Dr. Who Target 078 Earthshock # Ian Marter

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ride.’
Briggs shoved the Doctor aside and dropped heavily
into her command seat. ‘Ringway,’ she snapped into the
intercom, keeping her eyes closely on the Doctor, ‘position
your squad along the first level. Make sure that whatever’s
down there stays there.’
‘Yes, Captain,’ Ringway answered smartly.
‘I have no reason to believe your fairy tales,’ Briggs told
the Doctor.
The Doctor had completely crushed his hat between his
hands in his anxiety. He glanced helplessly at Adric and at
Berger for support. ‘Then at least believe your own
instruments!’ he finally yelled in exasperation.
Briggs leaned intently over her command panel. ‘We go
on...’ she said firmly.
Ever since the departure of the Doctor and Adric, the
atmosphere in the TARDIS had grown steadily more tense.
In the oppressive silence, Tegan and Professor Kyle were
gazing apprehensively at the vague shadowy images on the
viewer screen. Scott was pacing around like a caged animal,
and the troopers were hanging restlessly about, desperate
to get to grips with the enemy — whatever it might be.
Nyssa had been fiddling at the console for some time,
biting her lip and frowning at strange readings on the
instrument panels.
Eventually Scott could contain himself no longer. ‘I
think we’ve waited long enough,’ he said, checking his
watch.
‘I agree. Something must have happened to them,’ the
Professor murmured.
Nyssa looked up sharply. ‘My instinct is to wait,’ she
objected.
‘Why? They’ve been gone ages,’ Tegan protested.
‘I’m as concerned as you are,’ Nyssa replied, ‘but things
do not feel right out there.’
‘Is the magnetic field still increasing?’ Kyle asked.
Nyssa shook her head. ‘It’s reducing now, but it’s still
massive.’
They all stared at the mysterious shadows on the viewer.
‘Could it hurt them?’ Tegan asked quietly.
Nyssa looked very worried. ‘I can’t tell without knowing
what is causing it,’ she said. ‘We shall just have to wait
until it stabilises.’
Reluctantly they waited. Time dragged by and still the
screen showed nothing but deep, jagged shadows. At last
even Nyssa could bear it no longer. ‘The field is much
weaker now. It might be safe now...’ she said uncertainly.
Immediately Scott and his squad snatched up their
equipment and stood poised for action, while Nyssa
completed a final check.
‘I want to come with you!’ Tegan suddenly blurted out,
grasping the Lieutenant’s arm.
Scott shook his head firmly. ‘It’s going to be very rough,
young lady,’ he told her rather patronisingly.
Tegan’s chin promptly jutted defiantly forward. ‘I think
I’d find it rougher waiting around in here,’ she retorted.
She swung round on a startled Professor Kyle. ‘Lend me
your overalls, Professor,’ she ordered cheekily.
‘But you’re not trained for combat...’ Scott started to
protest.
‘Knowing my friends are in danger is all the training I
need!’ Tegan snapped, grabbing the Professor’s arm and
leading her towards an interior door.
Nyssa looked up from her calculations. ‘I shouldn’t
bother to argue, Lieutenant,’ she advised as the door closed
behind them.
While Tegan and Professor Kyle were changing, Scott
took one of the troopers’ radios and placed it on the
console. ‘If the Doctor returns, call me at once,’ he told
Nyssa. ‘I don’t want to be out there any longer than
necessary.’
A moment later, the interior door flew open and Tegan
strode in wearing Professor Kyle’s rather too-large overalls
and boots. Despite the tense atmosphere, Nyssa found
herself suppressing a strong urge to shriek with laughter.
Scott just stared open-mouthed as Tegan picked up a spare
laser tube dropped by a dead trooper in the cavern earlier.
‘Right,’ Tegan cried, striding to the exterior door. ‘Let’s
march...’
Ringway and his small squad of crew members had hastily
constructed a rough barricade of crates and drums around
the top of the steel stairway leading down from the bridge
level to the floor of the main hold. While they worked,
they kept glancing down into the silent shadowy labyrinth
below the walkway, but so far nothing had stirred among
the dark cold canyons between the massive silos.
Then all at once, a noise like the savage screeching of
some gigantic primitive bird ripped through the ominous
stillness. The crew froze as the sound of violently tearing
and twisting metal reached an echoing climax and then
abruptly ceased.
‘To your positions,’ Ringway hissed. The terrified squad
scrambled for cover and waited, their lasers whirring in
their trembling hands.
For a moment there was silence. Then a dull, rhythmic
beating sound began far down the length of the vast hold.
It was accompanied by a low hissing, like the distant
breathing of some monstrous animal. The sounds grew
relentlessly nearer and nearer, and became more like the
working of a vast bellows or some ancient steam engine.
One or two of the squad glanced round as if seeking
instructions from Ringway — but he was nowhere to be
seen.
The crew members stared open-mouthed as a phalanx of
silver figures suddenly came into view from the far end of
the hold, marching inexorably towards them like a
machine. In the midst of the group towered the
Cyberleader, its huge head glinting in the shafts of light
between the silos. Each Cyberman held its weapon levelled
like a stubby cluster of short tubes...
Eventually one of the crew members fired his laser. The
lethal, pencil-thin beam of energy shot down the corridor
between the silos and into the advancing enemy. A few
sparks crackled off the armoured silver carapaces.
Otherwise the laser had no effect. In sudden panic, all the
crew members fired at the strange, robotic creatures.
Showers of sparks flew all round the Cybermen, but still
they approached unharmed, their empty eyes fixed
hypnotically on the barricade above them. The air was
filled with the repeated whining of the useless lasers and
the spectacular blaze of sparks.
When the Cybermen reached the bottom of the
stairway, a fusillade of sickening, invisible bursts thudded
out of the ends of their blunt-nosed weapons. Beseiged
crew members and bits of barricade were hurled in all
directions like leaves in a sudden gust of wind. Still firing
their lasers, the surviving defenders desperately tried to
retreat towards the bridge as the Cybermen began to climb
slowly up the stairway. Burst after burst from the attackers
sent more and more of them reeling, their bodies pulped by
ultrasonic waves.
When the Cybermen reached the remains of the
barricade, they simply marched through it, trampling the
heavy steel drums and crates like matchwood...
Scott, Tegan and the troopers had been creeping cautiously
among the silos, searching anxiously for the Doctor and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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