Doctor Who: Target - Novelisations [031] - The Horns of Nimon by Terrance Dicks

Author:Terrance Dicks
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426201311
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1980-02-14T23:00:00+00:00

8

K9 in Trouble

A cheerful voice said, ‘It this a private party, or can anyone join in?’

The Doctor was standing in the doorway behind the Nimon.

Slowly the great horned head swung round to face him. The Nimon gave a low rumble of anger.

‘So, you’re the great Nimon, are you? Is it true that you’re very, very fierce?’ The Doctor looped his trailing scarf, holding it out like a matador’s cape, edging around the angry Nimon in a wide circle.

Suddenly the Nimon lowered its head and the energy-rays blasted from its horns. The Doctor spun gracefully aside and the rays missed. They blasted the door from the storage compartment, and the body toppled stiffly to the ground.

The Nimon wheeled round, ready to charge again. Suddenly Romana noticed the fallen blaster. She snatched it up and fired, not at the Nimon, since she knew that would be useless, but at the control panel beside the heavy metal door of the atomic furnace. As she’d hoped, the panel exploded in flames and a cloud of dense black smoke rolled across the room, temporarily blinding the Nimon.

‘Run for it, all of you!’ yelled the Doctor, and shot out of the door. Romana was close behind him. Seth grabbed Teka’s arm and pulled her after them. The rest of the Anethan sacrifices were too terrified to move.

Emerging from the smoke the Nimon glared angrily at them. ‘Do not move, or you will die!’ It swung towards the door, as if about to pursue the fugitives, hesitated, and went over to the control panel.

Despite the amount of smoke and flame, the damage was relatively slight. The Nimon gave a low rumble of satisfaction. ‘Fools! Did they think they could check the Great Journey of Life by such petty tricks? This can soon be repaired. The programme will continue!’

It swung round on the sacrifices, who stood huddled in a group, still clutching their lead caskets. ‘So, you bring me a mere five crystals, do you?’

Unused to speaking for themselves, the captives instinctively looked around for their leaders. But Seth and Teka were gone. In desperation the tiny dark-haired girl babbled, ‘It’s not our fault, Lord Nimon. The spaceship broke down and they had to use two of the crystals to get us here.’

She was silenced by an angry bellow from the Nimon. ‘Enough! Five crystals will suffice!’ The Nimon slid open a locker revealing shelves crammed with tools and spare parts. Rumbling impatiently, it set to work to repair the shattered panel.

Romana stopped running and found that, although Seth and Teka were still with her, the Doctor was nowhere to be seen. Somehow they’d lost him in the ever-changing maze of metal corridors. ‘Doctor!’ she called. There was no reply.

‘Perhaps he went a different way, with the others,’ suggested Teka.

‘Or else the Nimon got him,’ said Seth gloomily. Romana said impatiently, ‘That’s a cheerful thought!

‘Well, all we can do is go on looking for a way out of here. That’s what the Doctor will be doing, he’ll make for the TARDIS.

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