Ten minutes later the ledge broadened a little more and made an abrupt turn to the left. The chasm ended and we were travelling along a rock passage about seven feet wide and ten feet high. There was no conversation between us, just a dogged sort of persistence. Kristas helped Ganatus to move off and we tramped on with feet like lead, all sharing the same memory of the horrible way Antodus had died.
Again the passage turned to the left and we all stopped.
Ahead of us was a wall of rock! I ran my hands over it, scraping off some of the skin from my fingers, but it was no good. The journey was over and I knew what it was like to have the real taste of failure in my mouth.
CHAPTER NINE
The End of the Power
I don’t know how long we lay in that little corridor of rock. The numbing shock of the death of Antodus, coupled with the black despair of defeat when the blank wall appeared to end our progress drained every bit of reserve energy away and left us all listless and without hope. At first Kristas had retraced our steps and gone back to the chasm where the tragedy had occurred to see if there was any other way, but eventually even he gave up and slumped down beside us, his great head bowed low over his chest. Barbara had tried to comfort Ganatus as much as she could but he never replied once and just lay on the ground with his head turned away.
My brain refused to work. I was like a man half asleep and half awake, caught in a kind of no-man’s-land where the best course seemed to be indecision and inactivity.
It was the fire-box that saved us. We might have sat there for many more hours until hunger and thirst made us reach out for food and water but all of a sudden the light began to flicker. I saw Kristas raise his head and turn it towards the fire-box and I moved over on my hands and knees slowly towards him.
‘We’ll have to go back,’ he muttered. ‘We’ll never cross that chasm again without light.’
‘How long will it last now?’
‘I can only think some water must have splashed into it when we were beside the lake and those monsters were fighting,’ he said slowly. ‘The cells are supposed to re-charge themselves with their own light and heat. Normally, they only need overhauling every four or five years.’
‘You’d better turn it off now.’
I searched in my pockets but all the matches the Doctor had given me were gone, too. Kristas picked up the fire-box and fiddled with some switches underneath it. The light died away. He started to lay it down again and then his hands slowed and stopped, so that he held the contraption several inches from the floor. I saw his face turn and look at me and Barbara bent forward, too, her eyes alert.
‘Where is the light coming from?’ she whispered.
A strange, excited feeling ran through the whole of my body. It was true! There was a glow from somewhere above us. I jumped up to my feet and located it, about twenty feet to the left of the blank wall.
‘Get me up on your shoulders, Kristas!’
The giant bent down and Barbara helped me clamber up. Almost at once I found a cleft in the rock which enabled me to climb even higher. I found I was looking through a hole about six feet in circumference.
I turned back to the others below me.
‘I’m going through,’ I told them and they must have heard something in my voice. Even Ganatus got to his feet and stared up at me. I edged myself into the hole and started to lever myself forward with my hands and knees. The hole lasted about twenty feet then began to dip downwards and widen out. Beneath me I saw another rock chamber and I nearly laughed with pleasure because on the floor of it ran two metal pipes. I knew they were the ones from the lake. I followed them with my eyes and they disappeared again through another wall, but there was an arch between them and it was open! Through it a strong, white light shone and on the other side of it I could just see the edge of some metal flooring.
I couldn’t wait to scramble back and tell them the news. Kristas was the last to make the journey and he was covered with little cuts and grazes when he finally dropped to the floor the other side. He grinned at me ruefully.
‘My size does have its drawbacks.’ I slapped him on the back and we crept forward silently to the archway and peered through it.
We were looking into a vast metal room about a hundred feet in height and about twice as long. The width of it was only about twenty feet and spaced at intervals in the floor near the side walls were little platforms that raised and lowered themselves at the press of a switch. Kristas accidentally found this out when he sat down on one to take a small piece of stone out of his leg and was suddenly taken up towards the ceiling. His hands searched round the platform and found a switch and he descended again slowly. The reason for the platforms was obvious because the walls were covered with dials of all shapes and sizes right up to the ceiling. The twin metal pipes themselves each entered a huge boiler shaped affair and on the other side the water was channelled into hundreds of smaller pipes. These pipes ran away to the side walls to connect up to the dials.
‘They must drink some of the water,’ said Ganatus, ‘but most of it seems to be turned into pressure of some sort. See how some of these needles are spinning round in the dials. They must be creating electricity…’
Barbara and Kristas had gone off to explore the other end of the room and I measured up Ganatus in my mind. He was pale now and his eyes had darkness in them but there was a resolve about the set of his lips and purpose enough in the way he held himself.
‘We’re going on with this, Ganatus,’ I said quietly. His eyes looked into mine briefly then moved away over my shoulder.
‘Did you think I would give up?’
‘I just know that there might not seem to be any purpose in your brother’s death. You and I and the others have to make sure there is one. He mustn’t have died in vain.’
‘No,’ agreed Ganatus firmly.
Kristas came marching towards us.
‘There’s a door and a corridor at the other end. Barbara says she can see a lift.’
‘Well, what are we to do? Is there any way we can put this place out of action?’ I looked at my watch, mercifully undamaged. ‘We’re not really due to meet Alydon and the Doctor for another four hours.’
‘If we do break anything,’ said Ganatus, ‘the Daleks will start swarming down here and we might be driven back into the mountain caves again.’
Barbara suddenly ran towards us.
‘I can hear alarm bells ringing and announcements going on,’ she cried, ‘but the words aren’t clear.’
With one accord we raced over to the door and along the corridor to the lift. The sound of alarm bells increased and I could hear the voice too; it was above us somewhere and full of urgency.
‘Up in the lift,’ I ordered and we tumbled into it. I pressed a low button so that we progressed upwards one floor only. The bells were louder now and as soon as the lift stopped and we stepped out into the little ante-chamber that separated all the lifts from the corridors the voice became distinct.
‘Emergency!’ it grated out. ‘The Thals are entering the city. Emergency!’
Then I saw the door in front of us begin to slide sideways and just caught the lowest edge of a Dalek.
‘Get back,’ I shouted and we fell into the lift again. I jabbed at a button wildly and the lift began to move upwards just as the Dalek slid into the ante-chamber.
‘Why have they come earlier?’ asked Ganatus but the lift stopped again and this time the door to the corridor was open. I motioned them all to stay where they were and edged across and peered out. The corridor was deserted. I nearly jumped when the voice over the tannoy system broke out again.
‘Emergency! Thals are reported to have been seen on level twenty-nine.’ That was the one we’d just left. We had escaped from there and risen eight floors so we must be on level twenty-one.
‘Report to Master Room when Thals are captured,’ the voice continued in its deadly monotone. Then there was a pause and I thought the message had ended. I was just turning away w
hen the voice began again. ‘Wait!’ it ordered. I waited a few seconds more and it suddenly occurred to me that whoever was doing the announcements was referring to someone else for fresh orders. As if in confirmation the voice spoke again.
‘Orders are changed. Do not capture, repeat do not capture Thals. Exterminate. Repeat… exterminate.’
I went back slowly to the others. A master room. A voice that was receiving orders. At last we had a goal. We had to find that Master Room and destroy it.
‘We never imagined that they had a leader,’ said Ganatus when I told them what had happened.
‘Neither did I, I thought they were all equal. I’m beginning to suspect that there is someone in charge of them, directing their operations.’
‘The point is,’ said Barbara, ‘where is the Master Room?’
I waved them all back into the lift and pressed a button that would take us up to the tenth level.
‘We don’t even know if this room is in this particular building,’ I explained. ‘We’ll just have to search round for it.’
The lift stopped once again and we moved out of the ante-chamber cautiously and crossed the corridor. I waved my hand over a wall-bulb and we walked into a small room opposite. The light in it hurt my eyes and I screwed them up and saw that the entire area of the floor, except for two feet all round was taken up by a glass case under which I could see thousands of little green shoots. The heat in the room was terrific and I knew we couldn’t stay there much longer.
‘Artificial sunlight,’ breathed Barbara. ‘Don’t you see, Ian – that’s how they grew things.’
Ganatus suddenly hissed at us from his position at the doorway.
‘I can hear something in the corridor.’
We all pressed against the wall. Ganatus swung back next to me and bent his head close to mine.
‘Daleks!’
The glass case made a perfect mirror and reflected in the side facing the open door I saw at least twenty Daleks moving smoothly past us. We waited a few seconds after the last one had disappeared then Ganatus peered out again and signalled the all-clear. The Dalek’s voice arrested us once again.
‘Attention! The operation is due to commence. Daleks will exterminate all Thals in this building.’
I frowned at the others.
‘What operation?’
‘Level six must be kept clear until the operation is completed,’ the voice continued.
‘Six!’ Barbara said excitedly. ‘Could that be where the Master Room is?’
Ganatus signalled silence again with a finger to his lips. I heard a soft scrape out in the corridor. Ganatus clenched his fist and as something began to emerge he leapt out into the corridor. Kristas and I followed in a flash and found him picking himself up. Another man was also struggling to his feet and I went to him and pulled him up delightedly. It was Alydon.
We decided to get away from the brightly-lit room and a few yards down the corridor we found the very place, a similar sort of artificial sun room but lit only dimly. The glass case in the centre of the floor was very much smaller this time and nothing grew out of the earth. But there were other things that made me narrow my eyes thoughtfully. The Daleks obviously used this room as a kind of store for implements because there were orderly stacks of long metal rods dotted about. Each stack had different attachments; some had hooks, others small magnets, but it was when I saw a pile that had a sucker-like end that I realized that the Daleks must be able to replace the rods they carried with other types when they were working on different kinds of jobs.
‘Anyway,’ I said to Kristas, ‘we can use some of these as weapons.’ I turned to Alydon, who had been hearing the story of our adventures from Ganatus and Barbara. He took the news of the deaths of Elyon and Antodus gravely.
‘It seems we have both had our share of misfortune,’ he murmured.
‘Why? And what’s made you invade the city earlier than we agreed?’
‘The Doctor and Susan have been captured.’
I stared at him in horror. Barbara gripped his wrist.
‘How?’ she gasped.
‘He had a theory that the Daleks covered their city with mechanical eyes and ears. Radio and television waves he said. I didn’t understand too clearly but we agreed to follow his plans. He brought out some shiny metal plates from his travelling machine. Tardis, I think he calls it.’
I nodded impatiently.
‘Anyway, we shone these towards the city, catching the rays of the sun. This, he said, was to blind the eyes of the city. Then he and Susan and my cousin Gurna went down there. The Doctor said he had a way to immobilize the radio waves, so that we could enter the city undetected. Gurna came back alone and said we had to invade at once because the Doctor had discovered that the Daleks were planning to explode a bomb in the atmosphere above the city and poison the air. As Gurna reached the desert he happened to look back.’
He gazed around at all of us sadly.
‘Well, go on, man!’ I demanded.
‘Gurna saw the Doctor and Susan surrounded by a ring of Daleks. There was nothing he could do. He just had to stand there watching them being led away.’
‘They weren’t killed, then?’
He shook his head but I saw in his face that he didn’t think they could be alive.
‘Now we know what the voice was talking about when it mentioned the “operation”,’ I said grimly. ‘Due to start at any moment. It’s the bomb!’
I ran over to one of the stacks of rods and scattered them on the floor. They were the ones with hooks on one end.
‘Grab one of these and follow me,’ I yelled. They each picked one up and we hurried out into the corridor. There was no caution now and I felt happier with something in my hands. Puny though it was, it was better than nothing. I knew we would be helpless in a long-range battle but I felt we could give a good account of ourselves in any close work. The corridor was a long one and I took hold of Kristas’s arm.
‘Kristas,’ I said. ‘I’m giving you a job to do. Guard Barbara. Don’t leave her side.’
He nodded reassuringly.
‘I will watch over her. I know what she means to you.’
Was he right? Surely I was merely protecting the weakest of our party. I pushed it out of my mind as Ganatus pointed to a box on the wall. I recognized it as similar to the one the Doctor had smashed in the cell. It had a perfect view of us. I raised up the metal rod and smashed the box right in the middle and it sagged out of the wall. Immediately a chorus of alarm bells started up and the same metallic voice boomed along the corridor.
‘Emergency! Thals have been detected on level ten. Close off intersections… close off intersections immediately.’
‘There’s a lift down here,’ called Alydon and then I saw that behind me a whole series of metal doors were beginning to slide downwards.
‘How far ahead?’ I snapped and hurried on. Kristas suddenly bounded past me and pushed at one of the doors that was trying to cut off our advance. He slowed it a little but couldn’t stop its progress. Barbara literally dived past him and ran on ahead.
‘One more before the lift,’ she screamed out but by this time Kristas was on his knees. We all put our shoulders into holding the door and must have damaged the mechanism because it stopped altogether.
‘Ganatus,’ I gasped, ‘get through and help Barbara. We must get to that lift!’
He squeezed himself between our legs and disappeared. Immediately he was on the other side I heard him urging us to hurry and I forced myself through.
I saw Barbara on her hands and knees holding up the last door. Ganatus helped her but still the door moved downwards gradually, like a guillotine in slow motion. I flung myself forward and managed to get my back underneath it. A high whine began to fill the air as the power of the door was increased but luckily Kristas and Alydon arrived and again we managed to stop the door and scramble through. It fell behind us with a reverberating clang as I pulled Alydon through and we rushed into the lift.
<
br /> ‘Some of us managed to get into this building,’ Alydon told us as the lift began to move up, ‘but two of my men were cut down in the hall below. Others are trapped in other buildings. I’m afraid we may have lost several.’
I set my mind grimly against any thought of sympathy or pity. We had to smash that Master Room somehow and then we had to find the Doctor and Susan. There wasn’t time for tears. That would be for later.
The lift bumped to a gentle stop and we crept out and peered down the corridor. Level six was different from the others because a short way down the left-hand turn I could see a huge archway. I caught a glimpse of Daleks gliding about swiftly within.
I knew instinctively that this was the heart of the City of the Daleks, their Master Room. If we could put it out of action I felt we might just have a chance. At least, I reflected grimly, we’d give a good account of ourselves.
I turned to Alydon.
‘Down below we found a kind of hydro-electric plant. Where they turn the water from the lake into power. Ganatus will show you. I want you both to go down there and smash it up. Break the dials, destroy as much as you can.’
‘But you’ll need us here,’ objected Ganatus.
‘Don’t argue. There isn’t time. When you’ve done that, find as many Thals as you can and bring them up here.’
‘Please, Ganatus, do as Ian says,’ Barbara said. ‘It’s the best way.’
If I was surprised at this unexpected support, I didn’t show it.
‘We’ve followed you so far,’ said Ganatus simply. ‘It would be wrong to argue now.’
He stepped back into the lift with the reluctant Alydon and pressed one of the switches. The two of them sank out of sight. I turned to the other two.
‘Now listen to me. This isn’t, going to be pleasant. If I’m right, this is where they’re controlling this bomb. We’ve got to stop them. There may be dozens of them in there and they’re armed. All we have is surprise and greater mobility.’
Doctor Who and the Daleks Page 14
