Doctor Who_ Silver Nemesis Part 9

'I've never bottled out of anything before, but... I'm really, really scared, Doctor.'

The Doctor put his hands on her shoulders. 'I'm sorry Ace,' he said. 'Forgive me.' There was a pause. 'Why don't you go back to the TARDIS?' he added carefully. 'You'll be safe in there whatever happens.'

Ace's doubts were immediately resolved. 'No chance,'

she said instantly.

The Doctor opened his mouth to continue but she antic.i.p.ated him and cut off his speech before he had uttered a syllable. 'I said no chance, Doctor.' Ace's jaw was set firmly in the manner that the Doctor knew meant there was no arguing with her. 'I'm coming with you,' she said, and, picking up the tape player once again, hurried forward towards the dark tower.

The Doctor sighed, and beamed after her in admiration as he moved to follow. He knew all along he had been right about Ace.

Unfortunately, neither of them noticed that the tape, which was still playing silently, was about to reach its end.

Inside the crypt, Karl was also smiling in satisfaction as the final attachment for Cyber programming was fitted to De Flores' body. The Cyberman responsible stepped back and pressed the preliminary switch.

A few feet away, at the communications console, things were not proceeding so happily. 'The Cyber Fleet is still not receiving our transmissions, Leader,' said the Lieutenant.

The Cyber Leader was perplexed. He reviewed the situation again, and once more reached no conclusion. 'Is there any pattern to the jamming signal?' he asked, exasperated.

'It is meaningless,' replied the Lieutenant tonelessly.

'Let me examine it,' ordered the Leader.

The Lieutenant pressed a switch and the monitor speaker opened up. The crypt was flooded instantly with the music of the jazz quartet. The Cybermen stood still, bemused.

The music came to its finale and ended. The sound of cheers and applause which replaced it stirred a deep, long forgotten and almost extinct wisp of memory in the Leader's brain cells. He scanned them to attempt to identify it.

'I have heard that sound before,' he said slowly.

The applause continued, mixing with cheers, whistles, and cries for more. The the sound stopped and there was a loud click. The communications console instantly sprang back into life: lights reilluminated, circuits were once again complete, and the normal buzz of healthy electronic activity became audible once again.

The Lieutenant turned immediately to the Leader.

'Transmission channels are clear again, Leader,' he reported perfunctorily.

'Splendid. Their arrival is imminent.'

Weakly, De Flores struggled in his technological prison.

'You fool,' he croaked. 'The statue's power is nothing without the bow.' He rattled his wires desperately but to no avail, and fell back against the wall. His eyes were turning purple and his face was deathly white. The Cyber Leader glanced at him contemptuously, but could not resist speaking for the benefit of his Lieutenant.

'We shall shortly obtain the bow,' he replied.

De Flores cackled with the laughter of the deranged. He was clearly exerting all his considerable mental power to countering the programming energies, although clearly growing weaker by the moment. 'Obtain it?' he repeated.

'From the Doctor?' he cackled again. 'You delude yourself.

He is no common adversary.' De Flores summoned the last of his waning strength to draw himself up to his full height. 'Do you imagine,' he boomed imperiously, 'he will simply walk in here and hand it over?'

'Good afternoon,' came a familiar voice. In astonishment, they all turned towards the doorway where Ace and the Doctor stood, the latter raising his hat politely with one hand. In the other he held the bow of Nemesis.

There was a cataclysmic silence. Even the Cyber Leader was overcome, although he was the first to speak. 'Doctor,'

he managed.

The Doctor smiled cheerfully. 'Yes, here we are,' he confirmed as though they had arrived a few minutes late for a tea party after a minor parking problem. 'Sorry we couldn't be here earlier, but we were held up on the way.'

His voice echoed in the stunned silence. The Doctor was fully in charge of the moment, and enjoying himself tremendously. He gestured courteously to Ace. 'You remember my companion Ace, of course?' he looked around at them all anxiously for confirmation.

As he did so, the Cyber Leader uttered a metallic snarl and s.n.a.t.c.hed at the bow. The Doctor, however, was far too quick for him and skipped nimbly aside.

The Cyber Leader glared at him. The strength of the Cyber Leader's will was so palpable that Ace shuddered.

Although she was still in the doorway, Ace noticed that in dodging the Cyber Leader, the Doctor had deliberately moved well inside the crypt. She could see no escape for him now.

The Cyber Leader broke the silence. 'What do you want?' he asked thickly.

The Doctor grinned at him and gave the bow an affectionate stroke. This was not lost on all the crypt's occupants, whose eyes moved as one in fascination to it.

When they looked up again for his reply, the Doctor was smiling indulgently at them.

'You Cybermen do go in for obvious questions don't you?' he said, with mock sadness. 'But then you always have talked in such a dull way. You know, everything's always...' and he adopted an extremely convincing Cyber voice, 'Kill him, or Excellent.' The Cybermen started in reaction to the insult but the Doctor was back to his own voice again and still ahead of them. 'So what do I want?

Well, obvious questions beg obvious answers. Nothing.

That's what I want.' He looked at the Leader with apparent concern. 'Have I lost you?' He spoke clearly, as though to a child. 'Nothing. Nothing.' And suddenly he became steely. 'Nothing lasts for ever.'

The Cyber Leader made a dismissive gesture, as if to cut through the swathes of unnecessary talk he was enduring.

'Give me the bow,' he rasped.

But the Doctor moved out of reach again, and again, Ace noticed, further into the crypt and among his deadly enemies. 'Patience, patience,' he admonished. 'I thought we'd have a little chat first. Relive old times. Look to the future.'

'You have no future,' replied the Leader, with flat finality. 'Neither does your companion, nor any of her race.'

As the metallic voice grated, Ace was stealing a glance at the Nemesis. It was brighter than she had ever seen it, and its intensity was increasing by the moment, as though the entire statue were preparing for ma.s.sive and unimaginable activity. It was reacting to the bow, which she now saw was shining equally brightly in the Doctor's hand. Ace began to see the Doctor's purpose. The Doctor, meanwhile, was replying to the Cyber Leader, and holding the attention of all the other beings in the crypt.

The Doctor seemed blithely unconcerned at the imminent destruction of himself, Ace, and the entire planet on which they stood. 'I'm afraid I have to disagree with you,' he was saying cheerfully. The Cyber Leader, however, had clearly suffered as much delay as he was prepared to tolerate. He held up an imperious silver hand.

'Enough,' boomed the voice, 'we shall complete the statue.'

The Doctor ignored him. 'There is, however you care to approach it, always a future,' he ruminated.

Ace took a deep breath. Despite the Doctor's seemingly boundless confidence, she felt things were bad enough without his going off on one of his lengthy discourses on the subject of time. It was, after all, his favourite theme, with which like a jazz musician with a good tune, he never ceased finding new aspects to explore and develop.

Unfortunately, the present wasn't the perfect moment for his thoughts on the future. The Cyber Leader evidently agreed. 'Take the bow from him,' he ordered harshly.

'And for some of us,' continued the Doctor as though he had not heard, 'it arrives too soon.'

'Look!' shouted Ace. She was unable to stop herself.

The most extraordinary light she had ever seen was radiating out of the tomb. As they turned to look, cracks appeared all over the tomb. Smoke began billowing out of it and it disintegrated. As it did so, the statue rose to its feet, bursting into blazing light. All the humans present involuntarily stepped back; even the Cybermen seemed nonplussed.

The whole crypt was flooded with radiant light. All the remaining rock that had been covering the statue fell away and it stood entirely revealed for the first time. The reality of it took Ace's breath away. She was looking at a living silver image of Lady Peinforte.

Amid it all, the Doctor stood happily, looking about himself and rubbing his hands in apparent satisfaction. He winked at Ace and smiled. 'That seems to be in order,' he said, and nodded at the door.

Ace needed no further hint. As one, they bolted through the entrance and were running hard across the gra.s.s outside. To her surprise, Ace noticed the Doctor was still holding the bow.

'TARDIS,' he puffed. 'The statue will follow this.' He held up the bow as he spoke and, still running, they disappeared among the trees.

8.

At the far edge of the forest, near the road, Richard started in surprise at a distant rumbling. At first he took it for one of the cars he had seen in Windsor, but his countryman's hearing soon differentiated between them and the deeper, more sinister sound he now heard. The ground began to shake beneath him. Lady Peinforte, however, was unmoved. 'Fear not, Richard,' she said. 'It is the Nemesis come alive.'

Richard stared at her, chilled to the marrow of his bones. 'Alive?' he gasped.

'Why, yes,' replied Lady Peinforte calmly, as though it were the most natural activity possible. 'Which means it is complete.' Her face hardened and set. 'And now it shall be mine.' She gazed into the distance. 'Why, I shall be mistress of all that is. All that shall be. All...' her voice rose to a screeching crescendo, 'all that ever was. Yes, all. All All...'

Richard understood in that moment that Lady Peinforte had gone completely mad. He was filled with pity for her.

He put his hand on her arm. 'Come, lady,' he said gently, 'let's find some shelter.'

Lady Peinforte turned on him furiously. 'How dare you?' she screamed, staring at his hand on her arm as though he were as leper, begging for coins. Richard immediately withdrew it, and as quickly his expression of warmth and care was replaced by the servant's professional mask.

'I shall lead and you follow,' screamed Lady Peinforte.

Her madness seemed to seize her completely. Her voice rose to an unearthly shriek. 'There is no alternative!' With this she marched off through a thicket of gorse. Richard painfully followed.

They emerged by the side of a road. Occasional cars pa.s.sed. Fifty yards away, a young man stood by the roadside with his thumb out. Richard reached the road in time to see a car pull up in response to this signal, and the young man clamber in. The car moved away.

Ahead of him, Lady Peinforte was speaking over her shoulder. 'We needs must walk, Richard. We have no craft.'

Richard caught up with her. 'We can avail ourselves of one of these steeds, my lady,' he said. 'I know the method of it. Sit you here and rest awhile.'

To his surprise, she concurred without a murmur and sat down on a milestone. Richard put out his thumb at a pa.s.sing car, and was surprised when it pa.s.sed without stopping. Her ladyship, however, did not notice.

'All that is, and shall be...' she murmured.

Lavinia P. Hackensack, widow, of New Haven, Connecticut, called to the chauffeur of her Lincoln Continental to pull over. Something about the pair of hitch-hikers engaged her attention. Thus the door opened as Lady Peinforte rose to her feet and approached the car; her ladyship was inside the vehicle before Mrs Hackensack had even finished asking her where she and her young man were headed.

Inside the now ruined crypt, there were only two figures left. Karl was freeing De Flores from the Cybermen's programming console. Their laughter echoed round the rafters of the tower.

'Herr De Flores,' Karl repeated, wiping the tears from his eyes, 'your day is over.'

'You betray me?' gurgled De Flores. 'Have I taught you nothing?' He shook off the last of the wires and stretched.

Then he patted Karl on the back and together they made for the door.

Inside the limousine, the c.o.c.ktail bar, television, and the ankle-deep carpet proved of no interest to Richard or Lady Peinforte, preoccupied as they both were with the experience of rocketing along at thirty miles an hour.

'You folks students?' ventured Mrs Hackensack happily.

Lady Peinforte ignored her. Richard hastily tried to attract Mrs Hackensack's attention to himself. 'Alas,' he spread his arms expansively, 'I am but a servant, madam, and cannot read or write. My lady is of n.o.ble birth and has some Latin and a little Greek.'

Mrs Hackensack smiled. 'I guess you're on vacation right now?'

Lady Peinforte continued to stare out of the window, intent on the pa.s.sing scenery.

Richard desperately tried to think of something else to say with which to occupy Mrs Hackensack. 'Go you far, madam?' he asked.

'Me? Oh, I just came over from London.'

Richard nodded. 'Two days' ride,' he said sympathetically.

Mrs Hackensack looked surprised. 'No, the traffic was pretty reasonable. I left about forty minutes ago.'

'Forty minutes?' Richard was astonished.

Mrs Hackensack nodded, agreeing the journey could have been quicker. 'Well, I'm in no hurry,' she said. She was warming to this young man with his courtly manners. 'As a matter of fact,' she told him, 'I'm here on vacation, checking out my roots.'

At last, here was a term Richard understood. He nodded eagerly. 'Tis wise with crops this time of year.'

Mrs Hackensack did not notice. 'My family came from around here,' she continued. 'I traced them way back to the sixteen hundreds.'

Dimly aware at last that there was someone else in the conveyance, Lady Peinforte decided to inform her of the imminent change in the nature of the universe. She leaned towards Mrs Hackensack confidentially. 'All things,' she informed her, 'will soon be mine.'

Richard nearly fainted. Fortunately, Mrs Hackensack seemed undeterred by the news. She patted Lady Peinforte on the hand.

'I guess they will, honey,' she agreed. 'Education's the key to the door. Always has been.'

Lady Peinforte gazed at her earnestly. 'Time past,' she said with great seriousness, 'present and future; power invincible; the secret of the heavens.'

Mrs Hackensack nodded, seeming to understand.

'Connecticut's heaven, if you ask me,' she said. 'My family owns a little land there, just a couple of hundred square miles. They used to own land in these parts too. The Hackensacks of Hackensack Grange?'

Lady Peinforte suddenly bridled, appearing to pay attention to her for the first time. 'I know them,' she snapped. 'Thieves and swindlers all.'