Doctor Who: Caged by Una McCormack

Author:Una McCormack [McCormack, Una]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Penguin Random House UK
Published: 2024-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Ruby looked back over her shoulder. Nobody was following her, so she stopped to take stock of her surroundings. All she could see was cold hard walls and glassy surfaces. She’d seen nothing growing, no signs of life beyond the alien.

She pushed open a door and peeked into what seemed to be a small lab. The banks of circular panels were like the one in the observatory, and the walls, too, were glassy, set with occasional coloured panes. There were no people anywhere, octopus-shaped, guinea pig-like, or otherwise.

The whole area seemed deserted.

Ruby tried twisting a few wheels to see what would happen. One of the panes of glass glimmered slightly, and symbols appeared, forming into words she understood.

The TARDIS was still translating, then. She took comfort from that thought. The Doctor too would be out there, looking for her, trying to get her back …

She read the start of the file. The Planning Collective has received notification that the entire area has been approved for property development. The Building Collective reports that it is now in a position to proceed with its operations…

‘Huh,’ she said. ‘Guess everyone need new houses.’ She turned a few more wheels, but nothing else appeared. ‘Doctor,’ she murmured. ‘Where are you?’

Ruby turned off the screen, left the room and walked on.

Another door gave access to a ramp. She followed this up to a hatch which, when she turned the handle, brought her out onto the roof. The sky above was inky dark, like the depths of the ocean, and Ruby had a sudden, overwhelming and terrifying sense of being underwater. She gasped for air. She reached out. Her hand came up against glass and she realised that she was inside a dome, exactly like the observatory.

She was not drowning. There was air. She could breathe.

After taking a moment to recover, Ruby walked round the curve of the dome. She soon found what she was looking for: a pane of magnifying glass. She looked out across bare land, pale and pearlescent, and saw a high wall. Beyond this, a crowd was gathering.

It was the most extraordinary sight. Hundreds and hundreds of octopods, like the one that Ruby had already met, with huge domed heads and big dark eyes, and thousands of long arms weaving and waving about so that you could barely see where one ended and another began. And then there was the range of colours on display, a great flashing light show, like New Year’s Eve dialled up to the max.

The sight took Ruby’s breath away, but there was something scary about it too. The mass of aliens was pressing against the defences. Surely they would break through eventually.

Why did they want to do this? And what would happen when they did?

There was a whirring sound above and, looking up, Ruby saw three giant spheres – panelled grey, like the armadillos, but huge, the size of a white van – speeding over to the walls.

What was going on out there? She could not be completely sure.

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