Chapter 5: The Thals
One of the Thals brought the unconscious Susan to their camp, she now had her wrists and ankles bound tight. The Thal dumped her on the ground infront of Yistel who had been waiting for them.
"We caught this one," the Thal said, "There were three others with her. And a Dalek."
"A Dalek!" Yistel was shocked to hear this, why would the Daleks ally themselves with any other creature when they were determined to wipe out all life on the planet.
"Yes sir, but it stopped moving when we knocked her out."
"Well done Tenop, is there anything else?"
"Yes, we think they might have killed Anecdone."
"Why do you think that."
"She's wearing his cloak."
Yistel had noticed this fact, he stared at Susan and what he'd just been told was confirmed.
"Why would they kill him and take his cloak?"
"A trophy perhaps or maybe they just tried to steal it and killed him the process."
Yistel thought about this for a moment, wondering what they should do with Susan for the time being.
"Take her into my hut," he ordered, "And make sure it's guarded."
"Well you must be the Thals then," the Doctor said at the small band of armed Thals round them.
"That's right," one of them said, "And whoever you are you're not welcome here."
"Well if you don't want us then perhaps we can leave."
"No."
"Oh."
"Then what are you going to do with us then?" Ian asked.
"You will be taking back to our camp, after that what happens to you if up to our leader."
"Well let's hope he's the sort of man who isn't into killing people," Ian commented as they were ushered in the general direction of the Thals camp.
"I rather doubt it somehow," the Doctor said gravely."
Activity in the Dalek city was increasing. A high antenna mast had been raised on the roof of one of the buildings and a large number of white Daleks were massing in the room where Anecdone had been killed. All of them making constant checks on the equipment for what they were planning to do.
"Main power supply functioning?"
"Check."
"Transmitter functioning?"
"Check."
"Delta Wave Generator functioning?"
"Check."
"City defences functioning at full capacity?"
"Negative, city defences down to half power."
"Rectify immediately,"
"I obey."
The Raston Warrior robot heard all of this. It picked up all the information and processed this. Could the Delta Wave affect it? As it was an unknown weapon there was every possibility that it would. It worked out its new task, get inside the city before it was activated. That way it would survive, plus the targets would be killed as well. It located the city and set off towards it, keeping track of how long till they activated the wave. 10 and a half hours to go.
The Doctor faced Yistel in a very serious manner, trying his best to show authority towards the Thal leader. Ian and Barbara were now inside Yistel's hut with Susan and the Doctor was trying to persuade Yistel to release them.
"You were seen with a Dalek," Yistel said, "The Daleks are our enemies, and then you must be an enemy as well."
"That Dalek was dead and we only had it for protection," the Doctor replied, his tone of voice showing great anger, "The Daleks took us as prisoners, and I have been told that they also captured and killed one of your number who helped us."
"Helped you?"
"Yes, he provided us with a set of drugs against the radiation that has poisoned this planet. Now what was his name again…Anec something. Oh I can't remember."
"Anecdone?"
"Yes that was it, Anecdone."
"So you didn't kill him."
"No, the very thought of murdering someone is completely against my moral principals."
"Then do you know what this is?" Yistel asked and handed the Doctor the blood stained spear that had been taken out of his daughter's dead body.
"This is a weapon used by a machine that was sent to destroy us," the Doctor said, "It seems Susan was right then, it did manage to get here."
"What made you think likewise?"
"I thought I'd lost it in the vortex. Where did you find this weapon?"
"It was used to murder my daughter Tila. Tell me, why did it kill her?"
"I don't know, it is only programmed to kill either anything that attacks it or a specific target."
"Tila would not have attacked a creature like that, so neither reason could be applied to her death."
"Perhaps it mistook your daughter for Susan," the Doctor suggested, "How old was she?"
"About 15 years old," Yistel replied.
"I thought as much, about the same age as Susan."
"What is this creature then that only kills what is asked to or what threatens it?"
"A Raston Warrior Robot, perhaps one of the most intelligent machines in existence. But programmed to obey instructions."
"What does it look like?"
"It has humanoid shape, but it is made of metal and has a slivery outward appearance. And no facial features to speak of."
Yistel remained silent as the words sunk in; he wondered how it had encountered and killed his daughter and only left his son paralyzed. However had built such a creature must have been a very corrupted civilisation. Then his mind turned its attention towards the box they had found outside the forest.
"Do you know what this is then?" Yistel asked pointing it out.
The Doctor turned round, he hadn't noticed the TARDIS there, he wasn't pleased to see it.
"That is how we got here, our mode of transport. And I hate every bit of it."
"Why?"
"That is not important to you, so I won't tell you."
"Very well then that is your choice. May I see inside it."
"Well of course," the Doctor said producing the key from his pocket, "But it was heavily damaged on the journey here.
He opened the door and stepped inside. Yistel followed him then came straight back out again. He stared at the outside for a few minutes then stepped back inside. This was impossible, he couldn't find any explanation for it. The Doctor was looking at the console, he seemed very confused.
"I don't understand," he said to himself, "It's been repaired, but the outside, its still a Police Box. How could this be?"
Yistel ignored the Doctor's mutterings; he just stared at the interior of the TARDIS. He realised that the Doctor and his friends couldn't be there enemies after all.
"Halt."
The Raston Warrior robot turned round to see a Dalek advancing from behind. It was now inside the city, and it was being threatened. The Dalek fired a small burst from one of its gun sticks but it just deflected off the robots armour. If fired again and again, only damaging the surrounding buildings. Then the robot fired one of its spears. It went right through the Dalek casing and the creature inside, killing it. The Dalek's eye, tentacles and weapons dropped. The Robot moved on, leaving the dead Dalek where it was. It wasn't important.
The Doctor had opened up the TARDIS console and removed several of the bumps from the walls. He was now pulling out several of the electronic bits from inside but making sure everything was still connected. He didn't want to have to put everything back together again. Susan was doing the same from the console. Susan was examining every single component she came across, physically and mentally. Finding out what it was for, and what it was connected to. Then she pulled out a small glowing sphere, it seemed to be a bit battered and dirty.
"Grandfather what about this?"
The Doctor looked at the sphere with interest. It wasn't like anything he'd ever seen before in his life.
"What's it for?" he asked.
Susan focussed on the sphere, trying to find as much information about it as possible.
"It's a regenerator; it repairs any damage to the ship. Except this time its sustained damage so it's carried out an imperfect repair. The systems that have suffered a major effect from this fault are the navigational systems and the Chameleonic systems."
"Well I suppose that explains why its still a police box then," the Doctor said to himself, "I like it, gives it a bit of individuality."
Susan chuckled; at least there was something about the TARDIS the Doctor liked, since he loathed every single part of it.
A few hours later the Thals were sitting round a fire and eating. The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Susan were sitting separately from them talking about their options.
"I think we should just leave," Ian said, "Try to get back to Earth."
"I agree," Barbara added.
"Well I'm afraid trying is the only way we can get there," the Doctor said, "With the ship's navigation damaged we can't get to anywhere we want to."
"And the Raston Warrior Robot is still on the loose," Susan reminded them.
"Yes I wonder why we haven't encountered it yet," Ian murmured.
"I don't know," the Doctor replied, "All we know is that it's here and it wants to kill us."
"By us you mean you and Susan Doctor," Ian reminded him, "Its got nothing against me or Barbara or any of the Thals."
"And the robot isn't the only threat on this planet," Susan added, "Anecdone told me that the Daleks want to completely destroy the Thals."
"What are you suggesting Susan," Barbara asked.
"We should try to help them against the Daleks."
"Well I can't see any way we can," Ian said, "They've got weapons, and we haven't got any."
"We have a few weapons," they all looked up to see Yistel standing over them, "We want to destroy the Daleks before they destroy us. And we'll do our best to do just that."
A few hours later the Doctor was looking at a plan of the Dalek city, it was very old and worn with a few holes in it.
"Is there any way we can destroy them all in one go?" the Doctor asked.
"Yes," Yistel replied, "None of the Daleks have an internal power supply, its transmitter to them from a source within the city. If we deactivated that power source they'd all cease to function, after a while the creatures inside would die."
"Right, in that case that's what we'll do. I'll go into the city with Susan and try to deactivate it."
"Why just you and Susan?" Ian asked.
"Because if the Raston Warrior Robot turns no one else will get killed in its wake," the Doctor replied.
"Well that's your choice," Yistel said, "You're not one of my people so I can't command you to do otherwise."
"Good, Susan we'll leave immediately," the Doctor said, "And I think we'll pick up that Dalek on the way."
The Raston Warrior Robot stalked down the corridors of the Dalek city, so far it had been spotted and attacked by two more Daleks, and both had ended up dead. It continued to monitor the messages going from Dalek to Dalek on the progress of the Delta Wave; it knew every fault they'd encountered, every step that was being taken towards absolute efficiency and 100 of death outside the city. The Daleks were certain that after this the only life on Skaro would be Dalek life. And there were only three hours to go until it was activated. The robot was certain that it would survive in the city, then it detected something. Something it had been looking for. One of…no both its targets were now inside the city. It noted their location and went to find them, and to kill them. Both of them. Then it would return to its home planet, mission accomplished.
The Daleks had also detected the Doctor and Susan inside the city.
"Two of the escaped prisoners have returned to the city with Dalek D92Z4C."
"They are to be captured and brought for interrogation immediately. All non-essential Dalek personal to main city entrance, the beings are to be immobilised but not exterminated. All Daleks are to remain within city defences; Delta Wave will activate in two hours, fifty five minutes."