Primeval fanfic: "The Fid" 1/? (mild horror, some violence)
Sequel to: Round-about and watery.
Title: The Fid.
Rating: PG-15.
Warnings:
Pairings: None.
Characters: Helen, Ryan, Nick, Claudia, Connor, Lester, Stephen, Abby,
OFC Characters: Richard, Nemo, Brutus, Siobhan, it & it2,
Spoilers: none.
Disclaimer: not mine! I own none of them.
Short Summary: A vampire in Kent, trouble in ancient Jehol, and the Cutter marriage…all of that, and Captain Ryan still has to sort out his own life too!
Author’s Notes: Rather than struggle to finish three separate fics; I’m pleased to report that the remaining saga-stories can be swept together into a single story to wrap the epoch up.
-----------------------------------------------
‘Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.’ --Robert Frost.
--------------------------
It swims.
It swims in the depths of the Sea, here in the Era. While its relatives are known to paleontologists, this species is not; living where it does, it will never be fossilized and thus never known to the future or the past or anywhen else.
At least, that is how things were. How things had been until an Anomaly was opened in its territory.
A mated pair of it were swimming slowly through the ocean depths, the female every so often striking at a passing fish or swimming mollusk, reeling back to place the kill in her mate’s jaws, her tail pressing against his hips as his broad tail continued sculling without interruption.
Like every other creature to pass through the Anomaly, they were drawn to it by their magnetic sense. These were not homing pigeon-style navigators; no, these were platypus-style predators. And through the Anomaly the pair of them passed.
----------------------------
LOCATION: A Hospital in HULL, ENGLAND:
Present Day:
Nick Cutter sat in the bedside chair, not about to leave his wife’s side. I owe her that at least.
How did he feel about Helen? I love her. But… Yet… There was something…incomplete to their relationship (consummation wasn’t the issue - was their lack of issue? was it that their child’d died and he hadn’t been there for her?), and that incompleteness hung in the air over them.
Is it Claudia? Helen was used to him chasing skirts, or at least she had been. Is it that I reacted so strongly to her admission of being involved with Stephen? And I know Helen was dismissive of Claudia back in the Permian; except, why’d she save Claudia not too long before then? And admitted to himself that Helen’d always had a charitable streak to her.
And what of me? How do I feel about Claudia? Kissing Claudia always provided a thrill, garanteed to set his heart racing. But was it love? Or was it something closer to lust; a mutually-happy lust, mind you.
Claudia had been the one to have proposed placing guards at the door to this room, a plan which by all accounts Lester was backing. Probably want the same thing out of Helen as the last time she was in custody. It was fortunate that there weren’t presently many patients here at the hospital, as it let them keep one room (on either side of Helen’s) empty.
Nick was about to start speculating how Claudia felt about Helen, when one of the doctors came in the room. “Dr. Kahn,” he said, standing up.
“Doctor Cutter,” she said. “I have your wife’s toxicology results,” holding the folder under one arm. “Do you have any idea why she’d rub fern leaves over her entire body?” It was either massive rubbing, or full-body immersion; neither would be a pleasant thought.
“No. I’m sorry, you said fern leaves?”
“That’s right.” Explaining because she’d been informed in advance that the Professor had the proper clearance, “You see, the chemical compounds we found in her cuts and caked blood, they’re strikingly similar to toxins found in a few species of ferns.” None native to the British Isles…but then, that explains the secrecy and security this Helen woman seems to require.
“Makes sense, I suppose.” Not sure we can narrow down when Helen was mauled, then, if ferns are our only clue - ferns have a worldwide distribution, always have. “How long until she can be released?”
“We’ll begin flushing the remaining toxins from her system tomorrow. Most of them were in what blood she’d already lost, but we’d prefer to be doubly sure, once we’re satisfied her clots aren’t about to fail. You understand,” Dr. Kahn asked Nick, who nodded. “If you don’t mind my asking, were the two of you close?”
What?? It took Nick a few seconds to realize that, knowing Lester, this whole thing had been stamped Top Secret - including Helen; and Home Office would prefer their cooperating doctors to not poke their noses into classified matters. Hence…
“Yes,” Nick said. “We were… Then we drifted apart,” oh there’s a euphemism! “As for right now, I - I don’t rightly know.” Who better to confess all of this to, right? She’s bound to be mum on all this, so why not? “I can’t leave her, not while she’s… like this. But I’m not sure if I still love her the way I once did.”
“I see. Doctor, would you mind if I tell you something?” Dr. Kahn asked.
“Go right ahead.”
“My parents had feelings for each other when they were introduced. Those feelings were by no means identical to when I and my brothers were born, nor to now.” She looked at him. “Does that help any?”
He nodded. “A little. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. By the way,” as she was heading for the door, “before the scrap that did this, did your wife have any immunity to morphine?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Hm,” and left. Then that fern was responsible…except that that’s a trait of platypus venom. She pointedly didn’t think about the third type of toxin - this one drifting harmlessly - in Helen Cutter’s blood.
And in walked Helen, Lester, and Claudia. The three of them standing at the foot of the hospital bed, Lester said “I suppose we have you to thank for this.”
“You’re welcome,” Nick said.
“Not you.”
The bedridden Claudia didn’t respond.
“Though,” Lester said, “your wife here confirmed your story about who Miss Brown is. With that in mind, I’ve decided to make her part of Dr. Hart’s team. It’ll be her job to liase between Her Majesty’s Government and any and all who turn up.”
Nick was about to ask ‘turn up?’ when he remembered Helen’s comments about Richard - and flashed back to a nightmare involving Brutus. Nick looked to the younger Helen standing between Lester and Claudia. Interposing herself?
“Buck up, Professor. I didn’t need her to tell me that if one person can use the Anomalies, anyone can,” Lester said.
“And what about - what about Helen?”
“Why on Earth would I only want one liason?”
“So you’ll have three liasons?”
“Of course not.”
“I have to go,” the younger Helen said, “to the subway soon.”
Before Nick could ask ‘would you like me to go with you?’, Claudia - who could feel the same siren call as she - said, “Wrong Helen, Nick.” Both women could feel the same tugging of their sense in the direction of the nearest subway.
“Oh I see,” Nick said. “So what brings the three of you all the way to Hull?” For that matter, why’d you order the ambulance to come all the way up here from Tewkesbury?
Young Helen whispered to Lester, “Main platform in the subway, small Anomaly.”
Lester looked at the women beside him, both of whom looked like they were about to get something off their chests. “I trust I can leave the four of you alone for a few minutes?” and, satisfied, he left the room.
Claudia spoke first. “Thanks for vouching for me.”
“Not a problem,” Nick said.
“So,” Helen the younger asked once Lester had left, “did I interrupt anything?”
“What? No, no,” Nick said. “We were just…”
“We were,” Claudia said, “discussing the best place to grab a bite,” and named two very pricey restaurants that, Helen thought, if she remembered the commercials correctly, were between London and Hull.
“Why would you be doing that?” Helen asked, heart falling. To Nick, I was gone eight, near on nine years now, and you’re still up to your old habits.
“Because Nick wasn’t sure where to take you,” looking towards the bedridden one, “once you were up and about. That said, I think you won’t mind if you take your place, do you?”
Helen looked to Helen. If there was a signal or anything, Nick and Claudia couldn’t see it. “Okay,” she said at last.
Using the pen and pad on the bedside table, Claudia wrote down the directions to the restaurant, finishing it with her name in a big flourish. She handed the paper to Helen. “Give this to the Matre ‘d.”
“I don’t want -“ Helen asserted.
“Its not charity,” Claudia said. “You saved my life, and more than once.”
Helen nodded, and left with Nick.
Claudia stood there for a while, just savoring the silence. After a bit, the sense from the subway went away. Quiet. Nice, peaceful, quiet.
“Clever girl,” Helen said, startling Claudia.
“Thank you.”
“Rather daring, though.”
“Not really,” she replied. “The owner’s a friend of mine from Uni -- I get a free dinner for two any time this month, every year.”
“I see. And now what? Are you going to commence interrogating me about the Anomalies?”
“I wasn’t planning on it, even if you were.”
Helen said nothing, did nothing.
“However, since you mentioned the Anomalies -“
“Here it comes.”
“- I was going to say that I keep seeing them in restrooms.”
“Where your reflection would be?” When the was-before- and is-again-civil servant nodded, “Join the club.”
“You mean…?”
“I’m sure that, were you to ask Captain Ryan, he would tell you he has the same complaint.”
“Is this to do with the fact we three can now detect Anomalies?”
“I would suspect so.”
“Suspect? Not expect?”
“Is there a point to this?”
“No. Just learning what to expect.”
“I can’t be of much help there - I know what happens to me, but not always the Why of it. But know this, Ms. Brown: you don’t dare make a move on my husband while this other of myself is here.”
Its entirely up to Nick, Claudia thought, but not vigorously enough to say, remembering what one Helen had told her about Nick’s philandering ways. “It’d be a danger to history, is that what you’re saying?”
“At least your own. After I then left here, I spent five months in the Miocene… and walked into the clubhouse of a certain golf course.”
“I see,” Claudia granted. “Well, I certainly don’t want to be on your bad side,” particularly not at a time like that.
---------------------------
Cretaceous Era:
Jehol Faunal Area:
Half of Team Four were huddled around the body, picking it apart for clues to its life and death. The other half were arrayed around them, keeping an eye out for trouble - a dead Sinovenator was an open invitation to every carnivore in the area. So long as things stayed as they were, with no breeze…
So far, so good.
“Dislocated metatarsal,” Hu Daiyu said, taking note of the abnormal bone separation at the spot she was examining. “Cause of death?”
“Likely it’s a contributing factor,” Au Tingting said just before their radios chirped.
“I smell puppies,” said Xuji Lin, who was stationed at the Anomaly.
“Understood,” Au said as Team Four packed up, every single person with weapons now at the ready; “we’re on our way back now.” We were so hoping to avoid those Stompers. Only the tyrannosaurids had that aroma -- with Eotyrannus and Tarbosaurus specifically smelling like wet puppies to human nostrils. ‘Stomper’ was a nicknamed the megapredators had acquired over the collective history of the teams.
Halfway to the Anomaly, they stopped, following the example Dr. Deng was setting. “Who else smells barbeque?” she asked her team. Everyone agreed that the aroma was definitely there.
------------------------
Late Cambrian:
“I can definitely see why Dr. Cutter kept trying to convince her husband to join her,” Abby said as she and Richard strolled together down the length of this beach awash in the radiance of a setting sun. Aside from having no amenities, these past few weeks’ve been heavenly. But I’d give my left - well, I’d utterly adore some toilet paper. I hope Connor’s taking good care of Rex for me.
“She didn’t know what she had,” Richard said.
Abby looked at him, slapping his arm. “Oi, m’I bothering you?” miffed.
“Never. I simply observed that Helen Cutter never relaxed, never took in the sights,” as you put it’; “all was, for her, labor and effort.”
“That you saw.”
“I confess that it is possible she rested in eras where she was the only one present.”
“Some folk just don’t trust you like I -“
“I’d suggest,” Ryan said, stepping out from behind a very driftwood-looking chunk of partly-eroded rock, “you not finish that sentence, Miss Maitland.”
“You must’ve been here for quite a while,” Richard remarked. “I dinnae sense any Anomalies in the area.”
“When one knows where a murderer will strike, its simplicity itself to arrange an ambush.”
“A murderer?”
“Yep.”
“Truly, someone would seek to strike against one of us?”
“I know it.”
“Oi,” Abby interjected, “how’d we go from you showing up out of nowhere and pointing that rifle o’ yours at us, to a ruddy tea party?”
Understandable, Ryan knew; I’d use language like I normally didn’t, if I was yanked out of a good time, too.
“Civility is the measure of men,” Richard told her.
“Then I’d have to say,” Ryan told him, “that you’re a poor showing.”
“How so?”
“The murderer is you,” raising his rifle to aim.
“Whoa, whoa, who,” Abby said. “Hold on. How do you know?”
“Because of how time works. Loops aren’t the only things - it candycanes as well.”
“Candycanes?”
Well that’s what Nemo’s pictures looked like. "Time before the last time I was in the Permian, we found two skeletons - mine and yours. Dental records confirmed it,” when it looked like Abby was about to object, to question him. “My most recent trip, there was only one skeleton - mine.” Looking dead at Richard, “Which means I succeeded.”
“What makes you think it was your success?” Richard demanded. “It could have been my own - taking my rightful place as King, father of princes.”
Abby looked askance at him. “What?”
“You’d never stand a chance at taking the throne,” Ryan said. “There’s at least a hundred others in line ahead of you.”
Calmly, Richard said, “The heirs of the Pretender do not qualify.”
“I don’t think there’s a barrister in all the former Empire who’d take your case, kid. So let Abby go, and I won’t shoot you.”
“I am Prince Richard,” he reminded Ryan, “son of the lawful King. I am protected by the Right Hand of God Himself -“
“Vae victis, Mr. Plastic Paddy,” Ryan said, squeezing the trigger -
But before he could squeeze it enough for it to fire, an overwhelming feeling struck him and Richard alike, knocking them both to the ground. From a newly-opened Anomaly, Brutus leaped to the ground, looking every inch the predator his kind had evolved from. Being descended from fliers no more made his kind weak than it did the hyperbats. “Truly, uncalled for,” Brutus said, words sliding by the sabers that were trademark of all gorgonopsids in both his and this timeline.
“With justification, so he claims,” Richard said, reeling even as the Anomaly shut.
“Truly, is that so?” the beast asked Ryan. “You are from your own future; is that where your knowledge comes from?”
“What I know,” Ryan said, “comes from the excavation of fossilizing bone,” remembering fully well what Helen Cutter had told him: ‘your body gets exposed in the Miocene.’ No showing up where Creationists could gather ‘round his remains in ancient strata.
“A prime witness,” Brutus granted. “I allow this execution -“
“But -“ Richard said. Horrified, “Mi’lord!”
“Clarity is best, alongside understanding.” To Ryan, “You may not use the gun - either of you.” To Abby, “Interfere, and you will assuredly replace them - in my service or in my belly, it matters not. Understand?”
“I do,” Abby said, afraid to back away, afraid to move at all…she was a lizard girl, but that didn’t help any when being given instructions by a mammal-like reptile. Or a stem-mammal, or whatever else Connor called them.
“Good,” Brutus said to the lot of them. “I will inspect here later,” opening another Anomaly and crossing into it - one foot kicking a small-eared hare into the space between Ryan and Richard, who promptly ran at one another: Richard a heartbeat before Ryan, Richard loyal and obedient unto death.
It had begun.
------------------------
Present Day:
Evening:
Kent, England:
“Thanks for dinner,” Connor said as he walked her home.
“Not at all,” Sioban said. “I had a lovely time.”
Connor tried not to swallow nervously when a companionable silence fell between them. Abby’s words rang loud and clear in his head: don’t geekspeak. “Si, I’m -“ just as she was saying -
“Who would be the victor - Dracula or the Golem?”
He blinked. “Um, well, I suppose - wait, which Dracula?” Didn’t he get more powers in successive remakes and ‘re-envisionings’?
“Heathen!” she gasped. “Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, the one true vampire.” Pretending to be hurt, “I don’t go ‘bout asking how many Lord Vaders there are, do I?”
“No,” Connor said. “But Luke almost joined him.”
“Almost. Some Draculas’re almost as good, but Lugosi has no equal.”
“Alright. Any particular Gollum?” The original in the books, the cartoon, or the New Zealand movies?
“Golem. The original - back in medieval Poland.”
Oh. “Sorry, can’t say.”
“Why not?” Sioban asked, curious.
“Never heard of ‘im.”
Ah. “Okay,” with an impish smile, “Dracula vs Vader?”
“At least you didn’t ask a hard question like Dracula vs Yoda.”
“Are you suggesting Vader’s a wimp?”
“What? No!”
“I see, so you’re saying Dracula is?”
“I didn’t…” and Connor realized he’d fallen into something Stephen had warned him about: a no-win trap. “Can we talk about something safer… like the IRA?”
“Fine, but I’m not getting you my uncle’s autograph.”
“Not a problem.”
“Then why would you - ah. Very well; what’s next?”
“Well, since you’re home now,” and so they were, standing at the edge of her yard, “I’ll wish you a fond goodnight.” Too much? Or was it ‘a fond farewell’?
“Goodnight,” she said. “’Tis all?”
Umm… “See you tomorrow.”
Sioban grinned, pleased. “So you shall,” kissing him on the left cheek.
A shit-eating grin on his face, Connor watched her go up the sidewalk to her door, before he turned and headed for the bus stop. Until he heard the screams.
Connor pulled out his mobile as he raced towards the low hedge between Sioban’s house and the park, pressing the autodial for the Team. Why’d she go over there? Did something grab her attention? God, this is like so many movies…and like real life. This is real life. Professor Cutter answered it. “Profess’r, we’ve got a possum loose.” Rather than listen to senseless questions, Connor hung up and dialed 999. “Hello, I need an ambulance.” I'll apologize if I’m wrong, and God in Heaven do I hope I’m wrong!
Jumping over the hedge, his sneakers snagged on the branches and he fell, pulling out the gun Capt. Ryan’s replacement had entrusted to him a month ago (keeping the safety on for that much; he wasn’t a git) and took aim when his shoulder hit the grass. Fired once, twice at the tiger-sized amphibian having a go at his girl.
It fell, being more fragile than it’d looked.
Connor got up, pulling his foot free, and going over to Sioban. “I’m here, its dead; you okay?” saying the first thing that came to mind. “I mean, clearly you’re not okay okay, but I -“ and groaned as he, gripping her shoulder, pulled her gingerly away from the amphibian before it… what were those post-death lunges called? I know this!, but it didn’t come to mind.
“Where’d it go?! Where’s it?!” she asked him; her volume was understandable. She also hadn’t heard what he’d said about being okay.
“Its dead,” he could assure her honestly.
When she saw where he pointed, “No no no, not the overgrown newt -- the eel.”
“An eel?”
“An eel.”
Connor tried his cell again, getting Stephen this time (the number was the same for ever Teammember); “We’ve got a definite possum,” Connor said.
------------------------------------------
PART TWO:
Title: The Fid.
Rating: PG-15.
Warnings:
Pairings: None.
Characters: Helen, Ryan, Nick, Claudia, Connor, Lester, Stephen, Abby,
OFC Characters: Richard, Nemo, Brutus, Siobhan, it & it2,
Spoilers: none.
Disclaimer: not mine! I own none of them.
Short Summary: A vampire in Kent, trouble in ancient Jehol, and the Cutter marriage…all of that, and Captain Ryan still has to sort out his own life too!
Author’s Notes: Rather than struggle to finish three separate fics; I’m pleased to report that the remaining saga-stories can be swept together into a single story to wrap the epoch up.
-----------------------------------------------
‘Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.’ --Robert Frost.
--------------------------
It swims.
It swims in the depths of the Sea, here in the Era. While its relatives are known to paleontologists, this species is not; living where it does, it will never be fossilized and thus never known to the future or the past or anywhen else.
At least, that is how things were. How things had been until an Anomaly was opened in its territory.
A mated pair of it were swimming slowly through the ocean depths, the female every so often striking at a passing fish or swimming mollusk, reeling back to place the kill in her mate’s jaws, her tail pressing against his hips as his broad tail continued sculling without interruption.
Like every other creature to pass through the Anomaly, they were drawn to it by their magnetic sense. These were not homing pigeon-style navigators; no, these were platypus-style predators. And through the Anomaly the pair of them passed.
----------------------------
LOCATION: A Hospital in HULL, ENGLAND:
Present Day:
Nick Cutter sat in the bedside chair, not about to leave his wife’s side. I owe her that at least.
How did he feel about Helen? I love her. But… Yet… There was something…incomplete to their relationship (consummation wasn’t the issue - was their lack of issue? was it that their child’d died and he hadn’t been there for her?), and that incompleteness hung in the air over them.
Is it Claudia? Helen was used to him chasing skirts, or at least she had been. Is it that I reacted so strongly to her admission of being involved with Stephen? And I know Helen was dismissive of Claudia back in the Permian; except, why’d she save Claudia not too long before then? And admitted to himself that Helen’d always had a charitable streak to her.
And what of me? How do I feel about Claudia? Kissing Claudia always provided a thrill, garanteed to set his heart racing. But was it love? Or was it something closer to lust; a mutually-happy lust, mind you.
Claudia had been the one to have proposed placing guards at the door to this room, a plan which by all accounts Lester was backing. Probably want the same thing out of Helen as the last time she was in custody. It was fortunate that there weren’t presently many patients here at the hospital, as it let them keep one room (on either side of Helen’s) empty.
Nick was about to start speculating how Claudia felt about Helen, when one of the doctors came in the room. “Dr. Kahn,” he said, standing up.
“Doctor Cutter,” she said. “I have your wife’s toxicology results,” holding the folder under one arm. “Do you have any idea why she’d rub fern leaves over her entire body?” It was either massive rubbing, or full-body immersion; neither would be a pleasant thought.
“No. I’m sorry, you said fern leaves?”
“That’s right.” Explaining because she’d been informed in advance that the Professor had the proper clearance, “You see, the chemical compounds we found in her cuts and caked blood, they’re strikingly similar to toxins found in a few species of ferns.” None native to the British Isles…but then, that explains the secrecy and security this Helen woman seems to require.
“Makes sense, I suppose.” Not sure we can narrow down when Helen was mauled, then, if ferns are our only clue - ferns have a worldwide distribution, always have. “How long until she can be released?”
“We’ll begin flushing the remaining toxins from her system tomorrow. Most of them were in what blood she’d already lost, but we’d prefer to be doubly sure, once we’re satisfied her clots aren’t about to fail. You understand,” Dr. Kahn asked Nick, who nodded. “If you don’t mind my asking, were the two of you close?”
What?? It took Nick a few seconds to realize that, knowing Lester, this whole thing had been stamped Top Secret - including Helen; and Home Office would prefer their cooperating doctors to not poke their noses into classified matters. Hence…
“Yes,” Nick said. “We were… Then we drifted apart,” oh there’s a euphemism! “As for right now, I - I don’t rightly know.” Who better to confess all of this to, right? She’s bound to be mum on all this, so why not? “I can’t leave her, not while she’s… like this. But I’m not sure if I still love her the way I once did.”
“I see. Doctor, would you mind if I tell you something?” Dr. Kahn asked.
“Go right ahead.”
“My parents had feelings for each other when they were introduced. Those feelings were by no means identical to when I and my brothers were born, nor to now.” She looked at him. “Does that help any?”
He nodded. “A little. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. By the way,” as she was heading for the door, “before the scrap that did this, did your wife have any immunity to morphine?”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Hm,” and left. Then that fern was responsible…except that that’s a trait of platypus venom. She pointedly didn’t think about the third type of toxin - this one drifting harmlessly - in Helen Cutter’s blood.
And in walked Helen, Lester, and Claudia. The three of them standing at the foot of the hospital bed, Lester said “I suppose we have you to thank for this.”
“You’re welcome,” Nick said.
“Not you.”
The bedridden Claudia didn’t respond.
“Though,” Lester said, “your wife here confirmed your story about who Miss Brown is. With that in mind, I’ve decided to make her part of Dr. Hart’s team. It’ll be her job to liase between Her Majesty’s Government and any and all who turn up.”
Nick was about to ask ‘turn up?’ when he remembered Helen’s comments about Richard - and flashed back to a nightmare involving Brutus. Nick looked to the younger Helen standing between Lester and Claudia. Interposing herself?
“Buck up, Professor. I didn’t need her to tell me that if one person can use the Anomalies, anyone can,” Lester said.
“And what about - what about Helen?”
“Why on Earth would I only want one liason?”
“So you’ll have three liasons?”
“Of course not.”
“I have to go,” the younger Helen said, “to the subway soon.”
Before Nick could ask ‘would you like me to go with you?’, Claudia - who could feel the same siren call as she - said, “Wrong Helen, Nick.” Both women could feel the same tugging of their sense in the direction of the nearest subway.
“Oh I see,” Nick said. “So what brings the three of you all the way to Hull?” For that matter, why’d you order the ambulance to come all the way up here from Tewkesbury?
Young Helen whispered to Lester, “Main platform in the subway, small Anomaly.”
Lester looked at the women beside him, both of whom looked like they were about to get something off their chests. “I trust I can leave the four of you alone for a few minutes?” and, satisfied, he left the room.
Claudia spoke first. “Thanks for vouching for me.”
“Not a problem,” Nick said.
“So,” Helen the younger asked once Lester had left, “did I interrupt anything?”
“What? No, no,” Nick said. “We were just…”
“We were,” Claudia said, “discussing the best place to grab a bite,” and named two very pricey restaurants that, Helen thought, if she remembered the commercials correctly, were between London and Hull.
“Why would you be doing that?” Helen asked, heart falling. To Nick, I was gone eight, near on nine years now, and you’re still up to your old habits.
“Because Nick wasn’t sure where to take you,” looking towards the bedridden one, “once you were up and about. That said, I think you won’t mind if you take your place, do you?”
Helen looked to Helen. If there was a signal or anything, Nick and Claudia couldn’t see it. “Okay,” she said at last.
Using the pen and pad on the bedside table, Claudia wrote down the directions to the restaurant, finishing it with her name in a big flourish. She handed the paper to Helen. “Give this to the Matre ‘d.”
“I don’t want -“ Helen asserted.
“Its not charity,” Claudia said. “You saved my life, and more than once.”
Helen nodded, and left with Nick.
Claudia stood there for a while, just savoring the silence. After a bit, the sense from the subway went away. Quiet. Nice, peaceful, quiet.
“Clever girl,” Helen said, startling Claudia.
“Thank you.”
“Rather daring, though.”
“Not really,” she replied. “The owner’s a friend of mine from Uni -- I get a free dinner for two any time this month, every year.”
“I see. And now what? Are you going to commence interrogating me about the Anomalies?”
“I wasn’t planning on it, even if you were.”
Helen said nothing, did nothing.
“However, since you mentioned the Anomalies -“
“Here it comes.”
“- I was going to say that I keep seeing them in restrooms.”
“Where your reflection would be?” When the was-before- and is-again-civil servant nodded, “Join the club.”
“You mean…?”
“I’m sure that, were you to ask Captain Ryan, he would tell you he has the same complaint.”
“Is this to do with the fact we three can now detect Anomalies?”
“I would suspect so.”
“Suspect? Not expect?”
“Is there a point to this?”
“No. Just learning what to expect.”
“I can’t be of much help there - I know what happens to me, but not always the Why of it. But know this, Ms. Brown: you don’t dare make a move on my husband while this other of myself is here.”
Its entirely up to Nick, Claudia thought, but not vigorously enough to say, remembering what one Helen had told her about Nick’s philandering ways. “It’d be a danger to history, is that what you’re saying?”
“At least your own. After I then left here, I spent five months in the Miocene… and walked into the clubhouse of a certain golf course.”
“I see,” Claudia granted. “Well, I certainly don’t want to be on your bad side,” particularly not at a time like that.
---------------------------
Cretaceous Era:
Jehol Faunal Area:
Half of Team Four were huddled around the body, picking it apart for clues to its life and death. The other half were arrayed around them, keeping an eye out for trouble - a dead Sinovenator was an open invitation to every carnivore in the area. So long as things stayed as they were, with no breeze…
So far, so good.
“Dislocated metatarsal,” Hu Daiyu said, taking note of the abnormal bone separation at the spot she was examining. “Cause of death?”
“Likely it’s a contributing factor,” Au Tingting said just before their radios chirped.
“I smell puppies,” said Xuji Lin, who was stationed at the Anomaly.
“Understood,” Au said as Team Four packed up, every single person with weapons now at the ready; “we’re on our way back now.” We were so hoping to avoid those Stompers. Only the tyrannosaurids had that aroma -- with Eotyrannus and Tarbosaurus specifically smelling like wet puppies to human nostrils. ‘Stomper’ was a nicknamed the megapredators had acquired over the collective history of the teams.
Halfway to the Anomaly, they stopped, following the example Dr. Deng was setting. “Who else smells barbeque?” she asked her team. Everyone agreed that the aroma was definitely there.
------------------------
Late Cambrian:
“I can definitely see why Dr. Cutter kept trying to convince her husband to join her,” Abby said as she and Richard strolled together down the length of this beach awash in the radiance of a setting sun. Aside from having no amenities, these past few weeks’ve been heavenly. But I’d give my left - well, I’d utterly adore some toilet paper. I hope Connor’s taking good care of Rex for me.
“She didn’t know what she had,” Richard said.
Abby looked at him, slapping his arm. “Oi, m’I bothering you?” miffed.
“Never. I simply observed that Helen Cutter never relaxed, never took in the sights,” as you put it’; “all was, for her, labor and effort.”
“That you saw.”
“I confess that it is possible she rested in eras where she was the only one present.”
“Some folk just don’t trust you like I -“
“I’d suggest,” Ryan said, stepping out from behind a very driftwood-looking chunk of partly-eroded rock, “you not finish that sentence, Miss Maitland.”
“You must’ve been here for quite a while,” Richard remarked. “I dinnae sense any Anomalies in the area.”
“When one knows where a murderer will strike, its simplicity itself to arrange an ambush.”
“A murderer?”
“Yep.”
“Truly, someone would seek to strike against one of us?”
“I know it.”
“Oi,” Abby interjected, “how’d we go from you showing up out of nowhere and pointing that rifle o’ yours at us, to a ruddy tea party?”
Understandable, Ryan knew; I’d use language like I normally didn’t, if I was yanked out of a good time, too.
“Civility is the measure of men,” Richard told her.
“Then I’d have to say,” Ryan told him, “that you’re a poor showing.”
“How so?”
“The murderer is you,” raising his rifle to aim.
“Whoa, whoa, who,” Abby said. “Hold on. How do you know?”
“Because of how time works. Loops aren’t the only things - it candycanes as well.”
“Candycanes?”
Well that’s what Nemo’s pictures looked like. "Time before the last time I was in the Permian, we found two skeletons - mine and yours. Dental records confirmed it,” when it looked like Abby was about to object, to question him. “My most recent trip, there was only one skeleton - mine.” Looking dead at Richard, “Which means I succeeded.”
“What makes you think it was your success?” Richard demanded. “It could have been my own - taking my rightful place as King, father of princes.”
Abby looked askance at him. “What?”
“You’d never stand a chance at taking the throne,” Ryan said. “There’s at least a hundred others in line ahead of you.”
Calmly, Richard said, “The heirs of the Pretender do not qualify.”
“I don’t think there’s a barrister in all the former Empire who’d take your case, kid. So let Abby go, and I won’t shoot you.”
“I am Prince Richard,” he reminded Ryan, “son of the lawful King. I am protected by the Right Hand of God Himself -“
“Vae victis, Mr. Plastic Paddy,” Ryan said, squeezing the trigger -
But before he could squeeze it enough for it to fire, an overwhelming feeling struck him and Richard alike, knocking them both to the ground. From a newly-opened Anomaly, Brutus leaped to the ground, looking every inch the predator his kind had evolved from. Being descended from fliers no more made his kind weak than it did the hyperbats. “Truly, uncalled for,” Brutus said, words sliding by the sabers that were trademark of all gorgonopsids in both his and this timeline.
“With justification, so he claims,” Richard said, reeling even as the Anomaly shut.
“Truly, is that so?” the beast asked Ryan. “You are from your own future; is that where your knowledge comes from?”
“What I know,” Ryan said, “comes from the excavation of fossilizing bone,” remembering fully well what Helen Cutter had told him: ‘your body gets exposed in the Miocene.’ No showing up where Creationists could gather ‘round his remains in ancient strata.
“A prime witness,” Brutus granted. “I allow this execution -“
“But -“ Richard said. Horrified, “Mi’lord!”
“Clarity is best, alongside understanding.” To Ryan, “You may not use the gun - either of you.” To Abby, “Interfere, and you will assuredly replace them - in my service or in my belly, it matters not. Understand?”
“I do,” Abby said, afraid to back away, afraid to move at all…she was a lizard girl, but that didn’t help any when being given instructions by a mammal-like reptile. Or a stem-mammal, or whatever else Connor called them.
“Good,” Brutus said to the lot of them. “I will inspect here later,” opening another Anomaly and crossing into it - one foot kicking a small-eared hare into the space between Ryan and Richard, who promptly ran at one another: Richard a heartbeat before Ryan, Richard loyal and obedient unto death.
It had begun.
------------------------
Present Day:
Evening:
Kent, England:
“Thanks for dinner,” Connor said as he walked her home.
“Not at all,” Sioban said. “I had a lovely time.”
Connor tried not to swallow nervously when a companionable silence fell between them. Abby’s words rang loud and clear in his head: don’t geekspeak. “Si, I’m -“ just as she was saying -
“Who would be the victor - Dracula or the Golem?”
He blinked. “Um, well, I suppose - wait, which Dracula?” Didn’t he get more powers in successive remakes and ‘re-envisionings’?
“Heathen!” she gasped. “Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, the one true vampire.” Pretending to be hurt, “I don’t go ‘bout asking how many Lord Vaders there are, do I?”
“No,” Connor said. “But Luke almost joined him.”
“Almost. Some Draculas’re almost as good, but Lugosi has no equal.”
“Alright. Any particular Gollum?” The original in the books, the cartoon, or the New Zealand movies?
“Golem. The original - back in medieval Poland.”
Oh. “Sorry, can’t say.”
“Why not?” Sioban asked, curious.
“Never heard of ‘im.”
Ah. “Okay,” with an impish smile, “Dracula vs Vader?”
“At least you didn’t ask a hard question like Dracula vs Yoda.”
“Are you suggesting Vader’s a wimp?”
“What? No!”
“I see, so you’re saying Dracula is?”
“I didn’t…” and Connor realized he’d fallen into something Stephen had warned him about: a no-win trap. “Can we talk about something safer… like the IRA?”
“Fine, but I’m not getting you my uncle’s autograph.”
“Not a problem.”
“Then why would you - ah. Very well; what’s next?”
“Well, since you’re home now,” and so they were, standing at the edge of her yard, “I’ll wish you a fond goodnight.” Too much? Or was it ‘a fond farewell’?
“Goodnight,” she said. “’Tis all?”
Umm… “See you tomorrow.”
Sioban grinned, pleased. “So you shall,” kissing him on the left cheek.
A shit-eating grin on his face, Connor watched her go up the sidewalk to her door, before he turned and headed for the bus stop. Until he heard the screams.
Connor pulled out his mobile as he raced towards the low hedge between Sioban’s house and the park, pressing the autodial for the Team. Why’d she go over there? Did something grab her attention? God, this is like so many movies…and like real life. This is real life. Professor Cutter answered it. “Profess’r, we’ve got a possum loose.” Rather than listen to senseless questions, Connor hung up and dialed 999. “Hello, I need an ambulance.” I'll apologize if I’m wrong, and God in Heaven do I hope I’m wrong!
Jumping over the hedge, his sneakers snagged on the branches and he fell, pulling out the gun Capt. Ryan’s replacement had entrusted to him a month ago (keeping the safety on for that much; he wasn’t a git) and took aim when his shoulder hit the grass. Fired once, twice at the tiger-sized amphibian having a go at his girl.
It fell, being more fragile than it’d looked.
Connor got up, pulling his foot free, and going over to Sioban. “I’m here, its dead; you okay?” saying the first thing that came to mind. “I mean, clearly you’re not okay okay, but I -“ and groaned as he, gripping her shoulder, pulled her gingerly away from the amphibian before it… what were those post-death lunges called? I know this!, but it didn’t come to mind.
“Where’d it go?! Where’s it?!” she asked him; her volume was understandable. She also hadn’t heard what he’d said about being okay.
“Its dead,” he could assure her honestly.
When she saw where he pointed, “No no no, not the overgrown newt -- the eel.”
“An eel?”
“An eel.”
Connor tried his cell again, getting Stephen this time (the number was the same for ever Teammember); “We’ve got a definite possum,” Connor said.
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PART TWO: