Chapter Seventeen
Author's Note: Sending this chapter out early because of my failing internet connection. They won't be out to repair it till Wendesday of next week and I didn't want to skip a week of posting. Have a great weekend!
The Doctor, the Alphans and Sevrin were led to a holding cell. From the tang of metal that was still in the air, it was obvious to the Doctor that the Daleks weren't taking any chances the group would be escaping again. This was a newly minted escape proof cell with no opening other than the door guarded by a force field and two Daleks. The Doctor carefully laid Sarah on the floor, folding his jacket up into a makeshift pillow. It was all the comfort he could give her right now. She'd fallen into unconsciousness again and he'd left Ed Spencer to look after her. He'd completely circled the room now, finding every edge completely and smoothly secured to the next. No vents, nothing. He approached John and the Alphans. "Well they've certainly sealed us in this time." the Doctor remarked to the group. "Still, that hasn't really stopped me before." Looking back at Sarah he added, "But it will slow me down."
"Doctor what do you suggest we do to get out of here?" John Koenig asked.
"Do you have a plan?" Alan asked as he pulled his non Alpha issued jacket closer around him. When he looked to the Daleks, he felt a distinct chill go through his bones.
"What do they want?" Victor asked simply.
The Doctor inhaled deeply, trying to remain calm and not scream at the Alphans knowing more than anything he needed time to think. He looked over at Sarah to see that Sevrin was gently stroking her hair, attempting to give her what comfort he could.
"First to you John Koenig, I'm still working on how to get us all out of here. I'm afraid you'll have to wait till the way out presents itself." He turned then to Alan Carter and said, "Alan, plans are like an artist's inspiration, they just come to me."
"Well I hope you get inspired soon…before they do." Alan said nodding at the doorway behind the shimmering force field at the Daleks standing guard.
The Doctor frowned and turned to Victor Bergman. "Professor what can I say? The Daleks want to destroy everything and everyone that isn't one of them. They want to rule this universe and every other universe as well as every other reality out there." He pointed up. Looking once more at the Alphans as a group, he added quietly, "I want you to know that I'll do my very best to get us all out of here alive. Right now that's the best promise I can give you. Now if you'll excuse me, I want to go check on Sarah."
The Doctor bent down and sat on the floor by Sarah's limp form. He carefully took her small hand in his, ever mindful of her shallow breaths. Since they'd entered the underground bunker, he hadn't observed any more escaping regeneration energy from Sarah's lips. This worried him. Maybe his old mentor had been wrong. The transfusion had extended her life but maybe it wasn't enough to give her the ability to regenerate. He took her pulse which was much too slow. The Doctor hung his head, asking whatever deity that might be listening to help her.
"I'm sorry Doctor. I wish there was something I could do." Ed Spencer said as he watched the pair.
"Me too Dr. Spencer. Me too." He watched her face for a few seconds and then asked Ed, "Did you know her on Alpha?"
Ed's face brightened. "Yes."
"Was she happy? Did she have friends?" The Doctor needed to know that her life wasn't all hardship with the Alphans. He needed to know that she wasn't alone, especially if this was all the time she had left.
"Every time I saw her, she had a smile on her face. She was friends with every person she touched. Always kind, I never heard her say a bad word about anyone." He smiled, opened his mouth to speak and then stopped himself.
"Go on, what were you going to say?" the Doctor asked. These were her friends and he wanted to know as much about her life as he could.
"Elisab…sorry Sarah Jane went through quite a few jobs and roommates. After she became an Eagle pilot, I think she truly felt like she belonged."
"You said she went through roommates?" the Doctor asked, puzzled.
"It seemed that no sooner did she get a roommate, then they'd suddenly become engaged and married. It was a joke around the base that if you wanted to get married to move in with Elisab…sorry, Sarah Jane."
"She had friends then?" the Doctor asked coyly.
The penny finally dropped and Ed answered him, "She had lots of offers for dates but she turned them down, myself included. She would only have a meal with you if you agreed it wasn't a date, that you were just two friends sharing a meal. I guess something inside her knew that she wasn't available, even then." He took a breath and added, "She had lots of friends Doctor. Everyone that met her became her friend and someone they could go to if they needed to talk or a shoulder to cry on. Everyone I know thinks she's the best and on a base our size, I know everyone. Is that what you wanted to know Doctor?"
The Doctor was fighting to keep tears from his eyes. Even in her new persona, she hadn't forgotten him, not really. "Yes, that's exactly what I wanted to know. Thank you."
In the Dalek nursery, the production line had speeded up thanks to orders from Dalek Jast. The Daleks had spared only two of the Elite Scientific Corps, Thonton and Brextin who had the fortune or misfortune as they decided now, to be busy with an experiment when the Daleks killed all the other scientists. Now they were all that were left of their race. The pair had previously heard from those that are now dead, of the Doctor and his mission to stop Davros but both dared not to speak of it aloud knowing their lives were expendable especially with the invention of the Dalek drones. They only remained alive today because of their expertise in the lab.
Thonton was taking one of the newly formed Dalek masses as he called them in his head, and placed it in the top shell of a Dalek casing. He was about to complete the connections that would turn this small grotesque mass into a murderous Dalek. He picked up the first connection when he saw Brextin enter the room. He was carrying a box of instrument, instruments he hadn't asked for. "What…?" he began only to be cut off.
These are the instruments you wanted." Brextin said, while trying to get Thonton's attention with a small jerk of his head. "Please check them for accuracy. I believe they're the ones you requested." He then feigned slipping and the instruments crashed to the floor. Knowing the camera was watching them; the pair bent over and picked them up together.
"What are you doing?" Thonton asked in a hushed tone.
"The Doctor's been captured. He may be our only way out. We have to help him." Brextin said quickly.
"You know what happened to the others that helped him." Thonton replied.
"We're going to die anyway once we've outlived our usefulness to them." Brextin gave Thonton a heated look.
A Dalek having heard the crash rolled up behind them. "Separate and report!" the mechanical voice droned loudly.
"It was my fault. I dropped the tray of instruments and Thonton was helping me to pick them up."
Hoping the Dalek wouldn't see anything sinister in the act, Thonton added, "Let's hurry. I'll need them soon and they must be sterilized first." He handed the last of the instruments to Brextin. "Do you know the correct setting for the sterilization process?" He knew that Brextin did, but he was counting on the fact the Dalek may not.
"Work, you will resume. Resume! Resume!" the Dalek said before leaving the room.
Thonton and Brextin went to the back of the room where the sterilizer was located. This was the only section of the room that wasn't under the watchful eye of the camera. As the pair placed the instruments in the sterilizer one by one, Brextin began, "I was called to repair one of the Daleks in the hallway. It was located outside of Davros' office. While I repairing a conduit on the Dalek's gun arm, I overheard Dalek Jast and Davros. He said that the Doctor and the others that are from that ship the Daleks took down were recaptured."
"So, what are we supposed to do? There are only two of us left." Thonton fired back quietly.
Brextin had to agree. Before the Daleks had taken over, he'd been dating a technician in the security branch. Even though she wasn't supposed to, she'd been trying to impress him with her knowledge of the security system and showed him a few secrets to making the doors malfunction. Which came in handy, and a couple of times kept them from a few embarrassing situations as well as being demoted. "I have to go before the Dalek outside gets suspicious. Do what you can to slow down the Dalek production line and I'll try to figure out a way to get them free." Brextin smiled at an aggravated Thonton.
"You're going to get us killed!" Thonton hissed to Brextin's back as he slipped away.
Bettan stood along the base of one of the many rocky outcrops on Skaro. She peered around the side looking for Jembra. Jembra was a young willowy Thal female that seemed to know the cavern leading to the Kaled bunker better than anyone with the possible exception of Bosh. Bettan knew the girl worshipped her and that's what made it hard to send her on this type of mission. She stayed so close to Bettan's side that she'd started thinking of her as her younger sibling. But when Bettan had listed assignments, Jembra's hand had been the first up. Unfortunately for her, she was the best suited for the task at hand.
But as she scanned the area where Jembra would emerge, she worried. She looked down at her chronometer. She should have returned by now. Looking out along the desolate landscape again, movement caught her eye. It was Jembra, running from cover to cover. She almost breathed a sigh of relief before she saw her stop her run across the last open field she'd need to cross before returning with her report. What was she stopping for? It was all she could do not to yell for her to hurry. Didn't she realize the Dalek patrols could easily find her?
Finally Jembra started across the wasteland and was running for the base of the rock where Bettan was hiding. "What were you doing out there girl, trying to get yourself killed?" Bettan couldn't help but reprimand the teenager.
Instead of looking guilty, the girl smiled and slightly unfastened her jacket to reveal two devices that Bettan had never seen. The two objects were long and appeared to be made of varying sized cubes with a screen on one end. On the side of one was written, J. Koenig and on the other device was written, A. Carter. "They were out in the open Bettan, right where you said the Daleks captured the Alphans, Sarah Jane and Sevrin."
"But the Daleks destroyed the things I saw the Alphans toss aside." She remembered the tang of the Dalek lasers that had wafted across the wasteland.
"That was this." Jembra said as she pulled out a melted lump from her jacket pocket. "It's hard to say what this once was. There were several more of these back there, but I just picked up one to show you." Jembra beamed, hoping for some special recognition from Bettan.
Looking into the girl's face she wished she could somehow reward the girl but that wasn't possible, so instead she used the only thing that was left to her, words. "You did very well Jembra. I'm very proud of you." Reminding herself that these weren't soldiers but almost children, Bettan gave the girl a quick embrace. She was rewarded with a big smile from Jembra. "Let's get back and I'll describe what I think these are as we walk." The pair disappeared into a crevice between some rocks.
In Davros' private office, he finished with a few calculations and quickly fed them into the Dalek nursery production line. He really hated adding morality back to the Daleks' but Dalek Jast left him no choice. The Daleks coming out of the nursery now may or may not follow Davros, but he was sure they wouldn't be controlled by Dalek Jast. Davros smirked as much as he was capable of. He knew that once Dalek Jast was aware of the problem, that he would ask for Davros' expertise to set things right. He would once again be revered by all the Daleks including Dalek Jast.
He quickly scanned all the Dalek holding cells. Where had Dalek Jast taken the Doctor, the Alphans and Sarah Jane Smith? He quickly scanned the security cameras in the corridors on this level, till he found two Daleks standing outside a door with a force field. But this wasn't in the block of holding cells. This must have been newly constructed. He tried to patch into the security camera he knew must be located inside the cell but was unable to, which meant he was locked out of this section of cameras or in their haste to construct the cell they never installed one. He flipped a switch on his chair and using the security camera looked outside his own door. The hallway appeared to be empty. So he likely wasn't locked in and he wasn't being guarded to prevent him from leaving. After his last conversation with Dalek Jast, he wasn't sure what security measures would be taken concerning him. Entering a code on his chair he opened his door and rolled through. He would go see the Doctor.