No Control
Chapter Nine: Running The Gauntlet
Antola was haughty, opinionated, determined and quite possibly criminally insane. But the one thing she wasn't was slow. She, like the Doctor, had realized the danger they were in and she knew the only one with any ideas was the Doctor. "What do we do?" she shouted over the pulsating airlock.
"There's nothing we can do!" the Doctor shouted back, his own mind racing. "The teleport's not finished and we're totally surrounded and outgunned!"
Antola grimaced. But the teleport hadn't been the whole plan. "What about blowing up the engines? Blind them and we might still stand a chance!"
"She's right!" Phen agreed.
"So she is!" the Doctor marveled and turned back to the control console, moving the relatively-undamaged section devoted to the energy supplies. "Phen! Julreth! Over here!" he shouted, manipulating controls frantically. The brother and sister dived across the cockpit to help, leaving Antola to stare at the airlock, which had now disappeared in the angry white glow which was now flaring and flickering with blue.
With a kick, the Doctor opened the inspection panel, his hands continuing to operate the remains of the computer. "Julreth, reach in there and rip out all the red wires – every last one! Phen, press down every button on the console, don't leave any out!"
The pair did so while the Doctor fired his sonic screwdriver at the console. Between the three of them they were destroying all the failsafe and backup systems while simultaneously demanding far more energy than the ship's engines could provide all at once. The feedback would trigger a meltdown, and the energy released channeled into a proton glare. The problem, just like with the teleport, was time: to build up a proper meltdown would at least require fifteen minutes. Under these conditions he'd be lucky to get a power surge. But Antola was, for once, right. There was nothing else.
Antola covered her eyes from the glare as the white glow intensified and then seemed to dim – the airlock was gone, and through the flaring white-blue glow she could make out a dark square with silver shapes standing there, holding some kind of battering-ram-type device. The silver shapes became more distinct and the glare was already dimming. "Doctor!" she wailed.
The Doctor ripped up a side panel, gritting in pain as he bent back a fingernail in the process. "I'm busy!" he roared. He flung his weight down on the three plungers underneath. One gave way, then another, and a slowly-building whine became audible over the howl of the Cybermen's sonic lance.
Julreth looked up to see the huge square gap that had appeared where the airlock used to be, and gasped as, through the pearl-coloured blur of light, she saw a Cyberman standing there, ready to walk through an entrance large enough for the silver giant. "Doctor, blow the engines!" she pleaded.
The Doctor was studying the winking lights on the panel. "I can't, not yet!" he replied. "The reaction needs as long as possible to build up or it won't even give them a headache!" The whine from the engines was louder now, but not the ear-piercing scream the Doctor was hoping for.
"Doctor, we don't have the time!" Phen shouted as the milky glow between them and the Cybermen grew paler and thinner. Even as they watched the swirl of light dispersed completely.
The Time Lord followed his gaze as the Cybermen lowered their sonic lance and the lead Cyberman waited beyond the breach, a pause for the atomic structure of the edges to settle after the bombardment. All four occupants stared out at the Cyberman as it waited. Seconds passed.
The Cyberman lifted one metal foot over the threshold.
The Doctor jammed home the final plunger.
As the Cyberman stepped foot into the ship, the very material of the craft turned incandescent and its engines screamed in pain. The walls seemed to concertina in and out around a rippling floor, and there were two Doctors gripping onto no fewer than three flight consoles.
It was as if reality was dissolving, blown around by unseen winds and reassembled in disturbing new patterns. The entire ship seemed to crack and peel away until there was nothing but swirling, blurred chaos racing away in all directions. The Cyberman in the doorway seemed to shift and distort, lengthening and shrinking, colours shifting through every spectral possibility. The distorted Cyberman flung up its arms of ever-changing length and toppled backwards through the hull breach.
The Doctor, Phen, Julreth and Antola struggled to keep their balance as the proton glare made the ship dip and sway and blurred – the same insanity seeming to distort even their own bodies. The teenagers were all wide-eyed and afraid, but the Doctor knew this maelstrom was only a fraction of what he'd hoped for, and prayed for the chaos to last as long as possible.
At that moment it stopped – as abruptly as it had begun.
The Doctor let out a controlled sigh of frustration, knowing the proton glare was already dispersing. Leaping to his feet, the Time Lord jumped over the sprawled body of the CyberLeader and peered out the hull breach. The intruder Cyberman had fallen and knocked over its companions like skittles, and the others were stumbling around helplessly, senses askew.
Just as he'd planned, the bombardment of sound and light and colour had temporarily plunged the Cybermen into a blank red void with no light or sound or feeling. Their internal gyroscopes spun out of control as their computerized brains were told a million conflicting facts as the landscape became unstable and vanished into crimson nothingness.
"Quickly!" the Doctor shouted, running to the remaining airlock, aiming his sonic screwdriver at the control panel as he did so. "The effect's already fading! We have to make a run for the TARDIS!" he shouted over his shoulder as the airlock irised open. Phen and Julreth were scrambling to their feet. "It's now or never," he finished and turned to look out the open gap.
There were at least a hundred Cybermen between them and the reassuringly blue shape of his home. And those hundred or more Cybermen were staggering and reeling, their movements slow and clumsy, and quite a few had collapsed. Running the gauntlet through those things was risking having bones shattered by those uncontrollable jerking limbs, or maybe even being ripped apart. But that was a risk. Staying in the ship made death a certainty.
Without another word he hurled himself down the ramp and into the grass. He heard feet trampling down the ramp behind him, the only way to tell if the others had followed him – and he was pleased that they'd thrown their oar in with him.
And then he was in the midst of a mob of convulsing Cybermen, and there was no further time to worry about his new comrades in adversity...
It was an act of kindness that ended Julreth's brief and unproductive life.
As the Doctor and Phen sprinted out the airlock and down the ramp, Julreth spared one last glance at the ruined ship – the fried controls, the body of the CyberLeader, the gaping hull breach... and she saw Antola, sprawled on the ground, struggling to get back to her feet, her fingernails scrabbling on the smooth floor. It would have been easy for Julreth to turn and flee, but she didn't.
As the infinitely precious seconds ticked away, Julreth retreated into the ship, ran over to Antola and grabbed her shoulders, heaving her companion to her feet. They had neither the time nor the breath to exchange words of thanks or reassurance, and without a second's thought, they both scrambled across the listing deck towards the airlock.
But the delay was fatal. The interference flooding the senses of the Cybermen had dimmed already, just enough for them to realize two unconverted animals were walking out of the ship and down the ramp towards them. The Cybermen lurched and spun until they were vaguely facing the ship, their useless searchlights sweeping left and right.
The two teenagers froze in terror as the half-blinded Cybermen lumbered before them.
The journey to the TARDIS was the textbook definition of a nightmare. The Doctor was running for his life through an undulating maze of Cybermen, writhing in confusion so their searchlights flipped and spun, dazzling the Doctor one moment and leaving him in pitch darkness the next. No two Cybermen seemed to be reacting the same – some were gripping the handles of their helmets as if trying to pull their heads off their shoulders, others were jerking with violent spasms on the spot, while others stumbled and crashed into each other, reaching out with their arms. But far worse were the ones that seemed rooted to the spot, but whose heads swiveled to watch him as they passed. It was clear that those Cybermen had full-function of their hearing and were trying to follow him via sound, but they were more disconcerting than the ones flailing around blindly, scrabbling at thin air.
The Doctor was continually forced to dive, duck, jump, sprint and skid to a halt and the irregular exercise was twice as tiring as a straight forward run. He seemed to have been in this demented obstacle course for hours but could only have been minutes, and with every second that passed the proton glare faded further and the Cybermen were able to better recalibrate their senses. By now the Cybermen were almost all aware their prey were attempting to escape, and it was only a matter of time before they could be seen clearly.
Once that happened it would be seconds before they were all dead.
Finally the Doctor managed to break free of the main group of Cybermen. Ahead the silver giants were scattered and, thankfully, still mostly effected by the proton glare. The reassuring shape of the TARDIS was less than twenty metres away, and clear of Cybermen. "Come on!" he shouted over his shoulder. It didn't help their chances of stealth, but the encouragement could save them all.
The Doctor reached the doors of the TARDIS, jammed his key into the lock and opened his time machine. He turned to see Phen shambling the last few steps towards him. Behind him where the dancing firefly lights of the convulsing Cybermen as they surrounded the ship. The Doctor looked for Antola and Julreth... and realized there was no sign of them. They weren't visible anywhere in the silver mob. It was like they'd disappeared altogether.
"Where are the others?" he cried breathlessly.
Phen whirled around and scanned the tide of Cybermen. No sign of either of them. Then he looked at the ramp of the ship and saw two figures at the front of the army, unable to move forward. "They're trapped!" Phen grasped. "We've got to go back for them!"
The Doctor shook his head. "Not on foot, we don't stand a chance..."
He was intending to use the TARDIS to try and save the duo, but Phen couldn't have known that. He threw off the Time Lord's restraining arm and sprinted back towards the still-disoriented Cybermen. "I'm not leaving them behind," Phen vowed at the top of his voice.
It was the last thing he ever said.
Ahead, in the distance, there was a blue flash like lightening as a Cyberman fired its chest unit and a body was heard falling into the grass. The Doctor and Phen had not got far enough, it seemed. And as the Cybermen angled their masks to stare blindly in the direction of Antola and Julreth, they both knew in their bones that they were the only ones left.
The interference continued to clear and the nearest Cyberman took an unsteady lurch towards the pair, reaching out uncertainly with its hands. Antola grabbed Julreth's hand, turned and ran back up the ramp towards the ship. Julreth struggled to keep up. A wave of Cybermen, pawing the air, lurched closer and closer, the ramp sagging and buckling under their weight.
Antola was closer to the ship, with Julreth in front of her as the steel hands slashed drunkenly, trying to grab hold of the girls and drag them back. The tide of Cybermen grew closer and blunt metal fingers swept at her shoulder, trying to get a purchase. Antola's brain was working furiously trying to think of a solution. But she needed time, and she needed space, so she had to buy herself both...
A nearby Cyberman, whose senses were slowly returning, heard Phen's shouts and immediately twisted and fired the lasers from its chest unit in the direction of the running human. A moment after the words had left Phen's lips there was a brilliant blue flash of energy.
For a moment, Phen kept running and the Doctor desperately hoped the teenager had managed to avoid the blast – but after only three paces, he stumbled to a halt. Smoke began to pour from the openings in his clothes. In a matter of seconds he crashed backwards into the grass. His hair shriveled as if burnt by invisible blames, and the skin of his contorted, twisted face was blackening – a searing contrast to his eyes, which had turned a blank white.
Antola looked at the back of Julreth's head. The girl was rigid with terror as the Cybermen struggled through their lack of vision and depth perception to seize hold of her. They didn't trust themselves to use their weapons, as if the light pouring from the airlock was dazzling them further.
This was it. No other chance would ever offer itself.
Antola never moved faster or more desperately in that moment, as she grabbed Julreth's shoulder and wrenched it back and around. Julreth spun in a circle, surprise etched on her face, and then fell backwards in the clawing hands of the Cybermen. The distraction was enough for Antola to turn and flee up the ramp and into her crippled space craft.
The Cyberman that had killed Phen lifted its helmet to stare expressionlessly at the Doctor, then bent over the corpse and lifted it up, taking it away to be converted as the other Cybermen nearby began to lurch towards the Time Lord, their movements getting more coordinated with every second that passed. Beyond them, the Doctor could see Cybermen scrambling up the ramp and into the ship. Through the airlock came the rattling of laser units being fired again and again.
The Doctor knew there was nothing left for him here. Phen, Julreth and Antola were beyond his help now – beyond anyone's help. The realization didn't help his mood any more than the army of Cyberman closing in remorselessly on him and the TARDIS.
Self-preservation kicked in and he turned and dived through doors, slamming them shut behind him.
For a long moment, there was stillness as Julreth stared in disbelief at the fleeing Antola. The Cybermen stared with their sightless eyes in the same direction, as if they too were surprised at this action. Were they, on some level, disgusted by the cowardice? Impressed at the ruthless logic? Or just waiting for the senses to completely return?
Either way, in moments, the three Cybermen who had caught Julreth were moving away from the ship and carrying the terrified Antola back towards the tombs for her own conversion. Another Cyberman was ahead of them, dragging the blackened corpse of Phen with it. In a few minutes, two new Cybermen would be born into the world – one from a living being and one from a corpse.
The rest of the Cybermen, now fully-aware, concentrated on the ship and the final remaining human.