The Mind of The Daleks

Chapter 19: Dalekanium

Isabel suppressed a scream and shrank back, but the Doctor, his hand on her shoulder, held her still. For one horrible moment nothing happened, and then Isabel forced herself to look at the motionless figure before them. Inside the transparent glass globe the face of the controller was now visible.

It was the face of a very young man, or perhaps even a teenager since the growth of beard around his jaw was scraggly and thin. Young - but pale and lined with stress and pain, glistening with a faint gleam of sweat. His eyes were closed tight – the movement of his chair had only been some random impulse and had nothing to do with the intruders.

"Isn't there anything we can do to help him?" Isabel whispered, pity gradually taking the place of her fear.

The Doctor shook his head sadly. "No, I'm afraid not. Less, indeed than could possibly be done for the Robomen."

Isabel sighed and turned away back into the room behind them, her anger against the Daleks resurging. How had the Daleks gotten this far? Why hadn't someone stopped them long before they had a chance to take innocent people out of their lives in order to skew them to their own horrible, disgusting purposes? She kicked bitterly at a solid bar just for the sake of kicking something.

The Doctor remained standing at the door into the control room, looking down with narrowed thoughtful eyes at the complex machinery and the man it chained, and at the Dalek which was busy at the far wall. The controller's forehead wrinkled deeper in sudden concentration and his mouth struggled as if to form words while at the same moment his hands tensed into claws, and then relaxed. The Doctor sighed and turned to gaze steadily at Isabel, who didn't notice his observation.

"Ahem," the Doctor cleared his throat and shuffled tentatively over to her. "Well, it seems there's only one chance for it."

Isabel looked at him, interested. "Only one?" she said, and swallowed. "Okay, what can I do?"

The Doctor opened his mouth, paused, and then said, "Well, let me see – Yes, yes... follow me!"

He led the way around the control room and between infinite rows of computers – just as useless as everything else in the building – until they reached a narrow ladder that dropped all the way to the ground level.

The instant Isabel's feet touched the concrete floor, the Doctor pulled her down behind the shelter of a machine; they were in the factory portion of the lowest level and three men were nearby silently loading a forklift with cases of the dalekanium explosive.

As quickly as possible, they edged their way out from among the clunking and laboring machinery, only just missing an encounter with a Dalek as it hovered downward on an elevator platforms. Isabel breathed a sigh of relief as they ducked with care around the barrier into the relative emptiness of the storage area.

"Ah, here we are!" The Doctor looked with satisfaction around at the piles of dalekanium. "Now how many of these do you think you can carry?"

Isabel stared at him in amazement. "What are we gonna do, bomb the place?"

"Oh, dear, no! That would be rather crude – and if I wanted to bomb it, all I would have to do is set up a fuse here. No, no, I just want to – er – put it out of action it for a while."

"Okay," Isabel said reluctantly, still wondering what he was up to. "Uh, I guess I could carry – maybe about, uh, six. Maybe, if I can fit them into my pockets – they're kinda big."

"Yes, let's try that," the Doctor said eagerly as he handed her one of the gray boxes. "What wonderful things pockets are!"

Only the two largest outside pockets of Isabel's jacket would hold a box and it was a tight squeeze, but she managed to carry the other four under her arms. The Doctor, absent-mindedly stuffing another couple of boxes into the large pockets of his own jacket, walked into an out-of-the-way corner in heavy shadow and drew Isabel in beside him.