Doctor Who_ The Zarbi - Bill Strutton [29]
Immediately she stilled her struggling. Her face grew blank. Her eyes dulled. She slumped back against the wall.
Doctor Who saw it, and saw the Zarbi turned to close now on him, too. He lifted his head and yelled desperately up towards the dome.
‘Fool! Silencing us will achieve nothing! Nothing! It is more important that you know of the great secrets we have inside our ship!’ He waved towards Tardis. ‘You and your creatures dare not go inside! You cannot! Only we can tell you what it holds!’
Suddenly he choked, cut short, as a Zarbi, chirruping angrily, thrust a gold clamp around his neck. The Doctor staggered, stiffened.
Only Ian remained free, kicking like a madman. He lunged and sent one of his captors sprawling, then leaped to the Doctor’s side. He reached and snatched the necklet from Doctor Who’s neck, pulling it free.
But as Ian did so, he began to sway. He looked down dazedly, stupidly at the necklet he held, tried to drop it –
but slumped and fell to the floor, his hand still clutching it.
Doctor Who revived in time to see the Zarbi restore the stricken venom grub to its feet. At a gesture from one of them it now turned to cover Doctor Who and his party –
Vicki, slumped weakly against a wall, Ian lying feebly on the floor, his hand still holding a necklet – and himself.
The Zarbi ‘gunner’ raised a claw. At the same time its companion thrust a necklet towards Doctor Who.
‘Doctor – they’re going to shoot – at us!’
Doctor Who stood stiffly, helpless, waiting now for the
‘fire’ signal from the Zarbi. But its claw remained poised, and suddenly its eye was caught by a large light flashing from the control panel. The master light above the web indicators was glowing furiously off and on. The Zarbi manning the panel roused themselves, humming and chirruping excitedly.
At the same time the great Dome in the roof again began to descend. Doctor Who’s Zarbi guard lowered the trance-necklet, and instead pushed him towards the centre of the room, urging him towards the lowering dome.
Doctor Who shook his head, glaring back, and put up a hand. In deliberate defiance of the Zarbi he first took a pace towards Ian and Vicki, wrenched off their necklets and cast them hurriedly, with a gesture of contempt, at the Zarbi’s feet.
Ian came to himself dazedly, saw the venom grub with its vicious snout now harmlessly lowered, and noted the hum of activity around the glowing control panel.
‘Lucky they changed their minds!’ he muttered.
‘They didn’t!’ Doctor Who snapped. ‘These creatures have no mind to change! Something changed it for them.’
The Doctor nodded towards the descending Dome, and only now, at a further angry shove from his Zarbi guards, allowed himself to be hustled beneath it. The Dome closed down over his head.
Immediately the Voice within it boomed around him.
‘If your ship is proof against our weapons – remember, you are not-ot! Tell us the secret of your armour-our...!’
‘Impossible!’ The Doctor rapped back. ‘Who can tell why it withstood the fire of your... your gun creature, unless you tell me how it operates?’
The anger of the Voice which roared back around him dizzied the Doctor. ‘You have the insolence to demand our secrets – instead of yielding up your own!’
Doctor Who braced himself and thundered back.
‘Then do not ask me questions I cannot answer!’
On a plateau above the cave a faint movement showed.
Two waving feelers showed against the sky. Then the Menoptera Vrestin hauled himself into sight through a crevice in the ground.
He stared around him for a sign of the Zarbi party which had invaded the cave with a venom grub, killed his two comrades, and borne Hrostar and the earth girl Barbara away.
Vrestin listened. He could hear nothing. As he turned he saw a glow sweep across the ridge to his right. Staring cautiously about him he crouched low and ran dodging for the ridge. He threw himself flat upon it and peered down the other side.
He stared at the great sprawling