Cienna and K9 Mark II expertly led the Edenites through the burning city, avoiding the action as much as possible. Ulysses was still a bit groggy after channeling so much energy during the earlier battle, but he kept up well enough. Explosions rocked the city in the distance and they twice hid from Dalek patrols. Reilly made no attempt to escape from them, and the Edenites suspected he really had nowhere else to go.

About ten minutes after leaving the courthouse they were heading down a walk between a very tall building and an artificial stream. Both the walkway and the stream followed the curve of the building, and the water was flowing in the opposite direction to the one they were traveling. As the walkway arrived at the front edge of the building it ascended a wide flight of about 15 steps to the avenue beyond. Next to the steps was a pretty waterfall, the origin of the stream.

Cienna cautiously crawled up the steps and peered over the top. Mazatl carried K9 up the steps to let him take a look, and he reported all was clear. Cienna advanced and motioned for the others to follow.

They were almost up the stairs when a missile came tearing out of the sky and blew off the top of the building. A single great slab of steel and concrete fell straight towards them.

"Move!" Cienna cried and no one argued. Almost everyone bolted up the remaining steps and onto the street. Yale, Denner and Morgan were in the rear and they ran back down to the walkway, not feeling they could make it in time.

Devon was precisely halfway up the steps. She hesitated for just a second, then tried to go up. In her confusion she tripped and fell.

"Devon!" Danziger yelled. Without any thought he hurled himself down the steps, picked up Devon around the waist and virtually threw her down to the walkway. He jumped down himself, grabbed her again from where she lay and hauled her away just as a two-ton slab of what had once been the side of a building demolished the stairs completely.

The sound of its crash drove their ears six feet into their skulls. Luckily, due to the angle of impact, most of the shrapnel was directed away from the building. Even so, Devon and Danziger were massively lucky. One huge piece capable of taking off both their heads buried itself into the side of the building just above them. Smaller pieces went through Devon's left leg and Danziger's left shoulder.

Those who had made it to the avenue above came running back to assess the damage. Devon and Danziger slowly stood up, covered with dust and bruises. Both of them had trickles of blood streaming from their ears. Coming back along the walkway to rejoin them were Yale, Denner and Morgan. All five were separated from the main party by the pile of rubble which just a few seconds before had been a stairway.

Julia started to climb over the rubble to get down to them but K9 shouted, "Warning! Daleks approaching! Take cover!" But it was too late.

Three Daleks glided down the walkway. They stopped behind the five people trapped below the rubble, but addressed everyone. "Surrender to the Daleks or you will be exterminated," one of them said. Its voice was a horrible, mechanical monotone.

Cienna gave them her answer. She raised the atomic disrupter and fired, destroying the Dalek on the left. The other two returned fire and the Edenites either dropped to the ground or ran around to the front of the building. Those lying on the ground above couldn't be hit since the Daleks were below them, but the five stranded down there with them could only crouch and scream as the Dalek blasts aimed at Cienna tore over their heads. The children screamed for their parents and Bess and Cameron held them both down. K9 rolled to a point near the top of the steps where his body was partially shielded by the rubble and fired back, but his nose laser wasn't capable of piercing Dalek armor.

Both Daleks continued firing at Cienna, hitting her several times. Her force field absorbed the blasts and she fired back, but missed. Then her force field gave way under the Daleks' withering barrage and the pack attached to her belt blew up in a shower of sparks. She didn't even have time to drop to the ground as the fire from the Daleks was so continuous that she was dead a split second later.

The Daleks turned their attention to the five people right in front of them and yelled, "Exterminate!"

K9 fired at the Daleks for all he was worth, but he knew it wouldn't be enough.

Then over his head came a slab of rubble. With the death of Cienna, Zero was unable to stay out of the fight any longer, and he had found his own type of projectile.

The slab of concrete hit the left-most Dalek, knocking it over and skidding it back down the walkway. The one remaining Dalek, assessing a greater threat than the unarmed humans in front of him, turned its attention to Zero. But the robot had wisely backed around the corner of the building again and the Dalek's blasts sailed harmlessly past.

"Into the water!" Danziger yelled. "Go go go!"

He, Devon, Yale, Denner and Morgan leaped into the artificial stream and stayed beneath the surface. The current wasn't particularly strong, but by swimming desperately and with the Dalek's attention elsewhere, they got away.

Robbed of its immediate prey, the Dalek activated its hover engine and started gliding to the upper level, over the pile of rubble, letting loose a constant stream of fire at the corner of the building to keep Zero from repeating his earlier tactic. K9 watched the Dalek advance. He knew he couldn't penetrate the Dalek's armor, and his energy reserves were down to 55 percent.

K9 chose a block of concrete lying on top of the rubble which the Dalek would pass over and focused his laser at full intensity onto it. The block heated up at an incredible rate. It exploded right as the Dalek passed over it, hurling a shower of rock straight up into its hover engine – its only unprotected area.

The Dalek howled, fell onto the rubble and toppled over. It lay on its side, screaming and firing its gun up at K9, helplessly sending blue energy beams into the sky. K9 backed away. "All three Dalek units dealt with," he announced.

Shaking, those who were on the ground got to their knees, being careful to stay low enough to avoid the blasts from the downed Dalek which was still firing up at them. Alonzo crouched low and ran to Cienna's body, hoping against hope that there was something he could do, but it was too late for her. He moved to pick up her gun, but sighed when he realized it was as burnt as she was. He looked at the corpse for a moment, wishing there was something wonderful or meaningful he could do. But there wasn't time.

We will remember you, he thought.

He rejoined the others, huddling in safety around the edge of the building. Bess was weeping and both the children were crying for their parents. Only the fact that they had faced hardship before kept anyone from going completely into shock, and Reilly was also a little shaken.

"Where are the others?" Magus asked.

"Devon, Danziger, Yale, Denner and Morgan jumped into the water to escape the Dalek," K9 reported. "Cienna is dead. All others alive and accounted for."

"What do we do now?" Baines asked.

"The stream won't run forever," Julia said. "They'll have to get out soon. They may be out already, just a few hundred meters away."

"Do we dare use our gear to contact them?" Cameron asked.

"Not until we have to," Alonzo said. "Let's just follow them, and hurry."

"How can we follow them?" Mazatl asked. "That Dalek is still blocking the pass." He nodded around the corner, where blue beams were still streaking into the sky.

"Into the building," Julia said, quickly taking charge. "Reinforcements may be here at any moment, and we can follow the course of the stream from above."

The building was locked, but K9's access codes opened it and they piled inside. The floor they found themselves on was the building's main concourse, and its outer wall was nothing but one huge row of windows. They stretched from floor to ceiling and were broken only by intermittent vertical beams. Reilly and the Edenites ran through the concourse, following the stream below as it curved around the building. A few seconds later they spotted the other five climbing out of the water and looking around.

The Edenites banged on the glass and shouted to get their attention, but the building was dark and soundproof. The other five continued standing there, and it seemed that Morgan and Devon were arguing.

"K9, can you fire your laser beam to get their attention?" Bess asked.

"They might interpret that as an attack," Alonzo said.

An energy beam split the night below. Five Daleks were gliding along the walkway towards their companions, coming from the direction of the steps where they had just finished their battle. The five people below took off running again, racing further around the building. Danziger helped Devon as she limped along. Helplessly, the others followed from above.

All except Zero.

He waited until the Daleks were right below him, raised his arms and slammed the reinforced plastisteel window out of its frame. It dropped onto the Daleks, knocking the one closest to the stream into the water. The window bounced off their domed tops and flipped over into the water also.

The one nearest the building stopped and fired upward, but Zero had already backed away.

K9, further along the concourse, stopped when he noticed what Zero was doing. "Not enough," K9 said. "We need more." With that, he fired his laser into the windows and started cutting out an entire chunk of them. He knew he only had about ten seconds, so his laser was as hot as he dared make it. Within eight seconds he had sliced out an entire row of four windows, still connected to each other by the vertical beams. They fell away as one huge slab and also landed on the Daleks.

One more fell into the water and a third Dalek was knocked over. It was callously pushed aside by the two remaining Daleks. Neither of them were hurt, but the slab of plastisteel was simply sitting on top of them. Its weight was so great that it sagged at both ends, impairing their vision. The Daleks coordinated their movements and raised their eyestalks at the same time, shoving the great slab off of them and into the water. They continued forward after the others, passing the point where the stream ended, but K9 and Zero had bought the others the time they needed.

Or so it seemed.

Alonzo reached the opposite side of the building with the others hot on his heels. He tugged angrily at the door, but it was locked also. "K9!" he shouted. He could see Danziger and the others below, but none of them were looking up at him. "Open this door!"

"Inadvisable," K9 said. "Static gateway opening on walkway below. We are too late."

Alonzo was about to vent his frustration on K9 when he saw the now-familiar red glow of a static gateway appear right in front of the smaller group. Danziger, Devon, Yale, Morgan and Denner came to a halt as a Dalek appeared in front of them. They turned to go back, only to face the remaining two Daleks coming around the building. This time, there was nowhere for them to go.

"Remain silent and do not attempt to use your communicators," K9 said. "There is nothing we can do for them. The duty of Zero and myself is now to protect the rest of you."

They could only watch in horror as the Daleks ordered them to step into the gateway. One by one they did so, and vanished.

"Daddy!" True screamed, tears streaming down her face. Bess choked out, "Morgan!" Uly seemed too shocked to say anything.

The red glow of the static gateway disappeared and the three Daleks headed for the building.

"They know we're here," Magus said, a quiver in her voice.

"We must leave immediately," K9 announced, rolling away. "I know the exits to this building. Please follow."

Numbly, Reilly and the remaining Edenites could do nothing else. The two children had to be dragged away.

K9 didn't tell the others that his power was now down to 25 percent. He sent a single message on a special encryption and hoped for the best.

 

They had almost made it, Devon thought. They had come so close to getting away. Her only thought at the moment she was captured was the hope that Uly would be safe.

She and the others had been ordered into the static gateway, and they had had no choice but to comply. So she had bravely taken a deep breath and limped into the red glow. A few seconds later, Danziger, Morgan, Denner and Yale were by her side.

Now they stood in a large alcove, facing a larger room full of Daleks. They were mostly gray, but some were gold, some red, and one was even black.

The black Dalek approached them. "You are a prisoner on board a battleship of the glorious Dalek Empire," it announced. "You will obey all instructions instantly or you will be exterminated."

Then it moved even closer, and it seemed to be gloating. "Your lives now belong to us!"

 

The problem for the Doctor and Romana was how to sneak into the lower levels of the Presidential Palace without being detected. As far as they knew, the Doctor's TARDIS was still being held by a force field in the holding cells beneath the palace.

"I'm reasonably sure the Daleks won't have penetrated the palace's defenses," Romana whispered as they crept nearer. "I established the protocols myself. But there's no telling how much the Master knows, and how much information he's given to the Daleks."

"It's a pity the holding cells answer to Central Control instead of the Presidential Palace computer," the Doctor said. "Otherwise, this would be so much simpler. And you can be sure that whatever the Master has told the Daleks, he hasn't told them everything. The Master is using the Daleks to keep us all busy while he goes ahead with his own plans. He could have handed the Daleks Central Control on a silver platter if he'd wanted to, but he didn't. And I'll wager the Daleks don't realize that."

"And they're both probably planning to double-cross each other when they're finished," Romana added.

"We may be able to use that to our advantage," the Doctor replied.

"But why use the Daleks at all?" Romana asked. "That isn't the Master's style. He wants to rule, not destroy. If he wanted to wrest control from the Eye of Harmony and the Matrix, he would have found some more subtle way. Not this."

"I've been wondering that, myself," the Doctor answered. "There's something else going on here that we don't know about. The Master never does anything without a reason."

"Master," K9 spoke up.

"Where?!" the Doctor and Romana both exclaimed, looking around frantically.

"No," K9 clarified. "I was addressing my master, the Doctor."

"Oh," the Doctor said, and Romana put her hand to her chest to still her beating hearts, trying to calm herself down. "That was a silly thing for me to program you to call me, K9, and I think it would be wiser if you just referred to me as 'Doctor' from now on."

"Affirmative, Doctor," K9 said. "I have received a message from the other K9 unit. He informs me that the humans from G889 ran into a Dalek patrol. Cienna is dead and five of the humans have been captured."

"Oh, no!" Romana exclaimed.

"Which five?" the Doctor asked.

"Ms. Adair, Mr. Danziger, Mr. Martin, Yale, and Ms. Denner."

"We'll deal with that when we can. Wasn't it foolhardy for the other K9 to send a transmission?"

"He used a secret encryption which the two of us worked out many months ago," K9 said. "No one else knows about it but us, therefore it cannot have been compromised."

"Well done, K9," the Doctor said. "But send no reply, anyway. Even encrypted signals can be traced."

"Affirmative."

"How do you suppose we get into the palace?" the Doctor asked Romana. "I don't suppose there are any ancient tunnels or secret entrances into the place, left over from our illustrious history?"

"Don't you know?" she asked, feigning haughtiness.

"I didn't actually stay there long enough to be given blueprints. It was more along the lines of become the President, get rid of the Sontarans and be on my way."

"There was a secret passage from the palatial gardens leading to the President's personal quarters," she said.

"Ah!"

"But it actually made me feel vulnerable, as if someone could waltz into my room from the outside and assassinate me."

"Er..."

"So I ordered it to be collapsed."

"Oh." The Doctor thought for a moment. "Nothing else?"

"I'm afraid not. We'll just have to do our best."

"Hmm."

They strode on in silence until they came to one of the palace's smaller entrances, set into the side of its western wing. They stood in the cover of some trees and observed it cautiously. "Just a quick question," the Doctor said. "Technically, I'm still a criminal and a prisoner of the Time Lords. Did you, by any chance, have the opportunity to tell the palace computer otherwise?"

"No," Romana said. "Why?"

"The palace computer is programmed to protect the President. Anyone who is registered as a criminal isn't allowed in. At all."

"Oh, yes," she said. "But you're also an ex-President, which is almost as good as being a President. The palace computer can't possibly deny you access."

The Doctor stared at her in the darkness. "Well, it will just have to make up its mind which is more important," he said. "Whether I'm a President or a criminal."

"It would be easier if it was a choice between whether you were a politician or a criminal," Romana said. "Then the point would become academic."

"You know, you're getting funnier as you get older."

"I learned from the best." Then she motioned for him to be quiet. "Shh! Daleks!" She pointed.

Three Daleks rolled into view. One of them turned to the other two. "Remain in this position and guard this entrance," it said.

The other Daleks chorused, "We obey." They stayed there as the third Dalek rolled on.

"We actually left it too long," the Doctor said. "Here, hold this." He handed the atomic disrupter to Romana and began searching through his pockets. He found a tiny stuffed animal he'd won at the 1959 World's Fair, a roll of kite string, a ball point pen, a pad of sticky notes, a book of matches he'd snatched from a table in the Lunar Hilton restaurant just before they threw him out for disorderly behavior in 2118, an instamatic camera with a roll of film which he guessed was also from the 1959 World's Fair, that winning lottery ticket from Angarius IV which he still hadn't cashed in, the picture of Romana which he'd found a few days before (Romana was flattered until she saw it and said, "Tsk. Bad hair day."), an unopened pack of bubble gum cards which he was reasonably sure contained the rookie card of Babe Ruth, a bag of jelly babies, two firecrackers, and finally a note from Henry Ford which read, "Dear Doctor: Thanks for the advice, but I think we'll stick with gasoline as a fuel source. After all, what harm could it cause? Stay well. Hank."

He stuffed everything back into his pockets except for the firecrackers and the matches and they retreated further into the trees. He lit both firecrackers and dropped them, and the three of them hurried away.

Both Daleks charged into the trees when they heard the explosions. No sooner had they disappeared from sight than the Doctor, Romana and K9 emerged from hiding in the opposite direction and ran into the palace, where they came face to face with another Dalek patrolling the corridors.

"So much for my protocols," Romana said.

"You are the Doctor!" the Dalek shouted, recognizing one of the faces of the Ka Faraq Gatri.

"The eighth and only," the Doctor replied with a smile. A second later Romana shot it with the atomic disrupter and they sprinted on.

"Computer!" she called as they ran. "Set off all alarms in the east wing! Authorization Gamma-one-zero-oblique-seven!"

The distant clamor of the alarm system at the opposite end of the palace came to life. The lift door opened just before they reached it and the Doctor grabbed Romana and shoved her against the wall. A Dalek drifted out of the lift right in front of them, but it immediately turned towards the sound of alarms, away from them, and hurried on.

They piled into the lift and dropped to the holding cells. They emerged to find the corridor clear, but K9 informed them he could detect more Daleks on that level. They hurried on to the main guard room – which, of course, was empty, as all the guards would have rushed to defensive positions the moment the war started. The Doctor's TARDIS was in the corner, still surrounded by the force field Konran had erected.

"Daleks approaching," K9 informed them. "Estimated time of arrival, 10.5 seconds."

They ran to the TARDIS. "Doctor, it would take all of Gallifrey's computers 150,000 years to decipher the combination, and not even I can disable it," Romana said. "If you have an idea, please let it be now."

The Doctor bent down to the force field control unit, then suddenly stopped and slapped his head. "I can't believe I could be that stupid!" he exclaimed. "I haven't made a mistake so simple in centuries!"

It was the last thing Romana wanted to hear.

As the door opened to admit the Dalek patrol, she realized that it might be the last thing she ever heard.