Doctor Who_ The Rescue Part 12

Weinberger stared at him and then emitted a snort of derision. 'A ghost?'

'It has been known to happen.'

Weinberger chewed impatiently, waiting for his latest systems check to report on one of the monitors. 'You'll be talking about collisions with flying pigs next,' he growled.

Oliphant leaned over and touched some keys on the hologram board. 'Thank you!' he exclaimed brightly. 'You have solved the next clue. It is porcine porcine.'

Weinberger scowled blankly at the young trainee.

'Porcine?'

'Pigs... To do with... Flying or otherwise... Porcine.'

Weinberger clenched his big hands. 'Okay wise guy, just you get back on the radio to those jokers on Dido.'

'But they are not on communications watch, Mr Weinberger. We advised them to conserve power if you remember.'

Weinberger's cold eyes lit up dangerously. 'I said try them!' he snapped. 'And keep trying them. We could use a reference fix to confirm what this heap of garbage is telling us.' He waved his arm at the complex installations surrounding them.

Oliphant stared at his superior. 'But Mr Weinberger, we have performed the necessary course corrections.'

'As a result of a close encounter with what exactly, Mr Oliphant?'

The trainee hesitated, suddenly less sure than before.

'An anomalous monopole field I suppose...'

'And the blue box?'

There was a long silence. Weinberger's monitor was still blank.

Then Oliphant sn.i.g.g.e.red uneasily. 'You will be speculating about aliens next.'

Weinberger stopped chewing and leaned forward until his face almost touched Oliphant's. 'Never underestimate the possibility of it,' he warned menacingly. 'Remember, we still have no idea what happened to Astra Nine Astra Nine. That's the only reason we have been diverted to Dido.'

Oliphant looked shocked and incredulous.

'Oh yes, don't fool yourself,' Weinberger went on, his voice hardening even more. 'Don't imagine that Intergalax is spending all this money just to pick up a couple of castaways. Our job is to find out exactly what went wrong.

That is all that really matters.' He turned back to his monitor just as it began to show the results of his umpteenth systems check. 'Now, do as I tell you, Oliphant.

See if you can raise Astra Nine Astra Nine and get us a fix.' and get us a fix.'

13.

The three trapped humans had made a bold decision. Now that the route back to the ruins was blocked by the stone shutter which had slammed down behind Barbara, they had agreed to forge on into the mountain in the hope of discovering the cavern where the TARDIS had materialised, or at least another route back to the surface.

While they had been holding their whispered conference, a sinister s.h.i.+fting sound had started in the bottom of the funnel behind them. No sooner had they reached their decision, than a hissing and boiling turbulence erupted in the dark chasm and as they turned, the glistening spherical head with its tiny gleaming red eyes burst out of the hole and reared up, its lurid pink mouth yawning hungrily in their faces.

Ian grabbed the girls and set off down the ramp, running recklessly into the gloom and heedless of the danger of more obstacles or traps possibly lying in their path. The wide ramp sloped steadily down at an angle for hundreds of metres and the three fugitives were vaguely aware of alcoves and tunnels branching off at intervals to left and right, but they did not stop to investigate so determined were they to get away from the hissing horror in its gaping pit. They did not notice the decaying ruins of elaborate underground constructions lying in the shadows under layers of choking dust. Their only concern was to reach the faint glow of light now visible at the end of the ramp.

When at last they did reach the end they found themselves in a kind of vast natural amphitheatre under the hazy light of the three moons. They gaped around them in awed amazement. The ramp emerged into a flat-bottomed crater at least two kilometres wide which was almost exactly circular. The steeply sloped sides rose more than three hundred metres all the way round, and near the end of the ramp a wide paved road began its gradual spiral climb round and round the curving walls of the crater until it finally reached the ridge.

Set into the crater walls all along the spiral road were the sh.e.l.ls of huge buildings with facades made of gla.s.s, plastic and metallic materials. But the most awe-inspiring feature was the colossal tower in the centre of the amphitheatre. Also built of metal and plastic and gla.s.s, its broad glittering ma.s.s rose level with the ridge and was connected to the wide highway by dozens of slender bridges radiating out like the spokes of a gigantic wheel.

The scale of the elegant and complex structure was breathtaking. The crater contained an entire city, a fantastic city of the most sophisticated design and engineering. But it was a dead city too. Totally deserted and dark. The structures were scarred and broken and decaying and the elegant bridges buckled and collapsing.

The floor of the crater was strewn with debris and abandoned machinery. It was a sad monument to a once glorious community.

'I never guessed that anything like this was here...' Vicki murmured, her eyes glistening as she gazed up at the miraculous constructions silhouetted against the sky.

Barbara's lips parted in wonder and she clasped Ian's hand. 'It's beautiful,' she whispered.

Ian marvelled at the advanced techniques used in the design of the graceful bridges overhead. 'All this couldn't have been built by Koquillion's mob!' he said. 'Monsters like that couldn't have created this.'

Barbara shook her head in agreement. 'Perhaps those silver creatures built it.'

'Talk of the devil!' Ian exclaimed, catching their arms.

'Look up there.'

Almost directly above them, two silver figures were striding along one of the rings of terracing connected by the spiral highway about half-way up the side of the crater.

'They seem to be carrying something,' said Vicki warily.

They watched in silence as the two gleaming creatures turned through an impressive-looking entrance on the terrace and disappeared into the mountain.

'Come on, let's follow them!' Ian suggested. 'If those things did build all this stuff they must be highly intelligent and civilised creatures. And anyway, there must be a way through from the tunnel by the wreck if they've come out up there. Perhaps we can find the TARDIS that way!'

'a.s.suming that those are the same silver things we saw before, of course,' Barbara pointed out. 'Still, it's definitely worth a try. And I'd rather try my luck with them than with that overgrown garden worm back there!'

Vicki held back, looking frightened. 'But we know nothing about the silver things,' she objected. 'Except that they killed all of us except for Bennett and me.'

'But you told us that Koquillion said that his his people were responsible,' Ian reminded her impatiently. 'Surely you aren't suggesting that the silver things have anything to do with Koquillion?' people were responsible,' Ian reminded her impatiently. 'Surely you aren't suggesting that the silver things have anything to do with Koquillion?'

Vicki buried her face in her hands, overcome by confusion and grief at the loss of her father and of the other personnel from Astra Nine Astra Nine.

Ian put his arm round her shoulders. 'Come on, Vicki,'

he murmured gently. 'You'll be quite safe with us.' He led the way up the spiral road, keeping his arm round Vicki to prevent her from running away a second time. He knew that they had no hope of catching up with the mysterious aliens, nor of shadowing them at close quarters, but there was just a chance that their appearance up on the terrace would give a clue as to the route back to the cavern and the TARDIS.

After an exhausting climb up the sloping highway they reached the level on which the figures had disappeared into the ruined entrance. But it took them quite some time to retrace their steps along the terrace to the point above the end of the ramp where the huge doors which had toppled out of their frames lay balanced precariously against one another like collapsed playing cards. The doors seemed much older than the rest of the structure as if an ancient temple or ceremonial entrance had been incorporated into the much more recent and highly developed architecture. Venturing gingerly inside, they found themselves in a large tunnel lined with ma.s.sive slabs of smooth jade-coloured stone which emitted a pale emerald light all around them.

'I hope this stuff isn't as radioactive as it looks!' Ian exclaimed, instinctively keeping to the centre of the long polished rectangular corridor.

'It reminds me of those greenish numbers on the dials of luminous clocks,' Barbara said, taking Vicki's hand in an attempt to rea.s.sure their nervous companion.

All the way along the corridor were doors leading off, but all of them were sealed tight shut, with no visible means of opening the smooth metal panels flush with the walls. Eventually they came to a large drum-shaped lobby with several tunnels branching off. All but one of them were blocked by heavy metal shutters.

Ian turned to the others. 'Well, we don't have much choice I'm afraid,' he said, setting off across the circular plaza and into the single open tunnel.

This pa.s.sageway was not so brightly illuminated as the long entrance corridor and it soon deteriorated into a crude dusty tunnel through the bare rock, with a treacherously uneven sand floor along which they stumbled more and more blindly. Here there did not seem to be any veins of fluorescent material to give a little light. The tunnel grew narrower and narrower and began twisting and turning madly. Then it would abruptly widen out into a small cavern before narrowing again into little more than a mere crevice.

Ian stopped. 'This doesn't seem to have been such a good idea after all,' he apologised in a disheartened voice. 'I think perhaps we should go back... and try again.'

Vicki clutched his sleeve in the darkness. 'There is some... some sort of light... There...!' she whispered.

Ian and Barbara looked all around them, straining to see.

'Where?' Ian whispered. 'Can you see anything, Barbara?'

'No.'

' There There!' Vicki's disembodied voice insisted. 'By your feet.'

Ian and Barbara looked down. A faint yellow light was flas.h.i.+ng on and off in a long thin line.

'It must be a crack!' Barbara exclaimed excitedly. 'And that looks like the TARDIS's beacon!' She knelt down and put her eye to the narrow fissure. 'It is is the TARDIS, I can see it!' the TARDIS, I can see it!'

With renewed enthusiasm, Ian and Barbara led the bewildered Vicki further along the crevice and the flas.h.i.+ng light grew stronger at every step. At last they reached a tortuous section of tunnel where it simply disintegrated into a mound of rubble and they found themselves staggering down the heap of boulders brought down by the explosion caused by Koquillion's sonic laser. A few seconds later they were standing on the cavern floor.

Speechless, Vicki stared incredulously at the scarred and dusty police box.

'I wish the Doctor and I had known there was an easier way out!' Ian muttered ruefully, nudging Barbara.

Barbara noticed a sort of large bundle dumped by the door of the police box and she ran forward with a cry of joyful recognition which immediately turned into a strangled whimper of concern. 'Ian quickly! Help me!' she gasped, kneeling by the bundle. 'Oh Ian, I think he's dead...'

14.

'... Am I... Are we in... Is this the TARDIS...?' The Doctor's voice seemed to be coming from a very long way off and he squinted up at the two hazy figures as if they were miles away.

'He's coming round at last!' Barbara cried joyfully, kneeling down beside the chair and wetting the Doctor's glistening brow with a handkerchief.

The Doctor blinked and shook his head from side to side to clear his vision. 'Barbara? Is it really you, my dear?

Where are we?' He tried to get up but collapsed back into the armchair, weak as a lamb.

'We're safely in the TARDIS,' Ian said, bending over him with a cheerful smile. 'I took the liberty of borrowing your key, Doctor.'

'But how did you... where did I...'

'We found you outside the TARDIS, Doctor,' Barbara explained gently. 'You'd had some kind of shock.'

The Doctor stared around at the familiar bright humming interior of the TARDIS. 'Yes, yes, of course... I remember now... They must have brought me back...'

Sitting suddenly upright, the doctor gazed earnestly into his companions' eyes, tugging at their arms in his excitement.

'But where are they? Did you see them?' he asked urgently.

' They They? Who are they they?' Ian asked, totally mystified. The Doctor shook his head as if trying to concentrate.

'Bennett... They got Bennett!' he muttered, still rather befuddled. 'They saved my life. Of course, Bennett was Koquillion, you realise that?'

Ian exchanged baffled glances with Barbara.

'Bennett was Koquillion?' Barbara echoed incredulously. Ian leaned closer to the Doctor, utterly bewildered 'What do you mean, Doctor?'

The Doctor suddenly pushed Ian away and hauled himself unsteadily to his feet.

Barbara pulled Ian aside. 'Later, Ian, later. He can't talk now. We must let him rest.'

The Doctor took a few faltering steps around the control room, rubbing his temples and frowning to himself. 'The girl... Vicki... where is she?' he demanded urgently, almost fiercely, of them. 'Did you bring her too?'

'She's outside, Doctor,' Barbara said quietly, trying to soothe him.

The Doctor nodded approvingly. 'Good, I'd like to talk to her. I think I'll get some air...' he said, taking Barbara's handkerchief and mopping his face.

As he moved towards the door, Ian stepped forward to take his arm. The Doctor s.n.a.t.c.hed his own arm away. 'It's all right, Chesterton, I can manage. I'm not an invalid yet!'

he snapped tetchily.

Ian retreated next to Barbara and they watched the Doctor open the door and go outside.

'Well, there's grat.i.tude for you,' he muttered in an aggrieved tone. 'We should have left the old sourpuss outside in the dust!'