Doctor Who_ War Of The Daleks Part 6

'I am Delani,' he announced, staring imperiously about the corridor. 'Your ship is now under my command until I choose to leave.'

'You have no right,' Balatan exclaimed again. 'I demand that you leave my ship immediately!'

Delani raised his weapon. 'This gives me all the rights I need,' he said firmly. 'And if you persist in making a nuisance of yourself, I shall not hesitate to use it. Ayaka, bring in the rest of the troops, and prepare to take over the ship.'

The second figure nodded, and gestured back into the airlock. It then removed its own helmet, and Chayn felt another shock. Ayaka was a woman, and as perfect in her own way as Delani was in his. She had the most beautiful face, better than any entertainment star Chayn had ever seen. Clear-blue eyes, and neck-length hair so pale it seemed to shine.

'The ship will be ours in minutes,' she reported. 'Shall I contact Harmon?'

'Not yet,' Delani decided. 'Secure the bridge first. I want to ensure that there's no trouble. Then we claim the artefact.'

Ayaka nodded, and moved forward. 'Take us to the bridge,' she ordered Balatan.

'No,' he replied, crossing his arms. 'This is piracy, pure and simple, and I will not stand for it!'

'Then don't,' Delani said, firing once.

The projectile slammed Balatan back against the greasy bulkhead, a startled expression frozen on his face. Leaving a smear down the wall, he slid down to the floor, crumpled and broken.

Chayn stared from Balatan's body to Delani in horror. 'You killed him!' she gasped, shaking with shock and anger.

'He was warned,' Delani said impa.s.sively. 'Now you understand that I am in charge. You will take my troops to secure the Bridge, or I shall kill you next.' He swung the weapon about to point directly at her heart.

'There's no need for further violence,' the Doctor said smoothly, although his eyes were flashing with anger. He put himself between Chayn and the gun. 'We'll do as you request.'

'Good.' Delani seemed to lose interest, and turned away.

Chayn's heart was beating like an overheating drive unit. She could taste vomit in the back of her throat. These weren't customers they were butchers, no matter how beautiful they might look on the outside.

Ayaka moved to join them, and six troopers fell in behind her. 'The bridge,' she prompted gently.

'This way,' the Doctor answered. He took Chayn's hand, and tugged her along. Her feet were unwilling to move, but she stumbled after him, trying not to look at Balatan's bleeding corpse as they pa.s.sed it. 'That was unnecessary,' the Doctor said softly, but Ayaka could still hear him.

'It wasn't my decision,' she replied. Chayn glanced at her and saw something like disgust flit across her features.

'I know you,' the Doctor said abruptly. 'I knew the lines of your ship were vaguely familiar. You're Thals.'

Ayaka studied him with interest. 'You know of my people?'

'Intimately,' he replied. Then he stared pointedly at the gun she held. 'Though I thought they were pacifists.'

'That was a long time ago,' Ayaka answered. 'It's a luxury we can no longer afford. But I didn't know that anyone in this sector of s.p.a.ce had ever heard of us, let alone met us.'

'They probably haven't,' the Doctor agreed. 'But I'm not from around these parts. I'm the Doctor.'

Ayaka stopped and stared at him. 'The Doctor?' she breathed.

A low murmur started up among the Thal troops, and some suspicious glances were thrown the Doctor's way.

Chayn was puzzled. 'These... Thals know you?'

'You might say I'm something of a legend to them,' the Doctor replied modestly.

'If you are the Doctor,' Ayaka said, and there was something akin to respect in her voice, 'then you've changed again.'

'A few times,' he answered. 'And I can prove that I'm the Doctor. You'll find the TARDIS in storage bay twelve.'

Ayaka was silent for a moment. 'Interesting,' she finally decided. 'But ultimately irrelevant to our mission here.'

The Doctor gave her a smile. 'You know I'm a friend of the Thals,' he said persuasively. 'What is your mission here?'

The trooper thought, and then shook her head. 'For the moment, my mission is to secure the bridge,' she replied. 'Nothing more.'

'These people are not soldiers,' the Doctor said. 'They're not even armed. There's no need for violence.'

'There won't be any, Doctor,' Ayaka promised. 'As long as everyone does as they are told and stays out of our way, we'll be gone very quickly. We mean them no harm.'

'Tell that to the captain,' the Doctor growled.

Ayaka flushed. 'That was... unfortunate.'

'That was murder,' the Doctor informed her, his voice clipped. 'Are you all like that?'

'No,' Ayaka answered. 'But we are what we must be. And what we are, you created.'

'I?' The Doctor frowned.

'You were the one who taught us to fight, Doctor,' Ayaka informed him. 'What we have become is what you helped to make. If you dislike what you see, you have only yourself to blame.'

Chayn saw a thunderstruck expression cross the Doctor's face. And then he fell absolutely silent, lost within himself.

Sam stared at the screen in horror. Faylen had switched it on to cover the meeting at airlock three, which had comforted Sam somewhat. She hated the Doctor being off on his own without her to look after him. But what she had seen had shocked her.

'Father!' howled Loran, as Balatan was gunned down by the intruders in cold blood. His face blanched, and he looked as though he was going to faint. Then he gripped the back of his chair, struggling to cope with the flood of his emotions.

Sam hadn't particularly liked the captain, but to see anyone shot down for no reason like that... She placed a hand comfortingly over Loran's, and could feel the tension in his body as she did so. What must he be going through now?

'I'll kill them,' he growled. 'I'll kill them all!' He started to turn.

'You're not a one-man army!' Sam exclaimed. 'They'll just kill you, too, and what will that prove? Don't provoke them.'

'Provoke them?' He gave her a wild look. 'I'll provoke them all right!' He shoved her aside, and stumbled to the door. It wouldn't open.

'I've locked it,' Faylen said calmly. 'Loran, the girl's right. We don't have any weapons. These people will kill you in a second.'

'You're wrong,' Loran snarled. He stormed over to her panel and hit the override codes. 'Sit here and wait to die if you like. I'm fighting back.' Then he was through the door and gone.

Sam stared after him, shocked and concerned. 'Poor little prat... I should have stopped him,' she mumbled.

'You couldn't have done it,' Faylen told her gently. 'He's not thinking straight. He'll end up following his father to the grave.'

'Who are these people?' Sam exclaimed. 'And what do they want?'

'They're called Thals,' said the Doctor quietly from the doorway. 'And they want this ship. Or, specifically, the artefact in cargo bay eight.'

'Doctor!' Sam checked the urge to run over and hug him. 'I was afraid they were going to kill you, too.'

'There will be no more killing,' said one of the soldiers, 'as long as you all do as you are told.'

Sam stared at her, unable to believe what she was seeing. This killer was a drop-dead gorgeous blonde, the kind who'd send any fashion editor's eyes bulging and a photographer into ecstasy. This whole place was just getting more and more horribly ridiculous...

Three troopers, all male, entered the room. Like Ayaka, they seemed to be physically perfect. They were all blond and blue-eyed, like Hitler's dream of an Aryan super-race. But these were real, not an ideal. And they all had weapons held ready.

'You will all continue your duties as usual,' Ayaka informed the crew members. 'Please inform me where the remainder of the crew is. They will be collected and watched, but not harmed. We are not here to make war on a civilian target.'

'Soldiers,' Chayn said suddenly. 'You're not pirates, you're soldiers. What's going on here?'

'War,' said Ayaka simply. 'You've stumbled into the middle of it. I'm sorry for you. But you will be allowed to leave in peace once we have what we need.'

'Whatever's in storage bay eight?' Chayn asked.

'Yes.'

The Doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 'Ayaka, let me come with you when you go to claim it,' he urged.

'It is a military target,' she answered.

'You know me,' he said gently. 'You know I am a friend of the Thals. And I must see this artefact. I have a very bad feeling about all of this.'

Ayaka considered, and then nodded. 'Very well,' she agreed. 'After all that you have done for my people, I cannot refuse you. But you must not interfere. Delani will not allow it.'

'I understand,' said the Doctor as Ayaka turned to walk away from them. He promptly sat down in one of the empty chairs.

Sam flopped onto the floor, and looked up at him. 'Doctor, who are these people? What's going on?' Chayn stayed with them, obviously curious herself.

'As I said, they're Thals,' the Doctor answered. 'Originally, they shared the planet Skaro with the Daleks or Kaleds as they were back then. Two humanoid species on one world... and the inevitable happened. War. Long, b.l.o.o.d.y, senseless war. In the end, the Thals won the battle and lost the war. The Kaleds were wiped out, but the Daleks were created from their ashes. The Thals, appalled by what they had done, and not knowing that the Daleks still lived, swore that they would never fight again.'

Sam eyed the troopers. 'They don't keep their word, then,' she growled.

'And that's my fault,' the Doctor informed her. His eyes were haunted. 'I fell in with a band of their ancestors millennia ago.'

'What?' Chayn stared at him, uncomprehending. 'How old are you?'

'A thousand, give or take a few weeks,' he replied.

'He's a time traveller,' Sam explained. 'That ship in your hold can go almost anywhere in time and s.p.a.ce.'

'A time machine?' Chayn breathed, fascinated. Sam could see the hunger in her eyes. She was picturing a new toy to play with, and she could probably do a better job of fixing it than the Doctor could.

'So what did you do to them?' Sam asked the Doctor. She could tell that he was very disturbed.

'The Daleks were coming back to life,' he explained. 'The Thals were simple farmers, looking for fresh sources of food. They had low levels of technology. The Daleks wanted to murder them, and they had stolen a vital piece of the TARDIS from me. I needed to get it back, but I couldn't manage it alone. So I had to persuade the Thals to help me. I forced them to fight. I made them stop being pacifists.' He thumped his chest bitterly. 'I'm responsible for what they've now become. I'm responsible for Balatan's death.'

Sam scowled at him. 'No you're not,' she snapped. 'You did what you had to.'

'That's no excuse,' the Doctor replied.

'We can't fight every evil in the universe by ourselves, can we?' said Sam. 'You helped them fight back in one situation. You didn't tell them what to do next.'

The Doctor smiled at her, a little distantly. 'Thanks.'

'So then what happened?' she asked him. 'I mean, if these Daleks are all over s.p.a.ce, shooting up planets, how come the Thals are still around? Do they still share this... what's it called? Skaro?'

'No.' The Doctor shook his head. 'The Daleks I helped them to stop were just the first. The Thals took over the Daleks' city and technology. When the remainder of the Daleks burst out of confinement, war began again. The Thals knew they were outnumbered, so they retreated from Skaro and fled. They founded a new home for themselves, and prospered. But they've always felt guilty about the Daleks. You see, in one sense the Thals created the Daleks. Without that war millennia ago, there wouldn't be Daleks today.'

'And that's why you fight?' Sam was addressing Ayaka now.

'Yes,' she said, walking over. She had obviously been listening in to some of the conversation. 'We fight. The Daleks have spread their plague to far too many worlds, and we will not stand by and allow this. So we fight. And, one day, we shall destroy them all.'

'It's such a shame,' the Doctor said gently. 'You're still very young, Ayaka. So are these men and women of yours. You shouldn't be concerned only with fighting and dying. You should be living your lives not continually fighting.'

'I have a child, Doctor,' Ayaka replied. 'Her name is Rebec; I named her for my ancestor.'

'A good name,' the Doctor said approvingly. 'But why aren't you with her?'

'Because I am a soldier,' Ayaka replied proudly. 'All Thals who are to serve in the military must have a child first, to carry on their lineage. We are not allowed to fight before that.'

Chayn grunted in disgust. 'So you abandon your children?'

'No,' Ayaka answered. 'We fight for them. Rebec will be as proud of me as I am of my father. He was a soldier too.'

'Did you ever know him?' asked the Doctor.

'I do not need to have known him,' Ayaka said. 'He was a soldier. He fought the Daleks.'

'War,' the Doctor snapped. 'Endless, b.l.o.o.d.y war. Year after year, century after century. Death and destruction.'

'There is no other way!' Ayaka answered angrily. 'We must fight, or we must die.'

'There's always another way,' the Doctor answered. Then he calmed down. 'We just haven't found it yet.'

The whole system sounded appalling to Sam. A race of people who never knew most of their parents because they had all gone off to fight and die in an eternal war against the Daleks... No wonder the Thals were so murderous it was all the life they knew. She found herself looking at Ayaka in a fresh way.

Ayaka saw this and glared at her. 'I do not need your sympathy or pity,' she said.