After a minute, he said wearily, ‘You don’t see any hope then?’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘Not if you sit back and accept the situation. Of course there’s hope if you try and change your way of life.’
‘That would be impossible.’
‘Even if your way of life means death?’ asked the Doctor.
‘Even then.’
Dyoni stepped forward and there was no disguising the coldness in her face.
‘None of you understands our principles. It is not simply that we are against fighting. Making war is totally alien to us. This planet Skaro is proof enough of what happens when there is war.’
The Doctor bristled. He stepped up to her and pointed a long finger at her.
‘This planet, Madam,’ he said sharply, ‘is an illustration of the evils of stupidity and ignorance. I’m no advocate of human conflict. I have seen splendid races destroyed; brilliant cultures lost beyond recall; marvellous cities in dust and rubble, where beauty and grace flourished. But terrible though it may be, one must sometimes commit an offence in order to stamp out the greater evil. I say to you, fight! Struggle to hold on to life. Protect the weakest of you and honour the eldest. Provide for the girls and the mothers. Teach the children.’
Alydon said, ‘All these things we mean to do.’
‘That is precisely what you will fail to do,’ replied the Doctor, ‘if you give in to the Daleks.’
Alydon and Dyoni looked at each other. It was not a look of indecision, merely a mutual bewilderment at not being able to make us understand their point of view. The Doctor waved his hands hopelessly and gave a sigh.
‘It’s of no consequence to us anyway. We’re leaving.’
Alydon gave a short bow and took Dyoni’s arm. They disappeared among the trees again. The Doctor frowned at me.
‘Have you ever known such contrary people, Chesterton? Here they have the opportunity to rebuild this world and make something out of it and all they want to do is sit back and give in.’
He patted his pockets absent-mindedly.
‘But they do have a point of view?’ Barbara said.
‘Oh, yes,’ he replied, ‘I see that. It just happens to be the wrong one.’
He delved his hands into his trouser pockets and started searching in the inside pockets of his tail-coat.
‘I don’t think they even know how to fight,’ said Susan. ‘I was talking to one of them who told me his name was Kristas. He was looking after a long metal canister and I asked him what was in it. It’s their history.’
The Doctor stopped searching for a moment and looked over his spectacles at her.
‘Really, my child? I wouldn’t mind having a look.’
‘I asked him what would happen if anyone came along to steal it,’ Susan went on.
‘“Who’d want to steal it,” Kristas replied, so I suggested that one of us might, if we were evil people. And that, if we wanted it badly enough, we might possibly kill him to steal it.
‘“Kill me?” he said in astonishment. “You wouldn’t have to kill me. I’d give you the canister.”’
Susan folded her arms and leant against a tree. Some of the bark disintegrated and formed a little white cloud and settled on the ground at her feet.
‘Well, I persisted because I wanted to find out how they thought about things. So I asked him what would happen if we stole it and silenced him. Do you know, Mr Chesterton, all he did was shrug and say, “Then I would die, wouldn’t I?”’
The Doctor began exploring his pockets again and I noticed a worried frown on his face.
Barbara said, ‘Are we going back into the Ship, Doctor?’
He nodded in an abstracted sort of way, then suddenly his face cleared. He walked over to me and held out his hand.
‘Give me the fluid link, Chesterton, will you?’
I stared at him. He tapped his thumb on top of his fingers impatiently.
‘Come on, man. I gave it to you in that little room where all those barometric machines were.’
‘You certainly did no such thing.’
‘But I must have done. You remember, I was ill and then you…’ He stopped and half turned away. ‘No, that’s right. I didn’t. I had it, didn’t I? I can’t have dropped it because there’s a button flap over the pocket.’
He felt round at his hip and I saw a startled look across his face. He pulled his coat aside and quite clearly I could see where the button and the flap of his pocket had been neatly cut away.
Nobody said anything for quite a while, although we were all thinking the same thing. It was left to the Doctor to mutter the answer we were all afraid to admit.
‘The Daleks have taken the fluid link. It’s down there, somewhere in the city!’
Practically all the rest of that day we spent talking and arguing with the Thals. The Doctor wanted to form them into an army and invade the city but Barbara was against this. If they did fight, she said – and she admitted that the Daleks would hunt them down and exterminate them if they didn’t – then they must do so of their own volition.
So we were a camp divided. The Doctor and I took one view and Barbara and Susan took another.
The end was the same but it was the means to that end that set us quarrelling among ourselves. The Thals were frankly bewildered. It was quite clear that they simply had no conception of what fighting meant. They seemed to understand words like bravery and courage and only a fool would have called them cowards, but actual hostility was so strange to them it was like trying to explain what colour means to a blind man.
I tried everything I knew, ending finally with what I was sure would not only explain what we were getting at but illustrate forcefully the physical strength that was inside them. The male Thals were all powerful, muscular men with splendid physiques and I came across the idea when I talked to Ganatus about physical fitness. He explained to me that they had several contests they engaged in, such as racing against each other and jumping. I decided to organize a boxing match. I picked Ganatus and his brother, Antodus, as the contestants and explained the rules to them. Then I marked out a rough square and appointed Alydon as a ‘second’ for Ganatus and the Doctor as one for Antodus. I was to be the referee.
‘The point of all this,’ I started, conscious of the entire race of Thals grouped around to watch the new game, ‘is to decide which of you is the stronger and the most agile. I shall award points to the one who is able to hit the other, although you must be fair and only hit the opposing body in an area from above the waist. And further,’ I went on, encouraged by the attention both the men were giving me, ‘you must only hit the front part of the body or face. I shall penalize the man who boxes badly by hitting a foul blow. We shall have three rounds and there will be rests between each round.’
The two men nodded thoughtfully and then Ganatus frowned.
‘I have a question. What is the ultimate result?’
‘To see which of you is the stronger.’
‘And the most agile,’ added Ganatus, ‘yes, I remember you said that. But I can pick Antodus up or he can pick me up to prove the first. And a running race would decide the second.’
‘But here you prove which of you can knock the other man down,’ I explained patiently.
Antodus said, ‘Why should I wish to knock my brother down?’
‘Why should you want to win a running race?’ I replied, having expected them to ask such questions. My answer seemed to satisfy them, for they faced each other and when I asked them if they were ready they smiled at me and said they were.
They just stood in front of each other with their hands by their sides.
‘You may score the first point,’ said Ganatus.
Antodus lifted his hand and tapped his brother on the chest lightly. The crowd applauded politely and the two men stepped back proudly and gazed at me for some mark of pleasure. I saw Susan giggling behind her hand and frowned at her. Then I took the two men to one side.
‘Look, you aren’t ge
tting the idea right. When I say hit, I mean hit hard. And Ganatus, when your brother goes to hit you, you must defend yourself.’
‘But I have scored the point,’ protested Antodus.
‘Yes, and I have my turn to come,’ added his brother. I ran a hand through my hair, trying to avoid looking at the Doctor who was holding his sides with laughter. ‘Why didn’t they realize how important it was?’ I asked myself furiously. I decided to have one last try.
‘Ganatus, you fight me. Now watch. Hold your hands up in front of your body and your face, like this. Clench your fists, man! That’s right.’
Ganatus was game enough and his brother stood back and watched us carefully. I squared up to him keeping my right near my face and probing out with my left, my chin well tucked down. Ganatus did his best to copy me but it was a pretty amateurish effort. Still, it was a beginning.
‘All right, Ganatus, now shoot your right fist forward and hit me with it. When I count three. Remember, hit me as hard as you can. Right – one… two… three!’
Ganatus thrust out his arm about six feet away from me and then jumped at me, using his arm like a lance. I was so surprised by this, I ducked down and he sailed over my shoulder and landed in a heap on the floor. There was a tremendous roar of laughter from the Doctor and he fell over backwards into the crowd, who forgot their politeness and shouted with delight. Ganatus jumped to his feet and ran over and congratulated me.
‘Ah, now I see,’ he exclaimed, his eyes alight with pleasure and admiration. ‘Agile and strong, you avoid me and bring me down as well.’
I nodded dumbly and accepted the applause they gave me and the hearty slaps on the back and walked away. I passed the Doctor, who was sitting on the ground with tears streaming out of his eyes and holding his chest with the pain of too much laughing.
‘Magnificent, Chesterton, absolutely magnificent,’ he gasped, but I didn’t answer him.
A cold, dogged fury began to overtake me. Ever since the fateful meeting on Barnes Common I seemed to have been nothing more than a pawn in someone else’s game, pushed about here and there or waiting for someone else to make a move. I was sick and tired of it. I wanted to do something to get hold of the problem we were in and swing it around my head somehow. I moved away from the main body, who were now engaged in shouting encouragement at Ganatus and his brother to repeat my success. I spent a little of my fury against one of the white trees and I hit it so hard my fist went deep into the trunk. I felt a touch on my shoulder and I pulled out my hand and turned around to see Alydon and Dyoni standing behind me.
‘Do not be upset, my friend,’ he said quietly. ‘I feel I know what you were trying to show us but you have failed now, as you will always fail. Fighting is not for our people.’
‘All right, then, you’ll all die. All of you,’ I said bitterly. Some of the crowd heard me and began to cluster round us. I saw Barbara in the front watching me.
‘Yes, we may all die,’ said Dyoni proudly, ‘but because there is no other way. How can we do what we don’t know how to do.’
‘Or what we mustn’t do,’ added Alydon gently, ‘because we know it to be wrong.’
I gripped him by the arm roughly.
‘Supposing I was to take your history. That canister that you have guarded so well. You must prize it very highly.’
‘Take it where?’
‘To the Daleks. They may exchange it for the piece of equipment they stole from us.’
‘We hope you will not take it. But, if you desire to do so, no one here will stop you.’
All the Thals were grouped round us and the Doctor and Susan stood beside Barbara. I noticed that there was no laughter on their faces now.
I hated what I was going to have to do but I knew it was the last hope left. I pushed Alydon on the chest with my forefinger so hard that he had to retreat a pace or two. The crowd gave behind him but what interested me most was a certain steely look appearing in his eyes.
‘Maybe taking the history canister won’t satisfy the Daleks,’ I said as unpleasantly as I could. ‘Maybe they want one of you to experiment on. They must have vast laboratories underneath their city and you Thals are something of a mystery to them. Perhaps I ought to take one of you.’
The ring of faces around me seemed to set into a watchfulness I had never noticed in the people before. The only movement at all came from Barbara as she suddenly clasped her hands together in front of her. The Doctor’s glasses caught the sun and they flashed momentarily. Alydon stared back at me and I knew that what I had said had gone home. I stepped forward and put my hand on Dyoni’s wrist.
‘This girl. I shall take her to the Daleks.’
There was a sort of sigh from the crowd that might have been disapproval or might have been fear. Still Alydon didn’t move or say a word. The girl’s face betrayed her horror of what I had suggested but she made no effort to draw back. I turned and started to drag her after me, as Dyoni gave one agonized glance at Alydon.
I heard some heavy footsteps and then I was pulled round by a firm hand on my shoulder. A fist crashed into my jaw and I spun away, breaking a small tree behind me and falling with branches and twigs crumbling and snapping all around me.
As a blow it wasn’t a particularly hard one really; nor was it well directed. It had the merit of surprise, even though I was hoping for it. It was almost more of a push than anything else but all I could think of as I fell was that it had been offered by Alydon to stop me from doing something; that just as I had used violence, so had he. I looked up at him towering above me, with one of his arms protectively around Dyoni’s shoulders.
I said, ‘So there is something you’ll fight for.’
There was a long silence and then I saw the muscles begin to relax on Alydon’s arm and he passed a hand slowly over his eyes as if he were trying to wipe away some thick cobwebs that affected his sight. He allowed Dyoni to lead him away and a minute later that part of the forest was empty as the Thals silently trooped away after them.
For a while I stayed where I was, listening to their movements getting farther and farther away. Susan helped me to my feet and I brushed the debris away from my clothes.
‘Well, Chesterton,’ murmured the Doctor, ‘I feel you have proved something.’
‘Has he?’ I could see the scorn in Barbara’s eyes. ‘What have you really done, except play silly, ridiculous games?’
‘I’ve decided that with or without the Thals, I’m going down to that city tomorrow to get the fluid link back,’ I said grimly.
‘More heroics?’ she said. I looked at her levelly.
‘No. There just isn’t any other way.’
‘You’re a fool, Ian Chesterton,’ she said sharply. ‘What can you do against those… those things down there? I forbid you to go.’
‘You forbid me!’ I echoed. ‘We’ll see about that.’ We looked into each other’s eyes for a second or two and there was something in hers that utterly defeated me. Then she turned on her heel and walked away, back in the direction of Tardis. The Doctor and Susan had been silent partners to the quarrel, although I knew that Susan was bursting to say something.
‘Why is she being so unfair?’ she cried out at last. The Doctor patted her arm and started to follow in Barbara’s footsteps.
‘She isn’t being unfair, Susan my dear,’ he said quietly. ‘Miss Wright is asking questions and that is a different thing entirely.’
‘What questions, Grandfather? I don’t understand?’
Neither did I for that matter, so I listened as carefully as I could without giving away that I was in any way interested.
‘Oh, she knows the answer already. The trouble is she doesn’t believe it.’
I saw a look pass between the two of them then Susan glanced at me. She said, ‘Oh, I see.’
I didn’t know what they were talking about, but there was no way of finding out without going into it and I was determined not to do that. Inside Tardis, Barbara was very quiet, as if she regretted what had
happened, and I had no wish to prolong the quarrel so we managed to be distantly polite to each other.
I had one setback that didn’t help me to sleep that night and that was the discovery that the Doctor carried no armaments of any kind whatsoever on board. When Susan had mentioned this earlier in the cell underneath the city, saying that she had borrowed one of her Grandfather’s walking-sticks because it was all there was to defend herself with, I had dismissed this as a lack of knowledge on her part. Obviously, I had thought then, the Doctor wouldn’t want her meddling with guns or explosives. It was quite a shock to find that the only destructive thing was a small supply of the everlasting matches I had first seen the Doctor use in the fog on the Common. I had no idea how the Daleks would react to flame but I thought the matches might come in handy and he seemed willing to part with them.
The morning brought a new surprise, however, that put all thoughts of a solo attack on the city to flight. Alydon was waiting for us when we stepped outside the Ship and I saw the two brothers, Ganatus and Antodus, with Dyoni, standing a little way behind him. He walked over and addressed himself directly to me.
‘I know exactly what you did and why you did it. I still could not restrain myself. I had to stop you. You were right, I care about life and you have made me realize that I care.’
I put out a hand and gripped his. We crowded round him and the Doctor beamed at him.
‘Well done, young man,’ he said approvingly. ‘You’re not afraid to admit you’ve learned something. The point is, how to profit by it, eh?’
Alydon nodded. ‘For myself, it is simple. I shall go with you to the city. The Thals have elected me to be their leader now that Temmosus is dead. I am going to speak to them and tell them of my decision now. I wish you to accompany me and hear the result.’
We followed him to where the Thals were clustered in their familiar semicircle. I managed to catch Alydon just before he moved into his speaking place before them.
‘I do want you to be quite clear about one thing, Alydon,’ I said urgently. ‘I’m going down to that city whatever happens. What I did yesterday had nothing to do with that at all, except that it gave me the ability to show you the right way for you and your own people.’ I put a hand on his shoulder.
Doctor Who and the Daleks Page 11
