Grubby and exhausted, he edged cautiously round a crumbling sandstone bluff towards the strange blue boxlike structure he had just discovered. Before he reached it, he suddenly came across what looked like a huge black spider flattened into the sand. Stifling a squeal of alarm, he pulled himself together and knelt to examine the five-pointed star shape, about a metre in diameter, burnt into the ground. Something about the weird symbol sent a spiky sensation crawling up his spine.
All at once, harsh angry voices burst out nearby. Kully scuttled away in panic and hid behind the police box...
‘So you destroyed the ocean craft?’ Rago was saying accusingly. ‘You continue to allow your destructive instincts to interfere with prime objectives.’
‘Censure not accepted,’ Toba retorted as the two huge figures reached the black star symbol and stopped. ‘The target survey is completed. This is perimeter two. Atomic analysis is also completed.’
‘Report,’ Rago snapped.
‘Atomic activity on this planet located only on this island. Radiation released 17.2 decades ago.’
Navigator Rago nodded approvingly. Then he noticed the TARDIS under the cliff. ‘What is that artefact?’ he demanded suspiciously.
‘A primitive native structure,’ Toba answered, his eyes gleaming expectantly. ‘Shall I summon a Quark to destroy it?’
‘Negative!’ Rago rasped contemptuously. ‘Such action would waste energy. It does not obstruct our work. We will examine the remaining targets.’
‘Command accepted,’ Toba gruffly acknowledged.
‘Central bore is next.’
As they strode off heavily, Kully crept out from behind the TARDIS and trailed them along the base of the cliff, his heart hammering almost audibly. Eventually they reached another spidery star melted into the sand close to the ruined building. Kully took refuge among some shattered concrete slabs and watched.
‘Primitive technology,’ Toba sneered as he and Rago entered the ruin and glanced around at the exhibits.
‘Every culture develops,’ Rago retorted coldly.
Toba picked up the laser gun that Jamie had toyed with earlier. He aimed at the wall and fired. There was a piercing whine and a jagged hole was blown clean through the concrete. Just for a second, a tremor of pleasure seemed to ripple through Toba’s massive frame. Then he dropped the weapon uninterestedly. ‘All this is obsolete,’ he shrugged. ‘There is nothing to threaten us here.’
Rago stared at his operative in despair. ‘It is unwise to base your assessments on the past,’ he rapped. ‘Do you not conclude that more advanced weapons must have been developed since these?’
‘Affirmative.’
With a viciously slicing fist, Rago thumped a nearby display cabinet which cracked all over without splintering.
‘Probationer Toba,’ he raged, ‘because of your precipitate act of self-gratification in destroying the three inhabitants, it will be necessary to locate other specimens and to investigate and assess them in accordance with our objectives.’
Toba followed his superior outside to examine the target mark.
‘This debris must be cleared away from the bore area,’
Rago ordered. ‘When we have completed perimeter target checks, you will prepare a preliminary assessment and communicate to Fleet Leader.’
The Doctor, Zoe and Jamie stared helplessly at their white-suited captors through the thick glass observation-panel.
They were confined in a cramped airlock chamber and surrounded by a hot steamy vapour which was choking them and threatening to boil them alive. Through the glass, the three tall figures – who had removed their protective helmets – peered in at them from time to time, discussing something animatedly and then hurrying over to make adjustments on a large and complex instrument panel.
‘Well, they seem... seem genuinely concerned abut our welfare...’ the Doctor managed to croak in a strangled attempt at reassurance, ‘but I fear they’re going to kill us with kindness in a minute...’ He broke off to mouth a desperate plea to the silver-haired and bearded figure who at that moment was squinting through the scalding haze at them. But the distinguished person turned back to his two young assistants and the Doctor could only resort to thumping the glass feebly.
‘I do hope we are not too late, Kando. How badly were they affected?’ the silver-haired man asked the tall fair girl at the instrument panel.
‘I cannot tell,’ Educator Balan,’ she replied. ‘The radiation level still reads zero.’
Balan turned gravely to the slim young man beside her.
‘Teel?’
‘Zero confirmed,’ Teel announced in a puzzled voice. ‘I do not understand it.’
Bolan glanced anxiously across at the three figures sagging limply against the observation port, their tongues hanging out and their eyes rolling. ‘There must be an instrument malfunction,’ he murmured. ‘They had no protection at all. The count cannot be zero;’
‘We cannot leave them in there much longer!’ Kando warned him.
After a moment of agonised indecision, Balan leaned over and touched a switch. The airlock chamber door swung open and the three sweating, gasping victims stumbled out into the clinical and complex laboratory.
‘What... what the divil are ye trying to do, ye Sassenachs... cook us?’ Jamie spluttered. ‘Cos I’m no haggis...’
The Doctor restrained him as best he could and staggered angrily over towards Balan who backed away from him pointing a small Geiger counter at arm’s length.
‘All totally un...unnecessary,’ the Doctor panted, brushing the instrument aside. ‘There’s not a trace of contamination on any of us.’
Calmly Balan checked the reading. ‘Strange, is it not?
The whole island has been lethally radioactive for 172
annos,’ he said in a cultured voice.
‘Well, it isn’t now!’ Jamie snapped rudely, clutching his head.
‘Of course it is,’ Kando corrected him politely.
‘I suggest that you check,’ the Doctor advised Balan firmly.
‘We have only just arrived here,’ Teel explained. ‘The annual environmental audit will he conducted during the next few days.’
The Doctor moved closer to Balan and addressed him with confidential urgency. ‘I insist that you order a check immediately. It could be of the utmost importance.’
Balan stared impassively at the dapper stranger for a moment. Then he turned and nodded to Teel. The young Dulcian picked up the Geiger counter and his helmet, and hurried out.
‘What is happening here?’ Balan suddenly demanded, glancing at Zoe and Jamie. ‘I was not aware that any other persons were permitted to work on the Island.’
‘Neither was I,’ bluffed the Doctor, smiling courteously.
‘We were rather hoping that you might be able to enlighten us.’
Zoe stared at the formidable array of equipment around them.
‘Why is the Island supposed to be so dangerous?’ she asked, wincing from the dull headache her recent ordeal had given her.
Balan frowned in surprise. ‘Everyone is aware of the atomic test...’
‘But I thought you had abolished such research here on Dulkis,’ the Doctor exclaimed.
Balan shook his head. ‘You seem very poorly informed about your own planet.’
‘That’s because our own planet is...’ Jamie clammed up as the Doctor kicked him sharply in the ankle. But it was too late.
The Doctor looked furious, but simply shrugged. ‘As Jamie was about to reveal, we come from a different planet... indeed from a different time,’ he admitted.
Balan seemed completely unmoved. ‘Really? Not from Dulkis. I must record that in the bulletin,’ he said. Then he smiled indulgently: ‘That explains why you exposed yourselves to the dangers on the Island. No Dulcian would be so foolhardy.’
‘Then what the divil are
you
doing here?’ Jamie demanded roughly, turning to Kando.
She drew herself up with elegant pride. ‘We are members of Educator Balan’s university research group’
The Doctor intervened hastily. ‘When I visited Dulkis before, it was a civilised and peaceful place,’ he remarked gently.
Again Balan looked singularly unimpressed. ‘This is not your first visit. I must note that in the bulletin.’
‘But what has happened here?’ the Doctor inquired impatiently. ‘Why are you conducting atomic tests?’
Balan smiled and turned to Kando. ‘The Seventh Council...’ he prompted her.
There was a brief silence while Kando muttered parrot-fashion under her breath about fifth and sixth councils and the Doctor shuffled restlessly from foot to foot, nodding encouragement.
‘... the Seventh Council under Director Manus initiated research into atomic energy, using this Island as a test site for the device, the results of which can be seen today...’
Kando recited tonelessly. ‘Thereafter all such projects were prohibited. The Island is preserved as a museum and as a warning to future generations.’
‘She’s certainly done her homework!’ Zoe remarked, with a sarcastic grimace at Jamie.
Oblivious, Balan beamed at his pupil approvingly.
Meanwhile the Doctor had wandered off around the laboratory, shoulders hunched, hands deep in pockets.
‘Atomic weapons or no atomic weapons... that was quite a bang we heard,’ he murmured. Then he stopped in his tracks, face to face with Balan. ‘So what has happened to all that radiation?’ he demanded. ‘I do hope you don’t suspect that its disappearance has got anything to do with us!’
As soon as Rago and Toba were out of sight, Kully emerged from his cramped niche among the debris and scurried over to look at the sticky black markings in the sand, not far from the wall of the museum. Then he noticed several sets of regular rectangular tracks and shuddered at the memory of the ruthless robots he had seen earlier.
A sudden movement behind him made him jerk round with a gasp. A tall faceless white figure was clambering over the wreckage towards the ruin. Springing up, Kully started to run as fast as his short plump legs would carry him, away towards the dunes.
‘Kully... Kully!’ rasped an echoing metallic voice. ‘What are doing here?’
Kull stopped but dare not turn round. ‘Who... who isthat?’ he shouted, as heavy footfalls thumped up behind him.
‘It is Teel. I am with the survey group.’
Kelly spun round, almost crying with relief as the suited figure ran up to him. He peered into the dark visor, but saw only his own terrified bulbous face reflecting back at him.
‘Surely you remember me?’ rasped the voice through the helmet speaker.
‘Survey group!’ Kelly gasped, gripping Teel’s arm.
‘Take me there. Quickly, take me there.’
‘But what are you doing out here like that?’ the voice demanded in astonishment.
Kully tugged frantically at the thick suit-sleeve. ‘Don’t argue, just take no there; he pleaded.
As Teel led the way swiftly hack to the survey module, Kully trotted along beside him endlessly jabbering about aliens and robots and giant wooden boxes, until Teel began to fear that either the frenzied Dulcian had lost his sanity or he was suffering from some kind of radiation sickness.
Meanwhile, back in the cool humming chamber of the survey module the Doctor was pacing agitatedly. ‘But why should you think that we are responsible?’ he objected.
Balan shrugged. ‘It is possible that your craft... your TARDIS has attracted the radiation somehow and absorbed it,’; he speculated blandly.
‘Nonsense. Quite out of the question,’ the Doctor protested vehemently, running a critical eye over the module’s instruments.
Zoe and Jamie were deep in conversation with Kando.
‘Do spacecraft often visit Dulk s?’ Zoe wondered.
‘I believe that yours is the first,’ Kando replied.
Jamie looked baffled. ‘Bell, ye dinna seem very surprised a see us.’
Kando frowned at the strange young man’s curious speech. ‘We Dulcians are taught to accept fact,’ she explained. ‘You are here – that is fact. That you come from another planet I must accept as fact, since I have no evidence to prove otherwise.’
Jame stared mischievously at her, trying to think up some way to shock the serene young Dulcian.
Suddenly the airlock hissed open and Teel entered, removing his helmet. ‘Not a trace of local radiation,’ he announced. ‘But look what I did find!’ he added, ushering forward a dusty, rumpled figure covered in scratches.
‘Kull y!’ Balan exclaimed with a start. ‘How do you come to be...?’
‘Never mind that now,’ Kully cried, ignoring the Doctor and his two companions and seizing the Educator by the arm. ‘We must get back to the Capitol immediately.’
‘Impossible,’ Balan retorted. ‘We have not even begun our survey for the annual audit.’
Kully stared at him wild-eyed. ‘You’ll all be wiped out here!’ he cried.
Teel laughed uncomfortably. ‘He claims to have seen aliens and killer robots and spacecraft,’ he explained.
Balan turned to the Doctor. ‘You did not mention that you had brought robots.’
Before the Doctor could reply, Kully babbled on recklessly. ‘Listen, Balan, I brought three citizens to the Island in my hovercraft. The robots killed them and destroyed the ship.’
Balan started to smile and then broke into a deep remnant laughter as he turned to the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe. ‘Three citizens... I sec. Really Kully, you and your three friends here should at least have agreed on the same story.’
The Doctor looked flustered. ‘I have never seen this person before in my life,’ he protested, gesturing at Kully.
Balan turned gravely to the dishevelled Dulcian. ‘Kully, you may be the son of our distinguished Director, but you had no right to bring these people here without authorisation,’ he said coldly.
Kully stared in turn at the three strangers. ‘These aren’t my clients. I’ve never seen them before,’ he retorted. Then he grabbed Balan’s arm again. ‘Listen, you old fool, there’s no time to lose. Call up my father in the Capitol... at least he’s not as senile as you are.’
Before the outraged Educator could find words to reply, the Doctor hurriedly intervened. ‘You say that you saw a spacecraft?’ he asked Kully.
‘I’ve already told you!’ Kully yelled in exasperation.
‘And robots...
horrible
things.’
The Doctor looked anxious. ‘This spacecraft, it wasn’t sort of square like a tall wooden box...?’