them.
'It's a Lake of Oblivion,' corrected the Doctor. 'And according to this map, we should be able to get through here.'
Glitz examined the ice ahead of them. 'It looks like there's been some kind of cave-in. We'll never manage to dig through it.'
'What about through here?' The Doctor was trying to squeeze through a huge crack that ran from top to bottom of the wall to one side. 'The cave-in seems to have fractured the ice just here, and we can probably get through to the other side.'
The cracked ice was rough in places, and the wall was a couple of metres thick, but the Doctor managed to squeeze through, emerging on the other side into a huge ice cavern.
Light strings of ice hung down from the roof of the cavern high above him, and they swayed in the currents of air. There seemed to be the faint sound of voices singing, far away in the breeze. Large crystals shaped in regular polygons clustered on the ground, interconnected by veins of metallic minerals that glittered on the surface. The Doctor looked round, listening to the singing voices, while Glitz scrambled through after him. 'I think we've just found the Singing Trees, Glitz,' he murmured.
Glitz looked round as well. 'These aren't trees.'
'Use your imagination, Glitz. Up there...' The Doctor gestured towards the strings of ice that were hanging down. 'Willow trees - something like that...'
'Yeah, I see what a fertile mind might make of it. But where's the singing coming from?'
'Air currents, I imagine. Causes the crystal membranes to vibrate.'
'I bet it's worth a crown or two.' Glitz surreptitiously pocketed a couple of large crystals and a lump of valuable-looking mineral.
'Beautiful, isn't it? But I wonder what it does}'
'Does?'
'Yes - it's some kind of opto-electronic circuit. But why? What's it doing here?'
'You mean someone built all this?'
'Not humans, certainly. This is beyond human technology.'
'Dragons?'
The Doctor turned to Glitz with a slight twinkle in his eye. 'Possibly.'
Glitz shivered. 'Come on, Glitz. I promised Mel we'd be back for tea.'
The Doctor strode off towards the other side of the cavern, which closed down into another passage.
Glitz looked round again, thinking of the creatures who had built all this
- and he shivered again.
The entrance to the Upper Docking Bays was completely blocked. A roof section had collapsed under the weight of shifting ice and completely crushed the side walls. On the far side, anyone in the Bays was now trapped. The Emergency Services were nowhere to be seen; only a couple of guards appeared, attracted by the commotion. They were trying to lift one of the fallen girders but it was obviously too heavy for them.
Ace came careering down the corridor and swung round the corner, only to see the mangled passageway ahead of her. Her eyes lit up in delight. 'Gordon Bennett! What a heap of acne!' Mel caught up with her, trying not to jolt the canisters of nitro-9. Ace pointed to the two guards. 'Have you ever seen such a couple of spots! It'll take them months to shift it all at that rate! Here - let me have those cans.' She exchanged the canvas shoulder-bag she was carrying for Mel's bag of explosives. Mel looked worried.
'You're not going to use those, are you?' Ace grinned, and nodded.
Then she fished two cans out of the bag, and marched up to the icefall.
She smiled at the two guards, and carefully positioned the canisters.
One of the guards turned to her. 'What's going on?' 'If I were you two, I'd go for your tea-break now.' 'Why?' The guard looked suspiciously at the cans of deodorant. 'What's in those cans?'
'Nitro-9.' Ace smiled defiantly at the guard, then she calmly pulled the nozzle off one can, then the second. The guards stared at the wires they could now see sticking out of the top of each canister, leading to the detonators inside. Ace stood up, and smiled again. 'We've got eight seconds. Last one back's a gooey mess!' and she dived for cover round the corner.
The guard