Doctor Who_ Silver Nemesis - Kevin Clarke [27]
‘See,’ said De Flores, ‘how the statue prepares for life.
The arms adjust their position to receive the weapons.’
Karl stared at the Nemesis, mesmerised. De Flores, although unable to transfer his gaze from the statue, none the less clicked the silver flight case unlocked and opened its lid carefully. ‘Our first task then,’ he continued, ‘will be to take control of the extra-terrestrials.’
There was a slight sound at the doorway behind them.
The Cyber Leader, flanked by two Cybermen, had arrived.
There was the slightest pause before he spoke.
‘Unfortunately,’ he said, ‘that will not be possible.’
De Flores backed away, nearer to the statue. A note of panic entered his voice. ‘Keep away,’ he shouted. ‘I possess the entire statue of Nemesis. All power is mine. The life and death of everything in existence is in my hands.’
The Cyber Leader sounded almost patient. ‘Then where,’ he asked, is the bow?’
For the first time De Flores, aghast, looked down at the flight case. As he did so, his face turned ashen: the case was empty.
On the grass outside the TARDIS, the being who could have supplied the Cyber Leader with his answer had he been so inclined, namely the Doctor, gazed at the bow, deep in thought.
Next to him, Ace once again scrutinized the holographic image of the Earth and Moon above her ghetto blaster. The cassette turned silently in the body of the machine, but thousands of miles out in space, the jazz quartet’s music bounced off the moon and continued into the infinity of the universe. In front of Ace, the tiny red lights of the graphic equalizer twinkled, but otherwise there was no activity and nothing else to be seen in the image but endless empty space.
Suddenly the Doctor gave a shriek. All the birds for yards around fluttered rapidly into the sky.
‘Of course,’ he yelled. ‘It’s so simple.’ He leapt to his feet in excitement. ‘Keep your eyes on the hologram.’
Ace, who had been doing nothing else for almost two hours, found this more than a little unnecessary. ‘There’s nothing there,’ she replied shortly.
The Doctor jumped up and down. ‘They are there!’ he insisted. ‘But they’re shrouded.’
Without waiting to explain, he began punching buttons on the front of the tape player. The music suddenly became audible through the speakers.
‘You what?’ asked Ace.
‘Shrouded,’ he repeated. ‘They don’t show up. But,’ he continued hitting switches, ‘if we keep jamming their communications they’ll be forced to reveal themselves.’ He completed his adjustments to the controls. The music increased in volume. The Doctor checked his arrangement of the switches. ‘Bass... treble... O please let me be right.’
He suddenly appeared to catch himself out. ‘Who am I talking to?’ he asked aloud in surprise. ‘Balance.’
The music reached a crescendo. As it did so, tiny dots began to appear on the hologram in the vicinity of the moon. They multiplied and spread like a rash across the screen.
The Doctor recoiled in shock. Ace was petrified.
‘What... what are they?’ she managed to ask.
‘Focus,’ said the Doctor. He further adjusted the tape deck’s switches. The holographic image zoomed in and selected three of the tiny dots around the Moon. As Ace watched, they became larger, sharpening into visibility. A giant spacecraft with two smaller ones in attendance hung ominously in space over the Moon. At last the Doctor answered.
‘Cyber warships,’ he said quietly. He tore his gaze from the image and turned to face her. ‘Thousands of them. And they’re invisible.’
Ace paled. Her mind was reeling at the shock of the image in front of her. The Doctor was clearly very deeply disturbed. ‘And it’s all my fault,’ he whispered. He switched off the hologram sharply and they sat in silence, stunned with shock. Ace noticed distantly that a light drizzle had begun to fall, but it seemed as if it were happening somewhere else, a long way off.
At length she roused herself, forcing herself to speak.
‘What,’ she began hesitantly, ‘what can we do?’
The Doctor looked up at her, as though surprised to