Doctor Who_ Space War - Malcolm Hulke [47]
A minute later she realised that she was lost in the maze of tunnels and passages. Standing at an intersection of four corridors, she saw that the end of one led out into a more brightly-lit area. She ran in that direction.
Here there was a profusion of flickering flares on the walls. It was a big cave, the rock walls more smoothly cut than anywhere she had seen since her arrival. At one end a mound of rubbish lay under what appeared to be a wall drawing. Curious, Jo went closer to the great picture on the wall. In crude shapes, which she presumed was the best one might expect from an Ogron artist. the wall drawing showed a huge animal like a lizard, or one of Earth’s prehistoric dinosaurs, holding something in its claws. She went closer and saw that what it held was in fact an Ogron, a tiny figure dwarfed by the size of the monster.
The sound of footsteps made her race to a place of hiding in the shadows. As she watched an Ogron entered the brightly-lit area carrying an armful of strange fruit or vegetables. He walked up to the picture and spoke to it.
‘O Great Mighty One, I bring you food. Eat well of what we give. Allow us to share your planet. Do not eat Ogrons.’
With the final words of the incantation the Ogron threw the food on to the pile that Jo had thought was rubbish. He fell to his knees, crossed arms over his chest, rocked forward three times, then got up and backed away.
Jo waited until the Ogron had gone, then emerged from the shadows and continued her search for the Master’s quarters.
General Williams’s pilot pointed to a disc on the ship’s monitor screen. ‘That’s it, sir. I’ll bring it into better view.’ He adjusted a control and the disc grew in size until it filled the screen. ‘The planet you wished to reach, sir.’
The General looked up from the records he had been studying during the journey. ‘According to the Galactic Survey, Doctor, this planet is uninhabited. It has no valuable minerals and very little vegetation. There is one dominant life-form—a large and savage lizard. Since it is such a miserable and unpleasant place, neither Earth nor Draconia has ever colonised it.’
‘There you are, then.’ said the Doctor. ‘Just the place the Ogrons would choose as a base.’
The Prince asked, ‘If they are on this planet, how do we find them?’
‘When we get in closer,’ said the Doctor. ‘we’ll have to keep looking until we see some signs of life.’
‘Go into close orbit,’ the General ordered his pilot.
‘We must search for these lizards,’ said the Prince.
‘Why?’ queried the General. ‘We’re supposed to be hunting Ogrons.’
‘Ogrons would know enough to hide,’ said the Prince. ‘Lizards will not. If the lizards arc savage perhaps they eat Ogrons. So where we see lizards, we can be sure the Ogrons are not far away. It is logical.’
Jo crept into the cave-room where she had previously talked with the Master. She had found it more by accident than through remembering the way. It was deserted. Everything was just as she last saw it. She picked up the little dull grey box that produced the hypno-sound and pocketed it: it could be useful evidence. Then she turned her attention to the papers on the Master’s table and found a star chart; the Master had ringed the Ogrons’ planet. Now she looked at the ultra-advanced communications equipment. The controls were helpfully easy to understand. She found the transmitter control, turned