Full Summary: As the anomalies grow both more frequent and more dangerous the team realises that they have a crisis on their hands. But with the appearance of a strange recurring anomaly and a cryptic warning from someone they thought they'd never see again, will the team work out what's going on before it's too late? The stakes are higher now, and time itself may well hang in the balance. Ensemble action fic. Ignores series 2 finale.
Disclaimer: Not mine, and probably never will be either. Title inspired by a quote by Delmore Schwarz.
It was hot.
Not your usual "ooh, it's a bit warm in 'ere" sort of hot. More like actual heat wave, tyres of parked cars melting on the roads and grannies fainting from sunstroke sort of hot. And in Abby Maitland's flat, it was stifling.
"Have we got any ice?" a familiar voice called from the kitchen and Abby looked up, craning her head to see Connor sticking his head through the doorway.
"I put a tray of ice cubes in the freezer yesterday," she called back, idly stroking along Rex's spine as he perched on the back of the sofa. He, at least, seemed to be enjoying the Indian summer. There was an agreeable sound from Connor and then she heard him shuffling around, opening drawers and clinking classes together as he got one out of the cupboard. She'd remembered the ice cubes yesterday, when she was putting the most recent delivery of food for her snake in there… Oh, God. The snake's food!
"Connor!" she cried, jumping to her feet and sending Rex flying into the air in surprise at the sudden movement. "Don't open the-"
Before she could finish her sentence there was a shout of surprise and the sound of something, quite possibly a tray of ice cubes, being dropped. With a sense of trepidation, she appeared in the kitchen doorway. Connor spun around to face her, wide eyed.
"There's a bag of dead rats in the freezer," he told her, sounding more than just a little bit surprised. Just as she had suspected, the floor around his feet was sprinkled with bits of ice and the now empty tray was still in his hands.
Abby grimaced at the mess. "Yeah. Sorry, I should have told you they'd been delivered."
Connor nodded. "Right. Yeah, it's ok. But why are they in there?"
"For the snake. I normally only get a few at a time, but I bought in bulk this time. There was an offer." Abby told him, as though it should have been obvious.
"You can get dead rats on offer?" Connor asked, looking incredulous. Abby shrugged, starting to grin slightly at the look on his face.
"If you know where to look."
He opened and closed his mouth once or twice, but was spared the trouble of having to think of an adequate retort when his phone started to vibrate in his pocket. Half a second later, Abby's followed suit. The both of them knew that this could only mean one thing, and as they opened up their identical messages at the same time Abby groaned and Connor merely raised his eyebrows down at his screen.
"Anomaly," Abby said, looking up in time to see Connor nod.
"Yeah. Near Cambridge." And with that he shoved his phone back into his pocket, slipping past her into the living room where he hopped comically on one foot, putting on his shoes. Abby walked out to stand in front of him, hands on hips. He looked up at her curiously and she raised an eyebrow.
"What?" he asked.
"You've got some ice to clean up before you go," she told him, and couldn't resist sticking her tongue out childishly as he groaned.
To his credit Connor did sweep up the ice and deposit it in the sink before they left, and a little over an hour later the team found themselves briefed and standing in a muddy field somewhere in Cambridgeshire. A rather disgruntled looking farmer had greeted them at his gate and led them here, grumbling under his breath about government officials all the way.
"What seems to be the problem, then? Mr…" Jenny asked, offering the man a smile.
"Davies," he informed her, but didn't shake the hand she offered him, choosing to glance out over his land instead. "Well I went out and checked the sheep last night, made sure they was all safe an' sound. Everything was quiet so I went to bed. I went out this morning to feed them, and…" he trailed off, making an expansive gesture.
Nick frowned. "And what?"
"And my whole field's full of these bleedin' goats!" Davies finished, looking back at the team and sounding positively outraged. Abby and Stephen exchanged an incredulous look; Connor's detector had picked up anomaly activity in the area, which was why they'd been sent. So why on earth were they wasting time standing here, listening to a farmer tell them about his livestock?
"Goats?" Jenny repeated, sounding as though she were trying her best to sound pleasant and not at all confused.
Davies nodded. "Yeah. Weird things they are. Big, with these odd noses and long hair. Never seen anything like 'em, but they've been eating the food I put out for the sheep."
"Maybe we should have a closer look," Nick decided. Davies nodded.
"C'mon then, I'll take you up there."
The tiring walk up a dirt track that followed was both long and uneventful, unless you counted Jenny almost falling over on three separate occasions as her heels got stuck in mud or caught against stones. In the end she resorted to hanging on to Nick for the remainder of the trek. He didn't seem to mind very much, prompting much muttering and meaningful looks from Abby, Connor and Stephen.
When the field first came into view they didn't immediately notice anything unusual. There was a large flock of sheep gathered near the gate, milling around restlessly. And then, further away, there was another group of light coloured animals contentedly grazing. From a distance, they might have been mistaken for sheep as well but as the group arrived at the gate it quickly became obvious that they were not.
They were a good bit taller, for one. Also they had some rather impressive horns.
"Some type of antelope?" Abby guessed, leaning on the gate for a closer look. Unsurprisingly, none of the "goats" were coming anywhere near them. Davies turned to look between the group, raising his eyebrows.
"So you tell me what they're doing in my field!" he demanded, apparently not best pleased. At this Jenny turned to him and smiled, letting go of Nick's arm. She was suddenly professional again.
"They must have escaped from a private collection. There are a lot of farms nowadays that specialise in rarer breeds of livestock. Quite a bit of money in it, I understand," she added knowledgeably, glancing at Nick as Davies just scowled.
"So what are you going to do about it?" he asked.
"We'll have them rounded up and returned to their owner as soon as possible. And of course, you'll be reimbursed for the cost of any feed you've lost."
The mention of compensation seemed to be the magic words, because suddenly Davies seemed slightly more cooperative.
"Right. Well I've got a cow about to give birth up by the house and I'd best keep an eye on her."
"Of course. You get on with that and we'll keep you updated," Jenny smiled, turning to watch him as he walked back down the track. Once he was out of sight she turned around, looking to the others.
"What are those things?"
"Like Abby said, some type of antelope. But we're going to need a closer look," Nick answered, eyeing the gate. Throughout their conversation with Davies Connor had been standing against it, the sheep sticking their heads through to nibble at his sleeves and at his pockets while he looked caught between amusement and concern. It quickly became obvious that they would not be able to open the gate without the animals escaping, quite possibly in search of something more appetising than items of clothing.
"Come on then." Stephen, ever practical, made short work of climbing over the gate. The sheep on the other side moved out of the way as he landed, eyeing him warily. While the others moved to follow him, Jenny gestured down at her lower half. Heels, semi-opaque tights and a skirt of all things.
"You have got to be kidding me."
But they weren't and eventually, with a bit of assistance from Nick, she managed to get over without giving anyone a flash of her underwear. Then they found themselves amongst the flock, who's initial wariness seemed to be quickly becoming replaced by curiosity.
"Has anyone ever seen that film Black Sheep?" Connor asked, as they pushed their way though the flock, Stephen at the lead shooing the animals out of their way so that they could get through. He glanced back at Connor, lips twitching in amusement as Abby shot the younger man a vaguely horrified look.
"Now probably isn't the best time to mention it," he told him, finally stepping clear of the group of sheep and coming to open field. The others followed and there stood the odd looking antelope in all their glory.
They were about the size of an average deer, covered in a multitude of shaggy, light coloured fur. The males vastly outnumbered by what seemed to be females, were adorned with some rather impressive pairs of horns. And all of them looked as though they were attempting to grow an elephant's trunk but not quite managing it.
Abby squinted at them, tilting her head to the side.
"Are those saiga?" she wondered. Stephen looked at her, raising an eyebrow at how quickly she recognised them. At his questioning look, she shrugged. "I heard a talk about them once. The WWF were trying to get people to stop poaching them. Very rare antelope, live in Russia and Mongolia… I think."
"They're a long way from home, then," Stephen looked vaguely puzzled.
Connor was frowning, looking thoughtful. "They were common in the last Ice Age."
Nick nodded, confirming the fact. "And their numbers have been decreasing ever since. I don't think there's many left now at all." He paused for a moment, eyeing the large herd. "So judging by the number we've got here, I'm guessing they're not from modern times."
Connor grinned. "Cool. Maybe we'll get a mammoth through next? Or a woolly rhinoceros. They should have been around at about the same time as these guys. I've always wanted to see one of them…"
He trailed off, perhaps realising that the others did not seem to be sharing his enthusiasm. "What?"
"How about you take this," Nick waved the handheld anomaly detector at him, "And find our anomaly. It's got to be around here somewhere."
"Yeah, right." Connor took the detector and fiddled with it for a moment until, apparently satisfied with what he'd just done, he turned and gave Nick a mock salute before heading off in what was apparently the direction of the anomaly. After a moment's pause Abby set off after him, picking up a sidearm before she left just in case.
That left Nick, Jenny and Stephen with the problem of how exactly they were going to round up a whole herd of uncooperative Saiga.
Half an hour later and Jenny had phoned around and arranged a large livestock transport lorry, which was now parked in the middle of the field. Lester had sent a team from Special Forces to accompany it, just in case.
An hour later and Connor and Abby had returned, having tracked down the anomaly to some nearby woods. The others had still had no luck in trying to cajole the saiga into going into the lorry. Every time they managed to herd them together, through some rather foolish looking waving and shouting, a few would just break off again a few seconds later.
In the end it was Abby, perched on the bonnet of the truck, who came up with their master plan. She glanced between the saiga and the sheep, narrowing her eyes speculatively.
"Why don't we just use sheepdogs?" she wondered. So they did.
It was left to Jenny to go back up to the farm house and convince Davies to help them. Grumbling and muttering under his breath, though apparently reluctant to really disagree with them now that there were a dozen armed men on his land. Two rather excitable looking border collies bounded in front of him, but both quickly proved to be far more sensible than they initially looked and made short work of rounding up the saiga just as effectively as they usually did with the sheep. Before long all of the confused looking creatures were safely enclosed in the back of the lorry, ready to be transported to the anomaly site. Then it was just a case of setting up some metal railings to guide the antelope towards the anomaly, and succeeding in startling them enough so that they ran towards it. Which wasn't that difficult, really, and Nick and Stephen seemed to be rather enjoying it.
The team stood back, watching with no small amount of satisfaction as the last antelope disappeared back through the anomaly, and just in time. Just a few moments after it passed through Connor looked up from the anomaly detector.
"Signal's getting weaker," he warned, turning to watch as the mass of sparkling light gradually faded, finally winking out of existence altogether. Case closed.
It had been hours since the day's somewhat unusual events when Davies woke up in the middle of the night, seeing nothing but black until his eyes adjusted to the darkness of his bedroom. It took him a few seconds to identify what had woken him, but when he did alertness came quickly. Downstairs, the dogs were barking frantically. Beside him his wife stirred in her sleep but didn't wake up and, careful not to disturb her, he slipped out of bed and got to his feet.
The dogs were still going at it, and he could hear a series of faint thuds and scratches as they pawed at the kitchen door. Quickly he crossed the dark room and slid open the top drawer in his cabinet, feeling around beneath pairs of socks and underpants before his fingers closed around metal. He pulled out the old pistol he kept there, just in case, then opened the door and slowly made his way downstairs.
The two collies paused in their barking to look around at him as he entered the kitchen, then continued on as though he wasn't there.
"What is it, girl?" he asked, reaching down to stroke the head of the dog closest to him. "Is there someone out there?"
He fumbled with the lock for a moment and the dogs were out before he'd fully opened the door, streaking out like black and white bullets into the night. He pulled a torch from one of the cupboards, switching it on before following the dogs out.
"Nell! Jack!" he called after them, expecting them to return. But they paid little heed and he could hear them barking as they raced towards the field where his cows were. Grumbling under his breath he limped after them as quickly as he could manage. As he neared he heard the sound of more growling and then a series of high pitched wails, then silence. Suddenly he heard whining and looked down, the beam of his torch illuminating the form of Nell as she raced back towards him. She was trembling violently, he realised, pressing herself against his legs as though for protection. He frowned, raising the torch so that it's light fell on the field.
Most of the cows had fled to the far corner, milling around anxiously, but there was a still form lying on the ground not far in. As he stepped closer, Davies realised with growing horror that it was one of his cows sprawled across the ground. Initially he thought of colic, but as he neared the body it quickly became apparent that the cow's end had been a violent one. The animal's side was torn open right open, hide marked by teeth and claws. And there, lying next to the fence, was Jack. The sheepdog was utterly still, eyes wide open and unseeing. It's throat had been torn clean out.