Dr. Who and the Men in the Moon (Chapter 8)

Chapter 9 (Rock to Dust)

Barbara opened her eyes. The blow from the giant hadn’t come. Instead there had been a loud clanging from down the corridor, a blast of air and now cries from the strange men. She couldn’t see much through the smoke, but there was some kind of fighting from further down the corridor and their attacker’s attentions had been drawn to whatever was attacking them.

She looked across to Ian who still had his eyes tightly closed.

“Hey, open your eyes,” said Barbara.

Ian opened one eye, looked around, and then opened the second eye before frowning. “What happened?”

“I don’t know. I think something distracted them. We need to find grandfather.”

“Maybe he was killed by them,” said Ian, worriedly.

“I hope not,” said Barbara.

“Hello, hello,” came a familiar voice over the intercom.

Barbara’s eyes lit up as she searched for the source of the voice. She walked a little way from the smoke and looked up at a small speaker attached in the corner of the corridor above the doorway.

“Grandfather, is that you?”

“Oh, my goodness,” came Dr. Who’s voice. “Thank heavens you’re alright.”

“I’m here too,” said Ian.

“You too, Chesterton,” said Dr. Who.

“Where are you?”

“In the central command centre,” came Susan’s voice. “We need you to come up here now so you’re out of danger.”

“Grandfather there are these...well, giant men.”

“Cybermen,” came a Scottish voice.

“Who’s that?” asked Barbara.

“It’s a little difficult to explain,” said the old man. “Get yourself up here now and I’ll try and help you to understand.”



Twenty minutes later Ian, Barbara, Susan, Dr. Who, Holly and the Doctor were sat around Borshack’s desk sipping on tea.

Barbara hadn’t touched hers. She stared down at it as it slowly went cold, trying to process what she had been told.

“It’s fantastical,” said Ian.

“Any more fantastical than travelling around in a police box that’s actually a time machine?” asked the Doctor.

“But there are two of you?” said Ian, pointing between the old man and the young man.

“Sort of. We’ve led radically different lives by all accounts, but, yes, we’re the same. Like a mirror version of each other.”

“But he’s old and you’re young,” said Ian.

“And you’re not Scottish, grandfather,” said Barbara, finally finding her voice.

“Neither am I,” said the Doctor.

“What?” frowned Ian.

“Long story,” said Holly. “The point is that we have the upper hand. If your Doctor is as good as my Doctor then we already have one up on the Cybermen.”

“Cyber-who? Those giants?”

“We’re calling them Cybergiants,” said Borshack, as his door swished open and he walked into the room. “Young lady, can you tell us what exactly happened in that corridor?”

“It’s a bit difficult to process really,” said Barbara, “but there was smoke and then your team were attacked. They moved in on us – the Cybergiants - ”

“Terrible name,” said the Doctor under his breath.

“- and then we closed her eyes.”

“We thought that we were dead,” said Ian.

“I am truly sorry for your odeal,” said the Doctor, “but my main concern is the planet above the moons surface. It’s called Mondas. At least it was in my world.”

“Mondas attacked our version of Earth in the 1980’s,” said Holly. “The people on their world replaced their body parts with cybernetic limbs. The planet then came back to our solar system and tried to suck Earth dry of power.”

“And you believe this is what this planet is doing?”

“Possibly,” said the Doctor, “but there haven’t been the same types of power loss. It’s different. Different reality, different circumstances.”

“Well, I have a little bit of news for you,” said Ridge, entering the office. “We’ve finished our scans and the planet is totally dead.”

“I beg your pardon?” said Dr. Who.

“It seems that parking up outside the moon used the last of their power. It’s now completely and totally dead.”

“What about life signs?” asked Susan.

Ridge shook her head. “Nothing. The world is totally dead.”

“The ship outside?” asked the Doctor.

“The only readings we have are from the six Cybergiants that exited that ship and are now on the base.”

“Oh my goodness,” said the Doctor, looking beyond the rest of them and towards the glass window leading out to the lunar landscape.

“What is it, Doctor?” asked Holly.

“We need to get down to that corridor right now,” he said, scrambling to his feet.

“Excellent idea. There’re only six of them. We send everyone down there and we can stop them,” said Borshack.

“I’m not going down there to stop them,” said the Doctor. He turned back to the rest of their bemused faced. “I’m going down there to save them.”





“This is madness,” said Holly as her, the Doctor and Dr. Who made their way out of the control centre and towards the elevators.

After causing a near-seismic silence with his declaration the Doctor had gone on to explain that, with the planet dead and the only survivors being the Cybergiants on the moon, that they were the last of their race.

“We can’t be sure of that,” said Borshack, shaking his head.

“I cannot advocate wiping out an entire race,” said the Doctor, “do you agree with me?”

Dr. Who breathed in and then exhaled. “Absolutely. There must always be another way.”

“But they have killed my men. They killed Kelly!”

“And that is bad. It’s awful and wrong and I feel for all of you,” but they are here because they are trying to survive.”

“By wiping everyone out!” said Ian, finding his voice again.

“We don’t know that,” said the Doctor.

“The body count tells a different story, Doctor,” said Borshack. “This is my station and I will have the final say on this.”

“Fine!” said the Doctor, throwing his sonic screwdriver to the ground and pulling out a chair. He sat down with his arms folded. “Go down there and kill them. Then you can at least go to sleep at night knowing that there’s one less race out there that pose a threat to Humankind.”

Borshack leant forward on the table and looked down at the Doctor. “You don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand? I don’t understand!?”

“Steady, Doc,” said Holly.

“No, Holly, I will not be steady.” He got up out of his chair and looked the station commander in his eyes. “What’s my name?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“What’s my name?”

“You haven’t told me your name,” said Borshack.

“Exactly. That’s because you only know me as the Doctor. That’s what my universe knows me as. The man who helps and tries to repair. The man who tries to heal. Not the Warrior or the Killer or the Master. I’m the Doctor. So while there is still a breath left in my body I will try and save those creatures.”

“At the risk of more innocent lives?”

“No,” said Dr. Who, joining the Doctor by his side, “he will save everyone.”

“And how do you know that?” asked Borshack.

“Because he is me.”

The Doctor turned to Dr. Who and shook his hand. “Thank you.”

Borshack looked deflated and his arms fell limply to his side. “What do you need?”

“Nothing,” said the Doctor, picking his sonic screwdriver up again. “Oh, I think I marked your table.”

“The rest of you must stay here,” said Dr. Who.

“I’m coming with you,” said Holly.

“Holly, no,” said the Doctor.

“Ah-ah,” she said, holding a finger up, “I’m not letting you out of my sight. I want to get back to my own universe, remember?”

Now they were in the elevators and had quickly made their way towards the corridor where the commotion was still ensuing. The cries from the creatures were significantly less now.

“It’s Rock and Dome’s people isn’t it?” asked Holly.

“Rock and Dome?” asked a confused Dr. Who.

“You’ll understand in a moment. A few hours ago I would have been happy for them to be wiping out the Cybermen, now I’m terrified.”

“So how do we stop them?” asked Holly.

“We could just ask,” said the Doctor.

“They may attack us though,” said Dr. Who, “we need to be extremely careful.”

“Good point,” said Holly.

“Yes,” said the Doctor, as they approached the edge of the smoke cloud.

It was beginning to clear now and there were two Cybergiants on the floor whilst the remaining four were being attacked by the strange, little rock creatures. They almost looked comical – leaping around and hitting the Cybergiants in their faces. Every now and again they would covert part of themselves into some form of grey moon dust and enter through the ventilation boxes on the Cybergiants’ chest unit before recombining back to rock. It was proving to be quite effective.

The Doctor cleared his throat and held up his sonic screwdriver, pointing it up in the air. He pressed down and the lights in the corridor flickered.

“Please, wait just a moment,” said the Doctor. “PLEASE!” he shouted.

Neither the moon creatures nor the Cybergiants were listening.

“STOP FIGHTING!” yelled Holly.

“It doesn’t seem to be working, lad.” Dr. Who went into his brown blazer pocket. “Just a moment.” He pulled out a silver whistle and put it to his mouth blowing hard and making the Doctor and Holly cover their ears.

It worked though and the Cybergiants and moon men stopped and looked at the three newcomers.

“Doctor and Holly,” said Dome.

The lead Cybergiant was about to grab Dome when the Doctor stepped forward. “Ah-ah-ah. I need you to listen to me for just a moment.”

“You will be destroyed,” said the leader.

“No,” said the Doctor. “Am I right in thinking that there are now only four of you left?”

“That is correct. We must survive.”

“And we want to help you,” said Dr. Who, standing beside his alternate counterpart.

“You will be converted.”

“No, no, no,” said the Doctor. “Your planet is dead. There is only four of your kind left. We can find somewhere for you to go so your race can live on.”

“There are only four of us,” said the Cybergiant. “We cannot continue to thrive with only four. We need to convert your people.”

The Doctor looked frustrated. He couldn’t argue with that logic. How would their race continue to grow if there were only four of them? The Cyber race thrived and survived on converting others to their kind.

“We can’t allow you to convert other species,” said Dr. Who, “but at least your race will survive.”

“But not for long,” said the leader.

The Doctor began to pace on the spot and looked more and more frustrated. “Could we at least sit and talk about things. Perhaps we could work something out.”

“There is only one route,” said the leader.

“Please,” said the Doctor, offering up his hand, “let me speak to Earth. Let’s see what can be done.”

The Cyber-Leader, for a fraction of a moment, raised its hand. And then there was the most almighty blinding light from behind it.

“Get down you lot!” came a familiar voice.

“No!” said the Doctor, as Holly and Dr. Who threw themselves down to the ground.

Lined along the corridor were a number of small devices that had been thrown and attached to the walls. The Doctor covered his head as he hit the deck.

There was a flash and another blinding light and then a huge, thunderous explosion followed by the cries of the Cybergiants.

When the dust cleared the corridor was nothing but a pile of twisted metal and bricks with bits of Cybergiants strewn around the area.

The Doctor stared up as Commander Borshack and a team of officers led by Ridge stood in the clearing smoke.

“I’m sorry, Doctor,” said Borshack. “The risk was too great.”

To be continued....