Approaching Ullapool, Mary winced as Rory asked, “By the way, who is this Mary MacCarty?” but then managed a warm smile, “Well, I’m a Mary MacCarty though not the one mentioned and I’m sort of related to your family but not directly by blood as such, more a parallel-world sort of thing. It’s complicated. But the Mary they’re talking about… and I am just wondering how she came to make that call so timely… well, to be blunt, Rory dear, she is your own daughter, and a most excellent young woman she is too – and in fact you have already met her, though you didn’t know her name.” She then went on to explain as best she could recall the ins and outs of the family connections, and how young Mary came to be looking for her father, and how then the Balance got involved, leading to these latest escapades in time. The “who’s the mother and why is Mary not still with her” questions in particular left Mary wishing she’d left the conversation until they’d docked and had gotten hold of Jean.
Still in shock at suddenly becoming a father of a full grown and headstrong woman, Mary left Rory to digest this discovery, and edged over towards her Balance colleagues. “Folks, do we think it might be an idea for Young Sam to have a quiet word with his brother, dropping an idea or two along the lines of that doohickey we saw in the future, the one they can use to take the parasites out of their host heads? I’m guessing we shouldn’t describe it in too much detail or say we’ve seen one in the future, but a few broad hints about how desirable such a thing would be, and how it might work, then let Adam get on with it, maybe with the help of the ‘kids’..? Can’t see how that could hurt?”
Danni looked thoughtful but elected to hold her comments for the moment.
Sam shrugged politely, “I can’t be sure if mentioning it or not will be the cause of his untimely death in that time-line. He was heralded as a hero, and I think it is what he would have… would want to do. Give me a second, I’ll think on how to phrase it to him. I can’t think why else future-Mikey would have wanted to show his grave to me.” he pawed at his chin in thought nervously. “I’m sure there’s already work being done in regards to terminus and the parasites, after Dalton. … You never know, it might have been a different timeline, a different dimension?” He shook his head. “How can we tell for sure?” He hesitated.
Rory joined them and said, “If there is any work being done, it never came through to CSB or AEGIS as far as I’m aware, so I assume the Government reaction was to covertly involve P.I.S.C.E.S. and look how well that turned out.”
Danni chirped up, “Don’t tell Adam why, just explain the principle and let him experiment. The future says he found the solution so you’re not radically altering time, though you may be, possibly moving the date when it was invented forward a bit? Remember the rock in the river analogy? A slight disruption is quickly resolved; it’s damming the whole river that causes problems. This is simply a pebble in the time-stream. The real issue might be that unless he can find a way to manufacture miniaturised grav-generators, he will be limited to building a single device.
Sam added, “And sacrifice his drone Tinks in the process.”
“So, someone must have access to the technology to build them in the first place. Where did he get that one from and can you – or they – get more?” Whilst the team was pondering that, Danni continued, “On its own though the device is of limited value in preventing the invasion, and yes if you can prevent the invasion that would be a bloody, big dam in the time-stream and again yes I’m suggesting it has to be done or humanity as we know it is finished and I’m rather fond of this dirtball and its inhabitants.
The device doesn’t identify who has been infected with a parasite though, only helps extract those parasites that have been poisoned with metal. No-one’s discovered a means of identifying who is and isn’t affected. They mimic the brain tissue once embedded and unless you had an earlier MRI to compare the before and after you’d be unable to spot who’s been affected. You lot seem to have some uncanny, I’d even go as far as to say unique, ability to spot those infected though I get the impression it’s not easy to duplicate?
I can’t see people voluntarily agreeing to being injected in the brain with a metal compound then someone using some form of gravitic tractor beam on the injected part of their brain in the hope of removing something that may not even be there. The dead toll would be ridiculous.
This needs resolving somehow; otherwise the only solution is for you to give up your lives in order to become living detectors. And of course, proving someone isn’t currently infected, is no proof of later infestation. No, you need a reliable test that can be carried out regularly to weed out the fifth columnists.”
Mary nodded, “you’re right of course. I’m not too keen to become a living parasite detector until the invasion so suggestions and recommendations on how to either duplicate our abilities or identify foreign brain tissue on someone’s brain preferably in a non-invasive way?”
Their discussion was interrupted when a call was relayed to them from Jeeves, who wanted to check they were all right. Mary confirmed they were and asked what had happened to Young Mary. To the team’s surprise he explained that seconds after they had left the BASEment, Mary and the corgi reappeared though she thought she’d been away for a couple of hours, on the island of St. Kilda. A call to jean convinced Jeeves to contact a liaison he knew with AEGIS whilst Jean went ballistic on some secret UN department she claimed her brother worked for. The idea that there was an unknown, alien infiltration of a top secret base worked the trick and as no-one apparently trusted anyone else, a joint task force was quickly put together and sent out to investigate; AEGIS, on behalf of his Majesty’s Government and the Covert Surveillance Bureau overseeing on behalf of the UN. Alien invasions being one of those scenarios that overrides national borders and jurisdiction, apparently.
Their speedy arrival on the island was due to AEGIS agreeing to dispatch forces directly from their Ultra-Security detention facility at Rannoch Moor, Deep Six. It speeded up the mission by several hours, something that Young Mary seemed to consider urgent and which Jean was able to convince the UN bod’s to run with.
After the call had ended, the conversation again circled back to the parasites. So, was there any means to identify who’d been infected? Akira said he needed to do some research but wasn’t something called Kirlian photography used to identify auras? If it worked and it wasn’t just a trick, could taking pictures of the rear of the skulls work?
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 