The Sands Of Time Part 12

The light from the oil lamps glistened on the stone walls and danced across the flagstones of the floor. They crowded into the narrow pa.s.sageway, looking along the long corridor as it sloped upwards into the pyramid with a mixture of awe and apprehension. Tegan could feel the tension in the air, a tightness that might precede a thunderstorm.

Kenilworth led the way, the Doctor close behind with Tegan. Atkins and Macready were close on their heel, with Russell Evans and his daughter beside them. Simons brought up the rear, glancing up now and then from his pocket book as he scribbled frantically.

'First dynasty?' Macready suggested, and Evans nodded his agreement.

Simons flicked over another page.

'I think that is where we are heading,' Kenilworth said eventually. He raised his lamp above his head, and pointed towards the end of the long corridor.

Tegan could just make out another doorway. It was filled with a pair of huge double doors, the handles tied with frayed and rotting cord. She took a step towards the doors, and gasped out loud.

Kenilworth's lamp cast its light sideways as well as forwards. As Tegan moved, she saw that the light was illuminating what had been a dark patch of wall beside her. Now she could see that it was an alcove. And in the alcove stood a woman. At once Kenilworth and the Doctor were at Tegan's side. She gave a sigh of relief and shook her head in disbelief at her own nervousness. The woman was a statue, her twin looking across the corridor at them from an identical alcove on the other side.

'Remarkable,' breathed Kenilworth, stepping aside to let Evans and Macready take a closer look. The Doctor frowned in the lamplight, and Margaret Evans shuffled closer to Simons.

The statues were life size. The woman they depicted was strikingly beautiful. She was tall and slim, her dark hair folded up on to her head in a cloth headress. Her features were aquiline, and her eyes large and cat-like with huge pupils. She was dressed in a simple robe which reached to her knees. If it had once been white, it was now discoloured with age and dust.

'Shabti,' Atkins said quietly to Tegan.

The Doctor nodded, and seeing Tegan's puzzlement said: 'Shabti figures were put in the tomb to serve the dead. The Egyptians a.s.sumed that there would still be work to be done in the afterlife, so they provided servants to do the washing up.'

'Indeed,' Atkins agreed. 'Not all were life size. Some were just small dolls.'

'But,' the Doctor said, leaning close so Tegan could see his significantly raised eyebrow, 'they were usually in the image of the person buried in the tomb.'

Tegan looked back at the figure in the alcove. Evans, Macready and Kenilworth were examining a detail of the carved fingers. Evans traced a finger over the woman's ornate ring and pointed to a bracelet carved on to her wrist.

'She doesn't look like Nyssa,' Tegan said.

'Not even close,' the Doctor agreed.

'Perhaps a stylised representation?' Atkins suggested.

The Doctor shook his head. 'No. Too tall. The features are completely different, and the, er -' He struggled for a suitable phrase, carving a female figure in the air with his hands.

Tegan let him flounder for a while before coming to his a.s.sistance. 'The bust's too big,' she said. 'But why all the interest, anyway?' she continued before Atkins could react. 'They're just wooden statues.'

Whatever scathing response about the figures' preservation, workmanship and archaeological importance the Doctor was about to deliver was curtailed. He and Atkins stood gaping at Tegan. Before she had time to ask what the problem was, the Shabti figures stepped out of their alcoves and into the corridor in front of her.

Everyone started talking at once. Margaret Evans screamed and clung to Simons, which seemed to surprise him even more that the Shabti. The others drew back along the corridor, with the exception of the Doctor.

'Fascinating,' he said. 'You know, I doubt there's any real danger.'

Then the door at the entrance of the pyramid slammed shut. Everyone fell silent, exchanging frightened and puzzled glances in the flickering torchlight.

The voice was melodic, almost musical. It resonated within the corridor, seeming to be born out of the air itself. 'Intruders, you face the twin guardians of Horus.'

Tegan looked round. The voice seemed to be coming from above, from the corridor ceiling, or an upper floor of the pyramid, but she could not be certain.

'The corridor is now sealed, and has become a Decatron crucible. The answer you will give the guardians controls your fate - instant freedom, or instant death. Where is the next point in the configuration? This is the riddle of the Osirans.'

The sound echoed off the stone walls for a split second after the words were finished. There was silence for a while.

'Doctor?' Kenilworth said eventually. 'What does it mean?'

'It means we're in trouble. The corridor is in effect an airlock, and they can pump out the air, or unseal the entrance, depending on our answer to the riddle.'

'But what riddle?' Macready asked.

The Doctor smiled. 'Let's ask, shall we?' He strode up to the two Shabti figures and inspected them closely. 'Now then, I a.s.sume you two have a question for us.'

In response, the two female statues raised their arms in unison. As they did so, the ceiling of the corridor glowed into life, small squares pulsing into brilliance on the illuminated background. A curved line cut across the roof, the squares of light arranged along the right side of it.

'Just as I thought,' the Doctor said with a nod. 'Thank you.' He turned back to the others. 'Now all we have to do is work out the next point in the configuration.'

'But what's it a configuration of?' Tegan turned her head sideways to try to make sense of the image.

'Well, if we knew that there'd be no riddle.'

Kenilworth craned his neck to see. 'It does look vaguely familiar.'

Macready and Evans both nodded.

'I've seen it somewhere before too,' the Doctor admitted. 'Wish I could remember where.'

At the back of the group, Simons began to copy down the image into his notebook. Tegan could see him framing it up and checking he had the proportions approximately correct. The snake-like ribbon curled down the left side, and several squares were arranged to the right. The three most central were almost aligned. But the top one was offset slightly to the left.

Three squares were apparently randomly arranged to the left of the central cl.u.s.ter, two to the right.

Simons stared at what he had drawn, then back at the high ceiling. 'It's a map,' he blurted out in surprise.

Tegan was not convinced, but Atkins was nodding thoughtfully beside her.

'Good grief,' Kenilworth said. 'And we all know what of.'

'Do we?'

'The thick line curling down the left is the river Nile,' Atkins explained. 'The squares are the major pyramids.'

'Of course,' Evans was standing on tiptoe to get as close as possible. 'This is fascinating. Look Margaret,' he waved his hand at the roof, nearly losing his balance. 'This shows the main pyramid complex at Giza, plus the pyramids at Abu Ruwash and Zawyat-al-Aryan.'

Margaret seemed less impressed. 'So what is the next point?'

Macready addressed them all. 'That, I think is a problem. These points mark the positions of the greatest pyramids, the first rate ones, if you will.

Each of them is marked.'

'So we need to show where there's another first rate pyramid,' Tegan suggested.

Macready shook his head. 'As I said, Miss Tegan. Each of them is marked.

There are no other points in the configuration.'

'Unless,' Kenilworth said, 'there is one we don't know about.'

'Yes, that's possible isn't it? Why not this pyramid?'

The Doctor coughed. 'This pyramid is minuscule by comparison to those.

And he's right Tegan - there are no more pyramids of that scale to be found.'

'Great. Terrific.'

'So,' the Doctor said, 'I suggest we turn our attention to this.' And he turned to indicate an illuminated section of wall behind them.

The hieroglyphs meant nothing to Tegan, but the more learned members of the party swarmed over them. After ten minutes the noise had subsided and everyone was back to staring glumly at the wall.

'Can't they read it?' Tegan asked the Doctor quietly.

'Oh yes. That's the easy bit. It's a series of eight numbers, starting at seventy and finishing at twenty-three hundred. The values in between seem to be random. At least, they don't conform to any pattern or sequence I can think of.' He leaned forward. 'And I can think of lots,' he added.

Tegan grunted. 'Well we should thank our lucky stars you're here then.' She looked back at the glowing ceiling and the silent figures standing motionless below, arms raised as if in adulation. 'Who are these Osirans, anyway?'

'Hmm? Oh a super-powerful race from the dawn of time. They come from Phaester Osiris, which is -' The Doctor broke off. 'Of course, I should have realised.' He clapped Tegan on the shoulder so hard it hurt. 'You're brilliant.'

'I am?' She was not convinced.

But the Doctor was already gathering everyone round. 'Right, I think I've got it, with a little help from Tegan. It is a map, and the figures are distances. But it isn't a map of Egypt.'

'Not of Egypt?' Macready was surprised. 'Doctor, you can see for yourself how accurate the positioning of the pyramids is.'

'Exactly. But this is a map of the geography from which the pyramids'

positions are copied. Look, see how the line of points in the middle is slightly skewed, with the topmost point slightly left of true.'

Kenilworth was shaking his head. 'It's baffled scholars since Napoleon's time that the later pyramid is smaller and is not on the line of the other two, Doctor.'

'Precisely. Why would any Pharaoh build a pyramid smaller than his predecessors if he didn't have to? And why not continue the line so incredibly accurate between the first two?'

'All right,' said Tegan, 'why?'

'Because the pyramids themselves are a map.' The Doctor pointed up at the ceiling. 'That isn't the Nile,' he said, 'it's the Milky Way.'

'What?'

'And the points are the stars in the constellation of Orion. Rigel, Mintaka, Betelgeuse...' the Doctor reeled off the names as he pointed them out. 'The numbers are the distance of each from Earth in light years, or more importantly the distance a thought can travel in a year, which is pretty much the same thing. Rigel, for example, is nine hundred light years away. And the three points almost aligned are what you know as Orion's Belt.'

'Then where is the next point? What star is missing?'

'Like the pyramids, I'm afraid, they are all there.' The Doctor thought for a while. 'Orion was important to the Osirans, and hence to the ancient Egyptians. The Osirans taught them all they knew, after all.'

Evans and Macready were exchanging looks which suggested they thought the Doctor was insane.

'Go on, Doctor,' Tegan encouraged, glaring at Macready.

'Well, it's something to do with a power configuration. Looping stellar activity through a focus generator and aiming at a collection dome. Or rather pyramid, knowing the Osirans. I'd say the final point in the sequence is Phaester Osiris itself.' The Doctor drew an extendible pointer from his top jacket pocket. Tegan wondered if he was about to continue his lecture with slides as he pulled it to its full extent. But instead he pointed it at the corridor ceiling.

A point of light flared into existence as the rod touched the stonework. The final point in the sequence.

'Of course,' Kenilworth said. 'The great Sphinx.'

But before anyone could comment, the twin Shabti figures lowered their arms and stepped aside. The ceiling dimmed, and the glowing section of wall faded back into the stonework. Far behind them, the main door clicked open and remained ajar, a thin line of daylight forcing its way into the pa.s.sage.

'These Osirans - ' Kenilworth started.

'Time for that later, Kenilworth,' Macready pointed to the far end of the corridor. 'The tomb!'

They made their way warily along the rest of the corridor, scanning the walls for other alcoves or figures. But they reached the double doors without further incident. Macready had a pocket knife open, reaching for the red cord which bound the door handles. Simons was head down again scribbling in his book and keeping a safe distance from Margaret Evans.

'Er, I wouldn't be so hasty, if I were you,' the Doctor warned, tapping Macready on the shoulder.

'Nonsense, man.' He continued to pull at the cord with the knife blade.

'Nearly through now.'