DOCTOR WHO AND THE CAVE-MONSTERS Read online

  'Or the way salmon always return to where they were born in order to breed,' said the Doctor.

  The Brigadier was fast losing his patience. 'Doctor, Miss Shaw, this is all very interesting...'

  'But you want to know about the power losses?' said the Doctor.

  'Thank you,' said the Brigadier. 'Now let's get back to the point.'

  'We must first decide,' said the Doctor, 'what the point is, and I believe it is connected with our inherited memory of something from long, long ago. There is something close to this research centre which is touching on the depths of Spencer's memory—not his own conscious memory, you understand, but instead the inner parts of his mind which come from man's ancestors of thousands, perhaps millions, of years ago.'

  At last the Brigadier had a glimmer of what the Doctor was talking about. 'Something in those caves?' he asked.

  The Doctor nodded. 'What is the physical relationship between this research centre and the caves?'

  The Brigadier got up, pointed to one of the maps on the wall. 'As you see, the hills rise sharply in this ridge. Inside, the hills are honeycombed with caves, some of them explored, some probably never visited. The research centre is five hundred feet below the top of the hill ridge. For some reason that you probably understand better than I do, the authorities preferred to build the cyclotron very deep in the ground.'

  'It's more probably the nuclear reactor they were worried about,' said Liz. 'Just in case it turns into an atomic bomb. Everyone down here would be killed, but it wouldn't do much damage to anyone else.'

  The Brigadier hadn't thought of that before. He didn't find it a pleasing thought. 'I'm sure you're right, Miss Shaw,' he said, covering his feelings.

  The Doctor was carefully studying the map. 'This means that certain parts of the research centre may be only a few feet away from open cave space?'

  'I suppose so,' said the Brigadier.

  'Or from anything else,' said the Doctor quietly, 'that might be down here...'

  The Brigadier was about to ask the Doctor what he meant when the door of the office flew open and Major Barker entered. 'Brigadier,' he said in his loud voice, 'I must talk to you immediately.'

  'Please go ahead,' said the Brigadier, 'although I wouldn't mind if in future you knocked on the door before entering.'

  'No time for that,' said Barker. He looked at the Doctor and Miss Shaw, then back to the Brigadier. 'It's private.'

  The Brigadier was annoyed with Barker but tried not to show it. 'There's nothing that my two companions can't know,' he said.

  'It is about your two companions,' said Barker. 'At least, about one of them.' As he spoke he looked at the Doctor, making it quite clear which one he had in mind.

  'Have I left my handbrake off in the car park?' asked the Doctor.

  'This is no time for jokes,' said Barker, his face turning more red than usual. He turned back to the Brigadier. 'I demand to speak to you privately.'

  The Brigadier had had enough of Major Barker. He decided the only way to deal with the man was to be rude in return. 'I demand,' he said, 'that you say what you have to say, and then clear out!'

  Major Barker stood there, hardly believing what the Brigadier had just said. For a moment the Brigadier thought the man was going to break into tears. 'All right,' he said at last, 'I shall tell you. This man you call the Doctor is some kind of spy!'

  For a moment nobody said anything, not because they were angry but because they were trying to stop themselves from laughing. The Brigadier was the first to be able to speak. 'Have you proof of that?' he asked, in a matter of fact way.

  'As soon as your Doctor arrived here,' said Barker, 'I ran a security check on him. He isn't on the files anywhere. Neither the Home Office, the Ministry of Defence, nor even the police have ever heard of him.'

  'Because,' said the Brigadier, 'he belongs to UNIT. He's on my files.'

  Major Barker's moment of glory was over. He had made himself a fool. 'I see,' he said, 'but as security officer of this government establishment, I think I have a right to see this man's credentials.'

  'You are absolutely right,' said the Doctor, 'and if I had any I would show them to you. But since we are together again, I wonder if you'd tell me about the "planned, deliberate programme of sabotage" that you mentioned before?'

  'It's as plain as a pikestaff there's sabotage going on,' said Barker, taking the Doctor's bait without realising it. 'Anyone can see that.'

  'I may agree with you,' the Doctor said. 'But sabotage by whom?'

  'Communists, of course.' Major Barker gave his answer as though it should have been obvious to everyone.

  'Why should communists cause these power losses?' said the Doctor.

  They hate England, that's why.' Barker started to warm to his subject. 'They train people to come here to destroy us.'

  'I see,' said the Doctor. 'Are these Chinese communists or Russian communists?'

  'There's no difference between them,' said Barker. 'And if it isn't them, it's the fascists. Or the Americans.'

  'The Americans?' said Liz, almost but not quite laughing.

  Major Barker turned to Liz. 'Miss Shaw, England was once the heart of an empire, the greatest empire the world has ever known. But the bankers and the trade-unionists have destroyed that great heritage. Now we are alone, backs to the wall, just as we were in 1940, only there is no Winston Churchill to lead us. The whole world is snapping at us like a pack of hungry wolves. But the day will come, Miss Shaw, when England will rise again...'

  As Barker got more and more excited with his theme, the lights started to flicker. The Brigadier sprang out of his swivel-chair. 'Power loss,' he shouted, and made for the door. 'Follow me!'

  The Doctor and Liz sped down passageways following the Brigadier. Major Barker puffed along behind them. By the time they reached the cyclotron room the main lights were already out and the technicians were working by dim emergency lighting from batteries. The Brigadier could only just see Dr. Quinn and Miss Dawson working at their control consoles on the far side of the room. He hurried over to Quinn, the Doctor following.

  'What's happening?' he asked Quinn.

  Dr. Quinn calmly adjusted some controls, but the Brigadier could detect strain in Quinn's face. 'Power loss, that's all.'

  'That's all!' said the Brigadier, amazed by Quinn's apparent lack of concern.

  Miss Dawson answered for Dr. Quinn. 'We're now so used to it, Brigadier.'

  'What exactly are you doing?' asked the Doctor.

  'Reducing the output of the reactor,' said Quinn, without taking his eyes from the meters in front of him. 'Otherwise the whole place may turn into an atomic bomb, or perhaps you already know that.'

  The Brigadier felt someone tugging at his arm. He turned, and saw Liz. 'Brigadier,' she said very quietly, 'come over here. You, too, Doctor.' Without speaking, the Brigadier followed Liz to where a young technician was making notes. He knew the man, a fellow called Roberts, and had already talked to him once or twice. Liz pointed to the notes Roberts was making. 'Look,' she said softly, 'see what he's drawing.'

  The Brigadier looked over Roberts's shoulder. Instead of writing, Roberts was drawing a picture of a bison. The Brigadier turned to speak to the Doctor, but the Doctor had already come up beside Roberts. In a friendly voice the Doctor said, 'That's a very nice drawing, old chap.' Roberts looked up, realising that people were watching his picture. He suddenly roared like an animal, and grabbed for Liz's throat. Both Liz and Roberts fell to the ground, Liz kicking and screaming, digging her finger-nails into the backs of Roberts's hands as he tried to strangle her. Before the Doctor or the Brigadier could move, Major Barker stepped in, pulled a big service revolver from the holster under his jacket, and brought it down on the back of Roberts's head like a man using a sledge-hammer. Roberts was stunned instantly. With the Brigadier's help, Liz got to her feet while the Doctor inspected the unconscious Roberts.

  'You should not have hit him like that,' said the Doc-tor.

 
'Only way to stop the blighter,' said Major Barker, now returning his revolver to its concealed holster. 'Anyway, we've got one of them at last. By the time I've finished with him, we shall know everything that's going on.'

  The Doctor straightened up. 'I'm afraid you're not going to learn anything from this man, Major Barker. You've killed him.'

  5

  The Fighting Monster

  The Doctor moved cautiously along the cave. He wore a pot-holer's hard helmet, overalls that he had borrowed from a member of the staff at the research centre, and heavy shoes. He was equipped with some strong rope, a map of the explored parts of the caves, a very good torch, and a packet of sandwiches provided by the lady in the research centre canteen. He stopped at a point where the cave passages went off in two different directions.

  He called, 'Hello?'

  It occurred to him that he did not expect a monster to call 'Hello' back; but he wished to draw attention to himself. He stood there listening. The only sound was a distant drip-drip of water falling from the cave roof into a subterranean pool. Of the two passages now open to him, he decided to take the one on the left. That's where the drip-drip was coming from, and, he reckoned, if some form of life existed in these caves it must have water.

  After a hundred yards down this passage the Doctor stopped dead. From very close at hand he could hear the heavy breathing of a big animal. The Doctor played his torch along the walls of the cave ahead. Along one wall was a huge opening, perhaps leading to another gallery of the caves. The Doctor crept along to the opening. All at once a huge reptile sprang from the opening, towering above the Doctor. As the Doctor stepped back the torch slipped from his fingers. It remained alight, but fell some six feet from where he was standing. The Doctor moved to get the torch, but the monster reared up over him, its huge lizard-like head swaying from side to side.

  The Doctor knew this animal well from times when the TARDIS had taken him back in Time to prehistoric Earth. It was the tyrannosaurus rex, the largest flesh-eating animal that had ever existed in Earth's history.

  ... a huge reptile sprang from the opening, towering above the Doctor

  Weighing at least seven tons, it stood taller on its thick hind legs than a double-decker bus. Its brain was good for a reptile animal, but pitifully small and stupid compared with the mammals.

  The Doctor remained perfectly still. The monster's main interest was the torch, fortunately some distance away from the Doctor. Slowly the great lizard head came down, to inspect the light more closely. The Doctor hoped that if he did not move, the monster, in its stupid way, might not realise that living flesh was but a jaw-snap away. The tyrannosaurus's upper limbs were so short and small to be virtually useless: it could not even reach to put something in its own mouth. So, to investigate the strange torch lying on the rocky floor of the cave, the monster prodded it with its snout. The torch rolled a few feet, and stopped. The Doctor knew that if the monster smashed the torch its attention would soon be diverted to what it could smell—human skin and bone, waiting to be crushed in those great jaws. The monster prodded the torch again, and again it rolled a few feet, this time stopped by a rock.

  Then the Doctor heard from far down the cave a strange electronic fluting sound. The monster paused, attracted by the sound. The sound was repeated, following a distinct pattern of notes. Slowly the tyrannosaurus reared up to its full height—and then, to the Doctor's amazement, turned round. With an overall length of forty-five feet from nose to tail, this was not easy in the confined gallery of the cave. It first turned its body to face the opposite direction, then curled round its huge murderous tail, so that the Doctor had to jump out of the way. The fluting sound was repeated, and the tyrannosaurus ambled off down the cave, obedient as a dog being called home by its master.

  Able to breath freely again, the Doctor reached down to pick up his torch. As he did so, he noticed that in a patch of soft sand the monster had left one perfect footprint. Very excited with his discovery, the Doctor hurried back the way he had come.

  6

  Into the Caves

  At last Major Barker felt that something useful was going to happen. This strange man, the Doctor, had been into the caves alone, and had returned with an extraordinary report about meeting a monster. Well, Barker wasn't fool enough to believe that sort of thing; but at least the report had prompted the Brigadier to organise an armed search of the caves.

  'Would you care to come with us?' asked the Brigadier. It was just what Barker had been waiting for. 'I shall lead the attack,' he replied.

  'We're not sure that we're going to attack anything,' said the Doctor. That was typical of the man. If you are going into caves with guns, you are going to attack, or why else go? Still, Barker tried to be agreeable.

  'Quite so,' he said to the Doctor. 'But we must be ready for anything.'

  The team consisted of the Doctor, the Brigadier, Sergeant Hawkins and a UNIT private, and, of course, Major Barker. All, except the Doctor, carried guns. Barker carried not only his holstered Enfield six-shooter, but also a high-velocity rifle. If there were any foreign spies to be found in the caves, Barker knew how to deal with them. As they set off in Jeeps from the research centre car park, Barker felt quite elated. It reminded him of times when he had gone hunting in Africa. To him, those were the good days when Britain still had colonies. It was all over now, of course, but he liked to ponder on those memories.

  The Jeeps wound down the rough track to the main road, then cut back across open country to the main mouth of the caves complex. The Brigadier jumped down from the leading Jeep. 'All right,' he called, 'this way.'

  Barker was willing to follow at this stage. Later, inside the caves, he intended to get ahead of the others. He wanted to make quite sure that if they found a spy, there would be no nonsense with him. Shoot first, ask questions afterwards. That was Barker's motto.

  The little group tramped through the first passageway of the caves, flashing their torches ahead and down every alcove on each side. Then the Brigadier stopped. 'Doctor, you say you found a footprint. Can you lead us to it?'

  The Doctor went on ahead. This really tickled Barker. He hadn't liked the Doctor from the start, and looked forward to seeing the Doctor make a fool of himself. After a few minutes they came to a fork, and the Doctor took the left branch. He walked ahead a little way, then stopped.

  'It was about here,' said the Doctor.

  The Brigadier said, 'No one move, and everyone flash their torches on the floor.'

  The Doctor moved carefully towards a small area of flat sand in the cave floor. 'It was here,' he said.

  'Was?' asked the Brigadier.

  'It's been brushed over,' the Doctor said.

  Barker could no longer contain himself. 'May I make a point, Brigadier?'

  'Well?'

  'I'm sure the Doctor thought he saw a monster,' said Barker. 'But perhaps it was some optical trick created by the spies to make an intruder think he was seeing a monster.'

  The Brigadier turned to the Doctor. 'Is that possible, Doctor?'

  'Anything is possible,' said the Doctor. But his attention was now focussed 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 identations 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 stupi
d 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.