Doctor Who_ The Power of the Daleks Part 28

'Yes,' Bragen said, with almost hypnotic intensity.

'Obey me! I will have complete and instant obedience from now on from everyone.' His eyes burned with a fanatic intensity.

The Dalek spun about and rolled silently away.

Quinn wasn't completely convinced, but he allowed the Doctor to have his way. Their first stop after the jail break was Lesterson's laboratory. When he saw the scale of the changes that had been made there, he had no further doubts about the Doctor's instincts. Power cables led from the main generator into the capsule. A quick glance showed him that someone had diverted almost half of the colony's power supply into the capsule.

Who would have authorized it?

And what were the Daleks doing with that amount of raw energy?

A stack of empty pallets in the far corner of the room suggested that literally thousands of credits worth of spare parts had been taken into the capsule. More materials were stacked about the room.

'How could they fit all of this into such a small capsule?'

he whispered. There was no telling if they were in danger of discovery. 'And what are they doing there?'

'The capsule may not be so small,' the Doctor replied gravely. 'You don't know how far down it goes. Besides, the Daleks have also mastered dimensional manipulation.'

Seeing Quinn's blank look, the Doctor explained: 'It could be larger on the inside than on the out.' Certainly the Dalek time machines he'd encountered in the past had had this ability. 'As to what they are doing in there; well, that capsule is like a Dalek seed. It falls to the surface of some useful world and takes root. Like a seed, all it needs is a power source and raw materials. Vulcan is very rich in raw materials, isn't it?'

'And the power they're getting from us us,' Quinn said bitterly. 'But what's it used for?'

'You heard Lesterson,' the Doctor told him. 'The Daleks are reproducing. Who knows how many there are of them by now?' His ears suddenly caught a noise from inside the capsule. A Dalek glided out of the capsule. It was one of the unarmed ones, which meant that they were still keeping up their pretence of slavery to the humans. The Doctor pushed Quinn down behind a stack of boxes and crouched down beside him.

Valmar followed one of the Daleks out of the capsule, checking the connections on the latest cable as he did so.

'I'll just have to check out the completed circuit now,'

he informed the Dalek. 'Otherwise, it looks like it's exactly as you asked for it to be.'

'Very well,' the Dalek agreed.

Still troubled by what Polly had said, Valmar stared at the machine thoughtfully. 'Why can't you carry on with the power you're drawing from the colony? Why go to all this trouble?'

'Until now,' the Dalek answered, 'we have had to recharge from the colony supply. With static power in place, the Daleks will be twice as... useful.'

Valmar wondered if he had imagined that slight pause between the final words. Could he believe the Daleks? Or was this all some Machiavellian plot of theirs? If only he had the time to do a few experiments and check on the data he'd been fed. But time was one thing that he seemed to be constantly short of. Another was his implicit belief that what he was doing was right. He made a useless rebel, really. If it hadn't been for Hensell's att.i.tude and the injustice of the Company, he'd never have considered joining the rebels.

And, to be honest, if it hadn't been for his foolish attraction to Janley. She'd never given him the slightest encouragement, after all. But he lived in constant hope that one day she would do.

As if in answer to his thoughts, Janley herself rushed through the doorway, skidding to a halt.

'Valmar!' she snapped, her face flushed and her hair in uncharacteristic disarray. 'Quick, come on!'

'What's the matter?' he asked, rus.h.i.+ng to join her.

'The Governor's back,' she told him. 'We're not yet ready! Come on!'

Valmar glanced back at the capsule. 'What about the girl?'

'Leave her,' Janley said. 'The Daleks will take care of her.'

The unarmed Dalek moved to join them. 'I will follow you,' it informed Janley.

Suspiciously, Valmar glared at it. 'What for?'

'I am your servant.'

There wasn't time to argue. Janley grabbed Valmar's arm, hurrying him out into the corridor. The Dalek glided after them.

A moment after the Dalek left the room, the Doctor popped out of his hiding place. He stared at the ma.s.s of cables in concern. 'An electrical circuit of their own,' he said, his voice strained with fear. 'They're supplying their own static electricity to the colony. I wonder how much longer we've got?'

'Till what?' Quinn asked.

'When the circuit is in operation, the Daleks will be able to move freely about the colony,' the Doctor told him.

'And that will be the death warrant for every human being here!' Then he turned, ignoring Quinn, and started into the capsule.

Kebble waited near the door of the capsule, a slight smile on his face. He'd overheard two people he recognized as Quinn and the Doctor talking outside the capsule as they approached. He picked up a heavy wrench and tapped his palm with it.

It would make a lovely dent in someone's skull...

Polly threw herself across the small compartment. Her hands were tied, but not her legs. And she hadn't been gagged again. 'Doctor!' she screamed. 'Look out!' As Kebble half turned, Polly hit him with all of the force she could muster.

Kebble slammed her back against the metal wall of the capsule, winding her. But Polly's warning had alerted his would-be victims, who were entering the capsule. Quinn pushed past the Doctor and leaped on to Kebble. Glad of a target he could finally take some of his frustrations and anger out on, Quinn pummelled the heavier man with blows to the head and stomach. Huffing with pain, Kebble allowed his guard to drop. With a cry of pent-up anger, Quinn linked both his hands and brought them down in a single, vicious chop to Kebble's neck. Kebble fell like a brick.

Polly staggered to her feet and rushed down to the Doctor. 'Are you all right?' she asked anxiously.

The Doctor nodded and smiled as he undid the ropes about her wrists. 'Quick thinking, Polly,' he complimented her. 'Now, who was that man who left with the Daleks?'

'Valmar,' she told him as she ma.s.saged the circulation back into her fingers. 'He's been working with the Daleks'

'On their static power supply,' the Doctor said, nodding.

'Yes, we heard that bit'

Polly grabbed him with both hands. 'Doctor, they've got Ben!'

'Yes. He ran away from them when we...' Shaking his head, he pulled free of her. 'It's a long story, but I wouldn't be too worried about him. I think that boy can look after himself.' He pointed to the power lines. 'Right now, we have to disable the Daleks.'

There was a sound from the far wall. A door was slowly rising, revealing a Dalek waiting behind it. As soon as it reached the mid-section height, all three of them could see that this Dalek was complete with its gun-stick.

The Doctor s.n.a.t.c.hed up the wrench Kebble had been intending to use. 'Run,' he said grimly.

Quinn eyed the futile weapon. 'That won't stop a Dalek,' he argued.

'Maybe, maybe not,' the Doctor replied. 'Go on run!'

'But what about ' Quinn began.

The Doctor gave him and Polly a hearty shove. ' Go on! Go on! ' '

Quinn grabbed Polly's hand and dragged her from the capsule and into Lesterson's laboratory. They fled through the open doors, the Doctor hot on their heels. Inside the capsule, the door was finally fully open. The armed Dalek glided out, followed by a second. The Doctor paused to close the laboratory doors. Both had a large semicircular handle. He jammed the heavy wrench through the handles, blocking off the door.

On the other side of the doors, the first Dalek stopped.

It pushed at the doors to no avail.

'Have they escaped?' the second Dalek asked.

'Yes,' it responded. 'Return to the capsule and report this'

The second Dalek whirled about. 'I obey.'

The first Dalek slammed into the doors again. They shook, but refused to give. Raising its gun-stick, the Dalek focused the power on a tight beam. Then it began continuous fire. A thin trickle of molten metal ran down the door as it began to cut out the lock.

'Welcome to the new race of the Daleks!'

The latest Dalek off the a.s.sembly line moved to join the others in the plant. Behind it, another rolled into place for final cleaning before moving along.

The Dalek at the master panel surveyed the read-outs with satisfaction. A Dalek was being completed every one minute on the human scale of counting. There were now several hundred Daleks spread throughout the capsule.

The latest Dalek glided to join it at the panel. 'Why are we waiting here?' it asked. Its internal computers provided it with the basic information it needed for its tasks, but this specific reason was not in its programming.

'The humans are locked in a power struggle,' the first Dalek answered. 'Shortly, they will begin to fight among themselves.'

'Then we will strike!' The new Dalek understood the logic now.

'Yes. And we will exterminate all humans!'

The ma.s.s of Daleks in the room all took up this single thought: 'EXTERMINATE!'

25.

Every One Must Be Killed The Doctor stared down in despair at the Dalek gun-stick on Hensell's desk. The killing had finally begun in earnest.

On the floor, Quinn looked up bleakly from the Governor's body. 'The one man who might have saved us,'

he said softly. Polly placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, and he managed a wan smile.

'Don't worry,' the Doctor said, with more conviction than he felt. 'The people will follow you, too.' But he knew how often humans milled about in disorder once their leaders were dead. It might take a while for Quinn to gain control, and he doubted that Bragen would simply stand by and allow power to trickle from his greedy grasp.

'Maybe.' Quinn stood up with a sigh. 'But there wasn't any maybe about Hensell. He was old-fas.h.i.+oned and even single-minded, but he did some wonderful work for this colony. The people may have argued sometimes, but they were willing to trust him.' He shook his head. 'Events turned out against him. But why? Why Why was he killed?' was he killed?'

'I can answer that.'

The Doctor, Quinn and Polly spun around. Bragen and two of his armed guards stood in the doorway. The machine guns were trained on them.

'The Governor wanted to have the Daleks destroyed,'

Bragen said smoothly. 'So one of them killed him. As a result, I've been forced to declare martial law. You will be returned to prison, properly guarded this time.' He nodded to his men.

'Martial law!' the Doctor said scornfully. 'What good do you think that'll do against the Daleks?'

'The Daleks will do as I tell them,' Bragen replied.

'We'll see about that, shall we?' the Doctor asked, defiantly.

The two guards stood by. 'Take them away,' Bragen said. As the prisoners were marched out, Bragen walked to the window. Dawn was breaking over the surface of Vulcan. The sun, a bloated, blood-red ball, was creeping up over the horizon.

'The dawn of a new day,' Bragen mused. 'A day that will end in a new order for this world my order!'

The Doctor's mind was ticking over frantically as they were marched back towards the cells. His escape trick wouldn't work twice. It was imperative that he remain free, so they had to escape before they were imprisoned. The Daleks were almost ready to strike, now. But what could he do against two men with machine guns?

He came to a sudden halt. The corridor ahead of them was blocked by a single unmoving Dalek.

'Move,' one of the guards ordered, his weapon digging into the Doctor's back.

'The Dalek,' the Doctor replied, in horror.

Polly stared at it. 'What about it?'

'Can't you see?' the Doctor asked her, his face ashen.

'It's armed!'