Chapter 4: Escape
The Delta Wave box reappeared in Susan's hands. The Dalek was now completely still; the Doctor looked at it with interest. Then found a small switch mounted on the back. He flicked the switch and the Daleks mid section opened. Inside was a series of electronics and wired into them a small grey creature with tentacles and one eye. It was dead.
"Well I'm glad I'm not one of those then," Ian said to himself, "Could you close it Doctor it's making me sick to look at it."
"Perfectly understandable," the Doctor said and closed it.
"So what do we do know?" Barbara asked.
"We leave," Susan said quickly, "And take this with us."
"Why?" Barbara asked.
"Well it must have come here to take us somewhere; we can make any other Daleks we pass look like its taking us there."
"Well where was it going to take us?" Barbara asked.
Susan placed her hands on the Daleks top and closed her eyes. The Daleks last instructions flashed through her mind.
"For interrogation," she said taking her hands off it.
"Well then lets go and get interrogated," Ian said chuckling slightly but stopped at the very stern look the Doctor was giving him.
A small group of Thals arrived at their encampment dragging something behind them. The TARDIS.
"What is this?" Yistel asked the group.
"We don't know," on of them said, "We found it in the wasteland outside the forest. It took us a while to bring it here. We think it might have planted there by the Daleks as a weapon."
"An interesting shape for a weapon," Yistel muttered, "What about the markings on it," he added indicating Police Box signs and public information notice on front, none of the Thals could read, and they wouldn't have been able to read Earth language anyway.
"We don't know about that either," another Thal replied, "They don't use regular Dalek characters."
"Then it is clearly not of Dalek origin," Yistel said.
"How could it be? There aren't any other forms of intelligent life on this planet that could build something like this."
"There aren't any other forms of intelligent life that we know about," Yistel replied, "Prehaps it's a group we've never encountered."
"Then why would they plant this in the wasteland.
There was a pause in the conversation.
"I don't know," Yistel said and left it at that.
The Dalek glided along the corridor easily with the Doctor, Ian Barbara and Susan just in front of it. Susan was concentrating heavily on keeping the Dalek in motion, but to do this was using up a lot of her concentration so she couldn't control where she was going so the Doctor was holding onto her and steering her in the right direction. They passed several other Daleks on the way which had ignored them. Gradually control over the Dalek became much easier and Susan was able to focus more on what she was doing and control the Dalek subconsciously.
"How far you think it is till the way out?" Barbara asked.
"No idea," Ian replied, "These corridors are like a maze."
Another Dalek glided past.
"Do you think they might be getting suspicious?" Barbara asked.
"I don't think so," Ian replied, "Why?"
"We could try to make this a bit more convincing."
"How?"
"One of us could try to escape."
"I don't think we should do that," the Doctor said, "Whoever tried could get killed."
"He's got a point," Ian said, "I don't think we should risk it."
"I'll do it," Susan said.
"No I forbid it," the Doctor said seriously.
Susan ignored, then she ran back down the corridor keeping control of the Dalek which turned round and followed her.
"Stupid child," the Doctor muttered to himself.
Susan kept running and then turned the corner down another corridor. Then she saw in front of her another Dalek, a black one. It turned towards her and fired it weapon at her. She fell on the floor, unable to move. She watched the Dalek draw closer to her and kept the other one closing in from behind. If locked the claw from one its tentacles round her neck and pulled her upright.
"If she tries to escape again exterminate her," the black Dalek said.
"I obey."
The Dalek and Susan rejoined the Doctor, Ian and Barbara. Susan removing the paralytic effect of the Dalek's weapon mentally and was soon walking again.
"That was a very foolish thing to do Susan and you know it," the Doctor said, "And as for you," he added turning to Barbara, "It was very stupid to suggest the idea in the first place."
They all remained silent as the Doctor continued to rant on and on about stupidity and how Susan could have been killed. Then Ian interrupted him.
"Doctor, I think we're crossing one of the bridges."
"What makes you think so?" the Doctor asked.
"Well…" Ian jumped on the floor, it sounded a bit different from the floor the rest of the way, like it was hollow, "I think we should get off here."
"I agree the," Doctor said.
"Stand back then," Susan said as the Dalek backed against one of walls.
They all stood a short distance from the Dalek as both its gun sticks raised. It then blasted a large hole in the wall. Ian looked out of it; they seemed to be a few floors up from where they'd been, he hadn't noticed any sign of changing levels.
"It's quite a drop," he said, "Maybe we should try a little lower…"
He stopped as he saw the Dalek glide out of the hole and hovered in mid air in front of them. Then its base started to get bigger, wider in fact. Ian looked at Susan, she had her eyes closed and taking breathing heavily. She was concentrating hard on what she was doing. Surround air molecules were gathering together to become solid around the Daleks base. Then she stopped, stepped out of the hole and onto the widened base of the Dalek.
"Are you sure that's safe?" Barbara asked nervously.
"Yes I'm sure it is," Susan said, "The tentacles should be able to hold us here."
"Ah well, pride comes before a fall," Ian said and stepped onto the base.
Some time later the Dalek touched down just outside the city, the Doctor, Ian Barbara and Susan stepped off its base which returned to its normal size.
"What should we do with this thing now?" Ian asked.
"I think we should keep it with us," Susan said.
"Why?" Barbara asked, "Haven't encountered anything really threatening apart from the Daleks."
"I think the Raston Warrior Robot might be here," Susan said and explained how she encountered the dead girl that had been its latest victim.
"Well from what we saw of it last time I don't think having a weapon would be much use against it," Ian said.
"I think its better to have a weapon of some sort, even if its going to be useless then to haven none at all," Barbara said sternly.
"Well let's hope we just don't encounter it," Ian said and the four of them strode into the forest with the Dalek gliding slowly behind them.
A Dalek glided along one of the bridges between the buildings then saw the hole in it. It examined the hole then turned to go; it had to report this to its superiors. The prisoners may have escaped.
Yistel looked down at the body of his daughter. It had been brought back on a stretcher after Untan had shown a small party of Thals where it was. They'd removed the spear from it which Yistel was now holding. It intrigued him; it was not a Dalek weapon. He thought about this, and about the box that had been found outside the wood. He started putting two and two together. Then he called together a small group of Thals.
"I've been thinking," he said to them, "We have two incidents here, first the discovery of the blue box. Second my daughter's murder. I have deduced that the same people are responsible for both incidents. I want you to go and find them, capture them and bring them here."
The Thals left, collecting weapons and then they went into the forest.
The Raston Warrior Robot carried on through the forest. It had homed in on every possible target and after the first one had checked to see whether it had been its actually target first. So far it had been unsuccessful. It was now homing in on another target, which was quite a distance away.
The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan continued their journey through the forest and back to the TARDIS. They all remained silent, Susan was getting nervous. She didn't like the forest, it was to quite and still. It gave her the impression that something was going to leap out and attack them. And it did. A Thal came out of the foliage quietly and struck Susan on the head with a metal club. She instantly fell unconscious and the Dalek stopped moving. The Thal dragged her back into the foliage; none of the others had noticed the incident. The Thal wasn't alone in, there were two others with him.
"What do we do know?" one of them asked.
"The others are further down their path, they can get them."
"What do we do with this one?"
"Tie her up and take her back to the camp, and make sure the bonds are very tight we don't want her escaping."
"She's wearing Anecdone's cloak," the third Thal said.
"Then they must have killed him and taken it from them. Even more reason to make sure she doesn't escape."
Twenty black Daleks were now assembling in a large room with a circular table in the middle showing a map of the surrounding area. Then two more Daleks entered, first a red one-the Dalek Prime, then a Gold one-the Dalek Supreme. They faced the black Daleks-the control Daleks that were surrounding the table.
"Dalek D41E9H has reported that the prisoners have escaped," the Dalek Supreme said, "Dalek D92Z4C was sent to bring them for interrogation, we have now lost track of Dalek D92Z4C."
"Activate the tracer signal," the Dalek Prime said to one of the Control Daleks.
The control Dalek manipulated a few controls on the table with its tentacles then a light started flashing in the middle of the map, in an area inside the forest.
"Dalek D92Z4C has been taking by the prisoners," the Dalek Supreme concluded, "We must assume that Dalek D92Z4C is now non-functioning."
The light stopped flashing.
"The prisoners are not important," the deep voice said, coming through communication systems in the room, "They will be destroyed when the Delta Wave sweeps across the planet. How long until it is ready?"
"12 hours," the Dalek Prime replied.
"Then get to your positions in readiness for it," the voice said. Then all the Daleks left the room.
"I wonder if the Daleks have noticed we've escaped," Ian said.
"Probably, that hole in the bridge would be difficult to miss," Barbara said.
"Yes," Ian said slowly, "You should have fixed that Susan," he added turning round, then he noticed.
"Doctor, Susan's gone," Ian said and the three of them stopped.
"How long do you think she could have been missing for?" the Doctor asked.
"Dunno," Ian said, "We've been walking through here for just over an hour or so."
"The Daleks gone to," Barbara pointed out.
"Do you think something might have got her?" Ian asked.
"I don't know," the Doctor replied, "As you said earlier the only hostile life…in fact the only life we've encountered so far is the Daleks."
"What about the Thal that gave Susan the drugs?"
"Well I don't he was hostile."
"You don't think the Dalek could have got her, it was right behind her after all."
"Don't be ridiculous," the Doctor said, "She had it perfectly under control and its operator was dead anyway."
"Yes but her concentration might have slipped and caused her to make the gun fire."
"Hmm…that could be a possibly," the Doctor said sounding as though he wasn't too sure if it was.
"Well if that did happen let's hope the gun wasn't on kill," Barbara said.
"Well I think we should go back and find her," the Doctor said.
"No need to do that," a voice said coming from a source hidden in the foliage.
The Thals came out of hiding; there were at least ten of them. They were surrounded.