2. War on Skaro.
"Doctor, how can we prevent the Daleks from doing this again?" Chloe has very real concerns that the Daleks may repeat the experiment again and again.
"I'm unsure," the Doctor muses. "This sort of development would be prioritised by them to take place on Skaro, their home planet. They have it so heavily guarded that no-one can penetrate their security! Not even me! Especially not me!"
"Where on Skaro would they keep their most heavily guarded secrets? Do we have floor layout plans so we could go there?"
"They have equipment to prevent any Tardis from landing. I couldn't get near it."
"But I could!" Chloe is insistent.
The Doctor looks at her. "No. No! I won't let you! It's far too risky. You would take massive risks without knowing it! I won't permit it!"
Chloe smiles calmly and giggles. "You can't stop me!"
The Doctor groans. The idea of Chloe risking everything certainly doesn't appeal to him. She's so young and she has a very long promising life ahead of her.
All she needs are the plans of the Skaro stronghold and she can come and go easily.
"But you might arrive there and be shot instantly!"
"It needs to be done, and you can't do it! You can't go near the place!"
Chloe holds a pocket-sized fanfold print of the plans of the Skaro stronghold. The Tardis had printed it for her, against the Doctor's wishes. The strong room is obvious but must be the last place she goes to before destroying it. Other places will be dictated by a device the Doctor gave her to seamlessly tap into the Dalek information system. She hopes it will lead her to where any other copies of the information are kept.
Necessarily, her printed copy has no information as to where the Daleks themselves are; she must just guess!
As missions go, this ranks as a high priority, high ranking mission. A must do mission. The Doctor has informed Gallifrey as a courtesy but hasn't looked for any response. They would be likely to say "no" for the same reason he would say "no"! The risk to Chloe is just far too high. However, the risks of not doing it are far too high, also.
Chloe knows she is putting her life in the hands of her wristwatch transport (ref. 29).
She thinks of a small storeroom, and activates her wristwatch transport...
The Doctor arrives.
The Doctor's Tardis can detect when certain key events happen.
If the Tardis rejection shield drops on Skaro, it can tell!
It's too good an opportunity for the Tardis to miss!
The Doctor enters his Tardis and immediately the familiar grinding noise is loudly evident.
The Tardis doesn't usually whisk him off anywhere without some sort of warning!
He runs across to the Console and views the monitor screen. Where is the Tardis taking him?
The Doctor's used to his Tardis taking him to many places where he's been needed.
"Skaro!" The new current location is clearly and prominently displayed.
"What? Not even a Request For Help? Why have you brought me to the middle of the Hornet's nest? What useful good can I possibly do here? Are you trying to get me killed? This is madness!"
After his rant, the Doctor looks at more detail on the screen.
"Ah! That unnamed island around the far side of Skaro! I'd better cloak the Tardis! What's happening here?"
There's only one way for him to find out.
As the Doctor approaches the Tardis door, he hears a noise behind him. Quickly he turns. He had thought himself alone in the Tardis. Someone, or something, is walking along the corridor towards the Control room. He waits, ready to confront whoever or whatever it is.
Alyssa, Chloe's sister, appears in the Console room.
"How long have you been sleeping?" the Doctor asks gently, relaxing away from his tensed stance. "Did you sleep well?"
"Well enough, thank you."
Alyssa wanders to a chair and sits down, putting her feet up on another chair.
"Where are we?" Almost as if they might be on a cruise ship, about to visit a holiday destination.
Alyssa's Briefing.
"This is a very dangerous environment," the Doctor warns Alyssa. "One touch from any of the Dalek mutant creatures out there could turn you into a Dalek, yes - the ones with the Dalek eye sprouting from their forehead! That means you're brain dead and I'm very unhappy!"
Alyssa nods. She know the Doctor enough by now to recognise when he means business.
"And you mustn't call me Doctor or they may find out who I am." .
Alyssa gets the drift of what the Doctor says, and she almost asks Who are you? But she doesn't quite manage to ask.
They step out of the Tardis onto a misty, murky moorland.
"Where are they?"
"Just over there." The Doctor points through the mist. He passes Alyssa a mock Dalek eyepiece to stick on her forehead. "We'll both wear these. It'll look as if we're already mutant Daleks!" .
As they approach a group of beings with Dalek eyepieces, Alyssa thinks she recognises one of them from a previous adventure. "Doctor, is this where you brought miscreant Daleks?" .
"Yes," the Doctor hisses. "But you really MUST not call me Doctor! They mustn't know who I am!"
Alyssa nearly asks the Doctor who he really is but recognises this isn't the time or the place, being so close to mutant Daleks.
Even mutant Daleks still regard the Doctor as their enemy.
After few more paces, one of the group notices them. "More!" he calls out.
"That's a new greeting to me," the Doctor says.
"You've come to join us?" the caller says. "There's often more arriving. I'm Bill... I was Bill," he amends with a small struggle.
The Doctor steps forwards, avoiding offering a handshake. "I'm John... was John." He attempts to repeat the correction. His alias of John Smith might be recognised by a few astute travellers, but likely not here.
Alyssa looks sharply at the Doctor, thinking he's revealing something to these beings rather than to her earlier, but hangs back, hoping not to have to say her own name, it might be recognised and jog their memories, or what's left of them.
"This is a wee bonnie lassie I picked up along the way. Call her Lassie," the Doctor says, sensing her hesitation or awkwardness.
They nod. How long will it be before Bill recognises her? Alyssa wonders, lowering her head to hide her face. It's just as well they hadn't seen the Doctor before! (Ref. 42.)
"How long have you been here?" Alyssa asks. It seems a logical, non-committal question for which she has a good answer.
They all answer at once, synchronously, leaving Alyssa none the wiser. The Doctor was lip reading, though, so he asks Bill how he's finding being here.
"Well enough," Bill says, "apart from the hunger."
The Doctor gets straight to the point. "Do you know about boats?" He knows Bill does as he's also recognised Bill, although Bill never saw the Doctor before (ref. 42). Then, by way of explanation for his boat question, "We're on an island. Maybe we could get off?"
"Aye, I've been building a boat. Doesn't keep the water out, though!"
"Can I help?" the Doctor offers.
"Just here, man," Bill says and starts walking towards the shoreline where what's left of a slim tree has been sheltering his boat.
The Doctor sees in a moment that he will need a bigger boat. The Doctor needs an invading force, not a one-man defeat.
"Can we try to build a bigger boat?" he asks.
"Suppose so," Bill says, indicating a scrawny tree.
"Are there other trees?" the Doctor asks.
"Aye, yes," Bill says. "A way away."
Quite a long way away. .
The Boat.
"I think everyone who's ever been on this island has had a go at building a boat. Not so many trees left now!"
"I think it'll do," the Doctor says, pleased with the size of boat achieved.
It's early evening and the Doctor knows the journey isn't long. "Maybe we can say All aboard? We might make landfall in the dusk and not be seen."
A light wind helps them along their way.
As they travel, the Doctor contemplates their likely doom under the heavy fire power of the pure Daleks on the mainland. He wishes that Alyssa hadn't come along. She's another person to try to protect.
The Doctor chooses to make landfall under cover of darkness. Starlight dimly illuminates their way towards the pure Dalek fortress.
The Doctor has spent so long studying the plans of this place in earlier years. He knows each room and each turn.
He guides them to a sealed entrance where the Daleks won't suspect they might try to gain entry.
"Wait here," he instructs the mutant group. He wants to disguise his method of opening the outer door using his sonic screwdriver.
The Invasion.
Once inside, the Doctor beckons to the group. They race inside. The Doctor rallies them.
"To win, we must aim to touch as many pure Daleks as possible on the top of their casing. They will then lose their pure status and if we can touch all of them we will totally defeat them, at least here, on Skaro! Good luck!"
The Doctor was always unlikely to be able to control the unruly group. They run rampage through the Dalek stronghold.
It isn't long before the first alarm sounds. "Invader alert! Close and lock all doors!"
The Doctor looks at his timepiece. It shows Chloe's time, too. He wonders how Chloe is getting on and how this distraction might affect her.
What's Chloe been doing?
