Free Doctor Who: The Zarbi by Bill Strutton Page B

fearfully.
    Vrestin straightened and turned. ‘If we do not contact our forces — it’s they who face destruction.’
    Vrestin switched on the box. Two small bulbs glowed into life at the ends of the antennae. A low hum sounded from the set. Vrestin turned a dial.
    ‘We must warn them of the power we found on this planet,’ he muttered. ‘And the weaponry which faces them.
    These Zarbi are organized in a way we could never have believed — if we hadn’t actually seen it...’
    He clicked on another switch and bent towards the speaker panel in the set while Zota stared anxiously towards the cave entrance. Vrestin began calling.
    ‘Pilot party to Menoptera invasion force. Calling Menoptera spearhead.’
    He flicked up a switch while he and Hrostar listened anxiously. Static speckled their reception, crackling harshly over the speaker, but otherwise there was no response.
    Vrestin frowned, flipped back the speaker switch, and repeated, ‘Pilot party to Menoptera invasion force. Urgent reconnaissance report. Acknowledge please.’
    They listened again. Hrostar shook his head doubtfully.
    ‘They are within reach of the enemy locators. They will not risk breaking communicator silence.’
    ‘They will,’ Vrestin declared. ‘They can bounce their signals to us off satellite Taron to mask their source.’ He repeated urgently into the speaker, ‘Menoptera spearhead!
    Acknowledge reception!’
    But only the familiar crackle of static answered them.
    Hrostar got up.
    ‘It’s no use. The cave is blanking off our transmission.’
    Vrestin rose too. ‘Yes,’ he muttered grimly. ‘We must send from the open.’
    They stared at each other, realizing what that meant.
    Operating a transmitter out in the open would invite certain discovery by the Zarbi. Vrestin looked towards the figures of Challis and Zota and wagged his head doubtfully over them.
    ‘We can only hope to get a message through before...’
    Vrestin did not finish the sentence. From the cave mouth came a sudden yell from Challis.
    ‘Vrestin! Hrostar — the Zarbi...!’
    Barbara stood at the entrance. A strange wishbone-shaped necklet encircled her throat. Her face was glazed and trance-like. On either side of her crowded the hated Zarbi, staring inward.
    Vrestin lunged for the transmitter and hurled it against the cave wall with a mighty sweep, smashing it. Zota and Challis were backing before the advancing Zarbi, who pointed, directing the dazed Barbara ahead of them like a shield. Challis darted and picked up a rock. He poised this to hurl it among the Zarbi crowding forward. One of the Zarbi gestured with its claw.
    A venom grub leaped forward with startling swiftness from between them. Its evil snout spat fire. Challis gave a high scream. The rock dropped from his hand and he reeled, clutching at his chest.
    He collapsed to the cave floor and rolled there, twitching feebly. Smoke began to issue from his body.
    Zota wheeled and shouted, ‘Captain Vrestin — run! Get away!’
    Vrestin, farther back in the cave, hesitated. There was nothing else for it. He turned and darted away, halted, spotting a side tunnel, charged towards it as the venom grub fired again. At that, Zota lunged for the venom grub with a raised spar — but the fire caught him. He whirled and fell, smoke rose from his face and body, and suddenly he was still.
    Barbara stared unseeingly at all this as though frozen into a statue.
    Wisely now, Hrostar stood stock still. A Zarbi pointed at him. Its claw signed for him to join Barbara. He bowed his head and obeyed.
    Several of the Zarbi moved forward, their claws making a scuttling noise on the floor of the cave as they headed for the smashed communicator and clustered around to examine its remains.
    Hrostar looked at Barbara. He saw the necklet around her throat. With an eye on the Zarbi he reached and pulled it off. For a moment, while he held it, his own eyes dulled and he stood motionless. Then the necklet dropped from his nerveless