Doctor Who: The Devil Goblins From Neptune (31 page)

'Do you know what we're going to do when we get there?' Yates asked the Doctor.

'Not really,' said the Doctor with a smile. 'It's possible that this might be just another wild-goose chase. I've experienced these multilayered plots before. Nothing they do surprises me.'

'The US Air Force?' asked Mike. 'The Waro?'

'No,' said the Doctor angrily. 'The CIA.'

They jumped at thirty thousand feet. The Doctor, still managing to look dignified in a pilot's overalls and helmet, was first out of the doors. In his hand he clutched a portable version of the advanced radar system he had created for UNIT's tracking stations. Before they left England he had told Liz that the device had been optimised to detect the mechanical wings of the Waro.

Liz jumped next, with Shuskin and Yates close behind her. She was swamped by the sickening feeling of hurtling descent, her stomach seeming to relocate to somewhere just below her throat. Then the adrenaline rush hit her and she shouted in terror and exhilaration. This was like nothing she had ever experienced before. She was flying like a bird.

'Yeeeeeeessssssss!' she screamed, and then almost passed out as Mike bumped into her from behind.

'Pull your ripcord,' came a muffled shout, 'or you'll be dead before you can say "Jack Robinson"!'

Liz tugged at the release mechanism and was immediately jerked upwards as the parachute opened. It was like hitting a wall, but her descent was checked and she found herself floating gently towards the sand-yellow desert below.

Now all she had to do was land without breaking her legs.

'How's your leg?' asked the Doctor.

'I'll live.' said Liz, putting her weight on her sprained right ankle for the first time. 'Owwww!'

'Take it easy,' said Mike Yates, helping her to sit again.

'They always say the last ten feet is the killer.'

The Doctor knelt beside Liz and gently massaged her swollen ankle. 'Give it five minutes.'

Shuskin returned, having scouted their surroundings.

She gave Liz a look of sorry contempt before turning her attention to the rest of the group. 'I have surveyed the area.'

she said loudly. 'The base is two miles in that direction. We will leave immediately.'

'Just give Liz a few moments, will you?' asked Mike.

'Not possible.'

'Listen, Captain.' spat Yates. 'She needs to rest, OK?'

The Doctor got to his feet and walked over to the two UNIT officers, who seemed to be on the verge of exchanging blows. This was no time for a duel by handbags at ten paces.

'Will you two stop behaving like a pair of hurt children?'

snapped the Doctor. 'We're all working for the same outcome.

Hopefully.'

Shuskin seemed to accept the wisdom of the Doctor's intervention, and turned away. Mike stood his ground for several seconds, before he too backed down.

'That's better,' continued that Doctor. 'Liz should be all right to travel soon. I would suggest that as we approach the base our priority is to stick to what little cover there is.'

'Why?' asked Shuskin.

'Because I scanned our surroundings with this.' said the Doctor, holding up the portable radar. 'And it's picking up thousands of small signals!

'The Waro?' asked Mike.

'Precisely. They'll be drawn to the cobalt-60 like iron filings to a magnet. We've seen what carnage even a small number of Waro can cause, and I estimate this group is ten times as large as that in the Soviet Union.'

Shuskin's face visibly paled. 'Ten times...?'

'Maybe fifteen.' said the Doctor with a wry grin. 'The combined forced of the US Air Force and the CIA - even if they're using alien technology - might not be a match for the Waro. If our experiences so far have proved anything, it's that you can't attack small and numerous creatures like the Waro in jet fighter aircraft.'

'So, we're defenceless?' asked Mike, anxiously.

Before the Doctor could reply, Liz hobbled over to them, with the aid of Private Harrison. 'That's not like you, Doctor,'

she said. 'I'm sorry, my dear?'

'You've always got a plan.'

'Well.' said the Doctor, with quick smile. 'As it happens...'

The Brigadier had spent some minutes trying to converse with the aliens, but they remained impassive. He reasoned that if he could find a way to break into the cubicles, he could show the Nedenah that he meant no harm, and thus gain their trust. He was so engrossed in the electronic keypad to the side of the door that he didn't hear footfalls behind him until it was too late.

'Place your hands on your head!' Surprisingly, the man was English, and well-spoken, but the threat in his voice was clear. 'Now, turn around. Slowly.'

The Brigadier did as he was told, and gasped in surprise as he recognised the shorter of the two men who faced him.

'Professor Trainor,' said the Brigadier. He turned towards the man with the gun. 'I don't believe I've had the pleasure...?'

The taller man ignored the Brigadier's query, motioning to the side of the room with the automatic firearm. 'Stand over there. And shut up.'

The Brigadier, hands still on his head, walked to the wall, and watched as Trainor nervously approached the cubicles.

He was dirty and tired, having clearly come some distance through the desert. So, Trainor and the tall man were intruders in the base.

The professor's eyes lit up the moment he saw the aliens. 'Such beautiful creatures.' he enthused. 'Such intelligence, such grace of form and function. What are we going to do?'

'We kill them.'

The professor was shocked, and momentarily rendered incapable of speech.

'Don't look so surprised,' continued the tall man. 'We've made our allegiances. The enemy of my friend is my enemy, is that not true?'

'What are you talking about?' stammered Trainor.

'We must obey our orders.'

'Orders?'

'You don't understand, do you, Professor? These aren't the creatures your probe established contact with. You see, your staff were kind enough to make sure that all information about the creatures from Triton - the Waro - came to me first.

I do, after all, pay their wages.' He paused, regarding the alien creatures in the cubicles. Something like regret flickered over his features, but in a moment it was gone.' The Waro augmented the sensors on your probe and turned part of it into a neural amplifier. When I transmitted my own electrocorticogram they were able to place their pictures and images directly into my mind. A painful process, but they can't communicate verbally. I've been in constant contact with the Waro ever since.'

Trainor closed his eyes and shook his head as Rose continued.

'One thing has been clear since they approached the Earth - the Waro know these spineless Nedenah are here, and they want them destroyed.'

'Why?'

'They're old enemies. The Nedenah might be tempted to interfere in our plans.'

'Our plans?' Trainor laughed. Just listen to yourself, Peter! The Waro have been using you.'

'Nonsense. They respect my contribution. They know that this hunker might prove beyond even their abilities. And titimis of the essence.' Rose smiled, his eyes now as cold and dark as the empty void of space. 'Soon they will wipe the Earth clean. Just as I always wanted.'

'I won't participate in this slaughter!' exclaimed Trainor.

Rose pointed his gun at the professor. 'Open those cells, or I'll shoot you, too.'

The Brigadier coughed, not used to being on the sidelines. 'Gentlemen, I congratulate you on getting this far.

But the moment you open one of those cubicles, you'll have a hundred well-armed CIA agents to contend with. You'll never escape.'

'I didn't ask for your input.' snapped Rose angrily.

'My men have this base surrounded.' bluffed the Brigadier. 'Soon the entire complex will be under the UN's jurisdiction.'

'I don't believe you.' said Rose. 'Your pathetic UNIT thugs were reasonable flunkies at the professor's press luncheon.

But ththins.' He indicated the vast room with the wave of a manicured hand. "this is beyond you!

'Maybe so.' said the Brigadier. 'But unaccountable projects such

as -'

'For the last time.' said Rose, 'shut up, or I'll shoot you.

Now, Professor, open the cells.'

Although the gun remained trained on the Brigadier, Trainor clearly didn't want to provoke Rose further. He worked at the keypad with a small boxlike device that he had pulled from a dusty rucksack. Eventually the door to the first isolation chamber opened with a hiss of compressed air.

Rose, mindful of the Brigadier, swung his gun quickly in the direction of the alien inside, and fired a rapid burst of fire.

'The alien's head exploded, showering the cubicle with brown and yellow blood.

Immediately Rose turned the gun back on the Brigadier, and indicated that Trainor should open the next cell.

The professor was motionless, tears streaming down his face. 'Come on, man,' snapped Rose.

Trainor opened his mouth to say something, but had seen enough evidence to realise that further argument was pointless. When Rose wasn't looking, he shot a quick glance at the Brigadier. The meaning was clear enough. 'I'm going to try something. Be ready.’

The Brigadier nodded slowly.

'Ah, slight problem.' said Trainor. 'This cell works on a different principle. The correct number needs to be entered into both keypads simultaneously. Rose, you'll have to stand over there, and enter in the numbers just as I say them.'

Rose seemed so high on destruction that he didn't recognise the professor's desperate bluff. As Rose turned to the keypad closest to him, the Brigadier began to inch forward. The moment the gun dipped slightly, Lethbridge-Stewart launched himself at the man. Rose turned, instinctively swung the gun upward - but too high, as if shooting grouse or clay pigeons. The bullets skimmed the Brigadier's head, impacting into the thick concrete ceiling, by which time the Brigadier was on him. A swift rabbit punch laid Rose out cold. The Brigadier snorted. An in-bred Old Etonian, no doubt.

'I seem to be showing an alarming aptitude for strong-arm exploits, Professor,' said the Brigadier with a smile, picking up Rose's gun. 'Now, I suggest that you open the rest of the cells. We need the help of these aliens. I can assure you that the CIA are no more interested in the well-being of the Nedenah than this fellow was.'

The sky over Groom Lake Air Force Base turned black. Wave after wave of Waro swooped into position as with every passing

moment the dark, shimmering cloud grew in size. Several individuals, crazed by the maddening craving to rip the flesh from the feeble humans, circled away from the main group and began attacking each other in a terrible parody of a childish game.

Still more Waro arrived. There were millions of them, filling the sky from horizon to horizon like a black shroud.

They obscured the sun until the entire desert was in pitch darkness.

The first planes to meet them were F-4 Phantom fighters, scrambled from the base at the first sign of a potential attack.

Four of them flew into the heart of the Waro, firing missiles and countless machine gun rounds. Two planes were swallowed by the amorphous mass of Waro, then plummeted downward, belching smoke and fire.

The Doctor and his friends had found themselves a small gully, overshadowed by towering rocks, in which to watch the battle.

'There are so many of them.' said Shuskin, stating the obvious. 'And there is nothing we can do.' She pulled out a pair of binoculars, and saw the second pair of planes punch a hole through the dark cloud, sunlight flooding through the jagged rip in the sky. It was like watching the end of the world.

'That is better,' said Shuskin eagerly, as one of the fighters turned and rammed back through the Waro curtain, scattering thousands of the creatures in its wake, peppered by shot and crushed by the hammer blow of the aircraft's impact. The second fighter crashed through, creating another burst of sunlight in the dark sky.

'They're winning.' said Liz, but even before the words had left her mouth one of the planes was engulfed by the Waro.

Already they were filling the gaps in their canopy.

'There are too many of them.’ said Shuskin again.

'They're using

their heat weapons. And landing on the planes to plant bombs.'

All the while the Doctor said nothing, continuing to work on a complex circuit as the sky filled with the trails of plummeting fighter planes.

'Can we do nothing?' asked Shuskin angrily

'Perhaps,' he muttered.

At last Professor Trainor managed to open the rest of the cells containing the stony-faced Nedenah. His cry of delight was lost beneath the alarm klaxons.

'Oh dear,' said Trainor. hadn't counted on that.'

The Brigadier strode into the nearest cell, knowing that he had to take control of this situation. 'Now, listen here.' he said. know that you can hear me. I have proved that I do not want to see you destroyed, but if you don't help me, we'll all end up dead.'

The creature angled its head to look up at the Brigadier -

the unexpected movement shocked him - and smiled. It was a warm smile, beguiling and alien, but it was impossible to resist. Somehow it told the Brigadier that Everything will be all right and that There is no need to panic. In an instant the Brigadier felt that he could trust the creatures - and that he would travel to the ends of the Earth to see that smile again.

'It is time,' said the creature, in what sounded to the Brigadier to be perfect English, 'for us to leave this place.'

There were different craft in the sky now. Along with numerous F-4s, F-5s, and F-111s were oddly styled machines, triangular and disc-shaped craft that seemed to take off vertically and fly at lightning speed towards the creatures.

'What in the name of God are they?' asked Mike, venturing to the very edge of their crevasse for a closer look.

'Hmmm?' The Doctor looked up briefly, his sonic screwdriver in his mouth as he worked on a clump of complex wiring. 'Experimental aircraft, based on some of the alien designs the Americans have gained access to.' he said with a degree of professional curiosity. "That long triangular one is very like a Dale warship I once saw on Aridius. It's beautiful, don't you think?'