VII
The Controller had downloaded all files on the Doctor as soon as it knew he was involved. It knew he was responsible for all the Cybermens failures. The defeat of the early invasions of Earth. The annihilation of Mondas. It knew that the Doctor would never allow the Cybermen to succeed. So it was no great leap of logic to assume the Doctor would come here, to try and stop it. So when the Doctor suddenly appeared, standing right near the entrance to the chamber, it didn't react at all.
"Cybercontroller," the Doctor commented. "I wonder if you can actually die."
"The Cybercontroller units themselves are capable of destruction," the Controller replied. "But the program automatically saves and resets with every Controller."
"The question was rhetorical," the Doctor snapped. "Anyway, that's not what interests me... what interests me is, why attack this little, pointless colony world? Boeshane isn't a planet with any strategic significance, or resources, there aren't many people..."
"This is not the only world under attack, Doctor," the Cybercontroller countered. "This is only one of countless thousands under assault."
The Doctor blanched, then closed his eyes, trying desperately to remember something. Then, as if somebody had flicked a switch inside his head, his eyes opened and he grinned.
"This is the Cyber war!" he yelled. "Right now, a massive Cyber fleet is attacking Ganymede station. Right now, thousands of colony worlds are being converted. Right now, you're launching the biggest single campaign in the history of the Cyber Race!"
"This is correct," the Controller said, "however, your reaction is illogical - you are acting as if this course of events is a welcome one. You are an enemy of the Cyber Race, our triumph is not one of your long-term goals."
"Well," the Doctor grinned. "If you have foreknowledge of events like me, then you're bound to be happy if you know about the Cyber Mash Up!"
The Cybercontroller marched up to him and lifted him by his collar.
"Explain this," it demanded, almost angry.
"You get stuffed!" the Doctor laughed. "Beaten! Stopped! Defeated! Soundly trounced!"
The Controller said nothing for a full thirty seconds, holding the Doctor there, but he could tell it was processing information as it stood, because there was a faint whirring from it's head. He grinned at it again, and the whirring stopped.
The Controller threw him across the room, sending him smashing heavily into a wall. He struggled to stand, but it was already upon him again.
"You are the Doctor," it told him. It threw him across to the other side of the room. "You are an enemy of the Cyber Race." It rammed him into a wall. "You are the cause of our near extinction in the past." It smacked him in the face. "You are the only thing standing between us and the salvation of humanity."
It picked him up, and rammed him into a Conversion Pod that had only recently been vacated.
"You will become our greatest weapon," the Controller told him. "You will inform us of the necessary alterations to our plan, and then assist us in implementing them."
"NO!" came a small yell from behind them. Eilidh had taken her perception filter off, and ran to the Controller, hitting it with a pole she had picked up from the corridors outside. The controller knocked it out of her hand and grabbed her arm.
"You will become like us," it said simply. "Once a conversion unit is vacated, you will join the Cyber Race."
"No!" she yelled again. "I'd rather die!"
"You are in pain," it told her. "It is understandable. You have lost much. You have suffered greatly. But we will set you free. You will be free of hatred, of joy, of depression, of fear. You will become as we are."
She stopped struggling as it spoke, and looked up at the dead eyes, at the teardrops in the corner.
She stared into those eyes.
"Who were you?" she wondered aloud.
"I am the Cybercontroller," it said simply. It held fast, and turned to the Doctor, semi conscious as he was. He opened his eyes slightly, and looked at Eilidh, then rammed his hands against the glass case.
"NO!" he yelled. "Leave her alone! I'll give you anything you want if you just leave her alone!"
"Incorrect," the Controller said. "You will give us what we want now."
--
It was a simple remote control, attached to a large, oddly shaped computer - ivory coloured, almost as if it was made out of bone...
"It was given to the Boeshane Peninsula hundreds of years ago, in case of this eventuality. We were told, 'this is your salvation'," Carson explained.
"What is it, what does it do?" Jack asked.
"It's the most powerful anti Cyberman weapon ever devised," Carson smiled. "It targets their unique Cybernetic Elements, fries their circuitry. Kills them, for a radius of a whole world. Doesn't affect anything else."
Jack looked it up and down. It looked pretty nasty.
"Have you tested it?" he asked.
"One use only, apparently," Carson replied. "Now, are you gonna help?"
Jack thought of the Doctor. This would be tantamount to genocide, wouldn't it? Then again, it was only one group of Cybermen, there were surely others - and the Doctor had been willing to kill an entire race of Daleks, an entire planet of humans. But that was then, the old Doctor, the Ninth Doctor (at least according to the records). That Doctor was scarred. This Doctor was different. He wouldn't stand for it.
"No," Jack said.
Carson looked at him in disappointment for a moment, then turned to the console.
"Then keep out of my way."