Sword of Orion - Part 3

Part 3

While some of the revived Cybermen attempt to overcome the power failures plaguing their ship and revive their Leader, two warriors cross over to the human ship to begin the next phase of the operation...

Ike forces Charley into the engine room, where she finds the Cybermat waiting for her. Grash orders Vol and Ike to wait until it kills her before destroying it, or else kill her themselves and claim that it did. However, Vol can't bring himself to do that, and he shoots the Cybermat first, putting it out of action and saving Charley's life. However, when he and Ike enter the engine room they find that the engines themselves are beyond repair. Meanwhile, Chev and Grash detect someone at the airlock, and, assuming that the Doctor and Deeva have returned, go to arrest them again. But when the airlock opens two Cybermen enter, and Grash and Chev's guns have no effect on them. Chev flees as the Cybermen shoot Grash with a stun-bolt and condition him to obey their commands.

Deeva's tracker locates a large chamber worth investigating, but the door has been fused by a power surge—perhaps the same one which caused the rogue's hibernation unit to malfunction. Deeva suggests that the surge may have been caused by one of the ion storms common to the sector, and when she and the Doctor force the door open they find evidence to support this theory—a conversion chamber filled with corpses. This is a factory ship, sent out from Telos to kidnap humanoids and convert them into Cybermen—but when the storm hit the conversions were halted midway, and these half-converted prisoners died in agony. Beyond the conversion chamber lie the cryogenic units, where the Doctor and Deeva see the Cyber Leader finally waking. The other Cybermen inform their Leader of the systems failures caused by the ion storm, and of the fact that a Cybermat has sent the reactivation signal; a human ship is alongside, and its crew are to be converted. The Doctor and Deeva have heard enough, and the Doctor decides to retreat to the TARDIS while he ponders what he's seen—and why the Cybermen seem to be reviving their warriors one at a time. However, the Cybermen reactivate their ship's security systems and detect the presence of intruders, and the Doctor and Deeva are forced to retreat to the airlock. For some reason, the Cybermen don't follow them out. The Doctor wonders why, not realising that two warriors are already aboard the Vanguard, waiting for them to arrive...

As Charley and Vol study the Cybermat it comes back to life, but without its weaponry it seems harmless. The Vanguard's engines, however, are a total write-off. Chev arrives, terrified and believing that Grash is dead, but as she tells the others about the invaders Grash arrives; he seems somewhat out of sorts, but claims to have killed the invaders. However, he also claims that there are more on their way, and insists that the others help to drive them off. They reluctantly return to the airlock with him, to find that the Doctor and Deeva have just entered—and that Deeva has destroyed the waiting Cybermen. Grash collapses when he sees the warriors lying dead, and the others decide that the mutiny is now over; they'll all have to work together to escape the Cybermen. While Ike and Chev carry Grash back to his cabin, Vol jams the servo-mechanisms of the airlock, and then takes the Doctor and Charley to the flight deck. Deeva will join them later; she has other business to take care of first. Meanwhile, the Cybermen prepare to take the Vanguard by force. Contact is re-established with the Cybermat; it has lost its offensive capability, but it has other programming...

Vol warns the Doctor and Charley that if Grash thinks they know about Ike's sideline, they're in bigger trouble than they can imagine. They might claim not to care about petty criminal activities, but there's nothing petty about Grash... Ike and Chev then arrive, and the Doctor questions them about Deeva; he wants to know why someone like her is captain of a scrapship, and how she got hold of a gun which can destroy a Cyberman with virtually a single shot. Ike tells the Doctor about the classified file he was unable to access, but before the Doctor can investigate, an alarm sounds; the Cybermen are trying to break in. Ike calls Deeva to warn her, interrupting her as she uses the secure computer server to look up information on the "Doctor" and his "TARDIS". Apparently her mysterious visitor is an expert on Cybermen...

Deeva joins the others at the airlock, where the others suggest letting them in so Deeva can blast them. However, she can only take down one at a time, and if she misses just one, there will be no hope for any of them. The Doctor has an alternate plan, albeit a dangerous one; as soon as the Cybermen enter the airlock, he jettisons the outer door. Since the Cybermen want the humans alive for conversion, and they can no longer open the inner door without evacuating all of the air from the Vanguard, they are forced to remain where they are. The Doctor has bought some time, but not as much as he thought; the Cyber-Leader re-establishes contact with Grash and the Cybermat, and puts its backup plan into motion. By closing the bulkheads around the reception area, Grash can create a secondary airlock. The Cybermat will assist him; its weaponry may have been destroyed, but it is still capable of bringing any further humans it encounters under Cyber-control...

Leaving Vol on watch, the others retreat to the flight deck to consider their next move, while Chev checks on Grash. However, in this moment of calm it occurs to Charley to wonder why Grash passed out earlier, and Ike and Vol realise belatedly that if Deeva hadn't returned when she did, then Grash would have led them straight to the waiting Cybermen. The Doctor realises too late that Grash was under Cyber-control; when Chev arrives at Grash's cabin, he's gone, and he's taken his gun with him. Deeva orders Chev to follow him to airlock reception and sets off to join her there—and the Doctor decides to take the opportunity to access the classified file which Ike failed to get into earlier. He manages to do so, and discovers that it's a Garazone space patrol report; the Silver Jackal was found abandoned near these co-ordinates, and the presence of the star destroyer was reported to military intelligence. All further data is locked under Tellurian security classification Orion D-7, and the computer shuts itself down when the Doctor tries to access it anyway. Charley recalls that when Grash accused her and the Doctor of being androids, Deeva claimed that there were no androids outside Orion. It seems the time has come to learn why.

As Chev approaches the airlock reception area she hears something moving. At first she fears that Grash has found her. But it's worse. It's the Cybermat...