DOCTOR WHO AND THE REVENGE OF THE CYBERMEN

by Terrance Dicks

  The Doctor obeyed. On the screen the Planet Voga rushed ever nearer.

  'Hurry,' ordered the Cyberleader.

  The Doctor looked up. 'You want me to make a good job of it, don't you?' he asked indignantly.

  Tyrum looked at the control panel clock and sighed. 'The Doctor's time is up. I fear that he has failed.'

  Harry made a great effort to sound confident. 'Don't be too sure. The Doctor always leaves things to the last minute.'

  The Commander looked at the vision screen, where they could see the Skystriker rocket soaring upward. 'Well, he's got about six minutes now, before the rocket hits the Beacon. If he doesn't transmat off by then...'

  Harry was shocked to hear how short a time was left. The Commander saw his face. 'Sorry, Harry. Now the Beacon's moving toward the rocket, same as the rocket's going toward the Beacon. Cuts down the impact time...'

  They all looked at the screen. The rocket soared higher.

  The Cyberleader tested the Doctor's bonds, and then Sarah's. 'Good. We shall now return to our ship and blast clear of the Beacon. You are both very privileged. You are about to die in the biggest explosion ever to be witnessed in this solar system.'

  The Cyberleader stalked away.

  Sarah and the Doctor looked at each other. Then they both looked at the vision screen, where the Planet Voga seemed to be rushing swiftly toward them.

  12

  'The Biggest Bang in History'

  'How long have we got, Doctor?'

  'Assuming the Vogan rocket's on its way—two or three minutes. You'd better get a move on.'

  'Escape, you mean? I'm afraid you made far too good a job of these knots.'

  'I hope so. I tied them with a special trick sheepshank I learned from Harry Houdini. Pull your left wrist up, and your right wrist down. You'll be free in no time.'

  Sarah tried it. Nothing happened. 'I'm sorry, Doctor. You must have learned it wrong.'

  Magrik looked up from his instruments. 'The radar shows something moving away from the Beacon.'

  'It must be the Cybership,' said Harry disgustedly. 'They're getting away.'

  Tyrum shook his head sadly. 'So it is all for nothing. The rocket will strike the empty Beacon.'

  'Right—except it may not be empty,' said Harry. 'If the Doctor and Sarah are still alive, they'll be on the Beacon.'

  The voice on the intercom spoke. 'Engineer Magrik to the firing bay. There is a leak in the rocket fuel section.' Magrik hurried out. No one noticed him leave. All eyes were fixed on the vision screen, where Skystriker soared ever higher.

  'Well, try your right wrist up and your left wrist down. Maybe I tied it backward.'

  Sarah tried. 'The knots are moving,' she gasped. One hand came free, then the other.

  'Good girl. Now, hurry and untie mine. That rocket's a bit too close for comfort.'

  As soon as he was free, the Doctor made for the space radio. 'Hullo Voga, hullo Voga, can you hear me? This is the Doctor on Nerva Beacon.'

  In the Guild Hall there was wild excitement as the Doctor's voice crackled from their speaker. Harry leaned forward. 'Doctor! Are you all right?'

  'Is the Commander there?'

  'Here, Doctor,' Stevenson's voice came through.

  'Tell Vorus the Cybermen have left the Beacon. Tell him to aim the rocket at their space-ship.'

  'Vorus is dead, Doctor. No one here knows how to work the rocket controls. We could send for Magrik...'

  'No time. You'll have to do it, Commander. Just a second...'

  The Doctor adjusted the scanner controls. The picture on the screen changed to one of the rocket approaching. The nose cone seemed enormous. The rocket was almost upon them.

  Even as he adjusted the scanner the Doctor was summoning to his mind's eye a picture of the rocket controls on Voga. How proudly Vorus had displayed them. 'Commander, listen to me. There should be two quadrant levers on the left of the panel. Got them?'

  The Commander's hands hovered over the controls. 'Got them, Doctor.'

  The Doctor's voice was calm and reassuring. 'The top one controls the angle of flight, the lower is the direction and stabilizer control. Pull the top lever across the quadrant, then move the other downward.' Trying to keep his hands from shaking, the Commander obeyed.

  The Doctor and Sarah stared as if hypnotized at the screen. The rocket's bomb-laden nose cone seemed almost to touch them. Suddenly the angle of the picture changed. The head-on view of the rocket was replaced by a fleeting side view as it whizzed past them, and away into Space.

  The Doctor let out a long whistling breath. 'Well done, Commander. Now you've got the hang of the controls, send that rocket after the Cybership.'

  'It'll be a pleasure, Doctor.'

  Sarah said slowly, 'Doctor, a ghastly thought's just struck me... we're still heading for the biggest bang in history. I mean, the Beacon is still rushing toward Voga, loaded with bombs.'

  The Doctor chuckled. 'Not for long, my dear Sarah.' He switched the scanner picture back to Voga. The planet was now so near that its jagged mountainy surface seemed within reaching distance. It was rushing closer and closer. The Doctor moved over to the Beacon controls and pulled the flight-trimmer levers. They refused to budge. 'Those sneaking treacherous tin men have locked the controls,' he yelled.

  'What does that mean?'

  'It means we're heading for the biggest bang in history.'

  The Commander was hunched over the rocket controls, making delicate adjustments to the directional levers. Magrik was back by now, but the Commander refused to let him take over. This was one job he wanted to finish himself. Harry leaned over his shoulder. 'You're closing in, Commander. Just a touch more starboard...'

  The Commander made a fractional adjustment, and sat back. Just a few more seconds, he thought. On the vision screen the picture now showed the Vogan rocket hurtling toward the Cybership.

  The Cyberleader looked with satisfaction on his scanner. On a nearby radar screen, no one noticed a tiny dot moving closer and closer.

  Confidently the Cyberleader intoned, 'The Beacon will impact on Voga in three and a half minutes.'

  Suddenly a Cyberman shouted, 'Leader, the radar screen. A missile is approaching us...'

  The Cyberleader rapped out orders. 'Engage full thrust. Take evasive action. Deploy full energy shield...'

  He was still giving orders to deal with the situation as the Vogan rocket struck.

  The Cybership disintegrated in a shattering blast of heat.

  On Voga there was a stunned silence. Harry spoke first. 'Well, that's the Cybermen finished.'

  'Never again will they be a threat to Voga,' said Tyrum. To himself he thought that Vorus and his rocket had come in useful after all. He would see that Vorus received full posthumous credit. A martyr was so much more satisfactory than a political rival.

  Magrik looked up from the radar screen. 'Why does the Doctor not put the Beacon back on its proper course? It appears to be still heading straight for us.'

  Appalled, they all stared at the radar screen. The Commander looked at Harry. 'He's right,' he said quietly.

  Harry coughed. 'Better give him a shout, eh? He tends to have these absentminded spells.'

  The Doctor had ripped off the inspection cover of the Beacon controls, and was heaving with a heavy wrench at the massive hydraulic controls inside. They had been locked with a Cyberman's strength, and showed no signs of shifting.

  'Maybe you're turning it the wrong way,' suggested Sarah. The Doctor scowled at her, and went on working. On the scanner you could almost count the pebbles on Voga's surface.

  A nervous voice came over the radio. 'Er, I say, Doctor?'

  Sarah went to answer it. 'Yes, Harry? The Doctor's a bit busy.'

  'Hullo, Sarah. The thing is, you appear to be heading straight for us.'

  'We're aware of that, Harry. Very much so. Just to cheer you up, we are also loaded with Cyberbombs.'

  'And what's the Doctor doing?'

  The Doctor looked up.
'I'm doing my best, Harry,' he yelled. He gave a final heave, the massive locking nut gave a little, and then came free. The Doctor flung down the wrench with a clang and ran back to the controls. They could hear the engines roaring now as they entered Voga's atmosphere...

  In the Guild Hall, the picture of the approaching Beacon completely filled the giant vision screen. Tyrum fell back screaming in panic. 'It's going to hit! It's going to hit!'

  The Doctor leaned over the Beacon controls. 'That should do it. Now, if only she'll answer in time...' He heaved on the flight trimmers. This time they moved freely. Sarah saw the close-up of Voga on the screen tilt and move away from them. She clutched at the console for support as the floor rocked under her. As the Doctor wrestled with the controls, the surface of Voga zoomed closer and then lurched away again. The peak of what looked like a small mountain rushed straight toward them.

  Sarah screamed, 'We're going to crash, Doctor.'

  'Hang on,' he yelled encouragingly. 'Can't pull back too sharply at this speed or the Beacon will break up. Wasn't built for acrobatics, poor old girl.' He eased the levers back....

  Miraculously the mountain vanished from the screen to be replaced by empty sky. The Doctor made a few more adjustments, and locked the controls. He stepped back, shaking his head, almost unable to believe that they'd survived. 'I've put her on automatic. She'll return to her proper orbit now.'

  He saw that Sarah was staring over his shoulder, her mouth wide open. In an uncanny silence, the TARDIS was materializing on the other side of the control room. The Doctor gave a satisfied nod. 'Splendid timing. I'd better just set the drift compensators. Don't want her wandering off again.' Fishing out his key, the doctor entered the TARDIS.

  There was a faint hum from the transmat booth and Harry materialized, shaken but cheerful. He stepped out, and looked toward the TARDIS. 'I see old faithful's turned up again?'

  Sarah nodded, surprised to find herself as calm as he was. She supposed so much had happened recently that they'd both lost the capacity to be surprised. 'It's all go, isn't it?'

  The Doctor popped his head out of the TARDIS. 'Ah, there you are, Harry. Don't just stand there, you two, come on inside.'

  As they entered the TARDIS, Harry was protesting, 'The Commander will be up in a minute. Old Tyrum too, probably. Shouldn't we wait and say goodbye?'

  The Doctor operated the door controls, and started take-off procedure. 'Better not, Harry. Simpler to slip away. Besides, I'm wanted urgently back on Earth.'

  'How do you know that?'

  The Doctor pointed to an odd-looking technical device, bleeping away in a corner. 'Because I left the Brigadier a Space-Time telegraph, for use in case of a real emergency.'

  The familiar groaning noise filled the TARDIS as she took off. Raising her voice, Sarah said, 'And he's used it—this telegraph thing?'

  'He has.' Take-off noise died away. The TARDIS was in the Space-Time vortex once again.

  Harry gave the Doctor a sceptical look. 'Are you really sure that bleeping is the Brigadier calling us from Earth?'

  'Of course I am, Harry.'

  Sarah could understand Harry's feelings. The Brigadier, their old friends in UNIT, and twentieth-century Earth seemed like an infinitely remote dream. Were they really going back this time?

  The Doctor seemed to sense their disbelief. 'Now see here, you two. I can even tell you exactly where on your little planet the Brigadier's calling from. To the nearest mile or so!'

  Harry and Sarah just looked at him.

  The Doctor crossed over to his telegraph device and touched a control. A miniature screen popped up. It showed a picture of the Earth. The Doctor made adjustments and the picture narrowed down to show Europe, then the British Isles, then Scotland, then a particular part of Scotland. The Doctor peered at the screen, his face alive with excitement. 'I say, this is interesting,' he cried. 'I wonder why the Brigadier's calling us from somewhere near Loch Ness[†]?'

  * * *

  [*] See Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks.

  [†] You can discover the answer in Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster.