The Treasure Of Zealandia – Bagging The Loot Or Trapped In A Tomb?
Standing in the dark chamber with only the blue light to see by, the Doctor, Nicole and Scott stood silently.
‘So, Doc, any suggestions?’ asked Scott, looking at the huge stone door.
‘Looks like we’re locked in, Doctor,’ observed Nicole, ‘kind of worrying!’
‘It does look that way,’ said the Doctor pensively, still looking down into the open capsule at the skeleton of the ancient humanoid, his face bathed in the eerie blue light.
‘What happened to them, anyway?’ asked Nicole.
‘No one really knows,’ said the Doctor, ‘although it’s believed by some that they took off, headed for another planet!’
‘Wow, sounds good,’ said Scott, ‘we could do with an inter-dimensional ride out of here right about now!’
‘Even that capsule is pretty advanced technology, isn’t it?’ said Nicole.
‘It sure is, waiting here for thousands of years to open right on time like clockwork as we enter the scene!’ replied the Doctor, ‘we’ve really made history guys!’
‘Let’s just hope we aren’t history!’ jested Scott again.
***
Back on board the ship, on the bridge, the Captain was looking calmly across at the island.
‘Any word from Kyle?’ asked the Captain.
‘Not yet,’ said Jay, ‘no word at all.’
‘Right, keep your eye on the panels, we’ll give them a little more time.’
***
Kyle entered the small tunnel behind the door he had broken in. The heavy air was dank and stagnant as he crawled into the darkness. After manoeuvring through the tunnel he saw a sliver of blue light cutting through the dusty gloom.
Approaching the light, creeping along on his knees, Kyle saw a hatch. He gripped the bronze handle and wrenched it back. Below, in the chamber, he saw the Doctor leaning over the capsule, shrouded in a blue light.
The Doctor looked up suddenly, as if waking from a dream.
‘Well, well, well,’ said the Doctor, ‘good timing old friend!’
‘Boy, am I glad to see you,’ said Scott, pushing past the Doctor.
‘What’s going on?’ asked Kyle.
‘We’re trapped in here!’ said Nicole.
‘Not anymore, there’s a door up here, you just need to climb up here first,’ said Kyle, reassuringly.
‘You’ve got those grappling hooks haven’t you?’ asked Nicole, looking across at Scott.
‘Sure do,’ he said, taking the bag off his back, ‘how did you get up there?’
‘I came over by drone!’ said Kyle, laughing, ‘it’s parked up there, on top of the island.’
***
As Brad and David stood marvelling at the treasure on the beach the waves washed slowly against the shore behind them. Huge piles of gold, jewels of every shade and massive pearls lay quietly on the sand before them. They had hauled the wooden chest out from under the sand and laid some of the best examples out on the beach to look at.
‘That should keep us going for a while!’ laughed Brad, slapping his thigh.
‘Oh yes,’ said David, ‘we’re rich, we’ve really hit the jackpot this time!’
‘The Doctor really came through, didn’t he?’ smiled Brad.
‘Right, we’d better get this onto the motorboat,’ said David.
‘Sure, what about the others?’ asked Brad.
‘We’ll have to make several trips to get all this back to the ship, so we’ll pick them up on the next trip over,’ said David.
‘Okay, but we need to leave them a message,’ replied Brad.
Brad walked across the sand, drawing in huge lettering across the beach, ‘Back in 10 minutes!’
‘That should do it,’ observed David, ‘now let’s get this loaded on board.’
***
‘Captain, the motorboat is approaching,’ called out Jay, watching its progress through the binoculars.
‘How many on board, does everything look okay?’ asked the Captain.
‘Two aboard, Sir, it’s Brad and David.’
‘Where are the others!?’ shouted the Captain.
‘Not sure Sir, there’s only two aboard.’
‘Why is the boat so low in the water? It looks overloaded!’ asked the Captain.
‘You need to see this Captain!’ said Jay, walking into the bridge, ‘here, Sir,’ handing across the binoculars.
The Captain could see Brad and David on the motorboat through the binoculars and the vast quantities of what appeared to be gold.
Shortly, the motorboat pulled up alongside the Beer and Flies vessel.
‘Amazing!’ shouted Jay, over the chugging engine of the motorboat, just amazing!’
‘Give us a hand!’ replied David.
In a few minutes they were hauling up the loot, stacking it on deck.
‘Okay, we’ll head back Captain,’ explained David, ‘and we’ll pick up the others.’
‘Well done guys, this is great, how much more loot did you say there was?’
‘Tonnes, Sir, literally tonnes of it!’’ replied Brad happily.
‘Good, good, this will see us through the long winter,’ said the Captain, winking at the pair.
***
As The Doctor crawled down the tunnel behind Jay, emerging onto the upper slopes of the island with the capsule safely under his arm, the bright sunlight made him wince.
‘You alright there. Doctor?’ asked Scott, who was already waiting, one of the other capsules under his arm.
‘Absolutely,’ smiled the Doctor, ‘good to be out in the fresh air again.’
‘Look!’ said Nicole, pointing down towards the motorboat hunkering through the waves towards the ship.
‘Doesn’t look like they waited for us!’ laughed Scott, ‘Hey, let’s give them a surprise,’ he said smiling broadly.
Carefully placing the capsule on the ground, Scott pulled out a flare and fired it over the heads of Brad and David, who spun around startled as it exploded in the air above them.
Waving from the top of the island, Scott and Nicole gave David the thumbs up.
‘So, how exactly are we getting off this rock then?’ the Doctor asked Kyle, ‘you said you came by drone, what does that even mean?’
‘Well, let’s get you strapped in place,’ said Kyle, leading the Doctor to the drone.
Kyle called Jay on the radio, which was working again, ‘Get that drone in the air, and hold her steady, the first passenger back to ship is the Doctor.’
As the blades began to spin and the drone lifted into the air the Doctor was still looking sceptically at Kyle as he climbed into the parachute harness beneath the machine. The three capsules were then tied around him, hanging like bizarre metal fruits from another world.
With the Doctor and capsules secured in place, the drone pulled slowly away and began its mission back to the ship.
***
A few hours later, with the whole crew safely back on board and the loot stored below deck, the Doctor was explaining the significance of the capsules to the others, who were sitting around in the bar.
‘Quite the find, Doctor,’ said the Captain, ‘really something!’
‘You’re right, Sir,’ smiled the Doctor, ‘we’ve really made history.’
‘So you keep saying, they are impressive, but what do we do with them?’
‘Maybe a museum?’ suggested David.
‘I’m not sure,’ replied the Doctor, ‘I might do that, or I might put them into storage in this lockbox I’ve got back in the States.’
‘And the loot,’ went on the Captain, ‘that’s one of the biggest hauls of treasure I’ve ever seen, we’re set guys, we’re set for life!’
‘So, where are we headed now?’ asked Nicole, looking up at the Captain.
‘I think it’s high time that we got out of these waters, so we’ll cut a course right through the Pacific, back to the U.S. of A!’
***
