Doctor Who_ Attack of the Cybermen - Eric Saward [13]
‘Would you like to take a closer look?’
Peri gazed at the dirty, icy shape and shook her head.
Too much had already happened that day. Colliding with Halley’s Comet was a treat, she decided, they could save for another occasion.
The time rotor pulsed as the TARDIS hung in space. On the scanner-screen Halley’s Comet was still visible.
The Doctor had spent the last few hours checking the propulsion and auxiliary support systems, while Peri had refitted many of the covers to the roundals. If nothing else, the console room looked tidier and more functional. Only time would tell whether the TARDIS itself would pass muster.
Peri watched as the Doctor made final adjustments to the flight computer. ‘Soon be ready,’ he said, closing the casing around the keyboard. ‘Just need to recalibrate the lateral balance cones.’
‘Anything I can do?’
‘Cross your fingers and hope I’ve reassembled everything correctly,’ he muttered, disappearing into the corridor.
Peri operated the scanner’s zoom device and the surface of the comet filled the screen. It was a rough, inhospitable landscape, every inch the frozen, gaseous snowball described by her college lecturer. She flicked a button and the scanner’s eye slowly started to pan across the scarred surface. As the lens picked out riffs and long, narrow ditches, a strange, eerie pulse began to emanate from the console. Fearing the worst Peri called the Doctor.
Instantly he popped his head round the door and listened to the sound for a moment before crossing to the console. He increased the volume and continued to listen.
‘Sounds like an intergalactic distress call...’ He fiddled with some switches, directing the signal through the computer.
‘Although the code is certainly unorthodox.’
‘Can you decipher it?’
‘That doesn’t concern me at the moment.’ The computer started to punch up data onto the monitor. ‘I’m more concerned with tracing its source.’
Indicating it had supplied all available information, the computer let out a tiny bleep. Quickly the Doctor read the screen. Concerned by what he had learned, he re-read it.
‘What’s the matter?’ Peri could see from his expression that something was wrong. ‘Have you located the source?’
He nodded as he instructed the computer to recheck the information.
‘Well...’ insisted Peri. ‘Or am I supposed to guess?’
The Doctor scratched his head as the computer reconfirmed the signal’s source. ‘I don’t think you’re going to like this...’
His tone confirmed her worst fear. ‘It’s from Earth, isn’t it?’
‘I’m afraid so.’
‘In 1985!’ Peri was distraught. ‘How could space-travellers have got there?’
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Others have trapped themselves before,’ he said, matter-of-factly, as he locked the automatic navigational guidance system onto the distress call. ‘And not all of them were hostile.’
Peri recalled the stories he had told of attempted invasions by Daleks and other alien life forms. ‘But what if these are? ’
The Time Lord smiled. ‘One step at a time, Peri. Let’s locate them first.’
And before she could argue further, he pressed the master control and the TARDIS followed the beam down to the planet’s surface.
4
The Search Begins
It was raining as the time machine materialised on Earth.
What was more, all the Doctor’s efforts to reactivate its chameleon circuit had proved a failure, as the TARDIS
still paraded the outward appearance and livery of an obsolete British Police telephone box.
The door of the time machine opened and the Doctor emerged, clutching a tracking device, followed by Peri.
The scene which greeted them was one of waste and dereliction. It was as though a whirlwind, after a mad dash through the department stores of the world, had tired of its hoard and abandoned it, creating an enormous rubbish tip.
Horrified, Peri gazed at the mess. ‘The aliens haven’t done this?’ she inquired.
‘I shouldn’t think so,’ he said, scrutinising the dial on the direction finder. ‘We’re in