"Engines primed and ready to fire. How's your search going?" I called to my companion, Susan, why my fingers flurried over the keyboard in front of me. In the far corner of the chamber, she was digging through the wreckage of the Cyber-Ship, looking for any useful weaponry.
"Nothing so far, but honestly, I'm not sure I'd even recognize an alien weapon if I saw one." She replied, heaving a steel shelf from he floor to investigate below.
"Hello... what do we have here? Gimme a hand, would you?"
I made my way to her, and took the weight of the shelf as she crouched down under it. She'd spotted something unusual beneath some twisted scrap metal. She struggled to remove the device, it was heavier than it appeared. It was a long, thin boxy shape, with a protruding cylinder at one end and a clunky offshoot grooved to accommodate large fingers, like a grip.
"This looks promising!" Sue exclaimed, hefting the rifle into her arms.
"Looks like a sort of laser rifle, at a guess." I added, inspecting the device. "See if it still has any charge".
"How?" Sue asked.
"Dunno." I admitted. "Try cocking it."
Sue placed one hand around the molded grip, and the other along the base of he rifle. With some investigation, she found a section that could slide along the length of the barrel. Shrugging, she pumped the section forcibly, like a shotgun. Red lights flickered into brightness along the edge of the weapon, along with a high pitched whine of capacitors charging. The lights flashed repeatedly, then went out in sequence leaving only a few near the trigger alight.
"Ammo counter, I'd say. Better make your shots count." I said, gravely.
"My shots?" Sue queried.
"Yeah. I've got my sonic, you need it more than I do. Besides, it's not like I've got any particular training with firearms, terrestrial or otherwise. Just try not to hit me."
"No promises." Sue said, with a cheeky grin.
"OK. We'd better get going, before the boss guy gets out if his cage. Ready?"
"Ready."
I aimed my sonic at the computer, and pressed its switch. On the screen, a countdown appeared, along with a progress bar. The system had begun to divert all power to the engines, as the warp drive cycled through its charging routine. I reckoned we'd have maybe 10 minutes before they fired. Hopefully that would give us enough time to escape.
Together, we ran from the crashed vessel, back through the labs, the corridors and the stairwells, towards the exit. We were just exiting the stairs onto the first floor, when the doors ahead and behind us in the corridor hissed shut. Before I had a chance to interfere with the lock mechanism, a stumpy figure emerged from a side corridor. The Cyberman.
"Lockdown protocol has been reversed." It stated, matter of factly in its grating electronic warble. "Prisoner has been liberated. Vessel engines primed for launch. You are enemies of the Cyberiad and will be executed."
"Killing us won't save you now!" I roared at the tiny tin torso before me."Give up, you may as well. Your scheme is ended. No more conversions, no more kidnappings, no more death. Your base is about to go boom!"
"Killing you will be trivial. There remains more than adequate time to reverse the attempts at damage you have caused."
The Cyber-chest lunged at me, arms outstretched and grasping at my throat. I ducked and rolled under the attack, spinning as I did so to jam the end of my screwdriver at his metal armour. There was a flash of sparks, but the creature was unharmed. Evidently it's metal frame was shielded against such damage.
"Susan now!" I yelled!
The Cyberman turned from me to face Susan, who had it in her sights.
"Suck on this, you Cyber freak!"
She fired several pulses from the rifle, each one a crackling burst of photons, glowing red and very deadly. All but one of her shots found its mark on the creature, covering its head and chest with scorched marks, though none of them penetrated the armour.
"Cyber weaponry is designed to destroy our enemies, not ourselves." The Cyberman explained, before turning his attention back to me. This time I failed to fully block his arms, and fell backwards with him atop me. His cold metal hands clung to my neck, choking the life from me. I struggled to free myself, attempting to roll and wriggle my way free from his grasp, but to no avail. All I was succeeding in doing was using up the oxygen in my system all the sooner.
Susan watched helplessly as the creature crushed my throat. She dropped the ineffectual gun and tried to wrestle the creature from me, but its grip was too tight and it lay across me, chest to chest, so she couldn't get a decent grip on him anyway. I could feel consciousness ebbing away from me. My hands stopped struggling at my attacker as the fight drained from me. I was losing hope now, all we could do was delay the Cyberman long enough for the implosion to wipe him, and us, out together. I saw Susan reach foe the gun again, but I didn't know why. It was pointless. Unless, she intended to give me a quick end. I didn't have any energy left to fight anyway...
Then suddenly I was free! I gasped in deep lungfulls of air, guzzling greedily while I massaged my neck. The Cyberman was groaning an electronic whimper, as the light of his mouth faded slowly. A harsh, acrid smoke billowed out from his eyes and other joints of his metal shell. Susan stood before me, gun in one hand, the other outstretched towards me. Gently, she eased me up, before explaining what had happened.
"I didn't know what to do! You were dying in front of me and I couldn't help! But then, I saw it. He's only half a Cyberman, right? So there's no armour around the wound, is there? I gave him a few shots point blank into the hole in his waist. Poor bastard cooked boiled from the inside out."
"God I love you." Was all I could say through my battered throat. I wanted to tell her how that was a remarkable plan, how she was a natural at this, how grateful I was for her saving my life, but now wasn't the time.
"Cmon. Times running out." She said, as I regained my footing. She dropped the gun and together, hand in hand, we raced through the airlock, enduring the de contaminating mist as precious seconds ticked away. We raced into the lift and hammered the button to return us to the surface. Once we were underway, I took the cure-all pills Derek had given me, offering one to Susan too. Just to be on the safe side. About halfway through the journey, the lift was shook by the sound of a dramatic burst below as the engines fired. A few seconds later, a blast of warm air rushed past the lift, hot enough for us to feel it inside the elevator. For a few agonizing moments, the lift swayed and I was afraid of the damage it may have sustained, but it continued to climb without incident.
Eventually, Susan and I made it back to the basement of the Rathbone building. There would be a lot of work to do in the coming days cleaning up this mess of course, but that would be something I could sort out with Jack later. Right now, it was just Susan and myself.
"Susan, look..." I began, before she shushed me, gently.
"Not now Arven. You've given me a lot to think about today. I've been kidnapped, nearly died, nearly watched you die... I've killed an alien! And you tell me that this has happened before? That I've died... in the past? I can't deal with this Arven. Not right now. Just... just promise me that you'll never lie to me again. No more secrets." She vented. I knew the feeling. It's hard to cow when your entire world view is suddenly flipped.
"OK, Sue. But, can I ask? Where does this leave us?" I asked, nervously.
"I don't know Arven. Honestly, I don't. You've been so weird lately, and now that I know why, it still doesn't fully explain it. I need to sort out what's real. I don't want to rush into something, high on adrenaline and glad to be alive. I need time to process."
"I understand." I said, sadly. I won't deny I had harboured a hope that we'd have collapsed in each others arms, like in the films. But I respected Sue too much to deny her the space she needed.
"Hey." She added, speaking slightly softer. "I can't process all this without the facts. I need to sit you down so you can tell me everything. From the beginning. All of it. How about my place, tonight?"
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Just as I was ready to accept that I'd blown my last chance with the woman I loved, another had appeared. I tried to maintain composure and act casual, but I think "giddy schoolboy" was a more realistic description. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Even on the darkest day, in the fiercest storm, when the blackest clouds spiral overhead, there is always a silver lining. Every storm must break, every night leads to day. Every horrible vegetable filled dinner gives way to a delicious dessert. We can't always get what we want, and sometimes the journey is rough, but there is always hope at the end of it.
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