Chapter Twelve: Repeating History

Dalek Caan glided silently back over the forest towards the home of the equipment he needed. The sun was starting to rise, now. He had to work quickly. Positioning himself at the entrance to the laboratory, he shot the door open and went inside. His scanners told him that the component he needed was inside the automobile sitting on the far side.

Gliding over the floor, elevating over the fallen door, he made his way over to it. He scanned the automobile and found the equipment in the cab. It was a metal box housing three small, flashing incandescent lamps arranged as the human letter “Y”, located above and behind one of the seats. Using his manipulator arm and maximum power, he pulled it free of its confines, shooting sparks out from the machinery, damaging the wiring that had connected to it. It didn’t matter; he didn’t need the connectors from here. He had his own.

With the component held tightly in his manipulator arm, Caan elevated out of the laboratory and back to the junkyard before whoever was left inside the house could catch him. He had very little time to deal with interference.

Without the aid of his slave, installing the component took longer than Caan would have wanted, but he managed. Dalek manipulator arms weren’t as weak as they looked. He’d just finished connecting the component to his Time Corridor when he got the signal that his control chip had been deactivated. That meant the Doctor survived. That also meant he had to work quickly.

Activating the Time Corridor, he waited for the circuits to charge, positioning himself at the entrance. The Corridor was programmed to send the Dalek back in time to ancient Earth, where the human race would be at its weakest with no weapons with which to turn on him. Caan fully intended to dominate over the planet in the past to take over the future.

Then his audio sensors picked it up again: The sound of a TARDIS. Swiveling his eyestalk, Caan looked for it, but didn’t see where it materialized. It must have gone behind one of the garbage piles.

“Caan!” The voice of the Doctor rang through the junkyard, seeming to come from everywhere. “I warned you. I do not give second chances. I don’t want to destroy you, but you’re leaving me no choice. The last Dalek and the last Time Lord…”

There was a noise from behind the Time Corridor. Caan swung his eyestalk around and saw one of the winged humanoids immediately teleport away. His audio sensors picked up a rhythmic beeping.

“You have one minute to decide,” said the Doctor’s voice.

Caan tried to leave the corridor entrance, but found his motors frozen. No, it was some kind of force field. He could detect a generator, but he couldn’t tell where it was.

“The Daleks will never surrender!” Caan shouted, firing a wild shot. Whatever was incapacitating him absorbed the energy.

“Then the Daleks will be no more!”

“EMERGENCY TEMPORAL SHIFT!”

Caan disappeared moments before the equipment exploded.

End chapter twelve.

Back *~*~* Chapter Eleven *~*~* Chapter Thirteen