New Skaro Central was built on a series of descending terraces that borrowed into the skin of the asteroid in a great abscess. There was a rabbit warren of tunnels and low gravity tubes that connected the levels together and gave life to the immense scar in the rock.
Invidious’ laboratories were in the lower levels of the city overlooking the great central square where the idol of the Golden Emperor resided. The present Emperor had allowed Invidious to commandeer a large chunk of this level in order to facilitate his investigations. The scientist therefore had many miles of underground passages and even some of the square itself for the purposes of his larger experiments. Such an experiment was going on today, in a little exercise that Invidious dubbed “Collective Problem Solving Inventory Five”. In crude terms it was a treasure hunt where the winners would be awarded with extra food rations. The women from the pregnancy suite were divided into two opposing teams who would be in a race against each other to find the object that Invidious had hidden within the central square. What this object was or how they got to the square in the first place were things they had to discover as the experiment proceeded.
Jane found herself paired off with Marie, which she didn’t mind at all as she had a lot to say to her. She perceived the dark haired woman to be the one who wielded the most clout within the group. She was also the one who was most advanced in her pregnancy and therefore with the greatest resistance to doing anything which entailed more risk than staying as the relatively closeted subjects of Invidious’ zoo.
This part of the exercise involved them in navigating a dark tunnel by the use of flashlights. It reminded Jane of the descriptions of the mines that Karen had mentioned. The same mines they had sent Simon and the others to.
“Do you think we should rest soon?” Jane asked, uncomfortable with her companion’s strenuous breathing.
“I’ll be alright,” insisted Marie, “we should be coming up to the first clue soon.”
Jane scanned around in the darkness, but the light only revealed the blank gunmetal walls. “Do you have any idea what it is we’re looking for?”
“It could be anything,” panted Marie. “Whatever takes his fancy, which only he knows.”
They continued probing the blackness for another ten-minutes, eventually Marie relented and they both sat down to rest. Jane was starting to feel testy with hunger and exhaustion, which she knew had to be part of the test.
“What do you suppose all of this is about?” she asked her companion.
Marie shrugged: “I gave up asking that question just after the Daleks killed Miro.”
“Miro?”
“My husband and the father of the bump,” Marie told her blankly. “He was my reason, my soul-mate. It was he who encouraged me to leave the Occidental Zone and start a new life on Hesperus.”
“I see, so how did you come to be here, to be captured by the Daleks?”
Marie’s face switched rapidly from sadness, to joy and back to sadness again as she recounted the events that led up to their capture.
“Miro was a keen Spacer, and ran chartered flights around the Virgo Cluster for the wealthier Off Worlders. But it had always been his ambition to navigate the stellar abyss, which stretches between the Virgo cluster and the outer limb of the Spiral Arm. With the baby on the way it seemed like the final opportunity for years to achieve his goal. I was happy to come with him, to share in his dream.”
Jane looked thoughtful: “Isn’t space flight dangerous for pregnant women?”
Marie laughed: “Yes! God knows what complications one might encounter giving birth in zero-g!”
“I’m sorry,” said Jane. “I guess I’m one to talk; I didn’t realise I was pregnant until that Dalek saw it inside me.”
“The prototype?” asked Marie.
“Yes, vile creature, I know they are all vile, but this one seemed pretty eager in the execution of his duties.”
Marie pointed her flashlight at the wall: “What do you suppose this means?” she asked Jane, rubbing her tummy where the baby was presently lying. (“He’s been quiet up until now,” she added by way of an aside.)
On the wall were a series of notations in repeating patterns; Jane was busily examining these when she found a recess containing a selection of geometric forms in the wall. “Symbolic logic, I think,” suggested Jane warily.
“Yes, perhaps the shapes in the tray have some kind of bearing,” Marie reached out to pick up the nearest shape, a pyramid of blue stone.
Jane seized her hand gently before it touched the object: “Careful!” she said. “God knows what kind of thing you could set off if…”
“Oh, don’t be silly!” snapped Marie, dodging around Jane’s hand. “Invidious wouldn’t hurt us, not while we’re expecting,” she smiled as she picked up the object and held it up to the light. “See!”
Examining the object closely, she looked to the array of symbols on the wall. “I don’t think this is a test of symbolic logic at all,” she said eventually.
“No,” said Jane. “But there’s some kind of pattern to it, you’d agree?”
“Yes, but not a symbolic pattern, this is a test of dispersed cognitive processes, not of icon shuffling.” Whilst she said this she played with the other shapes in the tray. She soon found that she could join them together at the edges. After a few minutes she had constructed a star shaped object with 12 faces.
“The Universe!” exclaimed Jane excitedly.
“What?”
“The dodecahedron is a platonic solid with 12 faces, traditionally associated with the Universe.”
“What better way to connect a whole,” muttered Marie. “And we’ve used all the shapes, look!”
“So how does this associate with the stuff on the wall?” asked Jane thoughtfully.
“I don’t know, but I hope we crack it soon, I’m starving.”
Jane nodded in agreement and returned to studying wall. Now that they had constructed the solid the other patterns on the wall began to make sense. She traced the contours with her fingers.
“Oh look,” she said after a minute. “There’s our friend the dodecahedron, showing up over here, in red.”
“And there’s another one over here in grey,” said Marie, “further along past these shapes here and this grid pattern.”
“Right, so do you think this might be some kind of map, showing us where to find the rest of the clues, or is it the clue itself?”
“Let’s go with the map hypothesis for now,” said Marie. “Taking that to be the case we should expect to find the next Dodecahedron, down here, taking this fork to the right of the corridor,” she gestured with her flashlight in the vague direction they should go.
“Do we bring the solid with us?”
“Yes, it might have some place in the grand scheme of things, who knows!”
From his laboratory Invidious watched his experiment unfold on an array of monitors set up in a dark corner. As he recorded the subjects’ reactions and problem solving skills, his other big experiment came lumbering up behind him.
“The pain is so bad now,” groaned Morrison. Invidious spun round to find that the First Mate was standing over him, clutching his stomach. “What the hell are you doing to me?”
“Making you into something better,” said Invidious, putting down his notes. “You can’t expect to go through such change without a little bit of discomfort.”
“So, cold, like ice in my belly,” said Morrison through gritted teeth.
“I know what will help you,” said Invidious, “a little task to keep your mind occupied and test out your new powers. That will take your attention away from the discomfort.”
“W-what do you want me to do?” asked Morrison, desperately willing for anything to ease the pain.
“Come with me,” said Invidious taking Morrison over to the other side of the laboratory. He was therefore away from the screen when Marie and Jane made a fateful discovery.
“Now you did say it was the right turning, didn’t you?” Jane asked when they’d been travelling for what seemed an age in perpetual darkness.
“Yes, I remember it clearly, which is why I’d have expected to come up on the next dodecahedron by now.”
“Talking of which, I’m sure this bloody thing is getting heavier,” grumbled Jane.
“It’s probably just because you’ve been carrying it too long,” said Marie. “Here, let me take it.”
Jane reluctantly agreed, although she had to stop herself protesting about Marie’s condition. She still hadn’t fully accepted her own condition yet.
“Hang on,” said Marie. “I’m sure it’s changed colour. It was blue wasn’t it?”
Jane examined the dodecahedron and was astonished to find that Marie was correct; it was now a burnished gold colour. “Switch off the flashes a second,” she suggested. They did so, and at first they saw nothing, just an immense darkness closing all around them. Jane felt cold.
“Ah well, can’t get it right all the time,” she muttered.
“No, wait,” came Marie’s voice. “I can see something!”
Before them the dodecahedron’s shape began to emerge from the blackness, the edges at first, glowing with a faint green light. Then the surfaces themselves began to glow, the intensity of the light increasing by the second.
“Incredible, I’ve seen this before!” exclaimed Jane.
“Before?”
“Bioluminescence, you see forms of it in many different micro-organisms all over the galaxy,” said Jane, delighted to show that her brain hadn’t gone soggy.
“And beyond, from what I can gather we’re way outside the galaxy,” said Marie.
“You’re right, but I think there’s something else you should know. There’s microscopic life throughout this region of space, in these rocks.”
“You think that is what they have used here?” asked Marie.
“I know it is Marie,” said Jane emphatically. “Take a look at the wall behind you!”
Turning to see where Jane was pointing Marie’s face dropped with surprise. The jet-black walls were now criss-crossed with traceries of thin green lines depicting octagons, rectangles and triangles, interspersed with signs and ciphers too numerous to count. They expanded around them in all directions, over every surface, so that were they surrounded by glowing lines as intricate as a spider’s web.
“¡Dios santo!” exclaimed Marie.
“What is this machine for?” asked Morrison as Invidious beckoned him to sit in a large reclining chair.
“It was taken from an old Dalek Battle Computer,” Invidious explained as he strapped Morrison in. “I’m afraid it’s a bit crude, however it is still very effective as you will shortly discover!” He attached a series of sensor pads to Morrison’s scalp.
“Bu what does it…” Morrison got no further because the Doctor had lowered a circular device over the top of his skull. Suddenly the room changed dramatically around him as he felt his body vanish into the data stream, merging with the mind of the computer. He was nowhere and yet everywhere at once, able to perceive both the grand scheme and the minute details in one thought.
“I’m flying!” he screamed. “I’m outside in space flying across the asteroid field!”
“That’ll be the prototype Dalek,” said Invidious. “It is testing the new transolar disc designed by engineering.”
Morrison could hear Mark V’s voice grating over the airwaves. “Now executing a diagonal turn at full thrust. Craft operating at maximum efficiency!”
“Incredible!” whispered Morrison. “I’m in a Dalek’s brain! Does he know I am here?”
“No, it does not,” said Invidious. “The prototype is the only one of its kind fitted with the necessary adaptations. Needless to say this is not a plaything, and if our masters were to know of my allowing you to use it, well, I don’t think I need to spell it out!”
“I understand,” said Morrison. “But who are our masters?”
This took Invidious aback; the creature was showing promise at last. “A good question. Tell me Jack, do you think we should serve all Daleks equally?”
“I sense that the answer to that is no,” said Morrison. “The chain of command always goes upwards, not sideways.”
“Precisely, and where in this, chain of command, do you see us?”
Morrison seemed puzzled by this; it had never occurred to him before that he had any place in the Dalek hierarchy: “The Emperor?” he suggested falteringly.
“I answer directly to the Emperor,” said Invidious. “Whatever they might say or think about it.”
“The Section Leader for Dalek Intelligence…” Morrison began.
“Yes.”
“You think it might be planning something?”
“I know it is up to something, I just want to know what,” said Invidious. “I want you to find out for me.”
“To spy on him?”
“Yes, find out where it is and what it is up to,” said Invidious.
“Accessing surveillance net,” said Morrison, his voice now resonating with an uncanny guttural depth. To have such power! To have such power over the Daleks!  On a nearby view screen a still image appeared of the Intelligence Section Leader flying across the Dalek City. “Last footage of Red Leader entering Industrial Quadrant.”
“Ah, clever,” muttered the Doctor. “Getting as far as possible from any sensor sweeps. Any other Daleks in that vicinity who shouldn’t normally be there?”
“Doing rota and message log check, hmm that’s interesting,” Morrison’s face frowned.
“What? What is interesting?”
The screen changed to show moving footage of the Black and Silver Section leader menacing a group of slaves. “This Dalek was logged as being in the vicinity of the industrial zone six point four cycles ago. This is the last known footage, taken ten rels ago.”
“Is there any audio for this file?” asked Invidious studying it closely.
“Extracting information…” reported Morrison. The sound crackled into place and Invidious could hear the voice of the Emperor resonating through the room.
“Only through me can the Daleks achieve greatness once more. Behold I am your new god!”
Invidious smiled sickly at this; the Emperor was taking to his new role very well. But what of the Black and Silver Section Leader? Something was wrong here.
“Go back a bit and isolate the area around the Section Leader,” said Invidious.
“Complying,” said Morrison.
“Now play back the audio track, but with all background noise, including the sound of the broadcast filtered out.”
“Recalibrating,” droned Morrison. After a few minutes they could hear the Dalek’s voice, very faintly.
“Play that back at maximum amplification,” said Invidious, studying the flashing lights on the top of the Dalek’s head section. Then they heard the Section Leader’s voice, softly grating through the speakers.
“…abomination! Abomination! Abomination!…”
“Yes!” crowed Invidious triumphantly. “We’ve found another one of the traitors! Download that onto a portable format. I need to see the Emperor straight away.”
“I obey!” snapped Morrison.
“And keep monitoring this Dalek and the head of Dalek Intelligence,” said Invidious. “We have to find out more about what they are up to.”
Invidious returned to his office to send an urgent message to the Emperor. The other experiment would just have to wait for now.
“Look at the walls, the patterns are starting to cluster together here,” said Marie, indicating an incandescent knot of intersecting lines and poly-angular shapes in the darkness. “I wonder what this group of three here means?”
“Yes, I wonder,” muttered Jane, examining the surfaces of the dodecahedron carefully. “Here, these are the same symbols on three of the star stalks.”
“Star stalks?”
“Here, take a look for yourself,” she said handing over the shape. Marie did look and saw the symbols repeated in a much smaller face:

“Seems to me that this is a key,” said Marie.
“You seem awfully confident,” said Jane, “for a Captain’s wife.”
Marie pouted in the darkness: “I was never a kept woman, thank you very much!”
“I know,” said Jane. “Didn’t mean to tease you, I was just wondering how you could be so sure what any of this means?”
Marie sighed: “Let’s just say that I’m familiar with cryptic puzzles and leave at that for now,” she said. “Only I know a key when I see one, whether it’s metaphorical or physical. Look at these symbols, tell me what you see?”
Jane frowned: “A series of horizontal and vertical lines intersecting at right angles?”
“You’re being too literal, no what does it remind you of, these two figures on the right and the left for instance?”
Jane looked again and smiled: “Your not suggesting they’re Daleks are you?”
“Yes, their eyestalks are here and their bodies here,” said Marie confidently.
“But isn’t that a bit speculative?” asked Jane, unconsciously slipping into academic discussion mode. “And what are the lines in between about?”
“Well, as I said before, what does it look like? Look again at the representations on the dodecahedron. What do you notice about the arrangement of them on this surface as opposed to the wall.”
“They are in more than one dimension,” said Jane, realisation sweeping across her face. “And on the door they exist on only one plane. Two dimensional objects on a flat background.”
“Coming together in the same space if they can negotiate this series of barriers,” said Marie, pointing to the cross hatched line on the wall. “See if we could just understand how to turn the key, then we would…”
“Escape? Find the answer to Invidious’ puzzle? Get extra food rations,” said Jane.
“Perhaps, Mother of Christ! How can I know, I just know I don’t want spend another moment lurking in this bloody tunnel!”
“Okay, I was just saying,” Jane paused as she felt the dodecahedron start to vibrate. “Something’s happening.”
As they looked the surfaces of the star-shaped object began to oscillate rapidly, changing colour from orange, yellow and green in a regular pattern.
“Some kind of numeric sequence, must be,” muttered Jane, touching the surfaces in rapid succession.
“Regained your enthusiasm I see,” said Marie wryly. “It’s a sequence of prime numbers obviously, look it comes back to that square, two, five, six, seven, yes, nine, ten, eleven, hmm, thirteen, fourteen?” Marie petered out after that.
“Well I think its multiples of 3.5,” suggested Jane. Before they could speculate any further the dodecahedron shot from her grasp and began spinning rapidly in mid-air. “It’s gone mad!”
“Or we have!” cried Marie.
Jane was transfixed to the spot as she watched the spinning artefact. The air felt treacly and warm. All breathing, all sensation seemed to freeze. Then it was as if a great ripple tore through them and the surrounding corridor, leaving Jane’s stomach in mid-air momentarily as it does if you drive a car over a speed bump too fast.
Suddenly the object went dead, losing all luminance and ceasing to vibrate; simultaneously it seemed that the very air itself were different.
Marie found herself holding the object again, unsure of how it had got into her arms. Jane meanwhile had put her hand out to steady herself and found she was leaning against an instrument panel, which hadn’t been there a moment before.
“What’s happened?” asked Marie in the darkness. “Where’s the corridor gone?”
“We’ve moved through space,” said Jane. “The lights are gone and it feels as if we are some place else.”
“We figured out the key!” exclaimed Marie in triumph.
“Hurray for us! Now, where in hell’s name are we?” asked Jane switching on her flashlight. The light played across a large room, offering glimpses of alien machinery and lifeless instrument panels. Behind these, dark shapes loomed up, vaguely familiar to Jane from her first day on the asteroid. “I think we’re back at Invidious’ laboratory,” she said as she studied the giant glass plated tank that emerged out of the gloom. Refraction patterns inside the tank indicated it was full of water.
“I don’t know,” said Marie, who had also switched on her flash. “I can’t remember seeing any of that equipment before,” she said as her light came to rest on a panel of instruments that were connected with five smaller versions of the tank Jane was examining. “What are those shapes in there? They seem almost organic…”
Jane was about to say something when a movement on the periphery of her vision distracted her. Turning to look she saw only a pattern of microscopic particles disturbed by strong currents in the murky water. “I think there’s something alive in this tank,” she said anxiously.
“Jane these things over here,” said Marie. “¡La madre de Dios! I think I know what they are!”
“What?” asked Jane and then turned round to look just in time to see the fine tendrils scraping down the side of the glass next to her. She realised she was being watched, large eyes blinked in the gloom and to her horror began to draw towards her examining her coldly. “Marie! This thing!”
Her companion turned to look in time to see a bizarre, amphibian creature inside the water open its mouth and scream in terror.