Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors (9 page)

‘As a hostage, lad,’ insisted the Doctor patiently. ‘He wouldn’t hump her all the way to the glacier if she wasn’t going to be useful in some way, would he?’

‘Then you reckon she’ll be safe?’ Even when the reassurance came from the Doctor, Jamie wasn’t entirely convinced. But in the circumstances, it looked as though he had no choice.

‘Of course,’ replied the Doctor, forcing himself to sound cheerful. ‘Now that all your gear is ready, you can set out at first light. And it isn’t as if we don’t know where he’s going, is it?’

Clent, now fully recovered, cut in sharply. ‘How many times do I have to remind you, Doctor,’ he snapped, ‘that we are not chasing monsters all over that ice mountain!’

‘You really are very dense sometimes, Clent old chap,’

observed the Doctor. ‘With any luck, this creature will do our job for us! If there
is
a space craft, he’ll lead us to it. Don’t you see?’ Seeing the grudging agreement on Clent’s face, he added, ‘And as for digging his chums out of the glacier, it’ll take him ages bare-handed and alone! Isn’t that so, Arden?’

Arden nodded, remembering how long it had taken Davis, using the best of equipment. But his eyes met the Doctor’s. He was suddenly aware that he wasn’t alone is wondering what other surprises the Ice Warrior might have in store for his human opponents...

Victoria didn’t regain consciousness until she found herself sprawling and spluttering in the skin-tingling freshness of a moonlit snowdrift She scrambled to her feet almost automatically, dusted the snow from her clothes, turned to look at her surroundings—and choked on a scream.

The Ice Warrior was standing massively silhouetted against the night sky. His dark-screened eyes, eerie and menacing, glowed faintly as he turned slowly in a tight arc, scanning the surface of the glacier before him. A tiny circle of light pulsed regularly on his broad chest, and simultaneously a soft electronic ping—like an echo-sounder’s—could be heard. One moment the giant creature stood motionless, the next he strode forward to the ice face, and gouged out a great chunk of ice with his huge clamp-shaped hand.

Victoria realised that this was her chance. While Varga studied the surface of the glacier, she prepared to make a silent escape—but she hadn’t reckoned with the fragments of loose ice half-buried in the snow. At the first step, her ankle twisted, her foothold gave was and with a sharp cry, she found herself sprawled helplessly at the feet of the Ice Warrior. She waited for him to show his anger—but he seemed almost preoccupied. Slowly, Victoria got to her feet, and backed away into the shelter of a vertical crevasse, with Varga’s harsh whisper in her ears.

‘Do not try to escape,’ he hissed. ‘You are not equipped for survival!’

He was right, of course. Sheltered from the keening wind, Victoria shivered and realised how small her chances would be out there on the open snow plain which stretched away into a silver whiteness under the cold eye of the moon.

Here at least there was a possibility of staying alive—if only as Varga’s prisoner. She stared back at these strangely glowing eyes, and spoke bravely.

‘Where are we? At the glacier?’

‘Yes.’ Varga whispered. and sounded pleased. ‘I have located the position of my men inside the ice. At last!’

Victoria was puzzled. Obviously the Ice Warrior had used some sort of detection device. But how had he known where to start in the first place? As though in reply to her question, Varga pointed to the crevasse in which Victoria crouched.

‘The place where you stand,’ he whispered, with no sign of misted breath showing on the frosted air, ‘is where your scientists cut me free.’ Wonderingly, Victoria looked all about her. She saw the regular grooves of a boring tool or drill, and frowned. If it had taken that sort of equipment to carve Varga from the living ice, how could he possibly hope to release his buried companions? She shivered again and started to stamp her feet and beat her hands together. If she stood still for much longer, she’d end up frozen inside the glacier herself!

‘Do not waste energy,’ commanded the Ice Warrior softly, and indicated that Victoria should move away from the ice face and stand by his side. At first, she objected.

‘I’ll freeze to death unless I keep my circulation going.

At least I’m out of the wind in this cranny!’

‘You will maintain your Earthling body temperature by helping me,’ ordered the Martian.

‘What are you going to do?’ asked Victoria in surprise.

How on earth did he expect her to help?

‘I most release my comrades,’ Varga replied. ‘Then, when your friends come after us, we shall have a surprise ready...’

Irritated, Victoria didn’t notice the quiet threat in Varga’s words. She still couldn’t understand what the Ice Warrior was going to do. ‘But you’ll never break that ice apart with your bare hands!’ she cried petulantly. ‘Arden used a heavy drill to get
you
out. Any other way is impossible!’

Without replying, Varga drew her to his side and into a position facing the glacier. Making a surprisingly delicate adjustment to the device on his right forearm with his massive fist, he pointed the device at the ice. The tip of the device pulsed with light—then, as Victoria watched in amazement, the rock-hard ice face began to disintegrate and shatter.

Without tools, without even touching the surface of the ice, Varga was freeing his comrades as easily as carving a block of salt with a penknife...

Breathless from ploughing his sway through the deep, soft snowdrifts leading up to the glacier face, Penley paused to take refuge from the vicious sting of the wind. Storr would have battled onwards uncomplainingly, of course—but Penley was honest enough to admit his weaknesses. Besides, it was unwise to travel at night through the near silent landscape of these hills without halting and listening every now and then.

The snow buried not only the ground and ice beneath it, but also every sound: wolves and bears moved quietly enough at the best of times, but under cover of the snow blanket they gained an edge of surprise that could be deadly. It paid to keep your ears open and your eyes sharp. It also paid to conserve your energy, thought Penley—especially when one of the team was flat on his back and totally incapable. Still, he thought, Storr’s past the danger stage now; whatever the big man might rave about scientists and their hocus-pocus drugs, it was that very magic that had saved him. Penley had left him sleeping deeply—but with all trace of the burning fever gone.

Twenty-four hours more, and the old pirate would be himself again; in time the bone would heal, strongly if not perfect. It was while Storr was out of service, under-going repair, Penley smiled to himself, that he could tackle what was in his own mind.

There was a mystery afoot, involving the strange, warrior-like alien, the girl—and the scruffy-looking stranger he’d met in the medicare laboratory. Very odd, that one—

what was he doing at the Base? How as it that he knew so much about Clent, and the problems that idiot brought on himself? Why had he asked him to come back to the Base?

The man had a sense of humour, too—and that was unusual in itself. What was his link with the girl—and the creature from the ice?

He was certain that the ungainly monster he’d seen had something to do with Arden’s excavations at the glacier face; and there had only been one way to satisfy his questioning mind: go and investigate.

Penley lurched forward through the drifting snow, moving diagonally across the slope that would bring him close to the excavation site. But at the top of the wind-skimmed ridge, he paused and crouched, his eyes squinting into the wind, hardly able to believe what he saw.

The usually smooth curve of the glacier, instead of gleaming dully in the fading moonlight, glinted and sparkled like a frozen waterfall. In front of the shattered crystalline wall, ankle deep in ice fragments, towered the alien creature.

Its arm was pointed at the ice face and, even at this distance the whine of some unseen device could be heard, faint but jarring to the ear. And as Penley watched, great frozen gouts of ice spurted and crumpled away, as though struck by a gigantic, invisible hammer! The creature was carving its way into the heart of the glacier!

Penley shaded his eyes and peered harder into the stinging spume of snow. Now he could make out the girl—

apparently helping, though without much enthusiasm. But it was what stood beyond, gaunt and gleaming in the thin light of the dying moon, that caught Penley’s eye and held it in unbelieving amazement. Like prehistoric stone monoliths.

carved and dragged from the face of the glacier, towered four immense blocks of ice.

At last the searing whine of the sonic weapon ceased.

With a series of great heaves. Varga tore the last remaining block of ice free of the glacier, and dragged it across to the others. The five gleaming crags loomed menacingly against the night sky: Victoria seemed to flinch from their cold power. Varga strode proudly up to them, and struck the fractured ice with his great fist.

‘It is done,’ he hissed, elated. ‘They are free!’

He wheeled to face Victoria, and snapped out his orders. ‘Bring the power packs to me!’

She could do nothing but obey. Snatching them front her, he deftly placed the electrodes at key points on the first two blocks of ice. They began to hum ominously. Varga faced his comrades boldly, and barked a command at their lifeless forms.

‘Awake from the dead!’

5

Dawn at last. Outside the Base airlock, the equipment that Arden and Jamie would need for their investigation was already packed aboard the sleek form of the airsled. It included all the usual snowtrek survival gear; drilling tools, power packs and self-heating food dispensers. But most important of all was the directional radiation detector, which would locate and identify any potentially dangerous fissionable energy source in the glacier. Both Jamie and Arden were eager to set off, but Clent had insisted the standard formality of departure briefing. Jamie stamped his feet impatiently as he spoke to the Doctor.

‘Does he always have to do everything by the rule-book?

Why doesn’t he just wish us luck and let us get on with it!’

The Doctor shrugged. Clent was too complex a person to explain easily to someone as young and direct as Jamie.

‘Forget about Clent, lad, and concentrate on being careful...’ Then he added thoughtfully, ‘Keep an eye on Arden, too. I don’t think he quite realises how dangerous that creature is.’

Jamie knew that well enough, and wasn’t afraid to admit is ‘After what happened in the laboratory, he must be blind then!’

‘He is a scientist, after all,’ murmured the Doctor, his eyes glinting mischievously. ‘You know what they’re like.’

Jamie caught his glance, and chuckled, remembering what he’d had to put up with from the Doctor in the past.

‘Aye! I know that all right!’

The briefing over. Arden was eager to leave. His enthusiasm bubbled over as Clent followed him through the airlock door.

‘I hope we’ll at least get a chance of taking a film of the warrior!’ he blurted out boyishly. ‘Mind you—we’ll have to tread carefully. We don’t know how many more of them will turn up.’

‘I don’t want you exposing yourself to unnecessary risks.

Arden—remember that!’ replied Clent crisply.

Arden paused and faced Clent, his face sober. ‘Listen, Clent, we both know that I’m responsible for what’s happened—as well as Davis’s death. I’m not likely to be that stupid again, believe me!’

Clent didn’t reply immediately. They both knew that if a dangerous power source was discovered in the glacier, Arden’s archaeological adventure would in fact have saved Clent and the Base from complete annihilation. If the warrior had been left in the ice, no one would have been wise to the possible danger.

‘Just get that information back to Base,’ insisted Clent.

‘And no desperate attempts to rescue the girl. She’s the least of our worries:

‘Well I’m no leaving Victoria to that creature up there if there’s half a chance of saving her!’ snapped Jamie, who had heard the last remark.

‘You will take your orders from Scientist Arden!’ replied Clent, and disappeared through the door before Arden and Jamie had stepped into the airlock—and from there into the Arctic world outside. Once the temperature-sealed door had closed, even the Doctor couldn’t hear the whine of the airsled as it skimmed across the snow towards the glacier. He turned and followed Clent back to the main building.

Clent was waiting for him in the corridor.

‘Come along, Doctor,’ he said genially. ‘Time for you to show us what you can do.’

The Doctor forced a smile. He would much rather be with Jamie on the way to the ice face—but for now at least, his immediate purpose lay in unravelling the mystery of the Ioniser malfunction. It had to be prevented from happening again. ‘By the way,’ he asked, ‘what was Penley working on when he left?’

The Doctor noted the effect of his question with interest.

Clent glowered and looked the Doctor in the face. ‘That information is top secret.’ Turning on his heel, he brusquely led the way inside.

Storr thumped the table top angrily. ‘A creature carved out of the ice! It’s you that’s been in a coma!’

‘I’m telling you—it was teal, and terrifying. And I’m not one for fairy stories—any more than you are. If I’d only seen it at the glacier, I’d agree with you. But it was inside the Base as well.’

Storr stared at him. ‘Leave me out of your fun and games, then!’ he growled. ‘I’ve got enough to cope with.’

‘You’re certainly back to your old cheerful self,’ said Penley—and then stopped. ‘What’s the matter?’ Storr moved swiftly towards Penley, and whispered into his ear. ‘Someone’s outside. Not an animal—human. Trying to get in!’

‘They must’ve tracked me back here from the Base.

Quick—hide yourself. We don’t want you carted off to Africa vet.’

In a second, Storr had hidden himself, and Penley was to all intents and purposes alone. Satisfied, he moved to boldly confront the intruder—and stepped hack in surprise at the sight of Jan Garrett when he drew back the interior screen.