Текст книги "Doctor Who and an Unearthly Child"

Автор книги: Terrance Dicks

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Escape into Danger

Ian Chesterton woke out of a nightmare-haunted sleep, to find that the nightmare was real. He was still in the cave of skulls.

Barbara was shaking him gently by the shoulder. 'Ian, wake up.

You've slept most of the day. The Doctor says it'll be dark again soon.'

Ian sat up and looked around. Susan and Barbara were sitting beside him, and the Doctor was adding branches to the fire.

'They've brought us some meat,' said Susan. 'I think it's supposed to be cooked.' She pointed to a leaf on which were a few chunks of charred and bloody meat.

'There's some water too,' said Barbara, 'in a kind of hollow stone. We saved you some.'

'All the comforts of home, eh?'

She passed Ian a kind of natural stone bowl, and he sipped the water thirstily. 'I don't think I'll bother with the meat.'

'I shouldn't,' said Barbara. 'It isn't very nice.' Ian looked at the Doctor, who sat gazing blankly into the fire. He looked tired and dispirited.

They heard movement from the back of the cave.

Za appeared from the gloom. He marched up to the fire and stood looking down at them. 'You have meat now.'

No one answered.

'The animal was strong and hard to kill, but I killed it. Now there is meat for all the Tribe. The meat is good.'

More silence.

'They have brought you fruit and water in a hollow stone.' Za looked down. 'Is this the stone?'

'He's trying to make conversation,' thought Barbara hysterically.

Za seemed puzzled, almost hurt by their lack of response. 'Has anyone hurt you?'

The Doctor raised his head. 'When are you going to let us go?'

'You will stay here,' said Za flatly. 'I have the thing that you made, but I do not know if it will make fire for me. It will be best if your tribe and my Tribe join together – forever.'

'No,' shouted Ian angrily. 'We want to leave here!'

'Why? The cave is warm and dry. We will bring you food and water and wood to feed the fire. There is no better place on the other side of the mountains.' Menacingly, Za raised his axe. 'Do not try to leave here – or you will die!'

He turned and strode from the cave.

Ian found a sharp stick, speared a piece of meat, looked at it in disgust and pitched it into the fire, where it sizzled angrily.

The Doctor said moodily. 'Fire! Fire is still the answer, somehow, I'm sure of it. They revere it! If only we could use it to frighten them in some way.' He kicked moodily at a skull at his feet.

It rolled into the fire, sat there, grinning at him.

'Look at that skull, grandfather,' said Susan fearfully. 'It looks almost alive.'

Inside the empty eye-sockets of the skull, little flames flickered like glaring eyes.

Ian looked at the skull, and then jumped to his feet. 'Not alive, Susan – dead! Get me some pieces of wood, will you? We're going to make some torches – we can use the fat from the meat. Doctor, see if you can find me four skulls, not too badly bashed up.'

'What happens then?' asked Susan.

'Then to all intents and purposes, we're going to be dead. Just like that skull!'

Ian pointed to the fast-blackening skull in the heart of the fire.

The Tribe was having a great feast that night, sitting round the huge fire that roared at the mouth of the main cave. They crowded around it, roasting chunks of bloody meat on the end of sticks, thrusting them into their mouths when they were no more than charred. Children munched and played in the circle of firelight. Their mothers looked on, with no fear that the beasts from the forest would snatch them away.

Za sat in the place of honour, flanked by Hur on one side, Horg on the other. He looked proudly around his Tribe. They were warm, well fed, and safe – and he was their chief.

Suddenly there came a terrible cry of fear and a Tribesman ran into the circle of firelight.

Za jumped to his feet in anger. 'You were told to guard the strangers. Why are you here?'

The man was almost sobbing with fear. 'I was waiting outside the tunnel when I heard the stranger tribe calling me. There was a great wailing and shouting, so I crept to the end of the passage to look... There has been great magic, Za. You must come and see.'

'Show me,' ordered Za. 'The men will come with me, the rest stay here.' He ran towards the cave of skulls, Horg and the warriors at his heels. Hur ran after them.

The trembling guard led the way to the side entrance and pointed. He would go no further. Za marched into the little tunnel, followed by Hur, Horg and his warriors.

As they came into the cave, a horrifying sight met their eyes.

The stranger tribe had vanished. In their place hovered four gleaming skulls, flames burning from their eyes, and belching out from their mouths.

Horg fell to his knees in terror. 'The strangers have died! Their ghosts have come to punish us.'

The rest of the Tribe fell to their knees, wailing in fear.

Even Za stood frozen with terror, staring fixedly at the skulls.

In the shadows at the back of the cave, Ian whispered, 'Right, let's slip out now. Hurry!'

One by one they edged round behind the terrified Tribesmen, and down the tunnel that led to freedom. No one saw them – all eyes were on the four skulls. Seconds later, they were outside in the cold night air. Nearby they could see frightened figures huddled round the great fire outside the main cave. Keeping well away from the firelight, they ran into the forest.

One of the skull-bearing torches was almost burned away.

Suddenly it collapsed beneath the weight of its burden and the charred skull rolled almost to Za's feet.

The others leaped back in fear, but Za shouted, 'Look! This is nothing but fire and the bones of the dead!'

He snatched up one of the torches, shaking free the skull, and held it high, looking around the cave. 'The stranger tribe have gone.

While we looked at their fire and cried with terror before dead bones, they have gone!'

'They have gone into the night,' said Hur. 'The dark will hide them.'

Za waved his torch in a flaming circle. 'With fire, night is day,'

he said grimly. 'Bring fire all of you. We shall hunt them down!'

He led the way outside the cave and selected a band of his best warriors. Armed with blazing torches, the hunters set off at a run.

Ian led his little party through the forest at top speed. This time no one had any difficulty in keeping up. Even the Doctor didn't demand that they stop and rest.

They fled blindly through the darkness, and Ian hoped desperately that they were still on the right path.

It was with a feeling of enormous relief that he led them at last into the clearing where Za had fought the tiger. 'Nearly there,' he gasped.

They heard fierce yells behind them, and turning round they saw the gleam of fiery torches through the trees.

'Quick,' yelled Ian. 'They're right behind us! Run!'

They forced their way out of the forest at a stumbling run, bursting through the screen of bushes, and out onto the sandy plain.

The going was easier now, and a few more minutes brought them to the TARDIS.

Ian collapsed against the door, and turned to the Doctor, who was bringing up the rear. 'Hurry, Doctor, let us in. They'll be here any minute!'

The Doctor staggered up, fumbled for the key with agonising slowness, got the door open at last, and tumbled inside.

Ian ushered Barbara and Susan through the door, and turned for a last look behind him. He saw Za and his warriors burst out of the forest and onto the plain. One of the warriors hurled a spear, which clattered against the TARDIS.

Ian dashed inside and the doors closed behind him. 'Come on, Doctor, get us out of here!'

The Doctor was already busy at the controls...

Za skidded to a halt in frustration, before the strange blue tree.

Za glared angrily at it. 'Smash it down,' he roared. He dashed at the strange object, axe raised high. The thing gave a strange wailing cry -

and disappeared. Everyone flung themselves to the ground in terror.

The thought came into Za's terrified mind that he had been wrong -

surely the strangers did come from Orb after all.

It was some time later. Rested and refreshed, Ian and Barbara and Susan watched the Doctor anxiously as he hovered over the controls, making a rapid series of adjustments.

The central column slowed its rise and fall, and the Doctor looked up. 'I think the co-ordinates are matching... yes, they're definitely matching.' He sounded rather surprised.

'Good,' said Susan. She smiled at the others. 'We'll be landing soon.'

'Where?' asked Ian suspiciously.

The Doctor sighed. 'How I wish I knew!'

'Aren't you taking us back?'

'Now, how can I do that? Do be reasonable.'

'But please,' said Barbara. 'You must take us back. You must!'

The Doctor tapped the central control console. 'The trouble is,'

he said confidentially. 'This thing isn't really working properly!

What's more, part of its code is still a secret.' He looked sternly at Ian. 'However, given the right data, precise information as to the time and place of the beginning of a journey, a destination can be fixed.

But when we left, I had no such data at my disposal.'

Barbara looked at him in horror. 'Do you mean to tell me you don't really know how all this works? And what's more, you don't even know where we've arrived?'

'Precisely,' said the Doctor, apparently in answer to both questions. He turned away in a huff, muttering, 'Really! Do they think I'm a miracle-worker?'

'You can't blame grandfather,' said Susan protectively. 'We left the other place too quickly, that's all. We never did find out exactly where and when we were!'

The central column was moving slower and slower now; finally, it came to a complete halt. 'We've arrived,' said the Doctor.

'Just a minute,' said Ian. 'You did try to get us back to our own time, didn't you, Doctor?'

'I got you away from that other time, young man.'

'That wasn't what I asked you.'

'It's the only way I can answer you.' The Doctor turned away and switched on the scanner.

The landscape it showed seemed bare and lifeless.

'Not much of an improvement,' said Ian.

'I agree,' said the Doctor briskly. 'Could be anywhere!'

'What do we do now?'

'There's only one thing we can do. Go outside the ship and try to obtain our precise temporal and spatial co-ordinates – that is, if you want me to get you home again.' The Doctor rubbed his hands.

'Radiation count, Susan?'

Susan tapped the dial. 'Seems to be zero, grandfather.'

'Good. Then we can go out and find out where we are.'

Ian looked at Barbara. She nodded.

'Lead the way, Doctor,' said Ian resignedly. The Doctor opened the doors and went outside. Susan followed.

Ian took Barbara's arm. 'Well – here we go again!'

They went outside, and the door closed behind them.

Unseen, the dial on the radiation counter flickered into life.

Like so much of the TARDIS's equipment, it tended to be erratic, and Susan's tap had started it working again. The needle swung slowly across the dial, until it entered the section marked 'Danger'.

Although the Doctor and his companions were not yet aware of it, they were heading into even greater danger. The planet on which they had landed was called Skaro and it had been devastated by years of warfare between two races, the Kaleds and the Thals.

Over the long years of warfare, the Kaleds had changed, mutated even, building themselves war machines in which to live and fight. They had changed their name as well as their appearance.

The Doctor was about to meet the creatures who were destined to become his greatest enemies.

Out there on Skaro, the Daleks were waiting for him.