Skidding around a corner, his arms flailing as he tried to keep his balance, he almost collided with a band of the rebels. At their head was Kebble. He still had a sore neck thanks to the Doctor, and obviously intended to settle the score.

'Just a moment, Examiner,' he snapped.

The Doctor spun about, but one of the three rebels with Kebble had slipped behind him, his weapon upraised.

'Hold it!' the man snapped.

Turning back, the Doctor's eyes widened in horror. 'Get down, all of you!' he yelled, flinging himself on to Kebble.

The startled rebel collapsed under the Doctor's weight.

The attack saved his life. The Dalek that had just rounded the corner fired. One of the rebels screamed out in death agony as the Dalek's ray hit him. The Dalek spun about to fire on the remaining two rebels. As it did so, the Doctor hauled Kebble to his feet.

'Run like the wind!' he yelled, and dashed off down the corridor.

The Dalek fired again. The two rebels screamed. One had managed to bring his gun up. In his death agony, his finger tightened on the trigger. Bullets whined off the Dalek's casing, doing little more than gashing the finish.

As the two men collapsed, the Dalek pushed them unfeelingly aside and set off in pursuit of the two remaining targets.

26.

You Have to Admire Them In Lesterson's laboratory, Valmar sighed and put down his tools. The three Daleks he had rearmed stared impa.s.sively back at him. Each of them had one of Valmar's control boxes wired into their weapons. The rebel felt more secure, knowing he had some effective fire power at last. He had no doubt at all that it would be needed.

There was the sound of running feet outside in the corridor. He s.n.a.t.c.hed up the closest of the controls and whirled to face the door. His heart sank like a cold, leaden stone within him as Janley dashed into the room. 'Don't come any nearer,' he warned her. How could he ever have loved her?

'What do you mean?' she asked. She looked scared, not her usual confident self, and very vulnerable. Despite his knowledge of her betrayal, Valmar felt sorry for her.

'I overheard your conversation with Bragen,' he said bitterly. 'But neither of you can stand up to the Daleks.

Your schemes will come to nothing.'

'Not my plan.' she insisted, 'Bragen's.'

'It's the same thing.'

Janley shook her head. 'Not any more.'

He laughed scornfully. 'Do you expect me to believe that?'

'I had to go along with him,' she protested. 'He was going to kill me too, if he thought I was against him. I didn't know you were here.' She put all the conviction she could into her voice. 'I came here to do what you've just done: show Bragen the power of the Daleks. He has no real idea how strong they are. He's got to be stopped.'

Valmar wanted to believe her, but he had been betrayed once. Whatever she said, she had had been willing to betray them all and let Bragen a.s.sume power. The only thing that seemed to have swayed her was the prospect of ma.s.sacring the rebels. been willing to betray them all and let Bragen a.s.sume power. The only thing that seemed to have swayed her was the prospect of ma.s.sacring the rebels. If If she was telling the truth this time. Still, even if she were going up against Bragen simply out of self-preservation, she could be a useful ally. she was telling the truth this time. Still, even if she were going up against Bragen simply out of self-preservation, she could be a useful ally.

As he pondered, one of the Daleks spoke to him. 'You will lead us to the middle of your party of human beings?'

It must mean the rebel leaders, Valmar realized. 'Yes,'

he agreed. While he didn't exactly trust the Daleks either, they were powerless as long as he held the firing controls.

'Then we will fight for you,' the Dalek stated.

Janley nodded, urgently. 'Believe me, Val, we have to do it. It's the only way to save all of our lives.'

Still hesitating, Valmar asked her: 'Did you know that the Daleks are duplicating themselves?'

'Yes,' Janley replied. That much had been obvious from Lesterson's rantings. And it did explain their need for electricity and parts.

'But we are your friends,' the Dalek argued.

'We will serve you,' the second one added.

'Take us to the centre of your group,' the third one finished.

Valmar wavered. 'Can we trust them?' he asked Janley.

'We must,' she insisted. 'Bragen's given his guards the order to wipe us all out. We must must use the Daleks to fight them. Come on!' use the Daleks to fight them. Come on!'

Reluctantly, still convinced he was making a mistake, Valmar nodded. He handed her one of the Daleks' firing controls and took the other two himself. 'All right,' he sighed. 'Let's go.'

For good or ill, he had committed them to this line of action.

Without warning, the Doctor dashed past Quinn and into the rest room. His eyes darted about the cramped quarters, coming to rest finally on the picture window. 'Does this window open?' he asked his companions.

Ben glanced at it. 'Dunno.'

'Well, it'd better, or we're done for,' the Doctor answered, feverishly trying to work the latch. Quinn pushed him aside and snapped the lock back.

'What do you mean?' Polly asked. The Doctor seemed in a state of virtual panic.

'The Daleks are on the loose,' he replied, throwing up the window. 'The corridors are full of them. We've got to get back to Lesterson's lab immediately. Outside is our only chance! Come along!'

Polly didn't need a second invitation; she shot through the gla.s.s and out on to the bare rocks beyond. Ben and Quinn followed her out, while the Doctor bounced up and down impatiently, his eyes darting back and forth between the window and the door.

There was a burst of machine-gun fire in the corridor outside, and Kebble threw himself inside the room. His mouth opened in shock, and then there came the rattle of a Dalek gun firing. Kebble screamed as he died, falling face-down on the floor.

The Doctor hopped through the window and ran for his life after the other three.

Kebble's body was pushed aside by the Dalek that had killed him. Entering the room, its eye-stick swung about, scanning for other life. It came to focus on the open window and the recent heat-traces.

Now that the final round was being played out, Bragen allowed himself to feel a sense of triumph. He stared out at the surface of Vulcan, his his world. Even now, the guards would be slaughtering the remnant of the rebels and imposing his order on the entire colony. Deciding it was time for another rea.s.suring word with his subjects, he returned to his desk and tapped the broadcast b.u.t.ton on his comet unit. world. Even now, the guards would be slaughtering the remnant of the rebels and imposing his order on the entire colony. Deciding it was time for another rea.s.suring word with his subjects, he returned to his desk and tapped the broadcast b.u.t.ton on his comet unit.

'A group of rebels is attempting to take over the colony,'

his voice rang out through the corridors and rooms. 'It is the duty of all loyal citizens to help the guards resist them.

Stay in your rooms. Order will be restored. Listen for my bulletins.'

Four Daleks glided into the terminal of the moving sidewalk. There were few people left here. Two rebels were dead on the floor, and several guards were ushering workers into cover.

The Daleks spread out and opened fire. Screaming in spasms of agony, guards and workers alike fell in the blaze of Dalek guns.

'Exterminate all humans!'

Thane and the three rebels left with her fell back towards the rocket room. There they had planned this insane fiasco. It seemed to be an appropriate place to end it. The medic was under no illusion that any of them would survive. The guards had them trapped and possessed riot shields and better weapons.

Her second kicked open the door behind them, and she ducked in with him. There was a judder of shots, and the other man collapsed, his body riddled with holes. Thane loosed off a burst, which splattered against the shields ineffectually.

'We're dead,' her companion said. All anger and fear had drained from his voice hours ago. Only resignation was left.

'Maybe.' Thane refused to surrender her hopes. Then she saw a new reason for them: two Daleks had entered the corridor behind the guards. Were these Valmar's pets?

The guards glanced back, but didn't seem to be worried.

It was their final mistake.

Both Daleks opened fire, saturating the three guards with lethal blasts. The men collapsed, their screams cut off by death.

'They're helping us!' Thane's companion shouted happily. He leaped to his feet, waving his thanks.

The Daleks' next burst cut him down, his face caught halfway between elation and terror.

'Exterminate all humans!' the Daleks grated, closing in on Thane. She fired off a burst from her gun, shocked. Her body was acting on instinct, her mind a total blank. The bullets whined off in all directions, not even denting the Dalek metal. She threw herself backwards as the Daleks fired.

She was dead before her body hit the ground.

Bragen heard the sounds of rifle-fire and screams. He smiled happily to himself. The rebels were doomed. Soon, soon...

One of his squad leaders dashed into the room, terror on his face. 'The rebels!' he cried. 'They're using the Daleks to kill our people!'

Stunned, Bragen reacted with anger. 'Well, fight them, then! Don't come whining to me! What do you think your guns are for?'

'Guns don't work against the Daleks,' the man replied.

'They're annihilating us!'

Furiously, Bragen gave the man a violent shove. The guard stumbled back into the doorway. 'Get back out there and fight them!' Bragen ordered. He held up his pistol.

'Or, by heavens, I'll shoot you down like a dog!'

The guard eyed Bragen's pistol, clearly weighing up his chances of dying outside against the certainty of death right here. Finally, he turned and ran into the corridor outside.

Janley and Valmar walked behind two of the Daleks, protected by their armour, as they worked their way down a corridor towards Bragen's office. The rebels had set up a barrier there, which the guards were storming. One rebel died in the hail of bullets as they approached.

Pointing at the guards, Janley ordered the Dalek: 'There!'

It fired, and the two guards rushing the barricade collapsed in the lethal rays. Then the Dalek twisted to bring its weapon to bear on two of the rebels.

'No!' Janley ordered. 'They're on our side.' She hit the cut-off b.u.t.ton.

It had no effect. The Dalek gun fired, mowing down the startled rebels.

Valmar was shocked. 'You were supposed to cut the gun off!' He was obviously thinking that she had betrayed him after all.

'I did!' she insisted, showing him the control.

'It killed our own men,' Valmar said. 'Must be a flaw in the programming. We'll have to dismantle this one, that's all.'

The Dalek pulled away from Janley, and spun to face them. Its gun-stick rose.

'Look at it!' Janley screamed.

The two Daleks that Valmar was leading jerked forward, whipping the control boxes from his hands. Then they turned as well.

The box had never worked, Valmar realized. The Daleks had been deceiving them all along.

'Exterminate all humans!'

Before they could open fire, the Daleks were attacked from the rear. The remainder of the guards in the corridor leaped the barricades, machine guns blazing. The three Daleks spun around to fire on the more dangerous foes.

Grabbing Valmar, who was in a state of shock, Janley dragged him to the temporary safety of a side corridor.

'Come on!' she yelled.

Quinn stopped beside a window. 'This is the closest to Lesterson's laboratory,' he announced.

Ben tried it. 'It's locked on the inside,' he complained.

Quinn smashed the b.u.t.t of his machine gun against it.