062 - Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet

VIP免费

2024-12-14 0 0 325.42KB 75 页 5.9玖币

侵权投诉

Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet

Gerry Davis

ISBN 0 426 11068 4

The Sergeant blinked again. Three lights were moving towards him through the murk of the

blizzard. Even as he looked, the lights changed into three tall, straight figures, clad in

silver-armoured suits, advancing across the ice with a slow, deliberate step. Horror-struck,

the Sergeant reached for his gun, and a stream of bullets sprayed across the marching

figures. BUT THEY CONTINUED MARCHING...

The CYBERMEN have arrived. The first invasion of Earth by this invincible, fearless race—

and the last thrilling adventure of the first DOCTOR WHO.

CONTENTS

The Creation of the Cybermen

1 The Space Tracking Station

2 Disaster in Space

3 The New Planet

4 Mondas!

5 The Cyberman Invasion

6 Ben into Action

7 Battle in the Projection Room

8 Two Hundred and Fifty Spaceships

9 Z-Bomb Alert!

10 Prepare to Blast Off

11 Cybermen in Control

12 Resistance in the Radiation Room

13 The Destruction of Mondas!

The Creation of the Cybermen

Centuries ago by our Earth time, a race of men on the far-distant planet of Telos

sought immortality. They perfected the art of cybernetics—the reproduction of machine

functions in human beings. As bodies became old and diseased, they were replaced limb

by limb, with plastic and steel.

Finally, even the human circulation and nervous system were recreated, and brains

replaced by computers. The first cybermen were born.

Their metal limbs gave them the strength of ten men, and their in-built respiratory

system allowed them to live in the airless vacuum of space. They were immune to cold and

heat, and immensely intelligent and resourceful. Their large, silver bodies became

practically indestructible.

Their main impediment was one that only flesh and blood men would have

recognised: they had no heart, no emotions, no feelings. They lived by the inexorable laws

of pure logic. Love, hate, anger, even fear, were eliminated from their lives when the last

flesh was replaced by plastic.

They achieved their immortality at a terrible price. They became dehumanised

monsters. And, like human monsters down through all the ages of Earth, they became

aware of the lack of love and feeling in their lives and substituted another goal—power!

Later, forced to leave Telos, the Cybermen took refuge on the long-lost sister

planet of Earth... Mondas.

1 The Space Tracking Station

The long low room housed three separate rows of control consoles and technicians

and resembled Cape Kennedy Tracking Station in miniature. At one end, the interior of a

space capsule had been projected on to a large screen. Two astronauts were seated at the

capsule controls.

The scene is a familiar enough one to TV watchers —but the attentive viewer would

have noticed that the Tracking Station's ceiling was a little lower than that of Houston or

Cape Kennedy, and that more of the technicians wore uniforms.

What he would never have guessed—looking round at the flushed, sweating men,

in their singlets and open-necked shirts—was that immediately above the ceiling lay six

feet of ice, and above that, the blizzard-swept wastes of the snowy Antarctic: the tracking

station, code name Snowcap, was situated almost exactly over the South Pole.

One of the consoles, slightly raised above the others, faced the three rows of

technicians. Behind it sat the three men responsible for the safe operation of Space

Tracking Station Snowcap: General Cutler, the American soldier in charge of the

predominantly military installation; Dr Barclay, an Australian physicist; and Dyson, an

Englishman and senior engineer of the base.

General Cutler, his immaculate uniform neatly buttoned, and wearing a collar and

tie, was apparently unaffected by the close atmosphere inside the tracking station. Tall,

with close-cropped grey hair, a firm jaw line, small shrewd black eyes and a large, unlit

cigar clamped firmly between his teeth, he easily dominated the other two men.

The voice of Wigner, Head of International Space Control, came over the

loudspeaker system.

'We're now handing Zeus Four to Polar Base. Will you take control, please?'

Cutler glanced towards the left-hand console, and received a nod from the

monitoring technician. He pulled the desk microphone towards him:

'Yeah, we have Zeus Four, thank you, Geneva.'

The engineer, Dyson, clicked open his desk mike:

'Snowcap to Zeus Four, over to local control channel J for Jack.'

On the big screen facing them, one of the two men in the space capsule turned his

head slightly and raised his thumb. His voice came over the loud-speakers:

'Over to J for Jack—now.'

General Cutler leaned back and removed his cigar for a moment. He smiled.

'Good morning, gentlemen, you lucky fellas! Having a good time up there?'

The second astronaut, Schultz, turned his head towards the camera. 'Why don't

you come up and join us, General?'

Cutler gestured with his cigar. 'And miss my skiing?'

There was a ripple of laughter among the technicians facing Cutler. The General

liked his little jokes to be appreciated. The two astronauts in the capsule grinned at the

camera. Cutler nodded—as if acknowledging the laughter—and stuck the cigar back

between his teeth.

'O.K., Barclay,' he said. 'They're all yours.'

Dr Barclay turned to Dyson. 'Give Texas tracking the next orbital pattern.'

Dyson nodded and started to operate his desk transmitter. 'Will do.'

Barclay glanced up at the screen. 'Snowcap to Zeus Four, Zeus Four, how do you

read me?'

Again, the voice of the astronaut Schultz, sounding unnaturally high-pitched and

squeaky in the weight-less atmosphere, came over the loudspeaker. 'Loud and clear,

Snowcap, loud and clear. Hey, we have a great view of your weather. How is it your end?'

'Really want to know?' Barclay grinned. 'There's an ice blizzard and a force sixteen

wind. Repeat your velocity for ground check, please.'

The two astronauts were reclining in the narrow capsule. Immediately above their

heads, a complex row of instruments clicked out a stream of necessary data and

information as the capsule hurtled round the earth towards its re-entry window. Through

the two round side ports, the long shaft of sunlight constantly changed position as the

space craft sped around the globe.

Major Schultz, a round-faced cheerful-looking German—American of about forty,

and the older of the two men, turned to his partner. 'Skiing he says!'

Williams, a tall, handsome American negro of about thirty, nodded briefly before

clicking on the communications microphone again. 'Williams. Cosmic ray measurements

are now complete. Are you ready to receive data?'

The voice of Dr Barclay came through on the console above Williams' head. 'Yes,

go ahead.'

Williams glanced over to the computer read-out controls set slightly to the right of

the capsule panel, and started to relay the measurements. Schultz eased back in his seat

and stretched his legs slightly in one of the approved isometric astronaut's exercises. It had

been a good, if uneventful, flight. In another couple of hours the capsule would be sitting in

the blue waters of the Pacific, waiting to be winched aboard the aircraft carrier. And after

that: the pleasures of hot food, a bath, and a real bed...

A pleasant run-of-the-mill mission. For a moment, the veteran astronaut thought

back to the tougher flights of the past when space flight still entailed unpredictable hazards.

The good old days! Perhaps it was all becoming a little too easy!

Inside the TARDIS, Ben, the Cockney sailor, was having similar thoughts. The last

three landings had been uneventful—even dull. No danger, no excitement—merely a

landing on some uninhabited planet, lengthy rambles with the Doctor to collect specimens

of plants and rocks, and then off again.

Worse still, the Doctor seemed to be ageing rapidly. He was beginning to stoop a

little, and his absent-mindedness had increased to the point where he did not seem to

recognise his two companions, frequently addressing them as Ian and Barbara, the names

of his first two fellow space-travellers.

Just before their most recent landing Ben had turned to Polly and muttered: 'I tell

you, Duchess, if it goes on like this, I'm slinging my hook next port of call. Don't mind a bit

of agro, but when it comes to sitting around waiting for the Doctor all day—and then him

never telling us what he's doing—I've had it!'

The two of them were looking up at the television monitor screen which showed the

latest landing place of the TARDIS. It didn't look very promising: white landscape, grey sky,

and a thick swirling curtain of snowflakes.

'You can't go out in that!' The old Doctor shook his long white hair and tapped his

lapel nervously with his long fingers—a familiar habit of his. 'It's quite out of the question.'

Ben was normally a good natured and obedient member of the Doctor's little party.

Polly even teased him by saying that he was too ready to jump to attention and salute

when the Doctor told him to do something. On this occasion, however, Ben stood firm. He

crossed his arms defiantly. 'If I don't get some shore leave now, I warn you, I'm quitting. I

don't care where we land, or what age it's in. Next time you open those doors, I'm going to

scarper.'

The Doctor looked impatiently at Polly, and waited for her reaction. By nature a kind

man, the Doctor had grown irritable and dictatorial of late. He didn't like to be crossed by

one of his companions.

'Well,' he said, looking at Polly, 'what about you?'

Polly smiled a little nervously: 'If you say we can't go out, then of course we can't.

But it wouldn't do any harm, would it?'

The Doctor flung his hands up. 'Any harm!' He looked at the control board. 'With a

gale force wind and a blizzard—plus a mean temperature of thirty below zero ! ' He

glanced up at the screen again. 'I don't even know where we've landed, or in which period

of time.'

Ben threw a quick glance at Polly as if to say, 'That's why he's cross. Lost again!'

In spite of his age, the Doctor had sharp eyes and seemed almost able to read their

minds. He noticed Ben's glance, interpreted it, and sulkily turned away.

'Oh, very well.' He nodded towards the almost inexhaustible equipment room of the

TARDIS. 'You'll find some Polar furs in there. You'd better bring some for me. I suppose I

shall have to go out with you. Ten yards away from the TARDIS in this sort of weather, and

you'd be hopelessly lost.'

The Doctor's two young companions ran into the equipment room before he

changed his mind. Within five minutes, clad awkwardly and heavily in fur parkas, leggings

and fur caps with ear flaps, the three adventurers opened the door of the TARDIS and

stepped out into the snow.

The wind had already piled up the snow around the small blue police telephone

box, and Polly began to shiver violently. The extreme cold cut short their breath and

burned their lungs; icy particles of snow stung their faces with thousands of tiny pin pricks.

Polly and the Doctor made little progress in the face of the driving wind, but Ben

heaved himself forward, step by step, through the loose drifting snow. Suddenly he

appeared to collapse on his knees.

'He's hurt!' shouted Polly, and tried to hurry towards him, the Doctor close behind.

But Ben was pointing excitedly to something he had found. Four squat, black

chimneys protruded through a small mound of snow. The three time travellers bent over

them and felt warm air against their cheeks, flowing up from below.

'Something's buried under here, Doc.' Ben was shouting against the shriek of the

Polar wind, his face close to the Doctor's ear. 'What is it?'

Before the Doctor could answer, Polly squealed excitedly from the other side of the

chimneys. The long black snout of a periscope, similar to those used on submarines, had

appeared from under the snow !

'Look what's here!' she called excitedly. 'A periscope!'

She turned back to peer into the lens of the periscope. 'Do you think there could be

a submarine down here?'

Meanwhile, the Doctor was thoughtfully scraping the snow from a square hatch

which he had discovered to one side of the chimneys. Obviously a trap door—but leading

where?

The thick-set sergeant on duty in the base guardroom below stared in disbelief at

the monitor screen which relayed the picture taken by the periscope's camera. He rubbed

his eyes, shook his head, and looked again. 'Tito. Hey, Tito, come over here will'ya ! '

Against the far wall of the guardroom stood a couple of bunks on which the guards

took it in turn to snatch a few moments' sleep or relaxation. On the lower one, the second

guard, an Italian—American named Tito, was reading a comic.

'Yeah, what is it?' He couldn't take his eyes off the adventures of Captain Marvel,

who was engaged in a life or death struggle with a marauding party of robots.

The American Sergeant was still staring at the screen.

'I can see people!'

The bored soldiers at the base often played jokes on each other. Tito had heard it

all before.

'Sure, sure. Lot's of people, skiing out there.' He turned another page of his comic.

'One of them's a girl.'

The Italian dropped his comic, swung himself off the bunk, and ran over. The three

other guards, who had been playing poker at a table by the door, dropped their cards and

converged on the small monitor screen.

Polly's face filled the screen as she looked into the lens of the periscope.

'A real live girl!' Tito grabbed the handles of the periscope and turned it round

slightly.

Outside, the day had brightened and the driving snow eased a little. The assembled

men could just make out the outline of the TARDIS. 'That looks like some kind of hut!'

The Sergeant looked over Tito's shoulder, and came to a decision: 'We'd better

investigate.' He turned to the other three men.

'Take your small arms.' He jerked his thumb over to the row of sub-machine guns

which were ranged in a rack by the door. 'Get outside and bring them down here. Now get

moving!'

The three men quickly swung into their parkas, zipped them up, snatched a gun

each from the rack, and started climbing the exit ladder at the far end of the room.

The three time travellers had finished inspecting the periscope. Despite the thick

furs, Polly was trying to keep warm by swinging her arms and stamping her feet in the

snow. 'I... th... think my face is getting frostbitten,' she stuttered through chattering teeth.

'C... Can't we go back now, Doctor?'

As usual, the Doctor's mind was elsewhere. He continued to examine the

periscope. 'Some kind of base, I imagine, set under the ice.'

Ben looked at Polly, and then at the Doctor. 'She's had enough, Doc. She wants to

go back inside the TARDIS.'

'Oh yes, of course. I'm sure we've all had enough...'

He swung round to lead the way back to the TARDIS, and stopped abruptly.

Unnoticed by the three of them the trap door had been opened, and ranged alongside it

were the sinister figures of the three soldiers in hoods and snow goggles. Their machine

guns were levelled. The leading soldier gestured back towards the open trap door with his

weapon.

Polly huddled against Ben. 'What does he want us to do?' she whispered in his ear.

'Come quietly, I expect.'

2 Disaster in Space

'Get a move on!' The Sergeant, hands on hips, watched as the three time travellers

climbed awkwardly down the ladder. 'Back against that wall.'

The sudden transition from the dark, cold Antarctic ice cap to the brilliantly lighted,

over-heated guard-room was almost too much for Polly. Ben took her arm as she began to

sway dizzily.

'My dear fellow,' said the Doctor, as he brushed himself down, 'there's really no

need to shout at us.'

'Easy, nice an' easy!' drawled the American Sergeant as the Doctor removed his

furs. 'I assure you we're not carrying any weapons.' The Doctor spoke irritably. 'We are

never armed.'

'Yeah? Well, just who are you?'

The other guards now entered and slammed the trap door shut behind them. They

stared incredulously as the three travellers slowly pulled off their cumbersome fur

garments, and whistled when they caught sight of Polly's long slender legs.

O.K.,' said the Sergeant, 'I'll ask again. Who are you and what are you doing here?'

Polly, feeling a little more human and a little less like a Polar bear, smiled at him:

'We've landed just above you, Sergeant.'

'Landed? What in?'

'Oh in a...' She stopped, suddenly remembering the Doctor's warning to keep their

business to themselves at all times. '... It's a sort of spaceship, actually.'

'You can knock off the gags,' replied the Sergeant. 'You've no business here. This

is a military base. Out of bounds to all civilians.'

The Doctor stepped forward: 'Ah, we must apologise then. Perhaps you wouldn't

mind telling me just where we are, my dear chap?'

There was a quick smile on the faces of the assembled men. The Sergeant leant

back against the table and folded his arms.

'You're standing in the South Pole Base of International Space Command, and

frankly, pop—'

'Doctor, if you don't mind.'

'O.K., Doctor, your story's gonna have to be awful good.'

The Doctor's two companions gazed at each other in excitement.

'You mean we're on Earth?' burst out Polly.

'You heard, Duchess—South Pole,' Ben reminded her.

'Then we're home at last!' cried Polly, clutching Ben round the neck.

The Sergeant gazed wearily from one to the other. 'Boy! Have we some right kooks

here! Tito,' he nodded towards the Italian—American, 'get the CO will ya.'

The smile dropped from Tito's face as he backed away towards the door. 'He's not

going to like this!'

'The CO?' queried the Doctor.

'Commanding Officer—Boss!' Ben whispered in the Doctor's ear.

Tito picked up the phone by the door and dialled the number. 'Hello, sir. Duty

Guard Private Tito here. Could you give a message to the General, please?'

Ben noticed that the men around the table stiffened to attention at the mention of

the name. Cutler was obviously a man to be reckoned with. Ben began to feel a twinge of

nervousness.

'Sir. I know that,' Tito explained into the telephone. 'But this is an emergency. Oh, I

see. The General's not there. Can you tell me where he is then, sir?'

'I'm right here, Private.' Tito had not noticed the door behind him open, and the

General enter.

The men in the room immediately snapped to attention. Cutler, his face impassive

as always, took in the scene. The long black cigar was still clenched firmly between his

even white teeth.

'What's it all about, Sergeant?'

The Sergeant saluted and hesitated for a moment. 'Well, sir...'

'Who are these people?' Cutler snapped.

'They just appeared... outside in the snow.' Cutler nodded. 'They came out of a...'

The American Sergeant looked embarrassed, 'a hut!'

Cutler slowly turned his gaze away from the three time travellers to look at the

Sergeant. 'A hut?'

'Yes, sir. It just appeared. We haven't seen it there before, that is...'

Tito nodded in excited agreement. 'That's right, General. That's just the way it

happened.'

Still with the same impassive, almost threatening look, Cutler moved towards the

three companions, and walked around them as if inspecting troops.

He stopped in front of Ben and took in the sailor's uniform. 'Who are you?'

Ben snapped to attention, saluted: 'Able Seaman... Ben Jackson... sir. Royal Navy.'

'Then why aren't you with your ship?'

'Well, sir,... it's difficult to explain.'

Cutler's face was two inches away. 'You bet your life it is!'

The Doctor stepped forward: 'I can assure you we mean you no harm, my dear

General.'

'You can assure me what you like. Whether I'll believe you or not is another matter.

You people land at a military installation without authorisation or even proper identification,

in the middle of a complex space shot...'

'A space shot!' exclaimed Polly excitedly.

Cutler took the cigar out of his mouth. 'I've no time to deal with this now.' He

pointed the cigar almost threateningly at the three travellers. 'But by thunder, you'd better

have a good explanation ready later.'

'I don't like your tone, sir,' the Doctor began.

A faint smile appeared on the General's craggy features.

'And I don't like your face, Grandad.'

Turning from the speechless Doctor, he beckoned to the Sergeant. 'Sergeant, bring

them into the tracking room and keep them under guard in the observation chamber. I'll

question them as soon as I have time.'

The sight of the Doctor and his two companions entering the space tracking room

created a minor sensation. The technicians just stood and gaped—especially at the pretty

girl with the long blonde hair, blue eyes, and tall, shapely figure. Barclay strode across to

meet the General: 'What on earth...?' he began.

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

5.9 玖币 0人已下载

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

DoctorWhoandtheTenthPlanetGerryDavisISBN0426110684TheSergeantblinkedagain.Threelightsweremovingtowardshimthroughthemurkoftheblizzard.Evenashelooked,thelightschangedintothreetall,straightfigures,cladinsilver-armouredsuits,advancingacrosstheicewithaslow,deliberatestep.Horror-struck,theSergeantreachedf...

展开>> 收起<<

062 - Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet.pdf

共75页,预览15页

还剩页未读，继续阅读

声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！

062 - Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: