The Cyberman emerged from the other chamber and stood between the Doctor and Angela. In all his travels the Doctor had taken time to study the various foes that he had encountered. Of them all, only two remained the most disturbing. Perhaps it was because they lacked body language. With the Cybermen this trait was more disturbing because they had a head, a face, even basic features. None of these displayed emotion, although he did recall a time when a generation of Cybermen had had visible jaws.
‘Have you formed an alliance with the Cybermen?’ he asked Angela, although his eyes remained fixed on the blank face.
‘If you will proceed into the chamber beyond you will be given the chance to discover what we are doing here?’
‘And this?’
Angela came over to his side and glanced at the Cyberman. At well over two metres in height it towered over both of them, and its face seemed to both stare ahead and look down at them. It was an illusion, the Doctor knew, without a cornea and an iris the eyes could not be staring in a particular direction, they just seemed to be watching everything.
‘This is our guide. If you would move on it will close the door behind us, then it will lead the way.’
The chamber beyond turned out to be a narrow corridor, evidently refrigerated. The Doctor recalled that the Cybermen used low temperatures to initiate hibernation. The fact that this one was still active suggested that either hibernation temperature had not been reached or the Cybermen could choose to "sleep" or not.
A huge clang behind him announced that the door had closed. The huge figure of the Cyberman strode past him and on down the corridor. Both the Doctor and Angela had to jog slightly to keep up with it.
It wasn’t long before they emerged into another arena-like chamber. The Doctor felt another chill as he recognised a variation of the tombs he had seen on Telos. Except these tombs contained humans.
As he watched a cell at the bottom of one row shifted out and was eased onto a track. The row shifted down one to fill the gap left at the bottom. Returning his gaze to the cell which had been removed from the row, the Doctor watched as it was moved along by the track. It moved along slowly but surely and finally disappeared through a hole in the wall.
‘I presume you would like to see the next step in the process?’
The Doctor looked at Angela, ‘Who are those people? What are you doing to them?’ although he could guess the answer to that last question. Somewhere in the back of his mind was the hope that his suspicions would not be confirmed. His only reply was a gesture from Angela as she moved further on. Only then did the Doctor realise that their escort had disappeared. Whether he had failed to hear it because he was so intent on the scene below or because it could move very silently the Doctor wasn’t sure - but he hoped that the former option was the case. True enough, the Cybermen were capable of stealth, but if you listened carefully enough you could hear their arrogant surefootedness. Arrogant, the Doctor mused, what a strange way to think of the Cybermen walking, especially as arrogance was something no Cyberman would understand or conceive of.
He set off after Angela, not really wanting to see what was going on in the next chamber, but drawn by the need to understand the problem. Until he saw the whole scheme he could not formulate a suitable solution.
The next chamber proved to be a realisation of his nightmares. The cell containing the man was now being eased into position at the centre of a vast array of cables and other devices. A cracking sound alerted him to the fact that something had been used to alter the property of the cell casing. One moment it had been as solid as a metal cage, the next it gently floated to the floor like some gossamer cat’s cradle.
Immediately the cables seemed to come to life and attached themselves to the man. A cocoon began to form, at first composed of silk-like strands, but as the layers built they began to take on a silvery sheen. The Doctor looked away, no longer able to watch such butchery. He did not have to ask his question, Angela saw the look on his face.
‘Interplanetary law makes it quite clear that Locusts are a threat to the stability of any civilised society. Every colony is empowered to exact the highest punishment upon any Locust that is caught on home soil.
‘This way they actually perform a duty to society. We don’t execute them and we don’t waste resources making penitentiaries, resources that could be better used in building a new world.’
‘All this conversion technology - where did it come from?’
His only reply was a sign for him to follow Angela. She led him to another chamber, one which led to an underground rail system. There was a car sitting waiting for them, a mini rail-car, with seating for about four people. Taking the seat opposite, the Doctor watched as Angela whispered into one of the grilles set into the side panels of the car, at just about head height. The car accelerated smoothly and Angela began to explain about the rail system, evidently feeling that the topic of Cybermen was best left for a while.
‘When the first terraformers came here a vast underground network was set up. Huge cities of steel and concrete underground - homes for the planetary engineers and scientists. The world was habitable, but it needed a little nudge to make it suitably comfortable for humans.
‘Our current destination is the remnants of one of those cities - we use them as spaceports now.’
The car began to decelerate and in spite of his anger the Doctor was awed at the sight before him. One of the many qualities he admired in humans was their engineering abilities. The car had emerged into a vast underground chamber. Although it resembled the hollowed out inside of a volcano he knew that it was probably a mound constructed to resemble as such. For one thing, the mouth of the cone was too vast to be part of a true volcano, on a habitable planet at least.
Obviously the ships taking off and landing on the planet made their journey through that hole. Presumably it was a noticeable landmark on the surface.
On the floor of the chamber was a vast wheel like structure, its spokes being monorail tracks like the one on which he was riding. Other spokes connected to launch platforms. At the hub there rested a huge complex, comprising a number of towers. Once it had probably been the home of the terraformers, but now it was probably the centre of operations for the planet’s spacelanes.
The rail car was moving slowly now, but still rapidly enough for the Doctor’s view of the city to change from a glimpse of it in all its glory to finally getting an eye level view of the habitation towers. The car finally drew to a halt at a small cluster of huts. A huge cylindrical vessel rested on a launch pad - recognisable to the Doctor as one of the designs used by the Cybermen.
Without waiting for word from Angela the Doctor got out of the car and looked at the ship.
‘Where was it found?’
‘Drifting. A patrol ship brought it in. The six Cybermen were in cryogenic suspension. Evidently the ship had been adrift for hundreds of years.
‘There were those who felt that we should just destroy them, but thankfully the more far sighted among us realised that we have come a long way since our last encounters with the Cybermen. They no longer represent some technologically superior species to live in fear of.
‘No-one has seen a Cyberman for centuries, Doctor. It is a widely held opinion that they were wiped out. Victims of their own ideals.’
The Doctor turned on her, his face betraying some anger, ‘Has it ever occurred to you that maybe the Cybermen are still way ahead of humanity? Their logical minds might simply have concluded that a temporary retreat was their best option. They put themselves in storage, let the galaxy become complacent and then wait for someone to come along, wake them up and provide them with the means to rebuild themselves.’
There was a slight hesitance in Angela’s response, the Doctor concluded that he had perhaps pointed out the one thing no-one had thought of.
‘We are in control, we provide the Cybermen with their needs. If you recall, the temperature of the chamber where the Cybermen work is quite low. According to our records this enables the Cybermen to function at basic levels. They operate under our supervision!’
‘How many Cybermen are there now?’
Again, Angela hesitated, this time she took a little longer to reply, ‘So far two groups of attacking Locusts have been processed - that means that there are approximately thirty additional Cybermen. I know what you are thinking, Doctor. Thirty hardly constitutes an army.’
Looking up at the ship the Doctor shook his head, recalling the number of occasions he had encountered the Cybermen and people who underestimated their capabilities, seeing them only as narrow minded machines.
‘How many Cybermen constitutes an army, Angela? At what point do you decide that you have punished enough of these scavengers. What happens when there are enough Cybermen to constitute a threat?’
‘That won’t happen. The Locusts will learn that we are not to be taken lightly, that we will defend our homes, our land, our worlds.’
A quick look around enabled the Doctor to find something that would help put his case forward. He walked over to a small door, beside which rested a palm print reader.
‘This place is secure, remember? How are the Locusts supposed to know that the line has been drawn?’
The Doctor paused, frightening thoughts were forming in his mind, ‘Either you don’t trust me, it was always your intention to let me get so far, discover just enough and then hope that I would take the first opportunity to leave and warn the Locusts the consequences of their actions, or,’ and he moved towards Angela and stared into her eyes, ‘Or these new Cybermen are to become an army. You send them out on patrol to protect your homes, your land, your worlds. Meantime you sit here, feeling safe, believing that you have done the right thing, the lawful thing.’
Angrily, Angela turned away from the Doctor, his gaze seemed to bore straight into her mind, the weight of his accusation so intense that she could not bear it.
‘We have a right to protect ourselves. Those Locusts, those scavengers don’t care about anyone else. They don’t acknowledge the rights of anyone but themselves, and their idea of right is to take what you can and never mind anyone else.
‘Yes, we fully intend to allow the Cybermen to patrol our sector of space. We made them, we programmed them - they will obey our laws. The problem of the Locusts will cease. No longer will they prey on worlds struggling to establish themselves. People will arrive on new worlds without the shadow of scavengers.
‘Isn’t that a better future? These Locusts gave up their humanity long ago when they chose to live outside the system, to ignore the rules of civilisation. If they choose to continue their raping and pillaging then we will fight them. We will show them where the line has been drawn and we will shown them what happens when they cross it. We will survive and they will die!’
Aware that she was hyperventilating slightly, Angela grasped the railing overlooking the chamber below. The Doctor stood beside her, ‘What is to stop these new Cybermen from building more of their own kind? Once you give them ships you give them autonomy. You may think you control them but believe me, the Cybermen don’t change. The technology which has turned Locusts into Cybermen, think about it. Where does the technology come from?
‘Even if the Cybermen pillaged this technology from some other world they would have modified it to suit their needs. Cybermen are patient, far more patient than any human. If it takes a century for a plan to mature then they will wait a century. They will let you rebuild their army, because you will be using Cybertechnology. That technology will program new Cyberminds with the goals of the Cyber race. Once there are enough of them then they will put their plan into action.
‘Now ask yourself this? How many Cybermen will there be in one year’s time? If those Cybermen convert other sentient lifeforms then how many more Cybermen are there likely to be in five years time? After you have considered that, then ask yourself who do you trust? Do you still trust the Cybermen?’ The Doctor moved away, but did not leave the chamber. Instead he walked over to the far wall and looked around him, giving the impression of someone interested in the function of the machinery around him. Angela stared down at the cocoon, her mind visualising what was going on inside. She imagined the probes injecting nanites into the man’s body, then those nanites carefully reconstructing the body from within. A life support system would maintain the brain while the body was gradually altered, skin and bone being replaced by an amazing substance comprising a bizarre metal polymer which was like skin but, and she recalled the exact words of the Cyberman that had demonstrated its properties, "much more efficient than humanoid tissue".
The brain was left till last. Specialised nanites worked on it. Severing the cerebellum and then proceeding to alter the entire network of the brain. The Cybernerve was introduced and overlaid on the brain. The process took approximately forty-eight hours and after that the human no longer existed. In his place there would only be a Cyberman. The mind, the product of neurone flashes and chemicals in the brain, would be altered. Now it would be the product of more efficient neurones and more balanced chemical solutions. The programming of the mind - now that was something again. Angela realised that if there was one true thing the Doctor had said, one fact that was irrefutable it was that the programming was entirely performed by Cybertechnology. The rest was all conjecture, but it was conjecture derived from that one fact.
In understanding the producer, one might understand the product. Cybermen beget Cybermen, humans might provide the raw materials but...
Angela walked over to the Doctor, ‘I think you need to talk to the Council.’
Story © D.S.Carlin 1996