Doctor Who_ The Caves Of Androzani Part 15

Peri opened her eyes. 'Celery soup...'

'Come on, Peri,' said the Doctor urgently.

She smiled. 'h.e.l.lo, Doctor.'

'That's more like it.'

'Goodbye, Doctor,' said Peri faintly and closed her eyes.

'No, no, Peri, don't give up. You mustn't give up.'

Frantically the Doctor waved the crushed celery under her nose.

'What is that?' asked Jek curiously.

'Celery. It's a powerful restorative where I come from.

Unfortunately the human olfactory system is comparatively feeble.' The Doctor tossed the celery aside.

'You know of the cure that Professor Jackij discovered?'

'The milk of the queen bat? Of course! But the dormant queens cannot be reached, Doctor. There's little air in those levels.'

'It's her only chance. Do you know where the queens can be found?'

Jek strode to a console and punched up a computer map on a readout screen. 'Of course. When I first came here my androids surveyed and mapped the whole system. If only my Salateen android were here, I could send him down, possibly save her life.'

The Doctor was studying the map. 'I'm going down there. Now, show me the best route.'

Jek's finger-hand moved across the screen. 'The place you want is here, the great ravine. It's two hundred metres down, but you'll collapse before you get there.'

'I can store oxygen for several minutes, far longer than any human.' The Doctor went back to Peri. 'Meanwhile you must do everything you can to keep her temperature down until I get back.'

'Of course.'

The Doctor nodded and headed for the door.

'Wait, Doctor,' called Sharaz, Jek. 'I have just one oxygen cylinder left. I used it when I went into the baking chambers of the refinery. It will run out in minutes, but it may help.'

He took a little hand cylinder from a high shelf and held it out. You will need some kind of container...' He searched another shelf and found a small gla.s.s phial.

As he took the cylinder and the phial from Sharaz Jek's hand it occurred to the Doctor that it was strange how quickly their mutual concern for Peri's life had made them allies. It also occurred to him that if by some miracle he did save Peri's life, not to mention his own, he would have to kill Sharaz Jek in order to take Peri away from him.

Still, that was for the future if they had one. With a last look at Peri, the Doctor hurried from the workshop.

Scarcely aware that he had gone, Sharaz Jek hovered in anguish over the unconscious girl.

What was it the Doctor had said? Keep her cool, keep her temperatore down...

Ile had switched off the extractor fans before the attack to help safeguard the precise location of his HQ. There was no need for such caution now...

Hurrying to an instrument panel, Jek pulled a lever.

The motors hummed into life.

Jek hurried back to Peri. He crouched beside her, stroking her burning forehead with his scarred hand...

12.

Change Morgus and Stotz groped their way through the steam-fog that hung in the air of the caves after the mud burst.

Everything looked different, and it was hard for Stotz to get his bearings. He pointed to a ladder half buried in mud.

'I think this is cave twenty-six Yellow Level, where we met Jek.'

Suddenly he caught the glint of a silver uniform ahead.

'Duck!'

They crouched clown behind an angle of rock.

Stotz peered out. There were uniforms right enough, but the soldiers who wore them were dead, their bodies mingled with those of the shattered androids. He straightened up. 'Looks like the Army got here first.'

Morgus looked at the body-strewn cave without emotion. 'I didn't hear any firing.'

'I reckon the firing's over.'

'Where to now?' asked Morgus.

'Down to Blue Level. From there well, in these conditions, it's anybody's guess. But that's where Jek came from, so let's go.'

The Doctor had come across a body too, but it wasn't human, or even android.

He found what looked like an immense mud-covered boulder, half-blocking a narrow tunnel. Working his way around it, he suddenly realised that it wasn't a boulder at all, but the dead body of the magma creature. It must have been caught in the path of the stud burst and either choked or boiled to death. The monster's eyes were glazed and the mouth gaped open, showing rows of enormous, savage fangs.

A little hysterically, the Doctor patted the great horned head. 'It's not your lucky day either, is it:''

He hurried on his way.

Down on Blue Level, Stotz and :slorgus were lost. The fog and the darkness and the mud seemed to have transformed everything, and Stolz found that his memory of his one brief visit to Sharaz Jek's workroom was of little use to him.

'Which way?' demanded Morgus impatiently.

'I'm not sure...' There was a distant rumbling and Stotz c.o.c.ked his head uneasily. 'Come on, Morgus, we've got to get out of here. That main mud burst can't be far away.'

Morgus held up his hand. 'Listen, what is that''

Stotz listened. This time he heard not the rumble of the mud burst but a deep powerful hum.

He grinned savagely. 'Sounds like a motor - we must be close! Come on, Morgus. This way!'

The Doctor had reached the edge of the great ravine. Here at the lowest level of the caves was a deep underground chasm, its hobbling seething depths filled with the scalding magma.

There were ledges on the side of the ravine, and here in crannies and alcoves the great queen bats hung in their long hibernation.

It was very hot and the air was thin, almost too thin to breathe. The Doctor knew he had little time. Refreshing himself with a quick breath of oxygen, he clinibed over the edge of the ravine and began working his way downwards.

The surface was irregular and treacherous. There were hand-holds that crumbled, paths and ledges that disappeared...

It was a kind of vertical maze..

Slowly, inch by inch, the Doctor worked his way downwards, aware that at any moment one slip would plunge hint to his death in the scalding magma below.

At last he found what he was looking for. In a deep crevice in the rock lace an immense black shape hung upside down, leather wings wrapped about it like a great cape.

The Doctor studied the creature in astonishment. It was immense, over five feet long, and broad in proportion. The Doctor hoped it was thoroughly dormant. He felt too weak to wrestle with a normal bat, let alone one this size.

Edging his way into the cleft, he worked his way round to the front of the creature's body, feeling for the milk-glands on the thorax.

When he had located them, he took the gla.s.s phial from his pocket, removed the stopper and began squeezing the precious milky liquid into the container.

To his relief, the queen bat suffered his attentions, more or less unperturbed. A huge, glowing green eye opened for a moment and surveyed him unblinkingly.

The eye closed, and the queen bat slept on.

Gently the Doctor continued with his task.

There was just enough of the precious fluid to fill the little flask. Squeezing out the last few drops, the Doctor stoppered the phial and put it carefully in his pocket.

He took out Sharaz Jek's cylinder and refreshed himself with another quick burst of oxygen. This time the cylinder hissed for a few seconds and then expired.

Tossing it into the seething mud below, the Doctor gathered his energies for the long and dangerous climb to the top of the ravine...

Sharaz Jek hovered at Peri's side in a frenzy, wringing out fresh cloths to bathe her forehead, stroking her hair, holding her apparently lifeless hands.

'Peri,' he whispered. 'Peri, can you hear me?'

Her eyelids fluttered and she moaned faintly.

It was clear to Sharaz Jek that for all his efforts she was sinking ever deeper into a coma that could only end in her death..

Absorbed in his task, Sharaz Jek did not hear the door opening behind him.

Stotz and Morgus came into the room, machine-pistols in their hands. At the sight of Sharaz Jek, Stotz raised his weapon to fire, but Morgus knocked it aside.

Sensing movement behind him, Sharaz Jek whirled round, to find himself covered by Morgus's machine-pistol.

'Jek! Where is the spectrox?'

Only one person in the universe was more important to Sharaz Jek at that moment than Peri and that was his old enemy.

Sharaz Jek's eyes widened. 'Morgus!'

He took a pace towards him.

Morgus stepped back. 'Take one more step and we shoot.'

As far as Sharaz Jek was concerned, the machine-pistol in Morgus's hand could have been a flower or a fan.

'Do you think bullets could stop me?' he said softly.

Suddenly his voice rose to an impa.s.sioned shout. 'You stinking offal, Morgus look at me look at me!'

He reached up and pulled off his face-mask.

For a moment both Stotz and Morgus stared in horror at the two mad eyes blazing from a face that was no more than a formless blob, a lump of peeling corrugated skin, devoid of all features.

Then Sharaz Jek sprang, knocking Stotz to the ground.

He took hold of Morgus, seizing him by the throat. The gun fell from Morgus's hands as Sharaz Jek began throttling the life out of him.

Picking himself up, Stotz hovered around the edge of the struggle, looking for a clear shot at Jek.

Sharaz Jek bent Morgus backwards over a workbench, growling like a beast as his hands tightened on Morgus's throat. Setting his pistol to single-fire, Stotz took careful aim and pumped bullet after bullet into Sharaz Jek's back.

Suddenly there were more shots. Stotz staggered under some tremendous blow.

He turned and saw the Salateen android in the doorway.

Stotz stared wide-eyed as the android fired, again and again. Still not quite realising what was happening to him, Stotz crashed to the floor.

None of this distracted Sharaz Jek from his one overriding concern the strangling of Morgus. Ignoring his own terrible wounds, he squeezed the throat of his enemy until the body went limp in his hands.

Lifting the body high, Sharaz Jek hurled it into a bench packed with complex electronic equipment. The equipment exploded in flames and Morgus lay dead amidst the blaze.

Sharaz Jek staggered and turned.