When looking at the amount of extraterrestrial activity throughout the 20th century, it s a bit of a surprise that it took till 2005 before the citizens of Earth became officially aware of life out on other planets. Aliens have been interacting with Earth for almost it s entire existence, of course, but most instances prior to 1900 could simply written off myths, legends and utter fantasy. Only a few members of the elite knew with certainty the existence of alien life, and it certainly helped that Torchwood was established as early as it was when the world entered an age of mass media. Things were getting harder and harder to cover up.
Of all the cover-ups in history, there is perhaps no greater accomplishment than the Mondas Incident. On December 19th, 1986, an entire planet, a near-perfect replica of Earth, in fact, came as close to Earth as the Moon is now, and only a few hundred people ever knew about it. This is largely contributed to several coincidences. First, the planet approached Earth from below, with prevented detection from most satellites and radar. Only a few people ever had line of sight, and all telescopic images were pronounced reflections off the Moon by UNIT specialists. Considering Mondas looked exactly like Earth at first glance, that was easy to get away with.
What was harder to write off was the reports from Snowcap, the ICS space tracking station located in Antarctica. It was in the middle of monitoring the launch of the manned Zeus IV atmospheric testing probe when a contingent of beings known as Cybermen landed and took over the station. By Earth s timeline, this was hardly the first time Cybermen had reached Earth, but due to the amount of time travel in the universe, nobody s calendars ever really match, for in Cyberman history, this was their first attempt on the planet.
But even harder still to write off was the large amounts of power Mondas began siphoning off the planet. For a few hours, weather patterns changed drastically, entire continents lost power, telecommunication satellites went offline. Because the duration of these events were so short, it didn t so much cause a panic as left most the planet s population scratching their heads.
But easily the hardest thing to write off was the destruction of Mondas itself. According to reports, Mondas absorbed too much energy and disintegrated, grinding itself down to dust. Confidential UNIT reports claim that a man called the Doctor, along with two unidentified young adults, were at Snowcap at the time and assisted in Mondas destruction (or hindered efforts in it s destruction, eyewitness accounts seem to conflict). Whatever happened at Snowcap, it resulted in Mondas not exploding in a traditional fashion, which surely would have been noticed (not to mention that it probably would have wiped out all life on Earth). Instead, the entire planet became microdust, much of which burned up in Earth s atmosphere. A lot of that dust still rotates around Earth s orbit today, and some scientists believe that in time, Earth may have a belt similar in fashion to one around Jupiter.
Despite it being one of the most dramatic celestial events of the 20th century, the reports on the Mondas did not become public till 2097. When you consider that the world government had successfully covered something of this magnitude, it makes you wonder why things like Watergate even happened.
The Cybermen race survived, despite the destruction of their home planet. They spread across the universe, conquering planets like Telos, evolving, forming pockets of sub-species, crossbreeding with a race of Cybermen from another dimension, and invading Earth from time to time. The Cybermen became a fixture in the list of antagonistic races of the universe.
What few people know, however, is that Mondas did not just bring Cybermen to Earth. Something else had arrived, and though the Cybermen were defeated with Mondas destruction, they remained.
If Tsuji Toshiro was sure of one thing, it was that he HATED the Doctor. He hated the Doctor s smug attitude, he hated the way the Doctor blabbered on, he hated that the Doctor seemed to know things before they happened. Yes, he hated that the Doctor was white, was European (though from what country exactly was unclear. Every time the Doctor was asked, he shrugged and said Oh, one of the important ones ). He hated the Doctor s stupid bowtie. But most of all, he hated how the Doctor seemed to have just walked in from the streets and gained favor from the Kawashi family almost immediately.
Like the Doctor, Tsuji had no blood ties with the Kawashis. He was born into a poor family, went to a poor school, and after his father committed suicide when he was nine, Tsuji was homeless for large chunks of his life. His survival could largely be credited to him joining a Tokyo street gang in the early 1980s. His story was almost clich at that point, stealing to eat, stealing to steal, mugging old people at train stations, and lots and lots of running.
In 1982, at the age of 19, Tsuji robbed the wrong man. The man looked feeble enough, and Tsuji had stumbled upon him alone, in an alley. This man was Natoshio Nakano, a shateigashira (second lieutenant) of the Kawashi-kai clan, in charge of clan activity in Naritia. A yakuza. Most street gangs either fashioned themselves as up-and-coming yakuza clans or as the alternative, something better than the yakuza, though clearly they weren t. And when a member of a gang assaults a powerful member of any yakuza family, even one as small as the Kawashi-kai, they immediately turn the assailant in hopes that clan forgives them.
That s what happened with Tsuji. Once word had gotten out, the rest of the gang attacked him, knocked him out, tied him up, and left him on the doorstep of Tomori Kawashi, the oyabun, the family boss. Someone as small as Tsuji could have been disposed off as easily as a tissue, but Natoshio was the forgiving sort, and after much deliberation, of which Tsuji spent the entirety of tied and gagged in a cellar, Natoshio approached Tsuji and offered him a deal: Work for the Kawashi-kai clan, do everything they ask, without question. If they ask him to kill, he will do so without hesitation. If they ask him to kill a child, he will do so (thankfully, that was never in the clan s nature. Natoshio just wanted to be sure of the boy s loyalty).
Tsuji agreed. That s when Natoshio pulled out a knife and cloth and handed it to him. His first act as a member of the Kawashi-kai clan was perform penance for his attack on Natoshio. The ritual dated back to the 18th century and was performed almost exclusively by yakuza. Yubitsume, the self-amputation of the tip of the little finger. This was easier for Tsuji than it is for most people. Just another hardship to throw on the pile, Tsuji thought to himself.
After a bit of effort, Tsuji walked from the cellar to the dining room, where Tomori was. Tsuji dragged blood all across the floor as he approached the family boss and handed him the tip of his left pinky personally. Tomori looked at it, looked at Tsuji s cringing face and tear-filled eyes, and smiled. That was when Tsuji became part of the Kawashi-kai clan.
And now, every time Tsuji looked at the Doctor, he felt the stump of his left pinky. He thought about the hardships he had to go through to get to the place he was, everything he had to sacrifice to remain in good standings with the clan, and then he thought about how easy it seemed for the Doctor. It felt as though the Doctor just strolled in unannounced, and was met with open arms by Tomori and all the lieutenants. Most of the Doctor s dealings with the clan happened behind closed doors, and all Tsuji could figure was that the Doctor had some undetermined power in the West that the clan needed.
After four years, Tsuji had moved up to kyodai (bigger brother) status, and was given his own small groups of shatei (little brothers) to run. Tsuji s arms were already completely covered in red and black tattoos. It was common tradition for yakuza to cover themselves in tattoos using tradition methods (bamboo needles, one of the most painful ways to get them). However, the Kawashi-kai clan did things a little differently. All clan members got traditional yakuza tattoos, but the highest among the clan, the family boss, the lieutenants, and the saiko-komon (senior advisers) got a very unique tattoo, known as the Sign of the Kawashi, which was placed right over the heart.
The tattoo took the shape of a strange beast, unlike anything from Japanese mythology (or any mythology that Tsuji knew of). It could be best described as an ape with hooves instead of hands and feet, but that would only scratching the surface. It had devil horns, things that looked like fingers running up and down its arms, a bloated throat like that of a frog. If anyone knew the origin of the design, no one was telling Tsuji.
Tsuji was determined to eventually get a Sign of the Kawashi, and if that meant swallowing his pride when the clan assigned the Doctor as one of his shatei, so be it. Tsuji would always remember the day he was given the Doctor, as that was also the day of the world-wide blackout. When all the lights went out, Tsuji remembered the Doctor looking at his watch and making tsk, tsk, tsk sounds.
Oh, of course, it s Mondas day, the Doctor said to no one, How could I have forgotten? Don t worry, everyone, power should be back in a few hours. And indeed, it did come back. Another smug moment that Tsuji hated.
Ichirou Nakamura was having a great day. He just gotten his paycheck from Kyodo News for his story on the world-wide blackouts, the story that was published today in several papers all across Japan. He had just gotten wind of a story concerning some JAL pilot running into something in Alaska and had arranged a meeting with him in London in about a week. And now he was spending a romantic even with his fianc e, Yua Kimura.
Ichirou and Yua had met a year ago, when Yua had been hired as an assistant technical editor for Kyodo News, a job that consisted of changing the ink in the phonefax. Yua was very quiet, kept to herself most of the time, usually reading a book during her breaks. She kept her black hair short and permed, her brown eyes beyond far-too-large glasses, her tiny frame buried under plain pants suits. It took half a year of polite rejections for Yau to agree to a date with Ichirou. They were to married in the spring.
So, you re going to London? Yau quietly asked as she poked at some unidentifiable fish on her plate with her chopsticks. They were eating a fine hotel restaurant, one of those with a French name that Yau could never pronounce. Ichirou had surely blown his entire paycheck on this dinner, which frustrated Yau. He didn t need to spend so much money on her.
Yeah, me and Riku. There s a pilot there who says he saw a flying saucer or something while flying over the United States.
Flying saucers? Isn t that a bit silly?
Yeah, but it nearly started an international incident. The US thought it might have the Soviet Union attacking. Could have started a war. At least that s what I heard.
But if was a Japanese airplane, and if it was over US soil, what business would the Soviets have with? Ichirou had to stop and think for a moment. Yua was right, the US might have started a nuclear war over something that common sense would have discredited. Ichirou was always impressed with how smart Yua was, she could have been a reporter if she had the guts for it.
You re right, I guess. Still, who knows, maybe there s something to flying saucers. Aliens from other worlds, green men from Mars.
I don t like to think about it, Yau said, squirming in her seat a little. There s enough scary things on this planet to think about the scary things on other ones. Ichirou had been away when the world-wide blackouts happened, and when he had returned, he found Yau, crying softly at the foot of her bed. She was afraid this blackout meant something bad had happened to him. Ichirou was beginning to worry about her, she wasn t even aware the blackout covered most of the world at that time.
So, anyway, the pilot s name is Captain Kenju Terauchi, used to fly for the military, not the kind of guy to just be seeing things. He was shipping wine. Riku thinks the aliens were just looking to get drunk.
That finally got a laugh out of Yau.
It also drew the attention of one of the waiters, who quickly finished delivering his order and rushed to the back.
Captain Kenju Terauchi felt like the world was collapsing around him. He had felt so certain that he was going to die when two crafts incepted his freighter. And then the third craft showed up, and Terauchi was almost certain he was staring at God himself. When that craft finally left and he landed his airplane at Anchorage, he tried to save face, tried to act cheerful, cracking a joke about the incident here and there. He gave a report to military authorities, and the next day was allowed to take his freighter back to Japan.
However, once he was back in the privacy in his own home, Terauchi broke down. He began to shake violently for hours on end, he couldn t sleep, couldn t eat. His wife could do nothing to calm him.
You saw something you were not meant to see, his wife told him over and over. He never figured out why she said that, maybe she thought if she presented his situation in blunt honesty, he might become logical again. Finally, he was dragged to various specialists. None of them could find anything physically wrong with his brain, and insisted that what he was saw was some kind of illusion. Of course, that didn t explain why the other two saw it as well.
After two weeks, Terauchi s shock had finally died down. Now, he just felt heavy. He wanted to explain everything to someone, but his wife refused to entertain him. She was convinced as the doctors that it was some kind of trick of the mind. Then, almost a month after the incident, the world-wide blackouts happened. When Terauchi learned of the scale of the blackouts, he knew he had to tell someone official. He didn t know if these craft he saw had anything to do with this, but he couldn t sleep with the fact that they MIGHT have been and he didn t tell anyone.
Most airlines are very clear on their policy on telling the press about incidents with their planes: You don t tell them anything. Airlines have people specifically for talking with the press. Terauchi was not one of those people. He knew this was going to be a risk. So he send a word to Kyodo News. This had to be as discreet as possible, so he arranged to meet them in London. He was flying there in a week, shipping a couple dozen automobiles. Kyodo News promised to send two reporters there, and to keep his name out of the story.
Terauchi hoped that, by the end of year, he be at peace again.
Was December the dumbest time to climb Mount McKinley alone? Yeah, and John Scherer knew it. John had been climbing Mount McKinley for the last twenty years, each year adding new difficulties to challenge himself. This year, he waited for the weather to be at it s absolute worst, the wind blowing at near-record speeds, the snow coming down hard, like little glass shards. It made John feel alive.
He estimated he was about an hour from the highest peak. Once there, he would take his annual piss-from-the-top and start making his way back down. As John advanced around a fairly large rock, he did a double-take. He was almost certain there was someone standing out there in the snow. He blinked, but the figure was gone. Odd, he thought to himself, and continued onwards.
Five minutes later, he made another turn around a rock wall, and nearly ran right into the thing. It stood still, right in front of him. At first, John thought it was another hiker with some odd-looking gear. Over his head it wore what looked like a silver ski-mask, with black eyes and mouth. It had a weird helmet with some kind of light on the top of it. Its entire body was metallic silver, only its fleshy pink hands were exposed. It had something like a radiator strapped to it s chest, and in it s hands was what looked like a flashbulb with handles on both sides.
John only had a second to take it in before it fired the device it was holding. John felt a sudden surge of heat that scorched his internal organs, burned his bones black. He fell back, dead. The Cyberman walked passed the body, checking to see if anyone else was with him. See no one, it turned and walked back the way it came. The snow storm buried John s body in a matter of minutes.
