168th Greatest Story in the Universe - A Tribute

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Part Fourteen

'A forest' thought Terry to himself. 'Why is it that people always escape to a dark forest?'

Of course it wasn't always a forest. It was also a basement, a factory, a loft, and on occasion a blue telephone box. But for the moment Terry was convinced that the forest was always the place to escape to. People who tended to escape to forests were those of the green hood-and-tights persuasion. Terry was not very green hooded. He was in fact not hooded at all. Terry was currently of the scruffy dark haired, red T-shirt and tattered jeans persuasion.

Why this is at all significant is because the sphere in which Terry and his fellow escapees from the Callack hideout had arrived in a rather dark forest around sunset. What Terry didn't realise was that this forest was in 7th century Britain. But then there was a lot that Terry didn't realise.

The Callack organisation had managed to acquire time-travel technology, amongst other things by trading some of the valuable items it had - ahem - acquired. However its capabilities were limited, and there were only a handful of predetermined places in time and space that they could go to. A forest in Dark Age Britain happened to be one of them.

As it turned out a forest in the Dark Ages was as safe as any other place at the moment, which is to say, not very. But this was where they were, and it would have to do for now. A group of about eight spheres had managed to arrive here together. Once the more senior members had had a brief meeting about what should be done, they hid the spheres, set up a camp, and lit fires. Fortunately most of the group had more problems to worry about than Terry's unexpected arrival at the moment, and so he had basically been accepted as one of their own.

From his position, sitting on a log near a fire, he saw the Precogiotee being carried to a makeshift treatment area. What did she mean when she said she knew me, but I didn't know her? thought Terry. She had called herself Emily Horowitz - was she related to him? He had a feeling that he might have to wait for answers from her, and so took the time to relax - and finally make the use of the natural toilets available.

'What exactly were those things that attacked us, Turk?' said Terry as he sat back down next to the mercenary.

Turk was silent for a second then said 'I think I already told you they are called the Blieg. Well, they exist in the Shift, which is a void between dimensions. Our last base was very close to the edge of the border of the Shift. It had to be if it was going to avoid being detected.'

'Your last base? How many have you had?' enquired Terry.

'Hundreds, to the best of my knowledge. We always have to be ready to move, because of attacks like the one you just saw. But anyway: the Blieg have been threatening to attack for months. We were hoping that we would be able to set up a system that would stop them - make it very painful for them to approach the base - but unfortunately we didn't crack the problem in time, and well... he waved his arm, indicating the group of traumatised survivors... you can see the results for yourself.'

'So is this it? Are there no other survivors?'

'I hope so. This is just one of many designated assembly points. Eventually we will attempt to make contact with the other groups, and decide where our next base will be.'

Terry thought for a moment. 'So Recma might still be alright?'

'Maybe,' said Turk. 'That guy is pretty tough. I certainly hope so, he's helped me out of more scrapes than I care to remember.'

From the edge of the camp a man - one of the leaders of the group, Terry surmised - waved to Turk, clearly trying to get his attention.

'Ah, you'll have to excuse me, I'm wanted,' apologised Turk, getting up and walking away.

Terry nodded, then suddenly noticed the young Irishwoman sitting alone nearby, staring into the fire and sipping slowly from a cup. He had been stunned by her before when she had arrived in their Sphere after saving them from a Blieg. He decided to go over and speak to her.

'Hi there, we didn't get properly introduced before. I'm Terry.' he said as he sat down next to her.

She eyed him suspiciously and then cautiously shook hands with him. 'Talia. So - what are you doing out here? You don't seem much of a fighter.'

Terry sighed. 'I'm not. It's kind of a long story, and I'm sure you're not interested in hearing it...'

She smiled. 'Try me.'

'Alright,' Terry said with a mock groan. 'Well, I was in my house this morning - at least I assume it was this morning, I've lost all track of time - anyway, I was minding my own business when I walked through my bathroom door.'

'That must have been painful.'

'No I mean I literally walked through it. It was like I was a ghost but I wasn't dead. Do you know what I mean?'

'I think so. Go on.' she replied, looking dubious.

'Well anyway, I thought, 'Wow, whats going on here? This shouldn't be happening.' But then I thought 'what if I recorded it? ' - well, then I could prove that I wasn't going mad, and maybe make a bit of money.'

'And did you?' enquired Talia.

'No, I couldn't do it again, mostly because a couple of cricketers were making a lot of noise outside. So I told them to be quiet. But instead they hit me. The next thing I remember is that I was in some old train station, arguing with some old man over his 'bed'. I must have fallen through the floor or something because I can't see how else I'd have got there.'

Talia carried on listening intently to Terry as he repeated the story of how he'd met the woman eating a mountain of oranges (neglecting to mention that she was his former fiancee), gone through the waiting room, encountered Gospot, gone to the pub where no one could see him except Recma and Turk, and finally arrived at the Callack base.

'You know, it's funny,' she said. 'Everyone seems to have weird stories like that, about how they got to join the group. Though yours is definitely... unique.'

'So go on - how did you get here?'

'I'd rather not say.' she said, looking away abruptly.

'Why? It can't be any worse than mine. Come on, I've told you my story.'

She stood up quickly. 'Look I can't talk about it, understand?'

Terry was taken aback. As quickly as it had appeared, Talia's anger vanished. 'I need to go for a walk... alone.'

It took a few seconds for Terry to respond. He had been beginning to think they were getting along after their bad start. What could have happened to her that was so bad? he thought.

Shortly after Terry noticed Turk walking back, looking very solemn.

'What's up?' asked Terry, getting up and walking to meet him.

Turk stared coldly at him for a moment. 'Barely four hundred and twenty seven spheres have managed to escape. There were over nineteen hundred of them, enough for every one of our members, with not much spare. We're in serious trouble. And what's worse, the Precogiotee is dying.'

Terry didn't know what to say. 'So what now?' was the best he could eventually come up with.

'We don't have much choice but to stay here for the night. If the Precogiotee is well enough at sunrise, I'll take you to see her. I still have a feeling you can help us out in this situation. But for now, we must all rest. We have a tough time ahead of us.'

Terry nodded and went back to the campfire to collect his thoughts, while Turk went over to speak to some other mercenaries. Terry could tell he and the others were intent on getting so drunk they forgot the terrible dangers they all faced, and somehow he couldn't begrudge them this brief escape. They would remember the truth soon enough.


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