Disclaimer:
The Tomorrow People and all characters thereof are the
creation of Roger Price and copyright Thames TV.
Sapphire & Steel and all characters thereof are the
creation of P. J. Hammond and copyright ITC.
Time is the creation of the universe, copyright
uncertain. :)
Author's Notes:
This is my first 'Tomorrow People' fanfic and only my
second Sapphire & Steel. (That was a crossover, too. :)
This story is set just before the Tomorrow People
switch from the old lab to the new one (TP timeline)
and between Adventures 2 and 3 (S&S timeline).
Originally, this story was going to be one part of an entire series, set inside a combined TP/S&S universe, but one thing has happened after another and I can never seen to find the time to write another story in this universe, much as I want to. I am therefore going to open this universe up, to try and encourage others to write fanfic in this universe. If anyone would like to do so, the setting is simple:
A) Sapphire, Steel, etc. are telepaths & have the same limitations as other Tomorrow People (eg: can't kill)
B) The organisation Sapphire & Steel work for is much more powerful than the TP's Federation and ignores any rules & regulations laid down by it
Anything else is fair game. Continuity is encouraged, but was ignored by the original producers, so don't injure yourself trying.
John blinked awake, the echos of something very unpleasant still in his mind. Images involving the Lab. [TIM?] Nothing. [TIM??] Again, nothing. He sat up, concerned. It was a mistake, letting myself get talked into taking a few days of rest, he thought, preparing himself for whatever mess or disaster he'd now have to take care of. Some rest. [Hsui? Mike?] Nothing. He finished getting dressed and, after a quick glance round his small hotel room, he tried to jaunt to the lab. Nothing. The link with TIM was definitely down and he wasn't going anywhere fast.
But that didn't make him immobile. It took several hours, rather than the few milliseconds it normally took, but he worked his way from North Wales down through to London. By the end of it, he was worn out. Sneaking through the abandoned Underground tunnels, he reached the lab, unwilling to jaunt the final step, directly into whatever danger was there.
On stepping in, he shivered. It was cold. Far colder than it should have been, even allowing for the total lack of power or anything else. An impossible breeze blew past him. Slowly and cautiously, he moved further into the lab. The sillhouettes of his friends, utterly immobile, seemingly frozen in time, could just be made out in the darkness.
He took one step forward, then froze. There was movement from the other end of the lab, out of sight in the pitch black. Three people, from the sound of it.
Suddenly, without warning, the lights came on. He blinked rapidly, the change momentarily blinding him. When he could see clearly again, three people - a woman and two men - were standing in front of him. "Who're you?" he said. "What're you doing here?"
"I was going to ask you the same thing," said one of the men. The woman looked cooly at John for a moment, then offered her hand to him. He hesitantly took it and shook hands. "I'm sorry for the rudeness of my colleague", the woman said. "I'm Sapphire. And you are?"
"I'm John. And you still haven't told me why you're here."
"You don't own this place, do you..?" said the first man again, sarcastically.
John grimaced. Saps can be so stupid at times, he thought.
"Why are you here?" he asked again. "And what happened to my friends?"
"You know these people?"
"Yes."
"Once we've done what we're here to do, you and your friends had better pack your bags and find somewhere else to stay."
John looked at the man in amazement. Stupid, arrogant and pompous! "And if we don't?"
Steel sighed. Humans could be so stupid at times. He wondered why he liked the planet so much. He was saved from replying by Sapphire.
"There's something dangerous down here. It's already overwhelmed your friends once and if we don't stop it, it won't stop at just one small room. Soon, London will be like this place. Lifeless."
"If you want a home, if you want a planet, you'll leave." The man sounded sincere.
John blinked. That's not the usual way for Saps to talk, he thought.
[Sapphire, we're wasting time] Steel 'pathed.
John's eyebrows rose slightly. [You _do_ know this is a closed world?]
Steel frowned. [The Federation aren't our concern, here. This danger is.]
[Who sent you?]
[That doesn't concern you. Silver? Can you get that pile of junk working?]
The other man looked amused. "Naturally", he grinned.
John stood there, fuming silently. TIM was not junk, the Federation weren't some irrelevant nobodies and telepaths other than the Tomorrow People had no right barging around closed worlds, least of all to order him around.
It only took a few minutes, but it seemed to John to take hours. Finally, though, 'Silver' got TIM active again. John sighed with relief. At least something seemed to be going right. "TIM?"
The computer remained silent. Silver frowned, then took out what looked like a pocket torch and ran it down one side. A deafening screeching sound filled the room. Rapidly, Silver ran the torch the other way, and the sound died away. The lights on TIM's domes flickered experimentally, before settling down, but still nothing.
[TIM?]
"It would seem that your computer's higher functions are being blocked", Silver observed.
"How? And what by?"
"I don't know. Maybe the same thing that caught your friends."
"How do we stop it?"
Sapphire had been wandering round the lab, studying the figures and the computer. "We don't."
Steel turned round. "We don't?"
Sapphire smiled. "The Entity expected Terran telepaths, not us."
Steel frowned. "So?"
Sapphire looked at John. "I'll need your help."
"What with?"
"There's no time. Take my hands again, and try a mind-merge."
John hesitated, but only for a moment. He reached out and took Sapphire's hands. The moment he did so, Sapphire's eyes started glowing an intense blue. John could feel the merge blending in with Sapphire's powers, feeding whatever she was trying to do.
Slowly, time seemed to ripple backwards. TIM shut down again. He watched as the room became dark, and a figure that looked like him entered. The wind seemed to howl around him, pulling at him, though there wasn't any air moving. The lights sprang on, and his friends were running away from an amorphous glowing /something/ that was coming through the wall. John could feel a sense of fear from his friends, but something else, too. Rage from whatever that something was, as it saw what Sapphire was doing.
Vast energies rippled round Sapphire and John, but whether it had no power over what Sapphire was doing, or if their combined strength was holding it at bay, he didn't know. Nor did he care. Suddenly, there was a flash of blinding light, and he was back in his hotel room. It was 11pm, the previous night, if the clock was to be believed.
Three figures stood by him. "What happened? And why am I here and not at the lab?"
"Time is not as rigid a concept as you might believe", Sapphire told him.
"And my friends?"
"Safe, for now. But in one hour's time, your base will be the sight of an attack by that Entity."
"How do we stop it?"
Sapphire shrugged. "Entities such as that break through holes in space/time. Holes that form through mixing the old and the new."
"But everything, on an atomic level, is all the same age."
Sapphire smiled. "On the atomic level, you're the same as the non-telepaths on this planet, or almost any plant or animal with a similar number of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms. But you aren't the same as them, are you?"
John shook his head, as Sapphire continued. "But composition isn't all that makes up a person or an object. There's it's entire history as that object, too. And more. It's those that make a difference."
"So, what do we do, now?"
"Move. Break the link between the old and the new. Seal the Entity off forever, as it crosses the bridge it's building into your reality."
"I can't kill."
"These Entities can't be killed. That's why we /can/ do our jobs, for all that we're telepaths too."
"What do I tell the others? I can hardly tell them that three time-travelling telepaths jaunted me back from the future to avoid being swallowed up by a glowing blob."
Steel frowned. "Tell them anything you like. Tell them you've had too many break-ins and must move. Just do it."
John nodded, and jaunted back to the lab.
Last update: 30 March 2003