Doctor Who_ Attack of the Cybermen - Eric Saward [31]
‘I don’t understand how history can be in the future,’ he said dismally, ‘but can someone explain how a planet can travel around off its orbit, ‘cause when I was at school that sort of thing didn’t happen. At least not in the CSE
General Science I took and failed.’
‘It had a propulsion unit,’ said the Doctor.
The answer was so obvious it made Charlie feel like a fool. But before he could ask a supplementary question, the door was thrown open and two Cybermen marched in.
‘You will come with me,’ said the first Cyberman, gripping Peri by the arm.
‘Why?’
‘Go with him,’ urged the Doctor. ‘This isn’t the time to be difficult.’
The second Cyberman grabbed the Doctor and pushed him towards the door. ‘No need for the rough stuff,’ said the Doctor. ‘Just say where you want me to go, and I’ll manage to get there all by myself.’
But the Cyberman wasn’t listening and harshly pushed the Doctor into the corridor.
The door of the console room burst open and the Doctor was thrown in. As he scrambled to his feet, two Cybermen moved behind him and each grabbed an arm and shoulder.
‘Is all this violence necessary?’
‘You have deceived us, Doctor,’ said the Leader. The Cybermen started to squeeze his shoulders, their metal finger cutting deep into his flesh.
‘What have I done?’ he screamed.
The Leader didn’t answer, allowing him to suffer for a little while, and through his pain, to contemplate his crimes against the Cyber race.
‘Please tell me what you want,’ begged the Time Lord.
‘You will disconnect the signal you are transmitting.’
In his agony all the Doctor could manage was a brief nod. The Cybermen loosened their grip and pushed him towards the console. ‘First tell me what you’ve done with Peri.’
‘She is unharmed,’ rasped the Leader. ‘Telos is cold. She must have warmer clothing.’
Satisfied he was being told the truth, the Doctor disconnected the distress signal and stepped back from the console. ‘It’s done,’ he said, massaging his shoulders.
The Leader gave a small nod and one of the Cybermen guards hit the Doctor, sending him crashing across the console room and into the wall. Then slowly, very slowly, the stunned Time Lord slithered down it.
The sounds of excavation echoed across the bleak, barren surface of the planet Telos. In a small, disused quarry a dozen men worked, clawing at the iron-hard ground with picks, shovels and crude hand-operated drilling devices.
Although the work was painfully gruelling, they worked effortlessly, as though impervious to tiredness. This was not because of the Cyberguards, who patrolled the ridge above them, but because their arms and legs had been Cybernised. Instead of muscle and bone, they had powerful hydraulic, robotic limbs.
The men worked on, drilling into the ground, then loading the hole with explosives and a radio operated detonator. Then they moved on, repeating the operation.
For three weeks they had worked like this, criss-crossing the planet’s surface with narrow pits of impending destruction. It was the intention of the Cybermen to destroy the massive tombs that existed beneath the surface.
Stratton and Bates, two of the men in the gang, were aware of this plan and also knew that all non-Cybermen, like themselves, would be left behind to perish. As such a demise did not appeal, they had decided to do something about it.
Flight Leader Lintus Stratton and Time Navigator Eregous Bates came from the planet Hatre Sedtry in the star system known as Repton’s Cluster. In size, geological and meteorological terms it was a planet not dissimilar to Earth. The inhabitants were very similar in appearance too, being biped male and females with all the attributes of mammalian life forms. Apart from cultural differences, the other main dissimilitude was in their technology - they were many thousands of years ahead of Earth. Such were their advanced skills they had proceeded well beyond the incipient stages