Chapter Twenty Three
Sarah and Sevrin carefully approached the Eagle. It appeared deserted. Sevrin was looking around, each step seemingly harder to take than the one before. He'd been afraid in the past, but this situation truly terrified him. He'd been close to death multiple times in the past two days and he didn't relish being caught again by the Daleks. He knew if they caught him again, they'd surely kill him this time. Still…he'd sworn he would look after Sarah Jane. So keep his promise he would, regardless of the cost.
Sarah pulled out the commlock and carefully aimed it at the Eagle's hatch. It slid open almost silently. Sarah smiled and told Sevrin, "Let's go."
After helping Sarah through the hatch he started to back up. "I don't know, I…" Sevrin said, almost frozen with fear.
"Sevrin, there's no safe place here. If we go get the explosives and destroy the Kaled bunker we have a chance. Your people could be safe. You could begin again." Sarah tried to be as empathetic as possible but the truth is, she needed to do what should have been done when she and the Doctor were on the planet before. "I can't guarantee you'll be safer with me but at least you'll have a chance. What do you say Sevrin?" Sarah gave him her sweetest smile which at the time wasn't easy since another bout of pain was coming on. Once again she heard and felt the feeling of soon, it will be soon.
"I will stay with you Sarah Jane."
"Good, let's get started. Do you want to sit in the pilot section with me?" she asked to which Sevrin simply shrugged.
As soon as the pair climbed in and settled into their perspective seats, Sarah said, "I think I should contact Moonbase Alpha before I start the Eagle because once I start it we'll have a limited amount of time to get to our objectives." She pulled out her commlock again and called, "Moonbase Alpha, Moonbase Alpha this is Eagle Four. Do you read me?"
On Moonbase Alpha John Koenig and Alan Carter nearly bolted from their seats. Both men had refused to rest after their ordeal, both ready to help the Doctor or Sarah Jane in any way they could for as long as they could. Alan had the biggest smile on his face when he said, "I knew she was still alive. I knew it!"
John Koenig sat back down at his desk and furiously tapped buttons before responding, "Eagle Four this is Moonbase Alpha."
"Commander I don't understand, how did you get there?" Sarah asked confused, as she looked into the Commander's face on the tiny screen.
"We escaped the Daleks in the Doctor's ship." He knew what she was going to ask next and he wasn't looking forward to giving her the answer.
Sarah's face beamed. "Wonderful! Can I speak to the Doctor?"
"I'm sorry Sarah Jane, he never made it back to the ship and the ship automatically brought us back to Alpha." He watched her face as she took the information in. Then suddenly her face went off screen. "Sarah Jane? Sarah Jane are you there?"
"Yea…sorry. Yes Sir. Just had a bit of a pain." she said through gritted teeth.
Helena bent over John's shoulder. "Elisab…sorry Sarah Jane there's a med pack in the back of the Eagle. You need to take something for the pain."
"Thank you Dr. Russell but there's nothing that can be done. It will work out soon. I'm calling because Bettan and the others managed to get a large amount of explosives ready to bomb the Kaled bunker. Did Bettan and the others escape as well?"
"Yes, they're all here on Alpha now." John answered. He wished there were more he could do to help her but unless she specifically requested it he couldn't put more of his people at risk. There had been too many lost on Skaro already.
"My plan is to pick up the explosives with the Eagle's salvage arms. Bettan said that the explosives had been placed on a fallen metal wall so I'm going to attempt to pick up the wall as well." Sarah explained as she went through her Eagle training in her mind. She'd only used the salvage arms of the Eagle once before, but she hadn't had any real problems using them. She hoped that would be the case today as well.
"How will you detonate the explosives?" John asked.
Alan was so proud of her. She was truly one of his finest pilots, calm and collected under incredible stress and pain. He knew how to answer that question but before he could Sarah answered, "I plan on depositing the load on top of the bunker as quietly as I can, though I know the Daleks will know I'm there and be attacking. So as soon as I think I'm clear, I'll hit it with laser fire."
"If you're not far enough away…" Alan began, alarmed now that he realized how close she'd have to be to hit the payload. He approached the Commander's desk.
"I know. I'll do the best I can." Sarah replied. "And Alan…"
"Yes?" Alan's face now hovered over her screen.
"Thank you. Thank you for everything. If this works, it will be because you had faith enough in me to train me as a pilot." Sarah smiled at the blonde Australian.
"And if it doesn't?" Alan asked.
"You still did a great job. Thank you for being my friend. Thank all of you for being my friends. I will always be grateful." Sarah added.
"Will you leave the channel open?" John Koenig asked.
"Of course Commander, if that's what you want. Eagle Four out for now."
John muted the channel on his end. Sarah Jane needed all her concentration for the task at hand. Helena squeezed John's shoulder. "Do you think she'll make it?"
"Alan? You know her abilities better than any of us." John asked.
"Other than me, if any of my pilots can do it, it will be her." Then trying to lighten the mood added, "Let's not tell Frazer that." He walked back over to his own desk and prepared to wait. That was all they could do at this point.
The Doctor awoke confused. The last thing he remembered were the Alphans and the resistance fighters of Skaro rounding the corner to get to his beloved Tardis. Thinking back, he remembered hearing the sound of laser fire and the electrifying feeling as it hit his body. But where was he now? He was outside and laying on the ground. He climbed to his feet and began to look around but found he was very dizzy. 'Radiation level must be high', he thought to himself.
"Doctor, do you know where you are?" Dalek Jast droned out from behind him.
"Ah Jast, can't get enough of me so you arranged for this little tête-à-tête. What is it now? Are you going to tell me how you're going to exterminate me one more time? If I had a pound for every time you said that to me and failed, well let's say I'd be a very rich man.
"You are in what remains of Skaro's jungle." Dalek Jast described, ignoring the Doctor's words.
"Well you took care of all that pesky greenery and humidity with the neutron bombs. But the radiation levels must be dangerous, even for your lot." the Doctor answered with a smile. He decided that if he were going to die here, so be it. At least Sarah and the Alphans were safe. "Where's your Daddy? Where's Davros? I can't believe he'd pass up seeing me off." the Doctor taunted.
Davros is not your concern. You will remain here till the radiation begins to destroy you and when you begin to die and beg for release, only then will I exterminate you. I remain unaffected by the radiation." Dalek Jast answered.
"One of your upgrades I assume." the Doctor commented. If he were waiting on the Doctor to be affected by the radiation, it would take several hours at the minimum. He didn't relish spending his remaining hours with Jast.
Sarah ran through the checklist she'd gone through over a hundred times. The Eagle checked out perfectly. She ran a quick diagnostic on the salvage arms, no problems there either. Sarah looked over at her copilot for this trip, Sevrin. "Ready Sevrin?"
Sevrin was holding on to the harness holding him in his seat. "You really know how to fly this Sarah Jane?" When he last saw her she'd been afraid to climb and cross the tall scaffolding that they'd attempted their failed escape on.
"Yes, I do. I know you don't understand this Sevrin, but for you it hasn't been much time at all since I was on Skaro with the Doctor. But for me it's been many years. I've been traveling with the Alphans and they taught me many things, one of which is how to fly this ship." She smiled at Sevrin and added, "And I shouldn't be bragging on myself but I think I'm pretty good. Now are you ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be." Sevrin said as he tightened his grip on the harness.
Sarah began takeoff procedures, knowing that she didn't have the luxury of time to go through everything slowly; she took off as quickly as possible. To everyone listening on Moonbase Alpha she announced, "Lifting off Alpha. We're heading east to the remnants of the Thal city to pick up the explosives."
After only two minutes of flight, Sarah scanned and found the explosives. As Bettan had said they were on a roughly square remainder of a metal wall. Sarah hovered over the segment and lowered the salvage arms. With a slight amount of maneuvering she was able to use the metal claws of the Eagle and attach them to the sides of the wall. "Moonbase Alpha, I have the salvage arms attached to the wall section and am lifting the explosives up now." Sarah used the joystick that would allow her to raise the load. She watched the exterior camera on the small screen as it was raised closer to the ship. When the explosives were about fifty feet away from the underbelly of the Eagle she stopped.
"Alpha we're now heading south to the Dalek bunker." Sarah carefully turned the Eagle around and headed to the Dalek bunker. This was the first time she'd let herself think about the Doctor. 'Would he survive a direct hit? Would he regenerate? Was he even still alive?' She had to believe he was. She could almost feel him, though it was getting harder to distinguish her feelings. The feeling of soon was taking over again. "Please let the Doctor be all right." Sarah said softly. "Please."
Sevrin looked out the window at the ground far below. He'd never flown before but it wasn't as frightening as he thought it would be. Whether he died here or at the hands of the Daleks didn't really matter. What was important was at least to him, he was doing what was right. He looked to his side at Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane was a good person who always tried to do what was right. If this destroyed the Daleks then maybe his people would get a second chance at life. For the first time in a long time he let himself have a modicum of hope.
"Dalek bunker coming up Alpha." Sarah was doing her best to pretend that this was just an ordinary mission. "Please don't let the Doctor be there." she quietly added. She maneuvered the Eagle over the top of the Kaled Bunker, finding a place to set the load down. She carefully lowered the Eagle till the load was horizontal with a flat section of the roof. She began to type in the code that would disengage the salvage arms when the Dalek fire began. "Explosives delivered Alpha." She was low enough in the Eagle that the fire from the ground was actually hitting the ship. She couldn't activate Victor's extended forcefield while the arms were still down. Attempting to ignore the Daleks she was able to free the arms and raise them back up to the ship. When she had risen as high as she dared, she fired the ship's laser at the explosives and with split second timing raised the forcefield. The shockwave hit the ship propelling it upward. After wrestling with the controls briefly she was able to steady the Eagle. "Detonation positive Alpha." she announced as she watched the large hole in the ground that had once been the Bunker explode further. She turned on her external cameras and said, "Sending you video now Alpha."
On Alpha all eyes were trained on the screen, each immersed in the devastation as it played out with many in the Command Center cheering. As she saw several Daleks that survived on the ground, Sarah lowered the forcefield and flew lower using the ships laser to destroy them one by one. John Koenig watched the destruction and understood. As long as a single Dalek existed, they were all in danger.
Sarah was not only feeling but now hearing the word soon again. She looked at the destruction below and wondered where she should go. But the decision was taken away from her. Her hands were directing the ship further east. Something was drawing her there. Something familiar, a feeling, a comforting burst of…love. It was her Doctor! He was there.
"Sarah Jane? Where are you going?" John Koenig asked. Had this been too much for her, he asked himself as he remotely activated the onboard cameras? There were tears streaming down her face. He could swear her body was glowing, a golden cast emanating from it. "Sarah Jane? Sarah Jane can you hear me?"
Sevrin at her side was watching her as well. "Sarah Jane are you all right?"
"I'm fine." Sarah said as the tears continued to fall down her cheeks. "The Doctor's alive but he needs my help." she said as she pushed Eagle Four to its limits in order to get to the Doctor quickly.