Doctor Who_ The Power of the Daleks Part 32

'This is Governor Bragen speaking. This is to the Daleks. Daleks, listen to me!' Despite his intentions, his voice rose to almost a whine. 'I am the Governor! You must work for me me. Do not trust the rebels. I will give you whatever you want. Immobilize your guns. This is the This is the Governor speaking! Governor speaking! ' '

In the laboratory, Ben stared incredulously at the speaker in the wall. 'He's off his chump,' he announced. 'Trying to bargain with the Daleks!'

'There is no need,' Lesterson agreed. 'They will take over anyway.' He stared in awe at the capsule. 'There are more of them on their way.'

Ben didn't care for the thought. He glanced around and saw a cabinet, close to the capsule, but pushed to one side.

'What's in there?'

'Nothing,' Lesterson replied. 'It's quite empty.'

'Good.' Ben pulled Polly to her feet. 'In there, quick' He shoved her inside and jumped in after her, pulling the door almost closed. Through the slight gap they saw several Daleks emerge from the capsule and then move out into the corridor.

Bragen fumed as he sat at his desk. The Daleks had not replied io his demands either. Was his control falling apart about him? Why wouldn't anyone tell him what was going on? How could he govern in a state like this?

'Do you hear me, Daleks?' he yelled into the comm unit again. His voice came back, tinny and panicked. 'You will obey my orders!'

There was a movement in the doorway. For a second, Bragen thought it was his squad leader, coming finally to report. But behind the muzzle of the guard's gun stood a grim-faced Quinn.

'It's no use, Bragen,' he said. 'The Daleks have finally shown their true colours. They've stopped obeying all orders.'

Rising to his feet, Bragen half-reached for his pistol, which lay on the desk. A quick motion from Quinn with the barrel of the gun stopped that. 'Guards!' Bragen screamed.

'It's no use, Bragen,' Quinn told him bitterly. 'They're all dead. The Daleks have slaughtered them all.' He crossed to the desk. 'But you must still have your guard units in the interior. How long will it take them to get here?'

'It depends,' Bragen hedged.

'Order them in here!' Quinn waved the gun at him.

'Now.'

'But the Daleks will hear me and intercept them!'

Bragen protested.

'Exactly,' Quinn agreed. 'That will draw the Daleks away from here. It should give the Doctor time to deal with them.'

Those guards were Bragen's last men; without them, he would be finished. 'I refuse to allow my guards to be sacrificed.'

'Haven't you been listening?' Quinn demanded. 'The Daleks are killing everybody! Those guards are as good as dead already. If you bring them in to fight the Daleks, at least they won't die pointlessly. As you will do in five seconds...'

Angrily, Bragen hit the key on the comm unit. 'All guards! This is Bragen speaking. All units must report to the Hub immediately. Be prepared to face rebel Daleks' He cut the signal and glared at Quinn. 'There. Satisfied?' His face twisted into a sneer.

Quinn held his weapon firmly on Bragen. 'I only hope it works.'

Returning to Lesterson's laboratory, the Doctor paused to check that there were no Daleks inside. Then he slid in carefully, Valmar sticking close to him. There was no sign of Ben or Polly. The Doctor called out softly to them.

The cupboard door opened quietly and Ben and Polly emerged, looking shaken.

'Did you hear that announcement?' Valmar asked them.

'Let's hope that the Daleks have all gone to take on the guards.'

'A lot of them just came out of the capsule,' Polly replied. 'They went down the outer corridor a moment or two ago.'

'Good,' the Doctor said, rubbing his hands together.

'Then I'm going inside.' Before anyone could stop him, he shot through the capsule opening.

Ben started to move after the Doctor, but as he did so, the scruffy little man reappeared. He was carrying one of the junction boxes Valmar had fitted earlier into the craft.

Long cables trailed after him.

'Is this it?' he asked Valmar.

'That's one of them,' the technician agreed.

'Right.' The Doctor set it on the workbench. 'Ben, get me one of the short cables over there. Polly, keep watch by the door. Valmar, keep your eye on the capsule.' Pulling a screwdriver and wrench set from the scattered tools on the bench, the Doctor began to take the junction box apart.

The others hurried to do as he asked. As Ben handed him the short cable he'd requested, the Doctor stared at the ma.s.s of wiring within the box. It looked more complicated than he had expected. Nervously, he wrenched free one of the wires. Then he took Ben's cable. He looked uncertainly at his companion, then back at the box. Taking one end of the cable, he held it out gingerly, then plunged it into the place he'd torn the wire from. He had his eyes screwed shut. Carefully, he opened one of them and stared suspiciously at his makes.h.i.+ft connection.

Ben could stand it no more. 'Do you know what you're doing?' he asked.

The Doctor looked offended. 'Of course I do!'

'Really?' Ben asked sceptically. As the Doctor wired in the cable to the box, he added: 'Why don't you just pull all of their plugs out and cut off the power?'

'Because,' the Doctor said, miffed, 'I prefer to do things my way.'

Before Ben could think of a suitable retort, Polly called a warning from the doorway, then ran bck to join them.

Valmar, worried expression on his face, pointed to the capsule, then moved to be with them. The four of them ducked behind the workbench as one Dalek came through the lab doors and mother emerged to meet it from the capsule. The Doctor's eyes were rivetted on the edge of the bench. He could just see the end of the small cable.

'Static power is being stored,' the Dalek from the capsule announced. 'We can now dismantle the humans'

electrical system.'

'The Law of the Daleks is in force,' the second Dalek replied. 'All humans are being exterminated.'

The first Dalek moved from the capsule. Its eye-stick followed the lines of Lesterson's original cable. Then it locked on the box that sat on the workbench. 'Our cables have been moved!'

The four refugees behind the bench held their breaths.

They could hear the Daleks moving towards the bench, and inevitable discovery.

Suddenly, Lesterson jumped to his feet on the far side of the lab. 'And I could tell you who moved it,' he said, cheerily.

The Daleks spun around to face him. 'What are you doing in here?' the first one demanded.

'I came to help you,' Lesterson replied. 'I know that you are the superior beings.'

As the Daleks regarded Lesterson, the Doctor pushed the other end of the cable home in the junction box. Then he grabbed the loose end of the wire he had disconnected.

Ben looked at him expectantly, but the Doctor shook his head: stay where you are! stay where you are! Then, carefully, making no sounds, the Doctor began to inch his way towards the generator, trailing the wire to the junction box beside him. Then, carefully, making no sounds, the Doctor began to inch his way towards the generator, trailing the wire to the junction box beside him.

'Why do you want to help us?' the Dalek demanded of Lesterson.

The scientist smiled insanely. 'I am your servant,' he announced, in a stiff impression of their own voices.

'We do not need servants,' the Dalek replied. It raised its gun.

Lesterson stared at the Dalek in confusion. 'Surely you wouldn't kill me?' he said. 'I gave you life!'

'Yes,' the Dalek agreed. 'You gave us life. We give you death.' Its gun spat..

The deadly jolt of power shook Lesterson. As it cut off, he dropped lifelessly to the floor. The Daleks turned from him and moved towards the workbench again.

Polly and Ben were directly in their view now. The guns inched upwards.

Frantically, the Doctor rammed home the wire he held into the generator linkages. He gave the unit a quick smile that was suddenly wiped away when nothing happened.

Had he miscalculated? In a frenzy, he jumped up at the panel. The power was turned off. Of course! Lesterson had said he'd shut it down, without effect.

The Daleks whirled around to gun down the Doctor.

Feverishly, he twisted the power modulator to full setting.

There was a whine as the generator came to full power.

In the centre of the room, the two Daleks suddenly began to spin in unison. Their lights strobed, and smoke began to emerge from every crack in their casings. Both issued mechanical screeches that increased in intensity.

Then, in a flash of light and thunder, the domes of both Daleks exploded.

Quinn and Bragen whirled around as a Dalek moved into the office.

Its gun was aimed. 'Exterminate all humans!' it said.

Quinn was staring at his own death.

In a whine of mechanical agony, the Dalek suddenly went into some kind of frenzy that ended with billowing smoke and in explosion as its top half erupted in flames.

'What happened to it?' Bragen asked, astonished. 'I don't know.'

'It appears that your friend the Doctor was successful after all,' Bragen said.

The guards were retreating down the corridors away from the Hub. An endless stream of Daleks was converging on the small area. In a few moments, they would all be dead.

Then the Daleks began to spin on the spot, in some kind of wild dervish dance. Smoke and fire spat from their casings, and then they all blew apart.

The bewildered guards stared at the ma.s.ses of blazing metal.

Quinn stared at the burning Dalek, elation flooding into him. The Doctor had done it! The Daleks were all being destroyed! Despite the sickening stench emerging from the body of the machine, he felt a huge wave of relief.

Then Bragen hit him from behind. Quinn fell to the floor, the machine gun clattering from his fingers. Bragen scooped it up and stood over his fallen foe. There was a fanatical gleam in Bragen's eyes.

'Now I shall restore law and order on this planet.'

Disgusted with his stupidity, and with Bragen's megalomania, Quinn shook his head. 'Not "your" law, Bragen. That's finished for good.'

'You'll obey me,' Bragen insisted, swinging the gun to cover Quinn. 'Or you will die'

'Your day is over,' Quinn replied. 'No one will obey you now.' After all he had been through, Quinn had no fear of what was to come.

Bragen's face twisted in fury. 'I am still the Governor!'

he snarled, and tightened his finger on the trigger.

A shot rang out, but Quinn felt nothing. Then the gun rattled as it hit the floor in front of him. Quinn looked up.

Bragen, his face a mask of pain, held a hand clutched over his right shoulder. Blood was spurting from a gaping wound there, flowing over fingers and uniform in a bright flood.

Valmar, still panting from his efforts to reach the office, stumbled into the room. In his hand he held one of the dead guard's pistols. It was trained on Quinn.

'Valmar,' Bragen began. His voice had lost some of the imperiousness now, as he struggled with pain. 'You must do what I say and '

'Enough!' Everything that had happened here in the past few days was Bragen's fault, Valmar knew. The rebellion, the oppression, the murders, even the powering of the Daleks had been because Bragen had wanted a weapon. And Janley's death had been directly due to Bragen. Without remorse, Valmar fired again.

Bragen choked on his own blood and staggered forwards. Then his heart gave a final spasm. Valmar's third bullet went through his brain, killing him instantly.

'Thank you,' Quinn said, climbing to his feet. He looked down at Bragen's body. 'It was a near thing.'

'He deserved it,' Valmar said, without pity. Then he threw the pistol down in the pool of blood. 'Enough of guns. We have so much to do.'

Quinn nodded and offered his hand. 'We must rebuild together.' Valmar accepted the grip. 'What is the extent of the damage?'

'I don't know,' Valmar replied. 'I don't even know if it's possible to repair. So much devastation...'