CHAPTER 9
SPEARHEAD
Squirming and sobbing, Barbara Wright forced herself to open her eyes. Terror almost paralysing her reasoning, she gradually became aware that the executioner's savage blade had not cut into her. She could see her tormentor as little more than a dark silhouette against the golden radiance that illuminated the courtyard. With her senses reeling, she only vaguely heard the myriads of inhuman spectators snarling and cheering. The throng fell silent as the Caspicooga executioner once again adopted a threatening, lupine, pose in front of her. Before was just a cruel tease. Merely a ceremonial practise cut. Now the real thing was about to come.
"Stop this! By the will of the Derlag, stop this at once! I, Zalrik, command it!" The roaring, guttural, voice echoed around the courtyard. A sharp hiss of in-drawn breath rose from the crowd, as all turned to behold the regal apparition now entering through the great gates. Riding proudly on the back of a huge, black, shaggy-haired, bull-like creature was a Caspicooga whose purple cloak and golden chains and chest-borne shield denoted the highest office.
The crowds parted to clear a path in front of the imperious Zalrik as he rode towards the dais. Barbara blinked to clear her eyes of tears. She leaned forward against her shackles to glance at Vicki, who was still pale and quivering but was now staring at the new arrival. Sensing Barbara's attention, Vicki glanced back at her reassuringly. The two Earth women drew strength from each other.
"Kalrach! Come here at once!" blasted Zalrik as he drew to a halt on his mount. The bowler-hatted fat Caspicooga official urgently lumbered forward.
"Well, what have you to say for yourself?" growled Zalrik.
"A…er…I…" spluttered Kalrach ineffectually.
"Once again you have gone beyond your authority. How dare you take it upon yourself to execute these strange creatures. Even worse, you dared to not inform me of their discovery! It was left to Quankor of the Froll to tell me of their existence. He also told me of your guards killing Kerlag." Zalrik leaned menacingly towards the cringing Kalrach. "I will decide who lives and who dies here, not you. I had Quankor executed for his insubordination in questioning a higher Caspicooga's authority and now I am going to have YOU executed, Kalrach. You have ventured beyond the limits of your authority for the very last time!"
Kalrach fell to his knees. "No! No! Please, Your Excellency, please! Please! Don't kill me! I…"
"Take these strange creatures down and put him in their place!" barked Zalrik to his guards. The guards quickly obeyed and Barbara and Vicki found themselves roughly bundled together at the side of Zalrik's steed. As the women rubbed at their sore wrists, the dog-like odours exuding from the bodies of the two Caspicooga's holding them at knife point, combining with the awful stench of Zalrik's steed, made them both feel rather ill.
"Phew! Just think how bad they would smell if it wasn't so cold in here!" muttered Vicki. Barbara chuckled nervously. The guards prodded them menacingly with their blades. The two women smiled at each other reassuringly. Vicki's quip had been like a spark to dry tinder, rekindling the defiant human spirit in both of them. What happened next almost extinguished it once again.
Kalrach's protests grew into screams as the Caspicooga guards tightened his shackles.
"Remove his dress of office," ordered Zalrik. The guards complied. The crowd that thronged the courtyard started to murmur and jabber excitedly. They were not to be disappointed. They were to see an execution after all. Even better, the subject of the execution was to be the feared and hated Kalrach. Zalrik nodded to the executioner, who took his place in front of the fat official, now held where moments before Barbara had been chained. The executioner once again adopted a lupine pose.
"No!" screeched Kalrach. He gave a long and pitiful wail. Silence descended over the courtyard. The amber light that bathed the enclosure seemed to grow brighter and more yellow in hue. Both Barbara and Vicki screwed their eyes shut as the executioner leaped forward and drove his vicious blade into a blur of silver that sliced deep into Kalrach's flank. Kalrach's agonised scream was almost drowned out by the eruption of roaring and cheering from the crowd.
The Yakenta's great cavern bustled with activity. A double line of bull-like creatures were being herded into a queue beginning at the cavern entrance. Each of the beasts were rode by a pair of armed Yakenta warriors. Hundreds of others were scurrying to form parallel lines alongside the mounted troops. Above the hubbub could be heard the guttural voices of the Yakenta commanders barking orders. Spears and shields glistened in the tawny light of the ice-walled chamber. Ian and the Doctor were watching the activity from the open flap of the imperial tent.
The Doctor patted Ian's arm. "It gives one hope doesn't it, hmm?" the old man asked rhetorically.
"Yes, Doctor. I only hope that we can find the girls and that they are still alright."
"Yes, yes, dear boy. Yes. Mind you, as I said, our first priority must be to deal with this, er, Derlag." Responding to Ian's look of exasperation he continued, "Now, now, young man! I'm just as worried about Vicki and Barbara as you are. We MUST deal with the creature first, though. Only then can we all have a chance."
Ian's look softened. "Yes, I know Doctor. I know."
The Doctor patted Ian's arm again. "Good! Oh, I forgot to say didn't I, er, I found out something else from the Yakenta's scientific chief. You know that sort of fungus they gave us to eat? Well, these people have deliberately cultivated that as food since they found that it tends to reduce the effects exercised by the Derlag."
"Really!"
"Yes, my boy. At first the discovery was merely a question of, er , happy accident. However, they later did a proper chemical analysis and it showed that the fungus contains traces of certain alkaloids and, em, enkephalins and purines, which act in the brain to override the Derlag's effect, so to speak." The Doctor beamed at Ian.
Ian thought for a second and then urged, "Wouldn't it be a good idea if we ate some more of it. I didn't each very much of mine, I…"
"No, no, dear boy. I am afraid not. In fact, it is just as well for us that we didn't eat any more of it. Our brains are not like those of these creatures. The amount we did eat will surely be a help to us but any more of it could well be dangerous. I must say that I did feel a little light-headed afterwards, myself…" The Doctor's voice trailed off as he was momentarily distracted by the source of a sudden loud rumbling sound to one side of the tent. "Ah! Look my boy. I rather think that is our chariot being brought now."
Barbara and Vicki, once again badly upset by the horrors played out before them, stood hugging each other by the newly arrived Zalrik. The harsh cheering and snarling of the now-sated crowd had subsided to a babble. The executioner bowed low towards Zalrik and then stepped from the dais, leaving the now inert and mutilated Kalrach hanging limply by his shackles. A pool of blood spread from the feet of the hacked and blood-drenched carcass.
"We will return, now, to my headquarters. Bring these animals!" barked Zalrik to his attendant guards.
"W-What is to happen to us?" croaked Barbara. She shuddered as Zalrik's hideous compound eyes stared down at her. Zalrik rasped a harsh, rattling, laugh as he swung his stead around and started off towards the great gates of the courtyard. The Caspicooga crowds again melted back to clear a path in front of their leader. Zalrik's personal guards marched behind with their two new prisoners.
Ian Chesterton sat uneasily on the sumptuously padded bench seat in the imperial open-topped golden chariot. He glanced at the Doctor, sitting next to him. Far from looking uncomfortable, the old man exuded an air of regal grandeur.
"Off to meet our subjects are we?" quipped Ian. The old man darted him a frosty stare, which rapidly melted as he perceived his companion's nervousness.
The Doctor broke into one of his broad, beaming, smiles. "Well, you know, dear boy, I have been the honoured guest of a few royals and dignitaries in my time. Even some on your planet in times past and future. You know…" Ian interrupted the old man's flow with a dig in his ribs and a slight nod of the head. The Doctor's head swivelled to the side of him where the Great Kanga was approaching. Ian rose quickly to his feet. The Doctor did the same, using the side of the carriage to hoist himself up.
"Ah! Er, your majesty. Kind of you to see us off, er…" said the Doctor.
"No Doctor, it is I who must thank you. You have given us hope - and now you go off on a dangerous mission to help us, as well as to rescue your friends. I hope that your journey in my carriage will be a comfortable one and, above all, I wish you success in your great endeavour. Success for us all."
"Very kind of you. Yes, very kind. Thank you, thank you," beamed back the Doctor. Ian smiled and nodded.
"Has the scientist provided you with the poison?" asked Kanga.
"Yes, indeed, your majesty," replied the Doctor, gesturing towards the wicker basket containing six green bottles of poison, each packed round with something that resembled straw, on the floor of the carriage. Kanga peered in and then nodded. All in the Yakenta's cavern was now expectantly silent. Kanga stood back from the carriage and looked towards the front of the long line of Yakenta warriors, many mounted, many more on foot, stretching to the cavern mouth.
Kanga raised a great talon-like hand and bellowed "Away! Success to you all! Bring back victory over the Caspicooga. Death to the Derlag!" The Yakenta leader lowered his hand. A snarling cheer echoed around the great cavern in answer and the front of the column began moving into the tunnel. Kanga turned back to face the chariot. The Doctor smiled broadly, then bowed and lowered himself onto the bench seat. Ian did the same.
Moments later the wave of forward motion reached the huge bull-like animal tethered to the chariot and it jerked into motion. After a sharp nod to Kanga, the Doctor stared forward and watched the approach of the tunnel entrance. Ian looked back at the vast Yakenta cavern, with only a few of the Yakenta people left in it that were not part of the precession. Moments later his view was extinguished as the carriage rumbled noisily into the icy tunnel. A few Yakenta warriors were following on foot behind them.
Ian felt afraid. More afraid than he had been in a very long time. Faster than he would have thought possible, he had become used to the hectic and hazardous life of travel with the Doctor. Time and time again they had triumphed over seemingly insurmountable odds. Consequently he had acquired a powerful confidence in himself and the almost invincible nature of the human spirit. This time, though, the task before them seemed more than a little too daunting.
Into battle alongside fearsome alien creatures to fight a vast army of yet more fearsome alien creatures ensconced in a fortress of their own in the ice caverns of this strange world. To try to penetrate their fortress and to find a way into the catacombs below it, where some hideously evil entity resides like a nightmarish spider in the middle of its deadly web. Then to overcome that creature and those protecting it and to kill the evil monstrosity. To do all of that and still to come out of it alive… When Ian, the Doctor, Kanga, and some of the Yakenta generals had pored over their maps and made their plans in the comfort and splendour of Kanga's tent the task seemed very risky but just about within the bounds of possibility. To Ian it now seemed that the task was just too big to have any real hope of success. The probability of failure and death seemed too certain.
"A penny for them." The Doctor's voice brought Ian back from his anxious musings.
"Oh! I was just thinking about how we might find the girls."
The Doctor was not taken in by Ian's lie. The stress pictured on his face was all too clear. The Doctor pursed his lips and stared forward for a long moment. "I believe there is a saying from your world and time, er, sauce for the goose, eh?"
Ian looked quizzically at the old man. "Yes, that's right. Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, meaning what goes for one goes for the other."
"Quite so! Yes, quite so, eh?" The Doctor beamed at the puzzled Ian and then continued, "The creatures on this planet are not too advanced, er, technically, I mean, which is a good thing for us, now, hmm?" Ian continued to stare at the Doctor. He could see that his friend was driving at something. "Neither side of this war are technically very able."
"Oh, I see!" sighed Ian, "You mean that this battle is going to be fought with simple weapons, making both sides very much more evenly matched."
"Quite so! Quite so, eh?" The Doctor smiled comfortingly and Ian wondered whether this was one of those instances where the Doctor had read his thoughts.
Ian smiled back and nodded. "Yes, Doctor, now you come to mention it, I don't think I've seen anything as sophisticated as a radio or a television set or anything like that."
"Indeed, I should say that the arts, and mechanical and civil engineering are their chief skills. As far as I could make out from what I saw of their scientific records, their main academic strengths lie in chemistry and biology but even in those areas their knowledge is rather elementary. Their knowledge of physics is almost non-existent. They are aware of electricity but have only developed the most rudimentary electrical devices and certainly no radio or telecommunications."
"So, we won't have to worry about any early-warning devices before we get to the Caspicooga's citadel," commented Ian, "at least that's something." They both looked around them as the carriage rumbled out of the first tunnel and into a small ice-chamber. Ahead of them, most of the Yakenta warriors had already passed through the opening in the far side of the chamber to the next tunnel.
Onwards to the Caspicooga capitol. Onwards to battle.
"It IS true. We ARE from another world!" wailed Barbara, "You can see that we are different from you. Why won't you believe us?"
"Believe you!" retorted Zalrik from his glittering throne, "I…" Suddenly silence fell over the opulent throne room as Zalrik cocked his head to one side as if listening to a faint voice. Barbara and Vicki, standing before the throne on its raised dais, looked at one another. There was a slight stir from the guards surrounding the Earth women but they, too, fell into an expectant silence.
"The great Derlag has just communicated with me!" announced Zalrik at last. All the Caspicooga creatures in the room fell to their knees. The two women were also pulled down to a kneeling position.
"All praise to the Derlag!" cried out several voices in the throne room, all not quite together.
"These creatures are to be taken to the Derlag. The Derlag commands it!" bellowed Zalrik, "All praise to the Derlag!"
"All praise to the Derlag!" repeated the courtiers. In their kneeling positions, Vicki and Barbara stared at one another wide-eyed and fearful of this latest development.
"It MUST be like the Vortis Animus, mustn't it?" commented Vicki excitedly as the two women were marched, at knife point, along the street towards a great bejewelled arch which was set in a wall and guarded by two Caspicooga sentries.
"Yes, I know. That is what I have being trying to tell everybody all along," replied Barbara miserably.
"But don't you see?" whispered Vicki. We were able to defeat the Animus. I don't see why we can't do the same with this thing they call the Derlag."
"We were very lucky with how things worked out on Vortis," whispered Barbara emphatically, "AND we had the Menoptra's device to kill it with. I think this time…"
"Silence!" interrupted one of the three escorting Caspicooga guards with a harsh snarl, as they were marched past the two sentries and into the gloom of the immense stairway that extended downwards. Downwards to the catacombs below the citadel. Downwards to the lair of the Derlag.
Outside the citadel, in the immense bell-shaped cavern of ice that enclosed the glittering edifice, Yakenta warriors were streaming out of a tunnel, across the ledge and onto one of the vast bridges that spanned the misty chasm between the rocky ledge and the entrance to the citadel. The bull-like steeds of the mounted Yakenta warriors bellowed an unearthly guttural cry as they were goaded, unwillingly, into galloping across the bridge. Caspicooga lookouts stirred into action at their positions high amid the towers and battlements. The two guards to either side of the main gate ran inside and attempted to close the enormous gates - but they could not quite close them before the weight of the charging army forced them open again. The Caspicooga guards were the first to be mowed down in the onslaught.
With a cacophony of snarling and howling the Yakenta warriors surged through the entrance and into the courtyard as more of the Caspicooga poured out from the buildings and alleyways. The air was filled with the sounds of metal clashing with metal and screams of agony and shouts and snarls of rage as the small yard became packed with fighting Yakenta and Caspicooga creatures. The bull-like animals roared and bellowed in fear amongst the jostling combatants as terrifying squeals erupted from those that were hacked by the Caspicooga blades.
"It's incredible! Beautiful! Just look at it, Doctor!" gasped Ian. He and the Doctor, now dismounted from the carriage, were standing on the rocky ledge and looking across the bridge to the Caspicooga citadel. Ian's gaze roved over the magnificent construction. The Doctor's attention was more firmly rooted in the activity that he could see through the open gateway.
"Get ready! In just a moment we cross the bridge, when I say!" shouted the old man to those around him in the manner of a Sergeant Major barking an order to his regiment, "And remember all of you, Chesterton and myself and the four of you also carrying the poison must be protected at all costs. It is our task to get to the entrance of the catacombs. We must poison the Derlag. We must!" The Doctor looked sharply round at his small band of troops and they in turn bowed their affirmation. Ian braced himself as the Doctor, his face grim, stared back at the pitch battle that was visible through the great gateway of the citadel.
"Right! Now!" bellowed the old man and the small group ran across the bridge, through the great gates, and into the seething mass of violence and hatred.
Vicki yelped as her feet slid on the ice as she stepped off the stone staircase and onto the floor of the chamber. Barbara stepped more carefully onto the icy floor, despite the urgent jabs from the guards' spears and knives. The enclosure was dimly lit with the familiar patches of tawny light deep within the icy walls.
"Move!" hissed one of the guards. As the women slithered along a highly polished path they glanced at the activity of the large number of creatures in the chamber.
Like a rotating tree trunk, a centrally placed upright shaft of wood, braced with black metal hoops, extended vertically upwards to the low roof. About a metre and a half from the floor level several thick and long metal rods fanned horizontally outwards from the shaft, in the manner of spokes from the central hub of a wheel. At the end of each rod a grey-furred Yakenta trudged round, pushing hard, and so slowly rotating the central shaft. The task was obviously an arduous one. The Yakenta wheezed and groaned and their bodies were pitched over at an angle, as they, with their arms outstretched, pushed the flexing rods. They walked not on the ice but along a great circular track of ribbed stone. Even so, their feet often slid and a stain of reddish-brown marked the path of the creatures' blistering feet along the track.
Many Caspicooga stood about the slowly moving ring of Yakenta slaves, variously armed with whips, bludgeons and spears. Several of the Yakenta had blood stains in the fur on their backs. At the top of the central shaft an arrangement of crude gears crunched and whirred and a rapidly spinning horizontal shaft of metal extended outwards from the arrangement, passing close to the low roof, and then out through a hole in the opposite wall.
A moment later the human captives were escorted through an archway into a short corridor, and emerged near the roof of a vast ice cavern. It was obviously a huge workshop, bustling with noise and activity.
"Oh, no!" whined Vicki as they stood on the upper landing of a very long, but uncomfortably narrow, icy staircase. Like the one the had nearly all come to grief on when they had first descended into this icy subterranean world, this one had no banisters. On one side it was a shear drop to the ground far below. At least the other side was, mercifully, bounded by the wall of the cavern, the staircase itself following the curve of the wall.
"It's alright, Vicki, I'll help you. Stay close to the wall and hold on to me."
"Move!" rasped on of the guards, giving Barbara a painful prod with the end of a spear.
"Alright! Alright! We're going! Our shoes can't grip the ice very well and my friend is afraid of heights," exploded Barbara. This drew an angry snarl from her tormentor and another thrust of the spear point.
As the group descended the treacherous staircase, Barbara and Vicki did their best to placate their captors by moving quickly, while keeping their backs to the corrugated icy wall. Barbara took in some details of the enormous workshop. She could see that the horizontal spinning shaft from the other chamber extended into this cavern through a hole in the wall near the roof. Positioned at intervals along this main shaft were different sized wheels, with wide belts running over the wheels and connecting them to the wheels on other shafts or directly down to drive wheels on various of the large pieces of machinery set up on the cavern floor.
Near many of the machines were suspended large glass globes, open at the top and from inside of which flames cast a flickering light. These were hung from the roof by long ropes, passing down amid the cat's-cradle of drive belting. Both the yellowish-white furred Caspicooga creatures and the grey-furred Yakenta toiled at the machinery, with the Caspicooga very much in command.
Despite her fear and desperation, Barbara's intellect and keenness for history was sufficiently aroused for her to see the similarities to the arrangement of shafting and counter-shafting used to drive the machinery in factories in pre-war England, and particularly in the cotton mills of Lancashire. How often she had drawn her pupils attention to the book illustrations in her lessons about the industrial revolution back on Earth?
With an inward smile, she realised that it had been a very long time since she thought of her home in Earth's twentieth century. The thoughts gave her momentary comfort. Of course, in those Earthly factories the line-shaft was usually driven by a water-mill or from a steam engine, not from alien slave creatures toiling on some sort of tread-mill!
Barbara shuddered. It was not just the intense cold. With that last thought, her home seemed to retreat from her mind once more. Home was now in the unimaginable and unreachable distance. Glancing at her hideous captors, she struggled to fight back the feelings of dread and hopelessness that threatened to overwhelm her. Her eyes misted with tears. As she and Vicki descended the staircase it felt to her as if she was sinking past the point of no return into the depths of unimaginable terrors and misery. She could bear it no more. Barbara Wright began to cry.
"Oh dear!" wheezed the old Doctor as he leant on the corner of the building for support. A cold sweat glistened on his forehead in the golden light. The sounds of the battle raging still echoed up the alleyway.
Ian, also painfully dragging up the frigid air, put a hand on the old man's shoulder. "You alright?" The Doctor just nodded, then rested his head back against the wall behind him and clenched his eyes shut. A shrill scream sounded from somewhere nearby.
"We must continue," rasped one of the two remaining Yakenta warriors urgently, "we are still too close…"
"Yes, Yarlik, I know," interrupted Ian wheezily, "Just give us a moment to get our breaths back." After a pause he added, "I'm sorry about the others."
"They will be avenged," replied Yarlik with bitterness hardening his guttural voice. Then he turned to the other warrior, "Go ahead, Frellic, and see that the way is clear." Frellic nodded and, keeping close to the wall, cautiously moved forward to the end of the alley.
"Oh, goodness me! I didn't think any of us would get out alive," said the Doctor ruefully as he stood away from the wall and struggled to compose himself once more. "How many bottles of the poison have we left?"
"Just two," replied Ian, "Yarlik and Frellic each have one."
"Oh, you dropped yours as well, then," said the Doctor blinking at Ian's empty gloved hands, "Hmm, still just one bottle should be enough to do the job if we can only reach the, er, mmm…"
"Derlag," interjected Ian helpfully.
"Er, yes, the Derlag." The Doctor sighed heavily. Come along then. Come along. We mustn't loiter about here. Come along!"
"I wonder why the light is getting yellower?" mused Vicki weakly as the party descended yet more treacherous steps down a narrow, winding, tunnel. Barbara guessed that Vicki was no more interested in the colour of the glows in the walls than she was. She knew it was merely her friend's attempt to help her regain some of her spirit. Barbara felt too numb to respond. She knew that if she tried to speak she would again break down.
They could begin to hear noises echoing up the corridor from somewhere below. A nauseatingly acrid smell was also becoming apparent. Moments later they stepped down into a steamy cavern of stalactites and stalagmites
amid which a number of the Caspicooga moved around carrying out various tasks. Most were engaged in the preparation of large vats of a reddish-brown slurry. The sickening smell was almost overpowering.
Barbara stared dully ahead of her. Vicki looked around. The young girl fought against waves of revulsion as she spied a large table along one wall of the chamber. On it were the blood-stained carcasses of several of the grey-furred natives. They were partially dismembered. She looked about her, realising the purpose of the Caspicooga's activities. This horrible place was some sort of kitchen and the food being prepared was made from… The Caspicooga guards sprang back in shock as Vicki violently vomited.
The Doctor, Frellic and Yarlik pressed their backs up against the wall of the building while Ian carefully peered round the corner. Drawing back, he turned to the others.
"I can see it - a sort of archway covered in gold and jewels," he whispered, "but there are two guards, one on each side of it, with spears and they've got other weapons in their belts." The Doctor pursed his lips and Yarlik nodded slowly.
"It would have been easier if the others had still been alive," Yarlik commented grimly.
"I can attack one of them and draw off the other," hissed Frellic.
"Good. Yes, do it," agreed Yarlik. Frellic sidled in front of Yarlik and Ian, handing Ian his bottle of poison. He paused, weighing the short spear in his talon-like hand. Then he sprang out into view of the two sentries and he launched his spear like a javelin. Both guards reacted with lightening speed but the spear sank into the shoulder of the one to the left of the archway. With a guttural cry, the injured Caspicooga dropped his own spear and clutched at the imbedded weapon. Frellic jumped back round the corner, a long spear hissing through the air and barely missing him.
"I only caught his shoulder," rasped Frellic bitterly.
"We'll attack together, now!" barked Yarlik, desperately, and the four of them rushed round the corner and ran towards the archway.
"Oh, no!" cried Ian as another dozen Caspicoogas, all carrying weapons, poured out from the doorway of an adjoining building. In an instant the Doctor, Ian, Frellic and Yarlik were surrounded. Aghast, the Doctor and Ian saw Frellic and Yarlik valiantly draw their weapons and attack but they had no time to land even one blow before they were cut, hacked, and stabbed. Shrieking and gurgling they crumpled to the ground.
While the felled Yakenta warriors still twitched and gasped their last breaths, the blades were raised again and poised for their next victims.
"No!" blasted one Caspicooga, "These creatures are like the others we saw at the execution. Zalrik will want them."
"No! Let us kill them!" growled another.
"No! Remember what happened to Kalrach! Do you want the same thing to happen to you?" came the angry retort. After a long pause and grunts from some of the others, they lowered their weapons. The Doctor clenched his eyes shut for a moment and breathed heavily. The expression on Ian's face changed from terror, to shock and then to a slowly growing grief as the creature's words began to sink in to his fear-frozen mind. The creatures, like them, the Caspicooga referred to could only be Barbara and Vicki - and they had been at 'the execution'.
Bitter failure and grief overwhelmed Ian. Marooned on this planet and at the mercy of these terrible creatures; Vicki and Barbara dead. Ian stood, numbly clutching the one remaining bottle of poison. Poison which he knew they would now never be able to use.
Minutes later, Ian and the Doctor were standing before Zalrik. The magnificence of the Caspicooga leader's palatial throne room was lost on them both. Looking like a great bear in his heavy fur coat, Ian stood dejectedly. He looked at the Doctor, standing beside him. What Ian saw only served to deepen his despair. All the fighting spirit had drained from the Doctor's features. The old man's face now looked crumpled and skeletal. Never before had he seen the Doctor look so depressed, so without hope, and so old.
"The attack is over and we have won," reported a Caspicooga general proudly to Zalrik. "Many Yakenta have been killed. Those that were not have fled." Zalrik breathed a long, gurgling, sigh of satisfaction.
"Excellent! And we will capitalise on their defeat. Prepare our army to attack the Yakenta base as soon as possible. With their forces now depleated, and by the will of the Derlag, ours will be the final victory. See to it now, and report back when all is ready!"
"As you command, Excellency," replied the general, bowing low and backing out of the throne room. Zalrik turned his attention to Ian and the Doctor once more.
"Did you hear that, vermin?" rasped Zalrik, "Whatever the foolish desperation was that caused your Yakenta friends to attack us, it was their last mistake. We will crush them and reign victorious. By the great will of the Derlag, we will be the rulers of this planet!" Ian looked again at the Doctor. The pain and guilt pictured on the old man's face was obvious. The great throne room echoed with the harsh, cackling laughter of the Caspicooga leader.
Wearily stumbling off the last step into a small ice chamber, Barbara and Vicki's descent through the caverns, galleries and tunnels of ice below the Caspicooga citadel was finally at an end. As they had moved lower and lower, they had noticed that the mysterious patches of light deep in the icy walls had become less orange and more yellow in hue. In this small chamber the light from the walls shone with a bright lemon radiance.
"Through there," rasped one of the guards, tensely. He pointed with his blade towards a long tunnel off to one side. All three of the guards audibly wheezed and panted. The Earth-women stared at each other. It was obvious to them that the creature they were being taken to face even frightened the fearsome Caspicoogas.
"Move!" blasted another guard, giving Vicki a prod with his spear. The two women were forced at spear point into the tunnel. It was long and curved. They could see a harsh green light shining from somewhere ahead. The guards behind them were panting louder and faster. After the horrors of before, the women's minds had become numbed to emotion but now one emotion was re-establishing itself uppermost in both their minds - fear.
The tunnel came to an end. Bathed in a vivid green glow, they all stopped at the entrance to another huge cavern of ice. Almost fainting with terror, Barbara and Vicki stared into the cavern.
They both screamed.
