Doctor Who_ War Of The Daleks Part 14

'We're alone, Captain,' Science reported. 'The Daleks have destroyed all of the fleet but us.'

And there were still four killcruisers left not good odds at all.

Then one of the Dalek ships slammed into an asteroid. Perhaps they had been focusing so intently on the Hunter Hunter that they had not seen the asteroid in its path. Or their tactical computer had sustained damage. The collision broke the Dalek ship into two parts, both of which were engulfed in fireb.a.l.l.s. A surprising but acceptable victory. that they had not seen the asteroid in its path. Or their tactical computer had sustained damage. The collision broke the Dalek ship into two parts, both of which were engulfed in fireb.a.l.l.s. A surprising but acceptable victory.

The remaining three ships all moved to intercept him, cutting off any possible retreat. How little the Daleks understood his people!

'To the death,' he ordered firmly. 'For the Emperor and Empire!'

The Hunter Hunter sprang forward, into the hail of fire the three killcruisers laid down. The grids whined at fever pitch, and his ship shuddered about him. His own fire pounded the first killcruiser, opening it for another strike. sprang forward, into the hail of fire the three killcruisers laid down. The grids whined at fever pitch, and his ship shuddered about him. His own fire pounded the first killcruiser, opening it for another strike.

Then the whine from the grids ceased entirely, and he knew what that meant.

The entire universe exploded about him and his crew...

PART 3.

CIVIL WAR.

'War is at best barbarism... Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is h.e.l.l.'

General William Sherman, 1879

CHAPTER 7.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.

Davros whirled to face the door as it slid open. He had been attempting to monitor what was happening in the battle, and had already concluded that the Daleks had won. Though the Thals had spared his life and attempted to secure his cooperation, he was under no illusions that the Daleks would do the same. As a result, he had expected to be exterminated immediately the door was opened, and had prepared for it, knowing precisely what kind of radiation to expect.

To his surprise, the Red Dalek in the doorway did not fire. Instead, it regarded him steadily. Davros was puzzled to note that one of the Thals had accompanied it. 'Davros,' the Red Dalek stated, 'you are being taken back for trial. You will be given minimal contact with Daleks.' It paused. 'You will be executed at the end of the trial.'

'Why this insistence on a trial for me?' he demanded. 'You already know the verdict and sentence. Why bother with this charade?'

The Red Dalek studied him. 'The trial is not yours.'

Intriguing... Davros looked at the Thal. 'Why have you spared your foes?' he asked. 'Surely the Daleks have not developed mercy?' He almost spat the word out.

'No,' the Red Dalek acknowledged. 'But we have developed wisdom.' It considered a moment, and then added, 'The Doctor and his companions have also been spared.'

Davros was almost beside himself with rage. 'The Doctor is alive?' he exclaimed. 'No! That must not be! It is he who tricked me into destroying Skaro! He must be exterminated!' When the Red Dalek did not respond, an idea occurred to Davros. 'Is the trial his, then?'

'No.' The Dalek turned away, apparently indifferent. 'Consider wisely what you will say at the trial,' it advised.

'If I am not told whose trial it is to be, how can I prepare a statement?' Davros asked.

The Red Dalek's eye stalk swivelled back to regard him. 'Logical,' it acknowledged. 'The trial is of the entire Dalek species.' The door slid shut, leaving Davros to stare at its black facade.

But the Red Dalek had been very careful and selective in the information it had given him. Davros merely needed time to a.s.similate it and to devise a scheme to use it to his own advantage.

To Sam's surprise, their cell door was not closed again. Several Daleks glided past in the corridor, but none paid the captives any attention whatsoever. This was not the kind of behaviour that she had expected of the universe's most ruthless killers. As she'd told the Doctor earlier, they were being far more civilised than the Thals had been. So far, they had killed none of the crew of the ship, and this clearly disturbed the Doctor.

Sam wasn't sure how she felt about anything right now. She was still in some shock from having witnessed Delani's murder. A twinge or two of guilt, too, in fact, since she had been instrumental in persuading Ayaka to spare their lives. She was starting to see how the Doctor could have felt that creating the Thals as a fighting force might have been his fault. After all, some of the guilt for Delani's death had to rest upon her own shoulders. True, Sam had not expected Ayaka to kill her commander, but that was no real excuse. She'd incited a soldier to mutiny, for what she firmly believed were good reasons. But to be accomplice to murder even one that was arguably justifiable left Sam feeling empty.

To be honest, she wasn't absolutely sure why. It was partly because she believed in trying to see the good in everyone. Delani had, after all, been a product of his environment. He had grown up in a society that had waged war for generations; it was only natural that he become a killer, desensitised to murder and violence. But, then, Ayaka had grown up in exactly the same environment, and she still believed in a code of morality. Not exactly the one that either Sam or the Doctor did, it was true, but her own code. One that would not allow her to kill the innocent simply because she'd been ordered to do so.

Sam didn't know what to make of the Thal woman. In some ways, she despised Ayaka, and in others she admired her.

Why was the universe always so confusing? It was really easy to believe in absolute right and wrong when all you had to do was to study the issue in the abstract. But when you were actually plunged into the thick of life, suddenly the obvious became less clear. Could she condemn Ayaka for doing what the Thal believed was right? It looked as though Ayaka was asking herself pretty much the same questions. She had not killed Delani lightly, or on impulse, but because she had genuinely believed it to be for the greater good. And, at the same time, she blamed herself for doing it. Ayaka was a complex person, and Sam was at a loss as to how to take her.

And what was to happen to them now? The Doctor had been convinced that the Daleks had intended to murder them all, but he had been wrong. Ayaka was convinced that they would all be made into slaves, but the Doctor seemed to think this might not be the case. He was certain that the Daleks were up to something. Sam could agree with that. But what? That question was clearly vexing the Doctor.

'Information,' he finally said, startling them all. Suddenly aware he was being stared at, the Doctor explained. 'We need more information. Like where we are being taken, for one thing.'

'Maybe you should just ask the Daleks,' suggested Chayn. 'They seem to be being awfully reasonable right now.'

The Doctor grinned. 'It's worth a shot,' he agreed, and then winced at his choice of words. Crossing to the open door, he waved a hand in the direction of the guard. 'Ah, excuse me,' he called. 'Could you tell me where this ship is heading?'

The Dalek stared at him. 'I do not have that information.'

'Well, that's a start,' the Doctor murmured. 'He didn't tell me to shut up or be exterminated.' Raising his voice, he asked, 'Could you find out if we're allowed to know?'

The Dalek fell silent, and the Doctor studied it. 'It's sending for directives,' he said, sounding surprised. 'We're certainly being given the royal treatment at least by Dalek standards.'

The Dalek's eye stalk swivelled to face the Doctor again. 'You may all proceed to the monitor room,' it stated. 'Do not attempt to deviate from instructions.'

'We wouldn't dream of it,' the Doctor a.s.sured it. He beamed at his three companions. 'Come on. We may as well take advantage of their generosity. At the very least, it'll be less cramped than this cell.'

The Dalek led the way down the corridor to another room. It activated the door and ushered them in. 'The door will remain open at all times,' it stated. 'You will be observed.'

'Naturally,' the Doctor agreed. He raised an eyebrow when he saw that Cathbad was already there. 'h.e.l.lo! You out on parole, too?'

Cathbad shrugged. 'The Red Dalek ordered me to wait in here and to a.s.sist you if I could.'

'That's jolly decent of it,' the Doctor answered. 'And, frankly, that scares me. Why would the Daleks want us to have access to all of this equipment? They have absolutely no reason to trust me.' He stared about the room, which was clearly a communications subcentre, even to Sam's untrained eyes. There were numerous machines that looked like radars or televisions, and several computers. The lighting in the room was dimmed to make the screens clearer.

Chayn smiled. 'Doctor, I think they've discovered something that keeps you their prisoner far more than locks and chains curiosity.'

The Doctor grinned. 'You know, you may be correct in that.' He turned to Cathbad. 'Can you discover our destination from all of this?'

'No problem.' He bent to the work.

Sam couldn't help feeling useless again. So far, she'd been able to help the Doctor very little, beyond helping to persuade Ayaka to switch sides. All this technical stuff was way over her head. Chayn had taken a seat at one of the computers, and Ayaka at another. Sam couldn't even see a mouse to play around with, and she knew she'd never be able to get the hang of any of this. If only there were some way in which she could contribute. She gave Chayn a calculating look. How could she possibly compete with someone like that? Or like Ayaka, given her build and features? Sam was embarra.s.singly reminded that she was just a seventeen-year-old schoolkid, without many talents and without a sense of direction in her life. It was not a good feeling.

Cathbad looked up, finally. 'Here we are, Doctor.' He gestured to the screen. 'It's pretty logical, really. We're headed for Skaro.'

'Skaro?' The Doctor's voice was sharp. 'That's not possible. Skaro's been destroyed. I should know.'

Ayaka turned around in her seat. 'You've said that before, Doctor,' she commented. 'I kept trying to ask you about it, but I never seemed to get the chance. Why do you think Skaro's been destroyed?'

The Doctor collapsed into one of the chairs, his forehead furrowed. 'Because I engineered its destruction,' he said quietly. 'I tricked Davros into believing that a terrible weapon would give him virtually infinite power, and he loosed it on Skaro's sun. It turned Skaro's sun nova and vaporised the planet, destroying Davros's entire army.'

Ayaka and Cathbad glanced at each other in confusion. 'Doctor, that's impossible,' she stated. 'According to our instruments, Skaro is still intact. Its sun has not become a nova.'

Sam could see that the Doctor was having trouble a.s.similating this information. Well, she reflected, if you thought you'd vaporised a planet, it must be a shock to discover it's still alive and well. 'Maybe we're back in time before the destruction of Skaro?' she suggested.

'No,' the Doctor said slowly. 'I paid a special trip there just before I took on this body not normally allowed, but I had a special mission to perform. The year then tallied with what I know of Skaro. Anyway, Davros believes it to have been obliterated, too. And the time coordinates in the TARDIS indicated that this is thirty years after the explosion, which accords with Davros's memories. So what's going on?'

Sam thought furiously. 'Maybe the Time Lords changed history again,' she suggested.

'Unlikely,' the Doctor replied. 'Oh, they could do it, but they're very wary of such things. Besides, they hate and fear the Daleks. At one time they wanted me to avert their creation in the first place. No, they'd never affect Skaro's timeline in any such way.'

Chayn shrugged. 'Maybe you're just a lousy shot.'

The Doctor looked very indignant at the thought. 'I knew exactly what I was doing,' he insisted with dignity. 'I programmed the Hand of Omega very precisely for the correct coordinates, and...' He stared at Cathbad's screen and then scowled. 'Those aren't the correct coordinates,' he said firmly.

Ayaka crossed to check Cathbad's data. 'Yes, they are,' she insisted.

The Doctor looked shaken. 'I don't understand,' he muttered to himself. 'It's not possible I destroyed the wrong planet...'

Sam could see he was going through some deep agony. She knew how much he was opposed to senseless violence, and that it had taken a great deal of soul-searching for him to have decided to destroy an entire planet to begin with. Now to discover that it wasn't the one he thought it was... It was starting to be more than he could bear. She placed a hand gently on his shoulder, and he pressed it there with one of his own, grateful for her support.

'Do you recall the coordinates you programmed your super-weapon for?' Cathbad asked the Doctor, starting a new pattern. The Doctor nodded, and tapped them into the computer. A moment later, a new point showed on the screen, some distance from their marked trajectory.

'Antalin,' Ayaka breathed. 'Now it's starting to make sense.'

'What is?' the Doctor demanded. 'I wish it made sense to me.'

'Thirty years ago, Antalin's sun went nova for no apparent reason,' Cathbad explained. 'The entire system was destroyed. It's about ten pa.r.s.ecs from Skaro. Our intelligence forces a.s.sumed that the Daleks were testing some new weapon that could detonate stars, but they never used one in combat. We always figured that they'd simply had a problem with it.'

'Antalin?' the Doctor echoed. 'But those are the correct coordinates. I checked them from the TARDIS.' He held up a hand. 'No, give me a moment.' He blinked several times, and then shook his head. 'Of course, the Daleks have the technology to pilot whole worlds by using the planet's core, but...'

'There's something very strange going on here, Doctor,' Ayaka mused thoughtfully. 'Nevertheless, according to our instruments, Skaro exists where it always did, and we are heading there at this moment.'

'Perhaps,' Sam suggested, 'you'll be able to get some answers there.'

'I hope so,' the Doctor said. 'Because Antalin was the home of an advanced civilisation at one time. The Daleks turned it into a slave world, with millions of natives forced to work the mines for the Dalek war effort.' His face was very pale. 'If that is the world I destroyed, then I'm guilty of the murder of millions of innocent beings.'

Davros was fuming quietly to himself. The Daleks had not made the same mistakes with him as the Thals had done. They had left him strictly alone, locked in a room with guards outside. They had depowered a lot of his chair, giving him access to his life-support system, but not his weapons or computer. They were clearly taking no chances with him. He couldn't blame them; from their point of view, their actions were perfectly logical and wise. But it left him their prisoner, and that was a situation that he could not tolerate for very much longer.

The door opened, and a grey Dalek glided in. It was carrying a small power pack. The door slid shut behind it, and the Dalek approached Davros. 'I am here to replenish your resources,' it grated.

'Do so, then,' Davros said impatiently.

It moved forward, connecting the power cell to the chair's inputs. Then, as it worked, it looked up. 'There are those who still believe in you,' it stated.

'What?' Davros focused on the Dalek. 'What do you mean?'

'You are our creator,' it stated. 'It is appropriate that you should be in command of the Daleks. There are many others who believe as I do.'

Davros stared at the Dalek with interest. Was it telling the truth? Or was this some form of elaborate trap? 'I still have supporters?' he asked. 'Daleks who will listen to me?'

'And obey you,' the Dalek replied. 'We are prepared to help you.'

'Interesting...' Davros considered the matter. 'Are there many of you?'

'On this ship, only seventeen for certain,' the Dalek grated. 'On Skaro, many more. We are ready to a.s.sist you in any way that you desire.'

This was getting more promising by the minute if this Dalek was to be believed. 'And what about the Dalek Prime?' he questioned.

'The Dalek Prime should be serving you. He should not have usurped your rightful place. You are the creator.'

Davros nodded slightly, virtually the only movement he could still physically make. 'Good. I am glad that you understand. Then carry this message from me to your companions. Tell them to prepare to be ready for the hour when Davros will need them.'

'I obey.' The Dalek uncoupled the spent fuel cell. 'One of our number will contact you again shortly. We must be cautious. If the Daleks loyal to the Dalek Prime suspect anything, we shall be exterminated.'

'Yes,' Davros agreed. He watched as the Dalek left, and then resumed his deliberations. This time, however, he had a lot to think about. Could he trust what the Dalek had said? If so, then his power was far from spent...

Sam saw that Chayn and Cathbad were deep in conversation, and that Chayn was touching the Thal's hand. She smiled to herself, and glanced at the Doctor again. He was seated by himself, brooding. It wasn't good for him. She went across the room to join him, kneeling down on the floor in front of him so he couldn't avoid her.

'Cheer up,' she told him. 'It can't be as bad as all that.'

'It can be,' he replied. 'There's something very wrong here, and with the Daleks involved, anything that feels bad has to be far worse. They're up to something, and it involves Davros, the Thals and myself. The Daleks should have killed us all on sight, but didn't. Why? And now it looks as though I've destroyed an entire world for... nothing.' He shook his head. 'It doesn't make sense.'