The Jeopardy of Solar Proximity was the eleventh short story in Myths & Legends.
Summary
Aboard the Nix-Thassis, Grand Marshal Skaldak orders to see the Dalek fleet that his warriors are fighting against. They manage to destroy most of the Daleks' ships, leaving only two remaining, while the Ice Warriors still have two destroyers and the Nix-Thassis.
Pleased, Skaldak connects to the Hathaar, the ship belonging to his daughter, Iclar. Skaldak warns Iclar to act with caution so they don't lose their advantage. Just then, Skaldak's Science Officer informs him of an unknown action that the Daleks are taking. As Iclar terminates her communication, Skaldak demands to see what the Daleks are doing.
The Daleks' command ship is emanating some beams onto the Ice Warriors' ships. The Science Officer assumes that they are trying to hakc their ships, prompting Skaldak to order them to move the ships out of range. As they begin to move, the Azax is deactivated and destroyed. Skaldak orders all weapons to be fired on the Dalek assault ship, only for the Daleks to begin exiting the ship.
While the Ice Warriors are destroying the Daleks that are hiding amongs the wreckage of the Azax, Skaldak is informed that the Daleks managed to damage the hyper-drive and shields of both the Ice Warriors' remaining ships, leaving them with life support and short-range weapons. Skaldak is initially relieved that his daughter is alive, but then his relief disappears when he realizes that they only have short-range weapons. He orders for the Daleks' firepower to be nullified.
Skaldak explains that they can escape the Daleks by using the gravity fields of the double stars, a plan which he anxiously tells Iclar about, warning her that without shields nothing would protect her from the radiation that will enter the ship should she fly too close to the twin stars. Iclar assures her father that she is capable of carrying out his plan.
Skaldak contacts the Daleks to tell them that if they harm one of them, they harm them all, to which the Daleks reply that their oath means nothing to them. The Ice Warriors' ships begin approaching the twin stars of Samox and its bigger sibling, Delox, and the Science Officer tells Skaldak that he has a plan to disable the Daleks' weapons by modifying the Nix-Thassis' deflector array to create a macrotransmission, an idea that pleases Skaldak.
After the macrotransmission is sent out, Skaldak orders to slow down the Nix-Thassis so that the Hathaar can escape from the disarmed Daleks' ship. He orders Iclar to go first, but it turns out that the Daleks have been transmitting false signals to the Hathaar. Skaldak makes contact with Iclar, who is unable to correct her ship's course, leaving the Hathaar drifting towards Samox. Unable to use the tractor beams to save her, Skaldak orders his warriors to leave him with his daughter, with whom he begins singing the songs of the red snow.
Later, Skaldak informs his warriors that he doesn't intend to let the Daleks survive and that any warriors who do not wish to stand with him can use the life pods to leave. The Deck Officer tells Skaldak that he and the rest of the crew will stand with him. Grateful for those who are willing to stand with him, Skaldak orders his Warriors his plan to attack the Daleks while making them think that they are escaping.
The Thassis falls into its solar orbit and reaches escape velocity, but Skaldak orders ramming speed. The Science Officer objects to Skaldak, telling him that ramming the Daleks' ship will throw them off the hull and leave them unable to board, to which Skaldak replies that they will be able to board if they maneuver the nacelles to act as grappling hooks. Once the Thassis reaches ramming speed, Skaldak orders his warriors to charge into the Dalek Command Ship and set the auto-destruct at 10 minutes.
On board the Dalek Command Ship, the Gold Dalek is informed about a hull breach on levels 9 to 17 and orders his forces into defensive positions. The Daleks break off to converge on the section where the Ice Warriors are entering. Skaldak and his warriors manage to take the Daleks by surprise and use their sonic blasters to kill the Dalek mutants in their casings. Equally, the Ice Warriors themselves are also taking heavy casualties.
During the battle, the Daleks withdraw in an attempt to use one of their chemical weapons, but Skaldak orders his warriors to activate their faceplates. The warriors who are attempting to penetrate the other airlocks fail to activate their faceplates and are killed, allowing the Daleks to board the Thassis to search for the command deck. They soon discover that the self-destruct system has been activated and attempt to withdraw.
Skaldak continues to lead his Warriors through the Dalek Command Ship's core section as the Thassis explodes and damages the Dalek ship, causing it to begin falling into the twin stars as Skaldak continues leading his warriors to the bridge, killing more Daleks as they go.
Despite taking heavy casualties, Skaldak and his forces soon reach the heart of the ship and kill 2 Dalek guards before confronting the Gold Dalek. Both the Gold Dalek's guards and Skaldak's guards kill each other, leaving only the 2 leaders. The Gold Dalek tells Skaldak that he has not won, to which Skaldak replies that winning is not his goal, it is making sure that the Gold Dalek loses.
As the ship continues approaching the star's radiation field, the Gold Dalek tells Skaldak that he and the other Daleks will escape using temporal technology, arrogantly telling Skaldak that he has no chance of stopping the Daleks. As the Gold Dalek begins sliding away, Skaldak angrily growls that the Daleks killed his daughter and they underestimate the Ice Warriors, adding that they know about the control that maximizes Dalekanium power feeds.
As the Gold Dalek turns to face Skaldak, the Ice Warrior fires his weapon and destroys him before activating the Dalekanium power feeds' mechanism at maximum power, thus overloading the remaining Daleks and causing them to explode. Before he can accept his death, he spots a door leading to a lift. Remembering the Gold Dalek's words about temporal technology, Skaldak steps through the door and operates the controls, hoping that it sends him somewhere cold.
Characters
- Skaldak
- Iclar
- Science Officer
- Deck Officer
- Gold Dalek
Worldbuilding
to be added
Notes
- This story is based on the theme of the three Furies and Orestes mythology.
Continuity
- Skaldak hopes that the Daleks' temporal technology will send him somewhere cold. (TV: Cold War)
- Serving as a prequel to Cold War, this story explores how Skaldak ended up in a block of ice on Earth circa 3000 BC; he had done so using Dalek temporal technology. The story itself does not state when it takes place.
- In the comic story The Wolves of Winter, Skaldak's name is recognised by Sskoll, an Ice Warrior in the 9th century. In Cold War, Skaldak, upon being thawed in 1983, believes that it is 5,000 years since his and his daughter's time.
- The Daleks appear as they did in Frontier in Space and Planet of the Daleks, the start of the 26th century Second Dalek War: a gold Dalek leads grey Dalek drones and they use a spacecraft of the kind seen in Planet of the Daleks. A command saucer of a bronzed golden colour appears; Prisoner of the Daleks features bronze Daleks at a later stage of the war.
- The description of the Martian cruiser Saavid matches that of the Ice Warrior ship model introduced in Cold War.
- This story identifies the model of Dalek spaceship featured in Planet of the Daleks as Councillor-class.
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