Doctor Who_ The Zarbi - Bill Strutton [9]
Doctor Who was eyeing Ian stonily.
‘Cherterton, if this is your idea of a prank, because of that tie business, it’s a pretty childish one—’
‘I tell you, I saw something moving!’
‘In a pool of acid like that? Impossible! Come on!’
But Ian stood his ground, watching for further signs of life from the pool. Doctor Who flared impatiently.
‘We’ve left those girls alone in Tardis to find the source of this interference! I suggest we put our minds to that!’
Doctor Who moved off. Ian turned unwillingly away from the pool to follow him.
Then they both halted. Out of the stillness among the crags both of them heard a sound. It was a low throbbing, which rose quickly to a steady humming. The brittle crags took up the sound as it grew. The humming rose in pitch until it was echoing all around them. Now, as it swelled to deafening proportions, a high-pitched chirruping joined the sound and pierced their ears.
Both men stared around them tensely, listening. The noise was so shrilly intense now that it hurt their ears.
Yet not a thing around them moved.
The noise was everywhere. Inside Tardis’ control room Barbara had heard it, paused in her watch on the inspection screen, and stiffened. The sound boomed around her as if the control room had become one vast echo chamber.
Barbara backed towards the dormitory, slid the door aside to retreat from the sound, then with a glance towards the sleeping Vicki, changed her mind.
Vicki stirred in her sleep, and moaned.
Barbara closed the door on her and turned, trapped. The humming grew louder, speckled now with a high-pitched chirruping. She stared towards the screen in hopes of seeing the comforting figures of Ian and the Doctor in the distance, out among the crags on the planet, but the inspection window was black. Then something caught her eye.
The control table to the right of the ship’s doors moved
– visibly. A metal food canister on the table’s surface jumped – then fell back with a clatter. Its lid dislodged and fell on to the floor, spinning away into a corner and rolling to a stop.
The control table turned, slowly at first, then spun, violently. A ruler and several containers whirled off it on to the floor and scattered loudly.
Barbara gasped and instinctively moved to halt the table and gather the fallen containers – but she could not budge.
It felt as though her feet were suddenly glued to the floor.
She remained, back to the dormitory door, frozen now with fear.
As she stood there her arm jerked abruptly – out of her own control. She gave a little scream and tried to pull her hand back to her side but it remained immovable, pointing towards the ship’s exit doors.
A moan of terror died on her lips. She caught her breath quickly as, slowly, the ship’s doors slid open.
‘What... what’s happening?’ she whispered.
Beyond the doors she could see the shadowy crags and a pale gleam of light on the brittle ground of this strange planet.
The humming and the chirruping now rose to fever pitch, and with it Barbara’s face clouded slowly and her eyes grew blank.
Dully, like a sleepwalker, with her arm still held out before her, she began to move.
She took a reluctant step towards the door, then another. The gold of the Roman bracelet glittered on her outstretched arm. She moved on stiffly and did not even pause as she went out of the now open doors.
Without looking around her, and with her face now blank, empty of expression, Barbara stepped on out and walked dreamily forward into the gloom of the planet.
The ship’s doors whirred quietly and slid closed behind her.
As they did so the humming and the high-pitched chirruping which overlaid it faded. It seemed impossible to believe that such a total silence could follow such all-enveloping sounds. But now, as a container lid ceased spinning on the floor and settled after a final clatter, the control room was ghostly quiet. The control table had ceased spinning and stood solid and motionless.
In the dormitory Vicki had