Menagerie - Martin Day [56]
'Where to?' shouted Diseaeda as the walker picked up speed.
'I seem to remember that the town has a power station like the city's,' said Zoe.
'Power station?' asked Diseaeda. 'You must mean the generators. They're on the edge of town.'
'Why do you want to go there?' asked Raitak. 'Perhaps the heat from the furnaces will interfere with the thing's vision,'
said Zoe.
'And if it doesn't?'
'Then we'll have to ask it very kindly to go away.'
The Doctor was escorted to the meeting place of the Dugraq council, and he bowed slowly, as he had been instructed. He couldn't resist a smile as he recognized the rusted remains of a roundabout, on which sat eight of the little shrew-creatures. Each one was dressed in ornate robes and held some sort of staff. The Doctor's rescuer had slipped into the crowd that discretely surrounded the Dugraq council.
'Who are you?' asked one of the Dugraq leaders, his grizzled fur clearly a mark of some distinction.
'I am the Doctor.'
'Is that a "name" or a function?'
The Doctor side-stepped the question. 'I "function" as a traveller.'
'Well, Traveller,' said another councillor, 'what brings you to our little world? We are told that you were rescued from the Taculbain, but that the knights were already dead.'
'That's right,' said the Doctor. 'Iwas forced to help them.'
'The knights persist in looking for the menagerie,'
commented a sad figure towards the back.
'Then it exists?'
'In a sense,' said the grey Dugraq. 'Four races live here in the darkness.'
Another creature counted the names out on his claws. 'We Dugraqs are the arbiters of peace. The Taculbain are secretive and normally have no contact with the other races.'
The Doctor nodded. 'Yes, I was told that the Queen has been . . . kidnapped.'
'That's correct.' The Dugraq sighed. 'Oh, there is so much to tell you.' He tutted and then tapped his third finger. 'Then there are the Rocarbies. They are the boisterous children of our land. They cause trouble, but mean well.'
'Are they the ape creatures that have raided the town?'
'Yes. The magician has made some very rash promises.'
'Foolish man!' chorused a high-pitched voice. The Doctor assumed that Dugraq to be female.
'You see,' said the leader, 'for many centuries we were the only race to know of the world of light above our heads.
The Taculbain are scared of the light, and never ventured even close to the surface. The Rocarbies worship the Taculbain as gods.' He snorted. 'They live over there.' A finger stretched into the semi-darkness. It wasn't surprising after all this time below ground that the creatures' senses would be keener than the Doctor's. 'In order to access the tunnels that lead to the surface they would have to tread on hallowed ground.'
'And even the Rocarbies have some rules,' said the female leader. 'The Taculbain Queen encouraged the superstitions.
She was clever enough to realize that if the Rocarbies ever saw the Taculbain as mere mortal creatures — flesh and blood like themselves — then a war could break out. If the Rocarbies were to attack them then sheer weight of numbers might lead to the extinction of the Taculbain.'
'We were also quite happy for the Rocarbies not to discover the surface world,' added another Dugraq.
The Doctor nodded attentively, trying to take it all in.
'But there are so many tunnels,' said the pessimist.
'Sooner or later they were bound to discover a way to the surface that avoided the Taculbain.'
'We became worried,' said the leader. 'The status quo was fragile, but working. If the Rocarbies carried on breeding and expanding in numbers . . .'
'They would either swarm on to the surface or deeper into our world.' The speaker shivered slightly.
'So what did you do?' asked the Doctor.
'We have made occasional forays on to the surface world for as long as our legends are old. We decided to warn the