Chapter Nine
In the school playground, the shuttlecraft has planted itself neatly on the existing scorch marks. A hatch opens and a cream and gold Dalek leads its companions out.
"Advance. We must capture the Hand of Omega from renegade Dalek faction. Proceed to area two five zero six immediately."
In the science lab, everyone starts to get up, coughing from the dust. Rachel holds her ears, as she feels a bit deaf from the noise of the shuttlecraft landing.
"Right, out of here. Everybody downstairs," Gilmore orders.
Rachel, Allison, Nita and Ace leave. Gilmore joins the Doctor at the shattered window. They look at the shuttlecraft.
"Is that the mothership?"
"No, that's a shuttle. The mothership's much larger." The Doctor turns to Gilmore. "Are you willing to cooperate with me now?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"Well, you could go down there and make a gloriously futile gesture, yes."
"What do we do?"
"A little bit of piracy," the Doctor smirks.
Gilmore moves away from him.
In the corridor, Rachel, Allison, Ace and Nita come down the stairs, brushing themselves off.
"Ace!" calls mike. She stops and looks at him, as the others keep walking.
"Go away."
"Ace, I didn't know it was the Daleks," Mike says, walking over to her. "I was just doing Mister Ratcliffe a favour."
"Do me a favour and drown yourself."
"I thought it was the right thing." Mike puts his hands on Ace's shoulders. "Mister Ratcliffe had such great plans."
Ace shrugs his hands off and turns away.
"Ace, I never really wanted to hurt anybody. It's just you have to protect your own, keep the outsiders out just that your own people can have a fair chance."
Ace turns back to him and shoves him away. "I said shut up! You've betrayed the Doctor, you betrayed me. I trusted you. I even liked you, and all the time you..." She turns and runs off.
Gilmore comes down the stairs with a Sergeant.
"Sergeant Smith."
"Sir," Mike says halfheartedly, still reeling from Ace's rejection.
"Attention!" Gilmore reminds him.
Mike stands to attention.
"I'm placing you under close arrest under suspicion of offences contrary to the Official Secrets Act."
"Yes, sir."
Two renegade daleks are moving down the street. The Imperial Daleks are coming around the corner from the opposite direction. "Scout seven reporting area two five zero nine clear."
The Imperial Daleks get ambushed by the renegades. They are all lousy shots, but eventually an Imperial gets destroyed.
"Retreat! Squad Delta under attack from renegade Daleks. Retreat!"
On the mothership:
"Mothership bridge to shuttle force controller," reports a Dalek. "Receiving your signal."
"We must recover the Hand of Omega without delay!" commands the emperor.
"Shuttle force has encountered heavy resistance from renegade Daleks."
"Order Special Weapons Dalek into position!"
An even more heavily armoured Dalek with no vulnerable eyepiece and one big gun rolls down the road. It obliterates a grey Dalek with its first shot.
The Doctor is hanging out of the window of the school science lab. He uses a rope to lasso one of the shuttle's antenna. Ace, Nita, Allison, Rachel and Gilmore are inside the window helping.
"Why are we doing this?" asks Allison, looking up at the Doctor.
Gilmore ties the end off.
The Doctor looks down at Allison. "Elementary piracy, my dear Allison. Dalek shuttles have massive ground defences and an unguarded service hatch on top." He looks at the others. "Now once I'm down there, I'll attempt to open that hatch. Nita and Ace, you come after, then Gilmore, followed by Allison and Rachel. Any questions? No? Good."
The Doctor uses his umbrella to slide down the rope to the top of the shuttle. Everyone watches from the window. Nita wonders at his agility. He kicks in the hatch and jumps inside. The pilot Dalek is physically fastened to the controls through connections where its plunger and weapon ought to be.
"Emergency! Emergency! Unable to disengage from control position."
The Doctor pulls out the bottom hatch and grabs some fibre optic cables from the control panel.
"Humans on the bridge."
The Doctor puts his hat over its eyepiece.
"I'm not human."
"You are the Doctor."
"Yes."
"You are the enemy of the Daleks."
"Correct."
"You must be exterminate…"
The Dalek is switched off by the Doctor's work on the fibre optic cables. The Doctor retrieves his hat, places it on his head and picks up his umbrella, using it to push on a red panel, which closes the access hatch in the floor.
"Goodbye."
He goes to the open hatch and calls out. "You can come down now!"
In the school cellar Mike is sitting at a table with a corporal who is guarding him. The corporal throws the book he's been reading on the table and stands up.
"Tea?"
"Yeah."
The Corporal walks around a corner behind Mike. Mike leans back in his chair and watches him. He gets up and follows him. He sees the corporal making tea. The corporal sees him and turns around.
"Come on, Sarge" he pleads.
Mike attacks his guard and escapes with his weapon.
Everyone is on board the Imperial shuttlecraft. Gilmore, Ace and Nita are watching the Doctor work on the inactive Dalek. Allison and Rachel are looking around the ship.
"What did you do to it?" asks Nita.
"I shorted it out. Daleks are such boring conversationalists."
The Doctor retrieves the Dalek's plunger from its storage box at its back.
"It's very functional," Rachel says, referring to the ship. Gilmore, Ace and Nita look around.
"Yes, they're not known for their aesthetic sense. Let's see what they were up to."
He uses the plunger to operate some controls. A star map lights up.
"Ah, the planet Skaro. So, the Daleks are returning to their ancestral seat. I think we've seen enough. Time to leave. Er, get off the grill."
Everyone steps off it and he opens the floor hatch.
"We'll go back through the playground."
"What about the massive ground defences?" Allison objects.
"Oh, I've turned those off. Come on, jump."
Allison jumps, and the others follow, one by one.
Mike runs into Ratcliffe's yard. The gates swing closed behind him to reveal two renegade Daleks.
"Exterminate!"
"Exterminate!"
Mike turns to face them and raises his hands. "No, no, don't. Look, I have a message for Ratcliffe. Understand? A message for Mister Ratcliffe."
"You are my prisoner. You will obey all instructions or you will be exterminated!"
"You said it, mate."
The Daleks back him into Ratcliffe's office.
The main hatch of the Dalek shuttlecraft opens. Allison, Rachel, Gilmore, Ace, Nita and the Doctor exit the shuttlecraft. The hatch shuts on the Doctor's umbrella and he struggles to free it.
"I rigged the communications relay to the shuttle control system," says the Doctor, still pulling on his umbrella. "We can monitor the Daleks on the transmat in the cellar."
"You can't do that. You mashed up the transmat, remember?" Ace points out.
"I can do anything I like!" says the Doctor, defiantly. He finally pulls his umbrella free and stalks off. The others follow him.