when their first strike was going to be and had all their forces there waiting....."
"Outnumbered three to one," the Doctor sighed. "The Forces Of Light
would be massacred. He COULD succeed. All it would take would be a
simple message from some agent the Master knew was dead, but whose
physical agents at the time were expecting information from. We have
much to do, VERY much to do!"
"First of all," said The Lord Of Light, "we must arm the natives with a
weapon suitable to their technology, but that will be effective against
the Master and his henchmen. I have an idea! I need some equipment and
chemicals. I believe we have a couple of days, but we should not delay
in our preparations!"
"Agreed!" the Doctor replied. He took the list Capt. Oliver had written. "Sgt. Benton!" he cried.
A handsome young Sergeant entered. "Yes, Doctor?" he asked.
"We need these things immediately! I don't care where and how you get them, just GET them!"
The Sergeant took the list. "Yes, Doctor!" he agreed, and hurried off.
A couple of hours later the chemicals arrived. By the time the
machinery arrived The Lord Of Light and the Doctor already had a batch
of strange-looking chemical cooling on the workbench. The soldiers
wheeling in the supplies were followed by the Brigadier.
"Doctor, what IS all this? The Quartermaster is screaming! You've spent our budget for the whole quarter!"
"Don't worry about it, Brigadier!" assured Capt. Oliver, "There's eight
bars of gold over there on the table. I'm sure they'll cover our
expenses. Give the rest to UNIT's retirement fund, or scholarship
program, or whatever."
The Brigadier walked over, looked at the bars of gold, and scratched his head.
"Well, I suppose we can work it out SOME way!" he groaned, "But where did you get GOLD?"
"Let's just say," the Doctor commented, "that matter, the shape
thereof, and, density, is not as constant to him. He can rearrange
things to his own needs. Those were originally lead bars,
counterweights from some machinery that was out back. I guarantee you
there's no gold reserve that won't accept it, and it will never change
back to lead."
The Brigadier's eyes widened. "All right, chaps," he ordered, "get this
gold out of here, and down to the Quartermaster's safe! But
really....how am I going to explain this?"
"Before you go, Brigadier," requested The Lord Of Light, "May I borrow your weapon?"
The Brigadier looked at the Doctor, who nodded, then walked over,
unholstered his automatic, and handed it to Capt. Oliver. Capt. Oliver
took out the clip, ejected the cartridges, dipped each bullet in the
solution on the bench, then reloaded the weapon, and fired. A bright
streak of light came from the pistol, hit the TARDIS' force field and
disappeared in an even brighter flash.
"Perfect!" cried The Lord Of Light. "These will stop them! Brigadier,
every bit of ammunition you have must be dipped in this solution. Just
the bullets...don't get any on your cartridges."
The Brigadier took back the pistol. "You heard the man, Sgt. Benton!" he snapped, "Get to it!"
"Yes, sir!" Sgt. Benton replied.
"How does it work?" Jo asked.
"The chemical is thermally activated," The Lord Of Light told her. The
heat of the cartridge and friction ignites it and impact with any
object causes detonation. They're just as good against any conventional
enemy but they'll also knock out a Lord Of Darkness."
"I see!" Jo smiled. "They can't stand light! These bullets must burn them like fire burns us."
"A very good comparison," complimented Capt. Oliver, "a very bright young lady!"
Jo was beginning to be able to tell the difference between when The
Lord Of Light spoke, and when Capt. Oliver spoke. It was the same
voice, but The Lord Of Light sounded emotionless, just answering, in
fact. It was not that he was unpleasant, he just seemed to her, to be
cold. But the Doctor trusted him, so she did, too.
By that night, every member of the personnel at UNIT Headquarters had a
new insignia. It appeared to look like their old ones, but tap it
twice, and an incredibly bright light came on. In their pocket they all
carried sunglasses with a special coating that Jo had applied after The
Lord Of Light had mixed it.
Security was doubled at night. Finally the Doctor and The Lord Of Light
returned into the TARDIS. For some well-earned sleep. Jo returned to
her room, nearby, which she only used when her duties kept her too long
at UNIT and it was simply too much trouble to go to her own place.
She was woken early in the morning by the repeat of gunfire. She headed
immediately for the lab. Passing through the halls, to her horror, she
found the bodies of several soldiers, and Cybermen, large holes burned
in their chests or head where the special bullets had hit them. Jo
grabbed up a rifle and continued on. As she entered the lab, she came
face to face with two Cybermen and a human. As they turned to look at
her, things happened almost simultaneously. The door of the TARDIS flew
open and Capt. Oliver came flying through the air taking the human off
his feet and carrying both of them through the window with a horrible
crash. Jo's rifle came up and fired four times. Her UNIT training paid
off. All four of her rounds found the Cybermens' weapons and blew them
to pieces.
"Back!" Jo cried, "Back! Get over there, or I'll put the next ones through your tin heads!"
The Cybermen obeyed, realizing they could do nothing against the weapon the woman held. The Doctor emerged from the TARDIS.
"Well done, Jo!" he cried, "We want them alive."
"But Oliver's dead!" Jo cried. "He went through the window! No one could survive that drop!"