"For the fifth time, no!" Orin was sure his patience was already wearing thin from trying to explain to Riley that he wanted to get their delivery over and done with so they could continue with their next destination.
"But Orin, we've been on the go for at least a week," his crew mate protested, "and I'm tired. I'm surprised you're not."
"I never said I was tired," the acting captain replied, "and we have been going non-stop for four days."
"My point exactly." Riley went behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "This probably isn't doing you or us any favours. At least think about spending one night away from all of this."
Orin drew in a sharp breath at feeling his friend squeeze the broad, firm muscle at his shoulder. Gosh, that didn't half feel good. "No," he dimly refused although enjoying the friendly, comforting squeeze he was given. "We should continue with this delivery. We're behind schedule enough as it is." He felt the hand on his shoulder let go of him and he rather hoped there would be more of that as it made him relax and forget about what had gone on and what they were going through.
"Is that all you're concerned about?" Riley noted after a brief period of silence had fallen between them. "Timescales? Orin, you're spending too much time worrying about keeping to the delivery deadlines but not worrying about yourself…"
"I said no," he cut him off, "now load those crates into the cargo bay."
Riley forlornly went over to a solitary crate waiting to be loaded on board and he heavily dropped onto it. He was thankful it held his weight but he didn't exactly weigh a lot. He fished out the small gadget he'd been working on, which was a portable transportation device. It was still a work in progress but he was pleased with its design and the progress made on it. The amount of progress he'd made on it gave him a huge sense of accomplishment and made him feel like so much more than just "a crew member" or "a mere pilot".
Not that the others ever gave him credit for accomplishing such things and that in turn made him wish that there could be some way he could have designed and completed the device way back when they were still around and he would have been able to show them just how smart they didn't think he was.
"Interesting," a flat, monotonous voice came from behind him, which made him jump on the crate he was sitting on.
"I-interesting?" He looked to see a metal clad humanoid standing behind him.
"I acknowledge the predicament you are in," it noted. "Maybe I can be of assistance to you."
"Oh?" Riley's eyes came over wide and clearer with interest. "How?"
"Work for us," it explained, "and in return for imparting your knowledge and skills to us we will offer you endorsement and full credit of your work."
"You want me to help you," he supposed. "I'm not exactly anyone particularly special. I just do things like this in my spare time."
"But you are hoping that someday this device will eventually work, yes?" Its eyes came over a little dark.
"Yeah, eventually…" He peered down at his device slowly. "…I'm not sure when that will be, though."
"Then perhaps designing and creating weaponry and devices – such as yours – may help push it forward."
"Weaponry?" Riley swallowed hard. "This device isn't meant for anything other than good."
"So does your answer mean you are turning down the offer?" The humanoid's posture came over more menacing.
"I don't wanna kill anyone."
"It is too late. It has already been decided that you will become part of our group." It grasped his arm and pulled him off the crate.
"Wait, no." The young male tried to pull himself free. "I didn't agree to that." Not only that, but his commitment lied with the SS Pentallian and Orin.
"That is too bad," the humanoid stated darkly, "since you have something we want."
Riley quickly threw his device onto the hard stony ground, the impact only weakening some of its outer shell. He then crushed it, reducing it to a pitiful disarray of wiring and circuitry. He was sorry to have to destroy it but it was probably the only way to prevent anyone or anything from using it if it were operational or enhanced to work at full capacity.
"If you thought that would make me reconsider you are very much mistaken."
He felt the creature's body up against his back and chills slid through his pores at the thought of what might happen to him. Something sharp pierced the middle of his back and before he knew it a dark, heavy feeling overtook him and within seconds he blacked out.
"Riley, come on." Orin felt as though his crew mate had simply vanished into thin air. "This isn't funny." He was sure he was playing games with him; that was what usually happened when anyone asked him to do something he didn't want to. He was making it very difficult for him that time around.
He didn't notice it before but he found the transportation device Riley always kept on him, in pieces, on the ground nearby. It had been deliberately destroyed – what by he wasn't sure – but he knew enough to know that Riley would not have done it and if he did he would have done it for a very valid reason. He knew he was in trouble but knowing that he couldn't leave without him he had to find him.
He stopped in at a local café, hoping by some strange coincidence that Riley would mysteriously appear there since he wanted a caffeine fix so badly. Either that or one of the locals may have been able to help him, but there was nothing that made Riley stand out from anyone else. He was sure he'd lost him.
****
"Hello?" Martha answered her mobile as she negotiated the teeming rain and heavy rush-hour crowds on her way home.
"Martha, this is Orin," the Northern voice tinged with panic stated.
"Sorry, I don't know anyone called Orin," she replied apologetically although appreciating that the caller sounded incredibly worried. She had her fair share of sales calls and wrong numbers and for a short moment she thought she'd answered the call to another of the two.
"This is Scannell, Martha, Orin Scannell," he tried again, "Riley's friend."
"Riley?" Her stomach turned at the mention of Riley. "Orin…Orin, I'm so sorry. How are you both?"
"Well…I can only speak for myself. You see, Riley's missing."
"How…?" She became more concerned despite not knowing what she could do at her end. "You guys didn't have a falling out, did you?"
"No. We didn't fall out and Riley didn't just leave." Orin paused to swallow hard. "He was taken."
Riley crashed into consciousness with the force of a lorry. Gosh, he'd never felt so ill before. He had a heck of a migraine that radiated into the backs of his eyes and his stomach felt extremely unsettled to the point where he was afraid he'd throw up on the floor. The bright lights shining down onto him weren't helping much, either.
His nauseated utterances prompted a few solid footsteps to approach the door of the small room in which he was put and he jumped back in fear at seeing the group of creatures that had opened the door enter and look down at him intently. He felt his heart race in his chest. What were they going to do with him and how painful was it all going to be?
"So the subject is now awake," one of them pointed out.
"Affirmative. We can now proceed with conversion."
Riley swallowed hard. What the heck was conversion? It was a procedure of some sort but it did not sound particularly pleasant or painless.
"You will come with us." They took hold of his arms and whisked him off down the corridor.
Orin found it hard to remain in the café as he awaited the Doctor and Martha's arrival. When they both entered the small café and approached him he almost lost control. "I'm so glad you're both here," he emphatically stated. "Please help me find him."
"Calm down," the taller male reassured him, "we're here now and I already have a fair idea of what or who has taken Riley and why."
The shorter frowned. "You know just like that?"
The Doctor nodded. "Cybermen," he replied offhandedly. "I'd been keeping tabs on them for a while. It was only a matter of time before they found a planet to pick on."
"What are they?" It was Martha's turn to frown.
"They are not very nice. They kidnap people and turn them into copies of them. Or worse."
"But…Riley isn't exactly special," Orin protested. "What would they want with him? Unless it's simply a random kidnapping."
"Think back," the Doctor noted carefully. "Was there anything Riley did or said at the time he went missing?"
"One thing I noticed after he went missing," he started, "was that I found something that belonged to him." He fished out the transporter device from his pocket, still in a sorry mess of disrepair and showed it to them.
"Couldn't he have broken it?" Martha supposed. Orin frowned suspiciously.
"Riley would never have destroyed this," he replied. "It was his baby. He put so much time and effort into it and he wouldn't have just thrown it away. But if he did destroy it he would've done so for a very good reason."
The Doctor looked to them both. "He must've assumed that whatever or whoever had taken him posed a very big threat – not just to himself but to others." He came over more sombre. "We have to find him – and fast. If my gut feeling is right he doesn't have a lot of time left."
"So you know where he is?" The younger assumed.
"I have some idea," he replied, "but the one thing I'm almost certain of is that Riley is still in this city."
The three friends with Orin's help ventured to the heart of the city and to the largest and only vacant warehouse he knew of. "I don't know if Riley would be here but this is the only warehouse that is known to be vacant."
"I'm sure he's here," the Doctor noted. "Cybermen have a thing about warehouses, they thrive in places like this. The bigger the building the more of them they'll churn out."
Orin went over to one of the windows and had a look through.
"Can you see anything?"
"All I can see is a dark room that looks very much like an operating theatre," he replied.
"That sounds like a Cybermen's setup," the older male noted. "There is just no way of knowing what they get up to or what they do with whoever they take. Riley is one such victim."
Their fears were proved right when the room's door was opened and a humanoid entered the room before switching the clinical lamp on. Another of them followed, hauling Riley behind it.
"Oh, gosh…" Orin swallowed hard. "What will they…are they going to kill him?"
"For what purpose would they need to kill him?" The Doctor asked carefully. "They wouldn't kill by kidnapping him. That'd just be too complicated. Try and think – is there anything Riley has of any value that they might wanna get hold of?"
"Well, the only thing I can think of is his technical ability," he supposed. "He can program things very easily. That was why he was given the post of mechanic."
They watched him struggle free but he was quickly apprehended by the two humanoids again when he appeared to crash and was lifted onto the operating table.
"This isn't good," the older noted. "It looks as though they've drugged him. They haven't tried that before."
He was put onto the table on his back with one of the creatures holding him down and the other operating a monitor and a control panel.
"We have to get him out of there," Orin suddenly stated, moving away from the window, "before they hurt him."
Before the Doctor could say anything further the window was smashed open, interrupting the programming that had just been started.
"Let him go," the young male told them warningly.
"It is too late," one of the humanoids replied. "When the process is complete he will do what we want him to and any resistance will be eliminated. He will be loyal only to us."
"That can't happen." Orin pulled the cables out of the monitor, prompting it to shut down. "I've stopped it from going ahead. Now let him go."
"It makes no difference," the other stated. "He has still undergone some form of programming. He has been given a set of imprints that can be built on during a repeat procedure – once you surrender him back to us."
He looked over to where Martha and the Doctor had come into the room.
"Doctor," the other Cybermen noted casually, "how nice of you to drop in. You will be witnessing the conversions of our two additions for our new fleet." On that note Orin was apprehended by another two that entered and Riley was once again hooked up to the conversion equipment. "Or unless you do not deem them fit for purpose and we will delete them instead."
The younger's eyes widened at seeing his friend's eyes flicker open as the drug he'd been given was starting to wear off.
"Riley," he quietly started, hoping he'd hear him, "Riley…can you hear me? Open your eyes."
Riley stirred more and his eyelids wearily lifted themselves. He tried to focus for a few more seconds as the Cybermen attending to him frantically tried to knock him out again.
"You have me," the Doctor admitted, going over to the humanoids, "so let them go. It isn't them you want."
"So, you are putting yourself on the line for your two friends," the creature flatly noted. "I can assure you my heart is breaking, Doctor. But your friend here was going to be our latest addition to our fleet as punishment for refusing to provide us with technical support. Nevertheless...you will serve just as well."
He was then seized by the two that had released Orin but he quickly threw his screwdriver to Martha. "Now, Martha. Do it!"
Not knowing what to do with it she pointed it at the console responsible for the conversion process and it short-circuited within seconds, distracting the creatures that let the Doctor go.
They helped Orin release Riley from the bed and lifted him off it.
"How are you feeling?" The younger asked him carefully.
"A-a bit trippy," he weakly replied.
"We need to take Riley somewhere more secure," the Doctor explained. "Although we've managed to remove him from the converter some amount of programming was fed into him and he needs to be treated for it."
The four escaped from the building, leaving the Cybermen to recover from the major setback.
"They have taken our prisoner," one of them pointed out.
"No matter," the ringleader replied. "We can track him down because we know exactly where he is at any time. We will come for him."