Doctor Who: The Savages (11 page)

‘Where is the other stranger?’ asked Nanina.

‘He will follow,’ Chal assured her. He looked back down the valley, but there was no sign of Steven.

Steven guessed his good luck couldn’t last. He was taking a calculated risk, buying time, but gambling on his own safety. Sooner or later they would manage to surround him. He knew he was grossly outnumbered. He’d seen guards moving forward on one flank, bobbing down, taking cover as other guards came up on his other side. This time he realised he’d very little chance of doing another tactical retreat. He would have to fight this one out.

He had the luck to see one guard trying to position himself for a shot, and he was quick enough to get the man first. He went down behind rocks with a yell. But Steven didn’t see a second guard alongside, and it was only when the man’s light gun threw its ray on the rocks close by that he rolled over and fired back. He didn’t register a hit, but the guard was forced to drop back.

It was getting too close for Steven now. Would it be possible to scramble out of here?

Eclat knew he had the situation where he wanted it. The stranger was in the middle of a circle. There was no way out. It was just a question of time. And which of those in the circle closed on him first...

The luck of the draw was that the stranger rolled away from his rocky hiding place, and edged carefully along on his elbows, through bush and scrub. What he didn’t know was that he was overlooked. Jano had a clear sight of him from where he was perched behind a pile of loose stones. And Jano was in a central position, closing the circle round the unwitting young man. It was a position from which no one could miss, and Jano was an excellent shot. He took his time; he knew he could for the target was crawling just about twenty feet below.

As Jano took steady aim, he wondered to himself why he was doing all this so deliberately. Why was he being so slow? Why take all this time? Nevertheless, he had Steven in his sights, and his finger softly touched the light trigger. It was a matter of choosing the right moment to fire.

But Jano kept his finger just touching the mechanism, touching, and no more... He put on no pressure. He watched the stranger crawl away. He let him go cautiously into the scrub, watched him wriggle like a snake over the ground; and he could still have fired, could still have captured him in the grip of those paralysing rays... But he did nothing. Steven disappeared, and a bemused Jano lowered his gun. There was no explanation for it. He did not understand what he had done, nor why he had done it. He was still in this position a moment later when fresh beams of light played across rocks on the other side and a guard cried out. It was clear that the stranger had slipped through the net. He was firing from another position, and effectively at that.

Edal came scrambling through bushes and over rocks to where Jano stood. ‘He’s got away,’ barked the Captain. ‘We were all round him, and he got out.’ Each word was a challenge, an accusation. ‘How could he do that?’ he demanded.

‘You must ask your guard,’ said Jano calmly.

Edal glared at him. There was much he could say, but as yet he did not dare. His suspicions were too outlandish to make sense. But what other explanation could there be? ‘It is too late now,’ he said grimly. ‘They will be in the valley now.’

10 ‘All We Need Is One Good Friend’

They were still helping the Doctor up the cliff path when they heard someone running towards them through the ravine.

‘It’s Steven!’ shouted Dodo with delight.

Steven saw them, and called a warning: ‘Get inside the cave! They aren’t far behind!’

He began climbing the side of the ravine as Nanina, Chal and Dodo took the Doctor the last few steps into the safety of their primitive home.

Steven was right. The search party was only a matter of fifty yards or so behind, coming over the crest of the ridge and into the valley before they were out of sight.

‘There they are,’ shouted Edal. He pointed to the caves. At the last moment it seemed the Doctor was a sitting target. ‘Fire,’ ordered Edal.

The guard beside him swung up his gun. Across the narrow valley the savages all seemed rooted to the spot. The old sense of hopelessness had taken over, thought Steven. They seemed hypnotised by the people from the City.

Steven acted quickly. He fired at the guard and had the satisfaction of seeing him collapse in a heap, then he swung the beam round on the rest of the group, forcing them to dive for cover behind the ridge.

‘Everyone to the back of the cave,’ shouted Steven.

He came up the rest of the cliffside, hand over fist. ‘Dodo,’ he called, ‘get those capsules.’

For a moment she couldn’t think what he meant.

‘The ones we got from the TARDIS,’ he told her. He stayed at the mouth of the cave with his eyes on the ridge. ‘The ones the Doctor sent us for.’

‘The ones we gave the savage?’ she said.

‘Right.’

Dodo made a quick search of her pockets. ‘Thank goodness, I’ve still got them.’

‘How many did we give Wylda?’ asked Steven. ‘Two.’

‘That seemed to work,’ said Steven. ‘Give the Doctor the same.’

Dodo carefully shook two of the little pellets into her hand and offered them to the Doctor. He showed no interest.

‘You’ll have to excuse me, Doctor,’ she said, ‘but it’s for your own good.’ She popped them into his mouth and waited. If she had expected immediate results she was disappointed, for nothing seemed to be happening.

‘Someone’s moving,’ called Steven, and Dodo hurried to join him. Chal and the others clustered behind her as they looked across the ravine.

Someone was indeed moving, coming from behind cover, carrying no arms, and climbing slowly down the far side. There was a moment of stupefied silence. Then Chal said, ‘It’s Jano. The Leader.’

They looked on in amazement as Jano neared the foot of the valley. At any time Steven could have fired at his exposed back. The leader of their enemies was offering himself as a target! It was inexplicable!

‘Fire,’ shouted Tor. ‘Fire now.’ Everyone else took up the cry, even Chal.

‘Shoot,’ he said urgently. ‘Shoot, stranger. Without their leader they will be useless.’

It seemed the only thing to do. He took aim. It was very simple, a slow moving object. He would have fired but for the hand that reached out and took the gun from him.

‘Don’t fire,’ said a voice in his ear. ‘Not at Jano.’ Everyone turned in surprise.

‘Doctor!’ cried Dodo. ‘Doctor! Wonderful!’

‘What are you doing, Doctor?’ Steven blinked at

him. The Doctor looked every inch himself again. ‘You are not to fire at Jano,’ said the Doctor drily. ‘But he is the enemy,’ protested Tor.

The Doctor ignored him. ‘Those are my instructions,’ he said in his familiar imperious fashion. ‘Jano is not to be harmed.’ It was marvellous to have the Doctor back again, although he did speak sometimes as though every word he said was like laying down a law.

From the other side of the valley, Edal watched. He couldn’t understand what was happening. Why didn’t the stranger fire? Surely he had his gun?

Even when Jano slipped and lay at the foot of the valley not a stone was thrown. Jano picked himself up, and Edal sent two of his guards to help him, and they were allowed to do so without the stranger firing. It was an odd sort of truce. They helped Jano back to the ridge where he rested, watched by the puzzled Captain.

‘Just can’t make it out,’ said Edal to his guard. He felt as though there was some sort of split loyalty at work.

In the cave the Doctor appeared to have recovered, but Dodo kept a wary eye on him. ‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ she asked again.

The Doctor patted himself thoughtfully. ‘Yes, I think so. It was very odd, wasn’t it? I think I must have fallen into a sort of coma. It was as though all my strength had been sapped from me.’

‘They did that to you,’ said Chal, ‘and you let their leader escape?’

‘Quite right, my friend,’ the Doctor nodded agreeably.

‘We must get back to the TARDIS as quickly as we can,’ said Dodo.

The Doctor looked at her with some surprise. ‘My dear girl, we can’t do that. Not yet. We have work to do.’

She was equally surprised. ‘Work?’

The Doctor had clearly made up his mind. ‘I don’t intend to go off and leave these poor people in this oppressed state.’

‘I don’t see what you can do about it,’ said Steven. ‘You aren’t going to change their way of thinking. The Elders in the City are never going to accept Chal and his fellows as equals.’

‘You are probably right,’ nodded the Doctor. ‘And I won’t try to convince them.’

‘Then what are you going to do, stranger?’ asked Chal.

‘I shall destroy the means whereby they hold this power over you,’ said the Doctor simply. There was a silence while that sank in.

‘Destroy the laboratory?’ said Steven.

‘Precisely,’ smiled the Doctor.

‘But how?’ asked Steven. ‘How do we get in there?’ ‘All we need,’ said the Doctor, ‘is one good friend on the other side.’

‘That isn’t possible,’ said Nanina sadly.

‘I think we have him already,’ said the Doctor. He walked up and down in the cave, with his fingers in his waistcoat, occasionally adjusting his large floppy tie, looking rather pleased with himself, and being what Steven called ‘enigmatic’. There was no use asking him any more questions.

‘Just wait, my boy,’ he said. ‘Just wait.’

They were still on guard on the other side of the valley. Edal couldn’t make up his mind what to do, and Jano was being singularly unhelpful.

‘It will be dark very soon,’ said Jano, looking up at

the sky. ‘I want you to go back to the City.’

‘And leave you here?’ Edal was surprised and

suspicious.

‘I shall be all right,’ said Jano.

‘But it would be improper if I —’

‘That is an order, Captain,’ said Jano. ‘Tell Senta and the Elders that I shall return with the strangers.’ ‘How will you do that?’

‘I shall bring them back as prisoners.’

Edal looked sharply at his leader; he wondered if the experience had damaged his brain. What could he do on his own?

‘I obey under protest,’ he said. He saluted, called the guards to order, and moved off towards the City.

Jano watched them move out of sight. They were soon lost in the growing dusk. Then he turned and looked up at the dark, empty mouths of the caves.

Steven reported very cheerfully to the Doctor, ‘They’ve gone.’

‘All of them?’ asked the Doctor in surprise. ‘I’m not sure,’ said Steven. ‘It’s getting dark.’

‘I should be very surprised if they’ve all gone,’ said the Doctor. ‘I think you’ll find they have left one behind.’

‘I’ll stay on watch in that case,’ said Steven.

‘No need, dear boy,’ said the Doctor airily.

The savages began to mutter amongst themselves on the other side of the cave. ‘The old man talks in riddles,’ said Chal. ‘He says they have not all gone, and yet we need no guard.’

The Doctor heard him. ‘Quite correct, my friend,’ he called out. ‘Wait until it’s really dark. Then I think we shall have a visitor.’

They looked at him in wonder.

Something of the same thought had gone through Edal’s mind. He was very uneasy about leaving Jano. He was up to something, but Edal couldn’t think what. As soon as he got back to the City he expressed his suspicions to Senta.

‘Then you shouldn’t have left him,’ said Senta.

‘I had no choice,’ replied Edal. ‘It was an order. I tell you, Jano is behaving very strangely. Not at all like himself.’

‘What exactly do you mean by that?’ asked Senta apprehensively.

‘I can’t put my finger on it,’ said Edal, ‘but he’s changed.’

Senta looked at him challengingly. ‘That’s a very dangerous accusation to make,’ he said.

The two men turned as the door opened and several of the Elders arrived, summoned to an emergency meeting. Senta indicated them to Edal. ‘Do you dare repeat it in front of them?’ he asked.

Edal was not to be shaken. ‘I was ordered to return here by Jano,’ he said, then added firmly, ‘I believe we are about to be betrayed.’

There was a startled silence.

It was suddenly dark in the ravine as night fell, and the cave was lit only by a smoky fire. Night seemed to bring another sort of silence, where any faint sound echoed about them. Huddled round the fire, the savages listened intently, watching the Doctor as they did so, uncertain what to expect.

‘There’s someone coming now,’ whispered Dodo.

Steven picked up the light gun. He too heard the noise of something moving on the cliff face outside. The Doctor saw him and called out cheerfully. ‘You will not need that, my boy.’

His confidence seemed to have no reason. Steven began to protest, but the Doctor held up a hand for silence.

They waited as the noise grew closer. Someone was undoubtedly climbing to the mouth of the cave. The sound stopped. There was a moment’s pause.

‘Doctor.’ It was Jano’s voice. ‘Doctor, tell them not to be alarmed.’

There was a wave of panic amongst the savages. ‘It’s Jano,’ said Chal.

‘That’s all right.’ The Doctor retained his cheerful note. ‘Come along, Jano. We’ve been expecting you.’

As Jano pulled himself into the cave the savages scattered into the darkness. It was impossible for them to face the formidable leader of their enemies. The Doctor called to Chal, ‘Tell your people they are safe. Jano comes as a friend.’

‘So you know?’ asked Jano.

The Doctor nodded. ‘It was an untried experiment, wasn’t it? And you are not the man to let someone else take such a risk. That’s how I saw it.’

‘You were right,’ said Jano. He looked at the Doctor questioningly. ‘And do you know why I am here?’ ‘I can guess,’ said the Doctor.

‘Very well,’ said Jano ‘Tell me. What has happened to me, Doctor?’

The Doctor chuckled. ‘Very simple, my dear fellow. You wanted my intellect — for which I don’t blame you — and you took it. But along with it you got something you didn’t bargain for. You absorbed a sense of right and wrong. In other words, you got a little conscience.’

‘Conscience?’ Steven looked from one man to the other.