Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters (11 page)

‘I’m going to help you,’ Dr Quinn said. ‘I was going to bring you food and water, and take you back to your people…’ Dr Quinn’s words ended in a strangled scream as the reptile man turned to face him. The third eye glowed a more brilliant red for a few seconds, and Dr Quinn crumpled to the floor and was silent.

‘Please,’ said Miss Dawson, ‘please don’t kill me. I mean you no harm. I want to live. Don’t kill me, please.’

The glow of the third eye subsided.

‘You are intruders on our planet,’ said the reptile man. ‘You will all die eventually.’ He walked slowly across the hall, one arm raised. Miss Dawson nerved herself for the blow. The palm of the reptile hand hit her across the side of her face, and she fell unconscious on top of Dr Quinn.

The Doctor, the Brigadier, and Liz sat on hard-backed chairs in front of Dr Lawrence’s desk. Dr Lawrence was a very angry man. ‘I just don’t understand what you think you’re doing,’ he said, directing his remark to the Brigadier. ‘You came down here to deal with the problems which I set out in my paper to the Minister. All you’ve done is chase about in the caves, and mount some sort of man-hunt in the surrounding countryside. On top of all that, you have allowed that fool, Major Barker, to escape from the sick-bay and knock out one of your own guards.’

The Brigadier said, ‘I agree that we haven’t got very far with our investigation, Dr Lawrence…’

Dr Lawrence cut in without listening to the rest of what the Brigadier might have said. ‘“Haven’t got very far”? That is the understatement of the century! We are still suffering from these power losses. You have come up with no explanation about that!’

The Doctor said, ‘I believe the power is being drained off by some means we don’t understand yet.’

Dr Lawrence turned and looked at the Doctor. ‘My dear sir, even I could have told you that!’

‘The problem,’ said the Brigadier, ‘seems to lie in the caves.’

‘If only the research centre had been built somewhere else,’ said Liz, not very helpfully. ‘You see, that’s the trouble.’

Dr Lawrence tried to hold back his anger. ‘Miss Shaw, this research centre has cost the government twenty million pounds to construct. Of one thing you may be certain – we are not going to move to another site!’

The Doctor quickly tried to cover for Liz. ‘I’m sure my companion didn’t mean to suggest that, Dr Lawrence. But the construction of this centre in the same hill as these particular caves does seem rather unfortunate…’ The Doctor stopped as Dr Meredith came rushing into the office.

Dr Meredith started to speak. ‘Dr Lawrence…’ But Dr Lawrence waved him to silence and looked at his wristwatch.

‘You are exactly eighteen minutes late,’ said Dr Lawrence. ‘I called this meeting for three o’clock.’

‘I was looking for Major Barker,’ said Dr Meredith, clearly flushed with some news he wanted to impart. ‘I thought he might have gone to Dr Quinn’s cottage, so I just called there.’ He paused to catch his breath. ‘Dr Quinn’s dead, and Miss Dawson is behaving just like Spencer, cringing in a corner of the hallway, unable to talk.’ Dr Meredith slumped into the one remaining hard-backed chair. ‘There’s something else,’ he went on. ‘The door from Dr Quinn’s store-room to the hall has been burnt down.’

For a moment no one said anything. Liz looked to the Doctor, but the Doctor pretended not to notice her look. It was the Brigadier who broke the silence. ‘I shall send a request for more troops,’ he said calmly, ‘many more troops, so that we can enter those caves and find out exactly what’s going on.’

‘I’d much rather if you didn’t do that,’ said the Doctor. ‘A full-scale military action could be absolutely disastrous.’

‘I believe you are UNIT’s scientific adviser,’ said Dr Lawrence, ‘and not a military man. I completely endorse the Brigadier’s plan. If, as Major Barker claimed, there are saboteurs in those caves, enemies of this country, they must be routed.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ said the Brigadier, rising. He turned to the Doctor. ‘I’m sorry, Doctor. It’s the only way.’ Without waiting for a reply, the Brigadier hurried out.

Dr Lawrence also rose. ‘The meeting is closed. And now I must get on with trying to run this research centre.’ He hurried out after the Brigadier.

The Doctor turned to Dr Meredith. ‘Do you know how Dr Quinn was killed?’

Dr Meredith shook his head. ‘So far as I could see, there wasn’t a mark on his body. His heart had just stopped beating. But I’m going back there to make a full report.’

Liz asked, ‘What’s happened to Miss Dawson?’

‘I called the ambulance,’ said Dr Meredith. ‘She’s been taken to the local cottage hospital.’ He paused a moment, as though not entirely believing what he was about to say. ‘You remember how Spencer drew pictures on the wall? She was doing the same. She was cringing in a corner, sticking her finger into the black ash of what had been the store-room door, and drawing pictures on the wall. The same pictures of animals and men.’ He drew a deep breath, then slowly got to his feet. ‘Well, since the meeting’s over, I’d better get back to the cottage,’ he said and went to the door. ‘Tell me, Doctor, have you any idea why these people draw pictures on the wall?’

‘I think it’s got something to do with race-memory,’ said the Doctor. ‘There was a time when Man was very weak and always at the mercy of the same terrible enemy, just as mice are always afraid of cats.’

Dr Meredith looked rather uncertain about that idea. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘it’s something I’ve never met with in the medical textbooks before. Any idea how I should cope?’

‘Tender, loving care,’ said the Doctor. ‘I believe that’s the correct nursing term.’

Dr Meredith smiled. ‘Yes, indeed,’ he said. ‘When in doubt, TLC.’ He left the office.

‘Well,’ said Liz, ‘that seems to settle that.’

‘That,’ said the Doctor, ‘seems to settle what?’

‘The Brigadier is going to call in lots more troops,’ said Liz. ‘He’ll invade the caves and find out what’s really there. Then we can all go home.’

‘You can go where you like,’ said the Doctor, ‘but I’m going to go into those caves before we have a major war on our hands.’

‘What do you hope to do there?’

‘Make peaceful contact with whatever is in there,’ the Doctor said, and rose to go.

Liz also got up. ‘All right. Then we go together.’

‘Oh no,’ said the Doctor. ‘I think this is something I have to do on my own, thank you.’

‘Doctor,’ said Liz, stopping him in his tracks with the tone of her voice, ‘if the Brigadier knew you were going into those caves he’d stop you.’

‘No one’s going to tell him,’ said the Doctor.

‘I am,’ said Liz, ‘unless I’m going with you.’

‘You realise this is blackmail,’ he said.

‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘We started this together, so let’s finish it together.’

The Doctor shook his head in despair. ‘Since I have no alternative,’ he said, and then smiled, ‘let’s go and find some monsters.’

*

The Doctor and Liz went along the main passageway of the caves leading from the entrance. The Doctor paused, pulled from his pocket papers he had taken from Dr Quinn’s office. He opened up a folded paper to reveal a crudely drawn map. Liz shone her torch on it. The Doctor pointed his finger to an X which Dr Quinn had marked on the map. ‘That, presumably, is where we’ve got to make for,’ he said.

‘All right,’ said Liz, ‘let’s go.’ She shone her torch back to the route ahead of them, then noticed something on the cave floor glint in the light of the torch. The Doctor also noticed it, went and picked it up and inspected it.

‘A cartridge from an FN .303 rifle,’ said the Doctor. He held it close to his nose and sniffed. ‘Recently fired.’

Liz shone her torch around on the floor. ‘Look, there’s another one, and another! The FN .303 is what UNIT uses.’

‘Yes, I know,’ said the Doctor. ‘But they haven’t been down here for some time. I wonder if it could have been our elusive Major Barker?…’

‘Well, anyway,’ said Liz, ‘let’s find the point marked X on the map.’ She took a step forward, but the Doctor suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

‘That sand there,’ he said, pointing, ‘it’s a little too smooth.’ He looked around, found a small rock and threw it at the sand. The trellis-like man-trap sprung up from the smoothed sand, crushing the piece of rock. ‘He came down here,’ said the Doctor, ‘got himself trapped in that thing and tried to shoot it out.’

Liz looked in horror at the man-trap. ‘You think we can make peaceful contact with these monsters, Doctor?’

‘I think we have got to,’ he said. ‘Now come on.’

They skirted round the man-trap and continued deeper in the cave. For the next thirty minutes they carefully followed the route sketched on Dr Quinn’s map. It brought them into the huge cathedral-like cave where a little daylight came in from a distant opening to the outside world.

Liz said, ‘What do you hope to find? I mean, what does the X mean on the map?’

But the Doctor pulled Liz sharply into a recess in the cave wall and signalled her to be silent. As they watched a reptile man appeared from one of the passages leading into the great cave. He went up to a huge rock and stood facing it. After a second or two his third eye glowed a brilliant red. The rock opened like a door and the reptile man went inside. The rock closed behind him. The Doctor could feel Liz quaking beside him.

‘It was an upright lizard,’ she said, ‘a reptile!’

‘It was also a man,’ said the Doctor. ‘An intelligent being.’

‘But the reptiles were all stupid,’ she said, as though she was desperately trying to believe it. ‘Brains the size of kittens.’

‘We only know about the reptiles whose fossils we have found,’ said the Doctor. ‘But what if for some reason the more intelligent reptiles hid themselves away in shelters under the Earth’s crust?’ As the Doctor talked he crossed over to the huge rock and inspected it. ‘You see, there isn’t even a crack to show how it opened.’

‘Do we
want
to open it?’ Liz asked.

‘Of course we do,’ said the Doctor. ‘We must get inside there somehow.’ He stood very still for a moment. ‘Do you notice a slight breeze down here?’

‘There’s that opening up near the roof,’ said Liz. ‘Maybe it’s windy outside now.’

The Doctor shook his head. ‘It’s a steady breeze, and it’s moving in this direction.’The Doctor hurried off, Liz following. ‘There you are,’ he said, pleased with himself, ‘an air-vent.’

Set in the wall of the cave was a circular tunnel about three feet high. The Doctor could feel air being sucked into it. He put his hand into the tunnel and felt the wall of the tunnel. It was perfectly smooth. ‘I think this has just been made. What’s more, it hasn’t been drilled – it’s been melted.’

‘They’ve melted through this thickness of rock?’ said Liz, hardly believing it possible.

‘They certainly didn’t cut their way through with a hammer and chisel,’ said the Doctor. ‘Now let’s see where it takes us. Hold on to my coat tails.’

The Doctor got on to all fours and started to climb into the tunnel. Liz scrambled along behind him. As they continued along the tunnel they could hear the humming of some electronic apparatus. The tunnel had a wide-angled bend in it, and as they passed the bend they could see a ring of light at the end of the tunnel.

‘I’d rather have gone in by invitation,’ said the Doctor, ‘but at least this is a good second best.’

‘Don’t you think they’ll be waiting for us at the other end?’ called Liz.

‘If they are,’ said the Doctor, ‘let me do the talking.’

Finally they reached the end of the tunnel. They emerged from it in a dark corner of the reptile men’s giant shelter. The Doctor stood up and looked at the scene before him. They were in a huge, almost square cavern. All the walls and ceiling were made of sheet metal bolted together, like the hull of a ship. At one end was a huge pit with prison-like bars across its top, but the Doctor could not see what was kept in the pit. Elsewhere there were work-benches and tables. At one of these two reptile men were busy dismantling and inspecting an FN .303 rifle, clearly trying to understand how it worked. In a corner another two reptile men stood by a third which was lying on its back on a metal slab. Electrodes were attached to its head and feet. One of the reptile men in attendance pulled a big electrical switch set in the wall. The Doctor watched fascinated as the reptile man on the slab started to twitch.

‘That’s horrible,’ said Liz, ‘they’re electrocuting it.’

‘No,’ the Doctor whispered, ‘they are reviving it. Now watch.’

The reptile man on the slab continued to twitch for a full minute. Then the switch was turned off, and the electrodes were removed. The reptile man lay still for a moment, then slowly got up from the slab.

‘
That’s
what’s happening to Dr Lawrence’s current,’ said the Doctor. ‘I bet you they’ll tell us they’ve just had another power loss when we get back.’

‘
If
we get back,’ Liz said.

But the Doctor’s attention was already elsewhere, and he was quietly creeping away from the opening to the ventilation tunnel. Liz followed him. He was moving to a set of cages quite near to them. Major Barker was in the first cage, gripping the bars. A reptile man came up to the cage carrying a metal jug of water and a metal plate on which were a few dried pieces of some edible green leaf. The reptile man opened a little hatch in the cage and tried to hand in the jug and the plate.