Doctor Who: Ultimate Treasure (32 page)

'What else could it be? Can nobody else see it but me? Why else did he bring all that treasure? It was the price he paid to them!' He stabbed a finger at Shalvis. 'The treasure's probably all gone now, but that doesn't matter. But which door? The one she said herself was the ultimate or the other?' He glared at Shalvis who looked back impassively. 'That harpy knows, but she won't tell! One last test, but is it another bluff? That was what those traps were telling us. Rovan would want company over the millennia, but only the best, the most worthy. All this was set up to provide them for him, do you see?'

'Professor... Alex,' Brockwell said gently, 'Just because something is possible or even logical, it doesn't necessarily make it true. She warned us about self-deception... and I think you're deluding yourself.'

Thorrin seemed not to have heard him. 'The possibilities! What I could learn if I could spend ten years, or fifty years studying a single subject. My most productive time is already behind me, but if I had it back again a thousand times over, think what I could accomplish? Come on, Will: help me choose. We shall go in together. Bring your lady. Eternity will he lonely, but it will be worth it!'

'No,' said Brockwell. 'Not this time, Professor. I think you're wrong, and I think it might be dangerous,' He glanced across at the impassive Shalvis. 'There's more going on here than we know.

You take the chance if you want, but I have too much to lose now.' He took hold of Arnella's hand.

Thorrin spared him one pitying glance, then he returned to his agonised deliberations. 'Am I certain there is no other way? Yes.

Is my need urgent? Yes. Therefore I will find Suddenly, appearing to find his inspiration, he rushed forward through the blue door and vanished.

'Can we wait for them, just in case?' Brockwell asked.

'Certainly,' said Shalvis. 'But you may have to wait a long time.'

Alpha broke the silence. It seemed to Peri that he had reached a decision as well.

'Gribbs, Drorgon. Go through the yellow door. Stay in communicator contact.'

'Boss. Are you sure?' Gribbs asked nervously.

'I have the measure of it now, Gribbs.' He flashed red eyes at Shalvis.

'I really wouldn't send them in there,' the Doctor said quickly.

'If you think about Shalvis's description carefully you'll understand. What she said was the literal truth, not a bluff!'

Gribbs and Drorgon hesitated.

Alpha swung his gun around to point at the Doctor, causing Red to growl again.

'I have heard something of your intellectual acuity, Doctor. But do not try sow the seeds of confusion now. This is a trap for the greedy and obsessed. But my wants are modest. I will be satisfied with the so-called "lesser treasure". Now go.'

Gribbs and Drorgon cautiously pushed open the yellow door and walked through. It swung closed behind them.

* * *

'Well, Gribbs?' came Alpha's voice over the comm link. 'There's another door, boss... and another. They're very thick, boss, and they keep closing behind us.'

'Just keep going!'

'Yes, boss... more passage... another door... uhh'

'What is it, Gribbs? Talk to me!'

The room was dazzling, and it took Gribbs a moment to adjust.

Then what he saw briefly robbed him of the power of speech.

Exquisite jewellery and precious stones were carelessly heaped about like sand dunes. Small pearls and loose gems crunched underfoot. In between them were bars of gold, platiniridium, silver, blue electrium, all stacked into improbable pillars and columns taller than his head. Resting on stands were complex fluted forms of rainbow-hued crystal and paintings of ancient scenes, richly glowing as though they had been finished just yesterday.

'Gribbs... Gribbs!'

'It, it's p-packed floor to ceiling,' he stammered. 'There must be tonnes and tonnes of it!' Drorgon give out a wild howl of delight as the full realisation dawned upon him. 'There's jewels, an'

those old paintings you like, and, and... You were right, boss!

Rovan's treasure! We've found it and it's all ours!'

The Marquis pushed open the final door.

The chamber beyond was dimly lit, but filled with myriad subtle sparkles from the piles of jewels that were heaped about the corners. But he hardly gave them a second glance. There was only one thing he wanted to find. His heart beat faster as he saw at the far end of the room a golden lectern bearing Rovan's crest.

He approached it with faltering steps.

On it rested the Book of Lineage of House Cartovall.

Reverently he wiped the dust of ages from its gem-studded cover and turned the broad creaking pages with trembling hands, searching for the right section. Yes, here they were: the genetic files. He pulled out his pocket holo-scanner, ready loaded with his ancestors' DNA pattern, and ran it across the pages of dense lines of tiny genetic code symbols.

There: a sequence illuminated with a flickering interference pattern. A match. It was the final proof!

Carefully he closed the book and lifted it from the lectern, comforted by its weight. And now he noticed a door in the far wall. Hugging the book to him, he cautiously made his way through the door and down a short passage.

This opened on to the bottom of a wide vertical shaft with a circle of daylight at its upper end. Resting on the shaft floor was a spacecraft of antique design, grimed with dust but apparently sound. On its side he could just make out the Cartovallian crest.

Rovan had left transport for his successor. If it would carry him back it would be further proof of his claim to the throne, even though that honour should have gone to -

'Uncle! Wait.'

It was Arnella's voice. She emerged from the tunnel behind him, and ran to his side, her face wet with tears.

'I'm sorry, Uncle,' she said. 'I was foolish to let that man influence me. But I know my duty now Will you forgive me?'

His heart filled with joy. 'Of course I will, my dear.'

They entered the ship and took their seats. The controls were oddly arranged and slightly clumsy, but he rapidly mastered them. The thrusters were noisy but serviceable, and they carried them up the shaft and away from Gelsandor.

Soon they were out among the stars and on their way home.

Already the Marquis could picture Arnella's coronation. The Cartovallian line would be restored, bringing peace and stability to the new empire. It would happen just as he'd always dreamed...

Thorrin stood in an empty chamber. Just as he had suspected, there was no sign of any treasure. But there was something in the darkness.

Picked out by a single spotlight was a stand bearing a perforated tray, in which were slotted plastic phials of a deep-blue fluid. About half the slots were empty. As he stepped towards it there was a flickering in the air, and the projected image of a man materialised in front of him.

It was unmistakably Rovan himself, but dressed, Thorrin noted, in a more recent style than that of his own era. The recording smiled.

'Welcome to eternity, my friend. By reaching this chamber you have proved yourself worthy to share in something wonderful beyond imagining, and to accompany me on a journey into infinity. The phials you see before you contain the true secret of Gelsandor. A perfected pantropic genetic booster: the elixir of life.

As you must know, no properly structured organism need ever die from mere age, as long as the body cells can be adjusted to repair and replicate themselves indefinitely. That is what the formulation in these phials will do.

'Drink one measure, it is all you will ever need. Leave the rest for those who may follow after you. Then I will give you instructions that will guide you to me in person. Together we shall learn the secrets of the universe. We shall see suns being born and dying. If we have the desire we shall last until the end of time!'

Thorrin picked up one of the phials, broke it open and swallowed the contents. It burnt inside him, and for a moment he felt dizzy. Then a wonderful warmth began to infuse his bones. He looked at his hands, and thought he could already see the fine wrinkles across their backs begin to fade.

He had made it. And the only limit to what he might accomplish now was his imagination...

Gribbs was feeling weak from laughing and shouting. He saw Drorgon slump back on to a drift of precious stones and followed suit, panting heavily. It was rather like being drunk. That was it: they were drunk with riches. The sound of Alpha's voice from his comm link gradually receded until it was no louder than the buzz of a fly.

Gribbs took one last shuddering breath, then he heard nothing more ever again.

In the antechamber, Alpha continued to shout into his communicator.

But there was no reply.

'I told you not to send them,' said the Doctor despairingly, his voice more brittle than Peri had ever heard before. 'She said there was nothing of true and lasting value.' He turned to Shalvis.

'What is the major constituent of the atmosphere in the lesser treasure chamber?'

'An inert gas, Doctor, to help preserve the artworks?

'Then there was no more oxygen than they took in with them?'

'That is correct.'

'What ghastly irony! They get their ephemeral wealth for the rest of their lives exactly as you promised - except that they are already dying!' he snapped back angrily.

'Yes.'

Peri trembled, feeling sick. 'I know they were scum... but how could you be so cold blooded?'

'We are simply keeping our trust,' Shalvis replied, apparently unperturbed. 'I advised them not to pass through that door.

Remember, I warned you all when we first met of both the dangers and the rewards of the quest.'

The Doctor shook his head sadly. Arnella and Brockwell glanced anxiously at each other, then at the blue door through which the Marquis and Thorrin had gone.

'How fortunate,' Alpha grated, 'that in my new form, I do not require oxygen. An inert atmosphere will not trouble me at all. I shall examine this chamber.'

He clipped his rifle to his side and rolled towards the door, which opened smoothly once again at the slightest touch, and passed through. The door began to swing closed behind him even as Peri noticed how thick and heavy it was.

Then Alpha's metal hands appeared around its edge as he fought to pull it back open. It slowed but did not quite stop and Peri realised it must be power-driven. Alpha began to force his tracked lower body back through with a scraping of metal. They could hear the whirr of servo systems under load.

'We can trap him in there!' the Doctor shouted, throwing himself forward and pressing back against Alpha's gleaming torso. As though coming out of trance the rest joined him, except for Shalvis and Dynes. Red growled and whined at the back of the press of bodies.

But Alpha was too strong. Despite their efforts he was forcing his way back out. With a final shrill of metal he shot free, knocking them to the ground almost contemptuously with sweeps of his massive arms. Then he turned to Shalvis.

'I congratulate you: an elementary but effective trap. I only noticed there was no means of opening the door from the inside just in time.'

'They 'are designed to let people in, not out,' Shalvis admitted calmly. 'If you recall, I said it would only lead to the chamber.

And both it and the doors are lined with collapsium, and would be quite impervious to your weapon.'

'But it has failed, 'Alpha pointed out triumphantly. And now I know the location of the real treasure, I shall find some means of obtaining unobstructed access to it, however long it takes.' His glowing eyes flickered across the rest of them still sprawled on the floor. 'But you will not witness my success. As I had cause to explain to Qwaid shortly before his own demise, I do not indulge in revenge. This is merely sensible pre-emption to ensure you will trouble me no further...'

His rifle unlatched itself from the casing and sprang into his hand. They started to scrabble uselessly away from him. Red stood over Peri protectively, growling at Alpha.

'Remember I'm a neutral press observer, Mr Alpha,' Dynes called out quickly. 'I'd like to arrange an exclusive -'

Alpha's gun blazed twice, and two of the three remaining DAVE

units exploded in midair. Red gave a ferocious snarl of warning.

Alpha swung his gun round.

'No! Red, don't!' Peri screamed.

Red sprang as Alpha fired.

The energy bolt struck Red in the chest, passed straight through him and out of his back, blasting his saddle mount free.

But his momentum carried him on and he struck Alpha, sending him skidding back on his tracks to crash against the wall. Alpha fired again, burning a long furrow into Red's flanks. But somehow Red remained on his feet, and tore the rifle out of Alpha's grasp with one swipe of his massive forepaw With a whirr of tracks Alpha drove forward, his hands reaching out to clasp Red's neck. Red twisted his head and his huge jaws snapped shut about Alpha, teeth grating on metal. With a tremendous heave Red jerked the glittering body aloft, even as Alpha's fists beat upon his snout and jaw, smashing into his mask of armour plates with ringing blows. Red began to shake him as a terrier would shake a rat, his head snapping from side to side. But he was standing so that on each alternate swing Alpha's head and shoulders were dashed against the hard wall with ringing crashes. Silver arms flailed uselessly and shards of broken metal started to fly free. Suddenly, blue smoke hissed from Alpha's strained joints.

There was a sharp bang, a crackle of electricity, and a shower of sparks. Red sank to the ground. With a final effort, his neck twisted and his jaws jerked open. Alpha's mangled form was tossed aside, writhing and jerking, whirring and sparking fitfully.

Incoherent groans and gurgles came from its voicebox. Gradually they subsided. The flailing arms froze, and the baleful glowing eyes in the half-flattened cranium dimmed and went out.