[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
gesturing at Adric, Berger and Briggs. 'They are powerless to interfere with the
systems...'
'Affirmative, Leader,' the Cybermen rasped in unison.
Briggs shivered and sank into her command seat, pulling the wide collar of her
jerkin up around her neck. 'Well, if I'm going down with my ship, at least it'll be nice
to have some congenial company,' she giggled, grinning bleakly at Adric.
54
9. Accidents Happen
Scott and his handful of troopers were puzzled by the small number of silver
automatons they had sighted after leaving the TARDIS for the second time. They had
been prepared to fight every centimetre of the way, but the expected encounters had
not occurred. They dodged from cover to cover among the maze of silos, expecting
one of them to burst asunder at any moment and disgorge its silver horde of
Cybermen. But the hold seemed almost still; as if it were waiting for something to
happen.
One of the young troopers suddenly clutched Scott's arm. 'There, sir...' he
whispered, pointing to the far end of the alleyway they were just crossing. In the
distance, a large group of Cybermen were apparently walking through the side of the
hold.
'Must be some kind of airlock,' Scott murmured, gripping his Cyber gun more
securely and leading the way swiftly along the dark side of the alleyway towards the
cluster of silver figures. When they got close, Scott motioned his squad to conceal
themselves in the shadows. They watched as the last of the Cybermen entered a large
cargo-port. 'They seem to be leaving the freighter,' Scott said in surprise.
'Do you think they've got the Doctor and his friends, sir?'
'Who knows?' Scott replied helplessly. 'There are far too many of them for us
to go and ask!'
Just then a few stragglers marched up and squeezed themselves into the
airlock. A sequence of red and amber lights flashed and the enormous shutters slowly
closed behind them. There was a brief pause, followed by a sharp rush of air as the
cargo-port was evacuated.
Cautiously Scott emerged from the shadows. 'Well, at least we should be able
to reach the bridge now and see if we can find out what's happened to the Doctor...' he
muttered grimly, leading the way back towards the junction near one of the wrecked
silos.
Unknown to them, the Doctor was at that very moment very close. Together with
Tegan, their escorts and the Cyberleader, he was making his way through the deserted
hold towards the TARDIS. Ironically, the two parties passed within a few metres of
each other, moving in opposite directions in the maze of walkways between the silos.
The Doctor was walking along frowning silently, deep in thought, constantly fiddling
with something he had concealed in his pocket.
Tegan walked beside him, blinking back her tears with great difficulty. The
image of Adric's face as he bade them goodbye was printed indelibly upon her
memory. Her anger surged inside her and at last it boiled over: 'You won't like Earth
you know,' she snapped at the Cyberleader.
His ventilator bubbled energetically. 'Like or dislike does not enter my
consideration,' he responded.
'It will once you start going rusty!' Tegan retorted crisply.
At that moment, the Cyberleader abruptly stopped beside a silo numbered 099.
Tegan and the Doctor looked at each other in amazement as a curved rectangular
panel opened in its wall and the Cyber Deputy emerged from the gloomy interior.
'Main fleet acknowledges your revised intentions, Leader,' the Deputy hissed
efficiently.
55
'Excellent.'
'As soon as the freighter impacts, main fleet will rendezvous with the
secondary taskforce which has just completed embarkation in the cargo shuttle...'
The Doctor suddenly lunged towards the open panel. 'So this is where it all
happens! This is your little hideaway,' he cried. 'Mind if I take a look?'
Just then the panel started to close and the Doctor was stuck half in and half
out of the silo. He just caught a glimpse of the mysterious twilight within and the
silhouette of the weird Cyber equipment cluttering the interior before the Cyber escort
seized him by the collar and yanked him free. The panel zipped shut with a crash
which echoed through the tall silo.
'Your hunger for knowledge is commendable, Doctor, but you must curb it for
the present,' rasped the Cyberleader.
With a vicious shove the escorts propelled the Doctor and Tegan on their way
towards the TARDIS, while the Leader and his Deputy strode behind them with
relentless mechanical steps.
But the sharp vibration of the violently slamming panel had accidentally upset
the delicately balanced instruments on the main module inside the deserted silo.
Unknown to the Cyberleader and his Deputy, a sequence of lights suddenly flickered
on the reactivation panel and the unit began to surge into life once again, drawing
power from the freighter's propulsion system and pouring it into the thousands of
chrysalid Cyber units stacked abandoned in the silos...
With enormous effort, Nyssa had accomplished the grim and lonely task of clearing
away from the control chamber of the TARDIS the bodies of Professor Kyle and the
dead trooper, and the macabre wreckage of the Cyberman. Now she was trying to
make sense of the readings on the console instruments, which once again warned of a
huge magnetic field around the police-box.
All at once the radio Scott had left on the console bleeped urgently. Nyssa
snatched it up.
'What's happening out there?' she asked nervously, her eyes glued on the
console instruments.
'I don't know,' Scott answered faintly, 'It's eerie - those robot things seem to
have left the ship.'
'Well, be careful, Lieutenant. That magnetic field seems to be building up
again.'
'There's no sign of the Doctor and the others...' Scott reported, barely audibly
amid the increasing buzz of static, 'but we're about to...' At that point his voice was
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]