Chapter 10: The Trap
When Clara had taught her class about the Oddesy, she'd taken the time to look up some historical theories about the Trojan Horse (asking the Doctor felt like cheating). One that she'd read suggested that the horse did exist, but was supposed to be a distraction while the Greeks snuck in through other means. The horse was just filled with slaves, fully expecting to die.
It had got her thinking about what it must have been like for the people inside. Knowing they were being sent to their deaths by a king bent on destruction. Now she knew first hand, because she was about to be the Daleks' wooden horse. She hoped the resistance would show more sense than the Trojans.
For once, her time spent waiting and sitting still seemed to pass quickly. It barely seemed like minutes before she heard footsteps outside.
"I've set up a fault down here, so the Daleks can't see you." Sarah's voice was explaining.
The door before her came open, to reveal eight resistance people dressed as robomen. "Watch the gun." Their leader said. "We don't know if we've broken the control." Clara tried moving, just in case, but found they hadn't. But at least they were being wary. "I'm Lieutenant Scott. I'm here to get you out. Are you Clara Oswald?"
"YES, IT IS ME. GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Said the suit.
"Open the casing." He said.
"PLEASE REMOVE THE CHAINS."
Scott sent a woman forward with bolt cutters, who cut the chains free. The suit opened up and the group raised their guns to her. "Why isn't she moving?"
"I don't know. Maybe the paralysis will take a while longer to wear off on her." Said Sarah.
Come on. Don't listen to her! Clara thought as she focused as much mental energy as she could into two fingers on her right hand. Just break this enough to gesture at Sarah and they might realise something was up. But they barely twitched.
"She's trying to move. And she has a pulse." Said a soldier, who'd placed a finger on her neck.
"Not a robot then." Said Scott.
"I AM ABLE TO MOVE THE SUIT." It said.
"Right." Said Scott. "Close up the suit. We'll get you back to base and sort things out there. You're a Dalek leading us to patrol in the mountains. OK?"
"...OK." The suit replied.
Come on. It's not talking properly you fools. She thought. But no one questioned it. The fake robomen assumed formation and marched ahead of her. Every Dalek they passed by, the suit would repeat their story to it and they'd be allowed to pass. This opperation had apparently been well planned, and might even have worked without it being a Dalek trick. It was ironic. She was being rescued at last, but she couldn't feel happy about it because this was about to get everyone killed.
Before long, they were clear of the Dalek perimeter. But the rebels kept in formation, just in case they ran into any patrols. Come on! She thought. Someone question me. Someone try to start a conversation. It can't impersonate me for sustained dialogue. But still the party moved on in silence.
The rebels tended to keep to the narrow paths to avoid detection. As they passed under one particular rock, several figures slid down from above and grabbed the rearmost members of the party, placing a knife at their throats.
The rest of the party hurried away and took a position. "Let them go." Said Scot.
"I'm not doing that." Maddock's voice came from the rock. He had several more people with him, guns raised. "Drop your guns, or your friends die."
"Clara!" Scott shouted.
"Oh, haven't you heard? She's on our side now."
"DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" The suit shouted, advancing on them. The startled troops did so.
"Tie 'em up." Maddock ordered, then said to his captives. "No need to fret. The Daleks and I've worked out a deal that'll get them off this planet. It just means getting the rebels out the way. Now let's not make this more difficult by trying to stop us."
"NOW THEY HAVE SURRENDERED, WE SHOULD EXTERMINATE THEM!" Said the suit.
No. Clara thought. Calm yourself. Give it nothing to feed off. Please let this work.
Fortunately, Maddock had his own objections. "No! We need them as hostages." He selected the weediest looking member of Scott's group and hauled him to his feet. "You there. You know the password to get into your base. And you're going to give it to us."
"W-w-why?" Said the man.
"'cos we'll be leaving someone behind with your friends. If she doesn't get a signal from me. She'll kill them. Clear? Now come on!"
Maddock's party stole the jackets and masks worn by Scott's and took their place. Once more, Clara was following behind, making a renewed effort to regain control. The signal must drop as we move away. Maybe it's weak enough. But still nothing.
"Here we are." Said Maddock, as they reached a seemingly inconspicuous cave. "Now you know what you have to do?" He jabbed a knife into the captive's back to add an incentive and the man nodded nervously.
He led them down into the cave, before stopping by a particular rock and tapping a precise sequence on it.
"Enter." Said a voice. And they carried on. Round the corner, they found a sentry. "Where's Scott?"
"He… didn't make it." Said the man. "We got her though."
The sentry looked at Clara warily. So warily he didn't pay mush attention to the rest of the party. And since he was expecting Clara, he didn't have much reason to refuse her entry."Take it to the labs."
And so they passed on. The moment they were alone, Maddock put his hand on the captive's shoulder. "Thanks, you've been a great help." And he punched him unconscious. He got on the radio. "Emily? We're in. No need to kill the hostages." He then addressed the group. "This way. The labs are right next to the radio room."
They moved deeper into the base. A massively elaborate system of natural caverns the resistance had rapidly converted into a bunker. Even with her suit's ability to hover over rough ground, it still struggled quite often in the confined space. She could understand why the resistance would come here to hide.
Any time they passed a group, Maddock would explain they were going to the labs, and they'd let them pass, keeping an eye on Clara but not detecting any signs of hostility. And not paying the others much scrutiny.
Finally, they reached the appropriate room. Inside, banks of equipment lined the place. About ten people were running it.
Once more it was Clara, they looked at. "Why did you bring her in here?" Said a woman, then looked up to see the barrel of Maddock's gun. All around them, others had raised their guns to cover the people in the room. "Don't try anything, or I use the Dalek on you."
"What is this?"
"Change of plans, Mrs Jones. We're bringing you down. You've all stood against us for far too long. The Daleks have offered me a deal."
The suit advance right in the face of the smallest person there. "WHICH CONSOLE CONTROLS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS?" It boomed.
"That one." She said feebly, pointing.
The suit carried Clara towards it. She made one final effort to retake control. This time. This time. Still nothing.
There were no control knobs to place the sucker on, so the suit smashed through a part of the machine and interfaced with the systems directly. A massive shock travelled up the arm. It didn't affect her, since the suit acted as a Faraday cage, but she still felt it and would have screamed in pain if she could.
"CORDINATES TRANSMITTED." The suit announced. She'd failed then. The Daleks now knew just where to find all the resistance groups.
As the sparks faded, Clara became aware of the sound of gunfire. After a couple of rels, she realised that none of it was aimed at her. The suit looked around and saw that another group of people had appeared all around the room, while she'd been distracted. They were now in a fierce shoot out with Maddock's party. The suit raised the gun, ready to join in the fray.
No! Calm. She thought. The gun faltered. It was working! But it was so hard to fight down the million and one emotions she was feeling. It resumed a rels later, by which time the people she was aiming at had dived for cover.
"Any time now!" Jones was shouting into her radio.
"Dalek!" Maddock called to her. The suit brought her round to his cover. "That barricade there, take 'em out!"
Instead, the suit began to aim at him. "Not me! I'm on your side!"
"YOU HAVE OUTLIVED YOUR USEFULLNESS." Said the suit.
"We had a deal!"
"THE DALEKS WILL NOT PERMIT ANYONE TO HAVE ACCESS TO DALEK TECHNOLOGY. YOU WOULD BECOME A THREAT TO US."
Maddock swore and reached for a bomb on his belt. But the suit was faster. Clara tried to blank her mind but there wasn't time. The suit shot him dead.
By now, the weapons fire had died down, but the suit was still trying to get at them. "Everyone out! It's not working!" Jones was shouting.
"Wait!" A man cam running into the room. "Try this!"
The suit swung round to aim at him, but Clara had recovered presence of mind and fought to clear it. She still couldn't blank out everything, but she at least could dull the weapon's effects. When it fired, it only lit up a small patch on his chest. He gasped but stayed upright.
The suit realised that Clara was fighting back, but it had one last trick. "ACTIVATING SELF DESTRUCT. 10, 9, 8…" So this was how it was going to end then? Splattered over a control room.
As it counted, the man recovered and leapt forward to place something on Clara's dome.
"No, please no!" Clara found herself shouting, then realised she could speak again. "Cancel self destruct!" And the countdown stopped.
She could move again, and looked around at a room full of people who were holding their weapons warily. "Wait. I am fine now!"
"Yeah." The man said. "I've put a jammer on you. It's stopped the signals from their remote control."
"Yes, but can you control the suit, Trix?" Jones said to him.
"I'm not sure." Said Trix. "I'll need to try again."
At this point, Journey entered the room. "Clara, are you alight? How long 'till you can open up?"
"About ten minutes." Clara counted, then noticed who Journey had brought in with her. "It is Sarah! She is a spy! She is a spy!"
"No wait!" Said Journey. "She's the one who told us their plans."
"Yeah. I'm actually a triple agent." Said Sarah. "I'm sorry I had to put you through all that, but it had to look convincing."
"What is going on?" Said Clara.
"Ok, let me explain. When you first came to me, I thought the Daleks were trying to trick me. We were trying to get rid of Maddock for ages, so I fed him info about you in hope of getting him caught in the Dalek's trap. But the Clarkes wanted to meet with you anyway. Maddock still found you and ended up bringing the Daleks to you.
But you got us thinking about how we could use this to lead both Maddock and the Daleks into a trap. Trouble was, the Daleks were planing to just dispose of you. I had to tell them we were coming to the rescue because it was the only way to make you valuable enough to keep alive. And it worked. So well, the Daleks basically sent you an Maddock to us.
Talk of Maddock brought Clara's attention to him. "It feels like I killed him."
Journey interceded. "OK, one, you weren't in control, two, you looked like you were battling for control, that saved all our lives, three, no one's really going to miss him."
"But it has not saved you." Said Clara. "The Daleks will know where you are now."
Trix, who'd been debating with Jones joined in. "Oh no, this console is just a dummy. It's fed the Daleks coordinates that'll lead them into ambush's all over the planet. This is the only actual base it'll lead them to. And while they're distracted, we'll remotely operate the suit into their flagship and use it to plant a data cluster we've modified, with a set of orders that'll take them off the planet for good."
"At least that's the plan. But your bloody remote doesn't work!" Jones scowled.
"I said it needed more testing." Trix said awkwardly. "Just let me work on it a bit more."
"We don't have time!" Jones snapped. "The Daleks'll be here in an hour. We won't get another chance like this. Do you realise how rarely their flagship actually lands somewhere?"
"So you have a plan to stop the Daleks, but you need the suit to do it?" Said Clara.
"Yes, but we've got no means to."
"Yes you do. Because you have got me. I can deliver your cluster to the ship. And get out while they are distracted."
"Clara, we can't ask you to do this." Said Journey.
"I have to." Said Clara. "It is the only way I can be at peace with everything I saw them do. So, what do you need me to do?"