Post by Fitz Kreiner on Feb 18, 2010 23:21:04 GMT
18
No Remorse.
No Remorse.
The rattle of the Cyber gun echoed around the dome, the only other sound being that of the controlled humans as they worked. Ulrich’s cry followed briefly after, as he looked down at the scorch mark which had appeared on his base t-shirt above his heart, smoke starting to wisp out of the collar. Slowly, he toppled forwards onto his desk, sending the computer terminal and work scattering onto the floor beyond before his corpse collapsed to the floor.
“There was no need for that,” the Doctor shouted from the floor as he struggled up onto his elbows. “He had nothing to do with this.”
Stepping forwards, the Cyber leader stopped the Doctor’s attempts to sit up with its foot before reaching down with a large fist and grasping the Doctor at the chest. The three-digit silver fist closed in on the material of his shirt, waistcoat, cravat and coat as the leader lifted the Time Lord up. There were faint tearing and ripping sounds as the stitching started to come away as the Cyber leader pulled the Doctor up so they were staring eye to eye, the Doctor’s feet dangling several inches off the floor.
“Who is helping you?” the Cyber leader asked flatly. “Who found their way into our ship?”
“I don’t... I don’t... know what... what you mean...” the Doctor panted, the material of his clothes tight around his throat.
“You will answer,” the Cyber leader replied.
“I... I can’t... I can’t tell... you... what I... what I don’t... know...” the Doctor managed, rasping as he gasped for breath as the Cyber leader lifted him higher.
The Doctor’s legs swung uselessly as he tried desperately to get some purchase in order to relieve the pressure on his throat. He could feel it tightening and slowly choking him as the Cyber leader held him. Already his vision was blurring slightly and starting to darken around the edges. Just beyond the Cyber leader he could see Jess, still controlled, sat staring at a screen doing the tasks the Cybermen had instructed. He knew he shouldn’t look at her, lest she receive the reprisals of the Cybermen.
His head was starting to swim now and there was a numbness starting to creep into his arms and legs. He knew he was still getting oxygen through his respiratory bypass system, but that wouldn’t do him any good if the Cyberman was about to snap his neck. Jess was the Cybermen’s trump card, they knew that if they threatened her, the Doctor would tell them, and he knew it too. Under Cyber control, she had no chances at all. There was only one person the Doctor could think of who could infiltrate the Cyber ship, and if he had got in there, the chances are he would be able to evade them. He could feel the blackness closing in, he had to say something before it overwhelmed him.
“Tom,” the Doctor vaguely managed to mutter.
Before the astonished eyes of those in the dome who were still technically human, the Cyber leader physically threw the semi-conscious body of the Doctor across the room, where he collided with a painful cry against one of the empty desks. Sending the computer terminal, electronic note pads, desk lamp and all the other equipment flying, the Doctor slid across the top before falling off the other side with another cry of pain, the Cyber leader striding across the dome after him with surprising speed.
Approaching the desk, and oblivious to the note pad that cracked and fizzed under the heavy footstep of the Cyberman, the Cyber leader reached out and pulled the desk back, again with great ease, and bore down on the injured Time Lord. The Doctor was holding left arm awkwardly and trickles of blood ran down the left side of his face from several small cuts. He was holding his sonic screwdriver in his right arm, which was trembling, and was attempting to aim it at the Cyber leader.
Bringing its foot down on the Doctors right arm, the Cyber leader trapped it against the floor and caused the Doctor to cry out in pain again as the pressure caused him to drop the screwdriver. With its foot still on the Doctors arm, the Cyber leader picked up the screwdriver and held it up to examine it.
“Sonic emission device,” the Cyber leader said after several seconds before crushing it in its hand.
With the squeal of twisting metal and small shower of sparks the mechanism within was destroyed as the screwdriver twisted and buckled under the strength of the Cyberman’s metal fist. Opening its fist, it let the twisted metal device drop to the floor before the Doctor before removing its foot from his arm.
“You were warned about hostility to our cause,” the Cyber leader said turning its weapon back to the dome.
The Doctor looked hopelessly across the dome to where he could see everyone, the captured base crew looking on horrified and the controlled science team, missing base crew and Jess silently doing their work, oblivious to all that was happening about them.
“No, no, don’t hurt any of them,” he shouted up to the Cyber leader. “None of them helped me, I did it myself.”
The Cyber leader’s head swung back and it looked down at the Doctor at its feet. The Time Lord was looking up at the silver creature intently, silently imploring the emotionless being with his eyes.
“You were warned,” the Cyber leader repeated.
“No!” the Doctor cried out again as the rattle of the Cyber gun sounded out. The cry of another technician gargled into his ears as he screwed his eyes up in anger.
Reaching down, the Cyber leader picked the Doctor up again, just as roughly as the first time and slammed him into the wall close behind. The Doctors cry was cut short as all the breath was knocked out of his body. Starting to double over in pain, the Doctor was pushed back against the Cyber leader as it pinned him against the wall.
“Repeat; who has gained access to our ship.”
“I don’t know,” the Doctor finally managed. “That’s the truth. Have you been into the sick bay?”
“That does not concern you,” the Cyber leader replied.
“So, that’s a yes,” the Doctor mused. “So I imagine you’ve probably noticed that one of the patients is missing, and not down to you. I would bet all the tea in China that he’s the one who’s found their way onto your ship.”
“Who is he?” the Cyber leader asked.
“He’s a friend of mine,” the Doctor said, “and he’s well versed in destroying Cybermen. If I were you, I really wouldn’t get on the wrong side of him.”
Letting go of the Doctor, the Cyber leader turned to the other Cyberman in the dome and raised its arm, pointing to it. “Contact the ship, order a search for this human,” the leader ordered.
“I understand,” the Cyberman replied, before turning to the small communications array sat on the desk behind it.
“How did you over ride the control signal?” the Cyber leader asked the Doctor, pulling his head back by his hair causing him to yelp slightly.
“It’s easy when you know how,” the Doctor replied with a small grim smile.
“You will tell me,” the Cyber leader pressed.
“Say please,” the Doctor replied sardonically, wincing in pain as the Cyber leader pressed its fist harder into his chest. “Ok, all right, ease off and I’ll tell you,” he said.
“You will explain,” the Cyber leader instructed.
“I’m not like any human you’ve come across before in that, I’m not,” the Doctor said. “I’m not human; in fact, I’m not from this solar system or even this time period.”
“What are you?” the Cyber leader asked.
“Very annoyed,” the Doctor replied. “All this constant questioning; surely it would be nicer to sit down, have a chat and a cup of tea and you could find out then, but oh, no, you had to go and remove your emotions making things like chats and tea...”
“This is irrelevant,” the Cyber leader cut in.
“Irrelevant, yes,” the Doctor muttered.
“How did you over ride our control signal?” the Cyber leader repeated. “Humans cannot resist control.”
“Yes, well I told you, I’m not human,” the Doctor said. “When your little device probed my mind, I let it think I was human and gave it what it wanted. That way, when it had taken hold of what it thought was my mind I still had enough cognitive faculties left to remain independent. I suppose it would be like you handing over one of your memory files for some other purpose. Easy when you know how.”
“Leader,” the Cyberman said, stepping forwards and away from the communications array.
“Report,” the Cyber leader said, turning away from the Doctor.
“I cannot gain communications access with the ship. All signals are failing to connect,” the Cyberman reported.
“Explanation,” the Cyber leader demanded.
“None available,” the Cyberman replied. “The ship is unable to connect our signals.”
“Does the ship still register?”
“Affirmative,” the Cyberman replied.
“Trace the fault,” the Cyber leader ordered.
“You may not be able to do that very well.”
Turning round, the Cyber leader looked back at the Doctor. The Time Lord was now standing slightly away from the wall and had pulled himself to his full height. A small row of cuts across the left side of his forehead, temple and cheek, surrounding his eye, trickled blood down his face, the bruising was already starting to come up around the eye and the left side of his lower lip was fattening. He was gripping the now tattered lapels of his coat, the right one had a large tear in it where the lining was coming away, his cravat had been attempted to put right, but the now missing pin and large tear down the centre of it made it difficult and a popped button from the collar of his shirt left it open. He was staring at the Cyber leader with a smile on his lips.
“You will elaborate,” the leader demanded.
“Well, it’s all quite simple, isn’t it,” the Doctor replied. “You can’t connect because your communication equipment at the ship has been destroyed or disabled. It’s a logical answer.”
“Traces find no proof of connector existence,” the Cyberman reported. “Logic suggests communication systems have been destroyed.”
“So you can’t communicate with your ship,” the Doctor scorned, “whatever will you do now, no reinforcements, nothing.”
“Others will come when they are complete,” the Cyber leader said. “You will be taken for mind analysis. We shall find out what you are. Your resistance is at an end; your companion shall be hunted and destroyed.”
“You might find that harder that you anticipate,” the Doctor retorted.
“It will happen,” the Cyber leader replied. “You were observed departing an anomalous device on the lunar surface; we now possess that device.”
The look on the Doctor’s face fell as he realised what the Cyber leader had said, before a smile crept back onto his lips. “Oh, leader, you’ve done a foolish thing there,” he said.
“Explain,” the Cyber leader demanded.
“You’re forgetting my friend Tom,” the Doctor said smiling and stepping round the Cyber leader. “He’s got a key to my ship, as have I and, erm, yes,” the Doctor paused as he glanced at Jess out of the corner of his eye. Carefully he turned his attention to the Cyber leader and smiled one hand by his side, the other in a loose fist by his chest. “You see, Tom is like me in several ways, he can gain access to my ship and has the ability to move it. Okay, he may not be up to my standards of piloting it but nobody’s perfect; I’m not a very good cricketer anymore.”
The Doctor paused as he lowered his hand back down to his side, out of sight of the Cyber leader and crossed his fingers. “The point is this; Tom is on your ship with a safe bolthole if needs be, a bolthole that he can move, and he’s very apt at destroying your kind. Sometimes he can be subtle but not hugely, for all his worth, but when he’s annoyed, and believe me, he’s annoyed, he’s most likely going to go for something very obvious, like destroying your communication equipment. And I don’t think he’ll stop there.”
“You will surrender the key to your ship,” the Cyber leader instructed.
“Oh no, I don’t think so,” the Doctor replied, “I can’t let you have access to tech-”
The Doctor was cut off by a strong back handed swipe across his chest from the Cyber leader which sent him stumbling backwards and into yet another desk painfully. Now in a sitting position on the floor, his back against a desk and a sharp pain in his chest, the Doctor looked up and saw the Cyber leader walking towards him. The Doctor took a deep breath in to prepare himself for the next assault when he became aware that the Cyber leader was slightly heading towards his right. Looking up, he saw Jess standing in the Cyberman’s path, a faint shimmer of light flickered from the Cyber Leaders helmet to the top of the skull cap Jess wore.
“Give me the key,” the Cyber leader said, holding its hand out.
“Yes leader,” she replied flatly.
Obediently, Jess got to her feet from her desk and reached into the pocket of her jeans. Carefully she removed the silver chain from the close denim, the silver ankh shaped key following, dangling from the bottom of the loop of chain. Reaching across she handed the key to the Cyber leader.
“Jess no,” the Doctor feebly managed, attempting to reach out to his friend as he struggled to get to his feet.
“We now have access,” the Cyber leader said to him before turning to the other Cyberman and holding out the key. “Take this to our ship and gain access to the device. Order the reinforcements to enter the dome.”
“Understood,” the Cyberman replied, taking the key and turning from the dome.
“Our victory is secured,” the Cyber leader announced, turning to the Doctor. “We shall seek and destroy your companion and the secrets of your device will be open to us. We shall survive.”
“I really hope not,” the Doctor managed to say as he pulled himself back up to his feet, “because I will stop you at what you’re doing and I will not allow you to harm my friends.”
“You are in no position to stop us,” the Cyber leader said. “You are in pain, we do not feel pain. We are superior. We do not tire as you tire.”
“You’re right there,” the Doctor said, sitting back on the desk behind him to catch his breath. “You don’t tire or feel pain, but these things are good, they teach us things that you can never learn.”
“We do not need emotion to learn,” the Cyber leader replied. “Pain only teaches suffering, we end suffering.”
“A wise man once said; ‘out of great sadness, comes great joy,’” the Doctor responded. “I forget who said it now but pain and sorrow teach us what joy and happiness is, and those moments when someone realises they have happiness make however long the period of pain and sadness lasted worth every second, for that one euphoric moment, that moment which can last for years. It can give that person a joy that they never thought possible and realising that makes them again happier. That is something that should never be taken from them. We need the pain, anger, sadness and grief to teach us just how lucky we are to have joy, happiness, celebration, comfort.
“These things are what make humanity alive, what make them live, what give them reason to live. Emotions give humanity meaning. And that is why you will never conquer them, why you will never defeat them, why they will never bow down to you.”
“They do,” the Cyber leader retorted. “Their emotion bends them to our will. Their greed draws them to us for power and riches. Their pain and suffering draws them to us to end it, to give them immeasurably longer life with no pain or illness.”
“To stop their imagination and creativity too?” the Doctor cut in. “If they were all like you there would be no renaissance. Tell me, has your race had a renaissance since you were brought into being in that underground cavern you called a city on Mondas? It was creativity that brought you into existence, a twisted creativity mind you, but creativity none the less, and since then you’ve stagnated. You’ve stayed the same. You’ve no art, no literature, no music, no passion, no soul.”
“This is irrelevant,” the Cyber leader said.
“Oh yes, I forgot,” the Doctor said, throwing his hands in the air, “everything’s irrelevant except your survival.”
“Correct,” the Cyber leader replied. “We will survive. Discussion terminated.”
“Oh very well,” the Doctor said sulkily before looking about suddenly.
There were no other Cybermen in the dome and the Cyber leader was no longer paying any attention to him. The controlled science team were still working and guarding the captured base personnel, who were having furtive glances at what was going on as they were instructed to continue working. He had a clear line to one of the doorways, and had to try to disrupt the Cyber signal or power supply somehow, he only hoped that what he said about Tom was accurate and that he would be able to do something on the Cyber ship and evade being caught.
Seizing his chance, the Doctor took another glance around before quietly crossing the control room. He’d just reached the doors when the slid open revealing two figures beyond; a Cyberman and Professor Wolfe. Chastising himself mentally for his failed attempt, the Doctor raised his hands as the Cyberman withdrew the weapon from under its chest unit.
“Stop,” the Cyberman said levelling the weapon at him.
There was something about this Cyberman that caused the Doctor to do just that, not just because he had a gun pointing directly between his hearts. The creature seemed too perfect, the clinical smell of antiseptic was too strong. Then it hit him like a sledgehammer to the chest, it was brand new. This Cyberman had only just come into being, which could mean only one thing; the Cybermen had started to convert the base crew, most probably en masse.
“Return to the dome,” the Cyberman ordered.
“Oh, very well,” the Doctor sighed, turning round and trudging back the way he had come.
“Your escape attempt was predicted,” the Cyber leader said without turning round. “You will find that we are in total control. You desire to halt our plans, it was logical you would attempt to escape.”
“So it would seem,” the Doctor replied putting his hands in his pockets. “So what’s the plan now then, leader; you going to gloat, tell me how wonderful you are and how puny I am whilst threatening to kill me?”
“Negative, you will witness our triumph,” the Cyber leader said before turning to Wolfe. “Step forwards,” it commanded.
Obediently, Wolfe obliged and stepped forwards towards the Cyber leader. She was only paces away before she stopped and the Cyber leader raised its hands. A spark of energy leapt from its fingertips and crackled towards Wolfe’s neck. Crying out, she staggered back, clutching at the back of her neck, tripping over her own feet.
“It’s ok, I’ve got you Professor,” the Doctor said as he caught her before she fell.
“What? Where am I? What happened?” she stammered looking around her eyes bloodshot.
“Are you you again?” the Doctor asked.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Wolfe replied before taking another look at the Doctor. “I know you,” she said as though trying to access a long gone memory.
“I’m the Doctor,” the Doctor said noticing the look of fear in Wolfe’s eyes as she spotted the Cybermen. “And allow me to introduce you to your erstwhile colleagues; the Cybermen.”
“Cyber- What are they?” Wolfe asked.
“Your cousins in effect,” the Doctor replied. “And the ones who helped you with your work here and who you, in turn, helped infiltrate this base.”
“I don’t follow you,” Wolfe replied, pulling herself out of the Doctors arms and standing to her full height. “And what’s more, I don’t believe you.”
“Small chip at the back of the neck was it?” the Doctor asked. “Just at the base of the skull, directly linked to the nervous system, like those that you would use to operate your prosthetic arm in your lab?”
“How do you know about that?” Wolfe asked, her hand going back to her neck and feeling the small raised bit of scar tissue. “What have they done to me?”
“You wanted recognition and power amongst your peers,” the Doctor said softly but firmly. “The Cybermen tempted you with it then used you for their own means. They would probably have implanted that chip into your nervous system which when activated would make you their puppet. You’ve probably not been in charge of your actions for some time. You should really check all contracts before you sign; you never know what you’re getting into.”
Wolfe turned to face the Cyber leader. She was visibly shaking from both fear and anger. “What have you done to me?” she asked, her voice cracked. “Why have you perverted my work? I was working for the future of humanity, to better ourselves.”
“We are the future,” the Cyber leader said. “We offer humanity perfection. You are no longer needed.”
Wolfe started to back away in fear as the Cyber leader advanced on her and the Doctor tried to step round her.
“No,” he shouted at the Cyberman, “no more deaths.”
Ignoring the Doctor, the Cyberman brushed him aside and into the arms of the other Cyberman who held him fast. Advancing on Wolfe, the Cyber leader raised a hand to its chest unit and pressed a button. Clutching both hands at the back of her neck, clawing at the base of her skull, Wolfe cried out in pain, her eyes wide as she fell backwards, first onto the desk behind her and then to the floor, dead.
“All is prepared, leader,” Fritzel, who was commanding the work team, flatly reported.
Turning to face him, the Cyberman strode across the dome to check the readings before turning to face the indicator screen on the wall.
“Activate,” the Cyber leader commanded before turning its head to look at the Doctor. “You will witness our victory,” it said looking back at the screen.
The Doctor struggled helplessly in the Cyberman’s steel grip, glancing between Fritzel, the Cyber leader and indicator as Fritzel hit the activator key.