by Gerry Davis
Suddenly, over the intercom, came the voice of Chuck, the only American on the base, who had gone up to relieve Nils. ‘There’s something outside, chief.’
Hobson strode over to the R/T and took up the mike. ‘What is it?’
The slow drawling voice came down again. ‘Can’t quite make it out. It’s still a long way off.’
‘I’ll come up.’ Hobson replaced the mike and went towards the ladder, followed by Ben, Polly and the Doctor. ‘Wait!’ Before the Doctor’s two companions and the Doctor climbed the ladder behind Hobson, Benoit, now recovered, came over to them. He had opened a locker and brought out three pairs of sun-goggles which he now gave them. ‘You can’t go up there without these. You’d be blind inside ten minutes.’
They thanked him and started climbing the ladder. At the top, on the look-out platform, Chuck was looking through a pair of powerful binoculars, carefully tinted to protect the user from the sun’s rays. Hobson came up, panting slightly from the climb, and stood beside him. He waited until Chuck had moved aside and then looked through the binoculars. In the superb clarity of space, he could see the rim of the crater and the launching and landing area for the space shuttle from Earth. To one side, there was a very small row of flashing, glinting reflections. Hobson straightened up from the binoculars and rubbed his eyes. ‘What do you make of it?’ he asked Chuck.
Behind them Polly, Ben and the Doctor had reached the platform. Polly was shivering slightly in her thin clothes. It was markedly colder up there at the top of the huge plastic dome.
‘It’s nothing I’ve seen before,’ said Chuck cautiously.
‘May I look?’ the Doctor queried. Hobson nodded and he put his eyes to the binoculars.
After a moment he straightened up, his face grim. ‘Ben, you’re trained to make out objects at a distance. What do you make of them?’
The sailor looked through the binoculars. To his keen gaze, the line of glinting objects, now slightly nearer, resolved itself into a long line of human figures. The silver points of light reflected off their helmets and suits made it quite clear who they were. He straightened up. ‘It’s the Cybermen, dozens of them, marching along like the guards on parade!’ He bent to look through the eyepiece again. ‘There’s something else. They’re carrying something. It looks like a bazooka of some kind.’
‘A bazooka!’ Hobson turned, puzzled, to the others.
Ben explained. ‘A kind of gun for destroying tanks. It’s portable and fires a rocket.’ He straightened up and moved away from the binoculars. ‘That’s what it looks like to me.’
Chuck bent to look again and Hobson moved slightly to one side. ‘We’d better get down,’ he said. ‘Chuck, we need you below. Perhaps you,’ he looked at Ben with a new respect, ‘wouldn’t mind manning this look-out post. You can report down to us through this.’ He touched the inter-communication phone hanging beside the binoculars. Polly looked at him in alarm. ‘Isn’t it dangerous up here, Ben? You’d be safer down there.’
Ben grinned at her. ‘Only place I can be really useful, duchess,’ he said. He tapped his forehead. ‘Besides, I’m the only bloke who’s really trained to use these.’ He indicated his eyes.
A little apprehensively, Polly allowed herself to be led down the ladder by the Doctor, Chuck and Hobson.
Ben, left alone, shivered a little. It really was quite cold! Then he shrugged and looked philosophically through the binoculars. The Cybermen were marching in unison and were now quite clearly visible through the strong magnification of the lens. There were two rows of them, some thirty in all, walking slowly, ponderously, with a massive certainty, towards the base.
The Doctor and Hobson had reached the catwalk level of the climb down. Polly had gone ahead. The Doctor turned to Hobson. ‘They can’t just march in here, can they?’
‘Not now we’ve discovered how they get in to the base,’ replied Hobson.
‘And we’ve discovered that their weapons don’t work in a vacuum,’ said the Doctor. ‘Therefore this march towards the base is probably a show of strength, to scare us the way the Zulus used to intimidate their enemies with their famous slow march.’
Hobson looked a little blank at the mention of Zulus. The Doctor was wondering how to explain when Jamie appeared at the bottom of the ladder. ‘Doctor, Mr Hobson,’ he called, ‘come quickly.’
In the Weather Control Room the men were clustered around the R/T set. Hobson strode over to them. ‘Why have you stopped? What…’
Benoit raised his hand for silence. There was a loud burst of static on the R/T loudspeaker and then the voice of the Cyberleader – Tarn.
‘Moon base. Moon base?’
‘They’ve got our wave length,’ said Nils. Then into the mike he replied, ‘We hear you.’
‘You are surrounded,’ the Cyberleader went on. ‘All resistance is useless. You must open the entry port.’
Hobson seized the mike from Nils. ‘Let me.’ He spoke directly into the mike. ‘You are wasting your time. We have discovered your passageway and have blocked it. You can’t enter now.’ He switched off the mike.
The voice of the Cyberleader, with its thick rasping quality, echoed round the room. ‘Resistance is useless. You must…’ Hobson motioned to Nils who abruptly cut off the Cyberleader’s voice.
Polly turned to Hobson. ‘Can they get in?’
‘Not if we keep our heads,’ Hobson replied. He turned to Nils. ‘Get me Earth, quick!’
Nils nodded and turned the control knobs. ‘Weather Control Room calling Earth. Come in, please.’ He switched over the receiver switch. An intense stutter of high-frequency static filled the room.
Jamie leapt back, his hands over his ears. ‘Och, what’s that?’ Polly also clapped her hands over her ears. ‘What a terrible row.’
Hobson motioned Nils to turn it off. He did so. There was a sudden silence in the room.
‘We’ll never hear anything through that,’ said Hobson. ‘Are they jamming it?’
‘Perhaps,’ said Benoit, thinking fast. ‘Or could it be…?’ The thought came to both men at the same time.
‘The aerial,’ Hobson put their thoughts into words, ‘they’re having a go at the aerial.’ He picked up a Cyber-weapon from the console and turned to the door.
‘Where are you going?’ Benoit queried.
‘Outside.’
‘You’re crazy.’ Benoit shook his head. ‘They’ll get you in a flash. And those weapons don’t work out there, remember.’
Hobson wearily put the weapon back on the console. ‘Someone’s got to go.’
Nils raised his hand. ‘No need.’ He turned a switch on the console. ‘Listen, it’s the sailor reporting from the look-out post.’
Ben’s voice came through the loudspeaker system. ‘Can you hear me? Can you hear me below?’
‘Yes,’ said Nils, ‘go on.’
‘The Cybermen,’ said Ben, ‘are stripping the radio antenna. They’re ripping the whole thing to bits, and flinging it away. Cor, they ain’t half strong! The pieces are going clear over the crags. The whole thing is completely wrecked.’
There was silence for a moment after the cockney sailor had spoken. Hobson slumped wearily into the seat beside Nils. ‘They’ve got us every way, these creatures.’
‘I don’t believe that,’ said the Doctor. He seemed to be speaking almost to himself, rather than the others. ‘Everything’s got its weak point. You just have to wait for it to show up, that’s all.’
‘And how long do you think we’ve got to wait?’ asked Hobson.
‘Perhaps not too long.’ It was Benoit who came in. ‘They are bound to send a relief rocket within twelve hours if no signals are received from us.’
Nils turned round from the console. ‘That’s right, chief. And with all the trouble we’ve been giving them, I’d say it’s certain a rocket’s on its way. Sent up hours ago! Rinberg’s very quick off the trigger, remember.’ Hobson looked back at him, and spoke a little sourly. ‘With a replacement for me aboard,
no doubt.’
‘Then what are we worrying about?’ Polly tried to sound a cheerful note. ‘The Cybermen can’t get in here and help is on its way.’
Hobson nodded. ‘Perhaps you’re right.’ He turned round to the assembled men. ‘All right, everyone get back to work. You heard what the girl here said. We’ve just got to hold out until the rocket arrives.’ He turned to Nils. ‘Nils, get the solar telescope lined up on the flight path between moon and Earth. Keep a constant watch, and let me know the instant you spot anything.’
Nils nodded and turned to another screen on his extensive communications console. This screen was next to the radar screen and marked ‘Solar Telescope’. Situated at the side of the moon base dome was a small circular bubble housing a fifteen-inch telescope used mainly for solar observations. It could be operated by remote control, and the image picked up through a television camera and transmitted to a small screen on Nils’ communications console.
Polly noticed the Doctor was now deep in his notebook, doing a series of intricate calculations. She knew that he sometimes used logical calculations as a way of thinking out problems. The calculations themselves meant little. They were often some mathematical problem he set himself and then worked on while he was puzzling out a solution.
She came up to him and touched him on the arm. Jamie was close beside her. ‘Doctor,’ she spoke in a quiet tone so that the others could not hear, ‘what do you think will happen?’
The Doctor looked up from his notes. ‘Doesn’t really depend on us, does it, Polly?’
‘I dinna understand,’ Jamie chipped in. ‘Who does it depend upon?’
‘It rather depends on the Cybermen, don’t you think?’ said the Doctor. ‘If the space shuttle is on its way, they will probably be aware of it already, and working out what to do about it.’
10
The March of the Cybermen
Inside the Cyber space ship the Cyberleader, Tarn, was sitting by the control panel studying the intricate system of dials. He leant over and turned a switch, opening up a channel in his R/T set.
‘Emergency, emergency. There is a space ship approaching from Earth. It will arrive on the lunar surface within fifteen to twenty minutes. Immediate defensive action must be taken.’
Ben, from his vantage point on the platform, was looking down at the Cybermen. They had split up into three groups of ten, each standing in a cluster at three separate points on the mountain side of the moon base and some distance away. As yet, they seemed disinclined to come any nearer or to assemble the long Cyber-cannon the leading group was carrying.
One of the Cybermen, standing by the Cyber-cannon, had a helmet similar to the Cyberleader’s, a black one mounted on his silver trunk. His name was Krang. He reported back to the Cyberleader.
‘They have blocked our way into the base. Other methods to gain entry will be tried.’
Krang listened as the voice of the Cyberleader came through his chest unit. ‘The machine from Earth must first be destroyed. It must be destroyed from within the base.’
‘That is understood.’ Krang gestured to another Cyberman who came up with a control box similar to the one used to control the converted men within the base. This one had, in addition, a small hand microphone.
‘Transmit control signal.’ Krang’s words, spoken through his chest unit transmitter, were received by the other Cyberman, who immediately pressed a button at the side of the box. A control tone, identical to the one used on the converted men, issued from the box.
In the Medical Unit the three men were lying on their beds, as they had been left, by Ben and Jamie. No attempt had been made to hook them up to the complicated monitoring consoles by the bed. That would have to wait until the emergency was over. The three Cybermen control headpieces had been placed beside Evans on his bedside table.
One of them was now giving out the signal transmitted from the control box outside the base. A change came over Evans’ face, formerly sunk in a motionless, waxen, deathlike coma. The jaw moved, the eyes slowly came open. His hand moved out towards the headpiece.
He picked it up. The control signal rose in pitch, and his body stiffened. He turned slowly, slid his legs off the bed and stood upright as the voice of the controlling Cyberman came through the headpiece. ‘You will listen to me,’ it said, ‘and follow my instructions carefully. These are your orders…’
In the Weather Control Room, Benoit was now sitting by Nils. Both men were watching the telescope for the first sign of the rocket from Earth, which was already showing clearly on the radar screen. Benoit nudged the Dane. ‘Switch on again,’ he said.
‘Without an aerial?’ Nils queried.
‘We can pick up local signals,’ said Benoit.
‘Local!’ The penny dropped and the Dane nodded. ‘I see, yes, the Cybermen.’
‘If they have any more words of cheer for us, we might as well hear them, don’t you think.’
Nils leant over and switched on the R/T set.
Hobson came out of the Gravitron control room. He ripped off his acoustic helmet and joined Benoit and Nils. Benoit looked up at his chief. ‘How’s young Trueman shaping?’ he enquired.
‘Not too badly.’ Hobson turned to look back at one of the younger members of the crew who had just taken over the control of the Gravitron. All they could see from that end of the Weather Control Room was his hunched back and the acoustic helmet – rather like a pair of ear-muffs connected with a thin layer of leather membrane – bent over the control desk.
‘At least the Gravitron’s stable again,’ Hobson continued. He mopped his brow. ‘I don’t know how anyone can take that room for long. Or perhaps,’ he cocked an eyebrow at his younger assistant director, ‘you have to be under forty to stand it.’
‘Do you think he should be on it alone?’ asked Benoit.
Hobson shook his head. ‘Who else have we got? You’re the only other operator who could relieve him. And you’re needed right here for the time being.’ Benoit shrugged. ‘Oui, but it’s pretty tough for him.’
Hobson suddenly turned and snapped at him. ‘I know, Jules. It’s tough for all of us. The lives of millions of people depend on that.’ He indicated the map. ‘We’ve got to do the best we can with what we’ve got.’
Benoit, a little hurt by his chief’s attitude, nodded and turned back to the controls.
Polly entered with a tray of coffee and some sandwiches. ‘I’ve brought some coffee to keep us all awake,’ she said, trying to be bright.
Benoit looked up, a wry sense of humour showing through his tiredness. ‘Without sugar this time, I hope!’
Polly made a grimace. ‘Don’t remind me.’
‘You’d better take some up to your sailor friend. And the Doctor’s also up there with him.’ Hobson threw his thumb up towards the ladder leading to the dome.
Polly finished distributing the coffee to the grateful men sitting around the Control Room. She checked her tray. It was a large circular, transparent plastic one. On it there was one jug full of coffee, two cups, a couple of small containers of cream and a small bowl full of saccharins. Nobody was taking any more chances with the base’s sugar supply. She started climbing up the ladder.
While the men’s attention was diverted by Polly’s mini-skirt, the door opened behind them and a man slipped in, looked around, and quickly walked across to the Gravitron room. He opened the door, slipped inside and bent down out of sight behind one of the computer units. It was Evans. None of the men, such was their fatigue, noticed the sudden increase in sound as the door opened and closed.
Joe Trueman, number 15 of the crew, was bent over the controls, concentrating fiercely on the, to him, unfamiliar job of controlling the Gravitron. He did not see Evans come up behind him and raise his arm in a Cyberman-like gesture.
The arm swung down and chopped him neatly across the unprotected nape of his neck. Trueman slumped forward over the controls and Evans, after a quick glance back through the door to see if anybody had noticed, remo
ved Trueman’s unconscious body from the Gravitron control seat and ripped his acoustic helmet off. He then put the helmet on over the mind-control unit and took the young man’s place at the controls. From the back, clad in the same one-piece brown tunic, he was indistinguishable from Trueman, whose body was lying out of sight behind the computer banks.
‘You will now begin to change the field co-ordinates as instructed.’ The voice of the controlling Cyberman seemed to come directly into Evans’ ear. It was clearly audible over the roar of the Gravitron. Evans’ staring eyes slowly moved down and focused on the board in front of him. Like the rest of the men at the base, he had received specific instructions on the control of the Gravitron as part of his basic training. His hands came forward and he began to operate the controls as instructed.
Polly clambered down the ladder again, followed by the Doctor. She had left both tray and flask behind and seemed in a hurry. She rushed across to Jamie. ‘Jamie,’ she said, ‘could you be an angel and fetch Ben a warm jacket. It’s freezing up there.’
Jamie nodded and exited from the room just as Nils called out to them and pointed to the telescope screen. All that had been visible to date was a black area of sky with a number of star clusters. Now, quite distinctly, one of the small bright dots was moving across the sky.
‘That’s it,’ said the Dane excitedly. He grinned. ‘They’re on their way in to land!’
‘That’s a space ship?’ queried Polly.
‘Can’t be very far off,’ said the Doctor.
‘Far off!’ Hobson was excited. ‘It’s coming in now off parking orbit. It will be down in six minutes.’
‘Shouldn’t we try and warn them?’ asked Polly, looking anxiously at the moon base director. ‘Just in case the Cybermen are waiting for them.’
Hobson, like the rest of the men around the room, was smiling broadly. ‘Don’t worry about that, young lady. They’ve got their own warning system. And weapons! They’ll blast the Cybermen and their space ship to Kingdom come in,’ he looked at his watch, ‘about five minutes from now.’
