Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks Page 11

  In the blockhouse checkpoint, the anxious group looked down the empty tunnel. Nervously one of the soldiers began fiddling with the scanning equipment. Suddenly he shouted, 'Look, I'm getting a picture on one of these scanners.' Sure enough, one of the screens was showing a blurred picture of the main laboratory. They could even hear a faint murmur of sound.

  'Try for more volume,' ordered Bettan. 'We may be able to find out what's happening down there.'

  Obediently the soldier adjusted controls. The picture improved, and sound came through clearly. Sarah shivered as she heard the voice of Davros. 'Send a patrol of Daleks to secure the main entrance.'

  'I obey.'

  'That is it,' snapped Bettan. 'I must detonate right away.'

  'Give it one minute more,' beggedHarry. 'Please!'

  Bettan said, 'I'm sorry. I daren't wait any longer.' She turned to the soldier. 'Get those tunnel doors closed and we'll detonate from in here.'

  The Doctor was baring down a corridor, running for his life. A patrol of Daleks appeared behind him. Their guns blazed and their metallic voices filled the air. 'Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!'

  Safe in his laboratory, surrounded by a guard of Daleks, Davros was preparing to resume work. His eye was caught by flashing lights on an indicator panel. He wheeled his chair round angrily. 'The Dalek production line has been started. I gave no such order. Who is responsible?'

  Davros looked angrily at the handful of surviving scientists scattered about the room. None of them spoke. A Dalek glided forward. 'I gave the order,' said the metallic voice.

  Davros looked at his creation angrily. Some minor malfunction, no doubt. It could be corrected, perhaps even by a simple verbal re-programming. He glided his chair up to the Dalek and spoke slowly and clearly. 'You will perform no function unless directly ordered by me. You will obey only my commands. The Dalek production line will be halted immediately.'

  The Dalek did not move.

  Davros was enraged. 'You heard my order. Obey! Obey!'

  Still the Dalek did not move. Nyder sighed. He moved toward the control panel. 'All right, I'll do it...' He reached for the control. Almost casually, the nearest Dalek swiveled round and blasted him down. Davros looked on unbelievingly as Nyder's smoking body twisted and fell.

  The Dalek spoke again, 'Production will continue.' Davros backed his chair slowly away...

  Harry and Sarah watched helplessly as the iron doors of the tunnel began to slide slowly closed. Bettan stood watching too, beside her a soldier with his hand on the plunger of an old-fashioned field detonator. Bettan said, 'Fire!'

  The soldier heaved up the plunger handle. He was about to force it down, when Sarah screamed, 'Wait, please wait. The Doctor's coming!'

  The soldier hesitated. Harry and Sarah ran to the doors and held them back by force. The Doctor came tearing along the tunnel, a patrol of Daleks close behind him. just as their strength failed, the Doctor reached the fast-narrowing gap and squeezed through.

  The Daleks glided in pursuit, gun sticks blazing, then were hidden from view by the closing door...

  Bettan tapped the soldier on the arm. He pushed the plunger down with all his force. A thunderous explosion on the other side of the doors shook the checkpoint, sending them all flying.

  Sarah picked herself up, and staggered over to the scanner screen. Incredibly, it was still working. On it they could see Daleks in a menacing circle around Davros. Davros was desperately trying to regain control of his creations but they could hear the fear in his voice. 'You must obey me,' he was saying. 'I created you. I am your master!'

  One of the Daleks seemed to be speaking for the others, as if already they had evolved their own leaders. 'Our programming does not permit us to acknowledge any creature superior to the Daleks.'

  'Without me you cannot exist;' insisted Davros. 'You cannot progress.'

  There was total arrogance in the Dalek voice, the arrogance that Davros himself had given it. 'We are programmed to survive. We have the ability to evolve in any way necessary for that survival.'

  Another Dalek glided in. Ignoring Davros, it reported to its leader. 'Main exit blocked byexplosion to length of one thousand units.

  'The Dalek began issuing orders to deal with the problem. Other Daleks glided to obey.

  Sarah nudged the Doctor. 'Did you manage to do anything in the incubator room?'

  'Quite a bit—with a little help from a Dalek. The damage I did will set them back a thousand years.'

  'That's pretty good then, isn't it?'

  The Doctor smiled ruefully. 'In the totality of Time, it's no more than—that!' and he snapped his fingers.

  Harry drew their attention to the screen. 'Look, something's happening.'

  Fascinated they gathered around to watch the inevitable end of the clash between Davros and the monsters he had created. The terrified handful of scientists who had elected to support Davros were being herded into a corner. The Dalek leader spoke. 'All inferior creatures are the enemy of the Daleks. They must be destroyed.'

  Davros began pleading for the few men who had been loyal to him. 'Wait. These men are scientists. They can help you. Let them live. Have you no pity?'

  'Pi-ty?' The word sounded strange in the Dalek voice. 'I have no understanding of the word.It is not registered in my vocabulary bank.' It wheeled to face the other Daleks. 'Exterminate them!' Once again the Dalek gun sticks roared, and the handful of humans crumpled and fell.

  In the center of the laboratory, Davros confronted the Dalek leader. 'For the last time... I am your creator. You must... you will... obey me!'

  'We obey no one. We are the Daleks!'

  The watchers saw Davros spin his chair and speed it toward the destructor button on the wall. As his withered hand reached up, they heard the voice of the Dalek leader. 'Exterminate him!' All the Daleks seemed to fire at once, and Davros and his chair exploded in flame, the destructor button still untouched.

  The Dalek leader glided forward to address its fellows. The action brought it closer to the scanner screen so that it seemed almost to be talking to the small group watching in thecheckpoint. 'We are entombed here, but we still live on. This is only the beginning. We will prepare. We will grow stronger. When the time is right, we will emerge. We shall build our own City. We shall rule Skaro. The Daleks will be the supreme power in the Universe...!' Suddenly the screen went blank.

  'Thank goodness,' said Sarah. 'Please—can we go now?'

  Sevrin, Bettan and the others were already leaving, assuming the Doctor and his friends would follow them out of the blockhouse.

  The Doctor said, 'The Time ring please, Sarah.'

  As Sarah gave him the ring she said, 'We've failed, haven't we, Doctor?'

  'Not entirely. We've given the Daleks a nasty setback, perhaps that's all we were intended to do... it's a kind of victory.'

  He smiled at Sarah who said, 'You don't seem too disappointed anyway.'

  'Hand on the ring, please,' said the Doctor briskly. He held it up, and Harry and Sarah obeyed.

  Their fingers touched the metal and after a moment Sarah felt a strange disembodied sensation sweeping over her.

  Sevrin, who had come back into the checkpoint to see what was delaying his friends, was astonished to see them simply fading away into nothingness. Sarah waved, called 'Goodbye,Sevrin...' and vanished.

  Sarah felt everything dissolve into spinning blackness. But somehow she could still hear the Doctor's voice echoing hollowly. 'Disappointed, Sarah? No, not really. You see, although I know that Daleks will create havoc and destruction for untold thousands of years ... I also know that out of their great evil... some... great... good... must come.'

 

 

 
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