Chapter 7: Rebels
Clara had already been patrolling this river bank non stop for three days. She'd gotten used to repetition by now. But all being well, this could be the last night for her.
As dawn broke, the sound of shooting started, as the Northern Group made their attack. The Dalek Leader in the area issued a blanket order to them. "UNDER ATTACK FROM THE NOTH EAST. EVERY SECOND DALEK IS TO FORM A LINE ACROSS THE EDGE OF THE MOOR. THE REST REMAIN AT YOUR STATIONS."
"I WILL JOIN THE BATTLE." Said her colleague, and moved away.
Clara watched it go, and hurriedly moved towards the point she'd given. There were a lot of Daleks moving about, seemingly at random, so few paid attention to her.
Blue Wood Stream was a little clearing by the river bank, bordered by thick undergrowth. The perfect place for a secret meeting.
Clara arrived to find the place deserted. That was fine, she just had to wait a while. The rels ticked by but no sign of anybody. Her mind was full of things that might have gone wrong. Sarah might not have believed her. She might not have been ably to contact help. She might have got caught coming this way. Clara would have liked to have given her more time to plan, but there was no guarantee they'd be nearby tomorrow.
Finally, Sarah announced herself with a little clunk on the back of Clara's armour. "I've attached a jammer to you, so you can't call for help. And I have a gun aimed at your eyestalk. So you'd better not be trying to trick me." She came round Clara's front. "Open up."
Clara readily did so. Almost crying with relief. Finally, it was over.
Sarah leaned over, looking stunned. "I didn't think this was possible. How did this happen?"
"I was tricked." Said Clara. "The woman who put me in ran off and I was stranded. I can't pull these probes from my head. Get them out!"
But Sarah now looked sombre. "I'm sorry, but I can't."
"What do you mean you cannot?" Clara shouted. Her still Dalek voice echoing round the trees. They both looked round in fear, but no one came their way. "Please." She said more quietly. "It'll close soon. Then it is three more hours before I can open it again."
"I'm sorry." She said again. "They'd only agree to take the risk if you brought them an intact casing. Plus, I don't know if I can get you through the lines like this. It's best for everybody if you close up."
Clara sighed. What she said made sense. "Just one thing first."
"What's that?"
"Shake my hand."
Confused, Sarah did so. Clara relished the first contact she'd had with the outside world in six weeks, which she explained to her. She then told her to withdraw and closed up. She could take another three hours.
"You need to go underwater." Said Sarah. Follow the riverbed downstream until you reach a steel cable stretched some of the way across. There's people waiting to meet you on the bank." She pulled a watertight bag from her pocket and pulled a small device from her hair. "I've been filming our meeting. I'm tying this bag to your eyestalk so they'll know it's you."
Clara thanked her and went to hover over the river, before descending into the water.
Her suit was airtight. She'd worked that out when they'd sent her to investigate a scratch on the outside of the ship once. The systems inside were constantly cleaning the air to make it breathable. Scaro's atmosphere, it seemed, was roughly the same as Earth's, or at least had been at one time.
She felt which way the current was going and moved with it, keeping as close to the bank as she could without becoming visible. She didn't want to miss that line and end up in the middle of the sea. It was odd, she'd got so used to having precise route maps imprinted on her brain that moving independently now made her feel a little uneasy.
After about an hour, she found the line and moved up to the bank, where she found a couple waiting, with masked faces and Dal bombs raised.
One of them approached her and found the bag attached to her eye stalk. "It's the right one." He said. "Follow us." But first, he placed something over her gun. "If you fire your gun, It'll set it off."
So these people didn't trust her then. They led her to an inconspicuous patch of ground nearby, but peeled back the turf to reveal a hatchway, which they beckoned her through. It was a listening post for the resistance. They had them scattered all over the areas they operated in. A place to keep out of sight for a little while.
"Let's see inside." Said the woman.
"I cannot open for another 6058 rels." Said Clara.
"Well that's convenient." She muttered.
"Sarah gave her the video." Said the man. "It must have convinced her."
"It could have killed her straight afterwards."
"We should still watch it."
They plugged the data chip into a screen nearby and watched through the video. "She looks human." The man said.
"Could be a duplicate. They've infiltrated other cells that way. We can't just let it in, there's too many ways it could be a trap. It's going to kill us all!"
"I am sitting right here." Said Clara.
The woman turned round. "If you're human, tell us your name."
"It will not allow me."
"It's one trick after another!" She cried. "Why are we even talking to it?"
"I was born in Blackpool. When I was a kid, I used to climb around under the pier with my enemies… My.. people I knew. Everything I try to say gets fed through a Dalek processor. It is difficult, but please listen…" She spent a lot longer listing off everything that came to mind about her personal life, she tried singing at one point, but it sounded wrong coming out of her speakers. Plus it kept changing the words. Instead, she tapped out Beethoven's fifth symphony on the inside of the casing. But it was getting no where. The woman had made her mind up that it was a trap and wasn't backing down.
But finally, coincidence smiled down on her as the entrance came open once more. "David and Caz? I need to talk to you."
That was useful. The Daleks had fed her the names of all known resistance leaders when she'd been assigned to this sector. David and Caz Clarke were very important in the Northern Group. The single largest resistance cell. But it was the new arrival Clara was more excited by. Because she'd met her before
"What are you doing here? You should be off world by now." David was saying to her.
"That's why I needed to talk to you. They've found my ship. They'll probably catch some of the other gun runners, unless we get a message out. Set a new rendezvous."
"Don't discuss it in front of the Dalek." Caz hissed.
The new arrival now noticed Clara for the first time and pulled her gun out. But Clara wasn't alarmed. "Journey Blue." She said.
"How do you know my name?"
"Don't fall for that one. They'll have your image scanned." Said Caz.
"It is me, Dalek! No. I'm human. I met you before, when I was with the Doctor. Show her the video." Said Clara.
"She claims she's a human trapped in a Dalek casing." David explained, as he hit play.
Journey watched and Clara saw her eyes widen at the sight of her. "We helped to investigate rusty. You had just lost your brother."
Journey stared at her. "Clara?" She said.
"Yes." Clara said, relieved to hear someone call her by her own name at last.
"What have they done to you?"
"I was tricked. Now I cannot escape unless someone assists."
"They've replicated real people before." Said Caz.
"Yeah, but they don't know I'm here. No one else knows her in this time. Why would they? Don't worry Clara. We'll get you out." Said Journey.
"So we're just going to believe it then?" Said Caz.
"That seems to be the consensus." Said David. "How long 'till you can open the casing?"
"About an hour and 20 minutes." Said Clara.
"We'll use that time to get you back to base. The techs want to study an intact suit." He took a look through the periscope. "The Daleks will be out patrolling, but they'll be focusing on the area the attack happened. We'll need to move while they're busy."
They moved along. The humans dodging from one hiding place to another, looking around before moving on. Clara remained in the open. The Daleks weren't looking for her. She counted on her chronometer. It was now barely half an hour until she could leave the suit for good.
As they crossed an open moor, keeping low to stay hidden by the long grass, her more sensitive hearing picked up the sound of footsteps behind them. "We are being followed." She said.
David and Caz came up alongside her and they went to have a look. A man emerged from his own hiding place, looking relaxed. He clearly wasn't a roboman, but the Clarkes raised their guns at the sight of him. "Maddock! What are you doing here?"
"Your guns won't do you a lot of good, I'm afraid. There's ten of my lot around you. They'll shoot you down. So perhaps we can talk."
Clara recognised this man from the information cluster too. He was Ian Maddock, the leader of a resistance cell known as the Weatley Liberation Front.
"What do you want?"
"Well, a little birdie told me that you were going to meet a Dalek defector. We want it."
"And you can't have it!" Shouted Caz. "Our scientists need to study it."
"And so do ours! We're holding the factory region. We can build some more. Come out of hiding. Take these Daleks on properly!"
"That's why you can't have it." Said Caz. "We're not letting you loose with an army of these things. You'd just set yourself up as head of this planet!"
"And you wouldn't do the same?" Said Maddock. "Or would you just hand it back to Summers, or crawl back to the federation? Weatley needs to be properly independent! Now are you going to hand it over peacefully, or do you want to be the next two casualties of war?"
"Shoot him Clara." Said David.
"What?"
"Shoot him!"
"No!"
"Clara." Said Caz. "He's a bandit. He loots and demands payments from refugees. And he's been raiding our supplies."
"We needed them more!" Shouted Maddock. "You withheld them from us. Plus, we're rebels! Clue's in the name."
"I am not taking sides in your private war!" Shouted Clara. "Why can you not just unite against the common enemy?"
"Well, looks like you're getting no help from it!" Maddock grinned, raising his gun.
"Screw this." Said Caz, and dropped a charge, enveloping them in thick smoke. The Clarkes promptly fled for the long grass. Shooting quickly sprang up here and there.
"Stop shooting! People will hear!" Clara shouted, but no one listened.
"Clara!" Said Journey's voice. "Let's get out of here."
Clara's infra red sight could pick up everyone's body heat. She identified the thinnest point and led Journey towards it.
"Look!" Someone shouted and began shooting up at the sky, before a Dalek death ray responded. A flying patrol had zoned in on their position and was now rapidly going after the rebels below.
Journey was looking around for a way out but long grass could only hide you from cursory patrols. Now the Daleks were homing in on this location, it was only a matter of time. Fortunately, Clara had an idea. "Journey. Trust me." She said and hit her with a blast to paralyse her legs. "The effect will wear off. Just keep quiet and I will lead you out."
She placed her sucker on Journey's shoulder and waited for the Daleks to come down. As a Dalek came near, she said. "This one has information that is of value to us. We should take her for questioning." It was the only way she knew to prevent the Daleks from robotising her, or just exterminating her on the spot.
"A SHIP WILL BE ARIVING SOON TO PICK UP THE PRISONERS." Said the Dalek.
She'd missed an opportunity by inches. But the game wasn't up yet.