Post by Fitz Kreiner on Mar 7, 2010 17:36:22 GMT
23;
The Day That Never Comes.
The Day That Never Comes.
“Will it do?” Anneke looked down at the glass phial in her hand. It was no bigger than a test tube and contained a slightly cloudy liquid which Tom had mixed together rather quickly in a larger beaker on the medi-desk.
Tom shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine,” he answered, scratching his head just behind his right ear.
“They’re the most corrosive chemicals I could find,” Murdoch replied, placing a stopper in the top of another phial of fluid.
“Remember,” Tom said, turning to face Anneke and Murdoch. “Aim for their chest units, the thing on their chests.”
Murdoch looked at Tom, a sardonic look on his face. “Thanks for telling me that, being a medic I wasn’t sure where the chest unit would be.”
“Hey,” Tom shouted, taking a step towards Murdoch and pointing an accusing finger at his chest. “I’m trying to help you here, I could just bugger off and leave you to it, but I’m not. The Doctor isn’t and neither is Jess.”
“What makes you think we need your help?” Murdoch countered.
“Because none of you would have known about the Cybermen if it wasn’t for the Doctor,” Tom yelled back. “You’d have just gone about your pathetic lives until they came and took you over and turned you into them.”
“Whoa, hang on,” Anneke cried, stepping between the two men, trying to keep them apart. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, Tom, you’ve saved my life. But there’s no need for you to be at each other’s throats. Steve, listen to him, he does know what he’s doing, and Tom, you don’t need to be so patronising to us.”
“Sorry,” Murdoch answered, looking abashed at being chastised like that.
“There’s more than one way into the dome, isn’t there?” Tom asked, turning away, appearing not to acknowledge what Anneke had said.
“Erm, yes, why?” Anneke asked.
“Then we go in on two fronts,” Tom replied, turning back to face the two base crew. “I’ll go through this way, you two go the other; classic pincer movement.”
“Why are you going this way?” Murdoch asked, nodding his head to the door to the dome.
“Because you two know the base much better than me,” he said before shifting slightly. “And besides, I’ll need your help to pull this off.”
“Thank you. Was that really too hard to-?” Murdoch sighed before getting cut off by Tom raising his hand.
“Look,” he said, shifting uncomfortably, his hand tapping the medi-bed beside him nervously. “Look, I’m not going to lie to you; I don’t know for certain that this solvent bomb thing is going to do anything against the Cybermen, but it’s a weapon and a chance. Now before you protest, there are places to hide in the dome, desks and that for cover. Try and draw the Cybermen’s fire away from anyone else. While you’re doing that, I’ll come in from behind and get them with this,” pausing, Tom held up the Cyber gun.
“So you want us to draw their fire? Be decoys?” Anneke asked.
Tom nodded. “Like I said, there will be cover. And these things might work. I’m not asking you to even stand in their firing line, get under cover and throw the things blindly if you have to.”
“I’m not sure,” Murdoch said.
“If it has to be,” Anneke said, gently nudging Murdoch in the ribs.
“Well, we could all go in together, but it’d be a larger group for them to shoot at.” Tom replied.
“I’d rather go in with you,” Murdoch said, putting the phial he held on the desk. “If you’re going to start shooting at them, I don’t want you hitting me, and if these Cybermen things turn to shoot at you, wouldn’t it make more sense for us to be on the same side as you, because their chests will be turned that way as well. I don’t fancy walking up behind them and pouring this stuff into them.”
“I think he’s right,” Anneke said, stepping forwards. “It does render us useless after you arrive shooting. I mean, if this works, then surely we can do more damage to them if we can hit their chest units all the time. You might not be able to shoot all the time if all the Cybermen in the dome are against you. You’ll be killed, and after all this we’ve been through, I’m not going to let you throw your life away when we can help.”
Tom paused where he stood before a large smile spread across his face, his eyes brightening. “Of course, you’re spot on,” he grinned. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
“After what we’ve been through,” Anneke said, a smile appearing on her face, “any time. It’s the least we can do.”
“Ok,” Tom nodded, holding the Cyber gun up and smiling. “Pack up and let’s go get us some Cybermen.”
*
The Doctors hearts almost skipped a beat when he realised that Jess was standing up directly between himself and the Cyber leader, who was now aiming its weapon at his head. Before he could shout out a warning, knowing it would result in a shot being loosed off at either Jess or himself; Jess had hauled herself to her feet, looking decidedly groggy and slightly pale.
“Oh no,” he heard her mutter as she focussed on the Cyberman “out of the frying pan.”
“Very much into the fire, I’m afraid,” the Doctor finished off for her. “Jess, allow me to introduce you to your erstwhile captor and controller, the Cyber leader, although I get the feeling you may have already met.”
“He did come to see me in his ship,” Jess said, grimly, not taking her eyes off the silver creature before her. “What was it you did to me?” she demanded.
“Unimportant,” the Cyber leader droned.
“Bollocks,” Jess spat rounding the desk, still gripping it for support, whilst ignoring the gun which was now pointed at her. “What did you do to me? That metal thing you put on mine and Kyle’s heads. What was it?”
“A control device,” the Cyber leader replied. “You have aided in the destruction of your planet.”
“What?” Jess cried, spinning to look out of the dome before turning to the Doctor for answers.
“Don’t take any notice of him,” the Doctor replied, rolling his eyes. “He’s just trying to unnerve you, useless Cyber propaganda. Earth isn’t destroyed and neither will it be. There are only three of our silver friends left, and I doubt Controller Benoit will sit back and surrender. He can be quite tenacious, old Roget!”
“Didn’t he write a Thesaurus?” Jess asked wryly before becoming serious again. “So, what happened then?”
“The Cybermen have attacked Earth with the Gravitron,” the Doctor replied. “They’re now hoping the blackmail it into submission, but somehow I don’t think it’s going to work. They do have access to the Gravitron and all its power, but Earth won’t surrender, and neither will it get a chance to.”
“What do you mean?” Jess asked. She’d clearly missed all the action and wasn’t too sure what the Doctor was talking about.
“I mean, our silver friends here don’t recognise when they’ve lost,” the Doctor said, raising an eyebrow at the Cyber leader.
“The Cyber race does not surrender. We will survive,” the Cyber leader said.
“You will mindlessly repeat the same meaningless words again and again,” mocked the Doctor, affecting a monotone drone to his voice.
“Silence,” the voice of the Cyber leader suddenly seemed louder, cutting through everything and sending cold chills down the spines of everyone in the room.
“Jess, get down!” the Doctor yelled, leaping over the desk between them.
As the Doctor jumped, the deathly rattle of the Cyber gun sounded, the bolt smashing into where he had been stood just seconds before. With a grunt, he collided bodily with Jess and the two of them tumbled to the ground in a pile of arms and legs. Crying out in alarm, Jess found herself colliding painfully with the ground, the weight of the Doctor on top of her knocking the breath out of her body.
The sound of the Cyber gun rattled again and the computer monitor on the desk above her erupted into low flames with electric sparks flashing before being replaced with a thick acrid smoke.
“Keep down and out of sight,” the Doctor whispered to her, pulling himself off her and urging her under a desk.
“Why?” Jess asked her eyes wide and a sudden bad feeling filling her. “What are you going to do?”
The Doctor ducked as another piece of technical equipment erupted just behind him before pointing to the far side of the dome. “I’m going to try and draw their fire to their control device; it’ll pop quite a fly in their ointment if they hit that.”
“What about your sonic screwdriver?” she asked.
The Doctor pointed to a twisted metal tube lying not too far away. “Courtesy of our friendly Cyber leader,” he replied.
“They’ll kill you,” Jess said, grabbing onto the Doctor’s arm to keep him from going. To her shock, he cried out in pain, snatching his arm back, almost hugging it to his body.
“Cyber leader, again,” he said wincing through the pain.
Jess’s eyes widened in horror as the silver legs of a Cyberman appeared before them. Looking up; she saw one of the Cybermen looking down at them, its weapon was in its hand and aimed directly at them. She closed her eyes, expecting to hear the rattle of the Cyber gun, vaguely aware of the Doctor trying to shield her with himself. The seconds seemed to crawl by before Jess opened her eyes slightly, vaguely aware of some shouting from somewhere else in the dome. The Cyberman had seemed to lose interest in them, its arm coming up and firing at something behind them.
It was then something impacted on the Cyberman’s chest, and she found herself getting spattered with small fragments of broken glass and droplets of liquid. She cried out, almost knocking the Doctor over as she tried to brush the burning liquid off her skin. Already she had three large red blotches on her arm where the liquid, most probably acid she thought, had hit her.
“Doctor?”
She recognised the voice. Shouting over the sound of what now had to be a pitched battle as she could see missiles flying overhead, and several smashing against the body of the Cyberman, wisps of acrid smoke curling wherever the liquid touched the creature. The rattles of the Cyber guns filled the room.
“Keep down, everyone!”
There was only one person that voice could belong to, and after the last time she’d seen him, in the midst of a terrifying panic attack in an airlock and then sedated on one of the medi-beds, Jess found herself screaming his name in joy.
“Tom!”
“Jess?” Tom shouted back, elevation in his voice along with a strong sense of urgency. “Keep down, keep out of sight.”
Jess didn’t need to be told again. She could see the Doctor keeping low, still keeping himself between the Cyberman and her. Pulling her legs up, she curled up into a ball in the foot well of the desk. It was only then she noticed that she was barefoot, her shoes still probably in the Cyber ship. She felt another chill go through her as she heard the electronic cry of a Cyberman which became a full blown tremble of fear when she heard Tom cry out in pain.
*
Anneke stood at the door leading to the dome, her heart pounding away in her chest. Her mouth was almost dry with fear. She was about to face off against the Cybermen armed with nothing but glass filled phials of acids and other compounds Murdoch had found in the stores in the sick bay. Tom was stood between her and Murdoch, the Cyber gun in his hand and a grim look on his face. She could see he was gearing himself up for what was to come.
Shooting a glance at her, Tom made contact and nodded. Nodding back, Anneke reached for the door control.
“Three, two, one,” Tom counted down. “Go!”
Hitting the door control, Anneke found herself shouting. No words, just a scream. Beside her she could hear shouts coming from both Tom and Murdoch. She didn’t know whether that would just forewarn the Cybermen or what, but she found that it was making her feel better.
Through the doors, she could see the Cyber leader, its back to them firing at where just moments before she thought she’d seen the Doctor rugby tackle his other friend to the floor. Streaming into the room, she became aware of shots echoing around her, computer monitors and equipment banks erupting into flame. The first desk she came to, she sought cover behind, throwing her acid bombs over at the Cybermen.
“Doctor!” she heard Tom shout. “Everyone keep down!”
She could see crewmen diving for cover throughout the dome.
“Tom!”
The cry came from the Doctor’s friend, Jess, Anneke remembered her name being. She could see the relief and joy in Tom’s face as he heard her cry.
“Jess!” he shouted. “Keep down, keep out of sight.”
The realisation that his friend was still alive seemed to give Tom a renewed sense of purpose. She watched with her heart in her mouth as he jumped to his feet from where he’d been hiding, exposing himself to the Cybermen and started to fire. The electronic cry of a Cyberman filled the room before she saw Tom’s body jolt violently as he got hit by a Cyber gun. Spinning where he stood, she saw him fall backwards, connecting bodily with the floor.
She heard his name called by both the Doctor and Jess as she crawled across to him. There was a pained expression on his face and he was breathing heavily. She could see a scorch on the shoulder of his shirt; his arm lay beside him awkwardly.
“Are you ok?” she asked over the sound of the battle. She could see Murdoch looking their way, an acid phial in his hand ready to be thrown.
“Take it,” he said through clenched teeth indicating the Cyber gun. “I’ll be fine.”
Reaching out she picked up the Cyber gun. It felt lighter than it looked and was warm from the use it had had. Nodding at Murdoch, he grabbed another couple of phials and without looking threw them over the desk behind him. The rattle of Cyber fire hit the desk, scattering the papers and notebooks there.
Her heart thumping louder and harder than ever, Anneke got to her feet, already aiming the gun. Time seemed to slow down to a sickening crawl as she almost saw the glass phials spin through the air towards the Cyber leader. She fired the gun at the other Cyberman, the rattle and recoil reverberating through her hands as she saw its chest unit explode into sparks. With an electronic cry, the creature dropped to its knees, clutching helplessly at its chest unit.
It was then she turned her attentions to the Cyber leader; two of Murdoch’s phials had hit the creature square on in the chest unit. A gargled electronic warble was coming from the creature as thick grey foam seemed to ooze from the bottom of the chest unit, blobs dropping sickly to the ground.
An explosion on the desk before her made her jump back as she noticed for the first time the members of the science team, who had been stood near the probe. She swung her gun round to cover them before pausing. She couldn’t do it. It had been hard enough to shoot the Cybermen for the first time, but these people were human, she couldn’t murder another person, not in cold blood, not even if they were controlled and shooting at her.
“Anneke,” she heard the Doctor shout.
Ducking from another shot, she looked round. The Doctor was on his hands and knees, behind a desk from the Cyber leader. He was pointing to a device sat on a desk on the other side of the dome.
“The control device,” he shouted.
She looked back, the Cyber leader was swaying where it stood, the gun hanging limply in its hand. Seizing her chance she sprang from behind the desk firing. After several shots, the device exploded in a shower of sparks and the other shooting stopped. A collective human cry came from the members of the science team. Looking round she could see them crying out as they clutched the backs of their necks, just at the base of their skulls, before collapsing to the ground.
“I told you humanity wouldn’t need to surrender,” the Doctor said sadly, getting to his feet and approaching the unsteady Cyber leader.
“We... Will... Survive,” it droned, its voice strained and warped.
“I’m afraid not,” the Doctor said, unaware of the rest of the dome getting back to their feet.
“We... Will... Surv-” the Cyber leader started again.
“No, you won’t,” Anneke said, the gun in her hand firing at near point blank range into the Cyber leader’s chest. With a last electronic screech, the creature toppled backwards, smoke pouring from it.
“It’s over,” the Doctor said sadly as he put his arm around Anneke and turned her away from the fallen Cyberman.
“Tom,” Jess cried out, running from where she’d been hiding, looking for her friend.
“Here,” Tom groaned, pulling himself up from the floor with the aid of the desk. “It just got a glancing shot.”
With a swift skip round the room, the Doctor was instantly looking at Toms shoulder, having pulled his shirt apart with the sound of popping buttons.
“You’ll be fine,” he said. “Just might ache for a few days.”
An eerie quiet and calm descended over the dome, as the survivors stood there quietly for several minutes. It was broken by one of the base crew.
“What about these others they said were coming?” he asked.
“Still outside the solar system, waiting for a signal,” the Doctor replied removing the component from the radio the Cyber leader had given to the operator to encorporate. “A signal that will never come.”
“So that’s it, the Cybermen are beaten?” Anneke asked, dropping the Cyber gun.
The Doctor nodded, a great sense of sadness in his eyes. “At quite a cost here though; Patrick, doctor Ricci, Lars, and several others.”
“Earth survived,” Jess said with a faint trace of hope in her voice, “so did everyone still in the colony, yeah?”
“Yes, and Earth will continue to,” the Doctor said. “Although it was a close thing and blowing up the Cyber ship was a risky business, Tom.”
“It worked didn’t it?” Tom answered.
“It did, yes,” the Doctor smiled, clapping his friend on the back and causing him to wince. “Now, I hate to be the cause of an ‘all go’,” he said turning to face the rest of the base crew, “but Controller Benoit will be on the radio soon to answer the Cybermen’s demands, and he’ll want to know that Earth is safe and the Cybermen are no longer a threat. Anneke, I get the feeling this will now be your job to deal with, and Doctor Murdoch, there are injured people to attend.”
Suddenly spurred into action, the base crew became animated, rushing around. Anneke started to direct people to still intact work stations, the background hum of the Gravitron starting to build up after a couple of minutes. The large indicator screen was again showing the start of the video link connection to Earth.
With a quiet placing of his arms around his two companions, the Doctor silently led them from the dome.
“We’ll just be more awkward questions to answer if we stay,” he said. “It’s best to slip away quietly.”
“As always,” Jess said a grim smile on her face.
“Yes,” the Doctor agreed sadly. “There seems to be a habit with the Cybermen of bringing out the best and the worst in people, probably because they’re like a distorted mirror to humanity.”
“What we can become, you mean?” Jess asked, “all the surgical enhancement and whatnot? Like if it all gets out of hand?”
“In a way,” the Doctor replied. “The Cybermen started out as a brilliant idea, to help a dying people to survive, but they got lost along the way.”
“They’re still horrible, horrible thought,” Jess shuddered, before looking up and making a small noise of surprise at seeing the TARDIS sat in the corner of the sick bay.
“Humanity does survive, and will survive though,” the Doctor said.
“And the Cyber fleet?” Tom asked.
“Will wait beyond Sedna, or ‘Planet 14’ as the Cybermen call it,” the Doctor replied. “And will one day in about fifty years or so split, half will get involved with the first Cyber wars and the others will relocate to Telos. The rest is, as they say, history.”
Reaching out, the Doctor opened the TARDIS door and held it open for the others. With a smile, Jess grasped Tom’s hand before heading into the TARDIS, the young Time Lord having no choice but to follow close behind.
“And the dreams?” he asked, pausing in the doorway.
“Time will tell,” the Doctor said, following Tom into the TARDIS. “Hopefully after this, it may help you put some things into perspective.”
Crossing the console room he hit the door control before flicking a few switches. The TARDIS engines wheezed into life as the crystal rods in the time rotor began to move.
“Oh,” Tom said, as way of an afterthought. “Remind me to get you a pint,” he said smiling to the Doctor.
“A pint?” the Doctor queried.
“Cup of tea? The finest wines available to humanity? Whatever it is to say thanks for reactivating the HADS.”
“Always a handy thing to have working,” the Doctor smiled pointing to the kitchen alcove. “And the kettle’s that way.”
With a smile, Tom turned to the kitchen to make the tea, only waylaid by Jess, who flung her arms around him and hugged him.
“Great to have the old you back again,” she said.
“Thanks,” Tom smiled back. “That’s not something I’d want to go through again, or let anyone else go through.”
“Issues like that have plagued many different races for millennia,” the Doctor replied from the console. “And will continue too. There’s no quick fix to mental distress, but having a good support network will always help issues.”
“What was with our sudden departure anyway?” Jess asked. “I know we normally tend to nip off quick, but that was quick, even for you.”
The Doctor paused, his hands resting on the console and his head bowed. “A lot of people died, and I don’t want to get too involved because I know what will happen soon.”
“What do you mean?” Tom asked from the kitchen.
“The T-Mat that Earth was developing will in about four years become Earth’s prominent form of travel,” the Doctor explained, “humanity will become totally dependent on it. They’ll base it on the Moon and will be the starting board for an alien attack. Not too dissimilar from the Cybermen’s plan, they’ll attack the Moon, then send seed pods to change Earth’s atmosphere. But don’t worry, I was there, and it didn’t work.”
“Well, either way,” Jess said, curling up on one of the sofas and pulling a blanket over her, “I can’t say I want to go through that again either. No more Moon, no more Cybermen or aliens. I think it’s time we did something either relaxing or fun.”
From where he stood at the console, the Doctor beamed at his two friends. “So, you want something fun?” With a theatrical flourish of his hands, the Doctor set to work at the console.
“Where are we going?” Jess asked.
“Oh, just you wait and see,” the Doctor winked back.
