DOCTOR WHO AND THE HORROR OF FANG ROCK

by Terrance Dicks

  'Oh, was that the reason?' drawled Skinsale.

  'I'm afraid you've no chance of getting to London tonight,' said the Doctor firmly. 'Not in this fog.'

  Skinsale gave a sudden bark of laughter. 'The wheel of fortune, eh, Henry? Perhaps you didn't win all you thought at the Casino.'

  Leela kept watch while Vince shovelled coal into the boiler. As he flung on the last shovel of coal she said, 'Listen! '

  'What? I can't hear nothing..

  'Something is dragging over the rocks towards us!'

  'Ben?' whispered Vince fearfully. 'He be coming back. Corning back for me!'

  Leela grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. 'Go and tell the Doctor. Call him from the room before you tell him, and don't let the others hear. Give me that!'

  Leela took the shovel from Vince's hands and gave him a push. As he fled, she took up her position behind the outer door, shovel raised like an axe.

  The dragging sound was very near now. Slowly the door started to open...

  5

  Return of the Dead

  The door creaked slowly open and a massive shape appeared in the doorway. It backed into the room, dragging a heavy burden, wrapped up in an old tarpaulin.

  Leela put the cold metal of the shovel against its neck. 'Don't move!'

  The figure swung round, revealing itself to be a massive barrel-chested man in a blue seaman's jersey. Leela backed away, shovel raised to strike. 'I said don't move! '

  'It's all right, Leela,' said the Doctor's voice behind her. 'This one's a friend—aren't you Harker?'

  The big seaman gave a puzzled nod. 'That's right, sir. I was delayed, d'ye see. I found this.' He pulled back the tarpaulin.

  The Doctor looked at the mangled shape at Harker's feet. 'Poor wretch.'

  Leela came forward. 'What is it, Doctor?'

  'All that's left of poor Ben, I'm afraid. Where did you find him, Harker?'

  'In the sea, sir. Came drifting in when I moored the boat.' He looked down at the body, then looked hurriedly away. 'Terrible what the sea can do to a man...'

  'It wasn't the sea that did that.' The Doctor paused. 'Harker, there's hot soup waiting in the crew room. It's just up those stairs. The others are already there.'

  'Aye, aye, sir,' said Harker obediently, and went off.

  The Doctor pulled the body away from the door and closed it. He covered it over again with the tarpaulin.

  Leela was no stranger to violent death, but even she was glad to see the body covered up. 'Do you think the Beast attacked him, Doctor?'

  'What Beast?'

  'The Beast of Fang Rock.'

  'No such animal—not in the way Reuben means.' 'Reuben said there was.'

  'Leela, the people who live in these parts have been fisher folk for generations. They're almost as primitive and superstition-riddled as your lot!'

  Leela wasn't convinced. 'Reuben's story about those men... Two dead, one mad.'

  'One man kills the other in a brawl, jumps in the sea in a fit of remorse. Third man spends weeks with a corpse for company and goes out of his mind.'

  'All right, then, what about this body? What about those—marks?'

  'Post mortem,' said the Doctor briefly. 'Something wanted to make a detailed study of human anatomy. That's why it took Ben's body.'

  Vince's voice came down the stairs. 'Doctor? Are you there?'

  'Quick,' said the Doctor. They wrapped the body securely in its tarpaulin and thrust it into a corner. Vince came in and looked apprehensively at Leela. 'That noise... Did you find out what it was?'

  'It was only the seaman, returning from the boat,' said the Doctor.

  'But the dragging sound?'

  Before the Doctor could stop her Leela said, 'He was bringing back Ben's body. He found it floating in the sea.'

  Vince gasped. 'So he did walk! It's true what Reuben said..

  'Stop that, Vince,' said Leela sharply. 'I have told you, the dead don't walk.'

  Vince gave the Doctor an agonised look. 'But you said he was dead. How did he get in the sea?'

  The Doctor made his voice calm and reassuring. 'Obviously I was too hasty, Vince. Massive electric shock can produce a death-like coma. Poor Ben recovered consciousness, staggered out on to the rocks, fell into the sea and was finally drowned.' Vince stared at him unbelievingly. 'Time you got on with your work,' said the Doctor briskly. 'There's nothing supernatural happening—just a tragic accident.'

  'He wasn't breathing when I saw him, that I'll swear.'

  'I told you, he was in a coma. Electricity has strange effects, you know.'

  Vince nodded slowly. 'Yes, I suppose it must have been the electricity. Sorry, Doctor, I reckon I made a bit of a fool of myself.'

  He turned and went slowly away.

  When he was out of earshot, Leela whispered, 'Why didn't you tell him the truth?'

  The Doctor stared broodingly at the tarpaulin-covered body. 'Because I don't know what the truth is—yet! '

  Harker sat silently by the stove, his big hands clasped round a steaming mug of soup. 'You moored the boat securely?' demanded Palmerdale.

  Harker looked up at him and nodded, but didn't speak.

  'Good. When you're rested we'll make for the mainland.'

  Skinsale said, 'Are you mad, Henry?'

  'I've made up my mind. It's the only way.'

  'But it's out of the question. Good Lord, in a fog like this..

  'It can't he more than five or six miles,' said Palmerdale impatiently. 'No trouble at all to a seaman like Harker here.'

  Skinsale threw up his hands in despair and turned to the girl. 'Reason with him, Adelaide. Perhaps you can make him see sense.'

  Before Adelaide could speak Palmerdale shouted, 'You two can come with me, or you can stay here, just as you wish. My mind is made up.'

  Harker slammed his mug down on the table. 'And so's mine. I'm not taking a boat out in this.'

  Palmerdale stared at him as though a chair or a table had suddenly found a voice. He took it for granted that the lower orders did as they were told. 'What did you say, Harker?'

  'I'll take no boat out, not after what I've seen tonight. And that's flat.'

  'Damn your insolence,' spluttered Palmerdale. 'You're my employee, and you'll obey my order.'

  'Will I?' Harker turned away and spat into the stove.

  Skinsale chuckled. 'Hang him from the yard arm, Henry. This is mutiny!'

  Abandoning Harker for the moment, Palmerdale turned to a different grievance. 'As I see it, the accident was entirely due to inefficiency on the part of the lighthouse service. So they have the responsibility of seeing I reach the mainland.'

  'That won't wash, old chap,' said Skinsale scorn-fully. 'You can't possibly expect the lighthouse people—'

  Adelaide joined in to support her employer. 'His lordship is quite right,' she said primly. 'If the light had been working...'

  'We'd still have struck the rocks, at the speed we were going,' said Skinsale.

  Harker looked up from the fire. 'You're right there, sir. We should have been going dead slow in them conditions. And it weren't the Captain's fault, neither.'

  Palmerdale went red with anger. 'That's quite enough, Harker. The fact remains that the light wasn't working. There'll be an inquiry, I assure you.'

  'The inquiry has already begun,' said another voice. The Doctor was in the doorway, Leela beside him.

  Skinsale gaped at him. 'What inquiry? What are you talking about?'

  'I just thought I ought to come up and warn you. Keep together, and stay here, in this room. Harker, you ought to get some rest.'

  Harker rose obediently, went over to a bunk and stretched out, pulling a blanket over him. The Doctor and Leela went back downstairs, leaving the rest of the castaways gaping after them.

  'Amazing air of authority, that chap,' said Skinsale thoughtfully. 'I wonder who he really is?'

  Palmerdale slumped into a chair. 'If you ask me, the fellow's not quite all there.' He tapped his
forehead meaningfully. 'Those staring eyes... always a bad sign, that! Girl's probably his nurse.'

  Adelaide pursed her lips. 'There's certainly something very strange about her.'

  Skinsale grinned. 'Dunno about strange... but she ain't a bad looker.'

  'Positively uncivilised in my view. Perhaps you spent too long in India, Colonel Skinsale!'

  'Long enough to learn to appreciate the beauties of nature, my dear.'

  Adelaide sniffed disdainfully. 'Since we seem compelled to spend the night in this frightful place, do you think there is a private bedroom where I might get some sleep?'

  Skinsale nodded towards the speaking-tube on the wall. 'Well, if this contraption works, I'll see what the proprietors of the establishment have to say.' He picked up the speaking-tube and blew.

  The tube whistled shrilly in the lamp room, and Reuben picked it up. 'Ahoy there, what is it?' He listened then said impatiently, 'There's Ben's room, she be welcome to that. He won't be needing it no more.' He hung up the tube. 'Trouble with the gentry, they always wants running after.'

  Vince had gone out on to the gallery, and was looking down. 'Reuben, there's someone out there. See them lights?'

  Reuben came out on to the gallery. He could just make out the glow of a lantern bobbing about on the rocks. 'It's the Doctor and that girl.'

  'They've no cause to be out there,' said Vince un-easily.

  Reuben grunted. 'Well, they can't say I didn't warn them. I warned 'em both, right here on this very spot.'

  'Warned 'em? What about?'

  'The Beast of Fang Rock,' said Reuben solemnly.

  Vince gave an uneasy laugh. 'You still on about that old tale?'

  'More than a tale, lad. The girl saw it tonight. All glowing, like they said...'

  'She couldn't have seen it...'

  Reuben lowered his voice. 'Last time the Beast was seen on Fang Rock was eighty year ago. Two men died that night...'

  Fog swirled dankly round the sea-wet rocks, and the lantern cast only a tiny circle of yellow light.

  Leela took a bearing on the nearby lighthouse. 'I'm sure it was somewhere near here I saw it. Close to that flat-topped rock.'

  The Doctor fished a compass from his pocket and set it on the rock. The needle spun crazily. 'Aha!' said the Doctor in satisfaction.

  Leela looked at the spinning compass needle. 'And what does that tell you?'

  'It has a very strong electrical field, strong enough to kill a man on contact...' The Doctor picked up the compass and moved on. He seemed to be following some kind of trail. It led him to the pool where Leela had found the dead fish. They were still there, floating on the surface of the pool. 'Or kill fish at a distance of several yards,' concluded the Doctor.

  'And what do you think it is?'

  The Doctor looked round. The fog was closing in and the lighthouse suddenly seemed very far away. 'I don't know what it is—but I think it's desperate, and I think it's cunning and I think we'd better be getting back! '

  As they headed back towards the lighthouse, the faintest of crackling sounds came from behind a nearby rock. A glowing shape slid out from its hiding place and flowed across the rocks.

  6

  Attack from the Unknown

  When Skinsale came back into the crew room, Harker was sleeping soundly, Palmerdale slumped disconsolately in his chair.

  'I think Adelaide will sleep now,' said SkinsaIe cheerfully.

  Palmerdale looked up sardonically. 'Oh, splendid. That's the main thing, isn't it—that my secretary gets a good night's sleep.'

  'You'd do well to get some yourself,' said Skinsale amiably. He stretched out on a bunk.

  'Sleep? Here, in this hovel?'

  Skinsale looked round the crew room. 'Quite a snug little bivouac, this. I've slept in worst places when I was in the Army.'

  'Ah, but that was before you retired and went into politics,' sneered Palmerdale. 'Got a taste for good living then, didn't you?'

  Palmerdale's rudeness only seemed to increase the other man's good humour. 'Feeling a little frustrated, old chap?'

  'Why the hell shouldn't I, when I've been cheated like this?' exploded Palmerdale.

  Skinsale's voice hardened. 'I think you'd better watch your tongue. I kept my part of the bargain. I gave you secret advance information about the Government's financial plans. I was a fool and a knave, but I did it. You tore up my gambling IOUs—now we're even!'

  'What use is your blasted information if I can do nothing with it?'

  'Quite. Amusing, isn't it?' Skinsale yawned luxuriously.

  'I could still expose you,' threatened Palmerdale.

  'Do be reasonable, old chap. If the information is never used, where's the proof I ever gave it? And you're forgetting something else.'

  'Am I? What, pray?'

  'I'm an officer and a gentleman, Henry. You're a nobody, a jumped-up little moneygrubber for all your bought title. Besmirch my good name and I'll sue you for every penny you've got! So, good night to you.'

  Colonel Skinsale closed his eyes and went peacefully to sleep.

  The Doctor and Leela came into the generator room. Nothing had changed. The tarpaulin-wrapped body still lay in its corner, the generator was still throbbing away.

  Leela looked out into the foggy darkness behind them, and then closed the door. 'You think this creature will return?'

  The Doctor nodded. 'I think it was taking Ben's body away for examination when you saw it from the gallery.'

  'Into the sea?'

  'Under the sea... Earlier tonight Vince saw something he called a fireball. It fell into the sea not far away.'

  'Another TARDIS?'

  'Not a TARDIS—but very possibly some kind of space-craft. An alien, a creature who had never encountered human beings before, might well behave in just this way.'

  'Why would it come here? There is nothing on this foggy rock.'

  The Doctor pointed to the generator. 'There's power—electricity. Perhaps that attracted it.'

  'An alien creature travelling through space—and you said it was desperate, Doctor?'

  'Its behaviour pattern is—furtive. It keeps out of sight, spies out the land, weighs up its chances of a successful attack.'

  'Then we are not facing a bold enemy?'

  'Not bold but cunning, Leela. This fog is no freak of the weather. It was deliberately contrived to isolate us. Now the creature is growing more confident. It's seen this primitive technology, studied the physical limitations of its enemies.' The Doctor sighed, and said gloomily, 'All in all, I've a feeling we're in a lot of trouble!'

  'Do not be afraid, Doctor. We shall arm ourselves and post guards. The others will help.'

  'We'll have to convince them of the danger first. If we start talking about creatures from space, they'll just think we're mad.'

  'We shall explain that we come from space ourselves,' said Leela triumphantly. 'We are not of this Earth, or of this time.'

  The Doctor shuddered. 'Don't tell them that, whatever you do.' He remembered something Leela had said a few moments earlier. 'What do you mean, afraid?'

  Lord Palmerdale stood looking thoughtfully down at the telegraph. By now Skinsale was fast asleep. Palmerdale crept over to Harker and shook him roughly by the shoulder. 'Wake up, man,' he whispered. 'Wake up!'

  Harker awoke in sudden panic, like a man in the middle of a nightmare. 'Look out, look out,' he muttered. 'She's going to strike.'

  Palmerdale shook him again. 'That's all over and done with. Wake up, will you?'

  Still half-asleep, Harker stared dazedly at him. 'What is it? What d'you want?'

  'Do you know how to use a Morse apparatus?'

  'Do I what?'

  'Can you use a Morse telegraph apparatus, like the one over there?'

  'Course I can!'

  'Splendid! I want you to send a message for me. It's to be passed on to my brokers in London.'

  Sleepily Harker rubbed a hand across his eyes. 'Send a message to London? What about?'
<
br />   'It's merely an instruction to sell certain shares and buy others. Nothing that need concern you. Just do as I tell you. It's a very important business matter and there's a great deal of money involved.'

  'Money?'

  'Don't worry, you'll be handsomely rewarded. I had urgent reasons for getting back to London, but this will do just as well.'

  'I remember you was mad to get back to England,' said Harker slowly. 'I remember on the bridge, when the fog was coming down. Captain begging for permission to slow down, you telling him full speed ahead and damn the fog.'

  'I was the owner,' said Palmerdale angrily. 'It was his duty to obey my orders! '

  'He was old and weak, scared he'd never get another ship. You made him do it!'

  'Never mind all that, Harker. Just do as I tell you and you'll be well paid.'

  Harker rose slowly to his feet, his massive bulk towering over his employer. 'Then, when the ship struck, it was get the owner away, and the owner's fancy woman and the owner's fine friend. Never mind the poor sailor, he can take his chances.'

  'I'll have no more of your insolence, Harker. I've offered to pay you...'

  Harker grabbed Palmerdale by the collar and lifted him off his feet. 'Pay?' he roared. 'There's good mates of mine feeding the fishes because of you. Will you pay for that?'

  He tightened his grip on Palmerdale's collar, shaking him to and fro.

  'No,' choked Palmerdale. 'No! Get him off!'

  Roused by the noise, Skinsale woke up, realised what was happening and tried to pull Harker away. The big seaman flung him aside, and went on throttling Palmerdale.

  The Doctor and Leela arrived just in time. The Doctor flung himself on Harker, and Leela and Skinsale came to help. It took all their efforts to pull Harker from his victim.

  'Harker, that's enough,' shouted the Doctor. 'Do you want to kill him?'

  Harker flung Palmerdale aside, and he dropped choking on to a bunk. Harker glowered down at him. 'There's good seamen dead because of him. He deserves to die.'

  'We've got our own lives to worry about now,' said the Doctor grimly. 'I've got news for you, gentle-men. This lighthouse is under attack. Before morning we could all be dead. Is anyone interested?'