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 Note:
This is set in a Tomorrow People/Sapphire & Steel
Universe. All copyrights belong to their appropriate
owner, unless the creatures from the time tunnel have
taken them. :)
These events are set at the end of Adventure 6, in the
Sapphire & Steel universe, and are set shortly after
the events in my story "Moving". Time travel is fun,
isn't it! :)
I'm writing this serial as a series of patwork shorts, as I'm discovering this works better for me and usually gives the reader enough of a story to be readable. I've tried multi-parts - they won't let me finish them, even after I'm running short on ideas. Multi-parts are like that - arrogant and demanding on their writer. Writing by patchwork is much easier.
"Well, no use standing here. Those two I sent back in time will be around here, somewhere." He grinned. Talking to oneself was considered the first sign of madness. He disagreed. Being here was the first, tackling a group of transient beings, who'd been trained as assassins, head-on, armed only with a box from a chess set, was the second. Talking to oneself was nearer fifth or sixth.
He walked around, checking for any sign of a barrier. He didn't have much time - soon, all the boxes would be deactivated and he'd be trapped here. But he didn't want them to know he'd escaped, either. At least, for as long as possible.
On being satisfied there were no other barriers, he reached up his sleeve and took out the duplicate time box that he'd made when Steel had foolishly taken the one they'd had to fight the transient being. Steel could never have won the quick-draw, no matter who was faster. The transient being had control over time, in the bubble he'd created.
He programmed the box, quickly. He needed a refuge. A safe place, where nobody would question his abilities or his sudden appearance, whilst he worked on a plan to rescue Sapphire and Steel. He smiled. He knew just the people who might help. He programmed the time box to travel to London, in the late 70's.
A figure shimmered on the jaunt pad, formed, and stepped down.
"John! You were supposed to be on vacation!"
"I was, but an emergency came up."
"What sort of emergency?"
"I got a crossed line, when I was at the hotel, and heard about a raid by an anti-terrorist group, over the disused section of the Underground that we're in. They have old maps, showing where this place is. If they can't get in, or if they find anything that shouldn't be here, it won't just be mad scientists after us. I don't like the idea of us being fugitives."
John was doing his best to lie, though it wasn't his natural inclination, but he could hardly blurt out "because three Tommorow People, who claim to outrank the entire Trig, have said that if we don't, we'll be eaten by a monster from another plane of reality, and Earth will make a nice desert for it." Less because of any disbelief - they'd faced some strange dangers - and much more because of arguments. Those could last for days, and they had less than 55 minutes left.
The others looked at him, his lie so patently obious as to be pathetic. But the nervousness in his voice was genuine. John was supposed to be the strong leader, fearless and bold. In their minds, they could see he was, right now, scared of something of incredible power and equally scared they'd be arguing oveer it until disaster struck.
"How long have we got before the raid?" asked Mike.
"We have just under fifty-five minutes to remove every single object. What we can't move, we must destroy. I have been working on a secondary base, for a while, in case it was needed. TIM has the location. Don't bother sorting - just pick up stuff here and dump there. We can worry about being tidy later."
They worked with a passion and had cleared every last speck of debris with just a couple of minutes to spare. One of the walls softened slightly, but visibly. Light began to pour through it. "Everyone jaunt out, NOW!" Nobody needed to be told twice. The place became dark, except for the light from the wall. That, too, was fading, as the altered structure of the lab no longer had the conflict of old and new. The creature let out a telepathic scream of hate and anger, as its bridge collapsed from under it. It could feel the walls between the planes regrow; strengthen. But it also felt them entangle it, entwining it permanently between the two planes.
It was paralysed. Unless some event, in that specific room, took place with almost religious devotion, repetitively, the wall would never thin at this point again, and it would be trapped in this prison for all eternity.
They had finished setting up the new base, arranging things. It had taken them weeks, but they'd done it. They were still none-the-wiser as to what had shook John so bad, or why he'd ordered the evacuation.
Eventually, Mike had had enough of the vagueness from the person who was supposed to be leading them. "We've done what you wanted, now can you tell us the real reason why we've done it?"
Before John could reply, a black spot appeared in the air. It got rapidly larger, until it formed a full outline of a person, carrying something. The outline snapped into a fully-formed adult figure, suddenly. The person went sprawling, losing his grip on the box, which scattered chess pieces everywhere.
"I do wish these devices wouldn't keep doing that." Silver groused. He shook his head, and looked around to see where he was. "Ah! You must be the people we rescued, the other time. Not that you'd remember it, of course - it never happened, because you moved in time."
"John? Who is he?"
"He calls himself Silver, and he's two friends - Sapphire and Steel. And, yes, he's right. The first time round, you were defeated whilst I was on holiday. Sapphire rewound time, just far enough for me to change things."
Just as everybody was digesting this news, another figure materialised on the jaunting pad. Peter, a Time Guardian, stepped down. He started to speak, then stopped, as soon as he saw Silver, his questions answered. He raised an eyebrow.
Silver's reaction surprised everyone there, Silver included. "Stop raising that eyebrow at me! If you want to go and make yourself useful, find out who gave the transient beings some of your advanced morphic time disks!"
Peter blanched. "How did you know those were stolen?"
"Because I replicated some, so I could get out of the trap!"
"You'd only have needed one, and I see that, scattered over the floor."
"Steel grabbed the other, trying to fight off the transient beings sent to assassinate him!"
"What happened?"
"Steel lost. I don't know where the transient being sent him."
"Why did you come here?"
"Because the Triassic Period wasn't to my taste, even if I was to the taste of it's inhabitants. Also, I'll need help if I'm to rescue my friends. Neutral help. Help unlikely to send further assassins after myself and them, afterwards."
John spoke up. "How can telepaths assassinate? We can't kill."
"That's because they're not telepaths. Their powers are limited to more of the physical than the psychic, much of it technically enhanced. Even the psychic powers they do have are technologically based. They are also geniuses, powerful beyond even my abilities, and very deadly."
"Why have we never encountered any?"
"They've always been locked in the distant past, where they belong. We've made sure of it. But now two are very much running around in the current day or future, maybe with smuggled time disks or other advanced technology."
"How can they use the time disks? They're not homo superior?"
"Technology, again. They won't have the depth or finesse of a Time Guardian or a Time Agent, but they have enough control to deceive such devices and contol them to a degree."
John sighed. He knew what he was being asked to do - to pit the wits and youth of the Tomorrow People against a race of pseudo-telepaths whose technology was so great, some of the largest organisations in the galaxy were terrified witless of them. This felt an uneven battle. At least, when battling saps, you know you've some advantages.
He turned to Silver. "Would you be coming with us?"
"Certainly. I would need to. You'd never get through the defences and alarms, otherwise."
"And then?"
"And then we rescue Sapphire and Steel, get out of there, and maybe fight the transients with our combined strengths."
John pondered for a moment.
"We'll do it."
Last update: 14 April 2003