Notes:-: This will mean more if you have heard Invocation, but if not all you need to know is over 30 years previously an attempt by a UNIT scientist to build a sonic weapon, that used a satellite, had been shut down by the Brigadier. Unfortunately not before the scientist involved tried to make an unauthorised test. 30 years later that test has brought a daemon to Earth and Kate, Osgood and Josh have their work cut out stopping it!
Her final words to Osgood about her father are:-
"Yes, he was right. He knew a thing or two, Dad! Strange the things that come back to haunt us!"
Memories
"Yes, Dad, knew a thing or too!" Kate muttered again but this time it was to herself.
Osgood looked at Kate, she recognised the deep reflective look on her bosses face.
Kate turned and looked at Osgood and Josh for a moment it was as if she wasn't seeing them, then she came back to herself, "Good work you two! We best, get a clean up squad here! Err, Josh.."
"Yes, Ma'am, on it!" Josh Carter replied.
Kate gave him a nod in thanks then slowly turned and walked away.
Osgood looked at Josh worriedly, she was about to follow when Josh took her arm.
"No, let her have a bit of time to herself! Besides we have work to do!"
Still worried Osgood just nodded as she watched Kate leave the room.
As she left the long gallery, Kate played back her words to Ben!
'I have a duty, UNIT must protect the Earth, that always comes first. Always!'
Unconsciously she took the stairs to the left and slowly climbed up to the next floor. The corridor smelt musty, but also there was a faint smell of aftershave, a comforting fragrance, one she knew was only there in her memory.
She was ten, and she was being carried down this corridor by her father. She was so scared, sobbing into his shoulder as she clung to him. His arms wrapped around her hugging her close . His mellow voice whispering words of love and comfort! Oh God, even now she could feel his arms, his presence, his love! So much love all of it for her!
Tears began to flow down her cheeks as she opened the second door on the right.
A large bedroom, the familiar garish wallpaper peeling away, a large double bed, minus covers, stood in the centre of the room. Dark wooden tables at either side of the bed, a chest of draws, a large wardrobe, a wardrobe Dad had searched to be sure there were no monsters inside at Kate's terrified insistence.
She sat down on the edge of the mattress, the same place Dad had sat for an hour cradling her on his lap until she had stopped shaking and finally fallen asleep!
She remembered Ben and his mother had come to check on her. Dad had left her and Ben together in his room as he stepped outside.
"Dad!" she had cried in a panic.
He had looked back in the room, giving her a reassuring, loving smile.
"I'm just outside the door, Tiger, I won't go away!"
"Promise!" she had begged.
"Promise!" he had reassured her in his so wonderful soft voice.
Ben had sat with her on the bed, he too looked shaken. They could just make out the heated, whispered, conversation taking place in the corridor outside.
"This, is why your research is going to stop, Dr Donelly!"
"This was an accident, Brigadier!" Ben's mother had angrily replied. "I warned you it wasn't safe having the children running around the long gallery! "
"Not safe!" her father angrily replied, but he was cut off from saying any more.
"Anyway the infasound in the gallery is a natural phenomenon!"
"One, you intend turning into a weapon!" Dad had thundered at her!
"You don't understand Brigadier, it would be an ultimate weapon, one that..."
Her farther had stopped her mid speech.
"A weapon we can't target, a weapon that wounds indiscriminately, a weapon we can not protect the innocent from! A weapon of this type would be an abomination!"
" War is no longer about soldiers, stood on a field agreeing boundaries and acting in a honorable way! How is this any worse then the A bomb!"
"It isn't," he said with what Kate now knew was regret, "but I wasn't there to stop the A bomb project, but I can stop this, monstrosity, of yours from ever being developed into a weapon of mass terror! Certainly not in UNIT's name and not in my name either!"
She heard a squeak of the hinges and looked up to see the door being pushed open. Her ten year old heart filled with joy as she look for her father, but her adult heart sank with the knowledge that the person she wanted to see more then anything else in the world would never walk into this or any other room ever again! At that precise moment she just wanted to cry.
Osgood looked into the room in concern. "Ma'am, I've just come to report the clean up squad from Glasgow is on it's way!"
Kate pulled herself together and gave her a weak smile. "How did you know where to find me?"
"Footprints, in the dust!" the young woman said, "I was just, a bit worried about you! You shouldn't worry about what Ben said. This wasn't your fault and you did stop that thing in the only way possible!"
Kate nodded, "I know, it wasn't just that, it was well, memories and possibly understanding!"
Osgood looked puzzled and sat down next to Kate.
"You know Dad and I were, estranged from each other for years?"
Osgood smiled sadly and nodded.
"Mum's fault really, she wanted him to leave UNIT, leave the Army and he wouldn't, so she took me and left! I hardly saw him for years, but when I did... it was so special! "
Osgood squeezed her hand.
"Well when I was ten Mum had met a new man and they wanted a holiday without me in tow so Mum let Dad have me for a fortnight! We came up to Scotland to stay with relatives. But part way through the first week Dad got an urgent call and we ended up here! Ben was the only other child in the place and we soon teamed up and had our own adventures!"
Kate smiled, remembering those first few days.
"Whatever the business was it was serious because Dad was busy most days so Ben and I explored the house. It rained a lot, but we found a great space to play in, well out of the way of everyone else. We spent our days sliding along the floor, playing football and just larking around!"
"The long gallery?" Osgood asked.
Kate nodded.
"Then one day, it was blowing a gale, Dad was in a serious meeting with Doctor Donelly and I couldn't find Ben so I ran up to the gallery! I couldn't see Ben but I went in to see if I could find him, but it wasn't Ben I found!"
"The Grey man?" Osgood asked quietly.
Kate nodded! "I screamed and Dad came running, he found me and.. rescued me.. he brought me up here to his room!"
Osgood gave her a smile.
He spent the whole of the next couple of days with me. Then we headed back to London. The problem was as soon as Mum got wind of what had happened, she turned up at Dad's flat, there was one almighty row about his Duty, always coming first and she took me away. I didn't see him again for years!"
"Oh Kate I am sorry!"
"Yes, ... well Mum said Dad didn't love me enough, and he couldn't be trusted to keep me safe. The terrible thing was I actually began to believe her! As I got older, well I let my resentment about him not being there for me ... " she stopped not sure how she could put all that hurt and rage into words. "I let it stop me from finding him again! And that was the time when he was ill and needing someone!"
"When he experienced the Blinovitch Limitation effect. He met himself in the same time stream! That's absolutely fascinating, I always wanted to ask him..." Osgood stopped realising this wasn't the time for this conversation.
Kate gave her a weak smile.
"Sir Alistair wouldn't have been able to tell your mother about UNIT" Osgood said gently.
Kate laughed bitterly "I think she would have thought he was mad!"
Osgood nodded "Yes, well it does require surviving your first alien encounter to really convince you it is true!"
Kate smiled thinking of her meeting with the Yeti and the Great Intelligence at New World University!
"Well, today I pulled a gun on an unarmed civilian, a rather batty and belligerent old lady, because I needed her to help me to try and save hundreds, maybe even millions of people! Then I used her death to banish a daemon, and I did all these terrible things because I have a duty, UNIT must protect the Earth, that always comes first. Always! No matter what I would rather do!'
"Today it really hit home, that was Dad's life. He had that same duty, and I realised that I do that duty not primarily to save the world, but to save those on this world who I love! What Mum never realised was, Dad, did his duty because, he loved us! And if only I'd known that sooner I could have had my Dad in my life for so much longer!"
Osgood squeezed her arm.
They heard helicopters approaching the house.
"Right, enough of the past, let's get back to our duty!"
Osgood left the room first.
Kate looked back into the room and for a moment could see the tall, handsome Brigadier with a neatly trimmed mustache smiling at her with love and pride twinkling in his eyes.
"Duty calls, Tiger!" she could hear him say.
She smiled to herself said "Yes Dad, you knew a thing or two!"