1/9/07
Title: Splintered Light
Author: Squeezynz
When does the future become the past and how do you know when you've arrived at the same place you left. Stephen and Cutter return through the anomaly only to find things not as they left them.
Author's note: things might start to get a mite confusing from here on in– all to do with time paradox and alternative dimensions, so bear with me. The characters remain the same, they're just not in the right place at the right time.
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It took three days before the anomaly appeared again, three of the longest, hottest days that Nick Cutter and Stephen Hart had ever spent. The condom had lasted two days before developing a leak on the last night before the portal appeared. Without that fragile pouch of latex they would have been in serious trouble, as it was they were both suffering from lack of food, the Cycad fronds not providing much sustenance. When the anomaly flared into existence it wasn't a moment too soon. The stress of waiting and keeping a watch for predators had stretched their nerves thin and tempers were close to breaking point.
The sun had already set and they were negotiating the steep scree slope when a flare of light behind them made them turn and stare back up to the ridge. The pulsating schism of light winked and flashed at them, beckoning them to come back.
"If I didn't know better I'd think it was taunting us."
"Not a moment too soon. I'm sure that was a Gorgonopsid I heard last night." Stephen ran a hand over his emerging beard, the bristles hard and prickly against his fingers. His skin itched from sunburn and dust, his body soaked in sweat and sand. Cutter wasn't in much better shape, the fair Scots skin looking painfully red despite the shade cast by his soft hat.
They scrambled up the slope, boots slipping in the shale until they reached the top of the ridge and approached the gyrating door back to their own time. They paused, and shared a look between them.
"Ready?" Stephen asked.
"Ready!" Without a backward glance, Cutter walked into the sparkling white light and passed out of the Permian Era into a pitch black night, Stephen only a heartbeat behind him.
For a second they stood blinking to adjust their eyes from the semi gloom to the pitch black, only the faintest glimmer of starlight to show them the trees towering all around. There were no floodlights, no soldiers, nothing and nobody to welcome them back. Given what they'd been through they would have been pleased to see even Sir James Lester standing in his pin striped suit with his supercilious air.
"We're back," Stephen said softly, receiving a pat on the shoulder for his trouble.
"We have no way of knowing how much time might have passed since we disappeared. Given the time distortion we now know about, we could be days, weeks or months from the time we left."
"Future or the past?"
"Take your pick." After the scorching heat of the past few days, the coolness of the forest was a balm to Cutters' tortured skin. The air was damp and redolent of dead leaves and pine needles, a welcome change from dust and burnt earth. Together they made their way through the trees towards what looked like the glow of town lights at the edge of the wood. Neither was prepared to lay bets as to where they had ended up, only time and daylight would answer that question.
The anomaly was disappearing behind the dense woodland until there was nothing but starlight to guide them and the faint orange glow up ahead. Eventually they saw a street lamp shining through the branches and headed for it. Leaving the trees they stepped out onto a road and stared in both directions.
Stephen pulled out his mobile and tried several numbers but after a couple of minutes he gave up.
"No signal dammit...which means we're not in the Forest of Dean or else further out than we've been before and beyond the signal range of the closest tower."
"Do we wait for a car or walk?"
Stephen raised his eyebrows and Nick let out a laugh. "I don't suppose there's much chance of anyone stopping for two sorry bastards in the state we're in. Walk it is then."
"We should leave something to identify this lamp post, for when we come back." Not waiting for Cutter to comment, Stephen took his knife to his stained and dusty plaid shirt and cut off one sleeve. He knotted it around the concrete post with the aid of Nick's string, giving it a few experimental tugs to make sure it wouldn't come off in the first breeze. Satisfied they'd marked the head of the trail back to the anomaly, the two weary men trudged off into the darkness, the orange light of the solitary street lamp soon left far behind them.
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The shrill bleep of the phone woke Abby from a deep sleep. Flinging out a groping hand, she found the receiver and clumsily brought it to her ear.
"Abby Maitland,"
"Miss Maitland, my name is Sir James Lester. You don't know me but I was hoping you would come down to my office in London. Today if that's possible."
"'scuse me?"
"I'm aware it's a little early for a social call, but I can only impress upon you that this is on the most important business. Can you be ready for the car by eight?"
"Eight?" Lifting her head, she peered at the clock. "It's only six thirty."
"Quite. The car will pick you up around eight. There'll be one other joining you, a mister Connor Temple. The car will bring you both directly to the Home Office."
"Home Office?" Abby squeaked, her mouth dropping open in shock.
"Yes, I said the Home Office, they will direct you from there. Is that clear?"
"I have to be at work by nine..."
"I have already cleared the matter with your superior. As I have said, this is of the utmost importance."
"Er...er..." But before she could make a coherent reply the line went dead and she was listening to the dial tone. Still befuddled, she tossed the handset in the vicinity of the base and threw back the bed covers. What on earth had she done to be contacted by the Home Office of all places, and what could possibly be so important that Sir James Lester, who she had never heard of, wanted the help of a zoologist specialising in lizard behavior. Sitting on the side of the bed, she stared off into space before a quick glance at the bedside clock warned her she had barely an hour to get ready for the car that was supposed to be coming to pick her up. And who was this Connor Temple?
Several hours later, after a surprisingly comfortable car trip in to London, Abby found herself being ushered into a very smart, glassed office belonging to the mysterious Sir James. Alongside her stood Connor Temple, a young man with an unusual dress sense and a seemingly endless ability to bang on about conspiracy theories and techno babble. She assumed he thought himself charming, and chatting her up, but for all his witty one liners he was still a geek, albeit a cute one in a geeky kind of way. They had been greeted by a statuesque woman who brought them both to Lester's office and asked them to wait. Beyond the glass was a hive of activity with an unknown number of smartly suited males and females working on goodness knew what on their laptops amid sterile white office furniture.
"Still not any the wiser as to what this Sir Jim wants with us?" Connor asked, leaning out of his chair to hiss the question practically in her ear.
"None at all. I'm as much in the dark as you are."
A few minutes later the man himself arrived looking dapper in an expensive pin-striped suit and leather shoes. He shook Abby's hand then Connor's and indicated for them to sit before seating himself behind a broad expanse of glass desk top.
"I appreciate you both coming on such short notice, and I'm sure you have a million questions to ask me, but I ask you to hold fire until a little later. I've brought you here to meet two people who claim to know you."
"What?" from Connor.
"Who?" from Abby.
Sir James cleared his throat. "They say that you have been working with them for over six months now, on a special project to do with the appearance of time portals or anomalies that have begun to appear in isolated areas of the United Kingdom."
"I told you...a government conspiracy!" Connor crowed, his eyes dancing and a wide grin plastered over his face. Abby ignored him and concentrated on Sir James who didn't look as if he was mad, but his looks didn't seem to match his words.
"Did you say – time portals?"
"The two men I want you to meet are both well respected in their separate fields and come with an impressive portfolio of qualifications. The story they tell is quite fantastic and it involves the two of you."
Both Abby and Connor could only stare back at Lester with matching expression of bafflement.
"Who are these men?" Abby asked.
"Rather than answer that right now, I'd like you to come with me."
He led them out of the glass walled office and down a corridor where the walls, painted a soft grey, gave the impression that important matters of state and security were conducted in secret behind the blank doors lining each wall. Eventually Sir James stopped in front of one and opened it with a swipe of a security card. Abby entered first, followed by Connor.
Inside was a plain conference room with a long table, several chairs and a glass floor-to-ceiling window looking out over the London cityscape. There were two men standing in the room, one about thirty and dark haired, the other maybe a decade older and sandy haired. They both swung around when the door opened, their expressions guarded. The younger man made to move forward, his eyes fixed on Abby as she nervously entered the room.
"Abby...at last. Would you tell Lester to knock off the act and stop mucking us about."
"Er...do I know you?" Abby asked, slanting a glance at Sir James who remained by the doorway.
Connor had been staring at the two men and suddenly darted forward towards the older man, his hand extended and a broad smile on his face.
"Professor Cutter...what a pleasure to finally meet you. Did you get my thesis? What did you think?- sexy stuff eh!" He'd reached the Professor and gripped the man's hand, pumping it up and down while casting glances over his shoulder at Abby and Sir James. The younger man had worked his way around the table without Abby noticing and now stood in front of her, his thickly lashed blue eyes daring her to deny him.
"Abby?"
She stared up at him, all six foot plus inches of him and felt the lack of every one of hers. He was undeniably handsome, his expression somewhere between pleading and frustrated. He was not usually her type, but up close she could almost feel a magnetic pull between them, her own wide blue gaze unable to disconnect from his. With difficulty she forcibly broke the connection and stepped away from him, noticing at once that his shoulders slumped as she did so.
"I'm sorry...but-but I've never met you before today...and-and I'm pretty damn sure I'd have remembered if I had."
Her flustered statement brought a small smile to his face, revealing dimples either side of his mouth, but it soon faded. Swinging away from her he returned to the other side of the conference table, his hands coming to rest on his hips in a gesture that was obviously adopted frequently. Released from his intense scrutiny, Abby sat down on one of the vacant chairs and blew out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.
Connor had finally stopped shaking Professor Cutters hand and released the poor man. For his part, the Professor remained impassive, his very silence finally making Connor back off and shut up.
Sir James folded his arms across his chest and stepped further into the room.
"It would seem we have a quandary. All the people you have given me to contact have never heard of you, or only in a professional capacity at best. I spoke to Captain Ryan in Special Ops..."
"Ryan's alive?" Cutter interrupted, his face looking hopeful. "Captain Ryan's not dead?"
"Not when I spoke to him an hour ago," Lester replied dryly. "If you would allow me to continue." He waited for the Professor to nod. "I have looked into your situation and found out that you both, in point of fact, have been reported missing – six months ago, to be precise."
"What?" "Who by?" They both asked as once. Sir James looked down at a thin dossier in front of him and read a passage before looking up.
"By your wife, Professor, by Helen Cutter, according to this missing persons report filed in February."
"That's impossible...that's... just impossible." Now it was Nick Cutter's turn to sit down rather abruptly into a chair.
Abby had been watching the younger man and saw a fleeting expression of pain cross his face at the mention of the Professor's wife. It was obvious to her that these two men were close, had probably known each other for several years. They both looked extremely tired and suffering from the after effects of severe sunburn. Their clothes looked equally as battered as they did, plus both men were sporting several days worth of beard and dark circles under their eyes.
"Well, impossible or not, those are the facts. Would you care to tell us where you've been for the past six months?" Sir James looked at them both, his eyebrows raised in inquiry.
"We've only been gone three days...not six months," retorted the younger man, one hand gravitating back to his hip while the other scratched at the growth along his jaw line. "We've told you all this already – why don't you believe us."
"Because this is the wrong time line Stephen. This isn't our earth, our time. We need to go back through the anomaly and find another way." Cutter answered before Sir James could.
"Your saying that all the theories about alternative Earth's is actually true?" The two men were now facing each other, caught up in their conversation and ignoring the other people in the room.
"I'm saying that this is all wrong, just as it was when I came back through the first time. You had never heard of Claudia Brown, but in my own time she has been working here, with us, for months..."
"What do you know about Claudia Brown?" Lester interrupted, immediately focused on what the two men were saying.
"You know Claudia?" Nick Cutter asked, his expression brightening visibly.
"Of course I know her. She's head of special operations and co-coordinator for the southern counties, currently seconded to me due to the unusual nature of current events."
Nick nodded his head as if something had suddenly made sense. "What's happened is no surprise to you, is it? You know exactly what's been going on and what we've been talking about!"
"I'm not easily surprised Professor." Sir James retorted. "Let me remove these two young people and we can get down to business."
"Hang on..." Connor spluttered, "You can't just push us out now, not after all we've heard. Talk about government cover-up..."
"I'm not going either," Abby added, getting to her feet. "You pulled us into this and I want to know more...your name for starters," Abby stared pointedly across the table at the younger man.
"Stephen Hart...I'd have rather met you under better circumstances, but I'm pleased to meet you Abby." Again he graced her with his shy, bone melting smile and she returned it. Connor made a rude noise behind her and she sat down, her cheeks burning. Sir James took the opportunity to speak again.
"Quite. But I fail to see what point there is in keeping you both here. You don't know the Professor or his assistant, or the situation we are facing, so I see no need..."
"We want them to stay," Stephen spoke up, "if you have anomalies, then you have the same problem's we had with unwanted visitors. Abby and Connor can help. She's an expert on reptile behavior and he's a walking encyclopedia of the information we need."
"But I only know about..." Connor started to say, only to open his eyes wide with comprehension a second later. "Oh my God...you have got to be pulling a fast one. No way...no fricken way!"
A simple nod from Professor Cutter was sufficient to send Connor whooping around the room and flinging his hat into the air. Abby sent Stephen a questioning look but before he could answer her silent query Connor bounced up beside her.
"It's bloody dinosaurs...has to be...don't you see? Time portals, anomalies...it's bloody dinosaurs."
And he was off again, going so far as to jump on one of the conference chairs and punch the air repeatedly. Sir James, Stephen and Cutter all watched the young student with mixed emotions. Sir James looked exasperated, Stephen amused, and Cutter resigned, even rolling his eyes before covering them with his hand.
"It's true then...what Connor says?" She asked the question to the room but looked at Stephen for the answer. It was not long in coming.
"All true." He flicked a glance at Lester before continuing. "You, Connor, myself, Nick as well as Claudia Brown and Captain Ryan are all part of a team who deal with whatever comes through the anomalies appearing up and down the country. They're windows into the past that go both ways."
"How far in the past?" Abby asked, her eyes bright with interest.
"Millions of years...as far back as the Permian Era." Professor Cutter answered. "Stephen and I are the department of Evolutionary Zoology at the Central Metropolitan University, or at least we were." He quirked a sandy eyebrow at Sir James, who glanced down at the dossier before answering.
"Something to that effect, although here is says the department for Evolutionary Advanced Paleontology, D.E.A.P for short."
"Same difference," Nick waved his hand. "we study the unusual appearance and extinction of species across all the different geological era's and try to find a link or explanation."
"And there's only the two of you doing this?" Abby asked, not entirely understanding the point of their research but impressed nonetheless.
"It's a small field," Stephen answered, exchanging a smile with the Professor. "When it was discovered that there were simply some fossils that couldn't be slotted into the time frame they appeared in, it was offered to Nick to follow them up and find out why. That was eight years ago."
"It says here that you've only been with the department for just under two years," Lester added, running his finger down a page of text in the dossier. "Previously you were part of a big cats game preserve working with the Royal Conservation Society under Giles Howard."
"Giles Howard? But he was killed five years ago when his group were kidnapped by insurgents in Uganda!"
"Hang on," Nick interrupted, looking at Stephen askance. "Giles Howard was still alive last I heard."
For a long pregnant pause the two men stared in horrified disbelief at each other.
"I'm not the right Stephen Hart..." "I've jumped two time lines..." Both men spoke at once.
"Hang on, hang on" Abby held up her hands, confusion making her frown. "You," she pointed to Stephen, "and you.." she pointed to Nick, "are saying you're not only from a different time line than us, but that you're from different time lines from each other?"
Both men looked at her then back at each other. This time it was Stephen who sat down rather heavily into a spare chair.
Nick answered for them both. "You seem to have hit the nail on the head Abby, well done."
"Impossible..." James Lester retorted, but he didn't seem to have much belief in his own words from the expression on his face. Only Connor seemed to take any pleasure from the revelation.
"Wicked!" At which point both Stephen and Abby said "shut up", crushing the young man and rendering him mute.
Nick was the first to recover, running his hands over his face in a weary gesture. "I vote we leave this for the time being. We've both been through hell and I need to get cleaned up. Could you supply a car to take me back home...wherever that is here?"
James Lester reeled off an address, adding, "your wife isn't there today. She's already been informed of your return and is flying in tonight from South America." He looked up to see a glance pass between the two men. "And as for you mister Hart, I'm afraid your flat's lease was terminated and your goods put into storage by your ex-fiancee, Alison Butler."
"Ex-fiancee?" Stephen asked.
"I'm sorry to have to inform you but Miss Butler is now Mrs. Greg Thompson. Married a colleague of yours in May. I haven't yet informed her of your return, as they are currently somewhere in Australia, and given the circumstances I'll leave that up to you whether you do."
Abby was watching Stephen's reaction and surprised to see little more than a brief sad smile pass his face. Apparently he wasn't that upset over his fiancee's rather hasty defection.
"You can come and stay with me, Stephen." Nick offered, placing his hand on the younger man's shoulder and giving it a squeeze.
"I don't think that would be a good idea, do you. Despite me being a different Stephen, it appears that some things haven't changed, if you remember." Again Abby saw a brief flash of pain, this time on both of their faces. Suddenly she knew what she had to do.
"Stephen can come and stay with me. I have a spare room, and I'm the closest to the University...and...and it's not as if I have a boyfriend to worry about getting jealous..." She snapped her mouth shut, realising too late that she'd let slip a whole lot more than necessary.
Stephen was looking at her with undisguised surprise, as was everyone else in the room and Abby wanted to just sink from embarrassment. But, not having a reputation as a coward, she tilted her chin and brazened it out.
"You don't have to Abby...I could go to a hotel..." Stephen answered with his mouth but his eyes spoke a different message. One that Abby picked up on.
"No!...I mean you'll want to be close to the Professor and the campus, and I've been meaning to let the room anyway...you'll be quite private...until you sort out something else." She shut up again, her cheeks quite pink.
"Thank you Abby...if you're sure I won't be in the way?"
"Gawd no...I mean, of course not. I'll be at the Zoo most days... and I'm sure you'll want to get your own place again, once every thing's sorted out."
"Sure...thanks."
"Then that's settled," James Lester stated, flipping the dossier shut and getting up to leave. At that moment a knock sounded at the door and he went to open it. A whispered conversation took place with whoever was outside then he turned back to the room. "That was confirmation of the location of your anomaly Professor. We've cordoned off the area, but Captain Ryan reports that there are signs of some activity around the portal – strange tracks and spore."
"We'll have to go and see...if it's another Gorgonopsid..." Stephen paused, exchanging a worried look with Nick.
"We don't know that. For all we know it could be a Dodo..." An audible gasp from Connor make Nick swing around to see the other three occupant staring at them with their mouths' open. "Er...forget what I just said...I could be wrong."
"Yes...well, that can wait until later. In the meantime I need you all to sign an Official Secrets Act before you leave this room."
"We've already signed," chorused Stephen and Nick.
"Then you'll have to sign again. I'll want to fully debrief you both in a day or so and then hand you over to Miss Brown. Captain Ryan will keep me appraised on the situation with the anomaly, while you two get some sleep and a change of clothes. I'll issue you with a company card because all your assets have been frozen since your disappearance," Lester looked pointedly at Stephen who looked pained but nodded his compliance. "And I'll need an updated record of your fingerprints and blood work before you leave." He looked up to find both men eyeing him intently. "As you have said yourself. Neither of you appear to belong in our time, and in fact come from equally different times to this. We need to find out if there is a way to tell your different selves apart. Also Miss Maitland and Mister Temple will need to do the same, in case they end up on the wrong side of an anomaly by mistake. Which raises another issue...what happens to you if the Professor Cutter and Stephen Hart of our own time reappear?"
"I'm getting a headache," Connor groaned to himself. Cutter chuffed softly and grinned, a definite twinkle in his tired eyes.
"We have to hope they don't...because then you'll have a real paradox and it all turns into a Doctor Who episode!"
Abby was the first to giggle, unable to keep her face straight. Stephen was next, a wide grin revealing deep dimples either side of his mouth, then Connor laughed out loud, followed by Cutter. Even Sir James had to crack a smile, it was all so absurd but so terrifyingly real.
While the room resounded to the sounds of muted laughter, Lester spoke into a phone on the wall and almost at once a flunky appeared with sheafs of paper and a handful of pens. These were distributed around the table and everyone sobered quickly before perusing the small print.
Abby was the first to sign her name, quite willing to do everything necessary to keep herself up with the play on whatever was happening with these two men. She deliberately ignored the little voice inside that insisted she was only doing all this to keep Stephen Hart as near as possible, the man proving to be not only extremely attractive personally, but now an intriguing enigma as well. The combination was proving irresistible.
Both Stephen and Nick cast a cursory glance over the paperwork before signing their names, only Connor bothering to take the time to read every last word before signing his name with a flourish. After gathering up the forms, Lester handed them over to his assistant. Almost at once two white coated lab techs entered the conference room and started to set up their equipment at the end of the table.
"Everyone in this room needs to be blood typed and finger printed," Lester ordered, "then they can be released." He turned back to face Nick and the others. "After that you can all go home and rest up. I imagine the next few days are going to be rather busy for all of you." And with that he left the room.
The techs did their job in record time and the group of four were soon being ushered into a lift to ferry them to the basement garage and the cars waiting to take them back to their respective homes.
Before they parted the two men exchanged a brief hug. "Even if you're not the Stephen of my time, you're the only Stephen Hart I have. Don't go disappearing on me now."
"I won't...and good luck with Helen. Neither of us knows what's happened in this time line. I'm almost afraid to find out."
They separated and piled into their respective cars, Abby and Connor climbing in behind Stephen. After a few seconds Connor suddenly excited the car and shot around to the front to sit beside the driver.
"Two's company, three's a crowd," he explained to the surprised driver before glancing over his shoulder at the pair in the back, a cheeky grin on his face.
At once the two luxury government cars peeled out from the underground carpark and shot off in the same direction.
From the window of his glass walled office, Sir James Lester watched the two black specks before they became lost in the London traffic. Turning from the window he reached down to answer the phone bleeping discreetly on his desk top.
"Yes...I see...send me your reports at once...yes...no, we have to keep this under wraps. I don't want the media getting a hold on this. Lock the area down and keep tracking it. No...both of them are on their way back. They looked like hell and in need of a good bath...what?...no...the fewer people that know the better. Alright...keep me posted."
Putting the phone down he stared off into space for a few moments, then shook his head. Lifting the receiver again he punched in some number and waited for the call to connect.
"Prime Minister? Sir James Lester...we have a situation..."
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tbc...