Facsimile [Complete Story]

[Fitz Kreiner]

The journey back to UNIT HQ was a silent one. Sergeant Lovatt lead the small convoy back through the early morning traffic, Captain Morris and the Doctor sat beside her in the cab of the truck. The look that the Doctor had on his face was a hugely troubled one. He’d returned from the inside of the factory after hours toiling at the equipment in the offices with bad news; he’d been unable to trace the energy back to its original source. He’d ruefully admitted that the Master had concealed the source far too well.

Morris also looked greatly pained. He’d lost seventeen men in the short battle with the Autons and now he had to write up the same report seventeen times and inform their families. Lovatt didn’t envy him that job, yet she would still offer assistance to help ease the burden. Those were the responsibilities that came with the extra stripes on her arm, and if she wanted to one day swap those stripes for shoulder pips.

As the truck jolted over a speed bump, she became once again aware of the cargo that was in the back; the molten remains of several Autons, plastic plants from the reception of the factory and perhaps bizarrely of all; a vending machine. The Doctor had been intent on their taking the vending machine to a place of safety, saying it was effectively the same thing as his Police Box, just with a different outer shell.

Yawning, Lovatt turned the truck into the back street behind the HQ. It had been a long day, with no sleep; she’d now been up pushing thirty hours and was looking forward to a rest. She wasn’t sure when she would get it, but she hoped that she’d be able to at least grab a couple of hours of sleep soon. Although somehow she doubted it, knowing the amount of work that she would have to do. No doubt the Doctor would be rather enthusiastically dashing about when he got back to HQ. His mood at the moment certainly seemed glummer than usual. He probably had the equipment in his TARDIS to trace the Master.

The HQ had been quiet all night, yet they had also been in a signal black-spot, not being able to send or receive any radio signals from the factory. Still, Corporal Loding and the Doctor’s two friends had been there all night, so there was a chance that they may have unearthed something for the investigation. The Doctor’s two friends certainly seemed more than capable, Lovatt remembered, thinking back to when she last met them.

Turning again, Lovatt pulled the truck up before the large garage doors, leading to the closed off loading bays at the back of the HQ building. Reaching forwards, she depressed the small red button that activated the electric doors. She looked up, expecting to see the doors rising, but was taken aback to see them still closed. Reaching forwards, she jabbed at the button again, hitting it several times.

“Something wrong Sergeant?” Morris asked, looking round the Doctor to her.

“The doors don’t seem to be opening.” Lovatt replied, looking up in time to see the smaller door to the side open and a private step out.

“Sorry sir,” he was saying as he approached the driver’s side window. “We’ve had a few electrical problems, including the doors. I’ve got a couple of the lads coming down to open them manually.”

“Electrical problems?” the Doctor asked, looking up. “Maybe I can help? I’m a dab hand with electrical items.” His eyes were sparkling again. Perhaps it was the prospect of being faced with an achievable task after his failure at Rutilus Allec.

“No need, sir,” the soldier replied. “The young man, Tom, fixed it during the night. We’ve just got a few hiccups now.” He turned back as the two large doors jerked open with a creaking noise revealing the cavernous garage within.

“Open sesame,” Lovatt grinned as she gently eased her foot on the accelerator, pulling the truck softly into the garage.

Swiftly opening his door, Morris jumped down from the cab and dashed to the back of the truck. Grabbing the canvas flap at the back, he lifted it up and peered into the gloom inside, the private he’d placed inside to guard the cargo looked up as the light flooded in and nodded. Nodding in reply, Morris let the flap drop back into place.

“Everything ok Will?”

The sound of the Doctor’s voice made Morris jump. He hadn’t heard the Time Lord approach. He turned round to see the Doctor stood before him smiling. He was still clutching the charred remains of his device that he’d constructed out of the CD player and radio.

“Just checking on things in there.” Morris admitted as Lovatt approached from the other side of the jeep.

“What about the rest of the lads, sir?” She asked. “I mean, we lost a lot of good men out there.”

“I am aware, Sergeant,” Morris nodded grimly and looking back to see the surviving troops disembarking from their vehicles. “I think we should get those lads down below and safe before we do anything more.”

Nodding in understanding, Lovatt turned and walked towards the grouping soldiers. Sighing softly, Morris pulled his cap from his head and ran his hand through his ginger hair.

“Well, that was rather a waste of our time, and seventeen good men’s lives.” He said bitterly.

“It was a trap, Will.” The Doctor replied sadly. “And unfortunately, we must expect this and many more horrific things like it if the Master is indeed involved.”

“I know, I’ve read the reports. I know about the Master.” Morris sighed. “I just didn’t expect it to be like this.”

“No, Will, you don’t know the Master. Not at all,” the Doctor almost shouted, attracting some looks from the few privates still about. “I’ve known him for centuries, and this is nothing more than a black eye or a bloody nose compared to what he’s capable of. With the help of the Nestenes and Autons, he could cause untold damage to this little planet of yours. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s done something like this.”

“Well, if he’s half the criminal you say he is, then why haven’t you, or anyone else, killed him?” Morris retorted.

“Because, Will,” the Doctor sighed rolling his eyes. “If I were to kill him it would make me no better than him, and he’s far too cunning, charismatic, and clever to let himself get killed. Believe me, many have tried, none have succeeded.” The Doctor stopped and his shoulders dropped and he bowed his head. “And besides, he was once a very, very good friend of mine.”

Morris’s eyes widened at the revelation and had to stand there for a moment to let his brain assimilate the information. It was something that had been kept out of all previous reports about the Master. Looking back at the Doctor; Morris saw a great sense of sadness deep within his brilliant blue eyes. Not too sure what to say in the situation, Morris put his hand on the Time Lords shoulder, in what he hoped was both a manly and reassuring way. The Doctor looked up at Morris, a brilliant smile on his face, as if he’d completely forgotten the conversation they’d just had.

“I think it’s time we checked on Jess and Tom, see if they’ve had more luck than us tonight.” He grinned.

The smile instantly dropped from the Doctors face as a faint scream echoed from the halls of the building and into the large concrete garage. Hearing it as well, Morris looked round, his eyes finally resting on the doors leading into the main building as the scream faded away.

“Jess,” the Doctor gasped, thrusting the charred remains of his device into Morris’s hands and running to the door, his coat tails flapping like a cape behind him.

Momentarily bemused by hearing a scream from his very own HQ, Morris paused as he clutched the shattered electronics he was now holding, thanks to the Doctor. Swiftly regaining his composure, Morris turned and followed the Doctor, running from the room, still clutching the charred and blackened remains of the Doctors device.

When he was sure that the garage was deserted, Private Baxter stepped out of the shadows, closing the door behind Morris and slipping the shovel he held between the door handles, barricading the door. His expression blank and unchanged, Baxter checked the backs of the vehicles. They were empty, except for some ammunition crates and hardware. The UNIT troops had cleared the bodies away to the morgue that was in one of the cellars on the HQ. Turning, Baxter crossed to the truck in which the Doctor, Morris and Lovatt had arrived back at HQ in. Reaching forwards, he lifted up the canvas flap at the back and leant in.

“Oh, Baxey, it’s you,” the private inside said, looking up as the light from the garage fell onto him.

Raising his hand, Baxter’s fingers fell away and the short stubby tube emerged. The private’s jaw dropped in shock as he realised what he was looking at. He had no time to cry out or raise the alarm as there was a puff of smoke from the end of the gun tube and his smoking corpse collapsed in a heap in the back of the truck.

Removing himself from the back of the truck, Baxter’s fingers snapped back up to the rest of his hand as he walked to the front of the jeep. Silently, and his expression still a blank mask, the Baxter facsimile climbed in behind the wheel and turned the engine off. With the roar of the engine, the Auton reversed the jeep containing the molten deactivated Autons and Masters TARDIS out of the garage and drove off.

*

Sitting at her desk, Andrea Rogers busied herself at her computer, typing and filing reports and correspondents. She glanced up at the open double doors to Lemaitre’s office. Getting to her feet, she walked into the office and up to the desk. Several reports sat open on them, each with shipping orders for the masks and mannequins that were being produced in the factory, and the other factories in both the United Kingdom and France. Collecting them all together, she walked back to her own desk and put them on the top of her own pile of work.

Sitting back on the chair, she pulled up her email and checked the inbox for more correspondents. Thankfully, it was empty. She already had enough work to do today; even more now that Lemaitre had passed away. Still, most of the shipments had been sent out, and the last shipment of the masks was being sent out at four PM this afternoon. Soon, the plan would be put into operation. It had been brought forwards, but would still be brought into full operation.

A bleeping from the intercom brought her out of her reverie. Reaching forwards, she pressed the button and opened her mouth to reply, but the Master’s voice cut her off before she could begin.

“Would you mind joining me down on the factory floor, my dear?” his calm voice came through, devoid of all emotion.

“Yes, of course, Master.” She replied, getting to her feet and walking out of her office.

Walking through the administration section, Andrea wondered what mood the Master would be in when she arrived in the security section. He had been furious when he had discovered which of the prisoners had escaped. Not only did it mean that if there was a problem with the facsimile, the original wouldn’t be able to be used to fix the problem, but it meant that they would no doubt destroy one of the Master’s more strategically placed facsimiles.

Andrea had been scared by the eruption of his anger when he checked the containment records. She actually felt relieved for Lemaitre, having suffered his death previously. Had he still been alive when the Master discovered who he had managed to lose, then his death would have been ten times worse. The Master had stormed down to the security area leaving Andrea to work alone.

Using her key card to open the door to the factory, Andrea stepped through the door reflecting on this. She knew that the Master would not show any malice towards her; after all, she hadn’t failed him. In fact, she was someone she knew the Master could rely on. She was sure that he’d grown to count on her in the past months, taken her into his confidence and promised her more than she could have imagined. She’d even seen things she couldn’t have imagined, not just the Autons, but the TARDIS and the places the Master had taken her in it. Granted; it hadn’t been many as there was a lot to do with the plan here on Earth, but it was a lot more than billions of other people had seen.

Grabbing one of the hard hats that hung on the hooks before the factory, Andrea put it on as she walked down the steel staircase. Smiling and nodding to the workers in the main part of the factory, Andrea crossed over to the security area. Reaching out, she found the door unlocked. The Master would have operated the lock from his office, watching on the security cameras.

None of the Autons looked round, or even acknowledged her presence as she walked across the floor towards the staircase leading to the office in the security area. She could see the Master up through the windows. From his motions, he looked rather composed, stood with his hands behind his back, looking out on the production lines below.

Knocking politely on the glass window of the door, Andrea opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind her. The Master turned his head to look at her and smiled.

“It seems that despite our initial misfortunes, we have just had two turns in our fortune.” He said turning back to looking at the windows he was staring at before.

Andrea looked at the windows. They seemed to be showing monitor screens, most probably heads up displays projected from the complex panel that sat before the window. Reams of data and information scrolled up them, the lights on the panels around the room were flashing a myriad of colours. Even the smaller computer terminals were showing reams of data.

“What is it?” Andrea asked. She’d not seen the office like this before. Even the brightly coloured masks that had adorned the wall had gone.

“A report from one of the UNIT facsimile’s; our former guest, Miss Lawton, has been seen back at UNIT HQ. She is to be taken care of. Meanwhile, it appears that the good Doctor and Captain Morris have survived their ordeal at Rutilus Allec.” The Master said, leaning forwards and flicking several switches.

“The Doctor survived?” Andrea removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I thought the plan was to trap and dispose of them.”

“Not at all, my dear,” the Master smiled, turning and placing his hand on her shoulder. “It was a demoralising exercise for our UNIT friends and a mere test for the Doctor. Needless to say, he believes that he has my TARDIS safe in the UNIT vaults, but, my dear, and this is the good news, our facsimile of Private Baxter is at this moment removing my TARDIS to a safe location.”

Andrea smiled at the news as the Master turned back to the screens. Placing both his gloved hands on the edge of the large instrument panel, he leant forwards to stare at the screens.
“You see my dear.” He said staring straight ahead. “Even with the loss of Mr. Rowan it will not stop us. Rowans facsimile has been activated and he will deal with our UNIT friends, meanwhile your charming self and I can prepare to advance our plans for full activation of the Autons and Facsimile’s tonight.”

“Then the plan will proceed with no complications?” Andrea asked.

“The plan will be completed before the remains of UNIT are even aware of what has happened.” The Master reached out and twisted a large dial on the panel before him. The thick cables coming from the small metal cabinet containing the Nestene Sphere started to pulsate with a blue light. “This time tomorrow, we shall have complete control.” The Master turned and smiled.

[Fitz Kreiner]

It was not a scream of terror. Not after all the things that she’d seen in the past six months. Ok, it was kind of scary to see what you thought was one of your close friends turning out to be an alien replica. It wasn’t a long term friend, or a new friend, however, it was a friend with whom she had practically lived with for six months or so. They had got to know each other very well, shared stories and adventures, and even faced death together. And now, here she was, facing death alone, death at the hands of what could only be a replica of her friend.

Jess knew that she hadn’t screamed just in terror. It wasn’t like her to just scream, but here she was, strapped down to a chair by live electric cables and facing death from an alien killer. Not just a normal alien killer, but one that not just resembled, but was identical to her travelling companion. This facsimile would just shoot her dead and when anyone else came in; they would find them aghast at her death. The perfect alibi. She didn’t even know if the Doctor had guessed whether this Tom was real or a copy.

As she stared up into the cold dead eyes that now looked nothing like the lively and sparkling blue eyes of Tom, the missing pieces of the jigsaw dropped into place. She didn’t want to die; she couldn’t die, not yet. Not sure what to do; she screamed.

Her eyes wide in the fear and shock, Jess wasn’t even aware of the sound on the gun shots until she had seen the facsimile of Tom jerk slightly and turn around. It was then she spotted the bullet holes, smoking in the backing of his open waistcoat. She had a saviour. She craned her neck to see a UNIT private, one she hadn’t seen before; she didn’t even know his name. He had his rifle levelled and pointed directly at the Tom facsimile.

It was then Jess spotted that the fear was greater in his eyes than in hers. No doubt she’d already seen many other aliens than this soldier. He was pointing his weapon at the facsimile and shouting something, although what he was shouting was lost to Jess as the adrenaline had already flooded her system.

Strapped, as she was to the chair, Jess could only watch as the facsimile fired its weapon and the private was thrown back, his smoking corpse crumpling into a heap.

“I’ll come back with you to the Master,” she pleaded as the facsimile turned back round. “Please, there’s no need to kill me.”

Ignoring her, the facsimile coldly advanced on her. Jess squeezed her eyes closed, fearing the inevitable; the inevitable that seemed a long time coming. She opened her eyes as she heard a cry and a scuffling sound. There was a dark figure on the back of the Auton, wrestling it awkwardly. She watched as the facsimile fired, its bizarre energy weapon missing all targets and causing a computer to explode in a cloud of smoke.

As Jess watched, the facsimile threw the figure wrestling it off its back, and swiped up with its arm, apparently catching the figure painfully as they cried out and fell in a crumpled heap in the corner of the room. Jess’s eyes were still fixed on the facsimile as it turned back to face her, its weapon still trained and raised to her.

“Tom, what are you-?” The Doctor’s voice tailed off as the facsimile turned round.

“Doctor, watch out, it’s an Auton.” Jess cried from where she was.

“Yes, yes I can see that.” The Doctor said softly. “Alright, what do you want?”

“The Master decree’s that you must die.” The facsimile said flatly.

“You first,”

Jess heard the voice before the realisation sunk in; it was the same as the facsimiles. That mean it could be only one person; Tom. He was the one who had wrestled the Auton and had been thrown off its back, now he was stood holding what looked like a bulbous gun with a small flame at the end.

She felt the heat before it came to her that the strange gun that Tom was holding was a small compact flame thrower. A torrent of orange flame engulfed the facsimile into a giant pillar of flame. Jess saw Tom’s face through the shimmering of the heat haze; it was fixed in a scowl and a look of pure malice. She hadn’t seen that look on his face since the Daleks. Angry, yes, but not that angry. The look scared her slightly, but on the other hand, it was comforting that it was because she had been placed in such danger; he was looking out for her in his way.

Jess broke out of her train of thought when she saw the facsimile take another step forwards. Thick black, acrid smoke curled out of the flames and the choking smell of burning plastic filled the room. The material that had made the facsimiles hair crackled and singed away, leaving a melting plastic facade.

Another burst of flame made the facsimile stagger back as the alarms sounded again. Jess almost cried out again as she found herself hit by a spray of cold water. She looked up to see that the sprinkler system had come on, and the water was starting to douse the flames that were licking up the facsimile. Glancing over to Tom, she saw that this wasn’t deterring him. He took another step towards the facsimile, engulfing it with another burst of orange flame, his mouth a grim line.

Jess was vaguely aware of the Doctor shouting something over the sound of the alarm and the flames. Quite what the Time Lord was saying, she didn’t know. She wasn’t sure if Tom had heard quite what the Doctor had said, as he doused the facsimile with another burst of flame. Trying to take another step forwards, the flames still licking over the Autons body, the facsimile crashed to the floor.

Choking on the noxious fumes that were belching out of the black smoke coming from the facsimile, Jess looked up as the Doctor stepped forwards, with a fire extinguisher in his hands and doused the flames. After several more long seconds, the alarm died away, leaving an echoing ring and with a clunking, the sprinklers shut off.

Jess breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she realised that the imminent danger was over. She was astounded by the speed at which it had all happened. The Doctor and Tom must have only just got back for them to have arrived in the nick of time. Tom was still clutching the flame thrower, his knuckles almost white as he gripped it. He was still staring at the charred, blackened remains that were once the facsimile. They were barely recognisable as a humanoid figure any more.

Putting the fire extinguisher down, the Doctor stepped forwards and put his hand on Tom’s shoulder. “It’s ok,” he said softly, taking another step forwards to Jess.

Seemingly coming round, Tom turned and put the flame thrower down on a table, which now had a small puddle because of the sprinklers, and came towards Jess too.

“Are you ok?” he asked, his face a picture of concern.

Jess could merely nod in confirmation, her mouth suddenly dry as a bone. All she could do to ask for help in getting out of the chair was flex her hands and look down at the plastic arms of the chair. The thought of the plastic arms coming to life suddenly made her shudder.

“Don’t worry, we’ll have you out of here in a jiffy,” the Doctor smiled up at her, from where he was crouched beside her chair.

Grabbing hold of the wires, the Doctor tugged at them with force, pulling the phone line out of the wall and one of the PC towers to turn before the wire came loose. Unwrapping the wires from round Jess’s arms and waist, he collected them all together in one hand and casually threw them to the corner of the room. Still a bit shaky, Jess got to her feet, with help on either side by both the Doctor and Tom.

Finally finding her voice, Jess looked from the Doctor to Tom. “Are you sure you’re the real you?” she managed feebly, looking at Tom.

Nodding, Tom patted himself down with his free hand. “Yeah, it’s me alright. I don’t think Autons feel pain.”

“Nor do they bleed,” the Doctor added, looking at Tom’s forehead. A small trickle of blood ran from where the facsimile had caught him with the edge of its gun tube.

“Can somebody please tell me what in the name of hell is happening here?”

The trio looked up at the sound of the voice. Captain Morris was stood in the doorway, still clutching the charred and shattered remains of the Doctor’s device, which the Time Lord had thrust upon him when he’d heard Jess’s scream.

“I think a lot of us have a lot of explaining to do to everyone,” the Doctor admitted, looking at the shattered remains that Morris held before looking back to Jess. “And, erm, I think I owe you a new CD and CD player,” he added sheepishly.

Stepping into the lab, Morris put the shattered device down on the desk beside the flame thrower and glanced down at the molten Auton, nudging it with the toe of his boot.

“Well, I’m waiting,” he said, looking up, before the trio all began to speak at the same time causing Morris to hold up his hands, cutting them off. “Whoa, one at a time for God’s sake; Doctor, you and I have just returned from the mission together so with all due respect, I think we can wait. First of all, I want to know what that mess is and why the fire alarms have been raging.”

“That,” Jess said, kicking the plastic mess, “is an Auton. A copy of Tom.”

Morris glanced over to Tom who nodded in agreement. “I hate to say it, but that was who came back from the factory after our visit.” Tom admitted as the four other occupants of the room turned in surprise.

“You’re joking, yeah?” Jess asked. “It wasn’t you who met Kel and I in the pub?”

“Oh,” the Doctor shook his head sadly. “I somehow doubt he is, a facsimile will have an exact memory print and is indistinguishable from the real person, as we can all bear witness to. Not even I noticed the difference. I think we should hear from you first, Tom.”
Morris looked at Tom closely, through narrowed eyes. “And why should we trust you now?”

Tom gingerly touched the gash on his forehead, feeling the blood on his fingers. “That’s why,” he said. “Autons are plastic, and don’t bleed. Time Lords, on the other hand, do. And we can recognise another of our race when we come face to face with each other. Or at least, we should be able to. I’m still learning that ability, and the Master is an expert of disguising himself. It took me a while to spot him, but he was at that factory, going by the name of Bernard Rogers.”

“Then why didn’t you spot that?” Morris asked turning on the Doctor. “Don’t tell me you’re being biased because of your history with him?”

“No, not at all Will,” the Doctor protested. “I didn’t spot him because I was concentrating on Lemaitre. It seems the Master has played us all for fools. Me particularly, and I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to point that out when we meet.” The Doctor stopped and turned back to Tom. “Please, do go on,” he urged.

Nodding, Tom continued. “Well, he took me down into a security area, as soon as that happened, the facade dropped. He had Autons working down there. They hooked me into one of their machines and put an Auton in another. I guess I blacked out, but when I came round, I was wearing one of these boiler suits and the Auton, well, it was like looking in a mirror.”

Jess finally took the opportunity to look at Tom properly for the first time. He wasn’t wearing the clothes he had been, but the maroon boiler suit she’d seen the Autons wear. She guess that clothes weren’t that easy to copy in plastic and that they had redressed the facsimile in Tom’s proper clothes. The boiler suit wasn’t a good fit either, it looked rather baggy on Tom’s frame and he looked as though he’d been up all night too.

“I didn’t wanna keep cooped up in that place,” Tom continued putting a comforting hand on Jess’s shoulder. “And I got the feeling that I wasn’t the only one there. I think they got the driver who took us there too.”

“Whoa, wait,” Morris interjected, holding his hand up again, cutting Tom off. “Are you saying that there are members of my staff and that my own men have been replaced by this man?”

Tom nodded grimly. “And I somehow doubt that his facsimile’s stop at being limited to UNIT personnel. Anyway, his human lackey, Lemaitre, was rather sloppy. It was after he’d dropped off the clichéd breakfast of bread and water I managed a breakout. Don’t ask how, I don’t quite know how I did it myself, but I got out, and that’s when I saw Jess across the yard being frogmarched by Lemaitre and two Autons. Then some chap came out of nowhere and they ran off together, jumped in a taxi and drove off. I managed to grab a car and follow, ploughing over an Auton in the process.”

“He’s right.” Jess cried, having been shuffling her feet anxiously since Tom had started talking again. “I worked it out; I know what the Master is up to.”

“How do you know that?” Morris asked.

“And more to the point, what were you doing there with the Master?” The Doctor asked; a deadly look of seriousness and concern across his face.

“I thought you’d be proud,” Jess replied, the hurt evident in her voice. “I worked off my own initiative, I’ve found out the Master’s plans and I confronted him. I was on my way out to find someone and I bumped into him, literally, outside.”

“No, no, no, no, no, no,” the Doctor protested, stepping forwards and placing his hands on Jess’s shoulders and looking into her eyes. “I am very proud of you. Hugely proud of you, I just worry, that’s all, especially when the Master is involved. You remember what happened last time.”

“Yeah, but he couldn’t hypnotise me this time!” Jess grinned, “Did you know, the Master isn’t fond of nursery rhymes?”

The Doctor grinned. “I had heard that before. So what did you find out?”

Jess turned round to the desk she had been sat at most of the night. It was all as she’d left it before she’d had her run in with the Master. Picking it up, she shook the water from the sprinklers off. The ink had run a bit, but it was still legible. Turning back, she walked to the Doctor and Morris and stood between the two of them, showing them the paper.

“I got a bit bored last night so decided to do a spot of research, y’know; initiative and off my own back.” Jess smiled and looked up at the Doctor and then to Morris. “Anyway, out of all these names that were killed by the Master and the Autons, they all seem to have been replaced by total unknowns. I’ve researched the names of their replacements in whatever job they have and they’re not in “Who’s Who” or anything like that. In fact, in some places nothing at all is known about them.”

The Doctor grinned and put his hand on Jess’s shoulder. “That’s my girl,” he grinned before turning to Morris. “You know, Will, I’m rather surprised that your bods didn’t figure all this out.”

Morris opened his mouth to protest, but the Doctor had turned back to Jess again, who was continuing with her explanation.

“The only one who doesn’t fit the pattern is this guy,” she pointed to the name on the list, “James Duncan, new head of the police, but the rest, army, navy and politicians and so on. They’re facsimile’s. The Master admitted as much nearly when I spoke to him. He’s going to use them to take over the country. I mean, if the army aren’t going to stop him, and politicians are behind him then who’s to stop him.”

Jess stopped and breathed out, pleased with herself and looked up at the Doctor. The smile had gone from his face and was replaced by a frown. Morris was also wearing a similar expression, while Tom’s face remained strangely neutral as he nodded in both understanding and agreement.

“I believe we’re up a certain creek without a certain instrument.” He muttered.

“No, not necessarily Tom,” The Doctor smiled, “We do have the Master’s TARDIS after all.”

“Erm, I don’t know about that,” Lovatt’s voice came from the door, causing all the occupants to turn. “Someone’s nicked the truck it was being held in.”

[Fitz Kreiner]

The look on the Doctor’s face fell even further as the news sunk in. Lovatt was now looking rather uncomfortable stood in the doorway as she shuffled her feet. The Doctor opened his mouth to comment, but was beaten to it by Morris.

“It’s been stolen? What the bloody hell are you playing at Sergeant, where were the guards?” He bellowed.

“My guess is they’re dead,” Toms voice caught Morris’s attention as the Captain whirled round to face him.

“If it wasn’t for your stupidity at getting caught, then we probably wouldn’t have this facsimile problem.” Morris shouted at the young Time Lord, attracting looks from Jess and the Doctor.

“How dare-?”

Jess began to step forward, getting cut off as the Doctor laid a hand on her shoulder and swiftly stepped between Tom and Morris. The young Time Lord was glaring at Morris, a look that seemed more the just anger, his fists balled at his sides. Placing a hand out onto his other companions shoulder, the Doctor looked at Morris; his expression was also set in one of extreme annoyance.

“If it wasn’t Tom, it would have been someone else; it’s the Master’s way.” He said, his look causing Morris to back down. “It could easily have been you if he’d wished it, Will, and don’t forget that. I can imagine there was very little that Tom could have done about it. I imagine that Tom meant that it was the other facsimile that is responsible for the theft. No wonder the Master didn’t bother about retrieving his TARDIS, he would have had the facsimile do it for him.”

Silently, Tom nodded in confirmation, taking a deep breath and relaxing his hands. “It’ll be the chap who came with us to the factory. And if not, then that means the Master has more spies about here.”

Morris shook his head, as though to clear it, and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking down. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean anything by it,” he muttered.

“It’s quite alright, Will,” the Doctor said cheerily, “Simple transference. You’re angry at the Master, but he’s not here so you shout at us.”

“Thank you, Doctor Freud.” Jess muttered softly, shivering. Her wet clothes were starting to get uncomfortable.

“What do you suggest, Doctor?” Morris asked, straightening himself up.

The Doctor paused, placing his hands together and resting his index fingers on his bottom lip and stared at the shattered CD player. “I think, Will,” he started before trailing off into silence.

Morris stared at the Doctor for several seconds. The Time Lord was now frozen on the spot staring at the broken remains of the device he’d constructed, seemingly unaware of everything else in the room. Morris glanced round the Doctor to Jess and Tom. They were also looking at each other looking rather bemused.

“Right,” the Doctor said, suddenly springing to life and making everyone else in the room jump, “the Master’s over confidence is his weakness. He will think he’s got the upper hand now that he has his TARDIS back, and after losing both Jess and Tom as prisoners, I can imagine he will be stepping up his plans. Now, we know that he now has high ranking facsimiles in places of power, but they need to be there for a reason, so he’s going to be planning something else.”

“So?” Jess urged.

The Doctor spun and took a step towards Morris and Lovatt. “Will, you and your chaps need to rest up. I imagine you’ve paper work and reports and the likes. I also want you to alert as high up as you’re able and willing to go, taking these names into consideration.” The Doctor reached out and took the list of names from Jess and passed it over to Morris.

“And what about us?” Jess asked, indicating to herself and Tom.

“Ah yes,” the Doctor smiled turning back to them. “You’ve both done really well, but I think you could both do with a bit of a freshening up and change of clothes. Then, this afternoon, after you’ve had a rest and meal, I think we’ll be taking a little trip out to see the Master.”

The smiles dropped from both Jess and Tom’s faces as the Doctor reached the end of his sentence and they turned to look at each other.

“Erm, excuse me, I thought you just said we’d go and see the Master?” Tom interjected.

“Quite possibly,” the Doctor replied cheerily, turning back to the shattered device and tapping his lip again. “It depends on what Captain Morris and his chaps turn up. Or if anything else springs up.”

Morris looked round as the Doctor looked up at him. Taking the hint, Morris nodded and turned round. Looking at Lovatt, the Sergeant nodded and turned off down the corridor.

“I’ll be in my office when you need me, Doctor.” He said before following Lovatt down the corridor.

Watching him leave, Jess looked down at her sodden clothes. The wet white cotton of her shirt was sticking to her skin and she shivered again. The cold water was chilling her. Glancing up at Tom, she saw his hair was plastered to his head, a droplet of water hanging comically from the end of his nose. The cold water didn’t seem to faze him, even as it mingled with the gash on his temple making the blood streak down the side of his face. How he could put up with things like that, she would never know. He always seemed to be getting himself into trouble and scrapes like that.

Jess was making her way to the door when a sudden thought stopped her as though she’d just walked into a brick wall.

“Wait,” she started looking from the Doctor to Tom, who both paused and fixed her with inquisitive looks. “It’s just hit me; Tom, I mean the other Tom, the facsimile, was working on the fuse boxes all night. He was a facsimile working for the Master, why would he do that?”

“What do you mean?” the Doctor asked, whirling round so he was facing her directly.

“Well, when we had all the troubles, someone destroyed the operations room, the device thing that brought the TARDIS here and smashed the fuse box.” Jess explained.

“Hmm,” the Doctor mused. “Well, the space/time telegraph recall device is no great loss.”

Jess and Tom gave each other confused glances as the Doctor trailed off, staring just above Jess’s head.

“Well,” Tom shrugged, breaking the silence, “he, or it, could have been rigging something so that the wires could come to life. I dunno, like a receiver for the Nestene energy?”

“Aha! Brilliant!” The Doctor cried out, grabbing Tom by the shoulders and grinning. “Of course, so simple; the Master drops a couple of spies in to report back to him and cause a bit of sabotage, pulls me and most of the UNIT forces out and the two facsimiles remain.”

Jess’s eyes widened as she caught on. “And the Tom facsimile was the first one at the scene when the space/time thingy was destroyed. I was here and Corporal Loding was in the operations room. Then that was attacked.”

“Yes, yes brilliant.” The Doctor grinned stepping back into the middle of the room. “The Master has played us all well. Luring myself and most of UNIT to the fake factory, the red herring, and then using two strategically placed facsimile’s to severely disrupt things at this end. Luring Corporal Loding out of the operations room with the attack on the space/time telegraph, thus stopping me being called back to earth in the near future, stopping all communications and then cutting the power allowing for whatever the second facsimile did in the cellar to be done. You can’t deny that he’s planned it all out superbly.”

“You almost sound like you admire the maniac.” Tom said, sounding bemused slightly.

“Admire; yes, respect; yes.” The Doctor agreed nodding his head and letting droplets of water drip off his curls. “But I wouldn’t underestimate him by calling him a maniac. He’s a dangerously clever man if you remember?” Both Jess and Tom nodded silently as the Doctor crossed to the corner of the room and picked up the wires which had held Jess to the chair. “But at the moment, I’m a bit more concerned about what the facsimiles have done around here.”

“What about me grabbing a change of clothes from the TARDIS, similar to what my facsimile was wearing and going back to the Master?” Tom suggested. “I could smuggle a microphone or radio or something in with me, and let you know what he’s up to?”

“A good idea,” The Doctor smiled, “but too dangerous. The Master is bound to be on the alert, especially if he knows that you’ve escaped. And besides, the facsimile no doubt already knew what the Master wanted to know and if it started questioning him, he’d become suspicious.” Pausing, the Doctor spun to Jess. “How long was the facsimile of Tom down in the cellar?”

“All night as far as I know,” Jess replied. “But he would only have been able to work with what he was given surely?”

“I don’t know.” The Doctor replied, weighing the wires in one hand, thoughtfully tapping his lip with the other. “It’s possible-”

Stopping, the Doctor turned and dashed from the lab, his coat tails flapping in his wake. His departure attracted bemused looks from both Jess and Tom who looked at each other before making to follow the Doctor. As they reached the door, the Doctor reappeared and all three reeled back slightly to avoid the collision.

“I think it’s best if I deal with this one,” the Doctor said, his eyes full of the same seriousness they held before he left to go to the Rutilus Allec factory. “You two pop back to the TARDIS, have a shower, change and grab a bite to eat. I’m going to need you both at your best soon”

Flashing one last grin, the Doctor turned and disappeared out of the door leaving Jess and Tom exchanging confused glances again. Looking out of the door, Jess saw the Doctor disappear round a corner, his coat tails flailing in his wake. A further shiver running through her reminded Jess of the cold and wet state she was in.

“Gods, I’ll bet I look one helluva mess.” She muttered.

“For someone who’s had no sleep, been soaked to the skin, escaped a criminal mastermind and then nearly killed by a living dummy, you look fine.” Tom smiled, putting his arm around her.

Jess squirmed slightly as the cold wet sleeve of Toms boiler suit caused the sodden white cotton of her shirt to stick to her skin again. Smiling up at Tom, Jess made a point of nestling her head into the crook of his arm, giggling when she heard him groan as her wet hair made contact with his cheek.

*

Captain William Morris sat down at his desk and stretched out, groaning as he did so. It had been a long day, and he still had a mountain of paper work that he had to do before he got some rest. Well, technically he didn’t have to do it, but he would rather get it done now while the details were fresh in his mind. Sergeant Lovatt had accepted the task of informing families about the deaths that they had suffered. He was reluctant to give her the job initially, but her insistence finally persuaded him. Sharing the job load would make it easier and quicker, she had insisted. She was right.

Morris ran his hands through his ginger hair as he looked at the death release forms before him. He had to apply to Geneva on behalf of the families so that they could have the bodies of their dead back. It was one thing that he never got used to with the army. He knew that sometimes Geneva would want to keep the bodies if they were killed by aliens, in case there was a risk of an alien plague breaking out and a global pandemic. The job never got any easier. He could hear Lovatt on the phone already. It was unfeasible for her to visit every single family, so calls were made to the local army barracks for them to send someone.

A sudden thought struck Morris; the facsimile’s that the Doctor had mentioned. One had been dealt with by Rowan, after his somewhat convenient escape from the Masters base of operations. Well, it had been either convenient or just one hell of a case of serendipity that he arrived back at that time. Still, who better to judge time than a Time Lord?

Shaking his head, Morris cleared himself of the train of thought. Of course the Doctor and his friends were here to help, and they had, many times throughout the Doctors lives and for more years than he had been alive. He shook his head again; he was using these trains of thought to procrastinate from the somewhat arduous task that sat before him.

He had returned silently to his work, nearly completing the second form when there was a furious rapping at his door. He didn’t even have the time to look up and tell whomever it was to enter as the door was flung open and the Doctor burst in.

“Ah, good, you’re in Will,” he said, pausing just in the door frame. “I wonder if you’d care to accompany me to the cellar. We could have an issue down there.”

Morris glanced down at the form before him. “Ok, let me just-” he looked up and paused; the Doctor had gone.

Morris sighed; would these things never end? Jumping to his feet, he grabbed his pistol from where he’d placed it on the desk and sprinted after the Doctor. He eventually caught him up in the reception area. The receptionist was standing from her desk in the foyer looking bemused at the Time Lords strange behaviour. The Doctor was stood, lightly bouncing on the balls of his feet, pointing his finger at each corridor and door before him reciting a playground rhyme, trying to decide which route to take. Stepping up to him, Morris took the decision for him.

“This way, Doctor,” he said, leading his way down the corridor. “So what’s so important that it can’t wait ‘til later?”

“There was a facsimile down in the cellar all night supposedly repairing the fuse box. I somehow doubt that he was.” The Doctor replied.

“The lights are on, the phones and electrics are working,” Morris countered. “Seems to me like he did.”

The Doctor held up a long finger and wagged it as if administering a scolding. “That’s not the point Will. That was probably done to lull everyone into a false sense of security. It’s more likely there was an ulterior motive for his being down there all night, and we really should find out what it was up to.”

Morris nodded, there was a very strong probability that the Doctor was right. Stopping by the cellar door, Morris keyed in the access code only for the red diode to remain a steady red. Frowning, he tried the code again, and again got no response.

“There a problem, Will?” the Doctor asked, looking down at the pad.

“My access code doesn’t seem to be working.” Morris replied, scratching his head confused.

“Allow me,” the Doctor grinned, pulling his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and activated it beside the keypad. A small burst of sparks shot out and the door swung open. “It’s a knack,” the Time Lord winked before stepping through the door.

Shrugging to himself, Morris followed, reaching out to flick on the lights. Something made him stop; there was a blue glow coming from the cellar below, silhouetting the Doctor. There was something about the glow that unnerved him and made him reach for the light. Morris felt himself relax as the bright white light flooded the cellar. Reaching the bottom of the steps, he found the Doctor looking at a bizarre plastic construct around the fuse box. There was a small sphere in the middle which supplied the blue glow.

“What is it?” He asked.

“I’ve no idea,” the Doctor replied, “but the facsimile put it there, so we can only assume that its purpose is deadly.”

[Fitz Kreiner]

“What is it?” Morris asked again as he leant closer to look at it, his hands on his knees supporting his weight.

“I’ve no idea,” the Doctor said, rummaging in his pockets. “But until we do know, I wouldn’t get too close if I were you.”

“You think it’s booby trapped?” Morris asked, looking up at the Doctor.

“With the Master involved, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Morris turned to look back at the strange construct. It had what looked like tubes coming from the central sphere and into the fuse box and the entire computer server which sat beside. The strange tube wires seemed to connect all the UNIT equipment in the cellar together. Morris didn’t dare touch anything, not just because of the Doctors warning, but because it looked alien and dangerous.

“Where did it come from?” He asked eventually.

“The facsimile,” the Doctor replied. “I would imagine it would have gotten its instructions direct from the Master and constructed this out of its own plastic.”

“It never rains...” Morris muttered as he straightened up.

Grimacing, he gave the device a brief kick and was surprised to see one of the tubes drop down. Morris’s eyes widened as the tube started to writhe around like a snake or tentacle. Looking round at the Doctor, Morris saw that he’d spotted it too.

“Fascinating,” the Doctor muttered as he pulled a magnifying glass out of his coat pocket.

The Doctor trained the magnifying glass on the tube, the light casting a beam onto another part of the device that the Doctor seemed oblivious too. Cautiously, Morris leant closer to study the strange tube. As he did so, the tube spat out a stream of liquid at both he and the Doctor. Both men jumped back, the majority of the spray that was directed at the Doctor had landed on the magnifying glass and his shoulders and was rapidly solidifying. Morris cried out as the spray hit his face and he fell back onto the concrete floor as the liquid plastic started to set about his face.

Spinning on his heel, the Doctor was immediately knelt beside Morris. Reaching up to his face, Morris clawed at the plastic which was forming an airtight seal over his face, clawing at the edge in panic. With one hand, the Doctor attempted to help Morris, whilst fumbling about his person with the other. Morris grabbed the Doctor’s lapel with one hand, his eyes wide, as he found himself getting faint and unable to breathe or even cry out.

Plunging a hand into a pocket, the Doctor pulled out a small glass bottle with a brown liquid inside. Quickly unscrewing the top, he poured the contents around the edge of the plastic which was suffocating Morris, desperately trying to prise it off with the other hand. Muttering to himself when it yielded no results, he reached into another pocket and pulled out another glass container with tiny bluish-white crystals inside. Removing the top of that, he sprinkled it over the edge of the mask.

Panic completely flooding him Morris felt a strange suction like feeling on his cheek and where the Doctor had sprinkled the strange materials started to tingle. His vision was starting to cloud and go black before he found he could breathe again. Not brilliantly, but very slightly. With one final heave, the Doctor managed to pull the plastic covering free and Morris gasped, gulping in great lungfuls of air.

“It’s ok, Will,” the Doctor said, pulling Morris out of the reach of the pipe and helping him up into a sitting position.

“Wha-What the hell happened?” Morris choked, his chest still heaving as he breathed deeply.

“That pipe thing,” the Doctor pointed to the tube that was still snaking about near the plastic device. “Like I said, there was a booby trap, and it was designed to cover the mouth and nose with the plastic fluid it emitted, which dried almost instantly.”

“I see,” Morris stammered. “Rather nasty.”

The Doctor nodded. “I’ve seen something similar before. Fortunately most of the fluid it squirted at me was stopped by the magnifying glass; otherwise we both wouldn’t be here now, eh?”

“Thanks,” Morris said, clapping a shaky hand on the Doctor’s shoulder, “I owe you one.”

“Think nothing of it,” the Doctor said, once again on his feet and cautiously examining the plastic thing.

“What was that stuff you sprinkled on it?” Morris asked licking his lips tentatively.

“Arcturan sea salt and Draconian vinegar; delicious on Gumblejack and chips.” The Doctor grinned and smacked his lips.

“Right,” Morris said slowly, once again not too sure what the Doctor was talking about.

The Doctor whirled round and grabbed Morris by the shoulders and started to lead him towards the stairs and up from the cellar. “Right Will, I think it would be very wise right now to shut down all power from here, all computer systems etcetera and run off emergency generators. I’m sure you can manage that right now. I wouldn’t trust anything whilst that creature is attached to the fuses and computer systems down there. While you’re doing that, I’ll have to work on a way to remove it. I’ll probably need a gas mask or some other form of respirator and a variety of chemicals.”

“Right then Doctor, I’ll see what I can do.” Morris started before turning back to the Doctor his eyes wide. “Hang on, I’m sorry, did you say ‘creature’?”

The Doctor nodded, with a confirming noise and smiled. “Don’t forget, Will, the Nestenes can animate anything made of plastic, and that thing down there is definitely animated. So, in the Nestene sense of the word, it’s alive. Not a life form like you or I, but a life form none the less. The blue sphere was in effect a polymer brain.”

Morris shuddered at the thought. “You sure you don’t want any help down there? I can easily get one of my chaps to put a bullet through that brain thing.”

“Oh Will. Will, Will, Will, Will, Will,” the Doctor sighed, gripping Morris by the shoulders again and shaking his head sadly. “Have you learnt nothing about Autons, bullets don’t stop them. It would most probably reform around the hole left by the bullet. No, I think my way is best. And don’t worry; I won’t go back down there before I’ve got a respirator.”

*

Jess was sat in one of the leather swivel chairs in the UNIT HQ briefing room. It seemed like days since she was last sat in there, yet a look at her watch told her it was only 24 hours. It seemed like so much had happened in that time; the Master, the facsimile, bumping into Kelly. She wondered whether it really had been six months she had been travelling with the Doctor or six weeks. No, it was definitely months.

She certainly felt better for a change of clothes and shower as the Doctor had suggested. It felt good to be back inside the TARDIS again, she felt safe for the first time since landing on Earth again. It was an odd feeling, not feeling safe on your own home planet, not when she’d felt so safe on both Florana and the Garazone Bazaar, even if she had gotten herself lost on the latter. She would feel a lot safer when the Master was dealt with and locked up or left Earth.

Sat back in her room at the TARDIS, Jess had been very tempted to lie down and sleep. She’d even lain down on her bed for a few minutes and heavily entertained the idea, but there was still that nagging voice in the back of her mind telling her to get back involved in stopping the Master. She also heard Toms voice filter through the TARDIS corridors at one point. She couldn’t discern any individual words or tell the tone of the shout. Still, it had spurred her to get back up and put some fresh, clean clothes on.

She’d gotten a surprise when she walked back into the console room; Tom was in the kitchen alcove cooking a full English breakfast. The smell of frying bacon and sausage filled the cavernous room. The smell reminded her just how hungry she was.

She had to turn away when she discovered that the reason for Tom’s cry was that he’d managed to burn himself by grabbing hold of the metal handle of a pan. She shouldn’t have found it funny, but she expected better of a Time Lord. Nevertheless, she helped herself to a generous portion of the breakfast, except the tomato, instead helping herself to extra mushrooms. She had to admit, he was a very good cook.

The sound of the briefing room door being open brought her crashing back down to Earth. She looked up at the figures that entered; the first two she recognised, Loding and Lovatt, but the next was a stranger in a military uniform. The pips on the strangers’ shoulders indicated that he was a high ranking officer. Jess watched as Lovatt showed the man to a chair, which he took and looked at both her and Tom, nodding curtly. Lovatt and Loding took seats either side of the officer. An uncomfortable silence fell over the room.

The door opened again and Jess looked up again. She recognised the first man to come through; Sir Daniel Ashfield, his hair greying at the temples much neater, the stubble shaved off and a smart business suit. Captain Morris was close behind him, with the Doctor bringing up the rear. Jess almost gaped at the sight of him. His purple velvet coat was spattered with what looked like beige coloured plastic, as though it had been sprayed as a liquid and it dried before it could be removed. There were globules of it in his hair as well, forming little beads in his chestnut curls.

Taking a position at the top of the room, the Doctor clapped his hands together, the sound reverberating around the room and causing everyone to jump.

“Right then, ladies and gentlemen,” he said with a broad smile across his face.”As you all know, we’re facing another attack by the Nestenes and their Auton foot soldiers, again, aided and abetted by the Master.” The Doctor nodded to Loding who handed out the files she had placed before her.

“One thing we need to keep into consideration is the Nestene ability to animate all forms of plastic.” The Doctor continued. “That means that all plastic could potentially be the enemy, as I’ve experienced myself recently. This HQ has had a pair of facsimile infiltrators and they attached a plastic device to the computer and other electric systems, thus giving the potential for every wire in this building to become a killer. Fortunately, with a little help, I’ve managed to neutralise the threat so we don’t have to worry about that any more.

“Now, we know where the Master is, and he knows that we now know. He’s likely to be on high alert and moved his base of operations. It’s also very likely that a lot of mannequins around the country are about to become ruthless killers. This HQ has already secured a large group of mannequins from a distribution centre nearby. I trust they’ve been taken care of?”

“We’ve had them moved to a safe and secured location.” Morris replied, looking from the Doctor to Loding who nodded in agreement.

“I hope by ‘safe and secure’ you mean ‘melted down and completely destroyed’,” the Doctor replied looking at Morris. “Because just locking them up still leaves the chance that they can escape and cause untold damage and destruction.”

“They will be taken care of, Doctor.” Morris replied.

“I certainly hope so, Will, I certainly hope so.” The Doctor said. “Everything I know about the Nestenes is in the files in front of you. That should save both my voice and time for my repeating myself. Now, before you say anything, Jess, Tom, I know you don’t have a file, that’s because I’ll be taking you with me when we leave and let the military chaps to it. I take it what I asked for has arrived from the stores?”

“It has indeed, Doctor.” Morris replied. “It’s down in the garages for you.”

“Excellent,” the Doctor smiled, clapping his hands together again. “Over to you Will.”

Nodding at the cue, Morris got to his feet and placed a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder as the Time Lord passed him and took a seat at the edge of the room, back from the table.

“After the debacle at the Rutillus Alec plastics factory and with our somewhat severe losses, I’ve called on General Bailey, our liason with the regular army, to sit in with us here, and if necessary, supply us with backup troops.” Morris said.

“I’d hope we could avoid a pitched battle, Will,” the Doctor cut in from where he was sat. “It was bad enough at the factory, but on the streets, we’d be putting civilians at risk.”

“I appreciate that, Doctor,” Morris replied, turning to face the Doctor. “But if the Master is anything like what you’ve told me, then I doubt that he’d take that into account. As you said, we must prepare to face the fact that every mannequin and plastic thing in the country is about to become hostile, and that may mean a mass mobilisation of the armed forces to protect civilian interests.”

“Quite,” Sir Daniel said, leaning forwards and resting his elbows on the large desk. “This is why I’m here. I can get the government to issue a cover story and call for the cessation of the upcoming celebrations.”

“Hang on,” Jess cut in loudly causing everyone to turn to look at her. “This whole thing started when we were called in to investigate your wife’s death. But what if the Master had meant to kill you? I mean, he’s been doing that for a while, who would replace you if you had died?”

A stunned silence fell over the room as all eyes looked from Jess to Ashfield. A large grin spread over the Doctor’s face.

“Well done Jess, yes of course.” He said.

“Erm,” Ashfield sat back in his chair, taken aback. “Well, we’ve this new chap, I can’t remember his name. He replaced Gavin Hilton, my previous replacement. That was a bit of a shocker, I can tell you. He was found in possession of sensitive materials he shouldn’t have had.”

“Of course,” the Doctor smiled, “planted by a facsimile most probably, to get this new successor placed in and to take your place. The Master has certainly covered all the bases.” Pausing, the Doctor turned to Ashfield and smiled. “Please, do carry on Sir Daniel.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Sir Daniel said, turning back and continuing.

Silently, whilst Ashfield was talking, the Doctor motioned to Jess and Tom to quietly follow him. Carefully, Jess got to her feet and quietly walked out of the room, it seemed that no one had noticed them leave as she silently shut the door behind her. Before he made his way down the corridor, the Doctor held his finger to his lips to the private stood outside the door, indicating him to keep quiet.

“Where are we going?” Jess whispered. She wasn’t sure why she was whispering, it felt the right thing to do.

“To hopefully save UNIT and the army a lot of trouble, and a lot of lives,” the Doctor replied.

*

The Master turned smiling from the report on the monitor screen. The Private Baxter facsimile had removed his TARDIS to a secure location, ready for him to collect it when he was ready. He now had everything he needed in place; it was now just a question of time. No doubt the Doctor and the UNIT forces would be moving soon, especially as the signals from the facsimile of Tom Rowan had ceased. It was down to whether the finer details could be finished before the UNIT forces could act. It didn’t worry him. He had numerous contingency plans in place and even if UNIT did arrive at the factory, he had the Auton force.

Getting to his feet, the Master crossed to the door of his office and opened it. Andrea was sat at her desk, busy with finer details of the plan. “Andrea, my dear,” he purred, “would you kindly tell the staff that they can leave now?”

“Are you sure, Master?” She asked, looking up from her desk.

“Of course; call it an extended holiday for the upcoming festivities.” Andrea nodded and got to her feet, the Master grabbing her arm as she passed him. “And then I have something very important for you to do for me.”

[Fitz Kreiner]

Jess stood just inside the garage door in amazement. She couldn’t quite believe the sight before her. Amid the military vehicles and black staff cars stood a bright canary-yellow Edwardian Roadster. It was open topped with a curly brass horn to one side of the windscreen; the rubber ‘hooter’ end was in the shape of a hand and at the sides, behind the headlights was what looked remarkably like old gas lamps. The whole thing looked a massive hotchpotch, with the leather seats that stretched from one side of the car to the other. The registration plates were the most curious, reading; “WHO 8”.

“Well, what do you think?” The Doctor was stood proudly, a large grin across his face.

“What is it?” Tom asked, clearly bemused by the Doctors enthusiasm.

“Bessie,” the Doctor said as though that explained it all and throwing his arms wide before bounding down the few steps and jumping up into the car, behind the wheel. “Well, come on you two, hop in.”

Jess and Tom turned to each other and exchanged bemused looks before stepping down to the cars. Turning back to Tom, Jess cheekily stuck her tongue out at him and ran round to the front passenger seat and climbed in sitting next to the Doctor. Rolling his eyes, Tom clambered into the back, moving across a large piece of electrical equipment across so he could sit down.

“No seatbelts?” Jess asked.

“No need,” the Doctor replied, tapping his nose and then starting the engine.

“What’s this thing then?” He asked, hefting the electronic device up. It was based on a large tray, and in one corner had a steel globe with two diodes on the top and a length of wire coming out of one side and going into what looked like a microphone, with a large prong sticking out of it.

“Oh, that,” the Doctor said casually, as he glanced round whilst pulling the car out of the garage. “I whipped that up back in the seventies, when Earth was having trouble with the Nestenes before.”

“And you didn’t bring it out before, why?” Tom retorted, placing it back in the seat beside him.

“Because I wasn’t sure about the time before,” the Doctor replied, before adding sheepishly, “I was also hoping what I made out of Jess’s CD player would work better; almost thirty years of technological progress and all that.”

“You think it’ll work then?” Jess asked clinging onto the seat as the Doctor threw the car round a corner.

“Oh no doubt,” the Doctor replied reaching forwards and flicking a switch on the dashboard. “And you shouldn’t have to hold on now.” He added turning and winking at Jess. “I’ve activated the anti-inertia field, so technically you could stand on the seat doing River Dance, only I wouldn’t recommend that, you might draw some odd looks.”

“If we aren’t getting enough already in this old crock,” Tom said from the back.

“Old crock?” The Doctor replied, almost aghast. Leaning forward he gently patted the steering wheel. “Take no notice old girl,” he muttered.

“Yeah, I think it’s a funky car,” Jess grinned.

“Funky?” The Doctor asked, turning to her again, “I don’t think the old girl’s ever been called that before.”

“Well, it is; major old school. I like it. It suits you.” Jess sat back, wriggling into a comfortable position. “So where is it we’re going then?”

“To confront the Master, and stop all this before things get out of hand.” The Doctor replied, his face set and serious.

“And we’re not waiting for backup from the UNIT lot, why?” Tom asked.

“Like I said, we’re trying to avoid a lot of needless deaths.” The Doctor shouted over his shoulder. “It was bad enough at the Rutillus Alec factory, but I think our being a smaller group, we’ve more chance of infiltrating the factory without calling attention to ourselves. As useful as they can be from time to time, the UNIT chaps tend to burst in guns blazing and making a terrible racket.”

“But wouldn’t they help if we ran into some Autons?” Jess asked.”

“Bullets don’t work on Autons,” the Doctor replied flatly. “And even the flame throwers would only have a limited usage time. Plus, if we’re going into a factory, flame throwers could be very dangerous. They shouldn’t really be used indoors.”

“Hey, it stopped the facsimile didn’t it?” Tom protested.

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “I’m not saying that for your benefit Tom, don’t worry. There are vast differences between UNIT HQ and a fully operational factory, with fumes and gasses.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” Tom muttered to himself sitting back.

“So, after you initially telling us that the Master was too dangerous, you’re now taking us right into his lair?” Jess asked, turning to the Doctor and raising an eyebrow.

“Well, you certainly seem to think otherwise, following him off your own back,” the Doctor smiled. “And I think I can certainly trust your judgement. I’m glad I’ve got the pair of you watching my back.”

Jess looked back down, feeling the blood rushing to her cheeks. The Doctor certainly seemed to put a lot of trust in both her and Tom, a lot more than UNIT it seemed, which really flattered her, especially when he said that he’d unofficially worked for them for years. Glancing over her shoulder, Jess saw that Tom was sat back in the rear seat of the Doctor’s car; the wind was whipping his hair all about in a wild manner.

Turning back and looking out of the windscreen, Jess realised exactly how fast the car was now going, yet it seemed as though they were still crawling along. It must be the inertia field that the Doctor mentioned. They were now well out of Camden and driving through more, what she would have classed, mainstream areas. The yellow roadster was starting to attract some bizarre looks from passes by as they whizzed past them.

She had to admit, though, she didn’t care what looks they were now getting. She’d gotten worse from aliens on other planets. She was rather enjoying the ride, despite the rising knot of fear of facing off with the Master again, and the Autons. Still, having the Doctor and Tom with her this time comforted her immensely, she knew the Doctor wouldn’t let any hard come to her, and Tom seemed hugely protective of her in danger as well. Reassured with these thoughts, she settled down in her seat and watched the images of London flash by as the Doctor drove.

*

“Well, with this facsimile business, and if Hilton’s replacement is a facsimile, I suggest that we keep all this information on a definite need-to-know basis.” Sir Daniel Ashfield said, looking round at the assembled military personnel. “I suggest that to stem any security leaks from getting back to this Master character, then you only involve the officers and troops you know you can trust.”

“With all due respect, are you sure you can make the same claim, sir?” Bailey asked. “I know we’ve had a few mysterious deaths in the upper brass of the army and some unknowns have come to the light, so it might not be the easiest to keep it from them.”

“Well, then I suggest that you try, General.” Ashfield said, turning to face the General.

“I can safely say, sir, that with my staff, I can trust them all.” Morris said, chipping in. “The two facsimile’s that were sent to this HQ have been dealt with. Well, one of them has, the other is no longer about.”

“And where is it?” Ashfield asked, turning on him.

“I can only assume that it has returned to the Master.” Morris said. “We know that it’s no longer in the building.”

“And the other?”

“The other has definitely been taken care of.” Morris replied. “Melted down into a puddle. It’s still in the lab if you’d care to take a look for yourself?”

“That’ll do, Captain,” Bailey cut in.

“Thank you, General,” Ashfield said. “The fact of the matter is, we are dealing with what is potentially a crippling nationwide crisis here. If the Doctor is indeed correct that high ranking personnel have been replaced with these deadly facsimile’s then a state of emergency will have to be declared. This may mean that we have to initiate a state of martial law.”

“That’s all very well, sir,” Lovatt said, leaning forwards, “but is that really a wise idea? I mean, if the Master has replaced some of the top brass with facsimiles then surely that will make it easy for him to take control of the country? Especially after what the Doctor has said about the Master, we can’t put it past him.”

“That is an extremely good point, sir,” Bailey confirmed. “Even with these deaths that have occurred in government, it seems to suggest that he’s planned for either a military emergency or political emergency. As the Doctor said, he’s covered all the bases.”

“Well, what about a screening process, so we can find out who is real and who is a facsimile?” Loding asked. “Like blood tests or something similar. If I know one thing; that’s mannequins don’t bleed.”

“That’s a very good idea, Corporal.” Morris smiled, his green eyes sparkling at the idea that Loding had offered. “What about it, Doctor? Is there something you can quickly whip up? You’ve been rather quiet-?”

Morris turned to the side of the room where the Doctor had sat down after starting the meeting. The Time Lord was conspicuous by his absence. Turning back to the table confused, the remaining occupants of the room returned his confused stare. Opening his mouth to ask either of the Doctors companions, he noticed that they too had disappeared.

“Where is he?” Ashfield asked.

“Deserted?” Bailey suggested. “Fled because he knows it’s futile and there’s nothing we can do?”

“No, I don’t think so somehow,” Morris said looking at the door. Walking over, he opened it and the Private outside stood to attention. “Has the Doctor come out here?” He asked.

“Yes sir. He, and his two friends, came out about fifteen minutes ago.” The private replied.

“Maybe you were right, Bailey.” Ashfield said, upon hearing the private’s report.

Ignoring the politician’s negative comment, Morris turned back to the private. “Just call down to the garage and see if the Doctor’s car is still there?”

Morris was sure that the Doctor would not run out on them, not after all the reports that he’d read previously. The length of time that the report took to come back to him seemed to last forever. Morris was almost relieved when the Private turned back with a negative reply.

“No, I would imagine that he’s gone off to confront the Master alone.” Morris said, turning back to the room. “And I’d guess that his two friends have gone off with him.”

Ashfield was immediately on his feet and grabbed the door and pulled it open all the way. “Didn’t you think to try to stop him at all?” He shouted at the private.

“Sir Daniel, the Doctor isn’t a prisoner, he’s free to come and go as he pleases.” Morris protested. “He’s here helping us out of his own good will; he could leave any time he wants.”

“And how do you know he hasn’t?” Ashfield countered.

“Because, his car has gone from the garage, and we’d have heard if he’d left by his normal means.” Morris replied.

“And what do you intend to do, Captain?”

Morris looked round the room briefly before turning back to Ashfield. “Sir Daniel, this is now a military matter and I would kindly ask you to step aside.” Ignoring the outrage on Ashfield’s face, Morris stepped into the room and looked at Lovatt. “Sergeant, liaise with General Bailey, arrange a blood test for anyone who has to be involved with this operation. Corporal, you’re with me, we’re going after the Doctor.”

Getting to her feet, Loding squeezed past Ashfield, the politician still stood with a look of annoyance on his face, and stood in the corridor, waiting for further instructions from Morris.

Turning, Morris pointed at the private at the door. “You’re with me too,” he said, “and make sure the two of you are well armed and be in the garage in five minutes.” Motioning the soldiers to move, Morris made his way down the corridor to the garages.

*

Detective Inspector Hammond stepped out of the police station and blinked in the bright sunshine. He’d just finished a mammoth twenty hour shift, his third of the week. He needed the overtime of late. Yawning, he pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his suit jacket inside pocket and popped them on. Immediately the bright glare of the late summer sun was cut down and he didn’t need to squint so much anymore.

The street was full of morning shoppers, bustling around each other, some laden down with large backs. There were still large groups of youths about as well. Clearly the schools and colleges hadn’t restarted yet from the summer break. Hammond hadn’t got twenty yards down the road before he was accosted by one of those god awful street performers that had seemed to spring up everywhere. He knew that they were in preparation for the upcoming celebration, but he was already sick to the back teeth of them. He didn’t see the point in them in the first place, but now it just seemed silly.

The Mime artist kept stepping in front of him and making silly gestures, as if he were placing his hands on a glass wall. Rolling his eyes, Hammond pulled his warrant card out of his pocket.

“Look, sunshine, I’m a police officer. Shift out of my way will you?” He said, brandishing his warrant card.

The Mime artist cocked his head as he looked at the card and then up at Hammond. Keeping his face set and grim, Hammond looked back into the performer’s face, in the hope of intimidating him. It was the same look he gave suspects when interviewing them. But this time, his face was the one that fell. The paint on the performer’s face was too perfect, it wasn’t make-up and neither was it a mask. Two blank white eyes stared back at him.

Hammonds’ mouth slackened in shock as the mime then stood up straight and held its hand out. It looked like he was extending it to shake hands, and Hammond almost automatically went to shake it but something stopped him. Looking down at the mime’s hand, he watched in rapt horror as the fingers dropped away and a short stubby tube slid out. The hand rose until the tube was pointing into Hammond’s face. He watched it rise and then saw a puff of yellowish smoke explode from the end. It was the last thing he ever saw.

A group of shoppers were moving round the confrontation, not aware of the deadly purpose of it until it had happened. Screams and shouts started as Hammond’s body hit the floor, his head lolling and eyes wide in shock. Panic soon spread fast through the crowds of shoppers as the mime artist started firing into the crowd, those closest to the incident turned, screaming, running into and pushing those who got in their way.

Further down the street, other street performers stopped their performances and straightened. Jugglers stood stock still, their juggling balls and batons clattering to the floor, living statues stepped down from their plinths and mime artists straightened. As a whole, the Autons raised their right arms and the fingers dropped away.

The street then erupted into chaos.

[Fitz Kreiner]

The Master strode into the office overlooking the security area of the factory floor with an air of confidence and satisfaction. All preparations for the advancement of his plans had been sorted. All shipments had been made; both the Rutillus Alec and Les Plastiques Maîtrisent products had been sent out across the country and even some shipments had been sent to locations in France, thanks to the French factories that used to belong to Lemaitre.

The street performer Autons were already positioned about London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle and the mannequins were in shops around the country. Even all the facsimiles’ were in place, ready for his word of activation. Smiling to himself, the Master stood back briefly, his arms folded as he stared at the array of technology before him.

A sound at the door to the office made him turn. Andrea Rogers entered and came to stand just before the Master. The Master nodded and Andrea turned and took a seat before the main instrument panel and started to type at the keyboard. Taking a step forwards, the Master leant on the back of her chair and looked over her shoulder at the screen directly before him.

“Very well my dear, I think it’s time we sent the first activation signal.” He said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Yes Master,” Andrea replied.

Turning her chair slightly as the Master stood up straight; Andrea reached out to a large dial to the side of the terminal she was working at. Twisting it around a quarter of the way, she turned to look up at the Master. The Master reached into his jacket and withdrew a silver key. Stepping forwards, he inserted it into a small hole in the panel and twisted it. Leaving the key in its place, he depressed the small red button beside it.

Standing back and folding his arms, a smug smile spread across the Time Lord’s face as he nodded his head slightly. Leisurely, he blinked and turned to face Andrea. “Thank you my dear, you can go about your other tasks now,” he said soothingly.

“Are you sure?” She asked, getting to her feet and looking at the Master.

Smiling, the Master placed a hand on her cheek. “Yes, thank you my dear. I can manage fine here. You know what you have to do.”

Silently, Andrea turned and walked from the office, closing the door behind her. Without looking back, she walked down the metal gantry and down the metal stairs to the factory floor. Watching her depart, the Master turned and took the seat before the panel for himself. Reaching across, he flicked a small chrome switch and looked at the monitor sat above. It flickered to life, showing an image of the main entrance and car park.

“Now, Doctor,” he muttered to himself. “Where are you?” Sitting back in the chair, the Master allowed himself to chuckle.

*

Morris slammed the car door shut behind him as he climbed into the black car. Corporal Loding was already sat in the passenger seat, Private Blackwood sat in the rear. Starting the engine, Morris pulled the car out of the garage. He’d driven it out into the main street and was driving out of Camden when all hell broke loose.

The street performers that were lining the streets suddenly straightened up as one and started shooting into the crowds and at the cars. The rear windscreen of the car in front shattered in an explosion, showering the road and the windscreen of Morris’s staff car with crumbled glass. Swerving to avoid it, Morris found that the morning shoppers were now trying to escape the Autons that lined the roads, firing into the panicked crowds.

“What should we do, sir?” Loding asked, ducking as the passenger window exploded in a shower of glass.

“Keep going,” Morris replied, swerving again as a woman ran screaming into the road. “There’s nothing we can do here. Not the three of us. HQ will have to deal with it.”

Seeing a street performer step into the road ahead of him and level its hand weapon, Morris put his foot down and drove straight at it. The plastic killer hit the bonnet of the car and crashed into the windscreen, causing it to fracture into a spider web pattern. There was a loud clattering as the Auton rolled over the roof and fell into the road in a heap.

Unable to see out of the windscreen any more, Morris lashed forwards with a fist and the shattered glass exploded over both himself and Loding. Glancing back in his rear view mirror, he saw that the Auton was getting back to its feet and raising its arm again, firing after the car. Cutting in front of a car preparing to turn at a junction, Morris ignored the car horn, which was already adding to the cacophony of noise. Glancing back, he saw that the Auton had lost interest in the car and was turning back to the high street massacre.

As the street disappeared from sight, Morris glanced round at his passengers; both Loding and Blackwood were looking back as well, both unharmed. Morris wondered whether they both felt the huge pang of guilt that he felt at not being able to do anything to help the innocent civilians being shot dead in the street. He knew that if they’d stopped and started shooting at the Autons, there was the risk that they would hit innocents and the very strong chance that they would add to the dead.

Turning another corner, Morris saw there were still other street performers dotted about; living statues and mime artists. Strangely, these were still posing as performers. As they flashed by, Morris wondered why, whether something had prematurely caused those in the Camden high street to start killing or whether these were awaiting a secondary signal from the Master.

Gripping the wheel in determination, Morris hoped that the Doctor would come through sooner rather than later, and his following him there would only be a courtesy.

*

Lovatt and Bailey looked up when the door to the briefing room crashed open and a breathless Private burst in, crashing to attention. Bailey opened his mouth, before closing it and glancing to Lovatt who nodded subtly, allowing him to take the Privates comments.

“Well, what is it private?” Bailey asked, straightening up and pulling himself to his full height.

“Sorry to interrupt sir, sarg.” he said looking from both Bailey to Lovatt.

“Come on, spit it out man,” Bailey snapped.

“Well, erm, the street performers outside have started attacking civilians, shoppers and the like.” The Private said, looking very uncomfortable.

Bailey’s eyes widened as he turned to Lovatt. “Autons,” she breathed.

“Well?” Bailey turned back to the private. “Are they these Auton things?”

The private nodded solemnly. “All initial reports suggest they are.” He confirmed. “Seems they all kicked off after Captain Morris left. We haven’t got many lads left to deal with ‘em.”

“Well, we’ll have to send what you do have,” Bailey said. “First thing we have to do is to protect the innocent and the public. Will you see to that Sergeant?” He asked, turning to Lovatt. “I’ll get in touch with my HQ and the police; get their support and then I’ll be with you on the ground.”

Swallowing, remembering her previous encounter with the Autons the night before, Lovatt nodded and ushered the private from the room. Watching them go, Bailey turned to Ashfield who had stood silently observing the brief conversation.

“I think it’d be best if you stay here out of the way, sir.” He said, grabbing his peaked cap from the table and heading to the door.

“I think it would be best if I were to return to somewhere where I could do more good.” Ashfield replied.

“With all due respect, sir,” Bailey said turning to face Sir Daniel as he pulled his cap into position on his head, “I think it would be wise if you were to stay within the confines of this building. It’s liable to be too dangerous outside for you and any other civilian until we can get a lid on this situation. If you want to get in touch with people on the outside, it’d probably be best if you were in the operations room. There’s more than enough communication equipment there, and it’s one of the safest places inside the building from the main street.”

“If you think that’s best?” Ashfield said, quietly.

“I do indeed, sir,” Bailey said, indicating to the door with his swagger stick, “now, after you sir.” Tapping his swagger stick against his leg, Bailey watched Ashfield walk from the room, and then tucking the stick under his arm, followed him from the room.

*

Camden high street was a battleground. Bodies were already littering the street, victims of the ruthless massacre initiated by the Auton street performers. Some of the steelier nerved shoppers, mostly the younger men, had taken up whatever they could to try to fight back, not aware of the true extra-terrestrial nature of the Autons. People who had previously been holding placards, advertising the various shops along the high street had started to hit at the street performers with them, knocking them to the ground and using them to smash down onto them when it became apparent that they were not quite what they seemed.

There were now no cars driving down the street, those that had been had either crashed as their drivers were shot dead by the Autons or had been abandoned after it became impossible to drive any farther. There was already a large pile up of cars by Camden lock and fires were starting to blaze, encroaching on the market. Towards the other end, at the Camden Town underground station, unaware tube passengers emerged from the station into chaos. Those at the front turning and trying to return to the relative safety of the underground whilst those at the back, unaware of the carnage ahead kept pressing forwards.

Families were separated, as were groups of friends, in the crushing and suffocating crowd. Unable to move either forwards or back, the unfortunate people in the middle were crushed by the two surging crowds as trains still stopped deep below them disgorging ever more passengers. In the midst of the crowds, those who passed out were trampled by panicked people. Those noise levels of screams and shouts made it impossible to hear any coherent announcements of the Underground employees who were trying to direct the crowds to safety.

With the Autons primarily situated on the high street, crowds were managing to flood out of Camden Underground onto Kentish Town Road, currently untouched by the carnage, and already becoming a vast area of walking wounded and terrified shoppers who had escaped the massacre that was still raging mere meters away from them. Police were already marshalling people away down the street to safety, whilst trying to get to the chaos to do their job, themselves unaware of the terror and danger that awaited them, believing it to be a terrorist attack.

Already crowds were forming of people who wanted to know about the events that were taking place, as curious people tried to push forwards. Some were watching from windows in office blocks and higher buildings at the carnage around them, safe indoors. The Autons were staying around the Camden high street, near the lock and market. There were still many shoppers trapped in the streets, still falling victim to the Autons as they turned, firing at anything human that moved.

The chaos was reaching fever pitch when Sergeant Lovatt and a group of UNIT soldiers burst out into the mêlée. The sight greeting them was horrific; bodies were piling up by the dozen as the Autons indiscriminately shot into the crowd. Seeing the few people in the crowd fighting back, Lovatt immediately began to direct the troops to help them out. She had given strict instructions not to use their weapons unless it was absolutely unavoidable; they were meant to help save lives, not add to the death toll, which was mounting as each moment passed.

A movement out of the corner of her eye made Lovatt drop to the floor as the glass doors behind her exploded, showering her with razor sharp shards of glass. Throwing her arms up to cover her face just a little too late, Lovatt felt dozens of small cuts appear as the glass hit her face and arms. Looking over to where the Auton had fired from, Lovatt saw the almost comical sight of a nameless young punk with a placard bring it down with force on the street performer Autons head with such a force the thick wooden post the sign was attached to splintered in half. Silently, Lovatt nodded her thanks only for the punk to stagger forwards, smoke curling from his body as he crumpled to the ground.

Clambering to her feet, Lovatt drew the pistol out of the holster at her hip and fired three shots into the head of the Auton which had shot the boy down. Each bullet hit home in the plastic killers head knocking it back to the floor. The sound of the gun shots caused greater furore in the already panicked crowd. Chancing a glance down, Lovatt looked at the punk; he couldn’t have been more than nineteen years old. Her mouth forming into a thin grimace, she jumped down into the road and fought her way to the end of the road. The police were swiftly forming a cordon by where there was already quite a severe pile-up of cars.

Spotting an Inspector stood directing his officers; she fought her way over to him. “We need to get as many civilians out of this road as we can, immediately.” She shouted over the commotion.

“What the hell is happening?” He shouted back, stepping back to take in Lovatt in her uniform. “And who the hell are you?”

Quickly pulling her identity card from her pocket, Lovatt passed it to the policeman. “Sergeant Lovatt, UNIT,” she replied. “We have a serious incident happening down here and you need to pull everyone back immediately.”

“That may be rather hard, Sergeant,” the Inspector replied handing back the ID card. “We don’t have the manpower, not with all the people pouring in here from the Tube and other motorists.”

“I don’t care how we do it, just do it,” Lovatt replied, ducking as the car windscreen beside them shattered under the blast of an Auton weapon. “Otherwise there will be countless deaths. We’re fighting an alien force here.”

By now it was clear that the Autons were not human as they continued to get to their feet after repeatedly getting knocked to the floor under barrages of attacks by civilians with inflated bravado or under the odd hail of bullets from one of the UNIT troops. Lovatt didn’t care about any cover story now; it could be worked out after the event. Now she just wanted to save lives. The cry of a policeman nearby getting shot down reminded her of how dangerous the events were becoming.

Both Lovatt and the Inspector ducked down and turned round to see an Auton stood, its hand weapon seeking them out. It staggered under a hail of bullets and turned to face the bigger threat of the UNIT trooper behind it.

“Now can you see?” Lovatt shouted at the Inspector. “I need you to get these people out of here now, stop more coming into the area. Shut down the Tube, anything.”

His eyes wide at seeing an apparent human being survive being shot in the back, the Inspector rushed away, keeping his head down. Turning back to face the carnage behind her, Lovatt helped to direct the fleeing crowds from the corridor of death the Autons were laying down. She could see three of her men lying on the ground, adding to the numbers of the dead.

Cover was becoming harder to find, as more people were managing to escape to safety. The cries and screams still filled the air as people realised that relatives or loved ones were missing. Lovatt couldn’t allow her thoughts to wander, even as civilians clawed at her and tried to pull her away screaming. She had a job to do, and she would make sure that she did it; she was a member of UNIT, the last line of defence against the alien force that was attempting to take her world from her. So engrossed was she in her job that she didn’t realise she had tripped over a body until she found herself on the floor. Looking up, she saw an Auton dressed as a Persian juggler, its hand weapon training at her head. Closing her eyes, Lovatt awaited the end.

[Fitz Kreiner]

The Master had pulled a small notepad and pencil from his jacket pocket and was busy sketching out a circuit diagram for a replacement phased electron capacitor. Every so often he kept glancing up to the monitor screen, which was relaying the hidden CCTV images from the car park and entrance. Checking the time by his watch, the Master sighed loudly and threw the pad down on the keyboard before him. Reaching out, he twisted a dial on the monitor and the image flickered and changed to an image of one of the roads outside. Twisting the dial again, the Master flicked through the cameras until he was back where he started.

“Honestly, Doctor,” he muttered to himself checking his watch again, “call yourself a Time Lord, you’re running late. You’ll be late for your own funeral.”

The Master was leaning back and folding his arms when a movement on the monitor screen caught his attention. Leaning forwards he looked closer at the screen. It was the old crock of a car that the Doctor seemed so fond of driving in. Smiling to himself, the Master turned the monitor off before getting to his feet. Reaching out, he picked up the notepad and slid it back into his inside pocket along with the pencil.

Walking to the other side of the office, the Master flicked several of the switches on one of the larger panels causing a row of diodes to light up red. Smiling to himself, he checked the door to the gantry and stepped over to the second door that lead out to the small balcony overlooking the security area floor. Taking one last look over his shoulder at the door leading into the office, the Master stepped through the door onto the balcony, closing it behind him. Gripping the metal railing, he looked down into the floor below. No Autons were in sight. Smiling to himself he stepped back and waited.

*

The Doctor pulled up in the car park of Les Plastiques Maîtrisent. There was only one car still there, a silver Bentley, the same one that Jess had described as having followed. That meant only one thing, the Master was still about. Pulling the hand brake on, he turned in his seat so he could see both Jess and Tom.

“Right, this is liable to be a little bit dangerous,” he said wincing slightly as he said it.

“You’ve said that before.” Tom said.

“And the times you haven’t it has been,” Jess added cheekily.

“Yes, yes, alright,” the Doctor said, waving down their comments. “Now, Tom, do you think you could find your way back to the office where we went first of all?”

“I think so, why?” Tom replied shifting uncomfortably.

“I want you to head up there and take a look around, see if you can find anything there that may be of use.” The Doctor said fishing around in his pockets and withdrawing his sonic screwdriver and passing it over. “Take this if there are any locks that get in your way, we can’t have you kicking down any doors, it’s not our property after all. Jess and I on the other hand are going to head to this security area you mentioned and try to put a stop to all this once and for all.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense if I went instead?” Tom protested. “I mean, I have been there.”

“It’s also most likely where the Master is going to be as well,” the Doctor replied. “And I rather think it would be best if I were to face him.”

Reluctantly, Tom nodded his agreement, clambering out of the back of Bessie and slipping the sonic screwdriver into his trouser pocket.

“So, wait,” Jess said, putting her hand on the Doctor’s arm and making his pause from getting out of the car. “You and I are going up to have it out with the Master? Alone?”

“Why not?” the Doctor replied smiling, “you say that you’re now immune to his hypnotism.”

“Yeah, but,” Jess started, trailing off as the Doctor jumped lightly out of the car. “What makes you so sure the Master is here?” She finished nervously.

Silently, the Doctor turned and pointed at the silver Bentley sat alone across the car park. “It matches your description perfectly.” He said.

“He might have buggered off by TARDIS?” Tom suggested.

“Oh no,” the Doctor replied. “He’ll be here, waiting.”

Slowly, Jess got out of the car, and rounded the vehicle, joining the Doctor and Tom. “You mean he’s expecting us?”

“Undoubtedly,” the Doctor replied reaching into the back seat and pulling out the device that sat there. “But don’t worry, I’ll be with you.”

“And this gizmo still works?” Jess asked, pointing to the machine the Doctor held.

“Yes of course. I may need to you carry it for me though,” the Doctor admitted passing it over to Jess and then taking his pocket watch from his waistcoat turned to Tom. “Now, we can’t waste much more time chin wagging here. If we meet back here in say, half an hour, and if one or the other of us isn’t here we go looking for them?”

“Right ho,” Tom nodded. “Good luck the pair of you.”

“You too,” Jess smiled as the young Time Lord turned and jogged across the car park to the main entrance.

“Don’t worry, he, and we, will be fine.” The Doctor said, putting his arm round Jess’s shoulder and leading her across the car park.

*

“Trap seven, this is Greyhound one, do you receive me, over.” Corporal Loding looked across at Captain Morris. “No good, sir. I can’t get through.”

“Keep trying, Corporal,” Morris said glancing over. “I want to know what’s happening back there.”

“Yes sir,” Loding said, turning back to the radio. Repeating the call sign, Loding listened, nothing but static coming through the receiver. “You don’t think it’s possible that the Autons have taken the HQ, sir?”

“I hope not, Corporal,” Morris confessed. “I get the very bad feeling that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.
“Trap seven receiving you Greyhound, over.” A tinny voice crackled through the speakers.

Loding brought the radio up to her lips to reply when Morris held his hand out, indicating for her to pass the small speaker over. Passing it over, Loding half turned in her seat to look at Morris. He was hunched over the wheel, looking through the sizable hole he had punched through the windscreen. Blood was running freely over his knuckles and down his wrist.

“Trap seven; this is Greyhound one, Captain Morris here. Who’s this?”

“Private Winters, sir,” the voice replied. “I’ve been put on liaison duties by General Bailey, sir; all hell’s broken loose here.”

“I gathered that, Winters,” Morris replied with a sigh. “I was hoping for more information. Is the general still there?”

“Morris? Bailey here; what’s your SP?” Bailey’s tinny voice came from the radio.

“Still en route to rendezvous with the Doctor, sir,” Morris replied. “I want to check on what’s happening round there. There seemed to be a mass riot starting as we left.”

The radio remained silent for several long seconds before it crackled and Bailey’s voice came through again. “It seems the street performers up the Camden high street were these Auton things. They’ve started a massacre of the civilian population. We’re liaising between police and armed forces to clear the streets and try to save as many lives as possible.”

“We are still able to return if desirable.” Morris replied.

“Negative, Captain,” Bailey replied. “We’ve got police and armed back-up on the way, continue with your mission. If the Doctor is able to end this at the source, he might need your help. Just make sure it works.”

“Understood, sir, Morris out,” Morris handed the radio back over to Loding. “Well, you heard it,” he said glancing across at her, “we’ve got huge trouble and we’re up against the clock. As soon as we get to the factory, we’re not hanging about. Get ready for action.”
Nodding in understanding, Lovatt and Blackwood checked the readiness of the weapons they had brought with them and slipped the safety catches off.

*

Lovatt hardly heard the gunshots when they rang out. Chancing to open her eyes when the end didn’t come, she saw the Auton that had been stood over her stagger back. Looking down the road, she saw one of her platoon firing at the Auton. Scrambling round, she kicked out with her legs causing the Auton to crash to the ground.
Scrambling to her feet, she wished that the action hadn’t kicked off in the middle of the high street. Because of this she had expressly forbade her troops the use of the flame throwers, and now she was wishing she could use them on the plastic killers. Pulling her pistol from its holster, she loosed the remaining bullets in the clip into the Auton’s head, putting several holes into the plastic shell, but causing no serious damage.

The sound of sirens and cheers coming from the police blockade at the end of the street made her turn; three large vans had pulled up and were disgorging riot police, with full body armour and shields. She didn’t know how good the shields would be against the Auton weapons but she was glad of the reinforcements. Looking again, she saw the Inspector she had spoken to not so long ago beckoning her over, the sergeant of the riot police talking to him, gesturing wildly. Keeping low, she ran over to them.

“Sergeant Lovatt, these men are at your disposal,” the Inspector said, getting an agreeing nod from the police sergeant.

“Right, I want you to form a cordon around the evacuating civilians, trying to keep them safe until we can get them out of this charnel house.” Lovatt said quickly, looking back into the chaos. The Autons were now grouping up in their attack. “The rest of your men, and I know it’s risky, I want to charge any street performers and don’t be afraid to use your batons, they’re not human.”

Not waiting for a response, Lovatt turned and rejoined her men in the street. Not quite sure what to make of it, the police sergeant turned to the inspector, a quizzical look on his face. The Inspector merely returned the look with a shrug before motioning for the sergeant to carry out his duty.

*

The door to the security area opened slowly and cautiously the Doctor’s head poked out and looked around. Slowly, the door opened fully and the Doctor stepped into the security area holding the transmitter part of his machine. Tentatively Jess followed, clutching the machine, holding it before her like a tray.

“Are you sure that this is safe?” She whispered.

“Probably not,” the Doctor said cheerily glancing about a frown forming on his face. “Hmm, I don’t like this; it’s too quiet.” He muttered.

“Well, thanks,” Jess muttered rolling her eyes. “That’s filled me with confidence. You know that’s what they say in films just before something bad happens.”

“Well, in that case, keep your eyes peeled and your wits about you.” The Doctor replied, looking over his shoulder at Jess and winking.

Looking round cautiously, Jess shuddered. The Doctor was right; it was too quiet. There were no Autons about, despite Tom saying that there had been many in the security area. There was no sight of the Master either, which flatly worried Jess. She expected him to be about to gloat at the very least.

Feeling a tug on the wire connecting the transmitter to the rest of the machine, Jess turned round to see the Doctor making his way across the factory floor towards a metal staircase. Following, Jess climbed the stair case to a metal gantry at the top. The gantry led towards an office overlooking the security area. Now she was up this high she could see over the machines that lined the factory floor. The place seemed deserted, despite the Doctors protestations that the Master was still there.

“Are you absolutely sure-?” She began.

Smiling, the Doctor turned round, his finger on his lips. Then, to Jess’s surprise, rapped on the door. “Hello?” He called opening the door carefully. “Is there anyone there, asked the traveller?” Turning, the Doctor looked back at Jess and shrugged.

“No one home?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” the Doctor admitted stepping into the office.
Cautiously, Jess stepped in after him. Glancing round, she placed the Doctor’s machine on top of one of the panels. “It certainly looks like there’s no one home.”

“Hmm,” the Doctor mused looking at one of the panels closely. “I was still expecting a welcoming party.”

“Just as I was expecting you, Doctor,”

Jess and the Doctor spun at the sound of the silky voice. The Master was stood in the doorway to the balcony, levelling a short black tube at both the Doctor and Jess. “I wouldn’t make any sudden moves if I were you,” he said indicating for the Doctor to stand next to Jess with the weapon. “A new regeneration, Doctor?”

“In a manner of speaking,” the Doctor replied, shuffling his feet uncomfortably before leaning close to Jess. “You could have told me we were dealing with an earlier incarnation.” He whispered.

“Sorry,” Jess whispered back. “I didn’t know.”

Resting his elbow on a nearby panel, the Master cocked his head as he listened to the quick conversation. “Are you quite finished?” he asked. “It’s such a pleasure to see you again, Miss Lawton. And Doctor, don’t you think that body looks a little young?”

Pulling himself up to his full height, the Doctor gripped his lapels. “I’m quite happy with it thank you.” He protested. “Besides, have you seen your own? I’m sure there’s a touch more grey in your beard than there used to be.”

The smile faded from the Master’s face as he brought his hand to his chin and stroked his beard. “It doesn’t matter what you think any more, Doctor,” he purred “You cannot stop the plans at this stage.”

The Doctor sighed loudly and tugged at his hair. “Gha,” he cired in despair. “Didn’t you learn anything back in the seventies? There’s nothing stopping the Nestene’s from distinguishing you from humanity.”

The Master laughed as the Doctor stepped forwards, his fists clenched and trembling in rage. “Oh my dear Doctor,” he chuckled. “This does not involve the Nestene’s at all. I’m merely using the Autons as a means to an end. It’s all very simple, just using the last remnants of the energy left in the Nestene Energy Unit.”

The news caused the Doctor to cry out in frustration again. “You mad, mad fool,” he said, pacing back and forth. “Don’t you see that you will never control the Nestene energy properly?”

“They’ll turn on you and kill you,” Jess added seeing where the Doctor was heading with his argument.

“Well, thank you for your concern, Miss Lawton,” the Master smiled as he walked over to the main control panel. “But it’s quite meaningless. I have complete control over the Autons and Nestene energy. The first phase activation signal has already been sent and now I have you present, Doctor,” Reaching out, the Master twisted the large dial and depressed the red button below it, “to witness the remaining activation sequences and the end of your precious humanity.”

[Fitz Kreiner]

Tom cautiously crept up the stairs to Lemaitre’s office and the main administration area. So far, the factory had been mercifully quiet, no security at the desk and no sounds of staff at work. It was when he reached the administration area that he realised why. Stepping into the large, open plan office, Tom immediately dropped down behind the low partition that separated the work stations from the corridor that lead to the main offices. Behind each desk sat an Auton, staring blankly at the computer screens and tapping away at the keyboards. It had to be one of the most bizarre sights he had ever seen.

Carefully and quietly, he crawled along the floor, keeping as close to the partitioning as he could. He hadn’t heard any movement in the office, but that didn’t necessarily mean that the Autons hadn’t seen him. They could move a lot more quietly than a human, no breathing, no speaking or making any noise at all.

Reaching the large gap in the partitioning wall which marked the entrance to the main administration area, Tom paused and listened carefully. He was anxious about peering through the gap in case there was an Auton stood directly in his way. No, he had to make a move. He couldn’t sit there wondering about “what if’s”. There was a chance that the Doctor may need him soon, so the quicker he got on with his mission, the better.

Feeling his hearts pumping in his chest, Tom chanced it and peered cautiously round the edge of the partition. There were no Autons in sight. Well, not in sight that meant they were watching for him. As quickly and quietly as he could, he crawled passed the open area and continued up to the main office. Just outside the double doors that lead to it, he paused. There was someone in there as well. Chancing a look, he saw that it wasn’t an Auton, but a human. The first human that he’d seen in the whole place since they’d arrived. He immediately recognised her as the woman who had led him to the Master; Andrea Rogers, Lemaitre’s PA.

A thought suddenly struck him like a slap around the face. What if all this time she hadn’t been Lemaitre’s assistant, but the Master’s instead? Was she doing it of her own free will, or had the Master hypnotised her? Not being an expert on hypnosis, he couldn’t tell. He’d only been able to tell that Jess was under the influence last time because of the different way she was acting. Either way, Andrea Rogers would be a lot harder to get passed than a group of Autons.

Fortunately for him, one of the double doors was open and the other closed, which allowed him some cover. Chancing a look, he saw Andrea get up from her desk and cross to a wall panel. In front of his astounded eyes, Tom watched as she opened a concealed door and disappear inside. A hidden office, which would no doubt be where most of the information he needed would be. Now all he had to do was get passed her and into it.

Briefly, Tom toyed with the idea of rushing into the office and flattening himself against the wall, in the hope that he could nip passed her without her noticing. He soon brushed the idea aside when he realised that it would be futile. As Andrea returned to her desk, Tom flattened himself against the closed door. Spotting the doorstop in the open door, a risky plan soon formed in his mind. Kicking out with his left foot, he knocked the stop away and the door swung closed with a soft bang.

Pulling himself up into a ball, Tom glanced up at the windows in the top half of the doors. His plan had been rewarded as Andrea’s face appeared at the windows looking out to the room beyond. Holding his breath, Tom readied himself as the door creaked open and Andrea stood in the doorway. She was now stood within two feet of him and one glance down would blow his cover. The beating of his hearts was almost deafening in his ears as Andrea stepped out of the doorway and into the small corridor. She was now in front of him, and seizing his chance, Tom scrambled round the door and into the office.

The door to the hidden office was still open, and with a quick glance over his shoulder, he slipped inside. The office itself was in near darkness, the only light coming from the open door, which opened into the office. Nipping behind it, he heard Andrea return to her own office outside. He hoped that she would assume that the door had closed on its own having found nothing. Tom pressed himself up against the wall as she came into the office. Pulling the door onto him, he peered through the gap as Andrea picked something off the desk and then left, shutting the door behind her.

Engulfed in pitch blackness, Tom let out a long sigh of relief. Carefully, he made his way over to the desk, stumbling over a chair in the darkness. Resisting the urge to swear, he pulled himself up and groped about blindly on the large mahogany desk for the desk lamp he had glimpsed when he first entered the office. His fingers soon hit the cool metal of the base of the lamp, and he found the switch soon after. The sudden glow of the orange light dazzled him for a few seconds as his eyes adjusted to the new levels of light.

Looking down at the desk, Tom saw it was virtually empty. A box of matches sat on one side, beside a mahogany box with brass trim. Carefully, he picked up the matches and slid the box open; the matches were made of an almost orange wood with bright blue heads. There was a strange smell of cinnamon coming from them. Putting them back down, he lifted the lid of the box. Inside were half a dozen Cuban cigars. Shrugging to himself, he shut the box and turned his attention back to the desk.

Rounding the desk, he sat down in the plush executive leather chair. This had to be the Masters office. The cigars and decanter of brandy had confirmed it. Picking up the sheets of paper on the desk, Tom quickly leafed through them, but they provided no information. Grimacing, he put them back on the copy of The Times that sat beneath them. Glancing towards the desk light, Tom saw a small black object sat underneath it. Picking it up, he found it to be a remote control. He looked round confused, there wasn’t a television or stereo in the lab.

Depressing the large button at the top curiously, a movement out of the corner of his eye made Tom start. His hearts skipped a beat as he thought he’d called a hidden Auton guard. He mentally chastised himself when he saw the wooden panels of the wall slide back revealing an array of monitor screens. The Master’s hidden security system no doubt. The main screen was split into four sections, each showing key areas of the factory; the office outside, the office overlooking the factory floor, the office in the security area and the main gate. Tom almost made for the door when he saw that the Doctor and Jess were stood face to face with the Master in the security area, but remembering the Doctors words made Tom sit back down on the chair. There was little he could do just yet. Besides, the screen showed that Andrea was back at her desk outside.

Turning his attention back to the desk, Tom finished rummaging about the top, finding nothing that would help. Then it hit him; the Master was hardly the sort of person to leave anything incriminating in the open. Pushing the chair back slightly Tom looked at either side of the desk. Sure enough, there were a series of drawers on each side. Reaching out, he tried to open one, but found it to be securely locked. Pulling the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver from his pocket, Tom activated it on the lock. He was met with the satisfying clicking sound of the drawers unlocking.

His successive rummage through yielded only a few more results than those of the desk. In one he found a fully loaded pistol, and in another a short stubby tube that looked ominously like the tissue compression eliminator the Master had threatened him with the first time they met. Pocketing the TCE, Tom then checked the safety catch on the pistol before tucking it into the waistband of his trousers.

The last drawer he looked in held something even more promising; distribution details and directives with a watermark indicating they had come from parliament. Gathering the papers together, Tom rolled them up and slipped them in his inside jacket pocket and looked up at the screen. A black Mercedes was pulling into the car park. Tom squinted, it looked as though the car had hit something, judging from the dints in the bonnet, and the windscreen was shattered.

Tom watched as the car disgorged Captain Morris, Corporal Loding and a private, all armed. Some back up, he thought as he watched the screen and no other vehicles arrived. As he watched, Morris pointed towards the camera and Loding jogged off towards what he assumed was the main entrance. Morris and the private turned and headed off the opposite way towards the main factory floor. No doubt the Master would have something nasty in store for Morris and Loding was about to walk into a room full of Autons. Unable to help or warn them, Tom was torn. With an exasperated sigh, he turned and made for the door, pressing his ear up against it, he listened.

*

“What have you done?” the Doctor asked, taking a step towards the Master.

“Ah, ah, ah, ah,” the Master scolded, waving his tissue compression eliminator at the Doctor. “Back against the wall please.”

His face a picture of rage, the Doctor obliged and stepped back next to Jess. Smiling when the Doctor was in place, the Master raised his hand and snapped his fingers. Plastic wires snaked out of the wall and wrapped themselves around the Doctor and Jess’s wrists, causing the two of them to cry out in alarm.

“Just a safety precaution, Doctor, Miss Lawton,” the Master explained. “I wouldn’t want either of you getting hurt.”

“Oh, how very considerate of you,” the Doctor said, the irony heavy in his voice.

Ignoring the comment, the Master reached out and turned the monitor screen on and twisted it so that the Doctor and Jess could see. “As you can see, I’ve managed to get into the London CCTV network,” the Master explained. “And I thought you might like to see what is happening right now in Camden.”

The Doctor pulled against his plastic bonds at seeing the carnage that was being displayed on the screen. Street performer Autons were shooting and fleeing crowds of people. Dead bodies littered the street as UNIT soldiers and riot police tried to gain control of the area.

“That was just phase one,” the Master said, turning to the Doctor and smiling smugly, “you should be about to see the start of phase two.” He pointed to the screen as at the edge of the picture the mannequins in the shops started to move.

“What is the point in all this?” the Doctor shouted. “You already have your facsimiles in the government and army, why all this senseless killing?”

“To create panic and chaos, my dear Doctor.” The Master replied simply. “When the country is in total turmoil, I shall activate my facsimiles, which will help to calm the situation, allowing me to take over.”

“You think you can take over? It’s not going to work.” Jess said, feeling her voice tremble slightly, she wasn’t sure whether she quite believed herself.

“My dear Miss Lawton,” the Master purred, “you will soon find that I can do whatever I want.

“You can’t. Tom will co-” Jess started quickly before trailing off and attracting a pained look from the Doctor.

“Ah, the tenacious Mr. Rowan.” The Master chuckled. “I doubt there is much he will be able to do wherever he is.” Pausing the Master glared at the Doctor and Jess. “And where is he, out of curiosity?”
“I don’t know,” the Doctor said, quickly cutting off Jess.

“I see,” the Master said, thoughtfully pursing his lips and folding his arms.

“Stare at me as much as you want,” the Doctor said, staring the Master down. “I don’t know where he is.”

“No, I believe you,” the Master said looking at the monitor screen. “You know he’s generally in the area of the factory, but where exactly, you don’t know.”

The Doctor’s face fell behind the Master’s back. He had hoped to keep Tom’s being at the factory quiet. The Master had either seen him on a security monitor of felt his presence. “Then why ask?” he asked eventually.

The Master turned round on the Doctor and Jess and smiled cruelly. “Just to make your last moments on this earth more pleasant with a little small talk,” he said.

*

Sergeant Lovatt felt marginally safer behind the police lines. They had swarmed into the street in full riot gear, complete with batons and shields. There were now two lines of them, the rear line protecting the last remaining civilians who were being evacuated from the area and the front lines who were trying to attack the Autons.

Her men had fallen back to rearm themselves, having spent the ammunition they had on the Autons. Several of the plastic killers were pockmarked with many bullet holes, but still they kept on coming.

Glancing over her shoulder, Lovatt was glad that the Tube had been cancelled and no more civilian shoppers were pouring into the area. She’d also received a report from General Bailey, telling her that army reinforcements were minutes away. They couldn’t arrive soon enough as far as she was concerned. The first line of riot police were starting to fall back, and she soon saw why; the Auton weapons were blasting holes in their shields, showering the men with globules of molten plastic.

The sound of glass shattering made her start. Looking around she saw that shop window mannequins were stepping out of the shops, smashing their way out of the large windows. The vast majority of them were wearing brightly coloured masks, in preparation for the festival that was coming. It made a bizarre but macabre sight as they stepped into the ranks of the other Autons. Lovatt felt a chill go down her spine; they were now hugely outnumbered, out gunned and surrounded.

The mannequins raised their arms as one, the hidden hand weapons emerging from their wrists and started firing into the ranks of police. Lovatt ducked instinctively as several of the police collapsed, their bodies smoking. The first lot of mannequins shuddered under covering fire from the few remaining UNIT troops on the streets as the riot police closed their ranks and advanced on them. Lovatt admired their courage, facing the Autons with only a transparent plastic shield and metal baton. Some of their previous attacks had caused the more bullet damaged Autons some more damage, smashing limbs off them or caving their heads in. It just made the creatures look ever more horrific.

Glancing back at the shattered doors of the HQ, she saw more of her troops pour out. They were now armed with flame throwers after she had ordered it. The fire brigade were on standby if the fires got out of hand. They were the only things she could think of that were of any use against the Auton hoards. Lovatt felt a warm glow of satisfaction deep down as she heard the first roars of the flame throwers. Spotting Bailey in the doorway, she ran over to him and quickly saluted.

“What’s the SP, Sergeant?” He asked, returning the salute informally with his swagger stick.

“We’re outgunned and outnumbered.” Lovatt replied looking back at the street, which was now a battlefield. “It seems that the shop mannequins were Autons too.”

“And that’s not all,” Bailey said. “It seems the attack isn’t confined to this street. The reinforcements have been held up just round the corner. The same thing is happening there.”

“But if we can’t hold them here, sir-?” Lovatt started, another shiver going through her body.

“I know, Sergeant,” Bailey said, unholstering his pistol and checking it. “I’ve ordered a mass mobilisation in the London area. I somehow doubt that this is going to be confined to just Camden. But considering the numbers of street performers and mannequins in the central London area, I think we’re going to lose thousands of lives before the day is out.”

Silently and horrified, Lovatt nodded in agreement. The Master looked like he was going to win.

[Fitz Kreiner]

Nodding to Blackwood, Morris took up a position the other side of the doors leading to the factory floor. He was gripping his pistol tightly despite the throbbing pain in his hand where he’d punched out a hole in the windscreen. Nodding back, Blackwood acknowledged Morris’s silent instruction and the two of them kicked the doors open and burst into the factory. The whole floor was silent; no machines running and no one about at all.

Spotting the office overlooking the floor, Morris indicated to Blackwood to follow him. Climbing the steep staircase to the office revealed that it was just as empty as the floor. In frustration, Morris kicked out at the small chair causing it to crash into the metal cupboard at the far end of the small office.

“They must be about somewhere,” he said, looking round.

“’Scuse me sir,” Blackwood said, shifting uncomfortably as Morris rounded on him. “But maybe they’re just in the offices of the place?”

“Maybe,” Morris said, looking over Blackwood’s shoulder before stepping round him and to the windows that ran along the length of the office. “But then again, they could be over there,” he added pointing to the double doors the other side of the factory floor with security warnings adorning them.

Clapping Blackwood on the shoulder, Morris nipped past him and ran down the metal stairs. Bemused by his Captains actions, Blackwood followed him at a run. Reaching the doors, Blackwood paused as Morris waved at him to slow down and held a finger to his lips.

“They’re definitely in there.” He said, “I can hear voices; the Doctor and some other bloke I don’t recognise.”

“What do you suggest, sir?” Blackwood asked.

“Could be this Master guy,” Morris said. “The Doctor could be in trouble.”

“You think there could be those Auton things could be in there?” Blackwood suggested.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Morris said, gripping the door handle.

Carefully Morris pulled the door open and peered through the widening crack. There were no Autons in sight. Nodding at Blackwood, the two men entered the security area. A quick look around told them there were no Autons in sight; the only sound coming from the small office which overlooked the floor. Morris looked up. He could see the Doctor and Jess stood against one wall, their hands behind their backs. There was another man stood in there, a short man in a dark Armani suit. He seemed to be pointing some kind of weapon at the two.

Turning to Blackwood, Morris silently indicated the stairs. The man had his back to them and Morris hoped that silently climbing the stairs would give them the element of surprise. The Doctor was no fool; he would most probably be able to keep the man talking while they snuck up on him. Wincing as his boot made a slight noise on the metal stair, Morris crept up them as silently as possible, Blackwood beside him.

Morris and Blackwood had almost reached the office when the third figure spun round with a snarl. The end of the short stubby black tube in his hand lit with a red glow and Morris threw himself sideways, connecting painfully with the metal railing, almost slipping through the gap onto the floor far below. He looked back as he heard Blackwood cry out before the cry cut off. He watched in morbid fascination as Blackwood continued to scream silently and his body twisted and contracted and appeared to shrink down. His mouth downturned in a sneer, the Master stepped out of the office and kicked the shrunken body of Blackwood over the edge of the gangway before levelling the weapon at Morris.

“Now, if you’ve finished being foolish, Captain, perhaps you would care to accompany us in the office.” The Master said with a politeness that belied the violent way he had dispatched Blackwood.

Morris stared at the man, his pistol pointing at his head. Strangely, it didn’t seem to faze the Master, in fact, he was almost amused by it.

“Do as he says, Will.” The Doctor said from the office. The tone of his voice was downbeat. “He’ll kill you without a second thought.”

His shoulders drooping, Morris lowered his gun and silently stepped into the office, the Master following him, keeping the weapon trained on him.

“Very wise, Captain, very wise,” the Master said softly. “Now if you would kindly give me your weapon?”

Morris swallowed and glanced over at the Doctor who nodded solemnly. “Do it, Will, he’s got all the cards at the moment.”

“I have all the cards and all the chips on the table, if you want to use the gambling metonymy,” the Master smiled as he took Morris’s pistol from the soldier’s hand. “Now my dear captain, do you know who I am?”

The Doctor looked at Jess and then out to Morris, his face a picture of concern. “Stong mind, Will,” he shouted attracting a look of contempt from the Master.

“I am the Master,” he continued, “and you will obey me. You will listen to the sound of my voice and obey.”

Morris swallowed hard as he felt dizzy. The Masters dark eyes seemed to be engulfing him. Watching on in rapt horror, the Doctor suddenly noticed something was wrong; Jess, directly to his left, had stiffened and was staring straight ahead.

“Jess?” he asked softly.

“Master,” Jess said flatly, still staring directly ahead and causing the Master to turn to her.

“Miss Lawton?” he asked raising an eyebrow, “well, isn’t this a turn up for the books, Doctor?” He smiled.

“Whatever you’re planning, I’m warning you,” the Doctor started, glaring at the Master. “If you so much as harm her,”

“Oh do be quiet, Doctor,” the Master sighed rolling his eyes. “You can be a real bore sometimes, you do know that.”

Morris shook his head to clear it and looked round at the Doctor and Jess. The Master was stood smiling looking Jess up and down. Then it hit Morris; the girl was staring directly ahead, a blank look on her face, like a zombie. Looking round, He saw his pistol was sat on the top of a panel nearby. Keeping his eyes on the Master, he gently reached out towards it.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, captain.” The Master suddenly said, turning round to cover Morris with his tissue compression eliminator. “Now, Miss Lawton, would you kindly tell me when I fist put you under my influence?”

“Jess, no,” the Doctor started before Jess spoke, cutting him off.

“About six months ago, by my timeline. It was a future version of you.” She said blankly.

“How fascinating,” the Master mused. “It seems you’ve been crossing time lines. How very naughty of you, Doctor.” He said in a mock scorned voice.

Standing back and stroking his beard, thoughts raced through the Masters head. “And perhaps you would care to tell me where Mr. Rowan is my dear?” he asked Jess.

“Jess, you can fight it, remember?” the Doctor urged, leaning as far over to her as his bonds would let him.

“Doctor, please,” the Master protested, holding his hands up. “Don’t you know how rude it is to interrupt a lady when she’s talking? Please, do carry on my dear.”

“He went up to the offices, to see if there was anything there we could use against you,” Jess replied, her expression still blank.

“I see,” the Master mused, unfolding his arms and reaching out to an intercom. “Miss Rogers?” He asked, pressing the button on the front.

“Yes Master?” the tinny voice replied.

“Miss Rogers, I wonder if you could tell me if you’ve had any suspicious visitors or goings on up there?” The Master asked keeping his eyes fixed firmly on Jess. The girl was still staring ahead, completely ignoring the Doctors pathetic attempts to try to break her conditioning.

“I haven’t seen anyone, Master.” Andrea’s voice replied. “The door did close itself a while ago, but I think it just slipped off the door stop.”

“Well, could you please check, my dear; it’s very possible you have an intruder in the area.” The Master said before closing off the intercom and turning back to the Doctor and Jess. “I do believe you were right, my dear. It seems the resourceful Mr. Rowan has made it to the main offices.”

Turning, the Master picked up Morris’s pistol from the top of the panel he had placed it on. Keeping an eye firmly on Morris, he slid the clip out and emptied the chamber of all but one bullet. Slapping the clip back into place, he clicked his fingers and the plastic bonds around Jess’s wrists slid off.

“Come here, my dear,” he said, beckoning her with a finger. Obediently, Jess stepped forwards, her eyes still staring directly ahead. Pursing his lips and smiling, shooting a glance at the Doctor, the Master placed the pistol into Jess’s hand. “Would you kindly shoot the captain for me please, there is one bullet left; that should be all that you need.”

“Jess, no!” The Doctor shouted, aghast. “Fight it; you know you can do it.”

Morris stared; his eyes wide as he saw Jess turn round, pointing the pistol at him. He could feel his palms getting rather sweaty and beads of sweat were running down his forehead.

“Just one bullet,” Jess said emotionlessly, as she pulled the hammer back and raised the pistol. With a sudden move that startled everyone in the room, Jess spun round and pointed the pistol at the Master’s head. “That’s all I need,” she finished, her voice back to normal.

Morris found himself breathing a heavy sigh of relief and shot a glance over to the Doctor. The Time Lord’s face had quickly changed from one of horror, to surprise and delight. The Master’s change of expression was one of much more comical value. The smug smile faded from his face as he realised what had happened and his face became both angry and annoyed.

“Not even I can miss at this range,” Jess said, holding her hand out. “If you even think of using that tissue gun thing on me, this last bullet will hit you. Hand it over.”

His lips downturned in a scowl, the Master reluctantly placed his TCE into Jess out held hand. “It seems I have underestimated you, Miss Lawton,” he said raising his hands.

“Yeah, well that’s something I’m not going to do to you again,” she said. Keeping her eyes firmly fixed on the Master she tilted her head to speak to Morris. “Captain Morris, can you let the Doctor out, and we can end this, once and for all.”

*

Tom was pressed up against the door to the Master’s office for what felt like hours. Andrea was still just the other side of the door, but he didn’t know whether she had been hypnotised or was a willing accomplice to the Master. Either way, it felt wrong to him to burst out of the office with the pistol he found pointing at her.

He had heard a buzzing and then a muffled male voice come from the other side of the door, and then Andrea replying. There must be an intercom between her and wherever the Master was. Tom swallowed hard as he realised that if the Master was talking to her, the Doctor and Jess hadn’t been too successful in their attempts to stop him. It was a good job that Morris had arrived, albeit with just two soldiers.

Remembering the screens, Tom turned to look at them. The one which had been showing the Doctor and Jess facing off with the Master now looked rather intriguing. Jess was holding a gun to the Master’s head and Morris seemed to be cutting some bonds from the Doctors wrists. Things must have suddenly changed over there. The screen showing the office outside was also showing something interesting. Andrea was getting to her feet and there was a desk drawer open. She was also holding a black object in her hand; a weapon.

Moving back from the door, Tom pulled the pistol from his trousers and aimed it at the door. Taking another glance back at the screen, he saw a flicker of movement behind Andrea. There was another set of doors he hadn’t noticed before and someone was silently coming through them. He recognised the uniform as that of a UNIT soldier. It had to be Corporal Loding. Andrea clearly hadn’t spotted her as she reached the doorway.

Levelling the pistol, Tom waited in the near darkness for Andrea to enter. When the main office lights flicked on, Tom threw his head to the side, screwing his eyes up as the bright white light flooded the room. By the time he opened them, Andrea was stood in the office, a pistol of her own pointing at him. Tom had lowered his own weapon when he had shielded his eyes from the light, now he knew Andrea had the upper hand.

Nodding grimly, Tom dropped the pistol and raised his hands. “Yeah, ok, it’s a fair cop,” he said. Looking at Andrea, he saw that there was no expression to her face. He felt his hearts beat harder and faster as she started to squeeze the trigger. He closed his eyes as a gunshot rang out.

Not feeling any pain or impact, Tom opened his eyes. Andrea was clutching her hand, the pistol on the floor and blood trickling down her fingers. Loding stepped into the room, a pistol in her hand, wisps of smoke coming from the barrel.

“Good shot, thanks,” Tom smiled.

“No prob,” Loding replied, smiling before looking at Andrea. “Who is she?”

“One of the Master’s downtrodden I think.” Tom said stepping forwards and clicking his fingers in front of Andrea’s face. “I think she’s been hypnotised by him, it’s not her fault.”

“What should we do with her?” Loding asked, holstering her pistol.

Tom shrugged, “Treat the wound and then pop her into custody, we can deal with her after this has been sorted. Then I think we should head over to the factory and help out the Doctor.”

Nodding in understanding, Lovatt stepped forwards towards Andrea, pulling a pair of handcuffs from a pouch on her belt.

*

Morris was stood holding his pistol at the Master. Jess was stood over near the Doctor, still holding the black tube-like weapon of the Master’s. The Doctor was sat at the main panel in the room, his machine sat on his lap and wires trailing from the panelling. He was holding some in his mouth and furiously twisting several together. His face was set and determined. Morris could understand why, the Master had activated many Autons and they were killing lots of innocent civilians.

“How’s it going?” Morris asked, leaning over to the Doctor and Jess.

“Gi’m gearly gone.” The Doctor said with a mouthful of wires before opening his mouth and letting them fall into his hand. “Another five minutes.”

The Master scowled at the news as he glared at the Doctor and Morris. There was only one chance; Morris wasn’t putting his full attention onto him. Deciding almost immediately, the Master acted, Jess’s warning shout coming too late. Reaching out, the Master twisted the pistol out of Morris’s grip and hit him hard on the back of the neck, causing the man to drop heavily to the ground.

Laughing, the Master backed towards the door, keeping the Doctor and Jess covered with the pistol. Firing at the Doctors machine, the Master was pleased to see a large shower of sparks come from it. Nipping back out of the door, he slammed it closed and swiftly pulled a key from his pocket and locked it. Waving at the trapped trio, he turned and ran down the gantry to his freedom.

[Fitz Kreiner]

Tom stood near the battered back staff car, bouncing lightly on his feet as he impatiently waited for Loding. The corporal was sitting Andrea Rogers into the back of the Mercedes. The blonde woman looked shocked as though the Master’s influence was starting to wane. Tom kept glancing over to the factory building, anxious to go and help the Doctor and Jess. Especially if they were up against the Master, who he knew was a very dangerous man.

Loding had dressed the wound on the back of Andrea’s hand. The bullet had just grazed the skin, not causing much damage, but it was enough to have stopped the woman. Tom was trying not to look at Andrea, as the expression of hurt and confusion on her face made him feel hugely sorry for her. It wasn’t her fault the Master had done what he had.

Tom turned round as Loding closed the car door with a bang. “You ready?” she asked.

Tom nodded, pulling the pistol out of the waistband of his trousers where he’d tucked it after picking it up again. Realising he hadn’t checked it; he slipped the clip out to see it was fully loaded. “It’s about time we ended this,” he said adamantly, glancing back up at the offices. Why there hadn’t been a guard on the stairwell that Loding had come up by and they’d brought Andrea down, he didn’t know. He was just grateful they didn’t have to traverse the Autons in the main administration block.

Nodding back, Loding and Tom turned and ran across the car park towards the factory. The whole area was eerily quiet. No sounds of machines or any voices. The prospect chilled Tom slightly, even as they reached the doors leading to the security area. The sound of Jess crying out and a gunshot made both Tom and Loding pause and turn to look at each other.

“Come on,” Loding said, setting off again at a run.

Catching up with her at the double doors leading to the security area, Tom grabbed her by the shoulder and caused her to stop. “Careful,” he warned, “we don’t know what’s going on out there.”

“We can guess,” Loding said turning back and gripping the door handle.

“Still, be careful,” Tom warned. “If the Master is in there, it’ll be dangerous, trust me.”

Nodding, Loding gripped the door and opened it. Placing a hand on her arm, Tom stopped her from going into the security area, instead stepping ahead of her himself, pistol raised ready for action. As soon as he was inside he paused, almost walking into the Master. Pushing Loding back, Tom stared at the Master. The other Time Lord was almost snarling and had a pistol pointing at Toms head.

“Well, we meet again, Mr. Rowan,” the Master said in a mocking tone. “And this is where our acquaintance ends.”

Pointing the gun at Tom’s chest, the Master squeezed the trigger. For the second time in such a short space of time, Tom closed his eyes and awaited the impact of the bullet. Instead, he was met with only the clicking of the hammer hitting on the empty chamber. Opening his eyes, Tom looked down at the gun in the Master’s hand. Infuriated, the Master squeezed the trigger again and again, to no avail. Both the Master and Tom looked down at the pistol; the body of the weapon was withdrawn showing it to be out of ammunition.

“Nice try,” Tom said sarcastically, “Next time, make sure that you’ve got a fully loaded gun.”

With a snarl, the Master struck Tom with a vicious back hand that sent the younger Time Lord staggering back, his face stinging from the impact. Lunging at Tom, the Master tried to wrestle the pistol out of his hand. The struggle was short as Loding stepped through the doors and, cocking her pistol, pointed it at the Master’s temple.

“That’s enough,” she said with a scowl.

Turning to see Loding for the first time, the Master stopped and stood up straight, holding his hands up. Standing up straight himself, Tom covered the Master as well with his pistol.

“You’re under arrest for aiding and abetting an alien invasion force, the murder of countless innocents and crimes against humanity,” Loding said grabbing the Master’s hands behind his back.

“This is all very trying,” the Master sighed, rolling his eyes.

“So are you,” Tom retorted, looking up to the office as there was a crashing and the sound of breaking glass.

“Tom, up here,” Jess’s voice floated down. “He’s locked us in, there’s a key in his pocket.”

“Alright, where is it?” Tom asked, gripping the Master by the lapels. The Master simply raised his eyebrows and smiled cruelly as a reply, holding his head high. Grimacing, Tom patted the Master down, seemingly finding nothing in any of his pockets. Pushing the Master back, not finding anything, he turned to Loding. “Keep him safe, I’ll see what I can do up there.”

Turning, Tom ran up the stairs, his heavy footsteps clanging on the metal, which echoed round the large factory floor. Pushing the Master after Tom, Loding followed the two up the stairs, keeping her pistol trained firmly on his back. Reaching the top, she put a hand on his shoulder and loosened one of the cuffs before putting it round one of the rails lining the gantry and snapping it back closed on his wrist.

“Now, stay there,” she said, to some self amusement as the Master merely raised his eyebrows.

*

Jess was torn between helping the Doctor and seeing what was happening outside the office. Tom was running up the stairs, and Loding and the Master were following. They’d recaptured him after his escape attempt.

“Tom, I think the Doctor’s been shot.” She said quietly as Tom reached the door, his feet crunching on the shattered glass where Morris and herself had smashed the pane earlier.

“What?” Tom said aghast looking through the door.

The Doctor was still working at the panel before him, his machine lay on the floor, several parts of it scattered about him. The only thing amiss was the pained expression on his face.

“The Master shot at the machine when it was on the Doctor’s lap,” Jess explained, still keeping her voice low. “But I think the bullet might have gone through into his leg.”

Nodding in understanding, Tom stepped back levelling the pistol he held at the door. “Right, stand back then,” he said.

Jess jumped back and covered her ears as Tom fired two bullets into the door lock. Stepping forwards, he kicked at the door causing it to swing open, crashing into the wall of the office. Rushing into the office, Tom grabbed Jess by the shoulders.

“You ok?” he asked.

Jess nodded before turning to the Doctor. He hadn’t looked up or round at the commotion yet, concentrating on the instrument panel before him. “Doctor, are you ok?” she asked.

“Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” he said, almost exasperated. “I just have quite a lot of work to do.” The Doctor paused and looked up at Tom. “Ah, Tom, glad you could make it. Thanks for recapturing the Master.”

“Yeah, no worries,” Tom said, glancing back at the Master, now handcuffed to the railings outside the office, glaring into the room at the five occupants. “You sure there’s nothing Jess or I can do now?”

“Do you still have my sonic screwdriver?” he asked not looking up from his work.

“Yeah,” Tom replied, fishing the metal tube out of his trouser pocket.

“Good,” the Doctor continued. “There’s a metal cabinet over there with several thick tubes and wires going into it. It’ll be locked so you’ll have to unlock it, but when you get in, I’ll want you to disconnect the tubes and wiring from the sphere inside.”

Nodding, Tom dashed over to the metal cabinet and activated the screwdriver. The high pitched whistle of the device permeated and filled the office. After several long and noisy seconds the metal doors slid up, revealing the Energy Unit, still pulsating with an eerie blue light. A soft chirruping sound was coming from the plastic sphere.

“What is it you’re doing?” Tom shouted over his shoulder as he reached into the cabinet and started pulling the wires and tubes from the unit.

The Doctor sighed loudly and turned to Tom. “I’m trying to pull the Nestene Energy out of everything that the Master has animated, which happens to include the facsimile’s street performers and numerous Autons, which right now are massacring thousands of innocent people. And it’s not exactly an easy task, which is why I would appreciate it if you didn’t keep questioning me.”

“Hey, I’m only trying to help,” Tom protested yanking another tube out of the sphere cavity.

“Yes, I know, I’m sorry,” the Doctor apologised, turning back to his work. “It’s just time is against us.”

“So, this blue bulb thing is what’s supplying the energy to the Autons?” Tom asked, putting one foot up against the edge of the cabinet as he tugged at a stubborn tube.

“Exactly,” the Doctor replied.

“Well then,” Tom said stepping back and pulling the pistol out from where he’d tucked it back in his waistband. “Sod this for a game of soldiers.” Aiming the pistol, he loosed four shots into the plastic globe.

The plastic shell buckled under the force of the bullets, before the globe exploded, bathing the office in a bright blue light. The force of the explosion knocked Tom from his feet and caused everyone else in the room to duck.

“Tom, what have you done?” The Doctor cried, turning to see pale blue smoke belch from the shattered remains of the energy unit.

“Ended this,” Tom replied, getting to his feet. “You said that was what was controlling the Autons.”

The Doctor almost pulled at his hair at frustration. “Yes, but that wasn’t the way. All you’ve done there is release the dormant consciousness energy. To stop the Autons, we have to send that energy back out into space where it can’t do any harm.”

“Then, erm, you mean-?” Tom managed shuffling his feet uncomfortably as the Doctor turned back to his work. From where he was handcuffed outside the office doors, the Master laughed.

“You can keep quiet,” Morris said, rounding on the man. Grabbing the pistol that Loding held, he pointed it at the Master. “I’m sure I’m well within my rights to execute you right here and now.”

“Will!”

The Doctor’s voice caused Morris to stop dead and slowly turn round to face the Time Lord. He’d got to his feet, although was keeping his weight off his right leg. Morris could see the dark stain of blood surrounding a small hole in the material.

“Any more talk of executions will make me your enemy,” the Time Lord said his face like thunder. “And believe me; that is one thing you do not want. Now, I’ve got a lot of work to do and very little time in which to do it. Can I trust you to not cause any deaths?”
Looking down ashamed, Morris slowly nodded.

“Good,” the Doctor turned and hobbled back to his seat.

“Sir,” Loding said quietly, stepping towards Morris. “I think I saw something down on the factory floor, inside one of the machines.”
“Where,” Morris asked turning and looking down.

Stepping up beside Morris, Loding pointed down to the large vat in the centre of the floor. Through a large window, a viscous bubbling mass could be seen. It seemed to be slowly heaving as though it were alive.

“Ok, what is that thing?” Morris asked, turning on the Master.

The Time Lord looked up at Morris, and raised his eyebrows in an innocent manner. “Oh, nothing, nothing,” he said softly. “Merely the molten plastic waiting to be put into moulds.”

“Molten plastic,” Morris said softly, turning back in time to see the molten mass smash against the observation port, like a wave crashing on rocks. “Plastic; it’s coming to life!” He said his voice rising in volume as the molten mass hit the glass window again.

“Doctor,” Loding began making back to the office.

“Yes, I know,” the Doctor replied not looking up. “I’m almost there.”

Loding turned back as the molten plastic hit the glass again, this time with a force that made it crack. Oozing into the crack, the strange molten mass started to force its way through, forcing the glass out of the observation port with a splintering cracking noise. The sight of the molten plastic was bizarre is it seeped out of the vat, reminding Loding of The Blob, from the old 50s film.

“Tom,” the Doctor shouted from the office over the cacophony of sound now coming from the factory floor. “The rows of switches on the large panel behind you, I want you to start flicking them, moving categorically through sections four to seven and then three to one in units alpha, epsilon and theta.”

Nodding, Tom scrambled over the mess that now littered the office floor to the panel. “When should I start?” He shouted back.

“Jess, that silver key on the panel there; turn that anti clockwise as far as it will go first.” The Doctor replied, looking round as he started twisting more wires together ignoring the molten plastic mass as it now started throwing globules of molten plastic up at the windows of the office. “Now Tom,” he shouted.

Turning back to the panel, Tom furiously started flicking the switches as the Doctors hands started to move across the keyboard before him in blurs.

“Jess,” the Doctor continued, staring intently at a pair of computer monitors as words and reams of data scrolled across them. “That small numeral pad there, start inputting these coordinates; three three oh five seven slash seven seven one one one zero one slash three six eight.”

Almost as one unit, the Doctor, Jess and Tom worked at the different instrument panels about the room. Fascinated by the sight in the office, Loding found her attention drawn from the molten plastic creature below until she was hit in the shoulder by a globule of plastic. She could feel the heat of it through her uniform and the small beads which had exploded from it when it hit her were now burning her neck and cheek.

“Keep your nose and mouth covered,” Morris shouted, turning back to her. “I don’t think bullets are going to do the job on this thing.”

“Almost, almost,” the Doctor was shouting from the lab. “Jess, hit the ‘enter’ key; now!”

Glancing over at the Doctor, Jess hit her thumb hard onto the key as the Time Lord twisted a dial in front of him so violently she thought he was going to pull it off the panel.

“Ha! Yes!” the Doctor cried, leaning back in the chair and clapping his hands together with a slap that was still echoing round the office as the noise from outside died down.

Cautiously, Jess, Tom, Morris and Loding all looked down to the factory floor to see the molten plastic loose all stability of any form before shuddering and spreading out onto the cold concrete floor, rapidly solidifying.

“What the hell just happened?” Jess asked.

“We sent the Nestene energy back out into deep space, where it will have nothing to do except self contemplation,” the Doctor said, grinning as he got to his feet.

“You mean, it’s all over?” Tom asked.

“Almost,” the Doctor replied, “we’ve dealt with the Autons; deactivated them but there’s just one thing to deal with now.” Turning on his heel, the Doctor hobbled carefully over to the Master.

“Just one thing I want to ask,” Morris said, stepping over to Jess. “Just how did you break out of that hypnotism thing?”

Jess looked up at the Captain and winked. “I pretended,” she said loudly causing the Master to look over, “I had to get out somehow, I just tried to appeal to the Master and I thought that would do.”

“Well, very well done, Miss Lawton,” the Master said, “I would applaud you, but alas if I were to try that now it would be a rather pitiful attempt.” Straightening himself as best as he could, the Master looked at the Doctor, who was now stood before him gripping his lapels and looking into his eyes.

“Now, we just have the small matter of you to attend to,” he said eventually.

The Master merely smiled as he returned the look to the Doctor. “My dear Doctor, I look forward to it.” He said, before the smile faded from his face to be replaced by a look of sincerity. “Just please don’t drone on and on this time, you were so boring last time.”

*

Sergeant Lovatt watched in amazement as an Auton collapsed under a hail of bullets shot by one of her men and then not get back up again. She knew that bullets didn’t bother them, so it should have got straight back up to its feet. Looking round, she saw that this was happening to other Autons as well.

Confused, she looked round to General Bailey, who was also looking bemused. All the Autons that were still on their feet were now swaying slightly, their weapons lowering. Some of them were staggering slightly as they swayed from side to side. The bemusement spread throughout the remaining police and soldiers as the Autons slowly collapsed, silently. Some of the mannequins and street performers toppled forwards into the shields of the riot police, like puppets that had had their strings cut.

“What the hell is going on, Sergeant?” Bailey asked, turning to face Lovatt.

“No idea, sir,” she replied, pushing her cap back as she scratched her head in confusion. Looking up and down the street, all the Autons had collapsed, joining the bodies of the dead littering the ground. “At the risk of being presumptuous, I’d say that whatever the Doctor was going to do to stop them worked.”

“About bloody time,” Bailey muttered. “We’re going to have a job cleaning this up. I can’t even begin to imagine the death toll.”

“So many innocent people,” Lovatt said softly. “It should never have come to this.”

Bailey nodded in agreement. “I think that after this, Sir Daniel will have no difficulties in getting his statures passed the cabinet.” Pausing, Bailey mouthed through what he’d just said. “Well, whatever is left of the cabinet?”

The realisation hit Lovatt as what Bailey had said sunk in. “The Master has won some victory then,” she said sadly. “Even though he hasn’t taken over, he’s going to have plunged the country into chaos for a while.” Lovatt looked down as her radio crackled.

“Greyhound two, come in.” Morris’s tinny voice came through.

“Greyhound two here, sir,” Lovatt said picking the radio off her uniform.

“Has the Auton threat ended back there?”

“Affirmative,” Lovatt said, sadly regarding the carnage. “They’ve just collapsed, like all their power was drained away or something.”

“Roger,” Morris’s voice said, acknowledging the news. “We’re now returning with one very important prisoner. Make the necessary arrangements will you?”

“Understood greyhound one,” Lovatt said turning the radio off and clipping it back to her uniform and turning to Bailey, saluting, “if you’ll excuse me, sir?”

Bailey nodded and returned the salute before turning back and starting to issue orders to the remaining troops.

*

The Doctor stood in the large office in the Wingmoore Institute, watching the image on the screen. Captain Morris was stood just behind him, wearing civilian clothes, with Jess and Tom stood just behind them. The fifth occupant of the room, Kevin Crompton, smiled and turned from where he was stood near the screen to face the Doctor and Morris. He was a red-faced man in his late forties with an almost comical comb over, and was wearing a grey polyester suit, white shirt and black tie.

“So, you can see the prisoner is safe and secure in these surroundings.” He said. “And you needn’t fear about any attempts at hypnotism. Only a select few have the authorisation to actually interact with the prisoner and they are handpicked and immune to hypnotism.”

“I hope so,” the Doctor mused quietly staring at the screen.

The image showed the Master, wearing a simple black tunic, sat in a leather wing backed chair in a sparsely decorated room. The brick walls were whitewashed with only three pictures adorning the walls, and only two small windows near the top of the walls. A small extractor fan, six inches squared, was in one corner of the back wall, with a low bookcase of books below it. A table sat beside the Masters chair with a bottle of brandy and a single glass. A bed was just visible at the edge of the picture.

“And you’re sure he won’t be able to escape?” Morris asked.

“This place is perfectly escape proof.” Crompton replied smugly, folding his arms. “Been tested by the best escapists in the world and they couldn’t get out. And you’ve seen our security checks. No unauthorised person can get into this place.”

The Doctor nodded thoughtfully, stepping back to Jess and Tom. The gunshot wound in his leg had healed in the week since the Master had been captured. The Master was immediately remanded in custody at UNIT HQ for the night until he was transported to the Wingmoore Institute, which had been set up for special case prisoners some years previously. The Master seemed to accept his capture, obliging the Doctor and UNIT when they had got him back. The Doctor had also questioned Andrea Rogers, who was definitely suffering post hypnotic fatigue. Confirming that she had had no control over her actions, she was let go by UNIT, and observed for a couple of days. Her behaviour fast returned to normal.

“Very well, Mr. Crompton,” the Doctor said, “a member of UNIT will be making regular inspections to keep an eye on the prisoner. In the mean time, I think we should leave you to it.”

Crompton nodded as he reached forwards and turned off the security screen. “Thank you, Doctor, I’m glad you approve.”

Turning to Jess and Tom, the Doctor put his arms around his two companions. “I think we’re done here now; once we get back to UNIT HQ, we’ll be off again,” he said.

“That’ll be good,” Jess sighed, resting her head against the Doctors arm. “I think we’re long overdue another holiday.”

*

From a car parked opposite the main gates to the Wingmoore Institute, Captain Morris, the Doctor, Jess and Tom were watched as they departed. Sitting back in the driving seat and tapping her fingers on the steering wheel of her car, she watched them disappear down the road. With another glance back at the gates and a smile to herself, Andrea Rogers set off back to London.