Doctor Who_ Silver Nemesis Part 12

Ace stepped forward. 'Listen, you old bag,' she began.

'Enough,' said Richard sharply.

Ace ignored him. 'The Doctor's not going to just give the statue to you.'

There was a silence. Ace turned to the Doctor for his confirmation. Something in his face made her blood run cold. She wavered. 'Tell her, Doctor,' she said, with a note of fear.

The Doctor looked down at the ground and said nothing. He appeared to be weighing up the choices in his mind. This was no time for silence. Ace shook his arm.

'Doctor?' she said again loudly. This time she did not bother to conceal that she was imploring him.

'Doctor... who?' asked Lady Peinforte. She smiled malevolently at Ace. 'Haven't you ever wondered where he came from?' She swung round and faced the Doctor fully.

'And who he is?'

Ace began to tremble. 'n.o.body knows who the Doctor is,' she said, as firmly as she could manage to do so.

'Except me,' said Lady Peinforte.

There are moments when time stands still. Indeed, the Doctor himself was not only an authority on why such a phenomenon should occur but was additonally capable of engineering such an event quite deliberately. This, however, was not a moment he had the slightest wish of contriving, as Ace could tell at once from the expression on his ashen face when he eventually looked up. It was one she had never seen there before, and it took her some seconds to realize that she was seeing for the first time a look of defeat in the Doctor's eyes.

Ace was mesmerized by the Doctor. 'How?' she managed to whisper.

'From the statue,' said Lady Peinforte triumphantly. 'It is his creation.'

'All right,' began Ace. 'So what does it matter? He's a Time Lord. I know that.'

Lady Peinforte smiled almost kindly on her. 'And you, think that is all,' she said sweetly. She turned to the Doctor and her expression became one of cold fury. 'Well, Doctor?'

There was a moment before the Doctor could reply. 'If I give you the statue?' he said finally. His voice was almost inaudible.

Lady Peinforte's voice was like silk. 'Your power becomes mine.' Her eyes hardened. 'But your secrets remain your own.'

The Doctor slowly turned to Ace and put his hands on her shoulders. He looked sadly into her eyes. 'It's all over, Ace. My battle; all my battles: I've lost, I can only surrender.'

'Yes,' Lady Peinforte agreed calmly.

The Doctor turned and faced her. 'But not,' he said, 'to you. The Cybermen will have the Nemesis.'

The Cyber Leader was clearly surprised. 'This is most rational, Doctor,' he said.

Lady Peinforte appeared to be on the verge of a fit.

'But... but I know your secret,' she blurted, The Doctor looked her full in the eyes. In all the moments that would ever come, Ace doubted whether she ever saw him looking more magnificent. 'Very well,' he replied in total defiance. 'Tell them.'

Lady Peinforte put her hand to her forehead. She could no longer comprehend the world. Her voice became pathetic. 'But I know...' she repeated softly, almost speaking to herself.

The Doctor was now fully in command of himself. 'I'm afraid,' he replied magisterially, and drawing himself up to his full height, 'that makes only two of us.'

The Cyber Leader stepped forward impatiently. 'You may now give me the bow, Doctor,' he grated.

'Very well,' the Doctor replied.

Ace could not believe her ears. 'You can't, Doctor,' she shouted desperately.

For once Lady Peinforte was in complete agreement with her. 'No,' she repeated, 'you cannot.'

The Doctor, however, ignored them, and in deathly silence handed the silver bow to the Cyber Leader.

'Deactivate its destructive capability,' ordered the Cyber Leader.

The Doctor turned obediently to the statue. 'Do you understand the Cyber leader's order?' he asked.

'Perfectly,' replied the statue in its cold, calm voice.

Ace looked on in growing horror. 'You can't do this, Doctor,' she said.

The Doctor gave no sign of having heard her. The Cyber leader placed the bow in the statue's hands. He stood back almost reverently. 'Prepare it for launching to liaise with our fleet,' he commanded the Doctor. 'You have its position from this device.'

He was indicating Ace's ghetto blaster. He pressed a b.u.t.ton on the front and ejected the jazz ca.s.sette. The Cyber Leader removed it and held it tauntingly in front of Ace and the Doctor. 'A new and final era begins, Doctor,' he said. 'Imagination, thought, freedom, pleasure, all will end.' He crushed the tape in his fist and dropped the broken pieces to the ground. He addressed the group in general. 'The Earth will be transformed into our base planet, the new Mondas,' he anounced. 'Before I kill you all, you may watch the arrival of our fleet. Launch the Nemesis.'

Ace screamed, a final plea. 'Don't do it, Doctor! Please, please don't.' It was hopeless. Again, the Doctor gave not the slightest indication of having heard her. Instead he stepped forward to the sled and pressed the switches, activating the rockets. He stepped back again and stood clear. The rockets began to hum. Lady Peinforte stared in horrified disbelief.

'It's about to launch,' the Doctor warned them grimly.

'Keep back.'

The rockets were building up power, and their steady whine turned into a muted roar. The Doctor stood watching the statue expressionlessly. Suddenly, Lady Peinforte gave an unearthly piercing shriek and running forward threw herself on to the statue. Richard moved towards her, shouting 'No, lady,' but it was too late. There was a blinding flash of radiant light as Lady Peinforte and the statue s.h.i.+mmered and then coalesced. The rockets fired and the statue of Nemesis was launched once again to return into s.p.a.ce.

When it had faded into the sky, Ace and Richard found themselves looking at each other in shock, as was the Doctor. Only the Cyber Leader appeared calm. 'We shall watch its progress,' he said smoothly to the Doctor.

'Certainly,' the Doctor replied with perfect self-control.

He switched on the ghetto blaster's holographic display, and a hologram began to take form once again immediately above the machine. They all began to watch.

Many hundreds of dots could be seen around the Moon.

The Cybermen's fleet had been augmented since the last viewing, and its s.h.i.+ps hung in s.p.a.ce like a swarm. From the Earth another, single and smaller, dot appeared, approaching the very centre of the fleet. The nearer it grew, the brighter the Nemesis became, until it was glowing so brightly that the other dots were becoming less visible.

Then it exploded.

The entire hologram was instantly flooded with a dazzling, impossibly bright white light which slowly faded until only the occasional star glittered distantly in the awesome reaches of silent s.p.a.ce. The Cyber Leader involuntarily stepped forward. He pa.s.sed his hand through the image in utter disbelief, but the Doctor, who had taken off his spectacles and polished them on his handkerchief, was now gazing at him in quiet satisfaction.

'No...' grated the Cyber Leader.

'Yes,' replied the Doctor firmly. 'The fleet has been destroyed.'

'But... how?'

'Simple.'

'The Nemesis was under my command. I ordered it only to liaise with our force.'

'Ah, but I had ordered the Nemesis to destroy it. When you took control and changed the instruction through me, I simply asked the statue whether it understood what you said; I didn't say anything to it about obeying you.'

The Leader looked murderously at the diminutive figure in front of him. 'Then you will join them,' he said, aiming his laser at the Doctor's head.

The Doctor shrugged. 'Worth it,' he said simply, and closed his eyes.

As he did so, Richard seized his chance. He pulled out the gold-headed arrow that had been embedded in the door of the TARDIS since the first battle on the building site, and rushed forward. The Cyber Leader's finger was tightening on the trigger as Richard shoved the arrow with all his strength into the chest panel. The Leader dropped his weapon and fell writhing to the ground, rattling wildly.

The Doctor opened his eyes. 'Goodbye,' he said.

The Cyber Leader was still.

The Doctor slapped Richard on the back. 'That seems to be that,' he said. 'Thank you.'

Richard nodded. 'It's nothing, master. I wish only that I could have saved my lady also. But she was one with your statue.' He looked away sadly across the muddy, grotesque terrain: the half-built modern houses, the cement mixers and excavators. 'How shall I live now?' he asked. 'Stranded here, a stranger in this time.'

The Doctor nodded sympathetically. 'I know just how you feel,' he agreed. 'However...'

But Ace beat him to it. 'We'll give you a lift,' she said brightly.

Richard clearly did not understand.

'Take you back,' translated the Doctor.

Richard looked at him in wonder. 'Is't possible?' he whispered.

'Anything's possible,' smiled the Doctor.

'Why,' said Richard, 'methinks I hear celestial music.'

The Doctor, no stranger to these imaginings, smiled indulgently. 'And I'd like to buy you a drink on the way,'

he added. 'If you've got the time.'

Richard smiled broadly. 'No Doctor,' he said firmly. 'I shall buy you a drink.'

'In that case I know just the place,' said the Doctor.

'Speaking of celestial music...'

11.

In the pub garden, their table was still free and the perfect summer's day uninterrupted as Ace and the Doctor took their seats. The ten-minute interval was just drawing to an end.

'Perfect timing,' smiled the Doctor.

Ace looked through the crowd to the bar where, despite her reservations, Richard seemed to be getting served without any difficulty. She had after all coached him in what to say to the person he insisted on referring to as the Potman, but the Doctor's lengthy lecture on the history and appreciation of jazz, which was taking place simultaneously, had been no small interference. The band reappeared and picked up their instruments. Before they recommenced, however, and before Richard could return, there were matters Ace wanted to clarify. 'So you sent the Nemesis into s.p.a.ce to draw the Cybermen so you could finish them off?' she said.

The Doctor waved to the saxophone player. 'I suppose I did,' he answered with apparent surprise. 'How clever of me.'

'But then you forgot.'

'That's it, yes.'

Richard was approaching through the crowd with the drinks. There was hardly any time. Ace leaned close to the Doctor and spoke quietly. 'But there's still one question you haven't answered,' she said.

The Doctor did not appear to hear her. Instead, he turned and smiled over his shoulder to Richard, who was now very near. 'Here he is now,' he said.

Richard placed the gla.s.ses carefully on the table and sat down. 'My apparel excites great interest,' he said.

There was a roll from the drums. The saxophone player looked round at the quartet and they came to order, awaiting the count-in.

The Doctor leaned to Richard. 'I think you'll like this,'

he said encouragingly. Richard smiled and sat back, giving the band his full attention.

'Professor!' whispered Ace in exasperation. 'Doctor!'

The Doctor put a finger to his lips. The saxophone player began to count. 'One, two...'