DOCTOR WHO AND THE CAVE-MONSTERS Page 5

  7

  Quinn Visits His Friends

  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.

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

  '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.

  8

  Into an Alien World

  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 l
ooking 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.

  He could have smashed the window and used this third eye to destroy the creatures there and then, but Okdel had insisted that the attack must not start yet. He moved away from the window and crossed the farmyard to a barn. He was already weak again through loss of blood and all he wanted to do was to lie down and rest. In time the others would find him and take him back to the shelter where K'to could repair his injuries. Inside the barn he found long grass which had been cut and gone brown. It made a good bed. He curled up in the traditional sleeping position of his people, and was soon unconscious.

  Morka was woken up by a terrible shouting. The male creature was standing in the middle of the barn.

  'Doris!' it shouted, 'Doris!'

  He seemed too excited or terrified to move from the spot. The female creature came running in. Morka could just see her through the straw where he lay. Through the open door he could see that it was barely light outside and there was a thin white mist.

  'What is it?' she said.

  'Get on to the police,' said the male creature. 'There's some sort of lizard asleep in my barn.'

  'A lizard won't hurt you,' she said.

  'It's the size of a man,' said the male. 'In fact, bigger than most men. It must have escaped from some circus.'

  Morka's temper was raised. Who did these animals think they were to speak of him like that? He rose up from the straw. The female saw him and screamed. The male spun round to look.

  'In God's name,' said the male, 'a monster!'

  The male grabbed some farm implement with a pronged end, and immediately lunged at Morka. Morka side-stepped the vicious-looking prongs, grabbed the male creature and broke its neck instantly and painlessly. The woman just stood there, eyes wide, screaming. But she made no attempt to harm Morka, although her screams hurt his hearing.

  'Be quiet,' he said. 'You must be quiet in our presence.' But she continued to scream, and water began to run from her eyes down her pink cheeks. Morka remembered how the ancestors of these creatures always used to make so much noise, especially if you hurt them or if they saw one of their own kind killed. The female creature stood there screaming, hands to face now, its whole body shaking. Morka wondered if it had contracted some disease, and whether out of kindness he should break its neck, too. But his leg hurt and he wanted to sleep. Only then did he notice the hatch open in the floor of the barn. He limped over to inspect it. Steps led down into some darker place below. Perhaps that is why the male creature had come in here—to open that hatch and get something from the area below. Carefully Morka went down the steps, closing the hatch after him to cut out the awful noise of that female creature. Concentrating through his third eye, he looked around himself. It was a small room with wooden racks along one side. He inspected the racks, and found apples. This was good because he liked apples very much. He tasted one, and immediately felt better. Even if the sun was not so hot, and the air was thinner now, apples tasted just the same. He ate a great many apples, then curled up again into the traditional sleeping position and dreamt vividly of his childhood. He had always been good at hunting and as a boy had run with the men hunters when they went into the forests to attack the little furry apes. Some of the boys had kept a few apes in cages, and tried to tame them, but Morka always felt nauseated at their sight and smell. He had killed many thousands of them. Now, perhaps, he would have to kill millions of their wretched, noisy descendants. If they were all like that screaming female creature he had just met, it would be a pleasure!

  He was awoken by the sound of feet on the floor of the barn above. The apples had done him good and he had more strength now. There were a lot of creatures above him, probably searching for him with those sticks that explode and make pain. Cautiously he uncoiled and went up the ladder step by step. He put the top of his head against the hatch and pushed gently upwards until there was a thin slit of light. He adjusted his eyes and looked into the barn. Although the faces of the creatures all looked the same to him, helpfully they all wore different clothes. There was a male creature in a long black frock coat, and he was kneeling by the body of the creature whom Morka had killed. Standing close was a female creature with blonde fur on her head—long fur that hung to her shoulders. There were two other males of the species: one in brown clothes, which had fur growing under its nose, and the other in dark-blue clothes with silver buttons.

  'His neck's broken,' said the Frock Coat.

  The creature with silver buttons tried to stop the Frock Coat from touching the dead creature. 'You really shouldn't touch anything, sir,' it said, 'until the CID has been.'

  'This isn't a matter for Criminal Investigation, Constable,' said the Frock Coat. 'This isn't ordinary murder at all.'

  'At least,' said the one with fur under its nose, 'the monster cannot be far away. I've got a helicopter up searching these moors. We'll track it down and kill it in no time.'

  Another creature dressed in brown came running in. It stopped running and stood very upright, and put its hand to its head. Morka thought it was going to scratch its head, because the little furry apes were always scratching themselves to kill the fleas in their fur. But this action was some kind of signal. The one with the fur under its nose turned and also put its hand to its head.

  'Sir,' said the newcomer, 'we've just heard over the radio. The lady found here has come round and is able to talk.'

  'Come on, Doctor,' said Fur Under Nose, 'we'd better get to the hospital.'

  'One other thing, sir,' said the newcomer, still standing bolt upright. 'They say she's drawing pictures on the wall.'

  Fur Under Nose and Frock Coat looked at each other
, but Morka could not understand the expressions on their faces. Frock Coat turned to the female creature, indicating a black box on the floor. 'I'll go to the hospital. You'll find everything you need in there for a forensic check.'

  Silver Buttons looked very worried. 'Forensics is for the CID,' it said.

  Frock Coat turned to Silver Buttons: 'Fingerprints, and ordinary human bloodstains—yes, I would agree. But Miss Shaw and I are looking for reptilian-like monsters.' It turned to Fur Under Nose. 'I'm ready.'

  Frock Coat and Fur Under Nose hurried out, along with the creature that had stood upright all the time. Silver Buttons turned to the female creature. 'Anything I can do for you, miss?' it said.

  'That's very kind of you,' said the female. 'But I can manage.'

  Silver Buttons turned to go, then paused. 'That fellow you call the Doctor,' it said. 'Is he all right in the head?'

  'He's very all right in the head,' said the female.

  'I'll be wandering around if you need me,' said Silver Buttons, and slowly walked out of the barn.

  Morka considered what he must now do. He cursed himself for not killing that screaming female when he had the chance. Now the other creatures would hear from that female how he had gone down into the cellar beneath the barn. They would all come back with their exploding sticks and hurt him again, perhaps even kill him. With those apples in him, he felt that he now had the strength to walk the moors and find his way back into the caves. It would be better if he could wait until dark, but that was now impossible. He looked at the crouched back of the female creature as it opened the black box. It took out some instruments, then went to where he had been lying in the straw. It knelt down, again with its back to him.

  Slowly, soundlessly, Morka opened the hatch and climbed up the steps and on to the floor of the barn. The creature was so intent on its work that it did not seem to hear him. Then his foot scraped on the floor. The creature started to turn its head. Morka knew it would start that terrible screaming. He attacked swiftly.