Doctor Who_ The Zarbi - Bill Strutton [10]
It was the abrupt silence which suddenly woke her. She sat up and listened.
‘Barbara?’ she murmured.
The dormitory door to the control room was closed.
‘Barbara?’ she called louder.
There was no answer, no sound from the other room.
Vicki threw aside her blanket and got up. Sleepily she slid aside the door and came into the control room.
It was empty. She peered into the corners. The scatter of metal containers across the floor caught her eye.
Again she called, ‘Barbara!’
Suddenly a terror seized her too. Wildly she looked at the scanner, then at the closed exit doors.
She screamed, ‘Where are you?’
The control room only threw back the panic sound of her own voice.
Vicki stared about her again. She was alone in the ship.
Doctor Who, Ian and Barbara had now all left it!
She lunged towards the control table and pressed the exit button. A quiet whirring answered her, and they opened.
Vicki ran to the door and peered out fearfully. The landscape with it sinister towering crags, harsh and empty in the ghostly light, gave back no sign of life, no sound now.
Vicki was afraid to break this chilly silence, but then her fear of being alone overcame all other thought.
‘Barbara!’ she screamed. ‘Barbara...!’
Doctor Who and Ian listened, but the roaring hum and the strange chirruping that had risen with it had now vanished utterly, so that when Ian took a pace forward, his step echoed again. He halted, straining his ears.
‘Where did it come from?’
Doctor Who remained where he was, listening too. The Doctor wagged his head, frowning thoughtfully.
‘It’s... it’s some form of communication. I’m sure of it...’
Ian turned his head swiftly back. ‘Are you saying those noises we heard were messages?’
A slow nod. A pause.
‘They come from some sentient thing... or,... perhaps, a machine operated by it.’
Suddenly Doctor Who stopped as though struck by an idea.
‘Of course!’
He looked up at the crags, around him, then stared triumphantly at Ian.
‘That’s what’s holding us here!’
‘This... sound?’ Ian said, puzzled.
‘Whatever’s making it... yes! Aurally it’s the same pattern. The same pulse, the same rhythm as we got on the scanner.’
‘Those bars of light, those blobs... all that interference!’
The Doctor gripped Ian’s arm. ‘Chesterton, we’ve got to locate its source!’
Ian hesitated. ‘Yes... but how? With all those echoes around us? It could have come from anywhere! Trying to trace it would be hopeless!’
‘It isn’t,’ the Doctor snapped. ‘Not if we use one of our detectors. Come on – let’s get back to the ship...!’
He turned to retrace his steps. Ian pointed to a defile between the crags.
‘It’s this way, Doctor’.
He led on. As they entered the defile another distant sound floated to them over the crunching of their boots.
Ian was first to hear it and stayed Doctor Who with his hand. They paused and it floated to them again, a faint anxious echo.
‘... Barbara... Barbara...!’
‘It’s Vicki!’ Ian shouted. ‘Something’s wrong, back at the ship!’
‘I thought you told them not to leave it?’
‘I did! Come on, Doctor!’
Ian raced ahead, stumbling over the uneven ground, charging blindly down the defile. It was the Doctor who saw the danger which loomed suddenly ahead of them both, and halted.
Illuminated palely in this cold light something was stretched between two tall rocks across the defile, barring their way. It glittered faintly.
It was a web – a giant one, swaying faintly between the crags. Ian, stumbling ahead, turned to yell over his shoulder. ‘Hurry, Doctor!’
‘Chesterton! In front of you! Look out!’
But Ian had turned to race on and came charging straight into the immense web. Its threads enveloped him stingingly wherever they touched. Ian thrust out his hands and clawed wildly to free himself, but the web caught his hands too, and prickled wherever they touched bare flesh.
He saw Doctor Who running towards him as he fought vainly to free himself.
‘Keep away, Doctor! Get back to the ship!’
His further shouts were drowned in the humming