"Arrived, have we?" "We have my dear." "Good." "Where?" "Well, we shall know all about that when we have a look at the scanner" "Shan't we?" "Now, you can both take a look." "Where are we, Doctor?" "Is it a planet you recognize?" "Keep still, you nuisance!" "Well now, I want to see where we are!" "Quiet, both of you, will you?" "Listen!" "Listen?" "Listen to what?" "I can't hear a thing?" "Exactly, exactly." "There isn't a sound out there." "Not a sound!" "Just silence..." "Well, the atmospheric pressure's quite normal" "Oxygen, temperature, radiation." "It's all quite normal..." "I wonder." "Hmm." "I wonder if it's possible to have a planet" "So obviously conducive to life and yet without any?" "Well, I've finished chopping this fellow." "Can we go out and see?" "Yes, I don't see why not my child." "It appears absolutely deserted." "As a matter of fact, I think we shall get some long-deserved..." "Undisturbed peace for once." "Well, it's not bad... it's a bit amateurish." "Oh, c'mon!" "You never know, there might be a lake or a river around, Doctor." "Do you fancy a swim?" "My dear young man, this isn't a joy ride!" "This is a scientific expedition!" "Oh come off it, Doctor!" "You can't be scientific all the time." "Anyway, er, you look as if you could do with a good wash-down." "What, get him in cold water?" "You'll be lucky!" "From past experience, we must always be on our guard." "Yes, well I'm prepared to take the risk." "What's that?" "Well, are we all ready, then?" "What's going on?" "Something is feeling it's way 'round the ship." "Yes." "Like something trying to discover by touch." "Something blind." "It's just reaching this corner now." "Yes, it is blind." "Whatever it is?" "As you say my dear, whatever it is." "Just look, now!" "Now look, there's something quite different, isn't it?" "Hmm, hmm!" "You know Doctor, it..." "it looks to me as if it's..." "Sending some kind of message." "What do you think?" "Yes, yes, it... it... it might be that." "It... ah... to its controller whoever it might be, hmm?" "Yes, or whatever it might be." "Oh look!" "It's got a sort of..." ""chumbley" movement!" ""Chumbley"?" "Yes you know, all sort of... chumbley!" "It's gone now." "Hmm." "Yeah, bang goes my swimming!" "Oh, it doesn't take much to put you off." "A sweet little thing like that?" "You know, I must be wrong child." "There is life out there, yes, a very intelligent... highly intelligent life..." "to build machines like that." "Chumbley!" "Well, Chumbley, if you like, my child." "You know, Doctor, that thing might have been dangerous." "What are we going to do about it?" "I'm going to find out." "Come along my child." "And bring my stick." "Oh, it's delightful." "Yes, thank you." "Just about the right amount of oxygen, hmm?" "Umm!" "I can smell flowers!" "Oh indeed!" "How delightful." "Well, there's one thing child - there's no Chumblies about!" "Vicki!" "Look at this!" "Three suns!" "?" "Yes, I wonder which one we're revolving around?" "Oh look!" "There's those flowers that I could smell... hey, they're roses!" "No they're not, not quite roses, but almost." "This silence reminds me of the planet Xeros." "You don't think we've jumped the time track again, do you?" "No, no, my dear, not again, not again, but, uh... it's so quiet." "Yeah, it's almost too quiet." "Doctor!" "A Chumbley!" "That one looks pretty vicious!" "Doctor!" "Is that a gun?" "Stand still!" "Otherwise we all might be killed." "We come in peace." "We don't wish you any harm." "He can't speak." "No, but, uh, by the look of that thing sticking out in front" "It's unmistakably like a speaker to me." "Trying to talk." "Steven, look out!" "You dumb fool!" "I was only trying to get something to protect us...!" "Oh, indeed, yes!" "Very noble indeed!" "Now you've put the thing on its guard." "Yes, it's interesting, it's fascinating." "Did you notice that, er, it didn't do anything until you made a noise?" "Yes, it is blind." "But it can hear." "Oh yes, and very accurately!" "You know, I believe it can locate us by some form of... heat wave, as it were." "Do you get that feeling that it..." "wants us to go somewhere, Doctor?" "Stand still." "Don't let it move you." "As neat a treat as ever I saw!" "What was it?" "Well, it's some kind of light ray, very powerful and dangerous, I would say." "I think we're... we'd better do what the thing wants us." "Yes, c'mon Vicki." "What the...?" "Who are they?" "I have no idea, but aren't they a lovely surprise?" "We are the Drahvins." "And... very nice too." "What might the Drahvins be?" "We are from the planet Drahva, in Galaxy Four." "Yes, well you seem to have put a pretty effective stop to this thing." "As long as the metal mesh covers it, the control waves cannot reach it." "What do you want?" "We came to rescue you from the machines." "Why?" "Maaga will tell you." "Maaga?" "Our leader." "Why can't you tell us, hmm?" "Our mission was to rescue you." "We have done that." "We have no other instructions except to take you to Maaga." "We do nothing until a leader speaks." "I see." "You will come now." "Doctor, I don't trust them." "I don't think that we should go with them." "If you stay here, more machines will come." "They will capture you and take you to the Rills." "The Rills... are these the people that control these things, hmm?" "They are not people." "They are things" "They crawl." "They murder." "Murder?" "They have already killed one of us." "Oh, I should like to meet these Rills!" "And be killed, Doctor?" "This is only what they say, and who are they, hmm, hmm?" "At least they stopped the Chumbley." "Doesn't that prove something?" "Eh, yes, all right, perhaps you better take us to this Maaga, this leader, whatever it is..." "Doctor!" "More Chumblies!" "The mesh!" "It's caught!" "They're all magnetized so that you can't get the top off." "They're getting close!" "Look, it won't come off." "Let's leave it." "We were instructed not to lose..." "Look, were you instructed to be killed as well?" "For goodness sake!" "You all right, Doctor?" "Yes, I think so." "Ahh, it's all this physical exercise at my age." "They're nearly here." "Quickly!" "Inside!" "Close external door." "Close external door." "Well, it, ah, was a decent space ship once." "Very backward now, isn't it?" "Yes, it's almost fossilized." "Oh I don't know, it's got one or two good features..." "We've, uh, just beat those Chumblies..." "they're still outside." "Are we safe here?" "Yes." "They cannot enter." "Silence!" "Maaga is coming!" "Maaga!" "We're back there again!" "Report!" "Mission accomplished!" "We have brought the prisoners." "Prisoners?" "And the metal mesh?" "It stopped the machine." "Good." "We... could not... get the mesh back" "What?" "!" "It... became... affixed... to the..." "machine." "She's got them pretty frightened, hasn't she, Doctor?" "Yes, dear madam, the young lady speaks the truth." "The Chumblies are magnetized." "I will deal with you both later." "Sit." "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting." "Won't you sit down?" "Aahhh... yes, heh heh, thank you, I will, hmm." "I had to hear the report first." "Oh naturally!" "It is necessary when you are at war." "At war?" "With the Rills and their machines." "The Chumblies!" "This is a fight to the death." "For existence itself..." "I see." "...in which one of us will be obliterated." "Oh?" "As bad as that?" "Yes, so bad that it is conceivable that you, too, will be obliterated." "Oh, come now!" "There is no need to exaggerate." "It's no exaggeration!" "You want to kill us, don't you?" "You want to." "When a planet disintegrates, nothing survives." "Disintegrates... this planet, hmm?" "Yes, it's in its last moments of life." "Soon it will explode." "When?" "In fourteen dawns' time." "Look, how do you know?" "How can you be so certain?" "The Rills told us." "That is why they're repairing their spaceship..." "So that they can escape." "Hmm... well that sounds reasonable enough to me." "We must capture that spaceship from them." "What for?" "This is a spaceship as well, isn't it?" "Yes, but it cannot fly!" "The Rills shut us down!" "We cannot move!" "You... you don't belong here?" "No." "Nor do the Rills." "There is no life on this planet." "We come from Drahva." "Some four hundred dawns ago, we were investigating this particular section of the galaxy." "We were looking for a planet such as this, capable of supporting life so that we might colonise it." "There are too many of us on Drahva." "All women?" "Women?" "Er... yes..." "Women!" "Yes... er... feminine... female" "We have a small number of men..." "as many as we need." "The rest we kill." "They consume valuable food and fulfil no particular function." "And these are not what you would call human!" "They are cultivated in test tubes." "We have very good scientists." "am a living being!" "They are products..." "and inferior products!" "Grown for a purpose and capable of nothing more." "Grown for what purpose?" "To fight, to kill." "Yours must be a very interesting civilization." "You attacked the Rills?" "No." "We were in space above this planet." "When we saw a ship, such as we had never seen before." "We did not know it, but it was a Rill ship." "It fired on us, and we crashed." "But before we did, we managed to fire back so that they'd crash, too." "On landing... they killed one of my soldiers." "What are they like, these Rills?" "Disgusting!" "Well, that's no description, no description at all." "That's all I'll say." "Yes, I..." "I think I'm beginning to understand." "Well, so am I, Doctor." "This planet's about to explode, the Rills have managed to repair their ship in time so they can escape..." "You haven't, so you want their ship." "We have no desire to be here when this planet ceases to exist." "Machine approaching!" "To your stations!" "Switch off the outside radio!" "What are they doing now?" "They're going to have another go at the Chumblies, by the look of things." "Switch off the outside radio?" "Why, I wonder, hmm?" "They send the machines to tell us lies." "We do not wish to hear them." "Yes, er, madam!" "You may not but I'd like to, uh, hear it." "It's not good for my soldiers!" "Ahh, I see." "It's stopped." "Yes, now it is sending its message." "Fire!" "You didn't do it very much damage, did you?" "My only intention was to scare it off." "We've succeeded." "To your places." "And you haven't destroyed one Chumbley yet." "We will." "You know, I think you rather underestimate the Rills." "Why should they tell you that this planet is going to die, hmm?" "They were trying to tempt us on board their spaceship so that they may kill us!" "You know, it seems to me as if they offered you help." "That is what they maintain." "They might have been speaking the truth." "They might have meant it." "On the other hand, it might have been a pack of lies." "What do you mean?" "Well this planet could last another billion years." "Yes, that we have no way of proving." "I have..." "I'm a scientist!" "Very well!" "I should be grateful if you would find out." "Oh, thank you, thank you!" "Well, I'm afraid we shall have to go back to my ship." "Oh wait!" "You cannot all go." "Oh, but, ah, why?" "Prisoners?" "Are we?" "Of course not." "But if you should encounter the machines..." "What of it?" "I could not guarantee to rescue you again." "Oh, ho ho, you worry too much!" "I shall feel easier if one of you remain behind." "I'll stay." "But my dear...!" "I'll stay!" "You'll need Steven anyway if you bump into the Chumblies again." "Yes, well, very well, eh heh, young man, you and I will go" "Door opening!" "We won't be long, Vicki." "Promise we won't get lost." "Chumblies!" "Can they get in Doctor?" "Well, they'd have to be... pretty well advanced to break my... force barrier" "How do you know they aren't?" "To lose the mesh with great incompetence." "It was our only weapon against the machines." "If we lose to the Rills it will be because of you." "You want that, do you?" "No... no..." "You want to be captured by those creeping, revolting, green monsters?" "You want their slimy claws to close about your necks?" "You fools!" "You fools!" "No... no... no..." "I wonder what they're up to, eh?" "Trying something else by the look of it." "Yes..." "There!" "You see, my boy, look, not a scratch!" "Not a scratch!" "Yes, well, are we going in or not, Doctor?" "I certainly excelled myself with that force barrier." "Yes, Doctor." "Now wait a minute..." "I think they've all gone to bed!" "Well, it's a very good thing I've got you around, young man, to tell me what I'm supposed to be doing!" "Yes, you're so right, Doctor." "Well, Doctor, will this planet explode?" "The Rills were quite right." "Then we've got to get off the planet!" "Yes, if the Drahvins let us go." "We've got to make that sure they do!" "They need our help with the Rills!" "Why do you think they've held Vicki back?" "Okay, but we've got to get off here somehow!" "It's imperative we leave at once!" "Why is that?" "The Drahvins did say fourteen dawns." "Two dawns!" "Tomorrow is the last day this planet will ever see."