Doctor Who_ The Sea-Devils - Malcolm Hulke [18]
‘No,’ said the Doctor. ‘But he’s a bit deranged. I’d better get him to that cabin we found.’ Despite the man’s size and weight, the Doctor was able to yank him up on to his back and carry him. ‘You lead the way, Jo.’
Jo obeyed because the Doctor was almost bent double under the man’s weight and couldn’t see where he was going. She managed to find the inhabited cabin again and the Doctor laid his burden down on to one of the bunks.
‘This man is suffering from severe shock,’ pronounced the Doctor after he had carried out an inspection of the man. ‘We must get him to a hospital.’
‘With no boat,’ Jo asked, ‘how do we get him anywhere?’
The man on the bunk started to murmur something. The Doctor spoke quietly and calmly to him. ‘You’re safe now, old chap. Where is your radio transmitter?’
The man pointed to a cupboard. While the Doctor crossed to the cupboard containing the transmitter, Jo tried to talk to the man.
‘What’s your name?’ she asked.
‘Clark,’ he muttered. ‘Alan Clark...’ His eyes rolled wildly. ‘Lizards,’ he said, choking on the word. ‘Man-sized lizards. They killed Hickman... Sea-Devils...’
Jo spun round to the Doctor. ‘He’s talking about lizards again.’
But the Doctor was preoccupied staring at a mass of torn wires and smashed radio apparatus in the cupboard. ‘I’m afraid some unwelcome visitors have been here before us,’ he said. He came back to the side of the bunk. ‘Tell me, old chap, do any of the crew have transistorised receiving units?’
Clark looked up, not understanding. ‘Have what?’
Jo said, ‘Trannies. Do any of you have a tranny?’
‘Yeah,’ said Clark. ‘In the lockers... down the next corridor... you might find one.’
‘What do you intend to do?’ Jo asked the Doctor. ‘Listen to Pick of the Pops?’
‘It’s possible to turn a receiver into a transmitter,’ he explained ‘... simply a matter of modulating the signal. You connect the output of the loudspeaker into the input of the low frequency amplifier. Then you connect the output of your low frequency amplifier to your oscillator. Use your loudspeaker as a microphone, and there you are. Do you get the idea?’
Jo nodded. ‘As long as you don’t ask me to repeat it.’
The Doctor moved to the door. ‘See if you can make him a cup of tea or something, with plenty of sugar.’
The Doctor stepped out into the corridor. Clark had said ‘down the next corridor’, so the Doctor went along to the main deck and found the opening to another passage-way. There was almost no lighting here, and he had to grope his way along to find the various doors opening into different cabins. On opening the first door he was hit by three brooms and a mop which fell out at him. He passed on quickly to the next door, turned the handle, gently pushed it ajar, and by groping found a light switch. The cabin contained two rows of tall metal lockers. Some were locked, but others containing the personal possessions of more trusting oil men were unlocked. He quickly sorted his way through piles of thick greasy sweaters, sea boots, used and unused underwear, to find what he wanted. Within a few minutes he had half-a-dozen pocket transistor radios safely in his enormous pockets. He turned off the light and started to go back towards the deck down the corridor. Framed in the opening of the entrance on to the main deck was the huge form of a Sea-Devil.
With the deck lights behind it, the Doctor could not see the Sea-Devil’s face, but from its shape he knew-what he had encountered. He stood very still. ‘Don’t be afraid,’ he said, ‘I don’t wish to harm you.’
The Sea-Devil, who was equally surprised by the sudden encounter, now raised its right hand. A sudden beam of intense heat was emitted from the weapon carried in the Devil’s right hand. It struck the metal wall close to the Doctor’s head, instantly turning the cold metal into white hot liquid.
The Doctor turned and fled for his life down the corridor. At its far end it led out on to the enclosed upper deck on the other side of the rig. He ran along this, then turned into the parallel corridor.