Dr. Who and the Men in the Moon (Chapter 6)

Chapter 6 (Invasion)

Borshack was totally unprepared for what happened next. The planet had manoeuvred itself right next to the moon (he had no idea how it was managing to propel itself across the solar system with those huge clunky engines let alone traverse across the various orbits that the other planets of the solar system were locked into) and had hung there like a ominous, dark globe.

“What’s it doing?” asked Kelly, frowning.

“Nothing. Just nothing,” said Borshack.

“Perhaps you should try communicating again,” said Dr. Who. “Sometimes it’s always best to make the first move – so long as it’s a friendly move.”

“Grandfather’s right,” said Susan, looking up at the commander, “even if they are dangerous at least you can show them that you’re not.”

Borshack nodded. “You’re right of course.”

“But sir,” said Kelly, frustrated, “we still haven’t heard back from Earth. Our communications are being blocked. That can’t be friendly.”

Borshack looked from his officer to the screen showing the planet and then down to the floor. He was considering his options. He’d never had to deal with a situation like this before. Even during the Mars Wars back in 1997 he had been stationed on a base back on Earth monitoring transport from Earth into space – an important job, but hardly on the front lines.

“Commander,” said Dr. Who, “communications.”

Borshack looked at the old man and felt a wave of anger wash over him. Who on Earth did he think he was and why did he think he could stroll into his command hub and dictate how he acted in situations.

“Earth Command are going to -” started Kelly.

“Silence,” said Borshack. “All of you.” He held his arms behind his back, glanced back up at the screen and walked around the central console, purposefully but slowly. “I am commander here. I will consider my options based on what I believe are best for this city.”

Dr. Who opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a single word red warning lights began flashing on the console. The room suddenly sprung into action, confused voices shouting over a loud, blaring siren.

“We’re picking up energy readings,” said Kelly.

“It’s coming from the planet,” came a red-head woman’s voice. “Very powerful as well.”

“What is it?” asked Borshack.

“Open communications now,” said Dr. Who, leaning forward and staring at Borshack across the console, his palms pressed down on the polished glass. “Communications may be blocked with Earth, but not with this planet. Open communications now before it’s too late.”

Borshack frowned. The old man’s blue eyes pierced into his own and he was momentarily lost. He felt confused and at odds.

“INCOMING!” shouted another, gruffer voice from somewhere else.

The impact didn’t actually feel that bad. It was more the commotion that followed it. The room was thrown into darkness with only the blinking coloured lights illuminating the people stood at their stations. The room shook for a moment and then everything fell silent.

Susan backed up to her grandfather and he put his hands on her shoulders. “Stay close to me, child.”

“What was it, grandfather?”

“Lights are out,” said Kelly, as if in answer to Susan, “but it appears to have been some sort of energy weapon.”

“From the planet?” asked Borshack.

“Where else?” said Kelly. He sounded a little more frustrated than he had intended to.

“Watch your tone, Lieutenant,” said Borshack.

“Sorry, sir,” said Kelly, frowning in the near-darkness.

The room shook again. There were concerned shouts from around the room. The sirens were still blurting out as officers scrambled around to try and regain some of the lighting.

“That wasn’t a weapon,” said Dr. Who, stroking his chin. “That felt more like an impact.”

“So did the first one,” said Borshack.

“No,” said Dr. Who. “The first one was designed to knock out your defences. The second one felt like something hitting the surface of the planet; almost like a crash-landing.

“How can you tell?” asked Kelly.

“Look at the screen.”

The screen showed the planet before them. Slowly the lights on the planet’s surface were blinking off one by one as if it was losing power.

“Whatever launched from the planet did so before the power ran out. Perhaps the ship was losing power as well. It probably didn’t have enough left in it to make a proper landing and crashed.”

“Kelly,” Borshack pointed sideways to his lieutenant, “get a team out there now. I want to see if there are any survivors.” Borshack turned to Dr. Who. “So much for your friendly aliens.”

“At least we didn’t make an aggressive move,” he said, his face sad.

“I’ll remember that as we’re being strung up by these invaders.”



“That was definitely a crash-landing,” said the Doctor as he and Holly were escorted along the rocky corridor and back towards a small tunnel that lead from the air vents.

“From the planet? The Cybermen?” asked Holly.

“What are these Cybermen?” asked Rock, scuttling along beside the Doctor and Holly, followed Dome.

“It’s a little difficult to explain, but where I came from there were a race of creatures called the Cybermen. They came from a twin planet to Earth called Mondas. Mondas drifted away to parts of the galaxy that hadn’t been explored. Over time they replaced their body parts with cybernetic limbs and organs. Eventually Mondas returned to the solar system and tried to attack Earth.”

“Their world was dying, wasn’t it?” asked Holly, remembering what the Doctor had told her before.

“That’s right. Eventually it absorbed that much power that it burnt itself out. Some of the Mondasians escaped, but we all know that story.”

“Indeed we do,” said Holly.

“But is this the same thing? Is this Mondas?” asked Dome.

“Quite possibly. Possibly an alternate version. And if it is your world is in danger. No doubt the Moon is just a stop-off before Earth.”

The Doctor and Holly were helped up into the air vent by Rock and Dome. The Doctor looked down from the hole and smiled at the two rocks. “I will argue your case, I promise, but you have to defend yourselves. If the Cybermen are here then they won’t care for your people or your moon. They’ll wipe everyone out just to get what they want.”

“You have to work with the Humans,” said Holly.

“We will do our best,” said Rock. “We will meet again,” said the little rocky creature.

“Come on, Holly.” said the Doctor, “We need to get to the central command centre and speak to the commander.”

After crawling through several feet of air vents Holly had had enough. Her knees were sore and her palms were sweating. Eventually they reached a grill and the Doctor pushed it open, helping Holly out. They were near to the swimming pool and the man and woman – Ian and Barbara – were stood beside the bar. Both were wrapped in towels and were standing with a larger group, all of them looking concerned at the flickering lights.

“Hello again,” said Ian.

“Are you all alright?” asked the Doctor.

“Well the heating went off in the pool,” said Barbara, “but we’re not bad. We thought the lights might have sorted themselves out, but there’s been nothing yet.”

“You must stay here,” said the Doctor, pointing to them, “my friend and I will get help.”

“We’ve got a friend who might be able to help too,” said Ian.

“Yes, my grandfather is an expert at these situations,” said Barbara.

The Doctor paused and then looked more closely at the blonde woman. “Your grandfather? You mean you and I...I mean, you and him.”

“I beg your pardon?” asked Barbara, looking confused.

“Doctor, we need to go,” said Holly, grabbing his hand.

“Doctor?” said Ian and Barbara in unison.

“Later,” said Holly, dragging an astonished Doctor towards the swimming pool exit.

“Fascinating,” said the Doctor, as he finally managed to straighten his head to face the right direction and run beside Holly.

“She’s your alternate self’s granddaughter, yeah?” said Holly, with a smile.

“She must be,” said the Doctor, shaking his head in disbelief. “What a strange, different life we can all lead sometimes.”

“Well if you don’t mind, Doctor,” said Holly, as they ran through an open doorway in the corridor, “I’ll be quite happy to get back to our own lives.”



Kelly had led a small time out of the command centre and they were slowly making their way across the relatively calm lunar surface. He hadn’t been out here very often and always marvelled at how his boot prints remained standing in the dust – sort of like a memory to survive after he had long gone.

“Anything, Kelly?” came Borshack’s voice over the intercom in his helmet.

“Nothing yet, sir,” said Kelly. “I’ll radio you if we spot anything.”

“Sir,” came the voice of a young, blonde man – Jericho. He was standing a little way off from the rest of the group and was perched on a small ridge looking across the landscape.

“What is it, Tom?”

“There’s definitely something out there,” said Jericho.

Kelly clambered up the ridge to join the other officer. He scanned across the surface. To his left was the gleaming glass and metal city structure, lights blinking intermittently. Kelly had very rarely seen the city from this angle before. He had been mainly based inside the city and, again, hadn’t ventured out on many occasions. He had no reason to, but looking at it from here....he found his breath was taken away.

His eyes were diverted to where Jericho was pointing. A few metres away from the edge of the city was what looked like a large, metal object partially buried in the ground. He squinted – he should have worn his glasses – and the more it came into focus the more it looked like a flying saucer buried in the ground in its own little impact crater.

“There’s definitely a craft out here, sir,” said Kelly into his communicator.

“Can you get closer?” asked Borshack.

“If that’s an order, sir, then yes, I suppose I can.” Kelly laughed to himself. Borshack was a grumpy old man, but he liked the guy. He always seemed to be exasperated, almost like he didn’t really want to be there, but loved his job too much.

Kelly was about to take the team down the ridge when something shot up from the steep incline of the other side. There were cries for help as he fell back, the black sky occupying his visor.

“Report, Kelly,” yelled Borshack through the intercom.

Kelly found himself falling to the ground and landing with a soft thud. He tried to scramble to get up. He could hear the cries of his men around him on the intercom, and then something that would horrify him for the final ten seconds of his life loomed into view.

The man was huge – probably around seven-foot. Its limbs were stiff and its bones made a metallic crack as it moved towards him. Ragged silver fabric was fastened to its body with what looked like bandages. They were stained red as if cuts had bled a long time ago. But the face was the true horror. From out of the shoulders came an almost metallic-like skull. Piercing blue eyes shone out from the eye sockets of the metal skull and on the top of the head was a metallic cap with a lamp on top with “handle bars” reaching from the lamp and down to where the ears should have been.

The creature opened its mouth – jagged metal teeth occupied its jaw as it pulled back its bony fist and brought it down on Kelly’s glass visor.



The visor cracked and the last thing Kelly saw was Jericho being lifted into the air and torn into two pieces at the waist. He thanked God for a merciful death as the scuffle between the invaders giant boot prints wiped out his own.

To be continued...