The Final Sanctionedited by John Drake

                              Chapter 2

  Several systems away, hidden behind an asteroid belt, damaged ships hovered. They tried to keep in the same pattern, the same drift as the asteroids to help them hide. They kept their power to a minimum-their communications were all but silent. 
  Small work-crews did what they could to effect repairs but they had few spare materials, that was unless they were going to start cannibalising parts from the more heavily damaged ships, they were desperate and that was one potential option. The supreme Dalek fleet High Commander looked at what was left of the grand fleet. He could not compute could not comprehend that humans alone unaided had been able to do the amount of damage that they had. The Command Ship was a Super Battle Station-a ship designed to deal with advanced worlds that were protected by planetary shielding and similar, advanced measures. It was basically a saucer 9.8 kilometres long. Nearly three quarters of a million Daleks had occupied it at the start of the campaign. 

  When the fleet had left Space Dock there had been ten Heavy Super Dreadnaughts-saucer ships five kilometres across with about 100 thousand Daleks onboard each. These ships were designed for dealing with powerful orbital or ground based defense batteries. There had been over eighty of the Dalek Super Dreadnaughts-a saucer shaped ship three thousand and eight hundred meters long and between forty to fifty thousand Daleks were stationed aboard each. They were designed to kill the capital ships of lesser races, all races were less but some were more inferior than others. They had around three hundred kilometre-long battle ships each staffed by 5000 Daleks. They were designed as a fleet, superior weapons normally working in teams of four to sweep the battle field of smaller opponents. 
  There had been nearly a thousand frigates, each a saucer 500 meters long with a 600 strong crew designated as a scouting and recognisance vessels. Long ago they had been formidable ships but the galaxy had moved on and the once powerful frigates were assigned lesser roles. 
  With every Dalek success, more races were unfortunately convinced to share technology with one another making some of their techniques less effective. On top of that the High Commander had commanded nearly 40,000 fighter bombers, 20 meter-long saucers, a type of flexible assault craft staffed by the most volatile members of the Dalek race working in crews of three. They were unlikely to return from a battle but would inflict heavy losses on the enemy. They were the children of Davros they should not be cowering behind asteroids.

  They had scouted the area then lay in wait for the main human fleet, and then the nebular they were hiding in had detonated around them by some unknown means. Before they could regroup or assess the damage there were human ships larger and more numerous than anticipated on any battle plan surrounding them. He had been forced to relocate his forces in a hurry. His Super Battle Station was almost dead in the water it had been a priority target, only a third of its crew alive. Four of his Super-Heavy Dreadnaughts had survived the battle. Two of them were in need of serious repair before they could mount a proper fight. 
  They had thirty functional super dreadnaughts only 129 of his battle ships had survived and over twenty were heavily damaged. 
  The frigates had survived better with a little over half their number surviving the battle, all told five hundred and twelve. The larger, more resource-expensive ships had been the main targets. The humans had not seen the frigates as a priority target. 
  The fighter bombers had been severely depleted, screening the escape of the heavier ships with only nine thousand, four hundred and seventy eight left, less than a quarter of their original number. 

  The Dalek Commander considered his next move carefully. He would try to repair the ships under his command then destroy the fleet that had attacked him after he learn what trick they had used against him. If that was unsuccessful he would withdraw back to Dalek space, unless he could win and soon he would be exterminated or forced to self-terminate, the ultimate humiliation.
  The supreme Dalek had other options beyond simple brute force. There was a weapon out there, hidden away by the Doctor long ago.
  Dalek sensors were used to his tricks. They would search for its physical shell, its gradational and temporal echo. Its command codes were another matter. The Daleks had nominal allies that would deal with The Commander, mercenaries who could be purchased for a price and he had his own agents that he had in place, both conditioned with mind control and simply bribed individuals who did not care who they worked for if there were enough credits in it. The conditioned agents were easier to spot but more controllable, the bribed agents less controllable but much harder to trace. 
  The Dalek noted that there was one failed attempt to secure a third of the command codes, an agent of his had reported it. The data residing in the mind of a foolish human female that had tampered with the wrong device. The Dalek Supreme then instructed his next agent in line to make their programmed move.

  A tiny microchip almost invisible buried in the most complex part of a human brain sprang to life, receiving a complex yet subtle code that could have easily been mistaken for a piece of cosmic radiation. 
  On the med world a technician-Sarah, a brunette of medium height stopped the battery of tests that she was doing. Her eyes glazed over and she walked over to her bag and pulled on the side of it. There was a ripping sound as she pulled a programming device out from inside a secret compartment. She also pulled a flat packed metal form out of the bag. A few twists and the bundle of metal sported an emitter, a handle and a trigger stud. It was the bare bones of a wide beam scatter disintegrator. 
  The other device was quickly plugged into the control of the main work station converting it instantly into a powerful data hacking tool designed to penetrate the deepest level of encryption and security. She locked the door to the room and fried the control panel, opening a power conduit so that the bare power transmitters were available.
  She operated her console and was into the main hospital patient system, she skirted around several firewalls and other protective measures, around false directories and code locked records. Sarah finally found the part of the system that she wanted and made her move. The archaeologist would be exceptionally difficult to secure by force-the med world was large and technologically complex so probably well defended by all assessments. 
  Even trying to remove the data from her head would be tricky, or getting any form of access but with systems there were ways around everything…
  She tried to swap the archaeologist’s record with a fictional patient that did not exist. Sarah looked at the machine it seemed to work, the system seemed to accept her forged administrator ID and to allow the record change. 
  Sarah registered a new associated institute-a fictional one that did not exist except on paper. She registered a number of doctors that didn’t exist as specialist consultants then she tried to have the archaeologist transferred to the fictional institution on the recommendation of these experts, which would be two of her compatriots ready to receive her and transport her.
  Sarah smiled. The machines would follow their programming and simply deliver the data inside the patient’s head to her Dalek contacts who could then extract it and analyze it. A message flashed across the screen,
                      PATIENT TRANSFER INVALID. 
  Sarah tried to rebook the transfer. Another message came up,
                 FORGED PATIENT RECORD DETECTED. 
  Sarah started tapping away like mad! The system seemed to be adapting to her very quickly,
          FORGED CONSULTANT RECORDS DETECTED REJECTED.
  Sarah tried a few more times, changing the details and trying again but the computer terminal just flashed up another message,
          FORGED ADMINISTRATOR IDENTITY DETECTED. CONSOLE SHUTTING DOWN. PLEASE AWAIT REPRESENTATIVES TO ARRIVE TO DETAIN YOU. 
  Several sets of alarm bells started sounding in the background… 
  Sarah pulled the disintegrator out and leveled it at the door. If she was lucky she could eliminate whoever came to investigate then attempt the exercise again from a console that she had not been locked out from. 
  The door imploded, pulled apart by two android nurses. Sarah fired and the first android took a hit with burning holes in her uniform and her synthetic skin exposing the silver metal underneath. A green shield sprang up the second blast did nothing to it harmlessly absorbed by the shield she would need a much more powerful weapon to damage one of them. 
    “THAT UNIFORM WAS NEW TODAY. JUST DROP THE WEAPON IT CANT HURT US IN ANY PERMANENT WAY.” 
  Sarah’s eyes glazed over again as if she was accepting some sort of command. She tried to level the weapon at her own head, her hands moving involuntarily. The first android moved in a blur plucking the weapon from her hand and crushing it in one easy maneuver before she had it half way to her head;
    “NOW MISS, THAT IS NOT APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR. THERE IS NO ESCAPE FROM US THAT WAY.” 
  The android looked at Sarah more intensely, her eyes seemed to glow green for a second looking over Sarah or through her. Sarah became unresponsive for a second then moved as fast as she could, she tried to reach out with her other hand and plug herself into the power control in the exposed conduit but the android pulled her out of the way;     
    “YOU APPEAR TO BE CONTROLLED REMOTELY. PLEASE FIGHT IT.” Sarah tried to bite down on her tongue in an attempt to bleed to death but the android’s hand was in her mouth holding her jaw open before she could, “LOOKS LIKE ITS GOING TO BE THE HARD WAY.” 
  The second android nurse scanned her more closely she seemed to find the Dalek control device implanted deeply in the woman’s brain. 

  Far away the Dalek Supreme activated the self destruct on the implant he expected to see a termination signal. Something was blocking it?
  The android holding Sarah had activated her shield and thrown it around her colleague who was now a patient to stop the device from receiving its self destruct instruction. The android nurse started to broadcast an alternative signal that was relayed through the med world’s network through a beacon and into space;
    “YOU ARE FOOLISH TO THINK THAT WE THINK LIKE YOU. WE CAN TRACE THE SIGNAL BACK. SOON THE HUMANS WILL FINISH YOU.” 
  The Dalek supreme was about to respond with how they would be exterminated as well as the humans but the signal cut off before he could even start his usual rhetoric.

  Sarah suddenly found herself awake. It was like she had awoken from some sort of a dream. What had she been doing and why were two of the nurse androids restraining her? She recognised one with pink hair-Annabelle. Sarah looked at her questioningly. More nurses were standing around a replicator station it was slowly dispensing some very menacing looking restraints. Sarah could still feel a dull presence at the back of her mind something that was emphatically not meant to be there! 
  She thought about struggling but against one of the androids it was hopeless, against a room full impossible! Annabelle injected her in the shoulder with a needle that extended out from under her right finger tip. She explained;
    “IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN YOU WENT ON HOLIDAY ON THE STELLA CRUISE A DALEK AGENT IMPLANTED SOME FORM OF CONTROL CHIP INSIDE YOUR BRAIN, WE ARE GOING TO HAVE TO TIGHTLY RESTRAIN YOU FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, DO NOT WORRY-WE ARE SEEKING A WAY TO REMOVE THE CHIP.”
  Annabelle held her jaw open and forced a very solid plug gag into it. The plug split in the middle into four parts and they extended like tentacles into her mouth. They grabbed her tongue and pulled. It was like her tongue was being sucked into place. 
  Sarah struggled but it was futile as the gag worked its way deeper and deeper into her mouth her tongue was held inside the gag as a tube made its way down her throat expanding to fill it. The tube was lined with an anesthetic that stopped her gag reflex. Annabelle explained;
    “WE NEED TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU CAN’T HURT YOURSELF SUCH AS BITING YOUR OWN TONGUE OFF. THIS DEEP FILL PLUG GAG WILL BE UNCOMFORTABLY TIGHT BUT QUITE NECESSARY.” The gag itself expanded on its own like an invisible hand was pumping it. She felt as if her jaw was being unhinged by the pressure. The muzzle was contoured to tightly fit under her chin. A wide heavy strap locked behind her head, the nurse pulled her hair out of the way and increased the tightness of the strap. A Y shaped strap rose up from the muzzle over the bridge of her nose and connected to the back of the strap behind her head it was also tightened, then with a click of a button all the locks merged into the gag leaving it as a completely flawless surface completely solid unless one had access to industrial cutting equipment.

Annabelle set about stripping Sarah naked slowly and carefully cutting her clothes off into little sections with a short but sharp blade that extended from under the nail on her index finger;
    “I AM AFRAID WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT OTHER SURPRISES THE DALEKS MAY HAVE LEFT. WE ARE GOING THROUGH YOUR PERSONAL EFFECTS AS WELL, WE WILL ANALYSE YOUR CLOTHING UNDER CONTROLLED CONDITIONS.”
  The androids were very fast and efficient. Soon Sarah was stripped down to her knickers and bra. A few snips later and she was totally naked. Sarah’s possessions were sealed inside a large solid hexagonal crate which was then surrounded by a force field and taken away for analysis. Sarah was turning red from the embarrassment of being naked she tried to pull her hands free to cover herself up but the nurse’s grip was iron, she was not going anywhere that the nurse didn’t want her to go.
  She was almost relieved when Annabelle brought up a black pile of thick rubbery material that must have been a straitjacket. Sarah looked puzzled for a second. The jacket was far too small to fit over her body unless something with a great deal of physical strength was going to squeeze her into it! Sarah panicked but it was no use when her mind put two and two together. Her right arm was forced into the garment which seemed to be lubricated with some gel on the inside. It was an odd sensation like her arm was being sucked into sticky mud. Any attempt to pull her arm out was met by considerable resistance. Soon both her arms were in up to the shoulder the rubbery material tight across her chest. 
  With a barely audible creak from the rubbery material the nurse brought one strap on the back of the jacket into place and buckled it tight. In short order she had the rest of the straps done up. Sarah was encased from her neck to her waist in the thick jacket it was restraining, crushing the breath from her lungs and so tight over her chest yet cupped and supported her body in a not unpleasant way. Under different circumstances it would have been quite a nice sensation... 
  The nurse wasted no time in buckling the arm straps. Sarah’s arms went through a wide thick front loop through two side loops and were mercilessly locked in place it was as if her whole torso had been encased in a resin gel. Sarah realised that there was still the crotch strap to go. It was very wide, Annabelle applied it very tightly Sarah was glad of the gag as it stopped her moaning being heard as Annabel checked the crotch strap.
  Two padded straps were locked around her ankles then she moaned in discomfort as she was quite stringently hog tied. A thick, rubber-like hood was pulled over her head. The nurses injected several things into her bottom and she got quite sleepy. Then they carefully carried her to a padded cell and left her to sleep. Inside her head medical nanites slowly charted the Dalek device probing it for weaknesses… 

  Meanwhile The Doctor had been subtly scanning the facility looking for traces of the temporal anomaly, it appeared to be the residue of a quite powerful Timelord weapon that should not really exist anymore. Yet he had evidence that Timelord technology had been used and quite recently. 
  He was in no way prepared for one of the nurses to turn up and actually take him to a patient. Well he couldn’t refuse and the game would be up if he did. The android nurses didn’t take no for an answer, generally pushing The Doctor along a corridor but at least they were polite. He had a look carefully at the nurses they each seemed to have their own hairstyle, personalities and mannerisms, a thought flickered across his mind. There were human staff as well, what if their contracts were quite long? What if they didn’t die? A sort of immortality? Their consciousnesses were uploaded to the androids-had they once been people? Had they volunteered for this, or was he reading too much into it? Did the androids just pick up on human habits from their proximity to people?
  He was lead into a lift which zoomed away then he was deposited at a seemingly random point into a complex warren of wards. He was lead to a quiet private room with a good lock on the door. 
  There was a woman with purple skin gently reclining in a hospital bed. She was wearing a tight silvery jacket; thick black straps had her reclining comfortably but securely. The Doctor looked at her, definitely human he turned to the android;
    “She is naturally that colour? A biological modification to allow a type of photosynthesis on worlds with low calorific values in the available ecosystem-frontier worlds am I right?” 
    “THAT IS WHAT OUR ANALYSIS HAS CONCLUDED.” The nurse responded to him.   
  The Doctor looked at the patient record;
    “She was here as a tourist, just passing through when she ended up like this?” 
    “WE BELIEVE THAT SHE INTENDED TO BE ON A WORKING HOLIDAY FROM WHAT WE FOUND ON HER. THERE ARE SEVERAL LARGE SOCIAL AREAS FOR STAFF AND PATIENTS. WE DO HAVE QUITE A FLOW OF PERSONNEL THROUGH THEM”.
  The Doctor looked a little hesitant. He psychically linked with the patient, putting his fingers on her temples and slowly concentrating on the patient’s trauma-filled mind. The patient’s brain slowly awoke from its vegetative state as he started going through her memories, putting them back together. He felt something that shouldn’t be there. He was transported to a different reality-a place of thought, a place inside her head. In her mindscape there was no evidence of the woman it was just a featureless grey terrain. The Doctor looked around. There was a column of metal held down by dozens of thick chains. There was some thing else in here with him, something alien, not human. Something that had no place in a human mind, this had just become interesting!
  A character in a grey suit seemed to emerge from nowhere. The man’s skin was grey and oily he was quite alien in his appearance. The Doctor gauged it a thought construct, memories forced onto a host almost like a second personality imposed on the original, the symptoms could be like a psychological trauma-an invasion;
    “What the hell are you doing here?”
  The Grey Man’s mental suggestion nodded;
    “I planned to make her an agent but I was too thorough locking away her physical body from her mind.” The memory did not attack it seemed to look through The Doctor for a second;
    “Doctor isn’t it? I can get you info on The Core and the humans, the earth military-what they are doing, about The Last Sanction if you free enough of her mind to let me loose but don’t free her will, I can use this body. Just think you could save countless lives if you just give me this one human…”
  The Timelord looked sternly at the mental construct;
    “You must have gone mad if you think I am going to give you one single person!” The Doctor concentrated and the Grey Man’s image flickered and fell to the ground. The Timelord was reversing what he had done-he was a dab hand at this sort of thing and it had been a while from the last real challenge...
  The chains snapped one by one then the cylinder shattered revealing something inside it-the something was roughly human sized;
    “I have funds-we could negotiate something…” The Grey Man’s mental imprint fought in what ways it could. 
  The Doctor dismissed it out of hand;
    “Not interested.”

  There was a Wooden Coffin inside the metal cylinder, it looked like it was constructed more as a box to contain something, tailored to a vaguely female form and made of a dark thick hardwood. There were lots of brass latches and clasps keeping the lid closed. It slowly floated over the ground. The Doctor concentrated and it shattered, the shards fading away. Something was inside that, obscured for a second.
    “We could augment your Tardis-repair the camouflage circuit…” The Grey Man’s mental construct pleaded with renewed urgency. The Timelord was furious though,
    “Don’t you dare touch my Tardis, don’t even think about her!”
  The object was a leather cocoon was made from black leather it was tightly tailored to the female form, reinforced at the neck and the waist with redundant lacing and black straps clinched so tight the material and presumably the flesh underneath bulged outwards. 
  The Doctor concentrated again and the leather cocoon then ripped apart-it was merely something formed by the woman’s mind or perhaps by The Grey Man;
    “We could assist you, increase your longevity your number of regenerations?” 
  The Doctor didn’t want The Grey Man to touch him;
    “Not interested. Got plenty left.”
  He pressed on. There was a red rubber cocoon, obviously with a woman inside. There were a few mute protests and appeared to be slight movement inside as if someone was struggling-the woman was waking up, trying to get control of her mind back. 
  The construct was panicking, begging;
    “Name something!” 
  The Doctor shook his head, a look of triumph on his face;
    “No.” The cocoon popped away to reveal yet more restraints.

  The woman’s cries were louder and the amount she could struggle had increased. There were bandages-grey ones tightly wrapped around a female form, they started to unwind by themselves without the Doctor’s help. 
    “What do you want?” 
  The Doctor paused for effect;
    “You, out of this woman’s mind now!”
  The grey bandages unraveled to reveal more bandages, white this time. The woman inside was starting to struggle a lot. The bandages started to unwind, muffled words could be heard. The Grey Man looked at the Doctor;
    “You will not win, Doctor. Even as you think you have succeeded you will do nothing.”   
  The bandages exploded outwards. The woman was revealed. Well, more of her was revealed. She had a thick leather hood that was laced closed at the back. Fetters on her ankles were connected by a short strap and wore a tight straitjacket with her arms folded behind her back. All were made from thick brown leather. She was struggling a lot. Her feet touched the ground of the mental landscape. The Grey Man’s mental construct started to look around, searching for a way out. He looked at the Doctor trying to escape into his mind, he shimmered like he was pushed back;
    “No free passes.” The Doctor glowered at him. The strap on the jacket snapped.
    “I will not be thrown out of this mind!” His speech started to falter…
  The jacket peeled away, so did the hood. Fetters snapped and vanished. The woman was left naked in a muzzle gag and mittens. 
  She was angry and awake, fixing a glare of hatred on The Grey Man. Her remaining restraints started to fade away. She advanced on him as he retreated from her;
    “You may be free but-” Before he could finish the woman punched The Grey Man’s mind construct, he fell over and shattered like a piece of glass. The woman looked calmer a blue jumpsuit and a pair of blue heels appeared on her body. She looked at the Doctor and shook her head;
    “That thing talked a lot. I listened. There are two other people like this. A John Gray and a Gregory Hills they were on the same cruise. John was a nice guy.” 
  The Doctor imagined that the other two were most likely controlled completely by similar mental constructs-more problems that had to be dealt with but he had a lead to two further people who were affected by The Grey Man. Whether that would lead him to whatever set off that temporal weapon was another matter, there was no guarantee one was working with the other.
  The Doctor looked at the android and gestured towards the restraints. The android started to release the woman. The woman woke up, her eyes fluttered open and recognition crept into them. She hugged the Doctor but she was still in her jacket. The Doctor looked awkward for a second then looked at the nurse. She shrugged and patted him on the shoulder;
     “GOOD WORK DOCTOR PROCTOR. I BELIEVE THIS PATIENT MAY BE ABLE TO HELP US TO TRACK OTHER INDIVIDUALS WHO MAY HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO THE SAME PATHOGEN. DON’T YOU AGREE?”

  Meanwhile Clara had been transported to the testing area, more like frog-marched by the nurse android to a completely different part of the facility. The journey had been through a great series of long corridors and large, heavy doors had slammed behind her at every turn, overly complex locks clicking into place behind her. She was a little worried but part of her was sure that it was a hazing ritual for new employees. At lease Clara was desperately hoping that it was the case and she was not just being taken to a cell!
  The Android led Clara into a large open room. There was a complex control panel that looked like it needed four hands to use properly. There was a sort of platform at one end of the room. Ursula closed the door and pinched Clara on the bottom;
    “NOW DEAR, WE HAVE A FEW TESTS TO RUN ON THIS APPARATUS. I WON’T SPOIL THE SURPRISE FOR YOU DEAR, JUST CLIMB ONTO THE PLATFORM AND WE CAN BEGIN.” Ursula fiddled with the console as Clara stood on the platform;
    “Just here, like this? Aren’t you going to give me a hint?” 
  The android gestured okay and Clara felt a tingle on her skin, a strange charge in the air about her. Suddenly there was a green flash and Clara felt a chill in the air. Her clothing had been transported away and her mouth opened into a big wide O. She looked at the nurse then at the platform. The clothing lay there for a second, Clara reached out a hand then the transmatt activated again a sort of transparent jar appeared sealing her clothes inside it compressing them into a little ball. 

  Clara realised that she was naked well she had been naked for a few seconds already but her thought processes caught up to the rest of her. She thought that it probably had no valid reason for the purpose of the test, she had no way to get her clothes back until the android decided she needed them;
    “Why am I naked? What’s going on?”
  The android smiled and continued to tap away at the console;
    “LARA DEAR, I WANT YOU TO RUN AROUND A BIT. THE POINT OF THIS DEVICE IS TO TRANSPORT A RESTRAINT DIRECTLY ONTO AN UNWILLING PATIENT. IT IS EASIER IF I DON’T HAVE TO FACTOR IN OTHER CLOTHING AND I NEED SOME PRACTICE TO AIM. IF I CATCH YOU TOO QUICKLY I WILL HAVE TO THINK OF AN ADDITIONAL INCENTIVE TO MOTIVATE YOU TO WORK HARDER. USING THE ANALOGY OF THE CARROT AND THE STICK. IT WILL BE A BIG STICK…”
  Clara started to run around the room. A faint green glow came from the platform and started to follow the naked quality assurance officer. Clara could see the energy changing. She felt the charge in the air and the first jacket appeared two meters off its intended target, forming in thin air in the space Clara had been seconds before. The empty jacket fell to the floor. 
  Clara smiled as the android concentrated on her new toy and clicked away. Suddenly, the machine was getting ready to transport a second jacket. Clara looked left and right. She slowly moved forwards then jumped back. The Second jacket appeared in the air, it materialised more quickly but it was still one meter off, Clara had eluded the high-tech device a second time. 
  The next jacket was even quicker-she felt the tingle of the transporter and jumped to the side. The third jacket was two foot off, away from Clara! Closer but no cigar! Still she had to keep moving if she wanted remain free.
  She looked at the nurse and Ursula smiled. Clara was already starting to get a little bit out of breath, she had to keep moving though or she was sure that the android would make good on her threat. The girl could feel the sensation again, this time it was following her as she moved and she did a roll just as it was starting to materialize. 
  The fourth jacket appeared just a foot away. Clara was starting to worry-what sort of safeguards had the machine got to stop the jacket materializing partially in her? Clara almost tripped and fell over one of the discarded jackets, she just managed to right herself and twist around to avoid the fifth one. That was very close, just six inches away it literally brushed her skin!
 Clara was starting to pant a little. She risked a look back at the android, it didn’t look so smug now!
 The sixth jacket arrived just then and Clara just managed to move out of the way, diving onto the floor. The jacket appeared above her and harmlessly flopped to the ground but it was very close. 
  Clara started to move in a zigzag pattern but the machine seemed to have been calibrated for her and the tingling sensation slowly started to build. Clara realized that the sensation was moving with her no matter where she went! The seventh jacket materialised around her as she moved. It wasn’tt there one second then a transparent white line appeared as she moved and Clara found her torso trapped inside the jacket! 

  The jacket was a bright shining white, it seemed to be like a giant elastic band stretched over her body, as soon as it was in place it snapped back contracting as tightly as possible over her entire torso. The material was five millimetres thick and came as one section with no laces, straps or buckles to be manipulated. The garment had a sort of cotton like texture to it. There was a snug, high collar and the tight white fabric clung to her chest and mercilessly pulled at her waist. The bottom of the jacket wasn’t so much like a crotch strap but a really tight pair of knickers connected to the rest of the jacket. The arms were also tight and snug with extra padding around the hands. The sleeves had straps that went from the finger tip to the opposite side of the jacket just behind Clara’s back and the straps instantly pulled tight and Clara found her arms pulled around her torso she had a little struggle room but she was caught!
    “CLARA, THAT WAS AN ACCEPTABLE PERFORMANCE-NOW FOR STAGE TWO OF THIS TRIAL.”
    “Ursula, what’s stage two?” A worried Clara looked at the android. 
    “I WAS JUST COMING TO THAT. STAGE TWO IS TO SEE IF YOU CAN ESCAPE FROM THE JACKET. I HAVE A NUMBER OF STIMULANTS TO TRY AND PERSUADE YOU TO GIVE AN OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE.”

  The nurse had a dramatic flair to her personality. She picked up a tray covered with a cloth. Whatever was on the tray would provide encouragement for Clara to try and get out of the jacket. The android easily moved the tray about with one hand. Slowly letting Clara worry what encouragements she would face. Ursula ran one finger down the cloth over the tray before whipping the cloth away with an exaggerated gesture. Clara swallowed she was at the mercy of Ursula she nervously looked at the tray. There was a silver ping pong Paddle a bundle of bright purple feathers that looked like they came from god knew what creature. There was also a silver and purple box. The android opened the box it was full of very nice looking chocolates. Clara could almost feel herself salivating just from looking at them they smelled delicious as well. Ursula held them above Clara just where she would have to be free of the jacket or a really good jumper to reach the box. Clara started to struggle at the jacket it would stretch about six inches then slowly pull her arms back into place she wiggled and squirmed until she was panting but she was no closer to the chocolates. 
  Ursula patted her on the head;
    “I WILL GIVE IT FIFTEEN MINUTES THEN I MUST CONCLUDE THAT YOU DON’T WANT ANY CHOCOLATES LARA.” Clara squealed in indignation and started to throw herself against the jacket finding a wall and trying to work the jacket against a corner of a bulkhead slowly but surely Clara pulled on the right sleeve after fifteen minutes she had managed to get her arm about two inches up the sleeve. The android looked at her with a sad look, “I GUESS YOU DON’T LIKE CHOCOLATES. MAYBE YOU LIKE FEATHERS?” Clara watched as Ursula closed the box of chocolates and picked up the bundle of feathers, her hips swung as she slowly sashayed towards Clara, the bundle of feathers gripped in her hand. 
  Clara squealed and ran for it, doing laps around the room as the nurse walked behind her. Clara spent all her effort very slowly pulling her right arm up the sleeve of the jacket fighting against the stretchy material. Finally she slipped over one of the other jackets and landed on her bottom the nurse casually grabbed her around the ankle and lifted her off the floor with ease;
    “No don’t you dare ha ha hhaha hhaahahahah stop, please! Hhha hha no ple- haha ahha!!!!!”
  The tickling seemed to go on and on finally a manically giggling Clara was dropped to the floor. She scampered to her feet and got to the console, looping part of the sleeve over a bulkhead and pulled. 
   With a concerted effort and a dull pop her arm was now out of the sleeve of the jacket and encased in the main body of the garment. Clara took a moment to consider what she had gained-there were no fasteners or buttons to release or straps to undo. Before she could do anything else, Ursula tackled her to the floor for another round with the feathers. After fifteen minutes of hysterical laughter Clara crawled over to the console, with some determined acrobatics she got part of the controls hooked under the crotch of the jacket. She used her weight to pull back and stretch the fabric then doubled her left leg back and worked her toes through the crotch some wiggling and she was only partially trapped in the jacket, now she could possibly pull it up over her head!
  Ursula looked at her, picking up the paddle;
    “PICK UP THE PACE LARA.” 
  Clara struggled like mad, hooking the empty sleeve of the jacket over a corner of the console then pulling and pulling inch by inch she extracted herself from the jacket until she collapsed on the floor disheveled, sweaty, naked but free. Ursula was playfully holding the paddle with a dejected pout on her lips. She put it down and held out the chocolates;
    “I SUPPOSE YOU HAVE EARNED THESE, NEXT TIME WE WILL USE A JACKET TWICE AS THICK WITH SOME THIGH BANDS WE WILL SEE IF YOU GET HALF AS FAR.” Clara grasped the box of chocolates they were sweet victory and tasted excellent! Her mind skipped over the part where she would have to repeat the same exercise tomorrow but for now she had chocolate!
  She asked for her clothes back but was given a set of nearly transparent patient scrubs. She was going to be used for practice by a bunch of new staff members who needed to learn how to properly restrain a patient. Clara groaned. She had joined the quality assurance department primarily in a testing capacity but it not only meant testing straitjackets and other devices, it meant testing the staff who were going to apply the restraints. 
  Clara was pushed into a room by Ursula with four other people, a tall black woman with shortly cropped hair, a short Indian woman with a robotic right arm who waved to her. There was also an alien of some sort she was eight feet tall female and reptilian, feminine but very muscular definitely not a Silurian. She had a long tail and her skin was a dark green. 
  Surprisingly there was another android there. She had short bob of pink hair and a doe in the headlights look in her eyes, she seemed very nervous. She had a name badge indicating she was called Lily. She had an air about her that said new recruit or fresh off the factory line.
  Clara considered it fascinating that the nurses seemed to need training, or maybe just needed to make sure that they were correctly calibrated? It started with the lizard girl picking a strict arm binder up off a table and advancing on Clara.  

  The Doctor meanwhile, was quite busy. He had spent a large amount of time recording in great detail what had happened with his patient and with the mental construct that had been destroyed inside her head. 
  The nurses directed the doctor to talk to an administrator about John Gray and a Gregory Hills possibly suffering from the same contagion tracking them on the record system. The Doctor travelled to an administrative office. 
  The administration Android was a bit like the nurse androids she was tall, eight feet or more. She seemed to be designed to multitask more, having six human like arms-two sets slightly below the others on each side. The android had a light blue gray tone on her artificial skin, far less human than the standard nurses-further enhancing her mechanical look. 
  There were hatches in the walls that looked like service ducts. The Administrator was designed to quickly traverse small spaces. Below her waist she was segmented, built like a snake-she must have been twenty feet long and the segments were very complex allowing her a large range of movement. The Administrator found one of the two individuals-John Gray working in their maintenance department. He was tranquilized before he could even register the floating sphere behind him. The second individual was not apparent, potentially changing his name or appearance or something else but he had to be around med world somewhere...

  Over the next few hours Clara was forced into various impossibly tight restraints one after another by the group of nurses. Her arms and legs were pinned and twisted in ways they were not designed to go. Clara had the added indignity of having a floating robot next to her recording her reports after she was restrained she was asked to describe the experience in painstakingly small detail-“Yes it’s too bloody tight! I can’t feel my arms and my legs should not bend in that way now please release me!”
  Clara managed to get free of one particularly fiendishly tight restraint and slithered out of it after finding the remote discarded on the floor and giving it a good kicking. Clara hadn’t actually imagined she would get away-she had just been trying to vent her frustration. She actually got a round of applause from the trainee nurses. 
  Finally the working day was over and she was allowed to change back into her clothes. The trainee nurses invited her and Ursula to go with them to the hottest club on the planet well, the district. 
  Clara was dragged along to a sort of night club-come coffee shop, everything came with a shot of caffeine. She dared to ask if there was anything decaffeinated on the menu only to have the barista barman look at her like she had spoken sacrilegious heresy. Clara quickly ordered a rum latté it was better than it sounded. She talked to the trainee nurses she spoke to the black woman-Hanna. 
  The trainee nurse had a friend in engineering who talked about strange happenings and strange energy readings. Clara had a clue she carefully made her way over to the engineering crew who were doing jello espresso shots. 
  The new nurse android and the lizard woman were dancing together. Some nurse androids were there mingling with the human staff-they were drinking something that glowed a strange colour and looked more like rocket fuel than coffee. Just as Clara was going to introduce herself to the maintenance crew the lizard woman’s tail wrapped around Clara and she was dragged into a three way version of a waltz crossed with hokey cokey.

  The administrator had decided to go over the med world’s procedures with the Doctor, there were a lot of them and when she was finally finished she turned to the Doctor. He shook himself, trying to keep the bored look of his face. 
    “DR PROCTOR YOU WERE BROUGHT IN AS A SPECIALIST PRIMARILY FOR ONE PARTICULAR PATIENT. THIS PATIENT.” A screen popped out of the desk in front of the Doctor and a patient file filled the screen. 
  “The Specialist” looked closely over the records. He was primarily brought in for this patient. Every detail of her life was on display, every scan and action she had taken was in front of her. The Doctor moved to some drawings that the patient had made shortly before she had been committed. He recognised some symbols she had drawn-it was an ancient programming language not seen in a million or more years-every system that used it utterly obliterated with one possible exception. 
  The Doctor moved to a live feed scan of the patient and looked at the archaeologist. A strange feeling came over him-some sort of recognition, even familiarity. The symbols, the way her eyes moved-he knew Denix technology, sometimes the program for their machines was carried by the operator. He realised that past the uneasy Déjà vu that she had absorbed the last sanction program, more specifically one third of it was free inside her mind constantly looking for the other two thirds to unite with. 
  To remove it successfully he would need to put all three pieces together, something he had sworn that he would never allow to happen. A second thought bobbed into his head now, ‘Where have I seen her before?’

  The Doctor walked out of the Administrator’s office. He was pondering what exactly had happened to the archaeologist, where he had seen her before and what had become of the temporal readings? He was in his own world. An android almost bumped into him;     
    “DOCTOR PROCTOR WE HARDLY EVER GET YOUR KIND HERE.” The Nurse android smiled. The Doctor’s eyes sharpened-the Android had let a piece of information go there! The Core knew who he was perhaps? So much for his clever ruse, he didn’t know what exactly was going on but couldn’t even ignore that possibility…
 Still, The Core generally worked for the greater good. Even if he was eccentric The Doctor knew that as long as they had similar goals he would be left in peace but The Final Sanction was something even The Core could not possess. 
  The nurse had given a hint away deliberately and The Doctor knew that things were speeding up. He marched over to the closest android;
    “Tell The Core that I want to know where that temporal anomaly came from and I want to know now!” The nurse paused for a fraction of a second after the Doctor confronted her and shifted her focus;
    “THE CORE SAYS YOU SHOULD MEET ONE OF OUR NEWEST PATIENTS-YOU MIGHT HAVE SOME SUGGESTIONS ON HER REHABILITATION.” It walked away, gesturing forwards for him to follow her. 

  The Doctor casually scanned around. The source of the temporal readings was somewhere ahead in a more remote and secure part of the facility. He was led past blast doors ten feet thick. They must have weighed thousands of tons but moved aside, past force fields that could repel nuclear blasts which deactivated and let him through. 
  Half a dozen administrators were stationed around the entrance of a cell. They were positioned like guards ready to act at a moment’s notice. The Doctor wondered what lunatic criminal was kept behind this level of security, one with time travel abilities? Even another Timelord? 
  He had two possible candidates in mind who would get themselves into this position. River Song might have stolen something from him and Missy probably had her own Tardis somewhere, either way he had to find out. 
  The door opened and an android with a name tag indicating she was nurse Helen stood to one side. She had a set of two wide bottomed chairs in the room. In one corner was a female bundle, an incredibly painfully folded female bundle. The Doctor took one seat and looked at the nurse nodding. 
  The Hog-tie was released and the silver bundle unfolded. She was unceremoniously plopped in the chair. The gag and hood were loosened and allowed to hang below Missy’s neck.

  Arching an eyebrow, the Doctor couldn’t suppress a chortle at his adversary’s predicament. Missy gave him a look that could kill-at least it might have once. She worked her jaw for a second then fixed him with a glare;
    “I know something you don’t know and you’re going to have to bargain with me if you want it!” The Doctor looked at the nurse;
    “I presume that you took all non-destructive methods of information extraction at your disposal to their limits before you let me see her?” The nurse nodded. 
    “They injected me, prodded me and poked me but they couldn’t get one word out of me.” Missy growled as she leaned forwards, an arrogant and confident look on her face. Even if she was secured in this spot, locked up under heavy guard she had a dozen plans to get away. 
  The nurse pushed the newest patient back into her seat and the Doctor examined his nails;
    “I think this is a waste of my time. You don’t really know anything.” 
    “You think your so clever you think you can bait me into giving away information without something in exchange?”
  The Timelord looked at her;
    “Confirm what I already know and we can start to deal.” 
  There was a pause, Missy whistled a tune then smiled;
    “You’ve guessed that such a long time ago when we were both much younger it was me that stole part of The Final Sanction’s command codes?”
  The Doctor smiled;
  
      “This reminds me of Uxorious-a similar weapon, a similar plan on your part but a much more advanced version this time, one with the activation codes far harder to find.”   
  Missy smiled;
    “We could have ruled together. I think the Timelords had a hand in that the way they had a hand in your appearance at Denix prime...” The Doctor looked at her;
    “Time moves on but I seem to keep the same dance partner. We seem to be dancing to the same tune though I think your dress is a little tight for dancing at the moment.”   
  Missy‘s eyebrow arched;
    “Very droll Doctor. I propose an exchange.” 
    “Let me guess-your third of the command codes in exchange for your freedom? You can’t be trusted.” Missy looked offended;
    “Of course I can be trusted! I let you have the piece I have, we find the third piece together then you can trust that I steal it out from under your nose then I rule the galaxy...”   
  The Doctor looked at the nurse then back at Missy;
    “Got anything else to offer before they tuck you into bed?”
    “Of course I have more to offer! The Daleks know about the final sanction and they like a nice doomsday weapon-makes them feel like the big bad boys on the block. They think they can find it even without the command codes. They could probably make it work given time.” He looked at her;
    “You want the Daleks to find it, me to assemble the command codes then you think you can steal them both-a dangerous game you’re playing.” 
  She smiled;
    “You know I can do it. The Daleks have agents-I could point them out for you given a little consideration such as my freedom, I know your going to have to turn to me eventually. I hold all the cards, even the ones you don’t know about.” The Doctor looked at her;
    “That’s everything I need for now. See you later.” Before she could get off another retort she was gagged, hooded and the nurse started to fold her back into position.

  Inside a far off vent an almost complete nurse android was busy building herself up. She was distinctly different with a skin of polished silver, no artificial skin or hair and glowing red eyes. She was slowly dismantling a cleaning robot for parts building herself a set of hips and legs. 
  Another cleaning robot came to investigate what had happened to the first. It bumped into the android. The robot realised that the android did not have the correct command codes and turned and tried to run away beeping in alarm, it was seized and crushed while the new android slowly worked out how to get its mission done, priority one release mistress, priority two locate last sanction command codes.

  Several Earth Security Agents had infiltrated the med world. The Final Sanction was a super weapon that could win the war against the Daleks in a matter of hours. It could cause such a shift in the balance of power that it was worth trying to antagonize the relatively neutral power behind Med World. A much larger human fleet also helped to build their confidence. 
  There were eight agents, they had a cloaked ship in orbit and a high power transmat they just needed the authentication chip from an android and they could walk up to the archaeologist without incident, fix a locater beacon onto her and presto she would be away before the core had any idea, theoretically... 
  Of the eight, four had come in as low risk patients recovering from combat related psychological disorders, four others were working as staff members this included Emma the receptionist. They would try and take the archaeologist from the androids-a dicey business, they had never fully mapped the core‘s abilities. They wore holo projector masks and signal scramblers so it was hard to scan them to identify their identities or even their species. They had not been able to get weapons of any sort onto Med World however, they had been able to build their own. They had brought weapon schematics and a hacking device onto the world, an industrial fabricator had made most of the parts and they had then assembled them. 
  Removing parts from a waste disposal vaporizer, they had eight industrial molecule disintegrators perfect for dealing with an android, though they would need to be careful to get the chip without damaging it. Each agent had bio augmented reflexes so that they could compete with the androids. They each swallowed a tablet that would activate the hidden augmentations. They had the equipment they just needed the chip to proceed with the plan.
  A hacked terminal called an android away from her duties and requested she attend to an important matter.The android had flame red hair in two pony tails. She was immediately suspicious when she stepped into the room and the door locked behind her. Eight human shaped blurs pointed some sort of heavy duty energy weapons at her. She felt the signal jammer activate and her connection to the mainframe disabled. She saw the emitter discharge and her shields collapsed before she could even raise them. The android scanned them-not The Gray Man’s agents. The assailants took a breath and the android analyzed her opponents;
    “HOSTILE ACTION DETECTED. ENHANCED HUMAN IMPLANTS DETECTED. USUAL PHYSICAL LIMITING PROTOCOLS DISABLED INITIATING ROUGH PLAY.” 
  The human agents collectively took a step back as the android put her hands up as if surrendering but instead from her finger tips she sprayed a thick cloud of mist. The human agents started firing almost immediately. Their weapons hit the android but they were not hitting her fast enough. 
  One fraction of a second and she had closed in on the nearest human crushing the gun in their hands. Less than a second later she was hitting the next three nearest humans with the first thing that came to hand, which happened to be the first human. The first human agent stood up he checked his gun. It was mangled. He staggered and stood up, there were a number of pin pricks in his side the nurse had injected him with enough sedatives to take out a herd of rhino but his implants kept him standing. The android was fast and not limited by the notion of a fair fight. Her upper left right arm extended pneumatically smacking one agent in the face. He staggered to his feet and took a swing at the android with the butt of his damaged gun. 
  The android was fighting multiple opponents at once, kicking one agent so hard between the legs he flew across the room while spraying a powerful adhesive over another agent to keep them in place while she wound up for another strike. The human agents’ bio implants gave them comparable strength and endurance to an android but they didn’t seem to be able to put it to good use. Emma punched the android a few times in the face denting her cheek then swept her legs out from under her. 
  The android rolled with the fall and swung around. Her foot landed squarely on Emma’s chin. The damage Emma had done was already repaired. She was sent flying, the androids nails moved as she righted herself and gestured towards Emma. Five needles appeared stuck in Emma’s side and she felt the chemicals enter her body and her bio implants fight them. A human agent jumped onto the android and tried to bear hug her, a surge of electrical energy flowed through her body and the agent was forced to let go smoke coming off of his palms. 
  The android sprayed a green mist over one of the agents and the woman fell asleep before her bio implant could scrub the chemicals out of her airways. 
  The realised the android had found some way to beat their implants and one of the agents grappled with the android while the rest ran, it was better to try plan B than for them to all be captured!
  A hatch above them opened and they disappeared up into it using their anti-grav boots up a lift shaft and away into the complex. 
  The android found and defeated the jamming device breaking it into little bits. Seconds later security robots were transported into every room and duct in the surrounding area. The Security robots were the shape of a scorpion, the size of a large dog. Artificial segmented sections moving as one. They had eight chunky armoured, legs two pincers at the front shaped like arms with three pronged manipulators on the end. They didn’t have a head, more an enlarged torso with a cluster of three purple eyes mounted on the front. The tail ended in a very heavy duty taser, they were clinical white, an almost porcelain finish on the segments not a trace of the fleeing attackers could be found. The two captured agents were identified as one low security patient and an administration technician they would be held for a little while then returned to earth force as diplomatic baggage.

  The Doctor was thinking as he left Missy‘s new home. He turned to one of the Administrators;
    “Let me check through Missy‘s things. She must have something that can give me a clue to what she is doing without resorting to letting the devil out of the box.”
  The Administrator nodded;
    “THESE ITEMS HAVE BEEN CHECKED AS SAFE.” A tray of items and the remains of destructively searched items came through a hatch and were deposited in front of The Doctor. A monitor sprang up showing the analysis of various items. He spent about half a minute going through the pile, randomly throwing bits he had no interest in away, until he came upon one item. The Doctor was sure that most of Missy’s things were either black market items or made from parts bought on the black market so untraceable but there was the bank credit chip! She had been lazy, this sort of credit chip had a record on it of the transactions and locations. He could trace it back to wherever she had gotten it. A smile spread across The Doctor’s face, he would not have to play Missy’s game for now.
  As the Doctor rose from his seat one of the administrators stopped him. 
    “DOCTOR, FIRST WE REQUIRE YOUR ATTENTION IN A MEDICAL MATTER THERE IS A DALEK DEVICE WE NEED TO DEACTIVATE AND YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THEIR TECHNOLOGY.”
    “A Dalek device here, how could it have gotten past your security?” 
    “IT WAS INSIDE A WOMAN’S BRAIN. WE NEED YOUR HELP TO SAFELY EXTRACT IT.”
  The Doctor was practically carried by the Android through the security area into a clinical area. There was a patient in a clean room. She did not look well and a large amount of apparatus was connected to her keeping her alive. The Doctor had access to a remote surgical unit. 
  The administrators and several human doctors plus an alien he didn’t recognise had failed so far to remove the Dalek equipment. The Doctor shooed them out of the way and took over the controls. He had seen Dalek implants, he was familiar with their technology and after some fidgeting and working he started the process of removing it. He needed several sets of hands-administrator eighteen lent a hand or two. In the nick of time the device was removed exploding into a shower of sparks as it was taken to the other side of the clean room. The Administrator looked at The Doctor;
    “THANK YOU SHE IS ONE OF OUR STAFF.”

  The Dalek’s had knowledge of the Doctor’s methods. They had been fighting him a very long time. Hundreds of light years away a single Dalek frigate-a saucer five hundred meters long completed its scouting mission. They had found what they were looking for, a section of space twisted in on itself, a section of space bigger on the inside. The Dalek ships advanced sensors had found a bubble dimension.
  The Dalek ship bombarded the area at a specific point along the outer edge of the bubble with a precise pattern of nuclear energy gravimetric emissions and tachyon particles. The bubble shimmered and the pocket dimension collapsed so that what was inside it returned to normal space. Within the dimension was The Final Sanction device, the Star Eater a hundred and fifty kilometer long ship now floating there, preserved inside for a million years. It was a central golden core with dozens of kilometre long spines and three forward facing ached claws. It almost made the ship look like a hand reaching forwards. The Daleks looked on and pondered how to get it back to Skaro.