Doctor Who_ The Bodysnatchers - Mark Morris [54]
Eventually they entered a room that contained a mass of fleshy vines hanging from the ceiling like loops of intestine. When he saw it, the Doctor tutted.'Very nasty, that. They'll need a trilanic flange oscillator with detachable spirons to fix that little lot.'
Sam smiled at Litefoot's baffled expression and said, 'There don't seem to be many Zygons around, Doctor.'
'No, it is odd,' the Doctor mused. 'Especially when the indications are that this is quite a sizeable community.'
'When you say "sizeable", Doctor, to how many of these creatures are you referring?' inquired Litefoot.
The Doctor spread his hands. 'Well, it's difficult to say exactly. Five hundred? A thousand? Something along those lines?'
'Maybe they're all playing Monopoly,' suggested Sam.
The Doctor smiled.'Maybe.'
They filed through yet another door and found themselves in an observation area very similar to the one overlooking the swamp that had contained the Skarasen. In fact, it was so similar that Sam said, 'Oh no, we've come in a circle. We're back at Pets' Corner.'
'I don't think so,' said the Doctor, and walked over to the control panel, which perched beside a row of shuttered windows almost identical to those in the previous chamber. He flexed his fingers and manipulated a number of the controls. As the shutters peeled away, a peculiar purplish light filled the chamber from the room beyond.
Bracing herself, Sam stepped forward and looked into the room. Almost immediately she gasped, though not with horror but awe. The room she was looking into was vast, as big as an aircraft hangar; she could barely see the opposite wall, lost as it was in a thick soup of plum-coloured shadow. Covering every square inch of floor was a grid-like construction resembling a gigantic honeycomb, though made not of wax but of a lumpy, glassy substance. And within each of the honeycomb's individual compartments were clusters of creamy-white, perfectly round eggs.
'It's... incredible,' she murmured, feeling the hair tingling on her scalp.
'Incubation area,' said the Doctor almost matter-of-factly. 'There are thousands of eggs in there. A potential invasion force. Our friends have been busy.'
'And you, Doctor, have been extremely foolish,' Emmeline said, her voice strangely harsh, brittle. Sam turned to look at her and couldn't believe what she was seeing. Emmeline's body was encased in a shimmering red aura, her clothes and flesh bleeding into a single jelly-like mass. Her features were changing, softening, running like tallow.
'Oh, Christ,' said Sam softly as she realised what was happening.
Before their very eyes, Emmeline was turning into a Zygon.
Chapter 6
Balaak
'A trap,' said the Doctor with almost child-like wonder. Then he nodded.'I thought it might be.'
Beside him, Litefoot instinctively raised his revolver. Before he could do anything so foolish as fire, however, the Doctor twisted it from his grasp and tossed it to the floor.
'We're not here to fight, Professor,' he said mildly.'We're here to talk.'
Litefoot looked at him, wild-eyed, then he swallowed and seemed to recover a little. He nodded quickly. 'Yes, of course, Doctor. Forgive me. It was the shock of seeing such a fearsome... that is to say, monstrous...'
'I'd shut up now before you offend somebody,' hissed Sam.
The shimmering aura around Emmeline's body evaporated and now a fully fledged Zygon warrior stood before them.
They had barely got over the shock when doors opened at either side of the chamber and more of the creatures appeared. Most were warriors, though there were a number of white-skinned scientists hovering at the back of the group. Sam tried to adopt the Doctor's expression of scientific interest, though found it difficult. Her heart was pumping not only with apprehension but