by Ian Marter
On the wall the Doctor had sketched a large diagram showing the Earth ringed by a number of satellites and the Moon with the Cyber mother-craft on its hidden side. Professor Watkins, Isobel, Zoe, Jamie and Captain Turner gathered round as he explained his theory with mounting excitement. He drew a dotted line from the Cyber craft round the Moon to the side facing the Earth.
'Now, they'll move round and their transmitters will hunt for the frequencies used by these satellites,' the Doctor told them. 'The satellites will then boost their signals and relay them to Earth...'
'And the signals will activate these micromonolithic circuits,' put in the Professor, holding one up.
'Exactly,' resumed the Doctor. 'These circuits are artificial nerve networks and once activated by the Cyber signals they will no doubt induce the hypnotic force being used to control the humans already in their power.' The Doctor held up the back of Jamie's radio. 'There must be hundreds of thousands of these circuits in International Electromatix components all over the world,' he concluded gravely.
'So everyone will come under their control,' Zoe murmured.
There was a shocked silence.
'Is there nothing we can do?' Turner asked earnestly. Zoe clicked her fingers. 'The depolariser, Doctor!' she cried.
The Doctor beamed at her. 'Exactly, Zoe. What a good memory you've got.' He turned to the others. 'Fixed to the back of the neck, the depolariser can jam the control signals,' he explained.
'Neuristors!' cried Professor Watkins, turning to a large cardboard box filled with oddments. 'I think I've got a few here somewhere..
'Splendid!' cried the Doctor, rubbing his hands together and springing to life again. 'Zoe, you help the Professor to make us some depolarisers. We'd better arm ourselves with immunity immediately.' He turned to the Captain. 'What time is it?' he demanded.
'Four in the morning, sir.'
'Please call the Brigadier on the radio. I'd better talk to him at once. The invasion could begin at any time!'
Within a few seconds the basement had been transformed into a hive of activity as the Doctor and his friends began the race to stop Vaughn and his alien allies from conquering the Earth.
The only sound in Vaughn's dimly-lit office was his calm rhythmic breathing as he lay tilted hack in his chair, his lazy eye half open in macabre vigilance, the other peacefully shut. Suddenly a strident bleeping brought him instantly awake. He took up his fountain pen and twisted the cap. The wall obediently parted, exposing the wide-awake Cyber Module whirring and prickling with intense light in the alcove.
'All is prepared?' it demanded.
'Of course,' answered Vaughn from the shadows.
'Invasion Zero will be one Earth hour from now. Countdown will commence now.'
'How melodramatic...' Vaughn smiled to himself as a regular electronic pulse started marking the seconds off one by one.
'We are moving into position to transmit the coercion signal. Transmission will commence in thirty minutes.'
'Yes, yes, yes, I'm well aware of the schedule,' Vaughn muttered sarcastically to himself, closing his eyes again.
Just then, Packer slipped noiselessly into the room from the private elevator. Vaughn swivelled in his chair. 'A few minutes, Packer... A few minutes and I shall control the entire planet,' he whispered, gazing out over the lights of the capital.
Packer glanced at the pulsing luminescent machine. 'You?' he murmured doubtfully. 'Are you sure of that?'
Vaughn's chair spun round to face him. 'Quite certain, Packer,' he snapped. 'Quite certain.'
The Doctor had done his best to explain to the Brigadier on the radiotelephone the exact procedure for constructing the vital depolariser jamming device.
'You must get them fitted immediately,' he repeated. 'If your technicians need any more advice just contact us here.'
'I'll get all my boffins on to it at once,' Lethbridge-Stewart assured him. 'Over and out.'
'Over and... and all that,' the Doctor muttered. He hurried back to the bench where Zoe and the Professor were hard at work making masses of fiddly connections. 'How many have you managed to knock together?' he inquried anxiously.
'Only five so far,' Zoe admitted. 'We can't find enough of those neuristor things.'
The Doctor looked worried. 'There must be some more among all this junk... er, this equipment,' he said, starting to rummage frantically in the boxes littering the bench and piled underneath it. 'We've got to make enough for everyone here at least.'
Upstairs in the makeshift studio, Isobel had opened the blinds and was looking at the pale rose sky heralding the sunrise over the city.
'Penny for them,' whispered Jimmy Turner, appearing at her side.
She smiled wistfully. 'It's great. It all looks so peaceful.'
Turner agreed. 'Perhaps the Doctor's wrong about the invasion after all,' he suggested unconvincingly.
Isobel looked doubtful as she fingered the small cluster of transistors and wires taped to the back of her neck. 'He's been dead right so far,' she reminded him.
They watched a milkman making his deliveries to the houses opposite and a paperboy whistling as he cycled along the street. Then all at once they glanced uneasily at one another and Turner instinctively put his arm round Isobel's shoulder. The air seemed suddenly dry and brittle. A feeling of nausea swept over them and they felt a dull pain behind the eyes. A sudden crash outside made them look out again. Several milkbottles had shattered on the pavement and the roundsman was clutching his head and staring up into the sky. The paperboy took his hands off the handlebars and clapped them to his ears. Wobbling drunkenly, he careered across the street and crashed into the milk float. They heard a cry and heavy thump from the basement and then Zoe screamed.
They dashed out and down the steps under the stairs.
The Doctor was staggering round and round the basement in smaller and smaller circles with Jamie clinging to his arms in an attempt to prevent him injuring himself. At the bench, Professor Watkins was feverishly connecting some tiny wires with a soldering-iron.
Zoe glanced up as Isobel and the Captain rushed in. 'The Doctor hasn't been fitted with his depolariser yet,' she cried anxiously.
The Doctor groaned with pain and collapsed in Jamie and the Captain's arms. They lowered him gently to the floor where he lay deathly still, staring sightlessly up at the ceiling.
'Hurry up, Professor... please hurry...' Zoe pleaded.
Watkins bustled over to them with the depolariser. They turned the Doctor over and Zoe carefully taped the lash-up to the back of his neck. Abruptly the Doctor went rigid with a spasmodic shudder.
'Doctor... Doctor, are you all right...?' Zoe cried, loosening his collar.
The Doctor lay prostrate, his breathing snatched and rapid and his eyes glazed over. They watched anxiously for some sign of revival. A tremendous crash from the street sent Isobel running back up to the studio.
A bus with a few writhing, goggle-eyed early morning passengers aboard had crashed into the milk float and steam was hissing from its ruptured radiator in a white jet. Then Isobel saw something that chilled her to the marrow. A heavy manhole cover in the middle of the street was suddenly flung into the air and it rolled clanging into the gutter. A gleaming silver figure clambered out of the sewer and stood with legs apart, swinging its masklike face to and fro in search of victims. It was followed by several more Cybermen and the group of malevolent giants strode off like figures in a nightmare, their blank eyes gaping and their slit mouths giving their faces a sinister, frozen smile as their thick, stubby fingers grabbed viciously at the air.
Isobel was transfixed for a few seconds by the awesome spectacle. Then she ran back down the steps into the basement.
The Doctor was sitting up and groggily massaging his temples. -
'The Cybermen...' Isobel gasped. 'They're coming up out of the sewers... the invasion's begun!'
The Doctor blinked several times and then jumped to his feet, scattering his startled helpmates. 'Don't stand
around like zombies!' he shouted. 'Don't you know the invasion's already begun?'
Zoe and Jamie tried to calm him, but he resolutely ignored them.
'Is everyone else all right?' he demanded, bustling round the basement as if nothing had happened to him. 'What about the Brigadier and the rest of UNIT?'
Captain Turner hurried to the radiotelephone. At last Lethbridge-Stewart came through faint and distorted.
'Chaos here, Jimmy. Only half the crew have recovered so far..
The Doctor grabbed the receiver. 'What about the other UNIT forces, Brigadier?'
'No hard news yet, Doctor. I'm sending Walters over there to pick you up. You'll be a lot safer here.'
The Doctor agreed. 'But be careful, Brigadier, the streets will soon be full of Cybermen.'
'Roger, Doctor. Just stay put,' the Brigadier ordered and clicked off.
Turner looked deeply disappointed. 'Sounds like a walkover for Vaughn and the Cybermen,' he muttered.
The Doctor nodded ruefully. 'And we're sitting right in the middle of the hornet's nest!' he sighed, trying to get rid of the irritating itch that was developing under the depolariser taped to his neck.
The sunrise flooded dramatically into Vaughn's office, lighting up his face with a dull red glow as he lay back in his chair listening to the incessant grating chatter of the Cyber Module.
'All areas are now covered by our transmissions. The full invasion force is mustering for despatch. Initiate ion beam for navigation.'
'All is ready,' Vaughn responded calmly.
'Prepare communication network for Cyberforce Control.'
Vaughn suddenly stood up. 'Wait. The Cyberforce must remain under my control,' he insisted.
The machine glowed brilliantly and the crystal whizzed back and forth agitatedly. 'Why do you oppose us?' it challenged him.
'I do not oppose you. We are allies,' replied Vaughn soothingly. 'But you do not understand the world as I do.'
The machine glowed even brighter. 'Humans are now under Cyber Control.'
Vaughn strode fearlessly across to the alcove. 'You will not achieve your objective unless I too get what I want,' he persisted. 'Is this agreed?'
The Cyber Module fell silent for a long time. Then it buzzed alarmingly and a smell of hot plastic filled the room. 'It is agreed,' it acknowledged eventually.
Vaughn smiled. 'Excellent. The invasion will proceed under my direction. Discussion terminated.' He twisted the pen cap sharply and the wall slid back into place.
As Vaughn subsided thankfully into his chair wiping the nervous sweat out of his eyes, the videophone bleeped and Packer appeared on the screen, his mean face pale and taut. 'Mr Vaughn, we've located the Professor...' he reported breathlessly.
'Excellent, Packer. Pick him up immediately,' Vaughn purred, hurriedly composing himself.
'But the UNIT mob, sir...'
'They will not offer any resistance. They are all under our control.'
'That's just what I'm afraid of,' muttered Packer inaudibly.
Vaughn leaned forward ominously. 'Packer, this is your last chance. Get Watkins and put him to work on the Cerebration machines at once,' he shouted.
After a terrifying drive through the chaos of disorientated humanity, Sergeant Walters skidded his jeep to a stop outside Professor Travers's house and ran up the steps. Captain Turner let him in just as the Doctor and the others came up the stairs from the basement.
'Thousands of them silver gnomes everywhere, sir,' Walters reported sturdily.
There was a scream of brakes outside. Turner slammed the door and shot the bolts home. 'It's Packer's mob,' he shouted over his shoulder. 'Out the back way quickly.'
As everybody turned and fled down the hall, a gun barrel crashed through the glass in the front door. Backing away, Turner fired his machine-pistol at the shadowy figures outside. The gun barrel fired a five second burst just as Jamie was ushering the Professor back down the cellar steps. The Professor cried out and staggered. Turner fired another burst then caught Watkins as he fell and slung him over his shoulder.
'Get out, Jamie!' he shouted, hauling the wounded Professor down into the cellar.
Jamie had paused to retrieve the radiotelephone unit which Turner had just dropped. As he started down the stairs after the others, another salvo from the front door caught him in the leg. He collapsed and started crawling to safety, dragging the radio behind him. The next moment, Sergeant Walters came running back up the stairs. He fired a long burst at the door and then carried Jamie out into the overgrown garden at the back of the house.
The others were waiting anxiously. Turner contacted the Brigadier on the Doctor's polyvox unit while Walters covered the rear of the house with his pistol. The girls tended the injured Professor and Jamie.
'We're in a bit of a spot, sir. Could you send us a chopper?' asked Turner.
'Wilco,' replied the Brigadier promptly. 'Can you reach Blue Sector Five?'
'We'll do our damnedest, sir, but we've got two wounded.'
'Right. Chopper on its way. Good luck, Jimmy. Out.'
Out in the street, Packer's jeep was speeding back to Vaughn's headquarters, leaving three security guards dead on Travers's doorstep.
Soon afterwards, Packer stood in silent humiliation in front of his master's desk.
'How?' Vaughn muttered, grinding his teeth in exasperation as he gazed out over the paralysed city. 'How can they be immune to the Cyber coercion signal...?'
Packer shot him a crafty look. 'It must be that Doctor character's expertise. You should have eliminated him when you had the chance. Now he's out-manoeuvering you,' he whined accusingly.
Vaughn swung round from the window, his face a mask of contempt. 'I am still in control of the invasion, Packer,' he whispered hoarsely. 'Without me you would be wriggling like a worm in a puddle of acid.'
But Packer's defiance grew stronger and he faced Vaughn unflinchingly. 'We don't have the Professor, so we can't produce any more machines, so we can't control the Cybermen,' he rapped out harshly.
Vaughn stared at him with undisguised smouldering loathing.
'Do you still believe everything's going according to plan?' Packer went on recklessly. 'Do you still think you can win?'
'Contact the Antenna Unit. It is time to project the ion beam,' Vaughn suddenly snarled. 'The invasion force must be sent in at once!'
Packer's hand was resting on the handle of his pistol. He lingered for a moment as if undecided. Then he obediently picked up a telephone and rapped out an order.
The mighty Hercules whined reassuringly through the thin clouds. On the ground far below, all normal life had ceased within a matter of minutes as the millions of monolithic circuits scattered all over the world amplified and focussed the Cyber coercion beam being transmitted via the satellites from the neighbourhood of the Moon.
In the Operations Room, the Signals Officer was reporting the general situation. 'Washington's off the air, sir... Moscow and Peking dead as doornails... Nothing at all, sir.'
'Keep trying, Sergeant, all frequencies.' The Brigadier turned gravely to the Doctor. 'Seems to be a total radio blackout,' he murmured.
'Couldn't we make masses of these depolariser things and distribute them to key personnel?' suggested Captain Turner.
The Doctor shook his head emphatically. 'No time, I'm afraid, even if we could obtain the components. The Cybermen will attack us in force soon. There must be an entire fleet out there, waiting behind the Moon.'
The Brigadier thumped his desk in frustration. 'We're utterly helpless...' he groaned.
'Unless we can stop the Cyber transmissions,' the Doctor mused quietly.
The Brigadier glanced hopefully at him. Then his face fell again. 'We'd need an orbital launch vehicle... We don't have anything of that size available.'
'Only the Americans and the Russians...' Turner sighed.
Suddenly the Brigadier stood up. 'Wait a sec!' he cried, going over to a security cabinet and dialling a sequence of combinat
ion codes. A drawer clicked open and he took out a thick file marked MOST SECRET and leafed quickly through it.
'I was right!' he announced delightedly. 'The Russians had a countdown in progress at dawn... unmanned orbital lunar survey. They must have a rocket almost ready to go.'
'So we could fit a warhead in place of their survey module,' Turner proposed brightly.
'Possibly, Jimmy.'
They turned to the Doctor inquiringly. He looked doubtful. 'How long would all that take?' he asked.
'We should be able to get a medical and technical unit there in a couple of hours, Doctor. Once we'd fitted the Russians with your depolariser things... well, it would be up to them,' replied the Brigadier. 'How long do you think we've got, Doctor?'
The Doctor shrugged. 'I confess I'm rather surprised they're not here already,' he said with a preoccupied air.
'Well, I think it's worth a try,' said the Brigadier, handing some papers from the file to Captain Turner. 'Here's the gen on the Russian launch, Jimmy. You deal with that top priority,' he ordered decisively. 'And get your skates on.'
Turner saluted and eagerly departed to prepare for his vital mission.
Just then the Hercules banked steeply and started to descend rapidly.
The Brigadier went over to the Doctor who was sitting withdrawn and thoughtful. 'Could we intercept the Cyber fleet with anti-missile missiles, Doctor?' he asked.
The Doctor cocked his head non-committally. 'Possibly. They'll be homing in on Vaughn's ion beacon out at the compound, I imagine.'
Lethbridge-Stewart consulted his Situation Map. 'Right. There's an RAF base at Henlow Flats equipped with Taktik missiles...' he muttered, striding down the busy Ops Room to brief his staff.
Zoe wandered in from up front and went over to the brooding Doctor. 'I think we're landing...' she murmured.
The Doctor stirred. 'Ah... how's Jamie's leg, my dear?'
'Just a flesh wound, but he's furious because the doctor won't let him walk on it. The Professor's okay too. Isobel's looking after him.'
'Jolly good,' muttered the Doctor vaguely. 'Zoe, I suggest you give the Brig a hand... much as I detest computers I suspect your remarkable little brain could be very useful to him in the next couple of hours.'
