Doctor Who_ Ultimate Treasure Part 30

Peri had to smile at that thought. Then she frowned and looked at Shalvis. 'One thing still gets me. This all seems to have been predestined, but I thought we came here mainly because I wanted to?'

'There is free will,' Shalvis a.s.sured her. 'It shapes the future, which we can only glimpse imperfectly. Nothing is certain until it has occurred, and it was always possible Alpha would triumph.

Right to the last your actions were crucial, as indeed they were in the past, when your sympathy won Kamelion's grat.i.tude. As the Doctor said, do not undervalue the qualities he demonstrated. I think Rovan would have approved of them.'

Peri shook her head in wonder at it all. Her eye caught the red door, the one n.o.body had opened, which supposedly led to the ultimate treasure. She smiled ruefully. 'Under the circ.u.mstances I won't try that one. I guess I can live without knowing.'

'My dear Peri, surely you've worked it out by now.' said the Doctor. And before she could stop him he walked across the chamber and calmly stepped through the red door.

'Doctor!' she cried, but he was gone. For a second she hesitated, then dashed through the door after him.

CHAPTER 24.

THE ULTIMATE TREASURE.

Beyond the door was darkness.

Peri felt a moment of giddiness and a sensation of rapid acceleration. Rings of light flashed past her. She saw the Doctor's distant silhouette and reached out desperately towards him.

Then came a sudden pressure and the rings of light vanished.

She was standing beside the Doctor on the threshold of a wide archway. Before them a flight of steps led down to a stretch of green lawn fringed by tall, graceful trees. The Doctor gave her an infuriatingly bright and knowing smile, and suddenly she recognised the setting.

It was a doorway of the white pyramid where they had first met Shalvis.

She gaped at the Doctor but he simply put a finger to his lips, ambled lightly down the steps and set off towards the corner of the pyramid, forcing Peri to dash after him. Around the other side the rest were waiting for them.

'What kept you?' Jaharnus asked. 'That tube of theirs got us here quickly enough.'

'Oh, we came by the scenic route,' the Doctor said lightly.

There was an argument in progress.

'For the last time, I don't want to give you an interview,' Arnella was saying to Dynes.

'Not even a pa.s.sing thought on the Marquis?' Dynes persisted.

'The public might find that rather strange.'

'I don't care what they think.'

Then Brockwell stepped between them.

'Excuse me, Dynes,' he said in his usual diffident manner.

'Over the last few days you have been willing to watch us suffer and almost die on several occasions, for the cheap gratification of your viewers. And now, even when it's over, you continue to annoy the woman I love. Under the circ.u.mstances, I think this is a very reasonable response...'

And he punched Dynes carefully on the nose, sending him sprawling backward on to the neat gra.s.s and causing the remaining DAVE to weave about in search of a new angle. Dynes clapped a hand to his face, trying to staunch the blood, and stared up at Brockwell in disbelief.

'You know what you've done!' he exclaimed somewhat nasally.

'a.s.saulted an accredited member of the information media during the execution of his legitimate duty in a situation of high news value. Before eyewitnesses!'

'Sorry, I wasn't looking,' said Loxley quickly.

'Did you see anything, Peri?' the Doctor inquired.

'See what, Doctor?'

'Inspector Jaharnus?' Dynes appealed, now clasping a handkerchief to his face.

'As you reminded me a few days ago, this planet isn't in my jurisdiction.'

Dynes glared at them all. 'Well I have it recorded! That's evidence enough.' And he pointed at the hovering DAVE.

There came a single shot from Jaharnus's commandeered rifle, and the DAVE tumbled to earth in a shower of smoking fragments.

'That felt very satisfying,' Jaharnus admitted. 'What a pity it was watching you when I did it.'

Dynes gaped at her and the smouldering wreckage of the DAVE, then turned to Brockwell. 'There are backup recordings in my s.h.i.+p. I'll still take action against you.'

'So sue me,' Brockwell challenged. 'You won't get much because I'm not rich...' He looked at Arnella and smiled. 'At least, not in any way you'd understand.'

'If it's not too much trouble, could you give our friends a lift back to Astroville?' the Doctor asked, after a decent pause.

'Peri and I are going in another direction.'

'Of course,' said Brockwell, 'We were heading there anyway.' He looked at Arnella. 'We have a lot to talk about, and perhaps certain official arrangements will need to be made - if you think so too, Arnella?'

Arnella looked at him and took his hand, and Peri saw the sadness slowly begin to lift from her face to be replaced by a quiet hopefulness.

'Yes, I think so,' Arnella said simply. Then she turned to the Doctor and Peri. 'Goodbye, and thank you.'

'Good luck,' said Peri.

'Under the circ.u.mstances,' Jaharnus said, shaking hands with the Doctor and Peri, 'I won't be needing you as witnesses against Qwaid, Gribbs, and Drorgon.'

'Your investigation is over, then?' asked the Doctor.

'Yes, I suppose it is,' She gave a curious smile. 'Do you think that's what Shalvis meant when she said I was also a seeker?'

'Perhaps. We're all searching for something.'

'But what sort of report am I going to write on all this?'

'I shall a.s.sist you, Inspector,' said Loxley heartily. 'There is nothing like a little creative fantasy to smooth the rough edges of life.' He doffed his hat and bowed to Peri and the Doctor.

'Goodbye, my friends. Parting is such sweet sorrow.'

'Farewell! Thou art too dear for my possessing... and like enough thou now know'st thine own estimate,' replied the Doctor in kind.

'That's not quite how it runs, Doctor,' said Loxley, wagging his finger, 'but perhaps I do, at last.'

And he followed the others as they walked away along the path towards the glade where the Newton Newton was waiting. was waiting.

Ignored by all, Dynes had risen to his feet. Now he looked uncertainly at Peri and the Doctor.

'I don't punch,' Peri warned him, 'but unless you want a knee where it'll make your eyes water, you won't even think about it!'

Glowering and still dabbing his tender nose, Dynes disappeared along the path through the trees.

Peri realised Shalvis was standing beside them.

'Now they have departed,' she said solemnly, 'I can show you what Rovan left for those who followed in his footsteps.'

'In his footsteps?' Peri said. 'You mean when we went through the red door? And why did we end up here anyway?'

'Oh, Peri,' said the Doctor in mild despair.

An image was forming before them. It was of a handsome man dressed in plain nondescript clothes. Peri recognised the face instantly from the pictures she had seen in the library on Astroville.

'My friends,' said the five-thousand-year-old recording of Rovan Cartovall. 'Perhaps my actions have been selfish, but at least I am prepared to take the consequences. I do not know what future ages will make of me, and in all honesty I care little. But I do predict that the single question most will ask is: Why? Why did he who had everything give it all up? What strange purpose had he in mind for his treasure? Well here is the truth plain and simple, take it how you will.'

'I was bored. I owned everything but myself. I felt trapped within the court and empire, in which I could already see signs of decay. I wanted to live, to experience the true riches of diversity and uncertainty. To find out who I really was, and not simply the figurehead an accident of birth had made me. I hope my sudden departure will give those I left behind cause to pause and reflect on their own motives and intentions, but I have my doubts.'

'As to the treasure, it not only bought the cooperation of the Gelsandorans in covering my trail, but it also enabled those who would inevitably follow after me to learn a lesson in relative values. Any who have the means to find their way here are wealthy and capable enough already. If their greed overtakes them then they will reap an appropriate prize. If they want more, then they must come by it through their own labours. This is not hypocrisy, for I must also fend for myself now, as I am leaving all my treasure here. It is a responsibility which I have never had before, but I am rather looking forward to the challenge. I am setting out upon the path that you have also chosen. The trail is uncertain but the rewards, though they may not be material, are compensation enough.'

'For of course, if you have not yet realised, the ultimate treasure lies in the infinite possibilities of the universe itself!'

And he lifted his eyes and arms upward to the sky and the stars beyond, and Peri automatically followed his gaze.

As it happened she was just in time to see the Newton Newton and the and the Stop Press Stop Press lifting off from beyond the trees and soar into the air. lifting off from beyond the trees and soar into the air.

She watched until they winked out of sight. When she lowered her head again Rovan's image was gone, and so was Shalvis.

They walked thoughtfully back to the TARDIS.

'Are you disappointed?' the Doctor asked.

'I'm not sure. Real life isn't always as satisfying as the storybooks, is it? I thought I might have come away with something more to show for it all. No gold or jewels, not even a b.u.mper sticker: "I've been on the Ultimate Treasure hunt". Only a collection of bruises, about five years knocked off my life through fright, and a story n.o.body will believe back home.' She shrugged, then frowned as another thought struck her. 'Say, Doctor, what'll happen to this place when Dynes gets through telling the whole world - I mean galaxy - about it? Won't it get overrun with treasure hunters?'

'Do you really think Dynes is the first person who intended something like that? How is it the location of Rovan's treasure has been discovered by so relatively few people, even after all this time? I think the Gelsandorans know how to protect their world and Rovan's trust.'

'I hope so, even though I don't think I like them very much.'

The Doctor looked at her quizzically. 'Nevertheless you think there's something here worth preserving, despite your feelings about them personally?' he suggested.

Peri frowned. 'Well, I guess being here has been an -'

'Experience?'

'Yeah, you could say that.'

He smiled. 'So you are taking something away with you, Peri.

Knowledge, an expanded appreciation of relative values, a raised level of consciousness. Perhaps that's the quest's true purpose.'

'That sounds pretty mystical to me; just like Rovan, the old dropout. Maybe you're a hippy at heart, too, Doctor - yeah, the ultimate hippy! I should have known by the hair.'

'A hippy?'

'You know: the sixties, mind-expanding, flower power.'

'Oh, then. I was otherwise engaged in the sixties. It was a busy decade for me.'

They reached the TARDIS. The Doctor unlocked the door, then paused. 'But talking of flower power, I did once visit a world ruled by sentient flowers.'

'Really?'

'Yes. It happened like this...'

They pa.s.sed inside. A minute later the incongruous police box dematerialised, and the scented glade was empty once more.

Dynes spent some time after leaving Gelsandor's...o...b..t having the Stop Press's Stop Press's autodoc unit tend his nose. Then he set a course and went to sleep for ten hours, making up for what he had lost over the last few days. The autodoc unit tend his nose. Then he set a course and went to sleep for ten hours, making up for what he had lost over the last few days. The Stop Press Stop Press was in hypers.p.a.ce by the time he sat down to play back his DAVE recordings and begin editing them. was in hypers.p.a.ce by the time he sat down to play back his DAVE recordings and begin editing them.

Except that every single file contained the same message, repeated over and over again, and nothing else whatsoever.

'Dexel Dynes,' said Shalvis, her face staring out at him from every monitor. 'You may recall the promise I made to you at our first meeting. I said you would be allowed to witness everything you wished on Gelsandor during the period of the seekers' quest, and leave Gelsandor freely afterwards. However, I did not promise you could take away any material you gathered for the purposes of further dissemination. The rights you claimed for yourself and used against others under the interstellar convention give you no protection here, since we are not signatories to any such agreement. If you were a better reporter and genuinely interested in things of true value, such as respect and consideration for others, you would have realised long before now -'

Dynes. .h.i.t the stop b.u.t.ton so hard he broke a fingernail.

So, she thought Dexel Dynes would abandon the story of a lifetime as easily as that, did she? Well he'd show her! He'd head back to Gelsandor and get some detailed reconnaissance shots from a safe distance, then make for Astroville and find some innocents he could feed with the location of Rovan's treasure.

He'd wire them and their s.h.i.+p up with microcameras so neither they nor the Gelsandorans would ever know it, and get his ultimate treasure hunt story that way.

Still boiling with anger, he ordered his autopilot to reverse course.

The pilot promptly set course for Astroville.

Dynes cancelled the command and ordered it to produce a complete course printout. According to that the last place he had visited was Astroville. There was no set of coordinates for Gelsandor anywhere in the autopilot's memory bank, even though he knew he'd seen the figures flash up on the display board just after he'd made orbit.

But for the life of him he couldn't remember any part of them now.