Notes: Indie and Lara, sorry, the Doctor and Rose travel to Cambodia to switch off the pyramid. As usual though, these things never go as planned.
Thanks to Google Earth for the views of Cambodia that allowed me to envisage the area and give some authenticity to the story.

Chapter 3

The TARDIS materialized on the flight path to Siem Reap International Airport in Cambodia. She was disguised as a two seater airship and was on final approach. John contacted air traffic control for permission to land. There was only one runway, and domestic flights were slotted in between commercial flights.

They flew down the runway and taxied to one of the stands, where they shut down the console and prepared to disembark.

"You ready?" John asked as he picked up the locked briefcase.

"Yeah, let's go." She grabbed the handle of their wheeled suitcase with one hand, and John's hand with the other as they headed for the door.

In the terminal, they headed for the green channel of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Customs & Excise Department.

"Doctor and Mrs. Smith, welcome to Cambodia," the Customs & Excise officer said. "I see you have been here before," she observed from the stamps on their passports.

Rose smiled at the woman. "Yes, we were on honeymoon last time. We loved it so much, we decided to come back."

"Ah, that is so nice for you," she said with a smile. "Anything to declare?"

"Just this diplomatic briefcase for the embassy," John said. "There should be an official coming to meet us."

The officer checked the seal on the briefcase to make sure it was genuine.

"That all seems in order. If you would like to place your bag on the conveyer, and empty your pockets into the trays please."

John lifted the wheeled suitcase onto the conveyer belt ready to go through the x-ray machine. Rose walked through the metal detector, followed by John and the alarms remained silent. As they refilled their pockets, the officer called to them.

"Dr and Mrs. Smith, I forgot to ask if you would sign this for me please."

"I thought we'd already signed the visa paperwork," John said as they walked over to the desk.

"Oh you have," she said sheepishly. "This is for my daughter, she is a fan." She held up an old copy of 'Chat' magazine which had their picture on the front. "Please, would you mind? Her name is Chakriya."

Rose smiled at the woman. Since they had been on the Michael Parkinson show, the media in Britain had lost some of its initial interest in them. To be recognised in a far flung corner of the globe by the mother of a young fan was, well, quite charming really.

They signed the magazine, with 'best wishes to Chakriya'. The woman's face lit up with a smile.

"Oh thank you so much. She will treasure this."

Rose's smile matched the woman's in intensity. "You're welcome."

"Enjoy your stay. Ah, it looks like the embassy official is here for the briefcase," the woman said, as she looked past them.

A man in a suit with a card saying 'Smith' came through the doors. John and Rose walked up to him.

"Isn't that a coincidence, our name's Smith as well," he said with a cheeky grin.

"Shut up," Rose said, playfully slapping his arm and laughing.

"Dr and Mrs. Smith, my name is Edward Bosley. I'm an Attaché from the British Embassy in Phnom Penh. I happened to be close by today so the Ambassador asked me to meet you."

"Very nice to meet you Edward," John said shaking his hand. "I'm John, and this is Rose."

"Hello," Rose said, shaking his hand as well.

"I have a car outside and a key for the case. I'll drop you at your hotel. The Park Hyatt wasn't it?"

"That's right," John said. "You've been well briefed."

They headed out of the doors into the warm, humid night air. John lifted the suitcase into the boot of Edward's Hyundai. John and Rose climbed into the back of the car and waited for Edward to drive.

He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and took out a security key which he handed over to John.

"Here, you'll need this to open the briefcase. I understand it's your high tech equipment that might have caused a bit of a stir in customs."

John broke the seal on the handle and used the key to open the case.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a covert operation and we don't want to attract too much attention," he said.

They started sorting out their equipment. There was a folded holdall that they opened and started to fill with scanners, stun guns and a flexible 'rope' of cable that was the inductance coil.

The car pulled out of the airport onto Airport Road and headed towards National Highway Six, which headed east towards the centre of Siem Reap.

After 15 minutes, they arrived at the hotel, and Edward opened the boot, taking out their luggage. John handed over the briefcase and the broken seal for Edward to take back to the Embassy.

"Are you not stayin' at the Hyatt?" Rose asked.

Edward laughed. "Not on a public servant's expenses, no. I'm at the Seng Live Angkor guesthouse on the outskirts of town."

"Oh I'm not having that," John said with a smile. "You're our liaison here. Come on, you're having a room on us."

"I couldn't possibly," Edward started to protest.

Rose grabbed, and then hugged his arm. "C'mon Attaché to the British Embassy, we have a reputation to maintain. And a couple of celebrity agents letting their liaison stay in a guesthouse across town wouldn't look good now, would it?" She gave him her cheeky smile.

"Well, when you put it like that." He handed his car keys over to the valet who would park the car. At the reception desk they checked in and rented a room for Edward. They also hired a 4x4 for the morning so that they could make their way into the jungle and to the Prang Pyramid of Koh Ker.


It was morning, and the bedside phone rang gently. John carefully reached across to answer it, trying not to disturb Rose who was lying across his chest.

"Hello?" he asked quietly.

"Good morning Dr. Smith. This is your alarm call, it is 07:00."

"Oh, right, thank you." He put the phone down and kissed Rose's hair.

"Wakey wakey sleepy head."

"Mmmph?" She yawned and flickered her eyes open. "Hello," she smiled.

"Hello. Did you sleep well?" he grinned.

"Eventually, when a certain someone let me," she purred.

John chuckled. "If you go and run the shower, we can have a repeat performance. I'll call room service and have some breakfast sent up."

"Mmmm, that sounds like an offer I can't refuse." She slid over him and climbed out of bed to head for the en suite. He distractedly watched her pert buttocks dancing as she crossed the room, while he called room service.

The shower cubicle was filling with steam from the hot water. It felt so good on her head and down her body as she used the apple scented shower gel.

She heard the door slide open and shut behind her, and John's hands wrapped around her abdomen as he pressed up against her back.

One hand headed south while the other caressed her boobs, while he nibbled her neck and earlobe. She groaned with pleasure and her soap-slippy body turned in his arms to face him and kiss him passionately.

Breaking the kiss, she squeezed some gel on his head and massaged his scalp while he did the same for her. She rubbed his shoulders, chest and abdomen, smiling at him with her tongue between her teeth.

He grinned and did the same, rubbing the gel around her shoulders, lingering on her boobs, and then her taut abdomen. They both raised their eyebrows in anticipation and worked the gel into the intimate and private areas of their bodies.

They kissed again, and Rose wrapped her legs around his waist as she lifted herself onto him. John supported her weight by holding her buttocks and leaning her against the tiled wall. They both giggled as her back made a squeaking noise against the tiles as John made rhythmic movements with his hips.

Rose's giggles turned into gasps of ecstasy in his ear, and her nails gently scratched his back as she reached her climax. John's legs shuddered slightly as he reached his climax with a groan.

"Phew! That reminds me of our honeymoon," Rose said breathlessly.

John just chuckled and finished washing her body, kissing each bit that he cleaned. Rose returned the favour and turned off the water. They dried each other off, put on the towelling bath robes and went to have breakfast.

After breakfast, they loaded the Suzuki Jeep and set off east along the National Highway Six for about 20 miles before turning north at Damdek. After that, there was a gruelling 60 miles of rural roads and dirt tracks to look forward to, before reaching Koh Ker in the middle of the jungle.

John was wearing khaki trousers, black t-shirt, hiking boots and a bush hat. Rose had plaited her hair into pigtails that hung on each shoulder. She had a black vest top, denim shorts that accentuated her great legs, and the same style hiking boots as john.

John had joked that she looked like 'Lara Croft', while he kept nibbling her neck as she tried to lace up her boots.

After a gruelling three hour drive, they finally came to the clearing in the jungle and the seven tiered Prang Pyramid of Koh Ker. They strapped on their utility belts and backpacks and faced the temple.

"Wow! That's impressive," Rose said, looking up at the 118 feet of vegetation encrusted stone. "How do we get in?"

"Well, I think we'll have to climb that bamboo ladder, probably to the third tier and see if we can find the entrance."

They walked to the temple and started to climb the rickety ladder that lay on the pyramid at an angle of about 45 degrees. They reached the third tier and stepped onto the rubble strewn stone. John took his sonic screwdriver out of the pouch on his belt and adjusted the setting. Rose removed her Torchwood scanner from her backpack.

They carefully walked over the rubble to a corner of the building and looked along the ledge. There was more of the same rubble and vegetation leading to the stone steps slope that ran up the centre of each face.

"Did aliens build all this John?"

"It was probably Humans that built it, but aliens that designed and commissioned it." He was scanning the steps as he spoke. "Ah, here we are. Have a scan of that step; see what you make of it."

Rose stumbled her way over to him and scanned the steps.

"There's a cavity behind them. If we go up…." She carefully climbed up onto the next tier. "No cavity behind these. I'm betting one of these steps moves to reveal an opening."

John grinned up at her. "Just what I was thinking. if someone has been here to put the crystal inside, then there should be some evidence of disturbed dust or vegetation," he said as he scanned the steps in more detail. Rose climbed back down to join him on the steps.

"Ah, here we are then." He took a large survival knife out of its scabbard and prised it under one of the stone steps and levered it up until he could get his fingers under it.

"Careful John. Don't crush your fingers." She stooped down beside him and put her fingers under as well. As they both lifted, the step tilted up at the front, and the rear part under the step above, tilted down to form a chute.

They stood grinning at each other.

"Well?" she said, nodding down at the dark hole.

"Well?" he said back. "Allons-y Wife. Allons-y." He strapped on a super bright LED headlight from his backpack and handed one to Rose. He lowered himself into the hole and slid down.

"Are you okay John?" her voice echoed into the darkness. She was temporarily blinded when he looked back up at her from ten feet below.

"Oops, sorry," he said looking down. "Yeah. It's a short slide to the floor. Come on down and I'll catch you."

She slid down and he caught her around the waist as she pitched forward, she put her hands on his shoulders to steady herself. They stood looking at each other in the twilight and stole a quick kiss before looking around.

They were in a stone tunnel that seemed to lead further into the depths of the pyramid. They walked over the large flagstone floor, following the tunnel to the apparent centre of the temple.

They were at a crossroads of tunnels, each one apparently coming from one face of the pyramid. They checked each tunnel in turn to the end and found nothing, finally returning to the crossroads.

"Now what?" she asked him.

"There must be a secret entrance to a chamber somewhere."

Rose smiled. "I bet one of these torch holders on the wall opens a door or somethin'."

"You've been watching too many adventure movies," he told her. "It's never anything like that."

Rose held onto the torch holder and lifted herself off the floor. Nothing happened.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." She walked over the crossroad and pulled herself up on another holder. This time though, she slowly lowered to the floor as the holder tilted downwards.

"Or maybe not," John said, as they heard a rumbling of stone and saw the central flagstone pivot so that one part raised and another lowered.

They looked into the hole and could see a faint but vivid green light 15 feet below. There was a set of bamboo steps leading down to the floor.

"It looks like we've found what we came for," he said.

They put their equipment away and climbed carefully down the ancient ladder, uncertain as to whether it would hold their weight. It creaked a bit, but seemed very secure as they reached the floor and stepped off.

They were in a pyramidal chamber, 15 feet high and 30 feet along each wall. There in front of them, in the centre of the chamber was the Prang Emerald. It was standing on a four foot tall, four inches across, stone plinth. It was glowing with an intense, vivid green light.

John scanned the plinth and emerald, before taking off his backpack and taking out the inductance coil. He placed it over the plinth and lowered it to the floor.

"Okay, let's divert the power from the emerald to the coil." He flicked a switch on the block attached to the coil and a discharged lithium battery started to charge, drawing energy from the plinth.

John checked the emerald with his sonic screwdriver. Everything seemed to be okay and he nodded to Rose, who grabbed the emerald to lift it off the plinth.

WHAM!

There was a discharge of green energy that surrounded her body and threw her across the chamber. The emerald dropped out of her limp hands and rolled across the stone floor.

"ROSE!?" Her vision was blurred and everything sounded distant and echoey.

"Rose! Babe, are you okay?" She could feel the darkness calling her as her head buzzed with the residual energy.

"Torchwood Despatch. Agent down. Request immediate MedEvac. Repeat agent Rose Tyler is down. Request immediate MedEvac."

'Why does John sound like Mickey?' was her final thought before she passed out.