Chapter 3
As the dead began to stagger across the lawn, the Doctor was still staring at the screen in disbelief as he reached down to the console, hit a button to lock the doors and then activated another button to cloak the Tardis.
"We should be safe for a while," he said as he continued to watch the screen.
"How long is a while?" Laura asked in a hushed voice.
"Around forty-eight hours, that's how long I can keep the Tardis invisible... that's all I can do unless I can break through the Cybermen's shield system and get us out of here."
And then he activated a switch and the screen closed, blocking off the sight of the reanimated dead, and he turned and looked at Laura.
"I'll continue to work on the code. Did you get the morphine for Devon?"
She nodded.
"It's in this bag – along with a lot of other stuff – but I don't know how to give an injection."
The Doctor gave a heavy sigh.
"I'll do it," he told her.
He took the medical bag from Laura and turned towards the doorway that led out of the console room. And then he stopped, seeing Ace standing there. She looked at him with tears in her eyes as she struggled to hold back from losing her composure.
"I saw it," she said, "Just before you closed the screen – I saw them – what the Cybermen did – those people are dead! Why would they do something like this?"
The Doctor shook his head.
"I can only imagine they are using the victims for some kind of tissue research, they always looking for new ways to preserve the human parts they still retain within their robotic bodies."
Ace looked pale and shocked.
"How could they do this to dead people?"
"I know," he replied, "It is unthinkable – but the Cybermen don't, Ace."
"What?" she asked.
"Think," he replied, "At least, not like we do – their thoughts are devoid of all emotion, they would not even consider what disrespecting the dead would mean to us, to them the bodies are simply test subjects, items to be used in an experiment."
And then he indicated to the medical bag.
"Laura got the morphine. I'm going to inject Devon with a low dose to begin with and see how he responds. This phase of the radiation exposure won't last long."
And then he fell silent, omitting the fact that there would be a short period of time when the pain faded out, before it returned, and the severity of his condition would become clear...
"Thanks, Professor," Ace said gratefully, "He just wants to feel better."
"I'm sure he does," he replied quietly, and then he led the way to the room where Devon was resting.
Ace watched anxiously as Devon lay there breathing heavily as sweat ran down his face.
The Doctor drew the morphine from the vial and injected him easily, and Devon barely noticed the sting of the needle as pain continued to run through his body. And then he opened his eyes and slowly looked up, blinking as blurred vision came back into focus and saw the Doctor and Laura standing beside him.
"Where's Ace?" he asked weakly.
"I'm here," she said, and he turned his head to see her standing at the other side of his bed. His face was deathly pale and his dark hair was soaked with sweat but he smiled and his eyes sparkled as he saw her beside him.
"Stay with me, I'll feel so much better with you to keep me company."
"Of course I will," she said warmly, and she sat on the edge of the bed and took hold of his hand. Their eyes met and he breathed a relieved sigh as the morphine began to fade out the worst of the pain.
And the Doctor looked away, not wanting to think about the look he had just seen pass between Ace and Devon, because Ace was yet to learn she was falling in love with a man who had very little time to live...
Devon fought against the drowsiness that was sweeping over him as he turned and looked to the Doctor.
"Are we leaving soon? I need to get out of here -"
"Soon," the Doctor replied kindly, "We have a problem breaking through the Cybermen's shield system – they've locked down the entire area – but I will find a way to break through it. You rest, and leave the worry to me."
Ace looked at him sharply.
"But what about the -"
"I said, leave it to me," He repeated, and she nodded and fell silent, understanding that Devon did not need the added stress of knowing the Cybermen had turned the dead against the living beyond the safety of the Tardis walls...
"I'm going back to the console room," the Doctor said, and he left the room, and Laura followed.
Ace looked down at Devon, who was starting to relax and breathe easier as the morphine took effect.
It's going to be okay," she said to him, "Don't worry..."
And her grip tightened on his hand as he slipped into a deep sleep, and then she looked towards the door and thought of the Doctor and desperately hoped he would get through the shield, and soon, because she was starting to feel trapped here, and even though Devon seemed to be out of pain, she knew she could not relax until they had left danger far behind them...
Laura watched as the Doctor's hand flew across controls and he tried again to crack the code.
"What's going to happen if we can't get out of here?"
The Doctor stopped working and looked up from the console, his eyes darkened and his voice lowered as he gave his reply.
"The Tardis can't sustain invisibility forever. Nor can we remain beneath the shield – the Cybermen will pick up the Tardis signal and if they do that, they will capture the ship and us."
And as he saw a look of fear in her eyes, he placed his hand over hers as she rested it on the edge of the console.
"But I will get us out of here. Please have faith in me."
Laura looked into his eyes and he suddenly felt caught, not wanting to look away.
"I do have faith in you," she said, "I believe you. Ace trusts you totally, I can see that. I've no reason to doubt you."
"But you're scared."
Laura nodded.
The Doctor stepped closer.
"Don't be," he told her softly, and he put his arms around her and hugged her tightly.
As he drew back and she caught the scent of cologne on more than human skin, she looked into eyes that seemed to reflect something older than time and then he let go of her again.
"I see a great deal in you that reminds me of Ace," he said quietly, "I don't know why – I think its your spirit, your inner strength."
Laura briefly cast aside her fears and forgot about the situation they found themselves trapped in as she asked him a question.
"Do you want to hold her the way you just held me?"
And the Doctor quickly loosened his paisley tie and looked back down at the console.
"I don't know," he replied as he turned his attention back to the problem at hand, "But I wanted to reassure you, Laura."
And he glanced at her and again their eyes locked, and the Doctor looked away again.
"You should get some rest," he told her, Leave me to work...this could take some time."
And as she left the console room, he paused for a moment, thinking about the situation they were trapped in, and trying not to think about the reason why he had held her:
Yes, she did remind him of Ace, but that was not why he had held her.
He had seen fear in her eyes, and desperately wanted to banish it, as he had put his arms around her and wished they had met under better circumstances...
Then he thought of Ace and wondered if she felt the same way about Devon.
Love was something that could never be expected or planned for.
And it pained him deeply to think she would lose him so soon after finding him – and then he wondered why Ace McShane was settled so deeply into his twin hearts.
He wanted to let go of that, before it took hold in a way that made him aware of – No, he wasn't going to dwell on it. Nor was going to dwell on Laura, not when he had work to do.
He pushed all other thoughts from his mind and set to work on cracking the code once more.
And as he worked, his thoughts slipped back to Laura, and to her mention of Ace and those feelings he kept buried so deep he really didn't want to disturb them...
Of course he cared about her, but how deeply and why were questions that would take a great deal of time and thought to answer, he knew he probably already had the answer, but he didn't want to acknowledge it.
He had become very fond of Ace McShane in the years they had travelled together.
And he kept it all wrapped up split between two hearts within his chest that held more secrets than he cared to think about.
Perhaps he did love her.
But Ace was so bound to their friendship he was sure if he tried to cross that line, it would have been altered beyond all recognition – and all for something that would perhaps not last.
Maybe.
He was listening to his own doubts and he knew it.
But he didn't feel those doubts when he looked at Laura, perhaps because she was not Ace, and had not shared his life the way his companion had. She was yet to see his darker side, and he had no secrets to hide from her, other than the fact that Devon was dying – but it was not his place to tell anyone about that, it was up to Devon...
He knew Ace would not understand how he could keep this knowledge from her, and he hoped it would not be long before Devon explained, because the longer he waited, the harder the truth would be to accept when Ace found out.
It seemed as if everything had a layer of deceit draped across it, and he wished he could tear it aside and -
And then he got it.
"Of course!" he exclaimed, and he began to input a new code.
As the result came up on the screen he smiled, and quickly added a second sequence.
Then he tried the take off sequence again, and as the Tardis made its familiar sound, it lifted with ease, passing through the barrier and re materialising above Earth, at a distance from the Cyber ship.
The Doctor opened up the viewing port, saw the ship far off in the distance and reactivated the cloaking device. He knew he could not hide forever, but had no intention of doing so, not now he had escaped the shield system – now, he had to find a way to deactivate the reanimated dead, and he set to work right away, sending out a low frequency scan to sweep the Cyber vessel for a power surge being directed towards Earth.
He watched the scanner, tapping his fingers on the console as he waited. He knew it could take time – or not – but waiting was hard, because he wanted the crisis on Earth to be stopped immediately...
"Professor?"
The Doctor had been watching the scanner for more than half an hour.
He glanced up, saw Ace walk into the room and looked back down at the screen.
"How is he?"
"Resting, I think he's going to be okay."
And that ache in the Doctor's twin hearts increased tenfold, but he remained silent about the truth.
"That's good to know," he replied.
Ace joined him at the console.
"I heard us take off. So it's over now, right? We can get out of here now?"
The Doctor looked to Ace and then the viewing screen.
"I'm afraid not," he said, and as she took in the sight of the distant Cybership, the optimism faded from her eyes.
"I tried a double code – a standard shield command with a Cyber tech code laid over the top of it, and I managed to break through it and take us out of their forcefield, but there's more, I'm afraid."
"Now what?"
"Now I have to find a way to stop the signal, or the power surge, or whatever it is they have created to reanimate the dead. And then I shall put a call through to UNIT to inform them of the incident. They'll have to cover this up, we don't know what they exposed those bodies to, they must have had some kind of activator in the gas they used to kill them in the first place. This is dangerous, Ace – if technology like that fell into the wrong hands on Earth, the results don't bear thinking about."
Ace stared at him.
"Cover it up? How would UNIT do that?"
The Doctor paused, wishing he could spare her the details, but he guessed he was hiding enough from her already, and so he spelled out the truth:
"An unknown substance capable of reanimating the dead is simply too dangerous to preserve in any shape or form. They will arrange a cover up, an official story to bury the truth once and for all, most likely by taking the bodies back into the research base and burning the place to the ground and blaming the fire on an industrial accident."
Her eyes were still wide.
"They would do that?"
"There's no other way," the Doctor replied, "Once I cut that power surge and the dead stay dead, that place and the bodies used in the Cybermen's experiments have to be burned to ash. UNIT can't cover up everything, though – the Government will want to ensure there are no witnesses to the true set of events. Therefore, I can't tell UNIT about the survivors. And they can never go home again."
He caught a flicker of shock in her eyes, and then it was gone.
"So Devon can't ever go back? Or Laura?"
"It's the only way to keep them safe," he replied, "It's a big universe out there – I'm sure we can find them a new home."
She had fallen silent.
"Ace?"
He glanced down at the screen, saw nothing on the scanner and looked back at her.
"What is it?"
"I don't want to leave Devon on some strange alien planet, he's not expecting any of this to happen! He's got a cottage in the country, he want me to go there with him and..."
Ace fell silent as she realised the Doctor was right, it would never happen.
"The Cybermen have created a terrible weapon," he reminded her, "And while UNIT will clean up the mess, it will be down to your Government to do the rest. They won't want two survivors left behind who could tell their stories to the press and cause widespread panic. It's the Government who would see to it they never got the chance to do that."
"So they've got no choice? They really can't go back?"
"No," the Doctor replied, "But I'm sure I can find a distant future Earth colony where they can settle."
Ace frowned.
"They need to know."
The Doctor was in complete agreement, the guilt of his own secret regarding Devon was weighing far too heavily to add more deceit on top of it.
"It might be best coming from you," he said as he turned back to the console, "I still have a crisis to end."
"Okay," Ace replied quietly, and she left the console room.
Ace found Laura in the Tardis library.
She was sitting on a sofa beside a high, wide book case as she looked into the flames that burned warmly in the fireplace, and as as Ace approached her she looked up.
"How's Devon?"
"Sleeping peacefully. I think the morphine did the trick – he's definitely not in pain any more."
"Good. Has the Doctor cracked the code yet?"
Ace nodded.
"Of course he has. He broke us out of the force field and now we're up in space, and the Tardis is cloaked so the Cyber ship can't see us. He's figuring out how to kill the power that's causing the dead to be zombified. Then he's going to call UNIT to tell them what's happened and then, when it's over, we can leave."
And Ace sat down on the sofa beside her.
"Then me and Devon can go back to Earth?" she said hopefully.
And Ace shook her head.
Laura stared at her.
"Why not?"
"Because what happened at the base has to be covered up. What the Cybermen have done is so dangerous everything has to be destroyed to make sure that kind of technology never falls into the wrong hands. It's something even UNIT doesn't want to hold on to in their vaults."
Laura had already guessed the rest.
"And they won't allow any survivors? I thought UNIT were supposed to defend us, not harm us."
"Not UNIT," Ace replied, "It goes higher – the Government. They won't want anyone left behind who can tell the story of what really happened. So you and Devon can't go back, it's for your own safety. I'm sorry, but you can never go home to Earth again."
Laura drew in a slow breath and slowly nodded.
"Well I guess it's better than becoming another statistic when – how are they going to cover it up?"
"The Professor said it would most likely be a fire that leaves nothing behind but ash."
Laura took another deep breath, letting the news sink in slowly as she considered the alternative.
"So I'll be listed as presumed dead any way."
"And so will Devon."
"He needs to know," Laura said to her.
"I'll tell him when he wakes up," Ace replied, "He's sleeping deeply at the moment. At least he's not in pain any more."
Then they both fell silent as they sat side by side in the library as the fire continued to burn warmly. It was Laura who finally broke the silence after several moments spent deep in thought.
"Maybe I could stay on," she said, "Travel with you and the Doctor...I think I'd like to see a bit of the universe."
"Sounds good to me," Ace told her, and then she smiled, deciding she rather liked the idea of another travelling companion joining the Tardis.
The Doctor finally spotted the energy trace an hour later.
He locked on to the co ordinates and hoped his plan would work – the Tardis would need to use a great deal of power to pull back that beam and shatter it, rendering the Cyber ship wounded and leaving the Cybermen no choice but to turn back and retreat. It had occurred to him that if he upped the power from his own ship he could easily have sent the energy surge back upwards, exploding the Cyber vessel – but he had no intention of killing any living thing unless it could be avoided, and that decision included all forms of life, even the Cybermen...
His plan was enough for them to be convinced their experiment had failed, and force the ship to leave, limping away on minimal power.
But for the short amount of time it would take to shatter the beam, the shields would be down and the cloaking system deactivated – there was a risk the Cybermen would spot the Tardis, but he could see no other way to end this situation...
He looked to the screen as he shut down shields and locked on to the beam.
There was a shudder as the Tardis power systems were pushed to the limit and the two power lines met, the Tardis stream slicing into the surge from the Cyber ship, shattering the beam in a flash that lit up space and then faded out rapidly.
"Come on..." he whispered under his breath as he watched the large silver vessel set against the darkness of space.
And then a glow began to shine from the back of the ship, there was a brief, small explosion and some debris floated free. The Doctor knew at once the Cybermen's experiment was over, the reanimated dead would have fallen to the ground lifeless once more as soon as the power line was cut.
The Cybership began to turn around, and then it headed away from Earth at half speed, the ship damaged from the shattering of the power surge.
And the Doctor breathed a deep sigh of relief.
"Now..." he murmured as he opened a communications channel to Earth, "Time to speak to UNIT..."
"Devon."
He slowly opened his eyes, saw Ace sitting on the bed and he smiled as he realised she was holding on to his hand.
"Ace..." he sounded tired and his mind was foggy from morphine and sleep, but he felt no trace of pain.
"The crisis is over," she told him, "The Doctor broke through the shield, explained everything to Earth and UNIT are on their way to the scene."
"Thank goodness for that! So what's happening next? I asked him if he could take me somewhere that can treat my burns."
Ace looked down at his arm. The red marks on his arm were fading.
"Looks like you're healing!" she replied in surprise.
"Yes, I suppose I am," he replied quietly, recalling all he knew about the alien radiation, and remembering that the outward signs would soon be gone. And there would be a few precious days where life would return to normal before the true effects of the radiation became obvious...
And then Ace tightened her grip on his hand.
"Devon," she said gently, "He told me something else and you need to hear this."
And as he met her gaze he thought of this new connection, the closeness he had found with Ace, and as he wondered if the Doctor had told her the truth about his condition, he was gripped with a sense of absolute terror – if Ace knew, everything would change. He would lose her, lose what ever he had with her that kept her held so warmly and firmly in his heart – it would all change, and he could not bear to allow that to happen...
"What did he say?" he said in a hushed voice.
"That once UNIT clear up the mess left behind by the Cybermen, the Government won't allow any survivors, they'd be too scared you might talk. Because of that, you and Laura can never return to Earth."
He stared at her as the news sank in.
"Never? But I wanted to go home before -"
"Before what?"
He saw a brief look of confusion in her eyes, and quickly covered up the fact that he had almost said too much.
"I wanted to show you the cottage before you and the Doctor went on your way."
Ace shook her head.
"No," she told him sadly, "I'm sorry, Devon – you can't go back. But the Doctor said he's going to try and find an Earth colony planet where you and Laura will both be able to feel at home. Please trust him, he knows what he's doing. He's just keeping you both safe."
Devon fell silent for a moment, and then he gave her hand a squeeze.
"Oh well," he said, "At least I get to spend more time with you," and then he smiled, and so did Ace.
"And when you're better," she said, "Who knows what could happen? I might even stay on for a while, that way we can spend some time together."
"I'd like that," Devon replied, and he kept hold of her hand and watched as her eyes sparkled hopefully, as he tried not to think about the painful truth.
Laura walked into the console room to see the Doctor programming a flight course.
"Where are we going?" she asked him.
The Doctor finished working on the console and looked up from it and smiled.
"Stetera 3, it's an Earth colony planet, and they will also be able to treat Devon's poisoning."
"I thought he was okay?"
"Well he's going to need some treatment for the radiation exposure," the Doctor replied, choosing his words carefully as he remained firm in his decision that it was not his place to explain the truth to anyone – that had to be Devon's choice alone...
"Will you be staying around when we land?" Laura asked, and as he looked into her eyes his hearts flooded with warmth and he started to smile.
"I do believe I'd rather like to do that," he replied, "Yes, Laura – I shall be staying around for while."
And she smiled too, and for a brief time he forgot about Ace and her love for a man who had no hope of survival, as he considered a stay on the planet and time to get to know Laura, and that thought was a bright and hopeful respite from the pain that surrounded his companion's situation as the Tardis set off on a course towards the earth colony planet, far away in space and time.