Chapter 12: The Sprite
"No!" Clara reached out, and was surprised to find a hand grabbing hers. She looked round and saw her own arm. She could see! She could move! In fact, she didn't seem to be in her casing at all. But how? Whatever it was was either really good or really bad.
She looked at the owner of the hand that had grabbed hers and was startled once more to see her own face looking down at her.
"Ah, you're awake." Said the other her. You're just in time. I think I've finally got this soufflé just right." She left Clara's side and moved over to a pair of stoves by the wall. She looked in and frowned. "Maybe fried eggs instead then? I'm Oswin by the way."
Clara looked around at her surroundings. She was lying on a sofa in a small, metallic room, littered with objects that made it look as though this Oswin had been in here for some time. Vivaldi was playing from a record player in the corner, but it didn't seem to cover the loud thump that echoed through the hatchway.
She looked back at the other her, and babbled for a few moments as several questions battled for control of the vocal chords. "Where am I?" She said at last.
"OK, brace yourself. Because you're actually in the Daleks' collective mind. Your subconscious has translated your struggle against it into a, sort of, dream sequence."
"And… you're some part of my subconscious?"
"Oh no. I'm actually here. See, I'm a past version of you that the Daleks tried to take me over too. It turns out destroying a Dalek's physical form doesn't delete it from the hive. Most of them don't notice 'cos they're all so alike anyway. But not us. We can hide out in here, and I've been living as a sprite for.. I'm not sure how long. You see there's this technique people use to battle brainwashing where you imagine yourself in a secure room, surrounded by things that are important to you. Music, baking stuff, pictures of Nina. And the people trying to take you over are outside and can't get in. One of the echoes that came before me imagined this place up, and it got carried over to the next, each adding a little to it. So this is one of the world's toughest mindscapes."
Another thump echoed through. But Clara had a more immediate question. "Wait, how do you know about the echoes?"
"Well, I've been shielding you from the Daleks since you plugged yourself in. In that time, I've been talking to your actual subconscious." Oswin pointed at another version of her, this one in Victorian dress.
"We're all still in 'ere. Even if yer not payin' attention." Said the Victorian her.
"It's been nice having company round here at last." Oswin smiled.
"But how did she…" Clara pointed and found her third self gone. "Right, mindscape."
Another thump came from the hatch. "What's that sound?" Said Clara.
"Oh, that's the Daleks breaking in. Nothing keeps them out forever. They just weren't that interested, up 'till now."
"Can't we just imagine up a big bomb or something?"
Oswin shook her head. "It doesn't work like that. Not sure how it works, but not like that. There's one thing we could do though."
"What's that?"
"Open up the door. The Supreme's leading the charge and it won't be expecting two of us."
Oswin briefly explained her plan and got Clara to agree to it. The two of them looked to the question of weapons.
"So we have to fight them with something in here?" Clara said, looking around but finding little of use. "Why did you conjure all these eggs, but not something weapony?"
Oswin shrugged. "I like eggs. You'd've done the same in my place. Come to think of it, you did."
Clara had a look at the stoves. "These are gas ovens. Where's the gas coming from?"
"You know, I never thought about that."
"You just did." Clara pulled one of the ovens forward. Sure enough, they weren't connected to anything. "They must be spontaneously generating it. That's something useful."
Jones was plotting the Dalek advance on her map of the tunnels. The defences were collapsing fast now. The key thing was that they had to keep their line of retreat open. There was a passage they'd discovered that led to an underground river. It wasn't on any maps and they never used that route usually, so it was unlikely they would block them off. The only concern was keeping a line of retreat within the base.
"Daleks moving down tunnel 4!" Someone shouted on her radio, this was followed by a lot of screams.
Jones looked at her map. Seizing tunnel 4 would put the Daleks in command of a key junction, that would cut off their retreat. "Blow the tunnel, quickly!" She shouted, but was met by silence.
Another voice came on the radio from the next position along. "This is Lt Smith. They've got behind us! We're trapped! Wait, something's coming..."
Smith watched as a series of blasts erupted from the rear of the Dalek positions. Someone was coming from the emergency tunnel and hitting the Daleks from behind.
"Grab your bombs and charge!" She shouted at her own troops. The two parties together blasted their way through the Daleks and re-took the junction. Seeing another wave coming, Smith quickly hit the detonator to bring the tunnel down.
She looked at their rescuers. "Captain Hammond. Weatley Liberation Front." When they all pointed their guns at him, he added. "Look, we're not all like Maddock. When we heard you were having a crack at the Daleks, a lot of us broke off to join in."
"Thank you." Said Smith, and got on her radio. "We've retaken the entrance, but there's only one tunnel left now."
"I'll signal the evacuation." Said Jones.
Clara and her echo had hastily moved the two stoves to positions on either side of the hatch, as well as building a barricade of furniture deeper into the room. Now, they turned on the gas in the ovens and waited for it to build for a moment.
Clara looked at the hatch, which was starting to vibrate under the Dalek assault. "You realise, of course, they'll still get in, even if this works."
Oswin nodded. "Oh yes. But that's fine. They'll purge me from the mind, and then I'll just become the next echo and so on until I become you. Then I'll escape. Thanks by the way. You've given me a way out."
"And so have you. Thank you." She then snorted. "I must sound vain. Standing here congratulating myself."
By now, the gas had probably built up to a good level. "Ready?"
"Yes."
They turned on the gas on the hobs too. Hopefully, they'd be done before they chocked to death. They then flattened themselves against the wall. Oswin hit two buttons to open the hatch and place a force shield in its place.
The Daleks paused for a minute, then fired some shots at the shield. "IT IS RESISTANT TO WEAPONS FIRE. BUT WE CAN STILL PENETRATE. ADVANCE."
The two Oswalds held their breath as the Supreme led the advance into her space. Clara waited for it to clear the hatch and shouted "Now!"
Oswin hit the button to slam the hatch shut once more. The Supreme, meanwhile had spun Clara's way. An opportunity she used to jam Oswin's ruined soufflé over the eyestalk. The two of them then fled and leapt over the barricade.
The Dalek shouted for assistance and tried to back away, but didn't fire its weapon. It would be able to detect the propane in the air. Fortunately, Clara had devised a means of dealing with that. She had a large ball of tissue and some matches, which she lit and flung at it, before they ducked down and put their fingers in their ears.
The propane ignited. The blast was relatively light where they were but the Dalek was surrounded by a fierce fireball, which detonated the ovens too, smashing shards of metal into it.
They waited a moment for the flames to die down, then grabbed some tools and charged. A simple propane explosion would never be enough to take out a Dalek, but it had weakened the armour a bit. More importantly, it had knocked out the gun.
However as they charged, they encountered two problems. Firstly, the blast had cleared the soufflé and pot from the eyestalk. Secondly, the sucker was still working, and shot out to catch Clara in the stomach, before shoving her inexorably backwards. "YOU WILL SUBMIT YOU WILL SUBMIT."
Clara stumbled against something behind her and grabbed on to the edges to stop herself falling. She realised now that it was an open casing. And the Dalek was forcing her into it.
"NO!" Shouted Oswin. She brought down a steel bar on the arm, as hard as she could, dislodging it from Clara. The two of them then dodged around the arm and grabbed onto the Dalek (using thick gloves to avoid burning their hands,) which they shoved into a corner.
Oswin jammed a wedge into a crack the explosion had put in its armour and the two of them began hammering away. Clara punctuated her whacks with shouts. "I! Will! Not! Submit! I! Will! Not! Obey! I! Will! Never! Be! A! Dalek!"
Finally, they'd opened up a gap, large enough to fit an arm through. Through which, they could see the Dalek mutant.
The rest of the Daleks, meanwhile, had resumed their assault. The hatch was starting to look hot.
"KILLING ME WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO ESCAPE." Said the Supreme.
"Who said anything about killing you?" Oswin grinned. "I need you alive. This mind link is a two way thing." She pulled the neural probes from the mutant and plugged them into her own head. "Attention all Daleks." Her words echoed from the Supreme's suit. "You are ordered to release Clara Oswald from the hive. Make no further attempts to condition her."
"Thank you." Clara said, as the room dissolved around her.
Author's notes: The cannon never makes it clear whether the echoes are a single consciousness moving from person to person, or a lot of different people who are offshoots of Clara. I'm assuming the former for this story.