Doctor Who: Tomb of the Cybermen (13 page)

He stood there undecided. What could he do? If he banged on the hatch, the Cybermen would hear him. If he didn't, the humans above would never know he was there, and it could only be a matter of time before the Cybermen returned.

He looked at the unmoving lid, dented from the impact of the Cyberman's incredibly powerful fists and shuddered. Then he raised his fist and knocked softly.

In the control room the humans, recovering from the. chase, thought they heard something. They listened. One tap. Two taps.

Soft, not the great rending clangs of the Cyberman.

'Don't open it,' said the Professor. 'It may be the Cyberman.'

'No, no,' said the Doctor. 'Too soft. Human knuckles this time.

It must be Toberman and Klieg. We must open the hatch.'

Hopper and Callum stared at him.

'Come again,' said Hopper. 'After all they've tried to do—you want to let them up here?'

'He's right,' said the Professor primly. 'We can't leave them down there, even if they are killers.'

The Captain looked at him as if wondering how a man could be such an innocent fool.

'Most likely they're both frozen solid by now,' said Jamie with a shudder.

The knocking started again.

'You must let them up,' said Kaftan. 'They must be saved.'

'Yes,' said the Doctor.

'But why, Doctor?' said Jamie. 'Ye canna trust that man.'

'Agreed,' said the Doctor, 'but they're more dangerous to us down there than up here.'

Hopper drew his gun. 'Now you're making sense,' he said.

'O.K., Jim.'

Callum began to set up the sequence for opening the hatch again. Jamie grabbed one of the stools and stood ready.

The knocking started again, soft, persistent.

'O.K.,' said Hopper. 'Let it go.'

Callum worked the opening levers. The others watched tensely as the lid slowly ground up. Hopper raised his gun and levelled it.

Out of the hatch burst Klieg and flopped over the rim on to the floor.

Hopper ran to the hatch and looked down the shaft for Toberman.

'Eric,' cried Kaftan. 'Where's Toberman?'

'They've got him!' gasped Klieg hysterically, breathless.

'They've got him! Close it, quick!'

Hopper nodded to Callum who started the closing sequence.

Everyone held their breath as the hatch began its slow descent, only letting it out as the lid finally closed up tight again.

They gathered round Klieg, who lay on the floor, leaning against the table, looking up defensively. Hopper kept his gun ready in his hand. 'Still convinced that you can form an alliance with the Cybermen, Mr Klieg?' asked the Doctor.

But Klieg's jaw tightened and the fanatical gleam came back into his eyes.

'If I'd only been in a stronger position to bargain with them,' he said.

The Professor turned away contemptuously. 'The man's obviously out of his mind,' he said.

'You're in no position to bargain with anyone right now,' said Hopper grimly. 'What are we going to do with him and the woman?'

he asked the Professor.

'I'd feel happier if they were not left in here,' said Parry.

'What about the testing room?' suggested the Doctor. 'There's only one door. They can't get out.'

. 'A good idea,'. said Parry. 'They'll be quite safe in there.

Callum!'

'O.K., Mr Klieg, let's go,' said Callum. He drew his gun and led off.Klieg and Kaftan, Hopper following behind.

They pushed them into the testing room, slammed and locked the door, watched by the others.

'Now,' said the Captain briskly. 'If I don't get back to that orbiter, we're not going to take off inside a week.'

'We'll come with you,' said the Professor, preparing with much relief to leave. To find Cybermen in tombs was an archaeological triumph. But to find Cybermen rising from the dead and taking over the universe: that was something quite different. He wanted to get away as soon as possible, while his rolls of film were still intact.

'I've told you, not until I'm operational again,' said Hopper.

'You stay right here till I'm ready for you.'

He picked up his anorak and space-torch, ready to leave.

'I don't think you'll have any more trouble with our friends down there,' he said, as he passed the hatch.

'We shall see,' said the Doctor quietly to Jamie.

10

Below in the cavern the Controller and his five head Cybermen consulted together by the control board. He came to a decision and raised his hand. 'We shall release the Cybermats! We will use the power of Cybernetics on the humanoids.'

He pressed a button on the control desk. To the right of the Cybertombs a large square sheet of metal slid silently aside. Behind it were a series of pigeon-holes, some twenty in all, in each of which lay a dormant Cybermat.

'Test them,' said the Controller. 'The brain of this humanoid will be their target.' He indicated Toberman, who lay unconscious on the floor at their feet.

The Cybermen carefully drew out three and placed them on the floor near Toberman.

The Controller turned to the control panel and turned a large knob clockwise. The Cybermats' head lights came on and the low humming sound came from their bodies, but they remained still.

'These Cybermats are dormant through lack of use,' said the Controller. 'Activate them!'

The Cybermen picked up the three silver creatures, turned them over and opened up a small compartment on the underside.

With skilled precision, they adjusted some small electronic controls, then carefully put them back on the floor next to Toberman.

Inside the testing room Klieg lay asleep, exhausted by his flight from the Cybermen.

Kaftan sat by him, as cool and collected as ever, her uniform neat, her hands folded, thinking. She looked around the testing room, then saw something that made her start to her feet.

The shattered remains of the Cyberman target still lay where they had fallen—among them, a short length of black, deadly barrel protruding—was the Cyberman weapon.

She picked it up curiously. It was about as long as a forearm, black, with a short stock and a button instead of a trigger.

As she turned away her feet caught the Cyberman arm shell. It clattered down on to the metal floor. Klieg was startled into wakefulness.

'What's that?' he shouted, still dazed.

'Just me,' said Kaftan's soothing voice.

Klieg grunted angrily. 'Well, keep quiet and let me sleep,' he muttered, turning over ready to sleep again.

'Sleep later,' said Kaftan sharply. 'Look at this!'

Klieg sighed. He wanted to sleep. He wondered in the moment between sleeping and waking if he would ever have come this far on this wild chase for power, if it had not been for this unrelenting woman.

'What is it?' he asked, raising himself on to his elbow.

'It's one of the weapons they were testing,' said Kaftan.

'Here, let me see,' said Klieg, sleep forgotten.

He scrambled to his feet, took the gun and examined it. It felt cool and sleek in his hand. A gun. A gun better than anything yet developed on Earth.

'You're right!' he whispered in excitement. 'It's a Cybergun!'

'Take a look at that control. Make sure everything is switched off,' Klieg continued.

'It must gain power via a small transmitter from the central power unit. We don't want any accidents.'

'It could be a mock-up—like the Cyberman,' said Kaftan.

'We'll soon know,' said Klieg. 'Turn off the power. The switch on the right of that board.'

Kaftan clicked over a switch. 'All the sequences show negative,' she said quietly.

'Good,' said Klieg.

He put his hand into his side pocket and took out a set of jeweller's tools. Kaftan watched while he began to dismantle the weapon. Skilfully he worked out where each separate part must be, unscrewed it and placed it gently on the metal floor. It was a beautiful piece of design, made of better metal alloys than anything they had yet seen on Earth.

'There is nothing wrong with this,' said Klieg. 'Now, they will have to listen to us.'

'The Cybermats are ready.'

'Stand clear,' said the Controller.

The Cybermats were arrayed in a horseshoe round the body of Toberman, their antennae pointing towards him. The Cybermen stood watching.

'Now,' said the Controller's level but precise voice. He turned the control knob.

There was a low buzzing noise, a whine, rising slowly to a higher and higher pitch. Nothing moved except the antennae on the Cybermats. They started moving forward towards the giant lying in front of them.

'Excellent!' Klieg was saying. 'A small X-ray laser, I'd guess.'

He took aim with the Cybergun, pointing it at the metal panel on the other side of the room. Kaftan moved back nervously and waited.

Klieg pressed the trigger button and, with a flash, smoke began to come out of the metal panel. With the trigger pressed, he burned a neat circle in the panel. A round piece of metal clattered forward on to the floor.

'Yes! A laser! Cuts metal, drills through anything we want it to, my dear Kaftan,' he smirked, the gun in his hand giving him the power he knew he had to have.

'What are you going to do now?' asked Kaftan.

'Take command of course,' said Klieg. 'What do you. think?

With this, we shall be able to deal with those people in there.'

Behind him was the hole torn in the metal by the laser gun.' Up through it came the chill wind from the Cybercaverns, and creeping up towards it came the first of a swarm of something else: the first of the reprogrammed Cybermats.

'Never mind about the others,' said Kaftan. 'The important thing for us is to command the Cybermen.'

'Er... yes... I know,' said Klieg. 'But...'

Even with the gun in his hand, he now looked anything but the arrogant conqueror.

'Isn't it, Eric?' insisted Kaftan's clear voice.

'You haven't been down there,' he muttered. 'You haven't seen those... vile things.'

He shivered.

'You're not scared, are you?'

'We have completely underestimated their power,' said Klieg, trying to convey to her some slight inkling of the horror that still waited below them in the chill cavern.

'But this time we have the power,' said Kaftan. 'At least, you do.'

Klieg didn't understand her.

'The gun, Eric. The gun. You have the Cybermen's own weapon. This laser. You can turn it against them. Now they will have to obey,' she went on, her eyes shining. 'If they refuse, we shall destroy the opening device and seal them up in their tomb for ever.'

Klieg looked at her, understanding, full of arrogance again.

'Do you understand?' asked Kaftan.

'Yes, you are right. I am invulnerable with this,' said Klieg. 'I shall be Master of the Cybermen.'

'Come on!' said Kaftan briskly. 'Let's deal with the others.'

She moved towards the door, but Klieg was not following her.

She turned around.

'Eric?' she said.

'Master,' he said, 'the supreme moment of my life.'

She looked at him hard. But he stood still, a strange fixed expression on his face.

'... The supreme moment of my life,' he repeated. 'It was logical that it should happen this way.'

'Eric, we have work to do,' she said firmly.

'Yes, of course,' he said, rousing himself. 'But hardly work—'

A slow smile spread over his features, different from anything she had seen on his face before, a strange self-satisfied grin, but dangerous, blind...

'... More of a pleasure.'

'A what?' asked Kaftan.

'A pleasure,' said Klieg. 'When I think the moment is right to turn this gun on that Doctor and his companions.' He smiled again.

'The rest are of no account,' he said with a casualness that would have done credit to a Cyberman, 'but the Doctor...' He licked his lips as if his mouth was dry with excitement. 'He will make a most precise target.'

Kaftan looked at him again, worried over this new Eric Klieg, then shrugged.Perhaps his mood would pass. On the floor, unseen, the small silver creature crept towards them, pointing its antennae towards the two logicians.

Down in the cavern Toberman, now awake, watched anxiously as the Cybermats stopped three inches away from his head and reared up to make their fatal leap.

'Enough!' said the Controller. 'These humanoids are not like us.

They still have fear.'

He switched the control back and the three Cybermats subsided on to the floor.

'Place the Cybermats on the runway,' said the Controller, and the Cybermen cautiously picked up the virulent creatures, placed them on three platforms at the back of their cupboard and opened trap doors in the wall. They looked up three small chutes and made sure they were clear. Each chute, leading up to the top level, where the humans were, was a clear runway for the Cybermats.

The Controller stood by the control panel. He turned the control again.

'The Cybermats will attack!' he said.

A humming sound began and, their red eyes flashing, the silver scorpions moved up the chutes.

In the control room upstairs the exhausted humans were asleep. Victoria,. whose watch it was, was nodding off, trying vainly to keep awake, but the others—Jamie, the Doctor, Parry and Callum were deep asleep.

Suddenly the Doctor started awake. He blinked and stretched, then noticed Victoria still sitting up but nodding forward, her long hair round her like a cape.

'Hey, why didn't you wake me?' asked the Doctor. 'I'm on your side, remember?' He smiled at her with his rare kind smile, a smile so kind that it seemed to take all the sadness there was inside it and still come out as a smile.

'I ought to have been on watch half an hour ago,' he said.

'I thought you should rest,' said Victoria primly.

'Why me?'

'Oh, well—no reason really,' stumbled Victoria, embarrassed.

The Doctor looked at her, puzzled, then his face broke suddenly into a smile.