Текст книги "Doctor Who - I Am a Dalek"

Автор книги: Gareth Roberts

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CHAPTER FOUR

‘LOOKS LIKE A ROBOT,’ said Frank.

The thing had been unearthed hurriedly by the students. In their excitement they had forgotten that the first rule of archaeology was patience. Its base was still covered in earth and its sides were caked in lumps of dirt. It looked exactly like the thing in the mosaic. Its golden casing had lost its colour but it remained whole. Eye-stalk, sucker and stubby gun were lifted arrogantly. The Doctor waved a hand over the eyepiece. No reaction.

He seemed to consider for a second. Then, as Frank moved to touch it, he cried, ‘It’s a bomb! Step back from it, Frank!’

Frank pulled his hand back. One of the students looked the Doctor up and down, then asked, ‘Who’s this?’

Frank and the Doctor looked at each other. Somehow, Frank trusted this odd young stranger. ‘It’s the bloke from London,’ he heard himself saying, though he knew it wasn’t true.

The Doctor slapped the student’s arm down as he lifted it towards the gun stick. ‘And the bloke from London says get back!’ Then he grabbed a loud hailer from the floor of the pit and called, ‘Evacuate the area! I have authority from London and all that! Get up to the surface now!’

Frank wasn’t surprised when the students obeyed. But he found himself remaining.

The museum teashop opened early. Kate, who was the only customer, munched in a daze on a teacake while speaking on the phone to Serena. Getting angry with Serena was pointless – but still, Kate was getting angry. ‘Yes, I was nearly run over. Just now.’

‘Nearly run over running for the late bus, then?’ asked Serena’s dull, flat voice.

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‘The “nearly run over” part of the sentence is the important bit!’

Kate snapped.

She felt a wave of anger rushing up inside her. Why did she have to even pretend to be polite to this idiot? The meaning of the phrase

‘seeing red’ suddenly became clear to her. She felt that if Serena had been there she could have picked up her butter knife and stabbed her.

But she wasn’t, so she flipped her mobile shut and grabbed the café’s copy of the paper from the counter. Idly, she turned to the puzzle page.

She might have a go at the easy crossword to calm herself down.

The sudoku puzzles caught her eye instead. She’d hardly bothered to look at them before – she’d always been rubbish at maths – but this morning the numbers seemed to dance in the air. Without even thinking about it she filled all the empty boxes in – for all three: the easy, hard and killer sudokus – her fingers whizzing across the page.

Then she looked at the crosswords. She filled in the blanks with letters easily, solving even the hardest clues in fractions of a second.

It was easy. Really easy. Why had she never noticed that before?

She looked around, taking deep breaths. Something in the world had changed – or was it inside her?

She could see the atoms dancing around the room. She knew the exact temperature of her coffee. She saw and understood the chemical processes taking place inside the cup. But this wasn’t like thinking.

She didn’t have to concentrate, or make an effort. It felt as natural as breathing. And with it came a sense of strength and power. Her hand reached for a sachet of sweetener in a bowl. She rubbed it gently between her thumb and finger and watched as it broke apart in a little blizzard of static electricity.

She took another deep breath and looked up. Someone had entered the little shop – the pretty blonde girl who’d held her hand out in the road, Rose. That seemed like a dream. She wanted to sneer. As if a speeding car could stop her!

‘So you’re OK now?’ asked Rose.

Kate smiled. ‘I’m fine, thanks. Just gonna finish this and go to work.

Thanks.’

Rose sat down next to her, leaning close. ‘That car smacked right 18

into you. You were dying. What’s the deal? You can tell me.’

Kate bridled. ‘Sorry. Could you move a bit back? I like my personal space.’

Rose pointed to Kate’s blouse. ‘You’re covered in blood. You should be dead.’

There was something very kind and trusting in the girl’s deep brown eyes. Kate swallowed; a cruel thought came into her mind. Such emotions were weak.

Rose went on, ‘I know what it feels like. Something happens that you can’t explain. You invent any excuse to stop thinking about it.’

‘What’s your name again?’ asked Kate, though she knew.

‘Rose. Rose Tyler.’ She held out her hand.

Kate took it, shook it. Tight. ‘Great. Now then, Rose Tyler, clear off.

I’ve got enough on my plate.’

Rose flinched and pulled her hand away.

Frank watched as the Doctor ran that glowing metal tube of his slowly over the object he’d described as a bomb. Then the Doctor gave a deep sigh. Some of the cheeky light came back into his eyes. He looked across at Frank. ‘Is there any point me asking you to go home?’

‘None,’ said Frank. He pointed to the section of the bomb where the domed head met a rusty metal grille surrounded by metal slats.

‘Could be a hinge there.’

The Doctor smiled. ‘I like you, Frank Openshaw. You’re clever.’

He applied the tip of the tube to the hinge and then carefully lifted up the dome. Frank came closer. Inside there was a tangle of electronic parts and wires. It looked as if something was missing in this central space, something about the size of a football that would once have sat there. The Doctor reached in and picked up a handful of dust. He sifted it between his fingers and then blew it away.

‘Dead as a doornail,’ he said. He seemed relieved – but also, Frank felt, perhaps a little sad, as if staring into the past.

Frank made a small snorting noise. ‘A bomb? In earth that hasn’t been touched for 2,000 years?’

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The Doctor rubbed the dust from his hands and smiled. ‘OK, clever Frank Openshaw, you’ve got me. It’s not strictly a bomb.’ He pat-ted the casing. ‘It’s all that’s left of the most terrifying thing in the universe.’

‘I’ve never seen one before,’ said Frank.

‘And you don’t how lucky you are.’ He whistled and pointed over his shoulder with his thumb. ‘Now really, hop it.’ He returned to his study of the object.

Frank didn’t move. He considered the Doctor’s words. ‘You said

“universe”.’

‘What about it?’ asked the Doctor.

‘Nobody would say “the most terrifying thing in the universe”. Un-less they were mad, and you’re not mad.’

The Doctor frowned. ‘Go home, Frank. You’ve got a day off. Put your feet up, have sausage and chips, watch Brainteaser. Come back tomorrow.’

‘You’d only say “universe” if you were – I don’t know, from space,’

said Frank, laughing to himself as he said it.

The Doctor blinked. ‘Don’t be silly.’

Frank pointed to the object. ‘And that could be from space too. And from what you said about Nero, and the pizza. . . you’d only know that if you’d been there.’ He laughed once more at the madness of what he was saying.

The Doctor blinked again. For once he wasn’t saying anything.

‘Sorry. Am I being annoying?’ asked Frank. He knew his theory couldn’t be true.

The Doctor laughed and clapped him around the shoulders. ‘No.

Now, I really, really like you.’ He pointed to the object. ‘That’s a Dalek. No – that was a Dalek. From the planet Skaro. Once, yeah, the most terrifying things in the universe. They were very gifted at war.

Now they’re all dead, all the creatures inside. This is just the shell, a heap of old bits. There’s more life in a tramp’s vest!’

It was the strangest conversation of Frank’s life. The Doctor was obviously joking, making all this up, but still Frank decided to join in.

‘So what killed them?’ he asked.

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‘I did,’ said the Doctor. ‘Many battles, one final war.’ He kicked the base of the Dalek. ‘There’s nothing to be scared of any longer.’

‘I want you to meet a mate of mine,’ said Rose, trailing Kate as she left the teashop. ‘He can help you.’

Kate sighed. ‘Thank you for your concern, but I really am fine.’

Rose grabbed her by the shoulder and turned her to face one of the museum’s windows. ‘You’re blonde. When you ran out in the road, I saw you. You had curly red hair, and now. . . look!’

Kate saw herself in the window. Her hair was straight and bright yellow, like some Swedish supermodel’s. She shuddered, took a step back. She couldn’t accept what she saw.

‘Kate, come and meet the Doctor,’ said Rose.

Kate’s head swivelled round. The movement felt totally instinctive.

Doctor! The Doctor!

‘Come on,’ said Rose, taking her gently by the hand. ‘He’s at a place called Crediton Vale. Do you know that?’

Kate nodded. Another bus was just turning on to the green. She pointed. ‘We can get that and be there in five minutes.’

‘Don’t be scared. He’ll know what to do,’ said Rose, leading her to the bus stop.

As she walked across the peaceful village street of her childhood, terrible images ran through Kate’s mind’s eye. Somebody else’s memories. Whole worlds burning, planets falling through space like balls scattered over a snooker table. The word Doctor echoed in her head.

She saw the shadow shape of a man framed by fire. There was a knot of anger inside her, something vicious and confident and sharp. Then another emotion took over – fear.

A word started running through her head. Its four syllables de-manded to be shouted out loud, again and again.

Exterminate!

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CHAPTER FIVE

THE DOCTOR GENTLY LOOSENED the connections and removed the Dalek gun an inch at a time.

Frank noted that there was sweat on his brow. ‘Thought it wasn’t dangerous,’ he said.

‘Not in itself,’ said the Doctor, holding the gun at arm’s length. ‘But you tell me, what happens if some clever clogs gets this in his lab?

Finds out how it works? The human race gets the secret of Dalek weapons. You’ll all be dead by Wednesday week.’

He placed the weapon with care into Frank’s hands, rolled up his sleeves and bent over the open casing, using the metal tube to work inside.

Frank looked down at the weapon, confused. Part of him didn’t believe a word of what the Doctor was saying. But the other part of him believed every bit of it.

A few moments later, the Doctor looked up and said, ‘Frank, you don’t ask questions. Normally by now people are saying, “What’s it like in space? Can I go back and save Kennedy? Can I stop myself meeting the wife?” That sort of thing.’

Frank nodded to the Dalek ‘That looks tricky. Don’t want to put you off.’ He smiled. ‘And I love my wife,’ he added sincerely. ‘If I could go back, change anything, I’d want to meet her years before I did. Funny, she was in her third year at Durham University when I was in my first year, but we never met for another ten years.’

The Doctor stood up straight. ‘You are a remarkable person. Right.

I need to ask you something.’ He tapped the Dalek ‘I’m taking this to bits. Just for safe keeping, take the gun away. Pretty soon, someone up there’s gonna come down here and start asking questions.’ He nodded to the gun. ‘They can get their hands on me, OK, but nobody must get their hands on that. Pop it in your bag and take it home. I’ll 23

pick it up this evening.’

Frank’s bag was made of faded green canvas. He’d had it since the 1970s. He picked it up and put the Dalek weapon inside, next to his lunchbox and paper.

‘What’s your postcode?’ asked the Doctor.

‘WP4 2LN,’ said Frank

The Doctor thought for a second. ‘Redlands Road, Twyford?’

Frank felt even more confused now, but eventually he simply shook his head and smiled. ‘That’s it, number 15. I’ll see you later, then.’ He set off for the exit.

As he was nearing the huge lift, the Doctor called, ‘Frank’ Frank turned. ‘Can’t do that thing with the wife. It bends the rules. But. . . I could manage the fall of Troy from a safe distance?’

Frank shrugged. It was like a game of bluff, he half-decided. The Doctor was just being silly. ‘Ta. But I’m happy where I am, Doctor.’ He entered the lift and pressed the button to go up.

Kate and Rose got off the bus at what looked like a building site. A series of half-built flats lay across a field beyond a high wire fence.

Cranes with various attachments were dotted around the site, along with piles of building materials. About a quarter of a mile beyond was the sea, radiant and blue, on what was turning out to be a warm day for May. A security man and a bunch of people who looked like students were standing outside a bungalow in the middle of the site.

Voices were being raised.

Kate pointed to the bungalow. ‘That’s the entrance to the bunker.

It was a bit of a tourist attraction. Then they decided to fill it in.’ As she spoke, a middle-aged man carrying an old canvas bag walked by.

Kate eyed him with interest, not knowing why. Her skin tingled with static.

Rose nodded at the fuss by the bungalow. ‘Oh yeah, the Doctor’s definitely down there. People are shouting. Come on.’

She led Kate over the rough ground. They waited until the security man, who was in the middle of the students, looked the other way, 24

then slipped into the old bungalow. Inside was a huge iron lift, its doors open. They got in and Rose pressed the button to go down.

Kate looked over at Rose. ‘I suppose I don’t mind going blonde.’

‘It’s not so bad,’ said Rose.

‘Naturally blonde,’ said Kate.

It was the kind of friendly, mock-bitchy thing she’d say all the time.

But inside, her mind was stirring with visions she couldn’t even find words to describe. She knew she must keep them secret. Keeping secrets and lying had never appealed to her before. She remembered an ex telling her – in the process of him becoming an ex – that one of her most annoying qualities was that she always showed her real feelings. Today, being cunning felt like a thrill. She could tell this Rose anything, and then, when the time came, when Rose trusted her the most, she would turn – and exterminate her!

The lift jolted and Rose ran out into a huge pit. A skinny man in a slightly crumpled suit was bending over something on the far side.

Rose ran across to him. ‘Doctor! On this mosaic, there’s a –’

The skinny man turned, revealing what he’d been looking at. Kate felt a thrill run through her. The man was nothing like the shadowy shape she’d seen in the visions, but she knew somehow that he was the same person.

And the object he’d been looking at – it uplifted her, called to her.

She longed to run towards it, embrace it, but she knew the Doctor was dangerous. This game would have to be played with that wonderful cunning.

Rose had stopped dead at the sight of it. ‘It’s impossible. They all died.’

The Doctor came towards her, took her arm. ‘Yeah. They all did.

Even this one. Dead. Like all the others.’

Kate felt she had to say something. ‘What is it?’ she asked, trying her best to appear dumb and ordinary.

The Doctor looked her over. ‘Oh, great, we’re back to the questions.

Knew that wouldn’t last.’ He turned to Rose. ‘Who is this?’

Rose couldn’t take her eyes off the object. ‘You sure it’s dead?’

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‘Are you?’ he asked gently. ‘You looked into the time vortex. You used its power. You destroyed them all. You’re not saying you missed a bit?’

Rose blinked, as if she was trying to remember something hidden from her. Then she smiled. ‘No, I got them all. And I’m not sorry I did.’

‘So,’ said the Doctor. ‘Your friend. . . ?’

He nodded over to Kate. Kate nodded back. The part of her that was still Kate found him rather attractive.

‘Yeah,’ said Rose. ‘She’s called Kate. And there’s something else, something really weird about her.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Nice to meet you, Kate.’ Then he turned back to Rose, ignoring her. ‘Rose, I’ve got one chance to do this. I’ve got to take it to bits, then we’ll dump it somewhere. There’s a lovely black hole in the galaxy Casta Pizellus that’ll do very nicely. I can’t risk taking it into the TARDIS intact.’

‘It’s dead, though,’ said Rose. ‘Isn’t it?’

‘There’s an old saying,’ said the Doctor, ‘dates from about 4000:

“Never turn your back on a dead Dalek.” The casings were full of booby traps. There’s a slight chance there are still virus transmitters in the shell. They could latch on to the TARDIS’s power systems.’

‘What, and bring it back to life?’

‘No, but they could take over the TARDIS computer. Like nasty computer viruses. Less than a chance in a trillion. But, come on, with our luck are we gonna risk that?’

Rose looked back at Kate. ‘But –’

‘Please. Five minutes and I’ll be finished. It can’t be as important as this.’

He walked back to the thing – Dalek, he had called it. Kate had never heard that word before, but it caused a deep feeling of satisfaction within her strange new mind.

As the Doctor ran a long metal tube inside the casing and chattered on to Rose, Kate walked round slowly to the other side. She put on an innocent, curious face.

26

‘Must have crashed and burnt here thousands of years ago, fleeing the Time War,’ the Doctor was telling Rose. ‘The Romans dug it up, put it on show in their villa. An antique, something to talk about at dinner parties. “Peel me a grape, Marcus, and have a look at what I’ve got." Then it got thrown down here. And today someone digs it up again.’

‘After that long, how could a computer virus or whatever survive?’

asked Rose.

‘Probably all wiped out when it crashed,’ said the Doctor. ‘But I know about Daleks. They always, always had something you never knew about. . . ’

He looked up to see Kate reaching out, stretching her fingers into the casing, reaching for the spaghetti-like mass of connections.

Tiny glowing filaments, like strands of sparkling green glue, were flowing from her fingertips into the Dalek.

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CHAPTER SIX

THE DOCTOR PUT HIS head down and charged at Kate like a bull, knocking her to the ground beneath him.

Rose stared at the Dalek casing, instinctively backing away.

A

faint green glow remained, shining up from the empty main section.

‘What’s she done?’

The Doctor got up and smacked his fist against his forehead, hard.

‘Why didn’t I listen to you? Tell me everything!’

So Rose quickly told him the story of Kate’s incredible recovery from the accident, all the while watching the dying glow in the Dalek and worrying.

Kate was shaking with fear. The Doctor raised her hand carefully and felt her fingers. ‘Static! There’s some kind of Dalek energy inside her.’

‘But she’s human,’ said Rose.

‘They had a gift for war. New weapons every other day. She was trying to make the machinery in the casing work again. Even without a Dalek inside, the shell is dangerous. It could run on automatic, like a chicken with its head cut off.’

Kate blinked and looked round, confused. ‘What’s happened to me?’

she managed to say.

‘You’ll be all right,’ said the Doctor, but with a confidence Rose had learned to mistrust slightly. ‘She’s a new weapon.’

‘But how?’ Rose pointed to the Dalek. ‘It’s dead!’

The Doctor was thinking. ‘And what if, when it was dying, it sent something out, a genetic imprint? Remember that the Daleks hate the human race. They loathe all other creatures. Why would they even consider mixing their race with another? No mixed marriages for Daleks.’ He shook his head. ‘Perhaps they imprinted the Dalek factor in the human race or tried to. Why?’ He indicated Kate. ‘And thou-29

sands of years later, the imprint’s still there, buried away in her genes.

Something triggered it off today, so she gets strength, intelligence, the power to heal herself.’

The Doctor helped Kate to her feet and steered her away from the Dalek.

Another terrifying thought struck Rose. ‘The Dalek factor,’ she whispered. ‘It could be in me? In everyone?’

‘No. This must be a fluke. Whatever the plan was, it went wrong.

The Dalek got killed. The imprint failed.’

‘How do you know?’

‘If they’d passed the Dalek factor on to the whole of humanity, I think I’d have noticed.’ He handed Kate gently over to Rose. ‘We’ve got to get her away, far away. I’ll sort it out later. There’ll be a way.

The further she gets, the safer she’ll be. What’s she called again?’

‘Kate Yates.’

‘Cruel parents and the Dalek factor. Unlucky girl. Go.’

Rose grabbed Kate round the middle and ran for the lift as fast as possible.

The Doctor returned to the Dalek casing. The green sparkles had faded.

The electronics inside were damaged by age. It was unlikely that Kate had managed to spark them into life, but it was worth making certain.

He waited, thinking over his next move. After a minute, he raised the sonic screwdriver for another check and peered inside.

A greasy green eye blinked up at him. A newly formed Dalek creature, smaller than an adult, was already stretching its slime-coated tentacles towards the connections.

The Doctor leapt back. ‘No,’ he breathed, staggering a little. ‘No.

That’s impossible. . . ’

He hesitated for a second. He knew he had to kill it – and kill it now. Could he?

The casing slammed shut on its hinge with a deafening clang.

The tip of the eye-stalk opened, glowing a bright, healthy blue.

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The sucker arm started to twitch. The base shifted, freeing itself from the earth that covered it. A croak came from the grating beneath the head. ‘ Aaaaaa. . . ’

The lights on the domed head flickered into life.

The Doctor realised that he had one option left, an option that had served him well on many occasions. He ran to the lift doors and pressed the up button desperately.

Over his shoulder, the Dalek was slowly turning its eye-stalk and sucker arm, moving unsteadily from side to side on its base.

The Doctor kicked the lift doors. ‘Come on!’

He heard the lift settle into position, saw the doors open, ran inside and pushed the up button. The lift doors closed with casual slowness.

Just before they closed completely, the Doctor saw the Dalek moving over the uneven ground of the pit towards him, its base a few inches off the ground.

The lift started going up.

The Dalek reached the closed door of the lift shaft. The socket where its gun had been twitched uselessly. Then its sucker arm reached out to the thick steel where the doors met, forming a cup against it. It tugged.

The doors bulged out. The Dalek pulled at the huge chunk of metal until it was free, then tossed it aside with ease.

It darted into the lift shaft, switched into its anti-gravity mode and started to rise.

The lift was moving up with, it seemed to the Doctor, painful slowness.

He heard a couple of shattering crashes from deep below him and thumped the wall. ‘Come on, come on. . . ’

The Dalek rose up the shaft. Its eye turned to the base of the climbing lift. Its young mind considered.

Slowly it tilted itself backwards. Then its sucker arm extended from the casing. It clamped on to the base of the lift with a metallic clang.

It heaved. Gears crunched and the motor screamed. The Dalek began to drag the lift – and the Doctor – back down.

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