Doctor Who_ The Power of the Daleks Part 12

Lesterson didn't seem in the slightest bit fatigued, despite his hours of work. Janley had to admit that she rather envied him. Running her hand through her hair, she thought, G.o.d, I must look a sight! She felt tired and messy an unusual feeling for her. Then again, she'd never had to nursemaid a dead body and a live and seriously out-of-kelter scientist before.

Rubbing his hands eagerly together, Lesterson said, 'Well!'

Stifling a yawn, Janley glanced at her watch. 'Is it time?'

'I think so.' He looked almost drunk. 'I feel quite excited.'

Grow up! Janley thought. Aloud, though, she said, 'So you should. It's a wonderful achievement.'

'The wonderful part of it is,' Lesterson replied, 'that we have no real idea of the scope of this experiment, Janley.

Who knows where we may go from here?' He moved across to the hatchway of the capsule. The Dalek stood in the doorway, covered by another of his tarpaulins. With a flourish, he tore the covering from the machine, rather like a magician producing a rabbit from his hat. Janley almost expected a drum roll. Lesterson smiled affectionately at the machine. 'Who knows what this Dalek, as the Examiner calls it, can do?'

'And it's harmless now?' Janley asked.

'Completely. I've removed the gun-stick.' Lesterson gestured at the gaping socket in the Dalek's body. His face clouded as the reference to the gun reminded him. 'Resno have you been to see him today?'

'Yes,' Janley lied, avoiding glancing at the far end of the room. 'Thane's giving him her complete attention as she promised. He's going to be all right.' Her eyes narrowed.

'n.o.body must hear about that accident! It could give the Examiner the leverage he's seeking to halt the whole project.'

'Yes, of course,' Lesterson agreed. Then he looked back at the Dalek and his smile reappeared. 'Come on, let's go and surprise them all!'

Hensell's office came as no surprise to the Doctor. The colony was laid out well, but with the usual spartan touches. None of the rooms was larger than necessary, nor were they over-decorated or ostentatious.

Except Hensell's.

Naturally, it had to be fit for his dignity as the colony Governor. Which meant that it was about six times as large as it needed to be. The huge picture window gave a panoramic view of the surface of Vulcan. One day, it would probably be impressive. Right now, the view was no better than one any citizen of Earth could get from the top of a quarry. When the terraforming was completed and there were trees, gra.s.ses and plants outside, it would be like looking over the Garden of Eden. Hensell probably aimed to stay in power long enough to see the view. The Doctor was mildly impressed he hadn't credited Hensell with so much foresight.

The room itself was mostly bare. Hensell's large desk dominated the far end of the room. It was placed in front of the window, the natural focus for any visitor's eyes.

Hensell's chair was large, plush and undoubtedly expensive. The guest chairs were some plastic and extruded aluminium affairs, shoddy and cheap, especially when compared to the Governor's well, 'throne' wasn't too strong a word for it. Apart from the chairs and desk, the only decorations in the huge room were a small coffee table and a minute filing cabinet. The latter had to contain all the work at Hensell really did.

Hensell was seated at his desk when one of Bragen's men ushered the Doctor, Ben and Polly into the room. The Doctor rolled his eyes such an obvious ploy to let them know they were being granted a tiny fraction of Hensell's valuable time. Never one for kowtowing to pointless displays of authority, the Doctor wandered across to the desk and adroitly plucked the paper from Hensell's hands.

The Governor looked shocked at this liberty.

'You seem to specialize in trouble, Examiner,' he growled.

'If you'd seen me last night when I needed you,' the Doctor replied, dropping the sheet of paper on to the desk, 'none of this would have happened.' He didn't elaborate on whether he meant his behaviour or the sabotage.

'I have to tour the perimeter today,' Hensell said rather defensively. 'It's an arduous job, and I really required my sleep.'

'So I was told,' the Doctor agreed drily.

'Bragen followed my instructions,' Hensell said. 'We've had eleven incidents that you would probably feel like reporting back to Earth.'

Ah! So there it was: Hensell was afraid that the Examiner had been called in to report his incompetence.

The Doctor smiled inwardly. Hensell was no worse, though sadly no better, than most officials given power without supervision. And he was terrified of losing his moment of glory. The Doctor moved on to Plan B. Soothe the ruffled fur. 'Not if I'm satisfied you can deal with your own difficulties, Governor,' he replied carefully, giving a slight upward curl to his lips.

Hensell's eyes widened as he realized what the Examiner was saying: that none of this had to be reported back to Earth. Perhaps he'd been a trifle hasty in judging this fellow, after all. Maybe there was no need for them to be antagonists.

The door opened again, and the guard returned. This time he was leading Quinn, who looked rather the worse for wear after a night in detention. Accompanying them was Bragen, who was having difficulty keeping the smugness out of his face.

Hensell glared at his deputy. 'What the devil have you been up to, Quinn?' he growled.

'Nothing,' Quinn replied. 'Absolutely nothing.'

Hensell slapped the file folder on the edge of his desk.

'What about Bragen's report, then? These are facts, Quinn.

What have you got to say for yourself?'

Quinn didn't even look at the thick file. 'Does the engineer say I hit him?' he asked mildly.

'He was. .h.i.t from behind,' Bragen snarled.

Shrugging, Quinn said, 'Then there's only circ.u.mstantial evidence.'

'The Examiner was also attacked in the mercury swamp,' Bragen reminded him. 'We have a b.u.t.ton from your jacket, which was found in the Examiner's own hand'

Quinn refused to flinch under Hensell's stare. 'I can't explain that,' he admitted.

'I'm sure you can't,' Bragen retorted sarcastically.

'Somebody put it there,' Polly said. She felt that someone had to stick up for Quinn. She had been favourably impressed by the man, and was certain that he was being railroaded in this hearing.

Flas.h.i.+ng her a grateful smile, Quinn nodded. 'It's the only logical explanation.'

Hensell looked to the Doctor for help, but he seemed absorbed in some mental gymnastics. 'Examiner,' he said, 'you seem to be in two minds.'

'Yeah, and two bodies,' Ben muttered to himself.

'You had mentioned to Bragen that Lesterson's machines...' Hensell continued, then paused. Should he look in the file, or admit a momentary lapse? Well, he was a busy man and could be expected to forget minor details.

'What do you call them?'

'I call them what they are,' the Doctor told him.

'Daleks.'

'Yes,' Hensell said. 'You claim that they could be a motive for destroying our communications.'

'I do,' the Doctor agreed.

Hensell was about to add to his comment when his face clouded. He stared at the door, and the others with him turned to see what was happening all but the guard, who kept his own eyes on Quinn.

Lesterson was standing in the doorway, a look of triumph on his face.

Annoyed, Hensell said, 'This is a special enquiry, Lesterson. I must ask you '

'This won't wait.' The scientist didn't seem to realize that he was committing the worst possible offence in Hensell's book: interrupting Hensell's display of authority.

'You won't be disappointed,' he promised.

'Didn't you hear what I said?' Hensell demanded.

Lesterson was too excited to care. 'Governor,' he said, almost leaping and dancing, 'I've completed an experiment that is going to revolutionize the colony. Please, bear with me.'

The Doctor jumped to his feet, his eyes darting around.

'Lesterson!' he cried, clearly on the verge of panic. 'What have you done?' He stared at the still-open door behind the scientist. 'Just what have you done?'

'I'll show you,' Lesterson said eagerly. He seemed to be totally oblivious to the Doctor's obvious display of shock and fear. 'All right!' he called out of the door. 'Janley now!'

The Dalek glided through the doorway and into the room.

For a moment, there was a stunned silence. The enquiry was completely forgotten as all eyes focused on the Dalek.

All but one. The Dalek's own eye turned to examine the Doctor.

The Doctor backed away from it. He stumbled over one of the plastic chairs and fell into it, gripping the back for support. Ben stared from the Doctor to the Dalek, instinctively moving to protect Polly. From what? He wasn't sure. There were only three things he was absolutely certain of at this moment.

The first was that the Doctor had been correct: this Dalek was a menace of incalculable extent. The second was that Lesterson had to be one of the biggest fools in the entire universe. The third...

'It recognized him,' Ben whispered to Polly. 'The Dalek - it recognized the Doctor!'

Polly stared at the Doctor. He was ashen, in a state of almost total collapse in the stupid plastic chair. He hadn't even looked this bad before he'd undergone the strange renewal. 'What's the matter, Doctor?' she asked. To her, the Dalek was simply some mechanical monstrosity, malign certainly, but not overpowering. She couldn't understand either Ben's sudden chills, or the Doctor's quite obvious terror. 'Are you all right?'

'The fools,' the Doctor breathed. He clearly meant Lesterson and Janley. 'The blind, unthinking fools!'

Ben stared at the Doctor. 'You're terrified,' he said, and felt more than an echo of the same emotion in his own soul. There was no rational reason for it, but it was there. It was the same kind of chill, clean through to the bone, that he'd felt when the Cybermen's unemotional gazes had bored into him. Then his innate practical nature resurfaced. 'What can it do?'

The Doctor realized somewhat belatedly that the gun-socket was empty. A Dalek without the power to kill was still a formidable foe, but it was also out of its element.

'Nothing,' he told Ben, ' yet yet.'

'It knew who you were,' Ben hissed. 'I know it sounds crazy, but it did!' He looked scared and apologetic at the same time. 'Well, if a Dalek can recognize you as the real Doctor, then I suppose I can too.'

The Doctor couldn't even manage a weak smile at this.

Though he was very pleased that Ben had finally surrendered the last of his suspicions, he was too frightened by the other events to really care. It wasn't so much that one unarmed Dalek was such a formidable foe, it was the problem that if one Dalek could have been repowered without his knowledge. then what else was occurring right at this very second that he didn't know about? When dealing with the Daleks, ignorance was not bliss, it was inevitably fatal.

Somehow, Lesterson was completely oblivious to this exchange. All of his attention was concentrated on Hensell, the one man who had the power to stop his experiment.

'This creation is called, I understand, a Dalek,' he explained, seeming almost intoxicated by his success.

'Look at it! I have simply given it electric power. And do you know what?' He grabbed the Governor's hands, completely obviously to his breach of etiquette. 'It's capable of storing it!' He laughed, drunkenly.

'Furthermore, it responds to orders!' He clapped his hands to get its attention. 'Turn around,' he ordered.

The Dalek tore its gaze away from the Doctor. Slowly, but unmistakably, it began to swivel to face Lesterson.

The scientist pointed at one of the plastic seats. 'Move that chair,' he ordered.

The Dalek glided across the floor. The sucker-stick rammed out, and the chair went sliding across the floor.

'You see?' Lesterson cried exultantly. 'Imagine what this is going to do to our mining programme, our processing, packaging dozens of tedious labour-intensive jobs, Governor! It can end all of the colony's problems.'

This had gone on more than long enough, the Doctor thought, and pushed past Janley to address Hensell. 'It will end the colony's problems,' he agreed, 'because it will end the colony!'

The Dalek's eye-stick swivelled to examine the Doctor again. Lesterson chuckled. 'It seems to be having a good look at you, Examiner.'

'Yes,' the Doctor agreed warily. 'Unlike a human being, a Dalek can always sense its real enemy.'

The Dalek's dome swivelled until the eye-stick was pointing at Lesterson once more. In the silence, it suddenly grated in a mechanical tone: ' I am your servant! I am your servant! ' '

There was a thunderstruck silence from all of the humans in the room. Then Lesterson turned to stare in rapture at his a.s.sailant. 'It spoke!' he said. 'Janley, did you hear it? It can talk!'

'It can do many things, Lesterson,' the Doctor replied bitterly. 'But the thing that it can do most efficiently is to exterminate human beings. It destroys them without mercy. Without conscience. Destroys them!' He glared at the scientist. 'Do you understand me? It destroys them!'

While the Doctor was speaking, the Dalek simply ignored him. It continued to intone mechanically: ' I am I am your servant! I am your servant! I am your servant! your servant! I am your servant! I am your servant! ' '

The Doctor pressed his hands over his ears, but there was no drowning out the horror of the inhuman intonations. ' I am your servant! I am... I am your servant! I am... ' '

14.