Quest for Power

The "CyberIsomorphs". (TV: Silver Nemesis)

Quest for Power was one of the Cyber-Documents, a set of audio-visual documents originating from Earth, which were compiled into the CyberHive by the ArcHivist Hegelia. Designated Document 3a, Quest for Power was an account of the Cyberman attempt to invade Earth in the year 1988. Hegelia acknowledged that it was the most recent addition to the Cyber-Documents. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Cybermen)

History

The Cybermen, residing on the beleaguered planet Telos in the 26th century, had captured a time-travelling vessel, which they intended to use to alter the course of established history. Utilising the vessel, Cyber-forces were deployed in a sewer base on Earth in the year 1985. They were also deployed in a Cyber-ship on the far side of the Moon. When the Sixth Doctor was made to transport the Cybermen in the TARDIS to 26th century Telos, the Cyber-base in the sewer was sealed and abandonded but the Cyber-base on the Moon remained. However, when Cyber-Control was destroyed so too was the time vessel which was their lifeline to Telos, stranding the Cybermen on the Moon, five centuries in the past form the culture that created them.

In the 20th century, this group of Cybermen represented the only CyberNeomorphs in existence. However, there were other Cybermen in the solar system at the time, namely the Early CyberFaction. The distant ancestors of the Neomorphs, these Cybermen were the defeated fugitives from the Cyber-race's first recorded invasion of Earth. Hegelia observed that there was compelling evidence that they too had a base on the dark side of the Moon. As such, she claimed that it was possible, even probable, that these two groups of refugees met and exchanged useful data. Hegelia observed an "intriguing notion of a meeting of machine minds" which shed welcome light on why CyberFaction did not attempt to join forces with the CyberMondasians when Mondas entered Earth's orbit in the following year. The ArcHivist suggested that the isolated Neomorphs, whom she called Isomorphs, informed the earlier Cybermen that Mondas was to be destroyed and advised that there would be no point in wasting valuable resources in supporting a lost cause. Instead, the logical course for the Faction remnant would be to retreat to the mineral rich asteroid belt, regroup and build a stronger base from which to act, utilising the advanced technology which the Isomorphs could provide.

One Faction group, CyberNomad, would construct a hyperdriven ship and leave the solar system in search of other exploitable planetary systems. The remaining group would consolidate. Then, as the Cyber-Documents recorded, employ sophisticated technology in its attack on Space Station W3. Hegelia put forward a hypothesis that, in an "extraordinary looping of temporal linearity", the "powerful arm" of the CyberNeomorphs unwittingly reached back into their own history and helped their ancestors along the evolutionary road which many centuries later was to lead to the creation Neomorphs themselves.

The Isomorphs themselves remained close to Earth, where they monitored events, waiting for an opportunity to turn their small force, advanced technology and large ambition to full advantage. In 1988, they observed a meteoroid approaching the planet. Their instruments told them that it contained Validium, a rare alloy created by Omega and Rassilon as the ultimate defense for Gallifrey in the Dark Times, which the Cybermen recognised to have valuable destructive potential; once a sufficient quantity of this living metal was brought together, the resulting critical mass would respond to instructions. Meanwgile, on Earth, old documents had come into the hands of an ageing military leader called De Flores, alerting him to the approaching Validium and its potential to grant whoever possessed it the power of life and death over any planet in existence, Hegelia noting that he wanted the power to restore a defeated totalitarian regime.

Determining that they could use the power of Validium to further the Cyber-race, the Cybermen calculated that the meteoroid was to come to Earth at a disused airfield near Windsor, a town not far from London. Nearby, the partially converted a pair of humans to serve as their agents on Earth, having them prepare the area with devices for overcoming opposition to their plans and to eliminate the Seventh Doctor. The Doctor, had built a replacement music machine with a space scanner for his companion Ace, who had lost he previous one in their battle with the Daleks. On 23 November, after a failed assassination attempt by the Cyber-agents, the Doctor recalled that Earth was to be faced with a terminal danger, the return of Nemesis, the Validium statue which he himself launched into space in 1638. When the Nemesis meteoroid crashed to Earth close to the abandonded aircraft hanger, the first to appear on the scene were the local police, who were quickly overcome by a fine powder exuded by Cyber-devices which emerged from the ground.

Next to arrive was De Flore with his paramilitary force. He had with him a Validium bow which, along with a Validium arrow, would bring the statue to critical mass. But the arrow which he expected to find on the statue was missing. At that moment, the Doctor and Ace turned up and were immediately suspected of harbouring the arrow. De Flores threatened to kill Ace if the Doctor did not hand it over, however, she was saved by the landing of a Cyber-shuttle which astonished the onlookers. Led by their Cyber-Leader, the Cybermen disembarked from the shuttle. Withstanding firepower from De Flores' soldiers, the Cybermen overpowered them with their Cyber-guns as the Doctor and Ace dived for cover. A Cyberman closed in on the pair only to be killed by a gold-tipped arrow fired by Lady Peinforte, followed by another Cyberman. In the confusion, the Doctor managed to get hold of the bow before fleeing with Ace to the TARDIS, the outer door sustaining an arrow.

When the Validium first came to Earth in 1638, Peinforte had wanted to control its awesome power, fashioning it into the likeness of herself, ready to do her bidding. However, the Doctor had frustrated her desires by launching it into space. Using her occult knowledge, Peinforte, possessing the Validium arrow, transported herself and her servant, Richard Maynarde, to the time when she knew that the Nemesis would return. When the battle between the soldiers and Cybermen was over, Peinforte attempted to bring the Nemesis to life. His forces all but wiped out, De Flores and his aide made a tactical retreat as the Cybermen took possession of the Validium statue. Inside the hanger, they cut it free from its rocket-powered meteoroid and transported it in their craft to the crypt where Peinforte had been buried three centuries before. Knowing that Peinforte had journeyed into the future to avenge her loss of the Nemesis, the Cyber-Leader realised that emotional turmoil as the Validium arrow led her to the statue and deduced that the evidence of her own mortality would overwhelm her human sensibilities and drive her insane.

Though both his aides objected that it was too early, the Cyber-Leader ordered communication equipment to be activated. However, the Doctor was jamming the signal by transmitting one of Ace's jazz tapes on her music machine; jazz, an improvised musical form much enjoyed by the Doctor, produced unpredictable sound patterns which the Cybermen found inpenetrable. Based on past experience, the Doctor believed that the Cybermen must have had reinforcements in space, waiting for the signal to attack. When the machine's scanner disclosed only empty space, it suddenly occured to him that the forces were shrouded. Once the Doctor fine-tuned the scanner, he saw a fleet of thousands of Cyber-Warships. However, a theory put forward by Hegelia suggested that the Isomorphs infact had no more than three Cyber-ships in their fleet and that the appearance of thousands was an elaborate electronic hoax which, when unveiled at the desired moment, would strike numming fear into the hearts of the people of Earth, only two years since they had seen the Cybermen destroyed with Mondas. Hegelia supported her theory by citing instances of "unusual disagreement" between the Cybermen as to strategy, indicating that they were involved in a highly uncertain gamble with minimal resources.

As Lady Peinforte arrived at her crypt, the Cyber-Leader interpreted her anxiety to find the statue as "the human condition of madness" as he ordered his troops to take advantage of her weakness. However, this led to further losses of Cybermen by her gold-tipped arrows, forcing them to retreat. Another disagreement between the Cybermen occured as, while the Leader urged them to attack, the Cyber-Lieutenant favoured retreat. The Lieutenant warned that the Cybermen could not sustain further losses and that, were they to be over come, their entire strategy would fail and the Cyber-race would cease to exist, logic which the Leader was forced to concede to.

From this argument between the Cybermen, Hegelia reasoned that the Cybermen taking part in battle, numbering no more than a dozen, made up a significant proportion of the existing Isomorph forces and thus possession of the Nemesis was essential for them. Assuming that Peinforte's supply of gold was limited, the Cybermen retreated to their craft only find it destroyed; on the Doctor's behalf, Ace had used her personal supply of high-explossive Nitro-9 to destroy the ship. Believing themselves betrayed by their two human agents, who were guarding the ship, the Cybermen immediately executed them. The Doctor explained to a horrified Ace that, having been transformed by the Cybermen, the guards were no longer really human, that the Cybermen themselves were ordinary people once and that there were human beings even now trying to follow their example.

Hegelia suggested that the Doctor was speaking with De Flores in mind. At that moment, De Flores was negotiating an alliance with the Cybermen. In return, the Cyber-Leader ostensibly divide the planet into their respective slave groups and ours, however, as soon as the interview was over, the Cyber-Leader ordered his troops to destroy De Flores once he acquired arrow and the statue. As De Flores took the crypt, Peinforte and Richard escaped but left the arrow with the statue, which began to stir. The Cybermen moved in and overcame De Flores. Just then, the Doctor walked in with the bomb; he and Ace had stayed long enough to waken the statue then slipped away again to the disused hanger and the rocket meteoroid. The statue, now a living destructive force, broke out of the crypt and followed them. When the Cybermen reached the hanger, the statue lay inside the meteoroid. The Doctor had set the rocket controls to transport Nemesis into the midst of the Cyber-Fleet, which he had then instructed the statue to destroy. In the meantime, Ace kept the Cybermen at bay by lodging gold coins into their chest units using a catapult. One by one, her pursuers fell including the Leader himself. Two Cybermen remained, only to be destroyed when the Doctor caught them in the firepath of the meteoroid's rockets.

With the Cybermen out of the way, De Flores made his appearance but, once he took possession of the bow, he was shot down by the Cyber-Leader who, more resilient than the Cyberman drones, had revived and removed the gold lodged in his chest unit. Seizing Nemesis, the Leader ordered that it prepare for launch to liase with the Cyber-Fleet. As the rockets fired, the Leader declared that Earth would be transformed into the Cybermen base planet, the New Mondas. In the madness of despair, Lady Peinforte, after grabbing the bow, threw herself onto her own likeness and became one with it as it sped towards its destination. As the Doctor instructed, the destructive power of Validium detonated massive explosions within the fleet of three Cyber-ships. Hegelia observed that, as the fireball diminished, the mirage of the many others faded and disappeared. Taking advantage of the Cyberman's confusion, Richard grabbed the gold-tipped arrow lodged in the door of the TARDIS before thursting deep into the Leader's chest, killing him. With that, Hegelia believed that the CyberIsomorphs had been vanquished. (AUDIO: The Ultimate Cybermen, TV: Silver Nemesis)

Behind the scenes

Quest for Power corresponds with the Doctor Who story Silver Nemesis.