Alby (short story)

Alby was the third short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Dalek Empire. It was written by Sharon Gosling. It featured Alby Brook.

Summary
Alby Brook has been given a new spaceship with which to hunt down Susan Mendes. He has mixed feelings about his mission, wondering how she could ally herself with the Daleks.

He detects a Dalek signal from an uninhabited system and investigates. The Dalek has sent a message stating that one of the moons has an element needed by the Daleks for their war. The Dalek asks for a rendezvous with the mother ship.

Alby learns that the Dalek has detected him and is heading his way. After a firefight, the Dalek rams Alby's ship, which proceeds to crash into one of the moons. Alby ejects before the ship makes impact with the ground.

When Alby wakes, he is in pain but is able to move. He sees signs of the crash far away and heads in that direction, hoping that even if the ship is ruined, he can call for help.

He reaches the ship and it's in bad shape. As he walks around it, he sees the Dalek. He thinks it is dead and goes to investigate, but it suddenly moves and attempts to exterminate him. However, it is damaged, so Alby goes back to his work.

Over the next several hours, Alby works on the ship, and occasionally he and the Dalek talk. The Dalek naturally expresses its superiority over other life forms. Alby asks the Dalek about Susan, and the Dalek scornfully tells him that Susan is a fool because she has betrayed her own kind and doesn't know it.

In another conversation, they discuss hope. The Dalek considers it a weakness, but Alby taunts it, saying that the Dalek itself has hope that its mother ship will find it.

Alby finally gets the radio working and makes contact with his boss, Ernst Tanlee, who tells him they will send a ship but there are Daleks nearby so it might be a while.

As Alby settles in to wait, he realises he is superior to the dying Dalek because he has hope and it doesn't.

Characters

 * Alby Brook
 * Ernst Tanlee

Worldbuilding

 * Alby is travelling through a system that has a gas giant with several moons.
 * The Dalek's gunstick is damaged but the manipulator arm still works.

Continuity

 * Susan Mendes has been working with the Daleks to improve their slave workforce. (AUDIO: Invasion of the Daleks, PROSE: Suz)