Doctor Who_ The Zarbi - Bill Strutton [48]
‘I am Vrestin, a leader of the Menoptera. You are our kin! We come to rid this planet of a creature which has it in its grip!’
‘and we need your help!’ Ian added.
There was an abrupt rustle, a great swish of sound.
Hetra, Nemini and all their fellow creatures were now staring past Ian in fascination and awe.
He turned. He saw that Vrestin now stood before them with his arms outflung and his magnificent wings unfolded, stretched to their full magnificent beauty for the first time.
At this rich and inspiring sight, some of their guards had staggered back and were standing with their heads hung – bowing before the Menoptera leader in his gaudy splendour.
A long winding climb among rough and little-used paths had brought Barbara, Hrostar, Hlynia and her father Prapillus out of the Crater of Needles at its northern tip until they could pause, crouched and breathless, in the shelter of a circle of rocks, and survey the tableland that now came into view.
‘The Sayo Plateau,’ Hlynia whispered, pointing.
They waited, scanning the sky anxiously, listening for any sound.
The satellites hung above the horizon, glowing, motionless against the pale vault of space. The silence was complete. There was not even the remotest sound of Zarbi in the area.
‘I... can’t hear a thing,’ Barbara said. ‘Surely the Zarbi—’
‘—Listen!’ Hrostar commanded them sharply.
They halted, straining their ears – and then they heard it. A great swooping sound planed over their heads. They turned their eyes quickly in the direction from which it came.
Hrostar stiffened. ‘They’re landing!’ he exclaimed.
Barbara wheeled towards the exit from their rock shelter and called, ‘Let’s get on to the plateau – we’ll stand a better chance of warning them from there...’
The others moved quickly to follow her. As they did so a mighty beating of wings sounded all around them – like the passage of a great swarm of huge birds. As Barbara looked up, she saw the shadowy shapes of Menoptera planing down, running to a halt before them on the plateau, and turning this way and that, questing where to go.
Right in front of her a Menoptera dropped out of the sky. It saw Barbara and brought up its gun. She ran towards it stumbling over the wavy ground. As she halted to call a greeting, she froze. A great humming and chirruping had broken out all around them. There was a sheet of flame and the Menoptera facing her only a few paces ahead spun around and crumpled, his body smoking from the deadly jet of a sting-gun.
As Barbara and Hrostar turned to look wildly this way and that they saw the shapes of the Zarbi creeping over the hillocks, bordering the plateau, guiding their sting grubs like so many avenging hunting dogs. As the first jets of venom burst among the descending fighters, the Menoptera swooping to land on the plateau flattened themselves in a desperate search for cover and levelled their own guns.
The blast of a Zarbi gun seared Barbara’s ears and a Menoptera running towards their shelter screamed. Now the Zarbi fire crackled and flashed all around them, and Barbara, Hlynia and Prapillus could only press themselves back into the shadow of their rock shelter and watch the battle out on the plateau in horror.
‘An ambush!’ Barbara breathed.
‘I must help them!’ Hrostar yelled and plunged towards his newly arrived comrades. Barbara clutched at him and held on desperately, shouting, ‘You will only get yourself killed! You haven’t even a gun! You can do nothing!’
A swoop sounded above them. They looked up and the figure of a Menoptera alighted on a crag, staring down at Barbara and the others. Hrostar sighted it and cried,
‘Spearhead!’
The figure levelled a gun and rapped back.
‘Codeword?’
‘Electron!’ Hrostar answered.
The Menoptera officer surveyed them, stared about him.
‘Where is your pilot party?’
‘Destroyed!’ Hrostar shouted back. ‘Your force — get it off the plateau!’
The Menoptera astride the crag glared grimly towards the fighting. ‘Why?’ he demanded.
‘Our combat weapons are useless. The Zarbi have our rendezvous. Disperse the spearhead, or they