'Stop!' cried Klieg. He lifted the Cybergun, but his hands were trembling. 'You know what this weapon can do to you,' he said as steadily as he could.

The Controller stopped moving and stared at him as impa.s.sively as only the Cybermen could.

'That's better,' said Klieg. His voice was firmer. 'You are now under my control. Do you understand?'

The Controller said nothing.

'Do not think we logicians came here unprepared. We understand everything about you. We know you have little energy.

We know you must come up to be revitalised, or you will perish.

Agree to my terms, and I shall allow you to survive. Otherwise, you will be shut up below for ever. I shall destroy the control board with this weapon.' To the others, he -sounded like a child telling the waves not to fall, but Klieg was completely lost to reason.

'I will listen,' said the Controller.

Kaftan came up to Klieg and whispered, 'Make them release Toberman.'

'If you think that they'll listen to you,' burst out Jamie to Klieg, 'you're even dafter than I thought.'

'Silence!' shouted Klieg. He swung the Cybergun at Jamie.

'And sit down!'

Jamie shrugged his shoulders, unimpressed by Klieg, and sat down.

'Our first condition,' said Klieg to the Controller, 'is that you release our man.'

The Cyberleader looked down and gave a signal. 'I must come inside,' he said.

For a moment Klieg hesitated, then nodded. The Cyberleader stepped over the rim of the hatch and stood beside it, as Toberman climbed up into view behind him. Kaftan seemed the only human glad to see him, but he showed no sign of recognition. The Controller turned and faced him. Toberman looked back. They stood facing each other for more than a moment, then the Cyberleader stood aside and Toberman moved forward.

'Toberman!' cried Kaftan, touching his cheek. 'It is so good that you are back.' She indicated the Doctor and the others. 'Watch them,'

she commanded, and Toberman, as he had always done, obeyed her.

'He looks all right, doesn't he?' said Jamie, who had been expecting to see Toberman wounded by the Cybermen.

'Perhaps,' said the Doctor, looking at Toberman sharply.

The Controller stepped forward.

'Stay where you are,' snapped Klieg, raising the Cybergun again. 'Do you agree to accept our plan?' asked Klieg.'

'Plan?' asked the Doctor.

Klieg took a deep breath and gave the Doctor a scornful glance.

'The conquest of Earth,' he said.

'What?' gasped the Professor. 'You must be quite mad.'

'Silence!' shouted Klieg. 'Your answer?' He turned back to the Controller.

What was going on behind the Controller's impa.s.sive mask?

What was his computer brain making of the situation? The humans waited for his reply. 'We accept,' he said at last. 'We will give you some of our power devices.'

'Good!' said Klieg, sweating with triumph. He turned to the Professor. 'I told you an understanding could be reached. Now I shall let you be revitalised,' he said condescendingly. 'For you to survive, I realise it must be now. Right?'

The Controller inclined his head. 'Yes!'

'Come forward slowly,' said Klieg.

'Eric,' breathed Kaftan, tense, next to him. 'Be careful.'

Klieg brushed her aside. 'Leave this to me.'

The Controller walked forward step by step, slowly, as if his energy was draining out with every minute that pa.s.sed. The humans shrank back from his terrible silver presence. He reached the door to the recharging room, turned around and turned his face first towards the group of humans, then to Toberman. Then he walked in.

The Doctor looked about him uneasily.

'You are absolutely crazy to trust them,' said the Professor.

'You think so ?' asked Klieg. He smiled. 'Then, perhaps you and your colleagues had better join him. Go on.'

He pushed the Doctor, Parry, and Jamie after the Controller.

Victoria rose from Callum to follow them, but Klieg barred her way.

'The girl stays with us,' said Klieg. 'If there is any trouble, she is our hostage.' He nodded to Toberman. 'Close the hatch.' Toberman stood still. 'Do you hear me,' said Klieg loudly. Toberman just moved behind Klieg and folded his arms.

Klieg looked at him angrily, but Toberman just stood. there.

Kaftan turned the closing lever herself. Tobernian stood as still as a Cyberman. She looked at him wonderingly, but his face was blank and gave nothing away.

The others followed the Controller into the revitalisation room filled with an awed compulsion to see what he would do. As he moved into the room, his steps were visibly flagging, the last few steps across the room to the control panel were almost in slow motion.

They watched, fascinated, as he pressed the lever to open the lid of the recharging machine. His motions had become stiff and jerky. As he lumbered forward to the recharging sarcophagus, he seemed about to topple forward with each laboured step. Finally, the silver giant stopped in front of the machine, teetering slightly as if unable to move.

'Look. It's too weak to get in,' said Jamie in awe. 'Shhh, Jamie,'

said the Doctor.

After a moment the Doctor walked cautiously towards the fumbling Cyberman. He put out a hand towards it, but felt the chill from the silvery metal and drew his hand back.

'You seem to be in trouble,' he said to the Controller. With difficulty, the great creature turned his whole body so that he could see the Doctor.

'The... energy... levels... are low...' creaked his voice; no longer a magnificent array of chords, now a croak that moved in jerks like a stuck record needle. 'We... will... survive...' he went on. He waited, his great silver body drooping into ma.s.sive immobility. The Doctor waited. 'You will help us,' said the deep voice, still imperious. 'You will help us.'

The Doctor waited and watched while the great black head drooped lower. He came to a decision.

'Certainly,' said the Doctor briskly. 'Jamie. Professor.'

'You're not going to help him?' cried Jamie, thunder-struck.

'Surely not,' said Parry. 'You can't support these... things.'

'I think it best,' said the Doctor with authority. 'Come on.'

The other two moved over towards the Cyberman. They also stretched out their hands to the giant's arms, hesitated at the touch of the chill metal and drew back.

'It's all right,' said the Doctor quietly. Again they reached out and touched the huge arms, grasped them more firmly, and the three of them pushed the enormous weight of the Controller towards the inside of the sarcophagus. Now the Cybercontroller stood inside the form, weak but erect.

The humans propped him up and moved away.

'You... understand the... mechanism?' the Controller said.

'I think so,' said the Doctor. He went over to the controls, his hands in his pockets. 'One moment.' He examined the code system.

'Have you taken leave of your senses, Doctor?' yelled Jamie, rushing over and taking him by the arm. 'Let's get away from this room.'

'It does seem somewhat unwise,' said the Professor.

'We'll see,' said the Doctor mildly, operating the controls.

'Now, are you ready?' he asked.

The Controller moved his head very slightly. It was all the giant could manage.

The Doctor pressed the first lever, moved his fingers fast over the sequence of b.u.t.tons, and immediately the buzzing noise started, the lights flashed, the floor trembled-and the lid began to move over the waiting form of the Cyberman.

'We will... survive..' rasped the voice. 'Weee... wulll...

srrrvvv...' The words slurred and ran down as the lid closed.

The Doctor relaxed and put his hands in his pockets. 'There,'

he said, smiling. 'Where would you rather have him-in or out of there?'

Casually he turned back to the control board and examined it.

'Och,' said Jamie, smiling in relief. 'You do give us a hard life of it, Doctor.'

'Ah, I see,' said the Professor. 'Good idea.'

The Doctor gave a wry shrug at the chorus of congratulation.

The others did not notice his crossed fingers.

12.

Toberman Returns Victoria sat quietly in the Control room, still in the power of Klieg and Kaftan, trying to work out a plan of action. She realised that she was alone again, and anything she did would have to be her own decision. There was no one else around to help this time.

'Do you really believe,' she forced herself to say to Klieg. 'Do you really believe you will be able to bargain with those terrible Cybermen?'

'That is our concern,' snapped Kaftan. 'Keep quiet.'

'I'm talking to him, not you,' snapped Victoria, as sharply as Kaftan. Kaftan herself rose for a moment, her eyes flashing-then subsided at a glance from Klieg.

'They will agree to our terms,' he said complacently.

'What about the other weapon?' asked Victoria, lying in as natural a voice as she could muster.

'What other weapon?' pounced Klieg.

'I saw another one like that in that room there,' said Victoria, pointing to the recharging room. 'It was behind the sarcophagus.'

'Is that true?' Klieg asked Kaftan quickly.

'I don't know. I did not see one. But we'd better make sure.'

Kaftan walked towards the door. Surely that gauche child couldn't be plotting something again?

'NO. Wait!' Klieg stopped Kaftan. 'That means that any one of them could...'

'Yes. You're right, Eric.'

'Then we had better wait in here. If the Cyberman is aroused, we'll be ready for him.'

He steadied the gun in his hand, and as before the solid feel of the cold metal calmed his sweating hands.

'Now, stand clear,' he ordered. 'I'm taking no chances.' He stood tense, the gun pointing at the door, his face full of his mission to conquer the world, his bald head gleaming with sweat, his finger nervously on the trigger b.u.t.ton.