Blockade (short story)

Blockade was the first story in the final Dalek Annual. It was a kind of prelude for the other stories in the volume, in that it dealt mainly with a character known as Ed Cowley, and only introduced the annual's main character, Joel Shaw, in the final paragraphs.

Summary
Merchant Ed Cowley unexpectedly encounters a Dalek fleet. His only hope for survival is a nearby black hole-like rip in the fabric of space and time. He enters it, only to lose consciousness. When he awakes, he finds he's on a crash-course with a planet. He performs an emergency landing, but his ship is mostly lost in the rocky touchdown.

Planetside, he discovers a race of feline humanoids, who immediately begin repairing his ship. Unfortunately, the Daleks were on a pursuit course. They, too, land on the planet, and the felines seem equally happy to help the Daleks. Unable to communicate with the felines, Cowley opts to escape. His ship is now fully repaired — and massively upgraded.

He comes out of the anomaly to discover that a Dalek ship was guarding the entrance. It's no match for his newly-installed weapons upgrades. Reasoning that the two Dalek ships still in the anomaly will also come out with enhanced weaponry, he decides that he must stand and fight, or the universe will be easily overrun by even stronger Dalek forces.

He dispatches a message to the ADF, explaining the danger, then initiates combat with the first Dalek ship. It's a tougher battle than before, thus confirming his theory that the Daleks have been upgraded. However, he manages to take out the first ship. He then turns his guns on the second ship.

Some time later, Joel Shaw shows up on scene to find Cowley's ship adrift, its captain dead, but still clutching the firing controls. It's unclear what's killed him. More distressingly, the ship's open communication unit has recorded the sound of only two explosions. Shaw fears the worst — maybe Cowley didn't take out the final Dalek ship.

Characters

 * Ed Cowley
 * Joel Shaw
 * Ed Wilkins
 * Daleks
 * Unnamed feline humanoid species

Continuity

 * The ADF is at war with the Daleks. (PROSE: Terror Task Force et al.)