Chapter 5

The girls are facing something black and rather dragonesque on a lower level.

"Wicked!" cries Ace, gleefully.

"Get down!" shouts Nita, pulling Ace back before it fires something that sparks when it hits the icewall.

"That's not a real dragon," Ace realizes. "That was a laser beam."

"Look out!" shouts Mel, as the 'dragon' prepares to fire again.

At the top of the ice cliff, Glitz is looking over the railing at the Doctor dangling from his umbrella.

"It's no use, Doctor. I've located the Ice Garden but there's a distinct absence of dragon or treasure."

"Glitz, I sympathize with your disappointment, but I'm about to plummet to my death."

"Oh, I suppose you want me to risk my neck and come and help you."

"Glitz!"

"All right, all right. Don't get your delicates in a twist."

"Glitz!"

"I can't get you up here, I'll go down the bottom. See you in a minute."

Meanwhile, in the Refrigeration room:

"Belazs, you astound me," says Kane. "Those three girls should have been searched when they were arrested. 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 don't forgive those who betray me. The girls must be stopped before they reach Glitz and the Doctor. They must be eradicated."

Kane activates the control to open up some freezer units. "What could be more appropriate than to despatch some of Glitz's former crew after the girls. He betrayed his crew, now they can have their revenge. Everyone should be allowed his moment of revenge."

At the base of the ice cliff, a dark-haired girl suddenly appears, just before Glitz emerges from a tunnel.

"'Ere, who are you then? How did you get here?" Glitz asks her.

"Never mind about that," the girl replies. "Let me help you get the Doctor down safely."

"How do you know that's the Doctor?" asks Glitz again.

"You're wasting time," is the girl's reply. "Let's just get him down from there before he breaks his neck, shall we?"

Glitz and the girl work together to help the Doctor down the cliff-face. The Doctor climbs down off Glitz's shoulders in the most convoluted fashion.

"I say, thank you," says the Doctor, looking around. "Where did that girl disappear to? Who was she, anyway."

"I don't know, but she knew who you were. And she appeared just when we needed her." He turned his attention to the matter at hand. "It's no use, Doctor. Even if we did find the treasure, it'd take us longer than seventy two hours, and Belazs said if I didn't return Kane's money within seventy two hours they'd confiscate my spacecraft."

"Why don't you explain the problem to him?"

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

"Ah."

"In fact, if Kane knew we were after the…"

In the Refrigeration room, Belazs is listening in via the tracker in the map seal.

"…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."

"These types never have any sense of fair play."

"Exactly. Which is why I've come to the conclusion that play it by the rules is a mug's game. I have decided to hijack the Nosferatu. Which is where you come in, Doctor."

"Ah, hang on there a minute, Glitz. I'm engaged in a project of scientific curiosity. I mean, that dragon, or whatever it may turn out to be, could be an undiscovered species."

"Look, I'll do you a good deal. You help me get the Nosferatu back, and I'll give you the treasure map so's you and Nita and Mel can go looking for this dragon. I can't say fairer than that, can I?"

"You have me there, Glitz. Without the map, I'll never find the creature."

"You're a man of insight and logic, Doctor."

Glitz gives the Doctor the map.

"All right, then. Where's the Nosferatu berthed?"

"In the lower docking bay."

The zombie crew march along the ice cat walks.

In the Restricted zone, the sculptor is at work.

"A work of artistry, my friend," Kane commends him. "Incandescent artistry. I could almost believe Xana lives again. A unique beauty, yes, but more than that, a criminal genius also. Oh, what a waste." He addresses the statue: "It should have been I who was killed escaping arrest, not you."

The girls have reached the top of the ice cliff.

"You're joking," says Ace. "I'm not going down there."

"Look, there's the Doctor's brolly," says Nita. "We must be on the right track."

"What did he have to come this way for?" asks Ace. "I could break my neck."

"How are we going to get down there?" asks Mel.

"Hang on," says Ace. She rummages in her rucksack and produces a roll of slim metal ladder.

Glitz and the Doctor reach the lower docking bay.

"There's only one guard," says Glitz. "Do you think you can occupy him while I slip on board?"

"I'll do my best."

"Go on, then. Away you go."

The Doctor walks up to the guard. "Excuse me. What's your attitude towards the nature of existence? For example, do you hold any strong theological opinions?"

"I think you'll find most educated people regard mythical convictions as fundamentally animistic," replies the guard.

"I see. That's a very interesting concept."

"Personally, I find most experiences border on the existential."

"Well, how do you reconcile that with the empirical critical belief that experience is at the root of all phenomena?"

"I think you'll find that a concept can be philosophically valid even if theologically meaningless."

"So, what you're saying is that before Plato existed, someone had to have the idea of Plato."

Glitz slips into the docking bay.

"Oh, you've no idea what a relief it is for me to have such a stimulating philosophical discussion," says the guard. "There are so few intellectuals about these days. Tell me, what do you think of the assertion that the semiotic thickness of a performed text varies according to the redundancy of auxiliary performance codes?"

"Yes," replies the Doctor, only half-listening as he discreetly watches Glitz's progress.

A/N Who is the mysterious girl who helps the Doctor at the ice cliff? If you'll recall, in "The Name of the Doctor" one of the versions of Clara was shown seeing the Doctor dangling from the ice cliff. And the TV story of Dragonfire never showed how Glitz got the Doctor down from the cliff. So it is logical to conclude that Clara helped him.