Alby Brook has just suffered a series of nasty shocks. First he sees Earth Alliance forces gun down his friend Gordon Pellan in cold blood; then the leader of the gunmen is revealed to be Alby’s superior officer, Tanlee; and then Tanlee reveals that the Daleks implanted a disc in Pellan’s brain long ago, and he’s been controlled by them ever since. For the better part of a year, Alby has been travelling with a sort of Roboman; Pellan is responsible for the destruction of the Vega Free News ship and for the sabotage which enabled the Daleks to retake Guria so easily. The Earth Alliance detected the transmissions from Pellan’s implant as soon as he boarded the Vega Free News ship, but they put off killing him in order to find out why his masters were so interested in Alby Brook. Now they know; it’s because of his connection to Susan Mendes. Alby wonders if this interest in Suz has something to do with Project Infinity -- a suggestion which draws a sharp series of questions from Tanlee, and strong advice to forget that he’s ever heard of it.

Pellan was killed before he could determine the significance of the relationship between Alby and Suz, but its existence is enough; it is an emotional weakness which the Daleks can exploit. In the meantime, all of the veganite mined from Vega 6 has been transferred to the Imperial command storage bays -- and this means that the Dalek Emperor and the Dalek Supreme can begin the long journey to the Lopra system, to fulfill the true destiny of the Daleks. Meanwhile, in Earth’s galaxy, the work goes on; Guria is retaken, and the Angel of Mercy is despatched to raise the slaves’ morale and increase the efficiency of their workforce. But Kalendorf finds Suz subdued, shaken by her brief contact with Alby -- and unwilling to discuss her feelings for him, even with Kalendorf.

The Earth Alliance forces retreat, leaving Guria to the Daleks. Tanlee questions Alby about Suz, but the little Alby can tell him makes no sense. Why would the Daleks be interested in improving their slaves’ working conditions? And why is Kalendorf, a Knight of Velyshaa -- one of the Daleks’ bitterest enemies -- working for them, when before the invasion he was due to begin negotiations to re-arm the Knights and form an anti-Dalek alliance with Earth? It’s up to Alby to find out. Suz trusts him, and now she knows that he’s alive and looking for her. Tanlee thus provides Alby with a top-of-the-line ship, and orders him to find a way to contact Suz, learn what she knows about Project Infinity -- and if necessary, kill her. Tanlee knows just what these orders are doing to Alby, and he really does sympathise, but he has no choice -- particularly when Alby reveals that he learned of Project Infinity from Pellan, which means that the Daleks are already aware of it. If Suz has betrayed its existence to the Daleks then there’s no telling how bad things could get. Alby has a choice to make...

Years pass, and the Dalek advance continues. Thanks to Suz, the slave labour forces work at peak efficiency, showing no hint of rebellion; thus, the Daleks are able to concentrate on pushing forward. The Earth Alliance suffers catastrophic defeats, and billions perish -- and how much of this is because of Suz? Things come to a head on the planet Selatron, where Suz actually kicks a Dalek out of her office for talking back and refuses to report to the sector’s Supreme Controller, claiming that she only deals with the Dalek Supreme. Kalendorf advises her to take care, but she lashes out, sensing the resentment in his mind. She’s had the Selatrons remove the surveillance devices from her office so they can talk without Kalendorf reading her mind; how much of this is due to her own shame? She may claim that the Daleks trust her, and that her work with Kalendorf is sowing the seeds of a future rebellion -- but when she again refuses to answer a summons from the Supreme Controller, the Daleks blast through the door of her office and threaten to kill Kalendorf if she doesn’t obey them. She may be trying to fool herself into thinking she has power over them, but the only people she really has power over are her fellow slaves...

Elsewhere, interplanetary police officer Mirana arrives at the Aurealis deep space array, where signals from the Earth Alliance communications net are beamed throughout the galaxy. Mirana is on the trail of a dangerous criminal, and she manages to convince Hive Leader Stralos that her target may have circumvented the array’s defenses and boarded it with an illegally acquired hyperlink beam decoder. With this device, and access to the array, he can tap into any number of classified transmissions. Stralos agrees to beam Mirana over and allows her access to his security systems, so she can use a DNA sample to track down and arrest her target, Alby Brook. This is the theory. In practice, although she locates Brook in the power conduits leading out into the transceiver array, when she tries to follow him he doubles back, jams her communicator and holds her at gunpoint. He’s expecting an important call, and perhaps when she hears it she’ll realise just how far out of her depth she is.

Suz and Kalendorf are brought before the Supreme Controller, a red Dalek which forces Suz to report on production quotas and demands to know what Kalendorf’s purpose is. The Daleks have spotted him mingling with the other slaves without speaking to them. Kalendorf claims that they are praying for the fall of the Daleks, an answer which fails to impress the Controller. Suz continues to be obstructive, until the Controller shows her the Selatrons who removed the surveillance devices from her office, and has them exterminated before her eyes. A security squad replaces the surveillance devices, and while Suz waits, she will be allowed to speak with the Dalek Supreme as she had requested.

Alby’s Drudger has plugged itself into the array and is scanning the signals for a certain call sign. While they wait, Alby questions Mirana about her presence, and is amused to realise that she really has chased him through four star systems just to arrest him for trying to purchase stolen merchandise, after she was forced to release him on Quelador for lack of evidence. The Drudger then picks up a signal breaking through the Dalek interference, but it’s not a message from Tanlee; the Daleks are using the Earth Alliance relay to boost their own transmissions. This message originates from outside the galaxy, it’s from the Dalek Supreme, and to Alby’s great surprise, it mentions Susan Mendes by name.

The Dalek Supreme listens as Suz complains about her treatment, but it then sharply reminds her that all Daleks answer to it. It realises that she needs emotional support, and demands to know whether Kalendorf’s friendship has become ineffective. Kalendorf can’t quite believe that he’s discussing emotional considerations with a Dalek, but soon they’re back on familiar territory; for if Kalendorf is failing to give Suz hope, he is not serving his purpose and the Daleks will exterminate him. The Dalek Supreme claims that Alby Brook, who is really an Earth Alliance security agent, is listening in on this very conversation; if the Daleks can replace Kalendorf with the man Suz loves, would that not make her more efficient? Suz, subdued, tells the Dalek Supreme not to have Kalendorf killed, now understanding how little power she really has. But neither she nor Kalendorf realise that the Dalek Supreme and the Emperor have reached the right conclusion, though possibly for the wrong reasons; they know Kalendorf is a Knight of Velyshaa and therefore telepathic, and thus conclude that Suz needs him alive in order to spread the secret word of rebellion. But now that Suz and Kalendorf are aware of the Daleks’ suspicions, they will redouble their efforts to prove their loyalty, which will improve their efficiency. And all the while, the Imperial flagship is drawing closer to the Lopra system...

Alby believes that the Dalek Supreme was bluffing, but he cuts the link to the array just in case and prepares to make his getaway. First he must deal with Mirana, who knows too much to live -- but before he can bring himself to kill her, Stralos arrives and attacks him. With the Drudger to provide covering fire, Alby makes it back to his ship in approximately one piece, and escapes -- albeit without the hyperlink beam decoder. As the Drudger repairs the damage to his injuries, Alby ponders what he’s learned; Suz remembers him, and still seems to love him, but she’s deep within Dalek territory and without the hyperlink beam decoder Alby can’t even report this much to Tanlee. All he can do is set course for a notorious bar on Carson’s Planet and get drunk enough to forget his miserable failure.

Meanwhile, the war continues. Tanlee receives an emergency transmission from the President of Earth; Jupiter and Saturn have fallen, human forces on Mars are outnumbered 100 to 1, and the President has been left with no choice but to surrender. Her last act before communications are lost is to place Tanlee in charge of all surviving Earth forces. Shaken, Tanlee’s first act as commander is to contact Project Director Espeelius in the Lopra System, but even on the most secure, tightly encrypted channels, he can risk no more than to order Espeelius to go to the final phase as soon as possible. Tanlee then goes in person to Carson’s Planet, a neutral Casablanca-like world ignored by both sides, poor and lawless in the wake of the fighting -- to locate and sober up Alby Brook and give him his most important orders yet...

Kalendorf and Suz are now on the planet Yaldos, where Suz is to make a major broadcast to all of the slaves in the Dalek Empire. But this time, she isn’t going to toe the party line as the Daleks apparently expect. The time has come at last; in the middle of her speech, Suz will send the rallying cry “Death to the Daleks!” and the revolution will begin. Billions of slaves will turn on their Dalek overlords, knowing that their only hope of success is to fight to the death -- and Suz must inspire them to do so, though she knows that the Daleks will exterminate her the moment she speaks out against them. But Kalendorf wants her to live; despite all the hard times, he knows that she loves Alby and has something to live for, while he, a Knight of Velyshaa and sworn enemy of the Daleks, has suffered greatly from being forced to stand by helplessly as the Daleks committed terrible atrocities. There is no greater glory for a Knight of Velyshaa than to die in battle, and Kalendorf therefore offers to take charge of security in the transmission centre in order to interrupt the broadcast and send the rallying cry himself. Suz, weary, asks for some time alone to consider his offer.

Tanlee is aware that the Daleks are planning something big on Yaldos involving Suz, and orders Alby to get there and find out if those plans involve Project Infinity. To get him moving, Tanlee reveals that Earth has fallen and that there are Daleks on Carson’s Planet, possibly looking for Tanlee or Alby specifically. Alby, very sober now, heads for the spaceport -- but before Tanlee can follow, a Dalek patrol arrives and captures him. Some of the Daleks pursue Alby to the spaceport, where Mirana is waiting to arrest him once again. She never actually saw any proof that he was really a secret security operative -- but she gets all the proof she needs when the Daleks show up and open fire...

Mirana has no choice but to flee onto Alby’s spaceship with him, and they barely escape ahead of the Daleks. It seems that Alby will have company on his journey. Mirana has heard of the planet Yaldos before; it’s the home of the Seers, legendary sorcerers whom it’s said can raise the dead. It is on Yaldos that Alby will be reunited with the woman he loves, though he may have to kill her to save the galaxy. But Suz has heard of the Seers as well, and she knows that they may be her last chance to leave a message to history -- a ocnfession that perhaps she was overzealous in her service to the Daleks, but that through it all, she did love Alby, and always felt his presence with her. Even during her final audience with the Dalek Supreme, the last one before the fateful broadcast. Once again she is left in the communications chamber to speak with the Dalek Supreme, but this time she learns to her horror that the Earth has fallen. The entire galaxy has been conquered by the Daleks, and finally, Suz is permitted to speak with the Dalek Emperor -- who informs her that her long journey has reached its end at last...

In the Lopra system, Project Director Espeelius obeys Tanlee’s directives and gives the order for the Infinity Scan’s test run. Due to the fall of Vega 6, they have only enough veganite for one test before full activation; they must hope that this one test will justify their faith that Project Infinity can save the galaxy. The scan probe is aligned with the weak point of the dimensional fissure, power is fed into the probe -- and a vast amount of data, almost an infinite amount, begins to upload into the base’s data banks. As the test run proceeds, the operators hear of a massive uprising -- the rallying cry “Death to the Daleks” has gone out from Yaldos, and the Dalek Empire is in chaos. But Espeelius predicts that this will only be a short-term victory; Project Infinity remains their primary concern...