Primeval Fanfic - Stuck in the Pliocene (part 1)
Connor wasn’t concerned by the fact the anomaly had just closed behind him, not yet anyway. He had just one thought on his mind; he had to stop Helen Cutter. He took a moment to take in his new surroundings, trying to assess where and when he was. If he’d been right about the significance of “333”, then this was the Rift Valley; the cradle of civilisation, and Helen was about to try and kill the first humans and stop evolution in its tracks.
He still couldn’t quite get his head around it; surely not even Helen was that evil? Then again, a woman that can murder her own husband in cold blood couldn’t possibly be of sound mind. He couldn’t see any sign of her in the immediate vicinity, which meant she was either hiding somewhere waiting to pounce on him, or she had moved so quickly she was already out of sight. He decided to err on the side of caution, and assume she could attack him at any moment. With a sigh, he sat on a rock and opened his rucksack to see what he had that might help.
It was then that he realised how alone and vulnerable he was. Danny was the one with the gun, Abby had the tranquiliser and he had ... his handheld anomaly detector, the anomaly opening device that didn’t work and a bag of mint imperials. “Great!” Connor growled, throwing the bag down in anger. Why hadn’t Abby and Danny followed him? He thought they were right behind him, but they must have hesitated a moment longer than they should and the anomaly closed before they could follow.
“Focus, Connor!” he told himself. “You can do this.” He tried to gather his thoughts and make sense of what had been a very confusing day. It was a day that had begun with Abby visiting him at Lester’s place and them having a conversation that left him feeling confused. To be fair to Abby, she was about to say something when the anomaly detector went off and they had to go and deal with the herd of Embolotheriums.
It had all happened so fast after that; Danny turning up with that woman they thought was from the future, and her using that device to open an anomaly right in front of their eyes. Connor had been almost speechless when he saw that - to be able to predict anomalies was one thing, but to actually open them at will was an entirely new, and very exciting, prospect. She had said that the technology was simple, and he actually had one in his possession. He couldn’t wait to get back to the ARC and pull it apart to see how it worked - that’s if he ever got back to the ARC.
He had so many questions; the artefact that now lay shattered on the floor was obviously some kind of map of anomalies - he had worked that out before of course, but now it seemed it was used to program the devices. He’d watched Helen work out her route and download it onto the opening device, and then disappear through the anomaly. It hadn’t taken him long to work out the connection between the numbers he and Sarah had uncovered on the artefact, and the code the computer needed to work. He wanted to know how it all worked, who had made it... but he had to wait. There were other priorities now.
The Palaeontologist in him had wanted to linger in the Cretaceous for a while, but being chased by three juvenile Raptors had put an end to that little daydream very quickly. He was thankful that Becker had given them the stun grenades, though he had very nearly come a cropper when he had forgotten to put his fingers in his ears. If he hadn’t grabbed Abby’s leg as he fell, he would have ended up on the ground, no doubt unconscious and easy bait for any nearby predator. Abby had realised just how close he had come to falling too, and she hugged him close for a moment. It was a hug he’d savour for a long time, but over too soon because Danny was already tracking Helen’s progress. As they climbed down from the tree that they had been hiding in, Connor realised that his opening device had just died. They had no way of getting back home unless they could somehow get hold of the one Helen had.
The three of them had raced towards where Danny had seen Helen through his binoculars, just in time to see her disappear through an anomaly. They were about to follow her, when Abby commented that the anomaly was already weakening. “It’s going to close any second!” she said.
Connor made a split second decision. “Someone has to stop her!” He declared and ran through it, moments before it collapsed and died. He had left Danny and Abby stranded in the Cretaceous era, and he was here in the Pliocene era - alone and with no way of going back.
Connor knew he had to concentrate and put all thoughts about going home to the back of his head. If he didn’t stop Helen, there wouldn’t be anything to go back to anyway. He stood up and pulled his rucksack onto his back, took a look around him and started off towards the valley he could see stretched out below him.
-o-
He had no idea how long he’d been walking for when he found them. “I’m too late!” he said out loud. There were 13 of them, all dead; their bodies stretched out. He crouched down next to one, a male that looked about the same size as him. Connor found himself crying, weeping for his ancestors and the fact he had failed them.
“You’re too sentimental, Connor.” Helen’s voice interrupted his thoughts.
He turned around angrily. “You’re sick!” he spat. She simply laughed. “How do you manage to sleep at night?”
“I can survive on very little sleep. I have so many plans and sleeping would just be a waste of time.”
“Well, this little plan has failed.” Connor said, suddenly realising something he had learnt at University. “This was supposed to happen. They found 13 bodies anyway. Killing these hominids has no effect.” He felt almost smug.
“You’re not as bright as you think you are, Connor.” Helen said. “There are more hominids around here, you’ d be surprised how few it took to start the human race.”
“But your plan will only work if you manage to find every single one, won’t it? Maybe it’s you that isn’t as bright as you think you are?” he couldn’t believe he was speaking to her in this way, maybe the thought he was going to die anyway made him braver.
“I admit that the task is perhaps a little more demanding than I anticipated at first, but not impossible. With your help...”
“You want me to help you?” Connor shook his head in disbelief.
“I don’t think you have much choice.” She said seriously.
“No, you’re right. If I help you, I die because the human race won’t exist. If I don’t help, you’ll kill me. I’d rather you just killed me now, because there’s no way I’d help you.”
“Actually, Connor, you’re worth more to me alive than you are dead - for the moment. You have skills and knowledge that I can use.” Helen said.
Connor let out a laugh. He had a bargaining tool- she needed him, and he could turn that to his advantage somehow. If he could make her believe that he might help, then perhaps he could get hold of her anomaly opening device and go home - or in the very least go back to where he’d left Abby and Danny. Maybe he could even steal whatever she was using to kill the hominids with?
“So, suppose I do help you? What’s in it for me?” he said.
“The satisfaction of knowing you have saved the planet from being destroyed by humans.” Helen smiled.
“You do know that nature will just balance itself out? Another predator will evolve in our place. And that assumes you actually do stop human evolution. We’re just in one tiny corner of the world, but life is evolving everywhere.” Connor could see from the look on her face that he was getting to her.
“You sound exactly like Nick. It’s such a shame that the path your life has taken in this reality has led you in completely the wrong direction. “ Helen spat.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Connor said.
“Oh come on, Connor, think!! Remember Claudia Brown? Life is not one simple, straightforward road. There are twists and turns, and parallel lines, and events in one changing the path of another.”
Connor screwed his eyes, both in confusion and tiredness. He sort of understood what she meant, he’d watched enough episodes of Dr Who to know that you couldn’t rely on time being linear.
“Maybe it’s time I explained everything to you, Connor.” Helen said, softly. “Once you understand what happened to me and the things I know, then maybe you’ll agree with me.”
“OK. Tell me.” Connor said, sitting himself down. He was certain that there was nothing Helen could say that would make him think like her, but he was interested in what had turned her into this monster.
Helen sat beside him, took a deep breath and began her story...
-o-
“I was restless; a woman approaching her thirties with nothing of any significance to show for my existence. Nick didn’t understand, and even Stephen was reluctant to risk everything on a whim. I needed to find something that challenged me - and that was when I read about the creature sighting in the Forest of Dean. Most had dismissed it as a big cat that had escaped from a private zoo, but something told me this was different.
That was when I met him; the man that changed my life. He was handsome, charming, and had a smile that could melt the hardest of hearts. I guessed he was in his late thirties, and that he was some kind of scientist. He was investigating the sighting as well, except he claimed he knew what it was, where it had come from and how. I was intrigued of course, and asked him to explain.
I had laughed at him when he said he was from the future, but as he spoke I found myself believing him and being drawn into his world. He told me that he and his friends were Palaeontologists who also had a common love of bad Sci-Fi movies and computer games. One night over a couple of beers, they had joked how brilliant it would be if they could actually travel in time and see the dinosaurs for real. My friend, however, actually began to make it a reality. Over the next 18 months, he created a device that opened tiny portals in time. They were barely big enough to fit his head through, but it was enough to know that he had succeeded.
With the help of his friends, he created another device. It was bigger and more powerful, and the portals it opened were large enough for someone to walk through. They had created the first anomaly!”
Connor stared at Helen. “So this man, why was he in the Forest of Dean in the late 1990s?”
“I’m coming to that, Connor. Have patience.” Helen purred. “At first, they just messed about and had fun, but they soon realised that the anomalies were opening on their own and were rapidly getting out of control. Various creatures were coming through them, and his two friends were attacked and killed by a deinonychus. He vowed that he would do everything in his power to stop the anomalies, but didn’t know how. That was when he decided that the only way to stop them was to make sure they never existed in the first place. That was why he had travelled to that time period; to stop his teenage self becoming so obsessed with dinosaurs.”
“But he didn’t succeed.” Connor sighed.
“No. I talked him out of it. I can be very... persuasive, and he was such an attentive lover.” Helen smiled at the memory.
Connor snorted, trying to hold in his disbelief. “You slept with him and that was it? He forgot all about his dead friends and decided not to stop the anomalies after all?”
“It wasn’t quite as simple as that. We travelled through a number of anomalies, seeing amazing things together. I became obsessed with him, I would have followed him to the end of time if I needed to, and he began to see the potential of the anomalies. We made a good team, I thought we were perfect together in every way... and the sex...” Helen sighed.
Connor rolled his eyes. “Spare me the details! Your adulterous activities don’t interest me. What happened to this man from the future?”
“I don’t know. We got separated when he went through an anomaly that closed behind him. He probably doesn’t even exist in his reality now. By creating the anomalies, he changed his own past. His younger self is now...” Helen stopped. She turned away.
“Where is he now?” Connor demanded.
An evil smile spread across Helen’s face. “That man from the future, the one that created the anomalies, the man who was one of the most amazing lovers I have ever had...” she took a deep breath. “His younger self is staring at me right now.” She waited for it to dawn on Connor what she had just said. She could see him thinking, turning it over in his mind.
“You’re lying!” he spat angrily. He stood up and glared at her.
“Am I?” Helen sneered.
“I don’t know what you hope to get out of me by making up all this...”
“I’ll prove I’m not lying to you. You have a birth mark just above your left buttock, and a scar on your inside right thigh where your sister stabbed you with a pair of scissors when you were 10 years old.” Helen smiled and waited for Connor to react.
He dropped back down to the ground, his mouth opening and closing like a goldfish. There was only one way she could know about his scar and birth mark, and that thought terrified him - she was telling the truth. Not even Abby knew about those. He couldn’t speak. This was too much to take in.
“I think it’s rather amusing.” Helen said after a while. “You changed your own past, and therefore your own future. Isn’t time travel a wonderful thing?” Her voice sounded almost like a cat’s purr. “And it was you that made it possible in the first place.”
Connor was sat with his head between his knees, his hands over his ears and his body rocking back and forth. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” he yelled.