Doctor Who_ Island of Death - Barry Letts [109]
A bit galling. Especially as they hadn’t let her have a pistol, or even one of Bob’s hand grenades. Still, war correspondents weren’t armed, and they were always in the thick of it.
She didn’t quite know what she expected to see when she crawled to the edge of the wall and looked down, but it certainly wasn’t the stunning light display that greeted her.
It turned all her ideas upside down.
It looked as if the Skang cult wasn’t a phoney after all. It wasn’t just a front put up by a bunch of alien monsters to disguise their real purpose. There really was a being for the devotees to worship, whether it was divine or demonic.
The Brigadier was equally taken aback, she could see that.
At least they were in time. A line of disciples was only now being ushered in through the entrance, and... good grief, there was Jeremy, in the lead!
She watched as he was ushered into the front row, only a few yards from the... the god? Her mind refused to accept the idea. It must be as the Doctor had said, a thing from another world.
But where was the Doctor?
Ah, there he was, on the other side, leaning casually against the wall, with his hands behind his back, in the upper gallery, as if he was enjoying the show.
When the Skang standing at the front of the stage started to speak, Sarah realised with a shock of surprise that she was listening to Mother Hilda’s voice. How clearly the words floated up! But of course, it was like the old Greek theatres. It was as if the speaker was at the centre of a gigantic loud-speaker.
But more to the point, it meant that the ceremony was beginning. This was what they’d come to stop!
She turned to see if the Brigadier was about to blow his whistle, which was to be the signal for the circle of armed men to show themselves.
But he’d gone; and she just caught sight of him, crouching down, making his difficult way over the rough piles of boulders, towards the top end of the perimeter wall.
She forced herself to listen to the words from below. The Skang with Hilda’s voice - could it really be her? - seemed to be delivering some sort of sermon.
What on earth was the Brig up to?
And as for the Doctor...
But the Doctor was no longer leaning against the wall. He was peering intently at something in his hand, and seemed to be fiddling with it.
‘... the emptiness will be filled,’ the Skang was saying. ‘You are about to have the most sublime experience a human being can possibly have. And you’ll never be unhappy again.
Now I want you to stand up. The time has come.’
Oh no!
All the disciples stood up and faced the Skang next to them. Each Skang took its partner by the shoulders and lifted their head.
She couldn’t look. It would be too horrible.
But then, into the silence came a faint sound like a child’s music box... and a long cry of despair from the Skang who had been speaking. All the Skang in the arena had let go of their human partners and turned towards the stage.
Briefly, the giant figure seemed to swell, and the stars that made up its tenuous ever-changing shape momentarily burned even brighter. But then it began to come apart. A strange voice - no, voices - came from the shining figure on the platform, with desperate words tumbling out that made no sense, words not just foreign to the English ear, but alien to Earth itself; and the form of the thing was writhing and turning... and now it was shrinking, shrinking, shrinking as one by one the sparkling lights that were its very substance went out.
But more than that. The creatures in the body of the amphitheatre were also in distress, losing their balance and falling to the floor; and cries of woe made a counterpoint to the desolation of the voices coming from the platform.
The disciples were bewildered and scared. Some just drew back, others tried to help the agonised Skang, others clambered over the seats to get away from the distressing scene.
For they were dying, the Skang. As their Beloved on the stage was fading away, their substance was sinking into itself, melting, disintegrating, until, as the voices fell silent on the