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The Last Words

By Alden Bates
(Originally printed in abridged form in TSV 37)

The stark, angular lines of a Dalek deep space cruiser cut through the inky blackness of space. The cruiser, Arskenpta, had originally been part of a convoy, until the convoy sensor ship had detected battle activity on the outskirts of its long range sensors. Immediately the Arskenpta was dispatched from the convoy to join in what was believed to be a pitched battle between a small Dalek fleet and a smaller number of Federation ships.

They had in fact stumbled on an extremely one sided battle between a small number of Sontaran warships and a fleet of Rutan craft. The Rutan were engaged in obliterating the final Sontaran warship when the Arskenpta paused at the extremes of Rutan sensors.

The Daleks had little information on the Rutans. Androids had been sent into Rutan space, piloting replicas of human life pods in the hope that the Rutans would take then prisoner. Automated sensor pods, even fully manned scout craft were sent. The problem was not so much getting the Rutan to capture the androids, or getting the craft past the Rutan security nets, as the fact that the androids, sensor pods and scout craft consistently ceased functioning once in Rutan space.

The Arskenpta turned tail and began heading back to the convoy. It was the most logical thing to do. The pity was that the Rutans had already sighted them and begun to give chase.

The bridge of the Dalek cruiser was a circular, dimly lit room. Ranged around the walls were consoles, reflecting displays and status lights off Dalek sensor domes. In the centre of the room was the control pit, in which sat the Commander of the space cruiser.

The Commander was barely a Dalek; It was bred solely for the purpose of command. The shell it crouched in was less a combat machine than a dome shaped life support system, and the Dalek itself was little more than an oversized brain. Delicate threads linked it to the central nervous system of the Arskenpta. Dalek reports were sent in digitally encoded bits directly to the Dalek's brain.

Scan-op: pursuit ship in direct contact with hull.

Scan-op had control of the masses of information reeling out of the cruisers many sensor banks. One of the pursuing Rutan craft, apparently a troop transport, had linked to the Arskenpta's hull.

Con-op reported more bad news: Level 28 reports hull breach, attempts to lock off affected sectors have failed.

The Commander cut into the cruiser's network of sensors on level 28. For some reason, half of the sensor net was down. Vital areas around the reported penetration site were simply blanked out. Alarms sounded in the Commander's mind.

The orders were given to send suicide units in. They would locate the intruders and automatically self destruct.

Moments later, Con-op reported that the suicide units were moving into position. It only took a few seconds more for the suicide units to lose contact with Con-op. The blinking red blobs indicating the suicide units had moved into the dead zone. A zone that was spreading towards the bridge...

The Commander gave the order to call for assistance from the convoy.

The Rutans, the Commander supposed, had brought on board some sort of device to drain energy. It was this that was affecting the sensor net and also why the units sent in were failing to report back.

INTRUDER ON THE BRIDGE!

One of the Daleks in the centre above was screaming in warning. The Commander heard gun fire, Dalek gun fire and no other. The intruder was not using a projected energy weapon.

Another of the Daleks - Com-op - began screaming for assistance. The screams were quickly cut off. Com-op toppled into the control pit, rebounding off the heavily armoured dome of the Commander to lie in one of the recesses. The gunfire about continued unabated.

The Commander swiveled a sensor stalk to examine the fallen Dalek. All electrical activity had ceased, the Dalekanium power source was completely drained. As was suspected, the Rutan was employing a device to suck up the energy.

The sensor net over the bridge was dead, so there was no conventional way for the Commander to get a view of the bridge. It checked the arrays of useless instruments, all of which required energy to function. Finally it discovered a little used instrument, a periscope. The mirrors at the remote end needed no energy to work.

The sound of energy fire above lessened slightly. Another Dalek, Tac-op, fell heavily into the pit. Tac-op, completely drained of energy, cracked open, dumping the contents of its life support centre over the Commander's shell. The Dalek that was Tac-op slithered off the dome and lay twitching on the bottom of the control pit.

The periscope was extended out of the pit. The Commander got a view of Con-op, then a flashed image of something bearing down on a nearby Dalek. The bridge crew were firing wildly, some of the consoles looked beyond repair. Suddenly a view of a luminous green mass, attached to Scan-op. Plasma energy was flickering around the green mass, but seemingly having no effect. Sparks crackled between Scan-op and the pulsating mass.

The Commander could see no sign of any technological devices. The Rutan must have had some sort of built in organic system for draining energy. The Dalek made a note of this in a special permanent record, one which would not be wiped by energy drain or magnetic activity.

Scan-op crashed into the pit. The disabled Dalek's eye stalk caught on the periscope base as it fell, severing the device. The Commander was too busy to notice the inconvenience - a signal was demanding attention, an incoming communication.

The sound of Dalek fire from the bridge was reduced to one now. Con-op was still holding out. Good, thought the Commander, more time.

It rerouted the incoming communications to its own input lines. Status report, demanded the signal from the convoy, what is your situation?

A crashing noise signaled the demise of Con-op. The Commander knew that its time was short, so it quickly formulated a short, succinct message to send in reply that would correctly convey the situation at hand.

The Commander powered up the ship's transmitters. Something large filled the pit with a sickly green glow as it rushed down towards the Dalek. The Commander transmitted the final message to be heard from the doomed ship.

Drained ops keep falling on my head.

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