Redgrove

Episode One: The Interview

Featuring the Redgrove Doctor and Tara Watson

Earth, 1971.

Janet Redwood looked around at the other people in the waiting room. She had come here because of an advert she'd seen in the paper. The advert said that there was a job going at Redgrove Hall and that it was something to do with special ops. Her mother had worked at Bletchley Park during the war and Janet always remembered the stories she got told about the various adventures she'd had.
"Ms Redwood, you're hired." came the voice of a smart old man dressed in a suit and tie. Janet saw that this man was standing at the door and looking directly at her.
"I'm sorry?" she wondered, "What do you mean, 'you're hired'?"
"Welcome to Redgrove."
The man in the suit looked at the others.
"You lot, go home. You'll never be a part of Redgrove." he said, allowing them to leave the room.
"What's going on? Why did you want me here?" Janet asked, concealing that fact that she was very scared.
"We have a crisis and you're the perfect person for our job. Come on, you'll understand soon enough."

The stranger in the suit led Janet to a large laboratory where a tall blue police box was parked. One of the doors was open and a black-haired man in a red jacket, light green waistcoat, beige necktie and beige trousers.
"Is that her?" the black-haired man asked, shutting the door of the blue box.
"That's her." the old man replied, leaving Janet alone with the black-haired man.
"Who are you? What's that blue box? And what is Redgrove?" Janet queried, "Because I want answers."
"Okay then. I lied."
"With what?"
"Everything. Redgrove is an organisation that defends Earth from aliens and I am the Doctor, the leader of the team. The man who led you here is Mr Thomas, our weapons expert, and there's also my second in command, Tara Watson. She's my assistant."
"And what am I then?"
"Our scientific advisor. Because I need a second opinion from an actual scientist."
"Mr Thomas mentioned a crisis. What exactly did he mean?"
"Ah, I was coming on to that. Let me show you the body."

The Doctor led Janet to a morgue, where Tara and Mr Thomas were standing by a body: it was the body of a young soldier who was still clutching his rifle. The body had not been wounded in any way yet his face showed fear, as if he had been facing a monster before he died.
"This is the third body." Tara announced grimly, "Something's going round killing soldiers and we need to find it."
"Exactly. Janet, what do you think happened?" the Doctor said, looking at Janet in an encouraging way.
"Well, there are no obvious wounds to the body," she explained, feeling the skin of the corpse, "but there is a slight pulse."
"You mean that the soldier's not dead?"
The answer came in the form of three thumps from a metal door. This was clearly where another soldier was being kept. Then came another three thumps from another metal door. The Doctor run over to the doors and took out a small metal tube and scanned the doors. Mr Thomas pulled out a pistol and aimed it at the doors, swerving between the doors and the body on the table.
"What the hell's happening?" Tara asked, standing next to the Doctor.
"Something bad." Mr Thomas answered, hoping that nothing would happen.

The doors slammed open and the two soldiers crawled out, opening their eyes.
"Who killed you? Can you talk to us?" the Doctor demanded, shielding the rest of his team. The soldier on the table also got up and moved towards his colleagues. The three soldiers then attacked, only to be shot by Mr Thomas.
"Nice one." Tara said to him with a smile, just before the soldiers got back up. Their wounds healed and they grinned enigmatically.
"I've never seen that before." Mr Thomas remarked, yelling to his colleagues, "Run!"

The Doctor and his team retreated into the main lab and barracaded the door to the morgue.
"So, what do we know?" Janet wondered, taking a chalkboard and writing notes.
"Now that's a good idea. Write up everything we know and figure it out from there." the Doctor said, hauling a bench to the door, "Team, what do we know?"
"They're unkillable. They're unstoppable." Tara suggested, taking out a scalpel to defend herself.
"Perhaps not the second one. The first one's good though." Janet commented, writing down the fact that the soldiers were unkillable, "Anything that links their past? Incidents? Circumstances?"
"Well, all of the soldiers were killed at night." Mr Thomas explained, "And they were found near to one of these."
He pulled out a small blue crystal and showed it to Janet. The thumping at the door then began, becoming even harder as more people saw the crystal. Suddenly, three tall blue ghostly figures drifted through the door and towards the crystal, acting defensively. Mr Thomas opened the door and found the bodies of the three soldiers on the floor, dead.
"Who are you?" Janet asked, "And why do you want this?"
"We are the Khumaski and you have our home." one of the blue beings said.
"This is your home?" the Doctor wondered, taking the crystal, "Re-enter it then. We can allow you to live on another world."
"We require form. Our world is gone."
"Form? That's why you killed those soldiers. If you want bodies, we can help. Come on."
The Doctor led the Khumaski back to the morgue, to the amazement of the other members of Redgrove.

The Doctor opened three doors and took out three bodies, which had some wounds on them.
"Here, have these." he offered, "Hopefully you'll have enough energy to piece the wounds together."
"We shall take one body. We are able to host three minds within one body." one of the ghostly beings answered, before all three entered the body of a young woman with long brown hair and who was dressed in a brown blazer and white shirt. She had a large wound on her chest, but that healed as soon as the Khumaski entered the body.
"Is that better?" the Doctor asked.
"That's a lot better, thanks." the woman said, "I don't have a name though."
"You can be Kerry. Go on, enjoy your life here on Earth. Oh, and have this."
He handed her a card, which had Redgrove's phone number on it.
"What is this?"
"Safety."

The Doctor led Kerry back upstairs and saw the rest of his team, staring in amazement.
"Are you sure about this, Doctor?" Tara wondered.
"Very sure. As long as Kerry behaves herself and doesn't cause trouble, she should be fine." the Doctor explained, before telling Kerry, "You can leave now."
Kerry walked out of the lab, towards the rest of her life.

THE END