Chapter Two
At the crash site, the Cybermen, De Flores' men and the Doctor and the girls are facing each other.
"So, Doctor," said the Cyber Leader. "A new appearance, otherwise our anticipation of your presence has proved entirely accurate."
De Flores' men start shooting at the silver newcomers, with no effect.
"Eradicate them" commanded the Cyber Leader.
The Doctor, Nita and Ace hit the ground as the Cybermen shoot the neo-Nazis.
"Take cover!" shouted the Doctor.
The Doctor runs and dives into the crater made by the Nemesis.
"Doctor!" shouted Nita.
She and Ace follow him as the battle rages around the grounds.
"Doctor, we can't stay here," said Ace.
"We certainly can," replied the Doctor. "This exactly the same thing that happened the last time. Only then it was the Roundheads and Lady Peinforte."
Lady Peinforte fires an arrow directly into a Cyberman's chest unit whilst Richard says fervent prayers.
"A hit," said Lady Peinforte. "A very palpable hit."
The Cyberman dies. A second arrow hits the ground near where De Flores is hiding behind an old car. He examines it carefully as more of his men are slaughtered. Another Cyberman falls to Lady Peinforte's arrows.
"See how my poison is as deadly as ever, Richard," said Lady Peinforte.
"And I shall look after the sick" said Richard. "Which reminds me, I shall return to Briggs his money."
"Get up, fool," said Lady Peinforte. "I tell thee, Richard, were there men of silver like these here in our day, my life would have been quite different. Now I'll let them destroy each other, and then we'll take the Nemesis."
An explosion destroys the police car. A dead Cyberman topples into the crater.
"Where did that come from?" asked the Doctor.
"Didn't see," said Nita.
"A Cyberman killed with an arrow?" asked the Doctor. "But that's ludicrous, unless. Of course, the head's made of gold."
"That's real gold?" asked Ace.
"Yes," replied the Doctor. "The only substance to which they're vulnerable."
"Classy," remarked Nita.
Ace tries to grab the arrow but the Doctor pushes her off.
"Ah!" exclaimed the Doctor. "Gold dipped in poison. Lady Peinforte's calling card."
"I really think we should be getting out of here, Doctor," said Ace.
"I really think you're right," said the Doctor.
"My lady, who is that little man?" asked Richard.
"Oh, glorious evil. It is he!" exclaimed Lady Peinforte.
The Doctor snatches the bow from the box on top of the Nemesis and runs for the Tardis.
"No!" shouted Lady Peinforte.
She takes aim with her bow, but they get inside just in time. The Tardis dematerialises with an arrow stuck in the door.
"We must retreat," said De Flores. "It's our only chance."
"And leave the statue?" asked Karl.
"The statue alone is useless to them," De Flores replied. "The bow is ours. Get it."
Karl runs to the crater and retrieves the box under fire.
"Bring the bow at once," commanded the Cyber Leader.
"The Doctor and the females have escaped with it, Leader," replied the nearest Cyberman.
"And that one?"
It points to a Cyberman with an arrow in its chest.
"Terminated by another human female, using gold."
"This must be the Lady Peinforte."
Later, in Windsor town, Lady Peinforte and Richard walk down an alley to a main street where people are queuing at a bus stop across the way.
"My lady, there are people here," said Richard.
"Of course there are people," said Lady Peinforte. "This is Windsor. Come."
In a warehouse, the Cybermen have brought the Nemesis into a large warehouse or aircraft hangar by its crash site, and are cutting into the rock surrounding it.
"Cut the statue free and take it into the craft," commanded the Cyber Leader.
The Doctor and the girls are back at Lady Peinforte's home.
"I don't like this place," said Ace.
"We're just passing through, Ace," said the Doctor.
"What happened to the old man?" asked Nita. "He's gone."
"Yes," said the Doctor. "Someone's moved the chess pieces."
The Doctor rifles through the papers on the desk and produces a small card.
"Voila!"
"Is that what we came here for?" asked Nita.
"Our friend the mathematician was a genius, but he needed a little help to get started."
The Doctor burns the paper in the fire. Ace shivered.
"Cold?" asked the Doctor.
"I really don't like this place," replied Ace. "Can we make a move?"
"Yes," replied the Doctor.
He moves a piece on the chess board and they leave.
Meanwhile, the Cybermen carry the Nemesis, still in some rock, into their spacecraft, then take off.
Lady Peinforte and Richard attract the attention of a pair of thugs as they walk down through Windsor.
Meanwhile De Flores tips gold dust out of a small bag into his hand.
"What is the gold dust for, Herr De Flores?" asked Karl.
"Eventualities," replied De Flores.
At Windsor Great Park, the Tardis materialises next to an old wooden signpost.
"Validium was created as the ultimate defence for Gallifrey, back in early times."
"Created by Omega?" asked Nita.
"Yes."
He closes the door carefully, looking at the arrow. Nita is carrying the silver bow and Ace her tape deck.
"And?" prompted Ace.
"Rassilon."
"And?" asked Nita, hoping the Doctor would reveal something interesting about himself.
"And none of it should have left Gallifrey. But, as always with these things, some of it did."
He takes the bow and holds it out in front of himself at arm's length like an aerial.
"So you had to stop Lady Peinforte…" Ace began.
"Or anyone else…" the Doctor cut in.
"From ever putting the three bits together," Nita finished.
They start walking down a track with the castle in the far distance over a ridge.
"Yes, so I launched the largest piece into space."
"But you got the sums wrong," Ace guessed.
"Look. We're almost there," said the Doctor.
"I'd feel a lot safer and happier inside the Tardis," said Nita.
"Well, the Cybermen might find the Tardis. This way, our validium leads us to their validium."
"Isn't that a bit old-fashioned?" asked Ace.
"I'm an old-fashioned guy."
The Cyber-spaceship comes in to land.
At Windsor town, the two thugs confront Lady Peinforte and Richard, itching for a fight.
"You looking at me?" challenged a skinhead.
"Stand aside," Lady Peinforte commanded.
"What are you, social workers?" asked the other skinhead.
"Out of my lady's way," demanded Richard.
"We want to tell you our problems," said the first skinhead.
"Will you be turned into rats?" asked Lady Peinforte.
"We already have been," said the second skinhead.
"Poor ones," said the first skinhead. "That's our problem."
"Money!" exclaimed the second skinhead.
"Money, say you?" asked Richard.
Near a crypt, the bow is flashing and humming, and the Doctor, Nita and Ace are whistling almost in tune with it as they walk towards the Castle. The Cybermen have brought the Nemesis to a tall folly cum crypt in the ground. On the wall behind the large stone sarcophagus is the inscription Death Is But A Door. The Nemesis is starting to break out of her rock prison.
"The remaining validium approaches, Leader," said a Cyberman.
"As predicted," said the Leader. "Activate communications unit."
"But the Doctor and Peinforte are still to be destroyed," said the Cyberman.
"Our victory is inevitable," said the Leader. "The Doctor will come to us, and Peinforte is a simple savage accompanied by a terrified peasant."
In Windsor Great Park, the two thugs have been bound, gagged and are hanging by their heels from a large tree branch while their clothes burn nearby.
Elsewhere, Ace sets up the tape deck as an aerial.
"What am I supposed to be listening for?" asked Ace.
There is a loud beep, beep, and the Doctor turns it off.
"That. Cybermen communicating."
"I don't like Cybermen," said Nita.
"You should see the ones they're communicating with."
"Reinforcements?" asked Ace.
"Yes. But if we could only jam their signal. Have you got a tape?"
"Yeah," said Ace. "You mean this thing transmits?"
She puts the tape into the play deck.
"Of course it does. I built it."
At the crypt…
"Commence transmission," said the Cyber Leader.
"Leader, I must repeat the objection to the transmission of incorrect information," said the Cyberman. "Our forces do not yet hold all three units of validium."
"You are outside your function," said the Leader.
The communications globe glows.
In Windsor Great Park, the Doctor, Nita and Ace are lying on the slope listening to Courtney Pine's tape.
"Are we having fun?" asked the Doctor.
"Yeah," said Nita.
At the crypt…
"Interference, origin unknown," said the Cyberman.
"Open the monitor channel," said the Leader.
Jazz blares out.
In Windsor Great Park…
"That'll keep them busy," said Ace. "Time to go?"
"Oh, I do love a jam session," said the Doctor.
As the jazz sounds out across the galaxy, the Doctor, Nita and Ace start walking again. Eventually they come across the skinheads still hanging from the tree. The Doctor gives Ace the bow and runs over to them.
"This is ridiculous!" cried the Doctor. "Who did this to you?"
"Social workers," one of the skinheads replied.
Outside the Crypt, a strange growling yowling noise can be heard.
"My lady," said Richard.
"Of course I heard it," said Lady Peinforte. "Am I deaf?"
"It sounds like a bear, but worse," said Richard.
Lady Peinforte's silver bow glows.
"See, we're near the Nemesis," said Lady Peinforte. "Come. The bear will not pursue us. Such things happen only in the theatre."
"What creatures are these?" asked Richard.
They are llamas.
"I know not," Lady Peinforte replied.
"They will eat us," said Richard. "I beg you, my lady, return us to our own time. The England now is full of terrors."
"You're mad!" cried Lady Peinforte. "Return without the Nemesis? Never. And without my knowledge, you cannot return at all. I tell you, Richard, either you assist me to regain it or I leave thee here forever. Now, come. I think they are peaceful."
"What place, what place is this?" asked Richard.
"The piece of ground on which you stand?" asked Lady Peinforte. "Well, I will tell thee. It is thy grave, Richard."
"What?"
"I ordered you to be buried here when I planned my tomb. See, there's thy stone."
'Here Lyeth the Body of Richard Maynarde, departed this life ye 2nd November 1657 in the 51st year of his Age. He saw worlds end and begin.'
"If the dogs would not eat thee, I ordered you put out here to attend me in the next world as in this. There you see is my burial place, and aptly the silver creatures there do hold the Nemesis. We shall attack."
There is a sign near the llamas which reads – 'Stay in your car while in the safari park'.
The Doctor. Nita and Ace look round the trunk of a large tree.
"Just in time," said the Doctor.
In the crypt…
"There's nothing here, my lady.
"See the arrow? The statue's here, depend upon it."
Outside the Crypt…
"Now our plan begins to operate," said the Cyber Leader. "She will find that her crypt has weathered with age. The fact of her death will drive her insane."
Inside the crypt…
"This is your tomb?" asked Richard.
"Rather fine, is it not? But where is the statue of Nemesis?"
Outside the crypt, the Cybermen could hear Lady Peinforte panicking: "Where is it? Where?"
"Is this the human condition of madness, Leader?" asked the Cyberman.
"It is. Get them."
They could still hear Lady Peinforte shouting: "It must be here. It must be!"
Inside the crypt, Richard stands guard with his bow.
"My lady!"
"It is here! The arrow tells me. How can this be? Where? Where is it?"
Richard looses an arrow at the returning Cybermen.
Outside the crypt, a Cyberman touches the arrow with a detector.
"Gold!" cried the Cyberman.
They withdraw. Richard's second shot hits its chest unit and kills it.
In the van, De Flores consults a map.
"This was once the estate of the infamous Lady Peinforte, in the seventeenth century."
"Lady Peinforte?" asked Karl. "But Herr De Flores, we've seen a woman in seventeenth century dress today, firing arrows at us and at men of silver."
"Shut up."
Outside the spacecraft, the Doctor, Nita and Ace observe the Cyber spacecraft from underneath a hedge. It is guarded by the two headphone wearing men who knocked them into the river. Ace sneezes, so the Doctor shakes a branch and whistles like a bird. The men decide not to investigate.
"I don't suppose you've completely ignored my instructions and secretly prepared any Nitro Nine, have you?"
"What if I had?" asked Ace.
"Naturally you wouldn't do anything so insanely dangerous as to carry it around with you, would you?"
"Of course not. I'm a good girl. I do what I'm told."
"Excellent. Blow up that vehicle."
Ace grins, and picks up her rucksack.
Outside the Crypt…
"Destroy them. Destroy them!" cried the Cyber Leader.
"We cannot sustain these losses, Leader. We must withdraw."
"No. We must hold the statue and retrieve the arrow from them."
"If we are overcome, the entire strategy fails. The Cyber race will cease to exist."
"Your logic is correct. Their supply of gold is limited. Retreat."
In the Crypt…
"Of course. Help me, Richard. Tis in my tomb. Help me!" cried Lady Peinforte.
Outside the spacecraft, the Doctor emerges from the hedgerow.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor! I believe you want to kill me."
The Doctor runs and the men follow. Ace runs to the spacecraft, throws the rucksack inside then runs back to the hedgerow. KaBOOM! Karl and De Flores see the fireball and drive towards it. Ace rejoins the Doctor and Nita as the men go to the Cybermen.
Outside the Crypt…
"Betrayal!" cried the Cyber Leader. "Delete them!"
"They killed them, just cos I blew up the ship!" cried Ace, devastated.
"They were dead already," the Doctor consoled. "The Cybermen had transformed them. They were no longer human beings."
"Is that why the Cybermen saved my life, so they could do that to me too?"
"Probably. They were like people themselves before they turned themselves into Cybermen. Quite a lot of human beings are trying to follow their example."
In the Crypt, Richard has opened the top of the sarcophagus.
"My lady, where are your bones?"
"What matter?"
In Windsor Great Park…
"Are we still jamming them?" asked the Doctor.
"Tape's still running," replied Ace.
"Good. Let's see who's listening to it."
He turns up the volume.
"Ah, sweet."
Karl and De Flores meet the Cybermen in a clearing.
"We want to talk to you," said De Flores. "I don't know if you're familiar with Wagner's Ring das Nibelungen. Now we, we are the supermen, but you, you are the giants. They are wonderful creatures."
"Of course, but why should we form an alliance with you?" asked the Cyber Leader.
"We had a leader once," replied De Flores. "He predicted your coming. Now together we shall fulfil his vision and reign over this world."
"Together?" asked the Cyber Leader. "The Cyber race requires no help from humans."
"But a woman who is almost less than human now holds the statue," Karl pointed out.
"And she's armed with the most primitive toys," added De Flores.
"You insult us!" exclaimed the Cyber Leader.
"Of course not," De Flores denied. "Whatever your unfortunate vulnerability doesn't affect us. We can remove her for you."
"We accept," said the Cyber Leader. "Destroy the woman and her servant, and we will divide the planet into your slave groups and ours."
"Good," said De Flores.
"But remember, betrayal will be fatal," warned the Cyber Leader. "We are invincible to your weapons."
"Come with me," said De Flores to Karl.
De Flores and Karl leave.
"Once they have the arrow and the statue, destroy them," said the Cyber Leader.
In Windsor Great Park, the hologram above the tape deck is empty.
"Anything there?" asked the Doctor.
"Why am I doing this?" asked Ace.
"That handful back there aren't the only Cybermen in the universe. We've got to find out where the others are."
"Look, this is where the signal's being received, right?" asked Nita.
"Right."
"But according to the scanner there's nothing there," said Ace.
"Then the scanner's wrong. That lot were only the advance party. Out there somewhere's the entire Cyberforce, and they want the Nemesis more than anything else in space."
"How can you be so sure?" asked Nita.
"Because it's 1988."
"Huh. That makes sense," said Ace.
"Listen, girls. The Nemesis generates destruction. It affects everything around it. I launched it into space, but unfortunately with an orbit that brings it back to Earth every twenty five years. Take the twentieth century. It appeared in 1913."
"The eve of the First World War," said Nita.
"Twenty five years later?"
"1938," said Ace.
"Hitler annexes Austria."
"1963?" asked Nita.
"Kennedy assassinated."
"1988," said Ace.
"Check the scanner again."
Elsewhere –
"Unfortunately, Wagner must be rewritten," said De Flores. "The supermen must control the giants. Only two illiterates stand between ourselves and the Fuhrer's dream. Come."
In the Crypt, the statue is uncovered in the sarcophagus.
"How perfect you are," crooned Lady Peinforte. "Immaculate beauty carved in absolute evil."
"But your bones, my lady? They should be buried."
"What matter? They are dead, but I live, and soon I shall have the bow and my Nemesis shall be complete."
A gunshot makes Richard duck.
"We are attacked!" cried Lady Peinforte. "Quickly, arrows."
"We have but one left, my lady. I doubt that our arrows can stop these weapons anyway."
"Nonsense. Make it count. They killed the silver creatures."
More shots hit the stonework.
"See, lady, we have no chance!"
"Nonsense. No man shall take the Nemesis. Her might is mine!"
Richard fires the last poisoned arrow.
"Not for nothing did I design my own tomb. Death is but a door."
She presses a carving and a door opens in the wall.
"I always knew I'd cheat it. Here, help me with the statue."
"We can't lift it, my lady. We must fly!"
"Put up your hands," demanded Karl.
"Never!" cried Lady Peinforte.
"You want the statue, master?" asked Richard. "Here, take it. Take it."
"No!" cried Lady Peinforte.
Richard snatches the silver arrow from Lady Peinforte.
"Give her the arrow. See!" cried Richard.
Richard throws the arrow into the sarcophagus.
"Forgive me, my lady."
"Unhand me now!" cried Lady Peinforte.
Richard drags Lady Peinforte out through the new door. Karl fires and misses.
"No!" cried Lady Peinforte.
"No matter, Karl, no matter," said De Flores. "They are of no importance. We have the statue, the arrow, and the bow."
The Nemesis's hand reaches for the arrow.
"And the Cybermen?" asked Karl.
"Gold overcomes them. We have no such weakness. See how it prepares for life. Your first task must be to take control of the extraterrestrials."
The Cyber Leader enters behind them.
"Unfortunately, that will not be possible," said the Cyber Leader.
"Keep away," said De Flores. "I possess the entire statue of Nemesis. All power is mine. The life and death of everything in existence is in my hands."
"Then where is the bow?" asked the Cyber Leader.
De Flores opens the case and discovered that it is empty.
In Windsor Great Park, Ace is still staring at the scanner. The Doctor spots a lizard amongst the foliage.
"Of course," he said. "It's so simple. They're shrouded."
"You what?" asked Nita.
"Shrouded. They don't show up. But we must try and force them into revealing themselves. Treble. Bass. Please let me be right. Is anyone listening? Balance."
The scanner fills with the Cyber fleet.
"What are they?" asked Ace.
"Cyber warships. Thousands of them. They were invisible."