Doctor Who_ The Power of the Daleks Part 11

'I hope you're not thinking of detaining me,' Quinn said softly.

'Thinking? I'm doing it.' Bragen gestured to his guard.

'I could hardly let you run around after doing this, could I?'

Shaking the guard's restraining hand off his arm, Quinn glared at Bragen. 'You fool!'

'I'd be a bigger fool to let you go.'

Quinn backed away from them. 'I'm warning you for the last time, Bragen. You'd better keep your ridiculous police away from me'

Bragen gave a short nod. The guard pulled a squat pistol from his belt and pointed it at the Deputy Governor. 'Do they still look ridiculous to you, Quinn?' he asked dangerously.

The fight went out of Quinn. 'You win this round, Bragen,' he agreed. 'But we'll see how this looks in front of the Governor in the morning.' The guard jerked the pistol and Quinn preceded him out of the door.

Bragen turned to the Doctor. 'The Governor will want an enquiry. May I ask what you were doing in here, Examiner?'

'I was going to radio the Earth,' the Doctor told him honestly. 'To get them to order Hensell to destroy the Daleks.'

'Lesterson's discoveries?' He raised an eyebrow. 'I see.

Well, I'll include that in my report to the Governor.'

The Doctor was under no illusion that it would be a report to flatter anyone but Bragen. 'You believe the cables were cut by these rebels of yours,' he said, 'but there may be another reason. Perhaps someone wants to make certain that I don't interfere with Lesterson's experiments.'

Bragen nodded slowly. 'You're right, that is a possibility that had not occurred to me. Do you believe that Lesterson is up to this?' He gestured at the mess.

'I think that Lesterson is so narrow-minded that he could well endanger us all,' the Doctor told him earnestly.

'This damage may well be the least of it if he gets those Daleks going again. Believe me I know!'

Bragen gave him a faint smile. 'Then we should all be glad that he doesn't have permission to continue, shouldn't we?'

'We should,' the Doctor agreed, 'if I were certain that he was willing to wait.'

Lesterson was busily rerouting the circuits in the generator system. He'd reached the limits of the portable one and was now forced to tap into the main city circuits. The power drain he was contemplating would normally have shown up on the instruments in the central station. He'd been craftily using his computer net to shut off some of the unnecessary power drains. It was four in the morning, so he could divert the power without risk of being discovered.

Of course, this wouldn't be a state that would last very long. It was important to get results before someone discovered his tampering. But he was utterly convinced that he would soon have the results that he desired.

While he did this, Resno was busy setting up a camera to record the rest of the experiment. Lesterson wanted it all on video as a back-up. If the machine lost power again, he wanted to be able to prove he had made it move.

'Right,' Lesterson finally announced, 'I've redirected the power. We can go up another fifth now.' He glanced at his male a.s.sistant. 'You'll have to dodge between your meters and the camera, Resno.'

'Right.' Resno wanted to ask: And what about Janley? And what about Janley?

Can't she do some of the work? But he knew that Lesterson hated having his orders questioned. 'Ready.' But he knew that Lesterson hated having his orders questioned. 'Ready.'

The scientist nodded. 'Connecting now.' He gripped the bar and eased it upward again. The panel showed the flow of the diverted power as it surged into the Dalek machine. In the background, he was vaguely aware of a resonant humming from the generator.

From his station, Resno reported, 'All connections are responding.'

'It's working!' Janley said.

As they watched, the eye-stick and sucker-stick both moved slowly back to their horizontal positions.

'Excellent!' Lesterson crowed happily. 'Film it, man, film it!' As Resno moved over to the camera tripod, Lesterson turned to Janley. 'Note all of the input and output readings. I have to know precisely how much power that machine is absorbing, and what degree of movement conforms to the power drain.'

As the three humans worked, the Dalek's eye slowly swivelled around to point directly at Resno. As the lab a.s.sistant stared into the camera viewfinder, he was shocked to see the eye staring back at him. Resno straightened up slowly.

The body of the Dalek moved soundlessly to align with the eye. The unidentified third appendage rose to point towards Resno.

'It seems interested in you, Resno,' Lesterson commented. He became aware that Resno was staring back at the Dalek almost in shock. 'Whatever's the matter with you, man?'

'I tell you, it's intelligent,' Resno said, panic in his voice. 'It's watching me, Lesterson! Weighing me up! I can sense it!'

Lesterson snorted. 'Don't be a fool, man. You're starting to sound like that stupid Examiner's superst.i.tious female a.s.sistant.'

'Well, maybe she was right!' Resno said. He was backing slowly away from the camera. 'I don't like it, I tell you. We don't have any idea what these things are capable of!'

Lesterson held him gently from behind. 'We'll never find out what they can do unless you take a film of every reaction. will we? Now, please get on with your job.'

Resno reluctantly nodded. He bent back to the camera.

Lesterson moved back towards his post at the generator and computer, ready to begin the next phase of tests.

There was a sudden electrical clattering sound, like an intense discharge of electricity. Resno gave a scream, collapsing over the camera. Parts of it had begun to melt from some intense reaction. Lesterson and Janley both spun around in time to see the Dalek's third appendage react slightly as the noise cut off.

Resno fell the rest of the way to the floor and lay very, very still.

The Dalek started to move again. This time it was swinging around towards Lesterson and Janley. With an incoherent cry of horror, Lesterson fell on the power lines.

He literally tore his connectors apart, heedless of the sparking. As the power cut off, the Dalek's appendages went limp once more.

As Lesterson dived back to his controls to kill the power drain, Janley went carefully over to where Resno had fallen. Her eyes burned, but not with sympathy for the drowned man, or anger at the Dalek. She was filled with much darker emotions.

This experiment was becoming much more interesting than she had ever expected.

Finishing the shut-down, Lesterson rose to come over.

Janley quickly waved him back. 'It's all right,' she said, 'he isn't dead.'

'I'll never forgive myself,' Lesterson said, on the verge of tears.

'It was some sort of shock wave,' Janley informed him.

'It seems to have stunned him.'

'What are we going to do with him?' Lesterson was almost babbling in his shock. 'We must get him to the hospital.'

'I'll look after him,' Janley promised. She crossed the room and put a gentle, protective arm about Lesterson's shoulders. 'Don't feel so badly. He's only stunned.'

'Are you sure?' He was almost begging for rea.s.surance.

'He's very still.'

'Yes, of course I'm sure,' Janley told him drily. 'I trained in biology, didn't I? It's not hard to tell the difference between alive and dead. Now, what about the Dalek?'

Lesterson looked into her eyes, seeming to draw strength from her. 'Yes, yes, of course. I have to remember what's most important here.' He shook his head to clear out the remainder of his panic. 'I shall have to get it ready for the morning, even if it means working all night.'

'If you don't,' Janley agreed, 'the Examiner will stop the whole thing.'

'I could work inside the capsule,' Lesterson said. 'Close off the door. Yes. That's best, I think.' He turned back to her. 'I'll leave you to look after Resno. Please make sure he's all right. I'll never forgive myself if anything's happened to him.' He went across to the capsule and then entered to prepare it for his work.

Janley went to the communications panel on the wall and punched in a code. To her surprise it stayed dead. She examined it quickly, one eye on the capsule in case Lesterson came out. No carrier signal odd. Well, she'd have to improvise. It wouldn't be hard to dupe that idiot Lesterson. Only one thing was really important to him. It had now become very important to her, also. Nothing could be allowed to stand in the way of his experiment.

Especially not that fool Resno's body.

Crossing the room, she grabbed Resno's arms and then dragged his dead body behind the farthest of the lab benches. There were boxes of supplies under it that would hide it from a casual viewer. Over some of them was a tarpaulin. Janley jerked the edges of this down to completely hide the body. Returning to the door, she studied her handiwork. Excellent! No one would see the body there before she could arrange for its disposal.

There was a footfall from inside the capsule. Janley jerked the lab door open, and stood in the gap. 'Fine,' she said to the far wall, 'I'll check in first thing' She closed the door as Lesterson came out of the capsule.

'Yes,' he told her, 'there's room to work inside it. I'll have to relay the power lines, of course.' He stared at the door. 'How's Resno?'

'Thane came for him herself,' Janley a.s.sured him. 'He'll have the best of care. He's really going to be all right.'

'You're sure?' he pleaded.

Grief what a pain! 'He just needs a long rest,' Janley said. 'He just needs a long rest,' Janley said.

'I had to promise we'd not bother him for a few days. And he'll be kept in isolation. After all, we don't want anyone else to hear about this little accident, do we? They might get worried and stop your experiment.'

As she'd expected, this. .h.i.t all the right b.u.t.tons. 'No, certainly not,' he agreed. 'Quite right. As long as he'll be fine.' Then he turned back to the Dalek and patted the lifeless machine. Janley rolled her eyes in disgust at his gullibility.

'Got to get you ready for the morning,' Lesterson told the Dalek. 'When the Governor and that meddling Examiner arrive, you'll be waiting for them.' He gently touched the gun-stick. 'We'll both be ready.'

13.

What Have you Done, Lesterson?

And then it was morning. The Doctor sat by his window, staring out as the fledgling sun illuminated the stark surface of Vulcan. The rocks, so grey and featureless in the harsh light of day, were glowing in the soft intensity of dawn. In many ways, the surface of this planet was beautiful.

'You've got to defend Quinn,' Polly insisted. Though she'd had only two or three hours' sleep, she still seemed to be both bright and full of energy. The Doctor suspected that it was her indignation and innate sense of justice that were fueling her.

Ben, with typical bluntness, was having none of this.

The Doctor could see why his previous self had decided that Ben would be an admirable companion. Once he was on the scent of trouble, there was absolutely no sidetracking him. Of course, if he was on the wrong scent...

'I know it's "innocent until proven guilty",' Ben said, 'but well, he's guilty guilty.'

Polly, in her turn, was having none of this. Her intuition had kicked into high gear. The Doctor respected this, knowing it was not the t.i.tter-behind-the-hand sort of thing most people a.s.sumed it to be. 'Oh, don't be silly, Ben,' she said. 'He's the Deputy Governor.'

'So what?' Ben asked, aggressively. 'I had a headmaster once who got pinched for riding on a bus and not paying his fare. Rank don't prove anything at all. A crook's a crook, whether he's a peasant or a king. Besides, maybe he's got the motive.'

'Like what?' Polly asked, scornfully.

'He's the Deputy Deputy Governor, right?' Ben smirked at her. Governor, right?' Ben smirked at her.

'Maybe he doesn't like playing second fiddle.'

'That's just supposition,' Polly argued.

Her obstinacy seemed to bring out the worst in Ben.

The Doctor suspected that Polly's obvious attraction to Quinn wasn't helping Ben's att.i.tude, either. For all of his pretence, Ben was quite clearly taken with Polly.

'His jacket b.u.t.ton isn't supposition,' Ben said. 'And the Doctor caught him red-handed in the Communications Room with a pair of pliers, didn't he? And don't tell me he was just plucking his eyebrows with them!'

'I thought you didn't believe he was the Doctor,' Polly countered. 'You can hardly call him a credible witness then, can you?'

'She's got you there,' the Doctor put in, which earned him a black look from Ben.

'Look,' Polly persisted, 'there are some people you just know are all right. Know just by looking at them.'

The Doctor gave her a cheery smile. 'Does that mean that you believe I'm the Doctor, then?' He looked at Ben, who still appeared unconvinced. 'Or are you saying that my looks are against me?'

Before either of them could reply, there was a knock at the door. Bragen, looking as if he'd had a perfect night's rest, strode in and gave them all a chilly smile.

'Good morning,' he said briskly. 'The enquiry is ready to begin. I've come to escort you.'

The Doctor leapt to his feet, placing an arm around each of his companion's shoulders. 'Now we shall see who's right shan't we?' he asked.