Post by Fitz Kreiner on Feb 24, 2010 22:14:11 GMT
20
Broken, Beat & Scarred.
Broken, Beat & Scarred.
Anneke looked at Tom as he strode back and forth around the console. He was clearly frustrated, occasionally hitting at the wooden mushroom when controls wouldn’t respond to him and hitting the box the scanner was stored in. She could tell that he was angry at Christina’s decision to sneak out of the TARDIS and try to attack the Cybermen. Whether it was anger at her for doing it or for his inability to stop her, Anneke wasn’t sure. She knew that there seemed to be a lot of bad history between Tom and the Cybermen, and that was certainly brimming over here.
She was slowly coming to terms with this TARDIS and its being larger within than outside. It seemed to be a wood lined room, decorated with roundels with two large alcoves, which she had briefly explored only to find them infuriatingly larger than they at first appeared. She was sure that there was a great level of technology under the wooden veneer, but what technology she daren’t think. It was hugely different to the Cybermen. She felt comfortable and safe here, even if it was somewhat perplexing. She was trying hard not to think about the double doors that lead to even deeper depths of this TARDIS.
Desperately wanting to know what was happening, she cautiously returned to the raised plinth which the console sat upon, and where Tom was pacing. He seemed agitated, as she remembered his being whilst in the dome. Anneke worried that if he were have another panic attack in here, she wouldn’t be able to stop him, or something catastrophic may happen. Especially with this technology and her memories of his locking himself into an airlock.
“What is it?” she asked eventually.
“I don’t know. I just don’t know,” Tom replied clawing his hands in frustration. “The TARDIS just isn’t responding to me, I don’t know why.”
“What do you mean?” Anneke asked.
“I had hoped we could do something here,” Tom said, resting his hands on the edge of the console and bowing his head in defeat. “I just don’t know what we can do. I’m at a loss. Sorry.”
With the last word, Tom looked up at Anneke across the console, his ice blue eyes full of sadness; a single tear rolling down his cheek. The look of helplessness in his eyes seemed greater than the sorrowful look he had when he was under the influence of the Space Madness. The look struck Anneke like a blow to the chest.
“Well, doesn’t this thing fly? You said it was a ship. Or weapons, what about weapons?” she asked.
Tom shrugged. “I don’t think the TARDIS has any weapons, not that I’ve seen. And not what I think you’d class as weapons if it does. As for flying, like I said, she’s not responding to me.”
“You don’t have to put the key in this control panel do you?” Anneke asked, indicating the console. “Y’know, like the old motor cars?”
“I remember the Doctor saying something about a key slot somewhere,” Tom replied, his hand idly wandering to the pocket he had stored the key in. “But he said that was a last resort sort of thing, would return the ship home; like a default co-ordinate setting.”
“What about that? Would it do anything?”
“The Time Lords would love to get their hands on me again, and I don’t really want that,” Tom said, a cold edge to his voice. “All they’ll do for you would be to wipe your memory and return you home.”
“Oh,” Anneke replied, downbeat.
Judging from the tone of voice Tom used she shouldn’t ask who these Time Lords were, despite her wanting to. There was something about the name, but she wasn’t sure whether it was a good or bad thing. Tom certainly seemed to think it was bad, but there was a somewhat rebellious air about him sometimes.
“They wouldn’t help then?”
“Not one jot, they don’t like to interfere.” Tom replied looking back down. “Well, not all of them.”
“But don’t they have an army or something?” Anneke pressed.
“Look,” Tom’s head snapped up to fix her with a steely stare. “Forget about the Time Lords. It’s just you and me; we’re the only ones who can do anything. If the Cybermen have the Doctor and this Gravitron thing, then Earth is in deadly danger.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” Anneke almost snapped back. “If the probe is misused it could disrupt the major tides of the world’s oceans, the Gulf Stream could stop and freeze major parts of the northern hemisphere, create cyclones, typhoons, tsunami’s and hurricanes that would devastate civilisation and the major capitals of the world, and at worse, the gravitations stresses could lift cities into space.”
“Lift cities into space?” Tom repeated. “Surely that’s over exaggeration.”
“Not by much, that’s the scary thing,” Anneke said. “It’s a gravity device remember, it affects the Earths tides with gravitational pull.”
“nuts,” Tom spat, suddenly animated, dashing round the console hitting at switches before grabbing the chain below the scanner and dragging it close to him. “That’s what they’re doing!” he cried.
The realisation hit Anneke as hard as it hit Tom when her words sank in. She’d merely outlined the purpose of the Gravitron and the negative effects it could have on her world, she’d listed them as calmly as if she were reading items from her shopping list. It suddenly all sank in; the Moon, placed in orbit of Earth, the Gravitron firmly fixed on the planet below, with a base and colony full of people for the Cybermen to turn into an army, an army that would be ready before the Earth and ISC could get anyone to the moon, even with use of the Space Elevators.
“They’re going to destroy Earth with the Gravitron,” she said softly.
“No, that would be illogical,” Tom answered still furiously working at the console. “Those billions of people who would make perfectly good Cybermen, a perfectly good planet for them to adopt as a new home?”
The realisation hit again for Anneke as she found herself nodding in agreement. “I guess so,” she said softly, trying to see over Tom’s shoulder as he worked.
“No, I don’t think destruction is their plan, well, not total. They’ve got leverage, the whole world knows of the Gravitron,” Tom explained. “The whole world knows the damage it could, can, do. It’s highly likely they’ll use it as a threat to make your leaders surrender. I’m guessing this madness thing and T-Mat whatsit were probably part of their plans too, but they may have been pushed aside because of us.”
“What do you mean?” Anneke asked.
“Well, the Doctor’s investigation,” Tom said, finally turning round. “He’s like that. I’m trying to see whether I can detect any gravimetric anomalies out there, we ran afoul of one before we landed, but that may just have been the Gravitron working normally.”
“Well can this thing stop them?” Anneke asked.
Tom turned to face her and shrugged. “I just wish the Doctor was here,” he said. “He’d be able to tell what was what. I don’t really know. I’m just trying to think like the Cybermen. They kinda helped me with that by what they did to me.”
“Ok,” Anneke said, leaning back against one of the struts surrounding the console. “So what do we do then?”
“I wish I knew,” Tom replied rubbing his eyes. “There has to be something.”
“What was that?” Anneke asked, as a soft mechanical whirring noise sounded, seemingly filling the silence that had descended over the console room.
“Do not move.”
The electronic voice caused both Tom and Anneke to freeze, more out of fear than the command itself. There was only one thing that voice could have come from, and one of them had gotten into the TARDIS, the last safe place on the Moon. Slowly, Tom turned to face the Cyberman, standing defiantly in the doorway of the ship, Cyber gun in one hand, key to the door in the other. It was covering the two of them with the weapon.
“Do not move,” the Cyberman repeated taking another step into the TARDIS. “Explain this anomaly.”
“What anomaly?” Tom asked, trying to carefully sidle round the console to find a switch that could activate a defence mechanism.
“This is illogical,” the Cyberman stated.
“Oh, you mean the TARDIS,” Tom smiled grimly. “Tough, ‘cause I don’t know very well either. Dimensional transcendentalism; a bit too complicated for you.”
“This technology now belongs to us.”
Anneke had turned round, carefully trying to back behind the support strut she had leant against, whilst looking between the Cyberman and Tom. She could feel the contempt brimming over from Tom towards the Cyberman; it seemed to flow freely from his eyes. She could also see the fear and worry in them, the fear and worry that the Cyberman had gained entry to the TARDIS, the one place he had said would be safe and the one place she had felt safe since all this started.
Looking back at the Cyberman, her eyes fell from the short stubby weapon it held to the small pendant dangling from a chain in its fist; it was the same shape as the key Tom had used to unlock the doors. How the Cyberman had gotten hold of a key, she didn’t want to think, and she could feel the same from Tom too, it was a possibility that they had killed the Doctor for the key.
“You will operate this machine,” the Cyberman commanded, taking another step towards Tom.
“No,” Tom said defiantly, pulling himself up to face off against the Cyberman.
Anneke could see the fear and hatred in his eyes. He swallowed hard as the silver giant took another step towards him, casting the key aside as it stepped. Its head turned from Tom to Anneke and back to Tom.
“You will operate the machine for us,” the Cyberman said.
“I won’t,” Tom repeated, taking a step back and bumped into the console, briefly looking behind him to see the situation. “I can’t. I can’t even operate it for us.”
“You will comply,” the Cyberman ordered, pointing its weapon towards Anneke. “Comply or I will destroy her.”
“But, I can’t,” Tom pleaded. “I don’t know how to! You have to believe me, please.”
“Obey,” the Cyberman said.
“I can’t,” Tom protested.
Anneke watched helpless as the Cyberman took another couple of steps forwards. Tom was now backed against the console, almost leaning back to try to escape the Cyberman. It had cleared the entrance and was now well within the console room. The thin wooden support strut offered no cover at all and she was now in the direct line of fire of the Cyberman. She watched in rapt horror as the barrel of the gun pointed directly to her chest and the Cyberman depressed the firing button.
*
“What have you done?” the Doctor asked aghast staring at the indicator. The Cyberman behind him held him fast, he couldn’t move his arms, only lean his body forwards.
The Gravitron was humming with a higher pitch than before and the LED indicators at the base of the probe were flashing in unison. The Doctor could now see that the Cyber controlled workers had attached a device to the probe, which was glowing with a deep reddish hue giving a disconcerting warming look to the dome in which the probe sat. The pitch of the Gravitron rose steadily until it hit a crescendo before falling back down to normal.
“Test completed,” Fritzel reported blankly to the Cyber leader.
“Understood,” the Cyber leader responded turning onto the Doctor. “You will submit, we have control of the Gravitron, and your device belongs to us.”
The Doctor felt a chill run down his spine at the thought. The Cybermen had a key to the TARDIS, but with any luck, Tom would already be there and able to do something. Had he given Tom any lessons in piloting the TARDIS? He couldn’t remember. He knew for a fact that the Cybermen wouldn’t be able to pilot the TARDIs. They would probably be stumped by the airlock force field he’d erected, unless Tom had already deactivated it.
Swallowing, the Doctor pulled himself up as best as he could give his situation. He didn’t want to give anything away in front of the Cyber leader, anything that would act as a tell as to what he could be thinking.
“We’ll see,” the Doctor said. Tom was on the Cyber ship, which meant he must have found the TARDIS. He had faith that he could do something there. “I don’t think you’ll find her as easy to bend to your will as you expect. Nine hundred years and I’m only just getting used to her.”
“We are in command,” the Cyber leader replied, turning away.
Stepping into the centre of the control, the Cyberman pointed to one of the controlled work team and then to the radio terminal. Obediently and silently, the young woman got to her feet and crossed to the radio set. By the time she reached it, it was already receiving a transmission.
“Moon base, this is ISC,” the French accented voice came through in a mixture of both panic and anger. “What the hell is going on up there?”
“This is Moon base,” the young woman replied through the radio.
“Who the hell is this?” the voice came through again, a shout this time. “Do you people realise what you’re doing to us down here? Where is Miles, who is in charge there?”
“I am in command,” the Cyber leader said.
The radio stayed silent for what seemed like hours. The Doctor looked helpless to the radio and then to the Cyber leader. A small voice in his head told him that he knew the voice on the other side of the radio. He wanted to shout a warning, tell ISC to mobilise a force to attack the base, but he knew that the Cybermen would devastate Earth if he even tried, if Earth even tried to fight back. It all suddenly became clear to him now.
“Non,” the voice was almost a whisper as if the person on the other side of the radio didn’t realise they were still speaking, as if they were remembering. “Moon base, switch to visual communication,” the speaker ordered.
Whilst turning to face the indicator, the Cyber leader pointed to the new radio operator. Activating the controls on the communications station, the radio operator continued to stare at what she was doing.
Trying as best as he could in the Cyberman’s steel grip, the Doctor turned to look at the indicator screen which flickered as it tried to connect to the video link. He could see the ISC logo and the rotating hour glass as the word “connecting” slowly pulsed.
Eventually the image faded into the partial view of ISC command, centred on the screen was a man sat behind a desk in a dark suit, his dark hair receding and thinning on top, greying at the temples. The nameplate on the desk read “R. Benoit, ISC Controller”. Part of the ISC logo could be seen large and emblazoned on the wall behind him, as people ran back and forth behind to different computer stations.
It was the man who held the Doctor’s attention, as he got to his feet, his eyes wide in horror as he no doubt saw the sight on a screen back on Earth, of the Cyber leader stood in the centre of control. He was twenty four years older, but it was the man the Doctor had met all those years ago last time he was on the base.
“Non,” Benoit repeated. “C’est impossible,” he breathed.
“I’m afraid it is, Rogét,” the Doctor said. “Some of them must have survived.”
Benoit paid no attention to the Doctor, still staring at the Cyber leader. “You were destroyed,” he said. “How?”
“Our ship survived,” the Cyber leader said. “We have worked to infiltrate and gain control. You will surrender your world to us.”
“Never,” Benoit said. “We have beaten you before and we will again.”
“Illogical,” the Cyber leader said. “We have control of the Gravitron. Surrender or we will attack again.”
“Attack?” the Doctor finally managed to slip out of the grip of the Cyberman leaving his coat behind, bar one sleeve which came away at the shoulder and remained almost comically in place. “Leader, this is illogical. You will kill millions if you use the Gravitron as a weapon.”
“Understood,” the Cyber leader said still staring at the screen.
Benoit seemed to notice the Doctor for the first time. “Who the hell are you? What are you doing?” he asked.
“Trying to help you,” the Doctor replied in time to get brushed aside by the Cyber leader.
“There is no help,” the Cyber leader said. “We are in control of Earth. Any disobedience will be punished.”
“What have you done?” the Doctor turned to the Cyber leader.
“Gained control of the Earth,” the Cyber leader said.
Turning to Benoit, the Doctor raised his eyebrows in a silent plea for information. The Frenchman looked down from the screen to the Doctor, then to the Cyber leader before back to the Doctor. Shakily he sat back down behind his desk.
“There has been a gravimetric attack on Geneva, the new United Nations building,” Benoit replied. “We don’t know the casualties yet, although the Prime Minister of the EZ and President of the US were there along with dignitaries from every country.”
“Not a random attack then,” the Doctor mused.
“Pardon, but who the hell are you?” Benoit snapped.
“You’re controller of ISC, flick through the UNIT files, or whatever it is they’re called these days, pay attention to the 1969 Cyber invasion, 1986 Mondas attack and 2070 Moon Base incident,” the Doctor said, casually, waving his hand at the screen as he turned back to look into the dome, his fingers tapping his lips in thought.
“2070,” Benoit looked perplexed at the date, “I was there, but you weren’t.”
“The Doctor,” the Doctor replied. “Read the files, I’m rather busy here, I think.”
The Doctor almost cried out as he was grabbed again by the Cyberman and dragged away to the edge of the control room.
“You will remain silent or die,” the Cyber leader said before turning its attention back to the screen. “You have experienced a sample of our power. We have turned your own defences against you. Your planet will surrender to our forces.”
“Your forces?” Benoit almost scoffed at the word. “There can’t be many of you left, one ship.”
“We have all the resources we need here,” the Cyber leader replied. “Others are coming. You will submit to us.”
“Others?” Benoit asked. “What do you mean?”
“I imagine they mean an invasion fleet, somewhere in the solar system, awaiting a signal to come,” the Doctor offered.
On the screen, Benoit swallowed hard. Whoever this strange and battered man on the Moon Base was, he had a point, and seemed to know a lot about what was going on. He had to have hit on a point, the Cybermen hadn’t carried out the threat of his death; he must be needed by them. Benoit could just see him in the back of the picture, but something about his eyes told him he could trust him.
“You will contact us again in thirty Earth minutes,” the Cyber leader said. “Or we will attack again. You belong to us, you will be like us.”
The radio operator deactivated the video link, leaving the Cyber leader’s words the last things that would echo in Controller Benoit’s head. Turning away from the screen, the Cyber leader crossed over to the radio operator. Reaching up, it pulled away a section of its chest unit before removing a component from within. Closing the section of chest unit, the Leader passed the device over to the operator.
“Connect this to the human communication systems,” the Cyber leader instructed. “Use them to boost the signal to contact the fleet.”
“Understood,” the operator replied, taking the component and removing the main cover of the radio controls.
“You know our ways,” the Cyber leader said, turning to the Doctor.
“So I was right,” the Doctor smiled thinly. “Where is your fleet, on their way here?”
“You do not need to be aware of that.”
The Doctor’s smile broadened. “They’re not even in the solar system are they? You’re nothing more than a bridgehead. You’ll send the signal out when you’ve got control of the Earth, and by the time they get here, you’ll have landed your own troops on the surface, taken from this base and Armstrong no doubt, and the radio signals you’ll send out will guide your invasion ships into the atmosphere. That old chestnut,” the Doctor wagged a finger as best as he could with his arms held, “it’ll never work.”
“You are incorrect,” the Cyber leader said. “We have already triumphed. Earth will submit to us, it is logical. We hold the power that will devastate their planet. We do not make threats; we will use the Gravitron to destroy their military and devastate their cities.”
“But that’s exactly the point, leader,” the Doctor said. “Humanity aren’t logical, they’re not like you, as you seem to enjoy pointing out. They’re emotional, and right now they’ll be feeling fear and anger, and they are incredibly strong emotions. They will unite against you in fear.”
“They will submit,” the Cyber leader repeated. “We can destroy their world.”
“Arg,” the Doctor cried in frustration, trying to hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. “You don’t listen do you? Emotion will make Humanity unite in a way you can never understand. They would rather their planet be destroyed than submit to you. You can’t win this way.”
“Then we shall devastate their cities,” the Cyber leader replied. “They shall surrender to us.”
“Force isn’t the same. You’ll have to do the clearing up afterwards,” the Doctor said. “You won’t have your pristine new world. You’ll have a ruin. That is no victory.”
“We will have control over the Earth, we will have been victorious.”
The Doctor sighed and shook his head sadly. “It’s like talking to a brick wall, a brick wall that talks back. You just cannot understand. You will have no control over the people on Earth; you won’t be able to use your controlled medical experiments like you did here. That plan never got off the drawing board, because you had to act prematurely. You can’t use the T-Mat; you had to resort to forcing your way in and blackmailing Earth with the Gravitron.”
“It is effective,” the Cyber leader said. “We have instilled fear upon the peoples of the Earth, they will be ineffective.”
“Au contraire,” the Doctor replied. “Fear makes Humanity unpredictable. You now have no way of telling what they’ll do. For all you know they could be aiming a missile at this base to destroy it.”
“Illogical,” the Cyber leader said. “They would cause massive disruptions to their planet and destroy their colony. The missile would never reach us; we would use the Gravitron to deflect it.”
“Yes, of course,” the Doctor sighed. “You hadn’t overseen that then.”
“Your discussion and attempts to dissuade our cause are futile,” the Cyber leader said, motioning to one of the controlled science team, who came and took hold of the Doctor with a vicelike grip like the Cyberman. “You will be taken to our ship for mind analysis and conversion.”
“Oh, what a shame,” the Doctor mocked as his voyage to the door was stopped. “You’re such good conversation. Don’t count on it going the way you want.”
Turning round in a circle, the Cyber leader took in the sight of all the controlled people in the room froze to a halt where they were stood or sat. Joining in, the Doctor looked over his shoulder confused as his escort froze, before looking over towards Jess. A brief flicker of emotion crossed her face, and the faces of the other controlled base crew. As suddenly as they stopped, the controlled base crew, including Jess, clutched at the control devices on their heads, crying out in pain before falling to the floor.
“Jess,” the Doctor said softly, before he felt his escort starting to pull him back.
At first it felt as though he was being dragged out of the dome again, but the bright and brief fiery orange/yellow flash that illuminated the dome from outside and the sudden and violent tremble of the floor changed the Doctor’s mind. He found himself falling in a tangle of arms and legs along with the crewman behind him. He could see the other human occupants of the room had also fallen from their feet and felt a slight sense of relief to see that the Cybermen had stumbled also.
It was then he first noticed the sound, a roaring and rushing that appeared over the sound of the Gravitron, not subtly, but violently. It was accompanied by the feeling of a wind tugging at his clothes and hair. He could feel the oxygen being pulled out of the control. It could mean only one thing; the explosion and it had to be an explosion, wherever it had happened, had caused decompression. The sealed base had been breached.
It was then the emergency klaxons sounded.
