Chapter Ten

In Ratcliffe's office, Mike and Ratcliffe are standing against a wall with their hands in the air. The Black Dalek is pointing its weapon at them.

"Kneel!"

Ratcliffe and Mike obey.

The girl is leaning over the time controller, stroking it. "Repairs on time controller almost complete."

"Good!" Black says.

Ratcliffe leans toward Mike and says in a sotto voice: "Without that thing, they're stuck here. Someone in possession of that would have something to bargain with."

"For what, our lives?"

"Nothing so mundane. If we get that, we can demand anything."

"You never give up, do you."

The girl looks at them and smirks.

The unfortunate Corporal who had been guarding Mike staggers upstairs, holding his head. Allison, Rachel, the Doctor, Nita, Ace and Gilmore walk in the front door and see him.

"What happened?" Allison asks, placing her hand on his shoulder.

The Corporal bends over with hands on his knees. "Sergeant Smith."

"Is he all right?" Rachel asks Allison, who is examining his head.

"I've no idea, I'm a physicist."

The Doctors steps forward and grabs the corporal's ear, looking at it. "He'll be fine." He stands up straight. "Rachel and Allison, I need your help." He pushes past the women and Nita and Ace follow.

"Sorry?" asks Rachel.

"He said he needed our help," Allison replies.

"That's what I thought he said." Rachel grabs Allison's arm. "Get your hands off his scalp and come on." They follow the Doctor.

"You all right, Corporal?" asks Gilmore.

"Sir."

"Come with me. We'll search the building."

The girl carries the globe out into Ratcliffe's yard. "Time controller repaired and ready." She places it next to the casket. "Departure imminent."

"Destroy human captives!" Black orders.

"No!" cries Mike.

"No!" pleads Ratcliffe.

Just then, the Imperial Special Weapon Dalek blasts the yard gates to splinters. The Dalek war begins. Shots continue to be fired between the two factions.

Ratcliffe sees their chance to escape. "Now! Run!" Ratcliffe grabs the time controller and runs up the exterior staircase after Mike.

"Recover the time controller!" Black orders.

The girl follows and zaps Ratcliffe with electricity from her hands. Mike grabs the time controller and gets inside. The girl follows. The Black Dalek withdraws to the store room and leaves the grey Daleks to fight it out with the Imperials and the Special Weapons Daleks. It is hardly a fair match.

Rachel and Allison are carrying a television set down the stairs into the school cellar.

"When he said he needed our help, I had hoped it meant more in a technical area," complains Rachel.

"It was a vain hope," Allison replies.

The Doctor is fiddling with the transmat, fibre optic cables all over the place. "Ah, you brought it then. Put it down there."

Rachel and Allison put down the television they had struggled down the stairs with.

"Now, Doctor, will you please answer one question?" asks Rachel, sitting on a chair.

"Yes?"

"Why are two Dalek factions fighting each other?"

"Ace?" the Doctor asks Ace to explain.

"It's simple, isn't it," Ace replies. "Renegade Daleks are blobs."

"Blobs?" asks the Doctor, looking at her, puzzled.

Nita is on Ace's wavelength and continues Ace's explanation. "Imperial Daleks are bionic blobs with bits added. You can tell that Daleks are into racial purity. So, one lot of Daleks reckon the other lot of blobs are too different. They're mutants. Not pure in their blobbiness."

"Result?" asks the Doctor, impressed.

"They hate each other's chromosomes," Ace concludes. "War to the death."

The Doctor disentangles himself from the fibre optics of the transmat. He places his hat on his head. "Well, er, Nita, Ace, let's go and see which blobs are winning." He turns and begins ascending the staircase with Nita and Ace following.

"Doctor, how do you do that?" Allison asks, pointing to the transmat.

The Doctor stops and looks back at Allison, while the girls continue up the stairs. "Do what?"

"How do you just rewire a piece of alien machinery?"

"It's easy when you have nine hundred years' experience." The Doctor continues up the stairs.

On the Mothership:

"Force leader has recovered the Hand of Omega," a Dalek reports.

"Excellent. Order all forces to make immediate withdrawal," the emperor orders.

The Imperial Daleks leave Ratcliffe's yard, with the casket gliding behind them. Mike comes out of hiding and goes back down the staircase, carrying the time controller.

The Doctor, Nita and Ace have been hiding behind that gate again. Ace opens the gate and pokes her head out. "It's Mike."

The Doctor looks out and groans. "He's got the time controller. Typical human. You can always count on them to mess things up. Girls, get after him. Stay with him. See where he's going."

"Right," Nita says and moves off.

The Doctor grabs Nita and pulls her back. Ace stops too. "Oh, girls."

"What?" Ace asks.

The Doctor puts his hand on Nita's shoulder and looks into her eyes. "No heroics. I've got enough problems already."

Nita smiled. "Trust us." She turned away and ran off with Ace.

The Doctor shook his head, pulled the door shut with his umbrella handle and ran off in the other direction.

"Prepare to place the Hand of Omega into the control circuit," the emperor orders.

"I obey."

The casket glides into the shuttlecraft.

Allison and Rachel are still sitting in the school cellar.

"What are you going to do after all this is over?" Allison asks.

"Retire to Cambridge and write my memoirs," Rachel replies.

The hear Gilmore's voice. "Professor!"

"Subject to security vetting, of course," finishes Rachel.

Gilmore comes down the stairs. "The shuttle seems to be leaving." He turns and goes back up.

Allison stands up. "Good riddance to bad rubbish." They follow Gilmore.

The shuttlecraft takes off with a lot less damage than when it landed. The Doctor stands next the Tardis and waves it goodbye by tipping his hat to it. Ace and Nita are running down the street and also see it fly away.

"Oh, wicked!" exclaims Ace.

The little girls skips along.

The Doctor enters the school cellar, followed by Gilmore, Rachel and Allison.

"Well, Doctor, are we out of the woods?" asks Gilmore.

"Provided everything goes according to my plan," the Doctor replies, putting down his umbrella and hat next to the transmat.

"Plan?" asks Rachel.

"I, er… I don't suppose you could let us know what your plan is?" Allison asks.

"It's a surprise," the Doctor replies.

"Good. I love surprises," Rachel says, sarcastically.

"Prepare for shuttle docking," the Dalek on the Mothership reports.

The shuttlecraft docks into the mothership.

"Lock the Hand of Omega into the control circuit," the Emperor orders.

"Omega device is now locked in and running."