Chapter 17

Ed didn't like this. People out there were dying, having a hard time with the daleks already in Amestris. And there were more on this ship. A lot more. And he hadn't come up with any ideas about what to do with them yet.

Somehow, Winry was calm. She looked at two daleks in a control room, apparently where they steered the ship, watching the repairs take place.

"It's really kind of fascinating," she said.

Ed felt himself deflate slightly. From her tone, she was trying to distract herself.

"REPAIRS COMPLETE."

Wait, what?

"RETURN TO THE ATMOSPHERE. WE WILL FIRE FROM ABOVE, AND REPORT THIS."

"WE OBEY."

Oh no. Oh no. Neither of those things were good. Ed and Winry exchanged panicked expressions. Well, Winry looked panicked. Outwardly, Ed just turned the eyestalk towards her. He was pretty sure she got the idea.

They had taken off. Out the window of the control room Ed could see the ground getting farther away. But they hadn't done anything else yet, and it had to stay that way.

"WAIT," Ed said, rolling into the control room.

The two daleks turned to him. One of them looked different. It had a black casing, with white orbs. It stuck out against the dark background and silver daleks.

"WHAT IS THIS?" said dalek asked. "EXPLAIN. EXPLAIN."

"I HAVE CAPTURED A HUMAN," Ed said. "SHE WILL TEACH US ABOUT THIS ALCHEMY, THEY USE."

"THEN SHE MUST BE TAKEN TO THE SUPREME DALEK."

The black dalek led the way out of the room. They moved down the hall. Ed could feel the ground sort of vibrating. Because they were in the air. They were in the sky, on an alien(?) space ship, with aliens, who wanted to kill them. This was really happening. True, Ed had seen some strange things. It was part of why he could work so well during this. But this was certainly something different.

They reached their destination, coming into a large circular room. This one had many daleks, probably all the ones still on this ship. At the end of the room, on a sort of pedestal, sat a red dalek, with three lights on the dome, and gold orbs. It wasn't anymore intimidating than the others, but the fact that there were so many in the room sure was.

"WHAT IS THIS?" the dalek, presumably the supreme dalek, asked. "WHY HAVE YOU BROUGHT THIS HUMAN HERE?"

"THIS HUMAN CAN USE ALCHEMY," Ed said. But they hadn't known what that was. "IT IS THE STRANGE ABILITY OF THE HUMANS HERE."

"THEN YOU WILL SHOW US," the supreme dalek said.

"Why should I?" Winry asked. Bold move. Ed looked at her. She was gripping her own hands, looking paler than usual, and her legs might have been trembling a bit. However, she glared at the supreme dalek and spoke clearly and defiantly. "You're going to kill and enslave our home either way. Why would I show you anything?"

She was trying to buy time. While all the daleks were here watching them, they couldn't be controlling the ship.

"OUR SHIP HAS BEEN RESTORED. YOU WILL TELL US, OR WE WILL FIRE, AND ANNIHILATE THIS PART OF THE PLANET."

"Oh. I see." Winry lowered her head. From this angle, Ed couldn't tell if she was faking her defeat or not. Then she straightened up and took a deep breath. "I need something to draw with. Some chalk or something."

"GET HER THE SUPPLIES SHE NEEDS." The dalek supreme focused back in on her. "YOU SHOULD HOPE, THAT THIS IS WORTH THE DALEKS' TIME."

They had a moment of relative peace. Then a dalek came back in with chalk. Winry wasn't going to question where it got that.

"Right."

Ed watched as she drew a transmutation circle on the ground. It was a simple one, one of the first he and Al had done when they were young. Winry certainly would've seen it back then, and Ed had coached her on what to do during their long trip here. The circle looked right. But that was the simple part.

Winry pressed her hands against the circle, eyebrow's knight in concentration. You needed to know something about the chemicals you were reshaping. Sparks appeared around the circle, and a part in the center started to rise. It reached her eye level. Even bent over, kneeling, that was impressive for a first time. Then she must've stretched the material too thin, because it toppled back over.

The daleks backed up a bit. "THE HUMAN MALE DID NOT NEED THAT TO MAKE FIRE. HE SNAPPED HIS FINGERS."

"He had the circle on his glove," Winry explained. Ed wasn't sure if that was true. He didn't need the circle on his gloves anymore, but it was probably a good call to use the explanation.

"SILENCE," the supreme dalek ordered his other, still talking, daleks. "DO ALL HUMANS POSSES THIS ABILITY?"

"Yes."

Well that was a bold lie, but Ed saw the reasoning behind it. In doing so, she was putting a value on all the people below.

"THEN WE WILL FIND THE BEST ALCHEMIST, AND CONVERT THEM."

"WHAT?" Ed asked, stunned tone carrying even through the metal voice.

"What do you mean convert?" Winry demanded.

"HUMAN ALCHEMISTS WILL BE BROUGHT HERE. AND THEY WILL BE CONVERTED INTO DALEKS." They could do that? "AND WE WILL START WITH THIS ONE."

"WE OBEY."

Two daleks rolled forward and grabbed Winry with their little suction limbs.

"Ed. Ed!" She started struggling against them, but it wasn't working. Ed had gotten one of those suctions on his coat, and then he'd needed to give up the coat. He knew how strong they were.

Ed had to do something. He looked at the retreating daleks, two of them dragging Winry away. He mentally checked his weapon, still on stun. He yelled, and started firing.