Chapter Eight
Elisabeth countered, "You're mistaken. I have never been on this planet before so there is no way you could have a scan of my DNA or anything else." 'Where was this new bravado coming from?' Elisabeth wondered.
"Surely you haven't forgotten our little session." he countered almost with a sense of glee and arrogance.
"I don't know what you're talking about. What is this place and who are you?" Elisabeth demanded.
"Fine, I will play your little game…for now. This is the planet Skaro." He waved his small disfigured arm at the two creatures. "These are my children, the Daleks." He nodded his head back to indicate the humanoids with eyestalks in their foreheads. "They, like you are something new. Do you remember the scientists and the others you and the Doctor turned against me? I have found a way to make them useful after all." He almost laughed when he said that. "I call them my Dalek drones." He waved his hand around the room to indicate the Alphans. "It appears you have given me a way to increase my stock. They're not as indestructible as my children; still…they have their uses."
At the mention of their impending living death, the Alphans were now truly afraid. The security guards were sizing up the room, looking for any means of escape. But the Daleks were aware of the human inhabitants fear and had alerted the humanoid drones to be ready.
"As long as we're pretending that your total lack of memory is real, let us conclude the introductions. I am Davros. I created the Daleks. Well, I and my former chief scientists. I say former because once you and the Doctor turned them against me; I had no choice but to eradicate them."
Something was happening to Elisabeth. To anyone watching it was apparent. She was sliding down the wall and crumbling to the ground. Her face was going through a myriad of emotions. The other Alphans wanted to protect Elisabeth. To each of them Elisabeth was a friend and for some a confidant. Now she was being threatened by aliens that were planning on killing not just her but all the Alphans. They were helpless.
Elisabeth was lost in her own personal hell. So many images were going through her mind. She saw herself strapped to a table and being tortured by Davros. She saw the scientists that Davros had mentioned. Each was wearing their pristine white uniforms. Each so full of hope that they could turn the madness that their lives had become around. They never wanted this for their future. Ronson, she remembered Ronson. He was gone now, probably turned into one of those walking dead humanoid Daleks. And what of Sevrin? He was considered a Muto, probably not pristine enough for Davros' mad experiments. She had hope for Sevrin. She only wished she shared that same hope for the Alphans and herself.
Elisabeth still wasn't sure why she had memories of all the events swirling around in her mind, but nevertheless they were there. Davros had called her Sarah Jane Smith and while this sounded somewhat familiar, she was still Elisabeth Baker. But now this Elisabeth Baker had a new attitude. She 'would' survive and she would do everything in her power to get the Alphans home. As for this 'Doctor' they were looking for…he too was somewhat familiar. Not that she could see him in her mind's eye but she could almost feel him, almost hear his voice soothing her. She could feel what it was like to be with him and fight by his side. Fighting for the good…always fighting for the good. Elisabeth decided that this would be her mantra. She would do the right thing. Now she just had to figure out what that was.
Elisabeth stood with her newfound confidence now noticeable. She decided to bluff. She was sure she'd done it many times before even though she couldn't recall the last time. "Davros if you say I'm such a good friend of this 'Doctor', then why aren't we together now?"
"I'm sure he is here. Just as I am sure he will be returning for you. If he is planning on making another feeble attempt to destroy the Dalek nursery again he will be in for a surprise. After his last attempt at sabotage we have reinforced security around all nurseries and all labs. He will be defeated." Davros screamed at her, his wheeled support system now nearly on top of her.
One of the Alphan security guards Mike Davis, pushed his way past the humanoid Daleks and pushed onward towards Davros in an attempt to protect Elisabeth. He wasn't sure what they wanted with her but it was clear this wasn't going to end well for her. He had grabbed the back of Davros' chair when the Dalek on Davros' right fired his laser at him. The Alphans watched in horror as his body literally lit up before he collapsed to the ground.
Without regard for his own safety, Ed Spencer jumped forward and examined the fallen man. "He's dead!" he yelled at the stalwart Daleks. He jumped to his feet and lunged forward toward the nearest Dalek before being restrained by Victor. "You murdered him!" he spat out.
"We do not answer to humans. You will return to the others. Return. Return. Return." it demanded.
"The human is correct about one thing my children, let us remember that they will make excellent drones. Let us not waste our stock." He turned his attention back to Elisabeth and asked again, "So you still feign ignorance. You still have no idea," Davros waved his arm about to its limit, "where the Doctor is or how you acquired Time Lord DNA? Is that what you would have me believe?"
"It's the truth!" Elisabeth shouted back, though to her surprise with more uncertainty than she's felt before. She looked beyond Davros to see doubt now in her fellow Alphans' eyes. She didn't know what to say to any of them at this point so she did the only thing her mind was telling her to do, she glared back at Davros. "This is pointless, I don't have the information you want!"
Victor tried to reason with Davros. "Elisabeth is correct. You have her confused with someone else. We mean you no harm. We were simply looking for a planet to settle on." He spread his hands in what he hoped was a show of friendship. "Elisabeth has been on Moonbase Alpha for close to seven years. She is not the person you think she is." he finished with a smile, hoping to appease this creature. Victor was now sincerely worried about the future of the entire landing party.
"Not that you deserve an answer human." Davros began.
"Victor, Victor Bergman." Victor tried again.
"Human." Davros repeated with revulsion. "Drones do not have designations. But I will show all of you that you have a criminal hiding among you, a murderer of my children when they were at their most vulnerable. She and her accomplices 'will' be punished!" Davros raised one pointed finger in the air. He turned his attention back to Elisabeth. "Let me refresh your memory." At that he flipped one of the buttons on his chair and a panel to the left of Elisabeth slid away to reveal a screen. As soon as it was clear the screen sprang to life.
On it was Elisabeth albeit with shorter hair. She was strapped to a sloping table with wires coming from a metal helmet strapped to her head and other wires coming from the restraints about various parts of her body. She was moaning, obviously in a great deal of pain. Next to her equally restrained was a curly brown haired man who was also crying out in pain. Elisabeth looked from the screen in disbelief. The man on the table next to her was Harry though she knew he wasn't a government inspector. Not then anyway. It was so confusing. She looked to the Alphans who were looking stunned. Elisabeth didn't want to but forced herself to look back at the projection. The camera left the tortured pair and swung over to another identical table set up next to Davros whose hand was on the switches controlling the amount of torment the pair was under.
When Elisabeth saw the man on the metal table with wires protruding from it, she could almost swear her heart skipped a beat. She knew him. She couldn't recall his name but the feeling…the feeling was one of love and extreme familiarity. She found it hard to keep from smiling. Was this the 'Doctor' he was asking about? She brought herself out of her reverie and focused on the scene in front of her.
The curly haired man yelled out, "Davros, if I tell you what you want to know, I betray millions of people in the future. I can't do that!" the sound of his voice even under pressure seemed almost velvety to Elisabeth's ears.
"But you can! You will tell me! You will tell me! You will tell me!" Davros screamed.
The curly brown haired man on the table next to her screamed out, "Doctor please, don't tell Doctor.
But one almost imperceptible look between the man in the chair and the female, and the man gave in. "All right, all right! Just leave them alone!" the Doctor screamed. The wall panel slid back into place and the screen disappeared. Davros looked back at Elisabeth with great satisfaction. It was clear that the video had made an impression on her. "Now Sarah Jane Smith," he paused for effect, "where is the Doctor!"
Elisabeth stood in front of Davros, the Daleks, the drones and the Alphans speechless. She could see them all standing there waiting for an answer. She could hear what he was asking her, but her mind was elsewhere. It seemed to be taking a trip down memory lane. She saw the blue box she dreamed of, only this time she was going through its doors. It was such a familiar journey, one she'd taken more times than she could count. Standing at the large console was the man on the video. He wore a ridiculously long scarf and was wearing a big toothy grin that spread across his face the second he saw her enter. He pulled a switch down and the clear and tinted glass rods in the center of the console began bobbing up and down. They were in flight and he was rounding the console. When he pulled her into his arms and hugged her to his chest she felt safe. Safer than she'd felt in a long time. She inhaled the spicy scent that was the Doctor, felt the double beats of his hearts, this was her Doctor and she closed her eyes.
Davros watched the play of emotions wash over her face with satisfaction. "We will return soon. I believe she will be more receptive now." Then looking at the Alphans added, "Lower the planet's force field so that the humans can 'rescue' their friends." The Daleks, Davros and drones headed for the doorway and the drones lowered the forcefield guarding the group.
Once Davros was almost clear of the doorway and right before the forcefield had been raised, he turned around and stated to no one in particular, "We can always use a fresh supply of drones." He raised his crooked finger and pointed it at Elisabeth. A beam of electricity shot from it, striking Elisabeth in the chest. With a crooked grin, his chair swiveled around and rolled away as the forcefield snapped back into place.
Elisabeth's body was thrown back roughly against the wall before sliding down to the floor in an unconscious heap.
Ed Spence was at Elisabeth's side in an instant. Patting his shoulder, Victor asked, "How is she Ed?"
Ed lifted her eyelids and checked her vitals as best as he could without instruments. "It's hard to say without a Bioscan unit but she doesn't look good."
Frazer moved forward and asked Victor, "That was definitely Elisabeth on that video Professor, but how? They made it seem like she was here not long ago. And who were those people she was with?"
Brian Mitchel stepped forward and said accusingly, "She said she was a teacher before coming to Alpha."
"Why would a teacher be traveling through space with two men? What do we really know about her?" Gabriel Swanson asked with irritation. It seemed to him that Elisabeth was the only one they were really interested in and the rest of them were going to be turned into those drone things.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Dimi tried to calm Gabriel down. He could see that this could turn ugly for Elisabeth very quickly unless someone stepped in. "Elisabeth is our friend. She's been a good friend to all of us."
"Dimi's right. Everyone needs to calm down. Elisabeth or Sarah Jane Smith or whoever she turns out to be is an Alphan now. You could see that before he played that video, she had no memory of any of this." The Professor swept his arms expansively. "If she is Sarah Jane Smith, she may have an idea of how to get out of here. We have to find a way to warn Alpha before they send anyone else here."
"I wasn't exaggerating before. She's really not looking well after that." Ed said as he continued to try and care for the injured Elisabeth. Her breathing was getting shallow, her heartbeat was slowing and she was getting progressively paler by the second. He could tell that there was a good chance she wouldn't survive the harm that had just been inflicted on her and was about to say so when Frazer interrupted his thoughts.
"Professor look!" Frazer said, while pointing to Elisabeth's prone form. There was a golden glow beginning to surround her body.