Time Switch part 3

                                                                                                             

   Sarah was bored.  She cricked her neck and winced as it popped. Sarah stood by a window that gave her a view of the broad expanse of the countryside. Her eyes saw something that got her attention. Near the middle distance vehicles moved and she saw people wearing hard hats.  'Now what's that all about?' she wondered half aloud too herself.  "What's what all about?" asked Sergeant Benton as he walked towards her, with a tray loaded with tea and biscuits. "That" said Sarah, pointing out of the window. "There's a bunch of archaeologists digging holes looking for some neolithic site. We only know about it because some of our men were approached to provide security for the site.  There's supposed to be some valuable stuff buried there. However the Brigadier told 'em to sling their hook, don't blame him. We aren't private security"  Sarah looked up at him with an expression he knew only too well.  "You smell a story then?" "Well I am a journalist aren't I? and if my normal magazine doesn't want it, then I'm sure my agent can pass it on.  Tell the Doctor and the Brigadier where I am.  I'm sure that there's no danger at an archaeological dig!"

    Deep beneath the earth, creatures thrashed and writhed, pushing against the walls of their weakened prison.  Like savage hatchlings, their eel like bodies pushed and pushed.  A tiny fissure started to widen.  They heard the wall start to give way and as one they hissed and renewed their efforts.  "Adapt!" the voice came from within.  A green pulse of light washed through their bodies and small lumps and nodules appeared on their flesh.  They pulsed and split open, and from within vestigial hands and feet appeared.  As the minutes passed they grew stronger, the ones that didn't adapt were turned upon and torn apart, and devoured by their elders.  Earth started to flow through the crack.  The creatures grew frantic again as they saw the dirt begin to spill inside the capsule.

   The Doctor stood in a large room.  Computer terminals hummed and chattered to each other, spools spun and taped data flowed.  Occasionally a teleprinter would erupt into life, sounding like a miniature machine gun as paper emerged from it's depths.  He scanned the paper in his hand and the combined intellects of the two men merged and began to translate the symbols on the paper.  "Too regular to be a natural phenomenon"  he muttered, "There's a pattern to the bursts and any fool could have seen that.  Why didn't somebody react sooner? humans!" he added with a sigh. "Sorry Doctor Beckett, no offence meant" he said with a rueful expression.  "So what do we have here? E.M.P's yes but theres something odd about them."  "Such as?" said a voice and the Doctor whirled to see the Brigadier and another man stood next too him.  He was a tall, broad shouldered, athletic looking Afro Caribbean man who gave him a broad smile as he offered his hand.  "I'm Professor Samuels, can I help you?" His voice was soft but carried authority.  The Doctor smiled and offered a hand in return, "I'm the Doctor" he replied, "These charts show the E.M.P activity.  I see that the pulses are regular, one every two to three hours apart.  But there's another peak being registered.  Look here, the black line details the time, the blue shows the strength of the pulse, and that's clearly getting stronger.  But what's this other trace, a very feint yellow line?  Whatever it is, it's actually stronger than the other lines registered, but it's something else.  Any idea?".  The Brigadier could sense what the Doctor was doing.  He had a theory and like Sherlock Holmes, he was trying to give Watson, or in this case Professor Samuels, a chance to work something out for himself.   "No sorry, I don't see" he said openly.  The Doctor replied, "Well I will need to prove it, and for that I will need to examine your programming, but I think that other line is a signal, a radio pulse.  Question is, whose supposed to be hearing it?"

   In deep space, a craft drifted.  Silent and still, it looked like a giant horse shoe crab.  Instead of pincers, it possessed two forward pointing limbs that ended in short barrelled but lethal energy projectile weapons.  If anybody was observing, it looked as if it was waiting for something.  Inside the craft, creatures stood at consoles awaiting the signal that would tell them that the scouting party had broken free and had become their spearhead.  They were patient beings, they had no choice.  It had taken over three decades to get here, and it would have taken longer had it not been for the help offered to them by the strange and power hungry bi pedal female that they had encountered seemingly by chance.  But the commander began to suspect that the meeting was by anything but chance.  She was a schemer that's for sure.  Something about her made him uneasy but there was little or no choice at the time.  The craft had been hit by a meteor storm as they had exited hyperspace, just beyond the Horse Head Nebula.  The damage had been serious, and both life support and engines had been damaged.  They had had confirmation that the scouts had landed on the primitive world that was their target but they couldn't act until preparations had been made.  And then she had appeared, on board their craft!  She had managed to persuade them that they shouldn't kill her for being a spy.  She had explained that she too had plans for the planet.  They could share it.....

   Professor Robert Mitchell brushed hair out of his eyes and looked up as he heard the sound of a car engine approaching the dig. "Wonder who this could be?" he muttered. Perhaps this mysterious ministry was showing itself at last?  Helen Irna hadn't given him any definitive answers too his questions at all but he trusted her.  She had no reason to lie too him, no, no reason at all.  He watched as the khaki coloured land rover came to a halt and a pretty dark haired woman, of medium height, carrying what looked like a tape cassette slung over one shoulder and a camera slung around her neck.  "Can I help you Miss?" he said politely.  "Please call me Sarah. I'm Sarah Jane Smith from the Metropolitan magazine and I was wondering if you could give me some information regarding the dig?"  "Well I am a little busy, but I can let you talk too my assistant. Hey Gary, come here please!  Thank you, this is Sarah and she would like an interview regarding the dig.  Can you spare her some time?  I'll catch up with you later.  Now then where's that hearth they uncovered?"

   Helen Irna paced anxiously around the edge of the second dig site.  She had watched the arrival of the Land Rover but not with a smile.  Her eyes had narrowed and a brief, but openly hostile scowl had crossed her pretty face.  Her eyes even from here, had picked out the U.N.I.T symbol on the door.  "Curse it!" she hissed.  She wheeled sharply on her heel and glaring openly at the men and women in her site, she barked, "Faster!  Get that thing uncovered!" and then she half walked, half ran back too her porter cabin and slammed the door shut behind her.  A young half cast  man looked up and even though he smiled, there was a trace of ice in his voice. "What the hell is bugging her?  You can't rush archaeology!  Pick up the pace lads, maybe lady muck will actually give us a break and maybe even get her damned hands dirty, but I wouldn't bet on that"

   Soft earth began to flow inside the capsule more freely now.  One of the eel like creatures escaped through the fissure with a triumphant hiss and began to crawl slowly towards the surface.  Another finished devouring a weakling, blood flowing from it's jaws and then it too followed it's brethren.

   Professor Samuels watched in bemusement as this man called the Doctor, probed inside the guts of one of the computer terminals.  He saw him kneeling down, with a screwdriver clenched between his teeth.  He talked aloud as he worked, almost as if he was talking too himself.  "Now I need an anti gravitic device installed.  It would negate the electromagnetic pulse and allow this terminal to continue function even through the black out.  Well that's the theory anyway.  But I would need components to build it so I am going to have to improvise, still that's what I do best Sam"  Sam? was he talking too him?  No, he wasn't. His first name was Daniel.  "Improvise how?" asked Daniel.  "Well I am going to set up a counter pulse with the aid of this piece of quartz and some other bits and bobs.  You see a digital watch, such as the one you are wearing, sends an electrical signal through the quartz causing it to vibrate at a very high rate. Too simplify things the quartz vibrating regulates the rest of the circuitry and regulates the time.  Primitive but amazingly accurate.  There is a world where they wear miniature atomic clocks.  I doubt that you will ever get that far advanced. Oh please, stay in the housing!  There that should do it.  Now a quick application of my Sonic Screwdriver and we should be done here very soon."  The professor watched him as he used some strange device that emitted a high pitched whistling noise.  A phone rang and Samuels went to answer it.  On the edge of the Doctor's vision, a white light appeared. He looked up as a man dressed in a gaudy jacket and shirt, walked out of it, holding a device in his hand.  He shook it and slapped it whilst chewing on a cigar.
Sam Beckett took over, "Al what am I doing here?"  Samuels whilst occupied on the phone, realised that this Doctor was now talking too thin air.  Was he healed? The Brigadier had told him to keep an eye on him and as soon as this call was over, he'd inform the Brigadier about this.

   The crew of the ship had their own work to do.  Engineers crawled through ducts and shafts, working hard to repair damaged circuits.  The Vendar commander hissed with impatience at the delays but there was nothing he or anyone else could do.  The success of their plans was entirely in the hands of this woman who had appeared out of nowhere, and it riled him.  He took a long drink of the nutrient supply and wondered if this was all worth it.  The planet needed to be changed for them.  Small cosmetic changes granted, and it was more for the status of their battle armour and machinery then for them, but the work had to be done!  Quicker he thought, work quicker! he aimed the thoughts at the still distant blue green planet ahead of him.

   "The second dig? Oh that's been set up by a Miss Helen Irna.  It's quite secretive, on behalf of some sort of ministry. Odd thing is she hasn't said which ministry, and I cannot figure out why the Government would be so interested in a Neolithic site like ours" Gary said with some anger in his voice.  "Too be honest she's charmed Mitchell too the point where he follows her like a love sick teenager.  She's taken some of our diggers as well."  "Maybe I should go over and see if I can err 'dig' out some information?" said Sarah groaning inwardly at her little pun.  "You can try, but you'd be as welcome as a fart in a diving suit. Oh sorry, no offence meant."  "None taken" she said with a smile and a trace of a laugh, "You hang around with U.N.I.T troops and you hear worse than that, trust me"  She carried on looking at the site but some sixth sense told him that once this young woman had a scent, she would need a lot of persuasion to get her to leave the trail.

   "Sam, chances are you are here to save Miss Smith.  Sixty five percent chance." said Al.  "That's still a wide enough window for error Al.  I get the feeling that something really really bad could happen here if we aren't careful.  Keep checking." he rose swiftly too his feet and placed the device in his pocket. "Where's Sarah anyway?"
Samuels looked at him a little oddly but said, "She's gone too the dig" and he gestured vaguely out of the window.  The Doctor looked where he was pointing.  "Shouldn't be too dangerous I'd have thought.  I'll get someone to watch over her." And with that, he left the laboratory and went to find Benton and some backup.

   Some way away from the first site, a mound of earth broke open and an eel like head emerged.  It sniffed the air and whipped it's head in the direction of the dig.  Food!
Fresh meat!  It hissed hungrily and began to watch as the strange two legged life forms continued their work, oblivious too the danger that lay so close.  It had to wait, it's body would have to adapt too the atmosphere, sun light and the gravity.  But once that was done, they could all feed, and what a feast it would be!

                                                                                                END OF PART 3