Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen

by Terrance Dicks

  *

  In the Inner Sanctum the prayer lamps flickered, casting shadows in the gloom. The Master Padmasambvha was communing with the alien power that had dominated his being for so many weary years.

  ‘Oh, Great Intelligence, the time for your Experiment has come at last. Abbot Songtsen makes the final preparations now. I ask only that you release me, as you have promised.’ He sank back on the golden throne in infinite weariness.

  The Abbot Songtsen was indeed busy about his preparations. Obeying the orders placed in his mind by Padmasambvha, who was himself performing the wishes of the Great Intelligence they both served, Songtsen was arranging the glowing spheres that Jamie had found into an intricate pattern. When the design was complete, Songtsen placed the pyramid given him by Padmasambvha reverently in the centre. Then he turned and walked from the cave. The pyramid began to pulse and flicker with life. Then, slowly, but surely, it began to grow…

  Outside, Travers watched as Songtsen emerged. The Abbot set off down the mountain path. All the Yeti followed him.

  Travers could scarcely believe his good fortune. The Yeti were gone, and the boulder at the mouth of the cave had not been replaced. He crept forward slowly, and entered the cave.

  It was just as Jamie had described it – the pit-props, the tunnel, and, in the distance, a glowing pulsating light. Jamie had not said how fierce and bright it was. And there was a kind of high-pitched noise… Eagerly, Travers crept up to the entrance of the inner cave. He looked through, and then fell back, shielding his eyes. In the centre of the pattern of spheres, the pyramid was pulsing and glowing, blazing with light. A high-pitched screaming sound filled the cave. It seemed full of a kind of exultant madness. Travers could feel it affecting his mind…

  As Travers watched, the swollen pyramid cracked open. A bubbling, glutinous substance, shot with fiery colours, began to ooze forth. More and more of it poured forth, and then more and more still. It spread across the cave floor in a heavy mass, trickling slowly towards him. And it was still coming, far more than the pyramid could possibly hold! The thought flashed through Travers’ confused mind that the pyramid was really a sort of gateway, a channel between some other, alien universe and this one. And that the other universe was pouring this evil substance through to this one. Pouring and pouring and pouring endlessly. Soon it would envelop the whole world…

  With a mighty effort, Travers wrenched himself away. Half-demented, he ran from the cave, out through the tunnel and on to the mountainside. He began to run madly downwards, stumbling, falling, rising, and stumbling on, ignoring his hurts and bruises. He had to get away, away from the horror in the cave. What Travers found really unbearable about the heaving, bubbling mass, was the fact that he felt it was alive.

  Jamie was happily spooning down the last of an enormous bowl of well-salted porridge. The Doctor was polishing off a plate of bacon and eggs. Somewhere in the TARDIS there was a machine that could produce any kind of food you could think of, piping hot and in a matter of seconds. Jamie had never been more glad of it. ‘Och, that’s better,’ he said, pushing aside his bowl. ‘But hadn’t we better be getting back, Doctor?’ The Doctor nodded, his mouth too full to speak. Wrapping themselves up for the outside, they prepared to leave.

  ‘Mustn’t forget this,’ said the Doctor, picking up a little black box, covered with dials. ‘My tracking device.’

  Jamie picked up the sphere they had taken from the Yeti. ‘What about this?’

  ‘Oh, bring it along. I’ll study it back at the Monastery.’ They left the TARDIS, and the Doctor locked it behind them. The de-activated Yeti still stood motionless in the snow. The Doctor gave it an affectionate pat. ‘Come on, Jamie,’ he said, and set off down the mountain. Suddenly, he realised that Jamie wasn’t following him. ‘Come on, Jamie,’ he repeated.

  Jamie’s voice was desperate. ‘I canna, Doctor. I just canna. It’s pulling me towards it.’

  Turning, the Doctor saw Jamie. The sphere in his outstretched hand was being dragged by some invisible force closer and closer to the Yeti. The sphere was pulsing and glowing, emitting a high-pitched signal.

  ‘Don’t put it back,’ yelled the Doctor. ‘Whatever you do, don’t put it back!’ He rushed up to Jamie, grabbed him by the waist and tried to pull him away from the Yeti. But the invisible force exerted by the glowing sphere was more than a match for both of them. Step by step, Jamie and the Doctor were pulled closer and closer to the waiting Yeti.

  ‘It’s no good,’ gasped Jamie. ‘I’ll have to let it go.’

  ‘No, Jamie, you mustn’t. You’ve got to hold on.’ Letting go of Jamie’s waist, the Doctor moved round in front of him. Just as the sphere slipped from Jamie’s hands, he interposed his own body between the sphere and the Yeti. It thudded into the Doctor’s ribs with painful force, ramming him back against the monster’s body. The Doctor found he couldn’t move. The pressure on his ribs increased. It seemed obvious that the sphere was determined to get back to the Yeti, even if it had to drill a hole through the Doctor to do it!

  Jamie tried to move the sphere away from the Doctor, but he couldn’t budge it. Painfully, the Doctor gasped, ‘Jamie… get rock…’

  ‘What’s that, Doctor – I dinna understand.’

  The pressure on the Doctor’s ribs was now agonising. ‘Find rock,’ he sobbed. ‘Same size… put in chest…’

  All at once, Jamie saw what the Doctor meant. He abandoned his attempt to move the sphere, and groped round frantically for a suitably sized rock. All the stones around seemed too big or too small. He scrabbled frantically in the icy mud and snow, the sound of the Doctor gasping for breath in his ears. At last, he saw a rock the same size and shape as the silver sphere. It was half buried in ice, and he couldn’t shift it. Jamie kicked frantically at the rock with his boot heel. As soon as it came free, he dashed across to the Yeti and rammed it into the hole in the Yeti’s chest.

  Immediately, the pressure from the sphere cut off. It dropped harmlessly into Jamie’s cupped hands.

  The Doctor drew a deep, sobbing breath, and rubbed his aching chest. ‘Are you all right?’ asked Jamie anxiously.

  ‘Just a bit breathless,’ said the Doctor. ‘No, don’t do that – we may need it.’ Jamie had drawn back his arm like a shot-putter, and was about to send the sphere whizzing over the horizon.

  ‘But the thing nearly killed you, Doctor.’

  ‘Not on purpose, though – it’s simply programmed to return to… oh, my word!’ The Doctor broke off as a sudden thought struck him.

  It struck Jamie at the same time. ‘The one back in the Monastery – maybe Travers didna take it!’

  ‘Exactly,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘Victoria said it couldn’t move by itself – but it can!’

  ‘Aye,’ said Jamie, ‘and if it finds its way back to that Yeti we captured… we’ve got to warn them!’

  Unaware that the catastrophe they feared had already happened, Jamie and the Doctor set off down the mountainside.

  8

  Revolt in the Monastery

  The Monastery courtyard still showed the after-effects of battle. Injured monks were having their wounds dressed and bandaged. The dead were being carried away on stretchers, their faces covered.

  Victoria finished bathing Thomni’s forehead. ‘There,’ she said. ‘That’s better.’ The young monk’s face had been covered with blood, but most of it came from a long, shallow cut on his forehead. To Victoria’s relief the injury wasn’t nearly so bad as it looked. She was wringing out the cloth in a stone basin when Khrisong appeared. He glared furiously down at Thomni. ‘Why did you disobey my orders?’ he demanded.

  Thomni tried to stand. He reeled dizzily, and had to hold on to Victoria. Gathering his strength, he replied, ‘Because it was the only thing to do.’

  ‘Had you not opened the gate,’ growled Khrisong, ‘the creature would not have escaped.’

  Victoria came to Thomni’s defence. ‘If he hadn’t opened the gate, you’d have all been dead by now,’
she said spiritedly.

  Khrisong rounded on her. ‘And you – did you not say it was all your fault. What did you mean by that?’

  Victoria was silent, staring at the ground.

  ‘You’d better answer, Victoria,’ said Thomni gently.

  Without looking up, Victoria said, ‘I put the control unit back in the Yeti. That’s what brought it to life again.’

  Khrisong called over two of his warriors. ‘Seize her. Put her in the cell.’

  ‘You don’t understand,’ sobbed Victoria. ‘I didn’t mean to do it. The sphere made me.’

  ‘Spare her, Khrisong,’ urged Thomni. ‘She would not deliberately harm us. She must surely have been bewitched.’

  Baffled and angry, Khrisong glared from one to the other. ‘You are much of one mind, are you not? You disobey my orders, and she defends you. She confesses her crime, and you speak for her. Do you plot against me?’

  ‘This is madness,’ protested Thomni. But Khrisong was not listening.

  ‘Take them both,’ he ordered. ‘Lock them up together. Let them do their plotting behind bars.’

  Angrily he strode away across the courtyard, while the warrior monks closed in on Thomni and Victoria.

  The Doctor and Jamie were trudging on down the mountainside, the Doctor carrying his detection device, Jamie gingerly carrying the silver sphere. Much to his relief, the sphere had stopped its signalling once they were away from the immobilised Yeti. ‘The number of times we’ve traipsed up and down this mountain…’ Jamie was grumbling. Then he broke off short. The sphere had started its high-pitched signalling note again. ‘Hey, Doctor,’ he called. ‘It’s away again.’

  The Doctor listened intently. ‘That’s a different sort of signal,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘Slightly different pitch.’ He held his detection device close to the sphere, and studied the flickering dials intently.

  Not far away the Abbot Songtsen and his escort of three Yeti were descending the mountain by a different route. Suddenly, the Yeti stopped. They paused as if listening, then, moving as one, they changed direction, setting off on a course which took them towards the Doctor and Jamie. The Abbot Songtsen, apparently unaware of what was happening, continued his journey down the mountain alone.

  The Doctor peered excitedly at the flickering dials. ‘You know, Jamie,’ he said happily, ‘I think I picked up some kind of answering signal! Isn’t that splendid?’

  Jamie was less enthusiastic. ‘Can we no’ just get back to the Monastery?’ he asked plaintively. ‘You can do all your detecting behind those nice high walls. So come on, will you?’ And he set off down the mountain.

  Obediently, the Doctor followed him. ‘The trouble with you is, Jamie,’ he said reproachfully, ‘you lack the proper scientific spirit. This is a perfect opportunity to try and trace the main transmitter.’

  ‘Aye,’ said Jamie. ‘And it’s a perfect opportunity to get ourselves killed. While you’re fiddling away with that machine, this thing’s probably calling up all the Yeti in creation.’

  For a while they plodded on in silence. The signal from the sphere stopped. Jamie began to hope they might reach the Monastery safely after all. Then, suddenly, the signal started up again. ‘I wish you’d keep quiet,’ muttered Jamie. He tried to muffle the sphere inside his anorak. ‘Can we no’ just throw it away, Doctor?’

  ‘Too late for that, I’m afraid,’ said the Doctor ruefully. ‘Look!’ Barring the path ahead, there stood three of the Yeti.

  ‘We could maybe double back,’ said Jamie. But when he looked over his shoulder, he saw that two more Yeti were blocking the path behind them. They were trapped.

  For a long moment nobody moved. Then the Doctor said quietly, ‘Jamie, give me the sphere. You take the detection device.’ Quickly they made the exchange.

  ‘Now what?’ asked Jamie.

  ‘We move forward. Very slowly.’

  As they moved, the Yeti moved too, closing in on them.

  The Doctor whispered urgently, ‘When I say run, you run like the wind. Don’t stop, and don’t worry about me.’

  ‘Och, no, Doctor—’ protested Jamie.

  The Doctor held up his hand. ‘Please, Jamie, just run. Don’t try to do anything heroic. Promise?’

  ‘Aye, verra well.’ By now they were almost up to the three Yeti in front of them.

  ‘Run, Jamie, run!’ yelled the Doctor. Jamie sprinted down the path, dodging between the three Yeti like a centre-forward making for goal. They ignored him, and continued their advance on the Doctor. When they were almost within touching distance, the Doctor twisted round and bowled the silver sphere back up the path, towards the other two Yeti. He stood perfectly still.

  The three Yetis lumbered closer and closer. Almost brushing against him, they lumbered up the path, after the sphere. The Doctor heaved a sigh of relief. ‘It worked!’ he said to himself in mild astonishment. Then he ran off down the path after Jamie.

  Khrisong hurried across the courtyard to the main doors where Rapalchan, one of his young warriors, was keeping guard.

  ‘Rapalchan! Has the Doctor returned?’ he asked impatiently.

  The sentry shook his head. ‘No, Khrisong. No one has entered or left!’

  Khrisong paused, indecisively. A man of action above all, he felt baffled and frustrated. Terrible perils menaced his beloved Monastery, and he could do nothing to fight them. Instead he was forced to rely on the promises of this strange Doctor, a madman springing from nowhere. Even the trusty Thomni had turned against him, led astray by that devil-girl Victoria.

  Glaring round the courtyard he found a new target for his anger. The two old lamas, Sapan and Rinchen, were strolling placidly across the courtyard on their way to morning prayer. Nothing must disturb their invariable routine, thought Khrisong, even though the whole Monastery was in peril. He crossed over to them and asked, ‘Where is the Abbot Songtsen?’

  ‘We have not seen him for many long hours,’ said Sapan.

  ‘Indeed, that is so,’ agreed Rinchen. ‘No doubt he seeks guidance from the Master Padmasambvha.’

  Khrisong laughed scornfully. ‘Seeks guidance – or seeks to evade his responsibilities?’

  Sapan was shocked. ‘You ought not to speak so,’ he reproved.

  ‘Why not? Has anyone ever seen this legendary immortal?’ Khrisong walked quickly away, leaving the two old lamas staring after him aghast. What blasphemy! To query the very existence of the most holy one… Whatever was the world coming to? Shaking their heads, the two old men went on inside the Monastery.

  For a moment all was peaceful in the courtyard. It was the hour of morning prayer, and all those not on duty would be in the Great Hall. The silence was broken by a gentle tapping at the main door. A quiet voice said, ‘Open. It is I, your Abbot Songtsen.’ The astonished Rapalchan opened the door – it was indeed the Abbot. Songtsen entered. Songtsen brushed his hand lightly over the young sentry’s face. ‘You have not seen me, Rapalchan. None has entered, none has left.’

  Rapalchan stood in a trance, eyes staring ahead, while Songtsen crossed the courtyard and entered the Monastery. Once he was out of sight, Rapalchan came to, with a little start and resumed his vigil. None had entered, none had left.

  Minutes later, Songtsen stood at the side of the shrouded figure of Padmasambvha. ‘You have done well, Songtsen,’ the incredibly old voice whispered. ‘The Great Intelligence takes on material form. Now it will grow and grow. For their own safety, our brothers must leave the Monastery.’

  ‘I understand, Master,’ said the Abbot tonelessly. ‘And the strangers?’

  ‘I will tell you how to deal with them if they return.’

  Victoria paced impatiently up and down the cell. Angrily she turned to Thomni who sat placidly on the floor in the posture of meditation.

  ‘How can you take everything so quietly?’ she demanded. ‘After the way Khrisong spoke to you…’

  ‘Khrisong carries many burdens,’ said Thomni gently. ‘Their weight makes him angry. He knows in
his heart we are innocent. When his anger cools, he will release us.’

  ‘Oh, will he? Well, if you think I’m sitting here quietly until he has a change of heart…’

  Thomni looked at her in mild surprise. ‘There is nothing else we can do, Miss Victoria. What is written is written…’ He returned to his meditation.

  There was a rattle at the door. Victoria looked up alertly. If they gave her the slightest chance… Rinchen entered, with a tray of food and drink. Eagerly Victoria seized one of the stone beakers. ‘Oh, good, I’m so thirsty.’ She drained the beaker at a gulp.

  For a moment she stood gasping, her hand at her throat. ‘The taste,’ she gasped. ‘So strange…’ Suddenly she crumpled to the floor.

  Horrified, Thomni knelt beside her. ‘Miss Victoria, Miss Victoria…’ She was quite still. Rinchen hovered indecisively. ‘I will fetch help. Stay with her, Thomni.’ The old lama scuttled off, leaving the door open behind him in his panic. Thomni went to the bed to fetch a blanket. He heard movement behind him and turned. Victoria was on her feet and by the door, her eyes sparkling with mischief. ‘Sorry, Thomni,’ she said, and nipped through the door, slamming and barring it behind her.

  In the Great Hall, all the warrior monks and lamas were assembled, summoned by the Abbot Songtsen.

  ‘I have sought guidance from the Master Padmasambvha,’ he was saying solemnly. ‘In his wisdom he has told me that there is no defence against the Yeti. We must flee at once, or we will all be slain.’

  ‘No!’ There was a shout from the doorway and they turned to see Khrisong. ‘The Doctor has returned. He brings with him a way to fight this evil.’

  The Abbot said sternly, ‘Khrisong, the Master has decided…’

  ‘The Master, always the Master,’ interrupted Khrisong. ‘I have felt the strength of these Yeti. See, I bear their scars on my arm. Yet I will not meekly turn away. I mean to fight! Who is with me? Come!’