Auros. You can get off there.'
The Doctor nodded. 'I'll need to get back to Hurala. My ship is still there.'
'Hurala will be crawling with Daleks.'
'That's what worries me.'
The Doctor followed Scrum down the narrow passageway to the galley area. He could hear the sound of Cuttin' Edge's tools further down the corridor by the airlock. Glancing along the passage, the Doctor was surprised to see that the Dalek had gone.
'We had to move it,' Scrum explained. 'Cuttin' Edge didn't have any room to work.'
'That was risky,' said the Doctor. 'Even a dead Dalek is dangerous. They've got a hundred different automatic defences.'
'It's all right, we didn't even touch it. I used a couple of cargo grapplers to shift it down to the hold. Besides which I think that cryo-charge has completely disabled the thing. It didn't even twitch when Cuttin' Edge took its eyestalk off.'
The Doctor stopped in his tracks. 'He did what?'
'Cut off the eyestalk. You know, for the bounty.'
'I told him not to do that.'
Scrum looked at the Doctor, a little bemused. 'Doctor, he doesn't take his orders from you. Captain Bowman is in charge here, in case you hadn't noticed. And the bounty on those things is what keeps us alive. It's a confirmed kill, and that's what Earth Command pays us for. We deliver that eyestalk to the authorities on Auros and we can afford to eat again.'
The Doctor said nothing. He sat down in the galley, tight-lipped.
Scrum sat down opposite him. 'I've been thinking about that Dalek, actually. It's not often I get the chance to look at one up close – at least, not for long. There must be a lot of stuff I could learn from it, if I could take it apart.'
'Don't even think about it,' warned the Doctor darkly.
'It's dead. I could crack it open with the right tools.'
The Doctor stared at him. 'Believe me, you really don't want to do that. Every Dalek has defences against that sort of thing. It would be like playing with a live hand grenade. The creature inside may be dead, but that casing is chock full of anti-handling devices and booby traps that would make your hair curl. There are enough self-destruct mechanisms packed inside one of those things to keep a team of bomb-disposal experts happy for a month.'
'But while it's here—'
'Forget it. As soon as that airlock door is fixed, dump it in deep space and forget it about. Consider yourselves lucky that we didn't all end up like Stella.'
The Doctor regretted the outburst straightaway, but it was too late. Scrum stared coldly at him for a minute or two and then got up to leave.
'If Bowman has his way, you'll follow that Dalek straight out of the airlock.'
The Doctor raised an eyebrow. 'I thought only pirates made people walk the plank.'
'Just remember, Doctor – Stella was our mate. She was one of us. You aren't.'
Scrum went out, leaving the Doctor sitting in the galley alone.
Cuttin' Edge was working on the door. The outer bulkhead had been slightly distorted, causing the running tracks for the main airlock to jam. He had the tools to fix it, but the truth was, he just couldn't concentrate.
All he could think about was Stella. All he could hear was the shrill scream of the Dalek's death ray, and the equally shrill scream of his friend as she died, spread-eagled against the wall by the sheer force of the energy blast. All he could see when he closed his eyes was the brilliant blue flare, and Stella's skull, thrown back with its jaws wide open.
His hand slipped and he barked his knuckles on the metal grating of the deck. He swore and then threw the gravity spanner across the passageway, where it hit the floor with a heavy clang.
'You'll get me next time,' said Scrum. The spanner had just missed his foot as he came round the corner.
Cuttin' Edge shook his head. 'I can't do this.'
'Course you can. You've been taking this old crate apart and putting it back together for years. We both