Doctor Who_ The Zarbi - Bill Strutton [28]
‘I have told you – we are peaceful travellers from Earth!’
‘You lie!’ the Voice thundered. ‘You are the Menoptera-a...! Our detectors show you massing in space to attack.
This is your final chance to speak-eak...!’
A pause. Doctor Who stared. He said quietly, ‘We know nothing of this... Menoptera force you speak of...’
The Voice rose to a terrifying pitch as it boomed back, raging.
‘Very well-ell! We shall show you the fate that awaits all your ships, all your people-le...!’
The control panel on the wall beyond the Dome came to life. A series of lights flashed and a loud humming burst from the big speaker beneath them.
At that an urgent chirruping broke out among the Zarbi. Their leader wheeled, pointed at the venom grub whose snout covered Ian and Vicki.
The grub moved, turned, and slithered swiftly – towards Tardis .
The Zarbi gestured. The grub lifted its evil snout, pointing it directly at the ship’s doors.
Even through the distorting glass of the Dome covering his head, Doctor Who saw it. He lifted his head and shouted upward.
‘Listen to me! You must listen! I have not finished explaining...!’
Vicki caught at Ian’s arm. She screamed.
‘Ian! They are going to destroy the ship!’
Ian, staring, wrested himself free of the Zarbi who gripped his arms.
‘If they do, they might as well destroy us too!’
The Zarbi controlling the venom grub raised its foreclaw, and poised it to give the signal to fire.
CHAPTER THREE
Escape to Danger
The Dome encircling Doctor Who’s head rose suddenly and slid upward. The Doctor turned and saw more clearly what was about to happen to the ship. He saw Ian lunging desperately forward to prevent it.
‘Chesterton, get back! Back!’
Ian checked and suddenly pressed back against the wall with Vicki. The Doctor backed too.
The Zarbi flashed down its foreclaw, and the venom grub spat a streak of flame towards the ship’s hull.
They waited, horrified, expecting to see Tardis smoulder and burst into flame.
Instead, the venom grub kicked backwards suddenly, and overturned on its scaly armoured back. Its multiple legs threshed feebly, and as it did so, the Zarbi commanding it folded and collapsed slowly to the floor, its luminous eyes paling, its legs jerking convulsively.
Several Zarbi near their leader fell.
‘The venom-gun!’ Ian yelled. ‘It misfired — kicked back!’
‘Yes. Yes!’ Doctor Who was alight with excitement. He turned, fixing a triumphant stare on Ian and Vicki.
‘Remember when we were aboard that Dalek saucer?
Mm? The repellent magnets?’
‘Is... that what’s happened?’
‘Something of the sort,’ Doctor Who snapped. ‘Yes!’
Vicki was looking on fascinated at the Zarbi leader, still lying prone and threshing its steely limbs feebly.
‘Look... look at the one who fired the gun!’
The other Zarbi near the venom grub had raised themselves, chirruping agitatedly, and now bent to help their leader upright. It recovered, reared up, its head waving groggily this way and that. A fresh, furious burst of
humming came from the control panel. The Zarbi turned towards it, braced themselves visibly, and several of their number wheeled to advance on Doctor Who and his companions.
One of them had taken up several of the strange wishbone-shaped gold necklets and now held these pointed towards them. Vicki cringed back.
‘Doctor – don’t let them put those things on us!’
Doctor Who, trapped, looked around him as if searching for some means of escape, or of stalling the Zarbi. He looked up at the Dome and strode to stand beneath it. The Zarbi jailer came straight for Ian and Vicki. Before it reached them Ian acted. He kicked out at the guards closing on either side of him and hurled himself at the jailer holding a necklet poised at Vicki’s neck, ready to clamp it around her throat.
The Zarbi jailer lurched sideways, but immediately two of its companions were on Ian, gripping him fiercely, swaying this way and that with him as he wrestled violently to shield Vicki.
The jailer recovered his balance and moved