Chapter 5

To The Rescue

Sky Hawk One was travelling west at an altitude of one thousand feet. John was at the control panel, updating the away team on their projected time of arrival, and checking if there was any change in the situation. He glanced over his shoulder at the single passenger sitting in one of the flight seats.

'Sorry about this Andy. I could have handled this myself,' he said to Captain McNab, head of Special Operations.

Andy chuckled. 'That's okay John. Your wife can be very persuasive. Besides, I don't get out much these days, it'll make a nice change to be in the thick of it.'

John gave him a boyish grin. 'I think the idea was that there wouldn't be any thick for us to be in the middle of.'

'Where's the fun in that?' Andy said with a grin. 'Don't worry, I won't tell "The Wife" if you don't,', he told him, using Rose's Watch nickname.

['We are approaching the target area. Strap yourselves in. I'll be making a pass over the area to look for a suitable lancing zone.']

John joined Andy in the flight seats and buckled the harness. They felt the airship bank on its approach . . .

Suddenly, they were in level flight, and John could "hear" Rose shouting in his mind.

['JOHN! You're back. Where the hell have you been?']

He could feel her concern, but hadn't got a clue what had caused it. ['Rose? What's up? I haven't been anywhere. I'm here on the airship approaching Dunwich.']

['John. You passed over Dunwich 3 minutes ago. It was like you suddenly disappeared from my mind.']

'Don't worry Craig, it won't come to that,' Pete said as he put a comforting hand on his shoulder. They wouldn't let Amy suffocate in her armoured suit.

'Come on, let's go outside and wait for the airship,' Stuart suggested.

'Yeah,' Craig agreed. 'I don't want to leave her out there on her own. I know she won't know I'm there . . . but I will.'

Pete slapped him on the back in an act of camaraderie. 'All for one . . .'

'And one for all,' Craig and Stuart responded. They walked down the ramp and followed the path Amy had taken minutes before.

They stood at the boundary of the affected zone and looked over at their fallen comrade. Normally, when they waited for transport or specialist backup, they would joke or rib each other, or talk about the football that had been on the telly the night before. Today though, they stood in silence, like mourners at a funeral, each of them lost in their own thoughts.

After what seemed hours, but was really tens of minutes, they heard the drone of the airship's jet engines. They looked out over the fields, and saw the delta shaped airframe of Sky Hawk One fade into view through the mist. It banked in a turn above them, then straighten out into level flight, and keep going over the village.

'Where are they going?' Craig asked. 'There's plenty of room to land in the field over there.'

'Somethings wrong,' Pete realised and ran back to the MIV. 'Agent Davis to Sky Hawk One. Respond please. Over.'

There was no response from the comms unit. 'This is agent Davis to Sky Hawk One. Respond. Over.'

'Agent Sinclair to Despatch. Do you copy?' Stuart called into the comms.

['Despatch. Irish, have you got a visual on the airship. Over,'] Jake asked.

'Roger that Jake, but something's wrong. It's flown away. Over.'

['We've lost contact with them. I think you might be right. We're tracking them on a straight heading away from your location. Over.']

'It sounds like the dead man's switch autopilot has kicked in,' Stuart theorised. 'The pilot must be incapacitated.'

'Yeah, and it happened just as they flew over the border of the affected zone,' Craig realised.

['Copy that. We're asking Flight Control to initiate the remote pilot override. The standby pilot on the roof should be able to bring them home. Over,'] Jake informed them.

'But what about Amy?' Craig asked. 'She's still out there, running out of oxygen, and the Doc had an idea how to rescue her.'

['I know Craig. We'll get back to you as soon . . . Hold on. Rose says she's back in contact with the Doc. Standby. Over.']

They heard the drone of the airship again about a mile away over the fields. It approached slowly and started to descend.

'Jake. It's Pete. The airship has returned and is starting its descent. Over.'

['Copy that Pete. We are back in contact with them. It seems they had technical problems as they flew over the village. Over.']

'Copy that Jake. Over and out,' Pete said. 'Stuart. Nip back down the lane and get that gate open to the field.'

'I'm on it,' Stuart told him and started jogging back towards the road block.

['Repeat. Torchwood Despatch to Sky Hawk One. Do you copy? Over.'] Jake's worried voice called out in the cockpit of the airship.

'Sky Hawk One to Despatch. We copy you. Over,' the pilot, Simon responded.

['You had us worried there for a while. What happened? Over.']

'Not sure. I was initiating a turn over the target, and then found I was flying on a straight course away from it. Over.'

['That fits with what we saw on radar. We had you as unresponsive for three minutes. Over.']

'Copy that Despatch. I'm making a wide circle around the target to gain my approach vector. Over and out.'

John used his ear comms to contact the pilot. 'Simon. This effect isn't just an area on the ground, it's a volume above it. You need to maintain a distance of at least mile from the centre of the village.'

['Copy that Doc. Adjusting course now.']

['Rose,'] John thought to his wife. ['This effect might be being beamed down from space, forming a cylinder or a cone around the area. Have a look would you.']

['Good idea. I'll get Chrissie to start searching. Keep in touch.']

'So we experienced what the people on the ground are experiencing at the moment?' Andy asked as the airship started its descent.

'Sort of yeah,' John replied. 'Although at the moment, they're not experiencing anything. It's only when we flew out of the zone of influence that we realised anything had happened.'

['On final approach,'] Simon announced over the intercom. ['100 feet . . . 50 . . . 30 . . . 10 . . . Contact. You are good to go.']

'Thanks Simon,' Andy said as they unbuckled their harnesses and stood up. 'Smooth as ever.'

The interior layout of the cabin was identical to that of an MIV, with seats one side and control desk the other. At the rear was a door which lowered to form a ramp. Andy disabled the safety lock and activated the door mechanism. John went to an equipment locker to the left side of the ramp and opened the door. He reached inside and removed a remote control unit, the type used by hobbyists all over the world. When he activated it, he pushed one of the joysticks forwards, and a six wheeled robot resembling one of the martian rovers, trundled out.

'You expecting some unexploded ordnance or alien artefacts then?' Andy asked with raised eyebrows.

'Not exactly,' John said evasively. 'You'll see. All aboard for Dunwich. Toot toot.'

John used one of the broad tyres as a step and sat on top of the robot behind the column which contained the cameras and sensing equipment. Andy grinned and shook his head, before climbing aboard behind John. The robot rolled down the ramp and headed for the corner of the field where they could see Stuart Sinclair holding open the gate.

'Morning Doc,' Stuart greeted as they approached. 'Morning Boss. Didn't expect to see you here.'

Andy gave a lopsided smile. 'Just here as . . .' He was going to say "baby sitter", but saw the glance John gave him. '. . . Backup. The rest of the Watch are still out on assignment.'

'You got room for one more on there?' Stuart asked with a grin as the robot rolled onto the road and he closed the gate.

'Hop on the back and you can show us the way,' John said.

'Thanks.' Stuart jumped onto the back with his legs dangling.

'Ooh look. It's the dishy doctor from the Torchwood show,' one of the women bystanders said.

'Yeah. I bet he'll sort this out,' another said.

'Hang a right Doc and it's just around the bend down there,' Stuart directed.

The robot started to move, and John waved at his fanclub. Andy had his face turned away as the spectators filmed the proceedings on their smartphones. This was the most exciting thing that had happened around here in . . . well, centuries.

John drove the robot past the MIV and on to where Pete and Craig were standing vigil. They turned and watched with puzzled frowns as the robot approached. John jumped off, almost fizzing with energy. Andy and Stuart jumped to the ground in a more controlled and reserved manner.

'Right. No time to lose, Lautrec,' John said, activating the arms of the robot, which were folded in front like a crabs pincers. 'Not that any of you are named Lautrec . . . Met him once,' he said distractedly as he looked at the display screen on the remote unit. 'Tiny chap he was. Liked his absinthe I can tell you.'

'Doc?' Pete asked. 'What are you doing?'

John glanced up at him. 'Isn't it obvious? No . . . maybe not. Well, we know that anything with a nervous system that crosses this line falls into a coma. And we have recently found out on the flight over here that the effect is instantaneous and reversible. We also know that technology works in there because the "Spy-Fly" worked perfectly, which means the only reason the technology in there isn't working is because there is nobody awake to use it. So, if we want to rescue someone from inside the zone . . .'

Craig's eyes lit up and he pointed at John. 'You send in a robot to bring them out of the zone so they can wake up!'

'Nail on the head,' John said as he watched Amy get closer on the screen. 'Oh, and Pete. You'd better call for an ambulance. The police officer in there is in a bad way.'

Pete went to the MIV to call emergency services as the robot reached Amy. John extended the robot arm and maneuvered the grabber to grasp the armoured ankle of her boot.

'Right. Here goes,' he said tensely as he slowly reversed the robot.

He could see Amy's body slide over the Tarmac as he dragged her back to safety. Craig was leaning as far forward as he dared as he saw the robot and his partner approach. The robot passed him, and as Amy's head reached his boot, her eyes flickered open.

['Craig? What y'doin' in the zone? Has the effect worn off?'] she asked in confusion.

Craig released the seal on her helmet and lifted it off her head so that she could see where she was. 'Hang on . . . I'm back where I started,' she realised and then saw John and Andy. 'But . . . What's going on?'

She saw the robot release her ankle and set off to rescue the police officer and realised that John had rescued her. 'Oh. Right. So I didn't make it. The suit didn't protect me.'

'No,' John said. 'But it was a noble effort Agent Williams.'

They rescued the police officer, who drowsily woke up. His teeth were rattling as his body shivered. Andy wrapped him in a foil blanket and gave him a hot drink from the MIV to start warming his core temperature. The paramedics arrived and took him off to Trayne Memorial Hospital. The BT engineer also got a foil blanket and hot drink, just to warm him up and make him comfortable, and he too was taken to hospital for a check up.

With the success of the robot rescuer, John got creative. They reached the tow line from the winch on the front of the MIV, and John used the robot to attach it to the tow hook on the UNIT truck. Very slowly, the powerful winch pulled the truck out of the zone of influence, and a platoon of very confused soldiers woke up. They then dragged out the bread delivery van, and used the 3 ton UNIT truck to drag out the bus. A fleet of ambulances arrived to take the civilians to hospital to be checked out.

John checked the UNIT soldiers with a check up from his sonic screwdriver and put them to work.

'Now you know what to do,' John told Craig and Amy, 'I want you to take the robot around to the other side of the village and pull out the other vehicles with UNIT's help.'

'Will do Doc,' Craig said, happy that he and his now fully recovered partner would be able to do something positive to help.

'Good. I'm going into the MIV to fly a "Spy-Fly" into the village to see what I can find,' John said and headed for the ramp of the MIV.

'Looking for anything specific?' Andy asked as he joined him at the console.

'The old Abbey,' John told him. 'That's the centre of the circle, but anything interesting on the way will also be good.'

The "Spy-Fly" flew along Ottley Road, past a modern stone cottage on the right that they could just see before the lane curved to the right. The cottage had a dry stone wall in front of it with wooden gates allowing access to the driveway. As the Fly continued around the curve, the dry stone wall carried on along the grass verge to a collection of semi-detached single storey cottages.

The main street through the village went past The Scythe and Stone Inn, where John saw the villager he had seen on the satellite image. His face was grey, with a bluish tinge to it. His lips were almost black. It was obvious that he was dead. If he hadn't banged his head on the steps of the pub when he fell, then he probably succumbed to hypothermia John theorised. There had been one more villager outside, in a back garden. John presumed that he would also be dead.

John steered the Fly to the right into Hickham Lane, which led to the Abbey ruins. It passed the smouldering remains of a cottage on the right, which a resident of Oppley had reported as being on fire. With a shiver down his spine, he wondered how many people had died in that cottage whilst they were in a coma. It was little comfort to know that they wouldn't have suffered.

He reached the Abbey ruins on the left, and started a systematic search of the grounds. The Fly weaved in and out of half standing stone walls and buttresses. Over grass, which covered the remains of tiled floors which held magnificent mosaics. It followed lines of stones which were once interior walls, and now resembled teeth erupting from grassy gums.

The "Spy-Fly" completed it's search grid, and John parked it on the remnants of a stone wall. He had exhausted the tiny power pack and it didn't have enough charge to get back to the MIV. John sighed and rubbed his eyes to try and relieve the strain in them.

['No luck then Love?'] Rose asked in his head. He felt her warm glow soothing the tension in his head.

['Nah. I really need to get in there with the sonic screwdriver,'] John told her. ['But obviously, I can't do that. If I got in there with the TARDIS, there's still no guarantee the the extrapolator shields will filter out whatever it is. Did you find anything in orbit?']

['No. And we've tracked high altitude commercial flights over the village with no reported ill effects,'] Rose replied.

['Ah. That makes me think that this effect is a dome over the village, so it probably only extends a mile at its highest point.']

['So where's the generator then?']

['Well, it could be under the Abbey. Don't forget, it was mysteriously closed in 1493. Something could be buried there, lying dormant until something activated it again,'] John speculated.

Once again, Rose could follow her husbands thoughts through their link. ['You're thinkin' somethin' at The Grange might have set it off.']

['Could be. It's not far up the lane. There again, it could be visitors using some kind of cloaking device.']

['The "Spy-Fly" would have run into it if it had been an optical cloak,'] Rose realised. ['So you're thinkin' temporal shift, like the Daleks used in the Medusa Cascade. Hide your ship a second out of sync and get up to all sorts of mischief with no chance of gettin' caught.']

['Ah, you know me so well,'] John thought with a smile.

['Got no choice Love. I'm stuck with you in me 'ead for the rest of me life . . . and I wouldn't have it any other way'] she replied with a grin.

['I don't think there's a lot more I can do here Love. I'll hitch a ride back on the airship with Andy, Craig and Amy. Pete's staying to hand over the assignment to White Watch with Stuart.]

['Okay Love. See you soon.']

Delores the DeLorian pulled up at the steps to Tyler Mansion, and the "gull wing" doors lifted up. John and Rose climbed out and walked up the few steps, where Alistair, the Tyler's House Manager, was waiting for them.

'Good afternoon Misses Smith, Doctor Smith,' he greeted them formally.

'Hi Alistair,' Rose said, kissing him on the cheek as she passed him.

John held his fist up for his usual fist bump greeting. 'Afternoon.'

'Dad, we saw you on the news!' Jason said before Jackie and Pete could greet his parents as they walked into the living room.

'Did you?' John asked with a smile.

'Afternoon you two,' Jackie and Pete said. 'Yeah. Pete saw on the Torchwood bulletin board that somethin' was happenin' in that village, so we put the news channel on.'

'Ooh, let's see what they're sayin',' Rose said as she sat down next to her mother. Alistair and Alice's five year old daughter Lillie, came over and sat on her lap. 'Hello Sweetheart. You come to have a cuddle with your Auntie Rose have ya?'

'Here, I'll bring it up on the red button,' Pete told them as he operated the TV remote. Jenny, one of the Tylers house staff, brought in the tea tray and placed it on the low table in front of them.

['. . . Were called to the sleepy village of Dunwich this morning, after the Fire Brigade lost contact with firefighters who responded to reports of a fire in the village. Nothing was heard from police officers and UNIT soldiers who were sent to investigate,'] the reporter said from in front of the police cordon. ['A team from the now famous Torchwood Institute arrived to investigate and managed to find the firefighters, police and soldiers from behind the cordon, as well as a number of civilians.']

Rose snorted a laugh as John gave the camera a cheeky wave as he, Andy and Stuart rode past on the robot.

['They were taken to the local hospital in Trayne, where some were treated for mild hypothermia, but all were discharged after tests. Everyone we interviewed said they had no recollection of the event. A police spokesperson has confirmed that a situation is still ongoing in the village, but will not comment on speculations that there is some kind of siege in progress. Torchwood agents are still at the scene, presumably monitoring the situation.']

'So what's goin' on there?' Jackie asked.

'We've no idea,' John replied. 'Anyone who passes an invisible line, falls into a coma. We've looked around the village remotely, but there's nothing obvious there.'

'I saw the report that Amy was affected when she attempted a rescue,' Pete said. 'Is she all right?'

'Yeah, she's fine,' Rose told him. 'Once John dragged her out of the zone with the robot, she woke up again with no ill effects.'

'And they're all still asleep?' Jackie asked.

John nodded. 'Yep. Nothing we can do until they wake up. We've rescued everyone who were in the vehicles . . . They were the ones on the news. I could really do with getting in there with my sonic screwdriver.'

'Well, tomorrow's another day,' Rose said philosophically.