DOCTOR WHO - THE INVASION

by Ian Marter

  'Behind you, Vaughn!' he yelled, dodging round the corner out of sight under the metal stairs.

  Above him, Vaughn spun round aiming the Professor's machine awkwardly over the handrail. As the intense whistling ripped the air, one of the Cybermen collapsed in a heap of wobbling limbs and tubes. Before Vaughn could adjust the direction of the horn, the other two Cybermen discharged their laser units simultaneously. Vaughn was instantly transformed into a pillar of fire, flickering rapidly from positive to negative. He flung the Cerebration Machine high into the air and it smashed asunder at the Doctor's feet in a cascade of delicate components. Vaughn's terrible death took several-seconds as he flailed about in a vortex of strobing white flames.

  Crouching beneath the fire escape, the Doctor's blood ran cold as he listened to Vaughn's final agonised screams... They were the sounds not of a human but of a Cyberman. When he looked up eventually, the Doctor felt a rain of fine black ash on his face.

  Rubbing his watering eyes, the Doctor peered round the corner. The second Cyberman had now collapsed on top of the first, but the third monster was advancing across the road towards him. Glancing behind him, the Doctor saw that the alley formed a dead end. The hissing rubbery breaths were only metres away. Swallowing hard, the Doctor waited at the corner. As soon as the creature appeared, he dived forward between its legs and raced towards the powerhouse door.

  At the far end of the road, the Brigadier and his troops saw the disorientated Cyberman trying to disentangle itself from the railing of the fire escape. Behind it, a tiny figure scurried into the powerhouse.

  'There's the Doctor!' cried Zoe.

  'Bazookas!' snapped Lethbridge-Stewart.

  Seconds later a roar burst from the launcher and the Cyberman was blown to pieces in the middle of the roadway.

  After a pause the Doctor crept out from the doorway. 'Where on earth have you been?' he yelled. Then he pointed to the blockhouse. '"I'he ion beam transmitter's in there... Do get a move on...'

  Led by the Brigadier, the platoon and the girls tore down the road to the blockhouse. After a brief consultation with the Doctor, the Brigadier ran up the fire escape, clambered over Vaughn's welded corpse and onto the roof. Armed with her camera, Isobel tried to follow him, but the Doctor caught her and dragged her under the fire escape. Several troopers clattered after the Brigadier and the others surrounded the blockhouse with levelled machine-guns.

  After a long silence they heard a tinkle of glass followed by several grenade explosions. The door of the blockhouse was blown off and a number of Cybermen staggered out to be greeted by a hail of machine-gun fire.

  Isobel wriggled out of the Doctor's grasp and took a series of hurried pictures of the heap of wriggling, gasping aliens scattered over the roadway. More massive explosions followed and more Cybermen tottered into the dense barrage of bullets and collapsed twitching and smouldering on top of the others.

  There was a long silence. At last the Brigadier staggered out, coughing and wiping his blackened face to hearty cheers from his men. He found the Doctor posing heroically on the fire escape, flourishing bits of dismembered Cyberman while Isobel snapped cheerfully away.

  'When you're quite ready, Doctor...' he gasped resentfully, 'we have an invasion on our hands.'

  The Doctor grinned cheekily at him. 'Oh really, Brig? It looks like soot to me!'

  In the Henlow Flats bunker, Squadron Leader Bradwell and his team listened to the Brigadier's Situation Bulletin on the polyvox unit while keeping their eyes fixed on the radar scanners for any sign of the Cyber Mother Ship or of the Megatron Bomb.

  '... By destroying the ion beam transmitter we have stopped the enemy triggering their bomb. However, their Cybership continues to transmit its hypnotic signal and therefore the world remains paralysed,' explained Lethbridge-Stewart. 'To stop this signal we must eliminate the Cybership. The Russian rocket should reach it in... in approximately six hours. If the warhead succeeds then humanity will be released from Cyber coercion and we shall be able to mobilise International Defences against the Cybermen already on the Earth...'

  'Something on the screen, sir!' called out Flight Lieutenant Peters. 'It's coming in very fast.'

  Bradwell hurried over. On the edge of the long-range sky radar was a large white blob. 'Sure it's not noise, Peters?'

  'No, sir, it's there all right. True orbital path. Must be gigantic.'

  Bradwell snatched up the polyvox. 'It must be the Cyber craft,' he murmured.

  'It's in a holding orbit, sir. Approximately five thousand miles.'

  The Squadron Leader apologised for interrupting the Brigadier. 'We've picked up an enormous UFO, sir. It's orbiting about five thousand miles out.'

  'Outside your range I suppose?' asked the Brigadier despondently.

  'Oh yes, sir. Anyway we've only got some odds and ends left. We chucked all our best stuff at the earlier lot.'

  Lethbridge-Stewart grunted. 'Very well. Thank you, Bradwell. Inform me of any change. Out.'

  In the Operations Room inside the Hercules the atmosphere was fraught with anxiety. The Brigadier told Benton to contact Captain Turner at the Nykortny Base in Russia. Then he turned to the Doctor, who was silently brooding by himself.

  'Why the devil would they move their Mother Ship in to a closer orbit?' he asked, completely mystified.

  The Doctor roused himself. 'No doubt to deliver their bomb,' he mused.

  'But Doctor, we've destroyed the ion beam transmitter... so how...?'

  The Doctor sighed. 'I must have been mistaken,' he confessed. 'Evidently the device does not require an ion field. However, if as I suspect it is highly unstable, then it must be confined within a giant magnetic field until shortly before detonation. Therefore it could hardly be fired by missile from the neighbourhood of the Moon some 230,000 miles away..

  'You mean the magnetic field has to be generated inside the Mother Ship?' Zoe blurted out.

  The Doctor nodded gloomily. 'Precisely, Zoe. So they have come in closer to Earth and are presumably about to launch the Megatron Bomb.'

  'So they must have come in range of the Russian missile!' exclaimed Zoe excitedly.

  'Indeed, Zoe, but unfortunately travelling in the wrong direction.'

  The Brigadier put up his hand for silence as Captain Turner's voice at last came through. 'Sorry about the delay, sir, but we've had an almighty flap on here...'

  'Can the Russians re-direct their rocket, Jimmy?' demanded the Brigadier urgently, his eyes fixed on the Doctor's.

  'Yes, they already have, sir. Estimate contact with Cyber craft in fifteen minutes.'

  The Brigadier glanced at his watch. 'Could the Cybermen deliver their bomb in that time?' he asked the Doctor.

  The Doctor nodded, gripping Zoe's hand protectively. 'Easily, I'm afraid.'

  The Brigadier thanked Turner and sank into a chair. 'This is going to be a long fifteen minutes...' he sighed.

  They sat in agonised silence, waiting. Once Benton knocked a tin mug flying and it clattered under the radio console, making everyone jump. The hapless Corporal mumbled his apologies sheepishly.

  After a seemingly eternal vigil Squadron Leader Bradwell's excited voice burst from the polyvox receiver. 'We have the Russian rocket on radar, heading right on target, sir.'

  Then a chorus of urgent voices was heard in the background. 'Now we've got a third echo sir, heading away from the Cyber ship!' Bradwell shouted above the hubbub in the bunker.

  The Doctor stood up, frantically ruffling his mop of hair as he glanced at Zoe in despair. 'The Megatron Bomb...' he whispered. 'It's on its way after all...'

  In the bunker at Henlow Flats Squadron Leader Bradwell stared at the three traces on the radar screen. The small trace of the Russian rocket was fast approaching the large blob of the Cyber Mother Craft. A third echo, the Megatron Bomb, was moving rapidly away from the Mother Ship and towards the centre of the screen.

  'Prime all remaining Taktiks,' he suddenly rapped out. 'Override checks programme and lin
k into skyprobe radar guidance.'

  'Target trajectory linked...' reported Peters. 'In range thirty seconds. You think this will work, sir?'

  'No idea, but we've got nothing to lose,' Bradwell cried cheerfully, the light of battle shining in his eyes. 'Guidance locked on yet?'

  'Best we can, sir, on all three missiles.'

  Bradwell turned the key in his command console. 'Right. One at a time... Three... two... one... Fire!' He stabbed the launch button with crossed fingers.

  The bunker crew waited tensely.

  'One's going wide, sir...' Peters called out.

  'Prepare Two and standby Three, just in case.'

  On the other side of the airfield the two remaining missiles had swung their slim black noses up at the sky. Seconds later one of them streaked away into the blue.

  'Two looks good, sir,' Peters reported.

  On the radar scanner the Taktik missile was soon seen homing in directly on the Megatron Bomb missile, while far beyond them the Russian rocket was now almost touching the Cyber Mother Ship.

  'Bradwell, what the devil's going on over there?' the Brigadier suddenly boomed from the polyvox unit.

  At that moment a frenzied cheer erupted in the bunker.

  'Bradwell...? This is Lethbridge-Stewart. I demand to know what's happening...'

  Another even bigger cheer and whoops of delight filled the bunker as the airmen hugged one another and shookhands.

  Bradwell picked up the polyvox. 'Two bullseyes, sir!' he reported, laughing with relief as he gazed at the tracer sweeping back and forth across the blank radar screen.

  'Not a trace of 'em left.'

  While the Brigadier's and the Doctor's hearty congratulations buzzed out of the polyvox unit, Bradwell reached under his collar and gingerly removed the depolariser taped to his neck. It had begun to itch...

  Two days later, Zoe was once again posing under the hot lights in Isobel's improvised studio. This time she was wearing a black catsuit and her hair was covered in silver glitter, while Isobel looked cool and relaxed in orange hotpants and silver boots.

  'What exactly is this new job you've landed?' Zoe asked, taking a well deserved breather.

  'It's super,' Isobel grinned. 'Because of all my action photos of the Cybermen I've got an exclusive contract with a magazine to do a worldwide exclusive on the invasion! What about you, Zoe?'

  Zoe screwed up her face. 'Oh, I suppose when the Doctor's finished repairing the TARDIS circuits we'll be off again,' she replied regretfully.

  Isobel looked sad. 'Where to?'

  Zoe shrugged. 'We never know where to... or when to, come to that,' she replied mysteriously.

  The door burst open and Captain Turner popped in.

  'Here's my dolly soldier at last,' cried Isobel.

  'Cheeky!' grinned Turner. 'Zoe, the Doctor's ready to leave. I've got the jeep outside.'

  Zoe looked a little downcast. 'Oh, any news of Jamie?' she asked.

  'He's fine, Zoe. We'll pick him up from the hospital on the way.'

  Isobel nudged Turner mischievously. 'Could I come too?'

  Turner hesitated. 'Okay, as long as you promise not to call me your "dolly soldier" in front of the Brig,' he warned her sternly.

  They all laughed and he led the way outside.

  An hour later, the Doctor, Zoe, Jamie, Isobel, Captain Turner and the Brigadier all climbed out of a UNIT jeep parked beside a gate leading into a field.

  'Here, Doctor?' exclaimed Lethbridge-Stewart, surveying the leisurely cows with some misgiving.

  'Yes, thank you, Brigadier, this is fine,' smiled the Doctor, opening the gate. He turned and shook hands warmly.

  Jamie limped up and frowned. 'Och, are ye sure this is the place, Doctor?'

  The Doctor shielded his eyes with the two repaired circuit panels and surveyed the placid rural scene. 'Yes, Jamie. Don't you recognise that cow over there?'

  They followed his arm and gaped in astonishment. Half the cow seemed to be missing - only its head and forelegs were visible.

  The Doctor chuckled. 'The TARDIS must be just over there. Come on you two, all aboard.'

  He marched across the lush grass and went up to the half-invisible cow. He patted its head tenderly and then took a few steps towards where its tail should have been and promptly disappeared. Immediately his head re-appeared just above the cow's head.

  'I've found the TARDIS!' he cried. 'Hang on a minute while I put the circuits back.' Again the Doctor disappeared.

  'What the devil's the fellow up to?' muttered the Brigadier scratching his head, while Zoe and Jamie exchanged a grin.

  A few minutes later, the TARDIS materialised with fitful flashes of its yellow beacon and shrill grindings from its innermost mechanism.

  'A disappearing police box!' gasped Isobel, opening her camera case. 'I don't believe this...'

  The door opened and the Doctor emerged. 'Come along, you two!' he shouted. 'We're five hundred years late already.'

  Zoe and Jamie bade farewell to the amazed and bewildered group at the gate and walked off arm in arm towards the shabby police box. Isobel clicked eagerly away as the intrepid trio stood waving in the doorway of the TARDIS, with the Doctor posing dramatically for the telephoto lens. At last the door squeaked shut.

  Isobel, Captain Turner and the Brigadier leaned on the gate and laughed as the cows suddenly looked up and scattered in all directions mooing loudly. With a hoarse trumpeting and groaning sound the battered police box faded and finally vanished completely.

  'Where do you think they've gone, sir?' asked Turner, shaking his head in puzzled disbelief.

  The Brigadier watched the cows as they gradually resumed their quiet grazing. Then he shrugged. 'It's a moot point, Jimmy,' he said and marched briskly back to the jeep.