The Lost Treasure Of Zealandia – The Expedition Crew Enter Ball’s Pyramid.

Brad and Scott had rigged up the motor boat to a rope to help keep it stable as it moved away from the safety of the Beer and Flies vessel, out across the choppy ocean to attempt landfall on the island of Ball’s Pyramid.  

On board the motor boat the Doctor, Nicole and David were already at helm, with Brad and Scott jumping after the boat had been lowered into the waves.  The engine throttled to life and the 5 intrepid explorers bounced away towards the island, crashing through the huge waves.

As the motor boat fought its way through the heavy seas the Doctor turned to David, ‘Can you do a radio check with the Captain?’

‘Right, will do,’ said David.

Brad and Scott, standing at the back of the boat, watched over the Doctor’s shoulder as the vast pyramid of the island slowly came into closer view.

‘That’s pretty impressive,’ commented Scott, as he checked over his equipment, looking up at the enormous island pyramid. 

‘What’s that there?’ asked Brad, pointing at the harpoon-like gun tied to Scott’s pack.  

‘Oh, that’s just in case we can’t get up that slope, it doesn’t look like easy climbing but with the help of this beauty,’ he said, ‘we could scale anything!’

***

The Captain stood up on the bridge, holding the ship steady in the rough waters.  His eyes drifted grimly out across the waves towards the island as the motor boat began its perilous trip to the rocky shore.

‘Was there anything in particular that the Doctor’s looking for?’ asked Kyle, standing beside the Captain on the bridge. 

‘I have a feeling that there certainly is,’ replied the Captain, ‘but you know the Doctor, he likes to keep his cards close to his chest.’

***

As the motor boat approached the island, Nicole shouted over the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks, ‘We need to find a cove, Doctor, we can’t land here!’

‘You’re right,’ replied the Doctor, ‘we’ll circle around the shore, the sonar mapping indicated an inlet around this corner here,’ continued the Doctor, ‘but you’ll need to radio the Captain, David, tell them we’re circling around to the inlet now.’

‘Right on it!’ said David, and then huddled down in the motor boat to try to reduce the noise interference of the roaring waves hammering the sharp black rocks. 

***

The Doctor steered the motor boat around the island and sure enough, found the inlet.  It was a high cave that cut directly into the island’s Eastern face although the water inside it was almost calm compared to the dangerous waves outside of it.  

‘Looks like something out of an Indiana Jones’ movie, hey?!’ joked Scott.

‘You’re right!  It does!’ said Nicole, laughing.

‘Enough jokes!’ said the Doctor, ‘keep your wits about you, we’re going in!’ 

As the expedition crew slowly drove into the cave they looked up at the roof, 50 feet above their heads.  ‘Impressive,’ commented the Doctor, ‘Brad, can you get that search beam on?’

‘Absolutely,’ said Brad, switching on the powerful spotlight that was mounted on the side of the motor boat, swinging the light around the cave as the sound of the waves crashing outside began to fade away. 

‘It’s almost peaceful inside here,’ said Nicole.

‘Yea, peaceful like a tomb!’ said Scott, winking at her.

‘It might well be,’ said the Doctor pensively, ‘it might well be a tomb, let’s just make sure it’s not ours!’.

‘So what exactly are we looking for Doc?’ asked Scott. 

‘Well, according to the ancient books I was studying earlier, there may be a very interesting burial here, and although many have tried to find it before, none have succeeded as far as I can establish.  David, can you keep an eye on the rope, don’t let it get tangled in here.’

‘Sure thing,’ said David, heading to the back of the boat, checking that the rope connecting their little boat to the main Beer and Flies vessel was safely reeling out behind them.

 

After they had slowly motored down a few hundred feet of the cave it came to a beach landing beneath a vast chamber that echoed to the sound of the juddering engine above them.

‘Unbelievable,’ said Brad, scanning around the huge empty space with the spotlight.

 

Huge stalactites stretched down towards them from above while eerie stalagmites surrounded the edges of the beach shore like a waiting alien army.

‘Creepy,’ said David, looking at the shadows of the tall stalagmites.

‘Beautiful though,’ said Nicole, ‘it looks like those stalagmites are full of jewels!  Look at them glittering!’

‘Yea, you’re right,’ said David, peering at them through the dim light. 

‘Right, we’ll land here on the beach,’ said the Doctor.

Safely landed on the beach, the expedition crew stepped onto the sand.  Scott lit a flare which sent a red light scattering around the huge chamber.

‘Look, there,’ said Nicole, pointing towards the back of the sandy beach, ‘there’s a tunnel there!’

‘Right where it should be,’ said the Doctor calmly, ‘three of us will go ahead and two should stay here, with the boat.  Scott, Nicole, you come with me,’ went on the Doctor, ‘Brad and David, you stay here to look after the boat, while you’re waiting grab the metal detector and sweep the beach for anything which might have been buried, I’ve a feeling this place is full of surprises.’

***

Back on board the ship the Captain was scanning through the radio frequencies, ‘Looks like we’ve lost radio contact,’ he said, looking across to Kyle.  

‘Could be that cave they went into, the rock must have heavy deposits of metals in it which could block the radio signals,’ explained Kyle. 

‘You’re probably right, but still, while we’re here, we should do a little reconnaissance.  Jay, can you get a drone up into the sky, let’s see what this place looks like from a bird’s eye view.’

 

Jay pulled out the controls and lifted the drone into the air.  The drone hovered for a moment before it took off to scan the island from above.  The Captain, Kyle and Jay watched on the screen in the ship’s bridge as the drone began to cross back and forth over the island.

‘Wait, what’s that?’ asked the Captain, pointing to the screen, ‘there, that’s it, go back, hover over that!’

Jay expertly manoeuvred the drone back and hovered above the peak of the pyramid. 

‘There!  Look,’ exclaimed Kyle, ‘it’s a doorway!’

 

***