Invidious was in the laboratory shortly after Oni and Karen had seen their children torn from their wombs. Before him stood the fruit of his handiwork: Karen’s baby, now in stasis, floated in its terrible new womb awaiting transfer to the Mark V Factory. Invidious felt nothing for the child; it was just a genetic resource to him, no more. It was the circumstances under which he had to terminate his experiments that troubled him more.
He could hear the footsteps behind him and the clicking of his protégé’s tongue.
“So you’re going to hang me out to dry, like the others?” Morrison asked accusingly.
Invidious took a deep breath: “Not in the least my dear friend,” he said. “No-the Daleks, the new Daleks that is, want me to terminate all my experiments ahead of the Emperor’s, er, transformation…you on the other hand are no longer an experiment.”
“I’m not?”
“No, you are my assistant,” he leant closer. “I need someone I can trust Jack,” he whispered. “Someone to keep an eye out for me.”
This appealed to Morrison: “You can rely on me boss!” he said with genuine enthusiasm.
“Excellent, I knew you were a dependable sort!”
“No problem,” said Morrison. “But could you do something about the pain,” he groaned. Since his metamorphosis had began the pain from his stomach, which now teemed with nanites in their trillions, had grown more and more acute. He had also lost most of his bodily and facial hair; his balding scalp was a ruptured landscape of fleshy node like structures. “It’s only when I’m jacked into the computer that it seems to go away.”
“Yes, the nanites in your body require a constant stream of information in order to stay alive,” said Invidious, pacing to a drawer in his laboratory table. “This might help,” he said holding up a small gold-coated spring like object in a plastic sealed container.
“What is it?” asked Morrison, dubiously inspecting the tiny mechanism attached to the spring.
“A Dalek network access connection,” said Invidious. “I don’t even need to operate to insert this into your cranium, your nodes will connect directly to it.”
“And, that, that will stop the pain?” asked Morrison.
“More than that my friend, it will free you up to really appreciate what you are evolving into, the next great leap forward in evolution. Greater than the Daleks themselves!”
Morrison was not certain whether he could trust what he was hearing; but the emotional charge was like nothing he had ever felt in his life. “You are more than generous, great one!”
“No Jack, what you will become will be greater still,” said Invidious, fishing the access connector from its sterile container. “Now, let’s see if we can’t sort out that problem you were talking about.”
As the nodes on his head wrapped themselves around the alien spring, Morrison felt his stomach pains evaporate within seconds. An intense sense of well being travelled from his gut into the outer extremities of his corporeal being. The bliss was magical after many weeks of horrible pain.
“Thank you master!” he said with genuine gratitude.
Invidious nodded, from behind him a screen sprang until life. The Supreme Dalek glared out at him. “Yes?” -asked Invidious.
“The Emperor will see you now,” it grated.
“Really? Right now?” asked the Doctor.
“Immediately!” rumbled the Supreme Dalek.
Invidious looked across at Morrison who was out of sight of the screen. “Tell him I’ll be right up.”
Invidious was ushered into the Emperor’s secret chamber, where he found that the mutant creature’s brain was more distended than ever.
“This body does not have long to go now,” the Emperor groaned.
The scientist nodded. “The transformation is its final stages, soon you can leave all this behind,” he gestured to the numerous wires and tubes that serviced the Emperor’s dying body. This same body bubbled curiously as Invidious paced the room.
“You are troubled, Doc-tor?” it rumbled.
Invidious felt as if the room was spinning around his head: “Yes emperor, I am deeply troubled by a question that has been gnawing at me for some time now,” he hesitated as if he were on the brink of some great precipice. “Who am I?”
There was a faint gurgling noise as the Emperor considered the question: “Have you ever wondered why it is the Dalek Chronicles should feature so centrally in my plans to become Emperor?”
Invidious was thrown by this question: “I never really thought about it too much,” he confessed. “I just assumed every species needs its own heroes, its tales of origins and sense of manifest destiny.”
“That is not the reason,” said the Emperor.
“Then, why?”
The Emperor's voice died to a whisper as his thoughts transferred themselves directly to Invidious’ mind.
Towards the end of the thousand-year war a visitor came to Skaro. He brought with him information of the future of the Kaled Race. This was recorded on data cubes that were sealed in the lowest levels of the Kaled city, just before the Thals destroyed it with a thermonuclear warhead. For many years it lay there, forgotten by the Daleks as they left Skaro to conquer the galaxy. Centuries later they were found again, when the Daleks returned to their home world.
Invidious was astonished, as the Emperor’s words had unleashed a stream of vivid images in his mind. Almost like memories. “What was on these data cubes?” he asked.
“The stolen future of the Daleks!”
Whilst Invidious was away, Morrison familiarised himself with his new capabilities. The first of these he discovered when he gazed into a mirror, looking in despair at the wreckage of his face. Then, as he looked the ugly nodes of flesh were replaced by smooth skin and his lost hair grew back.
“My god!” he exclaimed feeling his face to make sure. “But how?” he asked. The answer came to him unbidden, from some recess of his consciousness that was already aware of the answer. Now that the nanites were no longer so hungry they no longer needed to cannibalise his flesh in order to survive. He could live in symbiosis with them and in return they could regenerate lost tissue. More than that, he realised as he continued his investigations, the nanites could change his shape to any form he willed. For no sooner had he restored himself to how he was then he started to think he could do with some improvements. He could shoot up and down in height, build up and lose musculature, knock years off his life and then put them back on again. It was like an instant form of cosmetic surgery, responsive to his every whim and fancy.
“What wonders indeed,” he said as he discovered yet another skill- the ability to influence objects at a distance. He was thinking of a drink when the cup flew into his hands. He was about to fill it from the faucet in the usual way when his curiosity got the better of him. With a certain degree of concentration he found he was able to direct the cup over to the tap, and then keep it floating there as he operated the faucet.
“I see you’ve mastered some basic psycho kinesis,” said a dry voice.
Startled, Morrison lost concentration and the cup plummeted into the sink. Invidious had entered the laboratory looking drawn and grey.
“Doctor?”
“Don’t call me that!” snapped Invidious.
“Sorry!”
Invidious did look very strained: “I-I just find it very disturbing, that’s all,” he said by way of explanation.
Morrison was puzzled; he’d never seen his mentor like this before.
“Oh, I see,” he said, judging that it was best not to pry. “Is there anything you would like me to do?”
“No,” said Invidious as he retreated across the laboratory. “I shall be in my quarters, I’d appreciate it if you kept the disturbances to the minimum.”
“Understood,” said Morrison, returning his attention to the cup and water.
Invidious disappeared and Morrison heard his door slamming shut in the distance. His concern for Invidious intrigued him; such a human thing to feel worried over a friend. A friend? How could Invidious be a friend?
Morrison busied himself with his experiments on himself. Soon he was able to grasp the mechanisms behind his sophisticated upgrading. When he concentrated his will he focussed the processing power of trillions of information hungry nanites, if that wasn’t enough they could always restructure his brain so that it would compensate. Together they had plotted the path of all the millions of droplets of water as they had cascaded from the cup. That he had managed to process and absorb this information whilst distracted was fantastic enough. As the water begun to run backwards into the cup he realised something even more staggering; he was in control of the flow of time.
“No, stop it! You can’t make me!”
Once again he was snapped back to reality by something the Doctor was doing. “Invidious!” he called.
More muffled shouts came from the Doctor’s quarters. Cautiously Morrison crept up to the door. Through the reinforced tungsten steel he could hear his mentor’s voice. “What ever it is you want me to do I shan’t do it! I’ve had enough of your interference!”
Morrison wondered if he was actually in conversation with anybody, but the mutterings between the more coherent bits seemed to put the lie to that.
“Doc- Invidious!” he called through the door.
“Daleks, you say?”
The door swung open and Invidious’ blood shot eyes locked on Morrison’s.
“Can’t you see I’m trying to rest?” he muttered.
“Sorry, I-I heard you talking,” stuttered Morrison.
“So, is that any reason to disturb me,” grumbled Invidious. “I suppose I may as well get up now anyway.”
He emerged from the room and went over to pour himself a drink. “I didn’t know you drank alcohol,” said Morrison.
“Hmm, well the Daleks obviously left me enough humanity to have a few vices,” said Invidious.
“So, did you see the Emperor?”
“Yes, I did,” said Invidious, draining his glass. He looked thoughtfully at the bottle he held in his hand. “Skaroian vodka, well I never…”
Morrison began to lose patience with his dithering: “I said how did it go with the Emperor?”
“Since you were as much present in my mind, you know doubt already know the answer to that question!”
“Yes, but the interconnection we have does not give me insight into your soul, Invidious,” said Morrison.
“Soul? What a queer notion,” said Invidious. “Not even humans are primitive enough to believe in the soul anymore.”
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong,” said Morrison. “Humans never stopped believing in the soul, they only gave up on the idea because their science left no room for it anymore. But the belief never died.”
“Hope over experience,” sighed Invidious. “I understand all too well the effective power of belief.”
“No, you understand how to manipulate belief, but you don’t know what it is to believe in anything yourself,” Morrison’s voice grew darker and more menacing as he continued. “That is why I don’t believe you have a soul Invidious.”
The Doctor was genuinely hurt, which annoyed him, as he didn’t understand why he should feel so hurt: “That’s not true, I-I believe in myself, in my work.”
“Do you?” asked Morrison. Invidious didn’t answer; instead he poured himself another vodka. Morrison returned to the safer territory of the emperor.
“You didn’t tell him about the plotters, do you know why?”
Invidious shook his head: “No, it completely slipped my mind,” he confessed. “Don’t know why, I just haven’t been myself lately.”
“I noticed,” said Morrison. “Ever since you came back from seeing the Supreme Dalek.”
 “What!” Invidious spluttered. He took another swift dose before repeating the question. “What did you sense?”
Morrison looked thoughtful. The words flowed out of somewhere, he was not really sure where: “That the Daleks had tricked you. All these years you’d been working towards a goal about which you had been seriously misled.”
Invidious crumpled into the nearest chair: “I thought, I thought I could improve the Daleks,” he took another drink. “That if I could really understand the human factor that somehow I could bring a bit of humanity back to them.”
“But you haven’t, have you?”
“No, I’ve just made them a lot worse.”
“And you feel guilty about that?” said Morrison.
Invidious gulped another shot of vodka down. “Human emotion is a waste of time,” he said bitterly. “Maybe the Daleks are right to exterminate you all!”
Morrison shook his head. “Won’t happen my friend. Besides, if you really believed that then you wouldn’t have created me,” he laughed, a harsh, machine like laugh. “It doesn’t take a superior intelligence to work out that even your new Daleks wouldn’t appreciate another life-form appearing in their midst. When did you realise that you’d been fooled?”
Invidious sighed and looked abstractly into the distance: “When I saw how they were encoding the hybrid. To me the chromosomal charts read like sheet music does to you, it’s a form of synaesthesia.”
 “So you saw the sheet music and thought this symphony has a lot of bum notes.”
“If you like,” said Invidious testily. “And seeing them in action has just confirmed what I already suspected. These creatures will no more understand compassion than their forebears; instead they will know how to manipulate it in ways never before dreamt of. The only thing they believe in is their inherent right to do what they will to further their own interests.”
“Just like I accused you of doing,” said Morrison. “So I was close to home, wasn’t I?”
Invidious snarled angrily as he stalked across the room.
“All of this talk is getting us nowhere, what’s done is done,” he sighed.
“Don’t worry Invidious,” said Morrison. “At least one thing has gone your way. While I’ve been jacked into the Dalek Net I found our escapees.”
Invidious face changed rapidly from despondency to vivid interest: “Horowitz, Alvarez, where?” he asked. “Damn it why didn’t you tell me this earlier!”
“Perhaps you weren’t ready to hear it,” suggested Morrison. “As to where they were, that was most interesting. They’re being kept at the holding bays beneath Dalek Intelligence.”
“Our elusive friend the Section Leader,” said Invidious returning to the other side of the laboratory to pour another drink.
“That’s right, it was whilst I was looking for him that they popped up.”
This gave Invidious something to concentrate his mind on, a marked improvement on self-pity: “So, why would Dalek Intelligence want to hold these two subjects of mine? Have you any ideas.”
Morrison shook his head: “Horowitz was in a relationship with another scientist on our ship,” he said.
“Another scientist? I didn’t even know she was one!”
Morrison was amazed by this admission: “She was an exobiologist, very highly regarded in her field. Had a sexual relationship with Stillman, the man who you saw the other Section Leader with on the video footage.”
Invidious’ eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of their bony sockets: “Play back that footage again!” he demanded.
Morrison willingly complied; again they watched the footage of the Black and Silver Dalek silently ranting whilst they all watched the announcement from the Emperor. Then they saw the Black and Silver Dalek dismiss one of the humans and turn on one of the others.
“That one there is Stillman?” asked Invidious.
“That is correct,” said Morrison. On the screen they could see the Dalek ranting away and Stillman looking increasingly terrified. There was a blue flash and the screen was blacked out for a second. When the image returned Stillman and the Daleks were gone.
“What happened there?” asked Invidious.
“I don’t know, seems part of the feed has been tampered with.”
“Go back a bit, to just before Stillman is exterminated,” said the scientist. “And try and get some audio on it this time.”
With Morrison’s new mobile connection it was as quick as thought itself, they watched the Black Dalek threatening Stillman again.
“You have defied the Daleks for the last time!”
Invidious scratched his head: “None of this makes sense,” he said. “There are only two reasons they hold you at Dalek Intelligence. Either you are in the process of interrogation, in which case they keep you in the main building, or you are being held as an incentiviser as I believe they call them.”
“A hostage? You think the traitor Daleks are using her to co-opt Stillman in some way.”
“Undoubtedly,” said Invidious. “This extermination is nothing but a sham designed to hoodwink a particularly casual surveillance. No, this Stillman is alive somewhere, I’m certain he must be.”
“Then are you going to inform the Supreme Dalek?”
Invidious looked at his ‘assistant’ aghast. “No, not just yet,” he said carefully. “They will only resent my interference and want to know where I got my information from,” his mind raced as he chewed it over. “If the Emperor were back in action…things would be different.”
Morrison nodded: “Then what do we do about Horowitz and Alvarez? Plucking them from Dalek Intelligence is not going to be easy.”
Invidious scratched his chin and thought for a while. “The holding bays are situated near the main service tunnels for the Central Plaza power grid. They might just be able to break out if only they knew the way.”
“That’s a big if,” said Morrison. “Besides it doesn’t achieve the object, which is to get them back here, surely?”
Invidious continued to ponder, Morrison could hear his brain working inside his own head, but he could not fathom the details just yet. “Charlotte Olsen,” his mentor muttered.
“Who?”
Invidious looked even more troubled: “Another one of my subjects,” he explained. “She proved…unsuitable for the programme.”
“I see,” said Morrison. “So you gave her back to the Daleks?”
“Yes, I’m afraid I did,” confirmed Invidious. “But, there’s still a possibility you could connect with her. She is an immature human female, of about ten of your solar years in age.”
“Experimenting on children, master?” asked Morrison pointedly.
“There’s nothing I can do about that now,” said Invidious. “I want you to help them escape, the power to the holding bays can be isolated at the main junction near the central plaza.”
“And when they escape the Daleks will kill them, won’t they?”
Invidious sighed: “The Daleks will kill a lot of them, which is why I’m going to need you to guide our young friend Charlotte to the others. At least that will give them a fighting chance.”