Hide and Seek (short story)

Hide and Seek was the seventh short story in the Short Trips anthology Short Trips: Dalek Empire. It was written by Ian Farrington. It featured the Third Doctor and Jo Grant.

Summary
When the Daleks attack his planet, pilot Timmins is given the assignment of helping Captain Tillyard evacuate the town of Cami. As they escape the planet, the Daleks try to stop them, but they are fought off by the Third Doctor, who was visiting Cami with Jo Grant.

The captain tells Timmins to head for Credence, of which the Doctor has not heard. While the captain is visiting the refugees, the Doctor notes to Timmins that the mayor of Cami is the brother of the captain — she was assigned to evacuate her home town. When Timmins states that the ship cannot outrun the Daleks before they get to Credence, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver to improve the ship's efficiency.

Later, Timmins is relieved by the captain and sent to walk around the ship. He arrives back at the cockpit earlier than expected, and he is surprised to hear the captain negotiating with Daleks on Credence. Timmins tells the Doctor, who confronts the captain.

Captain Tillyard tells them that the government of their planet knew about the impending Dalek attack and arranged for the evacuation of certain areas of the planet. Government officials had heard about the planet Credence, where people were allowed to live as long as they worked for the Daleks. The government made a deal with the Daleks to allow the refugees to live on Credence.

The Doctor tries but fails to convince Tillyard that it is a trap. In addition, they are almost at Credence and have very little fuel left. When they arrive on Credence, Tillyard approaches the Daleks, asking for asylum, but is exterminated. Meanwhile, the others can see that the supposed cities full of people are just a ruse the Daleks maintained to fool anyone investigating the planet.

Timmins doesn't see the point of running, especially when there is so little fuel left, but the Doctor convinces him to leave orbit. They come across the other refugee ships from their planet, and the Doctor encourages them to get as far away from Credence as possible.

Timmins learns from the mayor of Cami that the Doctor and Jo stepped into their blue box, which then disappeared. When he later tells the story of what happened here, he leaves that part out, as no one will believe him.

Characters

 * Third Doctor
 * Jo Grant
 * Timmins
 * Captain Tillyard
 * Lektor
 * Dranko
 * Lessur
 * Henders
 * Zokas

Worldbuilding

 * Other ships taking part in the evacuation include the Domino, the Rianno and the Driffin.
 * The Doctor gives Jo a maths lesson.
 * When Timmins visits Credence some time in the future, there is a museum in the location where they had landed.

Continuity
to be added