Sam brightened immediately. Even a small reward was better than nothing. He pulled up one of the wooden chairs and sat down, leaning forward confidentially. ‘Well, it were like this, you see… I were checking me traps last night in Oxley Woods when all of a sudden…’
When Sam’s wife returned from her shopping the little cottage was silent and empty. She wasn’t particularly surprised. Her Sam was in the habit of appearing and disappearing as the fancy took him. She went out of the back door and called: ‘Sam, Sam, you out there!’ There was no answer. On impulse she went down the garden and opened the shed door. No Sam. She was about to shut the door and go back to the house, when she saw the tin trunk under Sam’s workbench. She remembered how oddly Sam had behaved before. On a sudden impulse, she pulled the trunk from beneath the bench and opened it.
This time it wasn’t empty. Something round was in the bottom, wrapped in a sheet of her kitchen foil. She smiled in satisfaction and set about unwrapping it. With the kitchen foil removed, she saw a dull green globe, made of something heavy and smooth. It was about the size of a football. She popped it back inside and began to drag the trunk back to the house. Once she had the trunk in the cottage’s tiny sitting-room, she opened it again. The globe began to glow softly. Then it started to pulse with light. The pulsing increased in brightness and intensity until the globe was flashing rhythmically. Meg leaned forward, staring at it as if hypnotised.
In the woods a waiting Auton came to life. It swung its body from side to side, searching for the direction of the signal. Then it began to move forward, heading straight for the cottage.
In the security area of the plastics factory a light flashed on a monitor panel. The light flashed in exactly the same pulsing rhythm as the globe. Channing and Hibbert stood watching.
‘Less than two miles away,’ said Channing with satisfaction. ‘We have found the swarm leader at last.’
‘Aren’t you going to collect it?’ asked Hibbert.
‘That is already being done.’ Channing’s eyes narrowed. His consciousness was linked to that of the Auton. He could see what it saw, hear what it heard. ‘There – that little building. That is where the swarm leader is being held!’ Channing’s voice was exultant. He stood rigid and motionless, as if in a trance. Hibbert looked at him in horrified fascination. Channing said softly: ‘We are nearly there.’ His eyes stared blankly into the distance.
The Auton continued its relentless progress. In the distance it saw the cottage appear through the trees.
Meg suddenly shook her head, as if freeing herself from the hypnotic influence of the glowing sphere. Suddenly she slammed shut the lid, cutting off the flashing light. Then she began to drag the trunk out of the sitting-room. Let Sam keep the nasty thing in the shed if he wanted to, decided Meg. She wasn’t going to have it in her house.
*
As the speeding UNIT car reached the edge of the woods, the Brigadier told the driver: ‘Take us to the Command Post first. I’ll let Captain Munro know we’re here; see if there’s any news.’
In the back seat of the car sat Liz, the Doctor and Ransome. Ransome had become increasingly silent as they came nearer to the scene of his terrifying experience.
Liz gave him an encouraging pat on the arm. ‘No need to worry, this time, Mr Ransome,’ she said. ‘You won’t be going back alone. The Brigadier can pick up some troops to go with us.’
Ransome looked ashamed. ‘I’m beginning to think I can’t face going back at all,’ he confessed. ‘I thought I was going to be all right, now, but it all seems to be coming back to me. It’s as if they were still watching me.’ There was the sound of panic in his voice.
The car was jolting down the forest track now, and they saw the tent with the UNIT sentry outside. The car came to a halt, the sentry saluted and Munro emerged from the tent.
Before the Brigadier could say anything, Munro spoke excitedly. ‘This is marvellous, sir, you’ve turned up just in time. I’ve got a chap in here who actually found one of the meteorites. A whole one. He’s been keeping it in a trunk in his shed!’
Sam Seeley was somewhat taken aback when a whole group of people poured into the tent. His eyes widened when he saw the Doctor. But Sam made no mention of having seen the arrival of the TARDIS. He reckoned he was in enough trouble. Anyway, who’d believe him? This tall chap was one of the nobs. When Sam, rather shamefaced, had told his story again, the Brigadier snapped: ‘Captain Munro, do you know where this man’s cottage is?’
Munro turned to an Ordnance Survey map spread out on the table. ‘It’s here, sir. Just a few minutes away.’
‘Right, you’d better come with us.’
Liz noticed Ransome. He’d followed them from the car, and was hanging about on the edge of the group, looking completely confused. ‘Perhaps I could wait here,’ he said.
Munro noticed Ransome for the first time. ‘Yes of course. My chaps will look after you. Sergeant, get Mr Ransome some tea.’
Munro grabbed Sam by the arm. ‘Come along, man. We need you to show us where the thing is.’
Munro and the Brigadier crammed into the front seat of the car, next to the driver, while Liz, the Doctor and Sam Seeley sat in the back. The car jolted off down the track, heading for the road.
Sam looked round approvingly at the padded comfort of the Brigadier’s staff car. ‘Very kind of you gentlemen to give me a lift home,’ he said amiably. ‘Beats riding my old bike.’ Nobody answered, and Sam fell silent.
The cottage that they were making for stood still and silent. An Auton stepped from the forest and walked towards the cottage gate. Barney was still stretched out in the little front garden. He raised his head and growled at the approaching figure.
In the shed at the end of the garden Meg gave the trunk a final shove back under the workbench and stood up, dusting her hands. She stopped a moment, listening. How silent everything had become. Even the birds seemed to have stopped singing. From the house came the long drawn out howl of a dog.
Meg yelled: ‘Barney, just you stop that racket.’
The dog howled again, on a rising note of terror. Uneasy, Meg moved towards the house. ‘Just you shut up that racket now, Barney.’
There was yet another howl, cut short by a sudden yelp. Then silence. Meg stood listening for what seemed ages. Suddenly she heard the sound of smashing glass and splintering wood. Meg ran towards the house. She came into the little parlour and stopped in amazement.
The little room was a complete wreck. Chairs and table were broken, a dresser smashed open. A giant figure, its back turned, was rooting through the contents of a corner cupboard, searching with a sort of savage ferocity.
Meg was too indignant at the total wreck of her home to feel frightened. ‘Hey, you!’ she yelled. ‘What you think you’re at, then? Just you get out of here!’
The figure swung round and looked at her, and Meg gave a gasp of terror. The face was blank and smooth, the features crude and lumpy.
Meg whispered hoarsely: ‘Now just you get out. My husband’s about, you know.’ But she knew as she spoke that the creature couldn’t hear or understand her. Slowly she backed away. Then turning she ran through the little passage and out of the back door. Snatching the key from the lock, she closed the door and locked it from the outside. Then she ran down the garden path to Sam’s shed.
Sam’s old shotgun was in its usual place, hanging above the shed door. She grabbed it and broke it open.
There was a shattering crash from the house. Meg looked up. The back door had been burst completely from its hinges. Framed in the doorway, stood the Auton. For a moment it just stood there, watching her. Then it started to walk down the garden path. Meg raised the gun and pulled the trigger. There was a dry click. Of course. Sam never left the gun loaded. Meg searched frantically on the shelf by the shed door and found an open box of cartridges. With trembling hands, she broke open the gun and loaded it. Snapping the gun shut, she looked up. The Auton was almost upon her.
She levelled th
e gun. ‘Now, you saw me load it,’ she said shakily. ‘You get away from here or I’ll blow a hole in you.’ The Auton continued to advance.
‘I mean it! I’m not fooling, you know.’ The Auton was almost within arm’s length now. Meg raised the shotgun and fired, first one barrel and then the other. The Auton was rocked backwards by the blast. It recoiled a few paces, and Meg could see the smoking holes in the breast of its rough overalls. Then it began to walk forward again. There was no change in the expression of the blank face. Meg screamed once more. Then she fainted. The Auton stepped over her and went into the shed.
Channing’s face was a mask of fierce concentration. He hissed: ‘The signal is muffled but it is near now. It is very near. We must find it. We must find it.’
Everything was quiet as the Brigadier’s staff car drew up outside the little cottage. Everyone climbed out of the car and Sam led the way inside.
‘Meg!’ he called. ‘Meg, we got company.’ He stopped appalled as he saw the wreckage all round him.
‘I think we may be too late,’ said the Doctor. Suddenly they heard a bumping noise from the garden. The Brigadier and Munro drew their revolvers. Followed by the others, they ran through the wrecked cottage and out of the shattered back door.
Meg’s body lay crumpled at the side of the shed. The Auton was carrying the tin trunk up the path. Before anyone could stop him, Sam Seeley pushed his way to Meg’s side. Ignoring the Auton, he picked up his wife and began carrying her out of danger. The Auton looked up, seeming to sense that it was watched. It dropped the trunk and raised an arm, pointing at the Brigadier. The hand dropped on its hinge. A nozzle appeared, projecting from the wrist.
‘Down!’ yelled the Doctor. ‘Everybody down!’ He gave the Brigadier and Munro a shove, grabbed Liz and hurled her back inside the building.
An energy-bolt sizzled over the Brigadier’s head, blasting a hole in the brick wall of the cottage. The Brigadier and Munro took cover, Munro behind a coal bunker, the Brigadier round the angle of the wall. Both opened fire at once with their heavy service revolvers. The Auton reeled and staggered under the impact of the bullets, but it continued to return the fire, sending bolt after bolt of energy from its wrist-gun.
From his position in the doorway, the Doctor yelled: ‘Brigadier, Captain Munro! Hold your fire!’ The guns became silent. The Auton too stopped firing, moving its gun slowly from side to side. Speaking clearly and distinctly the Doctor called: ‘The platoon must be nearly here. We’ll capture it when they arrive.’
In the plastics factory Channing’s face twisted with anger.
‘Recall,’ he hissed. ‘Recall, recall!’
At his elbow Hibbert said nervously, ‘What’s happening?’
Channing said: ‘UNIT. Too many of them. It is too soon for a pitched battle.’
At the cottage the little group watched in amazement as the Auton wheeled suddenly and made off through the woods. The Brigadier moved as if to pursue, but the Doctor stopped him. ‘Let it go, Brigadier. If you caught it, you couldn’t harm it. And it would certainly kill you.’
‘What’s all this about a relief platoon, Doctor? I didn’t order any troops to follow us.’
The Doctor smiled. ‘You and I know that. But it didn’t.’ He gestured in the direction of the Auton’s retreat.
‘You think that thing actually understood you?’
‘Maybe not the thing itself. I think it was just a sort of walking weapon. But whoever is controlling it understood me.’
Forestalling any more questions, the Doctor said: ‘Now let’s take a look at what it came for.’
The Brigadier looked at Liz, who was helping Sam to revive Mrs Seeley. ‘How is she?’
‘Just shock, I think. We ought to get her to hospital.’
The Brigadier said: ‘Munro, call an ambulance!’
As Mrs Seeley was helped inside the cottage, Sam said: ‘I’ll want compensation! Look at all this damage! And what about my reward?’
Exasperated, the Brigadier turned on him. ‘By making off with that meteorite, Mr Seeley, you brought all of this upon yourself, and gravely hampered my investigations. As for a reward – you and your wife are both still alive and relatively unharmed. Isn’t that reward enough?’
Chastened, Sam followed the Brigadier into the cottage. After all, he thought hopefully, there was always the newspapers. A story like his ought to be worth a bob or two. Sam could already see the headlines – ‘MY STRUGGLE WITH THE MONSTER’. Still scheming hopefully, he followed the Brigadier into the cottage.
Liz joined the Doctor who was peering into the trunk. ‘Fascinating!’ he said. ‘Quite fascinating. I was right about the size and shape, you see.’
Liz looked at the sphere. It was still pulsing, though now in a more subdued rhythm. The Doctor indicated the silver foil at the bottom of the trunk. ‘He’d got it wrapped in this, you see. Aluminium foil. That, and the metal of the trunk, must have muffled the signals.’
‘And when that poor woman took it out, it started calling for help! Hadn’t you better wrap it up again?’
Deftly, the Doctor began to wrap the sphere in the kitchen foil. ‘I think perhaps you’re right.’
‘Suppose the thing explodes, like the other one?’
The Doctor closed the lid of the trunk. ‘There’s no reason why it should, if we treat it gently. That is, unless it’s got a built-in self-destruct impulse. Still, we’ll just have to risk that.’ And he beamed cheerfully at Liz.
‘Doctor,’ said Liz, ‘you’ll have to unwrap that thing and take it out of the trunk if we’re going to work on it in the laboratory.’
‘Yes, of course we will.’ The Doctor swung the trunk onto his shoulder and started to carry it towards the car.
‘Well,’ said Liz, ‘what do we do if that thing decides to come back and get it?’
The Doctor chuckled. ‘That, my dear, is a very good question.’
Munro came out of the cottage. ‘The ambulance is here, sir. Seeley’s going with his wife to the hospital.’
The Brigadier nodded, and turned to the Doctor. ‘Well, Doctor? What do we do now?’
It was curious, thought Liz, how the Doctor seemed to have assumed command. Or maybe it wasn’t strange, she thought. There was something very reassuring about the Doctor.
He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ‘Well, it’s pretty obvious where that creature came from. Obviously something very similar attacked Ransome at the plastics factory.’
‘Right,’ said the Brigadier crisply. ‘I’ll move in at once.’
The Doctor shook his head. ‘And maybe face an army of those creatures? Until we know a little more about what’s going on, we’d better move cautiously.’
‘Then what do we do?’
The Doctor said: ‘First we send this trunk back to UNIT H.Q., under armed guard.’
Munro stepped forward. ‘I’ll see to it right away, Doctor.’
‘Mind,’ said the Doctor warningly, ‘no one’s to open that trunk until I arrive.’
‘I doubt if anyone will want to!’ said Munro.
The Doctor turned to the Brigadier. ‘Now I think we should collect Mr Ransome from your Command Post, and pay a nice friendly visit to that plastics factory.’
Channing paced up and down in silent fury. ‘We must recover the swarm leader,’ he said angrily.
‘But if UNIT has taken it – and you don’t want a pitched battle yet – how can we?’ said Hibbert.
Channing said: ‘There are other methods.’ Suddenly he noticed the monitor screen. Ransome’s brain-print pattern had reappeared and was pulsing brightly. Channing said with savage satisfaction: ‘Your friend Ransome has been unwise enough to return to the area. Him at least we can deal with now!’
Alone in the UNIT Command Tent, Ransome swigged the last of his mug of now-cold tea. He was feeling tired and depressed. The idea of re-visiting the plastics factory terrified him, even with the prospect of the Brigadier’s protection. And now he’d just been dumped here a
nd left while they all rushed off somewhere hunting meteorites. Still at least he was safe for the moment. Ransome could hear the soldiers moving about in the clearing outside, and the bark of the Sergeant’s voice as he supervised the unloading of stores from an army truck. Ransome was bored. He wished that the Sergeant would come back, so he’d have someone to talk to.
Something bumped against the canvas at the back of the tent. Ransome looked up idly, assuming that one of the soldiers had brushed against it. Then to his amazement a long rip appeared in the canvas wall. A figure stepped through it. Ransome leaped to his feet in utter terror. Facing him was an Auton.
Before Ransome could even scream, the hand dropped back on its hinge and a searing bolt of energy smashed him to the ground. The Auton trained its gun on the body and a beam of bright light shot from the wrist-gun. Ransome’s body glowed red then white, and then simply vanished. The Auton stepped through the rip in the canvas as silently as it had come.
Minutes later the Brigadier’s car drew up at the Command Post. Munro gave orders for sending the trunk to UNIT H.Q. The Doctor, Liz Shaw and the Brigadier entered the tent. They looked round in puzzlement.
The Brigadier yelled: ‘Sergeant! Where’s Mr Ransome gone to?’ The Sergeant appeared in the tent doorway.
‘Nowhere, sir, not as far as I know. I left him in here drinking tea. I had to go out and get the supply truck unloaded.’
The Doctor was looking swiftly round the tent. Almost at once he spotted the slash in the tent wall.
‘We can only presume he got out this way.’
‘But why?’ asked the Brigadier aggrievedly. ‘Why should the chap just slope off like that?’
‘He was pretty scared about the idea of going back to that factory,’ Liz said thoughtfully. ‘Maybe he decided he just couldn’t face it.’
Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion Page 9
