Chapter 8: Collaborators:
A Dalek saucer was there within the hour. Robomen emerged from the hatch to take the prisoners in. Clara ordered them onwards. She had to make sure she finished up on board the ship, rather than sent back out to patrol.
She led her to the cells and ordered them to throw her in one of them. Journey, who still hadn't recovered her legs, glared at Clara from the ground.
Clara waited a moment, before another Dalek ordered her to lock the door. While Daleks could access the data cluster at will, she'd never worked out how, and was too afraid to try. She could only gain from it when they issued her orders. As she locked the door, she made a special effort to hold on to the memory of how to do it.
"I will report these prisoners to the bridge." She said and headed in the direction she hoped was the centre of the ship. Fortunately, she was able to rely on Dalek efficiency. Their saucers all had approximately the same layout, allowing her to find the bridge quite quickly. Once she'd explained that Journey was an important smuggler, she was ordered to take observation position 5.
Clara placed her arm on the control knob. The view from her eye stalk was instantly replaced with a split screen of several cameras around the ship. One Dalek couldn't monitor all of them at once so it was divided between a group of them, each monitoring a selection. Now that they'd landed, they needed to activate 10 more around the perimeter, that was now her job to watch.
There were two more that had also been newly activated, showing the cells. She was pleased to see that Journey was being left untouched for now, and hurriedly rubbing some life into her legs.
They weren't interrogating her yet, it seemed, because they were far more interested in their other captive. While the Clarkes had gone down fighting, Maddock had surrendered. The Daleks had recognised him and were now torturing him for information. They recognised the need to keep a subject alive and healthy enough to talk, so their torture methods involved a device designed to simulate nerve endings and make the victim feel as though they were being stabbed anywhere the Daleks directed it. They would beg for death by the end.
Clara wasn't just horrified by the agony he must be undergoing. She was concerned for her own safety, and that of Journey. If he revealed there was a human hidden among the Daleks… But he didn't do so for several hours. Meanwhile, she watched Journey taking some unstable steps in her cell. Perhaps disabling her had been a mistake. Or did she have to make it look convincing?
The Daleks were listing to Maddock all the horrible things they were planning to do to him. Promising that if he didn't talk, they would, very slowly, tear him apart and leave him a mangled wreck, but still alive.
"What if… we could make a deal." Said Maddock.
"EXPLAIN."
"I'm more use to you mobile. I've got an idea of how we can help each other out. But I'll only share it with the Leader. In person."
The Daleks paused for a minute, then turned to the Camera. "REPORT TO THE LEADER."
Clara disengaged from the console, but not before she quietly switched off the camera and mike in Journey's cell. The woman was walking freely now, just a bit of stumbling. All Clara needed to do was slip away and she could lead her out.
But then what? Leaving the suit wouldn't be the end. She would still be stranded on a Dalek occupied world. And she'd helped them, even under duress. She wasn't the Doctor. How was she supposed to put this right?
But one problem at a time. She told the Leader what she'd seen. It issued an order over the communication system to bring Maddock to the bridge, then ordered Clara and three others to form a semi circle, facing inwards. The two Daleks who led Maddock up were to form in the gap, creating a ring around him.
With the arrangements now complete, the Leader said to him "WHAT ARE YOU SUGESTING?"
Maddock was looking at the Daleks around him, blatantly thinking Which is it? Clara held her breath, terrified that he was about to trade her for his own life.
But when he spoke, what he actually suggested was much worse. "Well, it seems to me that we have a common enemy. The northern group's been interfering with us from the start. But now they've lost their leaders, they'll be disarrayed for a bit. And I know how to get to their head quarters, 'cos I've been there before. If you let me go, I can set up a homing signal, and you lot can knock them out. One less rebel cell for you. One less obstacle for me. What do you say?"
The Leader was silent. Clearly, it was considering. "I WILL CONSULT WITH THE DALEK SUPREME." Said the Leader. It brought up a video link of it on the big screen and relayed what had been said.
"THE DALEKS HAVE NO WISH TO SIMPLY END A PERSONAL WAR." It said. "HOWEVER, YOU MAY BE OF ASSISTANCE TO US."
"How?" Said Maddock.
"THE NORTHERN GROUP ARE IN CONTACT WITH SEVERAL OF THE BIGEST RESISTANCE MOVEMENTS ON THE PLANET. DALEK TECHNOLOGY, PLANTED IN THEIR OPPERATIONS ROOM, CAN TRACK THE SIGNAL AND REVEAL THE LOCATION OF THEIR BASES. WE CAN DESTROY THE REBELS ONCE AND FOR ALL. YOU WILL PLANT IT."
"What's in it for me?" Said Maddock. "Besides not dying."
"IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION THAT YOU WISH TO BUILD YOUR OWN ARMY OF DALEK MACHINES AND TAKE THE PLANET FOR YOURSELF."
"Well… yeah."
"WE APPLAUD YOUR AIMS. WE WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH THE MATERIALS TO DO SO. THE PRESIDENT HAS FAILED TO SUPPRESS THE REBEL GROUPS. IF YOU CAN DO SO, YOU WILL BE GIVEN THE PLANET FOR YOUR OWN."
"Yeah… but I'd still be your slave."
"WITH THE REBELS GONE, THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR OUR OCCUPATION. THE DALEKS WOULD LEAVE, ON CONDITION THAT YOU PROVIDE US WITH THE RESOURCES WE REQUIRE."
His face shifted, as though he couldn't believe his luck. "I could be the man who made the Daleks go. I'd be a hero!"
"Then you will be just like a true Dalek." Clara added, hoping to appeal to his better side. "This world would swap one set of occupiers for another."
But he seemed nonplussed. "Well, we'll work on that. Daleks, I accept."
"EXCELENT. HE WILL BE A POWERFUL ALLY. WEAKEN YOUR PERIMITER TO ALLOW HIM TO ESCAPE."
"I OBEY." Said the Leader. It then ordered some Daleks to make arrangements for Maddock's "escape." The moor they'd landed in was right at the foot of a mountain range, where the Northern group had their headquarters hidden in a cave somewhere. The Daleks planned to move the ship closer to the mountains to make the escape more convincing.
"UNLOCK THE PORT SIDE HATCH." The Supreme ordered her.
"I obey." How many times had she said those words? But she wasn't following orders this time. She and Journey had to warn the Northern Group. Besides, with the guard low, this could be their best chance to escape themselves.
She deliberately veered off her assigned path to bring herself up to Journey's cell. Here she found one Dalek on guard. "I have been ordered to replace you. You are to open the port side maintenance hatch." She said, and the Dalek obeyed.
Clara placed her sucker on the control by the door and concentrated hard. This was the first time she'd tried to operate their technology without orders to do so. Operating their computers required her to send a precise sequence of impulses down the arm. Opening a door was relatively simple, but she had to make several attempts before the door would even twitch. She repeated the sequence she'd just sent with more force and the door came open.
Inside, Journey backed into a corner, staring her down.
"It is me. I have come to get you out." Said Clara.
"How can I trust you?" She said.
"There is no time. We have to get you out. Maddock has made a deal with the Daleks. He is planning to break into the Northern Group's HQ and reveal the positions of all the resistance cells. We have to get out and warn them."
Journey considered. "Ok, I'll have to take your word for it." She approached her, then suddenly brought her fist down hard on the top of her dome.
"OW! What was that for?" Cried Clara.
"To test if it was really you. Also, for disabling me! Recovering your legs realy hurts!"
"How do you think I feel? I've been immobile and felt nothing but pain for six bloody weeks!"
Journey snorted. "I never thought I'd hear a Dalek say that."
"We have to move." Said Clara. "The camera is down but they will switch it back on soon. Walk ahead of me. If anyone asks, I am taking you for questioning."
"Right." The two of them moved down the corridor, with Clara directing her at each junction. They'd not gone far when Journey felt a jolt that Clara didn't. "They're moving the ship."
"Only along the ground." Said Clara. "It means no security when we get outside."
Clara had been given a route to the port side hatch. The symmetrical nature of Dalek ships made the starboard hatch easy to find. But when they got to the hatch, her globes picked up a Dalek coming from an adjacent corridor, which she told Journey.
"Well hurry up with the hatch." She said.
Clara opened the hatch with relative ease, but it took time to descend. This was time enough for the Dalek to see them. "WHERE ARE YOU TAING THE PRISONER?"
"For questioning." Said Clara.
"WHY ARE YOU TAKING HER OUTSIDE?"
"Er…"
Journey interceded. "I promised to show them a place the resistance use for ambushes, in exchange for my freedom."
The Dalek considered. "I HAVE NOT BEEN INFORMED. I WILL CHECK." It turned towards a console on the wall.
"Oh well. That got nowhere." Said Clara. "Exterminate." And she shot the Dalek. "They will have seen that. Quick, get on my back."
Journey quickly stood on Clara's base, wraping her arms around her grill and her legs around her skirts. "I probably should have bought you dinner first." Said Clara, as she moved forward, into the open air. Journey's weight nearly overbalanced her, but quickly recovered enough to descend at an angle.
"There's a gully over there." Journey pointed to the rock wall, 30 feet away. "Hurry."
The two of them moved. Just make it to cover and she could remove her from this machine. They were barely two feet away when her suit abruptly stopped. Forward, she thought, but nothing happened.
"Come on!" Shouted Journey.
"It won't move. Open." But still nothing.
As her sucker arm began to move, unbidden by her, she realised what was happening. "Oh gosh. They are taking remote control! Quick run, before they…" But then her voice cut out.
But Journey had got the gist and fled into the gulley before they took control of the gun.
A small group of Daleks soon came out of the ship but found the gulley to narrow to follow her in. "SEARCH THE MOUNTAINS. FIND HER."
But Clara wasn't going with them. She now found she couldn't lift her arms, or move at all. She could only sit still and watch helplessly as her suit spun her around and carried her back into the ship.