Doctor Who: Ultimate Treasure (21 page)

Drorgon slid down the slope along with a minor avalanche of pebbles, his fangs bared, growling in anger.

'It's all right, Dro,' Qwaid snapped. 'He had to wake you.

Something's been getting to us, into our minds, like we was drugged. We gotta get out of here fast. Gribbsy!' he shouted into the link. 'Get the ship up. Use the scope to find us the quickest way through this place.'

'OK, got ya,' Gribbs replied.

'Peri?' the Doctor shouted out as they snatched up their packs,

'keep talking. Don't let us drift off again!'

Her voice came back tremulously. 'I understand... but what shall I say?'

'Anything! Any outside stimuli to remind us what we're meant to be doing!'

'OK... right. Well... er, Gribbs is punching a lot of buttons...

and the controls are lighting up... OK, I'm strapping myself into the spare seat... oh, there go the rockets, or whatever they are.

We're rising... uh... it feels like an express elevator. I can see the pyramid and the wood dropping away under us. We must be a mile up already. There's the plain... all hazy and shimmering. We should be able to see where you are soon...'

Qwaid, Drorgon, and the Doctor ran from between the rocks and out across the mud flats. In the far distance were the specks of figures crossing the flats away from the large island. Qwaid focused his binoculars as they ran.

'They're in a hurry. Wonder if they were caught like us.'

'Where are we going?' Brockwell asked as they splashed through the mud.

'Away from that place,' said Myra determinedly.

'But how do we know this is the right way?'

'We'll chance it. Do you want to stay here any longer trying to get directions out of those poor drossers?'

'Is that a darker line... on the horizon ahead?'Thorrin panted.

Brockwell narrowed his eyes. 'Yes... I think so, Professor. Higher ground, maybe?'

'That'll do as well as anywhere,' said Myra.

'It's no use, Qwaid,' Gribbs said. 'All I can see beyond the plain is haze, even through the scope filters.'

'Well overfly us then,' Qwaid ordered.

There was a pause, then Gribbs's voice came back unsteadily.

'I can't... make it happen. Like in the pyramid when we tried to pull the triggers. I'm trying to move the 'stick forward... but I can't.'

"The Gelsandorans are making sure we play the game by their rules, the Doctor observed.

'Try harder!' Qwaid shouted into the comm link. In the distance Thorrin's party had disappeared behind an island, and if they lost their tracks he knew they couldn't afford the time picking them up again. What would happen if they were here for another night and started to get tired?

'Its no good, Peri's voice cut in. 'I can see him trying, but he simply can't make his hands work properly.'

'All right,' Qwaid relented. 'We'll just have to do the best we can for ourselves. Put the ship down again.'

'But how do I get to you when you've found the treasure?'

Gribbs asked.

'Then we'll have won. No need to play any more tricks on us.'

'OK, I hope so. I'll just -'

'Attention, attention!'

A loud voice had issued from the control-cabin speakers and echoed clearly over the comm link. As he heard the harsh crisp tones, Qwaid stumbled to a halt, the colour draining from his face.

The voice was unmistakably Alpha's.

In the
Falcon's
control room Peri saw Gribbs struck rigid; an expression of utter horror distorted his features. The unknown grating voice continued.

"Ibis is a time-coded recording. As I have not reset this system for a significant interval, I must assume some misfortune has befallen me and this ship is being operated without my approval.

To ensure no one profits from my incapacitation or untimely demise, I have installed a cutout circuit in the
Falcon
which will render all systems inoperative until freed by a certain code known only to myself.'

And all the lights on the control board went out and a moment later the hum of the thrusters faded away.

The
Falcon's
nose dropped and it began to fall freely. Peri's stomach tried to climb into her throat and she swallowed to prevent herself throwing up. Terrified, Gribbs stabbed desperately at buttons on the control board, but nothing worked.

The wooded landscape of Gelsandor spun below them, growing larger by the second as they dropped out of the sky.

The shrill whine of air speeding over the hull began to penetrate the control cabin. Through the forward ports Peri saw the green forest canopy rushing up to meet them. She heard both Qwaid and the Doctor shouting over the comm link but could not make her mouth shape any words of reply.

Gribbs suddenly ceased to stab at the useless controls, reached up over his head with both hands, grasped the raised bar of the headrest, and pulled forward and down sharply. A transparent tinted canopy unfolded out of the seat frame, covering his head and shoulders. With a sharp crack of exploding bolts, a section of cabin roof above his chair blew outwards, letting in white light and a blast of shrieking air. A telescoping guide rail sprang up from the back of his chair and through the open panel in the roof. A rocket charge ignited with a bang and a roar, and Gribbs and his ejector seat were blasted upward through the hatch and into the blue sky beyond in a cloud of smoke.

Peri gaped at the empty space beside her, then at the treetops that were beginning to blur across the viewport. She reached up, grasped and pulled.

The bolts cracked, the guide rail thudded, the seat charge ignited. For a moment she felt as though her spine was going to collapse under the acceleration. Then there was light around her and a shocking smack of racing air striking the front of her body and tearing at her clothes. The rocket charge cut and she tumbled freely for a second in silence. Then there came a vibration and a snapping of fabric, a jerk and a bounce and a gradual swaying motion.

She opened her eyes. Above her a parachute canopy blossomed reassuringly wide and full. Also above but far to one side she saw the mushroom of Gribbs's chute. Around her was the purple horizon of Gelsandor, while below was the receding tail of the
Falcon
. She watched in dazed fascination as it plunged towards the undulating sea of green. At the last moment she thought she saw it level off. Then it was enveloped in a cloud of vapour as though rockets were blazing furiously. When this had cleared the ship had vanished among the trees. She strained her ears, expecting the sound of an impact to reach her, but none came.

Qwaid and the Doctor were both shouting into the comm link.

Even as he was threatening Gribbs with all manner of atrocities if he didn't answer, Qwaid saw the look of concern on the Doctor's face and knew the girl had indeed been the perfect lever to ensure his cooperation. And for a moment he felt a sudden flash of jealous resentment of the bond that clearly existed between them, because he knew, deep down, that nobody would ever care that much for Crelly Qwaid. And now he might have lost both her and the ship. Finally Gribbs's strained voice came back to them.

'I'm here, Qwaid. I had to eject. There was nothing I could do -'

'Peri? What about Peri?' the Doctor demanded.

'What? Oh, she got out as well. I can see her coming down in the woods.'

The Doctor's relief was palpable.

'What about the ship?' Qwaid asked urgently.

'I think the emergency retros cut in at the last second. It may have set down all right. But everything else was dead, Qwaid.

You heard Alpha's voice -'

'I heard, now shut up!' Qwaid thought for a moment, then said,

'Listen, this is what you're going to do. When you get down, find the girl first and make sure you don't lose her again. That's real important. Then check out the ship if you can. If there's nothing doing, see if you can get into Thorrin's ship. Meanwhile, we'll keep on. You call us regular to see we're not going to sleep again, understand?'

'Gotya, Qwaid... Uh, the trees are coming up fast now. I'd better get ready to -'

There was a crash of branches.

Peri's ejector seat had ended its descent dangling just a few feet from the ground, and she was able to unstrap herself and drop the rest of the way with ease. Then reaction had set in, and, in the privacy of the still green woods, she had lain in a huddle and shivered for some minutes. When she recovered her self-control she sat up, wiped her eyes, and tried to think constructively, considering her options.

She didn't have the TARDIS key, so she couldn't shelter there, even if she could find it. The only other occupied ship was Dynes's, and she couldn't imagine his being of any help. She might be able to find the
Falcon
more easily since it was probably closer. But at all costs she had to keep clear of Gribbs. How long could she hide out in the woods? She no longer had her camping pack, but while the weather stayed fine she would be able to manage for a few days. Perhaps that would be enough. If she could find their town, would the natives give her shelter or simply ignore her? If they did, perhaps she could steal some food and -

'Have you any comments on your remarkable escape, Ms Brown?' said Dynes's voice in her ear, making her start violently.

A camera drone marked DAVE #4 was hovering beside her.

'Oh, why don't you just go jump in a lake!' she said in exasperation.

* * *

It was good to have somebody talking: it kept them focused on what they were doing. The monotonous landscape made it all too easy to drift into that deadly torpor again.

'Yes, one was still quite a young man,' the Marquis continued,

'a university student who had come here with a party of friends.

They'd bought the information off some cheepjack trader for fifty credits! They didn't really believe it was genuine, but they thought it would be "fun" to hunt for lost treasure over their summer vacation. He'd borrowed his father's yacht. Now he thinks he's the only one left. Unbelievable... and rather tragic.'

Myra noticed the expressions on the faces of Thorrin and Rosscarrino. Their pride had been shaken in more ways than one. Prior to encountering the island they had convinced themselves that they were really the first proper seekers of Rovan's treasure. Now they must be wondering how many more had come to Gelsandor over the years. Was the Doctor right after all? Were they going to be cheated of... What was she thinking?

No! The treasure wasn't important, only catching Qwaid and his accomplices mattered.

'Did you find anything useful?' Myra made herself ask.

'Like the quickest way out of this place?'

'One of them did mention a forest that lay somewhere ahead,'

Thorrin admitted.

'Well?'

'He called it the Forest of Fear.'

'That sounds cheerful.'

'Apparently it's where your worst nightmares are realised.'

He didn't, Myra noticed, dismiss the idea out of hand. A few days earlier it would have a been a different story, she suspected.

'Old Jack has memories best left undisturbed,' Falstaff cut in anxiously. 'Perhaps there is a longer but less perilous way to be found.'

'But we cannot afford the time,' said the Marquis. 'Have you no courage, man?'

'The better part of valour is discretion,' Falstaff countered, in the which better part I have saved my life thus far.'

'Nonsense,' said Thorrin. 'Whatever may lie ahead we're forewarned now. We've had a taste of the locals' mental tricks and know they can be overcome by concentration and strength of will.'

'Quite right,' said the Marquis. 'There'll be no turning back!'

Myra thought she saw a look of dismay flicker across the face of Arnella Rosscarrino.

The woods Peri wandered through, trailed remorselessly by DAVE

#4, were overgrown and virtually trackless, unlike the neatly manicured glades she had seen near the Gelsandoran town. Her final descent through the upper branches had turned her around, and she was not sure in which direction anything lay.

Still she trudged on in hope. If she chanced on the
Falcon
at least she might recover her pack. Then she could go after the Doctor and the others, though the thought of facing the trail alone terrified her even though she now knew some of its secrets. And she'd still be a couple of days behind the rest.

'What you need right now, Peri Brown,' she told herself aloud,

'is a friend and guide you can rely on, preferably with some faster means of transport than your own two sore feet.' She looked about her. 'Unfortunately it looks like the woods are fresh out of knights on white chargers right now. Even Rin Tin Tin would be better than nothing,' she added wistfully, recalling a Hollywood canine hero of the pre-war era.

'Looking for someone, are we?' said an all too familiar voice.

Gribbs stepped out from behind a tree a broad grin on his mean face.

Peri turned and ran, DAVE #4 swooping after her.

'You stop right there or I'll shoot!' Gribbs shouted.

'You wouldn't dare!' she called back, twisting between the trees.

A distant curse and running feet told her that she was correct. It was her only advantage. Gribbs's legs were longer than hers, and he had as much motivation to catch her as she did to stay free.

She ran as fast as she could, desperately looking for some place to hide, but all the while Gribbs was slowly cutting down her lead. He was ten yards behind her, then five. His hand was reaching out for her shoulder.

'Gotya!'

His tug on her shirt pulled her off balance and she stumbled and fell heavily. In a second Gribbs's weight was on her back.

With a heave he twisted her over and straddled across her middle, pinning her arms to her sides with his knees. Gasping to recover her breath, she looked up fearfully into his hard glittering eyes.

'Now I'm gonna make sure you don't get away from me again,'