'INHERITANCE OF THE DALEKS'
By Scott Weller
They’re looking at
me with such unconditional love. Radiant eyes, radiant smiles. My
wife and daughter. The happiness of family, my arms outstretched
around them. Their life, our lives, have never been more wondrous.
But suddenly I’m being pulled away from them- I see their
comforting faces contorted to fear, then terror. Violent, pulled back
at incredible speed. I’m powerless as they try to hold on to me,
then lose their grip – a look of pained innocence followed by their own powerlessness- the terror on their faces as a vast distance of
blackness captures me and yanks me back further from their once
light, their once warmth, their once peace.
The darkness has me.
The darkness has
me!
‘Emergency!
Emergency! Under attack! Secure all stations! Under attack!’
What was once
blackness has suddenly become a formless reality- a blurred vision
that I’m frantically trying to acclimatize to. My mind and
consciousness have been ripped awake with equal ferocity, amidst a
feeling of great danger permeating all around me. The noise of
alarms, of horrific screaming voices, is attacking and penetrating
every area of my mind. I witness the metal ceiling above me buckling
from outside pressures. I can turn my pained self as the harsh,
shrilling noises increase and I witness incredulously three grey
shapes gliding around, now dizzyingly out of control, around the
chaotic expanse, their probing eye stalks suddenly distracted from
their once attentions towards me.
Then, for a moment
that lasts like an eternity, there is shocking silence.
Followed by a
colossal explosion swamping their cries as massive external pressure
races out from my lungs and threatens to tear my eyes out of their
sockets. The three shapes have coalesced and focused more in my mind.
Daleks! The stuff of nightmares back from the dead to bring fear to
the galaxy and shatter my life forever. Emerged from a place to which
I am now their prisoner. My memory is coming back to me slowly, but
it may all be too late, and for nothing.
‘Hull
compromised: Section Seven. All Section Seven Daleks – immediate
evacuation!’
Alarm sirens and shrieking alerts are going off around me. Amidst that, the pressure on my body is
intense, my life being sucked away as I lay bound by magnetic clamps.
I’m dying, not from the Daleks, but from the cold, brutal vacuum of
space that has torn out a nearby bulkhead to my prison exterior. A
gap in the fabric of space that has now claimed my three metal
screaming kidnappers and sent them hurtling, helpless like powerless
and vulnerably inert children, into a spacial visage now full of
energy- screaming red and white energy bolts careening back and force
with each other amidst the distant sounds of explosions and hull
quakes in and around the vessel, of whose undesirable environment of
metal and claustrophobia I am securely locked to. A special force to
which no man or machine can escape its brutal reach, whose ruthless
driven will is now demandingly sucking, taking what life survives
within me once and for all...
‘Re-route all
power to shields. Attack computers verifying threat. Weapons Pod
Daleks activated. Battle Stations!’
The death of air
continues around me at terrifying speed. I try not be claimed by
space, but I am locked down tight by metal restrictives that have
been fiendishly designed. The reality of my approaching demise
attacks me from the inside out, of which the last vestiges of breath
are close by. The looming and inevitable defeat of my life from this
outside force of nature to which I have no resistance. I remember my
name now as I enter the death throes- it was Tel Kraven. I was Tel
Kraven. And now that life I made and cherished, those loves I had and
kept close, so close to my heart, will be lost forever to a night
darker than darkest dreams…
But suddenly, from
my last gasp there is another blast of air inside me, followed by
another. And another. The sound of an emergency bulkhead initiating,
closing with brutal clanging force over the area of penetration, of
which a small but vital pocket of oxygen slowly returns to my
enclosure.
‘All hull
breaches secured!’
The alarm noises of
the Dalek nightmare machines echoes once more through me. Shrilling
pain threads through my nerves still, but the memories and instincts
that make me who I am are slowly coming back – my reawakened
existence begun again, of which space has not claimed me. I am
wrecked and bruised, feeling battered inside and out, yet I survive.
After my second full breath, I should be coughing, but somehow that
willpower of my mind and body has triumphed over my near restricted
throat processes.
And now I can move,
the power in the room is out or been redirected to more crucial areas
of the ship, resulting in the equipment and banks of technology
around me wrecked. The once fully restrictive magnetic energy clamps
now inert and lifeless. With what little reserves of strength left
within me, I remove myself from the clamps and throw myself over to
one side of the huge metal table as my atrophied frame tries slowly
to reawaken its strength upon impacting the heavy floor. There is
pain, there is discomfort from the landing, my body now wants to rest
but I have to move, to chance escape…
My vision remains
blurred, of which there is an aura of purple all around me that moves
as I concentrate on my bleak metal disturbia surroundings. My mind
still aches, I try to concentrate on the pain to try and keep it
back, wake myself up to confront the nightmare. Violent hull
concussions from exterior attack continue to resonate through the
area. I find a way to lift myself up somehow amidst the continued
alert sirens and incessant Dalek voice updates attacking my senses
like sharp knives via unseen internal speakers.
‘Cloaked enemy
assault ship destroyed. All ship levels remain
at maximum security alert.’
I make it to the
nearby wall, dragging my weakened self along and holding its firm
support upon reaching it. Gravity doesn’t feel right around me.
Sealed off, restoration power has not yet been deemed necessary here
by my captors- the automatic pull back door screen unit inoperative
to touch and the open wall door panel surely hermetically sealed. I
look across and around the near darkness plunged wrecked room in
desperation, the purple aura surrounding my vision strangely not
subsided- perhaps the effect of whatever the Daleks were trying to do
to me? I move slowly, surely around the room like a blind man and I
know that time is against me to find some way out of this enclosure.
At some point, they’ll methodically come to check this sector,
internal sensors are clearly directed towards other parts of the ship
- I may have mere minutes or seconds to find a way to escape from
here, or death will have been delayed not thwarted. The power of the
spacial vacuum has torn a huge shard of electrical relays outwards
from above a far wall and caused a spillage down to the floor-
there’s a hole above that I might just be able to crawl through-
tight and painful, but it has to be. There’s no sound I can hear
beyond that wall door. At least not yet. With all my strength I rip
the full length of cable out, no mean feat - like tangling with an
Octopus, as erupting pain shoots through me. I keep focused, facing
skyward to keep back the pressure to pull the last snapped vestiges
out. Can’t make the gap bigger. It’s now or never. I jump and
grip the hole above me, to barely make it up the wall and into the
gap, struggling once more to wiggle through. But I get there…
I have achieved a
momentary freedom of a sort. The positive side of my nature suggests
that there must be some kind of escape pod I can use somewhere on
this enormous battle ship. But how many more corridors and Daleks lay
between that ultimate destination? Once again, my companion the
darkness surrounds me like a shroud in the restrictive space as I
further push myself face-down along an unknown realm… towards what?
‘Full exterior
sensor sweeps in operation. Initiating preparations for
lightspeed jump.’
I ache for a pause, but not too brief. I’ve turned my frame to one
side to try and ease the pain briefly, have no choice- my blood
pressure high, I can feel it - on the brink of collapse, otherwise.
my vision remains purple-fogged, though my memories are flooding back
faster than I can imagine- like a lightswitch has been turned on in
my head. I had already remembered my name, and now I know what led me
here, to this nightmare. The blur of images coalescing, forming a
pattern- the operations centre urgently recalling me back to the
Centero system- our planned re-group at the local nebula against the
massed Dalek assault ships besieging its core worlds like an
horrific, unstoppable plague.
I
remember the panic and the rush to depart- a busy spaceport even
busier with war ships speeding to new assignments and destinations,
transports and arriving refugees seeking help. Then, ever worse than
all that, the tears and pain of saying goodbye to them. I
never wanted to see my daughter’s young heart broken- Jaressa was
there, at the colony spaceport-her loving self pleading with me not
to go, arms trying to wrap themselves around me, dropping her Terrico
toy on the floor- an inert, pretty thing normally never far from her
hands - crying with a broken heart for me to stay, her long pink hair
amassed like further tendrils trying to keep me back. But the meeting
on Centero was too important - my analytical mind considered a vital
part of the team working on the next critical stage in fighting the
Daleks. A proud but equally devastated mother, Shiruni is close to
her, trying to comfort her and me but to no real avail as we share a
hug of goodbye cut all too short by the approaching security escort
who clearly feels my pain but cannot show it. The tears are welling
further in Jaressa’s eyes, Shiruni also worried about me, of our
shattering family, and the desperate hopes of survival for our
peaceful colony to whom we’ve enjoyed such a daily and connective
love of life. They all thought we were so far away from the Dalek
conflicts... but they were wrong. So very wrong…
I
made my guilt-edged promises to return, trying to hold back the tears and be a
man of confidence, to project trust in my words. But the feeling of
dread felt more ominous in my mind and pores. I turn my head as we
rush away and their faces of pain and sadness remain fixed like a
beacon. I keep turning back to look at them- the pain of goodbye near
unbearable as the vast section of departure corridor continues
towards the awaiting vessel. The dark seems to be swallowing me up
even more as we walk further, their visage of hope eclipsed from
view.
And
now I’m here- in this heart of evil. I remember more of the horror. Our confidence was high. The ship was
brimming with weapons, blessed with the finest lightspeed drive
technology in the system. And we were almost there, at Centero,
before the alarm bells interrupted my planning work, and a palpable
sense of fear invaded my body. There was an explosion that sent me to
the floor of my quarters, as two body guards entered my room. The
Dalek assault ship crippled us with one key blast of their pulsar
weapons, and now swiftly boarding. An escape pod was activated, as
my ready-for-anything guards literally grabbed me by my arms with
incredible strength and propelled me down the corridor as far and
fast as my dishevelled frame could take it. I was soon immersed in a
nightmare made real- the hideous alien war cries of the mythic Daleks
creatures, no longer the ‘Boogeymen’ creations conjured up by our
parents in bed time holo stories, heard throughout the ship -
‘EXTERMINATE!’, followed by the unique smell and feeling of metal
fused with static electricity in the air. Finally, the pungent,
nauseous smells of closed quarters warfare- burnt, dying flesh and
energy weapons all around, chilling the mind and the blood as we
raced on. Suddenly they were upon us, gliding terrors of black and
grey that had blown through bulkheads alongside some kind of cannon-like Dalek automaton - determined to reach their objective before it could escape. And I
was the target! My blue-uniformed guards were
murdered instantly, though one at least managed to get off return
fire- their X-ray covered auras and burnt body cells disrupted and
exploding inside out as they collapsed near me. I have never felt
more helpless as mere seconds had passed into eternity. The corridor
was now surrounding me with Daleks. I threw myself to the floor, to
try and retrieve one of the fallen weapons, to not let myself be
taken captive and be used to betray the galaxy. I had almost
activated the firing pin before a colossal wave of Dalek energy
weapons cascaded me into a white oblivion, of which pain sent me to
unconsciousness.
‘Power
re-routing underway. Auto repairs in effect.
Damage assessment initiated. Activate repair
drones.’
The
terror of that first encounter, the accelerated beating of my heart,
the pain of the blast has jolted me awake. But this time the pain is
not from my subconscious. This is real physical discomfort I’m now
feeling. I’m under some kind of attack. There’s something on me –
small, manoeuvrable. I can’t look back to see what it is. Now,
there’s more than one, moving slowly, curiously. A strange kind of
feeling, not metal but some kind of rubbery liquid sensation moving
rapidly on my skin, small appendages suddenly probing, prodding.
Followed by sharpness, multiple small stabbing pains increasing,
moving upwards on me. Must be the repair drones- they’ve detected
something that shouldn’t be in their domain, now attacking me like
anti-bodies coping with an infection. Have to get out, the stinging
pains continue relentlessly, working higher up, Cutting me, shocking
me with their bio-apparatus. I hear scurrying movements behind me.
More are on their way working around the circular subsystem darkness.
These things will take their time to kill me, and with more relish
than a Dalek would ever show. I heave myself further down the tight
power substation, these ‘things’ continuing their attack on me. I
feel bruising and bleeding. There is a gap of grey/white light ahead
as I move as fast as I can around a tight corner- a few of the drones
have dislodged themselves from me but are now eager to jump back on
and re-commence attack.
The
end of this subsystem is now ahead. Wherever the light source comes
from I must escape to it. I reach the fresh gap and squeeze myself
over protruding power cables, massed drones nearly engulfing me as I
clench the front of the cables, push myself out from the gap and drop
out of control, impacting on the metal floor whose silver lining
brings the residue smell of static electricity, and an overall air
indicating that Daleks have been here, re-staging, re-prioritizing
their positions across the damaged warship.
I
pick myself up as the repair drones suddenly scurry away from me,
back up the walls and in the shaft. They are gone so quickly, it’s
as if they’d never been there, that it had all been in my
imagination. A bad omen, too - these drones clearly know their place.
The violent tears to my body feel significant. But there’s no time
to feel the pain as the deafening alarm sirens flare all around me.
‘Prisoner
detected within Subsystem Alpha core shaft. Activate suppression gas.
Alert all subsystem exit points.’
They’re
on the way now, and I can no longer be careful. No choice but to run.
Run as fast as I can before the green gas sweeps the corridor and the
shield doors come down. I turn the empty corridor where all-knowing,
all-seeing Dalek eye stalk cameras above cast their unwavering
attentions. I leap under the shield door, barely, as it clangs into
position. I struggle yet continue on, checking and double-checking
front and rear as best I can, yet this purple aura to my eyesight
continues to hinder me. When will it go away?
‘Prisoner
sighted in area of Subsystem Beta. Enforcement Squad in pursuit to
Section Four.
Seek - locate -
encapsulate. Seek - locate - encapsulate!’
There’s
an intersection that may be too risky to traverse. But there’s
another corridor before it, turning left, leading to an ending. Some
kind of see-through circular wall entrance with moving light source indicators opposite it.
An elevator?
Run!
Too late, the entrance has opened and the hideous, truly alien visage of a Dalek looms.
Positioned to the side, its vision stalk hasn’t yet seen me. No
choice but to to attack it- try and get it out of the elevator if I
can. I leap onto its uncomfortable hard metal shell, wrapping myself
around the grating. I’m sure I have its eye stalk but I can’t
reach for the gun socket. It’s crying out for assistance, that it
has located me. It starts firing stun energy bolts that ricochet in
the confined space, zig and zagging up and down, and which I only
just manage to avoid, then it self-electrocutes its outer hull,
throwing me down to the floor just beyond the elevator entrance. I
run back up the corridor to the intersection and make my decision to
go beyond it. No longer dishevelled from my attack, the Dalek finally
enters the corridor to speed up its pursuit, shrieking orders to
anyone that can hear it. I have to run to the unknown… take the
ultimate chance.
But the Daleks are already there, blockading it. Their white vicious bolts impact me, washing me in pain-making energy once again- the nightmare of my original capture re-awakened. I can't resist. My frame has collapsed and the world is spinning as I fall to slow-motion unconsciousness in front of one of the Daleks, which looks at me with no emotion, no concern, no humanity. I try to grab its spotted undercarriage but it quickly pushes me my arm off from it, as if squatting away an irritant insect. can't react, can't think...
But the Daleks are already there, blockading it. Their white vicious bolts impact me, washing me in pain-making energy once again- the nightmare of my original capture re-awakened. I can't resist. My frame has collapsed and the world is spinning as I fall to slow-motion unconsciousness in front of one of the Daleks, which looks at me with no emotion, no concern, no humanity. I try to grab its spotted undercarriage but it quickly pushes me my arm off from it, as if squatting away an irritant insect. can't react, can't think...
‘Prisoner
has been incapacitated. Category Nine initiate must be repaired and
processed for Dalek Central Control .’
Nearing unconsciousness now, as a fourth Dalek - silver and blue -
appears behind what was the pursuant rear Dalek, its weapon stick is
aimed at me whilst its replaced sucker arm holds a long metallic tube
arm adapted to contain a circular half pod dish. It’s looming
towards me, the pod dish lowering to my level as my mind, as my
blurred purple hazed vision, finally succumbs to the Daleks.
‘Mutant scoop
achieved.’
Pain and discomfort have woken me - I have no idea how much time has elapsed. I know only that I am once more restrained atop a long metal table, back in
that room I first escaped from. Its machines are fully operational and terrifying to observe- lit and running, the air
of power in the room is prescient, as is the unceasing noise of a giant electronic heartbeat
throbbing all around me. Silver and blue Daleks are in surround to my vision,
supervised by a larger, even more menacing Black Dalek, laced with
white shell ribbing.
‘Section Six – final transmogrification phase proceeding.’
I am Tel Kraven. I AM Tel Kraven!
I’m draining away. The attack on my mind has begun. Searing, ripping my thoughts, ideas, dreams, and hopes. All ebbing away. That unique life force that made me who I am – my humanity. There is no light of heaven here. Only the cold darkness of emotionless automation working at my mind. They won’t kill me. Death would have been my only release from this nightmare. Under constant attack now. Must fight, must remember...
I’m draining away. The attack on my mind has begun. Searing, ripping my thoughts, ideas, dreams, and hopes. All ebbing away. That unique life force that made me who I am – my humanity. There is no light of heaven here. Only the cold darkness of emotionless automation working at my mind. They won’t kill me. Death would have been my only release from this nightmare. Under constant attack now. Must fight, must remember...
Must remember them, never let them
go….
I see them- the happy times at festival, at
home, in life, in love. But the dreams, the memories are being yanked
away, again down that dark tunnel of time and space.
That last day returns. The spaceport. The
tears, the sadness, the loneliness, the parting of our love.
Shiruni in pain, tears flowing, clutching
Jaressa in front of her, her own face redder with tears, her broken
heart begging, screaming more intensely for me not to go. But I can’t
resist, not any more. The power is just too strong. My arms are
clasped around them tight and longingly but I’m being pulled back
by the force. My grip is lost, their faces now disappearing down that
long, dark stretched tunnel. Jaressa’s screaming, crying, agonized
face is the last to leave my mind. The screaming continues, and their
faces rapidly disappear.
Don’t leave me! PLEASE don’t leave me!
New thoughts, raw emotionless thoughts of power
and control, a thirst beyond anything I’ve experienced before, are
now within me. I’m changing. Changing… I can no longer resist,
but the last vestige of who I am, the proud race of people that I,
Tel Kraven, once belonged to, shouts its defiance!
The people of
Hyperon will never be slaves to the Daleks. You will be defeated!
‘Optimum mutant
conditioning complete. Now commencing casing and battle computer
control symbiosis.’
I am awake now, the aura of immersion fully achieved. Awake with
freedom and new purpose. I am ready to serve and protect my race. To
preserve the Daleks and their mission priority: to shape the galaxy
to our needs. My obligations are to my master, the Supreme
Dalek.
The body that is, that now always will be, begins moving via attached
conveyor. I head towards it and witness my new home, my new
existence. Ready to be encased in an awaiting, glistening grey shell.
And it is good.
THE
END
This
story is respectfully dedicated to the imagination and talent of Terry Nation
and Raymond Cusick.
