Chapter 16
You're a real headache, Doctor.
"Oh my lord, it's a Cyberman!" the woman shrieked as the silver man began crawling its way along the hull.
Raven had heard of the Cybermen from the Doctor, but she'd never wanted or needed to look up what they actually where. She guessed they were some kind of cyborgs, a marriage of flesh and machine, but beyond that she didn't know anything else about them.
With a quick blast of energy Raven forced the Silver Soldier from the hull and it floated away to join its fellows in the void.
"What's a Cyberman?" Raven asked.
"They're monsters." the Woman said simply, "They're supposed to be extinct."
"I guess no one told them that." Raven said drily reaching out into the ether again. "I can sense millions of them out there, and they're all around the hull."
"Oh my gawd!" the woman said. Only now did Raven bother to notice that her accent was very strange. It was English but it must be regional or something. Odd that the TARDIS didn't translate the accent into something less ear grating. Maybe this was revenge for shrinking it.
Reaching out into the ether Raven could sense the mounting panic on the bridge. The captain and crew were running around trying to fix the Hyper-drive and get out of here, while Cybermen were at the air locks hammering to get inside.
"What do these Cybermen want?" Raven asked the woman.
"Us..." she shivered holding her baby close to her, "they want 'us'."
"What for?" The woman held up a trembling hand, pointing out at the Cybermen.
"They want to make us like them." she walked away hugging her baby "I'm not going to let them get you." She said to it.
Some Cybermen had already forced open an outer airlock, Raven could sense it. They were already getting in.
Raven looked down at the Doctor, still unconscious. He was helpless like this, and the Cybermen would get him for sure.
"Okay," she decided. She couldn't take the chance that the crew couldn't hold back the Cybermen menace, so she was going to get herself and the Doctor into the TARDIS and wait to see what happened.
She figured that maybe she could persuade the Doctors brain cramp to relax if she used her powers. She removed the strange device from his head and placed it on the bedside cabinet. She then placed the palms of her hands to his temples and closed her eyes. Connecting to him without actually going into his mind she began to find the tension where the electrical signals of the brain were going around and around in circles, and tried to make them relax.
A sudden burst of pain echoed in her own temples, as if something had just tried to smash its way in through the link she'd made with the Doctor. What the heck was that? Was it coming from inside or outside her head? Whatever it was she contained it. But she could feel a psychic backwash as if some mind was trying to connect to hers.
"Hello," said a voice in her head. It sounded like several voices all trying to speak at once, but the words were clear and understandable. "Hmm, it's dark." it said as if wondering to itself "And I cannot sense, taste, or touch. Nor can I sense the flow of time. But I can hear things in the background. Hello?!"
Who is that? Raven asked telepathically.
"Raven? Raven is that you?" She recognised one of the voices. The Doctors. In fact, she realised they were all the Doctor. All 8 of his bodies all speaking at the same time though his current incarnation being the dominant voice.
She opened her eyes. "Ah, now I can see." He said, and she glanced down at the Doctor. But he was still unconscious, and not moving, so how was he speaking? "Well, talk about an out of body experience!" The Doctor's voice said.
Raven felt her face drop as she began to suspect something. Doctor, what can you see?
"I can see me, laying on a bed, with a type 6 mental stabiliser unit over my head." Raven then waved her hands in front of her own face. "Now I can see a pale hand, waving up and down. Oh... Oh... this is fascinating!"
"This is a very bad dream, isn't it?" she asked the air around her.
"Try pinching yourself, maybe you'll wake us both up from this nightmare."
Doctor, are you inside my own head? Raven asked. Get out, right now!
"I don't think I can." The Doctor replied. "Because I don't think I'm in your head, technically. More like my brain is incapacitated and you've somehow created a telepathic link, so my brain has an outlet for my consciousness in you. It's like someone looking at a place through a security camera from the guards room. My brain is the guard room, you are the security camera."
So basically the Doctor's brain was connected to hers and was using her eyes and ears at least for him to sense things. At least he wasn't inside her mind, she didn't know if she could stand that.
"I can detect your surface thoughts though."
Okay, how do I reverse it? Raven thought to the Doctor.
"Not sure. Though maybe the link can be severed once my brain recovers." The Doctor told her. "I honestly don't know what happened. I was at the console and suddenly it felt like something tried to smash its way through my psychic defences. The impact was so great it knocked me out and tried to mentally wrestle with me."
Suddenly a flood of questions entered her mind. How long will that take? What had attacked the Doctor? Was it anything to do with her? What were these Cybermen? How come...
"Alright, alright slow down." the Doctor complained, "you're making me dizzy with all these questions. Wait, did you just say, 'Cybermen'?"
Yeah, there's millions of them outside this hospital ship. She told him.
"Oh, so that's where we are." the Doctor asked, "Wait, how did you fly the TARDIS here?" The Doctor asked, amazement in his voice.
I am cleverer than you think. Raven told him, being careful not to let on that she'd dived into his head to get the information.
"Probably by two halves." The Doctor said, suspicion clear in his voice, or his minds voice, or whatever. But before he could push the point Raven jumped in with. Doctor, Cybermen, what are they?! And she let him sense what she could sense, the millions of Cybermen surrounding the ship.
"Oh dear," the Doctor said, "we are in a pickle. I'm incapacitated and we're surrounded by one of my most deadly enemies. But we might be able to defeat them, even like this. Just do exactly as I tell you."
No way, Raven thought standing up, You're coming with me back to the TARDIS.
"Raven, don't make me have to repeat myself." The Doctor said, half pleading half scolding.
Please don't. But she got up and was prepared to pick the Doctor up with her powers.
"You know a psychic link has to be broken both ways. If you don't help these people then you'll have to spend the rest of your life with me stuck in your head." the Doctor was threatening her? She mentally laughed. She could easily focus him out and compartmentalise him into a place in her mind she'd never ever listen to.
"Row, row, row your boat. Gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream!"
What the heck are you doing?!
"Being as irritating as I can." The Doctor said, "Bah bah, black sheep, have you any wool. Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. One for the master, one for the maid, one for the little boy who lives down the lane!"
Cut it out! Raven tried to make good on her threat and compartmentalise the Doctor in her head. But it felt like she was trying to cram a house into a filing cabinet. It was impossible.
"Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed, and eats you when you're sleeping."
I mean it! All this noise echoing in her head, it made it hard to focus enough to use her powers at all to do anything. If she couldn't use her powers then she couldn't lift the Doctor up, nor could she return the TARDIS to normal.
"Those who journey to Rassilons Tower, to go; must choose above, between, below."
Doctor, stop it! She grabbed her head and shook it, hoping the Doctor could feel something.
"There once was a monster, from the mogadon cluster. Who..."
Okay, okay. Just shut up already! Raven screamed into her head. I really, really, really hate you, Doctor.
The Doctor had instructed her to retrieve the Sonic Screwdriver from his coat pocket, because it might be useful to her. When she had to pull the TARDIS out of his coat pocket to get the Screwdriver the Doctor questioned her on the reduced size of the TARDIS shell. She quickly told him not to dwell on it, it was safe, that's all that mattered.
"Oh dear," said the woman with the irritating voice "Were you having a fit?" she said, probably referring to when she began arguing with the Doctor in her brain. "Maybe you should see a doctor. Don't be scared of these Cybermen, I'm sure they won't get in." She said, trying to put a brave face on it, but Raven could tell she was terrified.
"I don't 'do' fear." Raven shot back and walked out.
"You should be scared," the Doctor said "Only a fool feels no fear."
Spare me this, Doctor. Raven thought. I haven't got the patience for it.
The Doctor told Raven to head to the bridge to get an overview of what was going on. As they walked the Doctor filled her in on the Cybermen.
"They were humanoid creatures much like you once. But their society gained an obsession with 'improving' themselves. Replacing all organic parts with mechanical ones made of steel and plastics. Eventually to cope with the pain they had given themselves they removed a core part of what made them, them; their emotions. Making themselves an utterly logical sausage race of clones, all the same."
Smart creatures, Raven said, emotions are pain.
"Take my word for it when I say that you don't want to go through their conversion process." the Doctor added, "It's rather gruesome and bloody. Their mission is to turn all organic life into Cybermen too."
Why? Raven asked.
"I'm not sure. A large part of it I suspect is the need to eliminate all competition from the universe. They see other forms of life as an automatic threat by their mere existence. Those they cannot convert, they destroy. See it like the ultimate expression of a cult mentality."
So they're paranoid that everyone else wants to destroy them automatically? Raven thought.
"Well, I wouldn't humanise them to that respect. It's all based on pure logic. Their programming deals in two principles. "One, to ensure survival," and "Two, all other species' can become aggressive and destructive to you". Therefore, under those principles the logical solution is to subjugate the unlike and convert or destroy."
Raven mulled the concept of these creatures in her head as she continued walking towards the bridge. She kindly asked the Doctor to stop interrupting her thoughts with his own ideas, she wanted to mull this over herself. God, she really hoped this wasn't permanent. It was one of her true fears that she'd meet someone who could read her most deepest and inner thoughts.
As for these Cybermen, the conclusion she came to was that they were just evil, and for good reason. If they kept themselves to themselves then that would be more forgiving. But it was the fact they wanted to force their way of life onto others or be destroyed, that was the part that made them evil. Though to be totally emotionless, that sounded like a good thing for her, no pain, sadness or aggression to take over.
Doctor, quit reading my thoughts.
"I'm looking where you're going." he called back. "Someone has to because you're not. The bridge was two turns back."
When they did arrive at the door to the bridge it was clearly under heavy guard. It was a large steel door that looked to be air tight and impregnable. Probably to prevent people trying to hijack the ship. It also had two guards with heavy looking laser rifles ready for trouble.
"Okay, do and say what I say." the Doctor instructed.
I'm so enthusiastic. Raven thought sarcastically as she pulled her hood up over her head.
"That's the spirit."
Raven approached the guards who stopped her, their guns ready in case she caused trouble. They would be intimidating to her, if Raven didn't have the power to destroy them on the spot. But instead she'd have to talk to them and persuade them, and hopefully the Doctor could give her some magic words to get them to move because by the look of them she doubted words would be enough. Unless those words were "Azarath, Metrion Zinthos."
"I must speak with the captain, regarding your Cybermen attackers." Raven said, following what the Doctor was telling her.
"I'm sorry miss, no civilians allowed on the bridge." the guards said.
"I have important information for the captain." Ravens voice was very flat and lifeless.
"Come on, make it sound more natural. You sound like a Cyberman yourself." the Doctor said.
Shove it! Raven shot back.
"And we can't let civilians onto the bridge." The guard said, becoming threatening.
Raven charged her powers. "NO." The Doctor interjected, sensing what she was about to do, and it was bad. "Just push them aside and pass your way through the door."
Rolling her eyes she did that. Pushing the two guards a part and using her powers to create an opening of dark energy so she could pass through the door.
On the other side the Bridge was in panic. It was a very large room with banks of computers on two levels. A large screen showed a readout of the whole ship, and a big window showing the view outside the front. Inside were four people. One probably a pilot, a communications officer, a security officer and a Captain.
"Cybermen have breached the air lock on level, seven." Cried someone.
"Level six says the passengers are becoming concerned. They can hear bangs and knocking coming from outside the hull." Cried someone else.
"Cybermen are at outer airlock ten."
"Engineering says to repair the Hyper-drive will take up to seven hours!"
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?" Someone shouted at Raven. By the look of this heavy set, elderly woman, the way she carried herself and the authority she displayed, Raven guessed she must be the captain.
I'm not saying that! Raven told the Doctor. But he pressured her and mentally twisted her arm. FINE!
"I am Raven. I'm..." she hesitated "...a Time Lord." "That's going to carry much more weight than saying you're a Monk from some backwater asteroid in Dimension Zed." The Doctor mocked.
The door behind Raven opened and the guards rushed in to grab her. But Raven activated her powers, picked them up and flung them back. She caught them before they slammed into the wall and caused any serious damage to themselves.
"I mean no harm." Raven said. "But as you can see, I can be useful. I came here with..." The Doctor wanted her to say '...A dashing and hansom Time Lord swashbuckler called the Doctor...' but Raven refused, telling him mentally, Screw you!"...a fellow Time Lord called the Doctor. An enemy to the Cybermen."
"Well, where is he?" the Captain said. "Heavens knows we need all the help we can get."
"He's in the hospital wards, unconscious." Raven said. "But I am his..." she hesitated, not really wanting to say it "...Padawan, his apprentice."
Doctor, I WILL make you pay for this, when this is over.
"But my telekinetic powers far surpass his." She added herself so she had some input into this.
"Maybe you will come in handy." the Captain said dismissively, "wait here" and she turned back to the monitors.
"Go take a look at that screen at the back. Give me as much data as you can." Raven did as instructed and approached the board looking at it. It showed a schematic of the ship along with a lot of data and readings. Raven couldn't understand it, but through her eyes she got the sense that the Doctor was absorbing all of it quickly and his brain back in the ward processed it all.
"Okay, I'm going to tell you what to say, and this time you can put it into your own words." The Doctor said, "Maybe this time you'll sound like a real human being."
Go screw yourself!
Raven tried to get the captains attention, but she seemed to just be dismissing her at every turn. "I'm sorry, but I have no time to deal with children."
The Doctor immediately gave her a string of words to say to hopefully get the Captains attention.
"I'm not a child! I am much older than I look. I happen to be over 600 years old." She lied, "I'm in my 6th incarnation, and with a level 6 psycho-kinetic level."
Hey, wait a minute... 6-6-6?! Doctor, I swear, I will murder you!
"Okay, so you're older than you look, and you're arrogant. Out of my way." The Captain pushed past her.
"Raven, you don't sound very convinced of it yourself." The Doctor commented.
Because I'm not. Raven shot back. This is stupid.
"Look, give me full access to your mouth and body and I'll sort this out for us." But Raven refused. Get back in your own body! You go through bodies like jelly babies, there is no way I'm letting you have control of mine.
A Cyberman floated in front of the windscreen and began hammering on the glass. The crew stepped back in panic and looked like they were going to evacuate the bridge. But Raven remained calm and collected. She stepped forward, cast dark energy over the Cyberman and with a flick of her fingers sent him flying back, away from the ship like she had flicked a bug.
She turned to the captain and said "Do you want my help now?"
Raven and the Doctor gathered as much information as possible. Apparently they had arrived in an area of space where. According to the Doctors knowledge. A great space battle had occurred in the Cyber-War some few thousand years ago. One ship had been flooded with Cybermen and to defeat them they had opened the air lock and blasted them all out into deep space.
Did you have something to do with that? Raven asked.
"The Dandy Man did, yes." The Doctor confirmed. Raven guessed he meant his 3rd incarnation.
But though the Cybermen had been blasted out into space they had remained active all these years, until this hospital ship dropped out of hyperspace right in the middle of them.
"It's an extraordinary coincidence." The Doctor said. "That the Hyper-drive should fail at this precise moment." Raven let the Doctor know about what she had sensed earlier, the smaller life signs before the Hyper-drive blew, and he seemed to consider it. "Let me think on that a little longer. But first we need to sort out the problem at hand."
"First things first." Raven said, following the Doctors voice as it told her his plan. "Open the shutters and disable them so they can't close." Raven couldn't believe what the Doctor had just made her say. He was asking them to open up the protective shields for the windows. To remove an extra layer keeping them from the Cybermen. "Also, overload the door circuits on the outer airlock doors so they open and stay jammed open."
Doctor, are you nuts? The crew must be thinking the same thing because they looked at her like she was insane. But she continued to recite what the Doctor was telling her.
"The Cybermen want this ship. But most of all they want the people inside this ship, alive. Their numbers are low. There may be a million Cybermen out there but not all will be able to be revived, they'll be mostly spare parts. They need fresh bodies, and if they smash their way in then the rest of the ship has no protection against the Vacuum of space. They'll be killing their 'life blood'."
That was actually a very good plan in Ravens mind. Assuming 'if' the Cybermen valued the living cargo within.
"Outer airlock 6 breached." A man at the console said.
The Doctor was prodding Raven to talk again. "Do you see how they're breaking in? They're not smashing the doors to pieces. They're being careful not to damage the air locks, because they need them."
The looks they were all giving her made her uncomfortable. It was realisation, mixed a little with admiration; and Raven could feel the Doctors smugness.
"Move all the patients away from the outer hull." Raven said. "The sight of the Cybermen might distress them."
"Raven, you said that by yourself!" The Doctor said mentally cheering her. Things will be much worse if they panic. Raven told him, trying to sound coldly logical about it. In reality she wanted to feel like some of that admiration from the crew was justifiably hers.
"It's worth a try." The Captain said, "Make it so."
The crew got to work at their computers. Some calling the intercom asking all patients to be removed to the inner shells. Patients which included the Doctors body and that annoying woman. Then all shutters were opened and jammed as were any outer airlocks.
They watched on the monitors as the Cybermen's assault on the ship stopped. They stood back and stared at the locks and windows now like statues. They looked totally clueless on what to do.
"It's worked." the security officer said. "They're just standing there like a bunch of nannas." Whatever that meant.
"They won't give up so easily," Raven said, she didn't need any prompting from the Doctor, she knew what to say. "They want this ship and whats' in it. They'll find a way in eventually. Hopefu..."
"STOP!" the Doctor cut across her. She had been about to say "Hopefully the Cybermen don't decide they value this ship more than they value the people on board." But the Doctor interrupted saying this might be bad for their moral.
To Be Continued...
Authors notes: I have only just now realised what I've accidentally done is set up a similar scenario to the Doctor Who episode Flatline. Where the 12th Doctor is trapped in a shrunken TARDIS and has to rely on his companion to bluff her way around as she talks to him. Only in this case the Doctor is in a coma, Raven is getting instructions telepathically, and her social skills means this is a million times more awkward for her.
There is another reason why I've put the Doctor and Raven into this position where the Doctors brain is using Raven's mind, eyes and ears, but that would be spoiling it all. :P