Chapter 6: Emperor Dalek
The Doctor and Susan crept cautiously through the Dalek city streets. The Doctor was checking the plan of the city at intervals and after a while selected an entrance to get inside the city leaving the Dalek they'd captured outside. They continued on down the endless maze of corridors, fully aware that the Daleks were watching them and hoping they didn't run into any. Elsewhere in the city the Raston Warrior Robot was making its way towards them, it was still quite a distance away and had a lot of corridors to get through, and a lot of Daleks that hadn't met it yet.
Ian was thinking about the Doctor's plan, they'd agreed if he wasn't back within two hours they'd attack the city themselves with the Thals. Ian thought that this was fairly suicidal but the Thals seemed determined to launch an assault on the Dalek city, whether they perished or not, Yistel has simply commented "If the Daleks kill us we won't have to worry about them any longer." Ian reminded himself of what had happened to him so far, it didn't seem that long ago that he'd picked up the call from Barbara about the Raston Warrior Robot. Really if it was choice of facing the Daleks or the robot he thought he'd take the robot, at least there was only one of it and it only wanted to kill the Doctor and Susan and not the rest of them. The Thals were gathering weapons together, a few were digging a hole to bury Yistel's daughter. Then Ian had a thought, they had one of the Raston Warrior Robot's spear weapons, could it have any effect on it? After all man was often vulnerable to his own weapons, though in most cases this was because that was the point of them. He'd seen what laser weapons couldn't do to the Robot but the Dalek's weapons didn't seem to work under the laser principle, something more different.
"Controlled energy bursts," Yistel explained when Ian asked him, "They fire the blasts at different power levels depending on what they want them to do, stun, kill, paralyse, torture, they can even take control of a victim's body."
"Yes Susan told me that's how they finally managed to capture her."
"And when that happens the only thing you have control over is your own thoughts, you can't even blink."
"What sort of twisted mind would develop a weapon like that?"
"The Thals used to have weapons like that, but they weren't quite the same. They could only stun or kill. The Daleks have taken them to whole new levels."
"They sound ruthless."
"They are, having almost no emotions does that to someone…especially when the only emotion is hate. Our scientists tried their best to help the victims of the Dalek virus, but to no avail. They were all killed."
"How long have the Daleks been in existence for?"
"About maybe one hundred and fifty three years, I'm not quite sure myself."
"Then I hope it isn't for much longer."
"So do I Ian, so do I."
"Dalek D75B0K, receiving incoming orders."
One of the Daleks was picking up the orders being transmitted directly to it, the Doctor and Susan were near by and it was being spurred into action. If set off down the corridor it was in, turned left and they were directly in front of it. It had been ordered not to kill them, well, not yet anyway.
"Halt."
The Doctor glanced round briefly at the Doctor and uttered just one word in response.
"Run!"
The Doctor shot down the corridor showing a surprising amount of energy for his age, so much so that Susan was lagging behind him with the Dalek closing. It set its sights on here, aimed its weapon, set the power, and fired. Susan collapsed, stunned.
The Raston Warrior Robot detected this, its targets had separated and one was out of action. It processed this information, to find out how it could use it. It tapped into the city surveillance cameras, focussing on the area where Susan was. The Dalek that has shot her down was now picking her up with its tentacles; the robot could hear the Daleks orders being transmitter, "Take her to be interrogated." The robot switched its focus to where the Doctor was; he'd stopped running and was now checking the plan of the city. The robot worked out which was nearer, Susan. But the Daleks were moving her, it decided to get as close as possible before it killed her.
The Daleks were going into the final stages of their plan, Delta Wave activation in one hour and twenty five minutes.
"We're going in."
"What?" Ian said in surprise.
"We're going to attack the Dalek city," Yistell explained, "At least we may be able to distract them and give the Doctor more time."
"But he said wait two hours."
"And we don't wait. We're going in."
Susan woke up and found that she was surrounded by a ring of twenty black control Daleks. She tried to stand up but one of them pushed her back down again. One of the Daleks turned round to face something Susan couldn't see.
"She has recovered," the Dalek announced.
"Then bring her closer to me for her interrogation," came the reply from a much deeper voice.
One of the Daleks grabbed Susan by the arms and pulled her to her feet and then pushed her towards what the Dalek had been talking two as the ring of Control Daleks parted. There, standing in front of her was what she presumed was some form of Dalek. It was a pyramid shape with an octagonal base. This rose up to a large head, this was also a pyramid but with a triangular base from which protruded the eye stalk. The pyramid had two large Dalek gun sticks attached to the side pointing directly at Susan; it also had the robotic tentacles, though they were larger and longer then standard Daleks. There was a large transparent globe set into the main body of the Dalek. This was filled with water and a repulsive creature with only one eye, tentacles and a badly proportioned anatomy. The creature's eye and the Dalek eye were both staring at Susan with an aim to inflict as much terror as possible, an aim that was very easily achieved. Standing on either side of the large Dalek were the Dalek Supreme and the Dalek Prime.
"Who are you?" the creature inside the globe said, the head of the Dalek it was in flashing as it spoke
Susan didn't answer.
"Who are you?"
No response.
"Answer! Answer!" the creature's voice getting steadily louder.
"Answer the Emperor Dalek's question," the Dalek Supreme said.
"Answer…answer…answer," all the Daleks in the room chorused the demand, the sound made Susan's ears ring.
Then there was silence, every eye in the room turned towards the Emperor Dalek.
"Very well then," the Emperor said, leaving Susan with a great sense of foreboding, she couldn't take her eyes of the Emperor's weapons.
Then she heard something, she looked up and a small cone shaped something descended from the ceiling. It stopped and hovered a few inches above her. She looked at it. Then a blinding light was emitted from it. Susan flung her arms up to shield her eyes as the light pulsated on and off, getting brighter and brighter all the time. Her head was almost exploding with pain, and she could hear the Daleks chorus around her, the sound echoing in her head, constantly repeating and never stopping.
"Answer… answer… answer… answer… answer… answer… answer…"
The Thals were poised and ready outside the city. Ian and Barbara were with them. Almost all of them armed with something be it an energy rifle scavenged from history or a wooden club. Either way it seemed that the Thals would be the losing side in the ensuing battle. Then they all heard Yistel give the order.
"Forward."
The Raston Warrior Robot knew what was happening to Susan, it was still linked into the surveillance cameras. He could see Susan writhing in pain on the floor. All the Daleks just staring at her, no reaction at all. The robot decided that he would present a report to its masters on the Daleks, they could make powerful allies. It sent out a signal with as much information as it could find about them, then it continued with its mission.
The Doctor was still wandering through the corridors, checking the plans every so often to see if he was on the right track. Not that it did him any good; he'd lost his way a bit after that mad dash away from the Dalek. He hoped Susan had managed to get away from it, maybe just taken a different route and was now as lost as he was. But something in the back of his mind told him otherwise, Susan was now at the mercy of the Daleks, if they had mercy at all.
"The information extractor has done its work," the Emperor announced and the cone rose back up into the ceiling.
Susan was now lying on the floor, shaking and breathing weakly. Virtually paralyzed from the effects of the information extractor. The Emperor now knew everything he needed to know. The Emperor considered what should be done with Susan, he knew everything about her now, including information she'd rather kept secret. And what about his Doctor, he had a machine that could travel through time. This could be a valuable asset for the Daleks; they'd never left the surface of their planet before. But only the Doctor had a way into the TARDIS. They had to get it from him, should they take it by force…no, he'd be given an opportunity to hand it to them willingly.
"Take her the Delta Wave testing centre, put her in the testing pod," the Emperor ordered, "But don't kill her…not yet."
"We obey," the control Daleks chorused together.
They closed in around Susan, one of them grabbed her ankles and dragged her out of the room, the other control Daleks following behind.
"Doctor."
The Doctor looked round, wandering where the deep voice was coming from.
"This is the Emperor Dalek," the voice said, "We have taken you're granddaughter, Susan, prisoner. But she will be released if you let us have the key to your ship, if you don't comply with this she will be exterminated."
The Doctor thought let the information soak in, wandering what he should do. If he gave it to them would Susan be released, would she even be allowed to live? Would he? No. This didn't agree with what he knew about the Daleks, they were up to something. He thought he could hear Susan's voice in the back of his mind telling him the same thing. "Don't give in to them, either way they going to kill me." She was right of course, but then he remembered something. He checked the plans, there was a room labelled EMPEROR'S CHAMBER. And in the same room where the controls for the Daleks power source transmitter. This was his chance; he'd simply bluff his way into deactivating them. Then he heard something form behind him, he looked round and saw a Dalek advancing on him. Then it spoke.
"I've come to help you, grandfather."
It was the Dalek they'd captured, and Susan was controlling it again.
50 minutes to Delta Wave activation, the Daleks were almost ready. Soon they'd wipe the Thals from the face of the planet. The Raston Warrior Robot was also aware of this; it was homing in on Susan. It knew she was in a situation where she couldn't escape an attempt to kill her, and that was precisely what it was going to do. It checked its weaponry, fully functioning. It checked Susan present location; there were a few Daleks in there. No match for it. It could dispose of them as though it was swatting a fly.