Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters (7 page)

‘Anything is possible,’ said the Doctor. But his attention was now focused on the sand by a rock that came up from the cave floor. ‘Those marks in the sand there – that’s where my torch was rolled along by the monster.’

The Brigadier inspected the indentations in the sand. ‘You could have dropped your torch,’ he said.

Barker was glad to note that Sergeant Hawkins and the private were grinning. You can’t fool a British soldier, he told himself. No one believed the Doctor’s idiotic story.

‘I suggest,’ said the Doctor,’ that we continue in the direction that the monster ran away…’

The Doctor stopped short as they all heard the sound. It had a strange fluting quality, and seemed to come from a long way deep in the heart of the caves.

The Doctor whispered, ‘That’s the sound I heard. It’s some kind of signal. That’s one of the other creatures, calling to the monsters.’

But Barker didn’t stay to hear any more of the Doctor’s stupid talk about monsters and ‘other creatures’. Pulling the bolt of his rifle, he started to run up the cave. The Brigadier called to him, but Barker paid no heed. He could hear that strange sound growing louder as he got closer to it, and he was determined to track down its source. Within a moment he came to another fork, paused for a moment to listen, then hurried on up the passageway where he could hear the sound the loudest. This narrow, winding passage, perhaps once the bed of an ancient river, opened up into a huge cave, bigger than the inside of a cathedral. Barker stopped to catch his breath, and to listen. The sound was repeated, this time from within the cave where he was standing. Then he realised that he could see the far end of the cave, not from the light of his torch but from daylight filtering in from a distant opening to the outside world. Something down there was moving.

‘Whoever you are,’ he called, ‘stop, or I shall shoot to kill!’

The movement, whatever it was, continued. Barker raised his rifle to his shoulder, released the safety catch. He looked sideways at the faint area of light at the end of the cave, a trick he’d learnt from night-fighting. Little by little the unmistakable form of a man appeared at the far end of the cave. Barker held the form in his sights, but decided to give the fellow one final chance.

‘If you raise your hands in surrender,’ he called, ‘I shall take you prisoner, and you will get a just and fair trial in a British Court.’

The man-like form appeared to take no notice, and even seemed about to turn away back into the gloom.

‘All right then,’ Barker called, ‘you’ve asked for it.’

He squeezed the trigger. The explosion of the cartridge in the confined area of the cave was like a bomb going off. To his pleasure, Barker saw the man-like form reel and stagger. Then, suddenly, something huge reared up from the darkness by Barker. He felt a great claw strike his face. After that, he didn’t remember anything.

Dr Quinn heard about the armed party in the caves from Miss Dawson. He was in his cottage at the time, having taken home some of his research centre work. The moment he heard her voice on the telephone he knew it was bad news.

‘Matthew? This is Phyllis. I need to see you immediately.’

‘Where are you speaking from?’ he asked.

‘The research centre of course,’ she said. ‘Can you come back here straight away?’

He hadn’t thought to warn her that telephone calls in and out of the research centre were probably being tapped by Major Barker. He tried to indicate this now in a way that anyone listening-in would not understand. ‘My dear Phyllis,’ he said, ‘you know how I’d love to be with you at this moment. But the personal things you and I have to say to each other cannot be said in the research centre, with all those other people
listening
. Couldn’t we meet in ten minutes’ time in Wenley village?’

‘There isn’t time for that,’ she said desperately. ‘And if you’re thinking of Major Barker tapping this ’phone, he can’t. He’s in the caves with the Brigadier and some soldiers. They are all armed.’

‘I see,’ he said. Then he put on his false, woo-ing voice again.’ Well, well, they must be having a jolly time in there. I’ll have to get along now, I’ve got so many things to do. But I’ll speak to you again soon. ‘Bye.’

He put down the ’phone and thought for a moment. If only those wretched reptile men had kept their fighting animals under proper control, Davis would not have been killed. And if that hadn’t happened, no one would have interested themselves in the caves. The worst thing that could happen now was an armed confrontation between the UNIT people and the reptile men. With these thoughts in mind Quinn slipped out of his cottage by the back door, got into his car and drove as fast as he could to one of the cave’s minor entrances. On the way he passed the main entrance and saw the two UNIT Jeeps standing there, which confirmed what Miss Dawson had said. Within a couple of minutes he was well out of sight of the main entrance, and was parking his car near a very small entrance in a cliff face which he had found only recently.

He groped his way along a narrow passageway, found a mark on the cave wall that he had put there to remind himself, and proceeded down one after another narrow passage. Finally, he came to the big passageway that led to the main entrance. He was just going to step out into the big passageway when he heard voices and saw the light of torches coming towards him. He held back in the shadows, hoping they would not see him. The little group that went by him was led by the Doctor, who carried two UNIT rifles and the twisted remains of what had been Major Barker’s high-velocity rifle, and the Brigadier and two UNIT soldiers carrying the dead or unconscious body of Major Barker. As soon as the group had gone out of earshot, Quinn emerged into the main passageway and headed towards the reptile people’s shelter.

At the far end of the large cathedral-like cave, Quinn went up to a huge stone and stood perfectly still.

‘I am Dr Quinn,’ he said to the stone,’ your friend.’

Nothing happened.

‘This is Dr Quinn,’ he said, trying to hide the panic in his voice,’ you know me. I am your friend.’

To his relief the stone opened at a crack down its middle, revealing a metal door. As Quinn stepped forward, the hollow stone closed behind him and the metal door slid open. He stepped into a small metal box. In it were two metal stools, and another door that led into the main part of the shelter. Quinn had never been through that other door. He knew he was welcome this far, and this far only. He sat on one of the stools and waited. A few moments later the other door opened and Okdel entered and sat down.

‘Why have you come?’ Okdel asked. ‘It is not the time.’

‘I’ve come to warn you,’ said Quinn. ‘There have been men searching the caves, soldiers with weapons.’

‘Your warning is too late,’ said Okdel.

Quinn looked at the reptile face in front of him. It was impossible to tell whether Okdel was angry or forgiving. It was the first time he had really looked closely into Okdel’s scaly green face because the sight of it made him want to be sick.’ I was busy,’ he said. ‘I only heard about it a few minutes ago. You’ve brought this on yourselves, you know.’

‘We?’ Okdel sat up very straight, breathing in with an unnerving whining sound.

‘If only that human hadn’t been killed,’ said Quinn, ‘and if only you would stop taking power from the cyclotron …’

Okdel cut in sharply, ‘We need power!’

‘Yes, I know, I know,’ said Quinn. ‘And I want to help you to have it. But you have already caused too much trouble. There’s a full-scale investigation going on.’

‘We, too, are conducting an investigation,’ Okdel said. ‘You promised to supply us with detailed information about weapons and the humans’ ability to make war. Where is this information?’

‘It’s very complicated,’ said Quinn,’ an enormous study. There are so many different countries, and thousands of millions of people.’

‘Yes,’ said Okdel, the green lids of his eyes closing for a moment’s contemplation. ‘The little furry animals have increased and multiplied.’

Quinn seized Okdel’s momentary thoughtfulness to push forward his own claims for information. ‘There is a lot of information which you promised to me,’ he said. ‘Particularly about those little furry animals, my ancestors.’

‘You must meet our scientist, K’to,’ said Okdel, ‘but all in good time. Meantime, this is for you.’ Okdel produced a small flat object with various controls, and offered it to Quinn.

‘What is it?’

‘One of our calling devices,’ said Okdel. ‘This is how you make it give sounds.’ Okdel touched the controls in a pattern, and the flat object produced a fluting sound. ‘Your soldiers wounded one of our people, and he had to flee to the surface. You must find him and bring him back to us.’

‘That may be impossible!’ said Quinn.

‘When you have brought him back to us,’ said Okdel, ‘I may allow you to put your questions to our scientist.’ The muscles of Okdel’s face twitched three times, which Quinn had come to recognise as a reptile man’s way of smiling – except that this time Quinn knew it was a false smile, and that behind it was a threat. ‘What is it you really want, Quinn?’

Quinn said, ‘Knowledge. To be a respected scientist.’

‘We can make you much more important than that,’ said Okdel.’ We may not require the return of
all
of our planet. There may be regions where humans will be allowed to continue to exist. To lead them, we need a man whom we can trust. You.’ Without a further word, Okdel rose and went away through the inner door.

Quinn looked at the flat object in his hand. Possession of this alone made him the most important man in the world. But what Okdel had just promised sounded even more pleasing. With a little more hope in his heart he rose and went back into the caves.

Morka had been in the great cave to call back one of their fighting animals when he was shot. By using his third eye, which could see in almost complete darkness, he had clearly observed the strange creature at the far end of the cave. The creature looked to him exactly like the creature that visited old Okdel from time to time. It stood upright like himself, but it only had two eyes and on top of its head was a mop of fur. Its face was pink, almost red. It raised a kind of stick to its shoulder, looked along it, and then shouted something. Then the stick seemed to explode, and Morka felt a terrible pain in his leg. The fighting animal that Morka had come to call into the shelter attacked the creature, and probably killed it – the fighting animals were trained to kill. But Morka wasn’t very clear in his mind about that. The pain from his leg affected his brain. All he knew was that he must get out of the cave and that he must once again see the sun from which he, and his people, had been hidden for so long. He saw a patch of daylight somewhere above and pulled himself up rocks to get to it. After that he could not remember any more until he woke up.

He was lying in tall grass. As he opened his eyes he found himself looking directly at the sun, yet it did not blind him which seemed very strange. He remembered the sun as a fierce burning ball in the sky. Now it seemed weak, as though something in the atmosphere was filtering and reducing the power of the sun’s rays. He heard a droning sound, and looked towards the source of the sound in another part of the sky. It was an aeroplane. So, these primitive furry animals had discovered how to fly, just as the reptile people once flew in their machines long ago.

Morka slowly got to his feet to get a better view of the alien world around him. Open moorland stretched out on all sides. He had no idea how to find his way back into the cave, and once the weak sun had gone down he would need shelter. It was only with this thought that he realised how incredibly cold he was. Was this the depths of winter, or had the Earth’s climate somehow changed? He didn’t know. About a mile away he could see some boxes huddled together with smoke coming from a pipe in the top of one of them. Obviously it was a primitive dwelling place, and the smoke came from a fire which the creatures used to keep themselves warm. Morka’s ancestors had used fire to keep warm before they discovered electricity. He looked down at his leg. The wound had started to heal now, and trying not to put his weight too much on the injured leg, he started to walk towards the huddles of boxes with the plume of warmth-giving smoke.

He arrived at the farmstead half-an-hour later. Making the journey had been more difficult than he expected. Not only was the sun weaker than he remembered it, but also the air had gone thin. He wondered if, with the geological changes that must have taken place, the reptiles’ shelter was now just under a very high plateau, perhaps thousands of feet above sea-level.

A four-legged animal with vicious white teeth came out to meet him. It looked to Morka disgustingly unclean with its long shaggy fur, probably full of little insects. The animal stood growling, baring its teeth. Morka concentrated on it with his third eye. The animal yelped as though hit by a bolt of electricity and slunk away under a farm cart, whimpering. Morka went on into the farmyard. The plume of smoke was coming from the biggest of the boxes, probably where the creatures lived. There was a window and he looked in. Two of the creatures were sitting at a table putting food into their mouths: he was sure one was female and the other male. The fire was in a hole in the wall, and over it hung a stick just like the stick the creature had pointed at Morka in the cave. A stick that exploded and caused pain.