It was, in fact, a little bit hard for Harry to take his eye off the date, but he did and read the rest of the letter with the others. Hand pressed to the underside of his chin as he thought, to no avail yet, he listened to Amy Pond.

Then, when she spoke, he gave a sort of nervous, involuntary laugh. Shortly, he realized he had to explain himself.

"I should think not--he'll not likely die if he's on the other side, I mean. This is...well, it is about to be the Battle of the Somme, the French and the British are about to be massacred. Judging from that man's gangrene, it is likely the 29th of June today."

He frowned. "I can hardly guess about why they would want to kill some particular soldier on the other side, however.  Unless..."

Harry looked right up at Amy Pond, then across at Susan Foreman, with an expression of escalating alarm.

"Unless someone very important happened to fight at the Battle of the Somme. But someone who, in addition to being very important, was also just an insignificant, unpopular little man with a little dog."

He had it, he thought, but it was hard to say the name of this insignificant, unpopular, mean little man who was also one of the most important Austrians to ever live. Harry hoped he was wrong about this.

"This is comfy," Susan told the others once they were alone. She wasn't, despite any evidence to the contrary, being sarcastic as it was a great relief from the heat of the sun they had walked in to get to this point.

She grinned and tried not to laugh at Victoria's comment. "You're with his grand-daughter now so awful places are something of a family tradition. I should hope you know to expect this for the duration of this expedition we're on."

Susan agreed with the others about the reading of the letter and thought for a moment before gasping at the realisation of who Harry meant when he was done. "You're thinking...you can't be thinking...you are, aren't you? Oh, my - talk about mixed emotions."

She looked around for something to sit on to ponder what they had just heard.

"Yep, that's exactly who they mean which means someone really wants to muck about with the timeline a very great deal."
This message was last edited by the player at 05:45, Thu 05 Jan 2023.

Victoria looked a bit askance at Harry.  "Abilities?  I have none!  I am a scientist's daughter, a girl from the Victorian era!  Yes, I have seen Cybermen and Daleks and Abominable Snowmen and Weed Creatures and even Ice Warriors!  And even that awful man, Salamander.  But I have no..."

She stopped, as the letter was read, which allowed her to catch her breath.  She nodded at Susan's comment, knowing that the Doctor likely didn't even visit nice places, even when he thought he was.  It brought a momentary smile to her face as she remembered the Doctor prancing about when he thought he found a fun place to accidentally land.

However, the subject of the letter confused her.  Her background on the Great War was that good, and even the 2nd War was not a strong subject with her.

"Who do you mean?  The little man?  Who would be insignificant and yet important to us?"

Amy swallowed nervously. "Not again! I already saved his life once! I don't want to make a career of saving Hitler!"

She turned to Victoria to explain. "Adolf Hitler. Right now he's just this lance corporal, I suppose. But twenty years from now, he runs Germany, and he starts a war that will make this one look like a playground squabble. He sets up camps, and sends literally millions of people there to be executed just for being, like, Jewish, or gay, or anything else he doesn't like. It rips the world apart! Nowhere is safe!"

She looked at Susan, very worried. "If he dies now, no war. But... I know the rules! The war has to happen! I already saved his life once, in the future, because of that! The war changes the world, makes, like, the United Nations, and creates the technology to get people to the moon, and all sorts of stuff. So... do we have to save the most evil man in history... Again?"

It had been hard enough the first time. That whole weekend had been completely messed up. Her best friend turned out to be her daughter, she ended up tiny, riding about inside someone's head, and the Doctor had nearly died. Admittedly, that last part was pretty standard, but still... The only thing worse than meeting Hitler and having to keep him safe, was having to do it twice!

"Adolph... Hitler.  Oh!" She held her hand to her mouth in shock.  "The one who started the other war?  Murdered millions?  Conquered Europe?  Bombed England?  My goodness, shouldn't he die?  What a monster!  Why... why..."

She thought a long moment.  "Oh, my goodness, we have to... Oh, I do not know if I can.  Oh, I miss my Doctor.  Defeat Cybermen.  Defeat Snowmen.  Defeat Daleks.  Why can it not be simple?"

She sat on the ground, her face buried in her hands.

From outside, there came voices, and a moment later, the sergeant returned, with a man in the uniform of a Captain, though he still wore a tin helmet. This was the front line. Keeping brains inside was far more important than looking smart. Can't be smart without a skull...

He was probably in his thirties, his hair dark, as were his eyes. He had an almost stereotypical clipped moustache, and in a certain light could have looked rather like Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - but then, a uniform, a moustache of the same style, and a serious demeanour could probably do the same for Leela or Amy. The Brigadier was something of a walking stereotype, but that was one reason he was so darned efficient in his duty.

The sergeant went to kneel by Victoria, and laid a hand on her shoulder. Gruff as he was, he was not the sort of man to see a girl upset and not act upon it. The captain, however, sat in his chair and regarded the group with a very serious expression. "I am Captain Farraday, and I am in command of this forward observation post. Sergeant Mackay has given an account of how he came across you, and I am not wholly satisfied with his story. However, on seeing you, I can certainly agree that you do not look remotely like foreign spies. A bunch of strolling players who got themselves idiotically lost, perhaps. Nevertheless, we have procedures. And procedures must be followed. We will start with the basics. What are your names?"

He produced a form from his desk, and a pen, and looked at them all very seriously "I can at the very least establish a few particulars, before sending you to Amiens where General Carrington will no doubt take time to make a far more comprehensive investigation of your presence here. We're at war. You can't treat the front lines like they were some exotic holiday destination, you know!"

Amy went to kneel by Victoria, and laid a hand on her shoulder. "It sounds like business as usual." Which was to say, they were in one hell of a pickle...

She rose when the captain arrived, and activated her default setting - slightly bolshie, with a side order of feisty. "Well, I am Amy Pond, and believe me, we didn't want to end up in that awful place! We were very lost!" Not entirely untrue, though she did not want to extemporise on how they got there in the first place. "I think getting to Amiens sounds like a good idea. You're obviously busy, and we don't want to take up your time."

"You cannot kill this man, but you could still hurt him" Leela pointed out. "A broken bone, anything he'd heal from eventually" Leela said before the captain came in.
"I am Leela Sevateem" Leela said, figuring 'of the Sevateem' would only cause confusion. "Do not worry, Captain. I was protecting them"

Victoria looked up and frowned.  "Just because we are civilians does not mean you are in Command, sir.  We got lost.  We were found.  But you cannot command civilians.  I knew a Captain, and he thought he could command us.  He could not.  Your mission should be to protect, not to order and make one leave.  We belong her as much as you, do we not?  And as a subject of the Que... King, we mean as much to the Empire as do you."

Harry focused on making sure the things they were discussing surreptitiously were quite hidden long before these fellows ever made it into the room. Then, when he got in, he found himself at the rear of their group, with all the others having stepped forward. He ruminated on what this Captain must have been thinking as everyone spoke, some of them quite forcefully.

Harry opted out of speaking at this time.

OOC: After some more bad asthma symptoms, I'm getting back into things again. :)

"Well, I can well believe that!" Captain Farraday looked at Leela with a degree of amusement, and a hint of respect. Scandalous as her outfit was, she was nevertheless an excellent example of someone honed to fitness. If he had a few of her, why, he might be able to do away with most of the soldiers under his command!

All the same, her manner of dress was far from appropriate. "Sergeant," he said, rather exasperated, "has nobody found decent clothes for these ladies? Aside from the fact that it must be highly embarrassing for them..." Which it was not in any way, of course, "... it is dashed difficult for the men! Some of the lads out there have never seen anything like a woman in such a condition, and we can't expose them to this sort of thing when we need them fighting fit!"

He would send boys as young as eighteen to be slaughtered in the most hideous ways the planet had ever devised... but woe betide they see a woman's thigh before doing so. That would be entirely inappropriate! The Victorian era might have been over, but their ludicrous double standards were still firmly entrenched.

And then Victoria spoke. As the Sergeant rose to help her to her feet, the Captain's expression changed. Her words... well, there were something to what she said, no doubt, and any sensible person would see that. But the British Army in this war were accused of many things. Being sensible was not one of them. And yet, his eyes fixed on her face now he could see it properly, and a very strange change came over him. His right cheek developed a slight tic for a second or two, and his eyes were, very briefly, a little out of focus. A touch of shell shock, perhaps? Or something more sinister?

"I... I understand." What, precisely? "And it is for your protection that you must depart here at once. You'll go to Amiens, and then you're the problem... the guests of the General Staff. General Carrington will have to decide who and what you are, but I've a sortie to organise."

And with that, he stood up, and walked out. "See to it, Sergeant. Take them yourself, I don't want them wandering off again!"

Gone! And in a manner so abrupt it almost looked like something had scared him away.

Sergeant Mackay frowned after him. "Ye'll have tae forgive the Captain. He's under a lot of pressure. We'd best do as he says. Ye should be glad. Most of the lads here would give their right arm to be going to Amiens, away from this place. There's a supply truck going back there. It's no' like a tram, but we can find ye space in the back. I should thank ye, this means I get a decent bed for the night - and half way decent food. Don't often get tae eat from the same kitchen as the General Staff." He did seem a little puzzled, however. Something had thrown him off kilter, and he did not look like a man who was easily put out. It was not easy to see what it was, but there was something strange going on at Forward One post. And he did not know what it was. Given that Sergeants tended to know just about everything about anything, that bothered him greatly.

Harry stared on in barely suppressed consternation at most of the conversation, yet when the change occurred in the Captain, Harry began really paying attention, watching the tic in his cheek. And then he said what he said next, about going to see the general.

Well, Harry thought that was a good idea, and when he had the chance, he turned to the Sergeant to express this thought.

"Ah, yes, that would be perfect. We simply must have, er, good beds and good food. I'm sure the General Staff will treat us well."

Amy looked after the Captain, frowning slightly. Once he was gone, she looked at her friends with some concern, and puzzlement. "What was all that about? First he's going to write down everything, then as soon as he sees your face, he bolts like a scalded cat." She gave Victoria another, more thoughtful, look over. "I don't think you look particularly intimidating. That was weird!"

She went to stand by the Sergeant. "All right, then. You deliver us to the top brass. We can get aquainted on the journey." Clearly, the Sergeant had been just as surprised by the sudden shift in the Captain's manner. That sounded a bit like a chink in his armour, and she was fairly good at burrowing into that sort of opening and getting someone on the side of the good guys.

Victoria was simply stunned.  The Captain she was referring too was 50 years later.  But he looked at her like she was a ghost.  Did he... no, he couldn't know her father.  Maybe he reminded him of a girl back home?

"No, it wasn't my face, I don't think.  But maybe he saw something that reminded him of something?"

She looked at the Sergeant.  "Yes, we are ready.  The battlefield is a horrid place.  I do wish to find some place better, as I suppose you do too.  God Bless You for your service.  And may this war be over sooner than later."

She looked at the others, wondering what they would do about moving away from their... their 'target.'

Sergeant Mackay frowned at Amy. "Not my place to second guess the officer." He was a sergeant, it absolutely was his place. He just put a finger to his lips, and moved to look out into the trench. Then he spoke, loudly enough to be heard outside. "Let's get on the move."

He led them to a battered khaki supply truck. He hopped into it, and covered a few crates inside with rough blankets. They were a far cry from comfortable seats, but they would be serviceable enough. He helped everyone into the back, taking particular care with Victoria, and even more care with Leela, as he did not want to get stabbed. He had not tried to take her knife, because he was not an idiot.

Once the truck rolled out on the road to Amiens, he spoke again, voice low. "I havenae a clue what is going on with ye, but I know you didn't wander out there by accident. There's something going on in No Man's Land. We all know it, but they're all too scared to talk about it. Men go out and never come back. Nothin' surprisin' about that. But them as does come back? Many of them are never the same again. They havenae been in a fight, but they have the worst shell shock I ever saw. I cannae fathom it. Like there's nothin' left. No personality. No interests. Aye, and no fear, neither. Captain Farraday doesnae want to even think about it. He's goin' mighty strange himself. You been sent to get to the bottom of it? Who sent ye? War Office, was it? They shoulda dressed ye right. I dinnae mean to tell ye ye're job, but the lot of ye look like a circus!"

Harry nodded as the man went on, and when there was a pause in the talk, he chose to neither confirm nor deny what the man had supposed. Instead, he leaned in, and he spoke to the man directly.

"I see. Yes, and if you might be willing, what can you tell us about these strange occurrences? Have you any idea what might be causing such a...change in your comrades? And, if you will, have there been abnormal deaths out on the field, as well?"

It was still warm in the truck, but at least it was better than the heat of the day. Amy drew the jacket she had been given around her, all the same. The chill she felt was not due to the temperature outside, but a cold shiver in her spirit. "We can't tell you who sent us, but they are definitely in authority. We're here to help. You can trust us."

Reassuring Amy was a far remove from her former confident behavious, but now they had privacy and they could really work on the one person they had met so far who had shown any sign of some sense.

Victoria nodded, as if truly agreeing with what Amy said.  "We would not be here if we were not supposed to be here.  Would any sane girl wish to be here?  We do want to help.  You're a good lad, and gentleman.  Please.  Listen, and make your own judgement of us."

She said this while still cringing at the sounds of distant artillery, of distant gunshots, the sounds of aeroplanes and soldiers.  What madness had taken over the world?  The books she had read in her short time at school had said nothing.  As a young girl, she had read of the Crimean War, and it was horrible enough.  That men fought in such useless battles, to die for no reason other than to told to do so.  was the Sergeant any different?

" I am still worried about your commanding officer.  Did I remind him of a daughter?  A girl he knew?  Someone here?  I wonder."

"We will find this mysterious thing in no man's land, and it will trouble you no longer" Leela said confidently. When Victoria asks if any sane girl would wish to be here, Leela looked slightly offended; she would.

The Sergeant considered the strange people, but they genuinely did seem like they wanted to help. The problem was, he had no idea what they needed help with. Just that it was pretty bad, and not what he was used to. He'd served in the Boer Wars. He had seen the sort of hell humans could inflict on one another, but this was new to him.

He was really going to get a shock in a couple of months time, when the first ever tanks arrived in the Somme...

He looked at Victoria and frowned. "The Captain has a lassie back home, he said. I havenae got a clue what she looks like, but she'd probably be ten years older than you, at least. Whatever he saw in ye, it is beyond my ken. As is the goings on out there." He gestures vaguely to the haggard scrub that they were thankfully driving away from. "Look, I have seen a lot of fighting. Men kill each other with bullets, aye and blades too. But the few bodies I saw that came back from that hellhole, they weren't killed by any man I can think of. Huge claws, that's what the sawbones said it was, after he looked them over. This is France! I've seen lions. And other things as bad. But they dinnae stop for a kip after lunch in a wee café by the Somme river! The lads, they reckon the Hun got a new secret weapon. Tame bears, or the like. I cannae see it myself, but somethin' is out there, and it kills anybody who tries to make it across No Mans Land on their own. And them that comes back alive... walkin' dead, that's what they are. Up and movin', but the soul's been sucked out. It's no place for a lady, let alone four of ye." He then looked at Leela again, and added, "Well, three of ye. I can fair believe ye'd have it on the floor as a rug by sundown if ye got the chance." He removed a small tin from his jacket, and started rolling a cigarette. "Ye want my advice, ye'll say hello to the General, then run for the coast, and never look back. I've fought many a battle, but this isn't war. I dinnae ken what it is, mind, but it isn't war. Someone let those beasties free, and if ye ask me, they're guard dogs. My da was a ghillie. I used tae go with him when I were a lad, when he was out with the hounds. I seen what they were like when someone came by unwanted. I reckon the things in the mud out there are the same."

And then he became more guarded in tone. "And ye heard none of that from me. You be wise, watch who you tell it to, as there's plenty in Amiens come back from out there, and they dinnae take kindly to strange questions. They say they got shell shock, but they've not been in any battle. I've seen the battle fear. Aye, felt it once or twice myself. That's more like ye get so full of the feelings ye cannae thing. They got no feelings in them left, and that's the truth. They give me the willies."

Leela nodded proudly when the sergeant said she would be able to hunt down the unknown beast. "Whatever dangers that creature might pose, it's only an animal, and can be hunted" she said determinedly. And yet, she couldn't conceal a certain unease. Not that she was afraid, but it would all be much easier if the Doctor was here to tell her where the creature was, what it was up to, its strengths and weaknesses, all the things he usually did. And if they were guard animals.... what might they be guarding? She had no idea.

"But what if it is not an animal, Leela?  What if it is... something else.  A creature of evil.  Existing only to hunt and scare.  And also to deflect us.  The Do... Our friend, he noted that things that cannot be explained could possibly be not of this world, or at least, unknown to most people."

She patted the shoulder of the soldier.  "I perhaps reminded him of someone.  A girl such as me might remind many of someone... a wife, a fiance, a sister.  I was told that war does that.  Do not worry.  But everything you tell us is a puzzle piece to perhaps find out what is happening here that is not simply an awful war."

"We've seen some things ourselves, Sergeant. We're sure sure what manner of creature is out there but we've seen the results of its activities. We've also seen the strangeness of which you speak."

She looked at the others before continuing. "I wish we could leave, Sergeant, but we're here for a reason which we really aren't able to explain to you at this time. I can tell you that we're here to help."

She hoped he understood what she was saying. He seemed like a practical man so maybe her vague statements wouldn't leave him frustrated.

"And we can't get sidetracked!" Amy said with some stress on the last word. For all the talk of monsters, and men becoming empty shells of their former selves, their priority had to be finding this Mortimus person, and shaking him until his teeth rattled, so he would tell them what he had done with the Doctor. Amy was optimistic. She felt sure this was all it would take. And once they got their hands on him, they could get him to stop whatever he was up to - monsters, and all!

"I hate to say it, but with everything that is going on, we might have to split up. There's a lot of ground to cover, and we've got very little time to cover it. Our friend," she used Victoria's term happily, "always said we were never to wander off, and to wait for him to come back. And I am pretty sure none of us ever did! And we solved the problems we faced all the better for it."

She sighed then, and looked out of the rear of the truck, at the blasted fields, baking under the summer sun. "Oh Rory, where are you?" She spoke to herself. But she was sure that, wherever he had got to, he was on the case. He looked a bit like an ineffectual goofball, but she had never come across anybody with more determination and courage. If he was on the trail of whoever was behind all this, she wouldn't like to be in their shoes when he caught them. He waited two thousand years to protect her. He wouldn't let something as trivial as the end of the universe stop him now!

The truck pulled up in front of a peculiar building in the centre of Amiens. One half was a large red-brick house with an impressive spire, the other a squat edifice in white plaster. "That's the King's Lodge," the sergeant said as he helped them out of the truck. "It's a few centuries old, had a few famous people stay in it. They reckon that Cardinal Rishloo was one, almost got assassinated here." his grasp of how to pronounce Richelieu was shocking, but no worse than any of the other soldiers. "Been abandoned for years, that and the big white house next door, so the General made them his headquarters when he got here. Pretty spacious inside."

Then out came a junior officer, with an armed escort. "Sergeant! You and your prisoners are to come to see the general immediately!"

"They're no' prisoners. They're guests. We havenae arrested them, there's no good rea..." But the sergeant was cut short.

"That's enough out of you! Step lively! And no funny business! My men will not hesitate to shoot you if you try to escape!" The lieutenant was young, and clearly very sensitive about his position. He needed to throw his weight around to feel good about himself. That made him a dangerous man. "Inside, all of you!"

<<To: Amiens HQ>>