Doctor Who: Target - Novelisations [046] - The Planet of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks

Author:Terrance Dicks
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426112525
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1976-02-14T23:00:00+00:00

7

Ascent to Peril

The cooling chamber was empty.

The astonishment of the Daleks was almost ludicrous. They crowded into the room, spinning round wildly in search of the fugitives. There was a note of hysteria in the leader’s voice. ‘Escape from this section is impossible. There are no other exits. The prisoners are hiding. Locate and destroy. They are to be exterminated.’

The orders sounded logical but they were impossible to carry out. There was nowhere for the prisoners to hide, nowhere to search. The Daleks milled about the room in a state of utter confusion.

The Doctor and his friends meanwhile were floating slowly up the great metal chimney, the plastic sheet billowing above them like the sail of some great yacht. As the doors finally gave way they had achieved lift-off, disappearing up the chimney seconds before the Daleks had entered the room. Once they were under way the ascent seemed to go easier, and now they were rising slowly but surely upwards. Quite a pleasant sensation, the Doctor was thinking. He really must try hot-air ballooning some time.

Rebec glanced down and shivered, closing her eyes. ‘How far have we climbed?’

The Doctor looked at the drop beneath them. ‘Hard to tell. I just hope we’re high enough to be out of range. One of them’s bound to look up here sooner or later.’

Even as the Doctor was speaking, a Dalek had glided beneath the cowling. Its eye-stalk swivelled casually upwards, then it let out an astonished squawk. ‘Prisoners located.’ It raised its gun-stick and fired.

They heard the roar of the blast as it echoed round the chimney, and even felt the heat, but they were quite unharmed. ‘That’s a relief,’ said the Doctor. ‘It seems we are out of range!’ He saw Rebec twisting on her rope, sobbing with fear. ‘Just keep your eyes closed, my dear, and hang on tight. You’ll be all right.’

He looked at the two others. Taron was hanging on in grim silence, but Codal was looking about him keenly, scientific interest overcoming his fears. ‘How long before we get to the top, Doctor?’

‘Quite a while. We’re coming right up from the lowest level, remember. It’s going to be a long, slow climb.’

In the cooling chamber below, the Dalek leader was giving orders to retrieve the situation. ‘A patrol will be sent to the surface immediately, to the point where the shaft emerges. They must reach the area before the prisoners can escape. Order an anti-gravitational disc to be brought here immediately.’

‘I obey.’ The second-in-command glided from the room. The leader moved under the cowling and swivelled his eye-stalk upwards.

The prisoners were scarcely visible now, just slowly ascending dots. But they had not escaped. Soon Daleks would be waiting at the head of the chimney, and a Dalek pursing them up it. They had simply entered a trap, with no escape.

Jo Grant wondered if she was doomed to spend the rest of her life hiding in Dalek control like a rat in the wainscotting. There was only one Dalek in the area now, but it was still too near her.

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