Post by Fitz Kreiner on Nov 29, 2009 14:41:23 GMT
12
Metal Militia.
Metal Militia.
Christina looked up at the Doctor again. He was sat resting his chin on a hand as he scrolled ridiculously fast through reams of information. She had no idea what it was but he seemed engrossed. So much so it seemed as though he had forgotten his friends, and he hadn’t even looked up when the search team ran through the sickbay.
Sighing, Christina turned back to Carlo Ricci, who had returned to the sick bay having been for a break and bite to eat.
“I just don’t get him,” she said softly, indicating the Doctor over his shoulder. “One minute he’s all urgent and concerned about his friends being in the hands of these Cybermen and the next he’s sat at the computer scrolling through, well, whatever it is he’s scrolling through.”
“I’m scrolling through the base’s history for the past Cyber incursion, but it seems to have been wiped from the records. I wouldn’t put it past the Earth authorities to have covered it all up.” The Doctor spoke up from where he was sat, turning round on the chair to face the two medical staff. “And as I said earlier, the base staff know it better than I do. The Cybermen are a logical race, and they most probably saw Jess, Tom and myself arrive here and recognised that we’re not part of the base crew or from Armstrong and probably want to know who and what we are and whether we’re a detrimental force to their plans. Jess was probably the easiest target for them to kidnap considering how she was alone, and I was a fool to send her off on her own.”
“So why did you start this search if you think she’s been kidnapped?” Ricci asked, scratching his head.
“Because the Cybermen had to get into this base somehow, and they most probably have some form of monitoring set on the base, in order to know where Jess was and that we were indeed in here, therefore it’s logical that they’re going to see the crew looking for them. That means that their presence here has been detected and they will want to stop that fact being reported to Earth, as clearly they’re here covertly. This means we’ll have pushed them into action, which most probably means they’ll either invade or get in touch somehow, hopefully the latter, which gives me a chance to find out what they’re doing.”
“And why?” Christina added helpfully.
“Oh, I think we already know why,” the Doctor replied.
Christina and Ricci merely looked at each other slowly before turning back to the Doctor. Jumping lightly from the stool to his feet, the Doctor briskly paced across the sick bay to where the two doctors were stood.
“Just look about,” he said softly. “This so-called Space Madness is not a normal thing. Oh, okay, anxiety, depression, suicide are all matters that have dogged humanity and your mental health for centuries, but for them to appear with such ferocity and suddenness with no discernable cause, especially in the likes of Tom, who has been through a lot of stressful situations and come out fine and unscathed.”
“Well, surely then, it’s a delayed reaction if he’s had a lot of stressful situations.” Ricci offered, looking over at Tom’s unconscious body.
“As I mentioned before, I’ve worked with the likes of Freud, Jung and Sutton and am not too bad a psychologist myself, trust me, I would have spotted had these events been having an adverse effect on him.” The Doctor replied, pulling himself to his full height.
“Okay, I was just hypothesising.” Ricci protested, holding his hands up defensively.
“But it doesn’t explain your own people,” the Doctor replied. “I’ve thoroughly read all their medical histories and backgrounds and there’s nothing in them to hint of what could have caused this, especially not poor Emily Groves.”
“You’re saying it’s the Cybermen who unleashed this madness on us?” Christina asked, “But how? And why?”
“How, I don’t quite know yet.” The Doctor replied, thoughtfully tapping his lips with the index and middle finger of his right hand. “Possibly a neurological agent released into either the air or the food supply or something. Why, well that’s the easy one, they’ll be studying the effects of this Space Madness. The Cybermen don’t have emotions and will probably be studying what these emotional responses do to a human. Most probably in anticipation of inflicting it upon a global scale allowing for their conquest, although getting a planet to panic and then turning up could be a detrimental effect, but I’m sure they’ll have thought of that. They may offer a release from them, I’ve known one or two people who have suffered severe mental illness want nothing more than a release from the pain they’re suffering, and they may go to any lengths and welcome the Cybermen with open arms.”
The Doctor trailed off to silence as he stood there thinking. Christina and Ricci shared another look, the colour drained from their faces as what the Doctor said started to sink in and the effect that the Space Madness could pose if it became a global threat with the menace of the Cybermen looming over it.
“Welcome Cybermen with open arms?” Christina stammered. “From what I read about them, the Cybermen were monsters, who would want to welcome them?”
“If you’re desperate enough, you’ll welcome anyone who can release you from your suffering, not questioning.” The Doctor replied. “And if you’re suffering a severe mental incapacity, then you may not necessarily be in full awareness of what you’re doing. Remember Tom in the airlock? He’s not the sort of person to lock himself in an airlock and then try to open the outer door without wearing a pressure suit. This is of course all hypothetical at the moment; we don’t know what it is that the Cybermen are up to yet.”
“If it is them,” Ricci said. “We’ve no actually proof.”
“Lars saw one of them on the surface.” Christina replied. “I was there when he mentioned it, he described them accurately.”
“Maybe he’s got the Madness, maybe he imagined it.” Ricci protested.”
“No, they’re out there. Most probably a surviving few from their last attempt to capture the base.” The Doctor replied. “It makes a lot of sense; I can’t believe I didn’t see it before. I’m getting old and forgetful.” The Doctor finished by slapping the palm of his hand against his forehead in a sign of frustration.
“So you think that this base search will bring the Cybermen out of hiding?” Christina asked.
“Absolutely,” the Doctor grinned stepping back and gripping his lapels. “And I would bet a pound to a Jelly Baby that when the Cybermen captured Jess they would have at least given her a mind scan or something like that and realised that of the people in the base, I’m someone who has the ability to stop them, and they’ll want to stop me stopping them.” The Doctor paused and raised a finger, grinning. “However, once they come into the base to try to stop me stopping them, I can find out what they’re up to and stop them from stopping me stopping them.”
Again, Christina and Ricci shared a bemused look. The Doctor’s moods seemed to be highly inconsistent, going from severe and morose to light hearted and almost cheery about the fact that the base could be invaded at any moment from an alien force. It was almost as if he revelled in it.
“Oh, excuse me,” the Doctor said, turning away and holding his hand to his ear. “Yes Patrick?” he said into the earpiece communicator.
Watching the Doctor listen to the faint tinny voice of her husband for a few seconds, Christina turned back to Ricci. “You might as well get on with any work we can get done,” she said. “Whether we’ve got these Cybermen about to invade or not, we’ve still got medical duties to do.”
“You mean the young man?” Ricci asked, nodding to Tom’s prone body.
Christina nodded. “His readings don’t make any medical sense at all.” Lowering her voice, Christina shot a glance over her shoulder at the Doctor, who was now deep in conversation. “I’m worried that he might be having an adverse reaction to the sedative, we have no medical history and the Doctor or the girl never said whether he had any allergies.”
“I can keep an eye on him,” Ricci said. “I’m meant to be working all night tonight too, why I signed on for it, I’ve no idea.”
“We’re all pulling extra shifts at the moment, Carlo.” Christina reminded him, laying a hand on his shoulder, “but thanks.”
“I think they’re on their way over.”
The Doctor’s voice made Christina and Ricci turn to face him. The Time Lord was stood staring at them, the earpiece communicator in his hand.
“According to Patrick, his search teams have found that Professor Wolfe has been doing a little research on me, last time I was here back in the seventies.” The Doctor’s eyes became distant and suddenly he snapped his fingers. “I thought there was something wrong about that arm; Cyber technology, of course!”
Christina was opening her mouth to ask what he meant as he started to turn to the door leading to the dome, just as the lights of the base flicked off, plunging them into darkness, the silence only broken as the Doctor collided loudly with the desk.
“What’s happening?” Ricci asked, his voice almost echoing around the blackness of the sick bay.
“The Cybermen,” the Doctor replied. “They’re here.”
*
Jackson stared as Professor Wolfe froze. Cautiously he waved his hand in front of her face, gaining no response. Miles’s voice had died in his ear, most probably waiting for a status report.
“Something bloody weird, Chief,” Jackson said. “Wolfe has just frozen, like a statue.”
Silence greeted him through the headset.
“Chief?”
Jackson was in the process of retrieving the earpiece from his ear when Wolfe stepped towards him, her eyes still staring blankly ahead, before she reached out and grabbed him in a vice-like grip. Startled, Jackson tried to back away, but Wolfe held his arms fast at his sides in a grip like steel.
“What the-?” he started as he saw the door to the science unit slide open.
Entering the science lab, several members of Wolfe’s team walked in; their eyes wide, staring forwards, almost unseeing.
“Get away from them,” Jackson yelled to the rest of his search team, as they turned to stare at the zombie like scientists.
With a startling speed, the science team moved into the lab and manhandled every member of the search team into a line, holding them tight. Unable to resist, with only verbal protests to the unresponsive Wolfe, Jackson found himself being marched into line with the rest of the team.
“What the hell are you doing?” he shouted before remembering Miles’s words. “If there’s a problem, take it up with Doctor Miles, he’s the one who ordered us to search here.”
He looked round as the lights flickered before going out, plunging the science lab into darkness. The only sound came from the confused and scared cries from the rest of the search team, Wolfe and her other zombie like colleagues remained deathly quiet. After what seemed like hours, and his shouts to Wolfe still going unanswered, the emergency lighting flickered on, illuminating everything in a dimmer and eerie blue light. A flicker of movement in Wolfe’s office caught Jackson’s eye. His eyes and mouth widened in both shock and horror as a section of the wall slid back revealing a black gaping chasm in the wall. As he watched, Jackson saw a figure step out of the gap, the emergency lighting reflecting off the metal it seemed to be made of, the semi-darkness making the sight even more terrifying.
The creature was followed by a second, and they took up a position either side of the opening, almost like guards. What followed surprised Jackson further, three people he recognised as his colleagues followed, including Kyle Wilks, the newest member of the team, and then a young girl he recognised as the Doctor’s friend. All four we wearing an intricate device of metal and wire on their head, with a round censor on the forehead which pulsed with a green light.
A third metal creature followed them out of the hole in the wall. This one was decorated with black and after it emerged it seemed to pause to look about the science lab before progressing further. A fourth and final creature followed, the wall panel sliding back into place behind it. There was something about the creatures that rang a bell deep in Jackson’s mind and suddenly a single word popped into his mind. It seemed ridiculous and impossible, yet the evidence was there before his very eyes; Cybermen.
*
Franz was wearily searching the base along with three other crewmen who had no idea why they were searching or for even what they were searching. He’d been pulled out of bed to help in this ridiculous search. All he knew was that it had something to do with that weird Doctor who had appeared in the base. He silently cursed the strange man, wishing he was back in bed; he’d worked a sixteen hour shift and had to be ready to work another of the same length in a matter of hours.
He was thinking this to himself when the lights flickered off. Shocked, he paused in what he was doing. He could see out of one of the windows in the corridor now and he was sure that he’d just seen some movement outside. He had to be imagining it and it must have been his reflection. That was the problem with the base; when the lights were on and it was lunar night, the windows became almost mirrors, and when the lights flicked off like this, you could again see out. It must have been his reflection that he saw.
Looking back into the darkness of the base, Franz wondered where the rest of his search team were. They were in this section somewhere, but he wasn’t sure exactly. There were a lot of storage rooms along here, and it was likely they were in there.
Another movement caught his eye, this time almost inside the base. He was near an airlock, he knew that, and blindly, he groped his way along the corridor until he got to the airlock door. The inner door was firmly closed, and Franz groped to find the glass observation port. He backed away when he thought he saw a movement inside. He had to be imagining it.
The emergency lights for the base finally flickered on, illuminating the corridor in a feeble blue lighting, causing Franz to look back down the corridor. It was empty, although he could see several doors indicating storage rooms. He was about to head to the nearest one when another movement in the airlock caused him to turn, his eyes wide in fear.
The blank metal faceplate of a Cyberman peered through the airlock observation port at him. With a shriek of terror, Franz backed away, tripping over his own feet and landing painfully on the floor, still staring up at the glass. Unable to tear his eyes away, he watched as the inner airlock door was slowly pulled open and the Cyberman stepped through towards him. Trying to scramble away, Franz backed into the opposite wall, his eyes still fixed on the silver creature as it slowly advanced towards him. He was vaguely aware of the sound of the storage doors being pulled open as he watched the Cyberman reach below its chest unit and remove a short, stubby tube and point it in his direction. He heard a chilling rattle and saw a flash of light before feeling an intensely sharp and hot pain in his chest, before every descended into an eternal and everlasting blackness.
*
Having found themselves trapped in the store room when the power failed, the rest of the search team to which Franz belonged had tried in vain to open the door to get back into the corridor. It was only when the emergency lighting came back on, indicating the emergency batteries were working that they were able to start to manually open the door. Their efforts were intensified when they heard Franz scream. They had almost fallen over each other in their efforts to get back in the corridor to go to their colleagues assistance.
The small group stopped in horror at the sight of the solitary Cyberman stood over Franz’s smoking corpse. The silver creature turned to face them, its weapon raised and ready to fire. Realising what was about to happen, the three crewmen made to run, but were all cut down within moments as the Cyberman fired three shots.
Silently, the Cyberman replaced its weapon under its chest unit and stepped over the still smoking corpses and walked into the base.
*
The emergency lighting flickered back on in the sickbay, throwing deep and dark shadows up about the room. Christina looked about; the Doctor was stood near the desk rubbing his shin where he’d knocked it when the lights went out. The monitor next to the bed his companion laid in flickered back on. Quickly, she rushed over to it, to check the readings, they had changed slightly, but she wasn’t sure whether this was a good or a bad thing for this patient.
“That’s better,” the Doctor said as he rolled his trouser leg up to look at the bruise that was already forming. “Why these lights haven’t come on before I don’t know.”
“It’s the emergency batteries,” Christina said. “They only come on when main power is completely disabled.”
“That makes sense,” the Doctor replied, looking around and rolling his trouser leg back down. “The Cybermen have cut you off in preparation for their invasion. I would imagine you couldn’t even get in touch with Armstrong any more, let alone Earth.”
“Then what was the point in the power outages before?” Ricci asked.
“I would assume so they could move freely through the base, or enter or exit, so things wouldn’t show up on the base system reports.” The Doctor offered.
“What about Patrick?” Christina asked, looking up from Tom’s monitor. “He called you just before this.”
The Doctor caught her look and held it before glancing over her shoulder and slowly raising his hands. “I think we’ll see him soon,” he said.
Christina and Ricci slowly turned. Stood in the doorway leading to the science department was a Cyberman, the short cyber gun in its hand. Slowly it stepped into the sickbay, surveying the occupants, its head slowly turning before it settled on the Doctor. Deliberately and carefully it stepped over, keeping its weapon trained on him.
“Doctor,” Christina said slowly, her eyes fixed on the silent silver giant.
“Just keep calm, Christina,” the Doctor said, before turning to face the Cyberman. “Hello, I’m the Doctor,” he said, offering his hand.
“Silent,” the Cyberman said. “You will remain still.”
Still smiling, the Doctor froze, his hand still outstretched towards the Cyberman as the creature turned to observe Christina stood by the bed containing Tom. It stepped over and observed the unconscious Time Lord. It raised its hand to its chest unit and a small antennae slid up.
“They have been found.” It said aloud to the room before standing still as if waiting a reply. The antennae receded and the Cyberman turned back to the Doctor and Christina. “Why is this human sedated?”
“Because he’s not very well,” Christina said, trying hard to stop her voice from wavering. “Take a look around, this is the sick bay.”
“Enough,” the Cyberman said, grabbing Christina and roughly throwing her over to the Doctor, who finally broke his pose and caught her, keeping her on her feet.
“You ok?” he asked.
Christina nodded, rubbing her arm where the Cyberman had grabbed her before catching sight of Ricci out of the corner of her eye. “Carlo, no,” she mouthed.
Unnoticed due to the Cyberman’s attention being drawn to the Doctor and Tom, Ricci had picked up a defibrillator and turned the power to maximum and was advancing on the Cyberman. Turning with a surprising speed, the Cyberman aimed its weapon at the doctor and fired. With a scream, Ricci’s smouldering corpse dropped to the ground, still holding the defibrillator pad.
“That was unnecessary,” the Doctor shouted at the Cyberman. “It was a defibrillator pad; its maximum power would never have affected you in any way.”
“His actions were hostile. All hostile elements must be destroyed.” The Cyberman coldly replied as it turned back to the Doctor and Christina.
“I’ll show you hostile,” Christina muttered going to step forward but being held back by the Doctor.
“No, Christina,” he said softly. “Otherwise the same will happen to you.”
Stepping forward, the Cyberman pushed the Doctor and Christina towards the door leading to the dome. “You will move. All base personnel are to be gathered in the dome.”
*
Patrick Miles stood in the darkened dome, the blue emergency lighting illuminating both himself and Ulrich, who was stood nearby looking at the screen showing the results of the damage caused by the power failure. All communications systems were down, and Ulrich was liaising between Miles and the few crewmen remaining to operate the Gravitron.
Only a few of the computer terminals were operational again, and Miles was now stood watching his computer screen flicker with no new information coming through yet. The tall Welshman had his arms folded and was scowling. There was something very wrong and he wanted to know what it was. The Doctor had mentioned the Cybermen and the thought worried Miles intensely.
He remembered the history he learnt at school, about the duplicate planet Earth and the first Cyberman invasion. There were also rumours of covered up incidents involving the Cybermen in the twenty first century as well. He was still hoping that the Doctor was wrong in his hypothesis when the doors to the dome slid open and his search teams were herded back in by the science department, who were staring straight ahead like zombies.
“What the hell is going on?” He demanded.
“No idea, chief,” one of his crew replied. He was being held firmly by one of the science team. “We can’t get a word out of them.”
“I don’t know what the hell you are playing at,” Miles bellowed at the science team, “but I demand you to let my people go now.”
“Silence.”
The electronic voice sent a chill down Miles’s back as he turned round to see the Cybermen enter the room, along with Jackson’s search team, each one of them held by a member of the science team, Jackson himself held by Wolfe. His eyes widened as he saw Jess, Wilks and the two men he’d sent on the surface earlier walk in as well, electronic devices attached to their heads.
“What the hell are you doing here? What are you doing to my people?” Miles demanded again, marching over to what he assumed to be the lead Cyberman, the one with black trim on its helmet and chest unit.
The Cyberman turned to face Miles and stepped purposefully towards him, causing him to back away in fear. The Cyber Leader towered over Miles as it advanced on him until Miles found himself backed against a desk.
“This is my base, and I want to know what you’re doing.” Miles said again, this time he couldn’t help his voice from shaking.
Silently the Cyberman reached out and grabbed Miles, pulling him to his feet. Miles was vaguely aware that the his crew were watching the altercation, but his attention was drawn to the glinting metal mask of the Cyberman. The small flap behind its mouth slid up and Miles grimaced as he caught a hint of foul smelling air as the creature spoke.
“We are in command,” the Cyberman said.
“Patrick!”
Miles turned his head to see the Doctor and Christina herded into the Dome from the sickbay by a fifth Cyberman. It was holding a short tube on them that Miles guessed was a weapon. Christina was about to rush towards him, only to be stopped by the Doctor.
Miles looked back at the Cyber Leader which held him and spotted its weapon beneath its chest unit. “You’ll never be in control of us,” Miles said defiantly, spurred on by the presence of his wife, as he tried to reach the Cyberman’s weapon. It was the last thing he would ever do.
Grabbing Miles around the neck with its large and powerful hand, the Cyberman lifted the Welshman off his feet causing him to choke in surprise as his feet left the floor and he tried to kick at the creature. The base crew watched on in horror as the Cyberman slowly crushed the life out of Miles before throwing his body effortlessly down against the desk. Miles body hit the desk at his neck, it snapping up with a horrific cracking sound as his body flopped lifelessly to the floor, the only other sound being the shocked cry of Christina as she turned into the Doctors arms and started to sob.
Stepping over the body of Miles, the Cyber Leader stepped into the centre of the room.
“All other resistance will be dealt with in the same way,” it announced. “We are in control of the Gravitron base.”
