We pressed ourselves close against the wall as a Dalek hurried by. I peered out again and immediately spotted two doors that faced each other at right angles to the archway. They were obviously little side rooms of some sort but the value of them was that we needn’t be caught out in the open corridor. The Dalek that had just passed by might well have gone on some little errand. I didn’t fancy being caught in any cross-fire.
‘I’ll go first. Kristas, you next. Barbara, stay close behind him and keep an eye over your shoulder.’
I stepped out and began to creep up towards what must be the Master Room, searching the walls around me for any more of the viewing boxes that might warn them of our approach, but fortunately there weren’t any. I reached the archway and discovered with a shock that it wasn’t open as I’d first thought. The way was effectively barred by a plate-glass door, much too thick to break through. It was a setback but I put the problem of how to get into the room aside for the moment and risked a look into the Master Room.
The first thing I saw was a long metal pipe running up to the roof around which four or five Daleks were standing. I could see that they were supervising the tipping of some liquid from a metal container into an oblong box affair that was placed inside the pipe and reached by a glass door. The second thing I saw was a glass Dalek!
He was resting on a kind of dais and his casing was totally made of glass. Inside, I could see the same sort of repulsive creature that the Doctor and I had taken out of the machine and wrapped in the cloak. The Dalek looked totally evil, sitting on a tiny seat with two squat legs not quite reaching the floor. The head was large, and I shuddered at the inhuman bumps where the ears and nose would normally be and the ghastly slit for a mouth. One shrivelled little arm moved about restlessly and the dark-green skin glistened with the same oily substance that had revolted me before.
‘Hurry, hurry,’ I heard it say and it spoke with a different kind of voice altogether, not like the dull, lifeless monotone of its fellows but more of a dreadful squeaking sound that only just made the words intelligible.
What alerted me was the fact that I could actually hear anything through a thick plate of glass that ought to have made the room soundproof. I looked round for the reason and found it in a metal grille set at floor level on either side of the archway. It was about three feet high from the floor upwards and disappeared into the wall. If it runs along the wall in the side room, I reflected, we can forget the plate-glass door and break through the grille. I opened the side-door and pulled the other two into a little store room full of metal boxes. The grille ran along the wall all right and I beckoned them down. We had a perfect view of the Master Room. Almost immediately, Kristas gripped my shoulder. Barbara and I saw them at the same moment. The Doctor and Susan!
Their arms and legs were clamped on to a wall by huge magnets and they were desperately struggling to free themselves.
‘Can you pull this grille out?’ I whispered to Kristas. He examined it then nodded confidently.
Barbara said, ‘Without any noise?’
‘I’ll try.’
He put his fingers through the mesh and began to break the strands. I examined the room again and fixed my eyes on a low wall about two feet high which ran round the centre of the room. It was no more than a yard away from us. Here and there it had openings in it, to allow the Daleks to move through into the room proper. It seemed to be some kind of decoration. If it had a purpose we never found out what it was. I could already see how it would be useful to us. I bent close to Barbara and spoke in her ear.
‘I think one of us could slip through the grille and crawl round under cover of that little wall and reach the Doctor and Susan. How about it?’
She nodded.
‘Good girl. I haven’t any idea how strong those magnets are. Do the best you can. Free the legs first where you can work out of sight. Leave the hands until Kristas and I start our diversion.’
‘Be very careful, Ian,’ Barbara whispered. Kristas had made a wide hole in the grille and we helped Barbara through it. She began to worm her way along the wall and fortunately all the Daleks were now in a fever of activity and she was able to inch along without being seen.
The Doctor stopped his struggling and lifted his head up.
‘Stop this senseless slaughter,’ he bellowed.
I saw the glass Dalek jump to its feet and give a little dance of rage, its one arm waving furiously and banging the inside of the glass,
‘Silence!’ it squeaked. ‘We shall be the people of Skaro. The only people!’
I heard Kristas give a little groan behind me.
‘Is that what we fight? That dreadful thing?’ he hissed.
‘And it is planning to make the air unbreathable,’ I whispered grimly. I turned my attention to the Dalek in the glass casing again.
‘Why is it not ready?’ it was saying. ‘We must hurry, I tell you.’
The Daleks around the metal pipe withdrew the container now, holding it with their sucker-rods, and two of them took it out of my eye-line to the right. The others closed the glass door carefully and then moved to the other side of the metal tube with their backs to us and came to rest before an enormous bank of dials and switches. Barbara had slithered right round the little metal wall by this time and both the Doctor and Susan had seen her, although they kept their faces well to the front so as not to give her away. I saw Barbara pull off the magnets from Susan’s legs and I tensed my muscles.
‘All right, my friend,’ I breathed. ‘We smash that glass Dalek. Then do as much damage as we can to those dials.’
He gripped his metal rod firmly. There was the slightest smile on his lips that gave me just that extra bit of courage I needed.
We eased through the broken grille, gathered ourselves on the floor and leapt to our feet together. For some reason or other, I shouted out a bellow of defiance and, waving my metal rod over my head, I rushed at the Dalek in the glass casing.
It was pointed towards the bank of dials and I saw its face turn to stare at me in astonishment as I ran up to it. I saw its casing begin to swivel and knew if the gun-stick could point at me in time I was finished. I jumped to one side as it fired past me and the glass plate covering the archway disintegrated and thousands of little bits of glass flew all over the room. I swung the metal rod high over my head and down and the glass shattered. The thing inside gave the most terrifying screech that made my heart thump against my breast and I saw it slipping over the broken glass and lie wriggling on the floor. Kristas used the metal pipe as a cover and hurled his rod straight at the dials. The Daleks in front of it had swung round at the sound of the death-throes of their leader and the metal rod crashed over their heads.
Immediately there was a tremendous surge of movement as two of the Daleks fired their gun-sticks at me. I dived away, bruising my shoulder on the ground. The blue, sparkling flames bit across the room and melted the wall behind where I had been standing.
Barbara had freed both Susan and the Doctor and was just hurrying them to the archway when it was filled with a dozen Thals led by Ganatus. They poured into the chamber and two of them fell immediately, cut down by the Dalek guns. I saw Kristas get behind one of the Daleks and lift it right off the ground and throw it straight at two others just as they fired. There was a colossal explosion which knocked Kristas backwards, sliding him along the floor towards me. He shook his head once and then picked up a metal canister from the floor near him and smashed in the top of another Dalek with it. I watched Ganatus jump on the back of a Dalek and be carried half across the room until it swivelled round suddenly and threw him off. A blue flame sped out from its gun and just caught the top of his shoulder and Ganatus fell with a groan.
I was busy at the metal pipe in the centre of the room. I could see a hundred wires leading to the oblong metal box inside and I pulled two of them away. A sixth sense warned me of danger and I fell sideways as a Dalek’s sucker-stick clanged sideways against the pipe in an effort to crush me. I could se
e there was just a fingerhold at the bottom of the casing and before it could move any more, I put my hands under it and toppled it over on one side. Another Thal was pinned to the wall on my right and I could see the Dalek sucker-stick embedded in the man’s stomach. Then the awful blue flame crackled from its gun-stick and the Thal shivered and collapsed in a smoking heap on the ground.
At that moment all the lights in the room died and at the same time there came the sound of failing engine noises, a gradual whirring down. Kristas was hammering in the top of another Dalek but he stepped back in surprise as all its rods shot upwards into the air. There was a dim light coming from somewhere and I realized that the lighting had only diminished, it hadn’t gone out totally. About eighty per cent of the power had failed. I felt a hand helping me to my feet and it was the Doctor, who handed me one of his everlasting matches. He’d obviously distributed them around the room for nine or ten of them were struck almost at the same time. The surviving Daleks were moving again but slowly now and I could see that their rods were beginning to fall downwards. From inside each one I began to hear a kind of moaning sound. It became louder and louder and Susan put her hands over her ears.
‘Have you dismantled that bomb, Chesterton,’ the Doctor demanded.
‘I don’t know,’ I replied wearily. ‘I pulled away some of the connections.’
He crossed to the pipe, and pulled out the rest of the wires. I moved nearer to one of the Daleks. The moaning was dying down now and the Thals were watching silently. Kristas still had his canister in his huge hands ready to put down any resistance but I think we all guessed that something was happening to the creatures.
The Dalek I was near moved its eye-stick towards me slowly. Its other two sticks were now pointing straight down towards the floor.
‘Stop… our power… from failing,’ it grated out weakly. The Doctor came over and stood at my shoulder, listening intently.
‘Power is our life,’ it went on. The voice was getting quieter and quieter now.
‘Even if I wanted to,’ said the Doctor, ‘I don’t know how.’
‘Then this… is the end… of the Daleks,’ the voice said and the last word was almost swallowed away. The eye-stick dropped limply and pointed downwards. I looked around the room. All the machines were the same. Lifeless.
There was quite a long silence and no one moved. Then the Doctor put his hand on the top of the Dalek and gave it a little push. It moved about three inches and stopped.
‘They’re dead. They’re all dead,’ I heard Susan whisper.
The Doctor crossed the room, picking his way through the debris carefully. He bent over the Dalek I had destroyed in its glass casing and, with an expression of distaste, removed a slender little chain from round its neck. He came back to where I was standing and held up the chain, and on the end of it I saw the fluid link.
‘All safe now, Chesterton, eh?’
Our eyes met. I didn’t say a word. There didn’t seem to be any point in raking over old ashes.
‘Well, you don’t bear grudges, young man, do you?’ He glanced around the room. ‘Plenty of mercury in here, anyway. Incidentally, that Dalek over there, the one you destroyed. Did you notice it had a wire attached to one of its legs? My guess is that electricity wasn’t just used to power the casing they wore or fire their guns. I think they needed power to help their hearts beat.’
‘I sent Alydon and Ganatus down to destroy their electric plant.’
‘Best thing you could have done, my dear fellow,’ he replied gravely. ‘The best thing among a whole series of brave acts.’
Alydon and a group of about twenty Thals entered the room and they all began to wander about, questioning those that had been in the fight and listening with rapt attention to a dozen different versions. Alydon came over and joined us, after bending over Barbara and Susan who were comforting Ganatus and binding his shoulder with a remnant of material that Kristas ripped off his own tunic.
‘Are they really dead, Doctor?’ Alydon said.
‘Yes, the power of the Daleks is finished. This is your planet now, Alydon. You have all the inventions of the Daleks to help you rebuild it.’
Alydon looked around the room in bewilderment.
‘I don’t know how any of these things work.’
‘Then you have things to learn,’ remarked the Doctor.
‘If only we could have achieved our learning without so much sacrifice.’
The Doctor regarded him seriously.
‘Don’t waste the lives that some of your people have given. If you say to me, “Why should we ever make war again?” then now I not only agree with you, I insist that you follow your principles.’
I said, ‘But remember also, Alydon, that you must go on fighting. You must battle with the soil and the sun, fight the creatures in the lake and struggle to keep life itself an ever-increasing thing of beauty.’
‘And, if I may have the last word, Chesterton,’ put in the Doctor quietly, ‘always search for the truth.’ He looked away from Alydon and weighed the fluid link in his hand. ‘Be straightforward,’ he went on. ‘It’s surprising how much trouble can come from a small deception.’
Barbara didn’t say a word to me on the journey back to the forest and although there was a triumphant feast that night she kept well away from me. She sat between the injured Ganatus and Alydon. From time to time, I sensed that she was looking at me but she always averted her eyes whenever I looked at her.
At the end of the evening, as we sat within a ring of the fire-boxes, the Thals rained gifts on us and embarrassed us all with compliments. Embarrassed us all that is, except the Doctor, who accepted every present and every fine word with a grandness that somehow managed to avoid superiority or any sense of being patronizing. He was absolutely in his element and rose, as I guessed he would, to make a short speech to close the evening celebrations.
‘My friends,’ he began, and one thumb securely hooked itself in his waistcoat pocket while his other hand hung at his side ready for a battery of theatrical gestures. ‘My friends, we have shared an adventure with you. Together we have faced the power of the Daleks and won a magnificent victory. You can be sure we didn’t leave the city without searching every nook and cranny and everywhere the story was the same. The Daleks were all dead. That dreadful evil has been wiped away and all that’s good can prosper. As for us, my granddaughter, my two friends and I, we must leave you.’
‘Stay with us,’ a dozen voices chorused but he shook his head sadly.
‘Our way is through the stars, my friends. One day perhaps I may come back and visit your grandchildren and see how they have succeeded. There will be birds on this planet then and beautiful flowers. Culture and grace will thrive and this adventure will be a legend.’ He gazed around him impressively and held up one finger.
‘See that that legend,’ he said gravely, ‘is the lowest rung on a ladder to happiness, peace and success.’
He sat down to a burst of applause and cheering and looked across at me.
‘Chesterton, we might slip away now, I think.’
I nodded and looked round for Barbara, but her place was empty.
People were beginning to get up from the ground and stretch themselves and the women started to collect up the remnants of the feast and put things in order. The Doctor touched my arm.
‘The last thing we want to do,’ he murmured, ‘is prolong the good-byes. I hate sentiment but I have a feeling these people can arouse it in me.’ He polished his glasses vigorously on his sleeve and adjusted them on his nose.
‘Come along now,’ he said almost roughly.
We drifted away from the Thals and made for the Tardis. Susan was there already with the doors wide open. I could see behind her through the white light and still found the immenseness of the interior a baffling thing against the cramped look of the police-box exterior,
Susan said, ‘Isn’t Barbara with you?’
‘I’ll go and search her out,’ I suggested. The Docto
r agreed and told me not to be too long.
‘We must have a talk,’ he said mysteriously then followed Susan back into the Ship.
I went back to the glade where the feast had been set and asked Dyoni if she’d seen Barbara but without success. Then Alydon gave me a clue.
‘You should find Kristas,’ he remarked. I suppose I must have frowned a bit because he clapped me on the shoulder and his eyes screwed up with laughter.
‘You asked him to watch over her, I understand. He’s a very simple, straightforward fellow. You haven’t released him from the order yet and I believe he’d fight a million Daleks if you asked him to.’
I walked through the forest in the direction Alydon said he had last seen Kristas. It was a well-beaten path and my feet disturbed nothing as I walked. They were sitting together on a dead tree that had fallen on its side and a fire-box gleamed brightly at the giant’s feet. I stopped where I was in the shadow of a huge bush, fearful to touch it in case it crackled and powdered and gave me away.
‘Can’t I tell Ian?’ Kristas was saying.
‘No! Oh, I don’t know. Kristas, what am I going to say to him?’
There was a silence.
Barbara went on. ‘He hates me. I know he does. I was stupid. Trying to fight… the way I felt.’
I wonder neither of them could hear my heart pounding. Was I hearing things properly? There was another long silence and I hardly dared to breathe.
‘I don’t know about these things,’ said Kristas slowly, ‘but I know that time is never wasted, Barbara. You and he have been forced together, a bond has been created. Let time test both your feelings.’ He picked up a branch and began snapping little pieces off it and throwing them away. ‘Mind you, I’m speaking from my knowledge, my little knowledge,’ he added with a smile, ‘of you as a person. My own ways are simple and direct. There was a girl I sat next to at the feast tonight. Salthyana was her name. I will tell her tomorrow that I wish her to stay at my side for the rest of our lives, but that,’ he ended seriously, ‘would be too direct for you I suppose?’
Doctor Who and the Daleks Page 15