Prisoner of the Daleks

by Trevor Baxendale

  'All right!' yelled the Doctor. His voice echoed around the control room. 'All right! All right. Stop! I'll do it.'

  Dalek X's eye swivelled slowly to face him.

  'I'll give you the TARDIS,' said the Doctor quietly.

  The eye glowed, full of greed. It bathed the Doctor's face in its cold blue light.

  'But there are conditions,' the Doctor added.

  'NOT VALID.'

  'Wait. It's important.'

  The Doctor took a deep breath, his face solemn.

  'I'm giving you everything here. All of history opened up like a book for you to rip the pages out and start again!' His voice was shaking with fury. 'The very least you can do is hear me out!'

  'CONTINUE.'

  'My TARDIS requires a crew of six to function properly. Together with myself, I need Koral, Cuttin' Edge and Space Major Bowman.'

  'THAT IS ONLY FOUR,' said Dalek X.

  The Doctor indicated Jenifa and Kuli. They were looking up at him with haunted, disbelieving eyes. He hardly dared give them hope but he had to try. 'These two make six.'

  'THESE HUMANS ARE NOT CREW MEMBERS.'

  'I know. But they can be trained. They can help. I can show them what to do—'

  'NEGATIVE.' The three syllables were ground out like pieces of broken rock. There would be no negotiation on this. 'YOU WILL HAVE FOUR CREW MEMBERS ONLY.'

  'It can't be done!' the Doctor argued.

  'IT WILL BE DONE! THESE HUMANS ARE NOT MEMBERS OF YOUR CREW. THEY ARE NOT NECESSARY. THEREFORE THEY WILL BE EXTERMINATED!'

  The Doctor leapt forward. 'No! No, wait. They must be allowed to live. Even if they can't come, they must be allowed to live.'

  The execution squad was already moving back towards the Jenifa and Kuli, taking up extermination positions again. The Doctor ran over and placed himself between the Daleks and the women. 'If you really want to kill them then you'll have to go through me first.'

  'YOU CAN BE DISABLED,' warned Dalek X.

  'Try it.'

  The Dalek guns twitched impatiently in their sockets. All eyes were on the Doctor, but he met the pitiless blue stares unflinchingly.

  'Harm them in any way and I will not cooperate. You can disable me and torture me and kill me but you will never get the TARDIS.'

  Dalek X seemed to consider. Then: 'AGREED. BUT THAT IS THE LAST OF YOUR CONDITIONS. THERE WILL BE NO FURTHER COMPROMISE.'

  'All right. You win.' The Doctor's shoulders were slumped in miserable defeat. 'But I do need Space Major Bowman.'

  Dalek X turned to the Command Dalek. 'RELEASE THE HUMAN PRISONER AND HAVE HIM BROUGHT HERE.'

  'I OBEY!'

  Dalek X swivelled back to face the Doctor, his gun, arm and eye quivering hungrily. 'TELL ME THE LOCATION OF YOUR TARDIS.'

  Through gritted teeth the Doctor said, 'Hurala.'

  The Command Dalek twitched excitedly as it processed the information. 'PLANETOID KX–NINE IN THE LASRON SOLAR REGION!'

  'Of course you'd know it,' muttered the Doctor resignedly. 'That's where all this started, after all.'

  'WE WILL PROCEED IMMEDIATELY,' said Dalek X. 'PREPARE THE EXTERMINATOR FOR DEPARTURE.'

  'There is just one another thing...' ventured the Doctor.

  'NO MORE CONDITIONS!'

  'This isn't a condition. It's just a word of advice.' The Doctor sounded apologetic. 'The TARDIS is actually grounded at the moment.'

  'EXPLAIN!'

  'Its spatial motivator is all to cock,' the Doctor said matter-of-factly. 'Why else d'you think I left it on Hurala? It'll be fine for what you want, but you'll need to remove the time rotor.'

  'SUMMON THE TEMPORAL RESEARCH TEAM,' ordered Dalek X. 'IT CAN MAKE THE NECESSARY TECHNICAL ARRANGEMENTS ON HURALA.'

  The Doctor joined Cuttin' Edge and Koral. 'Crew members?' Koral frowned.

  'Don't mention it.' The Doctor murmured, and then he turned to the mother and daughter. 'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I did my best...'

  'I know,' said Jenifa. She smiled weakly. 'Thank you.'

  The Doctor nodded.

  A door opened and Bowman walked through, covered with ugly bruises and cuts but still standing tall. Two Daleks glided in behind him. 'MOVE! WAIT IN THE CENTRE OF THE ROOM!'

  Bowman sneered at them and then crossed over to Koral. She suddenly seemed to be filled with renewed hope, her eyes glowing strongly.

  'Bowman!'

  'Didn't think you'd get rid of me that easy, did you?' he asked.

  'Are you OK?' asked the Doctor.

  'Yeah. They pushed me around a bit but they never got as far as the knives.' Bowman gave the Doctor a wry look. 'I take it you're to blame?'

  'He's cut a deal with the Daleks,' said Cuttin' Edge. 'Like some sorta collaborator.'

  'Easy, kid.' Bowman placed a hand on Cuttin' Edge's shoulder. 'You're still breathing, aren't you?'

  'Yeah, but for how much longer?'

  'PROCEED TO LANDING PORT!' Dalek X interrupted them loudly.

  The Command Dalek and its guards started to herd the Doctor and his friends towards the exit. 'MOVE!'

  The Doctor, Bowman, Koral and Cuttin' Edge marched out in sombre formation. Dalek X watched them go. Then he turned to follow, his head swivelling to address the elite Daleks that were still guarding the other prisoners.

  'RETURN THEM TO THE CORE MINES,' he said.

  'WE OBEY!' screeched the Daleks. Instantly, they turned back to face Jenifa and Kuli.

  And the dark shape of Dalek X glided smoothly through the door as Jenifa broke down and wept.

  TWENTY-TWO

  The interior of the Dalek cruiser was typical in its design: dark and functional, studded with control pillars and instrument banks, and teeming with Daleks. It was difficult not to see it as a kind of giant nest, with the Daleks crawling and hovering busily around the vaguely honeycombed interior.

  The Doctor, Bowman, Cuttin' Edge and Koral were transported from Arkheon to the Exterminator via antigravity discs – large circular platforms fitted with handrails suitable for the transportation of individual prisoners, equipment or even Daleks that were damaged beyond their ability to fly.

  Then they were led from the vast docking slot on the edge of the huge saucer through several levels until they reached the central command dome at its very heart.

  'It stinks in here,' growled Bowman.

  Koral, who had not left his side since they had been reunited, agreed. 'The stench of metal and hate.'

  The Doctor was rather more impressed. 'Look at it this way,' he said. 'Very few human beings have ever been aboard a Dalek saucer, let alone one as big as this.'

  'And we're bein' taken right to the top spot,' noted Cuttin' Edge ruefully. 'Guess they must really like us.'

  Two guard Daleks herded them into a small area to one side of the circular flight deck. Then the ever-present assault Daleks, outriders for Dalek X, took up positions on either side of the raised podium. A section of the deck plate in the centre of the dais ground open like a steel iris and the now-familiar black-and-gold shape of the Dalek Inquisitor General rose slowly up through the aperture.

  'SET COURSE FOR THE PLANET HURALA!' Dalek X ordered. 'MAXIMUM SPEED!'

  'WE OBEY,' chorused the bridge crew, turning to face their individual flight stations. From his raised position at the centre, Dalek X could easily watch all of the instruments by simply swivelling his head.

  Bowman watched the Daleks at the control panels carefully, but the Doctor shook his head. 'Don't bother trying to memorise what they do,' he warned quietly. 'The controls can only be activated by Daleks – they each have a code signal aligned to the ship's computer systems to allow them access.'

  Bowman raised an eyebrow. 'Is there anything you don't know about the Daleks?'

  'Yes,' the Doctor admitted. He kept his voice low. 'I don't know how we're going to stop them.'

  'I don't think we can.'

  'You didn't think there was any way to get out of Arkheon,' the Doctor reminded him. 'And yet here we are.'

&
nbsp; 'On a Dalek battle cruiser. Not exactly free.'

  'Well it's a start.'

  The Exterminator's huge engines fired up and a heavy rumble passed through the ship. The deep, persistent background throb of the control room rose in pitch as, on the main viewscreen, the broken orb of Arkheon began to move slowly away.

  Then the saucer powered up, suddenly leaving the planet behind until it was little more than a shimmering white dot.

  'That's some acceleration,' marvelled Cuttin' Edge.

  'Yeah, hardly felt a thing,' Bowman agreed. Even he was struggling to keep a note of admiration out of his voice.

  'Superb inertia-dampening fields,' explained the Doctor. 'Whatever you think of the Daleks, they are brilliant scientists and engineers.'

  'This must be the pride of the fleet.'

  'Yes,' the Doctor said thoughtfully, looking up at Dalek X. 'It must be.'

  The Exterminator paid scant attention to the laws of physics that governed normal space flight. The immense ion thrusters warped the space around the saucer to a point where time could, temporarily, be condensed. It wasn't time travel per se, the Doctor told the others, but it did mean the ship was incredibly fast. It made the Wayfarer on its best days look like a complete sluggard.

  The journey took no more than an hour. The cruiser slammed out of maximum speed on the edge of the Hurala solar system, and again no one inside the craft could discern any real change. Space simply warped back into its normal shape around the vessel. Even decelerating, the ship took only another twenty minutes to complete the trip.

  Hurala quickly filled the viewscreen, swelling up like a ball of dried mud. The Exterminator and its outrider saucers burst through the thin atmosphere and swept across the deserted terrain until they reached the old Lodestar depot.

  The battle cruiser was too big to land, so it remained hovering over the rusting hulks and abandoned refinery buildings like a giant metal hand poised to crush a spider. Squadrons of Daleks flooded out of the saucer towards the desolate settlement, flying in strict formation. The Doctor and his friends were transported on antigrav discs once again, to be joined on the surface by the Command Dalek. Dalek X and his elite guards arrived moments later.

  'WHERE IS YOUR TARDIS?' demanded Dalek X.

  'I'm not sure,' replied the Doctor, turning slowly on his heel and scanning the surrounding buildings. 'All these alleyways look the same to me.'

  Dalek X turned to one of his subordinates. 'INSTRUCT THE COMMAND SHIP TO SCAN THE AREA.'

  The Doctor laughed softly. 'It won't be that easy to find the TARDIS,' he said. 'It's designed to blend in with its surroundings, to come and go like a whisper in the night.'

  'TARDIS LOCATED,' grated the Command Dalek as it received the response signal from the Exterminator. 'GRID COORDINATES TWELVE-ZERO-NINE-GAMMA.'

  'Ouch,' said the Doctor.

  'MOVE!'

  The Daleks glided effortlessly over the scrubby earth, leaving little trails of dust floating behind them in the wake of their gravity repulsors, as they marched their prisoners into the town.

  'Never did like this dump,' muttered Cuttin' Edge, kicking at the dust. 'Back end of nowhere and smells like it too.'

  'Stella said it reeked of death,' noted Bowman. 'I think I see what she meant now.'

  'We're not dead yet,' the Doctor reminded them.

  'CEASE TALKING!' ordered a nearby Dalek.

  'I trust you have a plan,' whispered Bowman after a few minutes.

  'Who, me?' The Doctor shook his head. 'Nah. Have you?'

  'Not a clue.'

  'At least we're thinking along the same lines, then.'

  They arrived at the TARDIS soon enough. The old police box was waiting for them at the end of the little alley where it had originally materialised several days earlier.

  'Is that it?' asked Cuttin' Edge, disappointed. 'The Daleks have come all the way here for that?'

  'It may not look like much, but... oh, forget it.' The Doctor brushed some dust off the doors and regarded his ship sadly. 'What do they know?'

  Dalek X glided forward. 'THIS TARDIS WILL PROVIDE THE CONTROL SYSTEM FOR THE ARKHEON THRESHOLD! SUMMON THE TEMPORAL RESEARCH TEAM!'

  Moments later a number of Dalek scientists descended and approached the police box. Their eyes glowed hungrily. 'Open it!' demanded the leader.

  'Say please,' the Doctor said. 'Oh, sorry, I forgot. That word isn't in the Dalek vocabulary, is it? Along with "thank you", "joke" and "blancmange". You lot must be so miserable.'

  'STOP WASTING TIME,' said Dalek X menacingly. 'OPEN THE TARDIS.'

  'All right, all right.' The Doctor fished in his pocket for the key. Then he tried another pocket. Hurriedly he went through all his pockets, looking more and more worried. 'I can't find it!' he said. 'The TARDIS key – it's gone...'

  'BLAST OPEN THE DOORS,' ordered the Command Dalek.

  'NEGATIVE!' Dalek X countermanded. 'THE TARDIS IS PROTECTED BY A TEMPORAL FORCE FIELD. DALEK WEAPONRY WILL NOT PENETRATE THE SHIELDING. IT MUST BE OPENED WITH THE CORRECT KEY!'

  The Doctor was still checking and double-checking his pockets, handing various bits and pieces to Bowman and Cuttin' Edge in an effort to minimise the clutter. 'I don't understand it...' he complained. 'How could I lose the TARDIS key? I've never lost it!'

  'HURRY!' ordered Dalek X. 'THE TARDIS MUST BE OPENED!'

  'It's not that simple,' the Doctor insisted. 'It's a triple-curtain trimonic lock. It's got twenty-seven different tumblers in four separate dimensions. If I don't find the key, I'm absolutely stuck, never mind you.'

  There was a ridiculous few seconds while Bowman, Cuttin' Edge, Koral and all the assembled and various Daleks watched the Doctor going through his pockets one last time.

  'It's no good,' he said eventually, slumping in defeat.

  Dalek X was starting to twitch. 'WHERE DID YOU LAST HAVE IT?'

  'I don't know.' The Doctor suddenly leapt up straight with a sharp cry. 'Wait! I know! It was here – on Hurala. I was trapped in one of the cellars down below. I must have dropped it there!'

  'YOU ARE LYING,' stated Dalek X.

  'No, honestly!' The Doctor looked at Bowman and Cuttin' Edge. 'Don't you remember? You had to open the door to the cellar. I'd been locked in by an automated trap.'

  'He's right,' said Cuttin' Edge.

  The Doctor looked earnestly from one Dalek to another. 'We were all chased off the planet by a Dalek scout team,' he explained.

  'It's true,' said Koral. 'We had to run for our lives.'

  The Command Dalek turned to Dalek X. 'THERE IS A REPORT FROM A DALEK SCOUT UNIT THAT SEVERAL HUMANOIDS WERE RECENTLY DISCOVERED HERE AND PURSUED. THEY MATCH THE DESCRIPTION OF THESE HUMANOIDS.'

  'That's it,' nodded the Doctor. 'It was a close thing, too. I didn't exactly have time to check my pockets properly before I left.'

  'One of our crew was killed by a Dalek,' added Bowman darkly. 'We were rather preoccupied with her at the time.'

  'WHERE IS THE KEY NOW?' asked Dalek X.

  'It must still be in that cellar,' said the Doctor carefully. 'Wait here, I'll go and get it.'

  He started off but Dalek X stopped him with his sucker arm. 'HALT! YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO LEAVE.'

  'OK. Why don't we all go?'

  'I WILL LEAD THE WAY.'

  'Of course. After you. It's that way.' The Doctor pointed. 'The more the merrier – we'll stand a better chance of finding it then.'

  Dalek X led, with the Command Dalek and the elite guards behind. The Doctor, Bowman, Koral and Cuttin' Edge brought up the rear with a number of assault Daleks. They filed into the building that housed the Lodestar's computer core. The Doctor recalled his first trip in here, when he had been investigating the dormant computer system and allowing his sense of curiosity to get him into trouble again. There was a metal stairwell leading down deep beneath the surface.

  The Doctor turned to Dalek X and pulled an apologetic, slightly embarrassed face. 'Sorry. Stairs.'

  'ELEVATE,' commanded D
alek X. He and the other Daleks started to lift off the ground slightly, floating down the steps after the Doctor and his friends. It was an awkward journey in such a confined space, but the Daleks managed the descent with irritating ease. A couple of them ventured out into the space between the stairwells, lowering themselves slowly down while keeping careful watch on the prisoners.

  Cuttin' Edge was limping badly, and one of the Daleks watched his painful progress with great attention.

  'What you lookin' at?' asked Cuttin' Edge. He had stopped for a rest, flexing his swollen knees and grimacing. Nearby a number of heavy chains rattled and clanked as the others filed slowly past. The chains were still attached to ancient pieces of machinery, left behind by the station's original owners.

  'MOVE!' ordered the Dalek.

  'When I'm ready,' said Cuttin' Edge. 'My legs are still sore after you lot shot me.' He started to pull himself up using some of the chains, his biceps bulging as he allowed the chain to take his weight. He looked back at the Dalek, which had remained stationary, floating next to the steps.

  'Wait a second,' said Cuttin' Edge quietly. Such was the tone of his voice that everyone else on the stairs stopped to look back at him. The Doctor, Bowman and Koral had reached a landing where there were a number of narrow maintenance hatches. Cuttin' Edge glanced down at his companions and smiled at them.

  'What is it, Cuttin' Edge?' asked Bowman. 'You're holding us up.'

  'I know this guy,' said Cuttin' Edge, pointing at the Dalek. 'I recognise his itty-bitty eyestalk tag.'

  The Dalek said nothing.

  'You're the one that killed my pal Scrum,' Cuttin' Edge said. His tone was serious, quiet. 'You shot him down in cold blood just to make a point.'

  Still the Dalek said nothing.

  'Scrum was my best friend,' Cuttin Edge said. 'I ain't never had a friend before him.'

  'Hey, kid...' said Bowman. He sounded worried. There was a grim light in Cuttin' Edge's eyes that only he could see.

  Cuttin' Edge held up a hand for Bowman to be quiet. His attention was still fully focused on the Dalek. 'I made a promise,' he said. 'I said I'd get you for that. And I meant it.'

  'PROCEED,' the Dalek ordered, gesturing with its gun-stick for Cuttin' Edge to carry on down the stairs.

  Cuttin' Edge had been holding himself up by the chains. Now, with explosive force, he suddenly moved. He wrenched the chains off the wall, looping them around the Dalek's head and yanking it tight with one huge jerk, forcing the eyestalk hard up against its armoured housing. The Dalek squawked and pulled back, its balance shifting slightly.