Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.
Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.
9.7 Detour
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Becker was asleep. The soldier's long legs were sprawled out haphazardly into the aisle of the military transport aircraft. The Tristar did not have the luxury of a flight attendant, so there was no worry of tripping anyone.
Connor was sitting in the same row as Becker, but he was across the aisle by the window. The aisle seat next to Connor was occupied by his laptop. The young scientist was currently looking out the window trying to see through the clouds. The occasional glimpse of land told Connor that the aircraft was still over the European continent.
In the seats behind Becker and Connor, the six remaining members of their security team were similarly sprawled out. Some of the young recruits were snoring. The trip to Germany to support the Munich ARC had been hard on everyone involved.
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Lester told the team members assembled at the long rectangular conference table Monday morning about the planned trip to Germany.
"Our counterparts in the German government specifically requested our best field team," explained Lester. He looked pointedly past Connor to the empty chairs just beyond the younger man. "At the moment, that's you and Becker."
"Why?" asked Connor. "What happened?"
Lester sighed. He rubbed a hand across his forehead suddenly looking older and more tired than Connor had ever seen him.
"They're not even sure an anomaly opened," continued Lester "nothing registered on the Munich Anomaly Detection Device."
"Then why are we sending anyone?" asked Connor. "If it's just an equipment malfunction, you don't need us to go all the way to Germany."
Lester raised his eyebrows and stared down his nose at the ARCs dark haired technical genius.
"We can set up a video conference call," continued Connor "Gisele and I can go over the equipment piece by piece until we find out what's wrong."
"It's not just an equipment malfunction," replied Lester quietly.
"How do you know?" asked Becker. The tall Captain was sitting next to Jess, both of them directly across the table from Connor.
"Carl said he sent three of his best team members," answered Lester, referring to his counterpart in the German ARC, "to go check out reports of strange tracks and night time sounds."
Connor, Becker and Jess stared at their boss. Lester took a deep breath.
"The Munich ARCs Alpha field team is missing," said Lester. He rose to a standing position at the head of the long table. "You need to be at Brize Norton by noon. Don't be late."
Becker glanced briefly at Connor, and then focused his gaze on Lester.
"Not Heathrow?" asked Becker "The Royal Air Force is flying us over?"
"The minister arranged special transportation," explained Lester, "to expedite matters and allow for some of our more… unusual equipment… to be loaded… with no questions. We're short handed again, so additional recruits from Sandhurst will be meeting you there."
"And we've got clearance from the German government," pressed Becker "to bring a military flight into their airspace?"
"Yes, of course," snapped Lester "we don't want any international incidents!"
"You said noon," said Connor. "Today?"
Lester stared at the ARCs technical genius.
"Yes Connor," replied Lester, giving a sigh, "today. It's part of the effort to expedite matters."
"Abby's not going to like that," commented Connor. "I'm supposed to…"
"What am I not going to like?" asked the petite blonde as she opened the door to the conference room.
"Nice of you to finally join us," sniffed Lester.
"Sorry I'm late," Abby apologized. She grinned cheekily at Lester. "First morning back after maternity leave has been a little chaotic. You wouldn't believe all the forms…"
Abby slipped into the black padded office chair next to Connor. She reached a hand across the empty space between their chairs to clasp Connor's hand. Entwining his fingers with hers, Connor gave Abby's hand a gentle squeeze.
"What have I missed?" asked Abby.
"Lester's sending me and Becker to Germany," answered Connor turning to face her blue eyes, "today… I won't be able to pick up Sarah from daycare."
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Connor, Becker and the raw recruits that comprised their security detail joined the Munich ARCs Beta field team in a small northern town called Lancken-Granitz Monday evening. Searching the rocky terrain between the town and the Baltic Sea began at daylight the next morning. It was difficult to track the Munich ARCs Alpha field team, and soon people were going round in circles.
"How many of those rock formations are there?" asked one of the young recruits.
"Seven dolmens," answered Carl. The Munich ARC's director was personally on site with the rest of the Munich team. "And there's also the Guardian stones…"
The unfortunate young man's scream stopped any additional discussion of the local stones. One misstep and the young man was slipping, sliding down the slope to crash headlong against one of the heavy Guardian stones.
"Possible concussion," explained the medic "we'll need to evaluate him at the hospital."
"At least it's not you this time," said Becker as he watched the recruit being carried up the hill on a stretcher.
Connor didn't seem to hear Becker. He was inspecting the large upright stone. Connor pulled his fingerless gloves off to place his bare hands on the rock.
"Feels warm," Connor muttered. He strode off towards the next monolith.
"The sun is shining Connor," called Becker. "Stones absorb heat in the sunlight."
Connor still didn't seem to hear Becker. The soldier shook his head as his friend meandered off. Becker nodded at one of the more alert recruits from Sandhurst. The red headed young man turned to look where the Captain pointed. Then, as Becker mounted the hill to insure that his injured recruit was safely evacuated, the red headed recruit began to follow the scientist. Connor knelt down at the base of one of the towering stones and started to brush away dirt, leaves, and sticks.
"May I help you Sir," asked the young recruit respectfully.
Connor looked up in surprise. He looked first to the left, and then to the right. Not seeing anyone else around, Connor looked back at the red head.
"Are you talking to me?" asked Connor.
The young recruit nodded.
"Can you help me dig?"
The two men were still digging when Becker returned.
"There is magnetite," said Connor "at the base of this Guardian stone and the last two we checked."
"Yeah Conn," replied Becker "we'll come back tomorrow morning and start again… right now it's getting dark. I don't want anyone else tripping and falling. You know how Lester hates accident reports."
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Wednesday, they continued checking the area. Of the seven dolmens in the vicinity, three were completely surrounded by circles of Guardian stones. The dolmen closest to where the Munich team had disappeared was fronted by a solitary Guardian stone. All of the Guardian stones were settled on a magnetite base.
"The set up may function in a similar manner to the Egyptian Sun Cage," said Connor.
He was staring at the solitary stone standing before him, tapping his pen against his bottom lip.
"Only the dolmens are much older…," continued Connor "these date from the Neolithic era…"
"There are lots of old stories about the dolmens," said Carl "archeologists have done some research… the stones themselves were deposited by glaciers… there are some theories about the dolmens being used for funeral purposes…"
"I saw a dolmen in France once," said Becker "some people said it was a grave marker… other people said it marked a fairy circle."
"Dolmens can be found all over Europe," said Connor, "and other places. Hmmm…"
He was still tapping his pen against his lip. It had been another long day. As the sun was starting to set, Connor began to squint.
"The only other time I saw a dolmen close up… it had an anomaly open in front of it," said Connor "but that dolmen was open on the sides… this dolmen is sealed up… rocks around the sides."
"There's no open anomaly here Connor," said Becker "or the hand held detector would have gone off."
"The detector works off of electro magnetic radio frequency," mused Connor. He stepped closer to the Guardian stone. "I don't know that we've ever tested it near this much magnetite."
"Connor, it's getting dark," the Captain said "now is not the time to test your newest theory. We'll come back tomorrow."
Connor stepped past the Guardian stone closer towards the dolmen. Becker realized the hand held detector was beginning to vibrate. The pen Connor had been holding suddenly jerked out of Connor's hand and flew towards the dolmen. The hand held detector started blaring.
"The anomaly is inside the dolmen," shouted Connor. "We've got to go through it, if we want to find out what happened to Gisele and the others."
"No one is supposed to go through the anomalies!" exclaimed Becker. "Connor!"
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Carl put the shiny metal whistle between his lips to blow three long tweets to alert the rest of the team members. When the Sandhurst recruits and the Munich Beta team converged on his location, they all went into the dolmen following after Connor and Becker.
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It was cold on the other side of the anomaly… very cold… and bright. The sun was shining high up in the sky. Connor looked back to see the dolmen, and was nearly run over by Becker as he came through the glittering fractured light.
"You're not supposed to go through an anomaly," said Becker. The soldier raised his weapon, instantly on guard, looking to the left and then to the right.
"Neither are you," replied Connor. Becker glared at the scientist.
Then Connor pointed to a spot behind Becker. The Captain slowly turned to view the dolmen… standing open, with no stones enclosing the sides. Snow flakes fluttered and flurried through the openings between the stones. The anomaly was still pulsing in between the rocky pillars. On the other side of the dolmen, a red scarf lay on the ground partially covered with snow.
"I think Gisele and the others went that way," added Connor.
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Thankfully, they didn't have to go far. They weren't really prepared for a snow expedition. Just over the ridge, Connor and Becker found a stony burrow surrounded by a crude paddock.
"What is that?" asked Becker. He pointed at the hairy creatures that were being corralled in the fenced area.
"Reindeer," replied Connor, his lips curling up in a grin. "It looks like who ever lives here keeps them."
"Connor," said Becker "let's see if we can find Gisele and the others and get back to our time… before the anomaly closes again."
The sheltered entrance to the burrow only allowed for one person to enter at a time.
"Lester told me to keep you out of trouble," said Becker. "I should go in first."
Connor just rolled his eyes and went in anyway.
Inside the burrow, a small fire was burning, providing some light and warmth. The tiny hole in the ceiling allowed smoke to escape, while limiting the amount of snow entering the home. For this was indeed a home.
"Gisele," exclaimed Connor "what are you doing here?"
"Couldn't leave just yet," chuckled his friend, as she pointed to a woman who was obviously in labor. "What are you doing here?"
"We came to rescue you," answered Connor. He looked beyond Gisele and the laboring woman to see three other people. Behind Connor, Becker crowded into the tiny home.
A very worried looking man dressed in animal skins was holding the groaning woman's hand. He kept brushing her forehead, whispering sounds that may have been words… may have been words of love.
The two other members of the missing Munich team were huddled together just beyond Gisele. The big man, Erich, had wrenched his knee falling when they went through the anomaly. Tiny Eva was patting his hand, assuring him everything would be fine when they got back.
"You came to rescue us?" asked Gisele, looking surprised. "How did you even know where we were? We only just got here."
"What?" exclaimed Connor "Gisele… you lot have been missing for days now."
Gisele looked surprised at that comment, but a sudden movement from the woman lying before her diverted her attention. Things happened quickly, and soon there was another squalling life cuddled in the stone shelter.
"We should get going."
The five of them, left the stone age family and headed back towards the anomaly. Becker and Connor were supporting Erich. Gisele lead the way, while Eva held Becker's weapon and watched the back.
"There was a cave lion," explained Gisele "stampeding the reindeer herd… the tracks… the noises… all from one hungry predator chasing its prey in and out of time." She shuddered.
They met Carl and the rest of the rescue team back at the dolmen. They had just come through the anomaly.
"Gisele," shouted Carl in relief "you're alive!"
The director of the Munich ARC wrapped the slender brunette in his arms, holding her tightly.
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Both the Munich ARC team and the United Kingdom team carpooled together for the trip back to Munich. The group from the United Kingdom should have been on the flight back to Brize Norton by Thursday evening at the latest, but the motorway accident changed those plans.
Connor and Becker were riding in the first minivan with Carl and Gisele. Connor was still questioning the pair about the differences in time. The scientist didn't understand why Gisele and her group had been gone for days in this time, but had only passed hours in the other time. It didn't correlate with Carl's statement that he had tried to follow Connor and Becker just minutes after they had disappeared, yet arrived in the Neolithic hours later.
"You'd think that time would pass the same way," complained Connor. "I wonder… just how long does it take to go through an anomaly?"
The Sandhurst recruits were in the second minivan, except for the one young man with the concussion. He and an escort had already been sent back to London.
The wrong way driver on the motorway caused an accident that stopped traffic for hours.
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Friday morning, Connor, Becker and the six remaining Sandhurst recruits boarded the Tristar for the flight that would take them home. Becker and his security team had promptly gone to sleep. Connor remained awake.
They were making good time Connor thought. The ocean was finally visible. It wouldn't be long now before the ARCs team arrived at Brize Norton.
The young scientist leaned back in the aircraft chair. Connor wanted to be home. He slid his arms back along the armrests, finally starting to relax. That was when he felt it. The military aircraft was turning to the left… away from the ocean… away from the path home.
Connor reached for his laptop. He opened it and checked his email. Across the aisle, Becker stirred and sat up, instantly alert.
"Are we landing?" asked the Captain. He rolled his shoulders, then tilted his head and neck first to the right and then to the left. "I felt the plane turn."
"Yeah," said Connor. "The plane turned."
Becker narrowed his eyes and looked at his friend. There was something in Connor's tone that didn't sound like he was happy.
"Connor?"
Dark brown eyes looked across the aisle to meet Becker's gaze.
"There's been a change of plans," said the scientist.
"Where are we going now?
"Someplace called Neuchâtel," answered Connor. "I think it's in Switzerland."
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