A new start?
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Impossible Pictures. ™
-1-
The time was late Miocene, at least 10 million years ago BC. Helen Cutter was sitting on top of a tall hill (almost a small mountain, one could say), and dispassionately observed a clan of oreopithecus, as the prehistoric apes were recovering from the last night's storm, grazing alongside a herd of prehistoric horses that still regained several extra toes in place of a single one of the modern equids. Neither species of mammal seemed to be perturbed by the last night's element rampage, nor truth to tell, was Helen, as she had been able to experience (and survive) much worse situations than a Miocene thunderstorm.
And yet, something was gnawing in her gut, an apprehension that something big was coming up upon her, something finite and deadly – perhaps even more so than the massive bear-dog that was slowly stalking the mixed grazers, intent on catching one of them for its breakfast. Helen knew that there was at least one more factor figuring in the success of the bear-dog's hunt: numerous low-land bogs that could spend doom for both predator and prey – but unlike her usual outings, today she just couldn't bring herself to care about that...
As the bear-dog stalked the primitive apes and horses, Helen was carefully looking at the watch in her current hide-out: soon it will be her hour and all will be over, one way or another. And then-
A very familiar – almost painfully so – sound coming behind caused Helen to whirl around, the hilts of her knives already in her hands. Then the time anomaly opened, and Captain Becker stepped through.
"You!" he said bitterly, "I thought that Danny and others have taken care of you, but I guess I'll have to do it instead-"
"Yes, I guess so," Helen said demurely, releasing the hilts of her weapons. "Try not to mess it up, would you?"
Becker blinked, as he realized that something was off in this situation, but suddenly, from behind him, came an unexpecting sound of a body hitting the floor. "Sarah? Are you okay?"
"Yes, yes, I am fine, I just feel a bit chilly, and, and-" Sarah rubbed her forehead, "I, I-"
"Excuse me," Helen quickly walked through the time anomaly, her backpack in her hands, and effortlessly pushed Becker aside. "Miss, can I ask you a question."
"Yes- Ow, why did you prick me?"
"Who are you?"
"I am Sarah Page, born in 1971, a professor of Egyptology, and now, apparently, of cryptozoology or mythology. Ow! You did prick me again!"
"Why did you end up working with the ARC?"
"Because when I was working in Egypt, some of the natives thought that it was wrong that I was not doing a woman's work even though that I looked a bit like them, and they made it known. I responded in kind, one thing led to another that led to the area quite different from archaeology, and it was decided that it would be better for me to stay in England to let the passions cool down and for me – maybe, possibly – to rethink my political views. Probably not... Ow! Why-"
"Do you like working here?"
"Yes!"
"Even when you ran into a certain fungus from the future, either rust, or preferably grey-coloured?"
"Yes! It was grey-coloured! It killed several people- ow!"
"How did it kill them?"
"It spread by touch, like a mould or something-"
"Actually, it's more closely related to cordyceps fungi – did you feel it?"
"Yes I did – but my eyes feel worse."
"Really bad, right?"
"Yeah, did you do something-" Sarah grasped her forehead and screamed. Becker finally shook-off his stupor and aimed at Helen once again – but then he noticed something that caused him to pause: Sarah's originally dark eyes were darkening all over – the pupil, the cornea, the iris, etc were becoming a completely wrong dark grey colour, and they were bulging like a pair of overcooked eggs. The rest of Sarah's face was also contorted in a rictus of indescribable pain, even as Helen had the younger woman in a solid grip and slowly turned her whole body towards a wastebasket. And then-
"Get her to a bloody medical bay!!"
It seemed that Helen Cutter did possess a commander's voice among her several properties.