Doctor Who_ Silver Nemesis Part 11

She swung fast to her left and aimed it at the Lieutenant, and then back at the Leader.

The Cybermen were nonplussed. The Lieutenant spoke first. 'You have only one projectile left,' he said.

'That's right,' Ace agreed. 'But one of you has had it.

Now which one's it going to be?'

In the silence that followed, Ace was sure the Cybermen could hear the pounding of her heart. Certainly it sounded to her as though a giant ba.s.s drum were being beaten invisibly between the three of them. Nothing moved.

Finally, the Cyber Leader spoke. 'Kill her,' he said.

Ace glanced quickly from one to the other. Was this a trick? It must be. Then she caught the glint of light as the Leader's finger tightened on his trigger. She released the elastic and the coin lodged in his chest panel as she twisted her body aside. The laser blasted a hole in the wall immediately behind where she had stood, but the Cyber Leader was down, writhing on the ground. Ace bolted round the corner and was gone.

10.

The Doctor was almost beside himself with the exhaustion of the mental efforts he had made during the course of the previous hour. The abacus whirred and clicked as his fingers flew over it. These sounds reached a peak, then suddenly, and almost miraculously, stopped. There was silence. The Doctor took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The statue watched him, silent and unblinking, its cold aura chilling everything around it.

The Doctor looked up. His eyes were bright. 'Got it!' he said to no one in particular. 'Now,' he began suiting the action to the word, 'we set the rockets to the correct time projection.' The small fins on the base of the rocket sled were carefully adjusted by his bony fingers. 'And you'll be...' he stepped back, 'right on course.'

For a moment he stood lost in thought, admiring his handiwork. Then a more serious idea seemed to strike him and he turned purposefully to the statue. 'Forward,' he said authoritatively.

The Silver Nemesis stepped delicately forward. It almost seemed to materialize in position. It took its former position on the rocket sled and waited, motionless, for the Doctor's next command.

The Doctor's voice remained firm. 'The rockets,' he announced to the Nemesis, 'are now locked on to your destination.' He smiled. 'Let's see how they're progressing.'

He reached for the ghetto blaster and switched on the hologram. The small vision of s.p.a.ce appeared in perfect three-dimensional miniature in front of him above the weird machine. The Cyber fleet were ominously present, the tiny silver specks filling s.p.a.ce around the Earth and Moon like a swarm. The Doctor appeared satisfied. 'Right on course,' he said, rubbing his hands.

A chill silver voice cut through the eerie silence. 'And I am to destroy the entire Cyber fleet,' said the Nemesis calmly.

'Forever,' replied the Doctor.

'And then?' asked the beautiful, deadly voice.

'Reform,' he said shortly.

The statue seemed to pause slightly, as though this answer were unexpected. 'You will need me in the future then?' it asked.

The Doctor's eyes were far distant. 'I hope not,' he said quietly.

The Nemesis gazed at him. 'That is what you said before.'

'That's enough,' snapped the Doctor.

The statue seemed cowed, but still it replied. 'And after this,' it said carefully, 'I will have my freedom?'

'Not yet.'

'When?'

'I've told you when,' said the most mysterious being in s.p.a.ce and time. 'Things are still imperfect.'

The statue was silent. In the distance the Doctor caught sight of Ace unrolling a length of wire from the last buried cylinder of her nitro-nine. Steadily backing away from the explosive, she eventually attached the end of the wire to a hand-sized detonator and took up a position watching the corner around which she had recently escaped.

To the Doctor's horror, although there was no sign of the Cybermen in front of Ace, the Cyber Lieutenant and another Cyberman suddenly appeared behind her.

A slight sound from them seemed to alert Ace and she spun round fast. She was too late. The Cyber Lieutenant hit her with the back of his fist, knocking her sprawling.

As she struggled to rise, the Lieutenant picked up the detonator and crushed it to a metallic pulp. Ace lay on the ground looking up at them. The Cybermen slowly levelled their lasers at her.

'Stop!' shouted the Doctor at the top of his voice.

Apparently surprised, the Cybermen turned and looked towards him, seeing him for the first time. This was not easy. He was crouched behind the rocket sled with only the top of his head visible to them.

'Harm her in the slightest,' he shouted, 'and I'll destroy the bow.'

The Cybermen lowered their lasers, and the Doctor stood up. The Cybermen looked at one another, then the Lieutenant nodded. The other Cyberman prodded Ace with his foot and she rose. The Doctor smiled encouragingly and moved casually round to the front of the sled as she crossed the no-man's-land between them without incident, arriving at the Doctor's side with relief.

The Cybermen placed themselves at the rear of the sled and addressed the Doctor over it. Above them the statue of Nemesis remained motionless and aloof, as if hearing and seeing nothing.

The Cyber Lieutenant spoke calmly. 'Give us the bow, Doctor,' he said.

There was a pause.

'No,' replied the Doctor firmly.

'Then we shall simply take it and kill you both,' replied the Lieutenant. His statement sounded almost reasonable.

'Ah,' replied the Doctor. He appeared to be considering an invitation to tea.

'In any case,' continued the Cyber Lieutenant softly, 'your threat was meaningless.'

The Doctor looked up quizzically. 'Meaningless?' he repeated haughtily. 'How so?'

'How could you have destroyed the bow?' asked the Cyber Lieutenant.

'Well actually...' the Doctor began to explain. Not another lecture, thought Ace.

There was no stopping him. 'What I'd have done,' the Doctor went on, 'would have been to arrange for the bow to be neatly positioned behind the rocket sled. Then, and this is most important, I'd have arranged for the rockets to test fire at, say, a pre-arranged time.'

Automatically, following the line of his explanation, the two Cybermen obediently turned their heads, looking at the rocket sled behind which they were neatly positioned.

'By the way,' said the Doctor casually. 'What is the time, Ace?'

Ace consulted her watch.

'Almost...' she began.

There was a booming explosion. A ma.s.sive ball of flame erupted from the rocket sled as the rockets test-fired. The Cybermen were engulfed and incinerated; when the flames faded a few seconds later only a few cinders remained on the ground where they had stood.

Ace was open-mouthed. The Doctor grinned. 'You're running a little slow,' he said kindly, and patted her on the shoulder.

The black smoke around them began to clear. Ace wiped her eyes, reopened them, and then froze. The Doctor, too, was very still. De Flores and Karl stood in front of them with their submachine-guns levelled. De Flores was smiling with quiet satisfaction.

'Oh, great,' said Ace.

De Flores ignored her, reacting as though it were the Doctor who had spoken. 'Yes, Doctor,' he said agreeably.

We have all succeeded in deceiving the Cybermen.'

He raised his arm. Through the torn sleeve a metallic elbow glinted. Karl's s.h.i.+rt too was open at the top, revealing what had been his chest: it was partly metallized.

'A small price to pay, I think you will agree, for the successful fulfilment of our superhuman dream.'

'The Cybermen made the mistake of a.s.suming all human beings to be weak and corruptible,' added Karl superciliously. 'We, however, are loyal to the death.'

The Doctor was silent. He appeared perplexed.

De Flores calmly approached the statue and gazed upon it in apparent rapture. 'Now at last your long journey is over,' he said to it. 'You will be wors.h.i.+pped for ever.' The statue did not respond. De Flores waited, but no reply or even glance was returned to him. For the first time he seemed ill at ease. 'Doesn't she speak?' he turned angrily to the Doctor. 'Doesn't she speak?' he barked again.

'Not to the likes of you,' replied the Doctor.

De Flores' lips twisted in a thin smile. 'She will,' he replied. He regained his composure. 'Now Doctor, we must part,' he continued briskly. 'We thank you for removing the Cybermen. And now that you have kindly done so, the Nemesis is, at long last...'

'Yours,' said the Doctor. But he was looking behind De Flores. There was a sudden movement and Karl and De Flores spun round. The Cyber Leader was standing immediately behind them, his laser at the ready. There was a flash of light from it and Karl and De Flores were disintegrated before their fingers could tighten on their triggers.

'Sorry, Doctor,' said Ace, shocked. 'I thought I got rid of him.'

The Doctor was staring at the Cyber Leader. His eyes were steely. 'Don't threaten her,' he rasped.

The Cyber Leader almost shrugged. 'Give me control of the statue,' he answered.

'I can't.'

'Then,' said the Cyber Leader with calm precision, 'I will kill her.'

The Doctor looked at the Leader as though the Cyberman were a mentally deficient child. 'Didn't you hear me?' he shouted. 'I can't. Even if I wanted to.' He stepped right up to the Cyber Leader and stared at him closely. 'This is technology beyond your comprehension,'

he added. 'It can't be reprogrammed.'

'To destroy the Cyber race?' said the Leader. 'No, Doctor. You will remove the rockets so the Nemesis cannot be launched.'

'That won't solve anything,' the Doctor answered.

'When the fleet arrives, the statue will destroy it just the same.'

'And the Earth with it,' concluded the Leader. 'The choice is yours, Doctor.'

'That's hardly rational.' The Doctor smiled icily.

The Cyber Leader suddenly seemed on the verge of entirely losing control of himself. He shuddered for a moment perceptibly. ' I shall destroy you now I shall destroy you now!' he shouted.

'What's this?' asked the Doctor with extravagant courtesy. 'Hatred? Cybermen with emotions? Dear me, you're becoming defective.'

Ace closed her eyes. It was apparent the Doctor had gone too far this time. They were unarmed after all and...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a screeching woman's voice approaching from round the corner. Every head turned as Lady Peinforte, attended by Richard, appeared across the building site marching unnoticing through the puddles and mud. With a shock, Ace realized instinctively that Lady Peinforte was mad. 'All things,' she was shrieking. 'All power.' She laughed happily. 'Time,' she informed a cement mixer in pa.s.sing. 's.p.a.ce.' She clambered over a pile of wood and continued across the site in a dead straight line towards the statue of Nemesis. 'The world!' she shouted, throwing back her head and laughing.

She was soaking wet but did not appear to notice. In fact she was apparently unaware of anything at all except the statue which drew her like a beacon. 'The...' she was about to continue when at last she seemed to notice the group standing by the rocket sleds. 'Heavens,' she said, and gazed regally round, from the Doctor, to Ace and to the Cyber Leader, before finally resting her eyes on the statue, where her attention remained. She began to croon softly.

'She is mad,' said the Cyber Leader. For a second, the Doctor, Ace and the Cyberman were in agreement, but Richard interrupted before this could establish itself.

'Speak not of my lady so,' he said hotly, and glared at the a.s.sembled beings, unafraid and challenging.

Lady Peinforte, however, was beyond offence. She approached the statue slowly and in wonder. 'See?' she murmured to it, comfortingly, like a mother to a disturbed child, 'I am here.' She smiled rea.s.suringly at it and continued humming softly.

'What,' asked the Doctor crisply, 'do you want?'

To everyone's surprise, Lady Peinforte heard, understood, and responded at once. She turned to him with a sudden air of normality. 'Why, my Nemesis, what else?' she replied.

'You're too late,' said Ace. 'The Doctor's got it.'

Lady Peinforte smiled with apparent serenity and looked pityingly at Ace. 'It is incomplete,' she informed her, 'until it holds the bow. That can be given to anyone.'

Suddenly, Lady Peinforte turned on the Doctor, and for that instant Ace felt the full chilling blast of her madness and hatred. 'It will now,' continued her ladys.h.i.+p, 'be given to me.'

Her words seemed to hang in the cold air. Ace was almost amused at her incredible affrontery. Even the Cyber Leader seemed taken aback. Lady Peinforte, however, stared at the Doctor, impatiently awaiting his response.