Doctor Who_ Remembrance of the Daleks - Ben Aaronovitch [11]
‘It’s a playground.’
‘The burn marks, Ace. See them?’
Ace looked again.
‘Well?’
Ace considered. ‘Landing pattern of some kind of spacecraft, ain’t it?’
‘Very good,’ the Doctor commended in his best genial teacher manner.
Thoughts occurred to Ace, disturbing thoughts. ‘But this is Earth, 1963. Someone would have noticed – I’d have heard about it.’
‘Do you remember the Nestene invasion?’
‘Eh?’
‘The Zygon gambit with the Loch Ness monster; the Yetis in the Underground?’
‘The what?’
‘Your species has an amazing capacity for self-deception matched only by its ingenuity when trying to destroy itself.’
‘You don’t have to sound so smug about it.’
More things occurred to Ace as they left the chemistry lab. ‘If the Daleks are following you, what are they after?’
The Doctor paused a moment in the corridor. ‘When I was here before I left something behind. It musn’t fall into the wrong hands.’
‘You mean the Hand of Omega.’
‘Yes.’
‘What is the Hand of Omega?’
‘Something very dangerous,’ said the Doctor. He started down the stairwell.
George Ratcliffe watched as his men put the tarpaulin-shrouded mass down in the lumber storage area. He dismissed the men, instructing them to be ready when he called on them. Then, pulling aside a heavy sliding door, he walked into a dimly lit office. Against one wall lights pulsed on a console, in front of which sat a figure in shadow.
‘Report.’ Its voice was harsh and mechanical.
‘My men have recovered the machine. The Doctor is co-operating with the military.’
‘That is to be expected. I must be informed of his movements.’
‘Yes. We have certain contacts; I shall see that he is followed.’ Ratcliffe replied evenly. Then he voiced his concern. ‘That Dalek machine?’
‘Yes?’
Ratcliffe spoke carefully: ‘I would like to know exactly what it is.’ He waited – this master could be difficult to work with.
‘A machine, a tool, nothing more.’
Ace watched as the Doctor nosed around the ground floor.
‘What are we looking for?’
‘Whoever it was that landed their spaceship in the playground.’
Ace considered this. ‘And they are?’
‘More Daleks.’
‘Oh good, I thought it might be something nasty.’
The Doctor motioned towards a heavy iron door. ‘The cellar,’ he said, ‘it should be down there.’
‘Why the cellar?’ asked Ace apprehensively.
‘Good place to put things, cellars.’ He opened the door to reveal a flight of wrought-iron steps leading down into a well of darkness.
‘I wish I had some more nitro-nine,’ said Ace as she followed the Doctor down.
‘So do I,’ he agreed.
Ace glanced round as her eyes adjusted to the gloom, but what she could see didn’t look any better. ‘What do you expect to find down here?’
‘The unknown.’
‘Oh,’ said Ace. Reaching over her shoulder she drew a baseball bat out of her rucksack. The bat was made of plastic over rubber on an aluminium core and painted silver: it wasn’t much of a weapon, but it made her feel better. ‘Isn’t this a bit dangerous then?’
‘Probably,’ agreed the Doctor, ‘but if I knew what was down here, I wouldn’t have to look.’
The stairs twisted down into an old boiler room. Ace could see through gaps in the surrounding wall tangles of piping and a huge boiler painted a flaking cream. An alien machine lay in a cleared space, backed against the grimy wall. It consisted of a small dais with two upright cabinets with severe alien lines on either side.
Ace immediately jumped onto the dais. ‘This is some severe technology,’ she said gleefully.
The Doctor pulled her off the dais and opened the nearest cabinet. Inside, matt black boxes nested in fibre optic connections.
‘Very elegant, very advanced – flux circuit elements.’
‘What does it do?’
‘It’s a transmat – a matter transmitter – but transmitting from where?’ He carefully traced the connections to the power regulator.
Ace realized she could hear a low threshold hum. She looked around the cellar for its source before focusing suspiciously on the dais. Its surface was definitely beginning to glow.
‘Professor?’
‘Range of about three hundred kilometres.’
The glow began