Doctor Who_ The Zarbi - Bill Strutton [49]
‘It’s too late. We are committed to attack!’
‘Look!’ Barbara screamed, pointing out beyond their shelter. The shapes of the Zarbi now stood out on top of every rock fringing the plateau. The hills erupted with flashes as their venom-guns went into action and the Zarbi poured down to meet the invaders. The Menoptera crouched and fired at the oncoming hordes — but it was as if their electron combat-guns were harmless toys. Realizing this, some of the Menoptera threw their guns aside and backed for the shelter of the hills and rocks around the plateau. They ran and fell as the deadly murderous stings spat and smoked on their crumpled bodies. Others stood their ground and launched themselves barehanded with suicidal courage at the oncoming Zarbi.
Now the fighting was all about them. One Zarbi on a near-by crest paused and directed the sting of its creature into the sky. A Menoptera, flying in to land, crumpled suddenly and fell out of space like a plummet.
‘Look out!’
It was Hlynia who screamed the warning to Barbara and the others. A Zarbi had appeared on the crest of the rocks overlooking their own shelter and now with a gesture of its claw it summoned its sting grub.
They all saw the danger, and unarmed as they were, there was nothing for it but to turn and run. Alone, the Menoptera officer, Hilio, who had dropped to the ground from the crag and joined them, faced the sting-gun and levelled his own weapon. It spat harmlessly. He fired again, and again.
The ground erupted around him as the sting creature poised its snout and answered with a staccato flashing.
‘It’s useless!’ Hrostar yelled. He threw himself on Hilio and dragged him away. They turned and ran, heading around a corner of the rock and into a defile with the Zarbi and its sting grub slithering after them.
As they ran Barbara halted and stared ahead of them in dismay. She turned despairingly to the others as they panted towards her — Hlynia, Prapillus, Hrostar and Hilio. She pointed.
‘No exit!’
The others halted. Ahead of them rose sheer rock face.
‘We’ve run into a dead end!’
‘Are there no crevices leading off?’
Barbara turned and ran towards the rock face, casting about desperately for an escape. There was none. They were hemmed in by rock on all sides.
‘No...!’
There was a scuttling behind them. First the venom-gun slithered malignantly into sight round the, corner of the closed defile — and then its Zarbi master.
The sting grub poised, levelled its snout, aiming it at the group now huddled and backing hopelessly against the sheer rock wall.
The Zarbi, its great eyes glaring, raised a foreclaw, then brought it down.
The sting-gun fired.
CHAPTER FIVE
Invasion
As the murderous sting fired, the cornered party scattered wildly. The first flash hit the sheer rock face as Barbara sidled along it.
The wall smouldered — and moved.
Barbara wheeled, staring.
A great crack appeared in the rock — and it sprang apart, like the opening wings of a giant Menoptera, revealing a cavern inside. Barbara shrieked and pointed as the sting-gun flashed again and the ground beneath her feet burned and smoked.
‘Look — in here!’
The others turned, gaping, and plunged desperately through the opening. They tumbled inside the cavern as the venom-gun spat again and a huge chip of rock above Hrostar’s head broke off, smouldering, and fell.
Then, with a mighty grinding, the slabs of rock clashed down behind them.
Barbara and her Menoptera companions lay sprawled on the floor, safe for the moment, shielded by a great wall of rock, breathing heavily and not daring to question the great miracle which had spared them.
As they got their breath back they began to look around them. Hlynia was the first to recover.
Her eyes opened wide as she took in the sight which greeted her.
She pointed.
‘Look...!’ Hlynia breathed.
The web indicator on the great Zarbi control panel glowed and flashed as its lights reported the story of the ambush and the rout of the invading Menoptera.
The speakers below it hummed and buzzed triumphantly with the news