The Vaults of Osiris (audio story)

Egypt in 2015 is an unsettled place. The trade in stolen antiquities is a murky one, and it's about to get a whole lot worse, as an ancient and terrible force enters the market.

Plot

The Doctor and Ace arrive at Sutekh's tomb in Egypt in 1941 just before a group of German soldiers, many of whom are killed when the Doctor activates a Servicer with his sonic screwdriver to open the door to the tomb. They find a secondary Eye of Horus inside and, when the Doctor touches it, there is a flash and he disappears.

Benny and Ace leave Mars in the TARDIS and arrive in Sutekh's tomb in 2015, several decades later than intended. They flee from a Servicer and, upon finding that the Eye of Horus is missing, they leave and find Rashidi working at the nearby coffee shop. Rashidi's granddaughter, Alozza, tells them that the Germans took the Eye but that it has since been returned to a museum four miles away.

Tasking Alozza with distracting the guard, Benny and Ace break into the museum and are forced to flee when a group of people steal the Eye and set off the alarm. They go to the house of Gamal the Knife, the leader of the smugglers who recognises Ace and fears her, telling her that he gave the Eye to Vasha on Naga Road. A Servicer attacks and kills Gamal whilst taking no interest in Benny or Ace, who go with Alozza to Naga Road and pose as associates of Gamal's whilst Alozza stows away.

Arriving in Geneva, Reinhardt Graull takes the Eye and tells Benny that he is a member of the Temple of Sutekh and has set up the Bank of Osiris. Benny lets him believe that she too is a member of the Temple and is invited to see the Eye at the bank in the evening. After Graull leaves, a Servicer breaks out of a sarcophagus and starts killing those who made contact with the Eye, including Vasha. Ace and Alozza look around the bank for a vault whilst Benny goes to meet Graull.

Graull has checked with the Temple and knows that Benny is not a member. He holds her at gunpoint and demands to know what she knows about the Eye and how to unlock its power before activating his security system and taking her to the vault where it and other Osiran relics are stored. She recognises herself in a hieroglyph and lets Ace and Alozza, who are being chased by Graull's Servicers as well as the one from Sutekh's tomb, inside. Whilst Graull has a ring which can control his Servicers, it has no effect on the one from Sutekh's tomb. It kills him and Alozza uses her own ring to save herself, Benny and Ace.

The Servitor smashes the wall and reveals a door which Benny opens by inserting the Eye. They meet Isis, an Osiran, who thanks Benny and Ace for saving her and tells them that she hid herself with Osiran technology as a trap should Sutekh ever escape. The Servicer in Sutekh's tomb worked for her, ensuring that the Eye got to Benny and Ace so that she could be freed, and she has been controlling it by projecting her mind as Alozza, an illusion who fades away. Isis has her Servicer present the Doctor from inside a sarcophagus, after which he and Benny disappear. Isis vanishes, wishing Ace luck.

Cast

Worldbuilding

The Doctor and Ace were guided by Rashidi.
Ace learned how to drive the TARDIS in the Academy. However, she only had one lesson and did not complete it successfully.
Benny ask for coffee with milk. Ace asks for sugar.
Graull set up the Bank of Osiris.
"Alozza" is the Arabic name for Isis.

Notes

This story was recorded on 13, 14, 17, and 18 November and 5 December 2014 at The Moat Studios and The Sound House.

Continuity

Isis refers to her imprisonment as "an eternity of impotence," as Sutekh did. (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
The Servicers can be controlled using a ring. (TV: Pyramids of Mars)

External links

Official The Vaults of Osiris - The Triumph of Sutekh page at bigfinish.com