Part 41 (1/2)

'Albinex was acting under my orders,' he began. 'He far overstepped the boundaries of those orders. I sent M'Kabel to ensure that Albinex didn't harm the Doctor' but he failed.'

Silence for a bit. 'We've been planning this for nearly two decades.'

'That's why we got here in nineteen eighty-three,' sighed Benny. 'Not nineteen sixty-three, when you first arrived.'

Isaac said nothing. 'Don't stop now,' his daughter said. 'Go on. Tell me your plans. Gloat.'

Isaac said softly, 'When we learnt the nuclear missiles were finally going to arrive at Greenham Common, I switched on the transponder I kept from the Tisiphone Tisiphone.'

'And we followed its signal here. Into your trap.'

'We'd been trying to obtain the destructor codes for years. We knew that the Doctor had found them out. But we couldn't risk giving Little Caldwell away to UNIT or the Doctor.'

'My G.o.d,' said Benny. 'You knew about me. You knew I was his companion.'

Silence for a bit. 'Yes,' Isaac admitted.

'Ace told you.'

'No,' said her father. 'I knew long before that. Albinex has certain information...'

'You knew that I'd come looking for you, bringing the Doctor with me. You used me. My G.o.d, was Groenewegen part of your plan as well?'

'No!'

'Albinex's yacht was there when you fell into the wormhole,' she said. 'Was that part of the plan?'

'No,' said Isaac. 'Albinex told us that his s.h.i.+p had got caught up in the battle. He was trying to escape when his time drive malfunctioned, creating the wormhole.'

'Why Earth? Why nineteen sixty-three?'

'That had been the yacht's last warp coordinates. The Navarinos love Earth nostalgia. They were on a tour of the sixties.'

'Well. Now that you've tortured the codes out of the Doctor,' she said bitterly' 'what are you going to do?'

Another car wandered out of the mist, pulled up outside one of the cottages. Isaac said, 'In just under two hundred years, the Daleks are going to attack Earth. And we'll be waiting for them.'

'So that's why you want control of the nukes!' said Benny' turning around. 'You want to be able to fight off the Daleks!'

'No,' said Isaac. 'We're going to start a small nuclear war on Earth. Just a handful of exchanges' carefully controlled.'

Benny's mouth opened. No words came out.

'We have to keep the pace of weapons development going,' said Isaac. 'The Cold War is going to end this decade.

Within two decades, there'll be ma.s.sive disarmament, a move away from the military-industrial complex. There'll be peace on Earth. Then the Daleks will come, and find the planet practically defenceless.'

Benny found her voice. 'How many people are you going to kill?'

'No more than absolutely necessary,' said Isaac, and his voice was colder than the winter air.

Benny's mouth just hung open. Her father went on, 'For two decades, we've been collecting together a small army of aliens. Once our work here is done, we'll travel forward to twenty-one fifty-four and help with the battle against the invasion.

'Think about it, Benny.' He looked down at the cars.

'These people came here to pillage or conquer. Now they've made this planet their home. They're going to save the human race.' He turned to her, took her face in his hands, his gaze willing her to understand. 'What more can I do to protect Earth from the Daleks?'

Benny gasped, 'I've got another story to tell you.'

Claire

The sirens were screaming.

Bernice was seven. She was too small to understand what was happening. Only that her mummy was very scared.

Only that the sirens were screaming and they made her ears hurt.

Her mummy had picked her up because she couldn't run fast enough. She was banging against her mummy's shoulder as she ran. Her mummy was crying. There was a crowd - everyone was shouting and crying.

Bernice hung onto her doll's hand. Rebecca sort of flapped out behind her mummy as she ran. Bernice couldn't see where they were going because she was facing the wrong way. All she could see was Rebecca.

She screamed when she dropped the doll. She couldn't hang on because of the running and because the sirens were screaming.

Her mother ran through a door into a big room. The-room was full of grown-ups and children, all of them shouting and crying. Bernice put her hands over her ears when her mother put her down.

Her mother ran back out through the door, and it shut.

Bernice took her hands off her ears and threw herself at the door, screaming, 'Mummy!' She couldn't see how to open the door.

There was a big window in the door. She was just tall enough to see through it.

There were only a few people outside now. She could see her mummy, running back to where Rebecca had fallen down.