Doctor Who_ The Zarbi - Bill Strutton [4]
whirring faltered. Barbara and Vicki stared at each other in dismay.
A new sound now rose over the faltering of the ship’s machinery – a high-pitched humming, speckled with a loud chirruping, and as it grew in volume Vicki screamed.
She covered her ears and shut her eyes tightly against the pain of it. Barbara, too, gasped and clutched her temples, pressing her own ears to keep out its piercing, knife-sharp insistence.
Suddenly the whole ship lurched to one side. Ian and the Doctor grabbed at the control table to steady themselves, but the sudden jolt caught Vicki, who reeled away and fell sprawling on the floor where she lay writhing and moaning, still clasping her ears.
The shock hurled Barbara across the floor in the direction of the scanner. Now the ship settled and was still.
She looked up. The scanner screen was again a mass of dazzling interference, the blobs of light speckling and bursting on it like millions of exploding lamps As suddenly as it started, the humming with its overlay of shrill chirruping faded again. The crackling of interference on the scanner ceased. The motors, too, faltered finally and were still.
All was quiet again – uncannily quiet, now.
Ian released his grip on the control table and looked around him.
‘That noise – I heard it too this time! Did you?’
‘Yes,’ Barbara said. ‘I certainly did.’ She took her hands from her ears wonderingly.
Doctor Who did not answer. He was furiously busy now, trying the motor switches. With a gesture of disgust he slammed the control table with his hand.
‘No use! The response is nil.’
Barbara was looking up at the scanner... It had cleared completely of interference now, and its neighbouring inspection window now showed the planet’s terrain surrounding them clearly.
Suddenly she cried, ‘Ian, Doctor – look!’
Ian joined her, staring up at the inspection window.
Doctor Who, with a final glance at his controls, followed.
‘Well?’ Ian said.
‘I saw a light – out there. It came from behind one of those crags.’
Ian stared more closely. He shook his head unbelievingly. ‘Where? I can’t see anything.’
‘I tell you, I saw it flash! It came from the top of that crag on the extreme left of the scanner!’
There was a pause while both Ian and Doctor Who studied the window. Finally Ian said ‘Well it’s not there now.’
‘I can see it isn’t – now!’ Barbara said sharply. ‘But I saw it!’
Doctor Who put up a soothing hand. ‘All right, all right, no need for us to snap at each other.’
‘Very well, but...’
‘... what you saw, my dear’, Doctor Who said gently,
‘was most probably cosmic interference. The picture broke up.’
‘But the screen was clear when it happened. The landmark were distinctly visible. I’m... almost sure...’
Ian had turned away. He saw Vicki still sprawled on the floor, but rising feebly on one elbow now, dazed and a little tearful as her senses returned. He moved swiftly over to her, knelt, and gently helped her up. Vicki was wide-eyed now, a memory returning of the awful sound she had heard.
‘It’s... gone again...’ she whispered.
Barbara came and helped Ian with her. She put an arm around Vicki and nodded towards the dormitory section.
‘Yes, it’s all right now, Vicki. I think you’d better have a lie down.’
Barbara slid open the dormitory section door and Vicki allowed herself to be led towards her bunk.
Ian turned to Doctor Who. He spared a glance for the dead landscape showing in the inspection window and looked at the control dials, now all wavering near their zero marks. Ian tried to sound light-hearted but he couldn’t keep the grimness out of the look he passed to the Doctor.
‘There is some force, then — out there.’ He waved at the scanner. ‘And we’re stuck with it.’
Doctor Who pondered the scanner, straightened, and said briskly, ‘Nothing for it, my boy, but to explore this place. Determine what this, um, interference is, and —
how to counteract it.’
Ian sighed gloomily. From the sight of the planet on the screen, the prospect was not attractive. He nodded. ‘Be right with you — I’ll just tell the girls.’