Upon their return to the transport, the Doctor & Nyssa found the colonists recovering. Brett was still inside the craft, head tilted back & rubbing his temple. The two guards were milling about making a show of "securing the perimeter", embarrassed by how the deterrence system affected them. The two pilots were making an examination of the shuttle whilst Telly was examining, with increasing revulsion, the statues of the creatures. Nyssa broke off to check on the Professor, whilst the Doctor walked over to Telly.
"Veritable beauties, aren't they?"
"Not the kind of art pieces I'd be happy having in my room." she said, examining a ridged variant of the gargoyles. "What on Earth was the purpose of all this?"
"Nothing I'm certain of at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if these things were worshipped." answered the Doctor.
"Worshipped!?" exclaimed Telly.
Over at the hover vehicle, Brett was emerging helped by Nyssa.
"Thank you, my dear." he said weakly. "That security system had the most awful effect, my heads still throbbing."
"It's alright professor, just take a few steps & get some air."
The professor stood on his own for a moment before straightening his back & taking a deep breath.
"I think I shall be alright now." he sighed.
Nyssa smiled & wandered over to the Doctor & Telly.
"Everyone back on form?" he asked.
"Seems like it." Nyssa smiled. "Shall we head into the temple now?"
The Doctor nodded his agreement.
The pilots had stayed behind to examine the shuttle further, so the Doctor, Nyssa, Brett, Telly & the two guards made up the group that entered the Temple. Now with more discerning & numerous eyes, it became apparent there was little of interest in the outer sections of the temple. Many pristine statues & empty rooms, but nothing of genuine interest. After half an hour of meandering the corridors, the Doctor made a suggestion.
"Let's head to that antechamber we found. There was something worth seeing on those walls."
Intrigued, the group followed & they soon found themselves in the antechamber where the Doctor & Nyssa had first encountered the Oculus. The Doctor quickly made his way to the wall by the pillar Nyssa had sat on &, pulling out a small torch from his pocket, he began to examine the wall.
Nyssa reached his side first & realised that there were many badly faded hieroglyphics etched there. Many had been worn away by time, but some were still readable. The Professor joined them next, his eyes aglow.
"Wonderful, positively wonderful!" he cried. "No idea what it could mean, I'm no Epigrapher of course, but it's absolutely fascinating."
The Doctor, placing his half-moon spectacles on his face, pointed to a particular figure on the wall with his torch. The figure was humanoid & largely uninteresting, but what proved of more interest was what it carried: a large egg. The next hieroglyph showed a large spider-like form emerging from the egg & crawling towards a prostrate humanoid. The next few hieroglyphs were worn & unreadable, but the final showed one of the creatures towering over several kneeling humanoids, it's arms outstretched.
"It's like they're worshipping it." puzzled Nyssa.
"Yes." replied the Doctor absentmindedly. "Worse things have become the subject of worship, I suppose...though it does make you wonder."
The Doctor straightened up & from his position by the wall, observed the two statues of the creatures. As he moved off towards the statue that stood erect, Nyssa noticed his expression had become grim. Beside her, Brett was still gushing.
"Just think, a lost civilisation!...…"
Nyssa wandered over to the Doctor, where he was examining the tallest statue.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
Ceasing his examination, the Doctor took a step back, removed his glasses & shone his torch on the creatures head. It's black dome-like head glistened in the torchlight, as did the slightly bared teeth.
"I don't think these are statues." he said simply, though his voice still echoed in the small chamber.
A cold dread swept over Nyssa as she looked up at the black form pressed tightly to the wall. Behind her, the colonists turned & stared over at the two with apprehensive eyes.
"But...if it's alive...why-?"
"Oh it's not alive, at least not anymore." soothed the Doctor. "If you take a look around it's legs, there seems to be residue of some kind of resinous material."
Nyssa did so & saw dark, hardened resin, largely broken & misshapen, attaching the creature to the wall. There was an oddly bio-mechanical flavour to what she could make out of the resin, a shape that resembled tubing of some kind or a clump of something that seemed like an organ.
"Residue because either someone removed the material or it decayed naturally over time. Regardless, the creature, perhaps at the end of it's lifespan, essentially became part of the substance that I can only assume it secreted. The bodies hardened into the same kind of resin that attached it to the wall."
"But for what purpose?" asked Nyssa. "Some kind of defence mechanism, to scare off intruders? To make them think the creatures were alive & sleeping?"
"Your guess is as good as mine, Nyssa." shrugged the Doctor. "These things, if indeed they are living things & not just imaginative art pieces, seem very alien to me...and that's saying something. I think we should go & find the owner of that Oculus droid."
Turning & marching off towards the Nave, Nyssa jogged after the retreating shape of the Doctor. The Nave remained shrouded in inky darkness, but as Nyssa's eyes adjusted, she was able to better survey her surroundings. Further to the right of the walkway the Doctor had climbed to incapacitate the Oculus was an archway-cum-walkway with two more of the "statues" overlooking the room.
"Will a signal still be traceable?" she inquired, kneeling opposite the Doctor.
The Doctor busied himself inside the Oculus, the occasional "oh dear" & muffled banging & squeaking being all the answer Nyssa got for several minutes. As she waited, the others entered the Nave & began to spread out. Telly joined the Doctor & Nyssa.
"Is this the thing that's been making a milkshake out of our brains?"
"Yes & no." Nyssa replied. "It ensured the signal location remained masked & monitored the temple, but it's just a tool, a piece of equipment."
The implication left hanging in the air was not lost on Telly. She was about to speak again when the Doctor pulled himself free of the Oculus, brandishing a small box with a screen on it.
"In answer to your question Nyssa, yes, mostly because I have fantastic technological engineering skills, but also a little bit of luck...probably."
As he spoke, the box made a steady bleeping sound & the Doctor regarded it with a smug grin.
"The pulsar circuit which will guide us to the location of the Oculus controller!"
"Did you remember to disable the Tachyon filters?" asked Nyssa, her tone that of a head prefect quizzing an overzealous junior.
The Doctor rolled his eyes & replied with a "hmm hmm".
"What about the two-way steady state pulse transceiver?"
The Doctor suddenly looked surprised & quickly opened up the box. For a few seconds he fiddled with the internal components before snapping it shut & smiling weakly.
"Fixed...now."
Telly smiled at this exchange & spoke, suppressing a chuckle as she did.
"And what is a two-way steady thingy?"
The Doctor, tacitly ignoring Nyssa's mirthful gaze, answered the young engineer.
"A two-way steady state pulse transceiver allows whoever controlled this machine to scramble data banks &, for want of a better word, fry the internal mechanisms to stop the very thing I'm trying to do."
The Doctor's features crumpled into a perplexed expression & he became lost in thought, muttering as he did.
"So why didn't they? They, whoever they may be, know that we're here & that we've poleaxed it's eye in the sky. One would think they'd either attempt to stop us finding them or be out here, mildly perturbed & with lots of questions."
A heavy silence descended on the trio. Nyssa felt compelled to speak everyone's thoughts.
"They want us to find them now? After having spent so long trying to keep people away?"
The Doctor looked at his companion, the grim expression having returned.
"I have a very bad feeling Nyssa, and I've been having it since we arrived on this world. A familiar feeling...I just can't place it!" he added angrily, hitting his leg with a balled up fist. "No, it won't do. I'm getting to the bottom of this."
All 6 of the group gathered, they had followed the bleeping signal of the pulsar circuit through myriad rooms of the temple. Along the way, Nyssa felt a sickening sense of deja vu & remembered her dream.
"This temple was in my dream." she thought.
The people of Traken had long been considered modest emphatic telepaths, though Nyssa had never considered herself particularly proficient. The Doctor often complimented her empathy & understanding, but this was just her natural temperament. Dreams & visions did plague her, though they were seldom bordering on the rare. Had she suffered not a nightmare, but a vision? There had been a genuine feeling of being called & the memory of her stumbling through the temple had felt less like a vivid dream & more like a memory. She had felt like her mind was trying to organise what she was seeing into a relatable pattern, something she could understand, but without more data, she was lost.
Pushing the thoughts aside, she walked level with the Doctor & peeked at the machine.
"We're getting close." mumbled the Doctor.
As he spoke, they arrived at a long staircase. So long was the descent that the bottom could not be seen through the utter darkness.
"Torches out, ladies & gentlemen!" said the Doctor mock-cheerfully.
"We can't be going in there!?" moaned the youngest guard.
The Doctor tilted his head In the guards direction, an unimpressed look on his face.
"You have a torch & a gun don't you?" he asked.
"Well, yes, but-" spluttered the guard.
"What's your name?" interrupted the Doctor.
"What?...Marveck."
"Well, Marv, we shall be fine. You've got your guns & we've got our torches." answered the Doctor, turning & descending the large staircase.
Marveck looked unhappy at this but, as everyone else took the Doctor's lead on the stairs, he quickly found himself alone. Realising this, he took the steps two at a time to catch up, his boots echoing in the silent, crumbling halls.
Their descent lasted 5 minutes before the group found themselves in a corridor much like the one they'd left upstairs. After about 40 feet, however, they found something new at a crossroad. Left & right appeared to be more temple corridor but in the centre where should have been a wall, there appeared a man-made tunnel. The tunnel had been dug in a circular form, various props made from, what seemed to the Doctor, like synthetic metals. A simple, smooth metal floor lined the tunnel & the path was clear. 50 feet ahead of the group from the tunnel entrance, the Doctor could make out what appeared to be more complex & sturdy walls, the type that lined underground pod shelters & bunkers. A large metal door stood ominously shut, no windows to see in or out. As they made their way into the pod corridor, Nyssa shivered.
"It's getting colder again. I thought the deeper you went the warmer it got?"
"Only on planets with a core of molten lava." answered Brett. "Some planets have been known to have cores of molten ice."
Stopping near the door, Telly raised her hand in indication for silence.
"What's that sound." she said. "It's like a...thrumming or an electronic heartbeat."
The Doctor, pocketing the pulsar device, began to examine the shorter corridor, eventually discovering a small camera lodged into the corner where the wall met the roof.
"Well, if we weren't expected, we should be now."
"I don't like this." said Marveck.
The Doctor moved over to the right hand wall, his left hand rubbing the stick of celery on his lapel. Nyssa, standing some feet behind him to his left, began to feel nervous.
"Doctor, are you sure about this?" she whispered.
"Not at all, Nyssa." he answered. "If I'm honest, I've got goosebumps & I'm getting the strongest feeling to run, the kind I only ever get..." The Doctor stopped suddenly, puzzling Nyssa.
Suddenly, various sounds of hydraulics & sliding metal sounded from the door, the locks being undone. The door slowly began to lift & a thick mist curled & twisted as it poured out. The mist rose higher until it reached Nyssa's waist, her legs stinging from the cold the mist had brought with it. The older guard stood level with the Doctor on his left & raised his pistol. Telly, Brett & Marveck stood further back.
Worried by the Doctor's silence, Nyssa moved to his side & looked at his face, seeing a look of dawning realisation & horror on his youthful features. The door was fully open now & a bright light shone out causing all but the Doctor to avert their gaze.
"I should have realised!" he gasped.
A shape could be discerned moving slowly forward, but it was still largely obscured by mist & the light. The electronic heartbeat was no longer muffled & resounded in the small corridor. Nyssa, shielding her eyes from the light, spoke.
"Doctor, what is it?"
The Doctor's voice could only just be heard over the heartbeat, Nyssa almost missed it, but the horror & shock was evident in his voice.
"A Dalek."
The Dalek emerged from it's shelter, light gleaming off it's silver armour, it's gun stick raised.
"On your knees!" it screamed. "You will kneel or you will be exterminated!"
The older guard began to fire, the gunshots sounding obscenely loud in the confined space. All Nyssa could hear for several seconds was a low whine. As she clutched her ears & her hearing returned, she noticed the Doctor had pushed her behind him & was crying out to the others behind them.
"Get out of here, run!"
With a cry of "Exterminate!", Nyssa watched as a beam of light exploded out of the Dalek's gunstick, the bolt of energy hitting the older guard full on the chest. He dropped his gun & let out a piercing wail of agony before dropping to the floor, dead.
Nyssa turned to see Telly pulling Brett with her as they fled, the younger guard nowhere to be seen. About facing, she clung to the Doctor's arm as the Dalek advanced, it's gun stick pointed at them...