Doctor Who: MacRa Terror (6 page)

Ben couldn’t understand what he had done to earn such contempt from Polly.

‘How could you?’ she said. ‘After all the Doctor has done for us. He’s a real friend.’

‘I had to do my duty.’ Ben was insistent.

She spun round. ‘Then go on doing your duty!’ she snapped. ‘And you might have to turn me in as well!’

‘Where are you going?’

Polly headed for the door. ‘I have to know what’s happening to them.’

‘You were told to stay here,’ he warned her.

She was contemptuous. ‘I’m going... Maybe you’d better call the guard again.’

‘Polly!’ He called after her but she was already hurrying down the corridor to the main doors.

‘’Polly!’ he was undecided for a few seconds, then ran after her.

it was dark outside, and he couldn’t see which way she had gone, but he could hear something moving in the direction of the building site, and he followed. ‘Polly... Polly...’ If it was Polly ahead, she made no effort to answer him.

She heard him all right, as he broke into a run. The only way to avoid him, and the argument that would follow, was to duck into one of the half-finished houses.

She did so, and waited in the shadows, knowing he would soon run past.

He must have guessed what she’d done, for he turned off towards her, coming over the mud and rubble, still calling. ‘Don’t be so stupid, Polly. You’ll get into trouble.’

She crouched behind a gap in the wall, with a pile of junk behind her. She was well hidden.

‘I know you’re there, Polly,’ said Ben. ‘Don’t mess about.’

He carne on cautiously. She could have got into any one of a dozen of the buildings.

He made a last plea. ‘We must obey Control, Polly. We must obey.’

She backed away a little. Something fell as she passed. He heard the sound, and moved after her. She kept very still but he came round the rubble and saw her, grabbing her as she started to run.

‘You don’t know what you’re doing, girl,’ he said. ‘I’m taking you back.’

‘Let me go!’ she cried but she was no match for him.

‘You’ve broken the law of the Colony,’ said Ben. ‘You’re coming with me.’ He dragged her over the rough ground towards the opening.

Polly’s scream stopped Ben in his tracks. Something about it – her terror – made him let her go; but even then she didn’t move – she still clung to his arm, riveted by something behind him, something over his shoulder.

He spun round. There was nothing there.

‘What’s wrong with you?’

She managed to say. ‘Didn’t you see?’

‘There’s nothing.’

‘There was... a huge shape... like a crab... It saw us, Ben. It had eyes... Don’t you understand? It was looking!’ She covered her face.

‘A crab?’

‘It was horrible,’ she said. ‘With a claw.’

He remembered the image they had seen on the scanner in the TARDIS.

‘That’s rubbish,’ he said. ‘Come on.’

‘Not that way,’ she begged.

‘You’ll dodge off,’ he accused her.

‘I won’t... Not that way... the other door.’

‘Okay. But there’s nothing there.’

She gripped his arm tightly. ‘Ben!’

He turned. Through the gap in the building a great crab-like eye was peering into the room, and a shape obliterated everything beyond.

The eye seemed to have difficulty in focusing, jerking from side to side as it scanned the room. A moment later it had gone.

Polly whispered, ‘What was it?’

Ben shook his head, stunned into silence.

They stood motionless, listening. There was no sound, but they hardly dared move. Gradually they tip-toed to the back of the building. There were many unfinished gaps in the construction work. The half-light of the moon shone through them, casting shadows. They peered into the night, but there was no sign of the great shape that had so terrified them.

‘What shall we do?’ she whispered.

Ben seemed to be struggling to speak; then he said, ‘It must have been a shadow.’

‘But you saw it, Ben!’

He sounded like a stranger. ‘There is nothing evil or harmful in the Colony.’

‘You can’t still believe that!’

‘Stands to reason,’ he said.

It was impossible to argue with him. ‘We must get away,’ Polly said. ‘Is it safe?’

‘I told you, there is nothing to fear.’ Ben stuck his head out of one of the gaps in the wall. ‘We must get back to the Department,’ he added. ‘I think the best way...’

Polly screamed for the second time! Something touched her in the dark; something with a hard shell brushed against her; and as she spun round she saw the great feeler – a long claw, groping in the room, searching. And as it passed it felt her and jerked into frenzied life, whipping back and forward, trying to find her again.

She was unable to move. All strength drained away. And then the great claw closed round her, and she was pulled towards the gap.

‘Ben! Ben!’ she screamed, kicking out, and hammering at the crusty surface of the claw that held her.

Ben swung a wooden plank over his head like a battleaxe. It carne down with a crash and Polly felt the claw shudder. Again and again Ben smashed at it until its grip slackened, and a foul-smelling substance began to ooze into the room.

Ben grabbed Polly as she fell, dragging her to the other side of the room.

‘Horrible... horrible!’ she kept repeating.

They watched as the claw made a feebie effort to reach them, then gradually it withdrew. The stench was overpowering.

‘Let’s go, Ben,’ she pleaded.

The big eye was back in the gap again, rolling from side to side, until it centred on the two of them. Then it disappeared quickly.

‘Ben! It’s coming round this side.’

They backed away from the wall.

‘Look out!’ she shouted.

A claw appeared where they had been standing, lashing down on the exact spot.

Ben hit it with the plank. It disappeared and an eye took its place.

‘Behind you,’ Polly warned him.

Another eye peered at them from a further space.

‘They’re all round us!’ She was horrified. ‘Look, Ben. There’s another!’

A third shape moved slowly towards the building site.

‘Run for it, Polly,’ shouted Ben. ‘I’ll keep them busy.’ He swung the plank at the watching eye as it looked on unblinking.

‘You don’t have a chance,’ she said. She peered out of the door. ‘It’s clear, Ben. Quick!’

He grabbed her hand. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Now!’

They went over the rubble, over piles of building materials, racing for the road.

Behind them they could hear the sound of the great feelers thrashing about, searching for them in the dark.

Both Jamie and the Doctor now faced the Pilot in his headquarters.

‘You destroyed the nerve circuit, Doctor! You burnt through it.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Correct.’

‘And you have destroyed the circuits in two other cubicles.’

‘Absolutely right.’ He rubbed his hands.

‘What have you got to say for yourself?’ asked the Pilot.

‘Rather neat, don’t you think?’ said the Doctor. ‘And so simple. I did it with this.’

He showed the Pilot the strand of wire.

‘You admit it.?’

‘I’m proud of it,’ said the Doctor.

Something caught his eye, and he moved cautiously to examine the wall behind the Pilot’s desk.

‘What are you doing?’ asked the Pilot sharply.

‘My dear Pilot,’ said the Doctor sympathetically. ‘So even you are subject to this dreadful method of subconscious control.’

‘I don’t know what you are talking about.’

The Doctor was carefully prodding the wall with the piece of wire.

‘Don’t do that.’ The Pilot jumped up.

The Doctor turned to him blandly. ‘I’m only trying to help you. You want to think your own thoughts, don’t you? You don’t want your actions controlled by the thoughts of other beings?’

He began prodding the wall again.

‘I gave you an order,’ said the Pilot.

‘I think,’ said the Doctor, ‘perhaps... just about here...’

The wire disappeared into the wall with a puff of smoke.

‘That’s better,’ smirked the Doctor.

The Pilot stared at him in amazement. ‘You will suffer for this,’ he said at last.

‘The least you can do is to say thanks,’ said the Doctor.

The emergency lights flashed and the door was opened to reveal Ola hurrying in with Polly and Ben.

‘What is the meaning of this?’ asked the Pilot.

Ola saluted. ‘An emergency, Pilot,’ he said. ‘This is the young man who reported the Doctor to us.’ He pointed to Ben.

‘Well?’

‘He has more to say, Pilot. Something you must hear... and no one else.’

They looked at Ben. He seemed suddenly at a loss.

‘Who’s he stabbing in the back this time?’ asked Jamie. He found it hard to forgive his friend.

Polly covered her face in her hands. The Doctor put his arm round her. ‘What is it, my dear?’

‘It was horrible,’ said Polly. ‘Like huge crabs... Ben fought them off.’

‘Ben did?’ Jamie could hardly believe it.

‘He could have been killed. It was awful. They were hideous... disgusting.’

‘Silence!’ The Pilot hammered on his desk. He turned to Ben. ‘Did you protect this girl from such creatures?’

Ben looked at him blankly. ‘I told her to stay in her cubicle. We should have obeyed orders. But she ran away. I went after her.’

The Pilot was insistent. ‘Were there such creatures?’

Ben peered at the Pilot as though he were trying to see him clearly.

‘Ben... you remember...’ Polly turned to him anxiously.

Ben shook his head. ‘No. There were no creatures.’

‘Ben!’ She couldn’t believe it!

‘There are no such things as the Macra,’ said Ben slowly. It sounded like a lesson he had learned.

‘You saw them,’ protested Polly.

Ben shook his head. ‘There are no such creatures.’ ‘Don’t blame him,’ said the Doctor.

‘Who else can you blame?’ said Jamie bitterly.

‘Ben has come under the control of evil forces,’ explained the Doctor.

The Pilot turned on him. ‘That is false! Control always acts on our behalf. For our good!’

‘Who is Control?’ asked the Doctor abruptly.

The Pilot was taken aback. ‘You’ve seen him,’ he said.

‘I don’t remember that,’ said the Doctor mildly.

‘On the screen,’ explained the Pilot. ‘Switch on,’ he ordered. ‘We have nothing to hide.’

The screen carne to life and the smiling face of the Controller looked down on them once more.

‘There he is!’ The Pilot was triumphant.

‘This is the Controller speaking,’ said the figure on the screen. ‘We know everything that has happened, and we have great sympathy for the poor girl, as she suffers from hallucinations.’

The picture faded.

‘That’s not exactly seeing the Controller,’ said the Doctor. ‘That’s seeing a
picture
of the Controller.’

‘It’s just the same,’ said the Pilot.

‘But where is he?’ said the Doctor. ‘I mean... does he actually exist?’

‘That’s ridiculous. Of course he does.’

‘Right,’ said Jamie. ‘Let’s see him then – not just his likeness.’

‘That isn’t necessary,’ said the Pilot.

‘I don’t think he’s there,’ said Jamie.

‘You all heard his voice,’ said the Pilot. He was getting angry.

‘I wonder if could see him again,’ suggested the Doctor.

The Pilot hesitated then spoke into the transmitter on his desk.

‘Did you hear, Controller? The Strangers would like to see you again...’

‘
And
in person,’ suggested the Doctor.

The screen came slowly to life. It brightened up... faded... brightened again. The figure of the Controller appeared faintly, flickered, then carne into focus.

‘They want to meet you in person,’ said the Pilot.

The picture went out of focus and seemed to crumple...

‘That’s set the cat amongst the pigeons,’ said the Doctor.

‘He isn’t there,’ said Jamie.

The screen blanked and when the picture reappeared the figure which turned to look down on them was certainly the Controller; but now he was considerably older, and he appeared nervous, turning to look offscreen anxiously, uncertain what to do. They heard the same voice as before, but now the man in vision made no pretence of speaking.

‘This is your Controller,’ said the Voice. ‘This is your Controller.’

‘Why doesn’t he speak for himself?’ asked Jamie.

‘You have seen him,’ said the Pilot. ‘That was what you asked for.’

‘Let him speak,’ said Jamie.

The voice from the screen rose. ‘Be silent! That is an order!’

‘Let the Controiler speak,’ called Polly.

Jamie pointed to the screen. ‘If that’s the Controiler, why doesn’t he speak for himself? That’s no’ his voice we’re hearing!’

The man on-screen looked offscreen in alarm.

The Voice continued: ‘The man you see is the Controller. Listen and you will hear him speak. He will give you his instructions... Speak, Controiler... speak!’

The man looked dazed. All authority had departed from him.

‘Am I to speak?’ he asked. The voice was faint, timid. ‘Tell the Strangers to believe and obey,’ came back the Voice.

The Controiler hesitated. ‘I... I will tell them... I will... I will do exactly what you say... But I beg you... don’t touch me... I will... I will... Keep back...’

He was backing away from something offscreen. ‘I obey... I obey!’ He was stupid with terror.

The Voice rose: ‘Cut off all communications... Switch off... You hear, Pilot... Switch off... switch off.’

The Doctor and his companions stared at the screen in wonder. ‘What’s happening?’ asked Jamie.

The Controiler backed away, lifting his arm as though to protect himself from something unseen. And then from one side of the screen a great claw whipped across and closed round the body of the helpless man, dragging him out of sight. The screen went baack.

‘The Macra!’ shouted Polly. ‘That’s what I saw! It’s there... in the Control room!’

‘Don’t let her speak.’ The Pilot operated the door and the guards rushed in.

‘They are in charge of your Control,’ insisted Polly.

‘That’s it, Doctor, isn’t it?’ said Jamie. ‘Those are the things that are there.’