“…Oh, I get it! She’s one of THOSE heroes!” chuckled Hater. “You heard them, Doctor!”
“Hater, you’re making the mistake of thinking they’re bluffing!” called Amy. “They WILL kill those people!”
“Five rels have passed! Exterminate the Binglebop prisoner!” ordered the Dalek Supreme.
“Exterminate!” replied a Dalek as it shot a Binglebop. The Binglebop screamed as it died painfully. Peepers went to check on the Binglebop and his eye widened.
“…S-Sir!” he gulped. “The Daleks AREN’T bluffing! The Binglebop is dead!”
“WHAT?!” shouted Hater. “WAIT A MINUTE, HAVEN’T YOU TIN CANS HEARD OF A BLUFF?!”
“Daleks do not bluff!” replied the Dalek Supreme. “It is an inferior tactic, especially against the Doctor! Five rels have passed! Exterminate the-!”
“WAIT!” called the Doctor. Everyone turned to look at her. “…If I come aboard the skullship, I want your word that my companions will be unharmed!”
“Your companions will be guarded! Any attempt to undermine the Daleks will result in their extermination! You, your companions, Wander, the Zbornak, and the owners of the castle will exit immediately! Move! Move! MOVE!”
“We obey!” called the Doctor.
“Doctor-!” protested Sylvia.
“Sylvia, those monsters are as dangerous as Dominator,” replied Draykor. “Our people fear them for a good reason.” He turned to his gate guard. “Open the gates. Demurra and I will be back when we can.” His guard nodded solemnly and dutifully obeyed.
“Come on, everyone,” directed the Doctor. She led everyone to the invading army. As they approached the tip of the skullship’s tongue, a Dalek looked at the prisoners from the Torture Room.
“These prisoners are surplus to requirements!” it reported to the Dalek Supreme. “Their survival was not part of the deal!”
“Agreed!” replied the Dalek Supreme. “Exterminate!” It then fired on all the Torture Room victims, killing them.
“That wasn’t necessary!” snapped Peepers.
“Silence!” barked the Dalek Supreme.
“Lord Hater, Commander Peepers,” hissed the Doctor, “you better hope YOU don’t become surplus to requirements!”
“Doc, are these Daleks ALWAYS so cold-blooded?!” shuddered Sylvia.
“Unerringly,” replied the Doctor.
“Doctor, what about the TARDIS?!” asked Amy.
“We can’t escape with the Daleks’ time corridor net,” reminded Lurra Rus.
“We’ll just have to go back for it when this adventure is done,” muttered the Doctor.
“My guards will keep watch over your ship,” said Draykor.
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” bid the Doctor.
“We will depart this planet!” ordered the Dalek Supreme.
“We obey!” replied the other Daleks. …One of them dragged its words out and everyone noticed it twitching more than usual.
“Are you experiencing a system’s malfunction?” asked the Dalek Supreme.
“I…I-I-I-I…ah…Ah! AHhh! AHHH! AARRRRGGHHGHGHGHG!” The Dalek was screaming in pain and firing wildly. “OUT OF CONTROL! OUT OF CONTROL! ALERT! PAAAAIIIINNN! ALERT! SYSTEMS! UNBALANCED! CONTROL LOST! WEAPONRY! DISCHARGING! ABOVE! SAFETY TOLERANCES! I! AM! OVERHEATING!”
“Lord Hater, LOOK!” called Peepers. He pointed at the neck section of the unbalanced Dalek as it took on a black shape with glowing yellow lines!
“Oh no!” whispered Hater. “It’s a sickness!”
“DOMINATOR’S INFLUENCE! DOMINATOR’S INFLUENCE!” shrieked the Dalek Supreme as the coloration spread across the unbalanced Dalek while its speech devolved into beastly sounds. “ALERT! ALERT! MOVE AWAY FROM THIS UNIT!”
“WATCHDOGS, EYES UP!” called Hater.
“What do you intend to do?!” asked Lurra Rus.
“MOVE AWAY!” shouted another Dalek. “IT MUST BE EXTERMINATED!”
“NO! WAIT!” called Peepers. “Don’t you see?! This is our best opportunity-!”
“SILENCE! SILENCE!” ordered the Dalek Supreme. “THERE MUST BE NO IMPURITIES IN THE DALEK RACE! THIS CREATURE MUST BE-!”
“Creature?!” repeated Demurra in disbelief. “You’re talking about one of your own kind here!”
“NO! NO! IT IS NO LONGER A DALEK! DOMINATOR HAS INFECTED IT!”
“But if we can study a living specimen-!” argued Peepers.
“THAT IS NOT POSSIBLE!” replied the other Dalek. “ALL INFECTED DALEKS MUST BE EXTERMINATED!” By now, the infected Dalek was fully black with glowing yellow light escaping cracks in its new casing.
“I’m siding with the Daleks on this one, Peepers!” declared Hater as he summoned green lightning from his hands.
“EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!”
“NO!” shouted the Doctor and Commander Peepers as they shielded the infected Dalek.
“PEEPERS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” demanded Hater.
“MOVE OUT OF THE WAY, DOCTOR AND COMMANDER PEEPERS, OR WE WILL EXTERMINATE YOU AS WELL!” ordered the Dalek Supreme.
“I don’t think so!” replied the Doctor. “You went to a lot of trouble to get me and if that infection’s the reason why we’re all here now, I need it alive to conduct my research!”
“ALL INFECTED DALEKS-!”
“JUST LISTEN, YOU IDIOT!” shouted Peepers. “We never captured one of these things and we have no clue how this infection spreads! This thing could be the vital part we need to making a cure!” By now, the infected Dalek had stopped moving and all its limbs drooped. “Just look! Now is the best time to drag it into whatever isolation ward you have on your ship!”
“Lord Hater, Dalek Supreme, we REALLY need samples of the casing and the internal creature to fix this!” urged the Doctor.
“…Flab-drassit, FINE!” grumbled Hater.
“This creature-!” protested the Dalek Supreme.
“There’s no point arguing with the nerdy science types!” replied Hater. “Not if they’re gonna put their lives on the line like that for experiments! Watchdogs, bring the infected Dalek aboard and get it in a room AWAY from our Dalek friends!”
“YES, SIR!” replied the Watchdogs.
The infected Dalek was sealed in a room aboard the skullship. “All seals functioning,” said Peepers.
“Good,” replied the Doctor. “Now would someone tell me what’s going on here?!” Peepers and the single Dalek in the science lab looked at each other. “…Well?!”
“Lord Dominator is making a new breed of Daleks,” replied Peepers.
“There is only one breed of Dalek!” insisted the Dalek.
“Lord Dominator’s mutating you guys and you know it!” retorted Peepers. The Dalek backed up at that. “What’s the matter? The truth’s too much for you?!”
“This Lord Dominator…is changing the Daleks on a genetic level as well?” asked the Doctor.
“Lord Dominator conquered a Dalek reproduction plant,” explained Peepers. “As of yet, we don’t know how. The infection removes all higher brain functions. They’re reduced to mindless beasts. From what we’ve seen, the attack was recent. Here.” Peepers pulled up some computer files.
“Outsiders are not permitted to look at those files!” insisted the Dalek.
“Well, I never,” mused the Doctor. “Cell donation records. This is a first for me. And I can see that there haven’t been any incidents of mutation until three days ago.”
“And that reproduction plant is pumping out legions!” said Peepers. “Look!” Peepers pulled up the figures.
“…Five full invasion forces in just three days. That IS alarming.”
“Which makes me wonder where she’s getting the Volcanium X,” muttered Peepers.
“Volcanium X?” asked the Doctor.
“A substance found deep in planet cores,” replied the Dalek, “with properties similar to magma! It is primarily used for lava-tech!”
“Then there must be this Volcanium X stuff in the infected Dalek’s casing,” mused the Doctor.
“Possibly,” said Peepers. “We need a scan to confirm.”
“Beginning scans!” reported the Dalek. A progress bar then appeared, slowly going across the screen…then stopping.
“Oh, come on! What are you Watchdogs using, Windows NT?!” complained the Doctor. “Looks like I need to defrag the-!” The progress bar then shot forward to 100%. “…I guess it doesn’t like that.”
“Scan results on screen!” reported the Dalek.
“Aha! Knew it! There IS Volcanium X in that Dalek!” cheered Peepers.
“No, no, hang on,” replied the Doctor. “Look. The Volcanium X was introduced into it thanks to a virus. Can we get a genome map of the virus?”
“Conducting virus genome mapping!” replied the Dalek. The progress bar appeared, going faster now. “Genome mapping complete!” reported the Dalek. “Genetic similarities detected! Displaying nearest genome match!” A screen with two virus cells appeared. One looked organic, the other had Volcanium X veins running through its cell membrane.
“We need to run a mutation simulation,” mused the Doctor. She programmed a simulation of what the unaltered virus would look like if Volcanium X was introduced. The virus went through several changes until it matched the initial Volcanium X virus. “Well, that does tell us something,” said the Doctor.
“What?” asked Peepers.
“That the virus is artificial in origin,” explained the Doctor.
“Unaltered virus has been identified!” said the Dalek. “Allowing access to entry in Dalek Contagion Catalogue!” The Dalek pulled it up onscreen. The Doctor goggled as she processed the information.
“Well!” she said. “The Movellan Virus rears its ugly head! The Volcanium X must have circumvented the cure you Daleks created!”
“Erm, what IS the Mo-?” Before Peepers could finish his question, the ship rocked!
“Alert! Alert! Bridge reports that we are under attack!” warned the Dalek. The Doctor called the bridge.
“Lord Hater, what’s going on?!” she asked.
“Doctor, it’s Lurra Rus!” replied the person on the other end. “Some red and black Star Destroyer just appeared and started shooting at us!”
“Lurra Rus, does the bridge tower look like an evil face?!” asked Peepers, a nasty theory forming in his head.
“Yes, why?” asked Lurra Rus.
“Dominator!” gulped Peepers. “She’s got her ship back and is after us!”