Doctor Who and the Universe of the Daleks: Chapter 18: Down, Down Into The Darkness Below

I may have had a more refined version up on Archive of Our Own, but they're down for the month+, so this is all I gots. Oh backups and iteration issues, Batman!

Sergei waved Wendy over to the rickety birch ladder. “Quick! Climb down,” he urged. “There’s no time to waste. I’ll hold it steady.”

Wendy stopped short and looked about. “You said you were with my sister; where is she?” 

Sergei sighed. Context. He had to set some emotional context if he was to have any hope of getting her to do what he wanted. What was necessary. “She has a mission to lead.” He walked over and put his hands on her shoulders. “To do that effectively, she has to know you’re safe. At the far side of the waste pit, behind that rusted metal sheeting, is the entrance to a tunnel. Go to the far end…” His voice trailed off. Wendy’s eyes were staring not at him, but over his shoulder.

Sergei stiffened and turned, using his best imitation of a robot. He found himself face to face with the roboman Madden. 

“No revision to the orders for Work Detail Three Five B was issued. Explain. Who gave the order?” the roboman demanded, his speech slow and deliberate. 

Sergei looked up at the man and swallowed hard. Madden had at least fifty pounds on him, and longer reach. On the other hand, robomen were slow witted. Orders had to be funnelled through the helmet control apparatus. And they were doggedly procedural and literal minded. Like zombie bureaucrats. 

That gave Sergei an idea. He raised up an arm and pointed at the shed. “He did.”

The roboman’s brow furrowed. He then turned towards the shed. 

As he did so, Sergei pulled out a knife and shoved it up between Madden’s ribs, through a lung, and into man’s heart. The roboman let out an airless gasp, staggered, and fell face first into the dirt. Sergei yanked out the knife, wiped it on the corpses’ back, then sat on the dead man’s back and examined the helmet. He found the tracking transponder, yanked it out and smashed it with the butt of the knife. 

As he clambered awkwardly to his feet, he noticed Wendy, who was gaping at the corpse. 

“Move!” hissed Sergei. “Don’t you understand? They’ll know he’s dead soon enough. Go out the end of the tunnel and hide in the bushes there. If we don’t arrive by dark, head south. Do you hear?!?” He gave her a quick shake. 

She snapped out of it and looked into his eyes. “Cas?”

“She’ll see you soon. It’s going to be alright, but there’s no time to waste. Go!” 

Wendy nodded, rushed down the ladder and ran towards the discarded metal sheeting.

Sergei watched her slip beneath it and fix it back in place. Satisfied, he ran north, weaving between stacks of wood and equipment, his feet pounding on plank pathways. 

Any response force would take at least a few minutes to arrive; robomen were slow. Very slow. And there were few Daleks up top. He didn’t know their top speed, but was willing to bet he could outrun them on uneven ground. 

Besides, they must have mechanical and transmission failures, too. From the cheap, shoddy construction of the helmets, he’d bet that happened all the time.

They wouldn’t know it was a murder for sure until they found the body.

By then, he’d be in the access shaft elevator and on his way down to the strike team.

Doctor Who and the Universe of the Daleks: Chapter 17: Chaos Of Combat

We're nearing the end. Stay with me! Bite sized morsel today. Wafer thin! You can do it...

Cas slapped explosive paste onto the back grill of the Red Dalek, stuck in a detonator stick and snapped off the end. She grabbed at The Doctor, to pull him away. “Move or we’re dead!” she shouted. He was oblivious, waving his silly sonic device at the door lock mechanism. To Cas’s great surprise, the door suddenly slid up into the wall. “I knew it was a progressive series of frequencies,” he beamed. She looked at him like he was insane, as he clearly was. The detonator stick started to spark. She plowed into The Doctor with all her strength, shoving him through the doorway. 

“Get down!” She swung him bodily up against the wall with reserves of strength she didn’t know she had, pushed him down, and enveloped him with her arms and torso. 

“ASSIST! VISION IMPAIRED!” continued the Red Dalek hysterically. 

The bronze door began to descend.

There was a tremendously loud bang, followed by a grating shriek that ended in a wet gurgle. Sizzling debris fragments spattered over them. She batted them off and stood up as the door swung open again.

“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” blared disembodied Dalek voices.  

“To hell with you!” shouted a gruff voice. 

Craddock! Had to be. “That you Craddock? Get out! The north east door!” she shouted. She checked her submachine gun. She’d loaded it with armour piercing bullets, perhaps she could take out a vision system…

“They got me, Cas! I’m leg disabled!” came Craddock’s desperate, strained voice from within the churning smoke. “Finish the mission. Tell my kids I love them! I’m going to pop the lot! Go!” 

“SEEK! EXTERMINATE!” thundered the Daleks in unison. Cas saw one sweep by, obscured by red mist, moving south towards the transformer ring. 

The intercom crackled: “ALL UNITS! KA FARAQ GATRI IN ARC TWO POINT THREE RING ONE LEVEL EIGHTY. CONVERGE AND ISOLATE. INCAPACITATE! DO NOT REPEAT DO NOT EXTERMINATE!”

“Come on!” Cas hauled The Doctor to his feet. “Run!”

There! You made it! All done for another week. Isn't reading fun? 

Sarah Paine on Ukraine, Russia, Continentalists, yada yada yada, the end of the world

This was a good discussion, despite the click bait title. 

Paine's one smart cookie; I've listened to several of her talks, and prefer her narrative (and Alexander Stubbs) over that of John Mearsheimer (who's said some whoppers over the last few years, from claiming that the Maiden Revolution was a CIA orchestrated coup and that Putin is doing everything he can to avoid civilian casualties, to the claim that the massacre of civilians—including bound women and children, along with torture chambers & rape rooms—around Bucha was Ukraine's fault, as they'd distributed firearms as the invasion unfolded). 

Love to see them debate. 

Doctor Who and the Universe of the Daleks: Chapter 16: Light's Out

Tyr swore every Dalek curse it could think of. Their progress had been far too easy. Obviously there was an ambush awaiting them. Tyr should have anticipated this, but it had been too excited at their seeming progress. 

There was only one chance now: claim ownership!

“Halt! I am Dalek Tyr,” it called out in Dalekese, raising the hands of its undead host and stepping away from the other humans. “I am one of you! I have lured the humans here.”

“Stay calm, everyone. It’s alright,” said The Doctor, ignoring Fiona-Tyr. “This is a fight we can’t win. Lower your weapons.” He put a hand on Cas’s submachine gun. She hardly noticed: she was gaping in disbelief at Fiona. 

Ha! Humans were so easily fooled! The Daleks, however, would not be. Somehow Tyr had to make its role in this significant. 

But how?

“Bollocks,” snarled Craddock. “They’re not taking me alive!” 

Wait. Did that stupid human have something in its hand? 

A small metal object—

A tremendous explosion shook the chamber. Thick, acrid smoke puffed out from beneath the south door. 

The lighting flickered and went out. 

Blackness. 

“ALERT!” exclaimed the Red Dalek. Fiona-Tyr could see where all the Daleks were thanks to their glowing blue eyestalk lenses. “SWITCH TO INFRARED.”

There was a loud woosh and flash of light as Ian fired a Phoenix missile into a Dalek by the north wall. It exploded into metal fragments, searing the wall behind it black and leaving a glowing red gouge. Smoke billowed out over the floor. 

“UNDER ATTACK!” shrieked the two Daleks on the balcony. A beam of high intensity radiation bathed Ian. Tones inverted, like an X-Ray, and he crumpled, smoking, to the floor. “EXTERIMINATE! EXTERMINATE!” 

Red emergency lights snapped on.

Tyr called out again in Dalekese, to no avail. It ran its host over to the wall, to get out of the line of fire.

Craddock ducked behind the transformer, fumbling with his rocket launcher. Sanjay fired a rocket at the balcony, blowing a section apart and taking part of the lower casing of a Dalek with it. The bulky travel machine toppled forward and fell with a tremendous crash to the floor. 

There was the loud flash and woosh of Phoenix launchers going off. 

“SENSOR OVERLOAD! SENSOR OVERLOAD!” cried one of the Dalek drones, firing wildly.

A stray shot hit an upper transformer ring and it shattered into a shower of glittering metal shards.

“ACTIVATE THERMAL OVERLOAD RELAYS!”

“Get prone!” shouted a voice. “They’re firing level!”

The smoke was now so dense it was hard to see anything. 

Tyr-Fiona stumbled forward, trying to reach the Red Dalek, to claim victory. It’s human host was having difficulty breathing, and coughed involuntarily.

As it emerged from a cloud of smoke, it saw The Doctor was now behind the Red Dalek, and had placed his coat over its eyestalk. He’d pulled Cas along with him. She was fumbling in her satchel bag. 

“VISION IMPAIRED! VISION IMPAIRED!” bleated the Red Dalek, panicking. It began to fire its weapon randomly. The first shot fried Rueben. The second shot hit a Dalek drone in its rear power dish, funnelling the energy through its power systems and causing a massive cascading overload that shot the turret off with the explosive force of a cannon shell. It clanged against the ceiling and then fell to the floor trailing black smoke.

“I am Dalek Tyr! I have lured the human terrorists here, along with the Ka Faraq Gatri!  I claim Right of Victory!” it babbled in slurred Dalekese. Kaq-pui! The humans mouth was not formed for speaking Dalek. Tyr itself could hardly understand! Yet Tyr could not let go of its host, not with such chaos—

The Red Dalek’s third blast caught Fiona at point blank range. 

Tyr’s host toppled over and landed against the wall grating, dead. 

Tyr was badly burned, but he was far more resistant to radiation than Fiona. Reciting The Hymn of Hate, it pushed through the agony and slithered over to the metal grating. Prehensile tentacles quickly unscrewed the grating bolts, and it slipped into the welcoming darkness of the power conduits.

Doctor Who and the Universe of the Daleks: Chapter 15: Surrounded

New chapter coming in hot!

The elevator door clanked open and the assault team disgorged into a wide, round metal room. Cas kept herself out in front of The Doctor, attempting to shield her most valuable resource. 

It was her first time actually inside a Dalek installation, and it was a daunting experience. She’d never been in such a clean, shiny, brightly lit environment before. It was like being inside one of those old Christmas decorations. 

The walls were slightly angled inward and bronze in colour, the floor plating gun metal. Thick cables ran along the ceiling, with lighting strips on either side. There were three corridors, two wrapping around the hanger tunnel, and one going east. 

She couldn’t read Dalek numbers, but going by the buttons and the number of rows, they were at least seventy stories underground. 

She turned to The Doctor. “Are you sure this is the right floor?” 

“No, but it’s the bottom floor, and had a big red button, so probably,” said the Doctor, shutting his eyes.

Cas scanned the hallways. No sign of Daleks. “Which way?” she asked over her shoulder. Silence. Puzzled, she turned, only to find The Doctor was gone. In of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of a figure marching up the north hallway: The Doctor! 

What the—?!?

Cas and the rest of the team ran to catch up. 

Intercoms along the hallway crackled to life: “ATTENTION! ATTENTION! COMMAND COMPLEX WILL BE SEALED IN THIRTY RELS. POWER LEVELS TO MAXIMUM. PREPARE TO INITIATE FIRST STAGE. STAND BY!”

“We don’t have much time!” shouted The Doctor, maintaining his brisk pace. “Alons-y!”

“Keep your voice down, for love of God!” Cas stopped and let her team pass by, mentally name checking each as they did so. Where the blazes was Craddock? Blast! He’d stopped in the middle of the hallway. He was standing on his tippy toes, arms up, touching the ceiling cables. There was some kind of junction box there. “Craddock! Come on, man!” she hissed.

Craddock sheepishly met her gaze, gathered his kit and trotted up beside her. “Sorry, boss. Setting insurance.”

“Stick together!” she snapped. “You know better. We don’t want to get separated down here.”

They caught up with the others as they entered a large, multilevel chamber. A large circular monitor was mounted on the east wall, flanked by a circular interface ports and a passageway. A balcony wrapped around the room about six meters up.. Along the base of the walls were heavy metal gratings, behind which ran thick, insulated cables. A large metal transformer, sixty feet high, dominated the centre of the chamber. Ripples of energy passed up its length. It was set into a trough lined with machinery. 

“What about this?” asked Craddock, opening up his satchel and approaching the column. “It looks important.”

“Perhaps,” muttered The Doctor, approaching one of the monitors. “Voltage conversion for the fission stacks. Only there’s no power running through it.”

“How do you know?”

“Sensitive to energy fields. There’s only enough to keep the circuit active.”

“At least we haven’t run into a Dalek patrol,” said Cas. “Our luck is holding. Sanjay, Ian, watch the exits.” 

Ian grunted and hefted his Phoenix launcher. “Bring’em on, guv.”

The Doctor walked over to the monitor. “Yes, it is convenient, isn’t it? Almost too convenient…” The Doctor placed a hand on the interface panel and the screen swirled to life. “Neural interface. Interesting,” he muttered. The monitor flicked through neon green floor plans in rapid succession. 

Cas and Fiona walked up beside him. “Where next?”

“Susan’s just up ahead. I can feel it. But I want to get a lay of the land before we go in, to be on the safe side. Oh… Now that’s odd—”

The south door clanged shut. 

Daleks flooded into the room from the two eastern passages, the tunnel north, and onto the balcony above, six in total. They were led by a Red Dalek, who emerged from the north east passage.

“YOU ARE SURROUNDED! SURRENDER OR BE EXTERMINATED!” it boomed, levelling its weapon at The Doctor.

Doctor Who and the Universe of the Daleks: Chapter 14: Into The Breach

Welcome to another bite-sized chapter, abridged for the Tik Tok generation! Who says an old tiger can't change his stripes, or medium, or apps, or service provider? Is blogging even a thing anymore?

Wendy stooped down and picked up a large rock, lifting it up using her knees. Proper form was key to avoiding injury. Injury was death. The Daleks swiftly disposed of anyone unproductive. Her work team had been shoring up the hanger tunnel all day. Ten hours? Twelve? They’d been given a ten minute break, then sent topside and reassigned to debris clearing. There’d been a few incidents of rocks damaging the saucers: as they rose out of the tunnel, their antigrav engines sometimes caught up debris in their wake vortice. 

This would be the last shift of the day. Phil and Molly had retrieved wheelbarrows from the work shed depot. 

She walked over to Phil’s and dropped the rock in with a clunk, wiped sweat from her brow, and risked a glance over her shoulder. The Dalek had moved on, checking on other work details to the north. The two robomen unrolled their whips and walked among the slaves, slashing at them if they dared to pause. One was tall with red hair, the other built like a boxer. His name had been Madden. He’d been a slave for several months before he’d been converted. 

He’d always shared his bread ration. 

As he approached, she quickly bent down and grabbed another rock, following his progress out of the corner of her eye.  

As she stood, she noticed another work detail walking out from behind the work shed. It was coming in their direction. Wendy squinted. She didn’t have her glasses, but this lot looked much better fed than was typical. Their clothes, too, were in good condition. And the boots! What wonderful boots they wore, she thought enviously. Several held bundles wrapped in cloth. 

Strange. 

Who were these privileged prisoners? 

Ah. They were actually making for the access shaft. 

One of the robomen peeled off and walked towards her. Madden went to intercept, to confer, as was roboman custom.

They exchanged a few words. Too far away for her to hear. She had to keep busy putting rocks into the wheelbarrow. But she did notice Madden stiffen. That meant he was waiting for orders. Something untypical was happening. The other roboman stepped neatly past him and approached Wendy.

He piqued her curiosity: this roboman moved a little too fast, too surely. 

“Don’t react,” said the burly fellow. His face was stoic, but his eyes! His eyes were lively. Expressive. Wendy looked him over: he wore a pristine flight suit and carried a good deal of equipment, including something wrapped in a sack slung over his shoulder. A shovel, perhaps? He was armed with a submachine gun, and his strong chin was covered in stubble. “You’re Wendy? Just nod.” 

She gaped. He sounded normal! Impossible! Had his helmet short circuited? Had he killed a roboman, and stolen it? Should she alert the other roboman? Would they kill her for failing to?

“My name’s Sergei,” he said with a big, toothy grin. “I’m with your sister. I’m here to rescue you.”