Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders, only much of the convoluted plot, Night Wolf and a few other things are of my own creation (but inspired from many things under copyright, which aren't mine).

Chapter 45 – Christmas Fun

Birmingham allowed himself to relax as he looked out across the gardens of Alistair and Dorris's home.

"Peaceful isn't it Thomas?" Birmingham turned to see Dorris coming out of the house with a tray filled with hot drinks and a plate of warm cake.

"It is calm Dorris…" Birmingham said as he looked out around the quiet gardens, the cool air hanging like the fronds of a willow tree on a still day.

"So what are your plans for Christmas Birmingham, Alistair has informed me that you're not minding the castle this holiday season." Dorris asked later when they had retired inside to in front of a crackling fire.

"You make me sound like a tyrant Dorris…" Alistair chuckled.

"I'm meeting some…friends you could say for a get together." Birmingham said looking into the fire.

"Oh…?" Dorris asked curiously.

"Yes…we're going deer hunting." Birmingham said casually.

"Your pack?" Alistair asked with a raised eyebrow.

Dorris nodded, she'd known Thomas Birmingham for several years and of his…ability for just as long, it was still something of an oddness to wrap one's head around that the man before her could change into something so…different…but then her husband had fought more things that defied belief, and was part of an organisation that liked to do the improbably on a daily basis…

Plus once she'd seen him do it there wasn't much else but to gape and want to pat him, they'd had a good laugh about that later.

"What about you Dorris what's Alistair got planned?"

"Barring alien invasions you mean?" She said with a critical glance at Alistair.

"There was an incursion…" Alistair defended. "It wasn't just because I can't stand that insufferable whelp at your office…"

"I am sure Alistair wouldn't invent aliens just to get out of social engagements…we've got enough real problems on our hands." Birmingham said in Alistair's defence.

"The Prime Minister doesn't seem to think so…" Dorris started.

"The Prime Minister is just elated that there aren't aliens…or other people wandering the streets costing him tax payer's money…"

"So…what are you two getting up to now that I've relieved Alistair for a week to recuperate?" Birmingham said quickly shifting the conversation.

"Winifred and Ancelyn are coming up for Christmas, it'll be good to see them and the twins again." Dorris said with a smile.

"Harry also gave me a list of some of his 'friends' who make a delightful scotch…" Alistair almost grinned.

--//

James Renwick sat back in his lab stirring the mug of cocoa and smiled enjoying himself probably too much.

It was Christmas Day and he was at work, that wasn't what made him smile, he was at work which meant he didn't have to spend Christmas with his family.

His family made a Dalek seem like an excellent conversationalist and peace activist.

James's brief wondering at what a Dalek would sound like after the amount of alcohol his relatives consumed during the Yuletide period was broken as a priority communication was routed to his lab.

"Yes?" He looked at the large screen on the wall as it swirled in a hiss of static into…a map displaying a signal source from inner London, the UNIT River Thames offices.

"Night Wolf do you read?"

"Reading you River Thames…" James pushed his half empty mug and tapped at his keyboard and rerouted the signal through UNIT's secondary transmitters, and boosted Night Wolf's own receivers.

The whole picture broke up in a block of digital break up before an image of a man in a military uniform crackled into view.

"Colonel Wheatley."

"Renwick." That was as much of a greeting as James was going to get, most likely because he didn't have a military rank. "Sending you details now…" A pane opened on the side of his screen as the data uploaded, occasionally pausing, something which shouldn't happen considering the (what was supposed to be) secure comms lines between UNIT.

"What's the problem Colonel?"

"Approximately 50 minutes ago craft materialised over Chequers and the Tower of London, we have only just reinstated jamming systems to contact you, all other systems more complex than a light bulb have ceased 51 minutes ago GMT."

James raised an eyebrow, he could see why Brigadier Bambera had this guy in charge while she was off… James shook his head breaking his momentary wondering and pulled up the data which contained a few very short video files, obviously taken before the whatever field affected them. The images were polaroids, obviously taken with the UNIT emergency information gathering equipment, simplest things beat the most technically complicated.

"Communication?"

"Negative."

"Have started any hostile activities?"

"Negative, there were raised levels of energy, however we are unable to determine further…"

"Due to their jamming field…" James muttered shrinking the image of the Colonel and bringing up the wider Night Wolf Command systems, checking the status of ships…the ASCS Hattah was just about to drop out of orbit…"

"Just a moment Colonel."

"Night Wolf to Hattah, standby in orbit for transmat relay."

"Roger Night Wolf."

"Colonel, standby Night Wolf will be down shortly…which ship appeared first?"

"Chequers sir, by 15 minutes." He said after checking his clipboard.

James nodded and grabbed the phone on his desk and put the Colonel on mute.

"This is Renwick, get two teams ready to go, heavy weapons…and make sure both power trucks are full…and the re-serviced jammers…Yes today…dunno…could be…yes bring those…no…I don't think they'd appreciate a daisy cutter…Chuck in the occlusion systems, if we can't get rid of it we can hide it until after the Queen's speech…yes…6 minutes." James stood up draining his mug and put the colonel back on.

"Colonel we'll be with you in 10 minutes, I'm sending a team with…some equipment and weapons to Chequers, I will be taking lead in this at the Tower."

"Confirmed sir." The Colonel said with absolutely no question.

"Good."

James walked swiftly down the corridor as he strapped on a tactical vest, checked the S/K-1 on his hip, the P-90 on his torso and the various other pieces of weaponry he'd grabbed from his lab as he'd left.

"James…just finished running a search on the mystery ships…" Tabatha Wilson, part of the Xeno-archaeology department within Night Wolf, came running up to him as he was almost breaking into a run going to opposite direction.

"Running is about right Tabatha…what is it?" He asked as they turned a corner towards the garages.

"The ships don't conform to anything in our databases…"

"Best guesses?"

"From what I the others could ascertain from the brief footage they're space capable…but…"

"But?" James asked pausing at the armoury room attached to the garages before ducking in and grabbing a container on wheels of ATRs and continued at a slightly slower pace towards the groups of Night Wolf personnel.

"But…from the description from UNIT London and the sensor ghostings that Hattah has just transmitted…they probably bunny hopped probably through some sort of hyperdrive into the atmosphere from the outskirts of the solar system…"

"Avoiding our ships and the moon monitoring."

"Yes…"

"Fine, continue to work out who and what they are, where they're from…"

"Yes sir."

"And how we kill them…or alternatively what they want." He called after her.

--//

James shook off the vestiges of the transmat and wished that he hadn't drunk the rest of his cocoa, in fact he wished he hadn't eaten anything today.

But pushed it aside as the truck leap forward toward the Tower of London.

They were all silent, well except for the noise of the engine and the subtler noise of the jamming device at the rear of the cabin, one deliberately placed to give the truck coverage, in case of…

Well that…James thought to himself.

Above the Tower of London hung a boxy shaped craft maybe 300 meters long and 150 wide it looked like an upside down catamaran, painted opalescent green.

They drove right past the UNIT people into the courtyard.

James jumped as they stopped.

"Sergeant."

"Yes sir?"

"Break out the launchers set them up there and there…" The launchers were a pet project of the weapons department that Renwick had been overseeing, they were complete but hadn't done their final UNIT firing range trials…mainly because they punched through anything they came into contact with. They missiles contatined an explosive mix that he'd concocted with the Apothecary department…but they were environmentally safe…except they blew things up…which he hoped would satisfy the UN…

"Sergeant, also get the jammers and occlusion gear out and ready…I'll deal with UNIT."

"Sir." The Sergeant saluted, which James wasn't sure if he required a salute or not…

"Renwick."

"Colonel…sorry to barge on through…quickly sorted and all that…space ships over London landmarks shouldn't be part of Christmas…"

"No sir…" The colonel watched James as he ducked into the truck's interior grabbing a bag which he opened on the bonnet of the troop carrier truck.

"Sir…my men….?"

"Set up a perimeter no one in…or out, standard UNIT protocol on this one…everyone's been evaced?" James asked as he opened the bag removing a laptop.

"Yes sir. The Tower is in lockdown."

"Hope the remembered to close traitor's gate." Renwick muttered to himself.

James pulled a squat looking satellite dish which had a large suction cup on the base and pushed it into the truck's bonnet and then plugged it into the laptop.

"Night Wolf you receiving telemetry?" He said as he adjusted his mic along his ear.

"Receiving data feed standby Renwick."

Data fed along his laptop now reading everything from the small sensor attached to the bonnet of the truck…James looked up at the ship and wondered if it knew they were looking at it.

"High power levels suggest scanning equipment in operation."

"Any ideas Nigh Wolf?"

"Not as yet…"

"Fine…I'll send the standard meet, greet who are you comms package. Get linguistics standing by."

"We're here, try not to get us blown up."

James glared at the radio link and hit the transmit button.

"All teams standby for attack."

"Launchers ready, occlusion field set up along North, West and East sides sir."

"Activate them…last thing I want is the British public seeing me blow us up." James muttered to himself.

The occlusion field was another mix of sorcery and technology based loosely on the method the fidellius was applied to the ships and various other methods of hiding vessels it used a variance of light and energy to create a 'fence' of not quite there, it didn't exactly remove the thing from sight but it made it damn hard difficult to see, especially with any form of electronic equipment, which tended to show static.

"Registering high ranges of energy displacement…might be a com sign---."

James cringed as the voice disappeared into static and then…and then things which looked like 3 wheeled armoured personal carriers…only with no wheels and several guns.

"Standby to open fire on materialised hostiles and ship."

"Missiles standing by sir."

"Colonel…" James turned to see the colonel standing behind him. "Grab yourself an ATR and join in the Christmas cheer." James said as he grabbed his laptop and moved around to use the truck as cover.

It was about 2 minutes later when the truck dissolved that James decided he'd had enough of firing bullets.

"All teams open fire, ATRs free, missiles free, fire at will, fire at ship, all weapons free."

The noise of the missiles was one of the things which still needed to be resolved…the velocity they moved at made them sound like a sonic boom, and the shock wave was only about quarter less destructive than a genunine sonic boom.

James hauled up the ATR at his feet and hit the trigger, it roared out together with another half a meter away from him the Colonel smiled as the thing they were shooting at exploded, the shrapnel making another beside shatter.

Above them the missiles were impacting, hard and fast some punching straight through the ship.

James cringed, that was another problem he watched those missiles and hoped they self destructed…the others were continuing to imapacted and then something exploded knocking them all to the ground…

"Gravity generator…" James muttered to himself from where he was forced against the grass…then the ship impacted in the courtyard exploding in a blue and green fireball which smelt vaguely of rotting peaches.

"Jones to Renwick respond…" James became aware of a voice talking in his ear as he recovered from the explosion…he looked at his watch as he pulled himself up…not 40 seconds after the explosion.

"Reading you…Jones what's happening on your end?"

"Craft attempted to land troops…its now turning on an escape vector…should we attempt to destroy it?"

"Negative…Hattah is in orbit…Jones clear up any hostiles…you know the drill."

"Sir…Clean up is already on route." Jones said in a knowing voice.

"Good…" James grabbed at the laptop hitting the comms button. "Patch me through to Hattah…Hattah, hostile craft exiting atmosphere, craft is hostile repeat hostile, take measure to eliminate."

"Confirmed Night Wolf."

Later, as the UNIT clean up teams were completing their work removing all traces of the alien craft, the residue and removing and replacing the grass which had been vaporised James Renwick was leaning back warming his hands on a bowl of pudding and custard when a woman in what appeared to be a Barbarella costume walked over and pulled up a chair opposite him.

James wondered for a second how much 'calming' brandy was in his custard.

"Not enough to make you start seeing things luvvy."

James nodded and put the bowl down and reached for his S/K-1.

"Nice bit of kit…UNIT's changed a bit since I was a part of it."

James stayed silent staring at the woman before him as she reached lit up a cigarette and pulled out a bright pink gun.

"Mine's far more compact your see…" She said holding it out.

James stared at it, it was compact…and most likely future technology…though maybe not alien…

"Who are you?" He said as he lowered his weapon to her torso.

"Thought I'd come and help…you didn't need it…not quite any way luvvy…been a while since I got involved in your affairs as it were…it's more his thing mucking in with you lot…causes more trouble I might add than me."

James started to get a worrying feeling…

"And you are?"

"Sorry luv…Iris Wildthyme transtemporal adventuress extraordinaire…"

James nodded and looked on the bright side…it wasn't the Doctor.

"How did you…"

"On me bus…" She said nodded over he shoulder, James stared and wondered how he'd missed…a bright red double decker bus…the number 21 to Putney Common…

"Perception filter, neat little gadget…more advanced than your…devices over there…" She nodded towards the occlusion generators.

"So you just came to...?"

She took a long drag on her cigarette before stubbing it out on the armrest of the plastic chair and pulled something from between her breasts.

James's finger tightened on the trigger and the woman…Iris Wildthyme laughed.

"If I was going to kill you luvvy it wouldn't be with a bomb…and definatley not between these…" She tossed the thing she'd removed from between her breasts, James caught it whilst still holding his weapon on Iris Wildthyme.

"Good with your hands…I can see why you like the weapons."

James ignored the innuendo and glanced at the…diamond…

"This can't be…"

"Koh-i-Noor, Empress of India some say it's cursed…"

"I've seen plenty of things which are meant to be cursed…they're not." James scoffed.

"Good for you."

"And you have the Koh-u-Noor because?"

"To help you UNIT men and women on this Yuletide day."

James stared at her for a moment.

"The aliens wanted it."

"You're quicker than those people that travel with him."

James nodded wondering if He was the Doctor…or just someone else Iris knew.

"What did they want with it?"

"Ooo…now that would be telling…I am…or I was an advisor…but you're much better at all this than you were…not always relying on him, though he'd hate me saying it." She said with a cackle, lighting up another cigarette.

"Any hints?" He asked as she pushed herself out of the chair.

"Fancy accompanying me luvvy, all of space and time in my lovely red bus…"

James stared at the bus, which didn't look like it could get down a high street let along time and space.

"No thank you Miss Wildthyme…but thank you for removing the diamond during this…event." James said remembering courtesy…even in the face of…time travellers, they didn't always cause headaches and security problems.

"That's alright luvvy…and just for that…they wanted it because that gem there bumped off one of their great leaders…or maybe one of their war criminals…"

James watched as she leapt up into the bus and shut the doors.

She waved at him from the cabin then the immediate area was filled with a groaning noise as older than old engines ground their way into full power and the bus dematerialised from before him.

James walked back to where his pudding still sat and wondered what the Brigadier would say when he read his report of the day's events.

--//

This was meant to be an entirely different chapter, intending to begin the wrap up of events, and whatever. (Sorry about that)

But I'm on some pretty hefty pain killers and couldn't really think about future plot lines and bringing in what I initially wanted to do this week.

So this is my 'Christmas Story', much like the new Doctor Who series; you've got a space ship (well two) over London landmarks, some big explosions, and some references to Doctor Who continuity.

Plus Iris Wildthyme, transtemporal adventuress (who was briefly alluded to way back in an early chapter).

Next week will definitely see Harry, Hermione and probably some other people.