Doctor Who_ The Zarbi - Bill Strutton [42]
Barbara had an idea. ‘Then we must get to the plateau...
intercept them... warn them...!’
Prapillus nodded. ‘Exactly.’
Hrostar pointed outside. ‘But there is a sting-gun pointed straight at this door. Powerful enough to kill everyone in this hut, the moment we make a move!’
‘I’m aware of that,’ Prapillus said impatiently.
Hlynia was staring outside towards the crater rim. She turned back. ‘But they have taken most of the Zarbi from this outpost.’
‘Which leaves this crater undermanned, with only a few guards!’ Barbara said. ‘Hrostar — we’ve got to distract the Zarbi who are left... draw them away... and escape!’
Hrostar was pondering the venom grub pointing immovably at their hut door. ‘If only we could destroy that sting!’ he exclaimed.
Prapillus nodded. ‘I may do that’, he said simply.
The others stared. ‘You... how?’ Hrostar said.
The old man tapped his head wisely and smiled. He moved towards the back of the hut and began to move their stored food supply — crude jars of preserved nectar, roots, piles of dried nuts — from the shelves.
‘I know the Zarbi,’ Prapillus grunted. ‘I have studied their habits all my life. They are not our natural enemies. It is the thing which controls them which we must destroy.
Without it, the Zarbi are useless... powerless. Come, help me...’
And Prapillus began to break a hole in the side of the hut.
As he worked he called Hrostar to his side.
‘Place some of my people near the front of the hut. Tell them to act naturally, take no notice of what we are doing.
We do not want the Zarbi to suspect anything.’
Hrostar did as he was asked, silently marshalling others in the hut nearer to the door. Prapillus motioned to those nearest him to help with the hole. Soon they had torn a cavity big enough to crawl through.
The old man cocked an ear towards the distant sounds of chirruping. He bent double and prepared to crawl through the hole, then paused. He turned to Hrostar, Hlynia and Barbara, and his eyes twinkled.
‘Do not be surprised at anything you hear,’ he said.
‘Watch the sting grub — and wait your chance.’
‘But, Father...!’
‘Do not worry for me, Hlynia, child. I may be a little short of breath, but not of brains.’
The old Menoptera touched his daughter’s hand and disappeared through the hole in the wall. Hrostar stared through it and watched him go. Then he straightened.
‘He’s disappeared out of sight,’ he said. But he continued to watch.
The Zarbi manning the sting grub suddenly turned its huge sleek head. It had heard a crackle, like something falling among the stalagmites away to the right — and it fixed its shining stare on a shape flitting among them.
Swiftly the Zarbi raised a pointing foreclaw and the murderous sting of the venom grub swivelled to follow it.
The shape disappeared.
Prapillus dodged nimbly and crouched low among the stalagmite needles. He waited, then cupped his hands to his mouth.
A high-pitched chirruping sounded, uncannily like the language of the Zarbi.
The Zarbi guard manning the sting grub started at the sound. It left the sting motionless and scuttled a few paces forward towards the stalagmites. The chirruping sounded again, ahead of the Zarbi, and it answered on a questioning note, expecting to see a comrade detach itself from among the rocks.
Inside the hut Hrostar was now staring out of the doorway. He turned back to the others.
‘It’s left the sting – now’s our chance!’
He moved swiftly to the shelf-like bunks and took down a handful of spars.
‘What can we do?’ Barbara asked.
‘Help me destroy it!’ Hrostar handed around the slender. but heavy lumps of stalagmite.
‘Destroy it? Couldn’t we control it – use it ourselves?’
Hrostar shook his head. ‘Only the Zarbi can control and fire those beasts.’ He strode to the door, looked out. He motioned to his companions and muttered, ‘Get ready – I’ll give the command...!’
Again, crouched in his hiding-place among the stalagmite needles, Prapillus cupped his hands and
chirruped. He watched the Zarbi guard approach, head questing this