saros five

PART THREE

Ace opened her eyes slowly, trying to focus upon her surroundings. Her head ached which she rubbed gently with her hand and she sat up from the metallic surface she had been lying upon.

The room, she observed, was small and metallic. It had no windows and there appeared to be no sign of a door. Ace examined the walls closely but could find nothing of help. She began to kick the wall several times with her Doc Martin boots Not expecting anything to happen she was surprised as the wall she had been kicking suddenly and slowly began to rise.

Ace slowly moved back away from the door as an even brighter light now filtered into the room. As she covered her eyes from the glare she could just make out the shape of something standing behind it. The sight was all too familiar to her...there before her was the familiar shape of a Dalek!

'Move back move back!!' screeched the Dalek, as it glided into the room, it's gun aimed squarely at Ace.

Ace did as the creature commanded: 'What do you want with me?' she asked, trying very hard not to show any emotion whatsoever, except to make it clear to the Dalek that she wasn't at all afraid.

'You are an enemy of the Daleks!' it answered, 'You are to become one of us. You-will become a Dalek and serve the supreme beings of the Universe!'

'I'll never serve you lot, scum bag!' shouted back Ace. 'You'll just have to kill me!'

'That won't be necessary,' said a voice from behind the Dalek.

The Dalek's single eye swung round. Zaran now stood in the doorway of the room. 'All we have to do is stun you, and take what we want from you, it's as simple as that, really.' he said mockingly.

'You'll have to catch me first,' whispered Ace and seeing her chance ran towards Zaran, knocking him to one side.

The Dalek swung its body casing towards the doorway and opened fire at the fleeing figure. 'Stop! Stop!' it screeched.

Zaran had recovered himself. 'She won't get far, not on this ship.'

'You have failed us.'

'What?'

'The humanoid shall be caught and exterminated. You will become one of us!'

'You need me!' said Zaran, fear now began to engulf him, 'You need me to help catch the Doctor and with his friend we will be able to do that - he'll come after her.'

'The Doctor is of no importance.' said the Dalek. 'We have destroyed his ship he is trapped on Saros 5 the Armaryte creatures will destroy him and any other humanoids.'

Zaran began to move away from the Dalek as two creatures glided towards him in the corridor. 'But, the Doctor has great knowledge which will be of use to you in your conquest of time travel...he can be converted into serving you...' He began to falter in his conviction to stay alive.

'We now control Saros 5 and its source of Taranium we will perfect time travel and begin to conquer the entire Universe!'

'But it won't happen over night!' snapped Zaran. He had nowhere to run, he was trapped and his only hope of surviving was to convince them of their need for him. 'Earth will send their military to secure Saros 5. With my knowledge you'll be able to stop them.'

'Exactly!' bellowed the Dalek. 'For that we only require your brain you shall become like us you shall become a Dalek!'

'No!' screamed Zaran, and with that, one of the other Daleks opened fire. As he turned to run, an eerie green light covered his body and he slumped to the floor into unconsciousness.

'Remove the body for transference and locate the humanoid creature and exterminate!' and with that, the Dalek who clearly appeared to be in charge of the others glided away.

From a small alcove set within the metallic walls, Ace watched as the Dalek glided away leaving the other two to remove the lifeless body of Zaran to his fate.

Ace watched as one of the Daleks now emitted a silvery glow from its eye which enabled the body of Zaran to float and be transported down the corridor towards their laboratory.

Once the Daleks had left the area, Ace emerged, cautiously observing her surroundings from her hiding place. She noticed along the walls of the corridor, several viewing points from which to observe outside the ship.

'We're still orbiting Saros 5.' she said to herself as she gaped at the view. 'I've got to get back and help the Doctor,' and with that, somewhat foolishly, decided to follow the other Daleks in a hope that they may well show her, inadvertently, how to get off the ship.

~~~

Hours had passed since the arrival of the Dalek ship. The Doctor and Valla had made their way back to the communications room. Valla, having cleared the room of dead bodies, now sat exhausted at one of the consoles while the Doctor had been frantically repairing the damage caused earlier by Zaran's actions.

'How are things going, Doctor?' she asked.

He didn't answer, on the account that his head was firmly stuck beneath the console unit and he couldn't hear her.

She rubbed her face with her hands, fatigue trying to get the better of her. Suddenly, there was a large bang as a whoosh of smoke emerged from the console, and from which appeared the Doctor.

He coughed: 'Nearly had it.'

'We've got to get help, Doctor. The Daleks won't wait around forever you know.'

'I know only too well, Valla,' he said, removing his handkerchief and wiping his forehead of the sweat. 'These things do take time.'

'Of which we have very little!' snapped Valla and she got up and moved over to the viewing window which overlooked the damaged landing platform.

The Doctor moved over towards her and put his hand gently on her shoulder. 'I understand how you feel, believe me,' he said gently, 'but Zaran did a very good job.'
 
'But what's this all about?' she asked.

'What it's always about - domination.'

'Of what?' she asked, as she turned to face him. 'this planet? the Universe?'

'Yes,' he replied. 'And of time.'

The Doctor returned to the console and continued with his work. 'Their resources must be running out,' he said as he diligently continued with the problem at hand, 'and with a new source of Taranium, they'll continue to optimise their technology of time travel and that must not be allowed to happen.'

Valla continued to view the evening sky as the other sister planets of Saros moved across its sun. As it did so, the rays suddenly caught the outline of the Dalek ship as it glided over the base.

'Doctor! The Daleks! They're back!'

The Doctor moved over to her side, as the ship hovered momentarily above the damaged landing platform before moving away and continue its orbit of the planet.

'What are they doing?'

'They appear to be waiting.'

'For what?' she asked.

'Just in case Earth decides to send reinforcements.'

'But nobody knows what's happening here. How do you expect to have any help from Earth?' Valla said, hitting the window hard with her fist.

'The Earth shuttle, was destroyed en route before I arrived here, remember? Earth will be very much aware that something is wrong, especially as they've had no contact from you in the last few days.' The Doctor did his best to reassure Valla while trying to convince himself that it was an option should his plan fail.

'Now, I've got to get this primary console working again in order to send out an S.O.S.'

Valla turned sharply to face him. 'An S.O.S. ?' she shouted, 'I thought you said Earth will send help as they've not received their daily postcard from the edge of hell!'

The Doctor was slightly startled at Valla's outburst, clearly he hadn't reassured her at all. She turned away and sat at another console with her head in her hands.

The Doctor returned to his work.

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