Doctor Who: The Doomsday Weapon (6 page)

'The other colonists in your group,' Winton insisted, again shaking the man, 'where are they?'

'All dead,' the man said. 'Every one of them... killed...'

Ashe and the Doctor walked slowly back to the Leeson' wrecked dome. The Doctor particularly wanted to see the damage again in daylight; and Ashe wanted to talk privately with the Doctor.

'What should I do?' asked Ashe.

'For the time being,' said the Doctor, 'try to keep an open mind.'

'After what that man Norton said?' Ashe was referring to the survivor from the other colony. He had not yet regained consciousness but they had found his name on a letter in his pocket. 'There's no hope for us.'

'How do you think Man first made out on Earth?' asked the Doctor. 'He had to fight sabre-toothed tigers, rampaging mammoths, diseases of all sorts. He survived.'

'But how many died in the struggle?' said Ashe. 'In the natural fight for survival, it's only a few who live through it. I've got to think about the lives of human beings, not a set of statistics.'

'Maybe I'll find out something here,' said the Doctor, indicating the dome that they had now reached. 'Anyway, we shall see.'

Ashe remained outside, staring blindly at Leeson's blood now dried on the rocky ground. The Doctor went into the dome, but he found himself with company, two Primitives were searching around among the wreckage. When they saw the Doctor they both immediately turned and drew long knives from their belts, raising them in defiance. With their painted bodies and faces, and bright yellow hair, they were a fearsome sight.

'I mean you no harm,' said the Doctor slowly and distinctly, not expecting them to understand, but hoping that the tone of his voice might put them at ease.

Then Ashe entered behind the Doctor. Immediately the Primitives lowered their knives. 'This is a friend,' said Ashe.

'Do they have a language of their own?' the Doctor asked.

'I've never heard them speak,' said Ashe. 'But they seem to understand what I say.' He spoke up loudly again, to address the Primitives. 'What have you taken?'

The Primitives didn't move.

Ashe held out his hand, palm up. 'Come on now, I know you've taken something. It's all right if I
give
you things, but you mustn't take them.'

One of the Primitives untied from his belt a leather pouch, opened it and brought out a domestic tin opener, which he put into Ache's hand.

'Is that all?' said Ashy

The other Primitive also had a pouch, and produced a hair brush for Ashe.

'More,' said Ashe.

The first Primitive dipped his six-fingered hand into his pouch again and produced a little packet of biscuits. He looked at the biscuits rather sadly, wetting his lips with his tongue as though enjoying the treat at least in his imagination, then made to put the packet into Ashe's hand. Ashe withdrew it. 'You can keep the food,' he said.

Both the Primitives bared their teeth and hissed loudly, a sign of pleasure.

'All right,' said Ashc, 'off with you now.'

The two Primitives raced out of the dome, still baring their teeth and hissing in ecstasy. Ashe watched after them, then turned back to the Doctor. 'I wonder how long they'll stay playful like that,' he said. 'Once they know we're beaten, they'll turn on ac'

'I don't think you really believe that,' said the Doctor. 'Anyway, you're not beaten yet.' The Doctor knelt down and started very carefully to re-examine the claw marks on the smashed kitchen table. Ashe watched him for a while.

'What do you hope to find there?' said Ashe.

'I don't know,' said the Doctor, 'until I've found it.'

'Well,' said Ashe, 'I'll leave you to it. I'll be at the main dome.'

Ashe went away, which was exactly what the Doctor wanted. He took a magnifying-glass from his pocket and inspected one claw mark in detail. The marks were too regular to be natural. The Doctor needed to put tiny scrapings of the clawed surface under a powerful miscroscope to learn more about the true nature of the claw, was it that of an animal, or something made to
look
like one? He did not with to carry a whole section of the smashed kitchen table with him back to the microscope which he had in the TARDIS, so he decided to cut out a claw mark. He inserted the blade of a very sharp little knife deep into the wood just at the side of one, at such an angle that the tip of the blade went under the mark. Then he sliced down the wood, and now repeated the process on the other side of the claw mark. Now he cut across the wood at the top and bottom of the gouged out line, so that finally he was able to lift out a sliver of wood which contained the claw mark. This he put into a test-tube, also taken from his capacious jacket pockets. Then he froze rigid.

With an earsplitting crash a hole was smashed through the wall of the dome at the back. Through it marched a metal robot, with arms, legs and head like those of a man. It made straight for the Doctor, its metal hands waving about in search of its prey. The Doctor stepped backwards. He stumbled over wrecked furniture and fell back heavily, banging his head against the dome's metal wall. The robot turned, seemingly attracted by the sound of the Doctor's fall, then continued forward again crushing the remains of the kitchen table with its huge metal feet. Just as a metal hand made contact with the Doctor's face, the robot stopped dead, lifeless, like a mechanical statue.

'You can get up now.'

From his position on the floor the Doctor couldn't see where the voice was coming from, but it was human and sounded fairly friendly. The Doctor struggled to his feet. A man had followed the robot into the dome, through the hole in the wall. He was a tough, hardbitten man, in his late thirties. He had on a sort of uniform jacket and matching tunic, basically black but piped with bright red. Across the left breast of the tunic was an oval of red piping, and inside that the letters IMC. In his hand was a very small remote-control unit, a little black box with buttons and a dial on it, obviously the control box for the robot.

'You ought to keep that thing under better control,' said the Doctor.

'Yes,' said the man. 'Sorry. It's only a Class Three Servo robot, not very bright.' He looked round the room. 'What happened?'

'Something,' said the Doctor, 'or someone attacked this place last night. May I ask who you are?'

' Caldwell 's the name,' he said, indicating the initials on his tunic with a grin. 'Interplanetary Mining Corporation. We're doing a mineral survey. Is this your place?'

'No,' said the Doctor. 'It belonged to two colonists.'

'Colonists?' said Caldwell , with surprise. 'Earth Control told us this planet was uninhabited.'

'Then Earth Control,' said the Doctor, 'whatever that is, is wrong. Presumably you'll move on to another planet for your survey.'

'That's not up to me,' said Caldwell 'They'll have to sort it out at Earth Control. According to our records this planet has been allocated for mining.' He grinned. 'Maybe you people chose the wrong planet! It's awful easy, once you're out in Space!'

'I rather doubt it,' said the Doctor. 'Now if you'll excuse me I have some work to do...'

The Doctor moved to leave, but Caldwell stepped right in front of him, still grinning. 'Look, I'm on the way back to my spaceship. How about coming back there with me?'

'Why?'

'Just trying to be friendly,' said Caldwell . 'Is there any thing wrong with a little hospitality? We could talk about who's made the big mistake - us or you.' Friendly as he seemed, Caldwell remained standing firmly between the Doctor and the door.

'I'm sorry,' said the Doctor, 'but I've got a great deal to do. And I really ought to tell the colonists that you've arrived here.'

'But they're going to know,' said Caldwell . 'There are no secrets between friends, and on a desolate place like this we've all
got
to be friends - or wouldn't you agree?'

As Caldwell spoke he touched one of the controls on the little black box. From behind him the Doctor could hear the robot move again, a manœuvre which brought it close to the Doctor's back.

'I suppose I could spare you a few minutes,' said the Doctor.

'Great,' said Caldwell , (lashing his boyish grin again. He gripped the Doctor's arm in a friendly way, led the Doctor to the door, then took a last look round at the shattered furniture. 'Something certainly made a job of wrecking this place. Good thing no one was hurt.'

'The two colonists who lived here,' the Doctor said, 'were killed.'

Caldwell released his grip on the Doctor's arm. 'Two people - killed?'

The Doctor noticed how shocked Caldwell was with the news of the deaths, almost as though Caldwell might have known the people who died. 'That's right,' he said, 'a man and his wife.'

Caldwell passed his hand over his brow. The boyish grin had vanished - he seemed totally deflated by this news. 'Well,' he murmured after a few seconds, 'the invitation still stands to come and see my people. They'll be glad to meet you. I've got a buggy outside.' With that, Caldwell walked out of the dome, apparently leaving the Doctor free now to follow or to go his own way. Whereas before the Doctor hadn't wanted to go with Caldwell, feeling it to be his first duty to tell Ashe about the arrival of an IMC survey team, now he was desperately keen to stick with Caldwell and try to find out why the news of the colonists' deaths had had such a marked effect on the man.

The Doctor left the dome. Outside stood a small electrically-powered vehicle rather like a bicycle with four wheels. Mounted on the chassis were four simple seating places. Caldwell was already sitting on one of the front seats before the steering wheel. The Doctor got on the seat beside him. Caldwell was staring straight ahead of him, as though still shocked by the news of the colonists' deaths.

'What about your robot?' the Doctor asked.

'What's that?' Caldwell turned to the Doctor. 'Oh yes, Charlie. I nearly forgot Charlie.' He pressed buttons on the little remote-control box. Within a moment the robot came walking out of the dome, and obediently climbed up and took its place on one of the back seats.

'Right,' said Caldwell , 'let's go.'

Caldwell drove in silence, apparently finding his way through reading a small compass built into the centre of the steering wheel. The Doctor soon realised that they were heading where he and Jo had left the TARDIS. 'How far are we going?' he asked the now silent Caldwell . The man grunted a reply to the effect that they only had a few kilometres to drive, but he didn't say how many. He drove in a dead straight line, up little hills and down into valleys, then up again. Nor did he make any effort to steer round the smaller boulders, the wheels of the buggy were made to bounce over almost any obstacle not larger than themselves. Eventually, the buggy was rolling down to where the Doctor and Jo had arrived. The TARDIS was gone.

'Will you stop, please,' asked the Doctor.

'My friends'll want to meet you,' Caldwell said, driving on.

'Afterwards,' said the Doctor. 'But there's something I want to check right here.' He put so much insistence into his voice that Caldwell stopped the buggy. The Doctor immediately dismounted and went to the spot where the TARDIS had materialised after its journey from Earth. He suspected the Time Lords were really in control when the TARDIS took off from UNIT Headquarters, had they now dematerialised the TARDIS, leaving both Jo and himself stranded on this desolate planet for ever?

'Hey', shouted Caldwell , 'if you're trying to run away, I can outpace you easily with the buggy!'

But the Doctor continued undeterred to the exact point where he had last seen the TARDIS. Caldwell started the buggy again, and turned it savagely to pursue the Doctor. But when Caldwell realised the Doctor wasn't running anywhere, but was simply studying a patch of ground, he slowed down the buggy and got off to join the Doctor.

'Not that I expected you to run away,' Caldwell said, with a suggestion of renewed friendship, of trying to make up for an understanding that he wasn't sure had ever existed, 'but.. well, what are you staring at the ground for?'

'I left something here,' the Doctor said, 'some very valuable equipment.'

'Yes?' Caldwell looked around the area. 'How big was it? What did it look like?'

'It was like a police...' But the Doctor thought better of it; Caldwell would never understand. 'It's a tall blue box,' - something caught his eye a little way off - 'and I've got a very good idea who's taken it!'

What caught his eye were drag marks in the dust - that and a few wisps of bright yellow hair on the ground. The Doctor hurried over to the marks, then looked up in the direction they were going. He could see now the trail of the dragged TARDIS stretching away in a dead straight line towards some hills a couple of miles across a flat plain.

'The Primitives,' he said to himself. 'Why should they want the TARDIS?'

'What's that?' said Caldwell , not understanding.

'I'm afraid I'll have to leave you,' said the Doctor, 'and find this missing equipment of mine.'

Caldwell , whose outward good spirits seemed to have returned, grabbed the Doctor's arm. He gave his most boyish grin. 'But we're going to miss you.' With his free hand, Caldwell operated the robot's remote-control. 'Charlie's not going to like it.'

The robot responded by carefully dismounting from the buggy. It lumbered across towards the Doctor, its metal hands groping in the air ahead of it.

'My grip's nice and friendly,' said Caldwell . 'But Charlie, sometimes he doesn't know his own strength.' By now the robot had come up to the Doctor. Caldwell pressed another button, and a metal hand encircled the Doctor's other arm.

'Couldn't you spare the time to have morning coffee with us,' said Caldwell , 'if only to make Charlie happy?'

'Kindly tell this metal moron to take its hand off me,' said the Doctor.

'Metal moron?' said Caldwell . 'Charlie isn't going to like that kind of talk.'