Doctor Who: The Zarbi (8 page)

The Zarbi confronting Doctor Who, apparently the leader of this swarm, gestured to the two men with a foreclaw in a unmistakable sign of command.

‘It wants us to move on. That’s clear enough anyway.’

Ian stood his ground sullenly. Doctor Who shouted impatiently, ‘For heaven’s sake, Chesterton, at least it will lead us to the ship!’

‘Even if it’s the last thing we ever see!’ Ian retorted, and as the Zarbi thrust him forward, he wrenched his hand wildly to be free and backed away. Immediately a fresh chorus of angry chirrups broke out and the Zarbi surrounding Ian closed in towards him.

Again Doctor Who shouted desperately, ‘No, my boy!

Save your energy for when we can use it!’

Ian glowered back and shrugged. He allowed himself to be led forward as his Zarbi captors pulled at his arms. He looked with loathing about him at the chirruping swarm, and muttered as Doctor Who came abreast of him, ‘You were right. These crawlies are nothing like the thing we saw back there, on the ground.’

Doctor Who nodded. ‘Quite. It’s all much different from what I expected...’

‘It could scarcely be worse,’ Ian snarled, and grimaced at the merciless tugging on his hands.

‘It’s the planet Vortis, all right, just the same.’

‘Did you expect this to happen too?’ Ian asked bitterly, and nodded about him at the rearing, shiny shapes of the Zarbi herding them towards the strange web building.

‘I didn’t choose to land on Vortis,’ the Doctor snapped.

‘But yes — one would expect to find the Zarbi here.’

‘Zarbi — is that what these things are called?’

Doctor Who nodded stiffly. ‘But what I didn’t expect was to find them... behaving like this...’

‘Then how? Were they supposed to scuttle away at the sight of
us
— or greet us with speeches of welcome and garlands of forget-me-nots?’

‘I meant,’ Doctor Who said coldly, ‘that I didn’t expect to find them acting with any organized intelligence at all, which is rather more than
you
are showing. Hm. Yes — it’s that which fascinates me...’

‘
Fascinates
you?’ Ian snorted. ‘It just gives me the creeps!’

Now there was movement everywhere. The crags which dotted their descent seemed to be alive as the shapes of more Zarbi emerged from them and joined the swarm which was hustling the Doctor and Ian down the rock-littered slope.

Out of the corner of his eye Ian saw something new and even stranger. A Zarbi scuttled into sight on top of a crag.

It pointed downward and waved a foreclaw in an oddly precise gesture of command.

In answer, something moved on the rock. It was a living thing, but not a Zarbi.

Ian caught at Doctor Who with his free hand pointed.

They both stared.

Something else was scuttling down the rock — an animal, and as the pulsing light from the web-building in the valley shone its ray towards them it lit the creature briefly.

It was like a giant wood grub, with more legs than a centipede beneath a rounded, scaly, armoured back — and an evil pointed snout.

‘What is it?’

‘A grub of sorts. But huge...’

‘And we thought this planet was deserted! It’s swarming with life! All of it horrible!’

Doctor Who was frowning, racking his mind to identify this new creature more precisely. ‘Larva... he muttered to himself. He looked again towards the grub-like creature and saw that, each time the Zarbi on the rock gestured, it changed its direction in obedience to the sign. Ian saw it too.

‘It’s that Zarbi that’s moving it about! Has he got it on some sort of string...?’

Doctor Who was looking intently. In his fascination he had halted.

‘No,’ he said. No... but you’re right. It’s being...

controlled.’

An angry chirrup rose from his Zarbi captor. With a wrench of a steely foreclaw it hustled the Doctor along so that the old man stumbled and nearly fell.

He marched on, looking backward, deep in thought.

‘There’s another!’ Ian said, pointing.

Another grub, its long sharp snout pointed directly down at them, moved faintly on a rock ledge above them.

Behind it was poised the feeler of a Zarbi. The foreclaw moved faintly against the sky, and as it did so the grub turned slightly, following Ian and Doctor Who with its snout as they passed on down the slope.

Doctor Who exclaimed suddenly, ‘I have it!’

‘What?’

‘Venom grubs! Let me see... — yes! That would fit.

But...’ The doctor wagged his head, puzzled.

‘.. venom?... you mean, those things are poisonous?’

‘I mean they lived on venom...’

‘Ugh!’ Ian said. ‘Charming!’

‘Well, as I recollect from my studies of the Isop Galaxy, they used to serve a very useful purpose. You saw that long proboscis?’

‘That snout, you mean. Wicked isn’t it? I shouldn’t like to get a jab from that!’

‘Neither did their enemies. You see, their hard shell made them impervious to attack themselves. If a poisonous creature attacked them, it couldn’t penetrate the shell. But with that snout, the venom grubs could pierce anything.

They would seek out their attacker’s poison sac, and impale it.’

‘You mean,
disembowel
them?’

‘No. Puncture them. Disarm them. By – drawing out their poison.’

‘Oh!’ Ian stared back with rather more interest.

‘But there’s something which puzzles me,’ Doctor Who said. He walked a few paces, submitting tamely to the hustling of his Zarbi captors.

‘I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s puzzled,’ Ian said savagely, glaring around him.

‘Well, it’s this,’ the Doctor said sombrely. ‘The venom grubs have changed their habits too.’

‘How?’

‘The Zarbi were once their natural enemies. Now they appear to have... tamed them. The question is – how the Zarbi tamed them... and what for?’

‘Not for household pets, I shouldn’t think,’ Ian said. ‘Venom grubs, eh? I’d rather keep a pet cobra.’

‘No,’ agreed Doctor Who. ‘Not for household pets.’

Now the glowing building with its writhing tentacles stretching far out over the land, loomed ahead of them with the great wheeling light at its apex. More chirruping broke out among the Zarbi as they shoved the two men towards an opening in the enormous web. The opening glowed more brightly than the mass of interlaced strands which almost covered it, and as they came closer, Ian and Doctor Who saw that the opening was in fact the mouth of a tunnel leading far inside.

They paused instinctively, awed by all this strangeness, and were shoved on into the tunnel. Ian stared around him. Even the concave walls of the tunnel were made of web, and as he looked, he saw it move, faintly but clearly.

Small globules swelled at the entrance to the tunnel. The globules expanded, broke into web patterns, and stretched outward, then solidified, extending the tunnel minutely as they did so.

‘Doctor – see that? That stuff is growing...!’

Doctor Who looked more closely. ‘Mm... yes – so I see.

Organic matter, I imagine – reproducing itself.’

‘But that’s fantastic!’

‘It happens on your own planet, remember.’

‘Among tiny forms of life, maybe,’ Ian retorted. ‘But not like this! This... building, whatever you call it, why – it’s enormous! Bigger, even, than it looked from the ridge!’

‘Quite. And... stretching out across the planet. How long has it taken to reach this size, I wonder? Mm? A hundred years?
Two
hundred?
More
?’

‘But why? What for? These Zarbi creatures can obviously live outside of it. What use is a web to them? It doesn’t seem built to
catch
anything, does it?’

Doctor Who sighed. ‘My dear boy, I wish I could answer all your questions. Unfortunately I’m as puzzled as you are.’

Now the Zarbi began heckling them with angry, impatient chirrupings, and those nearest roughly shoved the Doctor forward again. He turned testily, but as always kept his dignity.

‘Yes, all right – don’t push!’ Nevertheless, he stared with some misgiving inward, along the mysterious tunnel which seemed to taper to infinity. He summoned a jaunty cheerfulness.

‘Well, the key to it all is undoubtedly inside...

somewhere. Lead on, my boy.’

‘Tell me what else I can do!’ Ian growled. He gestured dismally ahead of them. ‘Come into my parlour – said the spider to the fly.’

Doctor Who stared and pondered that quotation grimly.

He braced himself and stepped forward into the tunnel.

Inside
Tardis
it was now absolutely still. Vicki remained frozen for a long time, gripping the control table, staring at the scanner screen. It was blank. She could not hear a sound.

Finally she ventured to turn.

She saw the exit doors were opened. She had not heard them. She could no longer stand the silence, the utter quiet after her turbulent, terrifying journey. She had at least to see where they now were. Cautiously she approached the door, and looked out.

She could see part of a huge webbed ceiling, the flat floor. The rest was screened by a partition wall.

As far as she could see the place was empty. Vicki took a timid step out of the ship, and halted. Only a silence answered her. She walked carefully forward, past the wall.

The police-box shape of
Tardis
stood in a huge room under a great webbed vault of a roof. A vast panel on one wall shone with strange controls. There were dials, buttons and flashing light patterns like nothing an earthly eye would recognize or understand.

Dominating these controls were two patterns.

The first was a completely circular web composed entirely of minute buttons of light. Only a portion of this web was illuminated.

Beside it was an enlarged segment of the same web – a wedge-shaped thirty-degree slice of it, similarly illuminated. Near its pointed apex a tiny cluster of lights blazed and twinkled. They were moving, converging on the pointed tip of the web segment.

Their movement was repeated on the smaller, complete web. There, a small single light inched slowly in along one segment of’the web towards the centre.

Vicki halted and gaped at it. The pattern of lights, converging on the centre of the web-plan, was the only thing which moved in the entire room. It drew her, fascinated, her fear forgotten, and she walked on into the centre of the huge room.

As she did so, a sound erupted suddenly and shattered the stillness – a piercing, concerted chirruping.

She turned in horror, her hands flying to her ears – and saw the Zarbi everywhere. Several of them scuttled out from behind
Tardis
and waited there, cutting off any chance of her running back into the ship.

Other Zarbi had appeared through webbed tunnel doors leading off from this room and now converged on her. At a few paces away they halted – and only one advanced, rearing on its hind legs, its eyes glowing down upon her.

Vicki screamed. She cowered and backed – but there was no retreat, for she was surrounded by these nightmarish creatures, whose faces she had first seen through the scanner.

She saw that the Zarbi now towering over her held an odd implement in its foreclaw. It glittered. It was shaped rather like a large wishbone, and it shone like gold. The Zarbi reached forward to her and she screamed again, shrinking back until she felt her arms seized in a vice-like hold from behind.

Now she was frozen with horror. The Zarbi facing her reached down with the wishbone-shaped implement towards her face, and though she wrenched her head desperately this way and that, it snapped the open end of the wishbone around her throat, like a necklet.

With that, Vicki’s struggling, her screaming, the agonizing fear she felt, all faded.

Her eyes took on a glazed expression and her face relaxed into a dullness as though she were hypnotized. Her arms dropped and she stood motionless.

Now the leading Zarbi held up its claw, pointing at her, then moved its foreleg till it pointed to the inner wall.

Slowly in exact obedience to its gesture, Vicki turned and walked dazedly to the wall. She halted and stood there, blank faced, apparently unseeing.

Now the Zarbi gave their attention to
Tardis
as their leader turned its great luminous eyes on the ship. It scuttled forward. The other Zarbi moved back to make way. At the door of the ship the Zarbi halted, and another Zarbi detached itself from the swarm in the control room to join it.

Together they peered inside. A chirrup of surprise escaped the leader. It moved forward for a closer inspection, ready to climb inside, and rested its foreclaw against the ship’s hull.

As it did so, a spark crackled and flashed between the hull and its claw. With a loud, high-pitched shriek, the Zarbi leader pitched backward, hurled from the ship’s door, and collapsed sprawling on the floor, its legs waving feebly, the luminous glare in its eyes blinking and fading.

Slowly, dazed, it scrambled to its feet, and pulling at its companion, it scuttled in retreat from the ship’s doors.

A high-pitched whistle came from the control wall and the Zarbi turned. The cluster of lights which had been inching forward now reached the centre of the web pattern, which flashed a bright winking light signal.

The Zarbi leader motioned and turned towards the doorway of a tunnel leading into the room.

On the threshold stood Doctor Who and Ian. Behind them in the tunnel their Zarbi escorts swarmed. Prodded forward by their captors, Ian and the Doctor stumbled, staring about them, into the control room.

Ian turned, saw the ship — then Vicki.

‘Vicki!’

Vicki remained impassive, blank, unseeing. Ian strode across, ignoring the Zarbi now, and grabbed Vicki by the shoulders, staring at her.

‘What’s the matter? Vicki — what have they done?’

She gave no answer, staring through and past him. He shook her, then saw the wishbone-shaped necklet around her throat. He snatched at this and dropped it on the floor.

As he did so, Vicki blinked. Life and awareness returned,