Chapter Eleven
Meanwhile, Davros was watching the group of Alphan prisoners when Moonbase Alpha put a call through to King Sorvad. "They wish to negotiate my children. Their timing is abysmal." he said to no one as he glanced at the screen. Being a scientist at heart, he wished to observe the rats in the cage and see what they would do. He especially was interested in one particular rat, he thought as he stared at the small video screen in front of him. Never mind, there would be plenty of time to observe her later. He had many plans for Sarah Jane Smith. But for now, he would expand the human Dalek program.
The thought of them sickened him. But as Dalek Jast had said, "They are a necessary evil." Dalek Jast had come to them from the future with the technology to change the disloyal Kaleds and Mutos into hybrid humanoid Daleks. He wanted to trust this Dalek and all the knowledge he could bring to this war torn world, but because of the acts of his own newly born Daleks he realized too late that he could only trust them so far. They had killed all the research scientists as well as his one trusted confidant, Nyder. He was secretly attempting to quietly find a way to control them, leaving them more dependent on him when Dalek Jast arrived. Unless he could prove to the Daleks that they needed him to handle the humanoids, he realized his time could come to an end too. Turning from the screen he steered his chair toward the room that had been set up as a communications room.
Rounding the corner he found Dalek Jast waiting for him. "You will contact Alpha now." the Dalek ordered in his monotone emotionless voice.
"Dalek Jast," Davros began with irritation, "I am unaccustomed to being given orders by my own creations. You will address me with respect."
"Respect? Respect? Daleks do not respect. We do not recognize this emotion. You as our creator should recognize this." the Dalek bellowed loudly. "I bring you technology that you Creator, could only dream of. You are in possession of this emotion, so you will respect me!" Dalek Jast challenged.
Before the pair could protest further, the speaker before them called out. "This is Moonbase Alpha calling King Sorvad. This is Moonbase Alpha calling King Sorvad, please respond." called Sahn's clear voice.
"Moonbase Alpha this is King Sorvad. I would like to speak to Commander Koenig." Davros began his pretense.
"I am Tony Verdeschi." Tony began slowly. His job was to stall this so called king while the Doctor, John and Alan looked for the Alphans being held. "I'm afraid Commander Koenig is unavailable now. We're having a crisis with our nuclear generators." Tony lied. "We're experiencing a power drain."
"A power drain?" Davros enquired. It seemed unlikely. Were they stalling him and why? Didn't they want to retrieve their people and their ship? "I'm afraid I don't understand, a power drain?"
"Unfortunately," Tony began with a pretense of exasperation in his voice, "on our wandering Moon, this is an all too common occurrence. This one is more critical however due to the instability of the Nuclear Disposal Area on our Moon. We're getting some readings of a possible radiation leak near our Life Support section. That coupled with the power drain…" Tony took a deep breath that he hoped conveyed exasperation, for the benefit of Davros. "I think you can see why we were looking for a habitable planet or any mineral resources that are available to us."
"But your people?" Davros tried being sympathetic but was failing miserably.
"Yes, believe me I know." Tony said emotionally, his fists clenched on the desk.
Maya was watching this performance by her Italian love from across the room. She knew he was regretting John's decision not to take him along. Tony was a man of action and had very little patience satiating megalomaniacs. From the Doctor's description of this tyrant, it was just as well that Tony remained on Alpha. She loved him and was grateful he was safe but she could also see he was about to explode once the missing Alphans were brought up. From the brief description the Doctor had given them, it was likely that they were in serious danger or worse, dead.
"Our Eagles cannot launch till we solve the problem with the power drain." Tony said as the signal to Skaro faded and then came back. He was sure this was all due to Maya and her attempt to help him with this ruse.
"I can see you are indeed having some 'issues'." Davros conceded. Maybe they were telling the truth. In any case, he would experiment on the Alphans, the ones he already had anyway. "When do you and the Commander expect to resolve the issues?" Davros tried.
"We have several teams working on them now. However I can't give you an ETA on the restoration. But believe me King Sorvad, we do want to get our people back." Tony finished with determination.
"Will you contact me as soon as you have any updates? I'm sure we can learn much from each other." Davros implored. This was a half-truth. Davros would drain every bit of knowledge he could from the Alphans before turning them into the living husks of humans that would become a human Dalek.
"We will definitely be in touch King Sorvad." Tony lied.
"I will await your contact." Davros said before flipping the switch on his chair that would end the communication. Dalek Jast slipped silently from the room. Davros flipped a switch on his chair and set his gaze to the screen showing the detention room the Alphans were being held in and smiled a thin smile. It was all his thin lips were capable of producing now. But dealing with this group he decided would be entertaining, maybe even something beyond enjoyable. Looking at Sarah Jane Smith he decided that yes, this may be the best day he's had in a long time. Thinking of Dalek Jast he decided he would keep it a secret for now exactly who he had in custody. Dalek Jast may be from the future but his own genius had created the Daleks and he would decide how much Dalek Jast would know about the world and who was currently on it.
"Do you think he bought it?" Tony looked to Maya.
Maya stood and approached his chair. She reached out and lightly massaged his shoulders, attempting to ease the tension she could feel building up in them. "You did a spectacular job Tony."
"In part thanks to you. That was an excellent job with the signal by the way." he said as he closed his eyes and attempted to relax briefly.
"Anything?" Helena asked as she entered the room. She ran her hand through her blonde hair in nervousness. She had stayed in Medical as long as she could. When she had knocked a row of test tubes off the counter absentmindedly, Bob Mathias had suggested she go for a walk to help clear her mind. Currently there was only one patient in Medical. It was an astrophysics engineer who had awkwardly fallen from a ladder and broken his leg. So there was no real need for her to hover there. Without thinking about it, her mind had gone to John. Not that she ever stopped worrying about him, especially when she couldn't be with him. But she understood, or at least tried to. She found herself at the Command Center doors without remembering the trip that took her there.
"Just providing stall tactics. I believe he bought it." Tony answered simply. He knew there was nothing he could do or say that would allay Helena's fears. He'd been in her shoes often enough when he and Maya were separated.
"I saw the Doctor's ship leave Helena. They're on their way. I'm sorry but that's all I know." Maya replied sympathetically. "The Time Lords' temporal engineering is beyond the stories I had heard." she said, deep in thought as she returned to her chair and slowly sat down.
Helena walked over to the Psychon and leaned forward curiously. "What do you mean?"
"Well," Maya began, unsure how to explain quantum mechanics in a way that Helena would understand. Even after living with the Alphans for several years now, there were times like this that she realized how different and more advanced her race was compared to the Alphans. She really loved the Alphans and their humanity. In fact it was that humanity that saved her from her dying planet. But she realized she had a responsibility to support the Alphans and when necessary help them along with her knowledge of science without changing the path they were destined to travel. She'd had that conversation with the Commander long ago. "The Doctor's ship which he referred to as a Tardis was in the shape of a blue wooden box."
"A blue wooden box?" Helena queried.
Maya turned to the computer and typed in the words that she'd seen on the top of the Tardis. She typed in Police Public Call Box and the computer screen lit up with a variety of pictures. She chose the one that was most similar and looked back to Helena, Sahn and Tony who had joined her as she'd begun her computer search. "That is what I saw."
The group leaned in and looked at the box. "I do not understand." Sahn replied. "How can they all travel in such a small box?"
"From what I gathered, the Time Lords space capsules are generally small on the outside but immense on the inside. The Time Lords made it possible by using transdimensional engineering. The Tardis uses a dimensional control as well as several other controls." Maya could see the group was trying to take this all in. "The Tardis, the part that we can see and touch from the outside is in this dimension. When you go inside the Tardis however, you cross into another dimension. The Time Lords are able to create ships that could carry this entire base inside one small box using transdimensional engineering."
"So once this is over," Sahn began, "the Doctor 'could' take us all home in his Tardis?"
"Yes, if they survive the planet and everything that's down there." Tony scowled.
"They will Tony. They will." Maya tried.
"We have to stay positive Tony." Helena said and sat down at her own desk in Command Center. She intertwined her fingers and took some calming breaths. After being in this position many times in the past, she knew it was just a waiting game and there was nothing at this point in time that she could do. And she absolutely hated waiting. She didn't want to leave Command Center; it was where she felt closest to John so she decided on running computer diagnostics on the Medical Center computers. It could easily be done from here, she decided. She'd been putting it off for over a week and decided it would help occupy her mind and still allow her to be where any news of John and the others would come in first.
Each of the Alphans in Command Center sat stoically awaiting news of the fate of their friends.
Just as quickly as the glow formed around Elisabeth's body it seemed to withdraw back into her.
Surprisingly to Ed Spencer, Elisabeth began to stir. "Easy Elisabeth, just stay still."
"I can't. We don't have much time." Elisabeth said with a great deal of effort as she attempted to stand without success.
Victor quickly came to her side. "You need to rest Elisabeth."
"There's no time for rest. We have to get out of here before Davros turns you into those Dalek drones." She was attempting to stand again and with the help of Ed and Victor she was just about able to. She looked at each questioning face in the room and tried to formulate a way to explain the situation to them, a situation she didn't quite understand herself. "First," she addressed the group, "I didn't deceive you. I can't explain it, not yet anyway. But somehow I am who they claim I am. I am Sarah Jane Smith and I have been here before. I don't know how I became Elisabeth Baker." She looked at their faces and saw confusion and affection on some and aggravation and distrust on others.
"This Doctor they're looking for, who is he?" Victor asked kindly. He still trusted Elisabeth or whoever she was.
"I'm still not clear on that myself." Sarah answered. Looking back at the others she realized that they were waiting on her to say something. She'd have to be careful. The two personalities were starting to overlap. Which would win she wondered? "I know that he's a friend. But if they haven't found him or spotted the Tardis…"
"What's a Tardis?" Ed asked in confusion.
Elisabeth found her lips curling into a smile after she'd said the word. She brushed her lips with her hand in a nervous gesture and replied, "It's a time ship that belongs to the Doctor." That answer had come out as naturally as if someone had asked her the color of the sky on Earth. "Anyway, if they haven't spotted the Doctor or the Tardis, I'd have to say we're on our own." With Ed and Victor's assistance she took a few tentative steps forward as she took around the room properly for the first time. She scanned the walls, ceiling and floor looking for any and all means of escape.
Dimi stepped forward and asked, "What are you looking for? Maybe we can help." If he could help Elisabeth he would, even to the point of protecting her from the other Alphans. Which looking at some in the security detail, it looked more than likely that he'd have to protect her with each passing minute.
Sarah spotted the camera protruding from the corner of the room in a second. She saw the light go out and knew they had little time before Davros became curious and turned it on again. On her second pass around the room, she was feeling stronger now. Either stronger or the adrenaline rush was keeping her on her feet she decided, when she found the miniscule indentation on the wall to the left of the forcefield. She needed something to dig into the indentation with, something to give her a way to break the seal that was holding it closed. They'd been stripped of their spacesuits and weapons and there was absolutely nothing in the room.
Ed Spencer stepped forward. "What is it Elisabeth?"
"A way out, if I can pry it open." she answered.
"So we're now dependent on someone who isn't who we thought she was to save our lives? Is that what we're saying now?" Gabriel asked in aggravation.
"Gabriel this is still Elisabeth, the same Elisabeth who has served by our side for seven years. She is our friend and fellow Alphan. We all had other lives before Alpha. It just seems that her life was a bit more extraordinary than any of us or she thought." the Professor reasoned. "Unfortunately for her, but fortunately for us, she 'has' been here before. She is our best chance of escape. So please keep that in mind and everyone," he looked at the rest of the Alphans before finishing, "please try to remain calm."
In the meantime Sarah, as she'd begun to refer to herself in her head had come up with something to wedge into the indentation. She pulled her necklace from around her head and produced her Tardis key.
They stood in awe and watched as she carefully wedged the key in the gap and with a whoosh of air, the panel popped free. Before completely removing it she took another glance up at the camera and could see that it was still inactive.
Victor took the Tardis key from Elisabeth's hand and examined it. "I can't believe it. It's not even marred after all that prying,"
"Nothing can harm this key." Sarah replied with a sense of pride, though she wasn't sure why as she replaced the key around her neck. After another quick glance at the security camera, she said, "Quietly move into the vent, the last one through attempt to put it back. We have to move quickly but quietly. We need to find a way out to the wasteland." Before anyone could question her any further, she moved into the vent and began the journey in which she hoped the Alphans would escape.