Free Doctor Who: Tomb of the Cybermen by Gerry Davis

carefully.'
    'Of course,' murmured the Doctor. He moved closer, scanned the numbers over Klieg's square shoulder, and without the other seeing, clicked a 1 to an 0 in the sequence, then moved back as Klieg put down his calculations and looked back at the controls.
    This time the numbers on the dials made sense to him. He started to reset the controls. '6 cap B, 4, if and only if, C is cap function of... ah, that's it... 2F not 2A!'
    Klieg reached out his hand and grasped the main lever with confident anticipation.
    'Now!' he said triumphantly.
    CRASH!
    The lights flickered, and from below came a slow grinding roar—as if something in the depths of the earth had been disturbed and was moving relentlessly upwards. The floor trembled.
    'The hatch!' exclaimed Victoria.
    It was moving, the metal barrier to the tombs, the gate to the secrets of the Cybermen! With a grind of heavy, long-disused gears, the hatch cover inched slowly up, and a blast of freezing stale air from the unknown depths hit the little group of people.
    Victoria shivered and drew her anorak closer round her.
    Slowly the heavy metal cover creaked to an upright position and stopped. The rumble of the gears died.
     
    Cautiously the humans moved forward to look. They felt a death-like chill of ice which took away their breath. A steam of condensation seethed above the opening as the warmer air above met the chill tomb air. On the underside of the lid huge stalactites of ice spiked out like bayonets, and a brilliant rime sparkled on the metal ladder leading down to the black subterranean depths.
    Klieg was the first to straighten up and step back. He couldn't resist a triumphant glance at Kaftan.
    'You see! I did it!' he said, sounding for a moment more like the competitive schoolboy than the professional scientist.
    'My congratulations,' smiled the Doctor.
    'But, Doctor,' Jamie whispered, 'I saw you... you were the one...'
    The Doctor put his finger to his lips.
    'Excellent,'.said Parry to Klieg. 'Now to work. It will be extremely cold down there. We shall all need to put on some warm clothing. Viner, will you get the anoraks out of the rucksacks.'
    Viner was glad to have something to do" at last. He turned towards the entrance but Kaftan had already unpacked them and laid them out.
    'One moment,' Klieg's voice cut in. 'Are we all to descend?'
    'There is safety in numbers,' said the Professor. 'But the women?' asked Klieg arrogantly.
    'Ah, yes,' said the Professor. 'They will, of course, stay up here.'
    He turned to Kaftan and Victoria.
    'In case of trouble,' he said somewhat loftily, 'contact the orbiter.'
    Victoria turned eagerly to Kaftan. Surely a woman of her calibre wouldn't put up with this male arrogance; but Kaftan was looking all silky and submissive. Victoria held her fury in while the others put on their anoraks—then burst out:
    'I'm coming down with you.'
    'Now, my dear young lady,' demurred the Professor in an abstracted voice, not taking her seriously.
     
    'You heard me, Professor,' said Victoria staunchly. She felt a touch on her arm and turned.
    'Victoria,' said the Doctor quietly, 'you will be much safer up here.'
    Victoria bridled even more at this. Was the Doctor no different from the others?
    '... And much more use to us,' added the Doctor under his breath, his green eyes full of meaning.
    'I don't see—' Victoria began.
    'By keeping an eye on things up here,' the Doctor continued,
    'now, please...'
    Victoria looked at him. Was he making excuses or did he mean it? But she knew that the Doctor was never anything less than fair and came from a time when no one believed women incapable of doing even the toughest and most hazardous jobs.
    'I see,' she said. 'All right.'
    'If we are all ready,' came the Professor's dry voice, 'I shall lead the descent. Be ready to go back the instant I give the signal.' He climbed a little gingerly over the edge of the hatch and set his foot on the rapidly thawing rungs of the ladder. Wrapped up in the anoraks,