Warpath of the Daleks

By Jeff Stone

Back to part 1

PART 2

Peri froze in her tracks. She had never seen the Daleks 'in the flesh' before but the vivid description the Doctor had given her was enough for her to recognize them.

“YOU MUST BE EX-TER-MIN-ATED!” the Dalek cried, aiming its gun-stick at her.

Peri closed her eyes and waited for death.

The Doctor, meanwhile, had noticed Peri's plight and ran back towards her, thinking quickly.

“Stop!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “Do not harm her!”

The Dalek rounded on him, menacingly.

“INTRUDERS!” it repeated, “YOU MUST BE DE-STROYED!”

“No!” the Time Lord retorted. “I am no ordinary intruder! I am the Doctor and this is my assistant!”

At the mention of the word 'Doctor', the Dalek almost jumped. It looked decidedly agitated as it regarded the Doctor's bulky, multi-coloured frame...

“YOUR AP-PEAR-ANCE DOES NOT COR-REL-ATE WITH THE KNOWN AP-PEAR-ANCE OF THE DOC-TOR!”

The Doctor and Peri were now in what would probably be called a torture room anywhere else - the Daleks regarded the chamber as a “Selective Information Extraction Facility”. Right now the Doctor was strapped into a metal rack like device hooked into a computer screen.

“PRE-PARE TO AN-A-LYSE BRAIN PAT-TERN,” the leader Dalek, a vivid red-with-black-spots model, ordered. Peri, who was chained to the wall close to the 'rack', wondered what her friend had to gain by divulging his identity. If he was, like the Cybermen, their greatest enemy, surely they would kill him anyway. And more painfully, she thought glumly.

“AC-TI-VATE MIND-PROBE!” the leader barked.

A low hum rose from the rack and lights on it began pulsing. The Doctor's face contorted with pain as he felt the mind probe rifle through his mind. The Daleks had used the probe on him once before - this model was definitely more efficient. A picture of an old man appeared on a screen above the 'rack'. It was an image of the Doctor's first persona.

“EX-CEL-LENT. CON-TIN-UE,” the leader said.

The old man's face vanished to be replaced by the face of the Doctor's second incarnation, then his third and fourth in turn, ending up with the boyish, innocent face of the Time Lord's previous incarnation.

“IT IS THE DOC-TOR. DE-AC-TI-VATE.” ordered the leader The Doctor slumped into unconsciousness abruptly. Two Daleks moved forward and released the Time Lord's bonds.

“PLACE HIM AND THE FE-MALE IN A HOLD-ING CELL. THEY WILL BE OF USE TO US.” declared the leader.

“WE O-BEY!” chanted the two Daleks, and placed the Doctor's heavy, inert form on a hover-stretcher. Peri was released and frog-marched out of the chamber, alongside the stretcher.

The Doctor came to in the holding cell. Peri was standing over him, dabbing his forehead with his blue cravat.

“Oooh, my head,” he groaned, sitting up.

“He recovered quickly,” a voice said.

The Doctor turned his head toward the speaker. It was a man dressed in a tattered, burnt uniform. The man's hair was singed and his hands and forearms were covered in angry welts. The Doctor waved away Peri's ministrations, retrieved his sweat stained cravat, and peered at the man.

“The name's Colvar. Captain Adrov Colvar of the federation's 12th Battle Fleet. Recently I haven't seen much action-the Daleks saw to that,” the man said.

“Indeed?” I'm the-” the Doctor began

“Yeah, I know. 'The Doctor'. Your pal told me while you were out for the count.”

The Doctor frowned. “'Out for the count'? Never! I was merely meditating.”

“Meditating?” Peri asked, puzzled.

“Yes. Meditating on why the Daleks haven't killed me. It seemed pointless to lie to them - they would have tortured you for the information.”

Peri, touched by her friend's selfless gesture, smiled warmly at him.

“Yes, very nice, Doc. I know why they haven't bumped you off,” Colvar told him.

“You do?” This arrogant human was beginning to annoy the Doctor.

“Uh-huh. They need your brain power. That's my theory.”

“Tell me more.”

“Well, we-our squadron that is-were out on escort duty when the Dalek ship jumped us and nearly wiped us out.”

“Escort duty? Escorting whom?” Peri interrupted.

“Oh, this guy that the Federation big cheeses want kept safely out of harm's way. Anyhow, these Daleks kidnapped all the crew on the command ship. Seems they needed info on the whereabouts of the guy we were escorting.”

“And where was he at this time?” asked the Doctor.

“On the command ship. But we were prepared for the possibility of ambush, so we transmitted him to our 'Plan B' ship, nearby. The Daleks were mighty annoyed, I'll tell you!”

“The 'Plan B' ship?” said Peri.

“Yeah, an old long haul freighter that was following us at a safe distance. Its captain had orders to get our man to Rho Delta VI at top speed should he be put aboard. Now the Daleks are after the freighter-one of the crew must have talked-not a difficult thing to do knowing the Daleks' torture methods.”

“The other ship, Doctor!” Peri exclaimed.

The Doctor nodded. “Brain power, you say?”

“Right. Apparently they want to do something really weird to the poor guy and they need someone with the know-how to help 'em do it. Why they need other people escapes me. They should've kidnapped some scientist from Earth, or something. As it happens, I know something about mu-mesonics, so they spared me.” Calvor shrugged.

“Mu-mesonics?” Peri enquired.

“Nu-mesons are sub-atomic particles created by the break-up of atomic nuclei. They don't last very long - a few seconds at most. Interesting why they should want to know about that,” said the Doctor, thinking hard.

“So, who is this guy?” Peri cried angrily. “What's his name? What does he do?”

Colvar thought hard. “I think his name is Sorvod or Norvad, something like that. I've no idea what he does.

A Dalek appeared then.

“THE DOC-TOR IS TO COME WITH ME,” it ordered, “AND THE ONE NAMED COL-VAR.”

The Doctor and Colvar rose as the cell door slid open. They shuffled out.

Up on the ship's bridge the red Dalek greeted the two prisoners' arrival with a surprisingly friendly greeting.

“OB-SERVE AS WE CAP-TURE THE EN-E-MY CRAFT,” it said. The Doctor and Colvar watched the screen.

The Magellan, for that was the freighter's name, was very close, now. The old ship rocked under the impact of laser bolts and nucleonic torpedoes.

After a particularly large explosion an escape pod blasted free from the Magellan. The freighter then blew up.

“IT IS SOR-VAD'S POD!” one of the Daleks declared.

“CAP-TURE IT!” ordered the Leader.

“No! You won't take him alive!” Colvar cried, running forward to a nearby console and activating a control protected by a heavy plastic guard.

“EX-TER-MIN-ATE!” cried the Leader, and three Daleks instantly blasted Colvar with their weapons.

The Doctor, shocked, rushed over to his corpse. His hand was slumped over the activation button for the ship's self-destruct mechanism! A precise voice declared: “Mechanism armed. Abandon ship immediately. One minute to detonation. fifty-nine...”

TO BE CONTINUED!

On to part 3

This item appeared in TSV Special #1 (December 1990).

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