Jumping For The Stars

Chapter 22 - Treason of the Daleks

"I don't know. I've just got a nasty feeling that we're being kept in the larder," Martha stated.

Beside her, Henry tenses, squealing nervously, it only took a split second for Ailia to realize that the other guards were too.

"What are they doing? What's wrong?" Frank asked Martha who said nothing, then turned to Ailia, "What's wrong?"

"Time to meet the masters," Ailia answered omniously, pulling Henry behind her.

A Dalek rounded the corner, and for some reason Ailia's eyes widened just a little. She thought back to when she last saw a Dalek, Rose had almost been killed. Almost everyone on base. But there was something else, something deeper that had nothing to do with Daleks that lunged at her. And very deep down, there was a tiny seed of doubt.

"Silence. Silence. Silence," the Dalek repeated, it's mechanical voice cracking apart each of the words into syllables.

"What the hell is that?" Martha questioned, and this time Ailia gave a straight forward answer.

"A Dalek," she said, her quiet answer quite loud in the now silent tunnel.

"You will form a line. Move," the Dalek ordered and Ailia stepped forward, hiding the pigman behind her gesturing for the people behind her to do the same.

The pig men began pushing everyone in line.

"Just do what it says, everyone, okay? Just obey," Martha said to the people around them.

"The female is wise, obey," the Dalek stated, a second Dalek arriving behind them.

"Report," the second Dalek ordered.

"These are strong specimens. They will help the Dalek cause," the first Daleks answered.

"Dalek?" Martha's question was more to herself as she shared a glance with Ailia.

Ailia somberly nodded in reply.

"What is the status of the Final Experiment?" the first Dalek asked.

"The Dalekanium is in place. The energy conductor is now complete," the second Dalek replied.

"Then I will extract prisoners for selection," the first Dalek said and a pig man made the man step forward. The Dalek held it's plunger type sucker to the man's face and Ailia flinched.

"Intelligance scan. Initiate. Reading brain waves. Low intelligence," the Dalek stated an answer at last and Ailia relaxed.

"You calling me stupid?" the man questioned.

The Dalek didn't answer, "This one will become a pig slave."

Two pig men pulled the guy away.

"No, let go of me. I'm not becoming one of them," the man struggled and the pigmen took him away.

Brain waves, Ailia thought, how do I hide Henry's brain waves?

Expantion.

The Dalek moved to the next person in line, "Intellegence scan. Initiate."

The Dalek got to Frank, it sucker hovering over his face.

Focus your thoughts outward, Ailia, she told herself. No one else needs to become a 'pig slave.'

"Superior intelligence," the Dalek answered, moving onto Martha.

"Intelligence scan. Initiate," the Dalek said, "Superior intelligence. This one will become part the Final Experiment."

"You can't just experiment on people. It's insane! It's inhuman!" Martha snarled as the Dalek moved on towards Ailia.

It's head slowly turned, "We are not human."