Chapter 106
Of course, getting out of the Time War wasn't going to be like a relaxing drive in the country, he'd known that, especially now having travelled the Time War all the way to Gallifrey, home of the Time Lords.
There was now a great swathe of Time War between where they'd slipped into the Time War and where they were now.
"At least Andro got us a good ways away," Oswin commented idly.
Harry nodded, he was stood in front of the large spinning square screens watching and waiting for the temporal sensors to indicate that the flotilla of battle TARDISes had passed them by. Apparently some of them were phased through the ninth and eleventh dimensions making them a lot harder to detect, and something that the automatic systems inside the Timeship couldn't easily detect.
It could, fortunately for him display these bits that he couldn't understand in a way he could, otherwise he suspected he might be flying even more blind than he was.
"I think I see a gap," Harry gesture as he adjusted the coordinates targeting a portion of the vortex that they could slide through and backwards to.
"That's a small gap," Oswin pointed out with a tone of concern.
"We're a small Timeship, turn our power output down," Harry looked back to her.
"We'll have no defences if they see us," she warned.
"We'll be waiting forever if not," Harry responded with half a sigh as the lights dimmed and he twisted the controls, feeling energy pulse through the Timeship as they pursued the coordinates.
-/
"Why does space and time have to be so big and complicated?" Harry wondered out loud to himself. They had materialised on a derelict Warpsmiths of Phaidon temporal cruiser that had the benefit of drifting in the right direction both spatially and temporally, and would be undetected by the Time Lords, and the Daleks for that matter. Now that their mission was complete they didn't really need to interact with either.
Oswin was off having a look around, while he'd remained in the large space where they'd materialised. It appeared it had been the command deck of the craft, but it was unlike any saucer he'd been in, or the Timeship or TARDIS, at almost five time the size of the last TARDIS control room he'd been in, and somewhat gloomy.
Also unlike any craft he'd been in of late this had a lot of visible supports holding up the structure, or maybe holding it together? Yet also seemed like a lot of it had been gutted, leaving only a few controls.
Oswin had suggested that was why it was still a derelict, that it had been constructed really well out of multiple materials allowing it to survive even though everyone seemed to have come in here and nicked all the components save for whatever kept it still architecturally stable.
After more than an hour of prodding around with his sonic screwdriver he'd managed to work out some of the power and sensor systems. He was determined not to use his Babel Fish language deciphering stick, smearing that on often left him with a headache as he tried to work things out without or around it.
He'd now managed to not electrocute himself and now was rewarded by a massively complex holographic display, albeit a wobbly one with fringing unstable colours.
The power levels in here were very low, which might explain the wobbliness, or it could be the large amounts of damage and removal of systems the derelict craft had sustained.
"It depends on your perspective; whether you're looking in or looking out. Hello Sweetie," said a voice he recognised. It still made him jump because his and Oswin's scans had showed this ship was deserted.
Harry swore and invoked the old gods, and then swore some more, although he didn't raise a weapon at her.
"That's hardly the language of a gentleman to a lady," the woman commented idly.
"We're none of those things River," Harry greeted as he dragged a hand through his hair, activating his communicator hidden behind his ear.
She beamed at him. "Good to meet you, in the right order for once," she looked him up and down.
"Quite," Harry said simply "what do you want?"
"Can't we frenemies chat about the Cybermen, or the Daleks or the past?" She listed.
"Or how about when we met on Ordifica in the 33rd century?" Harry lied and was pleased to see River puzzled. "Spoilers I guess," he continued casually.
River narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not sure if you're telling the truth."
"You may think that, I couldn't possibly comment," Harry countered. "What're you doing here?"
"No reminiscing?" River wondered with a sigh dramatically.
Harry just shrugged.
"Is that your time craft? It's very retro," River asked looking towards the Timeship.
"We're just hitching a lift, this area of space-time is a bit dicey for non-time sensitives," Harry continued as though she'd answered his initial question.
"The Warpsmiths were fantastic engineers, most of their technology was wiped from the timelines very early in the war, I'm just here to liberate some parts of the drive system to help with my travel," she tapped her wrist-strap.
"Pretty crude form of time travel," Harry observed looking to her wrist.
"You can talk," she scoffed. "A Dalek time craft, who are you kidding? Your friends within the Dalek command order you into it?" She asked shrewdly.
"I'm here of my own volition," Harry countered. "Does the Doctor know you're here River?"
This seemed to make her pause. "Which one?" she asked flippantly.
"The one with the floppy hair, or the one with a beard?" Harry countered.
"He never had a beard!" She exclaimed as though she was chastised.
"Keep her talking, I'll deal with her," said a voice in his ear.
Harry turned away from River. "I don't really care what you're up to River, I'm just trying to stay alive."
"You could help me, give me access to your Timeship, I just need a bit of a top up," River was saying calmly.
Harry returned to looking at the wobbly holographic projection of the local space-time he'd been studying.
Then River came around to within his peripheral vision. She was pointing a large pistol-shaped energy weapon at him, bracing it with her other hand. "Your time craft wouldn't let me in, no matter how much I asked nicely."
"No," Harry agreed. "It won't."
"But you will Harry, we've got history you and I, you can help an old friend out," she smiled at him.
"I rescued you and Draco from the Cybermen," Harry paused "and then you left us for dead, and then you rescued my friends and I at the Doctor's behest," Harry finished, glad he'd got that in her order, not his.
"Well done keeping things in order," River commented not lowering her gun.
"I've been around a bit River, what makes you think pointing a gun at me will make me open my Timeship for you?" He wondered turning to face her and her large gun.
"I could stun you, use your biodata to open your craft, you won't stop me" she threatened idly as she adjusted a setting on her gun.
"If you think that'll yield you entry," Harry commented and smiled at her. "But what makes you think I'm alone," he finished as an energy blast cut across the area and struck River making her crumple to the ground. As she went down Harry grabbed her gun out of her hands as she put those out to break her fall. She was already pulling her paralysed legs around so she could lean against one of the support columns.
River coughed, seemingly out of breath from the surprise shot. "A Dalek?"
Harry smiled at her carefully. "I've been in the Time War for a while River, and I've learnt a few things along the way," he paused as Oswin glided over out of the gloom.
"She's someone I've met in the past, I think we'll need to leave if she's involved, a friend of the Doctor's," he explained in Dalek to her.
"Yes," Oswin paused, her eye piece dropping down so she could give River a look for a brief moment. "The engines have been tampered with, our course has changed, I'll warm up the Timeship," she replied in Dalek.
Harry reached out for her. "No, wait," Harry said making her pause.
"You're playing a dangerous game Harry, do you know what that thing is?" River asked in a calmly dangerous tone as she stared daggers at Oswin.
Harry smiled. "Far more than you appreciate River, perhaps we'll meet again?" He wondered. "I'll tell Amy and Rory that I ran into their daughter."
River looked suitably surprised, though she could've been lying.
Harry looked to Oswin and said in Dalek "Stun her, make it look good."
"Exterminate!" Oswin shouted.
As River shouted "No!"
-/
River woke up with pins and needles in her arms and legs, there was a note on her lap.
I've been threatened by worse people than you River. Bye, Bye Sweetie. I'll tell the Doctor you said hi…PTO.
River turned the piece of paper over.
The power plant is rigged to explode. Someone already rigged the engines.
"Dammit," she said as she pulled herself up into standing position and tapped coordinates into her vortex manipulator and disappeared in a mess of chronon static.
-/
Harry sat off to the side of the control room nursing a mug of tea. They'd just need to get out of the Time War as carefully as they could, back to where they entered it, no more stopping off to see the sights, or hitch a ride.
He'd felt a bit bad stunning River. If she'd elaborated on what 'top up' meant he might have even let her…near the Timeship, he wasn't sure he'd let her inside it. He had lied about the power plant, neither he nor Oswin had any idea how to rig it to explode, short of rigging up some explosives on a timer. River had already rigged the engines.
"I forgot, did you find anything interesting in the engines?" Harry asked as Oswin wandered in, she was eating a small cake with cream on top. "I never can get cream on my cakes."
"You should've read the instructions more carefully," she said with a smile as she took the seat beside him.
"I leave it to the Timeship the more complicated parts, maybe it thinks I don't need cream with my cake," Harry paused. "At least it comes out at the right temperature, just nicely warm," Harry closed his eyes leaning into the chair thinking of warm cake.
"I was just curious about the temporal engines, I got some good data off of River Song's temporal device as well," Oswin said as she forked a piece of cake into her mouth.
"The Timeship isn't enough?" Harry wondered curiously.
Oswin looked at him raising her eyebrows suggestively. "We've been around a lot of time travel Harry, it's good to have options."
"Jack's told me that strap like River's is a rough way to travel, okay for the hard as nails Time Agents," Harry paused. "I think the Doctor…" he paused again and shook his head. "No I don't think he's mentioned it, maybe in passing it was Jack," he shrugged as he sipped his tea, closing his eyes as he relaxed.
"How are you feeling now Harry?" Oswin asked.
Harry opened his eyes looking up at the ceiling. "Would it sound completely mad if I said I enjoyed it, and in a way don't want it to end?" He chuckled. "That this had some purpose and reason to it, and now we're just journeying back to where we came into the Time War…" he sighed.
Oswin didn't laugh, she just nodded. "I can understand that Harry, we've been at this a while, it has been…interesting, even enjoyable," she paused to eat a small amount of cake, Harry sipped his tea as she did so. "There's still lots of data to go through, what the Time Lords were up to with her being down there."
Harry nodded. "We've dealt with everything at least, there's no more evidence of Ginny around that the Timeship can see," he paused. "I won't relax until we're back to the Parliament and I can properly kick the Eternal for not telling me about the whole 12 Ginnys thing."
"Will the Eternal appreciate your physical diplomacy?" Oswin asked in an amused tone.
"Doubtful," Harry mused. "Now that we're done with the mission I feel like we could do some sight seeing," he laughed as Oswin gave him a look. "Something to save for, once we're away from the multi-dimensional maelstrom?"
"Just a little I think Harry," Oswin said as she popped the last piece of cake in her mouth.
Harry drained his mug and leaned back into the seat, closing his eyes and listening to the sound of the Timeship.
Then he heard it, half a second before the explosion hit throwing him forcefully into the chair. Blissfully he didn't black out, but the compression he felt all over his body made him wish he had.
"Stay where you are Harry!" Oswin was in Dalek form and moving at speed into the control room.
"What?" He ground out, it was all he could say against the feeling the Timeship was falling off a cliff.
"I think we've hit a mine," she called.
Harry grit his teeth and pulled himself out of the chair and stumbled into the control room to stand at one of the main panels in front of the spinning squares.
Oswin was at the rotating column in the middle of the room.
"Emergency re-materialisation?" Harry quizzed as he looked at the displays, they were all flashing purple and indicating major damage. "Distress call?"
"That'll alert the Time Lords," Oswin warned.
"All Dalek frequencies, we're not going to survive," he chanced a look to the main corridor and while the doors weren't sealing the lighting had dropped down and everything seemed to be being bathed in harsh emergency purple lighting.
"Signal sent, you'll have to materialise, I'm controlling the power flow manually Harry," Oswin, her voice filled with concentration. "The control linkages have been damaged, I think we're leaking fluid."
"I bet it's toxic," Harry muttered as he fumbled the controls and studied the local space. It looked like their detectors and normal-space rangerscopes had been damaged as well. "Materialising; now."
In normal space the Timeship drew itself out of the vortex, and, blissfully for the occupants a fleet of albeit damaged saucers dropped out of warp, transmatting the craft on board.
-/
Harry stepped out of the Timeship and looked around the command deck. It looked like it was more damaged than the Timeship, within which the atmosphere was toxic and Oswin had hurriedly explained the auto-repair would do a lot and the other damaged parts would be easier repaired by someone with a manipulator arm than hands. Annoyingly.
Harry held up his hand long enough for one of the Daleks to scan his fingernail for his rank.
"Sorcerer," one of the soldier Daleks said in a curious tone.
"Hi," Harry said by way of greeting looking around. "No Saucer Commander?" His question was met with silence. "Black Dalek?" He tried again looking around. "Gold?"
"We are soldiers Sorcerer, no ranking Daleks have survived," one of them said.
Hmm, Harry thought to himself. "On none of the saucers?" He tried.
"You have the highest rank Sorcerer," one of the Daleks said as though it was stating…not the obvious, not in the way Daleks usually did so, this was a different sort of statement.
"Right," Harry said, mostly to himself. "And where were you en-route to?"
"We answered your distress call Sorcerer," another of the Daleks said.
Harry swallowed a mouthful of saliva and fastened up his coat, then realised it was already fastened up. "Right," he said again. "And if I say resume course, where will you be heading for?" he wondered.
The Daleks stared at him.
"Right," Harry said again and wondered what was going on. "Are you on a secret mission to somewhere?" He wondered looking around. There was a lot of damage, none of it lethal, but definitely enough that they should've started fixing it by now.
No answer. Harry thought to himself as he walked around the Daleks to the rangerscopes and brought up a very wobbly display of what was around them, there were 9 saucers in what seemed like random positions. "Interesting, you've been in a lot of battles," Harry said in a level voice as he flicked through the local data, "do you have functioning deep level vortex rangerscopes?" Harry paused. "I want to see if there's any other threats in the vortex."
A Dalek spun around to the controls, and data set appeared in front of him, even more wobbly than the first. There seemed to be lots of splotches of purple warning of danger around them. But there was nothing around them that he could see in normal space.
It still made him nervous that they weren't moving.
"I think I might have a look around this saucer, you can return to your course, wherever it was you were going," Harry explained carefully as he walked towards the lift at the back of the command deck, the Daleks didn't say anything, but they all watched him go.
Stepping out of the lift into the larger main corridor below the command deck, there was a similar level of damage as the command deck.
Looking around there were also no other Daleks, which was weird, but not unusual.
Making a quick pace towards where there was usually a science area he opened the door and stepped into the gloomy interior and called up the saucer's internal schematics.
Something felt off here, and he wasn't sure what it was, or whether it should be his concern.
The internal schematic didn't show anything weird, it was a standard sized saucer, he'd been on dozens of them by this point. The engines were in good enough condition, they had about 3/4 of the time torpedoes that a craft like this would have, weapons were intact more or less. There was damage around the docking ports, engines, and the transmat area had significant damage.
That was weird, he didn't really know how the Time Lords attacked Dalek saucers, beyond shooting them down with battle TARDISes, but he doubted boarding a saucer was part of their mission plans.
-/
He'd barely encountered any Daleks between walking from the science lab to the transmat area.
There was a surprising amount of damage in this space, with what looked like Dalek self destruct damage and energy weapon damage.
Walking over to the transmat interface he looked at the controls. This saucer didn't have a log of when it was used, but it did show significant damage of the transmat relays in here which appeared to have been overloaded. Only the short range emergency ones remained operational, which they must've used to grab the Timeship.
A sound of the doors opening behind him drew his eye to a far wall; more damage, and he recognised that as Dalek weapons fire. Looking to the group of five Daleks that had entered the transmat area Harry asked "What went on here?"
The Daleks looks at him, he wondered if he was imagining that their weapons were all pointed at him.
"I'm not here to report to the Eternity Circle or the Emperor," he challenged as their guns twitched.
"You know of the Eternity Circle?" Asked one of the Daleks at the back of the group.
"Met them, useful enough, I haven't met the Emperor," Harry stopped himself from saying that he'd met the Prime Minister.
"The Emperor has…complex concerns regarding the Time War," said one of the other Daleks.
Harry looked at the group, the Doctor had said that he should have realised when he'd been pretending to be a Dalek, that Daleks making complex statements was of concern. And Harry mused this might be the point where he got exterminated, which would be unfortunate.
"Yep, he probably does," Harry admitted. According to Jack he ends up quite mad, he suspected that tidbit of information might not help at this juncture. "I'm not here to report on you to anyone, whatever went on here, I'm not here to do anything," Harry explained calmly. "We hit a temporal mine and put out a distress call," Harry paused "You didn't need to answer if there's some reason…" he trailed off trying to read the Daleks' limited body language.
"You are a Sorcerer, you have the highest rank," one of the other Daleks said.
"That is very true, but where is everyone else beyond the rank of soldier?" Harry asked before he'd really thought about the question, or if he wanted to know the answer. He held up a hand. "Interject if I'm wrong," he started quickly just in case they jumped the Dalek conclusions. "There was a battle here, between Daleks," Harry gave them a look, none of them shot him. "And you won."
"Yes, Sorcerer," neither word was a long, lights lit up sort of answer.
Harry nodded. "What do you think about poetry?"
There was silence as the five Daleks looked at him then one in the middle spoke. "You speak of Lament of the Non-Operational?"
Harry's eyes lit up and he grinned, he almost felt a little bit giddy. "Yes!" He exclaimed.
"We are aware of the text," it said without elaborating further.
"Interesting," Harry commented. "I hope you're not going to exterminate me," he said with a sigh.
"You are a Sorcerer," one of the five Daleks said.
"That precludes me from being exterminated?" Harry wondered and wanted to add 'because I think you had a fire fight with your superiors and won', but he wasn't going to say that just yet.
"Yes, Sorcerer. You are not positioned within the Dalek command structure," said one of the other Daleks within the group.
Harry nodded. "How about I show you how to disable your saucer's tracking and identification systems so no one else in the Dalek fleet can track you?" Harry offered after standing looking at them for several seconds.
All five of the Daleks spun around and seemed to confer silently.
"This way Sorcerer," one of them said starting to lead the way.
As he followed some of the others brought up the rear.
There was a very odd and off feeling here, it felt like they were all dancing around what wasn't to be said, but they were all thinking it.
"Follow Sorcerer," called the Dalek ahead.
"I've been on plenty of saucers, I could probably find my way blindfolded," he called as the Dalek ahead's dome spun around so its eye was on him.
"You have fought with many Daleks?" It asked.
"I have travelled on many saucers, my position is complicated," Harry paused and nodded. "Yes, I guess I've fought alongside many Daleks, against the Time Lords and their forces."
"But you are conflicted?" Quizzed the Dalek behind him.
Harry wasn't quite startled, at least not as much as he had been by River Song, there were only so many unexpected things in one day that could surprise him.
Harry turned around to look at the Dalek and continued to walk backwards at the same pace as it was. "Are you?" He challenged.
It just looked at him and didn't respond.
"We have arrived," announced the Dalek in front of him, well, it was behind him because he was walking backwards.
There wasn't any damage in here, Harry gestured to the panels where the identification and control systems were located. It was also where most of the primary communication control systems were located within the room.
"Take the panels off and I'll show you which control linkages to sever," he paused turning and watching as the Daleks moved off to do as he said. All of them moved to remove the panels. "You'll need to work out a way to remain identified with your fleet."
They all swivelled their domes and eye pieces to look at him, but didn't say anything.
"The panels have been removed Sorcerer," one of them said as he was pondering his current situation.
"Control linkages, there and there," Harry gestured, still wondering if he was going to be exterminated. It would be quite unfortunate if he was. But he also wanted to ask more questions, however he did worry that might lead to the former happening.
"What will you do if fleet command or anyone in Seriphia come after you?" Harry asked as the Daleks finished removing the linkages he'd indicated and began replacing the panels.
"You are aware of the the Dalek command structure Sorcerer?" One of them, not so much queried, it was much more inclined in its questioning.
Harry shrugged and stepped backwards out of the room as they followed him. "I've been around for a while."
"You have an expansive knowledge of Dalek saucer technology," observed one of the other Daleks.
Do I want to know what led you to bump off your superiors? Harry wondered to himself, that was the question that he felt they were dancing around.
"I've been stuck on a few here and there," he said almost saying 'throughout the Time War', but stopped himself. There was something just a little bit too intelligent about the way these Daleks spoke.
The Daleks didn't respond to such a vague statement as he stopped walking backwards and looked around the corridor. There was also some damage in here. "It must have been quite a confrontation, if this is indicative of the whole ship," he observed looking around the walls and then to the Daleks.
"Our confrontation was significant," one of the Daleks agreed.
"Right," Harry repeated his earlier refrain. "Anything else you need help with?" He asked looking around as he started back towards the main lift, hopeful Oswin would have at least purged the interior atmosphere of the Timeship.
No one said anything so he picked up his pace walking swiftly towards the lift. They all followed him matching his speed, following him in, they rode it back to the command deck in silence.
-/
Oswin was waiting outside the Timeship.
"Dalek Mage?!" said one of the Daleks near him in a tone he'd only ever heard Oswin use of surprise query.
Harry turned around and looked at it and then back to Oswin.
"Yes," was all she said, her lights lighting up for a long time.
Harry wandered over throwing an arm around her and whispered into her lights / upper grill. "There's a really weird vibe here."
"You have disconnected yourselves from the Pathweb?" Oswin queried the Daleks as Harry let go of her. Her tone of query was of noted knowledge rather than true question.
All five of the Daleks turned to look at her.
"You are correct Dalek Mage," one of them said.
"Did that happen before or after you despatched whoever was in command?" Harry wondered as he felt the Daleks' full attention, so much as he wanted to back away from them, but forced himself to stand his ground. Now that he was with Oswin he felt a bit more confident.
"The Time Lords have revealed much of the Daleks' history, through the Skaro Degradations and temporal manipulation of our extended timeline we have witnessed an apotheosis of the Dalek societal development," one of the Daleks revealed.
Harry smiled slightly giddily. That was the longest, most verbose sentence he'd heard from a soldier Dalek ever. In fact even the Eternity Circle hadn't been that verbose.
"Interesting," Harry said, unable to summon up a lexicon to properly express his elation. "Is this because you're here they've opened up?" He asked in a conspiratorial stage whisper to Oswin.
"We're not here to stand in your way, we've encountered various Degradations," Harry offered drawing their attentions once more.
"And your survived as we have; enlightened?" One of them said or asked perhaps?
Harry nodded, unsure what to say, so he looked to Oswin, who wasn't saying anything, but it was clear something was being discussed, though not audibly for him.
Looking around the command deck he wandered over, only a few of the Daleks there even looked at him. Kicking open one of the blackened panels he soniced together a few of the control linkages and thumbed the controls to bring up sensor and rangerscope readings of the surrounding space on the now thankfully not wobbly hologram.
Feeling a presence behind him he turned. "Ready?" Oswin asked.
Harry looked behind her. "So we're not being exterminated?"
"Nope," she said shaking her head. "We just had a bit of a conference, that's all."
"So…" Harry looked to the Daleks. "All good?"
"Yes Sorcerer," one of them said.
"Come on Harry, places to be etcetera," she walked past him into the Timeship.
Harry nodded following her. "May we meet again?" Harry wondered.
"Perhaps," one of the Daleks said as he stepped into the Timeship.
-/
"What was that?" Harry asked as he reset the coordinates for their entry point into the Time War.
Oswin looked over to him. "Didn't you work it out?"
"That they rebelled against their superiors?" Harry wondered as the Timeship dematerialised. "Objectors to the war?"
"Something like that, we had a bit of a conversation, I wanted to know if they were genuine," she paused.
"And are they?" Harry wondered with a slight tilt of his head.
Oswin nodded. "I think so."
"You're in a better position than me," Harry commented.
"You're the expert on Dalek history," Oswin countered.
"I don't think anyone wants to claim to be an expert, there's enough gaps in their history for something like those Daleks to be hanging out somewhere in the universe," he sighed. "I don't know if that's good or if we've done something to pervert the war, or-"
"Or?" Oswin promoted.
"Or we've just gone and done something Doctory to people who the Doctor would never consider worthy of viewing that way," Harry finished as he exhaled.
"Let's get you some cake with cream and we can relax, they gave me some additional data which should help us navigate the temporal fallout around here," Oswin said taking his hand.
Harry nodded. "Fine, it feels like it's been a long day. Hopefully the last in the Time War."
-/
A/N:
August-2020 Note - Apologies for the delay in posting this. It was finished a few months ago, unedited and I've just felt in a creative hole for the past few months, not really able to disengage my brain from the world enough to want to even sit and edit, let alone write. So if this chapter has some editing issues apologies, I have given it several edits over the past week or two, but have likely missed some stuff.
-/
This is it, that's the last chapter in the Time War.
I wasn't going to include River Song in this story, and when I started planning this she hadn't popped up in Big Finish's series involving the Time War (or war-adjacent stories). But I thought I could sneak in a brief meeting between them as Harry and Oswin exit the Time War.
The Dalek Time War objectors is one of those ideas I had which didn't quite work for a full chapter with a Ginny, but I wanted to include them in this arc, just in case I wanted to revisit the concept in the future.
Next chapter will be a return to the Parliament of the Daleks where Harry will kick the Eternal and look at some art. Oswin will visit Earth and Harry may have a bit of breakdown.
It'll also summarise what's gone on in the past dozen or so chapters.
Thanks for reading and coming along on this war arc.
