Doctor Who_ Tomb Of The Cybermen Part 8

'Here we are-a Cybermat!'

'What is a Cybermat, Doctor?' asked Victoria.

'Oh, it's one of those...' he began, but thought she had had enough unpleasant stories for a while. 'I'd just leave it alone if I were you.'

He went out after the others. Victoria, whose scientific curiosity, inherited from her father, didn't allow her to leave something unanswered once she had begun to wonder about it, made a face at his know-all back, picked up the Cybermat for later examination and put it in the large handbag she always carried.

In the great hall of the main control room Kaftan and Klieg were still standing by the master code console. The scientist was still wrestling with the symbols, trying to work out the correct sequence and getting more and more irritable when it continued to elude him.

The sound of a footstep made them look up. Toberman stood silently before them, his arms folded.

'Well?' asked Kaftan curtly.

'It is done,' said Toberman.

She nodded with a half-smile.

'Good.' She waved him back.

Toberman stood aside.

But Klieg was still absorbed in the code machine. 'I'll never completely understand this code,' he said crossly. 'The sequence just doesn't make sense.'

Kaftan looked at him derisively. 'You, a logician, and you say a code the brilliant Cybermen invented doesn't make sense! What you mean is your brain's not up to it, eh? You must. work harder.

You must master it.'

'How can I, in this short time?' Klieg looked angrily at her.

'We have plenty of time,' said Kaftan. 'You will see...'

Klieg was too deep in this defeating puzzle of mathematics to take in her meaning. Before he could question her, Jamie and Viner came in carrying the dead Haydon followed by the Professor and the others. Kaftan, seeing the body, stepped down from the console and looked concerned. Klieg looked up briefly, then went on with his maths.

'Right,' came Professor Parry's voice. 'We're all here, it seems.

If you will all sit down for a moment.'

Beside the control panels were benches for the technicians.

They all sat down except Klieg, who seemed not to have heard.

'Mr Klieg,' insisted the Professor.

'Oh, leave me alone,' snapped Klieg disrespectfully. 'Can't you see I'm working-or have.you forgotten the purpose of this expedition?'

'You will kindly take your place.'

Klieg obeyed with bad grace.

'I'll come straight to the point,' said the Professor. 'I have reluctantly decided to abandon the expedition and return to Earth.'

They stared at him.

'It's impossible,' said Klieg. 'You can't abandon this now., 'Why do you decide this?' asked Kaftan.

'What! Why?' came from the others in a great babble of objection. After all this trouble, just when they were on the verge of making such exciting discoveries! The Professor raised his hands for silence.

'I feel as strongly about it as you-this expedition has been my dream for years. But there were those, like Mr Viner, who said that more preparation was needed. More men and equipment.' He paused.

They were silent. Viner nodded to himself. 'I refused to heed their warning,' the Professor went on, 'and the result is that two men have died.'

There was silence.

'I'm sorry, but we must leave at the first available conjunction.

We shall take back all we can for further study, of course-but that is my decision, and that is what must happen.'

Clattering his bench, Klieg stood up.

'I insist insist that-' he began, when he felt Kaftan's hand on his. that-' he began, when he felt Kaftan's hand on his.

She gave him a rea.s.suring look and shook her head slightly. He glanced around angrily but sat down again.

Only the Doctor had noticed.

'My decision is final,' said Professor Parry. 'We leave when the north hemisphere is properly tangential, which will be-' He looked at his s.p.a.ce-time watch. 'At 18.42.'

He had hardly sat down when there was the sound of someone running, heavy s.p.a.ce-boots thumping on the metal floors. In burst Captain Hopper.

'Ah, Captain,' continued the Professor, absent-mindedly. 'Just the man! Can you be ready to blast off at 18.42?'

'No,' cried Hopper, still trying to get his breath.

'I beg your pardon?' said the Professor, startled. 'Did I hear you right? You are paid to take orders, Mr Hopper.'

'Not impossible ones.' The Captain's gruff voice echoed around the large metallic room. 'It's the fuel pumps. Some character has messed up the lot.'

The others froze. To be stranded on the chill metal planet, to die slowly in the tomb of the soulless Cybermen...

'Someone... or something,' said the Doctor quickly, voicing their fears.

'Well, whatever it is,' answered the Captain bluntly, 'it nearly sabotaged our chances of getting off this crumby planet; 8 8

The Secret of the Hatch Hours later, the outer surface of Telos was dark and silent.

Nothing moved. The remote stars of other galaxies shone in the clear atmosphere, but gave only a sliver of light on the black crater mountains.

Inside the control room the artificial daylight gave a harsh shadowless glare. Viner looked around at the others, annoyed at their apparent indifference. 'Well, I don't care what any of you do,' he said, 'but I'm not going to spend the night on this planet.'

'You seem to have little option now.' The Doctor, relaxed as ever, leant back in his chair with his hands in his pockets.

Viner looked round at the bright walls where the Cyberman bas-reliefs still stood stiff and huge, dominating the humans below.

'Well, at least we can get out of this sinister place,' he muttered. He tapped the notebook in his hand. 'I have recorded all I wish to. I suggest we all return to the orbiter and wait there.'

'That's a very bad suggestion, Mr Viner.' Captain Hopper had just entered, unnoticed. 'You know that?'

But Viner moved towards the door. The s.p.a.ce orbiter glowed cosy and safe in his mind and he wasn't going to stay a second longer in this gleaming metallic hall.

'I insist!' he said. The tall s.p.a.ce-commander stepped in front of him, blocking his way.

'You do a lot of "insisting", don't you, Viner,' said the Captain.

'Well, I'm going to tell you something now-the first guy who steps into my orbiter is going to stop the repair work just like that. My men will just down their tools.'

Viner glared at him but was no match for the other man. He turned back and sat down, his back to the others, staring moodily at the metal floor.

'How long will it take to get the orbiter operational again?'

asked Parry.

'Working non-stop, without interruption without interruption, maybe some- seventy-two hours,' said the Captain.

At the words 'seventy-two' there was a gasp of indrawn breath against the silence. Viner jumped up again, like a puppet controlled by fear.

'It's quite impossible!' he cried. 'We'd be all out of our minds after three days in this place. We must go back on board.'

Captain Hopper had controlled his anger long enough. 'I can't afford. to waste any more time with you guys,' he snapped. 'But I'm just going to give it to you once more, right!. You may not know this, but we've got to practically pull the s.h.i.+p apart and repair the damage.

There just isn't room for you all on board. No-room-to-work.

Got it?'

'Ah, yes, of course,' said the Professor, understanding that this was a professional problem. 'I see now.'

'It's all right for you!' shouted Viner, out of control, his voice cracking. 'Have you any idea of what it's like in this deadly building?'

'It's not exactly peaches back on the s.h.i.+p, buddy.' Captain Hopper turned to the door.

'Just a minute.' The Doctor's voice stopped the Captain at the door. 'You have another reason for not wanting them back in the s.h.i.+p, haven't you?'

'I wasn't going to mention it,' said the Captain, looking at him gravely. 'But yeah! Until we know who broke into the s.h.i.+p...'

'Or what,' said the Doctor.

' Who Who broke into the s.h.i.+p,' Captain Hopper said firmly, 'I mean to keep a round-the-clock guard on it.' broke into the s.h.i.+p,' Captain Hopper said firmly, 'I mean to keep a round-the-clock guard on it.'

'Very wise,' said the Doctor.

'I just aim to get off this d.a.m.n place with my skin still tight-fitting all over-all right, Doc?' He had raised his voice and was now speaking to the entire party as well as the Doctor. The Doctor nodded approvingly.

'Right,' said Hopper. 'In case it gets a bit cold at night, I've brought along some anoraks-and some food.' He indicated a couple of well-filled rucksacks by the door. 'I'll let you know when I'm ready to take off,' he added and left.

Klieg strode forward and looked around.

'Since we must stay'-Klieg's voice had a slight rasp to it- 'then there's no reason why we shouldn't finish our job and fully explore down there down there.' He jerked his thumb towards the floor to indicate the unknown levels of tombs below them.

'That is, if you have no objection, Professor,' he added as an oily afterthought, with a glance at Kaftan.

'We have little alternative, it seems,' said the Professor, not sure if he was glad or sorry.

'We could, of course,' said the Doctor with an ironic smile at the others, 'stay here. It's quite a pleasant room really.'

'Och, speak for yourself, Doctor,' burst out Jamie, who could never bear sitting about and waiting.

'You can leave here any time you please, Doctor, we won't detain you,' said Klieg. He went back to the control console and his open notebooks and calculations.

'Yes, I can leave, of course,' said the Doctor, smiling slightly to himself.

'But you're not going to?' Victoria had come over to him and put her hand on his arm. She was beginning to read the Doctor's mind.

Before answering, the Doctor watched as Kaftan, in one graceful movement, stood up and walked over to Klieg, leaning over the console to whisper to him.