Cyberman: Alone Among the Stars (Episode 1: Awaken)

The PDA entries in this story were prompted by the game “Alone Among the Stars”, you can download it Here.

Episode 1: Awaken

In the Spacefleet Arctic base, planet Calis IV, year 5000AD, everyone was dead. All those who had worked here had been killed before being cut up and wired into a cybernetic suit, taking in commands from their superior and pumping fluids through their blood to dull any amount of emotion the brain could have, acting as the stimulus for any biological reaction. A man named the Doctor gazed upon this, and sought to end it all himself, so he did. Hijacking the signal, the Doctor shut down these processes, essentially killing them all again. He left, base in the same state as when it started, littered with the corpses… with a single survivor. Maybe he wasn’t properly converted, maybe he wasn’t properly dead, but for whatever reason, Tauron was sat down, leaning his back against the wall, alive.

The promotional message blared in the background. “Welcome to another Spacefleet Location,”, the excited woman said, smiling in her red shirt. “, here we observe the planet, make readings, learn of different cultures, but most of all, we serve the Great Galactic Republic.”. Tauron was never clear on what the Great Galactic Republic was, who it involved, who it didn’t, and what it means in the grand scheme of things. The woman continued, ending with “Spacefleet; The Future is You!”, a jingle played. After a moment, the video repeated. Tauron was tired of this, so he got up. He picked up his PDA and set off outside, exploring the last of the nature this planet has. This was once his obligation, maybe doing this would fulfill him.

He trekked through the now thinning snow, the further he got, the more it turned to slush as he trod, eventually sinking into sand. He wouldn’t have walked this far if he could still feel the cold. When he thought about it, he could feel cold, though he thought it likely to be a memory of a past feeling rather than some actual feeling returning to his frame. He got out the PDA and wrote down his notes.

New Entry:

When I was walking I suddenly came across huge spiking crystal formations in a desert… odd, last time I was conscious, I thought, or rather assumed, this planet was entirely Ice. I would recommend the scientists at Spacefleet investigate this, I am limited, but I speculate this is caused by the large red crystals bursting from the ground rather than any natural weather phenomenon.

The act of recording this gave him a certain amount of warmth. He remembered his earlier days in Spacefleet, going around on several planets for short amounts of time because he wasn’t experienced enough to be given a permanent placement. He was usually the guard during times they thought the base was a threat to the base . This was back when Spacefleet largely included things like “Ice Warrior seen existing” as a sign that the base was being threatened. They aren’t even called Ice Warriors as of late, some people saw the warrior part of the name as causing people to assume they were violent, though for the life of him, the last agreed upon term he remembered was “Iceoid”.

Whether his notes would reach Spacefleet he pretended he didn’t know, but a brain made blunt by chemicals can’t deceive itself for too long, he knew it wouldn’t and it bought him less comfort.

He found his head slowly turning to the side without much input of his own, in the vast expanse of sand, he spotted a cave, glowing a luminescent green, much like several parts of his metallic body. The Spacefleet team hadn’t done much investigation into the caves, most of them were occupied by Iceoids and they had agreed to not encroach on their caves without explicit permission. However, this cave appeared empty, no one in it. The area was too high a temperature for an Iceoid to survive anyway (not that it’d have to be that high).

New Entry:

I don’t know why, but I chose to sit down in the caves. There was a glowing fungal life form, several sharp bumps making up its flesh. It marked my metallic skin. I assume this is meant to penetrate the thick hides of the Iceoids. Maybe it's to protect itself, maybe it’s to spread its seed so-to-speak, either way it’s wasted on me. Can’t feel pain. Ever since I awoke, I’m unsure that I’ve felt anything…

New Entry: 

Inside the cave there was a black river which led right through it, like a vein through the skin of the cave. Resting atop this river was a simple flower, pink leaves and green petals. It moved along the river’s path. I tried to grab it for use as a sample, this plant life hadn’t been previously recorded, but as I bent down I saw my face, a cold metal frown. As I stared at it for a long time, I had almost convinced myself that through the bottom of my head I saw my old mouth, and through the dark disks that I perceived from I could see my eyes… but no. Just rogue stimulation from my brain looking for what is absent.

He left the cave and walked back to the base. Reading through his work, he found himself wondering why he did it if no one would end up seeing it, definitely no one from Spacefleet. He was a Cyberman now. And yet, he did this and willingly went to take the sample. After a long time walking, stuck with his thoughts, he overshot the base, stumbling across one of the ships the visiting Cybermen used. The ship was shaped like a line with an arrow at both ends pointing inwards. The metal used to make it was coloured bronze. Looking at it, he realised something. He wanted to leave this place… but where to? He didn’t care. He got in the ship and began to pilot it. He hadn’t learned how to before he was converted into a Cyberman, but it came naturally to him, like riding a bike. He tried not to think of the reason why as he set off into the stars.