Doctor Who and the Daleks

by David Whitaker

  ‘You see, I have to go to the city or else my friends and I will die. I believe the same choice lies before you. But what I want to impress on you, Alydon, is that I am not asking you to sacrifice your people on our behalf. You must believe that.’

  He smiled at me slightly then moved to his position in front of the Thals.

  ‘Thals,’ he began, ‘I have thought over the matter I discussed with you all last night. You have elected me to replace Temmosus, but I cannot speak to you as your leader now. I can only say the words of Alydon and tell you what he thinks and what he is going to do. A part of my mind has been blank all these years and I suspect it is the same with you. I have shut out what I would not accept. Now, I must accept it. Which is the greatest responsibility? To live by our principle and not fight? To allow ourselves to be hunted and captured and then exterminated? That is what I have always believed because there seemed to be no other alternative. But I have found a new responsibility, and that is to exist. We were born to survive, not to die, and living is a much harder thing to do than dying. I say to myself, why even struggle against the elements? The scorching sun that has ruined our crops and made us travel in search of food? Why not just sit down in that sun for ever until we burn away or die of thirst? I say to myself, why even battle with the soil to grow things? I realize that all life is a struggle.’

  I felt Susan’s hand touch mine and hold it. Perhaps she felt, as I did, that something new was being born here, some new purpose in the Thals – yet it was a purpose that was as old as time itself.

  Alydon looked around the crowd facing him and smiled a little sadly.

  ‘So I say this to you. There is no dishonour in dying but there is a terrible shame in giving up life.’

  His words began to take on a new note of confidence and authority and I thought of the speech Temmosus had made just before he had been killed. It seemed to me that the Thals chose their leaders wisely.

  ‘There is food in the City of the Daleks. They have killed Temmosus and others of us. I intend to go there and find some way to make them help us.’

  He paused for a moment and folded his arms.

  ‘I do not mean to steal from them,’ he said at last, ‘although they have stolen life from some of us. But this time, if I am attacked… I shall fight back.’

  Ganatus and Antodus stepped forward to his side.

  ‘I speak for my brother and myself,’ said Ganatus. ‘We shall go with you.’

  Then there were shouts of agreement on all sides and the Thals surged forward and surrounded Alydon, the men eagerly competing with each other to join him and bombarding him with questions about his plans and the women asking how they could help. The children jumped and leapt with glee and cried out to be lifted on their mothers’ shoulders so that they could see more of Alydon and hear what he was saying.

  The Doctor walked past me, delved into his inside pocket and put something to his lips. The shrill blast of a whistle cut through the confusion and the shouting died away into a silence of astonishment. I smiled to myself at the way the Doctor produced his little stage effects, but he never failed to get what he was after. This time it was attention and he was totally rewarded.

  ‘My friends,’ he said, and I nearly thought he was going to add ‘Romans and Countrymen’ his manner was so theatrical, ‘an affair of this sort needs an experienced planner, a general.’ He paused dramatically and then put one hand over his heart and bowed slightly to them. ‘I offer my services.’

  And that was how, two hours later, I found myself leading a small party away from the city and down towards that thick belt of vegetation I had glimpsed from the observation roof.

  The Doctor’s plan was based on a remark made by Ganatus – that he had already explored the lake with his brother and two others before they came to the forest and had found it full of underwater creatures and dangerous reptiles. Two of their number had been lost and the place had been declared impassable. When he was escaping with his brother, however, Ganatus had noticed a number of thick metal pipes running out of the mountains and down into the lake. The Doctor decided that the Daleks had run pipes through the mountain to draw up water and refine it and possibly it provided them with hydro-electric power, too, since he was convinced that the static electricity they employed could not come from any atomic source.

  So he decided to split his ‘army’, as he now called it, into two groups. The larger one to distract the Daleks from the forest and desert area and, at a specified time, invade the city and cause as much trouble as possible. The smaller, which was entrusted to me, to force a way through the mountains. Then at the agreed time they were to attack the Daleks from the rear. It was a perfectly sound plan as far as it went, except that we had no guns of any sort at all. We would have to rely on surprise.

  Apart from our lack of weapons, there was one other thing that bothered me. Barbara had insisted on coming with my party. I argued myself blue in the face but it didn’t make any difference, she was determined, and eventually I was faced with either refusing to go myself or giving in to her.

  So there were six of us. Ganatus and Antodus chose themselves because they had at least some knowledge of the terrain. Then there were two other Thals, Elyon and Kristas, the latter a huge man of nearly seven feet with a pair of jet black eyes that contrasted strangely with his head of yellow hair. Finally, Barbara and me, two people who suddenly had nothing to say to each other and apparently no other bond than the will to live.

  It took us over four hours to climb down the slopes from the forest and reach the belt of green vegetation, and from there onwards the going began to get slower and more unpleasant.

  Any ordinary jungle would have been enough to tackle but here everything was mutated. Wild flowers were everywhere, four or five heads to a stalk and each containing stripes and dots of different colours. Giant bushes grew out of the sides of trees, the roots of which gave birth to not one but many trunks. The nearer we got to the lake, the greater the mutation was. Worst of all was the weed grass which was twice the height of an average man, each blade as thick as a bamboo cane. Gradually, it closed in around us.

  Antodus led the way with the giant Kristas at his elbow, hacking their way through the undergrowth and forcing a way towards the lake. I followed these two, helping Alydon carry our food supplies and a small round canister that the Thals called their ‘fire-box’, while Ganatus and Barbara brought up the rear. Occasionally, the roar of some animal would shatter the silence and we would all stop in a vain attempt to work out how far away it was, but there was really no way of judging and certainly we heard no movements anywhere near us. The hard ground we had been travelling over for so long began to give way to soggy, squelchy mud and since we had only had one rest of twenty minutes in the whole journey, I asked Antodus to pick out a fairly dry section so that we could eat and collect our strength.

  ‘Very soon,’ he said, speaking over his shoulder, ‘we’ll be at the edge of the lake. My brother and I found an excellent spot there, a shelf of rock, it’s also protected on two sides. We should reach it very soon.’

  I passed the news back to Ganatus and Barbara who were about ten yards behind me. Barbara was struggling on without a word of complaint, obviously determined not to be a hindrance, but my anxiety increased. She was breathing heavily now and her face was lined with exhaustion. Ganatus made it appear that he was with her not because she needed help but because he preferred her company, and kept up a stream of amusing conversation as he guided and assisted her. Even so, the strain was telling on her and I breathed a sigh of relief when we broke out of the vegetation and walked alongside the lake towards the shelf of rock Antodus had described. We all threw ourselves down on it gratefully, except Kristas who appeared to have regarded the journey as a short afternoon walk and announced that he would keep watch. Nobody argued with him. Darkness was beginning to close in around us about half an hour later when I got them all together.

  ‘We can’t go on any farther now,’ I sa
id, ‘so I suggest we make ourselves as comfortable as we can here and find those water pipes first thing in the morning.’

  ‘That means circling the lake,’ murmured Ganatus. ‘We certainly can’t cross it.’

  Barbara said, ‘Couldn’t we make a raft? It would be a quicker way.’

  ‘There are things in the lake,’ replied Antodus, which disposed of any short cuts. The thought of floating on the top of that lake and finding some reptile out of a sailor’s nightmare bobbing up a few feet away made a long circle round the swamp seem pleasant. Elyon, who had elected himself as chef, set up the fire-box, which also gave out a powerful light, and announced that he was taking the water-bags down to the lake.

  ‘You mean we can drink that stuff!’ I protested. He produced a capsule of little square tablets.

  ‘After we add one of these. The food,’ he went on sadly, ‘will not be very exceptional.’

  ‘If it isn’t any good,’ said Ganatus, ‘we’ll eat you, my friend.’

  ‘Alive,’ growled Kristas.

  I grinned at them all, admiring their high spirits, and Elyon disappeared in the direction of the lake.

  Antodus said, ‘I suggest we take guard duty in rotation.’ I immediately agreed and fortunately Barbara was asleep so we were able to work out a rota which would allow her a full night’s rest.

  Suddenly we heard Elyon’s voice from the lake. It floated across the still night air and made us all jump to our feet and strain our eyes in the direction he had taken. It was just one word but it contained all the awareness of impending doom, all the knowledge of approaching death, all the shrillness of a man in absolute dread. It was as if a ghostly hand had strummed its fingers across the taut wires of our nerves.

  ‘Kristas!’

  The moment of silence as we all stood there was abruptly broken by Kristas, who was the first to collect his wits. He leapt off the shelf of rock and ran into the blackness of the night. Barbara woke up and I ordered Antodus to stay with her. Ganatus and I followed Kristas.

  We found him kneeling beside the lake staring at two of the water-bags which floated on top of the water. He looked at me and held out his hand silently. He was holding a scrap of Elyon’s cloak, a strip about three inches in width and seven or eight inches long. I lit one of the Doctor’s matches and we all stared at the piece of material together. One end of it was soaked in blood.

  I looked out at the lake but nothing had disturbed its surface, no ripples gave us any sign or answered the horrified questions we asked ourselves.

  Elyon was dead and the lake would reveal the secret of his dying only to its next victim.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The Last Despairing Try

  The pale light of dawn brought a strange kind of beauty to the swamp. It had been difficult to sleep after what had happened to Elyon but finally the exhaustion of the journey down the mountain from the forest began to tell and one by one we fell into a fitful, uneasy sleep. Even Kristas confessed to me, when he shook me awake to take over the last watch, that his eyelids were heavy.

  ‘I have a strange feeling,’ he whispered, careful not to arouse the others, ‘of wanting to do something about Elyon’s death. I have never known violent death before.’

  He stared moodily into the light of the fire-box.

  ‘Oh, there have been accidents. My father was crushed by rocks in a landslide. But these things are a part of life.’ He lifted his head and stared at me. ‘Do you understand me when I say that what happened to Elyon was a part of death. Evil and monstrous.’

  I knew how he felt. There was a part of him that had lain dormant, as with all the Thals, that part that knows adversity and battles against it. I thought about this and other things and after a long silence turned to him to explain what was being born inside him, but he was asleep. I sat there by the fire, watching the way its light gave way to the birth of the sun, wondering what the new day would bring. The swamp appeared to be calm and perfectly innocent, for none of the animal roars disturbed the night and nothing moved. I was grateful for the absence of any type of insects but I did wish there were birds or small tree animals that might have served as a warning of approaching danger.

  I woke them up as late as I dared and after a hot drink of Ratanda – a kind of nut the Thals cultivated which, when boiled, produced a very satisfying drink rather like orange tea – we broke camp and began the journey round the lake to where Ganatus said the pipes were situated. This time Antodus carried the fire-box and Kristas and I brought up the rear. I had decided to have Ganatus lead the way with Barbara. Wherever possible I picked up the driest branches I could find until we were all loaded with them.

  The hardest decision of all was the route. The swamp itself was passable only by means of the greatest effort. Thick vines the size of young trees were everywhere, twisted together. Giant trees and undergrowth combined with them to make every yard a struggle. On the other hand the vegetation ceased abruptly about twenty feet from the lake and the ground underfoot, although soft and muddy, was comparatively easy going. We could either take three or four times as long hacking our way through the undergrowth but be out of sight or take the quicker way, where all eyes could spot us, and be vulnerable to any attack. Eventually I decided it was worth the risk to take the quicker way, so we proceeded and made good time.

  They all questioned me about the brushwood I made them carry, but I wouldn’t be drawn. I felt I might be being overcautious and it didn’t impose too much hardship on them to bear a few small branches over their shoulders.

  The edge of the lake suddenly began to veer and then we came to a few rocks and scrambled over and around them and the pipes came into view. They were enormous metal constructions, piercing right out of the mountains and down into the water. What lifted my spirits was the sight of the dark edge around where they left the mountainside.

  ‘There are caves there,’ I told Kristas, ‘either natural ones or cut out by the Daleks. How far away do you think we are?’

  He considered for a moment.

  ‘Perhaps a mile, but that is direct. It may take us over an hour to reach the base of the mountain.’

  At that very moment, the creature reared out of the water. Its very size was enough to dry up my mouth as tons of water cascaded off its scaly back and plunged back into the lake. With a body the thickness of a house, its head seemed to be all teeth and on the short neck I could see two pairs of claws. I knew in an instant they must be there to feed things into the brute’s mouth. A gigantic roar echoed out and it started towards us, sending huge ripples all around it and I could see it had six webbed feet on either side of its body, which propelled it forward through the water at a frightening speed.

  ‘Run! Kristas, stay with me. You two! Get Barbara into the undergrowth.’

  The two brothers stared at me for a moment.

  ‘Go on!’ I shouted at them and they grabbed hold of Barbara and rushed her off.

  ‘Kristas, the brushwood!’

  We ran over to the little collection the others had dropped and added our own to the pile. The monster was threshing through the water now and seemed to fill the whole sky. I scrabbled in my pocket and found one of the Doctor’s everlasting matches, struck it on a rock and, to my intense relief, the wood flared into flame instantly.

  Kristas and I picked up the flaming torches and turned just as the head of the monster reached out from the water’s edge towards us. A thrill of fear ran through me as I saw one terrible, red eye glaring malevolently at me and the branch nearly dropped out of my nerveless fingers. Kristas was equally dumb-struck. The monster’s mouth opened and began to show rows of razor-sharp teeth.

  I remembered Elyon. I shouted his name to Kristas and he jumped into action. We both jabbed upwards into the creature’s enormous head and then fell over backwards as it squealed out in agony and reared up. One of the torches had gone right into its mouth and lodged there and, as Kristas helped me to my feet, I saw the arms on the neck pulling at the branches in a va
in endeavour to dislodge them. Then one of the flames must have reached that terrible eye and a louder and much more horrible bellow rent the air and the monster threshed sideways into the water. A huge spray drenched us and I caught a vision of a giant tail shooting out from beneath the surface, circling in the air and landing with an ear-splitting slap straight across the top of the lake.

  We ran after the others without another backward glance and found the three of them waiting for us at the edge of the undergrowth. Tears were running down Barbara’s face but there was another look from the two brothers, one very similar to the one that Kristas wore. It was a look of strange excitement and I recognized it instantly and was glad. They knew they were fighting now, that it was possible to stand against what seemed to be the invincible and defeat it. For the first time I felt that they were not simply the survivors of the planet Skaro, eking out a miserable half-existence and shutting their eyes to reality. They were the true heirs ready to earn their inheritance.

  We were about to move away when an incredible sight greeted our eyes. The entire surface of the lake erupted as twenty or thirty of the giant monsters shot into view and began to fight for the injured body of the one we had just defeated. Blinded and totally surrounded, it still fought briefly for life but the others must have known it was virtually defenceless and ripped and tore it to shreds before our eyes. Tremendous roars and squeals nearly deafened us and bigger and bigger waves began to crash against the undergrowth. I shouted to Ganatus to move on, content that our enemies were too occupied to care about us.

  It took us just over an hour to reach the mountainside and we rested for ten minutes under the shade of the two huge pipes. The sun was violently hot by this time and I examined the pipes, but as a ladder they were useless. Antodus had already singed his trousers against them and I ordered everyone to keep as far away from them as possible. They were soaking up heat and the lake steamed and bubbled where they entered. The pity of it was that there were metal clasps running up the pipe and if they’d been cooler we could have clambered up and into the caves easily.