Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters (19 page)

Liz fell into the Brigadier’s arms, her body quivering. ‘They’ve got him. Took him prisoner. He may be dead. Through that wall!’

Dr Meredith had also heard the screams and came running along the corridor. The Brigadier pushed Liz towards him. ‘She’s got hysterics,’ he said. Dr Meredith took Liz in his arms. The Brigadier crossed to the wall, felt it with the palm of his hand. ‘It’s still warm,’ he said. He turned to Liz. ‘Well, we’ve still got to give London that formula.’

‘But the Doctor,’ she cried, ‘they’ve taken him prisoner!’

‘Miss Shaw,’ said the Brigadier, ‘we are concerned about saving the lives of millions of people.’ He looked at the work top; it was littered with pieces of paper on which the Doctor had noted down the many formulae he had tried. ‘Which of these is the right formula?’

Liz crossed to the work top, looked at the Doctor’s notes. ‘I don’t know,’she said.

The Brigadier turned to Dr Meredith. ‘Have you any idea which is the right one?’

Dr Meredith shook his head. ‘I wasn’t in here all the time while the Doctor was working.’

‘Well, we can’t just stand here doing nothing,’ the Brigadier said, and Liz noted a touch of hysteria in his voice now. ‘One of these bits of paper may save the entire human race!’

Liz looked again at the Doctor’s scribble now. She tried very hard to remember which was the last one he had made. ‘It might be this one,’ she said, choosing the one she thought she had seen him write last.

‘All right,’ said the Brigadier. ‘Then let’s ’phone it through to London.’

‘Just one moment,’ said Dr Meredith. ‘What if Miss Shaw has made a mistake?’

‘In that eventuality,’ said the Brigadier, ‘we shall all be dead fairly soon. Satisfied?’ He took Liz’s arm and marched her down the corridor back to the conference room and the telephone.

The Doctor came to in one of the prisoner cages. K’to and Morka looked through the bars at him. ‘How many humans have died in the epidemic?’ K’to asked.

‘Only a few,’ said the Doctor. ‘The majority will survive.’

‘Speak the truth,’ said Morka, and his third eye glowed red for a fraction of a second. The Doctor felt sudden pain through his arms and legs while the third eye glowed. ‘What you say is impossible!’

K’to was more reasonable. ‘You have discovered a cure?’

‘Yes,’ said the Doctor. ‘Soon all the humans will be immune to your virus. Your plan has failed, just as your leader wanted it to fail.’

‘That old leader is dead,’ said Morka. ‘I am now the leader.’

Another reptile man came up to Morka. ‘The plan is now in operation. A large battle rages in the caves.’ Morka acknowledged the report, and the reptile man went away.

‘It’s useless having battles in the caves,’ said the Doctor. ‘You should be making peace, not war. Even if you defeat the soldiers now in the caves, they will send more and more against you. You are totally outnumbered.’

‘The battle is part of our plan,’ said Morka. ‘It doesn’t matter if we lose this battle in the caves. While you slept in your cage,
our
soldiers attacked yours. All soldiers will be withdrawn from your research centre and put into the caves to fight us.’

‘While you go back into the research centre,’ asked the Doctor, ‘through that tunnel you made?’

‘Of course.’ Morka turned to K’to. ‘Is the destructor ready?’

‘We need only the power,’ said K’to. ‘The electricity created by the humans.’

‘Then you are going to be unlucky,’ the Doctor said, ‘because the nuclear generator has been shut down, thanks to you.’

‘You will reactivate it for us,’ said Morka. ‘Either that or die.’

‘The alternative doesn’t sound very attractive,’ said the Doctor. ‘What does this destructor do?’

‘I destructor,’ said Morka, ‘is something with which you destruct something else.’ The scales of his cheeks quivered, which the Doctor took for laughter.

‘Don’t imagine you can destroy the human race with some gadget,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s too great a task even for your science!’

‘We shall not try again to destroy the humans,’ said K’to. ‘Instead we shall change the world as they know it.’ He turned to Morka. ‘We should leave now.’

Morka looked at the lock on the cage door; his third eye glowed, and the lock clicked open. ‘Come out of your cage,’ he said. ‘If you displease us, you will die instantly.’

The Doctor came out from the cage. ‘You keep harping on my imminent death,’ he said. ‘Can’t we talk about something else?’

‘He jokes,’ said K’to. ‘The little furry animals were always chattering and joking amongst themselves. You see, they have not really changed.’

‘Follow me,’ said Morka, and walked towards a section of wall which had let into it a perfectly smooth-walled passage. At the opening to the passage, Morka stopped. ‘You will go first.’ He gave a signal, and a number of other reptile men came forward. ‘We shall all follow you.’

The Doctor walked down the narrow passage. ‘Is there an opening at the other end?’ he asked.

‘There will be,’ said Morka, right behind the Doctor. ‘Continue.’

The Doctor continued until the passageway came to an abrupt stop. He felt Morka come up close behind him. Morka was directing his third eye over the Doctor’s shoulder. In a moment the wall of rock in front of the Doctor vanished and he found himself looking into the laboratory in the research centre. ‘Walk forward slowly,’ said Morka. ‘The other humans must see you first.’

The Doctor slowly crossed the floor of the laboratory. He took a quick glance at his notes on the work top. The correct formula was missing, so someone had had the sense to know which it was. ‘Where to?’ he asked without looking back.

‘Continue until we find humans,’ Morka said.

The Doctor paused. ‘If you kill anyone I shall not help you.’

‘Forward,’ said Morka. ‘We may allow those down here to live a little longer when all those on the surface are dead. It depends if they are useful.’

‘Practical thinking,’ said the Doctor. He stepped out into the corridor. Further down the corridor the Brigadier and Liz were standing at the lift door. The Brigadier was pressing the lift button. As though by instinct the Brigadier turned round.

‘Doctor!’ he exclaimed. ‘We thought you’d been taken prisoner. Your antidote’s working fine, but now all hell’s let loose in the caves. Reptiles everywhere. I’ve sent all my men into the caves, and now the ’phone’s dead and the lift won’t work…’ The Brigadier’s voice trailed off as he saw Morka and other reptile men come up behind the Doctor.

‘Don’t make any hasty moves, Brigadier,’ the Doctor said. ‘We are all prisoners now. I’m sorry.’

‘Guard those apes,’ said Morka, and two reptile men hurried up to the Brigadier and Liz. He turned to the Doctor. ‘Take us to the source of your power.’

The Doctor walked slowly towards the cyclotron room. The Brigadier and Liz were pushed alongside the Doctor. The three were kept bunched together, so that all could be killed instantly if they made a wrong move. As the trio entered the cyclotron room Dr Lawrence and the technicians looked up first in surprise then in horror as the reptile men crowded in.

‘The nuclear generator must be reactivated,’ said the Doctor to Dr Lawrence. ‘They need your power.’

Dr Lawrence’s face was crimson with anger, the first time the Doctor had seen him show any real emotion. ‘No! You creatures have tried to ruin the work of this research centre. You have probably ruined my career…’ His protest was cut short as Morka’s third eye glowed a vicious scarlet. Dr Lawrence fell dead to the floor.

‘All apes look at the body,’ said Morka. ‘It is an example of what will happen to you if you are not obedient to your masters.’ He looked slowly round the group of technicians, satisfied that they were all sufficiently terrified.

The Doctor heard a trundling sound, looked behind himself and saw reptile men dragging in a tubular object on four tiny wheels. ‘The destructor?’ he asked.

K’to answered. ‘You will now connect the destructor to your nuclear generator.’

‘I must know the purpose of this machine,’the Doctor said. ‘Otherwise I cannot properly help you.’

K’to looked to Morka, as though asking if he may explain the purpose of the destructor to the Doctor. Morka made no sign that the Doctor could understand; his reply to K’to must have been by some kind of telepathy – thought-waves between the two reptile men. K’to turned back to the Doctor. ‘Since we entered our shelter,’ he explained, ‘and went into total sleep, the temperature of this planet,
our
planet, has changed. We have detected some invisible barrier between the rays of the sun and the surface of Earth. Microwaves from the destructor will disperse this barrier, removing it for ever.’

‘The van Allen belt is indestructible,’ said the Doctor, hopefully. He could not be sure this was true.

The Brigadier asked: ‘Do you mind telling me what you two are talking about?’

‘The van Allen belt,’ said the Doctor, ‘is named after the scientist who discovered its existence. It envelops the Earth, and protects us from the sun’s most harmful rays. Without it people would die of sunburn on a cloudy day.’

‘Your people will die,’ said Morka. ‘We reptiles survive best in heat. All of you apes here, under the ground, will live as long as we find you useful. All mammals on the surface will die.’

‘Now look here, Doctor,’ said the Brigadier, ‘you mustn’t do anything to help these…’ He almost said ‘creatures’, but thought better of it. ‘These people,’ he said.

‘We have no alternative,’ said the Doctor. He turned to Liz. ‘Miss Shaw, I’m going to need your assistance.’Then he looked to the waiting technicians. ‘Miss Shaw and I can manage to stoke up the nuclear generator between us. I suggest you all go to your usual controls and keep well back from the generator.’ The Doctor crossed to the nuclear generator control console, followed by Liz. ‘I take it you can understand these controls,’ he said to her, ‘they’re quite simple. I want you to feed in the uranium rods one at a time as I tell you.’

The Brigadier broke away from the reptile man who was guarding him. ‘Doctor, do you know what you’re doing? I understand this apparatus is all highly dangerous!’

‘Even a tin-opener,’ said the Doctor, ‘can be dangerous if not properly used. All this apparatus does is to make heat, great heat, when the uranium rods are lowered into place. If you’re worried, you can watch them being lowered in through this panel.’The Doctor indicated the panel of thick plate glass; beyond, one could see the uranium rods suspended over the holes into which they were to be dropped. ‘The heat makes steam for the turbine, and the turbine makes the electricity that our friends need for their destructor. It’s all very elementary.’

Morka stepped in between the Doctor and the Brigadier. ‘If this creature bothers you,’ he said, indicating the Brigadier, ‘I can kill him for you.’

‘That’s very kind of you,’ the Doctor said, ‘but that won’t be necessary. He is quite a useful ape sometimes. Liz, are you ready?’

Liz nodded.

K’to said, ‘You must first connect our destructor to your power supply.’

‘I thought you would use induction,’ said the Doctor. ‘That is how you stole electricity before.’

‘He jokes,’ said Morka. ‘Explain.’

‘With induction,’ said K’to, taking the Doctor quite seriously, ‘we lost a great deal of your power. Induction is not as efficient as direct contact.’

The Doctor looked round the technicians. ‘Can one of you connect this thing to the main power supply, please?’ None of the technicians moved, either through fear or not wishing to help the reptile invaders. ‘Come along now,’ said the Doctor, ‘just one volunteer, please.’

Miss Travis, the young technician who had brought in coffee for Mr Masters that the Doctor had drunk, stepped forward. ‘Perhaps I can do it.’

K’to immediately stepped up to Miss Travis with the end of the cable that led from the destructor. ‘You make connection,’ he said.

Miss Travis looked at the cable. ‘I’ll need a knife,’ she said. No one responded.

‘Surely someone has a knife,’the Doctor said. ‘We can’t stop the greatest scientific experiment in Earth’s history through not having a knife between us!’

Still no one responded.

Liz said, ‘I believe the Brigadier has a penknife.’

‘If that’s the case,’ said the Doctor, ‘kindly produce it immediately.’

Slowly, without a word, the Brigadier drew from his pocket a boy’s penknife and handed it to Miss Travis. ‘Thank you,’ she said, and set to work cutting away the coating of the destructor’s cable to the bare wires inside.

The Doctor turned to Liz. ‘Lower in number one rod now, please.’

Liz moved one of the reactor controls. The Brigadier squinted through the smoked panel of glass and saw one of the hanging uranium rods slowly sink down into the hole beneath it. Instantly there was a hum of power in the room, and the fingers of a dozen control dials quivered. The Doctor, however, seemed to be occupied with the mass of wires and fuses immediately under the reactor controls.

‘Number one rod in position,’ Liz reported.

‘Excellent,’ said the Doctor, not looking up, ‘now lower in number two.’

Liz moved another control. The second uranium rod slowly sank into the hole beneath it. The fingers of the dials quivered again, registering greater power output. K’to looked down at the Doctor curiously.

‘What are you doing?’ asked K’to.

The Doctor briefly looked up from his work on the wires under the control panel. ‘This plant clearly has to produce more power than it has ever done before. I’m trying to make sure that that is possible.’

K’to didn’t seem satisfied. ‘Power is not increased by interference with the circuits of the controls,’ he said.

‘I am trying to adapt the controls,’ said the Doctor. ‘Look, do you really want to stop this whole delicate operation for me to explain in detail how I am trying to help you?’

Morka stepped in between K’to and the Doctor. ‘The ape is showing obedience.’ He looked down at the Doctor. ‘More power, immediately!’

‘Certainly,’ said the Doctor. ‘Liz, lower in number three rod now.’

Liz moved the third control in the row on the console. The hum of power was now ear-splitting and the control dials were nearing the word
‘DANGER’
. One of the technicians stood up to protest. ‘You’re making more power than an atomic bomb, Doctor! You’ll kill us all…’