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Journey Through Wonder story

Chapter 61: Communications

“Here we are, the Dalek communications hub,” said the Doctor. She began busying herself with working on the machine.

“Doctor, what are you looking for?” asked Sam.

“Archived monitor data,” replied the Doctor.

“…Come again?” asked Farmee.

“Black box, flight recorder,” elaborated the Doctor. “Every single bit of Dalek kit is linked to Pathweb somehow, so it always leaves behind a record of events.”

“…Is this…Pathweb a hive mind?”

“Of a sort. It’s more sort of their library, without all the annoyances of a local council library. No late fees, no…aha!”

“What is it?” asked Jak.

“I just found the recordings related to their plans! It looks like they went back in your universe’s time stream to about 13 years ago.

“13 years ago?” asked Daxter. “That’s about when me and Jak’s kids were born! What else does this thing-?”

“DON’T TOUCH IT!” barked the Doctor as she swatted Daxter’s hand away. “Dalek technology is dangerous for those unfamiliar with it!” As Daxter rubbed his hand in annoyance, the Doctor looked through the files. “…It looks like they had departed for this Misty Island you lot seemed insistent on your kids not visiting over a few days ago.”

“There’s a reason why,” replied Jak. “Misty Island is home to a group of Lurker extremists. Their reasons started out noble. They simply didn’t want to be enslaved again. But they started killing innocent people.”

“That’s the problem with extremists. They think killing and enslaving is necessary to achieve their goals.”

“Sadly, Megatron was such an extremist from what I heard from him,” said Farmee.

“Megatron still had some sense in realizing what he did and ending the cause right there. …Much better than a Dalek. As least his goals were noble.”

“Why? What are the Daleks’ supposed goals?”

“To exterminate all non-Daleks,” replied the Doctor. “They’re the mutated remains of a humanoid race from the planet Skaro called the Kaleds. The Kaleds were at war with the Thals, a very dirty nuclear war. The resulting mutations were then accelerated by the Kaled Chief Scientist, Davros. He removed all emotions from the new creatures except hatred for those that weren’t those creatures, then put them in war machines.”

“…You mean these Daleks were created to be nothing more than pitiless killers?” asked Jak.

“Man, woman, child, it doesn’t matter,” sighed the Doctor. “Unless you have a short-term use, you’re nothing more than a target to the Daleks. Ah, here we go!”

“What is it?” asked Jack.

“Footage from a mission briefing,” answered the Doctor. She pulled up the footage and presented it on the screen. There were six men talking to a Black Dalek and a Special Weapons Dalek.

“My Ones!” gasped Farmee. “I know two of them! From history! That’s…Scorpo and Intrag!”

“What’s their historical significance?” asked the Doctor.

“Scorpo is the Mechanica extension of Dr. Borg’s ship, the Scorpion,” explained Farmee. “And Intrag…well, his full name is Intrag Emboramii!”

“Emboramii?” asked Sam. “Isn’t that your mother Malnar’s maiden name?”

“Yes! He’s Mama Malnar’s first ancestor! A brutal tyrant, he was! He ruled the Under-realm with an iron fist! He died at the end of the War of the Realms, then came back in the final years of the Third Age of Unity as a wraith before he failed Oyed the Titan and was consigned to the Depths!”

“It looks like he’s set himself up as the commander of this mission,” muttered the Doctor. “That has to be chafing to the Dalek Supreme. The logs identify the others as Captain…Captain Don Shinobi? …Erm, Benjamin, Shefarn Borg, and the Mobian cat is…is Makeshift. That sounds like a Transformer’s name.”

“Green and Blue Eco now catalogued!” barked the Dalek Supreme to Intrag.

“Excellent,” replied Intrag. “We’ll catalogue Light, Red, and Yellow Eco later. For now, our biggest priority is the nearest silo of Dark Eco.”

“Is the Haven City Dark Warrior to be exterminated?” asked the Special Weapons Dalek.

“No way, see?!” snapped Captain Don Shinobi. “We need him alive to filter the Dark Eco into our test subjects!”

“We need to open the silo on Misty Island,” remarked Scorpo. “That kind of…unhealthy work will attract Health, then…well, she’ll be in our power.”

“Silo breaching equipment prepared and primed!” said the Dalek Supreme. “Are the local Lurkers to be captured for interrogation?”

“No,” replied Intrag. “They won’t be willing to give up the Dark Eco Silo. Just kill them all. Every man, woman, and child.”

“We obey!” replied the Dalek Supreme and the Special Weapons Dalek. The Doctor ended that video and checked another part of the data concerning that awful mission.

“…It looks like they succeeded in the Misty Island genocide,” she sighed as she teased out the data. “Misty Island is now under the complete control of the Daleks. …But, it looks like their breaching of the silo is slow going.”

“…You mean…my kid was lucky to only have a Dark Eco bath?” shuddered Daxter.

“I think we better get back,” said Jak. He headed to the Blue Eco Vent, got charged with Blue Eco, then rushed back to the door and used the Blue Eco to open it. Everyone headed through the door, across a small lake in the rock, and onto a floating platform that lowered them back to the warp gate. They then went through it.


The instant Jak and Daxter arrived back at the hut, they hugged their kids. “You kids were unbelievably lucky!” said Jak.

“D-Dad?” asked Markus.

“There weren’t any Lurkers on Misty Island, were there? Just a bunch of machine-looking things.”

“Y-Yeah,” confirmed Layla.

“Those things are more dangerous than we thought,” said Daxter. “They won’t hesitate to kill you guys just because you’re kids!”

“…You mean…we could have…died?!” gulped Markus.

“The Daleks are the ultimate in racial cleansing,” replied the Doctor.

“What did you find?” asked Megatron.

“The Daleks are planning to inject test subjects with Dark Eco,” summarized Farmee.

“Their own Dark Warrior project, eh?”

“Looks that way,” said Sam. “They intend to use Jak as a filter.”

“They’ll have to directly inject a Dalek with the substance,” guessed Galvatron. “Gotta have that control variable and all that.”

“Naturally,” agreed the Doctor. “I don’t think we want to know what it will do to a Dalek when unfiltered.”

“Megatron, can you see how much progress they made?” asked Farmee. Megatron looked out to Misty Island.

“…That’s odd,” he said. “It’s abandoned.”

“What?” asked Galvatron. He activated his own zoom function and looked. “…Yeah, the whole island’s…well, dead! There’s no Daleks, no Lurkers, nothing!”

“That means one of two things,” muttered the Doctor. “I certainly hope it’s just that they gave up, but the other is that-.”

“Hold on,” said Megatron. “I think I see…yep, a single, lone Dalek…but it’s…moving erratically.”

“They abandoned the control variable,” sighed the Doctor.

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