Doctor Who: Myths and Legends

by Richard Dinnick

  Daleks. Skaldak found himself wanting to spit. Even the fearsome warriors of Mars feared these creatures. The Grand Marshal knew there was no shame in fear. Fear kept a warrior sharp. Complacency and stupidity were as much his enemies as the motorised cones from Skaro.

  The sacrifice of the cruiser Saavid was a military calculation. By commanding it to separate from battle formation and head for the far side of the nearest planet, it had appeared to the Daleks as if the ship were fleeing, deserting. Indeed, Skaldak had sent a blanket of sub-space transmissions cursing them for abandoning their posts and threats of vengeance and punishment. They were encoded, but not so strongly that the Dalek cypher computers could not decode them.

  The Dalek strategy was always for overkill. They had sent two assault ships where one would have done. They wanted to ensure the strategic advantage and in so doing had thrown it away. For now, as the two Dalek vessels moved in to completely destroy the Saavid, it jettisoned its hyper-drive core right between the two enemy ships.

  ‘Do it,’ said Skaldak, his teeth clenched in a grim smile.

  A wave of energy bolts from the impulse cannon streaked across the heavens. One impacted the core and there was a blinding flash that took a few moments to clear from the screen. Then the shockwave hit the Thassis itself, causing the command deck to quiver slightly despite its shielding. The effect on the Daleks’ assault ships was devastating. They had almost literally been atomised. The explosion of the core had obliterated the ships and their crew, leaving nothing larger than a Dalek dome floating in space.

  ‘Confirm enemy numberss,’ he said, sitting back in his command chair.

  ‘The Dalekss have only two shhipss remaining, Grand Marshal,’ replied a warrior. ‘A command ssaucer and one assssault shhip.’

  ‘We sstill have three,’ another added. ‘Oursselves and two desstroyerss.’

  Skaldak smiled in the semi-darkness. He dressed like his warriors. He eschewed the jewelled helmets and sleeker, more flexible armour worn by some Ice Lords. It might have been more comfortable, but the protection it afforded was meagre. No good for actual combat. And Skaldak lived for combat.

  Like his warriors, his armour was sturdy: a solid main body with flexible leg and arm pieces; a sonic blaster mounted on his forearm; and all in dark green colour, and covered in thick scales to mimic their reptilian nature. Even the helmet had this pattern and housed a heads-up display unit in its red eyepieces. The augmented reality feed was telling him everything about the warriors he could see on the command deck: vital signs, combat performance, military history, and mental health. Every one of them was functioning at nothing less than 82 per cent.

  ‘I wishh to sspeak to my daughter,’ Skaldak said.

  ‘Connecting to the desstroyer Hathaar,’ the communications warrior confirmed.

  The image of a true Warrior of the Ice appeared on the round screen, filling it. She was magnificent. Marginally more slender than her male counterparts, Iclar had also taken to wearing the breastplate of an Ice Lady – as was befitting her station. This might have upset her father, but much to Skaldak’s delight she had ordered the Chief Armourer to enhance its inadequate combat protection and had even added a few modifications of her own devising. She wore at her waist the ceremonial sword of a ship’s commander and a lavender cloak billowed behind her as she turned.

  ‘Father!’ she smiled. ‘We have the sstrategic advantage now.’

  ‘We do,’ he replied. ‘And we musst usse it well, for the Dalekss are a cunning and powerful adverssary.’

  She inclined her head. ‘Of coursse, Grand Marshal.’

  Skaldak laughed. Of course it was right she should address him by his rank, but it sounded odd. He never thought to use hers. To him, she would always be his shsurrin: his little lady.

  ‘What iss your plan?’ she asked, still beaming at her father.

  The warriors on the command deck of the Thassis couldn’t help but smile too. Of course, they concealed it for none wanted to incur their Grand Marshal’s wrath. What they did not know was that he would never reprimand them for it. After all, if Martians could not recognise familial bonds and celebrate them, how were they better than the evil cones of hatred they were fighting?

  ‘We musst not losse our hard-won numerical advantage,’ Skaldak began. ‘We musst act cautioussly now. Rashh action that appearss brave in the moment would only sserve to light the way to our certain doom.’

  ‘You are quite the poet, when the fancy takess you, Father.’

  Skaldak laughed again. ‘You know I am fond of the ssongss of the old time,’ he said.

  Just then, an alarm sounded, lyrical but urgent.

  ‘Unknown Dalek activity,’ reported a warrior.

  ‘We will sspeak later,’ Iclar said. She cut the communications; she knew an emergency when she heard it.

  ‘What do you mean, “unknown”?’ Skaldak said. ‘What are they doing? Shhow me!’

  The screen changed to show the Dalek command saucer. It was still a long way off, way outside effective weapons range, but strange beams were coming from the domes on its underside: faint and greenish-white, almost like searchlights. They were illuminating the hull of both the Hathaar and the other destroyer, the Azax.

  ‘The beamss are alsso on our shhip, Grand Marshal.’

  ‘What iss their effect?’ Skaldak was leaning forward now, urgent. He didn’t like the unknown. And anything unknown to do with the Daleks meant trouble. They were as devious as they were ruthless, and if they could gain an advantage by a dishonourable act, they wouldn’t think twice.

  ‘It iss unkn …’

  ‘Yess, yess, yessss,’ Skaldak hissed. ‘Unknown. I know.’ He turned round to the science station. ‘I am expecting an analyssiss from you.’

  The Scientific Officer was peering at his screen. ‘The wavelength iss unusual,’ he said. ‘It iss not a sscan.’ Now he turned. ‘I think it iss an attempt to hack our ssysstemss, Grand Marshal.’

  ‘Move uss out of range. Now!’ shouted Skaldak. ‘Relay thiss information to the fleet. I want additional perssonnel on cyber-attack duty. Nothing getss through. Nothing!’

  The Martian ships hastened away from the Dalek saucer, heading toward the system’s twin stars. As they did so, the Azax started to veer off course. Its engines spluttered for a moment, and then died. As the other two ships kept moving, it was left behind. Clearly the cyber-attack on the destroyer’s systems had been successful.

  Seeing this, Skaldak ordered his own ship about, but it was too late. The last Dalek assault ship had nipped in behind them, strafing the unprotected Azax with laser fire, cutting off one of the nacelles and leaving deep scars on the hull of the stricken craft.

  It may have crippled the Martian vehicle, but the Dalek assault ship was now itself within firing range of the Thassis.

  ‘Open fire!’ Skaldak ordered. ‘All weaponss!’

  Missiles, sonic cannon fire and impulse lasers raked across the starry void, inflicting multiple impacts on the Dalek ship. But instead of limping away, the small round craft accelerated towards the listing bulk of the Martian destroyer. Daleks were spilling from the access ports – abandoning ship!

  Skaldak took a deep intake of breath as he watched it smashing into the deepest scar on the Azax’s outer skin. A moment later an explosion blossomed in hues of orange and yellow, slitting the destroyer in two.

  ‘Target individual Dalekss,’ he said flatly. ‘Make ssure none ssurvive.’

  As the weapons crew hunted for the live Daleks hiding amongst the wreckage of the destroyer, Skaldak ordered a report from his other departments. The Scientific Officer confirmed that all three of the Martian ships had been affected by the Dalek cyber-attack. This had weakened their firewalls and allowed the enemy to implant a computer virus in all three warships. As the nearest one to the Dalek saucer, it had been the Azax that had fallen first. However, due to Skaldak’s quick thinking this had allowed the other scientific and computer crews to analyse the virus and combat
it.

  ‘I feel ass if you are about to give me bad newss,’ Skaldak said.

  The Scientific Officer bowed his head. ‘Yess, Grand Marshal.’

  ‘Well?’

  ‘Before it wass taken offline, the Dalek viruss did manage to damage the control functionss of hyper-drive and shhields on both the Thassis and the Hathaar.’

  Skaldak was on his feet. ‘Iclar?’

  ‘We sstill have life-ssupport, communicationss, ssub-light enginess and shhort-range weaponss,’ the Officer concluded. ‘We both do. Your daughter is ssafe, Grand Marshal.’

  ‘It iss well that it iss sso …’ growled the old warrior. He had terrible visions of what lengths he would go to if the Daleks harmed his beloved offspring. He was certain it would not end well for either side. Then it hit him. ‘We only have shhort-range weaponss?’

  The Scientific Officer confirmed this was so and Skaldak smashed one of his armoured green fists into the palm of his other hand. ‘Then we are sssand-rats in a rock fissssure!’ If the Daleks ships could move faster and had longer-range weapons, there was little the Martians could do to defend themselves. ‘We musst concentrate on one thing: Dalek firepower musst be nullified.’

  ‘We have never been able to do that in the passst, Grand Marshal,’ the Scientific Officer said.

  ‘Obligation iss the parent of development,’ Skaldak said. ‘You will find a way. I am certain. But it will take time. We need to give oursselves what advantage we can.’ He gazed at the viewscreen. It showed the binary stars looking ever larger as they travelled towards them. ‘And they may be the answer,’ he said pointing at the viewer.

  He explained that they could use the gravity fields of the double stars as a means of escaping the Daleks. However fast the remaining command saucer could go, the Martians would be able to outpace them and escape using the suns as a slingshot.

  Skaldak grinned. ‘The Dalekss may have clipped our wingss,’ he said. ‘But we shhall sstill fly!’

  He quickly relayed his plan to Iclar. As he did so, he felt himself experiencing anxiety. He tried to repress it, but the sensation was alien to him; it was the first time in his adult life that he had such a feeling.

  ‘You have no shhieldss,’ he said. ‘The danger of ssolar proximity is acute. If our coursse putss uss too closse to the twin sstarss, the radiation levelss will fry everyone aboard.’

  It would require precision, and Skaldak would not normally have hesitated in pursuing the plan. But his daughter, Iclar, had given him pause for thought. She nodded. ‘I know, Father.’ She was calm, and he felt pride swell within him, vanquishing the nerves.

  ‘That iss why we are making the mosst accurate calculationss we can before we reach the binary ssunss,’ she assured him, smiling. ‘I can do thiss, Father,’ she said. ‘Becausse I am your daughter.’

  ‘You are your own being,’ Skaldak replied. ‘And I am more proud of you than anything in my entire life.’

  A moment of silence passed and it seemed as if there was no one else on either ship as they stared at one another.

  ‘Sso be it!’ Skaldak said triumphantly. ‘Let us vanquishh the Dalekss and return home heroess!’

  He turned then to address the command deck, sending his words ship-wide through the address system. ‘I did not vanquishh the Phoboss Heressy to have my fleet torn apart by metal coness of hate!’ He pointed to the communications officer. ‘Make ssure the Dalekss can hear thissss …’

  The Warrior at comms altered the array and then nodded to the Grand Marshal.

  ‘Hear me, Daleks. Harm one of uss and you harm uss all. By the moonss, this I sswear.’

  A grating voice came back in reply. ‘Oaths-mean-nothing. Daleks-conquer-and-destroy. You-will-be-exterminated! This-is-your-fate.’

  ‘We shhall ssee!’ Skaldak gestured to cut the signal.

  He knew the Daleks would be scheming to counter the Martian plan. He also knew that they would not leave their ship to try and board the Thassis. They could not simply leave their ships and fly over. They were susceptible to sonic weaponry – as Skaldak had proved when they tried to flee their earlier kamikaze attack.

  The two Martian ships were now closing on the twin stars of Samox and Delox. Although they were described as twins, Samox was redder and smaller than its bigger sister, Delox. But size did not count here. It was density. And the denser of the two was Samox. It was that star they needed to give them the biggest boost, catapulting them to near light speeds and allowing them to escape the Daleks and head back to Martian space where the lone saucer dare not follow.

  ‘Grand Marshal, we believe we have a plan.’

  Both science and weapons teams had been working together. They believed they could modify the ship’s deflector array to make a macrotransmission, aimed at the Dalek ship. Using it in such a way would burn out the Martian device but, if they used the correct wavelength filter, the effect would be to disable all Dalek weaponry on the saucer’s hull.

  Skaldak smiled. ‘You have done well,’ he said to the two warriors.

  ‘There are a number of variablesss that we cannot guarantee,’ replied the more senior officer.

  ‘Do it.’

  The officers saluted and moved away to take up position at their stations.

  ‘Macrotranssmissssion of K-filter wavelength in five, four, three …’

  Skaldak watched the screen as the huge dish on the ship’s hull sent a targeted pulse at the Dalek saucer. It had no visible effect, but Skaldak wanted to test the outcome. He ordered his ship to slow. A pilot questioned whether he wished the Hathaar to do the same.

  ‘No, let my daughter fly,’ he said. ‘I want to ssee how toothlessss these Dalekss have become.’

  Sure enough, as the saucer closed to weapons range they did not fire.

  ‘Ha! They are dissarmed!’

  Skaldak was tempted to turn on the Daleks then and there, but he knew how many Daleks the ship contained. They would send patrol ships or hoverbouts. Too many for the reduced armaments his ship now had. But at least they could flee in safety.

  With Iclar’s ship already ahead of his, Skaldak ordered her to go first. She would need to command her ship carefully: keeping the exact distance from the star so as not to become overwhelmed by radiation, but close enough to maximise the effect of the stellar gravity well on the ship’s velocity.

  As the Hathaar went into solar orbit, it accelerated away from Skaldak’s battlecruiser. This was to be expected. It would take them only a few minutes to circle the sun, picking up speed exponentially until they shot from the star like a well-aimed bolt from a bow.

  ‘Grand Marshal!’ the Science Officer squealed.

  ‘What?’ Skaldak did not like the sound of this.

  ‘The Dalekss, they have been transsmitting!’

  ‘Transsmitting what?’

  ‘Falsse readingss. To the Hathaar.’

  ‘Get Iclar! Now!’ he bellowed, rising from his seat to approach the screen.

  The face of Skaldak’s daughter filled the huge viewscreen. She looked sullen.

  ‘We have been fooled,’ she said. ‘I have failed you.’

  Skaldak stumbled forward. ‘Never,’ he said. ‘Correct your coursse!’

  She shook her head and Skaldak felt his stomach drop as he saw a tear on his daughter’s cheek. ‘We cannot,’ she said. ‘They have transsmitted falsse readingss to our array. We are too closse to the ssun. Our orbit of Ssamox will … decay. There iss … nothing …’

  She could not finish the sentence and Skaldak reached out a hand to her image on the screen. ‘Iclar. My shsurrin …’

  She was crying now. Fear and loss of pride filled her. Skaldak felt every emotion with her.

  ‘Tractor beamsss!’ he roared. Despite the technicians’ claims that they would be no use, they tried anyway. Iclar begged him to stop; not to come too close. If the readings from her ship had been tampered with, then so could Skaldak’s be.

  ‘I’m ssorry, father,’ Iclar said.

 
‘Clear the command deck,’ Skaldak said quietly.

  Without a murmur, the warriors left their stations, silently processing through the doors, which then closed behind them.

  ‘Just uss now, shsurrin,’ Skaldak allowed himself to feel the wave of emotion and let it wash over him. As the tears fell form his own eyes, he managed to speak ‘Let uss ssing the old ssongss together, Iclar. My ssweet, ssssweet girl.’

  And that is what they did. As they had done when she was little and he had held her in his arms. The songs of the old time, her favourites. The songs of the red snow …

  The Warriors trooped back onto the command deck to find the Grand Marshal slumped in his chair and the screen showing just static. He looked up as the senior Deck Officer approached him.

  ‘Make it known to the crew,’ Skaldak said. ‘I do not intend to allow the Dalekss to ssurvive thiss. Thosse who do not wishh to sstand with me can usse the lifepodss to leave.’

  The Deck Officer saluted. ‘I sspeak for the entire crew, Grand Marshal. We are all with you.’

  Skaldak closed his eyes. ‘Thank you,’ he said. Then his eyes snapped open and he gritted his teeth. ‘Then let uss begin.’

  He urgently issued several snap commands, telling the pilots and navigators his plan. They would not slingshot away using the star’s gravity. This was what the Daleks expected – indeed hoped – they would do. As it was entirely possible they would try to fool their instruments and take them into the sun’s radiation aura, as they had the Hathaar, the Martian strategy would be to make the Daleks think they were doing this while actually performing a different manoeuvre.

  ‘We will be further out from the sstar,’ Skaldak explained. ‘Thiss will appear ass caution to the Dalekss. In fact it iss becausse we do not wishh to esscape. We wishh to attack!’

  The Thassis fell into its solar orbit, and the ship began to move faster with every second. Skaldak gripped his command chair and ordered the saucer to be shown on the screen. He snarled when he saw it rotating slowly in space, smugly, as if nothing could touch it.