Chapter 3: the Delta Wave
They both stared at the Dalek, and it stared at them, all three remaining completely still. Then Anecdone spoke.
"We should both run, in separate directions. It can't follow both of us."
"What if it catches one and goes after the other?"
"Hopefully they'll be far away enough. When I say go, run as fast you can."
The Dalek adjusted the position of both its gun sticks, one pointing at Susan, the other at Anecdone.
"Go."
Susan ran, the Dalek stayed put, it just watched her go. Then turned towards Anecdone and fired a beam of light which hit him straight in the back. He froze, the light still connected to him. He then stood up straight and ran backwards towards the Dalek which descended to ground level. It turned to face in the direction that Susan had gone and Anecdone moved to a position in front of the Dalek. He then strode off into the forest, the beam of light running behind him.
Susan ran through the forest as fast as she could, trying not to trip over dead tree roots or anything else that might be lying around. But then she did trip over something, and it was a bit bigger then a tree root. Susan turned round to see what she had tripped over. It was a body, there was a short spear sticking out of the back of its head, Susan recognised it as one of the weapons used by the Raston Warrior robot. The body was the girl it had killed earlier. Judging by her skin colour Susan assumed that she was another Thal. Susan looked round and saw the boy that had been with her, he was still covered with the paralysis needles but he seemed to be moving. Just. He looked at her for a few seconds then turned away. Susan wandered what she should do. Should she try to help them or carry on running from the Dalek? Then she was presented with an answer, neither. Anecdone appeared from behind her and grabbed her, throwing his arms round her and pining her to his chest. Susan struggled against it but he was to strong. He then started dragging her backwards, back towards the Dalek. When they got there Anecdone released her and the Dalek hit her with the same beam of light as it had Anecdone. Susan straightened up like Anecdone then they both started walking zombie like in front of the Dalek. They'd both become mere puppets for it, the only thing they now had control of was their own thoughts.
They were soon back in the Dalek city. The Dalek directed them into one of the buildings and eventually into a large room with several consoles lining the walls, most of the Daleks in here were white ones but there was also a Black one as well. It approached them as they came into the room.
"I have captured the other creature that came with the last two we took prisoner," it reported, "I have also captured a Thal for use as a guinea pig."
Susan wandered if the Daleks were aware of the concept of stating the obvious. Then it wandered what it meant by Guinea Pig. She didn't know what the phrase meant. The Dalek released Anecdone and one of the white Daleks descended upon him grabbing him with the robotic tentacles. Then the Dalek pulled him towards a large transparent cylinder in the middle of the room. The cylinder had a small entrance just about big enough to admit a Dalek; it also had a control panel mounted onto the side. Susan then noticed a pile of small black boxes lying next to it. The Dalek picked one up and placed it in the cylinder with Anecdone. Susan then spotted nearby on one of the consoles the key to the TARDIS. She focussed her mind on it and it vanished, reappearing in the pocket of the cloak that Anecdone had given her. The black Dalek turned towards the cylinder and the white Dalek which was now positioned in front of the control panel.
"Activate," the black Dalek ordered.
The white Dalek operated the controls with its tentacles. Anecdone looked at the box as it started to hum. He felt a great pain in his head. Then he let out a loud scream, holding his head for all the pain. He collapsed, still screaming. Then he stopped and his body slackened. He was dead.
"Delta Wave test proves effective on the Thal brain," the white Dalek said, "When shall we have the main transmitter ready?"
"Have it ready for within the next 48 hours," the black Dalek said not noticing one of the boxes disappear. Then it turned towards the Dalek that had brought Susan and Anecdone in, "Take her to the cell with the other three."
"I obey," the Dalek replied, it turned away and left the room with Susan in front of him.
Susan would have closed her eyes if she could during the test, she didn't want to witness a man's death. But then she thought the Doctor might want to examine one of those boxes, which was why she had one in her pocket.
Ian was startled to see the door open, and he certainly wasn't happy to see Susan come in. The Dalek released her from its control and she collapsed as the door closed. Ian tried to get up to help her but he could barely move.
"Susan…are…are you…alright?" he asked weakly, Susan realised that he didn't have much time left and took the box of drugs that Anecdone had given her out the pocket and gave Ian one of the small tubes.
"Drink this," she said, "Quickly."
Ian drank it; he shuddered at the taste of it but began to feel the difference it was making. Susan then turned to see that the Doctor and Barbara were both still unconscious. She couldn't think of a way to safely give them the drugs while they were like this. Then she had an idea. She took two of the tubes out of the box then concentrated on them hard. Then the liquid inside vanished. Now all they could do was wait.
"Still no sign of Anecdone?"
"No Yistel, I haven't seen him for a few hours."
"What about my son and daughter, have they returned?"
"No sir."
"I don't understand. There are no dangerous predators in the forests and the Daleks don't come out of their city to try and hunt us down. So why have they disappeared?"
The Thals had a small settlement in the forest. It wasn't much. Just a few huts made from branches and other materials. They did have a few bits of technology. This they used to make food, clothes and heat. The only real necessities it offered. Some of them occasionally left the settlement to go for a bit of exercise or to observe any activity in the Dalek city. They didn't know what they would be planning next. The radiation attack had been bad enough but it still hadn't wiped them out and the Daleks knew that the Thals couldn't just be hunted down and destroyed. Their leader, Yistel was getting worried. His son and daughter had both gone for a walk in the forest and hadn't returned. They'd said they'd be back by now. Then he heard something in rustling the dead foliage. He looked round to see his son stagger out of it, still with a few needles from the Raston Warrior Robot's attack embedded in him. Yistel ran up to him, relieved to see that he was back.
"Untan, are you alright? Where's Tila?" he asked franticly, then he saw the tears welling up in his son's eyes.
"Tila's dead father," he said.
Susan had been looking round the cell and had spotted a sphere mounted in the wall just above the doorway; closer inspection revealed that it was a surveillance camera. The Doctor, Ian and Barbara had now recovered from the effects of the radiation. The Doctor was now looking at the camera with great interest.
"Fascinating design, I noticed these in the corridors outside. They made them look like they were just decoration. Most ingenious."
"Doctor I don't really think we should be admiring the Daleks workmanship when it comes to something like closed circuit television," Ian said, "The point is that if we try to escape the Daleks will notice."
"Then we'll have to put it out of action then won't we," the Doctor said in a way that suggested he was about to shout EUREKA!
"Let me try," Susan said. She focussed her mind on the camera then closed her eyes to improve her concentration. The camera let out a small explosion which blew the lens off then it started to smoke.
"Well that was easier then anticipated," the Doctor chuckling.
The Daleks that had been manning the surveillance screens that showed the output of all the cameras stared at the one screen that was active, which wasn't active anymore. The cameras only came into operation if they detected non Dalek movement in the area. One of the activated a communication system with one of its tentacles.
"The prisoners have managed to disable the surveillance camera in the cell," it reported.
"Ignore it," the reply came in a deep voice that was clearly not a normal Dalek, "It is not of importance."
"We understand," both Daleks said in unison.
"I want the prisoners brought to me for interrogation," the voice said.
"Understood," both Daleks said again, and then one of them left the room.
The Doctor had put the TARDIS key back in his pocket and was now examining the box that Susan had brought.
"This is very interesting," he said, "I don't know what it is but from what you said it could be pretty deadly. What did you say they called it again?"
"A delta wave," Susan said.
"Well that's a new one on me," Ian said, "Do you know what it is Doctor?"
"In a word, no."
"Barbara?"
"Means nothing here, I don't really understand that sort of thing."
"Well I think we should hold onto it for now," the Doctor said, "It may come in handy for making an attempt to escape."
"How do we do that?" Barbara asked.
"Well hopefully a Dalek may come through this door," the Doctor said, "Providing us a way out."
"And providing it with an excuse to kill us," Ian said, "If they can. Those gun stick things at the front certainly haven't shown that they can kill yet, but if they can't they could still strangle us."
"I'm aware of that."
"So what do we do?"
"We could try blinding it," Barbara suggested.
"And how do we do that?" The Doctor asked.
"With this," Susan said holding up her cloak.
"Brilliant idea, now we just throw that over its eye then we try to run for it."
"Emphasis on the word 'try' Doctor," Ian said, "Do you really think we'll manage to get away without the Dalek fighting back?"
"No," the Doctor said and left it at that.
The Dalek positioned itself in front of the cell door.
"Open," it ordered, "Security code 82U02X from Dalek D92Z4C."
The Door opened. The Dalek entered, the Doctor was standing right in front of it.
"You will come with m…" the Dalek never got the whole sentence out as Susan through the cloak over it.
The Dalek reacted almost instantly firing away with its gun sticks, the Doctor just managed to get out of the way. The Dalek's tentacles were flailing madly, one of them knocked Barbara over while the other grabbed Susan around the throat.
"I was right then," Ian said as he tried to prise them off Susan, "It could just strangle us to death."
He kept trying to pull the claws form the tentacle away but the more he tried the tighter they seemed to get.
"Ian stop it you're just making things worse," Susan cried with difficulty.
Susan then remembered the Delta Wave box. There it was, sitting on the floor. She closed her eyes and focussed mentally on it. It vanished, and then Susan switched it on. The Dalek gave out a loud scream and then stopped. Susan switched the delta wave off.