The Doctor looked at her and then they both looked above them. A piercing noise suddenly began to fill the air around them. They both moved over towards the viewing window from the communications room to see what it was that was exactly making all the noise.
'It sounds like a ship, and if I'm not mistaken, it's about to crash!' said the Doctor matter-of-factly and grabbing Valla by the arm, he pulled her to the ground for cover.
Meanwhile, behind them the Doctor and Valla were completely unaware that they had partially opened the door and that whatever was behind it, was now beginning to force the remaining door open.
The ship skittered over the base, hovered momentarily above the landing platform and with a large searing screech of engines the ship landed.
The Doctor and Valla picked themselves up off the floor, dusted themselves down and observed the ship on the landing platform:
'The Dalek ship,' said Valla, 'What do you suppose happened?'
'I think I could have the answer to that, and I hope I'm right.' smiled the Doctor, 'Come on, let's go and find out, shall we?'
As they both moved towards the door, they became aware that they had forgotten about what it was that lay behind the door to the communications room.
'Doctor! The door! Look!' shouted Valla.
Large talons appeared beneath the door scrapping at the metallic surface frantically trying to obtain entry, but to no avail.
'Quick! The door!'
The Doctor causiously moved towards the door to operate its closing, but the clawed hands of the creature suddenly grabbed the Doctor's shoe causing him to fall to the floor and stretching out his arms he looked towards Valla for help.
'Valla! Quick!'
Valla took both the Doctor's hands and pulled as hard as she could, but the creature proved to be too strong for them both.
Several short, sharp bolts of energy could be heard coming from beyond the door and the howl of the creature echoed through-out the corridor as it released its grip on the Doctor.
'What happened? Do you think it's Daleks?' asked Valla.
'I'm not sure,' answered the Doctor, 'but I think we're both about to find out.' he said, and as they looked on, the door before them slowly began to rise...
~~~
On board the Dalek ship, the Daleks were busy trying to regain power, and to ascertain what it was that caused them to crash. Daleks frantically glided back and forth preparing for the worse.
Within the main control room of the ship, the Supreme Dalek in its black livery had entered:
'State our situation,' it commanded.
One of the minion Daleks spoke: 'Main incubation systems have been destroyed. Humanoid prisoner has escaped. All stations are on alert!' it croaked.
'Humanoid must be found and exterminated!' called the Supreme Dalek.
'All stations have been advised!'
'Main hull of craft has been damaged.' said another. 'Repairs will take twenty rills to complete before we can leave Saros Five!'
Suddenly another minion turned its eye from the controls in front of it and looked at the Supreme Dalek. 'Humanoids have been detected with in the base on Saros Five!'
'We must assume that the humanoids are hostile. We must take control of the base and exterminate them!' the Supreme Dalek moved towards the main viewing screen situated in the centre of a wall above the main controls.
'Dalek units will be despatched to secure the base!'
'We obey!' several Daleks screeched back and with that the Supreme Dalek left the room.
Ace had been observing the movements of the Daleks from behind a series of large monitoring equipment and as she had no idea of how to leave she decided to follow them to see how to get off the ship and back to the Doctor.
As Ace followed the creatures through the corridors, she stumbled upon yet another room. This room drew her attention immediately as it contained not only a supply of weapons scattered in one corner of the room, ( obviously disguarded by the Daleks after their prisoners were captured ) but it also contained her rucksack. But that was not all it contained:
'Don't move,' came a voice from the shadows.
The voice was familiar to her, even thou it was slightly weak. 'So, you're still alive then,' said Ace as she turned to face her captor, 'thou I'm not entirely over joyed by the outcome. I did begin to wonder thou.' Ace could not see him but she could smell him. A burning smell. It wasn't of fear but of flesh. She held her hand up to her face in disgust.
'Well?' said Ace. 'Why don't you sow yourself, Zaran?' she asked, at which point a figure appeared from the shadows. She turned away slightly as Zaran stepped forward. 'What happened?' she asked, sympathy and compassion had emerged from her lips at the sight that now stood before her.
'The Daleks. They wanted me to become like them, to become one of them.'
Zaran's face was badly scared and still burning ( hence the strong smell of burning flesh that hung in the air ), down the left side of his face, while electronic compartments had been fused into his skull and attached to his brain in order to control him. But somehow he had escaped them from continuing with the process.
'You're responsible for all of this,' said Ace, 'you murdered to get what you wanted - what they wanted, so you got no more than you deserved.' The compassion in her voice was now gone.
'They said they would pay me well, they promised me...'
'They promised you the world?' suggested Ace. 'Don't you see, these creatures are evil. They're not interested in what you want or what anybody wants. They just want to control everyone, everything...they don't care, can't you see that?'
Zaran knew that Ace was right, but his mind was confused, probably due to the series of experiments the Daleks had started on him. He lowered his gun as the pain intensified.
Ace moved to help him as he collapsed to the floor. 'Help me,' he whispered.
'How?' asked Ace as she gently took the gun from his hand and placed it on the floor.
'Help me..to destroy them...' his voice was now filled with anger.
Ace looked at him. There clearly was no hope for him, the damage was done.
'Then help me get off this ship and I'll help you destroy them.'
'How? You're alone. There's no-one who can help you...' The pain increased and Zaran could do nothing but scream in agony with it.
'The Doctor will help.'
'The Doctor's dead.'
'Don't say that!' snapped Ace and she let go of him and grasping Zaran's gun in her hands she stood up and levelled it at him.
'Go on. Do it.' sighed Zaran.
For one brief moment Ace felt like pulling the trigger, the temptation was too great to resist, especially after all Zaran had done. But clearly the threat of her actions meant nothing to him and she lowered the gun.
'Show me how to get off the ship and I'll help you destroy the Daleks,' Ace moved over to her rucksack and upon opening it removed several canisters of Nitro-9. '..and I'll show you how, with these.'
~~~
In the doorway of the communications room stood a tall, but elegant man. He wore long blue robes that dragged along the dusty, rubble strewed floor. A large collar stretched across the back of his neck while a blue skull cap covered any sign of hair he might of had. He was carrying a large holdall of sorts and, the Doctor noticed, in his left hand which he was pointing in their direction, an old Earth-type weapon.
'Rather primitive, don't you think?' enquired the Doctor.
'It served it's purpose,' answered the man as he stepped into the room. 'The creatures will not bother you. Come, Doctor, we have work to do.'