"What are you trying to do exactly?" Kristoff whispered, grunting under the effort.
"You wouldn't understand," the Doctor said. "Keep holding this beam, I'm nearly finished."
Kristoff, who had been raising a heavy piece of debris just high enough to allow the Doctor to crawl to a gash in the floor, briefly considered dropping it a little to teach him a lesson.
"Try me," he said instead.
"I'm trying to patch through the Dalek communication system and bypass their jamming to contact the Ice Warriors directly. This will probably get us detected, but if we don't yak too much we should have the time to leave before the guards show up."
"Oh, er, well, why are you doing it?" Kristoff said, leaning to the side to get a better view of the Doctor's work. The grey-haired man had accessed some disturbingly organic-looking pipes and tubes that were running under the floor, and was moving them around, removing some from where they went to plug others in their place, and occasionally waving his whistling sonic screwdriver over them. "I thought you said the Ice Warriors could already hear us when the Daleks showed us images of them."
"Yes, but I want to make sure my message got through."
"You mean, the message about the Daleks wanting to wake up the volcano? Can the Ice Warriors do something about it?"
"They should have been able to locate this ship through the transmission I hid in the sensor feed, if Platinum could not remember where it was. They are probably going to mount an attack."
"So, you expect they will rescue us?"
"No, they will be too slowed down by the heat, and they won't have enough ships to protect them. I'm not even sure they will be able to reach the ship before the Daleks complete their plan. Even if they do, a couple of Daleks or even some of their puppets should be able to contain them long enough."
"Wait, I thought the puppets were affected by the heat too?"
"We know at least one of them is not," the Doctor said tersely.
Kristoff almost let go of the beam, and almost wished he had.
"So why did you ask the Ice Warriors to come if it's useless?"
"I didn't ask the Ice Warriors to come, Reindeer Man. I merely thought they should like to know the threat they are facing, even if I also know that means they will come running no matter the cost. And anyway, that was not the message I was talking about," the Doctor went on.
"So what was your message?" Kristoff growled. "Was that the part about telling Elsa that Anna was… what had happened to her?"
"OK I think this should work now," the Doctor said. "Do you see something on the screen over there?" he said, pointing to a panel in the wall.
To Kristoff's surprise, what had seemed like some particularly reflective piece of metal was slowly becoming brighter, as if lit from behind. Strange patterns began to form on the surface.
"Er, it looks like, uh…"
"Yes, it's working," the Doctor said, suddenly standing at his side. "Now we have to hope the Ice Warriors will pick up our signal before the Daleks."
He quickly moved to the panel and began fiddling with the knobs under it, causing the patterns that appeared on the surface to waver and change.
"Er… can I let go of this beam now?" Kristoff said.
"What? Oh, yes, if you want," the Doctor said absently, still fiddling with the knobs. "Just tell me if you see some Daleks or their puppets approaching."
Kristoff slowly replaced the beam on the floor, then went to check the corridor they had come through. They were in a particularly damaged area of the ship, and most of the access was cluttered with debris and the occasional smashed Dalek. Kristoff failed to see any ominous blue light through the gloom and could not hear any stomping either. He turned to the Doctor, just in time to see images forming on the strange panel.
The Ice Warrior ship had little in common with the Dalek one, and nothing in common with any ship Elsa had travelled on on Earth. The interior did vaguely remind her of a ship's cabin, but this mostly had to do with the size and general shape than any furniture or equipment. It was made of metal, with blinking lights of various colours everywhere, and large screens on the side and in the front.
Elsa had been led to a chair made of a material she did not recognise, and instructed on how to fasten herself thanks to some kind of harness. The chair had been designed for Ice Warriors, and Elsa was reminded of how she felt as a child when sitting on the large armchairs in the castle. She tried to take in as much as she could of what was happening around her, but was no more successful than when she had tried that in the Ice Warriors control centre.
Eventually the various screens lit up while Ice Warrior voices echoed in the unusual cabin, and Elsa felt a tremor coursing through the ship. There was a brief sensation of pressure, as if she was heavier for a second, and then more blinking lights and Ice Warriors talking about unintelligible things. Elsa heard Ixadra give orders that seemed to target her whole army instead of just the few Ice Warriors in the ship. And then the screens around the cabin began showing the red ground of Mars, but apparently seen from far above.
The view was breathtaking, even though it was an unfamiliar, barren landscape. One of the screens, she noticed, showed the horizon – she could make out the shape of the volcano in the distance, and the sky above. Seeing things from a height was not an unknown point of view for her – after all, this was what you could see from a tall mountain. But being able to see the ground below without any slope linking to it was completely new.
And then she saw the Ice Warriors on the screens. They were moving on the ground like a swarm of green and very disciplined ants. Elsa leaned forward in her seat to try to get a better view. Watching people moving at a distance was something she was used to, thanks to her trips into the mountains with Anna and Kristoff. Being able to tell if the other travellers you spotted were all right, even when they were far away, was important there.
"They have trouble moving," she said.
She had not spoken very loudly, but Ixadra heard her from her seat.
"Yesss, Queen Elsssa. The temperature outssside is now much higher. All my warriorsss on the ground are affected."
"They have no way to protect themselves?"
"We have accessss only to thisss ship. These temperatures have not happened on Marsss for a very long time."
Elsa sagged back in her seat, as on the screen the Ice Warrior army trudged slowly forward.
"We will cover them until we reach the Dalek ship," Ixadra went on. "They will be going asss fassst asss they can."
"And… what will happen there? Are you going to fight even while slowed down so much?"
"Yesss. For the honour and glory of the Martian Empire."
"Does this ship not have any, er, cannons? Or weapons of a sort?"
"Of course. We will sssupport our troopsss. But the Daleksss are likely to possssessss countermeasuresss to thisss. We have to be ready."
"Well at least you are sheltered from the… Wait, it's cold in this ship?"
"Yesss. I hope your garmentsss shelter you enough if thisss temperature is lower than what you are accussstomed to."
Elsa looked wordlessly at her hands, then exhaled slowly, looking at her breath. Before she had the time to do anything more, she heard exclamations from the Ice Warriors. She looked up to discover that one of the screens was now showing a distorted image instead of the landscape below. As she watched, the image flickered and moved, like a reflection on the surface of a troubled pond, before coalescing into something more recognisable. Elsa gasped as she discovered it now showed Kristoff and the Doctor, standing side to side in some dark place that seemed littered with debris. A cracking, sizzling sound, that had been echoing around the ship since the image had appeared, changed in pitch until it became intelligible voices, although still distorted and occasionally interrupted by a scratch.
"Oh, hello, your Majesty," the Doctor's voice said with a metal echo. "I suppose you are not trying to find a sheltered place far away from here?"
"Indeed not, Doctor. We are attacking the Dalek ship," Ixadra hissed triumphantly.
"You know that in these conditions you have very little chances of stopping the Daleks before they wake up the volcano?"
"Then we will die trying!"
"Doctor!" Elsa called, rising from her seat after managing to disentangle herself from the harness. "Doctor, can you hear me?"
"Oh, good, you're here Platinum. Thank you for bringing her, Queen Ixadra."
"What are you going to do about Anna?" Elsa asked, walking toward the screen. The ship was rather cramped, but only by Ice Warrior standards, which meant that Elsa could move around almost freely.
"Me? I'm not going to do anything, Platinum. She shot me, and knocked Reindeer Man out. I don't think either of us is qualified to get through to her. And that's assuming we could actually reach her. She's probably patrolling with her squad of Dalek puppets."
"What happened to her?" Elsa cried, her voice echoing in the small space.
"The Daleks replaced all of her emotions with hatred," the Doctor said matter-of-factly, while Kristoff growled something behind him. "Hush, Reindeer Man. At least the Daleks did not have the time to implant a puppeteer, and I doubt they took the time to send her back to the conversion chamber, not when they are so close to completing their plan. So there may be some shreds of other feelings lingering around, but I can't guarantee it will be easy to bring them to the fore."
"Doctor, have you found the weak pointsss in the Dalek ship?" Ixadra demanded. "Where should we attack firssst?"
As the Doctor began to answer, the image blurred while the scratching sounds increased in volume and number, covering his voice. In a few seconds, the image had dissolved into a series of swirls while the sound had returned to a series of buzzings and screeching. Then the image solidified as quickly as it had disappeared, while the buzzing receded. But instead of the Doctor and Kristoff, the screen now showed a small group of Daleks.
For the briefest of seconds, Elsa felt a surge of this mix of fear and hate that the Daleks had inspired in her ever since she had fought one, but it disappeared just as quickly, to be replaced with a strange sense of relief at the idea that maybe she would get answers about Anna.
"THIS TRANSMISSION HAS BEEN INTERCEPTED," one of the Daleks intoned. Only the small lights on either side of its head lighting up with each syllable allowed to know which one it was. "THE DOCTOR AND HIS ACCOMPLICE WILL BE CAPTURED AND EXTERMINATED."
"The Ice Warriorsss will fight you, Daleksss!" Ixadra snarled. "Don't think for a second that we will let you dessstroy our world without fighting back!"
"WE HAVE BEEN MONITORING YOUR PROGRESSION. YOU WILL NOT ARRIVE IN TIME TO POSE ANY THREAT TO OUR PLAN. THE DALEKS WILL PREVAIL."
"Daleks!" Elsa shouted, to her own surprise. "Where is my sister?"
The Daleks slowly swivelled their heads to point their eyestalk in her direction as if they were able to see her through the screen – which was probably the case. It was eerie how much they seemed to be standing behind a glass panel instead of simply being images somehow projected there.
"WE DO NOT HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF A SISTER."
"Yes you do! You turned her into one of your… puppets. I formally ask you to release her."
"DALEKS SLAVES WILL NOT BE RELEASED."
Elsa winced. Somehow the word slave was worse than puppet, especially when shrieked in the metallic tones of a Dalek.
"Anna is not your slave!" she shouted. "She does not deserve to be turned into those… puppets of yours. Nobody does! I demand that you release them!"
"DALEKS DO NOT YIELD TO DEMANDS."
"You will let me see my sister!" Elsa shouted. "Just… let me speak to her!"
"YOU ARE THE CRYOKINETIC HUMAN," another Dalek stated.
"Yes," was all Elsa could answer, feeling another pang of pain at the memory of Anna flatly calling her by that name.
"YOUR PREVIOUS DISPLAY OF POWER HAS BEEN ANALYSED AND TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT. YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO DESTROY ANY MORE DALEKS. YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED AND DISSECTED FOR STUDIES," the second Dalek intoned, in the closest a Dalek could be to a smug tone.
Elsa drew herself up.
"I'm not going to fight you," she said softly. "You're not worth it. Anna is all that matters."
There was a sizzling sound. Blue light coursed over Elsa's body, twirling and whirling into delicate shapes that engulfed the tattered remains of her dress and the cape she had been wearing over her shoulders. The clothes seemed to dissolve into the light to make place to a light blue ensemble that included a jacket, a dress, leggings and boots.
"You recovered your powersss," Ixadra hissed with approbation. "Are you going to assssissst usss in the assssault?"
"I can do other things than fighting," Elsa said, as much for the Daleks on the screen as for the Ice Queen beside her.
She waved her hand in a complicated gesture.
"DALEKS ARE NOW PROTECTED AGAINST CRYOTHAUMATURGICAL ATTACKS! YOU ARE NO THREAT TO US AT THIS RANGE!"
"I was not aiming at you," Elsa said softly.
In the small ship, the screens that showed the sky were suddenly obscured as a gigantic cloud formed above the Martian army.
A few seconds later, they showed snow falling heavily on the red landscape.
Kristoff looked frantically around him, in case an issue had escaped him the first time. The green light of the Doctor's sonic screwdriver projected strange shadows as he waved it over the mass of debris that blocked their path.
"Can't your, uh, screwdriver, clear us a path through this?" Kristoff said, checking behind him. He could already see the blue points of light in the distance, closing in on them.
"It's a sonic screwdriver, Reindeer Man. It does not move your furniture for you," the Doctor said tersely. "Although it could help you assemble it much quicker."
There had been another mad dash through the corridors of the Dalek ship. Kristoff had not understood much, but apparently the fact that the Daleks had managed to shut down their communication with Elsa and the Ice Warriors meant that they would know where they were – and sure enough, their puppets had shown up soon after. Kristoff was beginning to think that accompanying the Doctor meant dividing one's time between not understanding much of what was going on, witnessing horrible things happening to the people you loved, and running away from something. But it seemed the Doctor's luck had run out this time, as their path had ended up blocked by a huge pile of debris, and it was too late now to double back.
"Is that another of your clever plans?" Kristoff said. "Or am I supposed to do something?"
"No, that's a minor setback," the Doctor said, placing back his screwdriver in his jacket, which meant that the corridor went almost completely dark, save for the lights from the Dalek puppets closing in on them. "You can't do anything to help right now, Reindeer Man. Better calm down and wait."
"Wait? Wait for what? For them to bring us to the Daleks, who will turn us into puppets?"
"Oh, no, I don't think they will do that. They are probably going to exterminate us right away. I hope I did not make a mistake."
"Yes, you did! You brought us here!"
The Ice Warriors puppets were less than thirty feet away now. Kristoff rummaged in the debris behind him, trying to find anything that could be used as a weapon.
"Oh, that. No, that was only bad luck. I hope I did not overestimate Platinum's intelligence."
"What has Elsa's intelligence to do with this?" Kristoff shouted. He managed to yank part of a metal plate and brandished it as the puppets pointed their weapons at them.
And stopped.
For a second the Ice Warrior puppets stood motionless, the sticks in their forehead illuminating the scene with a sickly blue glow. Then they slowly turned round and stomped back through the corridor they had come from.
"What did you do?" Kristoff asked, slowly lowering his makeshift weapon.
"Me? Nothing. But I guess Platinum did something clever."
"Elsa? But what could she have done?"
"If I had to guess," the Doctor said, taking out his sonic screwdriver once more and pointing it around him, "I'd say she lowered the temperature on the surface enough for the Ice Warriors to regain their speed. This makes them a legitimate threat again, and the Daleks need to divert all their resources to stop them. Which included the puppets about to catch us."
He set off walking leisurely in the direction the puppets had come from. Kristoff stood in place for a moment, trying to make sense of what the Doctor had said, before rushing to catch up with him.
"Wait, Doctor… Elsa can't do that!" he said. "She has lost her powers, remember?"
"Did you not notice when we saw her on the screen earlier? Her breath does not cause condensation any more."
"Er… no, I missed that. Then, how…"
"Like I said, I don't know, Reindeer Man. I don't know why she got these powers, I don't know why she lost them, and I don't know how she regained them." He brandished his screwdriver at an intersection, and walked into the branching corridor. "But if I had to theorise, I'd say that, since Platinum's powers seem to be tied to her emotions, it could have been a powerful emotion that caused her to lose them, and another powerful emotion that allowed her to regain them. Possibly a certain frame of mind, too. Anyway, I'm glad I did not miscalculate."
"You… you planned for this?" Kristoff said, racking his brain to try understanding what all of this implied. "So… when you told Elsa that Anna had been turned into, into…"
"Speed up, Reindeer Man. No, I did not plan all of this precisely, but I hoped it would turn out that way. Now most of the Dalek puppets are busy somewhere else, and since I estimate there are less than a dozen Daleks in this ship, this means there will be very few guards left."
"Oh, so you can, er, go and stop them from blowing up the volcano?"
"No, that would involve the last places they are still guarding. But their conversion centre should be easier to access now."
"And you will cure Anna?"
The Doctor sighed as he checked his sonic screwdriver before taking another direction.
"I told you already, Reindeer Man, I can't do anything to help Freckles." He turned and gave Kristoff what he probably thought was a reassuring smile. "But don't worry, she will probably be sent outside with the other puppets to stop the Ice Warriors."
"What? They are sending Anna on a battlefield? But, Doctor…"
"Oh, please, Reindeer Man. Don't force me to restrain you once again. We don't have time to lose if we want to reach this conversion chamber in time."
"But what are you going to do there? Stop them from turning other people into puppets?"
"No, something more clever than that, I hope. Or completely useless. It will depend on Platinum… and Freckles."
Elsa was impressed. It was obviously difficult to get a precise idea of the speed at which the flying ship of Ixadra was going, but it seemed to be moving rather quickly judging from the landmarks – and this was while matching speed with the Ice Warrior army on the ground. The green men had hit their stride under the cover of the giant flurry she had made for them, and they seemed to be walking faster than she would have been running. The hill under which the Dalek ship was hidden was now visible in the distance on the front screen, although Elsa had been given to understand that the image had been magnified somehow as if seen from a spyglass. Nevertheless, the fact that they were already in sight was impressive, although to be honest Elsa did not have a precise idea of the distance between the Dalek ship and the Ice Warrior base – unlike the Doctor who had taken a very convoluted path through the bottom of canyons, the Ice Warriors were making a beeline to it.
"Are you sure you don't want to fight alongssside usss?" Ixadra asked once again. "Now that your powersss are returned they could be a real asssset to usss."
"I told you already, I want to find my sister first," Elsa said. "And I will try to help you as best I can. But I… I really would like to avoid using my powers to kill again. Even Daleks."
"My Queen," one of the Ice Warriors hissed, "I have located their army of puppetss. They are taking position near the base of the ship."
"Sssignal the ground troops to get ready for combat," Ixadra said eagerly. "We will give our fallen warriorsss the ressst they deserved."
"Can I see their army?" Elsa asked politely, moving next to the Ice Warrior who had reported. He briefly glanced at Ixadra for confirmation before tapping a control. The screen in front of him showed a magnified view of the fake hill, along with a lot of blinking lights of different colours that moved around the screen above the view.
Elsa concentrated on the image, trying to understand what the various lights superimposed over the image meant. As she looked, she saw some indecipherable symbols displayed on one side morph into words she recognised. Even if she did not understand everything, she finally managed to figure out that some of the lights were marking the position of enemy warriors entrenched near the base of the hill. And then the markings moved again, and she saw that some Ice Warriors – or rather, if she read the markings correctly, puppets - were walking toward them.
"Four ssquads moving to intercept our army, my Queen," the Ice Warrior breathed. "They sseem sslow."
"Thisss will be glorious," Ixadra said gleefully. "Thanks to you, Queen Elsssa of Arendelle, the warriors the Daleksss turned into their puppetsss are ssslowed by the heat, but not oursss. Their desssacration will be their downfall! Forward, my warriors!"
It seemed to Elsa the cloud above them moved even faster. She looked back at the screen showing the magnified view of the fake hill and the tactical information about their opponents. She eventually identified one marking that seemed different than the others.
"Er… could you, er… get a magnified view on the, uh, person identified with this light?" she asked, pointing at the screen. "The text seems different..."
"This enemy puppet is not an Ice Warrior," the warrior manning the screen answered after a quick glance at the controls. He tapped some buttons in front of him and the image changed, showing a much closer view of the target.
Elsa felt a shiver down her spine as the "enemy" in question proved to be whom she had suspected. Her sister was carrying a large object, somewhat different in design from the weapon that Ixadra had wanted to give her, but which most likely fulfilled the same purpose. The image was magnified enough, or possibly they were already that close, to allow seeing her in good detail. Anna was moving jerkily, looking straight ahead of her with a blank expression on her face. But even with this halting pace she was moving faster than the other Ice Warriors in her squad, who were stumbling further and further behind her.
"That is Anna!" Elsa said. "She's not an enemy!"
"Queen Elsssa, your sssissster has been turned into a Dalek ssservant. There is nothing left of her…"
"No!" Elsa interrupted with force. "Order your troops not to fire on her. Please, Queen Ixadra. I want to try and save her."
"You are wasssting your time, Queen Elsssa. And endangering yourssself."
"This is the fight I want to have. No fight is without danger."
Ixadra hissed for a second, looking at Elsa. Then she tapped a control at her armrest.
"Thisss is your Queen," she intoned. "Do not engage in combat with target Xal-13."
"Thank you," Elsa said. "Thank you very much. Er… I would like to disembark, now."
"What are you hoping to accomplish?"
"I want to talk to her. I want to try to bring her back, to save her. She did that for me, once."
Ixadra hissed again for a second before answering. Then she removed a large knife from somewhere in her armour.
"Your persssissstence honoursss you, Queen Elsssa of Arendelle. Thisss blade will help you terminate the sssuffering of your sssissster."
"Er, thank you, Queen Ixadra, but that will not be necessary."
"Please accept it asss a parting gift, then. Should thisss fight prove to be the lassst one for either of usss."
Elsa hesitated, then gingerly picked up the large knife and cautiously placed it into a scabbard of ice she conjured at her belt.
"Now, er, for going down? Is there some way I could, er, jump? Even if we are high up, I should be able to use my powers to slide to the ground."
"Use the short-range transmat to send Queen Elsa down close to target Xal-13," Ixadra ordered.
"Er, thank you" Elsa said uncertainly. "How do I…"
One of the Ice Warriors gestured to her to move toward the back of the ship. She walked there to a small platform, on which the Ice Warrior urged her to step.
"Thank you, Queen Ixadra," Elsa called as she climbed the platform. "Er... now what do I…"
Light suddenly surrounded her. In a second, she found herself basking in a bright glow, as if she had been walking through a fog on a very sunny day. The light increased again, and the ship around her seemed to dissolve behind the glare, until Elsa could not see anything around her beyond the blinding light. Then the light receded as quickly as it had come, revealing the desolate landscape of Mars around her. Elsa looked incredulously at her feet, and found them resting on the red soil instead of the platform on which she had been standing a second ago.
She looked up. She had not realised that it was still night. The screens on the Martian ship had been showing images as clear as day, although now she realised that the lighting had seemed strange. But the scenery was still well lit from the stars in the sky, including two large and bright ones. Elsa also spotted another light that seemed closer, and realised that it was quite probable the Ice Warriors had some way to illuminate the night with their flying ships – it was certainly a small feat compared to the wonders they were capable of. Looking behind her, Elsa could see in the distance the giant flurry she had conjured for the Ice Warriors, and fancied she could feel the stomping of their feet through the ground, even though they were still far - unless the slight tremors she felt were due to the volcano awakening. Then she looked ahead again, just in time to see a lone figure moving jerkily into view, brandishing a large weapon, and walking straight toward her. The figure aimed the weapon in Elsa's direction.
"Exterminate!" Anna said, and fired.
Author's Notes: The two bright stars Elsa sees are Phobos and Deimos, Mars' two satellites. They are much smaller than the Moon and apparently appear not much larger than a star or a planet when seen from the surface of Mars.