Free Doctor Who: The Rescue by Ian Marter Page A

around among Vicki’s rock and crystal specimens for a while, but quickly grew more and more impatient and even more conscious of her rumbling stomach. She went over to the exterior hatch and looked outside. There was no sign of Vicki. The evening felt suddenly much cooler so she stepped out of the hull and wandered about for a few minutes to enjoy the relief of fresher air. In awed astonishment she stared at the massive sphere and the giant cylinders belonging to the other sections of the wreck, amazed at the sheer size of the crashed spacecraft.
    She was just about to walk along to take a closer look at the spherical assembly, when she suddenly caught sight of Vicki dawdling along the rim of the crater with the heavy water containers slung over her shoulder. She waved to her, signalling that she would come and help, but Vicki appeared not to have seen her and stopped to pick up an unusual rock she had noticed.
    The next moment, the giant lumbering shape of the sand creature rose up the slope of the crater behind Vicki and bore down on her like a bulldozer. Barbara tried to yell a warning, but her dry throat produced nothing but a rasping croak.
    Then she remembered the Very pistol. She rushed into the hull and took the gun from the locker. With trembling fingers she loaded several of the big cartridges into the chamber and dashed back outside. In the distance she could see Vicki standing facing the advancing monster as if rooted to the spot. The hideous creature had lowered its head as if preparing to charge and trample its paralysed victim underfoot.
    ‘Vicki! Get down! Get down!’ Barbara screamed, aiming the pistol at the monster’s bellowing mouth.
    Vicki spun round to face her. ‘No, Barbara! No... No...
    No!’ she yelled, waving her arms frantically.
    But Barbara could not distinguish Vicki’s words amidst the creature’s strident bellowing. Steadying the gun with both hands, she squeezed the trigger button. The gun recoiled with a whiperack and a second later the monster’s head was engulfed in a gigantic incandescent fireball. The explosion threw Vicki onto her back and its ferocious white heat immediately turned the surrounding foliage into a roaring inferno. Barbara watched in horror. The creature’s death throes took several minutes, its colossal bulk thrashing and writhing and its lashing tail narrowly missing Vicki as it cracked rocks in two and carved great scars out of the sand.
    Vicki got slowly to her feet and gazed at the enormous smouldering toffee-like blob that had been the creature’s head. Then she picked up the water bottles and set off towards the wreck.
    Barbara stared at the modest-looking object in her hand, stunned by the effect it had produced. No Very pistol that she had heard of could have done anything remotely like it.
    Having successfully negotiated the buttress, the Doctor and Ian had gradually worked their way warily down the sloping, crumbling ledge towards the floor of the cavern, poised to react instantly should the hungry monster attack.
    But for some time now they had neither heard nor seen any sign of the creature. It had completely vanished.
    ‘Doctor, I think I can see daylight!’ Ian pointed to a faint smudge of light ahead of them.
    About twenty metres from the point where the ledge finally descended to the cave floor, it suddenly broadened out and they were able to twist round and walk normally down the slope instead of having to move sideways with their backs against the wall.
    Suddenly the Doctor stopped. ‘Chesterton, give me the torch!’ Ian handed it over and the Doctor shone the beam over a strange grooved panel in the rock shaped like a door.
    Thoughtfully he ran his fingers over the worn ornamentation carved in the rectangular panel, muttering to himself as though he recognised it. ‘This might well lead somewhere,’ he declared eventually.
    Ian peered at the weird hieroglyphic characters which resembled writing on an Egyptian frieze and