Sword of Orion (audio story): Difference between revisions

[[Charley Pollard|Charley]] is worried about [[Ramsay (Storm Warning)|Ramsay]] looking ill. She and [[Eighth Doctor|the Doctor]] can't carry him to the [[TARDIS control room|control room]] and Ramsay is dying from being away too long from the [[time vortex]]. The Doctor decides that there is one way to restore Ramsay back to health, but doesn’t tell Charley, who is flustered to know.

[[The TARDIS]] lands in a bazaar on the [[Garazone Central]]. Charley tries to communicate with a merchant to get help for Ramsay, but Charley is slightly disturbed by the merchant’s suggestive compliments to her. She gives up and meets up with the Doctor, who also hasn’t found anything. The Doctor and Charley then check out another shop in the bazaar and decide to look around. The Doctor convinces the shopkeeper, [[Ike (Sword of Orion)|Ike]], that they are Customs and Excise officials so they can browse peacefully and the Doctor comes across a recorder. The Doctor and Charley then find a golden plated [[Cyberman]] head in the shop and the Doctor recognizes it.

Back in the shop, Charley asks the Doctor the length of the [[Cyber-Wars|Cyber-War]]. The Doctor answers that it was a very long time and informs her that the Cybermen remain in their tombs on [[Telos]] for the time being. The Doctor and Charley then notice that Ike has abandoned them. Charley thinks that he has gone to get his “smuggler friends” to beat them to a pulp, but the Doctor disagrees. Charley reminds the Doctor that he told Ike where the TARDIS was and confirms that the Doctor is indeed worried. The Doctor orders Charley to take a [[grav-pad]] and the nearby book of ancient remedies. Charley protests that this would be theft, but the Doctor remarks that it’s probably stolen anyway and they run from the shop.

The Doctor and Charley come across the TARDIS and enter. The Doctor runs to the console and patches the TARDIS’ scanner to visual transmission of the Vanguard, meaning that from the TARDIS, they’ll be able to see what the Vanguard sees. They then see that there is a cold-looking star destroyer in front of the Vanguard. Charley sees that the star destroyer is moving towards them, but the Doctor sees that rather the Vanguard is moving towards it. The Doctor rushes the controls and decides it’s time to go. The TARDIS then stops suddenly. The Doctor then sees that the TARDIS has been caught in the Vanguard’s warp field, preventing them from travelling away. Ramsey would feel better from the temporal time feedback that surged when the TARDIS failed to leave. The warp field’s energy has dissipated and the TARDIS has materialized. It feels cold and Charley senses a foul stench. The Doctor and Charley look outside the TARDIS and realized that they have landed onboard the star destroyer.

On the star destroyer, the Doctor and Charley hear the sounds of the Vanguard crew approaching from afar. The Doctor decides that it’s time to leave, but as they approach the TARDIS, they hear a howling sound. The crew members hear this as well and decide to split up. Crew member Kelsey then discovers the TARDIS. Kelsey calls out for the others to look at what he found just when an unseen figure appears and attacks him. The figure utters “destroy."

[[Eighth Doctor|The Doctor]] and [[Charlotte Pollard|Charley]] hear the scream as well and come across [[the TARDIS]] and a severely injured Kelsey. The Doctor checks for a pulse, but it’s very weak and finds from his space suit that he’s a crew member of [[the Vanguard]]. Charley checks the name tag which reads Mark Kelsey. As Charley and the Doctor wonder who Kelsey’s assailant is, they hear footsteps approaching. [[Chev]] and [[Grash]] reveal themselves and are horrified to discover Kelsey’s body. The Doctor urges that Kelsey needs immediate medical attention ASAP, but Jansen’s crew draw their weapons and hold the Doctor and Charley at gunpoint, thinking they were responsible for Kelsey’s attack. Grash contacts Jansen and reports to her that Kelsey’s body has been found as well as the “murderers”. The Doctor then checks for a pulse from Kelsey, but he has succumbed to his wounds. Jensen orders Grash and Chev to turn on their cameras for a visual confirmation and Jansen sees it for herself. Grash requests permission to kill the Doctor and Charley on her authority. Jansen, however, is convinced that there may be something else that killed Kelsey. Jensen orders them to bring the Doctor and Charley to the Vanguard and Charley is thankful that there’s a woman in charge.

As the Doctor and Charley are being brought on the Vanguard, Jansen orders Ike to examine Kelsey’s body. The Doctor and Charley introduce themselves to Jansen as travelers. Jansen asks why they were on the star destroyer and the Charley responds that they were “getting exercise” and looking around. Suddenly, Vol contacts Jansen and says that he has picked up a transmission, but can’t find where it’s coming from. Jansen orders Grash to scan them and finds the [[sonic screwdriver]] from the Doctor as well as a tracking device. The Doctor assures them that they are not transmitting anything. Jansen decides to confiscate them and Vol still picks up a transmission and the Doctor sees something moving in the shadows, but it vanished. Jansen asks what it was and Charley sees that it lead to the air locks and left behind scratch marks on the deck plates. Jansen then comes to the conclusion that the Doctor and Charley are not indeed responsible for Kelsey’s death. Grash then thinks that they could be androids, feeling from the Orion War, but Jansen tells him that the [[Orion War]] is light years away. Suddenly, the lights begin to flicker. Vol reports that there is some sort of power failure in their area and has activated several emergency batteries, but they’re not working.

Kelsey’s body is examined by Chev and Ike and they, too, notice the lights flickering. They try to contact Jansen, but they lose contact with her. The Doctor asks Jansen where the nearest power system maintenance is located on the ship and they go look for it. They then see that someone has burned a hole through the hatch as well as more scratches. The Doctor sees that whatever caused it has a highly focused weapon or an energy beam. Jansen hands the sonic screwdriver to the Doctor and he sees that the impact of the beam has damaged the cables and sees that the life support cables have been remained unharmed. Because of this, the Doctor realizes that something doesn’t want to kill them and whatever it is, it’s moving fast.

On the flight deck, Jansen asks Vol if there is any way to track down the intruder, but there doesn’t seem to be any. Chev berates Charley for killing Kelsey, but Charley remarks that if they weren’t so busy accusing her and the Doctor he’d still be alive. The Doctor calms everyone down and tells them that he can help them find out who did kill Kelsey. The Doctor then sees that everyone hasn’t changed her spacesuit since she got back and orders everyone to turn around. The Doctor notices that Grash’s backpack has a scratch mark on it, meaning that it snuck onboard the Vanguard while no one was looking. The Doctor then decides that the game plan is to reboot the power cables by shutting down the life support systems in deserted areas to draw out the intruder. Jansen, Grash and Charley stay on the flight deck while the Doctor, Vol and Chev try to shut down the life support systems. Charley assures Jansen and Grash that once they are done, they’ll be heading off, but the TARDIS is still on the star destroyer.

As the Doctor is doing his work, Vol and Chev ask the Doctor why he was on the star destroyer. The Doctor responds that he was “discovering, not murdering” and wants to head back there once this is over because that’s where he parked his “transport”. The Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver and the security systems are back online. Vol tells the Doctor that he picked up a signal that is transmitting from the stern of the ship and it’s the same signal from earlier.

Meanwhile, the others see that the security systems are back online and there’s a signal in the star destroyer’s stern. The Doctor, Chev and Vol return to the others and Jansen asks the Doctor to join her on her salvage on the star destroyer. The others refuse and Grash accuses Jansen of endangering her whole crew and suddenly holds her at gunpoint and orders Ike and Vol to their stations and get them out of here. They reluctantly obey and set course for the Garazone system, but there is a malfunction—the engines are dead. The Doctor sees that the intruder as sabotaged the Vanguard’s engines. Jansen and the Doctor decide to go onboard the star destroyer, but Grash orders Charley to stay behind and won’t be waiting for them as soon as he gets the engines repaired.

Meanwhile, Ike and Grash discuss about the Doctor and Charley and Ike recognizes them from his shop earlier. Chev asks why didn’t the Doctor and Charley say that recognize Ike and report to Jansen, but Ike doesn’t know. Grash [[deduce]]s that they could blow this operation. Vol reports that the engines remain unresponsive. Grash orders Vol and Ike to go down to the engine room and repair the main drive. Charley says that whatever is down there could be hostile, which is why Grash will be sending Charley down there as bait.

The Doctor and Jansen continue their search, but then the Doctor runs into a [[Cyberman]]. The Cyberman lunges to attack them, but Jansen destroys it with her weapon and it alls to the floor. As the Doctor examines it, Jansen reveals that she knows about the Cybermen from majoring in galactic military history at a university and thought that they were extinct, much to the Doctor’s fascination. The Doctor opens the Cyberman’s faceplate open and sees a signal being transmitted. The signal that is being transmitted in the engine room onboard the Vanguard is a Cybermat. Suddenly, the Cyberman jerks violently, scaring Jansen. That was the Doctor tampering with the nervous system, meaning that something happened in the refrigeration process, and this was rogue. Jansen then realizes that there are other Cybermen onboard this ship, frozen in hibernation.

The power is low due to the humans’ interference, but the Cybermat is still transmitting. One of the Cybermen orders two others to proceed to the Vanguard while the Cyber Leader will be restored.  

Charley and the others realize that the Cybermat was responsible for sabotaging the engines. Charley then sees something in the corridor as the others prepare their weapons. Grash then appears, much to Chev’s surprise. Grash calmly assures them that he has killed them, but there are more on the way, so they must fight back. Charley questions this, but Grash insists.

In the airlock, the Doctor tells Jansen that it’s a bit odd that the Cybermen on the star destroyer just gave up on chasing them. The Doctor and Jansen leave the airlock, but Cybermen confront them. Jansen fires and kills them just when Charley and the others meet up with them, just when Grash loses consciousness. Charley wonders what is going on and the Doctor explains that they are Cybermen, who were once humans like them, but have been converted into machines, removing emotions. Vol tells the Doctor that the Cybermat on the Vanguard has been disabled, but the Doctor tells them that since these two Cybermen have been killed, more will be coming. Jansen orders the airlock systems to be deactivated and Ike to take Grash back to his cabin. Jansen then orders the Doctor and Charley to return to the flight deck as she goes in alone.  

Vol asks the Doctor and Charley if they knew Ike because they met him back in his shop. The Doctor reminds him that now’s not the time as they are facing bigger concerns. Ike appears and the Doctor tells him that he’s not interested in his criminal activities. Charley then tells Ike that this is why they haven’t told Jansen. They then try to find Jansen on their security scan and they are fascinated to discover that she’s in the ship’s computer command module. Meanwhile, Jansen looks up information on the Doctor and discovers that he’s an alien who owns a “TARDIS”. Charley then tells the others that Jansen doesn’t seem to be like them. Chev agrees, seeing how Jansen’s always calm and never out of place. The Doctor agrees and also finds it odd how her weapon can take out Cybermen while they can’t. The Doctor asks Ike to get him into the computer’s databases just when an alarm alerts them. It is the Cybermen making their way through the airlock. The Doctor calls Ike to tell her that they need her to stop the Cybermen with her weapon as he leads the others away.

The Doctor orders Chev to open a shutter to see the Cybermen’s activities and sees that they are indeed trying to get in. Jansen arrives and they see that there are more Cybermen than they have ever encountered. Jansen arms her weapon as the others step back. The Doctor then finds another way of stopping them by discarding the outer door, trapping them in there since they only want the humans for conversion. The Doctor initiates this and they are trapped.

Chev approaches the airlock reception area and hears a noise. She calls out Grash’s name, but no response. Instead, she hears a high pitched sound and finds the Cybermat and screams.