Upgrade Beginning

A short piece of Doctor Who fic I wrote off-the-cuff. Pic from here: http://chrastanza.deviantart.com/art/Cybermen-149436216

The first thing the universe heard of the Cybermen was a scream.

Canhamer was a tiny city on a tiny planet, notable for only two things: the presence of a medium-sized military settlement (a quite peacekeeping base. Somewhere for the old dogs to go to sleep), and the fact that it was a pilgrimage site for a tiny religion called Kalvinism. According to their scripture, Canhamer was the site of a grand resurrection; a messiah " their ‘Silver King’ " returning from the land of the land of the dead, who promised eternal life to all who drank from his fountain. Said water feature had long since dried up, but that didn’t stop rich Kalvinists and the people of the city praying for his return.

That’s when they saw it.

A lone wonderer strode from the desert, walking for hours and hours and hours, never faltering or tiring or resting for breath. As those hours passed and the desert fog cleared,word of this wonderer spread throughout the city, and eventually to the soldier’s keep. They had to see. They had to know if he’d really returned.

There were celebrations, parties, even a couple of galactic news anchors found their way to Canhamer before the wonderer did. People lined the city wall; gathered around the fountain; soldiers regained their fraternal spirit that had been worn away by the dull years. Offerings were brought for this bringer of eternal life. And, after hours of striding through the desert, the Silver King came to a stop, and the City of Canhamer held its breath, wondering what words of wisdom this man - this beautiful man of metal and silver and handles, would bring…

It screamed. It raised its head and spread its arms and screamed so loud that the noise was grafted onto the souls of every person who heard it. It wasn’t a scream of fear, or anguish, or of guttural, animalist rage. It was a scream for screaming’s sake.  And somehow, that made it the most terrifying noise in the history of the universe.

All six hundred soldiers posted in Canhamer were killed. Over three thousand civilians - half the population - were slaughtered. By the time the response team arrived, most of the bodies were torn apart and missing pieces, along with the steel messiah itself. The event was burned onto the race memory of the entire universe, for no person who heard the reports slept soundly that night.

It wasn’t long until the Cyber Wars began. Wars that would never end. More and more Silver Kings - revealed to the universe as Cybermen - cropped up, building armies and ships and fleets until the whole universe was a stake. Years of blood and loss, of bitter enemies joining forces to defeat this nightmare plagued the cosmos. But not matter how many victories were won, or lives saved, or when the Cybermen were beaten back and forced into their tombs, or even when they’d slept for long enough that the generations forgot the image of their tormenters, the fear never left them. That scream on that day branded on the race memory of the universe as slaves to their fear, and no parent quite put their child to bed in the same way again.

No one knows why that Cyberman screamed. No one went back to find out. And no one, ever again, made a pilgrimage to the Silver King’s fountain. Suddenly, the promise of eternal life had lost its appeal.