"Get back to your posts!" shouted Lohan frantically. "I said get back!"
The Cybermen took no notice of this order as they viciously approached the four Humans retreating towards the large navigation window.
"What's happened to them?" asked Martha worriedly.
"When he mentioned that he trained them to obey. Well, he forgot to tell you that training isn't the right word for it" replied the Doctor.
"Well what did he mean?" asked Jack frantically.
"He should have said conditioned. And, as we know, conditions change."
The Doctor; Martha; Jack; and Lohan were now cowering at the window. They had retreated as far as they were able to. The advancing Cybermen stopped directly in front of them; trapping them in. At that moment the lift door opened. Out of the lift walked a Cyberman with an unusual shaped helmet. It was different to the others: taller, better armoured and with what resembled a brain displayed inside an egg-shaped metal head. It was the Cyberleader, which marched towards the Humans. The other Cybermen parted to let it through. It opened its mouth piece and began to speak.
"President Lohan of the Earth Colony Golgafricham you will follow me. You will be Cyber-converted" it said.
"What will you do with the rest of us?" asked the Doctors
"You will be assessed later"
"You didn't bring a conversion chamber along?" the Doctor asked Lohan desperately. "Tell me you didn't!"
Lohan didn't answer. Unfortunately for him he had. Two Cybermen walked over to Lohan, clutched both his arms and dragged him into the lift.
When Lohan, the Cyberleader and the two Cybermen were in the lift, the other Cybermen on the bridge grabbed hold of the Doctor, Martha and Jack in readiness for the lift's return. When it did return, they were shoved inside it and sent back down to the cargo deck. Without his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor was unable to stop the lift shooting downwards.
"Jack, I need you to find our stuff" he said urgently. "We haven't got much time"
"Until what?" asked Martha.
"Until the Cybermen convert Lohan. We need him to tell us how to shut them down" replied the Doctor.
When the lift doors opened, the three Cybermen that the Doctor had tricked were standing in front of them. The Cybermen went for the Doctor, Martha and Jack, but luckily Jack was able dodge them and run down the corridor. The Doctor and Martha were pushed back to the store room whilst the third Cyberman marched menacingly after Jack.
"Captured again!" said Martha angrily. "I hope they've remembered to bring the TARDIS along"
"Ah, well, I forgot to tell you about that" said the Doctor sheepishly "I programmed the TARDIS to sit still. I didn't want it being moved again"
"So it's still in the lab then?"
"Well, yes, I hope so – unless they've tried to force it open of course"
"What happens then?"
"Well, it takes off for a bit and lands somewhere nearby"
Martha sighed and rolled her eyes. Trust the Doctor to make a silly decision like that!
Jack was having great difficulty traversing the maze of corridors and rooms that made up the cargo deck. He hoped that he would find their possessions before the Cyberman that was tailing him was able to call some of his friends for help. He reached a room at the very back of the ship, opened the door and locked it shut behind him.
He rifled through the crates until finally he found a crate marked "Confiscated items". He slammed his fist through it and, to his relief, found his, the Doctor's and Martha's possessions. Just as he made his find, however, the Cyberman began to bang furiously on the door, making substantial dents in it. It would not be long before it broke through.
Rifling through some more crates, he was finally able to locate one full of heavy-impact phasor rifles. Prizing one out of its case, he walked over to the door and unlocked it. With a crash, the Cyberman pulled the door off its runner. Jack ducked, took aim, and fired the phasor. It didn't work. Hurriedly, Jack grabbed the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. He opened up the rifle; stuffed the screeching sonic screwdriver into the chamber; and tried again. This time, the Cyberman was shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.
"Well. That seemed to work!" said a shocked and relieved Jack Harkness.
He left the room, rifle slung across his shoulder and dragging the crate behind him.
Rhea and Nicola were engaged in an activity not dissimilar to Jack. They, along with the other women they rescued, were cautiously walking down a dimly lit corridor towards the hangar. As they were doing so, they heard a man shouting at the top of his voice. It was Charles Valli, who was struggling to get himself free of the Cybermen's cyber-conversion machine. The women looked at Rhea expectantly as they heard his screams.
"Oh, all right!" she said to them as she crept towards the door.
The door itself was wide open. Inside the room, strapped to a basic metal table, was Charles. Standing around yielding several pieces of surgical equipment were half a dozen Cybermen busy preparing Charles for the operation that would turn him into a Cyberman. With no weapon capable of disabling a Cyberman amongst them, the group of women frantically looked up and down the corridor for something that may be of use.
In a small room further down the corridor was a possible answer. For some reason unknown to a bemused Nicola, there was a collection of high-voltage Taser weapons piled on a table. It was clear to her that the bunker she was in had not been used in many decades. Taser weapons were a popular method of crowd control fifty years ago. But when the previous president Lohan, the father of the current one, began to introduce his robot like beings to the Police force, rebels stole these weapons from the Police and began to attack them. In one Police raid on their hideout, the rebels had thwarted the metal Constables and forced the human officers alongside them to retreat.
"Maybe", thought Nicola to herself, "the President doesn't know about this place."
After staring at the Tasers in fascination, Nicola grabbed the lot and showed them to an excited Rhea.
"Perfect!" she said, a little too loud for comfort.
With all seven women equipped with Tasers, they headed back towards the room. Luckily, the Cybermen were still getting ready, although Charles had been sedated.
In a flash, the women burst into the room, catching the unsuspecting Cybermen unawares. At close range, the women pointed their Tasers at the heads of the approaching Cybermen and fired. After a few nervous seconds, the Cybermen became disorientated. Rhea and Nicola rushed to free Charles from the table and, with a great deal of effort, dragged him out of the room. However, the Tasers had had only a limited effect on the Cybermen, who recovered quickly and marched relentlessly towards the group of women.
Back on the spaceship, Jack had reached the room in which the Doctor and Martha were being held. This time, the door had been jammed open and the two Cybermen guarding them were standing in the doorway facing them. Jack saw the Doctor and Martha sat on the opposite side of the room. The Doctor looked worried though, and he was right to be, for Martha was unconscious. To make matters worse, Jack could hear the sound of the lift descending. It would not be long before he had company.
End of Chapter Eight