossbow, aiming for the eyestalk. Another idea sprang to her mind. She lowered it, sighting the bottom of the Dalek. Leela pulled the trigger again and again. Bolts struck the Dalek's base, an area where its forcefield was weakest. Sparks and flame jumped out from the bottom. The Dalek wobbled.
"Disruption to gravitational field." the Dalek cried out.
Leela kept firing. Fire and smoke poured from the bottom.
"Gravitational field failure!" The Dalek dropped from sight. "Gravitational field fa-"
A splash sounded from outside as the Dalek hit the moat.
Leela let out a long breath of relief.
The relief vanished when she saw more Daleks soaring toward the opening.
She twisted around on her belly and crawled back to the others. The refrigerator lay on its side, Tupper and Iniya crouched behind it.
"Four more Daleks are approaching."
Blue beams flew through the opening and exploded against the far wall. Leela sprang to her feet and jumped over the refrigerator.
"Tupper. Leela." Iniya pointed above them. "Aim for the ceiling. "We can create additional cover."
All three raised their energy weapons and fired. Bangs and crashes echoed through the kitchen. Large stones fell through the smoke, dust, and flames circling the ceiling. Piles of rubble lay in front of them.
Leela glanced over her shoulder. Romana still tended to the Doctor. Madame Lamia curled up in the corner, weeping. Useless woman.
"Doctor, wake up," Romana pleaded. "The Daleks are coming."
"Exterminate!" Two Daleks floated through the opening. "Exterminate!"
Leela, Tupper, and Iniya all fired. Both Daleks blew apart.
"Doctor, wake -"
The Doctor sat up, eyes wide.
"Doctor." A bolt of joy and relief went through Leela. "Are you all right?"
"Fine. Fine."
The wall to the left exploded. Daleks rolled into the kitchen, crying, "Exterminate! Exterminate!"
More Daleks soared through the opening in the exterior wall.
"I estimate our cover will hold for forty seconds," said Iniya.
Tupper glanced at the Doctor. "So whatever you're doing better not take forty-five seconds." He let loose a stream of proton beams.
The Doctor scrambled back to the oven. He ran his sonic screwdriver over solar heater and the wires connected to it.
The Daleks blasted the rubble piles. Large stones disintegrated. Two blasts ripped through the steel refrigerator. Leela peeked over it and fired. A dozen electric bolts struck one Dalek's eyestalk. Sparks burst from it.
"My vision is impaired! I cannot see!"
Iniya destroyed two Daleks. She ducked as a blue ray streaked overhead. It blew out a hole in the wall, barely three feet from Madame Lamia. She screamed.
Another pile of rubble exploded. The top half of the refrigerator vanished in sparks and flame. Leela, Iniya, and Tupper dropped to their stomachs.
"Doctor," Iniya called out. "We're losing our cover."
"Give me a minute." He aimed his humming screwdriver at the solar heater.
"A minute?" Tupper exclaimed. "We don't even have a second."
The Doctor just worked away on the solar heater.
"Exterminate! Exterminate!"
Leela held her breath, ready to fire one last flurry of electric bolts.
"Daleks!" The Doctor jumped to his feet, holding up the segment to the Key to Time.
Leela gasped. At least fifteen Daleks were in the kitchen, and the Doctor stood before them, exposed, an easy target, holding the one thing the aliens most wanted.
Her shock and worry eased when she noticed the solar heater in the Doctor's other hand, connected to the sonic screwdriver.
The Daleks halted, all their eyestalks locked on the Key to Time segment.
"I understand you want this." The Doctor waggled the clear stone in his hand.
The lead Dalek rolled forward a couple of feet. "Give us the segment. Give us the segment now."
"If I do, will you allow me and my companions to leave here unharmed?"
Several seconds of silence passed before the lead Dalek answered, "Yes."
The Doctor grunted. "I know what Dalek promises are worth."
He brought up the solar heater. A brilliant orange flash leapt from the disc. Leela shut her eyes and turned away. A sharp buzz filled her ears. Explosions followed. Then came a crackle, growing louder by the second.
The sharp buzz ended. Leela opened her eyes and looked over the charred, shredded refrigerator. The burning hulks of fourteen Daleks stretched across the kitchen.
To her left, the fifteenth and final Dalek was intact. Its gun swiveled toward her.
She fired. So did Tupper and Iniya. The Dalek erupted in flames.
Leela looked back at the Doctor. Sparks and smoke spewed from the solar heater. He looked over his shoulder at Madame Lamia. "You were right. It did overload in a few seconds." He tossed the useless, improvised weapon aside.
Lamia just trembled and sobbed.
"Let's go." The Doctor waved everyone toward the opening in the exterior wall. He checked outside, Romana standing next to him.
"No sign of any Daleks," she said.
"No, but I have no doubt there are others nearby." He looked at Romana. "I never asked this while we were traveling, but can you swim?"
"Of course."
"Good."
The Doctor gave her a push to the back. Romana yelped and fell into the moat below.
"The rest of you, go."
Tupper stepped over, holding up both hands. "I don't need a push. I can jump fine by myself."
The American soldier leaped out of the opening. Iniya was next, helping Madame Lamia. Then Leela jumped in, the Doctor following. They all swam to the edge of the moat, climbed out, and hurried to the nearby woods.
Leela peered through the gaps in the trees. Columns of smoke rose from the top of Castle Gracht. Her throat tightened, thinking of her Doctor.
He will be fine. He will find a way out. She looked at the War Doctor. Obviously her Doctor would live if his future self was here.
"Doctor." Romana put a hand on his shoulder. "What happened to you back there? Why did you collapse?"
The Doctor rubbed his forehead. "My memories of our time on Tara. There are . . . holes. Some of it fuzzy." His face sagged as he stared at them. "My own timeline is in flux."
"I imagine it is," said Iniya. "You said the Daleks were not originally on Tara when you and Romana searched for the fourth piece of the Key to Time."
"It's not that." The Doctor shook his head. "I do know that when I was last on Tara, Count Grendel did not die. Now his death, and the presence of the Daleks, has altered this entire timeline. I have no idea matters on Tara will play out."
TO BE CONTINUED