Unable to understand Lesterson's switch in att.i.tude towards the Dalek, Bragen decided to humour the man.

'Finish now,' he instructed the Dalek.

It let the cable fall to the floor. 'I am your servant,' it acknowledged. Spinning around, it glided from the room.

Beyond the door, though, it paused and listened.

Lesterson shuddered, but managed to pull his tattered wits together briefly. 'Where's the Governor?'

'At the perimeter,' Bragen answered. 'Talking with the miners. Why? I have full authority in his ab '

'Call him!' Lesterson snapped. 'Get him back here as quickly as possible. We're all in terrible danger! The Examiner was right. Right all the time!'

Bragen mused over this demand. He really needed a little more time before Hensell returned for his plans to mature. He couldn't afford to do as Lesterson suggested, but he needed a plausible excuse for refusing. As he pondered his response, Janley walked into the office.

Lesterson jumped, the tic in his cheek pulsing faster.

'Don't let her interfere, Bragen!' he begged. 'She's in league with them the Daleks!'

Janley gave him a pitying smile. 'That's not the way to talk, Lesterson,' she said kindly. 'Just take everything calmly. You're not well, that's all it is.'

'I'm perfectly fine,' Lesterson said. At Bragen's direction, one of the guards slid a chair behind Lesterson and eased the scientist into it.

'Now please, Lesterson,' Janley said, as if she were talking to a child. 'You really ought to be in the hospital.

Thane's been expecting you. You promised you'd report in to her.'

'I promised nothing of the kind!' Lesterson said indignantly.

'Surely you remember?' Janley coaxed. Bragen had to admire her technique; she was really very convincing.

'Well, never mind.' She gave Lesterson a rather pitying smile. 'I understand.'

'Such a pity,' Bragen sighed. 'Still, it's probably only temporary.'

Lesterson finally caught on. 'You're trying to say I'm mad!' he exclaimed.

'No, of course not,' Janley said gently.

'Not mad,' Bragen agreed, just as insincerely. 'Of course not, my dear fellow.'

'I tell you, I saw those Daleks!' Lesterson said, jumping to his feet again. 'They were reproducing! I saw it. I swear to you!' He looked from Janley to Bragen and saw that neither of them was really listening to a word he was saying. 'Why don't you believe me? I saw them!'

'What is he going on about?' Bragen asked Janley.

She shrugged. 'He suddenly started saying things like this in the lab,' she apologized. 'Not long after he collapsed. I'm sorry, Bragen, but I really think his mind must have snapped.'

'No!' Lesterson screamed. 'No! No!' He started to lunge at Janley, whimpering. The guards grabbed him, in firm but gentle grips.

Bragen shook his head sadly. 'I'm sorry to see you like this, Lesterson,' he murmured. 'Believe me, this is all for your own good.' To the guards, he added: 'Take him away.

See that he's kept under restraint. But be gentle with him.

He's sick, the poor fellow.'

As Lesterson was dragged, kicking and protesting from the room, the last thing Bragen heard was his voice, screaming: ' Will n.o.body listen to me? Will n.o.body listen to me? ' '

When they were alone, Bragen returned to his desk. He made a note to have the cleaners be certain to remove all traces of Lesterson's blood from the carpet. It wouldn't do to start his new role as Governor with blood on the floor.

Then he looked at Janley. 'All right, what was he going on about?'

Janley shook her head. 'Search me. Like I said, he suddenly started ranting about the Daleks breeding. He seems to think they're not robots anymore. Perhaps he really has had a breakdown.'

'It's possible. These scientific types tend to overdo it, don't they?' Bragen mused for a moment. 'There isn't any possibility he's right, is there? That the Daleks might be dangerous? I need them on our side for the takeover of the colony.'

'There's no need to worry,' Janley a.s.sured him. She noted with a spark of anger that Bragen had used the first person singular and not the plural. Was he trying to edge her out? It would be very foolish of him to even think it.

'Valmar can control the Daleks,' she said. 'And I can control Valmar.'

'Good' Bragen tapped the edge of the desk with his fingertips. 'This isn't the time to alter our plans'

'There's no need for that,' Janley promised him.

'Everything will go just as it's supposed to. In just a matter of hours, you and I will be in charge of the colony.'

Inside the Dalek capsule, Polly was astonished how things had changed. There were a number of rooms opened up from the entrance that had certainly not been visible the night she, Ben and the Doctor had first entered the artifact.

She wondered how many more secrets this thing held. The Daleks were showing only what they wished the humans to know about.

Valrnar and Kebble were with her in the room, working on some piece of Dalek technology. It was a large box, about four feet cubed, with a power cable connection at one end. There was no obvious outlet for the power. So that they wouldn't have to constantly watch her while they worked, Kebble had retied her hands. The knots weren't as tight this time he wasn't as callous as Janley and Polly was beginning to believe she might be able to slip them off if she had the time to work on it.

'Pa.s.s me that small screwdriver,' Valmar ordered her.

'I can't,' Polly snapped. 'My hands are tied.' She held them up to prove her point. 'Anyway, I wouldn't even if I could.'

Valmar gave her a rueful smile and grabbed the tool himself. Kebble was busy hauling in power cables to connect to the other side of the box. A single unarmed Dalek was helping to feed the wires to Kebble. Finally the Dalek turned and left. Polly saw it exit the capsule.

'More?' Valmar asked, irritated, as he saw the cables. 'I can't handle any more.'

'This is the lot,' Kebble a.s.sured him. He was as weary as Valmar.

'Listen,' Polly said softly. 'The Dalek's gone now.'

Kebble gave her a sharp look. 'That doesn't mean you can start talking.'

'Oh, leave her alone, Kebble; Valmar said. He had always found the tubby man too intense. Besides, in a funny kind of way, he rather liked Polly. A bit brash, maybe, but she had spirit. 'She isn't doing any harm.'

Kebble glowered at Polly, but held his peace.

'You think you're very tough, don't you?' Polly said to him. 'Pushing me around like this. I'd like to see you come up against a real man.'

Valmar sn.i.g.g.e.red. Kebble gave her a filthy look. 'Like who?'

'Like Ben, for one.' Polly was certain that he and the Doctor were out looking for her by now. It was only a matter of time before they found her.

Kebble laughed. 'Don't you worry about him,' he told her, chuckling. 'We've already got him safely stowed away.'

Polly's confidence drained. 'You've got Ben?'

'Right.' Kebble winked at her. 'He's just sleeping off a slight fall.'

'Oh, leave the girl alone,' Valmar snapped. He had no patience for the games Kebble was playing. 'It's all right,'

he told her. 'Ben won't be harmed either. He's just being kept out of things for the moment'

Despite the fact he was one of her captors, Polly couldn't help liking the handsome young man. 'Your name's Valmar, isn't it?'

'That's me,' he agreed. He spliced in another wire, then began to tighten the connectors. Soon be done.

'You want the Daleks to help you fight the Governor,'

Polly said. 'But don't you see? Once you begin fighting, they'll turn on you too.'

'What?' Kebble laughed at this suggestion. 'Three animated pepper pots?'

Valmar looked thoughtful. 'One of them did kill Resno,'

he said slowly. 'And you saw what that Dalek did to the sheet of two-inch steel'

'Believe me,' Polly told him, pressing home her advantage, 'that's just the beginning.'

'Don't listen to her!' Kebble warned. 'She's just feeding you the Examiner's line.'

Polly could see that there was some doubt in Valmar's eyes. He was starting to see that what Polly was saying wasn't all idle chatter. But the mention of the Examiner's name made his expression harden again. She realized that Valmar wasn't about to trust anyone he thought was connected to the powers that be. She decided to try a little honesty on him. 'He isn't really the Examiner,' she said.

That made both of them stare at her. 'We're just travellers, you see. We landed here on Vulcan by accident.'

'Some accident!' Kebble scoffed. 'Where were you heading, then? There's nothing else around here for a dozen pa.r.s.ecs!'

'Our ship isn't very reliable,' Polly said feebly. 'It sort of meanders around. The Doctor, the man you've been calling the Examiner, is the only one who knows how it works.

And he's not really been himself lately.' That's an understatement, she thought. 'Anyway, when we landed, the Doctor found the real Examiner. He'd been murdered when he arrived.'

Kebble laughed rudely. 'Fairy stories,' he jeered.

With a wave of his hand, Valmar cut him off. The girl's story had a ring of truth to it. 'This Doctor of yours,' he said. 'He knows something about the Daleks?'

'Yes,' Polly replied. 'He's talked about them in the past, about how evil and dangerous they were. He's come up against them a number of times, I think. Anyway, he's trying to warn everyone about them. That's the only reason we stayed here'

A shadow suddenly fell across them. Polly jumped as a Dalek slid into the room. Did it know what she had been saying? Had it overheard her?

'When will the work be completed?' the Dalek demanded.

Valmar looked at it with fresh eyes. There was something definitely unwholesome about it, now he considered the matter. Was he doing the right thing, trusting them like this? 'I don't know,' he lied, playing for time. He had to get things straight in his own mind first.

'I'll need another junction box like this one.' He gestured to the Dalek device he was wiring up. The Dalek stared at him. Did it believe his excuse?

'I will organize one,' the Dalek said. It left the capsule again. Valmar gave Polly a weak grin.

She didn't return it. 'You've all underestimated these Daleks,' she warned him.

'Better brains than us, I suppose?' Kebble said, humouring her.

'I only know what the Doctor has told me,' Polly answered. 'He says that they are capable of exterminating whole nations.'

Valmar considered this. 'Perhaps,' he agreed. 'But what would they want to kill us for? Once we're in charge, they'll have nothing to worry about. We're friendly with these Daleks.'

'Don't you understand yet?' Polly asked. 'Humans can't be friends with the Daleks. They don't have friends.'

Valmar snorted. 'I don't see why not. Everyone has friends.'

'Not the Daleks. It's a hatred they have, "a dislike of the unlike", that's what the Doctor called it. They think they're the superior beings in the universe, and that all others should be either slaves or dead.'

'Cultural xenophobia?' Valmar shrugged. 'The girl might have something there, you know, Kebble. It is possible...'

'Our plans call for using the Daleks,' Kebble replied.

'Do you want to tell Janley you think they can't be trusted?

I wouldn't want to try it!'

'Janley!' Polly spat. 'She'll betray the lot of you if she gets a chance.'

Valmar's eyes suddenly lost every trace of sympathy for her. He turned his back. Before Polly could ask what was wrong, the Dalek reappeared in the doorway.

'The junction box is outside when you require it,' it told Valmar.