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Authors: Ian Briggs

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BOOK: Doctor Who: Dragonfire
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'If I take the cap off this can, nothing in the universe will matter any more! Come on, Mel.' Mel and Ace edged slowly back towards the door. Kane watched them as the door closed in front of them.

 

Once out in the corridor, Ace turned quickly to Mel. 'For God's sake, run!'

Glitz followed the trail of tiny, flower-like crystals as it led through the passages and finally opened out into a huge cavern with a roof that curved overhead in an immense dome. The darkness of the cavern was patterned with the bright glitter of the tiny crystal flowers. Hundreds of tiny sparkles spread out above Glitz like stars in the night sky. The Ice Garden.

Glitz stared at the patterns above him. There was something familiar about them. He'd seen them before somewhere.

Of course! The stars in the sky! Now he looked at them, he could make out one or two familiar

constellations - the Great Lever, the Old Man, and the Waterfall. They were in unusual positions, and it had evidently all been drawn from a point far beyond the limits of the Twelve Galaxies, but the Ice Gardens were obviously some kind of huge planetarium.

Very pretty - but not exactly the fabulous treasure that Glitz had been hoping for. His business instincts briefly considered the possibility of turning it into a tourist attraction, and organising guided tours for visitors to Iceworld. But he decided that there probably wasn't much money to be made out of that, and in any case Mr Kane would take a dim view of the enterprise if he ever found out. So Glitz turned back the way he had come, to find the Doctor again.

It never occurred to Glitz to wonder why there should be a huge planetarium buried deep beneath Iceworld...

 

CHAPTER SIX

The Doctor peered over the edge of the Ice Face. It was a sheer drop of about fifteen metres. The ice glowed with a soft, rainbow iridescence -

but the Doctor saw the sharp, jagged ice that would cut him to ribbons before he ever hit the bottom, should he fall. He looked back the way he had come. But which way had he come? It had all seemed straightforward as he was progressing forwards, but looking back now, he saw several passages leading in different directions. In any case, these passages all led back up towards the Upper Levels. The only way forwards was down.

He peered over the edge again. There seemed to be large enough cracks in the ice to use as hand-and footholds. But they were too widely spaced. He would have to use his brolly again, hooking into the handholds to steady him until he reached the next one.

He found a secure ledge at the top, and hooked the handle of the brolly over it. Then he turned round, and carefully began to feel his way down the Ice Face with his first foot until he found a secure footing. He held onta the ledge and felt down with his second foot until that too was secure in a foothold.

Gripping onto his brolly now, he carefully removed his first foot from its hold and felt further down for another hold. At the same time, he released one hand to feel round for a lower handhold. He secured his foot, and

then steadied himself with the new handhold.

Looking up, he unhooked the brolly, and carefully lowered it until the handle was planted firmly in the lower handhold. He now removed his second foot, and felt downwards for a new crack. As he was doing this, he felt the ice beneath his first foot beginning to crumble. He clung tightly onto his brolly. The ice gave way beneath his secure foot, and he fell free. The only thing to prevent him from falling to his death was his brolly, and he was left hanging from it.

He tried to look down, but his arms got in the way. He felt round with his feet for a secure crack that would take his weight, but he found nothing.

He was left swinging helplessly.

Kane turned to Belazs in anger. 'You astound me! You didn't even think to search the two girls when you arrested them!'

'I wasn't expecting her to be carrying nitro.' 'She'd just blown away half of the Upper Docking Bays! Of course she was likely to be carrying explosives! And you carelessly allowed her to bring them close enough to my person to kill me!' Kane began to close in on Belazs. 'You seem to be taking advantage of my former feelings for you. Be warned... the past is an empty slate. I demand absolute loyalty - now and forever.

And I do not forgive those who betray me.' He turned to the Control Desk, and jabbed at a button. The five tubes containing the frozen figures of Glitz's former crew began to glow inside. 'The two girls must be stopped - before they reach Glitz and the Doctor. They must be...

eradicated.' He pressed another sequence of controls, and the five tubes began to rise. 'What could be more appropriate than to despatch Glitz's former crew after them? He betrayed his crew - now they can have their revenge! Every man must be allowed his moment of revenge..."

 

The five figures lurched forward from beneath the tubes. Their faces were dead and empty, save for the dull, murderous gaze in their eyes.

Together, they staggered through the door, after Mel and Ace. Kane watched them go. He had hundreds of psychopathic zombies like these at his command...

Ace knew that she and Mel weren't safe in Iceworld with guards everywhere, so she'd made straight for the Ice Passages beneath the colony. This was where the Doctor and Glitz had come looking for the fairy tale dragon. This was where all the excitement would be. 'Hurry up!' she shouted back to Mel. 'Or we'll miss everything!'

They had now left the safety of the passages directly beneath the Upper Levels, with their metal walkways and ladders, and were making their way through the treacherous black ice. Mel looked round nervously. 'Hang on, Ace. Are you sure this is the right way?'

'Course I'm sure.'

'It all looks the same in the dark. We could get lost.'

Ace turned to look at Mel accusingly. 'What's the matter? Don't you trust me?'

'It's not that. It's just that... Well... the dragon and all that...'

Ace laughed. 'The dragon? That's just to frighten little children!'

Something moved in the shadows behind Ace. 'It's like witches and goblins. There ain't no such thing!'

A huge creature rose out of the shadows and advanced on Ace. Mel screamed in terror. Ace turned to see the Creature towering over her -

tall and skeletal, with greyish-white membranes instead of skin. Two narrow red beams of light radiated from its sparkling eyes and burst in a small crackle of fire as they hit the ice. It didn't look anything like a dragon, but this was it!

Ace's eyes lit up with excitement. 'Mega!'

The Creature turned towards Ace and the two beams of fire burst at her feet.

'Get down!' yelled Mel.

The two women dived for cover behind some ice boulders. As the Creature stepped forward, they could see it more clearly. It had a large bony skull on top of a long neck and its skeleton was clearly visible beneath the membranous skin. It turned to the boulders where Mel and Ace were hiding and its twin beams of fire crackled once again as they burst into the ice.

"That's not a dragon,' complained Ace. 'And it's not breathing real fire!

It's just some kind of bio-mechanoid, with laser beams or something coming out its eyes!' She stood up and glared at the Creature angrily.

Genuine dragon or not, the Creature rounded on Ace. Mel dragged her down behind the ice just as two more beams of fire burst.

Mel turned to Ace. 'What we need now is an ingenious plan to save ourselves.'

'Give me the nitro! It won't know what hit it!'

'Neither will we! They'll be shovelling us into black plastic bags along with the Creature.'

 

'Yeah - you're right. There's not enough space. Well... how about... we run like hell!'

'That's ingenious enough!'

So, they ran like hell... with the Creature's beams of fire bursting all around them.

The Doctor was finding it difficult to hang onto his brolly. His hands ached, but he gritted his teeth and clenched his fingers round the brolly's shaft. He heard a crunching sound from above and a light sprinkling of snow fluttered down onto his head.

Glitz looked down over the edge of the Ice Face. For some reason, the Doctor was hanging from his umbrella. It looked dangerous, but Glitz knew better than to ask questions. He decided to tell the Doctor his good news instead. 'I've located the Ice Garden, Doctor,' he called down. 'But I'm afraid there was a distinct absence of both dragon and treasure.'

The Doctor's hands slipped a couple of centimetres down the brolly. 'I sympathise with your disappointment, Glitz - really I do. But I'm about to plummet to my death!'

Glitz peered down at the Doctor. 'I suppose you'll be wanting me to risk my neck and come and help you, then...'

'Glitz!' shouted the Doctor crossly.

Glitz jumped, and started to scramble down towards the Doctor. 'All right, all right. Don't get your delicates in a twist!'

 

The Sculptor was at work again. The ice statue was almost complete. It was a woman with a face that would have looked young were it not for the hard beauty of the eyes. The eyes! The rest of the statue was still and motionless, but the eyes seemed to be alive!

Kane watched the Sculptor at his work. 'A work of artistry, my friend -

incandescent artistry. I could almost believe that Xana lives again. The expression in her face - yes... The exquisite beauty - yes... But more than that... The criminal genius also - I see it in her eyes!'

Kane reached forward to touch the statue. He caressed it gently, as if he were touching the real woman's flesh. 'What a waste... It should have been I who was killed escaping - not you...'

The five crewmen and women, sent by Kane to kill Mel and Ace, made swift progress through the Ice Passages. After cryogenesis, they could feel no pain or fear, so where Mel and Ace had slowed down to make their way through the dark passages, the empty-faced murderers lost no time.

Their brains were dead, but - just as every abomination that has returned from the dead is drawn irresistibly towards living creatures, in order to kill them

- they somehow knew exactly which turning to take, and which passage to follow.

And with every heavy footfall, they drew steadily closer to their victims.

Mel and Ace had outdistanced the Creature, but were now totally lost in the maze of black ice. Mel kept looking round nervously. 'Do you get the feeling something's watching us?'

 

'It's just tricks of the light. Shadows dancing in the corner of your eye.'

'Yeah.'

But neither of them was convinced...

Then suddenly, down a side passage, Ace saw a figure move. She spun round towards the figure and pulled a can of nitro out. She was just about to pull the safety nozzle off and throw the can, when Mel grabbed her arm. 'Stop!'

Ace tried to pull her arm free. 'Let go!'

'Don't throw it!' Mel grabbed Ace's arm again. 'Look! See who you're throwing it at...'

Ace stared at the figure down the side passage. She saw herself staring back...

'It's your reflection, Ace!'

Ace looked carefully down the side passage. At the far end stood a wall of absolutely smooth ice, reflecting an image of two women who stared back at Mel and Ace. Ace looked around. There were more reflections in the smooth, black ice sheets. They were like spirits -phantoms mocking the movements of two dead women.

Ace shivered. 'This place is too crafty for my liking. Much too crafty...'

The Doctor and Glitz dropped the last couple of metres down the Ice Face. The Doctor had had to leave his brolly halfway down, when it got jammed, but he picked himself up with a smile of achievement.

'Teamwork -

 

that's what it takes!' he said, by way of congratulation, and then looked around for a likely route forward.

'It's no use, Doctor.'

The Doctor looked back, and saw Glitz sitting despondently on a boulder at the foot of the Ice Face. 'What's no use?'

'The treasure. Even if we do manage to find it, it's going to take us more than seventy-two hours. And Belazs said that if I don't return Kane's money within seventy-two hours, they'll confiscate my spacecraft.' Glitz didn't realise that, thanks to the radio transmitter hidden in his treasure map, Belazs was listening to everything he now said.

'Perhaps if you were to explain the problem to Kane...' offered the Doctor.

'I take it you've never actually made the gentleman's acquaintance?'

The Doctor shook his head.

'He'd slice his mother up to make a point, Doctor. If he was a mortician, the corpses would keep their eyes open.'

'Ah.'

'In fact, if he knew we was after the Dragon's Treasure, your life expectancy wouldn't be looking too clever at the moment. He's a cold man, Doctor. Cut him open, and you won't find a heart - just a lump of ice...'

Belazs, listening to the radio tracking equipment, looked up for a moment and thought of twenty years earlier.

 

The Doctor sat down next to Glitz. 'These types never seem to have any sense of fair play.'

'Exactly, Doctor. And that's why I have come to the conclusion that playing by the rules is a mug's game. I've decided to hijack the Nosferatu - which is where you come in, Doctor.'

'Now just a moment, Glitz,' protested the Doctor in alarm. 'I'm engaged in a project of scientific curiosity.

The dragon, or whatever it turns out to be, may be an undiscovered species.'

'Look - I'll do you a good deal. If you'll help me get my spacecraft, the Nosferatu, back, I'll give you the treasure map so that you and Mel can go looking for this dragon. Now I can't say no fairer than that, can I?' 'Ah.' The Doctor looked crossly at Glitz. 'Without the

map, I can't find the creature, can I? I don't seem to have any choice.'

'You're a man of rare insight and logic, Doctor.' 'All right, then. Where's the Nosferatu berthed?' 'It's in the Lower Docking Bays - Pier 63.' Belazs switched the tracking equipment off, and

smiled. That was all she needed to know...

The Sculptor lay down his tools, then brushed away the final chippings of ice with his thumb. He turned to Kane.

BOOK: Doctor Who: Dragonfire
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