Doctor Who: The Zarbi (11 page)

His answer came in the form of a sudden hum of instructions from the speaker on the control panel. The Zarbi there stiffened attentively to its stream of intermittent humming, chirruping. Doctor Who moved towards Ian and Vicki. One Zarbi remained covering them, the venom grub hovering on the floor with its snout aimed in their direction.

The Zarbi leader moved from the control panel towards the ship
Tardis
. At the same time it signalled orders to a group of Zarbi, who turned on Doctor Who and Ian and propelled them, too, towards the ship.

The Zarbi leader was at the ship’s doors when suddenly it halted, drew back its foreclaws hastily, as if remembering. It motioned Ian and the Doctor to go in.

The Doctor went in first. Ian followed, looking back at the Zarbi — and beyond them to a frightened Vicki, now alone under the obscene menace of the venom grub and its guard.

‘They’re keeping well away from the ship,’ Ian muttered.

‘Yes — they’ve learned their lesson, my boy.’

Ian looked around as Doctor Who moved towards one of the control table sections. He flicked a lever, pulled, and the table came out easily on its smooth rollers. Ian stared in dismay.

‘You really are going to dismantle the ship — for
them
?’

‘Of course not, my boy. Just the astral map. Now come around this side and give it a push!’

Ian shrugged. ‘I never thought I’d see you give in this easily,’ he said coldly.

Doctor Who stared. ‘I —
give in
?’

‘You don’t mean you really believe they’ll free us if we help?’

‘Chesterton, we’ve made a bargain!’

‘With
those
weirdies?’ Ian waved with incredulous contempt to the control room beyond the ship’s doors.

‘Personally, I don’t blame those "weirdies" as you call them for mistrusting us,’ Doctor Who retorted, ‘they’re being invaded! Their very existence is at stake!’

Ian halted. ‘Look, we might have landed in the middle of a space war, but it has nothing to do with us!’

Suddenly the Doctor was smiling at him with a hint of mischief. ‘Did you really think I’d let them use me like that — unless I had something of my own in mind? Really, my boy...!’

Ian stared suspiciously. ‘What are you up to? What are you planning?’

‘Now, now — help me get this equipment moving. We don’t want to leave Vicki out there on her own too long.

Ian scowled and obeyed, pulling out several plug-leads which joined this section of the control table to the ship’s wall. To his surprise, Doctor Who turned and demanded.

‘Who told you to un-plug those leads?’

‘Bit old-fashioned, isn’t it, Doctor? Leads — in
Tardis
?’

‘It is not common or garden flex, Chesterton! This is
Tardis
machinery. It needs a time-space link. Now plug them back!’

Ian shrugged, complied, then helped the Doctor shove the control table towards the door.

The Zarbi waiting beyond in the control room drew back as they emerged, propelling the control section containing the astral map. Ian stumbled over the leads which kept it connected to
Tardis
’ machinery.

The Zarbi guard allowed Vicki past him as she moved to join them. Doctor Who put a comforting arm around her, patted her, smiled.

The other Zarbi clustered curiously around the control table as the two men wheeled and shoved it towards the centre of the great room. As it came to a halt, Doctor Who moved to the table, lifted a lid, revealing a complex panel of cathode tubes and instrument dials. He began to turn switches, scanning the astral map. Vicki stared from the Doctor to Ian.

‘Are we really going to help them?’ she whispered.

Ian gave a faint shake of his head. ‘He’s up to something crafty,’ he said darkly. ‘But don’t ask me what.’

Doctor Who kept watching the astral map, turning dials and flipping buttons on the control panel. Suddenly he threw up his hands in impatient disgust.

‘Useless - useless...!’ he stormed. He strode suddenly across the room until he stood beneath the Dome, and there raised his hand above his head and clicked his fingers imperiously.

‘Come on, come on!’ he snapped. ‘Put me through...!’

In answer, the Dome lowered down towards him. The Voice boomed expectantly, ‘You have the information —

already?’

‘Good gracious no! No — some power source of yours has jammed my instruments! While it operates I cannot possibly use them!’

The Voice rose to an echoing bellow of anger.

‘Do not dictate terms-erms... This is trickery-y!’

‘Is it?’ Doctor Who thundered back into the glassy head-piece. ‘You know our ship cannot take off because of your power interference! It is that which is crippling my instruments!’

A pause ensued. For a moment Doctor Who expected the Dome to raise and end their exchange. Finally the Voice echoed back.

‘I cannot suspend my functions for your experiments!’

‘Very well! That’s the end of it! Then get this hair-drier thing off my head! Since we cannot help you locate these invaders, you must do as you will with us!’ And the Doctor thumped his fist angrily against the inner wall of the Dome. As soon as the Dome had risen sufficiently he came storming towards Ian and Vicki, throwing up his hands in a gesture of resignation.

‘I’ve told them they can do what they like with us! I’ll not lend my help to any creature which doesn’t understand reason!’

And the Doctor lined himself up against the wall with Ian and Vicki and folded his arms. Ian pointed at the Zarbi, several of whom now turned menacingly towards them.

‘Aren’t you carrying your little game of bluff a bit far.

They’ll
kill
us!

Doctor Who smiled faintly. ‘Will they?’ he said. He turned and waved airily towards the control panel. The Zarbi manning it were a-quiver with attentiveness as the master-light dominating it began to blaze forth. Vicki turned an astounded look to Doctor Who.

‘What did you do?’

Doctor Who shrugged, faintly pleased with himself. ‘I asked them to turn off their power. Told them there was interference...’

‘Is there?’ Ian asked.

‘Some... some,’ the Doctor admitted. He smiled again.

‘But not as much as I made them think. Ah, here we go again!’

The Dome was coming down. Doctor Who strode through the now-bustling Zarbi and stood, waiting. The Voice began as soon as the Dome covered the doctor’s ears.

‘I will close down certain machinery in the vicinity of your instruments! If you try to take advantage of this —

you will all die!’

Before Doctor Who could reply the Dome vanished again skyward, towards the ceiling. He looked around.

Abruptly, the web indicator lights on the control panel blanked out.

Then the large-scale segment of web, its wedge-shaped outline ablaze with tiny light buttons, faded and went dead.

The dials on the control room wall ebbed slowly down to zero. As they did so Ian stared in surprise at the effect of all this on their Zarbi guards. One of the Zarbi at the control panel slumped lazily forward and leaned its upper quarters tiredly against the controls. The luminous glare of its eyes faded and blanked out, too.

Doctor Who was too busy to pay attention to these strange happenings.

At the turn of a switch his astral map came alive. Planets and satellites winked clearly into sight on its glowing grid around the large central shape of the planet on which they had landed. Doctor Who stared intently, measuring off distances on the grid and muttering excitedly to himself.

‘It is... yes, it
is
— the planet Vortis! And the satellites

— they must be
new
! They
must
be...!

He continued to manipulate switches and to measure, calculate. Ian turned to look at the Zarbi nearest them.

Two of these had slumped to the floor. Their glaring eyes had dimmed and their legs waved feebly, idly tracing patterns on the floor. They appeared to have lost all interest in the proceedings. Another Zarbi lurched tiredly across the floor to join his companions, slumped and dazed at the control table.

‘Doctor — look... over there...!’

But Doctor Who was too intent on his astral map. He worked feverishly, turning new switches and orientating the astral map to light up new quarters in the skies around this planet, Vortis.

Suddenly he exclaimed, ‘Ah!’

‘But doctor, the Zarbi...!’

Doctor Who ignored him. Staring at the astral map, he said triumphantly, ‘They’ve good reason to believe their planet is being invaded! It
is
, my boy! It
is
! Look!’

Ian joined him. Doctor Who was pointing at the large circular blob in the centre of the astral map.

‘Vortis,’ he said. Then his finger moved to where a cluster of faint pinpoints blinked faintly. ‘Watch there!’ he muttered.

The pinpoints were moving, very slowly — towards Vortis.

‘What is it — an advance wave?’

Doctor Who nodded. ‘Almost certainly!’

Ian stared for a moment, until a movement from Vicki made him turn, alarmed. Vicki had crossed cautiously to where one of the Zarbi lay almost motionless. She was reaching out her hand to take up one of the gold wishbone necklets. He leaped towards her.

‘Vicki — don’t touch them!’

It was too late. Vicki was holding up the gold slave necklet and showing it to him. She smiled delightedly.

‘It’s all right! They don’t work any more! See!

Doctor...!’

Doctor Who looked briefly, nodded. ‘Quite so, child.

This whole section is immoblized, you see. Look at their controls. All lights out. All indicators at zero.’

‘No power!’ Ian said. ‘Nothing to interfere with the ship! We could take off, couldn’t we?’

Doctor Who inclined his head. ‘I daresay we could – if we wished. But... do we?’

Ian considered that. His face fell. ‘I forgot,’ he mumbled. ‘No. We can’t. Not without... Barbara.’

‘Quite.’

Ian looked at the immobile Zarbi. ‘But look – if
I
was to get out of here, while all these Zarbi are half-asleep...’

Doctor Who gripped Ian’s arm and turned to point him towards the control panel. ‘Chesterton, only in here are those creatures powerless! Outside this room they will be watching, waiting...!’

‘Just the same,’ Ian persisted stubbornly,’... if I could get to Barbara in that... Crater of Needles you spoke of... if we were all together, then we
could
get away – if this situation...’ he waved at the powerless Zarbi... ‘if this were repeated...’

‘My dear fellow, you don’t even know where the Crater of Needles is!’

‘I’ll find it,’ Ian said, looking around the walls, calculating the exits. He began to move away purposefully.

‘Chesterton – use your head! Come back!’

Ian paused. He shook his head. With his foot he stirred a recumbent Zarbi. It rolled a little, but raised no objection.

‘See? It’s no good, Doctor. I’ve already decided. If I’m caught, we can hardly be worse off than we are already...’

Doctor Who gave a resigned sigh, wagged his head half in agreement.

Ian smiled at them. Then he turned and stepped carefully to an open web door covering the tunnel through which they had come into this place.

‘Ian—!’ Vicki cried, and moved to stop him.

Ian paused, looked down the tunnel and suddenly darted down into it, vanishing from their sight. The Zarbi, some of them stirring feebly, made no real move to stop him. One looked blankly towards the tunnel and then turned its head disinterestedly away.

Vicki turned her anxious face to Doctor Who. His face was grave. He patted Vicki’s head.

‘Don’t worry child – he’ll be back. He may not have
my
brain, but he’s fairly good at looking after himself ...’

The Doctor masked his own uneasiness, and managed to give her a hopeful smile. Then the Doctor turned again to his instruments, flipping the controls to take a fresh view of space on the astral map. During this his receiver–

transmitter, its On switch glowing and giving off only a faint, whistling whine, abruptly gave forth static as he rotated a frequency control and the curious hollow echoes that accompanied a station in operation made him halt. A whisper sounded on the radio. He listened, tense, expectant, and adjusted the volume control, the tuner. The whisper was blurred by static.

‘... advance units...’ it droned softly.

Suddenly the radio boomed louder, crackling, and the voice over the radio sounded high and harsh.

‘... will rendezvous...’

It faded again. Vicki was staring. ‘Is... that the Menoptera... speaking...?’

Doctor Who turned the volume control higher, gripped the tuner delicately, listened hard. He nodded.

A voice crackled over the radio speaker, coming in loudly now.

‘Menop pathfinder to Leader One... Range to Vortis one-four-owe leagues..

Doctor Who turned abruptly to Vicki. ‘The recorder, Vicki, switch it on!’

Vicki hurried to obey the Doctor’s pointing finger. She pressed a recorder and together they bent to the speaker, listening hard.

Now a new voice came on the airwaves, louder, more powerful, heavily speckled with static.

‘Leader to spearhead. Lock course on bearing two-six-five. Speed point owe-one of light. We jettison craft at altitude two-five leagues. Individual descent... to group on Sayo plateau at north end of Crater of Needles...’

The voice faded, and with it the static, as a click sounded and the transmitter closed, leaving only a light whisper of sound, an emptiness. Doctor Who turned to Vicki, pointed to their small recorder.

‘Did you get it?’

Vicki nodded. She was staring. ‘They’re going to land near the Crater of Needles...? where you said Barbara is...

The place Ian is trying to find...’

She stared towards the tunnel where Ian had disappeared.

Ian, treading carefully, had come quite a long way down the narrow, empty tunnel. As he looked around him he saw that, at long intervals, webbed gates were set in the wall, opening into other passages leading off the tunnel.

He paused. A throbbing sound was coming to him from somewhere, mingled with a faint chirruping.