DOCTOR WHO AND AN UNEARTHLY CHILD

by Terrance Dicks

  'It's reading normal, grandfather.'

  'Good, good. I'll take a portable Geiger counter, just in case. So, young man, you still challenge me do you?'

  'Just open the doors and prove your point,' said Ian wearily.

  'You really are too narrow-minded, my dear boy,' said the Doctor, with an air of insufferable superiority. 'You must learn not to be so insular!'

  'Have you any idea where we are, grandfather?' asked Susan. She passed the Doctor something that looked like a small black box.

  'Oh, we've certainly gone back in Time... a considerable amount, I think. When we get outside, I'll take a few samples... some rock pieces, a few plants... then I'll be able to make a proper estimate.' He looked reproachfully at the TARDIS console. 'I do wish these instruments wouldn't keep letting me down, though.'

  'You really believe it all, don't you?' said Ian incredulously. 'You really believe we've gone back in Time.'

  'Oh yes,' said the Doctor complacently. 'Without a doubt!'

  'And when we open the doors, we won't be in a junk yard in London, England, in 1963?'

  'That's quite correct. Your tone suggests ridicule, young man.'

  'Well, of course, it's ridiculous! Time doesn't go round and round in a circle. You can't just step off wherever you like, in the past or in the future.'

  'Oh? And what does happen to Time then? Instruct me!'

  'It... well, it happens,' said Ian vaguely. 'And then it's finished!'

  There was condescending amusement in the Doctor's manner. He looked at Barbara. 'And what about you? You're not as doubtful as your friend, are you?'

  'No. No, I don't think I am.'

  'Good! There's hope for you yet.'

  Ian sighed. 'Oh, Barbara.'

  'I can't help it, Ian. They're both so calm, so certain of themselves. I just believe them, that's all!'

  The Doctor stared hypnotically at Ian. 'If you could touch the alien sand with your feet, hear the cries of strange birds, watch them wheel above you in another sky... would that satisfy you?'

  'Yes,' said Ian simply.

  The Doctor smiled, reached out and threw a switch. 'Then see for yourself.'

  The TARDIS doors slid open.

  Ian went to the open door and stared out. 'It's not true,' he said. 'It can't be!'

  The Doctor smiled.

  5

  The Disappearance

  Beyond the door was a bleak and sandy plain, scattered with enormous boulders. It stretched to the edge of a dense, impenetrable forest. To the left, low rocky foothills rose to merge with distant jagged mountains. Away on the right, beyond the forest, you could see the glint of a broad and sluggish stream.

  The plain was scoured by winds which made a constant, low moaning sound, and the air was crisp and chill. It was a grim, forbidding scene.

  The Doctor sniffed triumphantly and said, 'I've no more time to argue with you, young man. Susan, I'm going to collect some new samples.'

  He strode out onto the plain as confidently as if it was the junk yard in Totters Lane, and vanished behind the TARDIS.

  'Be careful, grandfather!' called Susan.

  'Let's go outside and look,' said Barbara. She stepped outside.

  Ian moved towards the door and winced. 'Ouch!'

  Susan came back to him. 'What is it, Mr Chesterton?'

  'Got a bit bruised in the fall. It's nothing much.'

  'Come on, lean on me.'

  Ian put his hand on her shoulder, and walked stiffly through the door. It closed behind him.

  Coarse sand crunched beneath his feet, and he shivered in the wind. The air was cold, but incredibly clear, and in the distance, the forest, the river and the mountains stood out in sharp-edged detail.

  'Well?' asked Barbara mischieviously.

  Ian shook his head. 'There must be some rational explanation - there must be!'

  In his heart, Ian knew that only one explanation was possible. Everything the Doctor had told him was the truth. With those first steps outside the TARDIS, Ian began to accept the reality of the whole extraordinary situation.

  The Doctor popped into sight from behind the TARDIS, looking distinctly peeved. 'It's still a police box. Why hasn't it changed? Dear me, how very disturbing!' Shaking his head the Doctor marched off, disappearing behind an enormous boulder, leaving Ian gazing after him in astonishment.

  The Doctor walked on for some way, threading a path between the great stones, brooding over the erratic functioning of the TARDIS. Recollecting the purpose of his expedition, he came to a sudden halt, and found he was in a kind of sheltered enclosure between two great rocks. Deciding that this spot would do as well as any other, the Doctor fished out his Geiger counter, a small leather-bound notebook and a pencil.

  Picking up a fragment of rock, he began examining it with great care.

  Soon he was quite absorbed in his work - and quite unaware of the savage, skin-clad figure watching him from behind the rocks.

  The Doctor's companions meanwhile were making a cautious exploration of the area immediately around the TARDIS.

  Barbara came across the skull of some large animal half-buried in the sand, and she and Susan began digging it free with their hands. 'What do you think it could be, Ian?'

  Ian helped them to clear the sand from around the skull. 'I don't know. No horns or antlers. Could be a horse or a deer - could be anything.' Ian looked back at the TARDIS, standing blue and square and incongruous, but undeniably there in the middle of the sandy plain. 'Incredible. A police box in the middle of nowhere. It just doesn't make sense.'

  Susan glanced back at the TARDIS. 'It's supposed to change shape,' she said matter-of-factly. 'I don't know why it hasn't done it this time.'

  'It's supposed to what?'

  'Change its shape,' repeated Susan. 'It's been an Ionic column, and a sedan chair... it ought to be a boulder or something now.'

  'You mean the ship disguises itself wherever it goes?' said Barbara.

  'Well, it's supposed to, but it just hasn't happened this time. The chameleon circuit must be faulty.' Susan stood up. 'I wonder if this skull would be any help to grandfather... Where's he gone?' She turned slowly in a circle, shading her eyes with her hand. 'Grandfather!' she called. 'Where are you, Grandfather?'

  There was no reply.

  Barbara looked at Ian. 'You're very quiet.'

  'Humbled is the word. I was wrong, wasn't I?'

  'I don't understand it any more than you do,' said Barbara. 'The inside of the ship, suddenly finding ourselves here... not to mention most of the things Doctor Foreman says.'

  'That's not his name. Who is he? Doctor who? Perhaps if we could find out who he is, we'd have a clue to all this.'

  'The point is - it's happened, Ian. We've just got to accept it.'

  'It's almost impossible to accept. I mean, I can see we're here, but...' Ian shrugged helplessly.

  Susan said, 'I can't see him! I can't see grandfather anywhere.'

  'He can't be far away,' said Barbara reassuringly.

  'I felt strange, just now... as if we were being... watched.' Susan raised her voice. 'Grandfather? Where are you?'

  The Doctor sat cross-legged on the ground, surrounded by a litter of his possessions, examining a moss-covered pebble with absorbed attention. Fishing in his pockets, he produced a curved Meerschaum pipe and a big box of old-fashioned matches.

  From his hiding place in the rocks, Kal watched the activities of the stranger with fascination. He leaned forward curiously as the creature produced mysterious objects from beneath its skins. The creature fumbled with one of the objects - and Kal saw a miracle!

  Grasping his stone-headed axe, he rose and padded silently towards his prey.

  'Grandfather!' called Susan again. 'Grandfather!'

  From somewhere in the distance, there came a cry of pain, a yell of triumph - then silence.

  'It came from over that way,' said Ian. 'Come on!' They ran towards the sound.

  It didn't take them long to find th
e rocky enclosure. The Doctor's old fur hat lay on the ground. Beside it, was his pipe, and his notebook. Of the Doctor himself there was no sign.

  'Grandfather!' screamed Susan. 'What's happened?'

  'Don't panic, Susan,' said Ian sharply.

  Susan began scrambling up the side of the nearest boulder 'I must find him. Maybe I can see from up here.'

  'All right, but be careful.'

  'Look, Ian,' whispered Barbara. She pointed.

  The Geiger counter lay at their feet. Its glass was smashed.

  Ian picked it up and examined it. 'That's no good any more!'

  'Maybe he saw something interesting,' suggested Barbara uneasily. 'Perhaps he just rushed off to investigate?'

  Ian picked up the Doctor's pipe. 'Dropping this?'

  'What do you think happened, then?'

  'Well, I suppose he could have seen something and got excited and gone after it,' said Ian slowly. 'On the other hand, he could have been - taken. That yell didn't just sound like excitement.'

  Susan jumped down from her rock. 'I can't see anything. There's not a sign of him anywhere.' She looked in anguish at Ian and Barbara. 'Something's happened to him, I know it has. We've got to find him.'

  Her tone was close to hysteria, and Barbara said, 'Calm down, Susan, it won't help to panic.'

  Susan wasn't listening. She stooped down and picked up the notebook. 'He's left his notes!'

  'He seems to have left quite a few things lying about,' said Ian. 'Hat, pipe, notebook, Geiger counter...'

  'He may just have laid them all down and gone off somewhere,' suggested Barbara, more to console Susan than because she believed it herself.

  Susan shook her head vigorously. 'No, no, no. Grandfather would never have left his notebook, it's vital to him. It's got the key codes to some of the machines in the ship, and notes about places we've visited. He simply wouldn't go off and leave it. Please, we must go and look for him. Something's happened, I know it has.'

  'We'll find him,' said Barbara soothingly. 'He can't be far away.'

  'What did you see on the other side of the rocks, Susan?' asked Ian.

  'Just a line of trees. I think it was the beginning of the forest. There was a sort of gap between them, it looked like a path.'

  'All right. We'll try there first.' Ian stowed the Doctor's possessions away in his pockets, putting the broken Geiger counter back on the sand. As he put it down, he paused for a moment, patting the sand with the flat of his hand.

  Barbara looked on curiously. 'What is it?'

  'This sand. It's cold. Almost freezing.'

  Ian straightened up, and led the way round the boulder.

  Inside the cave of the Tribe, Hur watched anxiously as Za laboured vainly with his little pile of charred sticks. Beside him the burly, grey-bearded figure of Horg, Hur's father, watched Za's efforts with a sceptical eye. 'Kal says that in the land he comes from, he was a chief, and often made fire.'

  'Kal is a liar!'

  'Kal says he has travelled far from his own lands and he has forgotten how fire is made. He says that soon Orb, the sun, will remind him how it is done, and he will make fire for all of us.'

  'All of Kal's tribe perished in the last great cold,' said Za furiously. 'If he had not found us, he would have died too!'

  'What else did Kal say?' asked Hur.

  'He says Orb will only tell the secret of the fire to the leader.'

  'I am the leader,' grunted Za. 'Orb will tell me.' He stared moodily at the grey ashes. 'I am the son of the chief, the great firemaker. Even though he did not show me how to put flame into the sticks, I shall soon discover the secret for myself.' Za smote himself on the chest with one huge fist. 'Kal came, and I did not kill him. I let him eat with us, and sleep in our caves.' Za's voice rose to an angry roar. 'Must I spill blood to make the people bow to me?'

  Excited shouts came from outside the cave. 'It is Kal! Kal comes!'

  'Kal brings us his kill!'

  Za snatched up his stone-headed axe and ran from the cave, Horg and Hur close behind him.

  Outside they saw Kal, surrounded by a crowd of excited Tribesmen. He bore some strange creature across his shoulders and, as they watched, he dumped it down on the flat-topped rock outside the cave.

  Curiously the Tribe gathered round, jabbering with excitement.

  Za shoved his way through the crowd and looked down at the unconscious figure on the stone. 'This is a strange creature. Why do you bring it here, Kal? Is it good to eat?'

  Kal glared challengingly at him, his bearded face alight with triumph. 'Is Za, son of the great firemaker, afraid of an old man?'

  'No. Za fears nothing,' said Za, and prodded the old man's body with his foot.

  'When will Za make fire come out of his hands?' 'When Orb decides it.'

  Kal laughed. 'Orb is for strong men. Men who can make Orb obey their will.' He pointed dramatically at the body on the rock. 'Orb has sent me this creature as a sign of his favour. This old one can make fire come out of his fingers!'

  There was an awe-stricken murmur from the Tribe.

  'I have seen it!' shouted Kal. 'He is full of fire inside. The smoke comes out of his mouth.'

  'As lies come out of yours,' sneered Za. He leaned forward and poked the body with his finger. 'It is only an old man wearing strange skins.' The Doctor groaned suddenly, and Za leaped back.

  Kal was quick to seize his advantage. 'Za is afraid of the creature. Kal was not afraid. A strange tree came, and the creature was in it. Za would have run away if he had seen it, but I watched and followed!'

  With an angry roar Za leaped for Kal.

  Kal dodged aside and leapt upon the rock. 'Hear me!'

  'Let him speak!' shouted Horg, and Za drew back.

  'I saw this creature make fire come out of his fingers,' shouted Kal. 'I remembered Za, son of the firemaker. When the great cold comes again, you will all die if you wait for Za to make fire for you, but I, Kal, am a true leader!' Kal pointed down at his captive. 'We fought together like the tiger and the bear. When he saw that my strength was too much for him, he lay down to sleep. I, Kal, carried him here to make fire for you!'

  There was a roar of approval.

  'Why do you listen to Kal's lies?' shouted Za. Horg said, 'Za has many good skins. Perhaps he has forgotten what the cold is like.'

  'Tomorrow I will kill many bears for the Tribe,' shouted Za. 'You shall all have warm skins!'

  Horg said drily. 'I think tomorrow you will still be here, rubbing your hands together and holding them to the dry sticks and asking Orb to send you fire - and the bears will stay warm in their own skins!'

  There was a shout of mocking laughter.

  'What I say I will do, I will do!' said Za.

  'Hear me!' screamed Kal again. 'I say that the firemaker is dead! You are no firemaker, Za. All you can do is break dry sticks with your hands. But I, Kal, will make them burn - and I shall be leader!'

  6

  The Cave of Skulls

  There was a moment of tense silence.

  Za saw the leadership slipping from his grasp. He could not use words cunningly as Kal did, clouding the minds of the Tribe. But he could kill...

  Grasping his axe Za poised himself to spring. Suddenly Hur shouted, 'The creature has opened its eyes!'

  The Doctor sat up, groaning, his hand to his head. 'Susan!' he shouted. 'Susan!'

  Susan, Barbara and Ian were hurrying down the forest path, when Susan suddenly stopped. 'Listen!'

  'What is it?' asked Barbara.

  'I heard grandfather's voice. It was very faint, but I heard it! You heard it, didn't you, Mr Chesterton?'

  'I heard something... it might have been a bird or a wild animal.'

  'It was grandfather,' said Sudan positively. 'Come on, we've got to find him!' She ran off down the path.

  'Susan, wait for us,' shouted Ian. 'Come on, Barbara.'

  By now Susan was almost out of sight. They hurried after her.

  As the Doctor came to his se
nses, his panic died down. He studied the savage skin-clad creatures crowding around him, saw the heavy, brutal features, the skin garments, the stone-headed axes and spears. He saw Kal and rubbed his head gingerly, remembering how his attacker had sprung out at him. 'Must have wanted to take me alive,' thought the Doctor. 'He could have shattered my skull like an egg-shell.'

  The Doctor looked at the burly figure nearest him. He was the biggest and strongest, so presumably he was the Ieader. 'Where's Susan - ' he began, and then broke off. There was no point in making these savages aware of the existence of his companions. The Doctor fell silent, glancing shrewdly around him, trying to work out what was going on.

  The bearded savage who had captured him seemed to be making some kind of speech. Even in the stone age, there were still politicians to deal with, thought the Doctor. He watched and waited.

  'Do you want fire?' Kal shouted. 'Or do you want to die in the cold?'

  'Fire!' shouted the men of the Tribe. 'Give us fire, Kal!'

  Kal raised his hand for silence. 'Soon the cold comes again, and now you have lost the secret of fire, the tiger will come again to the caves at night. Za will give you to the tiger, and to the cold, while he rubs his hands and waits for Orb to remember him!' He pointed to the Doctor. 'This creature can make fire come out of his fingers. Kal brought him here. He is Kal's creature!'

  Za shouldered his way forward. 'He is only an old man in strange skins. There is no fire in his body. The thing is not possible.' He brandished his axe. 'I say that Kal has been with us too long. It is time he died!'

  As Za advanced on Kal, Horg stepped between them. 'I say there is truth in both of you. Za speaks truth that fire cannot live in men... and Kal speaks truth that we will all die without fire. If this creature can make fire, we must have it for the Tribe.'

  Daringly, Hur thrust herself forward. 'Will my father listen to the words of a woman? It is easy to see where truth lies. If this old man can make fire come from his fingers, let him do it now, before all the Tribe!'