Chapter 50

Hyspero, which was seemingly the name of the city and the planet. It was something he'd learnt from the information boards that did display English, or something close enough to it. 'Earth Empire' and 'Terran Federation' seemed to be used interchangeably between the signs, even though they were some sort of touchscreen and logically would be interlinked, they weren't. Or they weren't consistent.

-/

Stopping under the shade of the buildings he took a moment to adjust the aerial on his 'Draco-tracker'. It had led him to the city's walls, but now within them he was getting confusing readings, with whatever else was here also washing the signal in and out.

Harry was trying hard to concentrate on finding Draco, but…he was on an alien planet!He'd got here via a Vanishing Cabinet, and a spaceship! Both had crashed and both were destroyed.

That was a long term problem.

For now he was enjoying himself, probably a little too much.

He was on an alien planet!

He wanted to shout it out, but he also needed to stay focused, he knew he had to otherwise he'd get distracted.

-/

His Draco-tracker wasn't doing a good job of staying on target either, what he needed was somewhere to sit and think.

He'd seen several libraries on the maps, but a lot, from what he understood were storage archives for libraries or halls for meeting librarians, or maybe they were places to date librarians. He was sure the translation or maybe just the English of this Terran Federation or Earth Empire was a little different from his perspective.

"A café, that's the ticket," he said to himself, having exhausted his internal monologue for the time being.

Walking in he passed a field of cold air and found a table where he could look out to the street outside.

"Cash…" Harry said to himself as something floated over.

"Your language is Terran Federation. How will you pay?" The floating thing asked, it was vaguely oval shaped and non-threatening. Sort of.

Harry smiled at it, trying his best winning smile. "I've been travelling, and I've accumulated a lot of currency," he started.

The floating thing bobbed. "Drudger can identify currency," it said.

Harry dug around in his bag finding the bag of 'miscellaneous' stuff that was probably currency and emptied it only the table, he took a second bag that contained wizarding money and some pounds which he'd chucked in there just in case. He'd not known where and when he was going.

The 'drudger' studied the stuff on the table and a light emitted from it, highlighting most of the things except the pound notes.

"Those highlighted are usable currency."

"I'd like cold H20," Harry said, deciding on something not too complicated.

The light refocused on the pile of knuts. "3 of these currency," it said.

Harry grinned and grabbed them up, a projected field in front of the floating drudger-thing illuminated in the air and he dropped it into the indicated area.

Then it floated off.

Harry made a mental note to ask why paying in wizarding currency would be at all valid, he wasn't sure who he'd ask.

Now though he had something he wanted to try and do as he collected up his currency and replaced it within his bag as he felt around for the other things he'd brought along with him.

-/

Harry stepped back into the warm air of the day, cooled by the practically freezing larger-than-a-pint-glass of water and confident that his new fix would work.

He'd gaffer taped his temporal scanner to the side of his Draco-tracker and aligned the temporal frequency as close as he could to his own reading which was already fairly wobbly, but close enough that he could get a reading that was similar.

As long as there wasn't another him here on Hyspero he hoped he'd be able to track Draco through the mess of other signals that was present. Although the temporal scanner hadn't helped entirely, it was also being washed out by the myriad of temporal energies that abounded around here, but every so often both would ping like a radar and he'd get a reading.

He'd had to put the batteries in his bag and run a cable out, they were too large to be attached, and even then he suspected they'd would suffer from entropy sooner rather than later.

-/

Harry had given up very early paying attention to where he was going or even his surroundings too much, everyone seemed to be concerned with their own business and he'd only been threatened with death twice, both for not giving way. Or that was what he'd gathered, though the streets were busy enough that no one was giving way.

Which was why he didn't immediately look up when he heard cries of "Annihilate" and "Destroy the enemy time traveller". Such words were interesting but from the energy signals that he was detecting there were more than a few temporal sources around here.

Then he and someone collided, the someone was striding at a fair pace given their impact.

"I am sorry," he said without much compassion. "You should have been looking where you were going," said a man who was taller than him.

Harry looked up at the man, his face full of angles, his hair reached his cheeks, he wore a shirt that reminded him of someone though Harry couldn't place it. The man was wearing a heavy long black coat that reached almost his ankles, it had a green lining and his face now that he was looking back up at him held an expression of annoyance and now surprise.

"I'm sorry I-" Harry was cut off as the man with the angled face and displeased expression pulled him into a tight hug, lifting him off his feet in the process. Harry hoped the aerials for his scanning devices weren't being crushed in the ensuing hug, but they were mostly fairly, probably almost unbreakable, maybe.

"Harry Potter, I…I didn't think I'd see you again, not since…" The man whom Harry had a good idea who he was now said as he let him down from the hug.

"Not since our war…" the man said to himself turning away, a hard look briefly passing over his face.

"The Doctor I presume?" Harry grinned.

His eyebrows raised high. "You don't recognise me then? I thought…" He shook his head. "No," he said firmly and then again repeated "No." Now he seemed to take in Harry's appearance. "What are you doing here Harry?" He asked. "And you're older. Hmmm," he mused the last bit to himself.

"Time passing Doctor. I'm here looking for a friend I-" But Harry was cut off by a woman running up.

"Doctor I led the Daleks down that side street but some of them have slipped through who-" She started looking or sensing a connection, conversation or some other discussion between the two of them Harry wasn't really sure what was happening. He seemed to be having one conversation with the Doctor and getting totally different responses from him about something that had happened in the past.

"Time traveller detected!" Cried something in a hollow metallic tone that sounded like someone shouting into a bucket.

Then Harry saw them. "They're Daleks?"

"Yeah, that's what he called them," the woman said who was obviously travelling with the Doctor.

"Seems they've found us again," the Doctor in an unconcerned tone, he didn't turn to move immediately instead he just removed a phone from his pocket. "It's me. Yes. I know. Bring the TARDIS to the Archivist's Junction." He rolled his eyes at the person on the other end of the phone. "You'll do it because I'm asking," he said speaking to someone.

"Come on Alison," the Doctor said turning to head down a random street. "Before the Daleks come and annoy us," he sneered looking over the people. "This way Alison" he paused. "Harry, you had better come too, the Daleks aren't known for their sense of reunion. We don't want anything to happen" he paused and looked away a face full of sorrow. "Not like the last time." He strode away from the approaching 'Daleks'.

-/

Harry stared at the 'Daleks' as they pushed their way through the streets. They weren't Daleks, none he knew of. They weren't much taller than waist height with an arm on either side, one seemed to have a set of four sucker pads, the other a weapon which was vaguely familiar. The eye stalk looked like it was attached on flexible cable or a shower head. It gave them a weird appearance.

"Harry!" He heard the Doctor call.

It was like someone had described what a Dalek looked like and done an extremely weird job of it.

They actually looked quite comical in a weird way.

Then they exterminated people who were in their paths.

"Time travellers detected!" Their hollow bucket sounding voices cried. "Exterminate!"

"I said it was time to leave." The Doctor was by his side his sonic screwdriver held out in front of him.

Activating it there was a piercing sonic noise and three of the Daleks exploded.

"Come on, he should have worked out the controls by now," he said guiding Harry away from the 'Daleks'.

-/

The Doctor led Harry down a small side street and then they came to a stop where Alison was waiting.

"I'm Harry, Harry Potter," Harry said in greeting the woman.

"Alison Cheney, so you know him do you?" She asked, looking over at the Doctor.

"I've known him, I've not met him," Harry answered. "We have a past."

Alison nodded. "Better than I know him then, mate."

"Where'd he pick up, kidnap or meet you?" Harry asked with a sly smile.

"When the Shalka-" She started and then both she and Harry turned at the noise of a TARDIS materialisation.

Its blue Police Box exterior faded into existence, a lightening bolt arcing off the roof light as it did so.

"Interesting," Harry said to himself as the Doctor opened the doors.

"In. Now." He said gesturing in short tones.

Harry followed Alison Cheney into the console room.

"Interesting," he said again. There was a large spiral staircase that wrapped around the darkened confines of the room. It was very vaguely reminiscent of the console room that he'd seen when the Doctor had rescued him from the graveyard all those years ago, though there were no metal gangways and coral-esque supports. It was more steamship with dials and brass switches and leavers around the console.

There was also a man standing at the console.

"Ah Doctor! You've picked up more people. One I thought was quite enough," said the man whose face was familiar, though not recognisable to Harry. His voice too, but his manner, his tone that was recognisable.

"You're travelling with the Master?!" Asked Harry surprised and astounded somewhat. Although the Doctor had at times professed to have an association with the Master, Harry got the impression that they'd probably be at each other's throats if they spent any amount of time longer than a day travelling together.

"You know who he is?" The Doctor also seemed surprised that he knew who the Master was.

Harry was beginning to wonder if this Doctor and he shared the same past, or if this Doctor was his Doctor or…things were already complicated. "As Ancelyn said of you, I recognise not his aspect, but his manner," Harry said watching the Doctor. He wasn't worried, exactly, whomever this man was he still had an aspect of the Doctor, of his friend.

The Doctor face shifted to a smile. "Harry Potter. You are testing me."

"Should I not?" Harry looked to him. "A mad man in a box of lightening, shouldn't I be?"

"No," he said. "Time for a short hop, away from the Daleks," the Doctor said striding over to the controls.

"There is significant temporal activity here, 'short hops'" the Master sniffed. "Should be avoided."

The Doctor sighed. "When did you become so cautious?"

"You are the blame for that," the Master replied.

"How were those Daleks?" Harry blurted out, in part because it had been annoying him, because he'd not been able to look at them closer and also because it seemed like the Doctor and the Master were going to start bickering.

"What does he mean?" Alison asked.

"Yes Doctor, what does he mean?" The Master sounded amused.

"They escaped. They're not from this universe," the Doctor finally said after some moment's silence.

"Oh that's fine then," Harry said with a shrug.

"It is?" The Doctor seemed puzzled.

"I've got books from another universe where my whole life is a story, except it's not my life and I never slept with…" Harry shook his head and realised he was still holding his temporal and Draco-trackers.

"Now. What are you doing here Harry?" The Doctor decided to ask, fixing him with a raised eyebrow.

Harry very quickly explained.

"I see. Do you know how dangerous it was to pursue, of all people Draco Malfoy here?" The Doctor chastised.

Harry was a little taken back by the criticism. "Could have been worse, Hyspero isn't as lethal as some places I could have ended up Doctor. I've faced more danger in the past than wandering the streets here."

"I…" The Doctor began. "Of course," the Doctor finally said as Harry thought, though didn't say, that not including the whole crash landing a spacecraft the most dangerous thing was the 'Daleks' when he'd run into the Doctor. 'Trouble follows the Doctor'. Was something the Brigadier, no, Harry thought to himself Alistair had said on many an occasion.

"We should be able to track your missing, boyfriend?" The Master arched an eyebrow at him as he made his way around the console.

"Friend," Harry countered.

"Draco Malfoy a friend?" The Doctor muttered and then even more quietly to himself. "You...no."

Harry decided not to try and ask him what it meant, instead handing over his tracking devices and unplugging them to the Doctor and the Master who were both studying the console. They'd last a short time without being plugged into the big batteries in his bag.

"So how long've you been travelling with the married couple?" Harry asked silently cursing both Judith and Iris Wildthyme for calling them that. But mostly Iris who had compared the way the Doctor and the Master 'carry on' to a married couple, always bickering, fighting and enjoying being together. Seemed this Doctor had actually decided to let the Master move in.

"Dunno. It feels like it was only yesterday, but then…" She trailed off.

"It does that." Harry mused looking up into the sky, not the sky, the ceiling, as he was doing so Alison walked over to the Doctor.

"What about the Daleks, you said-" She started.

"I know what I said," he cut her off. "This should just be a short" The Master fixed him with a raised eyebrow. "Detour."

"Hmmm," the Master harrumphed as he and the Doctor pulled leavers on the console.

Harry watched open mouthed as the whole ceiling structure puled downward on the console.

Rather than the rods or whatever in the middle of the TARDIS pulsing this, the whole machine seemed to pulse with life and energy as it dematerisalised.

"Homing in on one of the clear signals now."

"There is a lot of temporal backwash, Doctor," the Master commented.

The Doctor strode away from the console, gesturing to Harry to join him by the doors.

"We can't materialise for very long here," he said softly to Harry and handed him back his scanning equipment and then pushed two additional items into his hands.

It was the Doctor's phone and his sonic screwdriver.

"I can't you-"

"You need it more, I've got others around." He paused his face full of pain and sorrow, more so than Harry had ever seen on the Doctor. "If I had when…" He shook his head. "You find your friend and if it's an emergency you can…"

Harry's eyes went wide as the Doctor explained what to do, and what this somewhat chunky phone was capable of.

"Really? Isn't that dangerous? For you and the TARDIS?"

The Doctor gave a short shake of his head. Seemingly about to explain further when the Master spoke. "Materialising now."

Then the doors opened with a clunk noise. "Quickly now Harry. And good luck."

"You too Doctor." Harry rushed out of the doors and watched as it dematerialised as quickly as it had appeared.

Harry slipped the phone and sonic screwdriver into some spare pockets as he took in his surroundings.

-/

He was standing in some sort of archive or library, there were shelves and compartments everywhere. Above him looked like sandy foundations, and beside him a very long drop down. It seemed like the archive here was build on two sides of a very narrow, though quite a deep drop ravine.

"Indian Jones eat your heart out," Harry said aloud and suddenly got a very disturbing image in his head which he entirely blamed on having faced cannibalistic clones animated by magically controlled spectres. Why wizards couldn't just animate cake or something harmless like that he didn't know.

Although if they did Harry wondered if…"Stop." Harry almost shouted and looked around. His thoughts were usually a little scattered but these thoughts on cake and randomness were beyond what he normally had.

Maybe he needed a companion to chat to. Or maybe he needed to get away from whatever it was that was getting into his thoughts and making him ramble.

There were items that could possible do that everywhere around here. As, while there were shelves of things it also looked like someone had gone through grabbing anything that might be useful.

Walking away from the spot where he'd been standing, leaving the faint shape in the sand where the TARDIS had been he looked at his Draco scanner. The temporal portion was useless. In here almost everything must have been touched temporally. But his Draco-tracker seemed a little better, there was a vague signal to follow.

-/

Walking along through the destruction it wasn't too long until he found the bodies.

They were holding energy weapons, none that he recognised, but he picked one of them up and tested it – firing it and then pocketed it – just in case.

The people's bodies showed signs of internal tissue damage; energy weapons. So whomever they'd been shooting at had the same level of technology as them or maybe everyone here had energy weapons.

That was what the Doctor, though not the Doctor he'd met today had suggested, that it was only Earth in the 20th and 21st centuries that had projectile weapons, in the future everyone used energy weapons. Or sonic weapons like the one that Jack had.

Jack Harkness, that was a man who could be a companion Harry mused. "Or not." Harry decided as he continued amongst the bodies. Captain shag anything was not someone he needed around.

As he turned away from the bodies something occurred to him, and it made him bend down and rip open one of the dead men's shirts. They were pointing their weapons in one direction, that's how they'd fallen, but tension lines from the energy weapon that had scrambled their skin and organs radiated out from their back.

Which meant they'd had two enemies, one they knew about and one they didn't. It was a pattern that looked familiar.

-/

Looking down the long corridors that lead off this main path again he could see a lot of shelves. He thought briefly about crossing one of the many narrow bridges that lead to the other side of the ravine, his tracker not really indicating which side he needed to be on.

But the Doctor and the TARDIS landed on this side, and this is where the majority of the bodies were.

If in doubt, follow the bodies and ignore curiosity.

-/

Harry managed one of two of those things.

"Oh hello!" Harry said having caught a glimpse of something down a corridor and become distracted.

It was a Dalek. A proper one. Not a weird one. It was blue. Solid blue, like the orange one.

"Who are you?" it asked.

"I'm Harry Potter you're a Dalek. Etc," Harry waved his hand casually.

"You will release me." It was held in by some strap.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Why?" It repeated.

"Why?" Harry repeated and smirked. This could go on all day. "You're a Dalek. A blue Dalek. I'm a human. Why should I release you when the Daleks' life goals are to exterminate all life? Releasing you would put my life in danger."

This seemed to trump the Dalek who seemed silenced for a few seconds and Harry turned away cursing his curiosity.

And then the Dalek spoke. "I am a Strategist. You are searching, utilising a DNA source. A conflict occurred here recently."

"The dead bodies indicate that Strategist," Harry commented.

"A Dalek craft is held here," it said.

"So?"

"A conflict has occurred here. You have not found the DNA source you are searching for, Dalek technology can assist you in locating it."

"I don't need a Dalek to use Dalek technology," Harry said, he still wasn't sure why he was engaging the Dalek in conversation. Maybe because he'd encountered two Daleks, plus the weird ones chasing the Doctor, of the orange and this blue one both Daleks seemed quite chatty.

Again the Dalek seemed stumped. "Your speech patterns suggest you are a time traveller, and you know of Daleks. You are from Earth."

"I already said I was human Strategist," Harry turned away. "Let me think about what you've said and I'll come back later and release you if I think you can make a good argument," Harry turned and waved. "Bye."

The Dalek didn't cry out, not that Harry thought it would. Instead it did something much more interesting.

"When are you from human? What year of Earth? Daleks have invaded Earth several times. I can provide you with information."

Harry stopped walking. Damn. Harry thought to himself. "How do I know you won't exterminate me when I release you?"

"My weapons system has been extracted," it paused and its lights lit up indicating it was about to speak, but Harry cut it off.

"And if you had weapons you'd have escaped by now."

"Yes," it said looking at him. "You have knowledge of the Daleks." It sounded like a question but it wasn't.

"Why would you offer information of past conquests, if I knew it I could alter it," Harry reasoned.

"Illogical," it said. "You are one human. It is unlikely you could alter events."

"The Doctor is one Time Lord. He's screwed up your history pretty well," Harry challenged.

"The. Doctor," the Dalek grated. Whoops. Harry thought. Pissing off a Dalek was probably not the best way to do things. "The Predator of the Daleks."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "That's new."

"You know of the Doctor?!" The Dalek did the equivalent of raising an eyebrow.

"We've crossed paths occasionally," Harry lied. "Earth, 1970s. A Dalek assault squad travelled back in time to Auderly House. What was its purpose?" Harry barked at the Dalek.

The Dalek looked at him.

"Answer," Harry demanded.

"The Dalek assault squad time travelled from an averted timeline to kill the human politician known as Reginald Styles. He had been exterminated by human terrorists, they attempted to fulfil the paradox which created their timeline."

"Good," Harry said. "Earth, 1963, Shoreditch. Two Dalek factions. Who commanded them and what did they want?"

"Forces of Davros and the Dalek Council engaged for control of the Time Lord remote stellar manipulator known as the Hand of Omega. A plan engineered by the Doctor to destroy Skaro's sun."

Harry nodded and made a motion with his wand. Probably the worst decision he was going to make today, but the building was huge. So was the Dalek. But his curiosity was just too much for him.

"You have released me," the Dalek seemed surprised.

"I didn't want to stand here and discuss Dalek defeats all day," Harry commented. "You help me find my DNA source and I'll help you find your ship, we can chat about Dalek incursions on Earth. Understood?"

The Dalek seemed to pause and muse on it. "Or I'll tie you back up."

"I understand," it said slowly.

Then something opened up from the back of the Dalek a thing sliding around its middle to the front where its weapon would be.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Harry backed away from the Dalek, stuffing the scanners into his bag and levelling his wand and the energy weapon at the Dalek.

"Do not fear human. It is a scanning device to locate the DNA source and the Dalek craft."

"Oh goody," Harry muttered.

-/

The Dalek was chatty.

Though it was also curious. It seemed to know only bits of the Genesis Ark and the Cybermen that had recently come to Earth, relatively.

Supposedly there would be another Dalek incursion later. Though how much later it wouldn't say.

"Harry Potter. Your knowledge of Dalek history is extensive." Harry had regretted telling it his full name, but hearing a Dalek only say 'Harry' was even creepier.

It was commenting on his question about the 22nd century Dalek invasion of Earth, something the Doctor and Ian and Barbara had mentioned. But like a lot of Dalek plans it sounded completely barking mad.

"I've encountered Daleks and time travellers before." Was his general answer to its probing questions.

"The Dalek stratagem has changed throughout Dalek history Harry Potter," it said as they walked at a good pace and chatted. "The stratagem during that invasion was to utilise the planet Earth as a massive spacecraft."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the Dalek, who'd swivelled its eyepiece to look at him as they continued to walk. "Out of all the planets in the universe yo-" Harry stopped himself, through their small amount of conversation he'd gathered this Dalek saw a difference between the Daleks of the past and him, or the Daleks from which he was a part of. "they chose Earth and used one that they needed to remove the magnetic core from to use?"

"The Earth Empire was expanding rapidly into Dalek controlled space." The blue Dalek stated as if that explained invading all of Earth's colony worlds between wherever they started and Earth. The Dalek hadn't really explained which and what colony worlds that had been destroyed. It had mostly done the vocal equivalent of hand waving it away.

Harry wondered if the Daleks ever gestured much with their plungers.

-/

As they came to another intersection Harry checked his scanner, they were still and had been precariously close to the sheer drop on one side, but the Dalek had taken that side so Harry wasn't too worried about the drop.

"Which way?" He mused. His scanner was still somewhat vague.

The Dalek seemed to be doing something similar and then gestured, with its plunger the direction they should go. Harry felt, for a brief moment like cheering.

Instead he asked the Dalek a question he'd wanted to ask a Dalek for a while. "What's your thoughts on 'Lament for the Non-Operational'?"

This seemed to surprise the Dalek, if a Dalek could show surprise. "You have knowledge of that item?"

"Dalek poetry?" Harry answered. "Of course. Who'd've thought Daleks would write poetry."

The Dalek remained silent for a moment before replying simply with "Yes." It was a long 'Yes' with its lights illuminating the walls and shelves around them for a long while.

Harry wondered if that meant anything. He hoped it wasn't rude and made a mental note to ask the Doctor about it.

"There is a strong DNA trace this way," the Dalek announced turning left.

"Indeed," Harry said as his own device started making a noise.

What they found was a coat, of wizarding design, with bits of flesh still attached and blood soaked into it. The Dalek prodded it with its plunger.

Harry briefly thought the Dalek was taking the piss. It seemed almost comical in the way it was doing it.

"DNA trace continues. Follow."

Harry was still working through in his mind what had happened. Draco had been shot, not fatally, though enough to rip through his coat. Some form of energy blaster. "No. A beam weapon of some form," he mused. He could still see the Dalek, it wasn't moving very fast away from him.

Harry took the coat with him, going through the pockets as he followed the blue bulbous back of the Dalek. As it said "Follow." Again.

There was nothing in the pockets of the coat, but there was a notable amount of flesh and blood.

Not enough to be worrying, he'd lost his share of blood and flesh to various things, this would be a flesh wound, albeit a nasty one for Draco. But they both had faced pain above what this would inflict.

-/

They'd traced the DNA to a computer console where it seemed Draco had stopped keeping watch, judging by the blood smears and the gun that had been dropped there, it was something he'd heard described though never seen. A 'Glitter Gun' the Doctor had mentioned it had helped win the Cyber-Wars for humanity. He'd described it so casually that there was no joke in its name. Maybe in the future humanity had thought 'Glitter Gun' was a completely normal name for a weapon.

"Stop, just a moment," Harry said unthinkingly putting his hand on the Dalek's plunger arm as the Dalek went to move forward. Harry tensed. But nothing happened to the Dalek.

Although it had already established it was different to the Genesis Ark Daleks and therefore that one that Rose met with its regenerating powers he still admonished himself for doing so.

Harry let out a breath he'd been holding that nothing had happened.

"Yes? Harry Potter?" The Dalek swivelled its eye to look at him.

"Footprints in the dust. We've been following my DNA trace." Harry pointed to the smears of blood where Draco had been standing. "A second set of footprints different to his over at that computer console." Harry gestured and then pointed along the paths that lead to this point.

"There are many footprints leading to this points. The DNA trace was lead away." The Dalek looked around them.

"Yes. To your ship I presume," Harry mused.

"The computer interface will retain a record of this facility." The Dalek moved to go to the computer.

"Maybe we should follow the footprints in case your ship is still here. If it's gone then we can search the computer." Harry gestured with his scanner towards the footprints. "If your ship is still here we should make haste and confront them."

The Dalek turned away from the computer. "That is logical Harry Potter."

"Good. If your ship's still here that makes it much less complicated for everyone."

"Yes," the Dalek replied, then followed it up with "It is unlikely that it remains."

"You think the Cybermen have already stolen it?" Harry asked and then cursed himself.

It certainly made the Dalek stop and think. "How do you know that Cybermen have been present in this facility?"

From its tone, that Harry had come to know during the conversation it seemed interested though not surprised by the fact the Cybermen were here.

"Weapons fire around here amongst other things…" Harry trailed off and looked at the Dalek. "We should get going."

-/

Now that he had confirmation that the Dalek knew the Cybermen were involved Harry went back to trying to think why the Cybermen would take the Daleks' ship specifically.

He'd seen several taking off and landing when he'd been outside before he'd encountered the Doctor.

"Why your ship?" Harry mused aloud. The Dalek's eye piece swivelled around but it kept travelling forwards.

From his disassembly of various Daleks Harry knew more or less how it could do that and continue to travel forward, but he still wanted to ask, but held his tongue on that one.

"Why?" Its lights lit up for a long while.

"There are plenty of ships on the surface, this is a trading planet." He presumed the second part. Ships coming and going, the freighter he'd been on, seemed to make sense.

"Why your ship?" Harry repeated.

"Dalek technology is valuable." It stated and rotated its dome back to its direction of travel.

"Yes," Harry agreed, it was as he mused and tried to think back through the Doctor's tales of the Cybermen and his own knowledge of them.

Since the Genesis Ark he'd helped the British Military and the Security Services compile information on the Cybermen, there's been a lot of Cyber-Tech left in Torchwood One that needed to be dealt with and UNIT were being somewhat officious and European about information sharing. MI6 supposedly had some people in Geneva. Although UNIT UK was being a lot more helpful with the intelligence side of things.

His actual knowledge of Cyber-history was somewhat patchy, he knew about the invasion UNIT helped prevent that was involved with Tobias Vaughn, didn't have anything to do with Daleks.

He knew that Daleks were somewhat susceptible to Cybergun fire, but those were Cybermen from a different universe with what looked like fancy guns.

He almost bumped into the Dalek as he was wracking his brains trying to think why Cybermen would want a Dalek ship, he doubted it was because they shared similar aesthetics.

The Dalek had come to a halt in front of an open hatch, quite a large one that seemed had been cut into the rock around where they stood.

Inside was a mostly empty, if not for a few hover-somethings.

"Ambient air readings suggest Dalek craft has recently departed," it sounded despondent.

"How recently?" Harry asked, thinking of Draco, who knew why the Cybermen would take a lone wizard with them, but as he wasn't here and wasn't one of the dead bodies that was the only logical conclusion. Also Harry would be very annoyed if Draco Malfoy had gotten himself killed. He'd come literally across the universe to save him, and if Malfoy had got himself killed, Harry would be quite pissed off.

Harry made the mistake of wandering in that brief moment of thought if he'd be as annoyed if it was Ron Weasley in that same position; dead on a planet in the future millions of kilometres away from Earth.

"Probably not," Harry said to himself, again forgetting that the Dalek was there. It swivelled around to look at him.

"Just thinking aloud to myself," Harry explained before the Dalek had a chance to ask him what he was thinking to himself about. Harry did not want to explain his inter-personal friendships to a Dalek who, while intelligent couldn't engage him in a deep discussion of Dalek poetry. That had been disappointing. He had wanted to know if there was a Dalek who could.

"We should return to the computer terminal, maybe you can find some security footage or something about where they were going or how long they left if there isn't enough ambient energy to detect." Harry explained to the Dalek. He also wanted to know if Draco was still alive, if he was, then that was something and if he wasn't, well then he'd get a lift him from the Doctor.

The Dalek paused for a brief moment. "I agree Harry Potter. That is the logical course of action."

-/

As they walked, well he walked back, the Dalek rolled, or levitated. It wasn't leaving any prints in the floor Harry mused on his conversation with the Dalek.

It knew he was a time traveller, which probably meant it was a time traveller too.

The Daleks that had been with the Genesis Ark had left 2007 using something called, from what he could tell from the Torchwood video footage, which was still muffled by fighting, an 'Emergency Temporal Shit', though he doubted the last word was that.

Those Daleks were products of the Last Great Time War, supposedly.

The Daleks in Shoreditch had used a time controller and the Daleks that had come to Earth in the 1980s had used time corridor technology.

So this Dalek or its ship would also have time travel technology, considering this Dalek had so quickly jumped to the time travel option.

They had reached the computer terminal and Harry jumped as the Dalek's arm switched around and into what he'd come to think of it's 'backpack' behind it and seemed to grab some sort of interface tool.

He didn't say anything as the Dalek interfaced with the computer system.

"An attempt was made to access the transmat facilities in this structure," It announced. "They are not accessible from this level." It continued.

"Course they aren't," Harry felt like he needed to reply in some way to the Dalek.

Why would the Cybermen want a Dalek ship? Harry continued to wonder to himself.

He tried to remember back what the Doctor had told him, when the last time was that the Doctor told him any Earth-relevant stories about the Cybermen.

He'd been told many stories about the Cybermen, the Orion Wars in his future, the Cyber Legions and Telos and its tombs.

Harry wished the Dalek made some sort of indication of what it was doing, instead it was just silent, sifting through data or something while he thought to himself. The question was annoying and then it was obvious.

"The Cybermen want your ship for time travel," Harry realised out loud, making the Dalek pause. "Don't they have time travel?"

"No," was the Dalek's only response.

"Nicking a Dalek ship has to be one of the more stupid ways to try and get it," Harry commented.

"Harry Potter." It shifted slightly away from the computer screen and hit play. Or whatever it was that you pushed here to make video play.

There from some security scanner or something was Draco Malfoy holding a glitter gun.

He was glad that Judith wasn't here to make some comment on that and he could just do it for his own amusement in his head.

There was also someone else working at the computer terminal that he and the Dalek were standing at.

"Just a few more minutes sweetie," said the person at the computer terminal.

"That is River Song." The Dalek announced with the same tone it used for the Doctor.

Yes. Harry thought to himself. That was River Song.

And here he was. And here Draco was. 'We'll have great fun' Was what River had said the last time, the first time for them that they'd met. Obviously this was the first time she met Draco, and the first time he would meet her. Which meant that he'd end up finding her.

More positively it meant Draco was still alive and he hadn't come halfway or probably more across the universe to rescue him for nothing.

It also meant that River was back on Hyspero for something, maybe whatever she was doing here when Ian had met her. Or maybe not, maybe that wasn't important, what was important was the Dalek had seemingly gotten bored with watching Draco stand there holding a glitter gun and fast forwarded the tape. Or not the tape, whatever it was to the point where the Cybermen turned up.

"Cybermen," Harry said unnecessarily.

"Yes," the Dalek answered also unnecessarily.

Their design was familiar some of this design kept turning up in the sewers under London. They were somewhat susceptible to bullets. Still he might raise the idea of a 'glitter gun-style' gun when if got back to Earth. When, when he got back to Earth.

"A ship will need to be located." the Dalek had, obviously while he'd been in thought worked out when its ship had left with the Cybermen in tow and decided they needed a ship to chase it.

"Presumably they took D-" Harry was about to say Draco's name but stopped himself, the Dalek didn't need to know about Malfoy. It already knew plenty about him. "My DNA source with them."

"Yes, and River Song." It quickly showed him the video footage of them being lead into the chamber with the Dalek ship, although the video seemed to stop at the door.

"The space port has several ships berthed." The Dalek announced, there was data and a small image in the screen of what Harry presumed a spaceport looked like.

It looked like a cross between a shipping port with berths and a train station, sort of.

"It would need to be fast, I presume we can't chase your ship in a freighter." Harry paused. "And something with weapons," he added thinking back to his previous space adventure.

"Yes," the Dalek commented. "There is a Federation Pursuit Ship berthed." It displayed an image of a ship; deep red and vaguely rocket shaped.

"Can you show me where it is in relation to the rest of the city?" Harry asked as he prepared himself to do something stupid for the second time in one day.

"Why?" Asked the Dalek.

"Just do it," Harry ordered, he couldn't be bothered thinking of a reason why.

The Dalek seemed to do the Dalek equivalent of shrugging its shoulders; it did nothing, but did show him where the ship; a big red vaguely pointed ship with a dish on top and kind of interesting looking was parked.

Harry took a deep breath and prepared himself.

"I'll just pop out and have a look," he said and before the Dalek could say anything he disapparated.

-/

Falling uncontrollably through the air was not something one ever got completely used to.

Though having done it already once today it wasn't as terrifying as it used to be, and he only needed a few subsequent disapparitions to get himself to the ground and outside the guarded Federation Pursuit Ship.

Annoyingly it was guarded by guards who had full face masks and helmets, making hypnotising them much harder, so he stunned them instead.

Inside there was only one more guard. He didn't expect someone to be in there, but still shot, and missed Harry, the shot scarring the wall behind him. Harry hoped that wasn't a structural wall.

Pulling off the man's mask revealed a normal human face.

Harry carefully bound his arms and legs and then revived him and made quick and careful eye contact.

He could have used magic to extract the information, but this way, this was more subtle, quicker and altogether easier.

"You will answer all my questions and you will obey without question." Harry said in a low calm tone.

"I will obey," he mumbled.

"Good." Harry smiled.

-/ - \\-

A couple of minutes later found Harry on the flight deck, a grim expression on his face.

It was as the guard had described.

There were several places for people to sit and, as it seemed certain spaceships needed to have a captain's chair.

The flight controls appeared similar with an aircraft to fly. Probably. Something the Doctor had said about the human military being boring and predictable with its designs.

As this was a human built spacecraft it would make sense that it was based on some human-based principles of flight.

The layout of the ship did bring with it some problems however. The station that did the defensive systems and weapons wasn't close to the flight controls.

"Oh buggering buggers," Harry sighed. "Rabbits," he said to himself and realised that not for the first time today he'd need to do a something that was probably stupid yet necessary. "Maybe I should find some tea first," he mused and took a breath, thought against it and walked back to where he'd left the guard and took the guard with him outside.

-/ - \\-

The Dalek was where he'd left it, and apparating back in he found was somewhat harder than apparating out.

"I'm back," Harry announced unnecessarily to the Dalek. "I've found the ship."

"Yes, I monitored your progress Harry Potter."

"The ship needs at least two of us to fly it," Harry explained, though didn't say he'd tried the guard and even under instruction would have been quite likely to get him killed if he tried to do anything more complicated than fire a gun. And who better to disable a Dalek ship than a Dalek.

"I understand," the Dalek said.

"So it seems we will be working together for a little longer," Harry said and wished he believed in some gods or higher power as he walked closer than was exactly comfortable to the Dalek.

"Why are you approaching Harry Potter?" It asked in a tone that might have been caution.

"So I can get a grip on your casing," Harry explained, trying to be as casual as he could all the while thinking this was quite a bad idea. "As I presume the transmat doesn't work."

"No," the Dalek's lights were quite bright now he was standing close. "It was destroyed by the departing Cyberforce."

"Try not to panic," Harry said as he put a hand around the Dalek and grabbed the side of it hard. The order was as much to the Dalek as it was to himself.

Harry wondered if this was the closest anyone had got to a live Dalek without getting shouted at or dead.

"What are you doing Harry Potter?" It asked.

"Aside from hugging you?" Harry asked as he focused slowly thinking through the apparition. Going out had been easier than coming back.

However no one had ever taught him how to side-along a Dalek. Funny that.

"And one," he breathed in, calming himself. "Two," he breathed in a long breath of air through his nose filling his lungs. "Three." He exhaled and with what was a very loud 'pop' disapparated himself and the Dalek. They reappeared outside the Federation Pursuit Ship where the guard was waiting.

"Master," he said.

"Hello," Harry said as he bent over breathing deeply of the warm air.

The Dalek was oddly silently as it seemed to appraise him, the guard and the ship.

After a few seconds letting him breathe and recover the Dalek spoke. "You have this human under your control?" Which wasn't the question he was expecting from the Dalek.

Harry stretched back up to full height having been bent over somewhat out of breath and in a little bit of 'magical pain' from the strain of the apparition.

He'd at least been right to steel himself for such a stupid manoeuvre.

"Yes. Come on, the others I stunned might be discovered soon," Harry said as he led the way to the ship.

-/

Taking off and getting the ship out the atmosphere was simple enough; there was an automatic mode for that.

"So, have you worked out where I have to point the ship?"

"Coordinates 63-89-96-05…" The Dalek began from where it was positioned. It had rolled up between the two (fixed) chairs and was mostly focused on the sensor equipment but Harry had seen it looking to the weapons.

"This ship can launch things called 'plasma bolts'," he said once he'd got the ship going in the right direction.

"Yes," the Dalek acknowledged.

Harry returned his attention to the ship's engines and looked at the speed. They were going at 'Time Distort 7' whatever that was, it seemed fast enough.

Harry leaned into the chair and swivelled it around.

"So, now that we're going in the right direction, fast, what shall we talk about to pass the time, hmm?" Harry addressed the Dalek.

-/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/ -/-/-/-/-/-/

A/N:

As I mentioned in the author notes of last chapter the Daleks that Harry first encounters before he meets the Doctor are the 'Hayakawa Daleks' from the Japanese novelisations of The Daleks and Day of the Daleks. If you want to see a great clear rendering of them go to deviant-art and search; sideways in time dalek.

Their voices are based on the various non-English language translations of New Who where they've not quite got the Dalek voice right and ends up sounding a bit echoy, shouty and odd.

Harry also gets to meet another Doctor, fittingly for the 50th chapter I've had him meet the Doctor whose story coincided with the 40th anniversary in 2003. This is the "Shalka Doctor" played by Richard E. Grant and was an animated webcast Scream of the Shalka.

As one commenter I noticed noted on the BBC's DVD YouTube trailer for the story said it starred; The Great Intelligence as the Ninth-ish Doctor, Liz Ten as the Companion and Professor Yana as The Master-ish.

I'd always intended to have this Shalka Ninth Doctor appear in the story and even always intended them to meet somewhere off slightly.

This Doctor was introduced as the Ninth Doctor and even (for a short time) promoted by the BBC as the Ninth Doctor... and then the (2005) new series was announced.

Hyspero, exists in the Doctor Who universe, I've mentioned it here and there as it's a planet where magical-ish things have happened so I find it's a fitting place for other things like that to happen.

The appearance of a Federation Pursuit Ship also signals another minor crossover for this chapter, dipping into the Blake's 7 universe, although I did use the speed scale (Time Distort) in the previous chapter with Harry.

Blue. The Strategist.

Orange was actually going to be the Dalek to accompany Harry on this adventure, there was only going to be one Dalek in this story.

But getting Orange from the ship to where Harry works out where Draco had gone involved too many steps and too many questions. If he'd escaped with the Dalek why not take the cabinet? At one point I had Harry piggybacking on Orange as he flew out of the ship (a nice visual but didn't work, too many questions).

As for apparating a Dalek…who hasn't seen one of those brightly coloured Daleks and thought aren't they just huggable? Or is that just me with the plushie squeezable ones sitting on my desk?