The Daleks—The most vicious race in the universe, but are they the most feared?
I was told the following story when I was a child by my grandfather who heard it from his grandfather when he was a child. His grandfather talked about an uncle who survived an invasion of the Daleks, which, I know, is surprising and unbelievable. They say a man in a blue box saved everyone, but that's another story entirely.
This story is about something more surprising and unbelievable. A story about what a friend of my grandfather's uncle discovered in the wreckage in the shattered remains of a Dalek after the invasion. From what they could tell, they uncovered data telling a story about a mutated Dalek. They said this data was detailed in a way almost like our old fairy tales; the kinds that could make a Dalek afraid of the dark.
After an invasion of planet Earth, before forced to retreat, the Daleks absorbed as much data into their hive-mind network about anything they could learn about planet Earth. The Daleks may be full of hate, but they are also quite intelligent.
While sifting through the enormous amount of collected data, one Dalek mistook a picture of an octopus for an exposed Dalek. This Dalek had never seen another Dalek out of its metal casing, only the hive-mind's knowledge of such a thing. It realized the body structures were similar, and it studied the differences between Daleks and octopi, in case of possible tactical advantages. The Dalek presented what it learned about octopi to a scientific committee, a similar group that developed hover technology for conquering vertical structures, like stairs and ladders.
"Divulge your findings," the committee head demanded.
"The creature, known as octopus, can camouflage itself with its surroundings," the Dalek stated.
"Irrelevant. Camouflage is useless within the Dalek construct."
"The creature, known as octopus, can travel quickly through water."
"Irrelevant. Dalek technology can boil a planet's oceans, thereby suffocating all aquatic lifeforms."
"The creature, known as octopus, has a boneless structure, so it can fit into smaller spaces."
"Irrelevant. Daleks fit within the Dalek construct."
"The creature, known as octopus, can eject a cloud of ink to distract its enemies."
"Irrelevant. Daleks have technology to destroy our enemies. Daleks have no need for distractions."
"The creature, known as octopus, has eight appendages which can manipulate tools."
"Irrelevant. Daleks have a symbiotic relation with their constructs which are designed to serve their designated function. Daleks have no need for primitive tools."
"The creature, known as octopus, can—"
"Silence!" the committee head commanded. "Since you are determined to prove the worth of the inferior species known as octopus, you are granted the opportunity to present your proof. Bring the creature known as octopus and prepare the transgenic chamber."
The Dalek researcher was placed in stasis until an octopus specimen could be fetched from a scout returning to Earth. When the scout returned, the two were plugged into the transgenic chamber where their DNAs were merged into one Dalek-octopus hybrid. A similar, failed experiment was performed on Earth when the Cult of Skaro attempted to create a Dalek-human hybrid.
When the transgenic process was complete, the committee head commanded, "Release the abomination from its construct and we will prove the inferiority of its tactics."
Another Dalek slid over to the transgenic chamber and opened the hybrid's construct, exposing the creature inside to the outside environment for the first time. The creature had fewer appendages than the many it had previously interconnected with its metallic body. The hybrid felt cold and exposed to the open air. For the first time in its life, it also felt vulnerable.
The committee head commanded, "You have thirty rels to prove your tactical abilities, and then you will be exterminated!"
The committee counted down from thirty. Daleks do not have a sense of panic or fear, but they will recognize when to retreat as a survival instinct in order to live to fight another day. First, it attempted to close the construct, but the other Dalek had locked it open. Cornered and exposed, it blinked its eye and surveyed its surroundings.
(On a side note…at this point in the story, my grandfather was told the data referred to the creature as the "abomination," but he preferred to call this new creature the "Dalektopus".)
The Dalektopus reached its arms up to the tank of water in which the octopus was transported from Earth. It recalled the of moving faster in water. With time ticking away one rel at a time, the Dalektopus pulled itself into the water tank. It may have fewer appendages than it had to operate its construct, but each arm was stronger than it appeared, as if the boneless structure was made entirely of muscle.
With two rels remaining, the Dalektopus dove into the aquarium. The water felt more comfortable than the open air, but it still felt exposed. Collected straight from the oceans of Earth, the water in the tank was not exactly pure. The salt of the ocean water mixed with the waste water pumped in from the ship made the water murky. Besides, it knew the other Daleks would not shoot the aquarium, because the salt water could corrode the other experiments in the lab. Recalling the comment about boiling away oceans, the tank would take much less effort.
The Dalektopus considered its other tactics. The tank was empty, so there was not much structure it could use to camouflage itself. The octopus portion of the hybrid took control and used its basic instincts when encountering a predator—it ejected a cloud of ink and torpedoed to the far side of the tank.
The voices from the other Daleks outside the tank were muffled. What the Dalektopus could understand, the other Daleks thought it had expanded in size, which was false. Actually, the Dalektopus contracted in size and attempted to unsuccessfully blend in with the corder of the tank. The voices indicated the other Daleks scanned the tank for life signs, but the Dalektopus got the notion the ink confused their sensors into thinking the entire tank was filled with the creature.
Using this momentary distraction, the Dalektopus located a better place to hide. While the other Daleks were confused by what was water, ink, or the Dalek hybrid, the creature took the opportunity to pull open the grating to the filtration system, hide itself in the pipes, and then return the grating behind it. Water flowing through the pipe pulled it towards the pump-filtration system, but it used the suckers on its new arms to hold itself steady in place, out of visual range of the aquarium, but still within auditory range.
The other Daleks were instructed to encircle the tank for signs of the creature or its escape. While the others occupied themselves with searching for the hybrid, the Dalektopus pulled itself along the inside of the pipes, careful not to let go and be consumed by the water pump. It felt more comfortable being in a dark, enclosed space and took its time wandering the network of waterways within the floors and walls of the Dalek ship. This different way of travel, unseen by its kin, was a definite tactical advantage.
The Dalektopus continued working its way through the pipes, through valves and chambers, and eventually made its way out of the waterworks and back into the open air. It still did not like the exposure of the open air and hated feeling so vulnerable. Its movement was much slower and more deliberate. Pulling its gelatinous body through the ship's hallways, it practiced more at camouflaging with its surroundings. Colors were easy to blend with, but it still struggled with mimicking textures.
Daleks did not use their appendages much other than to operate their constructs. As muscular as its new arms were, it was exhausting pulling the weight of its body around, especially outside of the water. Daleks had never exerted so much effort, but with each pull, it could feel itself growing stronger.
Taking a moment to rest, the Dalektopus practiced some more with camouflage. It nearly reproduced the appearance of a Dalek's metallic shell, only at a sixth of its full size. In time, if it could increase its size, perhaps it could mimic its original form more accurately.
A solitary Dalek whirred down the hall. It was not one of the group looking for the hybrid. From the darkened corner edge of the floor, the Dalektopus latched onto the back of the Dalek. Being part of the metal construct, the Dalek must have felt the Dalektopus attach to its outer shell. It swiveled its eyestalk around, scanning its surroundings.
The Dalektopus learned of an interesting new weakness—Daleks cannot view their own cuter shell without the aid of another Dalek. With the sensors built into the construct, it was certainly aware of the rare times when a life form touched its outer shell, and could react and protect itself. Another weakness is the outer shell did nothing to the touch of other Daleks. After all, Daleks have symbiotic relationships with their constructs. Why would it harm itself? And, how often would another Dalek be exposed?
Before the hybrid was stripped of its construct, one of the other Daleks had opened it. An interesting fact about Daleks is that it is fairly easy to open the construct casing. The Daleks inside do not open their shells, because they are conditioned by the hive-mind not to do so. Outside, the construct can be opened by a simple touch in the right location, yet other life forms have never lived long enough to find the right spot. And, when they did find the right location on the outer shell, they wouldn't survive long enough to tell anyone. The Dalektopus, immune to the effects of the construct's self-preservation, opened the outer shell, exposing the Dalek inside.
"Alert! Alert! Construct breach! Alert!" the Dalek screamed.
Daleks kill all the time. Typically, they pointed their lasers at the enemy and fired. That was usually enough to kill most other life forms. And, when that didn't work, they had several other ways of killing. Killing is so engrained into a Dalek's being that they rarely think about it, because it's like breathing. No other Dalek, Davros a possible exception, had killed using bare flesh against bare flesh—until now.
The Dalektopus reached its tentacles into the construct, wrapped its muscular arms around the Dalek inside, and crushed it. The helpless Dalek struggled and screamed until its life was squelched out of it. Hate is the most abundant Dalek emotion, but squeezing the life out of another, the Dalektopus searched for the right emotion. It wasn't happiness, glee, or excitement. Those emotions were exterminated from Daleks. The hybrid settled on an intense rush of adreniline-fueled satisfaction. It longed to kill that way again.
Using its eight legs, it pulled itself into the chassis of the construct, pushed the Dalek corpse to the side, and closed the construct around it. As the construct closed around it, the Dalektopus had another conflict of emotions. It felt comforted to be enclosed again, yet also felt its new found freedom of movement restricted. It also felt hungry.
The Dalek construct absorbs nutrients from the environment around them, especially from those it kills. Exerting itself by pulling its new body around, the hybrid felt ravenous. It was not going to let a perfectly good Dalek corpse go to waste.
Together, the construct and the Dalektopus began connecting, building another symbiotic relationship. Yet, the Dalektopus refused to let the construct tap into its mind. Because it was not yet fully aware of what its new body could do, it was not yet willing to share with the hive-mind what it had already discovered what it could and could not do. As it devoured the body of the dead Dalek, the hybrid connected to the basics: operation of the construct, including movement and visuals through the eyestalk.
Other Daleks approached. Not sure if the others were alerted by the warning about the breach of construct or if it was the other group looking for their abomination, the Dalektopus did not want to remain in its present location. It looked for a secluded area where it could buy some time to strategize.
The Dalektopus moved the construct into the main hallway leading to the recharging banks. It merged with the other Daleks and quietly connected the construct to the recharging station. Not wanting to send an alert to the system by running a diagnostics check on the construct, it hacked its system and sent the message, "All systems operational. Construct requires recharge."
Daleks do not bother other Daleks, especially when they are in the recharging stations. The only time they would be for an all-out invasion, which wasn't scheduled for quite some time while they rebuilt their army. The Dalektopus had plenty of time to think.
One of the hybrid's weaknesses was the sluggish movement outside the construct. The freedom of movement allowed it to squeeze through pipes and ventilation shafts. Within the construct, it could only move through Dalek-sized pathways. Although, since the inclusion of hover technology in the construct base, the pathways also included the skies. If only it could swim through the sky like it could through water. The concept stuck in its mind. Why couldn't it? If the Dalektopus could somehow adapt its eight appendages to use hover technology, in theory, it should be able to swim through the air.
On the other hand, would modifying its limbs interfere with its ability to camouflage? It most certainly could ruin the illusion of blending with its surroundings with a piece of technology sticking out. In fact, it might draw more attention to itself that way.
The Dalektopus decided first thing's first. It would adapt its eight legs with hover technology, and then find a way to include it when camouflaging. Stripping the construct's hover base for parts and technology, while carefully assuring the diagnostics system that everything was still operational, the hybrid developed ringlets, one for each tentacle.
The next part of its plan would be tricky. It would need to leave the construct without drawing attention to itself while the ringlets worked as designed. As if a construct opening wasn't enough of an alert, once detached from the construct, the system would run a self-diagnostic and transmit a signal regarding the construct's damage and of the Dalek's death, which would summon a salvage team to collect the construct shell for repurposing.
Counting down from three rels, the Dalek simultaneously opened the construct and activated the hover ringlets. It held on to the sides of the opening construct to balance itself. The diagnostics triggered the signal, warning the others of the damaged construct and the dead Dalek.
The Dalektopus let go of the construct and attempted to fly upward to the ceiling. Instead, it veered sideways and collided with the wall, causing a greater disturbance. Water was much easier in which to swim. Eight arms with less resistance was trickier, and it didn't have much more time to learn; it heard the whirring sound of other Daleks approaching.
Stabilizing itself with two of its arms, it practiced with with other six. Daleks do not have much of an imagination, but it realized if it could slow the movement of its arms as if there was water resistance, airborne movement could be better controlled. It let go of the wall and managed to hover in place gently rippling its arms to stay in place. Knowing it could now swim in both air and water, it felt a greater sense of freedom, yet still felt very exposed.
"Abomination located! Exterminate the abomination! Exterminate! Exterminate!" the Daleks roared, appearing around the corner.
The Dalektopus released its ink to make another distracted getaway. Instead, the ink dribbled to the floor into a sad puddle. When it realized the uselessness of the ink screen out of water, the hybrid made a mental note to investigate another genetic improvement from what the Earthlings called a "skunk".
The ink wasn't completely useless. The other Daleks did move their eyestalks down as far as they could to see if what the abomination had dropped was dangerous. It bought enough time to dart from its exposed wall to the ceiling directly above the pursuing Daleks. Their eyestalks were unable to see directly above them, which was another tactical advantage. The Dalektopus, on the other hand, was able to view the entire party from above by swiveling its one eye around in its socket.
Below, the Daleks bellowed, "Locate the abomination! Exterminate! Exterminate!" They shuffled around further down the hallway trying to avoid one another and get the hybrid within sight of their eyestalks.
The Dalektopus swam downward and covered an eyestalk of one of the Daleks. With its vision impaired, the Dalek cried, "Vision obscured! Exterminate the abomination! Exterminate!"
Before the other Daleks could fire, the Dalektopus shot upward again out of target of the lasers and of the eyestalks. The concentrated laser fire ruptured the dome where the eyestalk connected to the construct. The Dalektopus shot downward, again. This time, it slipped into the hole of the construct to the Dalek inside. The abomination found more satisfaction crushing the life out of another Dalek.
The Dalektopus was not safe within the damaged construct. Surrounded by laser fire and with two damaged constructs, it drew more and more attention to its location. It was time for the Dalektopus to retreat to a safer location.
With a firm, calculated control over the ringlets on its tentacles, the Dalektopus left the broken constructs and darted to the ceiling. In a zig-zagging motion, it swam across the ceiling and disappeared around the corner from the jumble of Daleks coordinating a pursuit of the abomination.
Before the others could keep up, the hybrid took refuge in the Dalek nursery. It's a stretch of the imagination, but there are such things as infant Daleks. Unlike most other babies of the universe, Dalek infants are not cute. While new construct shells are manufactured, new Daleks are grown to operate them. There is nothing parental about how new Daleks are brought into the world. It is very clinical and sterile in order to keep the Dalek gene pool as pure as possible. The term "test tube baby" is a close approximation, but "test tube" implies the use of glass vials. Daleks are cultivated in isolation within cold, metallic spheres. When they have grown large enough, the sphere is encased inside a construct and the Dalek operator hatches inside. They are isolated from the moment of their conception.
The Dalektopus took one of the metal spheres from the nursery. It needed somewhere to hide. The sphere would be a tight fit, but it might be a possible hiding place with its boneless body. Wrapping its tentacles around the sphere, it pulled the metallic ball apart, revealing the infant Dalek inside.
Never before had a Dalek cradled an infant in its arms. At such an early age, the embryonic Dalek's appendages fanned out, trying to read its exposed change of atmosphere, poking and prodding the larger creature holding it. Its tiny eye blinked at the lights in the room. It shivered in the open air, possibly from being cold, possibly from fear. The Dalektopus wrapped its arms around the Dalek infant, and then crushed the life from it.
The whirring of the Daleks grew closer. The Dalektopus was a whirl of arms, working with what it had. It did not have long to execute its plan and hide.
When the Daleks arrived in the nursery, a solitary, metallic sphere sat idle on the nursery floor. The pursuing Daleks laughed at the foolishness of the abomination. Why choose to hide in such an obvious location?
The Daleks surrounded the sphere. One positioned itself further back in the ring from the other Daleks. It fired once at the floor, just beside the metallic sphere. Something erupted from inside the shell and shot upwards towards the ceiling. The ring of Daleks fired upon it, reducing the fleeing creature to a smoldering pile of ash, cinder and warped bits of Dalek technology.
"The abomination has been exterminated," one Dalek announced.
"The genetic mutation of Dalek and octopus is a failure," said another.
"Pure Daleks reign supreme," said the first.
"Daleks reign supreme!" the other Daleks chanted.
Most of the Daleks left the nursery, leaving behind a couple to disintegrate the remaining evidence from their failed experiment. With the nursery sterile once again, they whirred out the door.
A golden ball detached itself from the wall. The Dalektopus pulled off a perfect replica of an incubation sphere. It uncurled its tentacles which were tucked under its body concealing the six remaining ringlets. It drifted downward to the floor.
When the hybrid tried to hide within the sphere, it quickly realized it would not be able to move the metallic sphere, leaving itself exposed. When it had been a Dalek entrusted to review human video footage, it recalled a video of what humans called a "practical joke". And, practical it was; the Daleks fell for it.
The Dalektopus had used the infant carcass and two of the hover ringlets to replicate the human contraption. When the Dalek fired upon it, the sphere was rigged to launch the infant carcass into the air. All the while, the camouflaged Dalektopus hid in plain sight while its counterparts' attention were focused elsewhere.
The hybrid disagreed with the Dalek analysis. The "abomination" deceived the Daleks, therefore it was supreme. In a short time, it quickly learned of its weakness and strengths. It also discovered a few weaknesses of the Dalek race. Given time, it could contemplate solutions to overcome its weaknesses and learn to adapt.
Before going into hiding, the Dalektopus broadcast a final transmission to the Dalek empire. It retold this story of how it deceived the Daleks. The last thing it said was about how it would plot to build a new army of Daleks not afraid to leave their shells—an army whose motivation would be fueled by the rush of crushing its enemies with bare tentacles.
And that's the story my grandfather told me. He always thought it was odd how they found this story in the Dalek's databanks. It was my grandfather's speculation the reason the Daleks had that story in their databanks was that they arrived on Earth to look for the abomination and disguised the operation as an invasion. It was said that the man in a blue box scared them all away, but my grandfather thinks they found what they were looking for and left. If they did find the abomination, he wondered if they found the whole army or just a few prisoners of war.
Personally, I don't know what to believe. I think he may have made up the story, just to scare his grandchildren. Then again, I've caught my grandfather looking at bits of garbage, like a crumpled newspaper or an old shoe sitting harmlessly by the roadside. When I asked him what he was looking at, he'd always say it was nothing, even though I could read the fear in his eyes. Now that I think about it, maybe he was afraid those bits of trash were a Dalektopus in disguise. He always did have an overactive imagination. Maybe not.