This story features the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Thirteenth Doctors
I was a bit disappointed to find that our next arrival was only a month or so backwards in time from when we had witnessed the dramatic and fiery death plunge of Mir into the Pacific Ocean. However the Doctor seemed to be very pleased with himself. "What's so special about this time?" I asked him for the sake of curiosity.
He looked at me, a big smile from ear to ear. "There will be a lunar eclipse tonight Sarah, one of the better celestial events in your planet's history. Tonight the Earth will come between the sun and the moon."
"Well what's so special about that?" I laughed. "I've seen dozens of them. I even wrote an article about one once when I interviewed Patrick Moore."
The Doctor offered me a jelly baby, which I took with a gracious smile. "So why is this one so different?"
The Doctor pointed to the Moon, which was already rising in the early evening sky. "This one will be much brighter than it has been for quite a while, people will remember this event for years."
"Like that solar eclipse last year?" We had both witnessed that beautiful event last month, I had to borrow the Doctor's hat and scarf when it suddenly got very cold as I had dressed in a thin summer dress.
"Yes Sarah." He frowned. "I have a bad feeling about this all of a sudden, it's as if my future has been walked over."
"Don't you mean your grave?" I asked, correcting him.
The Doctor shook his head slowly. "My past seems fine for now, I think it's a tingling from the future."
"Ah. I thought this place seemed awfully familiar."
I heard a voice coming from behind me and I turned around to see a blonde haired man dressed in a strange beige getup. "Who are you?" I asked.
"He's me Sarah." The Doctor informed me.
"But he doesn't look anything like you or even the other you." Two and two suddenly connected in my head. "You said something from the future, he's you isn't he?"
"Hello Sarah." The new Doctor held out his hand in greeting, which I took. "Should you be here?"
"Alas no." He looked over to a youngish woman who was dressed in the latest trendy jeans no doubt. "Sarah, I'd like you to meet Peri, she's an American. But don't hold it against her."
"Hi," I said to the future Doctor's friend. "I'm Sarah."
"Peri," she replied in a cheerful voice. "So your Doctor dragged you hear too?"
"I think he's reliving his youth." I winked knowingly at Peri.
"I don't think mine's quite grown up," Peri laughed.
"Is this a private party or can any Doctor join in?"
I saw another new Doctor, larger than life and with a coat to match. He smiled at me. "Hello Sarah Jane, Peri. I can see that tonight is going to be very interesting." He walked off over to his other selves while his companion joined Peri and myself. He was a quite handsome looking young man who introduced himself as Grant Markham.
We chatted for a while; apparently he had recently helped the Doctor to defeat the Daleks. I was a bit surprised as I thought the Doctor, Harry and myself had defeated them. Just when I thought things were settling down we heard the quite tuneless whistling of a strange looking blonde woman. She breezed past us, saying hello to each of us in turn before joining the assembled group of Doctors.
"That can't be the Doctor can it?" I scoffed. "Look at those hips."
Peri laughed until a leather-clad girl put her arm around her shoulders and nibbled her ear. "Hey," Peri exclaimed. "Get your hands off me."
The newcomer introduced herself as Hannah then smiled at me and winked. "So where's the party at? I've got all the latest mixes on mini disc."
"We're here to watch the moon being eclipsed," I explained to Hannah.
"That's nice," Hannah replied. "Oh you mean the Earth's moon. I suppose it was too much to expect that the Doctor was setting me up on a date."
"What did you think she meant?" Peri asked and right away I knew it was the wrong question to ask our extremely out-of-the-closet friend.
Hannah looked at Peri. "Oh the usual, being chatted up, some dancing, maybe a few drinks and back to her place for coffee."
"Oh." Peri exclaimed. "Well we have coffee back in the TARDIS."
Hannah leaned close to me and whispered. "Result. Can you cover for me if the Doctor gets suspicious?"
"I don't think she means coffee the way you do," I quickly informed Hannah. "I think she's just being helpful."
Hannah frowned before looking up at the moon. "Oh well, at least there's always this. You don't like..."
"No." I replied quickly. "I'm here just for the eclipse."
Grant seemed put out and tried talking to me, asking me about my Doctor but I brushed him off.
Slowly the moon disappeared piece by piece as if an ancient dragon were taking large bites out of the pockmarked ball of dust and rock. Then however the moon started to glow a deep blood red colour. The shadows of craters seemed to reform in the strange light and the distinct features of a face could be seen. I had seen this face before not too long ago; it was exactly like the blank visage of a Cyberman's faceplate. The Cybermen had been to the moon!
I looked over at the Doctors but they all seemed to hang their heads in shame as if they already knew what to expect. Finally they came over to us and my Doctor told us the awful truth. The Cybermen had colonised the moon and now they were preparing to invade the Earth.
"You knew about this." I looked at the female Doctor, somehow knowing she was the oldest of them. "Why haven't you done something about this before?"
She looked at me, deep into my eyes. "I thought I had wiped them all out Sarah, banishing a few remaining survivors in the farthest part of the Galaxy from Earth. I was wrong."
Hannah looked at the Doctor, tears running down her cheeks. "We have to kill them all, destroy each last one of them. Make those evil things pay for Claire's life."
I could sense that this Claire was someone very close to Hannah, more than just a close friend. I put my hand on her shoulder to comfort the fragile little thing and she buried her face into my shoulder and sobbed her heart out.
My Doctor led me back to the TARDIS after a while before looking into my eyes.
"Sarah, you're a good girl however there's something I need to do."
I realised what he was going to do but before I could do anything he took hold of my neck and everything went red and grey.
***
I woke up on the floor of the TARDIS. "What's going on?" I asked, wondering how I had ended up here. I saw the Doctor enter the console room and he rushed over to me and helped me up.
"What are you doing down there?" he asked me.
"I...I don't know," I replied. "I must have collapsed. Hey maybe it was Sutekh trying to get in here again?" I guessed, well it seemed the only likely solution.
The Doctor checked the TARDIS console. "I didn't feel anything," he told me. "There's nothing registering here. I think you must have had a dizzy spell."
Holding onto the Doctor as I stood up I shook some feeling back into my legs. "That's what it must be." He offered me a jelly baby and I chose a yellow one to help me relax.
***
This story follows on from The Death of a Much Loved Star and sets up things for another SF that is coming soon...
