Doctor Who_ The Power of the Daleks Part 24

They both looked at this new creature. 'Welcome to the new race of Daleks,' they intoned together. The new Dalek moved down the ramp and joined them on the floor of the manufacturing plant. Three eyes swivelled to look at the archway at the far end of the room.

The base half of another casing appeared. The Dalek with the net returned to the seething cauldron. The crane began to move again, bringing in a fresh upper half of a Dalek sh.e.l.l.

Lesterson fell back into the tunnel with a faint whimper.

They weren't manufacturing more Daleks, they were breeding them! The Daleks were alive, aware, intelligent and malevolent. They had lied to, killed and manipulated the humans to produce this Dalek factory.

Lesterson closed his eyes. He felt like screaming.

What had he done? What had he done?

22.

I'm Going to Wipe Out the Daleks Shaking with terror, Lesterson stumbled back down the tunnel. He had to get away from the Daleks, he had to!

They were evil! He had to stop them. He had to warn the colony. He had to get away.

He staggered out of the far end of the tunnel, back into his laboratory. Only a few hours ago the room had seemed to him to be the best and most exciting place in the universe. He had been happily experimenting away, doing the research that he had always loved so much. Now the lab reminded him only of how stupid, how gullible he had been. All about were scattered mechanisms and notes that he had compiled on the Daleks. Sheaths of their metallic paper lay about, blueprints of machines that they had claimed they would build. What a fool he'd been to believe them! Angrily, he swept the prints to the floor.

He looked back at the capsule. He had to prevent the new Daleks from getting out! He couldn't use the Dalek locking device on the capsule. Even if it worked, the Daleks could just unlock it again. Besides, he rather thought that the Examiner still had it. No, he wanted something that the Daleks couldn't use their science on.

His eyes flickered about the laboratory, finally coming to rest on a large cabinet that he stored his supplies in. It was about the size of the door perfect!

Lesterson rushed across to the cabinet. It was heavy and he was still weak from his earlier collapse. But determination gave him tenacity. Sweating, cursing and constantly expecting to see Daleks milling about him, he managed to manhandle the cabinet across the room and in front of the open hatchway. Exhausted, he leaned against it. The Daleks had such small suckers for hands that they'd never be able to move this.

The door to the outside corridor opened. Lesterson almost had a heart attack, expecting to see one of the free Daleks gliding in. He breathed a deep sigh of relief when Janley entered the room. She stared at him in amazement.

'What is it?' she asked, frowning. 'What's the matter with you?'

Lesterson tried to catch his thoughts, to put them into some coherent whole. It was important that she listen and understand him. He had to sound rational.

'Are you ill?' she asked anxiously. 'You've been working too hard. You really must rest' She crossed the room and tried to take hold of his ann.

He shook her free, terrified she'd put him to sleep again.

He couldn't rest now, not with this danger hanging over the whole colony. 'They're in there,' he babbled, gesturing over his shoulder at the capsule. 'Making themselves...

Duplicating...' His voice trailed off as a sudden thought came to him. They still needed power for all of this, and there was just the one source: the generator he'd so foolishly made available to them. He staggered across the room, brus.h.i.+ng Janley to one side. 'I started this,' he told her, racked with guilt.

'What are you talking about?' It was clear from her expression that she still had no idea of the damage he'd done.

'Opening the capsule,' he started to explain. 'It's my fault.' He turned down the output controls to zero, and started to disconnect the cables. Janley grabbed his arm, trying to drag him away from the controls. With one hand, he gave her a hefty push that sent her flying. 'Don't try and stop me!' he warned her. Then he turned back to his work, tearing the cables free. The whine of the generator gradually slowed down to nothing and he finally gave a shaky smile.

Janley picked herself up from the floor. Her eyes darted from the machine to Lesterson and then to the loose ends of the cables that lay like dead snakes on the floor. 'What happened?' she asked. 'What have you done?'

'They forgot that I control them,' Lesterson ranted, his eyes wild. 'I gave them life back again, and now I've taken it away. They thought they were clever, but I've beaten them. I've stopped their plans. They're finished now.'

Janley realized what he was doing. 'The Daleks...' she breathed, seeing her own plans and ambitions being destroyed too.

'Evil,' he told her fanatically. 'Horrible! I know what I'm going to do.' His mind raced feverishly. 'Laser torches!

I'm going to have them melted down. Melt the Daleks away to pools of metal...' His voice trailed away into incoherence.

This was too much for Janley to bear. 'No you won't, Lesterson,' she said firmly. 'You're sick. You don't know what you're saying' She backed away from him as he crossed the lab towards her.

'Do you think I care what you can do?' he scoffed. 'Go on, tell everybody I was responsible for the death of Resno.

I don't care. I'll take full blame. But I'm going to wipe out every last Dalek...' He reached for a long metal rod and turned to face her, holding it firmly in both hands.

Janley took a single look and fled, clearly terrified he was going to use it on her head.

'Go on!' he screamed down the corridor after her. 'Go and tell them all about Resno! I don't care.' He had a mission now, one that was too important to worry about petty details like the death of one human being. 'I'm still going to destroy the Daleks.' Crossing to the comm unit, he picked up the handset. 'h.e.l.lo? Get me the Examiner now!'

'I'm sorry, Lesterson,' came the reply. It was that uppity tech, Valmar. 'The Examiner is in prison. Bragen's given orders that '

'Prison?' Lesterson faltered, confused. 'Who put him there? Why?' Before Valmar could reply, the scientist burst out: 'But I've got to talk to him! I've got got to! Don't you understand me?' to! Don't you understand me?'

'I'm sorry.' Valmar clicked off the connection.

Lesterson stared at the dead unit in his hand, confused.

He knew that the Examiner would have worked with him on this. He He had wanted the Daleks destroyed from the start. If only Lesterson had listened. Now it looked like it might be too late for that. 'The Governor,' he finally decided. 'Got to tell him. Melt them down, that's what we'll do.' He was dangerously close to the precipice of madness. had wanted the Daleks destroyed from the start. If only Lesterson had listened. Now it looked like it might be too late for that. 'The Governor,' he finally decided. 'Got to tell him. Melt them down, that's what we'll do.' He was dangerously close to the precipice of madness.

There was a sc.r.a.ping sound from behind him. Lesterson whirled around. The heavy cabinet was moving aside from the capsule entrance. Lesterson bit his knuckles, watching as a single Dalek effortlessly pushed the huge cabinet out of the way. Then its eye-stick swung to cover him.

'How did you get here?' Lesterson whimpered. 'I cut off your power!'

The Dalek glided towards him. It was one of the disarmed ones. How many of them were there? 'We can store power,' it informed him. 'Soon we will have our own supply.'

'Your own power?' Lesterson stammered.

'Why was the capsule door closed?' the Dalek demanded. It was almost up to Lesterson now.

With a delirious cry, the scientist spun around and fled the laboratory. The Dalek stopped still, its eye trained on the doorway. Behind it, another Dalek appeared in the doorway to the capsule. The first Dalek swivelled its dome about to look back.

'Seal off the capsule's secret entrance,' it ordered.

'I obey.' It spun around, ready to implement the order.

The first Dalek moved to the door, examining the corridor.

There were no signs of humans. 'Wait,' it commanded. The second Dalek froze in place. 'No more than three Daleks are to be seen together at any time.'

'I obey.'

'Continue,' the first Dalek said. The second moved back to close off the entrance to the manufacturing plant. The first Dalek moved into the corridor outside the laboratory.

There was no sign of Lesterson. The Dalek, satisfied, returned to the laboratory. It moved to the generator, studying the connections that Lesterson had broken.

'We are not yet ready to teach these human beings the law of the Daleks,' it said to itself. But soon, very soon, they would be.

Lesterson ran down the corridor, weaving erratically to avoid startled colonists. He ignored them, concentrating on the single thought in his mind: he had to contact the Examiner. He would know what to do about the Daleks.

He would be able to save Vulcan from the plague that Lesterson had unleashed. In the back of his mind he knew that there was a problem with his solution, but he couldn't quite grasp it. Wiping his sweating brows with his sleeve, he stumbled onward, searching.

Finally, he saw one of Bragen's guards. The bulky man was off to do whatever they did when there was no real need for them. Lesterson cried out incoherently, and the guard turned around. The scientist grabbed his sleeve, partly to stop the man from leaving, partly for support. His legs were shaking badly.

'You can help me!' Lesterson said in a quavering voice.

The guard sniffed at Lesterson's face, but there was no reek of alcohol. 'What's the matter?' he asked brusquely, trying to shake loose the bony fist clutching his sleeve.

'Where's the Examiner?' Lesterson demanded, his eyes flickering all around the corridor, as if he expected the man to pop out any second and yell Boo Boo.

'The Examiner's in prison,' the guard replied. He finally managed to pry Lesterson's fingers from his uniform.

That was the fallacy in his solution. Wearily, Lesterson fell back against the wall. 'That's right,' he muttered to himself. 'I forgot.'

The thuggish guard peered at him suspiciously. 'What's the matter with you?' he demanded. While there was no smell of alcohol, the thin scientist was exhibiting all the earmarks of having taken several measures too many. 'Why were you running?' He started to reach for the possible drunk.

Lesterson's fuzzy brain managed to realize that the guard might be arresting him next. Maybe the Daleks had convinced Bragen that he was a source of trouble. They seemed able to lie as easily as they thought. Lesterson couldn't risk being locked up, shut away from everyone.

Howling wildly, he slapped down the guard's hand and then turned and ran back down the corridor.

Suspicion hardened into certainty in the guard's mind.

Lesterson was either drunk or out of his mind. 'Hey!' he yelled. 'Stop!' When Lesterson continued running, the guard took off after him. There was no telling what the fool would do if he weren't subdued.

Polly had recovered from her drug-induced sleep only an hour or so before. She was vaguely aware that some time must have pa.s.sed, but it was impossible for her to tell how long it might have been. She was tied and gagged. The ropes on her wrists were chafing her skin. Her feet were also tied, and there was a cramp in her left calf muscle. Her head was still swimming from the effects of whatever she'd been given to knock her out. All she could remember was that Janley had been behind it. Why, she had no idea.

The pain of the cramp had made her cry out wordlessly.

Polly hadn't expected anyone to hear her, but a moment later Thane came through the doorway. Polly had managed to struggle into a sitting position, and realized she was on a bed. Obviously she was being held in one of Thane's wards.

The medic had an expression on her face that defied reading. Anger, irritation, helplessness, mixed with other feelings that seemed to be vying for control of the middle-aged woman. She came across to the bed, her eyes refusing to meet Polly's.

'Awake again?' she asked. She quickly looked Polly over and saw why the girl had cried out. With practised hands, Thane ma.s.saged the knotted muscle in Polly's leg. After a moment, it loosened and the pain went away.

Polly wished she could ask questions, to discover what was happening. But she suspected that Thane wouldn't have told her. It was quite clear that the medic was uncomfortble with her position as temporary jailer, and was too embarra.s.sed to meet Polly's accusing gaze.

'I'd better let Janley know you're awake,' Thane said.

'She can decide what to do with you.' She ignored Polly's gurgles and fled into her office next door.

Settling back on the bed, Polly tried to work out what was happening. Janley was obviously one of the rebels.

Maybe she'd been worried by Polly's questions, afraid that the Examiner was on their trail. Were the Doctor and Ben also prisoners of the rebels, held somewhere else? Had the rebels started their attempt to take over the colony? No, that didn't make sense; she'd have been in one of Bragen's cells in that case, not here. They were trying to keep her hidden, that much was obvious.

She gave up thinking about it. The old Doctor had always said it was foolish to try and think things out without the facts. And she had precious few to go on.

Instead, she tried to loosen her bonds. It didn't take long to realize she wasn't going to merely wriggle out of them.

They were tied very professionally. What she needed was some way to cut through them. Maybe Thane had a scalpel lying around somewhere. She had to wriggle a lot, but eventually Polly managed to get into a sitting position on the bed.

The room was devoid of anything in the line of furniture save for a second bed and a small table between them. IMC obviously didn't aim to make staying in the sick bay a pleasant experience. It might encourage malingering.

Through the open doorway, Polly could see Thane. The medic had her back towards the small room, clearly unable to bring herself to stare her prisoner in the face. That raised Polly's hopes. If she were quiet, maybe there would be some way out of this whole mess... Her hopes were instantly dashed as the outer door opened. Janley and a portly man entered.

Thane whipped to her feet instantly. 'Janley, Kebble,'

she said, with obvious relief.

'We'll take her now,' Janley said curtly. 'I've thought of a better place to hide her.' She nodded to Kebble and the two of them came through to Polly's bed. Kebble grabbed hold of her, hauling her to her feet. 'Untie her feet,' Janley instructed him. 'She may as well walk.'

Kebble did as he was instructed, and Polly sighed with relief. It felt good to be able to flex her toes again without cutting off the circulation in them.

'All right,' Janley said roughly. She grabbed one of Polly's arms while Kebble took the other. 'Come on.'

Thane peered around the outer door of her office.

'There's no one in sight,' she reported.

'Good. Wait here for your instructions.' Janley dragged Polly out into the corridor. 'You keep up with us. And heaven help you if you give me any trouble, understand?'

Polly nodded. 'Good.'

They went quickly down the corridor. Polly recognized the route they were taking, and wasn't surprised to see that they arrived at Lesterson's laboratory. What did surprise her was that there was one of Bragen's security men standing on guard outside it. Even more puzzling was the fact that he didn't seem at all bothered that Janley was holding Polly captive. He must be another of the rebels, Polly a.s.sumed. He opened the door for Janley, and then closed it again behind them.

Polly looked around the lab in wonder. How long had she been unconscious? The whole place was very different now. The single wire from the generator to the Dalek capsule seemed to have been breeding; there were about thirty lines snaking across the floor. Equipment was scattered about the room on palettes, and the workbenches were lined with electronic parts.

More ominously, two Daleks were loading these into the capsule.

Janley crossed to the closest one. Its eye-stick swivelled to look at her. 'Did Lesterson come back?' she demanded.

'No,' the Dalek replied. The eye-stick moved to stare at Polly. 'Why is this human restricted?' it asked.