Doctor Who: Target - Novelisations [153] - The Pescatons by Victor Pemberton

Author:Victor Pemberton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science-Fiction - Doctor Who
ISBN: 9780426203537
Publisher: Target Books
Published: 1991-05-13T22:00:00+00:00

7

PESCA

As expected, it took only a short time for news, photographs, and television pictures of the extraordinary death of the Pescaton to be flashed around the world. In New York, the United Nations met in emergency session, and for once agreed unanimously that the world’s oceans, rivers, and lakes should be searched without delay for Pescaton spacecraft. An International Scientific Commission was immediately set up to investigate and analyse any information that was provided by conservationists and environmentalists around the world, and each country was assigned the task of keeping a close watch for any more ‘meteorite’ sightings.

Whilst the people of London gradually took in the fact that they had been subjected to an onslaught by a bizarre creature straight out of science fiction, a twenty-four hour watch was put on the Thames all the way from its source, in Gloucestershire, to its Estuary on the North Sea.

On the clifftops at Shoeburyness, the Doctor, Sarah Jane, and Mike Ridgewell examined the cluster of Pescaton cones. Every one of them were now cracked wide open, and the eggs inside were empty.

Wearing protective gloves and an anti-pollution mask around his mouth, Mike was collecting some of the broken eggshells. ‘You know, Doctor,’ he said, popping them into a plastic bag for examination later by his own forensic experts, ‘it scares the wits out of me that these things are just swimming around in that water out there.’ He tied a knot in the plastic bag, then lowered it carefully into a thermosealed box. ‘D’you think they really will start attacking soon?’

‘I don’t think there’s any doubt about it.’ replied the Doctor, who had discovered the young Pescatons’ trail of solid green slime leading from the cones straight down into the sea. ‘Unless I’m very much mistaken, the Pescatons are massing together in every ocean, river, and lake around this world. It’s only a matter of time before they start to move.’

‘But how do we know they haven’t all died off?’ called Sarah Jane, squatting on one of the stone steps which led down to the sea. ‘Just like that awful creature in the Zoo last night.’

‘No chance of that, I’m afraid,’ insisted the Doctor.

‘What we saw last night was a renegade Pescaton which was foolish enough to expose itself to the sun’s rays.’

Sarah Jane looked puzzled. ‘But why did it trudge all away across London to the Zoo? What was it searching for?’

‘Various things. These creatures have developed an uncanny sense of smell. They can detect anything miles away. But my guess is that it was after the salt water in the Aquarium.’

‘Salt?’

‘There’s not enough salt in the Thames water to keep them alive for too long. That’s why they’re massing together in the Estuary. It’s much closer to the sea.’

Mike turned to look at the Doctor, who was now staring out towards the sea. ‘I don’t understand. If these Pescaton things are intending to attack, what are they waiting for?’

The Doctor paused before answering. ‘The signal,’ he said at last.

‘Signal?’

After the

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