The Doctor's mind also returned to the subject that was causing him the most concern. 'Ben, if you were a Dalek, what would your next move be?'

'What about Polly?' Ben insisted.

'Polly?' The Doctor shook his head. 'No, she's a bright girl, but I don't think she could predict '

'She's missing missing,' Ben said, sighing.

'Oh, I hardly think so,' the Doctor replied. 'She's probably looking for more information to get Quinn out of jail. You know how single-minded she can get.'

'Then she should be simple to find,' Ben answered.

'Come on.' He grabbed the Doctor's arm, dragging him towards the door.

'Where are we going?'

Ben held up his fake readings for the Doctor. 'To leave this on the bulletin board for Thane. Then to report Polly as missing. I don't care if we do make fools of ourselves and she's fine. I'll feel better if we report it.'

Before he could protest, the Doctor was dragged out of the medical room door by Ben and they started off down the corridor.

In his laboratory, Lesterson had finally calmed down. 'I managed to stop that fool Examiner just in time,' he muttered to himself. Thankfully, the Dalek had suffered no ill effects from whatever the infernal meddler had done to it. It was now following Lesterson as he performed his daily monitor of the orbital instrumentation. Lester couldn't help but feel that it followed him around like a dog might a very intelligent dog.

'What is that reference?' the Dalek asked, as Lesterson jotted some figures down.

'It's amazing,' Lesterson marvelled, 'you have an almost human interest and curiosity.'

The eye-stick focused on him. 'A Dalek is not the same as a human.'

'No,' Lesterson agreed slowly. 'Well, there are some people here, you know, that believe you're the enemy of human beings.'

'I am your servant,' the Dalek grated. 'What is that reference? If I am to help you, I must understand.'

'Yes. Yes, of course.' Lesterson tapped the glowing screen with his stylus. 'This is a machine I built myself. It computes the paths of meteorite storms that cut across the orbital path of our weather satellites. They can get quite intense. There's some speculation that they may be the shattered remains of an old moon.'

'Speculation without facts is useless,' the Dalek stated. It looked down at the screen. 'How accurate is it?'

'Fair.' Lesterson shrugged. 'About seventy per cent. It helps us to cut down our satellite losses.'

'Daleks can build computers with one hundred per cent accuracy.'

'A hundred per cent?' Lesterson echoed. 'But there's so much data, so many potential '

'One hundred per cent,' the Dalek repeated. 'If you provide materials and a separate power source, a computer will be built.'

Lesterson could hardly believe his ears. He had wanted his Daleks to be of use to the colony, but he had never expected anything like this! Still, they had positronic brains, so they should be able to build better computers than a human could. Yes, it made perfect sense. And this was the opportunity he had been seeking: a chance to show how much good the Daleks could do for the colony.

Replacing even a single destroyed satellite cost millions of credits; he could just imagine what IMC on Earth would say if they could eliminate those expenses completely.

They'd never listen to that fool Examiner and allow his Daleks to be taken apart for sc.r.a.p!

'I'll go and see Hensell at once,' he promised. 'I know that this will be of great interest to him'

'Good,' the Dalek said. 'I will be ready to dictate the blueprint when you return.'

Lesterson nodded, barely able to contain his excitement.

He hurried out of the laboratory, closing the door behind him.

The Dalek glided across the floor, listening at the door.

Enhancing its audio pick-ups, it could make out the sound of the scientist's feet moving away down the corridor outside. Satisfied that it would not be observed for a while, the Dalek spun about and returned to the power unit.

There it raised its manipulator arm. The interface rod in the centre of the suction 'hand' slid out a few inches, entering one of the unused ports. There was a second of inactivity, then the Dalek withdrew from the machine.

The sequences of lights on the power unit changed their pulsing. The output was rising, and the hum from the generator with it. The Dalek turned away and glided across the floor of the laboratory. Then it entered the Dalek capsule to continue its hidden work.

As Ben pinned his note for Thane on the bulletin board, the Doctor stood beside him, staring off into s.p.a.ce. His lips and fingers were moving, and he looked for all the world like a schoolchild attempting to solve a difficult sum. Ben started to move off, then realized he was on his own.

'Hey!' he called back at the Doctor. 'I thought we'd agreed to go and see Bragen.'

'Did we?' the Doctor asked absently. He began rummaging through his pockets, eventually turning up the stub of a pencil. s.n.a.t.c.hing a piece of paper from the board, he licked the point of the pencil, then began to scribble away furiously. 'Given the linear coefficient and a.s.suming the... No, no, no, that won't do! You can't a.s.sume a.s.sume anything with the Daleks!' He started again, then broke off once more. He chewed the end of the pencil almost down to his fingers. Then, frustrated, he pinned the note back on the board. 'It's useless. I'm working in the dark. Without the proper information.' He glanced at Ben, then sprang on him. Grabbing his arm, the Doctor pulled him down the nearest corridor. Before the startled Ben could say anything, the Doctor hissed: 'Sshhh!' anything with the Daleks!' He started again, then broke off once more. He chewed the end of the pencil almost down to his fingers. Then, frustrated, he pinned the note back on the board. 'It's useless. I'm working in the dark. Without the proper information.' He glanced at Ben, then sprang on him. Grabbing his arm, the Doctor pulled him down the nearest corridor. Before the startled Ben could say anything, the Doctor hissed: 'Sshhh!'

Obeying the order, Ben glanced back into the corridor hub. He saw the lanky shape of Lesterson stride past. From the smile on his face, something major had happened to make him so cheerful. As soon as Lesterson had pa.s.sed out of sight down the Admin wing, the Doctor released his tight hold of Ben's arm.

'What was that all about?' the sailor complained, rubbing his arm to restore its circulation.

'Didn't you just see Lesterson go by?' the Doctor demanded. 'I didn't want him to spot us. Right now, he's obviously left the Daleks on their own in his laboratory.

This may be our chance to destroy them. I wanted Polly to be our look-out, but we'll have to trust to luck. Come on!'

They hurried down to Lesterson's laboratory, which at first glance was empty. Then, from inside the Dalek capsule, there came a bright flash of light. The Doctor chewed at his lower lip as he traced the newly laid power cables that snaked across the floor and into the open capsule hatchway.

Ben's face clouded over. 'Somebody's in there,' he muttered.

The Doctor nodded. 'Short-circuit the generator, Ben,'

he ordered. As Ben moved towards the power couplings, the Doctor began to edge his way over towards the capsule.

He wanted a better look at what the Daleks were doing in there. The cables they had laid were very high-duty sizes.

They had to be draining every spare erg of energy that the colony was providing. Before he could reach the capsule, a Dalek moved out to block his path. It swung its empty gun socket around to cover him.

'What are you doing here?' it demanded.

'What's that to do with you?' Deciding that his best course of action was attack, he a.s.sumed his most imposing manner. 'Stand aside!'

'Entry here is restricted,' the Dalek stated.

'Not for me it isn't,' the Doctor answered. 'Accord every access I've got a badge here somewhere that says so.'

'That is an order!' the Dalek insisted.

'A Dalek Dalek order,' the Doctor said softly. 'Daleks can't give orders. You are our servants.' He raised an eyebrow. order,' the Doctor said softly. 'Daleks can't give orders. You are our servants.' He raised an eyebrow.

'Or had you forgotten that bit?'

'Servants to some,' the Dalek granted. 'You are our enemy.' The eye-stick whirled around to centre on Ben, who had been edging his way towards the power unit.

'Stand back!'

'Don't be afraid of it, Ben,' the Doctor said evenly. He peered out from under his heavy mop of hair at the lone Dalek. 'It isn't armed. Disconnect the generator. I want to find out what it was doing in the capsule. s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up all of his own courage, he brushed past the unarmed Dalek.

Then he halted. In the hatchway of the capsule were two further Daleks. Both of these retained their weapons, which were swinging around to cover the Doctor and Ben.

The Doctor stumbled backwards, almost falling over Ben in his rush to retreat.

'So that's what it was doing in there,' he said.

Ben's eyes were fixed on the two guns. 'You don't think Lesterson repowered them?'

'No. He's not such a fool as to leave them with their guns.' The Doctor lowered his voice, hoping that the Daleks wouldn't hear him. 'When I say run, run like a rabbit!'

Still, the Daleks hadn't attempted to kill. This was so unusual that the Doctor was tempted to push his luck and stay a little longer. If it were only his life, he might do it.

But he couldn't risk Ben's as well. The unarmed Dalek glided back across the floor to join the other two in the capsule. As it did so, it momentarily blocked their line of fire.

'Run!' the Doctor yelled, and followed his own advice.

His arms and legs moving as fast as they could, he shot for the door and out. Ben was a split second behind him, and slammed the door to keep the Daleks inside the laboratory.

The unarmed Dalek turned to the others. 'I have sent the scientist human for further materials.'

'And power?' asked a second Dalek.

'Yes,' the first Dalek confirmed. 'Power we can turn into static. Then we will conquer.'

'We will conquer,' the three of them chorused together.

'WE WILL CONQUER!'

The Doctor stormed into Hensell's office, disrupting the planning session that the Governor, Lesterson and Bragen were having. Hensell looked up, a scowl crossing his face as he saw who the intruder was.

'What the blazes do you want now?' he snapped. 'We were discussing what to do with Lesterson's Daleks.'

'I suppose it's too much to hope that you've come to your senses and are making plans to destroy them?' The Doctor's gaze swept across three inflexible faces. 'I didn't think so Well, you've got more problems than you know about. There are now three three activated Daleks in Lesterson's lab.' activated Daleks in Lesterson's lab.'

'What were you doing in there?' Lesterson yelled angrily. 'You were trying to destroy them again, weren't you?'

'That isn't important,' the Doctor shot back. 'The Dalek used your power supply and brought the other two Daleks back to life again.'

'So?' The scientist shrugged. 'I was going to do that anyway.'

'Are you off your rocker, mate?' Ben demanded. 'These two are armed!'

Lesterson sighed heavily. 'You're simply being difficult, both of you. We simply turn off the electricity for a while, disarm them and everything will be safe again.'

The Doctor shook his head in despair over this lack of understanding. 'They're dangerous,' he explained again.

'Deadly. And they are incredibly brilliant. They will devise a way to rearm themselves!'

'You're right about one thing, Examiner,' Hensell cut in. 'They are brilliant. The Daleks have a plan that will enable us to cut millions of credits from the costs of our satellite surveillance systems.'

'Confound your infernal satellite programme,' the Doctor yelled. 'The whole lot can be melted down for sc.r.a.p all I care!'

This was heresy to Hensell. Faced with the opportunity to save the Company millions, he could not afford to back down now. 'I've lost my patience,' he told the Doctor coldly. 'I'm sick and tired of all this wrangling over the robots.'

'Then do something,' the Doctor replied.

Hensell pushed a thick, shaking finger under the Doctor's nose. 'Now you just listen to me, Mister Examiner. Don't try and run my colony for me. Lesterson has carte blanche carte blanche with the Daleks from now on.' with the Daleks from now on.'

The Doctor fell back a step, appalled. 'What?'

'You heard me.' Hensell moved to sit down again. 'I've got quite enough to do running the colony without having to settle these petty scientific disputes the two of you are having.'

' Petty disputes? Petty disputes? ' the Doctor howled. 'This isn't a minor thing, you idiot! The Daleks will take over this colony and destroy you all unless you act now.' ' the Doctor howled. 'This isn't a minor thing, you idiot! The Daleks will take over this colony and destroy you all unless you act now.'

Deliberately turning his back on the fuming Doctor, Hensell addressed his new second-in-command. 'Bragen, I have to visit the perimeter. The mine workers are proving to be reluctant to agree to the new schedules that the company wants implemented. I think a personal visit is called for. I'm putting you in direct charge here until I return. See to it that Lesterson has everything he wants'

Then, with a nod to Bragen and Lesterson, he marched out of the room.

The Doctor stared after him in shock. How could even Hensell be so blind? What did he hope to gain from all of this that could possibly explain the incredibly stupid chance he was taking with the Daleks? And as for Lesterson 'Admit you're beaten,' the scientist said, not unkindly.

'You know something about these Daleks. Join with me.'