Chapter 18
March of the Cybermen
Impact! The glass slowly began to crack and fracture.
"Run" Raven said, grabbing the Doctors coat from the hanger she and Armstrong turned tale and ran as fast as they could out the door. Armstrong activated a switch on the wall next to the door, and it slammed shut behind them.
He raced towards a box on the wall, opened it up and removed something that looked like a fire extinguisher. Bringing it back to the door he began spraying it around the frame of the door, into all nooks and crannies.
"Sealant foam," he explained, "We use it to seal small hull breaches. Hopefully the door should hold in the pressure."
There was a loud bang followed by a quick gust of air as the atmosphere within the room evacuated violently. Though the door held they could both hear a whistle as the atmosphere continued to evacuate through small holes in the sealant.
"How strong are those doors?" Raven asked.
"Not strong enough." Armstrong said. If the Cybermen were in, and they were as strong as she had seen, then they'll probably make short work of this door. Making their efforts pointless.
Raven could sense the Cybermen crawling up to the shattered window, but they weren't climbing through. The breach they had made wasn't large enough for them. Instead they had just deposited something inside the ship, and amazingly they appeared to be re-sealing the breach they had caused, with them still outside the ship. Whatever they had just left behind, her brain was telling her it was dangerous. It couldn't be an explosive. Why seal up the breach again if it was? If it was an explosive and it went off it'd destroy the window and the door. Unless whatever it was, needed the atmosphere intact to work. Some kind of gas maybe?
Raven told what she could sense to Armstrong, and he called it in to the Captain.
"Confirmed," said the Captain, "It's happening all over the ship. Cybermen making small punctures only to insert something and re-seal the breach. Go check out the breach in wing 6C, and be careful. Take that Time Lord girl with you, maybe her 'high and mighty' Time Lord brain knows what it is." Raven got the feeling the Captain still didn't like her. Like I care.
Raven still held the Doctors coat in her hands as she followed Armstrong to wing 6C, as she ran she continued to fish for the TARDIS within its cavernous pockets.
When they arrived they found a small canister, maybe the size of a briefcase, just sitting in the middle of the floor. The window through which it had been thrown through had sealant foam sprayed over it to maintain the atmosphere, and outside Cybermen watched and waited. They didn't react as they came through the door, they just appeared to be waiting.
Armstrong held his gun fast in case the canister sprouted legs or something, and tried to attack them. But it remained as inanimate as anything.
As Armstrong examined the canister Raven took the Doctors coat and slipped it on over her cloak to make searching all the pockets easier. The coat was far too big for her smaller frame. It had to be in here somewhere, so why wasn't this coat giving it to her? She dreaded that it might not be in there at all. Please, please, please don't let that be the case. She thought as worry began to escape her face. The Doctors pockets appeared to be bigger on the inside, like the TARDIS. Which meant she couldn't sense the TARDIS void in the ether, because the Doctors pockets already felt like voids in the ether.
"Its empty." Armstrong said, catching Ravens attention, he was referring to the canister. "It's open and it's empty. Whatever was inside is already gone!"
The lights suddenly dimmed, before flashing off altogether. The only lights were now strips in the floor, presumably for people to find their way it the main power failed, but it cast the area into an unnerving gloom.
Without the Doctor to tell her the answers Raven began to think what might have been in the canister. Another Cybermat? No, she couldn't sense anything that felt like a Cybermat, and the canister didn't look like it opened wide enough to allow something so large to get out. A type of gas? If it contained gas then it was pretty harmless since she and Armstrong were standing near the canister, which is where it should be strongest, with no ill effects. Perhaps bacteria or viruses? In which case they were likely both contaminated.
At that thought Raven reached up to her throat and felt it. Was her throat sore, or was it just her imagination. Get a grip. She commanded. No point in worrying about it now, if it's happened.
"Armstrong to command," he called into his com, "Its an inanimate canister, but whatever was inside it has escaped."
"Confirmed," the Captain said, "Tell our Time Lord friend that the Cybermen seem to be staying put in the drive room, and they've stopped bashing on the doors."
Why had they stopped? Raven wondered. Cybermen were logical and apparently connected to each other so there must be a reason. Some circumstance must've changed. Raven looked down at the canisters as a thought occurred to her. The worry must've been present on her face, because Armstrong asked "What's wrong?"
"The attack on the drive room." Raven said, "It wasn't an attack, it was a distraction. They wanted to get as many security guards down into the hold to fight them as possible."
Armstrong looked down at the canister and understanding dawned on him. "So they could do this without interference."
"Or damage their live stock." Raven added morbidly. "We were being herded like cattle."
They both looked down at the canister again. Whatever had escaped it was probably close to this room.
Gingerly they left the ward. Raven reached out with her powers trying to detect a trace of what was inside those canisters. But she sensed nothing. If it was a gas then that would make sense. A gas wasn't alive, nor was it solid enough to make an imprint in the ether. So she wouldn't be able to sense it.
They stayed put as Raven continued to fish in all the coat pockets for the TARDIS. Pulling out an old magazine, a half eaten apple, a stick of celery, several items she didn't understand the purpose of. Ravens hands dived into both coat pockets and she rummaged around hoping for her fingers to brush up against the familiar panelled walls of the miniaturised Police Box shell. How did the Doctor ever pull out anything he wanted out of these pockets?
They heard a scream echo from down the corridor, and Raven could sense life signs fading out of existence. Without thinking both Raven and Armstrong took off in that direction, their feet clattering on the metal as they ran. Raven continuing to look for the TARDIS.
Suddenly Raven sensed something all to familiar now and grabbed Armstrong to hold him back. Something stomped from around the corridor, its hydraulics hissing. A Cyberman! How did that get in here? It was followed by an army, dozens of them, all from a door which led to an inner ward. A ward that not long ago had been filled with patients, and now had the distinct aroma of death.
The army turned as one unit, spotted them and began stamping towards Raven and Armstrong.
"Halt, halt. You will become like us." They chanted as they reached out in unison to get them.
Armstrong raised his rifle, but Raven grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled him back down the corridor. "Don't be an idiot!" She shouted at him. Why did boys have to be so gun-ho? There was no way he could take on that army with just that one gun.
As they ran sparks erupted from the walls around them as these Cybermen seemed to be firing some kind of energy weapons set into their foreheads.
"Control, this is Armstrong. We have Cybermen in sector C6. Seal the wing!" Armstrong called into his coms device.
"What?" the Captain asked, "Private, Repeat message."
"Seal sector C6, they're coming!"
A mere few seconds later a blast door came down behind them with a slam. They heard two other doors engage on the other side of the blast door, probably other doors to isolate the Cybermen from the rest of the ship.
"Where the heck did the 'Silver Dance Troop' come from?" Armstrong said panting. "They must've gotten all the patients in that sector."
Doctor, Raven called into her mind. She couldn't believe she wanted to hear the Doctor again. Doctor! No response. They were on their own.
Through a window in the blast door they saw the Cybermen approach and stop. They just stopped and stared through the glass at them not making any move to try to break inside. Why weren't they attacking? They were logical so… Raven felt herself go cold. They weren't trying to break through because logically they didn't need to.
"You will become like us!" Said the tones of another Cyberman. They both spun around to see another army of them stamp out of another ward and turn to them.
"Sector D6!" Armstrong shouted into his com. "Cybermen! Blast doors."
The heavy blast doors fell, but one of the metal giants caught it and with amazing strength lifted it up with little effort allowing its fellows to pass under.
Both Raven and Armstrong took off again running as the Cybermen fired, but their shots always seem to go wide. The Metal Menaces were targeting the walls whenever they got near them. Clearly they were trying to knock them out, slow them down, not kill them.
"Private Armstrong, this is the Captain." Said a voice from his wrist com, "You should have re-enforcement's inbound in sector E6."
Sector E6 was around the next corner, but from around that corner came something which forced them to come to a halt. It wasn't re-enforcement's. It was more Cybermen! Where the heck were they all coming from?!
They were surrounded on all sides as the metal army marched towards them chanting. "You will become like us." "You will become like us." "You will become like us."
"Why?" Raven screamed, and the machines stopped in unison. Okay, she didn't expect that, but it was buying them time so she decided to keep talking. "Why must we become like you?"
One Cyberman spoke. "You feel fear. Cybermen shall remove fear."
"I'm not scared!" Raven flared up.
"You feel anger, Cybermen will remove anger."
"Why?" She shouted again. "Why do you think I'd want to become like you?!"
"Do you… feel pain… do you know pain? Suffering? Emotional turmoil? Prejudice?" the monotone Cyberman asked.
"More than you know." Raven said out loud.
"Would you not want to live in a world without fear, without pain?" The Cyberman asked. "These things are cause by emotions, they cause unnecessary pain. They impair the logic circuits of the brain. They cause rash actions to be made, resulting in more 'unhappiness'."
Ravens face dropped. That was her philosophy alright, but she never expected to face a society built around it.
"We can remove them. All of them. Without emotions to hold you back, you will ascend and become productive to the ultimate cause."
"Yeah, to become like you and allow you to spread!" Armstrong challenged.
"Our society has no pain, it has no inequality, it has no sex, no class, no colour, no creed. No barriers that divide us. We cannot be persuaded, we cannot be divided, we are 'free' of our emotions. We have learnt that all life forms desire this, it is only because of their emotions that they fear us and our ways."
Raven considered this even further. It was like a perversion of her beliefs cranked up to eleven. Sure they had no inequality, but looking at them they had no individuality, they were all expected to be the same, to behave the same to look exactly the same and think exactly alike.
"You have no individuality?" Raven asked.
"Individuality invites barriers, invites clashes, invites arguments, invites disagreement. Cyber-rule must not be disagreed with!" The Cyberman talking to them reached out as if it could grab them, and all the Cybermen around it copied the movement. "We have achieved equality. Is that, not what you humans want?"
"By forcing others to obey you, and destroying those who wont?" Raven replied. "Yeah, I think I'll pass on your twisted brand of it."
"You have no choice, become like us or be destroyed." Between the Cybermens legs came something Raven couldn't understand because it looked so weird. It looked like a mass of insects, but moving like a silver liquid. It wasn't alive at all but she could sense its intention, and it was coming at them from both sides, advancing on them.
Thinking fast Raven did the only thing she could think of. She used her powers to de-stabilise the structure of the floor around both herself and Armstrong. A dark disk appeared beneath them and the pair dropped through the floor to the section below. The disk above them vanishing as it sealed.
They were now in a darker area of the ship, it was narrow and lit only by dim orange lights.
"What the heck was that thing? That Silver liquid?" Armstrong said getting up off the floor. Unlike Raven he didn't have any powers to catch himself as he fell and he'd hit the floor at full force. He tried to get up but as he put pressure on his left leg he squealed and fell to the floor.
"Sorry," Raven said slowly in a monotone as if she was forcing it out. She walked up to Armstrong, pressed her hands to his knee joint and with a burst of her powers healed his leg.
"Hey, pretty nifty. I didn't know you Time Lords had such neat powers." Armstrong said, getting to his feet and testing out his healed legs.
"To be honest. I'm not a Time Lord." Raven said getting up. "I'm a human, mostly. The Doctor is the only Time Lord on this ship."
Remembering about the TARDIS Ravens hands dived into the Doctors coat pockets again, desperate to find it.
"You're still amazing, you know that?" Armstrong said, and Raven got the uneasy feeling he was trying to flirt with her.
"Save it." Raven said, "My relationships with people don't tend to last." And her eyes began to glow to try to creep him out and ward him off this behaviour. But the guy looked to be more intrigued instead of frightened. She knew relationships wouldn't last because of her and who she is. She feared that the judgemental nature of anyone she was with would shine through eventually and burn her. She also secretly feared what she might do to them if they aggravated her and she lost control.
At last her fingers closed on the panelled Police Box and she pulled it from the Doctors pocket, holding it tightly in her hand. Now all they had to do was get out into an open space and return it to normal, get in, get the gold and work on defeating the Cybermen.
They both emerged through a door and into another corridor like the one they left above. Still only in the dimmed colours of the emergency lights.
Raven placed the TARDIS on the floor, stood back and prepared to reverse her spell. That was until the floor under the TARDIS suddenly gave way as if it had been ready to crack. Silver liquid spilt up from the hole and the small TARDIS sank into it like it was a deep puddle. Raven reached out to grab the TARDIS, or use her powers to pull it out, but she was too late. She felt its signature as it fell down into the bowels of the ship.
"Raven!" Came the Doctors voice, "I know what they're doing and… oh, I see you've already encountered it. Do not go near it!"
"What is it?" Raven asked as she stepped back from the liquid as rising from the hole in the floor was yet another Cyberman. She glanced at Armstrong to let him know that the Doctor was back.
"Cyber-nanos." The Doctor said, "Nano-bots. They usually break apart whatever they find to build more of themselves. But the Cybermen were using them to turn both organic and inorganic material into Cybermen. Changing people both physically and mentally on physical contact, re-programming them with Cyberman instructions!"
Raven went cold. That meant not long ago all those Cybermen they had encountered and ran from were probably the patients and security guards onboard this ship. That's what was probably in those canisters they had placed in the wards. Cyber-nanos.
"Doctor, you said they take apart everything in their path?" Raven said, her voice grave.
"Yes, what of it?" the Doctor asked as if bracing himself for bad news.
"What about a TARDIS?"
"Raven, you didn't let them get the TARDIS did you?" She just nodded as the Cyberman, covered in this Silver liquid stepped from a fresh hole in the floor.
Raven wanted the Doctor to tell her it was okay. That the TARDIS couldn't be ripped apart by nano-bots. "With all that extra-material inside the TARDIS the nanos could..."
"What. WHAT?!" Raven shouted, but the Doctor remained silent.
"Don't worry." He said. "Everything is going to be alright."
Why didn't Raven believe him?
To Be Continued…
Authors notes: Looks pretty hopeless doesn't it. :P
I remember there was one episode of Teen Titans that dealt with nano machines and Raven couldn't detect them. Which is why Raven can't sense the Cyber-nano machines here either.