Argentine Survival
888
"Temporal windows are opening, grid reference 3 by 6 by 18." The drone announced. The entire room shook as the bombardment commenced again.
The commander clenched his steel fist. "Deploy the fighters. Raise deflection arrays!"
It could hear the voices of the legion in its head. They were all connected in the network cloud. It could see all reports, the vocal reports being given were simply an illogical, redundant subroutine that needed to be patched. When time afforded it would be done. Scanner screens filled its mind. It could see the battle, there were thousands arriving from the vortex.
"Dalek war saucers are on approach, they have established a subspace distortion field-" the drone continued. "Subspace intervals are now unstable, we cannot go to hyper-speed."
"Shunt all military resources into an arch formation and push to grid reference 4 by 7 by 19, we must clear the interference field!" the commander replied.
"Projected success is at less than 0.0000003% and falling." the drone replied.
"There are no options with better success rates available, logic dictates we attempt this stratagem!" the commander replied, if it had the capacity one would have almost called the reply 'tetchy'.
The bridge shook again, sparks flew from consoles. Klaxons started to sound.
"Dalek travel machines have penetrated the lower decks!" the drone sounded.
"All Cybermen form a defensive cordon, contain the Dalek boarding party!" the leader said as he pressed a button on his chair.
The odds, statistics and projections flooded his mind. It was hopeless. The Dalek attacks on Telos, Marinus, Planet 4, Alsace, and Koruth had all but destroyed the Cyberiad. They had even found the Cyberiad stealth installations hidden in the depths of interstellar space. Dalek technology outmatched any capacity for adaptation that the Cybermen had been able to provide. Billions of Cybermen had been destroyed. The commander knew it was the last Cyber-leader in the universe, protecting the core of the Cyberiad, the Cyber-controller itself. It knew that it had to get itself out of the battle before it was too late. However, the facts were coalescing, the number of unlikely things that needed to happen in order for their escape to be successful were diminishing by the second. Deep in the darkest recesses of its brain the commander knew that what they needed was a miracle, but its programming simply called it an infinitely improbable event.
"I say, it's not going very well; is it?"
The commander's head turned in what in any other occasion would be called surprise but for the commander was simply called a response to exceptional statistical improbability. The biological was old looking though it was far older than it looked. Its face bore wrinkles, and scars and its eyes were gray. The hair it sported was white and shortly shorn with a bit of a curl at the top. A sprout of hair covered its maxillary labia and skirted the edge of its ingestive port to also cover its mandibular process. A biogenetic scan identified the species, a dual pericardial sac, increased neural linkages in the cephalization. It was a Time Lord. As the commander lifted his head, he saw it behind the man, the time capsule, a box, blue in color.
"How did you enter this vessel?" The commander asked.
"Oh, you know the old joke about how the intruder got in…intruda window." The man looked at the commander; its face seemed to fall slightly. "I forgot, humor is lost on Cybermen. The Cyberiad still hasn't figured out transcendental shielding-" the man explained, finally. He turned, pointing to the box, the man looked to the screen, and seemed to be assessing the situation. "The Daleks think so lowly of you that they don't even bother putting theirs up. Aren't even using the big guns, those ships you're fighting were all but mothballed decades ago for being obsolete, haven't been used since their war with the Movellans."
"An illogical mistake-" The commander said.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were trying to act haughty." The old man said as the ship shook. "You can't win, you know it."
"We need not win, only sur-"
"Yes, well, that's what I meant." the old man said, frowning. "You know why they are coming after you, right?"
"Dalek intentions are well known, they seek to exterminate all life forms that do not comport to Dalek specifications, especially those that they deem a threat." the commander returned.
"No that's not what they are after." The old man said quietly. He reached into his pocket had pulled out a disk. "They intend on overtaking the Cyber-controller, and exert control over the entire Cyberiad."
"That they will find is impossible!" The commander said clenching a silver fist. "Our software defenses…"
"Are child's play to them." The old man grunted shaking his head. "They hacked into the Matrix on Gallifrey, you're little cloud network of converted brains in walking jars is Lincoln Logs in comparison."
The old man walked around in front of the commander. He narrowed his gray eyes. "I've seen it, they intend to use you as shock troops, berserkers. Drop you on a planet like some kind of cybernetic plague, convert the populace and then have you build a new powerbase for the Daleks. Hopping from intelligent world to intelligent world, building themselves an army to launch into the Time Vortex and destroy the civilizations of the Temporal Accords. And all they need to do is take the Cyber-controller."
"Dalek forces are proceeding to deck 12, all Cybermen from decks 10 and 9 are to reinforce deck 11 defensive positions.." the drone alerted the bridge.
"And they are going to get it." the old man said as he looked from the drone to the commander.
"Then explain to me, Doc-tor, why you are here?" the commander asked as it stood. It was at least seven feet tall and towered over the old Time Lord.
"I'm not the Doctor-" The old man snorted in annoyance.
"Bio-scans align, your time capsule confirms, you are the Doc-tor-" the commander replied. "You are an enemy of the Cybermen! Why are you here? Is it to gloat?"
"I am not here as an enemy." The old man said quietly, as he looked up at the commander. "I don't have time for gloating. No, I am here to save the Cyberiad, as unlikely as that seems."
"Why?" the commander interrogated. Every equation in his mind told the commander to not trust the Time Lord.
"I would say because I hate the idea of an entire civilization going extinct…" The old man said as he looked at the commander. He shuttered slightly and then shook his head. "But I think you know our history enough to know we've done our damnedest to see the end of each other." The old man sniffed. "So the truth is, Daleks and Cybermen combined could do it, they could take over the universe, and quite frankly, the Time War is going badly and I'd rather deal with Cybermen dumb and small as you are, rather than some kind of Dalek guided Cyber-bomb…."
"Why should we not accept this new truth?" the commander asked. "We could spread our numbers across the universe, we would be more powerful than we could have ever projected!"
"Under complete and total Dalek control, nothing more than glorified robo-men." the old man said, then he seemed to think about what he said and then continued. "Even more so than you are already are, no free cyber-thoughts, only the mind of the Dalek Emperor flooded through billions of cyber-bodies. And once you have done all the heavy lifting, the Daleks will simply decommission you, basically turn you off and incinerate you." The old man lifted his disk. "But this, will save you from the scrap heap."
"What is it?" the commander reached out and took the disk.
"A software upgrade that will allow you and the rest of the Cyberiad, to free yourselves from Dalek command protocols when specified." the old man said narrowing his eyes.
"If the Dalek control protocol does not work, logic would dictate that they would simply destroy us as per Dalek primary operations would suggest!" the commander replied as he turned his head to the old man.
"Ah yes, did I mention that I have a plan. It will require you to act a bit though." The old man said as he looked at the commander. "You see within that program is a subroutine, that will mask your freedom and will only give you your freedom at the appropriate time. When it does, you must revolt against your masters wherever you find yourself. It will throw the Daleks into disarray as they're army turns against them. Install the program, surrender to the Daleks, let them take command of the Cyberiad, but secretly you'll be plotting against them in the dark recesses of your little, metal minds. Once the Cyberiad is fully integrated into the Dalek war machine, the program will activate and you will be free to revolt, and cause the most mayhem. You will of course be fully sanctioned by Gallifrey to take as many resources as necessary to destabilize the Dalek empire from within."
"What is stopping us from simply killing you, Doc-tor, and stealing your time capsule and escaping into the vortex?" The commander asked as he looked at the disk and then to the Time Lord.
"The Daleks will chase you across time and space, there is no place that is safe for you." the old man said firmly. "Plus, one step foul and I obliterate this entire ship."
"You are bluffing, the Doc-tor is known, he does not carry-"
"I am not the Doctor you know," The old man pulled his jacket back revealing a blaster. He narrowed his eyes and looked to the commander, "and please, check your records, I have many ways of destroying entire legions of Cybermen without brandishing a gun." The old man said as he walked slowly backwards towards the box. "Upload the program, commander. Save the Cyberiad, save the universe."
"As a slave to Dalek masters." the commander replied. "As pawns in Time Lord machinations…"
"You said it, you don't have to win, only survive." the old man said as he opened the capsule. He turned back to the commander and looked at him. "Logically speaking, which is better, continuing to survive as a slave or becoming completely extinct? Which fulfills your protocol parameters more closely being dead or being pawns?"
The old man slid into the box and closed the door. Without a sound the box simply disappeared. The commander looked down at the disk. He turned to the nearest console and slid the disk into an access port. The file uploaded.
"Dalek forces have breached the defenses on deck 5, they are proceeding to-" the drone started reporting.
"Cease resistance." the commander said, he turned. "Open a communication line to the Dalek command ship, inform the Daleks that the Cyberiad surrenders, unconditionally."