Dr. Who Target 078 Earthshock # Ian Marter

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material of the bulkhead shutters when their Leader strode
purposefully into their midst.
‘The Doctor must be taken alive,’ he ordered. ‘What is
the delay?’
The Cyber Deputy explained what had happened.
‘Our plans must not be hampered by such trivial
obstacles,’ the Cyberleader rasped. ‘Prepare a sonic lance.’
Three of the Cybermen hastily assembled akind of giant
blowpipe. The Deputy took the sonic lance and aimed it at
the centre of one of the shutters.
‘Ready, Leader,’ the Deputy announced.
‘Excellent,’ the Cyberleader boomed. ‘Activate.’
A shuddering spasm ran through the device as it began
to emit a low throbbing noise. Within a few seconds a dull
red patch appeared in the middle of the shutter and began
to spread out.
‘The material is resistant, Leader,’ the Deputy reported.
‘More power!’ the Leader ordered, and the throbbing of
the sonic lance intensified.
Hissing with anticipation, the Cyberleader watched as
the red glow began to brighten and to spread more rapidly
over the shutter.
On the bridge, Captain Briggs was sitting motionless in her
command seat staring down at Ringway’s unconscious
body, her lips curled in contempt. With Adric peering over
his shoulder, the Doctor was pouring over computer
displays showing the freighter’s layout.
‘We could pump all the air out of the hold,’ Berger
suggested, selecting a more detailed diagram of the silos.
The Doctor shook his head regretfully. ‘Cybermen don’t
need air, I’m afraid; in fact, they flourish in a vacuum,’ he
explained.
There was an agonised groan from the deck. Ringway
stirred and propped his back against the front of the
console.
‘Pity, I’ve just been composing a particularly nasty
epitaph for you,’ Briggs muttered, jabbing Ringway with
the toe of her boot. She pointed the laser pistol directly
between his eyes. ‘Would threatening to kill this little rat
slow down those tin soldiers out there, Doctor?’
‘Not in the least,’ the Doctor laughed. ‘They are not well
known for their loyalty.’
Ringway rubbed his bruised neck. ‘You’re all dead
already, so why don’t you surrender?’ he scoffed.
‘I never surrender, it’s too embarrassing,’ the Doctor
retorted, studying the computer displays closely.
Adric suddenly noticed a burning smell. Glancing
round he saw the large glowing patch spreading across the
shutter behind them. ‘Doctor!’ he shouted.
‘So they’ve started, have they?’ the Doctor murmured,
hurrying over and cocking his head near the hot metal and
listening. ‘Sonic lance, of course,’ he said to himself.
‘High-frequency sound waves?’ Berger exclaimed,
making a half-hearted attempt to obtain a picture on the
surveillance monitors.
‘Probably a mixture of high and low rapidly alternating,’
the Doctor explained, walking quickly round the bridge
and glancing wildly at the masses of instruments as if
searching for something vital.
Ringway was staring excitedly at the ominous red glow
and laughing silently to himself.
The Doctor suddenly stopped and grasped Briggs’s
shoulder. ‘You have anti-matter propulsion?’ he enquired
eagerly. Briggs nodded.
‘Stabilised
vessel
containment
system,’
Berger
confirmed.
‘Excellent!’ the Doctor cried, watching the spreading
glow for a few seconds. ‘We may be able to tap the
stabiliser.’
Berger hurried over to a large panel and opened it. ‘The
system is controlled from this unit,’ she said.
The Doctor rushed over and knelt down to peer into the
unit, muttering quietly. Feeling rather superfluous, Adric
went over and tried to find out what the Doctor was up to,
but the Doctor simply grunted and started working busily
away inside the panel.
‘You’re always too busy to explain anything to me!’
Adric complained loudly. ‘Surely I can do something..
‘Give me the square root of 3.6987311,’ the Doctor
shouted jumping up and striding across to the main
computer terminal where he punched in some figures.
Without a pause Adric replied: ‘About 1.923209.’
‘That’s impossible!’ Berger cried out as the computer
flashed up its answer: 1.9232085.
‘Oh Adric’s very quick,’ the Doctor laughed, hurrying
back to the stabiliser unit and delving back into its
innards. ‘You see Adric, the freighter’s anti-matter fuel
must be stored so that it doesn’t come into contact with
ordinary matter...’
‘Otherwise they’d annihilate each other,’ Adric butted
in.
‘Exactly,’ the Doctor agreed, starting to connect one end
of a long length of coaxial cable into the stabiliser. ‘So this
little device constantly rearranges the position of the
atomic particles making up the containment vessel to keep
them out of the way of the anti-particles trapped inside.’
Adric shrugged. ‘But how does that help us here?’
‘Simple!’ cried the Doctor, ‘The stabiliser will tell the
atoms in the shutter that everything is all right and that
they can stop letting the Cybermen’s sound waves push
them around.’
Adric glanced at the shutter which was now glowing
bright red all over. ‘But will it work, Doctor?’ he
murmured doubtfully.
‘It’s got to,’ the Doctor said grimly, completing his
adjustments, ‘otherwise, to quote our friend Mister
Ringway over there, we’re all dead.’
Still sitting by Briggs’s feet and covered by the laser
pistol, Ringway gave a cynical laugh as the Doctor walked
over to the shutter with the free end of the cable. The
shutter was now a brilliant bluish-white and was beginning
to sag as it started to melt.
The Doctor gave rapid instructions to Berger at the
main computer and to Adric kneeling in front of the
stabiliser panel. ‘Now remember, Adric , when I tell you:
first the red button and then the green...’ he concluded,
approaching the white-hot shutter with the cable held in
his outstretched hands.
‘Anti-matter... always hated the stuff...’ muttered Briggs
with cynical gloom, watching with a pessimistic frown as
the Doctor averted his face from the searing heat and
poised himself on tip-toe.
Suddenly the outline of a Cyberman pressed against the
molten metal and started to force itself through the
softened material. ‘Now!’ yelled the Doctor, lunging
forward and thrusting the end of the cable against the
shutter.
Adric operated the switches and Berger shrieked in
terror as the huge invader tore at the shutter, shredding it
like toffee. All at once the metal went cold, instantly
solidifying and trapping the Cyberman like a fly in a block
of amber. The cable was welded into the hard metal,
connecting it permanently to the stabiliser unit.
‘Bravo, Doctor!’ Briggs cried delightedly, her severe [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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