011 - Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit

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The planet Chloris is very fertile, but metal is in short supply,

and has therefore become extremely valuable.

A huge creature, with most unusual physical properties,

arrives from an alien planet which can provide Chloris with

metal from its own unlimited supplies, in exchange for

chlorophyll.

However, the ruthless Lady Adrasta has been able to exploit

the shortage of metal to her own advantage, and has no wish

to see the situation change.

The Doctor and Romana land on Chloris just as the

creature’s alien masters begin to lose patience over their

ambassador’s long absence.

The action the aliens decide to take will have devastating

consequences for Chloris, unless something is done to

prevent it...

ISBN 0 426 20123 X

DOCTOR WHO

AND THE

CREATURE FROM

THE PIT

Based on the BBC television serial by David Fisher by

arrangement with the British Broadcasting Corporation

DAVID FISHER

published by

The Paperback Division of

W. H. ALLEN & Co. Ltd

A Target Book

Published in 1981

by the Paperback Division of W. H. Allen & Co. Ltd.

A Howard & Wyndham Company

44 Hill Street, London W1X 8LB

Corporation 1979, 1981

Printed in Great Britain by

Anchor Brendon Ltd, Tiptree, Essex

ISBN 0426 20123 X

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by

way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or

otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in

any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is

published and without a similar condition including this

condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

CONTENTS

1 The Pit

2 Wolfweeds

3 The Doctor's Leap to Death

4 The Creature

5 Organon

6 The Web

7 The Meeting

8 The Shield

9 Erato

10 Complications

11 Wrapping Up

The Pit

It was a beautiful day, thought the Lady Adrasta. Hot and

humid, of course—which was hardly surprising, since the whole

planet was covered with a thick impenetrable jungle—but

nonetheless, a beautiful day for an execution.

‘No! No! Please... my lady... please...’

The Lady Adrasta ignored the man’s cries as her guards

dragged him to the edge of the old mineshaft they called the Pit.

The wretched engineer had failed her. Those who failed her

died. It was a simple rule designed to encourage efficiency

amongst her subjects. Some it did; some it didn’t. Those it didn’t

were obviously deliberately refractory and she was better off

without them.

The man had become silent, staring in horror down into the

darkness below him.

Bored, the Lady Adrasta looked around. The green

oppressive jungle seemed almost visibly to be encroaching on the

mineshaft. It was encroaching everywhere on the planet, she

thought, like a vast green sea.

‘Well, what are we waiting for?’ she snapped irritably at her

Vizier, Madam Karela. ‘We haven’t got all day.’ The wizened old

woman with evil eyes fingered the knife she wore at her waist. All

this business of the Pit, she thought, is a waste of time. Why the

Pit? Simpler to cut their throats—quicker, too. Still if my lady

wanted to indulge her whim...

Karela signalled to the guard who carried the great hunting

horn. It was made out of the antler of some huge beast. The

guard raised the horn to his lips and blew a single blast, which

echoed and re-echoed in the green clearing.

There was a moment of silence, of expectancy. Even the

victim fell silent. Everyone waited. Then it came: an answering

call from the Pit, inhuman—not animal, either—the sound of

some great... what? The victim staring down caught a glimpse of

something enormous yet shapeless, moving in the darkness

below, and screamed.

The Lady Adrasta nodded to the guards. Two of them seized

the poor engineer and hurled him over the edge of the Pit. She

watched with interest as he fell amongst the pile of bones,

remnants of previous engineers and scientists who had failed

her. Then something, a shape, unimaginably huge, and of an

extraordinary luminescent green, rolled towards him, covering

him.

The man screamed and was silent.

The Lady Adrasta shivered and turned away.

Madam Karela glanced at her mistress and shrugged. The

knife, she thought, would be easier, simpler: all this fuss about

using the Creature of the Pit.

Wolfweeds

Number Four Hold was proving to be a problem. Not

surprisingly, reflected Romana. It probably hadn’t been cleared

out since the day the Doctor had first taken off in the TARDIS

from Gallifrey.

She was in the throes of spring-cleaning—an impossible task,

as she readily admitted to herself. The TARDIS itself was a

multi-dimensional vehicle, which meant that parts of it tended to

exist in various times and in different dimensions. You might

clear out a cupboard now and five minutes later find it full of the

most outlandish objects which had appeared from you had no

idea where (or when): like this cardboard box, labelled “Toys

from Hamleys”.

Romana opened the lid and inspected the contents. What on

earth had persuaded the Doctor to preserve this collection of

useless junk? A single patent-leather dancing pump, signed on

the sole “Love from Fred”; the jawbone of some animal;

something that looked like a musical instrument and probably

wasn’t; a ball of string; a blonde chest-wig. Then suddenly her

eye lighted on a familiar sign—the Seal of Gallifrey stamped on

an unopened package. Beside the Seal were the words ‘INSTAL

IMMEDIATELY’ and a date. Whatever it was was supposed to

have been installed twelve years ago. She unwrapped the

package.

The Doctor was enjoying the luxury of being read to. He

had programmed K9 with the works of Beatrix Potter and was

sitting back listening to the Tale of Peter Rabbit. He looked up

irritably when, at a crucial point in the story, Romana entered

carrying a piece of equipment.

‘What’s this?’ she asked. ‘I found it in Number Four Hold.’

‘Oh, some useless piece of junk. Chuck it away.’

K9, ever helpful, knew better.

‘It’s a Mark 3 Emergency Transceiver, mistress,’ he

explained.

‘What’s it for?’ asked Romana.

‘To receive and send distress calls, mistress.’

But the Doctor wasn’t impressed. The authorities on

Gallifrey were always sending him new pieces of equipment to

try out. If he wasted his valuable time installing every new

gimmick they sent him, he would never have time for the really

important things.

‘Like listening to the Tale of Peter Rabbit?’ suggested

Romana.

The Doctor decided to overlook that remark. ‘In any case,’

he declared, marshalling what he regarded as the ultimate

argument, ‘what was the point of installing a Distress Transceiver

when I was never in distress.’ Seeing Romana’s reaction, he

added hastily, ‘Well, not often. Not what you’d call often.’

‘The Transceiver plugs into the central console, mistress,’

observed K9.

‘Thank you, K9,’ replied Romans plugging in the equipment

and switching on.

Immediately the TARDIS was filled with a wild screeching

noise, a high-pitched babble of sound as if something were

screaming hysterically.

The Doctor and Romana put their hands over their ears, but

only for a moment, because suddenly the TARDIS tilted at a

mad angle and both of them were hurled into a heap in the

corner. A moment or two later the TARDIS righted itself. It had

landed somewhere. The Doctor staggered to his feet and

switched off the Transceiver. He turned to Romana. ‘Now you

know why I never installed that thing,’ he observed. ‘It never

worked properly.’

‘Correction, master,’ said K9. ‘That is how it is supposed to

work.’

But the Doctor had switched on the scanning screen and was

too busy studying their landing place to reply. ‘Good Lord,’ he

exclaimed. ‘Incredible.’

From her position on the floor Romana looked up at the

screen. All she could see was jungle: green, impenetrable jungle,

and something huge and curved that rose into the air.

When Romana joined the Doctor outside, she found him

studying this enormous structure with interest. Because of the

jungle, it was difficult to make out its size, let alone its purpose.

But seemed to be about 400 metres long and it rose unevenly to

a height of about 10 metres. The top was serrated as if broken by

some force. Surely it couldn’t be a wall—it was only a few

centimetres thick.

‘What is it?’ she asked.

‘An egg, of course,’ replied the Doctor. ‘Or at least part of

the shell. Have a look round and see if you can find the rest of

it.’

Romana stared at the thing in astonishment. It scarcely

seemed possible. And yet now she came to look at the structure

there was something egg-like about it. But what kind of creature

could have laid an egg 400 metres long?

‘I’ll tell you something else,’ went on the Doctor, scratching

at the shell with his penknife. ‘This thing’s made of metal. Did

you say something?’ he enquired politely.

‘No,’ replied Romana. ‘I think what you heard was just my

mind boggling. Metal birds laying metal eggs. Though I suppose

it doesn’t have to be a bird, does it? Other things lay eggs.’

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摘要：

TheplanetChlorisisveryfertile,butmetalisinshortsupply,andhasthereforebecomeextremelyvaluable.Ahugecreature,withmostunusualphysicalproperties,arrivesfromanalienplanetwhichcanprovideChloriswithmetalfromitsownunlimitedsupplies,inexchangeforchlorophyll.However,theruthlessLadyAdrastahasbeenabletoexploitt...

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