May 19th 2010 07.28 hours
Paul Foster hummed to himself as he entered the studio office. A beautiful May morning, bright skies promising a warm, possibly even a hot day and it was Wednesday. A good day. Especially when tomorrow was the first day of his vacation. Two weeks in Antigua in one of the island's smaller hotels. Wonderful. Two weeks away from SHADO and Straker, away from Alec and aliens, film directors and fans. Just today to get through. Easy.
He strolled into the control room. Shit. It looked a mess. Papers everywhere, charts, maps, data printouts. What had been going on while he was asleep? It looked like he had missed all the fun.
'Colonel. Good morning.' Keith Ford greeted him tiredly, 'you picked a good night to leave early.'
Paul Foster turned round. 'Seems I did, Keith. Why did the commander not call me?'
'Oh, you know Commander Straker,' Ford laughed wearily, 'he said we didn't need to get you out of bed. We managed alright, even though there were, if I recall, ten different attempts during the last eight hours. The Commander sent Colonel Freeman down to get some rest about two hours ago and he,' Ford nodded towards Straker's office, 'has probably got his head down on his desk and is asleep in there if my guess is right. The commander has been here for the last twenty hours now. Don't wake him Colonel. He is very tired.' Ford turned back to his console, effectively shutting out the youngest member of the SHADO command team.
Foster stood there, rigid with suppressed anger. How dare he. How dare Straker ignore him, decide not to call Foster in, even though they were in the middle of a major attack. It was tantamount to declaring that the SHADO Commander had no faith in Paul Foster.
Bugger that.
And there and then Paul decided that he would show Ed 'Smug Bastard' Straker just how competent Colonel Paul Foster could be, given the chance. He leaned over Keith Ford's console. 'Don't worry Lt,' he murmured soothingly, 'I certainly won't disturb the Commander, far from it.'
He went to get a coffee, noting that the main office door was closed. Unusual, but if Ed Straker was head down on his desk asleep, then chances are that the little creep Keith Ford had shut the door to stop anyone disturbing the precious boss as he dreamed.
Behind the closed door Straker was asleep. Head down on his arms at his desk. Too tired to even contemplate the journey home. Even if Rachel was waiting for him.
Ed was awake. Arms rigid with tension, fingers clenched on the terminals, with desperation. Unable to breathe, to think, to be aware of anything other than the kaleidoscope of appalling lights that flared and burned incandescently through his tightly closed eyes.
It seemed as if he had been here holding these bare terminals for years, decades, even. It was as if he had lived here, been born here and would die here in an eternity of stretched, distorted and warped time. He would have screamed but the sound choked in his throat.
And then, after untold eons, it stopped. Simply stopped. There was a wrench throughout his body as if every part of him had been twisted, stretched, pulled out of shape like elastic, and then snapped back into place. And then Ed screamed faintly, hoarsely, with the sudden explosive pain that jolted through him.
The sudden, unexpected sound woke Straker. Startled out of his nightmare, he lifted his head quickly to see what had disturbed him. And in a moment of both pure horror and pure relief, he stared at himself; at a gaunt wasted figure, unshaven, with long hair. Stared at himself; at a red-eyed, exhausted man woken from sleep, his face marked from resting on his folded arms.
He reached out one hand, the nails splitting, yet manicured, ingrained with dirt, yet fastidiously clean. And he looked into his own eyes and saw the horror and the hope within them. Then he was gone and yet, still remained.
Ed Straker leaned back, gasping for breath. Dear God. What a nightmare. There had been something almost real about it. His hand was shaking slightly as he stood up. Stupid really, he should have left earlier, got a driver to take him home, called Paul in sooner.
Still, he would go now. Better late than never.
He opened the office door, still shuddering at the memory of the nightmare vision that had appeared in front of him, and, yawning, headed into the control room.
'…..it is composed of mainly of thorium, astatine and there are some traces of technetium. All radio-active elements.' Ford was saying to Paul Foster.
Technetium. Straker stood still. Thought for one moment. Stepped towards the console.
'Lt Ford. Let me see the data.'
Keith Ford looked up, puzzled. 'Certainly, Commander.' and he handed the electronic log over to the SHADO commander.
Straker flicked through, so rapidly that it seemed as if he was merely glancing at the information. But he was reading it, reading every last detail.
'Ford. Put me through to the Interceptors. Now.' The tone in his voice was urgent, worried.
Ford nodded.
'Straker here. Under no circumstances whatsoever are you to fire on that UFO. Return to Moonbase immediately. I repeat; return to Moonbase immediately.' He looked at Paul Foster. 'I'll explain later Paul. Just let's see what this UFO does shall we? My bet is that it will hang around until the interceptors have left the area and then it will head back home.'
He would give no further explanation, simply turned to watch the screen. Paul Foster looked at the time reference on the constantly updated datastream. 07.36 hours. He waited, wondering.
There was silence in the control room, the seconds passing almost unnoticed as Straker stood, isolated, unspeaking, refusing even to acknowledge Paul's presence. He waited, as still and cold as a marble statue, and as expressionless.
07.38 hours
The UFO moved. Suddenly, rapidly, it spun, turned and headed out of the Galactic plane, away from the Solar System and Earth at SOL 8. Moonbase tracked it briefly before they lost it.
Paul Foster turned to Ed Straker, 'Commander, why… Ed. Ed? Are you alright? Here. Sit down.'
Straker had started to shake almost uncontrollably, and had turned pale and ashen. Foster helped him to a seat and bent over him, concerned, just as Keith Ford groaned in distress and almost collapsed over his console. There was a soft thud as Ayshea also fell forward, her black hair covering her face as she fainted.
'What the hell is going on?' muttered Foster as he called for Shroeder to come to the Control Room.
Straker leaned back, his face pale and twisted with distress. 'Paul, check Ayshea, make sure she's alright. Keith?' He turned to Ford, 'Keith? Take a deep breath. It's alright. Look around you. Where you are. It worked Keith. It worked.'
Keith Ford sat up, slowly, staring round with a dazed expression. Straker stood up, shakily and went over to him, bending over the Communications Chief and putting an arm around his shoulder to the absolutely stunned amazement of the rest of the staff in the room. 'Okay Keith? Do you remember? All of it? I wasn't expecting this to happen,' Straker looked over to Ayshea, by now sitting up and shaking her head. 'Ayshea? It's alright. Janus worked. We're back. Come here.'
He helped her to stand up and held her arm as she nearly fell. 'Ayshea,' he said softly, gently, and put his arms around her in a close embrace. And then, then, he kissed her, unconcerned at the operatives watching, at the breach of protocol and rules. At the looks of astonishment from those around them.
A long, tender kiss, almost as a hidden history was contained in that contact, before he let her go and stepped over to where Keith was still sitting, watching them, his eyes shining with unspoken emotion.
'Keith.' Straker did not need to say anything else. The Communications Chief stood up and wrapped his arms around the SHADO Commander, holding him tightly, wordlessly for long moments, before they parted, grinning huge smiles of relief and delight.
'Ed? What the hell is going on?' Paul Foster interrupted.
Straker smiled wonderingly as he gazed around the control room , at the neatness, the smartly dressed operatives, the quietly humming consoles. Then his eyes widened in fear. 'Paul, where's Rachel, and Alec. Are they alive?'
'Ed, what the hell is going on? Are you awake or are you having a nightmare? Of course Rachel and Alec are alive. Rachel will be here in a couple of hours and Alec is downstairs getting some sleep. What's got into you three?'
'Get them here now, Colonel,' Ayshea said quietly. 'Ed, I mean Commander Straker needs to see them now.' And she stepped close to Ed and put her arms around him, her head on his shoulder, for the last time. Then she stepped back, looking up at him with eyes filled with joy and laughter.
A future.