Doctor Who: Tomb of the Cybermen (2 page)

said Viner. The party rose and started walking towards the blast site, unable to keep away.

Through the dust loomed a shape.

Parry and the others stopped walking and moved closer to each other.

The dust cleared further—the shape resolved into nothing but a jagged spur of rock blown clear of the crater by the explosion.

'There you go,' laughed Hopper. 'You blast one lump of rock and all you get is another lump.'

'No,' said Rogers suddenly. 'Wait a minute—look!'

Through the clearing dust cloud at the side of the rock...

something gleamed.

They all ran forward, as fast as the atmosphere and dust would let them, and stopped amazed.

'Man alive,' whispered Hopper, awestruck. 'You just blew yourself a pair of doors.'

Beside the rock, and becoming clearer every moment as the dust fell, were two gigantic doors of metal, gleaming with a strange blue sheen, massive and flawless, standing vertically in the wall of the crater.

'Well, come on,' said Parry, his glasses glinting triumphantly.

'What are we waiting for?'

They scrambled through the dust and broken rock to where the crater wall began.

'Couldn't you have blasted these stones a bit smaller?' laughed Callum, but the others were too engrossed to join his laughter. They clambered up over the broken rocks, reached the ledge in front of the doors and stood gazing up at them.

From here the blue sheen of the metal was as eerie as moonlight. The doors were flush with the side of the mountain, engineered so closely together that you could hardly see the hairline crack between them. On them, the outlines of huge embossed figures reared up, dwarfing the humans—Cybermen figures, one on each door.

No one moved. Even Professor Parry was silenced.

Kaftan stepped in front of the group.

'Five hundred dollars for the first one to open the doors,' she said in her liquid, Middle-Eastern voice.

'I must remind you that I am the leader of this expedition... '

began Professor Parry; irritably, at odds once again with this woman.

'And in that capacity, if anyone is to decide who—'

But as he spoke, one of the Space Orbiter crewmen walked towards the doors, and, before the Professor had stopped speaking, put out his hands, grasped the door handles and pulled. There was an instant flash like lightning. The man's head jerked back; for a long moment he remained head back as if looking at the sky, then his hands opened, releasing his hold, and his body toppled backwards down the slope.

The others gasped and shrank away. 'What's happened?' asked Klieg pushing forward. No one answered. Captain Hopper, trained for such emergencies, walked towards his crewman, crouched down by him, unzipped the top of his space-suit and felt his heart. He stood up and looked grimly at Kaftan.

'One thing's for sure, he's not gonna collect that five hundred, not from you or anyone else. He's dead!'

3

While they stood there, stunned, a loud whirring sound like a car starting up shattered the silence of the planet. The archaeologist party gave a startled look towards the lethal Cyberman doors—but the sound was further away in another direction.

'Over there,' said Rogers. They turned to look at the left side of the crater where landslips had formed huge islands of rock. The sound died away.

Quietly, Captain Hopper pulled out his gun and took off the safety catch.

'O.K.,' he said. 'I'll take this. Get down behind that rock. All of you. You, too, lady,' he added as he saw Kaftan about to argue. They all scattered, crouched behind the rocks near the doors.

'Jim,' said Hopper quietly. Callum, his First Officer, drew his gun and followed. Moving fast, they made their way to the pinnacle of rock that hid the source of the sound. Hopper slipped into a cleft, gun raised. A stone clattered, he froze, but nothing moved out from behind the pinnacle.

'Cover from the other side,' he said, and Callum, gun raised, covered the area from the shelter of a clump of rocks on the 'other side.

Three strange figures emerged.

'Hold it right there.' Hopper's voice rang out. The figure in the black frock-coat and floppy bow tie raised his hands casually, smiling at Hopper's implied threat.

'If you put it like that, I certainly will,' said the Doctor. Behind him Jamie and Victoria also raised their hands.

'Did you hear that, Professor?' called Haydon, as the others came forward. 'English! What's the odds against hearing an Earth language on Telos; a million to one?'

'If you'd just point those things away from us.' The Doctor nodded at the guns. 'We're quite harmless and unarmed.' After looking the three over carefully, Hopper and Callum lowered their guns.

'Thank you,' said the Doctor ironically.

'Now, who are you and where do you come from?' Professor Parry sounded officious.

'You'd better have a good story,' added Captain Hopper.

'Och, maybe you'll not get one.' Jamie's quick Highland temper had been roused by the hostile reception. He was in no mood to be questioned by these aggressive strangers..

Captain Hopper had had just about enough: an insubordinate kid on top of all the other troubles of the day. 'Look, son,' he said loudly, 'I'm not playing games with you people.' He raised the gun again. The Doctor meanwhile had been looking for a reason for the tension of the space party. He saw the dead crew member lying in front of the huge doors with the Cyberman motif.

'What's happened here?' came the Doctor's voice, and there was a note in it that made the men stop arguing and turn to him.

'He was killed the minute before you made your appearance,'

said Klieg's harsh voice. Doctor Who looked at the man, ugly, bald, strong and stocky, full of tense force.

'Ah,' said the Doctor. 'Now I understand. You think...?' He shook his head. 'We had nothing to do with this man's death.'

The Doctor crouched down, picked up the dead man's right hand, examined it and then examined the left hand. He stripped off the crewman's space-boots and looked at the soles of his feet. As the others leaned forward, they could see black burn marks on the dead man's palms and the soles of his feet.

'He appears to have been electrocuted,' said Doctor Who, standing up and rubbing his hands on his already dusty frock coat.

'Those are the marks of a high voltage electricity burn.' He turned.

'While trying to open these doors perhaps?'

Jamie and. Victoria noticed the silver doors' expanse looming above them.

'JAMIE!' whispered Victoria urgently. 'JAMIE! What are they?' They stood transfixed, looking at the unmistakable engravings on the doors : helmets, horrifying blanks for eyes and mouth, long silver bodies and chest units.

Jamie had seen them before. 'I'll tell ye later,' he muttered, still looking suspiciously at Captain Hopper..

But the Doctor, busy examining the place where the dead man had stood, seemed not to have noticed the glistening silver symbols on the doors.

'He seems to know all the answers,' said the engineer, Rogers, glancing at the Captain.

'Yeah. A wise guy,' said Hopper, moving closer, gun held at the ready.

'It's obvious.' The little archaeologist with the glasses, Viner, glared at the Doctor. 'This fellow must be a member of a rival expedition.'

'Expedition?' the Doctor retorted quickly. Professor Parry looked annoyed.

'We have done our very best, made the most strenuous efforts indeed to keep our enterprise a secret, but it seems that all our elaborate security precautions have been as naught. One of you,' he turned to the others, 'has talked.'

'Look at the man,' said Viner, 'archaeologist written all over him.'

The Doctor smiled his upsetting smile and brushed off a top layer of the dust on his coat.

'Does it show?' he asked.

'There!' Viner turned triumphantly to the Professor. 'You see!

It's impossible to keep a secret in the scientific world.'

Doctor Who denied nothing, just smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

'But Doctor—' Victoria touched his arm.

'Tell 'em, Doctor, tell 'em who we are,' said Jamie.

'Not until they tell me the purpose of their expedition,' said the Doctor firmly.

Parry drew himself up. 'Don't pretend you are not fully aware...

This is an archaeological expedition. We are searching the universe for the last remains of the Cybermen.'

'Aye... I guessed it.' Jamie turned to the Doctor. 'Cybermen—

you mean they came from here?'

'But of
course
,' said Professor Parry, on his special subject. 'Of course, young man. Telos was their home.' He pointed to the great doors. 'We believe this to be the entrance, the entrance to their city.'

'Yes, yes.' Viner bustled forward to show off his knowledge too. 'Now we know that they died out many centuries ago. What we want to know is
why
they died out. You see, there are four distinct theories on this subject...'

'Callum!' interrupted Captain Hopper. 'Callum! Rogers!' Viner, fuming, glared at him but the Captain ignored him.

'Yes, sir,' replied Callum.

Hopper crouched down over the dead man and turned him over. 'Take him back to the rocket, you two.'

Callum and Rogers bent down and expertly lifted the now stiffening body while the others watched in silence. The archaeologists had momentarily forgotten the dead man. It interfered with their work.

Hopper turned to Parry. 'Coming back with me, Professor?'

The Professor, who was deep in the old familiar arguments about the origin of the Cybermen with Viner, looked at him vaguely.

'Er—what for?' he asked.

The Captain was exasperated. 'You're not going on with this, are you?' he said. 'Now I don't know whether these people have anything to do with it or not—that's your problem, Professor. It's your expedition. All I know is that there's something deadly about this place. One of my crew has just been killed. That means it's time to pull out.'

The group of archaeologists stared back at the space-crew.

'You were well paid,' came Klieg's voice.

'I don't think you heard me, Mr Klieg,' said Captain Hopper with a more menacing voice than he had yet allowed himself. 'One of my crew has just been killed. That is what I said.'

'And I said you were well paid,' snapped Klieg. 'People often get killed in your profession.'

'Think it over,' said Captain Hopper, giving the archaeologists one more look and turning away. Callum and Rogers walked with him towards the space-craft at the far side of the crater, carrying the body.

'We'll wait for you back at the ship,' called Hopper.

When they had gone, the archaeologists tried to forget about the safety he offered and looked at each other nervously. For a moment they had forgotten the stranger in the old frock-coat, but the Doctor was busy examining the doors.

'The problem, I take it, is to open these doors—right ?' he said with a slight smile.

'Brilliant,' replied Klieg sarcastically.

'Yes, er, this is the problem, er... Doctor,' said the Professor, using 'Doctor' in the same questioning way as Jamie and Victoria.

'And we would prefer it,' said Klieg suddenly, moving towards the Doctor, 'if you returned to wherever you came from.'

There was a muttered agreement from the group.

'Och, they really can make ye welcome here,' saidn Jamie ironically.

'Oh yes,' said Victoria, running over to the Doctor and touching his arm. 'Let's go back, Doctor. I don't like it here.'

'No.' The Doctor turned on them quickly, a different look in his catlike, green eyes. 'We're not leaving.' He spoke in a voice of quiet authority. 'No. That became impossible from the moment that name was mentioned'

'What name, Doctor?' asked Victoria.

'Cybermen,' said the Doctor.

'I
knew
they were on the same quest!' Viner's tight envious little voice spluttered. 'I
knew
it.'

'Nobody would come here for any other reason,' said the Professor quietly.

'No,' said the Doctor again, with the same firmness. 'We must stay here.'

'Are ye sure, Doctor?' cried Jamie anxiously, because he didn't like the sound of this quest any more than Victoria did. He came from a time even further back from the realisation of space monsters than Victoria, though in his day people had accepted the magic of horrible visitations from the sky and knew it was prudent not to meddle with such things.

'If they're Cybermen,' said Victoria, pointing to the cruel lines of the Cybermen on the door, 'I don't like the look of them at all.'

There was silence. The archaeologists, Parry, Viner, even Klieg and the inscrutable Kaftan, felt the authority of the Doctor and knew it was no good objecting.

'We shall help you in your, search,' said the Doctor simply.

'And suppose we don't want your help?' asked Klieg aggressively.

'Ah, that's just it,' said the Doctor, 'you so obviously do. Come now,' he said invitingly, giving them the full charm of his smile, 'I'm sure we can agree. I can open these doors for you.'

Klieg stared at him. 'I repeat, we don't want your help!'

'Hey, now!' Jamie flared. 'We've as much right here as you.' He raised his clenched fist.

'Of course, of course you have,' said Professor Parry, walking between them and touching Jamie's threatening arm so ineffectively that Jamie let it drop.

He turned to Klieg. 'Mr Klieg,' he said sharply, 'must I remind you that you do not speak for this expedition. I am its leader, you and Miss Kaftan are only here on sufferance.'

'Thank you!' Klieg bowed, tense with fury. 'And whose money is paying for the hire of that space craft?'

'Mine,' said Kaftan's sibilant voice behind them, but so softly that only Klieg and the Doctor heard it.

'I thought I had made it quite clear,' pontificated Parry, happier now that he had a chance to re-establish his lost leadership, 'I made it
quite clear
that your financial support did not in any way, shape or form entitle you to a say in the running of the expedition.'