Chapter 1

Hearing the sound of footsteps just behind him, Jame turned to find Jo bringing a tray of drinks into the lab. Gladly accepting a cup of tea he nodded, giving her a little smile. Truth be told, he was thankful for the distraction. Only moments earlier, he'd been chatting with the Doctor about how he and Kathryn had spent the past weekend. Suddenly the Brigadier had barged in with this Doctor Tyler chap who was reporting some strange happenings at this particular place … some sort of park, it sounded like. He couldn't be totally sure as he hadn't been following the conversation too closely.

From what the man had said, some laddie had found a balloon with a parcel attached to it and had suddenly disappeared in a flash of light. Strange enough, but Jamie wished the man would just get to the point. He'd rambled on about it for longer than he probably should have. He was obviously shaken and frustrated, but he'd offhandedly mentioned something about evidence, and Jamie was curious to see it.

"So there you are," Tyler stated, seemingly arriving at the end of his story. "Mrs. Ollis says her husband's down there. I see him wave, get there and there he is, gone. So I get in touch with you lot."

Jamie couldn't help thinking it would have been easier if he'd just kept his story to that.

The Brigadier nodded thoughtfully. "Well, quite right, too. That's what we're here for, eh, Doctor?"

"Yes, of course," the Doctor replied, almost absently. He seemed deep in thought and Jamie wondered what he was thinking.

His gaze then settled upon the box Tyler had brought in. "What's this machine for?" he asked him.

"Cosmic Ray Research, young man."

"Oh," Jamie said quietly, nodding.

"And you still use balloons?" Jo asked.

"That's right. We may not be NASA, but we get the results. Inside that is the most sophisticated Cosmic Ray Monitoring device between here and Cape Kennedy. You see, I was going to get in touch with you people anyway, even before this business."

"Oh?" The Brigadier suddenly piped up, his eyebrows raised. "And why was that?"

Tyler turned to address the Doctor. "Can you hand me that briefcase, please?"

Nodding, the Doctor handed the man's briefcase to him. Tyler removed some papers before setting the briefcase back down.

"We've been getting some pretty funny results on these latest tests." He held up an x-ray film and appeared to be scrutinizing it closely. "Now, this is the first one... Hm ... Ah, this is normal." He handed it to the Doctor before picking up another film and studying it. "Ah! Now then. This is why I'm here. Last week's test. Now, look at this." Once again, he handed it to the Doctor.

The Doctor accepted it with a nod. "Thank you." Jamie watched his expression change to a startled frown as he scanned the film. "Good grief."

"Yeah. Nobody knows what to make of it. Well, they've all seen it. Yanks and the other lot."

Furrowing his brow in curiosity, Jamie wondered what was so interesting about this picture. From what he could see over the Doctor's shoulder, it didn't look much like anything. It was different from what he saw in the first picture but nothing remarkable, at least in his opinion. That obviously wasn't worth very much to these scientists, though, so he'd best keep out of it and let them figure it out. Still, he hoped there was something interesting among all this 'evidence' he'd brought.

He watched Tyler fumble through his briefcase some more. "Now, here somewhere … oh, yes." He'd finally grabbed a large printout of something and scanned it. "Now this is what really put the tin hat on it. From that deep space monitor Houston put up." He turned to the Brigadier, showing it to him. "Just take a look at those readings."

"Er, the Doctor's the man you ..."

Jamie felt his lips tug into an amused grin as he witnessed the Brigadier's uncomfortable reaction. Obviously this stuff was completely foreign to him and Jamie couldn't help empathizing. He'd felt the same way whenever 'his' Doctor or Zoe acted this way with him.

Luckily, Tyler seemed to pick up on it. "Oh, I see." Giving a small, apologetic nod, he then directed his attention to the Doctor, handing the printout to him.

"Thank you." The Time Lord began thumbing through the pages, his brow furrowing as he studied the information. "Well, it's traveling faster than light."

"Yes, and it can't, can it? I don't know what to make of it," Tyler replied. "It's come all that way, through millions of star systems. It must have been directed, and it must have been directed at us. Now, why?"

"Why indeed, Professor Tyler. Why indeed."

Jamie nodded thoughtfully. He admitted it was an interesting situation. Truth be told, it was a welcome diversion from the rather slow and boring state of things at UNIT HQ these days. The last notable thing that had happened was several months ago when the Doctor and Jo ended up in Atlantis to stop the Master from messing with Time. After all the Doctor and Jo had told him, Jamie was glad he hadn't been along for the ride. The Master sounded like a formidable chap and given the history he seemed to have with the Doctor, Jamie couldn't help being reminded of that alien they dealt with during the War Games: that 'War Chief' who ended up being a Time Lord like the Doctor.

The Brigadier's voice suddenly cut into his thoughts. "Doctor, is there anything I can do?"

"Mm, yes. Pass me a silicon rod, will you?"

The Brigadier did so, passing the rod to Tyler, who passed it to Jo. Jo then handed it to Jamie and, after briefly rolling it around in his hand in curiosity, handed it to the Doctor. Jamie wondered for a brief moment what he was planning to do with it until he found the Doctor simply stirring his cup of tea with it. The sound of the Brigadier sighing caused Jamie to duck his head so they wouldn't see his amused smirk.

"What I meant was, is there anything UNIT can do about this … 'space lightning' business?" the Brigadier asked tiredly.

The Doctor stopped and looked up. "Lightning? Yes, I suppose it could look like lightning, only it isn't. No, if there were such a thing I would say it was compressed light. A sort of controlled superlucent emission."

"A what?" Again, it was times like this when Jamie empathized with the Brigadier.

"He means it travels faster than light," Jo supplied helpfully.

"Thank you, Miss Grant," the Brigadier deadpanned.

"Aye," Jamie added softly, nodding gratefully in Jo's direction. Just before turning back towards the Doctor, he found her giving him a knowing smile.

"Tell me, Professor. Is this machine of yours functioning properly?" the Doctor asked.

Tyler nodded. "Yes, far as I can tell. I haven't developed that latest plate yet, of course."

"Then I suggest you do so immediately and let me know the result of your findings." The Doctor turned away from the table and gestured to Jo to join him. "Jo, you and I are going to take a look at the scene of the crime."

"Right," Jo replied with a nod.

Jamie quickly joined them. "Ye don' have tae do that," he said, laying a hand on Jo's shoulder. "I'll go."

"Oh, no, that's quite all right, Jamie," the Doctor broke in. "You stay back here with the Brigadier. We shant be long."

"But Doctor –"

"Jamie, no. You stay here," the Doctor insisted, his voice quiet but adamant.

Jamie regarded him in surprise. His sounded as calm as usual but there was some distress etched across his features. Why was he so insistent that Jamie stay back here? What harm could there be in his joining the Doctor to help him figure this out?

"Jamie, it's fine," Jo suddenly broke in. "I'm in need of some fresh air anyway. Been a bit too stuffy for my liking." She smiled.

"Och," Jamie sighed in frustration. "All right." He managed a weak smile in return. "Jus' be careful out there, eh? Don' get zapped away by any weird 'space lightnin'."

Chuckling lightly, the Doctor reached over to pat his shoulder. "Don't worry, my lad." He then turned to Tyler. "I think you'll find everything you need here."

"Oh, right. Er … thanks," Tyler replied in apparent distraction, seemingly focused on the box in front of him.

Jamie had barely heard him as his gaze was still on the retreating forms of the Doctor and Jo. His frustration over the Doctor not allowing Jamie to join him was still gnawing at him. Why couldn't Jo have stayed back here at HQ? Perhaps he was being a bit unfair. He certainly didn't want there to be any competition between them, but he had been feeling a bit useless lately.

Turning, he noticed the Brigadier had remained in the room and was watching Tyler make his way over to the lab equipment with an x-ray plate. Jamie met the Brigadier's gaze, his expression suggesting he was completely in the dark as to what Tyler was doing. Jamie simply shook his head and shrugged; again, he was in good company.

Tyler seemed to have eyes in back of his head. "Oh, I can manage now, thank you."

The Brigadier started a bit, obviously not expecting this. He looked about the room awkwardly. "Well. I'm delighted to hear it. Make yourself at home. We're only supposed to be a top secret security establishment. Liberty Hall, Doctor Tyler. Liberty Hall."

Tyler had flashed a quick smile as the Brigadier left the room. Jamie watched him leave and decided he'd hang back, just in case. "Ye sure yer all right?"

Nodding, Tyler gave him a thin smile. Yes, I'm quite fine."

Jamie returned his smile and nodded. However, he still thought it was a good idea to stay in case the man needed any kind of assistance. Jamie wasn't sure what kind he could provide with all this scientific stuff going way over his head, but if there were any general mishaps it would be best to have someone in the room. Taking a few steps back, Jamie remained out of the way, watching Tyler work.

The scientist was apparently waiting for an image to be developed and had removed it from the machine. Jamie couldn't see much of it from his vantage, but Tyler's perplexed expression led him to believe it was something out of the ordinary.

"That shouldn't happen," he muttered just before sticking the image onto a light box. Gazing upon it, his expression grew more concerned. "That definitely shouldn't happen."

"What?" Jamie asked, his interest piqued. Seemingly unaware he'd still been in the room, Tyler turned for a quick moment to regard him and gave a quick shake of his head. Approaching gingerly, Jamie caught a glimpse of the image over Tyler's shoulder. At first it appeared to be just another random bright blob, but as Jamie neared it and looked closer, he found something shocking: a face contorted in fear. Jamie felt his brow furrow as he stared at the image incredulously. What on Earth was going on here?

He'd barely noticed that Tyler had set to work again, taking apart the box. A loud crackling sound that seemed to be coming from the box – or somewhere in its vicinity – pierced the room.

Jamie's jaw dropped as the sound grew louder. "What is that? Get back!" he exclaimed. He'd jumped back and had reached out to Tyler …

CRACK! A huge, white flash that looked like lightning appeared in a split second, lighting up the room and then vanished.

Jamie stared, slack-jawed at the space which had contained both the box and Doctor Tyler a mere second ago. Now only the box remained. It was as though the lightning had taken Tyler with it to wherever it'd disappeared.

Before he could even begin to recover, a sound akin to static on a radio started emanating from the box. He watched as a weird red-and-blue colored blob began creeping out of the box and crawling onto the bench.

Then, just as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished.

As if whatever had already happened wasn't strange enough.