Doctor Who_ Illegal Alien - Mike Tucker [107]
CHAPTER 26
The Doctor leaned on the TARDIS console, trying to recover his breath.
Trying to clear his head.
Next to him, Ace stood, looking around, confused.
'What happened?' she asked. One minute I was under the wheels of a German tank... and now I'm here...'
'George Limb happened,' the Doctor replied. 'That wretched time machine. I warned him... a dreadful, leaky contraption. The time distortion when he started it up brought everything to a virtual standstill. Including the Cyberconsole.
Including the tank.'
'But... not you.'
'No.' He smiled. 'Not me. Not quite.'
'I don't think I've understood anything that's happened today,' said Ace. 'I thought the past was supposed to be less complicated than the present. What was all that business with the Cybermen?'
'It's quite simple,' said the Doctor. 'No, actually it's not.
You're right it's very complicated. I just made it look simple.
The Cybermen's brains are part organic and part computer.
Naturally they form part of an integrated network, with the Cybercommand unit at its centre.' He paused briefly, satisfied himself that Ace was taking it all in. The command unit is simply a taskdedicated Cyberman with colossal processing power and the sole function of relaying instructions to the sleepers. And, of course, the thing about computers is they can always be reprogrammed. Even computers as complex as that little fellow. Provided you're clever enough to do it, of course.'
'Which you are, I suppose.'
'It worked, didn't it?'
Suddenly Ace grinned.
'George beat you at chess,' she said.
'Oh, it might have looked that way...' said the Doctor airily. 'Really it was all part of a larger game strategy. I hoped to be able to avoid a bloodbath out there. He seemed to offer the prospect of that. I needed to keep him on our side. He's a very slippery man.'
Ace looked sceptical. 'And anyway,' admitted the Doctor,
'my chess is a little rusty.' He began flicking switches on the TARDIS console.
'I'm afraid I was less than honest with him. I'd never have been able to get the Cybermen's time capsule working properly. It really was a horrendous lashup. Still, in a way George Limb got what he always wanted. He was obsessed with knowledge, contact, communication. When he stepped into that time capsule his being would have been shredded through time and space. For a moment he would have touched every single point in spacetime.'
Ace winced. 'That's horrible. I liked him at the beginning.'
'I think we both did,' said the Doctor. 'He wasn't an evil man. Not really.'
Ace was suddenly downcast.
'There was a man back there. He was locked in the cell next to me. His name was Sid Napley. He was so brave. So...
calm. He'd worked there before the Germans came. They thought he knew about the Cybermen. They took him out and beat him to death. They beat him to death for information he didn't even have.'
She was close to tears. The Doctor put his arms around her, and pressed her face to his hearts.
'Men aren't evil for the most part, Ace. Think of the good that can come out of the worst of situations. Think of Sid Napley. Think of Cody.'
Ace sniffed. 'Cody wasn't fooled by George Limb. Not for a moment.'
'He's a young man of very sound judgement, our Mr McBride,' said the Doctor, turning back to the console of his ship. 'And resourceful. Provided he can learn to get on better with the official lawenforcement agencies, I think he's got quite a future ahead of him.'
His hands flickered over an array of buttons and levers.
'Come on,' he said to his young companion. 'Let's get out of here.' And, pressing a final switch, he threw the TARDIS
spinning into the vortex.
EPILOGUE
'London, England, November 1940. Staring out of my window at a city bustling with life. Another night of bombing over.
Another day to ignore it and get on with the business of living.
Another day to realise that the Germans