Ian grunted in discomfort as he climbed into the empty Dalek casing. The inside of the casing was cramped. It had been designed for small the mutated creature that he and the Doctor had removed from it.
The Dalek mutant had been much smaller than Ian. Its body was completely different shape than his body. The inside of the casing reflected their different body types. He had little to no room inside of the casing.
He grunted as he tried to get some comfort inside of the casing. He banged his knees on the machinery. Even with the dome open he was still sitting hunched up. He shifted about some more moving the wires and cables that had once been connected to the Dalek mutant. He just did not want to them to connect with him.
"What is the matter, dear boy?" the Doctor asked him. The Doctor chuckled as Ian looked up to him while hunched up in the tight interior of the Dalek casing. "A little too big around the stomach, hm?" the Doctor asked when Ian was looking up at him.
Ian grumbled as he shifted about some more. His action made the Dalek casing rocking side to side. "It is not that, Doctor. It is just very tight in here." he responded back to the Doctor as he once again looked up to the Doctor. "You saw that creature."
The Doctor hummed as he rubbed his chin with his fingers. He looked away from Ian inside the Dalek casing to look the blue cloak on the metallic floor. Wrapped inside the blue cloak that Susan had gotten from Alydon was the Dalek creature.
He hummed as he watched cloak moving slightly. The Dalek creature was still alive. Even after he and Ian had removed it from its casing. "Yes, it was indeed very small." the Doctor said as he watched the cloak twitching as the Dalek mutant kept moving inside of it.
"Compared to an average sized human man." the Doctor added as he looked back at Ian still inside the Dalek casing.
"Now, dear boy? Are you ready?" the Doctor asked Ian. One of his hands held onto the eye stock while his other hand was placed onto the smooth metal of the dome of the Dalek casing. He looked inside of the Dalek casing to see Ian looking up to him.
Ian sighed, "I'm ready. Close the dome."
The Doctor tried to lower the dome but struggled to lower it down. It was much heavier than it looked. There was no doubt all the computer systems inside of the dome. He looked over to Barbara who was still standing at the door with Susan. The two girls were still watching out for any more Daleks to appear.
"Barbara," the Doctor said over to Barbara making her and Susan look over to him, "come and help me with this."
"Susan you stay there." Barbara said as she looked over to Susan. The young girl had started to follow her over to both the Doctor and Ian inside of the Dalek casing. "We do not need another Dalek coming here as it looks for the first Dalek." she calmly explained to Susan.
Barbara walked quickly over to the Doctor. His eyes jumped between her and Susan. Barbara looked over her shoulder to see Susan had returned to their spot by the door. She looked forward again as she quickly looked into the casing. She gave Ian a sad smile at how uncomfortable he looked in the cramped inside of the Dalek casing.
"What do you want me to do, Doctor?" Barbara asked the Doctor as she looked at him.
The Doctor looked at her with a look of annoyance on his face. "We need to close the dome in order for this plan to work." he huffed back to her. "But I need your help." he sadly said to her as he looked away from Barbara back to the open dome of the Dalek casing.
The metal that was used to make the dome was smooth. There were no dints or chips to the metal. He could feel the static electric buzzing on his hand.
"Fascinating. Once we get back to the ship I must exam this casing. This technology is nothing like I have ever seen before." the Doctor muttered as he patted the metal dome with his hand.
The Doctor chuckled as he looked over to Barbara. She was looking into the casing. Her eyes jumped from one cable to the next. "Barbara, my dear are you ready?" he asked making her looking away from the inside of the Dalek casing to look back at him.
"Are we sure we should be doing this?" Barbara asked him. "It just looks really tight in there." she continued to say to the Doctor.
"Barbara it is the only way to get out of here." Ian spoke up from inside the casing. "It will be only a for a little while I will be inside of the casing." he continued to speak to her.
"My dear," the Doctor spoke up making Barbara look back at him, "we do not have time to further discus if this plan is going to work. We must make our move now before the Daleks wonder what has happened to the Dalek guarding us."
Barbara sighed in defeat. "Very well Doctor."
The Doctor chuckled as he with Barbara's help closed the casing's dome. He heard the dome locked into place with an electronic whirl.
He and Barbara both stepped away from the Dalek as he the domed head swirled left and then right. The eye stock twitched up and down as the appendages on the mid-section of the casing rolled about in their sockets. The Dalek casing also spun around as it had lost control of itself.
Inside the casing wires and cables dangled around Ian's head. A red light lit the inside of the casing allowing Ian to still see the inside of the casing. There was computers and touch screens all over the place. It made the sense the Dalek creature itself had many tentacles that it could use on working with the machine.
One of the computers off to the side was also beeping loudly demanding attention. He turned his head around to look to the computer. He looked past the wires that dangled down all around him. Some of the wires that hung around him looked like IV lines from a hospital unit. The inside of the casing also smelt like a hospital ward.
"Ian what's it like in there?" Susan asked him with child naivety in her voice. She had left her position by the door to get a better look at the casing that Ian was inside of her.
"It's a little cramped in here." Ian responded back to her as he tried to stretch his legs once again. He winced when his knees banged onto something inside of the casing.
Susan laughed as she stepped closer to Ian, "You sound funny, Ian."
The entire Dalek casing had started twitching as Ian took control over its systems. Susan looked over to the Doctor who was watching Ian closely. He was rubbing his chin as he hummed to himself. Her smile feel at how series her grandfather looked.
"It also smells like a hospital in here." Ian continued to describe what it was like inside the Dalek casing. He once again looked around the cramped interior of the Dalek casing.
"What do you mean, Ian?" Barbra's voice came from his side. He could not see what was happening outside of the casing from the thick mud that covered the lens of the eye stock.
"I can smell different types of medicine and disinfectant in here. There is something seriously wrong with the Daleks if they need all of this medical equipment." Ian responded back to Barbara. "Also there is a screen that is showing medical information. There is one that looks like a heart monitor." he continued to her as he looked at one of the screens that was beside him.
The Doctor rubbed his chin as he muttered to himself, "The Daleks had said that the Thals were badly mutated. But yet it is these Daleks themselves that rely on these casings for everything. Which begs the question who is really badly mutated."
"Yeah, Alydon was not mutated at all." Susan pipped up from where she was standing beside Barbara. "He had looked human. The only thing that I saw different about him was blue scaly formations around his eye brows." she explained the Thal to her grandfather and Susan.
"How can we know that is a mutation?" the Doctor asked Barbara and Susan. He hummed as he rubbed his chin. "For all we know that is what the Thals normally look. I thought I had taught you better than that Susan."
Susan bowed her head as she whispered, "Sorry grandfather."
Ian cried out in pain. He looked at his arm to see one of the wires that hung around him had gone through his jacket and pierced his skin. He jumped in surprise as beeping came from beside him. He looked over to the medical computer. It had stopped screaming for his attention and was now showing his heartrate.
"What is happening?" Ian asked himself but the Dalek casing spoke the words he was saying.
"Chasterton what is going on in there? Don't tell me you are breaking it already?" the Doctor asked in a huff.
"I did not touch anything, Doctor. One of the wires connected into my arm on its own." Ian responded back to the Doctor. "And now one of the medical computers is now monitoring my heartrate." he continued to explain to the Doctor.
The Doctor hummed as he stepped away from the Dalek casing. He stroked his chin as he studied the Dalek casing that Ian was inside of. "You said it smelled like a hospital, Chatterton?" he asked the man inside the Dalek casing. He watched as its eye stock twitched up and down. Ian would not be able to see out of the lens. Mud was still covering the lens.
The Doctor looked away from the silver and blue Dalek casing to look at the Dalek creature. The Dalek was still wrapped in the blue cloak that Alydon had given Susan out in the petrified forest outside the Dalek City walls.
The Doctor looked away from the Dalek creature to look back to the Dalek casing. "A logical assumption that we can gather about these creatures; is that the Daleks in order to survive the radiation retreated into these chasing. Over time they mutated into these creatures as they needed the armour more in order to survive." he found himself explaining to them all.
Barbara looked over the Dalek casing to look at the Doctor. She placed her hand on the domed head of the casing. She felt the buzzing of electricity zapping over the surface of the Dalek casing. She asked the Doctor, "Why would anyone do that to themselves? Surely being in this underground bunker was enough protection for what happened outside?"
"We really do not know what has happened on this planet? All we know is that there was a devastating war." the Doctor said back to Barbara. "And I think that once we have gotten back to the ship with the Dalek casing Chatterton is in we may be able to find out more about what had happened on this planet."
"Do you really have to know about the Daleks, Doctor?" Barbara asked with an exasperated sigh.
The Doctor chuckled as looked over Ian's Dalek casing to look back to Barbara. "My dear knowledge is power." he chuckled to her.
Inside the Dalek casing Ian was not listening to the Doctor and Barbara's conversation. He was looking at all the buttons and screens that were all around him. A strange alien language was written on the screens. He didn't understand what any of the symbols meant.
The only computer that was understood was the heart monitor. At least it had stopped beeping at him. It was now showing him his heart rate. It was also showing him other medical rates that he did not understand.
A hissing from above made him look up. In the red light of the interior of the Dalek casing he saw one of the cables above his head was squirming about like a headless snake. He was not quick enough as the cable in its squirming had descended into his neck but he was not fast enough. He cried out in pain as the tip of the wire pinched into his skin.
Barbara and the Doctor both looked to Ian when they heard him grunting in pain. The sound was distorted by the Dalek's electronic grating voice. "Ian what's going on?" Barbra asked him with a fearful tone in her voice.
"Chatterton do not tell me you are already breaking the casing." the Doctor muttered in annoyance to Ian.
Inside the casing Ian was not paying attention to what Ian and Barbara were saying outside the casing. His attention was more focused on what was happening inside of the casing. More cables and wires had connected with his head and by his throat.
"I'm not doing anything Doctor." Ian snapped at the Doctor. His eye stock and appendages twitched in time with his thoughts. The Daleks domed head swirled to the right. The blinded eye stock twitched up to look at where Ian assumed the Doctor was. Still blinded by the mud, Ian was not looking at the Doctor. "It is the casing. It keeps connecting wires to me." he continued to explain to the Doctor.
The Doctor stepped closer to Ian. He looked directly into lens covered in mud. "Fascinating." he chuckled as he pressed a hand onto the dome of the casing.
"I don't think it's really fascinating." Barbra snapped back to the Doctor. She waited until he was looking at her before she continued speaking to him, "Something is happening to Ian and we don't know what. We don't know anything about these Daleks. How do we not know that what is happening to Ian can be stopped before he is fully connected to the casing?"
The Doctor huffed, "Then I suppose it is best that we make our escape now. The sooner we get out of the City the sooner we can get Chatterton out of there."
"But Grandfather, we don't know what this is doing to Ian. Wouldn't it be wise that we find out what is happening to him before we make our move?" Susan as the Doctor as she stepped in to stand beside her grandfather.
"We have already wasted time talking, my dear." the Doctor responded back to Susan. "We must make our move before another Dalek comes in and sees what has happened to his comrade." he continued to speak as he looked away from Susan to look at the blue cloak that was wrapped around the Dalek mutant.
The Dalek mutant that was wrapped in the blue cloak twitched. It was still not finding its way out of the wrapping that the Doctor had wrapped it in. He looked away from the creature to look at the Dalek casing.
The Doctor watched in silence as the Dalek casing twitched. "Chatterton have you figured out how to move that thing?" he asked Ian with a huff.
Inside the Dalek casing Ian was once again ignoring the Doctor's remarks. More wires and cables had connected into his flesh. He winched when every wire and cable connected with him. He looked at all the screens around him and understand what was written on them. He cried out when a wire connected into his brain. He felt the casing jerking forward with his thoughts.
Ian tried to move his hands, but he found his limbs unable to lift them. He tried to move his head to look down at his hands but he couldn't move his neck. A metal brace had wrapped around his neck. He cried out in pain when needles from the neck brace scratched into his neck.
"Ian?" Barbra screamed to Ian. She jumped back when the domed head of the casing rotated in her direction. She watched the eye stock twitching upwards, not that it was doing Ian any good with it being covered in mud. "Are you alright?"
"Can we make our move. Inside here is very uncomfortable." Ian muttered as the entire casing wobbled.
He heard Susan laughing at him as he made the casing wobble. He ignored her laughing. He had more concerning things to worry about and she was just a child and she did not need to know what was happening to him the longer he was inside of the Dalek casing.
The Doctor hummed in agreement to Ian, "Chatterton is correct."
"That's not my name." Ian said to himself.
The Doctor ignored Ian as he continued to speak to the man inside the Dalek casing, "Now Chesterton do you think you can control that casing? It should be simple enough for you to control it." he said to Ian.
The Doctor watched the Dalek casing moving forwards and then backwards. The appendages of the casing twitching. The Dalek's domed head rotated in on direction and then in another direction. The eye stock with the lens still covered in mud twitched upwards and downwards.
"Yes. I think I understand how to move the Dalek casing." Ian responded when the Dalek casing came to a stop. The eye stock was not facing the Doctor. The lens that allowed him to see the outside world was still covered in mud.
"Good." the Doctor chuckled as he looked away from Ian to look at Barbara and Susan. "Now we just need to play our part in the plan. The three of us will walk in front of Ian. That will give any passing Daleks the illusion that he is taken us to somewhere else in their city." he said to them both.
The Dalek eye stock swirled towards the sound of the Doctor's voice. "Can someone wipe this mud off of the eye stock?" he asked all of them.
"Oh of course Ian." Barbara responded.
Barbara reached into her jacket's pocket. She pulled out a white handkerchief. She stepped up to the eye stock that swirled towards her. "Ian stop moving." she told him.
Ian remained still as Barbara whipped away the mud that covered the casing's eye stock. Instantly he could see outside of the casing. His vision from the lens was blue tinted like the lens itself. The eye stock swirled around the room and he could see the others looking at him.
The eye stock swirled around to look back at the Doctor. "I am ready, Doctor." Ian explained to the Doctor.
"Good." the Doctor responded as he limped towards Susan and Barbra. "We have waisted enough time already."
Ian controlled the Dalek casing to move backwards. He was starting to get a hang on controlling the Dalek casing. He can move forwards and backwards. He can rotate the casing domed head around. He could feel his body and the casing connecting as more wires connected them together.
Ian may have been a man of science but he couldn't understand what was happening to him. The technology inside of the casing was nothing he had seen before. Even though he could not understand what was happening to him there was a small part of his mind that did know what was happening.
The eye stock swirled around to look at Susan. She smiled as she looked directly into the blue lens. Inside the casing Ian twitched. He did not want her to know what was happening inside of the casing. "Susan you better lead the way. You know the way." he said to her.
"Alright Ian!" Susan responded back to him with a large smile. Her smile was still on her face as she turned away from the others. There was a slight skip in her step as she walked to the open door of their cell.
Ian moved the casing towards the Doctor and Barbra. "Doctor. Barbara." he said to both. He waited until they were both looking into the blue lens of the casing's eye stock before he continued, "There is something happening to me."
"What do you mean Ian?" Barbara asked as she placed her hand on the domed head. "Surely it must be like driving a car?"
"Yes, Chatterton." the Doctor quickly responded back to Ian. "You are not like the Dalek creature. You are merely controlling the Dalek machine for a little bit. There is no need for you to connect to all the machinery in the Dalek machine. Only what controls the Dalek machine."
The Dalek eye stock swirled around to look at the Doctor. "I don't know how to explain it Doctor. But it is like the casing needs something to be connected to." Ian responded back to the Doctor.
The Doctor hummed as he looked into the blue glowing lens that glowed in his face. "Dalek technology is something I am not familiar with. So maybe you are right in that there is something going on. But maybe you are wrong and what is happening is just so you can control the Dalek machine." the Doctor told Ian.
Barbara looked away from Ian to look at the Doctor. "How can you say that Doctor?" she asked him making him look to her. "You just said that you do not know Dalek technology. So how can you assume that nothing is happening to Ian?"
"My dear, how can we assume that something bad is happening to Chatterton?" the Doctor asked her.
Barbara sighed as she looked away from the Doctor. She looked back to Ian. He looked like any other Dalek that they had meet already in Dalek City. The main colour of his casing was silver with the blue spheres on the lower. The domed head had two lights on it that flashed in time with every word that he had said. There was also the eye stock that was constantly scanning the room around Ian.
"It would be best that we get out of here. I really do not want to get stuck in this casing." Ian snapped in the Daleks electronic voice. He both sounded like himself, but he also sounded like a Dalek with its electronic voice.
"Very well dear boy." the Doctor responded back to Ian with a hum. He looked away from the Dalek and Barbara. He looked over to Susan. She was standing at the door. She had once again standing guard at the door. She was on the lookout for Daleks.
The Doctor looked away from Susan to look back to Ian and Barbara. "I think it would be best not tell Susan what we think is happening or not happening to Ian." he said to both of them with a serious tone in his voice. "She is too young to worry about things."
"Agreed, Doctor." Ian agreed with him.
"But shouldn't we tell Susan what might be happening to Ian?" Barbra asked the two men. She looked between the two of them as she tightened the dirty handkerchief in her hand. "She has a right to know what might be happening."
The Doctor looked back to Ian. He watched the Dalek casing moving backwards and away from him and Barbara. The sound of mechanical whirling loud as the Dalek casing moved to stand beside Susan. A soft smile spread on his face as he watched Susan pressing her hand on the Daleks domed head.
The Doctor looked back to Barbara. She was also looking over to Ian and Susan. They were talking about the chemistry test that Susan had sat. He remembered when she came in so frustrated that the chemistry test had been so easy and yet so hard for her to complete. He had argued with her that she was in a human school. He reminded her that she had been playing human when she was not human. She may have looked human but she came from a society so advanced compared to the society of Britan in the sixties.
Humming to himself, the Doctor brought himself back to the present. "My dear," he said to Barbara making her look back to him, "we do not truly know what is going to happen with Ian and the Dalek casing. So until we know more about the Dalek casing and until we get out of Dalek City we can tell her."
The Doctor placed his hand on Barbara's arm. He smiled warmly to her as she looked to him. "Now we better get a move on before Susan gets impatient. Chatterton can talk for a while but I know my granddaughter. She will get bored." he chuckled to her. He patted her harm before he walked towards the door.
Barbara watched him walking to the door. She sighed in frustration before she followed him. She stood beside Ian who swirled the eye stock around to look at her. She placed her hand on his domed head. Once again she felt the static electricity that surrounded the Dalek casing.
"The corridor is empty." Susan happily told them.
"Good, my child." the Doctor said to her as he placed his hand on her back. He smiled warmly to her before he looked to Ian when his smile dropped. "Remember, Chatterfield to use as little words as possible. This will only work as long as you also sound and look like a Dalek." he told Ian.
"Alright." Ian responded to the Doctor.
The Doctor nodded his head as he turned around to look at Barbara and Susan. "Now I think we have wasted enough time here." he said to the two of them. "We just need to walk in front of Ian. But we need you Susan to lead the way. You have seen more of Dalek City than us. And you have seen how to get out of the City." he said to Susan.
"Ok, Grandfather. Just down this corridor." Susan explained to them. She started to lead them down the corridor. The only noises were the sound of their shoes on the metallic floor and the mechanical whirling of the Dalek casing behind them.
Back inside the room that had been their prison cell. The Dalek mutant managed to weakly crawl out of the blue cloak that it had been wrapped in. Its clawed webbed hands scratched the metal floor as it took in deep breathes. Its single yellow eye was narrowed as it glared at a point in the floor.
The Dalek mutant only managed to drag itself a foot away from the Thal's blue cloak before it collapsed in on itself. Its one eye blinked slowly as its tentacles wrapped around each other.
"Daleks are supreme." it rasped out with its final breathe. The Dalek's single eye closed as all the air rushed out of its deformed lungs. Its deformed body deflated like all a balloon.