Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace (14 page)

‘Doctor, we’ve got to get out of here,’ Ben said. ‘The water’s nearly here!’

‘Don’t go away, Doctor,’ mocked Zaroff. ‘You will die just the same no matter where you are. You might as well stay and watch me. I will press the plunger long before the water gets in here.’

The Doctor looked over to the countdown display on the wall. It had now reached 400; soon it would be at zero.

‘Zaroff, I beg of you in the name of all humanity – stop the experiment now,’ pleaded the Doctor. ‘We know you can do what you say – you’ve no need to prove it! Stop now before it’s too late!’

But the only response the Doctor received was a maniacal laugh from the other side of the glass. Zaroff was no longer listening. Instead his eyes were glazed over with an almost mystical fervour.

‘From this moment on I hold absolute authority over the entire world: one tiny push from me on that plunger and all the aeons of existence will be cancelled out, proved meaningless, simply because I, Zaroff, wish it so. My colleagues on the surface were spineless fools, forever tempering their research with caution and cowardice; but through science – beautiful exquisite science – I have conquered and harnessed the powers of nature itself.’ He laughed hysterically. ‘The splendid triumph of it all! What God laboured at for six days Zaroff will destroy in as many seconds!’

The Doctor and Ben stood listening to the Professor’s ranting in shocked silence. Suddenly the Doctor felt the pressure of Ben’s hand on his arm as he directed the Doctor’s gaze to the bank of computers behind Zaroff.

Moving out of the shadows where he had remained concealed for hours, and creeping silently towards Zaroff, was the person they least expected to see.

‘Zaroff.’

The Professor spun around and stepped back in horror when he saw the long sacrificial knife in Lolem’s hand.

‘You have thwarted the ways of Amdo for far too long, man of science,’ he began. The priest’s normally effete and sibilant voice was now full of cold hatred as he advanced steadily on Zaroff, holding the knife before him like a sacred icon. His unblinking eyes sparked with an iron determination that made even Zaroff tremble. ‘Before you came our people lived in peace with each other and their gods, happy to lead their lives as they had done for centuries. But your cursed arrival and the blasphemous teachings you spread made them doubt the sacred ways and the old laws. You have brought discontent, misery and damnation upon Amdo’s people, Zaroff. For that there can be but one punishment.’

The High Priest of Atlantis stabbed savagely at his enemy with the dagger. Zaroff stepped aside just in time to avoid a fatal blow to the heart; but the knife caught his upper arm and he screamed in agony as he felt the cold blade cut through flesh.

‘You are a fool!’ he screamed. ‘No one – not least a superstitious primitive – can stop Zaroff!’ He stumbled away from Lolem, frantically searching around for something with which to defend himself while throwing as many obstacles as he could in front of the possessed priest.

But with a strength born of his madness Lolem effortlessly pushed the obstacles aside and advanced once more upon Zaroff.

‘Keep back!’ he cried, his confidence faltering when he failed to find any weapon in his work area.

His eyes flashed over to the countdown indicator. There were three minutes to go before he could activate the bomb. In the confined space of his work area Lolem would easily kill him before the zero mark was reached.

He looked out through the transparent partition, past the figures of the Doctor and Ben who had been watching the events, powerless to do anything. There on the floor he spied the gun which Ben had knocked out of his hand when he had tried to kill the Doctor. It was his only chance of stopping Lolem.

With an angry growl Zaroff pushed past the priest and activated the control to raise the plastic shield. As he dashed out Lolem followed after him.

Seizing his chance, the Doctor ran into Zaroffs control area and began frantically stabbing at controls. Oblivious of the Doctor’s actions and concerned only with preserving his own life until the big moment Zaroff dived for his gun.

But Ben, seeing the necessity of delaying Zaroff for as long as possible, kicked the weapon out of the way. Snarling, Zaroff reached for the gun again, only to have it kicked away from him once again.

The macabre dance continued, as Lolem came nearer and nearer to the scientist. While all this was going on the Doctor was still furiously punching away at Zaroffs controls, trying to operate the complex code which would shut down all power. The digital display on the wall now read 34.

The distant rumbling of the approaching sea had now become a thunderous roar, almost drowning out Zaroffs cry of triumph as his hands finally alighted on his gun.

‘Hurry up, Doctor!’ shouted Ben. ‘The sea’s nearly on us!’ ‘One minute more...’ said the Doctor, forgetting that he didn’t have one minute left. He hovered over the controls like a pianist about to play a particularly difficult piece and then, crossing the fingers of one hand for luck, he pressed down a final control. A series of lights on a control panel blinked out one after the other. The Doctor’s face lit up with joy.

‘There!’ he said triumphantly.

‘That’s it?’ asked Ben who had joined him. He wasn’t quite sure what he had been expecting but he had thought that it would have been something a little more spectacular than this. ‘Are you sure?’

‘Oh yes, quite sure; I’ve initiated a complete shut down on all the power being channelled to the drill head and the bomb. It would take hours for the power to be reinstated.’

‘Well come on, let’s get out of here!’

‘Just a second..’ The Doctor operated another control which brought down the transparent shield again. He and Ben darted out under it as it slid to the floor, cutting off the work area once more. ‘That should keep Zaroff away from the controls,’ said the Doctor.

Ignorant of the Doctor’s success, Zaroff was in a fight of his life. The moment he had picked up the gun he had fired it repeatedly at Lolem. The shots hit the priest and his knife fell clattering to the ground. But the High Priest of Atlantis did not fall down dead; amazingly he stumbled on, now driven only by his all-consuming hate for the man who had destroyed all that he had valued in life.

His hands reached for Zaroff’s neck and as they tightened around the scientist’s throat Zaroff fought in vain to free himself. But even with three bullets in him the strength of the High Priest was astonishing; it was as if the repressed hatred of twenty years of humiliation was finally expressing itself in this display of almost superhuman strength.

The Doctor paused by the door. ‘We can’t leave them in there!’ he cried, but Ben dragged his friend firmly away.

‘Who cares about them?’ he shouted above the roar of the sea. ‘They’re well suited to each other; let them fight it out for themselves. We’ve got to get out of here! The sea’s here!’

The Doctor looked in terror at the wall which was buckling under the pressure of the water beyond it. Any second now the sea would break through.

‘How do we get out?’ asked Ben.

‘How should I know!’ the Doctor said irritably. ‘All we can do is keep going up!’

Only moments after the Doctor and Ben had left and started climbing the stairs which led to the upper levels, the sea finally broke through the walls and crashed into the laboratory where the scientist and the priest were still engaged in a battle to the death. It swept mercilessly through the room, destroying everything and bringing instant death to Zaroff and Lolem, still locked in their deadly embrace. The forces of nature, which Zaroff had sought to control for twenty years, were finally exacting their just and terrible revenge.

In the ensuing chaos only Zaroff’s pet octopus was likely to survive.

On the surface Polly lay back, thankfully gulping in breaths of fresh air and feeling once again the warmth of the sun on her face.

By a miracle most of the population of Atlantis had escaped the catastrophe, escaping via the potholes and pot chimneys which led up to the surface of the island. Now they wandered around in a daze, blinking as their eyes tried to become accustomed to the glare of the sun after so many years of living underground. Others wandered around in a state of semi-shock as they thought about what they had lost.

Polly looked up as Sean, Jacko and Jamie approached her. ‘Any sign of the Doctor and Ben?’ she asked anxiously.

Sadly Jamie shook his head. ‘We’ve searched the entire island, Polly. There’s not a sign of them.’

Ara who was sitting nearby tending to King Thous came over.

‘They must have died saving us,’ she said.

‘We’ll raise a stone to him in our new temple,’ promised Thous.

‘No.’

They all turned to look at Damon who had been standing some way off thinking. ‘No more temples. It was priests and temples and superstitions that made us follow Zaroff in the first place... When the water’s finally turned level the temple will be buried forever; we shall never return to it. But we will use the knowledge Zaroff gave us to build a new Atlantis – an Atlantis without gods and without Fish People.’

Thous nodded. ‘Yes, that shall be the Doctor’s memorial...’ A pause followed and then the King of Atlantis turned to Sean and Jacko. ‘And what of you? You are no longer slaves but you will be most welcome in the rebuilding of Atlantis.’

Sean smiled and shook his head. ‘Thanks anyway,’ he said; ‘but if it’s all the same to you I think me and Jacko are going to get some of our fellow workers together and start building a boat. If we can salvage some stuff from the city, you never know we might be sunning ourselves in the Canaries this time next week!’

‘But with our luck we’ll probably take the wrong turning and end up in Greenland,’ said Jacko.

‘That’s the spirit!’ grinned Sean and together they walked off down the beach.

‘What will you do?’ Thous asked Polly and Jamie. ‘The outside world is not for the people of Atlantis; but perhaps you too crave for your own civilisation?’

Polly smiled sadly. How could she explain to the King that she was at least ten years out of her own time and Jamie was over two hundred years out of his? It would be strange for Polly to return to a London where her friends had aged ten years and she had remained the same; but how would a Highlander from 1746 fare in the Scotland of the 1970s?

Answering Thous’s question non-commitally, she and Jamie walked off down to the beach. With the Doctor and Ben gone they would have to think long and hard about their respective futures.

As if by instinct they found themselves by the spot where the TARDIS had landed days ago. Polly gave a squeal of delight when she saw the dishevelled and dripping wet figure by the police box.

‘You!’

‘Well, who did you expect? King Neptune himself?’ said Ben, equally surprised and just as delighted. ‘We thought you were dead!’

‘Oh, charming...’

‘But where’s the Doctor?’ asked Jamie.

‘Here he comes now,’ said Ben and indicated the tiny figure of the Doctor as he scampered over a hill. In his hand he was holding the bucket and spade he had lost when the Atlanteans had first captured him.

‘Polly! Jamie!’ he cried and gave them each an affectionate hug. ‘Well, come along everyone, it’s time we were off...’

They took one last look at the beach and then entered the TARDIS. As they did so Sean and Jacko came over a ridge and stared with awestruck wonder as the light on top of the police box began to flash and the TARDIS slowly faded away.

‘Did you see what I just saw, man?’ asked Jacko.

‘I don’t believe it – a flamin’ English police box!’ Sean shook his head and then turned to his companion. ‘Come on, Jacko. Let’s get this boat built soon and get back to civilisation. I think I need a very stiff drink...’

In the TARDIS control room the Doctor was bent over the controls, flicking switches and twisting dials. As he made a series of adjustments he looked up eagerly at his three companions. His face beamed with excitment at the prospect of another landing.

‘Off we go into the wide blue yonder, as someone was once heard to say.’

‘And not a moment too soon,’ said a relieved Polly.

‘I’m not sorry to get out of that place,’ said Ben. ‘But will the Atlanteans be all right?’

‘I should think so,’ said the Doctor. ‘They’re a hardy people – they’d survived underground for centuries before Zaroff came, and they’ll do so again. And they’ve learnt their lesson too – they’ll never let anyone else exercise the some powers that Zaroff did. No, I don’t think we need worry too much about our friends from Atlantis.’

Jamie had been wandering around the control room, still amazed by the vast array of instruments all about him.

As he rejoined his friends Ben turned his nose up in mock disgust.

‘Blimey, Jamie, you don’t half stink of fish!’

‘You want to take a wee sniff of yourself, Benjamin,’

Jamie countered instantly. ‘You’re not exactly a bonny bunch of heather!’

The Doctor smiled at the good-natured verbal sparring.

‘You sound very happy, Jamie,’ he remarked.

‘Och yes, I am now, Doctor. You know, I’d never thought I’d say this but it’s great!’

‘What’s great?’ asked Polly.

‘All this,’ he said, waving his hands about the control room. ‘I’ll never know what makes it go, mind you, but at least in here I feel safe. It’s only the wee things outside that bother me.’

‘You can say that again!’ agreed Ben.

‘It’s only the wee things outside –’ began Jamie before Ben stopped him. Sooner or later he and Polly would have to teach the eighteenth-century Scotsman some twentieth-century idioms.

‘Is it a fact, Doctor, that you can’t control the TARDIS?’

asked Jamie.

The Doctor was outraged at such a suggestion. ‘Control it? Of course I can control it!’

‘What I meant was, can you not exactly take it where you want to?’

‘If I wanted to I could...’ said the Doctor and then added lamely, ‘It’s just that I’ve never wanted to.. Polly and Ben greeted the Doctor’s claim with laughs of derision. ‘Oh yeah, I bet!’ chuckled Ben.