Out of the darkness, a slim man shot into view. He had a black cloak on, that rose and fell every footstep he took towards the three creatures.
The creatures paused and separated from each other, and looked directly at the human who had told them not to enter the blue box. The man took three steps towards as the creatures darted back away from the box to watch his every move. The man shut the TARDIS, pulling the door towards him until the lock clicked, sharply.
'Now you three,' he began, menacingly. "Who gave you permission to enter the TARDIS, as I know I certainly didn't!'
The three creatures dropped down level with the man's feet as if cowering from the visitor. 'You are our saviour and we worship you. You shall defeat the almighty Dalek, and rid Skaro of the evil we face. You must not obey the will of the Supreme Dalek!'
The man smiled and nodded approvingly. 'Yes, I have come to save you all, and reclaim the device you all fear most, the password generator - but I shall not inform you of my plan!'
The creatures rose from the ground. 'We obey only you, and only you shall hold us close to your heart!'
The man left the creatures side and calmly strode away, back into the darkness. The creatures had thought they had struck a deal, but the only deal they had not bargained on, was their very existence.
~~~
Johanna had been left behind. Her daughters had decided to leave their mother back in the tunnel feeling her to be a burden and finding that they were now making some real progress.
'Thank goodness that mother of ours is not here.' said Kathy, smiling away as though her mother had been a burden their whole life.
Scarlet had tears in her eyes, a tear gently fell down one cheek, and then the other, half of her face was bright red. She had been upset, but no longer. The decision had been made. Their mother had been a real burden to them since they had been urged by her to leave the city centre.
Johanna felt she could no longer go on. In the tunnel she had been left to struggle in, she just paused. There was no real need for her to take another step. She'd soon be dead, and it didn't worry her. Johanna did not fear death, she only feared the worst for her daughters, as that was what a mother did. Her children were what mattered to her most. But now, she had been abandoned by her children, but it didn't stop her from loving them.
She crouched down, and sat down on the dusty ground. Getting her breath back, she saw a shadow scatter through the darkness. Johanna knew that she was no longer on her own.
Something in the darkness cocked it's head to one side, as it spied upon the woman sitting. Johanna called out, 'Who's there? Scarlet? Kathy? Is that you?' Then suddenly she heard foot steps running towards her, she screamed as the creature bared down on her as her screams echoed the corridors of the bunker.
~~~
The Doctor had been locked up for over an hour, and he had not eaten for a long while. He had neither downed any fluids. He lay on the bench, looking over at the baskets that had within them the very thing the Doctor required: Liquid and food. Food he did not want to eat, but something forced him to get off his bench and stride over to the baskets, only to pick up a bottle and unscrew the top.
He downed the bottle in one, and within a second, after he wiped the corners of his mouth, he immediately felt a lot better. He wobbled over to his bench, and lay on his back, and looked up at the ceiling.
'Ah ha...!' he said quietly. 'I think I may have found my escape hatch,' looking up at the hatch that the food and the water had been passed through. The Doctor, chuckled to himself. Then, he suddenly felt very dizzy and his eyes began to close, drearily. His body began to tremble, and within seconds, the Doctor fell into unconsciousness.
The Doctor had been drugged.
5.'Wakey Wakey'
The shock of having been asleep for so long had puzzled him, but he took no notice of the fact that the Dalek Supreme had wanted to get rid of him. The Doctor wasn't so easy to be rid of.
'I must get out of here...' the Doctor was whispering to himself. 'I must get to the control room, and find out what the Daleks are doing here and find out who summoned me here.'
He ran from one end of his cell to another. He could see all around him, that there were round obelisks that hung from the ceiling, looking down at the Doctor, monitoring his every word, every action, every step of the way.
On the outside of the Doctor's cell, a guard stood as still, grumpy-looking as ever was possible. Next to the guard, a window revealed the inside of the Doctor's cell, at which he now stood peering out. He knocked on the glass between the frame.
The Ogron had not been taking any notice of the Doctor's constant knocking on the window, but after a while, it eventually snapped, unlocked the door and entered the Doctor's cell with its gun trained firmly on him.
The Doctor began to hold up his hands but then lowered them again. 'I don't mean you any harm. All I'd like to do is have a brief chat with the Dalek Supreme. I take it he is here? Is that so much to ask?'
It took a while for the Ogron to take in the request and after a brief moment while the creature thought about it, shook its head and gestured with its gun for the Doctor to follow.
'I take it that's a yes then.' mused the Doctor.
On their way to the control room, the Doctor noticed several rooms, all loking exactly the same as his own cell, often peering through the cracks in the wall or the windows to see through to the other side. Inside every cell, there were the mutilated remains of men, women, and even children. He shook his head, scowling at the Ogron who walked heavily in front of him, trying its best to keep the Doctor cover with its pistol.
'Move this way!' it grunted loudly. The Doctor continued to follow.
~~~
They had finally arrived at the entrance to the control room. The Doctor could see a creature knelt before, the Supreme Dalek. The creature was small, and looked, the Doctor thought, very much like an Irish Leprechaun with its odd looking hat that sat above its head and its green apparel. The Dalek had been speaking with the creature for a while now, and the Doctor couldn't help but listen in as to what the two were saying to one another.
'Master,' the creature was saying as it took its hands from out of its pockets, along with a small device. 'I have brought you the last remaining segment of the password decoder!'
'Excellent!' boomed the voice of the Supreme Dalek, pleased with the final outcome. 'You have done well to obey me! You will have safe passage out of this bunker back to your space craft!'
The Dalek ordered for the Ogrons to escort the alien to safety to which they obeyed passing the Doctor on his way to meet with the Supreme Dalek. It then turned to another Dalek and asked, 'Is the bomb secured aboard the alien's ship?'
'Yes.' came the reply.
'Excellent!' boomed the Supreme Dalek, 'There must be no witnesses to our plan!'
The Dalek's eye stalk lowered and looked into the eyes of both the Doctor and the Ogron guard, who had brought the Doctor before him.
The Ogron stood silently awaiting instructions to be given, a command to speak its mind. The Dalek approached the guard as the Ogron's legs began to shake nervously.
'Why have you brought the Doctor to meet with me?' it asked the guard, as it looked into the eyes of the Ogron.
'Master,' the Ogron said nervously. 'I have brought you the Doctor for reasons that I do not know. He says he has something of importance to discuss with you!'
The Dalek turned towards the Doctor.
'SPEAK, SPEAK!' its booming voice ordered as the Doctor smiled, laughing at the Dalek's command.
'Now looky here, you tell me what your plan is, and then I'll return the favour, and by the way, where are we? What planet are we on?'
'You are on the home world of the Dalek Empire!'
'This is Skaro?' the Doctor declared, surprised but yet he somehow knew this to be true. He was about to declare that he had destroyed the planet several incarnations ago but thought better of it. 'Well, the last time I stood on this planet, I witnessed Skaro burn up as I saw the carnage that erupted on this world of yours, and the people who suffered because of what your creator thought was best!'
The Dalek circled the Doctor and the Ogron who stood some feet away from him, watching for a reaction. The Dalek stopped and said:
'You are correct. This is Skaro, and our world exists today despite your meddling Time Lord. I am one of many appointed leaders who have been summoned to Skaro to retrieve a device that has infinite power over all!'
The Doctor looked around. He could just make out bodies lying about the ground beyond the control room. 'Why are there bodies out there?' he asked, starring again at the Dalek at the centre of all the chaos surrounding him.
'They were the cause of the last bombardment on the City. The humanoids wanted the power to defeat the Dalek Emperor, and now our creator, Davros is lost in time thanks to them!'
The Doctor shook his head and smirked.
'They were the cause of the last bombardment on the City. The humanoids wanted the power to defeat the Dalek Emperor, and now our creator, Davros is lost in time thanks to them!'
The Doctor shook his head and smirked. The Dalek glided past the Doctor, prodding him in the back with its sucker arm. The Doctor turned to face the troublesome Dalek.
'I presume you have sent for Davros to be recovered?' he asked, inquisitively. The Daleks eye stalk rose and fell as though it were indicating a yes but it said nothing. Instead it pushed the Doctor forward to a cell set within the control room.
'Observe!' it bellowed, 'See the determination of mankind and their will to destroy the Daleks!'
The Doctor looked through a window-hatch, and found that there were three human females all starring at him, miserably.They were the same three women, Johanna and her two daughters, who had survived the devastation and sought sanctuary within the bunker only to be caught by the Ogrons within the tunnels of the complex and brought before the Daleks.
The Doctor stepped as far back from the hatch as he possibly could. He looked over his shoulder, and saw the Dalek looking up at him. He also saw something that made him smile, loosely. He had caught sight of the device that the alien had earlier brought before the Supreme Dalek.
The Doctor saw his chance. He ran for the device. The Dalek's eye stalk spun around to face him as he gripped the device firmly in both of hands, and made for cover behind a concrete pillar. Another Dalek rushed forward towards the Doctor, and then ordered the Ogrons to intercept him.
'You shall hand over the device or you shall be exterminated!' the Dalek screeched, as it turned to position itself and opened fire on the Doctor, but it missed hitting the concrete walls of the control room. The Doctor darted quickly across the room as the Dalek turned sharply once more and opened fired only to miss again and instead exterminated an Ogron as they run around the room totally disorientated. The Ogrons were hopeless, and it wasn't long before the Daleks opened fire, in response to their uselessness.
The Doctor watched in horror as the Daleks gunned them down. He gasped out loud, and in doing so gave himself away. The Supreme Dalek spun round and now stood facing the Doctor.
As it approached, the Doctor was forced backwards, and found himself pinned up against a pillar, taking from him the password decoder. The Doctor slid one of his hands behind his back without the Dalek noticing. His hand began to tap on a key pad, large in size, big enough for the Daleks to operate, and each key containing a symbol, that was hooked up to the electricity sensors surrounding him and the Daleks.
The Supreme Dalek began to cry out, 'You will be exterminated!'
Then suddenly, lights began to flash frantically around the room. On the Daleks' dome the lights went out as their eye stalks dropped down. The Doctor stood breathing heavily, looking at the death all around the room; the inert bodies of Ogrons, and the, now silent Supreme Dalek.
The Doctor removed the password decoder from the sucker arm of the, now less imposing Dalek. He had managed to deactivate the Daleks, leaving them to die within their casings. He crossed over to the cell that he had observed earlier and opened the door allowing the occupants within to emerge and to their freedom.
They were stunned as they cautiously left the confines of the cell, hanging on to each other, daring never to let go. They thanked him quietly.
The Doctor left the Thals to make their own way from the bunker and took with him the password decoder. He slipped the device into his pocket, amongst all his other belongings, inside his deep pockets.
~~~
It wasn't long before the Doctor had found the TARDIS standing inert amongst the rubble of the City that had once stood proud upon the planet's surface. As he was about to enter his ship, a creature appeared along side him. The same disembodied creatures that had earlier tried to gain access to his TARDIS. The Doctor looked down at them, as two others emerged from the mist that still covered the surface of the planet. They crouched down like a pet at his feet, as if in worship.
'Oh, hello.' the Doctor said.'The Daleks...' one creature whispered, 'You have defeated the Dalek Supreme?' it asked and then stated, 'We are yours to command.'
'No, no, no, don't do that. Please.' The Doctor said, feeling quite uncomfortable at the very thought that these creatures saw him as a god of sorts. He looked up at the mist that was now beginning to circle the bunker that he had only just escaped from, watching as it slowly engulfed the entrance and disappeared from view all together.
He looked down at the creatures, who looked back up at the Doctor, as though awaiting his command.
'Sorry, but you can't come with me, you simply can't, you wouldn't survive. I'm sorry.' he looked at them with a sorrowful look. All the creatures could do was watch as the Doctor opened the door to his TARDIS and disappeared inside, and then as the sound of the TARDIS began to rise in crescendo the three creatures floated away disappearing into the darkness and the mists beyond.
Inside, the Doctor hunched over his controls continuing with the take off procedures, flicking switches and pulling levers and the TARDIS finally de-materialised from the surface of Skaro.
written by
NATHAN MULLINS
copyright 2010
artwork by
IAN PALMER
MARK SMITH
copyright 2010