by Gary Russell
‘He’s not here,’ Luke said obviously.
Clyde was already thinking about what Lucy had said about the woods. And Luke probably knew Clyde well enough to guess what he was thinking.
‘Mum said we shouldn’t go into the woods.’
‘I know,’ agreed Clyde. ‘But he could be out there somewhere, maybe injured.’ And Clyde set off for the woods. Luke hung back for a moment, then threw his arms wide with despair at Clyde’s attitude and followed his friend.
Neither of them heard the slight rustle of bushes as the invisible Sontaran moved through the woods to follow them.
Maria tapped the return key and the image on the huge wall-sized screen in the Control room changed again. This time she was staring at a multi coloured gas cloud.
CLICK
Now a supernova.
CLICK
Now the rings of Saturn.
CLICK
‘Lucy’s still asleep,’ said Sarah Jane’s voice from behind her. ‘And the boys are still outside, checking for her father.’
Maria turned away from the beautiful space vistas with a sigh. ‘Should we ring the police?’ Sarah Jane didn’t make eye contact and instead started rifling through a folder of notes and read-outs. ‘Oh, I’d like to think this is something the police could handle. But my instincts tell me it isn’t.’ And with a sigh she put the folder down and sat in a swivel chair. ‘My instincts also tell me there’s something you want to tell me.’
Maria hesitated. Steeling herself.
‘Dad’s been offered a new job. In America.’
And to Maria it looked as if Sarah Jane had been slapped, but she recovered quickly. ‘America?’
‘He applied for this job with CapitolSys Technologies in London. Then, out of the blue, they offered him a job at the Head Office in Washington.’
‘Well, that’s excellent news,’ Sarah Jane said, coolly And Maria was reminded of the time that Sarah Jane had briefly lost Luke. When the Slitheen arranged to have a false history for Luke created, calling him Ashley Stafford and taking him away. And Sarah Jane’s defence mechanism had been to become cold, hard. Dismissing Maria and Clyde from her life as a result, not wanting to show how hurt and upset she was. And for Maria, that had been awful because in one moment Sarah Jane had gone from being her marvellous friend and mentor, to disinterested neighbour wanting everything that reminded her of Luke gone from her life.
She was giving Maria that same reaction now. ‘Nothing stays the same for ever, Maria,’ she was saying, her voice empty and hollow, unemotional. ‘If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my life, it’s that nothing stays the same, and people always move on.’ But how could Maria leave all this behind? Everything she’d seen, done and experienced. ‘But I don’t want to leave you, Sarah Jane,’ she cried.
Sarah Jane just shrugged and began leafing through the folder again, as if that was now the most important thing. ‘All the same, you must.’ She stood up and tucked the folder under her arm and started to walk back to the Rec Room. She threw one last look back at Maria, smiling. But it didn’t reach her eyes.
‘I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful life in America.’
‘America?’
Chrissie Jackson collapsed, rather heavily, into Alan’s armchair, while he made her a cup of tea.
She pulled her leopard-skin print coat tighter around her, as if the house in Bannerman Road had suddenly got colder. Emptier.
On the drive over from her new home, she’d wondered what Alan had wanted. Had something happened to Maria? Had he won the lottery? Had Mad Old Sally Ann Smith opposite finally been carted off to the funny farm?
She hadn’t expected this.
‘But you’ve only just finished decorating this house,’ was the best she could come up with. She looked up at her ex. ‘And you don’t look like a man who’s just pulled “the job of a lifetime”, I have to say.’
Alan shrugged. ‘But it is, Chrissie.’
‘Are you going to take it?’
‘Well,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s not just about what I want to do.’
And Chrissie realised what he meant. It meant Maria would be going with him.
‘Does she want to go?’
Alan shrugged. ‘Maria didn’t think a job could change our lives any more than they’ve changed already. But she wasn’t expecting this. Neither was I — didn’t think anything could surprise me now.’ Chrissie joined him at the window and realised he was staring straight at the big house opposite, where You Know Who lived. ‘You never know what’s around the corner,’ she said quietly.
Alan looked at her. ‘If we go, Maria has a lot more to give up than I do.’
But all Chrissie could think about was the future facing her now. ‘And my little girl will be on the other side of the world.’
Chapter Five
Traitor
Clyde and Luke were making their way through the woods, shoving aside bracken and bushes. Tiny razor-sharp twigs picked at their legs and bare arms, and more than once Clyde found himself licking a drop of blood off a freshly cut finger or wrist.
Finally in frustration, he kicked out at an old dead tree branch in the path which, to be honest, he could have stepped over with little effort.
Luke, who was behind him, raised his eyebrows in surprise at Clyde’s aggression.
Clyde couldn’t actually have seen that look, but it didn’t stop him snapping, ‘And you can drop that look, Luke.’
Luke was open-mouthed. ‘What look? How.’
‘Cos I know you too well, mate.’ Clyde then more gently eased some bushes apart. ‘I hate woods. The city is Civilisation. Woods are The Land That Time Forgot.’
Luke shrugged. ‘Should’ve done what Mum said then, and stayed at the edge instead of coming right into the middle of —’
Luke’s piety was cut off as something behind them cracked. Like a tree branch or a brittle dead bush.
What was that?’ asked Clyde.
‘Maybe it’s Professor Skinner,’ Luke suggested.
‘I can feel the hair on the back of my neck standing on end,’ Clyde said, gingerly touching the nape of his neck.
Luke frowned. ‘That’s strange. So can I.’
Clyde looked behind them. ‘No, that’s not “strange”. That is one hundred percent creeped- out-to-the-max.’
‘Or,’ Luke said sagely, ‘the result of an electrostatic field.’ He tugged on Clyde’s arm. ‘There’s something behind us, Clyde. Right there.’
Clyde stared. ‘An alien? Where?’
And where they were looking, the ground suddenly shuddered, almost rose up momentarily, as if something very heavy, very powerful, had dropped from the trees above and landed.
‘There?’ suggested Luke quietly And the boys could just make it out against the trees, the limited forest light refracting off the shape of their semi-visible quarry. It was short, squat and armoured. And very powerful looking.
‘Maybe it can’t see us,’ Clyde said quietly. ‘You know, maybe it works both ways. We can’t see it, so it can’t see us?’
Luke shook his head. ‘No. It sees us.’
As if to confirm this, the mighty helmeted head inclined slightly, as if studying the boys.
And then suddenly the invisibility was off and the alien stood before them, his battered cobalt blue armour still looking scarify powerful and unbreakable.
And it shot forward towards them at a speed which belied its weight and size.
‘Run!’ was Luke’s rather pointless suggestion as he and Clyde belted off through the woods, now ignoring the brambles and prickles that snatched at their clothes and skin.
Behind them, all they could hear was a massive thump, thump, thump as, with each step the alien took, the ground shook beneath it.
It was relentless and powerful and as the boys began to run out of breath, getting deeper and deeper into the woods, the creature behind them seemed determined not to give up.
Clyde grabbed Luke’s hand, almost yanking his
arm out of his socket as he was in mid-run, and the two of them half-dropped, half-fell into a leaf- covered dip. They scrabbled under some dropped branches and crouched down, doing everything to stop their harsh breathing, hearing only the sound of blood pumping through their panicked bodies.
Clyde nudged Luke and the boys could see that the alien stood some way away from them, gun in hand, searching. It then let out an angry battle cry that sent what few birds hadn’t already flown away, scurrying out of the woodland in fear.
Having apparently lost its quarry, the alien stomped back the way it had come.
Clyde and Luke stayed where they were for what seemed like an hour but was probably a minute at most. Neither of them could remember ever being so scared.
Then Clyde sneaked out from under cover and looked around.
‘Gone,’ he mouthed to Luke, and slowly they made their way in the opposite direction from where the alien had gone.
After a few minutes of the quietest walking in woods they had ever managed, Clyde sat down, exhausted.
Luke put a hand on his friend’s shoulder — he rarely got as tired or exhausted as other boys, something to do with the way the Bane had made him, he reckoned. ‘This is wrong,’ he said quietly. ‘We didn’t come this way.’
Clyde knew this, but wasn’t going to give up. He indicated a pathway to the right. ‘Let’s follow that. It’s bound to lead to the road, and then we can circle back to the Tycho building.’ He stood up to start walking.
Luke instinctively put a hand up to feel the back of his neck again, just as Clyde noisily crashed into something invisible.
For a second, Luke assumed it was the alien warrior, but when nothing attacked them, he helped Clyde up, feeling cautiously with his hand for the invisible wall.
As he touched it, the air shimmered in a really unnatural way, as if it were the surface of water, sending ripples of air away from where his hand had made contact.
The two boys looked at one another in amazement.
Back in the Rec Room at the Tycho Project, Lucy was waking up and saw Sarah Jane staring down at her.
‘Is my father back?’
Sarah Jane shook her head. ‘No, but Clyde and Luke have gone to find him. They’ll be back soon.’ But that wasn’t enough to comfort Lucy, who was up and out of the room before Sarah Jane could stop her.
She caught up with the distraught girl in the Control Room, where Maria was trying to calm her down. ‘You can’t go out there,’ Maria was explaining.
‘She’s right,’ Sarah Jane confirmed. ‘There could be something dangerous out there.’
Lucy looked from Sarah Jane to Maria. ‘Why should I listen to you two? I don’t even know who you are.’
‘Believe me,’ Sarah Jane said quietly but firmly. ‘I know about things like this. Tell me about the lights you saw.’
Lucy shrugged. ‘They were… the size of footballs, circling the antenna.’
Maria exchanged a look with Sarah Jane. ‘Footballs? So we’re not talking about spaceships then.’
‘Oh don’t be so sure. The Vorkazian Hordes of Meta Vorka 6 travel in spacecraft the size of coffee cups. But I think what Lucy saw last night were some sort of drones.’
Maria felt rebuffed at the sharpness of Sarah Jane’s tone, but didn’t reply.
Lucy was frowning. ‘Drones? Spaceships? Here?’
‘Oh come on,’ Sarah Jane said. ‘In this day and age, the idea of aliens shouldn’t be so difficult to accept…’ Sarah Jane stopped talking because Lucy was no longer listening to her. Instead, she was grinning at something or someone behind both Sarah Jane and Maria.
They turned to look. A man stood in the doorway in a long white lab coat. He had untidy hair and a curious look in his eyes.
‘Dad!’
And Lucy ran to her father and threw her arms around him in a huge hug.
To Maria it seemed an age before the Professor returned the gesture and even then it seemed… uncomfortable.
He was staring straight at Maria, but spoke to Lucy. ‘I was looking for you, Lucy.’
‘Something chased me in the woods last night and —’
‘There’s nothing in the woods,’ said Professor Skinner dully, as if that was to be the end of any discussion.
Sarah Jane stepped forward. ‘Perhaps it was something to do with the lights you saw, Professor? My name is Sarah Jane Smith, this is my friend Maria Jackson. What happened to you last night?’ But Professor Skinner didn’t reply to that. He eased Lucy firmly away from him and walked towards the computer banks facing the giant screen. ‘This is a private scientific facility. Visitors are not welcome.’ And he sat down, and started to type on a keyboard as if no one else was there.
Maria crossed over to him. His attention was caught by Lucy’s MP3 player, and he was examining it as if he’d never seen one before. As he looked at Maria, he put it back on the desk.
‘We were helping Lucy,’ Maria explained. ‘Something scared her. And she was very worried about you.’
Lucy added, ‘Miss Smith is a journalist.’ Professor Skinner shrugged and went back to his work. Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you Miss Smith, but as you can see, there’s no story here. The lights were ball lightning. Rare, but fascinating meteorological phenomena. Not an invasion of little green men. Goodbye.’
‘But there was something in the woods,’
Lucy insisted.
‘Your imagination,’ the Professor said quickly. Then he finally looked back at Sarah Jane. ‘Please leave now, I wish to take care of my daughter.’ Sarah Jane stood defiant for a moment, then gave him one of her tight, insincere smiles that always meant to Maria that she was thinking “this isn’t over yet”. But what she said was: ‘Of course, Professor. Absolutely. Come on, Maria.’
And Maria was led out of the Control Room, past the Rec Room and outside into the midday light. ‘There’s something wrong here.’
Sarah Jane agreed. ‘His body language was all wrong. He didn’t look like a worried father who’s been out hunting for his missing daughter. In fact, he didn’t act like a father at all.’
And Sarah Jane’s mobile rang.
‘It’s Luke,’ she said as she answered.
Lucy Skinner watched through a little window in the Rec Room as Sarah Jane Smith and her friend got into their little green car and drove away. Dad had been a bit rude to her, but Lucy couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t glad she had left. Now it was just the two of them, and she could see if he’d talk about last night. But as her father still seemed a bit distant, she went for Option One “When A Dad Is In A Weird Mood” — she made him a cup of tea.
She walked back from the Rec Room to the Control Room, trying not to spill the hot drink, and cooed gently, ‘Hey, Dad, I made you some tea.’
But he remained sat at his desk, tapping on the keyboard.
Lucy saw he was staring at a rendered graphic of Earth on the big screen, a series of red dots appearing about half an inch above the circumference at odd spots.
‘What’re you doing?’ she asked, placing the mug beside him.
No response.
‘Dad?’
And suddenly her father stood up, causing her to step back.
‘Dad? Daddy?’ Something made Lucy instinctively take another step back. Her father was never like this with her, even at the height of his problems with Mum, both her parents never got aggressive towards her or took their frustrations out on Lucy in any way.
So this strange attitude was scary.
And the way he was looking at her, blankly, like he wasn’t really seeing her.
Lucy took another step back, and felt her heel touch something.
Too late. She realised she’d trodden on the leg of a wheeled chair which skidded out from beneath her and as Lucy crashed to the floor, her head struck it, and for the second time in twenty- four hours, Lucy Skinner blacked out…
Chapter Six
Power play
Luke and Clyde stood on the side of the road, jus
t away from the edge of the woods, and watched as Sarah Jane’s car roared to a stop before them.
Clyde almost flinched at the anger in Sarah Janes eyes as she and Maria got out of the car. The slamming of the door sounded like a gunshot in the seclusion of the area.
‘I thought I told you two to stay out of the woods,’ she barked crossly.
‘I know,’ Luke said, quite truthfully. ‘But you didn’t really think we would.’
Clyde shot him a look that said “Gee, thanks, mate, good one”, but Sarah Jane just sighed. ‘No, of course not. That’s why I’m angry. Angry with myself.’ She threw an arm around each of their shoulders. ‘Come on then, what have you got to show me?’
This way,’ Luke said eagerly and she followed the boys into the woods.
Maria was aware that she was lagging a step or three behind them. And Sarah Jane was still barely talking to her.
She must be really angry — not with the boys for doing exactly what they were told not to do, but at Maria. For leaving. For going to America. But what could she do?
She traipsed through the woods, deliberately hanging back, not wanting to be in the way. But this was silly — she’d done nothing wrong. But she needed to talk to Sarah Jane, make her see that it was a decision she and her dad had made, for the good of her family.
Talking about it was the sensible thing to do. The grown-up thing.
The boys had led them to a flat area in the woods not too far from the road. Maria noted broken twigs and flattened bushes, like a huge boulder had been rolled through the woods, crushing everything in its path.
The minor devastation stopped roughly where Luke was now standing and he reached out.
And Maria saw the effect on the air. ‘Wow,’ she said. It was both pretty and scary at the same time.
‘We thought it was some sort of a force field at first,’ Luke said, ‘but I realised it wasn’t. I think it’s a perception camouflage matrix. I imagine that’s what the alien who chased us was using, too.’
Clyde now tapped the air. ‘See, it looks sort of round.’
Maria thought of her boulder analogy. ‘Is it the alien’s ship then?’ she asked. ‘Has it been pushed up here to hide it from prying eyes?’