Doctor Who: Earthshock (3 page)

Nyssa and Tegan had joined the Doctor in the cavern outside the TARDIS and had been trying to win him round. 'Just breathe deeply and slowly and relax. It's easy,'

Tegan was suggesting.

'All right,' the Doctor agreed reluctantly, 'but I refuse to risk taking that young fool into E-Space just so that he can resume his criminal activities among the less savoury inhabitants of Terradon.' He stood still and took several deep breaths. 'I like it here, it's so peaceful and cool,' he murmured happily.

'It's stuffy and damp...' Tegan began.

Nyssa frowned her into silence and took the Doctor's arm. 'At least look at Adric's calculations,' she gently pleaded.

The Doctor considered a moment. 'Oh I'll look at them. But I don't promise anything.'

'No, of course not,' Nyssa agreed with a quick grin at Tegan, who came up and took the Doctor's other arm.

'Now let's take that little walk,' Tegan suggested, 'and then you can go back and apologise to Adric.'

Before the Doctor could react to her ill-timed suggestion, Tegan suddenly exclaimed: 'There's something wrong here. If we are underground it should be pitch dark, but it isn't, Doctor.'

The Doctor laughed and ran his hand along the cavern wall as they walked.

'Phosphorescent salts deposited by hypervolcanic gases,' he explained, showing them his glittering fingertips.

'And something else,' Nyssa said, peering across at the opposite wall in the bluish twilight. 'Look, Doctor. Bones!'

There, inlaid in the iridescent glassy rock, were enormous fossilised bones.

Some were detached and jumbled together while others were still connected at the joints to form the partial skeletons of gigantic animals.

Tegan felt along the thick curving protuberances of a huge ribcage. 'It's like a big graveyard,' she whispered in awe.

'Fascinating. What an amazing species...' the Doctor murmured almost reverently, gazing in wonder at the ancient remains.

'Dinosaurs?' Tegan exclaimed.

'Were they your ancestors, Tegan?' Nyssa asked.

Tegan gave a hollow laugh. 'I hope not, sport,' she retorted. 'Most of them had a brain the size of a pea.'

'But you should be proud of such magnificent forebears,' the Doctor chided her. 'They were the most successfully adapted species ever. Their fossilised remains are found scattered over the entire planet! Rather impressive for creatures with pea-sized brains.' The Doctor smiled benevolently at Tegan and then wandered further round the cavern fingering the fossils thoughtfully. 'They survived for a hundred million years and yet they died out almost overnight,' he said in a hushed voice.

'How?' Nyssa demanded sceptically.

'First hypothermia, then starvation.'

'Caused by what?'

'The Earth collided with something,' the Doctor explained.

'An asteroid?' Nyssa suggested.

The Doctor looked slightly shamefaced. He did not reply immediately but squatted down and started sketching something in the thick dust with his finger.

'Possibly,' he said at last. 'I'm afraid I don't actually know. I keep meaning to pop back and see, but I never seem to get the time...'

'It's impossible,' Tegan objected, watching as the Doctor drew a diplodocus with enormous tail and endless neck. 'It couldn't have wiped them all out at once.'

The Doctor drew a tiny sticklike human to scale with his dinosaur. 'Whatever it was, the impact would have thrown billions of tonnes of earth and rock into the atmosphere, enveloping the entire planet,' he replied.

'The sunlight would have been blocked for years and years,' Nyssa added pensively.

'Exactly,' the Doctor resumed. 'The surface of the Earth would have cooled catastrophically. Without warmth reptiles cannot function, and without sunlight their food cannot grow.'

Tegan suddenly shivered. The cavern was decidedly chilly. 'When did all this happen?' she demanded, still not quite convinced.

'About sixty-five million years ago,' the Doctor answered, standing upright and listening intently for a moment.

Tegan grinned at Nyssa. 'I wonder what my real ancestors were up to at the time,' she giggled.

The Doctor frowned. 'Oh, they were at an even more primitive evolutionary stage than you are . . .' he murmured, setting off stealthily towards the mouth of a tunnel at the end of the cavern.

Tegan glanced down at the scuffed remains of the Doctor's sketch. 'Poor old dinosaur,' she muttered with genuine feeling. Then with a glance back at the TARDIS

she hurried after the Doctor and Nyssa.

In the humming warmth of the TARDIS, Adric was bent over the computer concentrating on a long and complex series of calculations. Occasionally he glanced up at the viewer screen, which showed his three friends deep in conversation somewhere outside. 'At least they don't seem to be fighting,' he murmured, keying a number of co-ordinates into the computer.

A sudden movement caught his eye as the trio moved away. He reached over and set the viewer on automatic tracking. 'Don't stray too far, will you,' he muttered scornfully, 'because I don't want to have to come and get you out of trouble.' He sat watching them for a few seconds, his thoughts wandering. Flashes of memory recalling some of the scrapes he had got involved in since that fateful day he had stowed away in the TARDIS and memories of his home planet and of his dead brother came surging into his mind. He almost gave way to tears as the images crowded in on him.

Then he pulled himself together and turned back to his lonely task at the keyboard...

Sensing that the alien prey was not far from his grasp, Lieutenant Scott urged his tiring squad forward, deeper and deeper into the mountain. Professor Kyle had been a hindrance, struggling along obviously still in a state of shock after the attack on her colleagues earlier. But she was an indispensable guide in the confusing maze where many of the marker lights were damaged or missing. She had been gasping and stumbling pitifully for some time. Suddenly she pitched forward onto her face and lay groaning.

'I'm sorry ... I just can't keep up...' she panted.

Scott reluctantly ordered a brief rest. Sergeant Mitchell helped the Professor to sit up and gave her water. With lasers primed, the troopers covered the gaping tunnels surrounding the squad.

Scott's communicator bleeped and Walters' terrified voice echoed around them. 'Snyder and the other two have disappeared off the scanner, sir. There was a flare next to them and their blips just vanished,' he cried.

Scott exchanged horrified glances with Mitchell. 'Calm down, Walters. Have you checked for faults?' he demanded, trying hard to sound logical.

'I ran a complete check, Lieutenant. I know this thing's old, but there's no malfunction,' Walters replied. There was a brief pause, then Walters added: 'There's no other explanation. They must be dead.'

The troopers looked at one another and gripped their lasers more firmly.

'The aliens...' Scott breathed.

'No, sir,' Walters crackled on, 'they've hardly moved. They're still
ahead
of you. But Snyder and the others were only a few hundred metres from the surface.'

'It must be the aliens,' Scott snapped into his transmitter. 'What else could it be?'

Professor Kyle wiped her filthy face with a tattered glove. 'Some of the tunnels are unstable . . . there have been rockfalls,' she said weakly. 'Or perhaps they hit a gas pocket...'

Sergeant Mitchell stepped smartly forward. 'Let me take two troopers and double back, sir,' she suggested. 'At least we can help cover your rear.'

Scott hesitated. Then with a curt nod he agreed. Mitchell selected a pair of crack personnel from the squad and set off rapidly back the way they had come.

Scott pulled Kyle rather roughly to her feet. 'I'm sorry Professor, but we must press on at once. People's lives are at stake.'

Professor Kyle swallowed hard. 'Of course. I can manage . . .' she murmured bravely. 'We are almost at the main cavern now.'

Scott spoke rapidly into his radio. 'This is our final push, Walters. I want to know the moment you see anything on that contraption of yours. You hear me?

Anything
.'

They pushed forward with renewed vigour, following the steeply sloping tunnel at a sharp angle downwards. Their headlamps began picking out the phosphorescent flecks in the tunnel walls as they descended into the heart of the mountain. Soon the tunnel levelled out and they suddenly found themselves entering a large, lofty cavern. Its walls were marbled with beautifully coloured strata and twisting veins of mineral deposits, and pockmarked with weird knobbly fossil fragments. A battery of working lights hung from the roof and an assortment of excavating and surveying equipment was scattered around the cave floor. In the centre of the cavern a small drilling rig had been erected. Most of the equipment was damaged or lying about in pieces and few of the overhead lights were functioning properly.

Professor Kyle hesitated in the entrance. 'This is the main chamber . . .' she whispered nervously, shrinking back against the wall.

'So this is where you were attacked,' Scott murmured, signalling to his squad to make a quick recce round the huge cavern. 'There don't appear to be any bodies, Professor,' he added suspiciously.

Kyle was staring into the far corner. 'There's been another rockfall...' she murmured.

A trooper hurried over and reported that nothing had been found.

'So where are these aliens?' Scott muttered, advancing very cautiously towards the middle of the chamber.

The Professor pointed to several dark openings on the far side. 'They must be in one of those smaller subsidiary caverns,' she said in a barely audible whisper, her face white as chalk under the grime and dried blood. 'Yes... I think the attack came from there.'

Within seconds Scott had disposed his troopers in concealed positions around the chamber. He grabbed Kyle's arm and dragged her behind the rockfall. Then he called up Walters. 'What are they doing now?' he asked in an undertone.

'The aliens are just moving off again,' Walters reported. 'They're closing with you rather fast, sir.'

Scott nodded with satisfaction. 'We're ready for them whoever they are,' he breathed, charging his laser tube, his grey eyes alive with anticipation. 'Now I don't want to give myself away, Trooper Walters, so maintain strict radio silence from now on...'

Meanwhile, Sergeant Mitchell and her two-man detachment were just approaching the low narrow section of the main tunnel. For some time they had felt a curious tingling sensation in their scalps and had been aware of a hidden presence stalking them. The tunnel lights were flickering spasmodically. Suddenly they died completely. The three troopers edged forward, sweeping the tunnel with their sharp parallel helmet-beams.

All at once one of them slithered and almost fell. There was a sinister sucking and squashing sound as he regained his balance. He looked down and gave a shuddering gasp of horror, covering his mouth with his gloved hand. The remains of three uniforms floated at their feet.

Mitchell bent down and peered at an identity flash still attached to a scorched sleeve. 'Snyder...' she breathed. The flashes on the other two uniforms had been burnt away.

'What kind of weapon could do
that
?' one of them gasped.

Just then, Walters broke through the static on Mitchell's radio. 'Can you see anything . . . anything at all? The flaring's right on top of you now!'

Mitchell calmly charged her laser. 'Nothing yet,' she muttered, 'but I don't think we have long to wait.'

There was a long silence, broken only by the buzzing of the radio. Then a splinter of loose rock clattered somewhere along the tunnel behind them. They whipped round. Two tall silhouettes were advancing steadily towards them, their smooth black bodies totally absorbing the sharp beams of the troopers' lamps.

'There are two of them,' Mitchell whispered into her transmitter. 'We have them covered. They're not armed. They're not even...'

At that moment Walters burst in incredulously, but his words were unintelligible. Mitchell dropped the radio and it sank into the mess at her feet.

Still approaching, the two figures raised their left arms. There was a brilliant flash and one of the troopers disappeared, his empty uniform slumping into a steaming puddle. Mitchell and the other man fired their lasers simultaneously, but the deadly rays had no effect; they were simply absorbed by the advancing shadows.

Mitchell started screaming hysterically, still firing her laser. There were two more quick flashes and two more uniforms collapsed smoking into the gluey pool.

At once the two figures turned and sped away in the direction from which they had come. The three parallel beams from the scattered helmets of the three victims criss-crossed the darkness like searchlights in a silent night sky.

Nyssa and Tegan had been warily following the Doctor as he led the way cautiously along the tunnel leading from the cave where the TARDIS had materialised. Before long the tunnel opened out into the large central cavern.

The Doctor stopped in the entrance. 'Wait. I have a feeling we shouldn't go any further,' he warned them.

'It looks like some kind of mine,' Tegan whispered, pointing to the drilling rig.

'I can't see anyone . . .' murmured Nyssa.

'Stay just where you are!' rapped a cold, efficient voice. Lieutenant Scott stepped out from behind the rockfall and then the rest of his squad appeared with weapons levelled menacingly.

'What's going on?' Tegan demanded aggressively, quickly recovering from her astonishment.