For several long horrible seconds, Sam and Clover could only stare teary-eyed and open-mouthed at the huge mound of snow that had buried Alex and the Doctor. It just did not seem possible. Alex gone? And the Doc too? It could not be true.
Ignoring the pain in her legs, Clover angrily rounded on the two Daleks watching them, grief giving way to utter anger. "You metal creeps are so going to pay for that! That was our best friend you just wiped out!"
"FRIEND?" The word sounded strange and incomprehensible to the Dalek patrol leader. The concept of friendship was, as far as the Daleks were concerned, completely irrational and therefore of no worth. A Dalek's purpose of existence was simply to obey its superiors and to conquer, enslave and annihilate all inferior alien beings throughout the universe.
"THAT WORD HAS NOT BEEN PROGRAMMED INTO MY VOCABULARY BANK," replied the patrol leader coldly. "IT IS AS VALUELESS AS YOUR TWO DEAD ACCOMPLICES."
Clover seethed with fury, unable to believe the sheer callous attitude of the Dalek. She was all set to charge at the creature and pound into it with her bare fists, but Sam frantically held her back.
"Easy, Clover," said Sam urgently, barely able to control her own feelings of loathing towards the Daleks. "We'll get a chance to make these monsters answer for what they did, but we're in no condition to do it now."
"THE RED-HEADED FEMALE IS CORRECT, YOU CANNOT OPPOSE US!" stated the other Dalek. "YOU ARE NOW PRISONERS OF THE DALEKS! YOU WILL OBEY ALL ORDERS WITHOUT QUESTION. ANY FURTHER RESISTANCE WILL RESULT IN YOUR IMMEDIATE EXTERMINATION."
"YOU WILL MOVE AHEAD OF US AND FOLLOW MY DIRECTIONS TO OUR SHIP," ordered the patrol leader. "FAILURE TO OBEY WILL BE PUNISHED WITH OBLITERATION."
"Yeah, we kinda gathered that," grumbled Sam, as she and Clover got unsteadily to their feet, trying to ignore the aching pins and needles coursing through their legs. With one last, grief-stricken glance towards the mound that buried their friends, the two weeping girls slowly walked in the direction that led towards the Dalek ship, with their two guards hovering closely behind.
Alex gingerly opened her eyes and peered around her gloomy surroundings. Thick snow surrounded her all around, like the inside of an igloo, illuminated only by the energy from the force field generated by her shield belt.
"Phew, that was way too close," breathed Alex in relief.
"Yes it was rather, wasn't it?" said a voice behind her, making her jump in fright.
"Sheesh, Doc! You nearly made me leap out of my skin!" complained Alex touchily.
"Chin up, Alex," said the Doctor as he looked around and took in their predicament. "It could have been considerably worse for us if you hadn't activated your shield belt just as the snow hit us. If it hadn't been for the force field, we would be finished by now. The energy its producing must also be masking our life signs from the Daleks' sensors, otherwise they'd have already blasted us into oblivion."
"Great, but how are we going to get out of here?" asked Alex, looking up at the snow over their heads, held in place by the force field. "The batteries on this belt won't last forever and neither will the air in this bubble."
"Ah yes, well let's see what we can do about that," said the Doctor as he knelt down and started fiddling with the controls on the shield belt. "If I can adjust the settings, the energy field should expand in size and throw the snow clear off us."
"Well, while you're doing that, would you mind telling me just what those things were?" asked Alex. "You said they were what, Day-leks?"
"Daleks," corrected the Doctor with a grim expression on his face. "Another old enemy of mine. They are a genetically engineered race of mutants in armour casings, whose declared aim is the conquest of the entire universe and the eradication of any life form that isn't a Dalek. I've had more battles with them than I can count and each time, they bring nothing but devastation. Of all my foes, they are the most dangerous."
"Boy, you sure know some mean guys don't you," said Alex uneasily. She now remembered that the Doctor had mentioned the Daleks once before when he and the girls had first met and those aliens did not sound like a bundle of laughs even then. "Guess this means the weather change is no accident," she continued seriously.
"No, the Daleks must be altering the weather using some of the equipment on their ship," answered the Doctor bleakly. "They've made many attempts to wipe out the entire human race and take over the planet, but so far they've failed. The resulting death toll does tend to be quite high though. Wherever the Daleks go, death and destruction is never far behind."
"And Sam and Clover are at the mercy of those crazed over-sized pepper pots!" Alex realized with a look of panic. "We have to save them!"
"Don't worry, we will," promised the Doctor as he finished with his tinkering. There was a sudden spark of electricity from the shield belt and the force field suddenly expanded, throwing off the snow that had entombed them and freeing them. Warily, they looked around their surroundings, but there was no sign of any more Daleks. Or Sam and Clover for that matter.
"Nice job, Doc," said Alex, as she found and picked up Clover's discarded laser lipstick. "Now what do we do?"
The Doctor pointed to some footprints in the snow, heading away into the distance past some further snow banks. "We'll follow the trail while it's fresh," said the Doctor decisively. "If I'm right, this should lead us straight to the Dalek base."
After a long gruelling trek through the snow, Sam, Clover and their Dalek guards finally arrived at the Dalek ship. Despite their current situation, Sam could not help but be impressed at the design of the gigantic flying saucer.
"Wow, now that's what I call a spaceship!" she said in awe and amazement.
Clover was far less impressed. "Totally clichéd if you ask me. I mean, don't they know that flying saucers are sooo fifties?"
"SILENCE!" barked the patrol leader harshly before pushing them towards the ramp that led into the ship. Reluctantly, the girls marched up into the ship and soon they were being filed through a series of long metal corridors.
"Drab much?" commented Clover as she looked around the place in disdain. "Have you guys ever thought of getting some decorators in to try and make the place look a bit more fashionable?"
"DALEKS HAVE NO CONCEPT OF 'FASHION'," stated one of the guards candidly.
"Why does that not surprise me?" muttered Sam under her breath. They marched on a bit further, before they were finally brought into the vast control room and paraded over to face the Red Dalek.
"THESE ARE THE HUMAN PRISONERS," reported the patrol leader to its superior. The Red Dalek swivelled its eyestalk as it inspected each of the girls in turn.
"Let me guess, you're the one in charge here?" asked Sam as she regarded the alien leader defiantly.
"CORRECT. I AM THE RED DALEK, COMMANDER OF THIS MISSION," replied the Red Dalek.
"'The Red Dalek'? Couldn't you have come up with a less obvious and more original super villain name that sounds just a little bit cooler?" snorted Clover. The Red Dalek swung its eyestalk towards her, almost in irritation.
"THIS HUMAN FEMALE IS EVIDENTLY LESS INTELLIGENT THAN HER COMPANION," it proclaimed dismissively. "SECURE HER IN A HOLDING CELL. THE OTHER FEMALE WILL BE REQUIRED FOR INTERROGATION."
Clover was outraged. "Less intelligent? Hey, I'll have you know that…"
But her protests were abruptly cut off as one of the Daleks brutally grabbed her with its sucker arm and started dragging her roughly out of the room and towards her prison cell.
Already feeling steamed up by recent events, Sam rounded furiously on the Red Dalek. "Whatever your crazy scheme, you can forget it, rust bucket! WOOHP has taken on far tougher baddies than you and won! You won't stand a chance!" Sam knew her boasts sounded to the Daleks little more than empty and irritating bluster, but she was in actuality hoping to provoke some kind of response from the Red Dalek that could tell her exactly what these alien invaders were up to.
"YOU ARE INCORRECT," replied the Red Dalek condescendingly, rising to her bait. "THE DALEKS ARE DESTINED TO BECOME THE SUPREME BEINGS OF THE UNIVERSE. NOTHING CAN STAND AGAINST THE MIGHT OF THE DALEK EMPIRE!"
"If you're so tough, why don't you just try to invade with a big space fleet or something? Why bother turning the planet into a giant ice cube?" asked Sam as she looked over at the machine that was currently firing a beam of energy into the sky. Unless she missed her guess, that was the device that was creating the fearsome snowstorms that were currently engulfing the planet.
"THIS IS A STEALTH MISSION FROM THE 51ST CENTURY," declared the Red Dalek. "THE MAIN DALEK INVASION FLEET IS ENGAGED IN FIERCE FIGHTING WITH THE HUMAN EMPIRE OF THAT TIME PERIOD. OUR STRATEGIC POSITION IS WEAKENING, SO WE HAVE THEREFORE TRAVELLED BACK IN TIME TO ELIMINATE THE HUMANS BEFORE THEY CAN HAVE A CHANCE TO OPPOSE THE DALEK EMPIRE FOR SUPREMACY OF THE GALAXY!"
"In other words, you're just a load of big cheaters getting rid of the competition," snapped Sam scornfully. "You remind me of Mandy, her ego is just as overinflated."
"DALEKS ARE DEDICATED TO VICTORY!" snapped the Red Dalek, simultaneously amazed and enraged by the girl's defiance. "WE WILL USE ANY MEANS NECESSARY TO ENSURE OUR CONQUEST. ALL INFERIOR SPECIES MUST BE DESTROYED! DESTROYED! DESTROYED!"
The Red Dalek swung its eyestalk towards one of its subordinates. "CONNECT THIS HUMAN TO THE MIND ANALYSER. WE SHALL LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS 'WOOHP' ORGANISATION AND ITS DEFENCES. THEN WE SHALL BE READY FOR ANY FURTHER RESISTANCE. THE DALEKS WILL TRIUMPH!"