Doctor Who: Engines of War Read Online Free PDF

darkened. ‘Is this a TARDIS?’
    ‘It is,’ said the man. He returned his attention to the console and began examining the readouts on the computer screen. It looked antiquated and a little decrepit. He tapped at the keypad, as if trying to get something to work.
    Cinder peered over his shoulder to see what he was looking at, but all she could see on the screen was a mass of unfamiliar pictograms, scrolling and shifting about in an apparently random dance.
    ‘Blast it!’ he barked suddenly in response to something he’d read, and Cinder started, her finger brushing the trigger of her gun.
    ‘If this is a TARDIS,’ she said, ‘then that means you’re a—’
    ‘Time Lord,’ he said, interrupting. ‘Yes, that’s right. Well done.’ His tone was patronising.
    Cinder took a deep breath. She edged back, shuffling on her behind. She brought the barrel of her weapon up so that it was pointing at the Time Lord. She was beginning to think she’d have better luck out there with the mutant Daleks. She could hear one of the Degradations now, hammering at the door, trying to force its way in behind her. Thankfully, the doors of the TARDIS seemed to be holding.
    ‘What are you going to do with me?’ she said, her voice wavering.
    The Time Lord sighed. ‘Drop you somewhere safe as soon as I possibly can,’ he said. ‘That way I might be able to get a little peace and quiet.’ He glanced at her, as if to weigh up her response.
    ‘Tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you now?’ she said, brandishing the Dalek weapon. There was no way he could know it was damaged, that the charge had all bled away.
    ‘Because I saved your life?’ he said, reasonably. ‘Because you don’t look like a murderer, and because the power pack for your salvaged gun is completely dead.’ He reached around the control panel and began flicking switches.
    ‘Saved my life!’ she snapped, indignant. ‘You almost crushed me to death, hurtling out of the sky in your… your… box !’ She cursed under her breath in frustration. He must have seen her try to fire at the Degradation, and worked out she had no power left. That meant she was exposed. Nevertheless, she might still be able to take him in a fight if he tried anything. She was a lot younger than he was, after all.
    ‘Oh, I see. So it would have been simplicity itself to extricate yourself from that Dalek patrol?’
    She didn’t think much of his condescending tone, given that he’d basically crashed his ship. He withdrew something from just inside the fold of his jacket, but she couldn’t quite see what it was.
    ‘They weren’t Daleks,’ she countered. ‘I’d already dealt with the Dalek. Those were mutants. Degradations.’
    The Time Lord shrugged. ‘A Dalek is a Dalek,’ he said, ‘whatever their form and from whichever epoch or permutation of reality they originate.’
    ‘Is that true of Time Lords, too?’ asked Cinder, the sarcasm dripping from her voice.
    ‘Sadly, I believe it is,’ he replied.
    ‘But, you are a Time Lord?’ she said, waving the gun to ensure he hadn’t forgotten about it. He wasn’t looking. He’d returned to tinkering with the object in his hand – a thin, metal cylinder with a glowing end, which made an infuriating buzzing sound every time he pressed a button on it.
    ‘Yes,’ he said, drawing out the word, as if indicating his impatience. He held the device up to his ear and pressed the button, listening intently to the sound. Then, frowning as if frustrated with the thing, he banged it repeatedly against his palm.
    ‘Then where are your skull cap and robes?’ said Cinder. ‘You don’t look much like a Time Lord.’
    ‘I’m told there are exceptions to every rule,’ he replied. He raised his device to his ear again, listened to the sound, and then, apparently satisfied, slipped the device into a leather hoop on the empty ammo belt he was wearing and dusted his hands.
    ‘What is that thing? A weapon?’ she said.
    He offered her an