Two Become One - Part 4

TWO BECOME ONE

Part 4

Craig was terrified. Lanyon was muttering to himself, banging his fist on the bottom of the skip. Craig wanted to ask him if he was alright, but he decided hat it would be best to stay quiet. Lanyon suddenly shot Craig a look, then leapt across the skip and loomed over Craig, his limbs forming a scaly cage. “What are you looking at?” he hissed.
“N-n-nothing.” Craig stuttered.
“You’re wondering why I want the diadem if he wants it to stabilise our mind, aren’t you?”
Craig nodded. If this side of Lanyon was talking, it might bring out the other, nicer side again. Hopefully...
“Cos over the last few years, I’ve gotten stronger. The frustration of interstellar travel, the fact that the Camellan government decided to destroy such a powerful telekinetic manipulator, it has made even the mild-mannered side of my psyche irritable, and that gets passed on to me. When the diadem is reassembled, I will dominate, and use it to take my rightful place.”
“But you, the other you, didn’t seem to have that ambition.”
“He wants power, like anybody else. He just doesn’t realise it yet.” Lanyon sneered. “Academic awards and fame, being the best in your field, such small-scale aims.” He loomed at Craig again, closer, so Craig could see his reflection on Lanyon’s eyes. “Over the years so many people walked all over him, his wife, his colleagues, as soon as the accident happened they all distanced themselves from him, refused to protect us. Once we have the diadem, it’s time for a bit of revenge.”
Craig could see his point. Since he was little, he’d had a bad life, mum never being there, ignoring him so she could meet her dealer. Then, when she died, he’d been dumped on her brother, his uncle Ben, who kept leaving him on his own, or dragging him into danger. He always felt that nobody understood him, and were out to get him. Deep down, he knew it wasn’t true, but he still got angry. Was Lanyon any different to him, or even Isobel? When she was angry, whole towns knew about it. Unlike Lanyon, though, she had Torchwood helping her to overcome her anger issues.
“What time is it?” Lanyon screamed in Craig’s face.
He looked at his watch. “11:30” he told him.
“Then we need to contact Mr Chatham, don’t we!” Lanyon said.
“How are we going to do that?” Craig asked.
“Were would he go if he was waiting for something?”
Craig considered. “Probably the flat.”
“Then we shall go there.”

Ben was indeed in his flat, although he preferred to refer to it as his apartment. He, Anselm, Kyle and Katie had been waiting to hear from the strange alien creature for hours, and despite Katie’s protestations, Ben had insisted they drink some wine. Three empty bottles stood on the coffee table, and Ben was trying to explain to Anselm why Bowie was better than Dylan. Kyle looked at the clock on the wall. Five to midnight. If the alien was going to contact them, it was going to be soon...
Suddenly, the window blew in, shattered glass flew everywhere, and a rock bounced across the room. Ben shot out of his seat and ran to the window. “Bloody Chavs!” he started to shout, but once he’d reached the window he saw it wasn’t chavs. It was Lanyon. He was stood in the courtyard of the apartment block, and had Craig by the scruff of the neck. “If you’ve hurt him...” Ben shouted.
“Come down here and bring the crystal with you!” Lanyon shouted. “Or he dies!”
Ben turned and looked at the others. They said nothing, but Ben knew they didn’t want him to hand over the fragment. After a few seconds, he snatched up the fragment, and headed for the door. “Ben...” Katie said, causing him to turn.
“What?” he replied testily.
“Do you know what you’re doing?”
“No,” Ben admitted, surprising himself “but I have to do it, for Craig’s sake.”
Katie nodded, and Ben left the room.

Ben entered the courtyard, and took in the absurdity of the location. The courtyard had been intended for a communal patio, but had ended up as simply somewhere to leave the bins and bikes, with a big gate in one corner. Lanyon’s large, scaly form stood in the middle of the binbags, and Ben could see Craig was awake, uncomfortable but alive. “Has he hurt you Craig?” Ben called to him, but Lanyon shook Craig so he couldn’t answer.
“He’s unharmed.” Lanyon replied. “Do you have the fragment?”
Ben nodded, and held it out. Lanyon reached out for it, but Ben pulled it back. “Release Craig!” he demanded.
Lanyon considered. “Very well.” He answered, and let go of Craig, who fell from Lanyon’s grip to the floor. Ben went to help him up, but Lanyon stepped in between them. “The fragment!” he demanded, holding out his hand. Ben slapped it heavily into Lanyon’s outstretched hand, a look of anger on his face. “Here, now leave us and this planet alone!” Ben shouted, going round Lanyon to get to Craig.
Lanyon ignored him. He had the final fragment. He reached into a pouch on his belt, and pulled out the other fragments.

“What’s happening?” Anselm said, trying to see past Katie and Kyle through the window.
“He’s handed over the fragment,” Katie said “Now we’re in trouble...”
“Why?” Anselm asked
“Because, you imbecile, he’s got all the bits of whatever it is he’s after. When he puts them together, he’ll destroy us all...”
“No necessarily...” Anselm countered...

Lanyon placed the fragments on an abandoned table, and began putting them in place. Using a tool he’d pulled from the same pouch, he started attaching the pieces together...

Ben was hugging Craig, ignoring Lanyon’s actions. “I was so worried” He said. “But you’re safe now.”
“What about Lanyon?” Craig asked. “Has he got all the fragments?”
Ben pulled back, and looked Craig in the eye. “He told you his name? Did he explain his plan?”
“Yeah,” Craig said. “He wants the diadem to fix his mind.” He told Ben the story that Lanyon had relayed to him in the skip.
“So we could be lucky, and his mind will be fixed.” Ben said. He suddenly felt a large weight lifting from his shoulders. He hadn’t doomed the world; he’d simply helped a fellow academic.
“If the nice version is dominant...” Craig reminded him. But Ben wasn’t listening. It had taken a lot of soul searching to hand over the fragment, he thought he’d been endangering the entire world just to protect Craig, and the chance that there was a silver lining was too great for him.
Lanyon had just fitted the last piece into place, and was just re-attaching it when Kyle came hurtling through the door. “Ben!” he shouted, “We’ve just thought of something!”
His interruption was ignored though, as Lanyon held up the diadem, and announced “Soon I shall be one, and the Universe will regret ever doubting me!” He placed the diadem on his head, and waited.

Nothing happened.

Lanyon took it off, checked the diadem for any missing parts, and placed it back on his head. Still nothing.
“Why isn’t it working?” Ben said, confused.
“That’s what I meant,” Kyle said. “Anselm realised something. The helmet thing won’t work.”
“Why?” Ben asked. Lanyon was rechecking the diadem, getting more and more irritable.
“Jake said it contained a load of delicate circuitry, right?”
Ben realised “So when the diadem was smashed the circuitry was damaged!” He looked across to Lanyon. “So why did he think he could repair it?”
“Why did we?” Kyle said. “Too many films with powerful artefacts being broke up then reassembled. Just cos it works in films doesn’t mean it works in the real world!”
He suddenly ducked as the diadem flew at his head, smashing against the wall. Lanyon’s angry side had fully asserted itself. “FIVE YEARS!!!” he yelled. “FIVE FECKING YEARS!!! I’ve been shot at, imprisoned, beaten and living off crap for five years, and it was all for nothing. Oh, the universe is going to pay for this!” He turned on Ben. “And it’s going to start with you...” He moved towards Ben. Ben started to panic, and moved between Lanyon and Craig. Suddenly, there was a loud crackling noise, and Lanyon’s body began to glow. His eyes bulged, and evaporated, followed by the rest of him. All that was left was a fine powder on the paving slabs.
Ben blinked. What had happened?
“Where’s he go?” Kyle asked. He shouted up to the window which Katie and Anselm were hanging out of. “Did you see anything?”
“No!” Katie shouted back.
“Ah well.” Ben said. “The world is safe, that’s the important thing.”
“A monster that’s about to kill you just went ‘Poof!’ before your eyes for no reason, and you’re not slightly bothered?” Kyle asked, staring at Ben in disbelief.
“Maybe I have a guardian angel” Ben said. “Point is, Craig is safe. Now, let’s get back inside. All this noise is going to have annoyed a lot of my neighbours, so I don’t want them to know it was me!”
Laughing, then went inside, leaving the dust to drift slightly in the wind.

Just outside the courtyard gate a young woman with short blonde hair stood, slowly dismantling a large, advanced looking gun. She’d not wanted to use a disruptor, but it didn’t produce a visible particle trail, so she could use it without being seen. Just a shame it was so bloody heavy... Once it was stowed, she pulled out a mobile phone and called her bosses.
“Hi, it’s me.”
A muffled voice spoke at the other end.
“Yeah, he did need rescuing.” She rolled her eyes.
She looked around her.
“I wasn’t seen.”
She nodded, listening to the new instructions from the other person.
“Right. I’ll maintain observation, then reintroduction can begin.”
She put the phone in her bag, slung it over her shoulder and began walking down the street. Chiara hadn’t seen Ben in over a year, but soon he was going to be seeing a lot more of her...

Two Become One - Part 3

TWO BECOME ONE

Part 3

Craig was feeling dizzy. He’d been nearly crushed, carried across fences, gates and through a tunnel, and was now sitting in a large skip in an industrial estate on the edge of town. The stranger was sitting in the skip too, panting and wheezing, and clearly in some distress. Craig wondered if it was something to do with the gravity, or the atmosphere, when the stranger suddenly looked up at him, and fixed him with a stare.
“Are you alright?” it said.
This threw Craig. “What?”
“Are you alright, I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
“Erm, no, I’m fine.”
The stranger threw his head back. “Oh thank goodness. I was worried...”
Craig looked at the stranger. It was definitely the same one, same scaly skin and black eyes. “You were worried? You threw that bloke pretty hard and didn’t worry about him.”
The stranger stared at him. “Did I? Oh no...” He put his head in his hands again. “I hate all this, I just want it to stop!”
“All what?” Craig asked. “Who are you?”
“My name is Lanyon, I used to be a scientist on a planet far from here. I was quite successful, won several awards, before all this started.”
“Before all what?”
“We were working on harnessing telekinetic energy; we built a special diadem made of crystal with a Usapium lattice. It was going to revolutionise the universe...”
“So what happened?” Craig was still finding it hard to believe this was the same creature who had probably killed the barman and had dragged him through a plate-glass window.
“The test subjects had been focused mentally, but when it came to the demonstrations, I insisted on being the one to show it’s potential. The night before, though, I had discovered my partner was unfaithful, I was angry, but didn’t want to let that get in the way of our achievement. That was a mistake.”
“During the final demonstration, I saw my partner’s lover in the audience, and I just erupted. I turned the power of the diadem on her.” He shook his head. “So much blood... The anger in me must have caused an overload, because it fed back into my head, affecting my psyche. It split my personality, the anger, the fury, the repressed side of my character all magnified, many, many times, I can’t control it once it starts”
“So, like the Incredible Hulk?” Craig heard himself say. He liked to think he was sophisticated, and wished he’d said Jekyll and Hyde, but he doubted that Lanyon knew of either of them.
“I threw off the diadem, and ran. I spent a year in hiding, hoping that somehow I wouldn’t hurt anyone. Unfortunately, I did. Lots of people. My moods would switch at any time, one minute I’m helping someone, the next I’m attacking them.” He grabbed his head, and grunted. Craig backed away, nervously “If I can get the diadem repaired, I might be able to fix the damage.” He looked at Craig. “Where is the final fragment of the diadem?”
Craig looked back at Lanyon. He looked pathetic, pleading with him for a piece of broken crystal.
“I... I don’t know.” He said. He knew his uncle wouldn’t want him to talk, so he was pleading ignorance.
“You’d better not” Lanyon said, a touch of malice in his voice. “Because if you do, I’m going to rip your head off.”
Craig stared in terror. The evil side of Lanyon was back. He had to be careful...

Katie and Kyle were sitting in the relatives room of the A&E. Frank was awake now, but the nurses were concerned about him, as he kept babbling about monsters. Katie knew what this meant; the owner of the crystal fragment had come back for it.
Kyle sat next to her, his hand on her shoulder. “He’ll be alright.” He kept saying. Katie was starting to find it annoying, but she didn’t say anything. Recently she’d been feeling a strange attraction to Kyle. She wasn’t sure if it was just some sort of lust for a “bit-of-rough”, or a rebound thing after coming to terms with Ben, or even a proper emotional attachment, but the one thing she did know, she really liked Kyle...

Kyle’s bottom had fallen asleep. The plastic chairs in the relatives’ room were not built for comfort, clearly, and he kept shuffling. He would have taking his hand off Katie’s shoulder, but he didn’t want to. Since their incarceration in the cell on the Dalmanite spaceship they’d been close, and Kyle had had some pretty shocking dreams about Katie. He wasn’t sure if it was just some bizarre fetish for a dominating bitch, or something more. All he knew was he really liked Katie...

Katie and Kyle turned to face each other. They said nothing, and started to lean towards each other...
Suddenly Ben burst into the room, followed by Anselm and a rather harassed looking Nurse. “Katie, Kyle, it’s got Craig.”
“What has?” Kyle asked.
“Some sort of alien creature. It may have killed that fat disgusting man from the Mermaid, and now it’s got Craig!”
Katie looked stunned. “What, Barry’s dead?” She really couldn’t stand the dirty old pervert, the way he would try and cop a feel at any opportunity, but dead?
“Oh, probably. But it’s got Craig!”
“What does it want?” Kyle asked.
“It wants that fragment of crystal we found.” Ben explained. “I think it’s part of some ancient weapon.”
“Well, we can’t give it to him then!” Katie said. “Who knows what damage he’ll do?”
“He’s got Craig, I can’t take the risk.” Ben said firmly.
“It’s him or the world though if you’re right.” Kyle said.
“Of course I’m right. Look,” he said, tears forming in his eyes “Craig relies on me, I need to help him, and if that means handing over part of a mighty weapon, that’s fine by me.”
“I take it you have a plan to stop him once he has the fragment.” Anselm asked.
Ben turned and glared at Anselm. It wasn’t like him to doubt him.
“Of course,” he answered, pulling his mobile from his pocket “I’ll just give UNIT a call, and they’ll sort him out.”
“You know,” Katie said “One day UNIT won’t be there to save you, you’re going to have to think of a back up.”
“I have, actually.” Ben said smugly.
“Phoning Torchwood isn’t a back-up plan...” Katie responded sharply.
“Look” Ben said defensively “I’m in charge here, I’ve saved the world more often than any of you-” “More like UNIT, Torchwood and the Doctor have” Katie muttered “- and I think you owe me some respect.” He came very close to saying that he had a first from Cambridge, but he managed to stop himself. That argument had ceased to mean anything now Katie was better qualified than him, Anselm had one from Bristol and Kyle was completely unimpressed by it, so he hadn’t used it in ages.
Kyle moved toward Ben, and placed his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “Look, mate, I know you’re worried, Craig’s a good kid and knows how to look after himself. He’ll be fine.”
Ben shrugged off Kyles hand. “He’d better be...”

Two Become One - Part 2

TWO BECOME ONE

Part 2

Katie and Ben were still arguing over who should have the fragment when her phone rang. She pulled it out of her bag, and turned away from Ben, looking at the screen. It was Mary, the departmental secretary. Katie was supposed to be on her lunchbreak, so why was she phoning? Katie answered it.
“Hello Mary!” She said, brightly.
“Oh, thank God!” Mary said, with relief in her voice. “Where are you?” she continued.
“With some friends,” Katie answered, confused “just having a spot of lunch.”
“We thought you’d been taken.” Mary said.
“What’s happened?” Katie said, concerned.
“Someone broke into your office, smashed up the Lewis collection, and attacked Frank.”
“Shit,” Katie said “is he alright?”
“Only just.” Mary replied “he’d been strangled and thrown about a bit. He’s at Adenbrookes now, the doctors are looking over him.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Katie asked.
“Just get back to the department, see if anything is missing for the police.”
“Will do.” Katie said, “See ya.” And she hung up. She turned to Ben. “We need to get back to the department now.” She filled the group in on the details, and they headed out for the car. “And bring the fragment” she said “it belongs in the collection, and if anybody notices it’s missing, there’ll be trouble.”
“Katie, do I have to remind you that I am in charge of Operation Delta?” Ben said indignantly.
“Ben, my friend was nearly killed, my workplace is smashed up and I seem to remember that today you’re supposed to be looking through the collections. Now, if we don’t return, someone might connect your presence in the collections earlier with the attack. Do you want to be a suspect?”
Ben tried to think of a clever reply, but nothing came. He mumbled something, then pulled out his hipflask.
“Come on, you lot, we need to get back to Cambridge.” Kyle said. Leaving Jake in the lab, they all piled into the land rover, and headed back to the department.

Katie’s office looked like a bomb had hit it. Papers, books and boxes were strewn across the room, the computer had been smashed and her chair was lying upturned in the corner. “I see no difference” Ben commented sniffily.
Katie peered through the doorframe, looking at the devastation. A policewoman was with her, asking questions about if the door had been closed, where she’d been, if anything was missing. She looked around the office, but couldn’t tell if anything was gone. Clearing up and checking would have to wait until the forensics team had finished. They went into the collection. Here the damage was less, only a few of the drawers had been damaged, their contents tipped onto the floor. “We were in the middle of cataloguing these” she told the policewoman “Ben, is there anything missing?”
Ben glanced at the pile of pottery. If was impossible to tell, but he had an inkling what the thief had been after. “No” he said. The policewoman sighed. “Well, we think the thief was after something very specific. He obviously didn’t find it, otherwise it would be missing.” She pulled out a card, bearing the Cambridge constabulary crest and some details. “Call me if you find anything missing when you tidy your office.”
Katie nodded. “When can I go and see Frank?” she asked.
“It’ll be a few hours, we’ll let you know.” The policewoman said.

It was getting dark outside when the police had left. Kate had wanted to go and see Frank, but the police wanted her to look for anything that might be missing. Katie had managed to clean up most of the papers in her office, Kyle and Craig had helped, while Ben stood to one side, occasionally picking up a sheet of paper and asking where it went. The office looked much as it had before, and Katie was able to assess the damage. The computer’s monitor was smashed, but the hard-drive was intact, she was pleased to see, and most of the artefacts she had on the shelves had been left. She then realised what was missing.
“Our picture is gone.”
“What picture?” Ben asked.
“That one we got Anselm to take on my birthday, you, me and Kyle in the Mermaid. It’s gone!”
“Why would a thief steal a picture of us?” Kyle asked.
“Was the frame worth anything?”
“No, cheap thing from Woolies.”
“Then that can only mean one thing.” Ben said ominously.
“What?” Katie asked, infuriated. She hated it when Ben went all dramatic.
“Your thief knows we have the crystal fragment, and he’s going to be looking for us.”
“He’ll be heading for the Mermaid then” Kyle said.
“We’d better get over there.” Ben said.
“Actually Ben, I want to go and see Frank? He’s hurt, and it’s our fault.”
Ben glared at her, but she gave as good as she got. This battle of wills went on for a few seconds, then Ben gave in. “Alright,” he said “But be quick.”
“Kyle,” Katie said “can you drive me. I’m a bit shaken after all this.”
Ben was about to protest, but Kyle interrupted him “Yeah, alright.” He answered quickly.
Before Ben could protest, they had left the room, and were on the stair.
“There’s something funny going on with those two.” Ben said. He had hoped that Kyle would come with them. Craig was only a kid, and Anselm was frankly useless in a fight, and Ben wanted to be in a position of strength then they met their attacker, but he was certain that his mental abilities would enable him to find a solution. Checking the battery level on his mobile, he lead Craig and Anselm out of the office, and they headed to the car park.

Barry Tuck was in his element. A group of young women were in the bar, and they’d clearly had more to drink than they could handle. He wiped a sweaty palm on his trousers, and grinned. He knew he wasn’t the most attractive man in Cambridge, he was often mistaken for that fat drunk comedian off the telly, but in his mind, he could turn on the charm, and they would fall at his feet. Admittedly, he’d had very little actually success, but he was ever the optimist. He lifted the hatch in the bar, and was about to make his way over to their table when the front door opened and in came a tall, thin figure. It looked left and right, and headed towards him. He put on his best smile, and prepared to greet the stranger.
“Hallo there, I’m Barry Tuck, like the bloke what used to do ‘Points of View’, welcome to the Merm-”
He was cut short by the stranger, who grabbed him by the neck and lifted him off the floor by a clear foot, knocking over a table and causing the girls to scream and run for the door. Barry could see this was no ordinary client. He had large, black eyes, and scaley skin. Barry tried to make some comment about eczema, but all he could do was wheeze. “Where are these people?” the stranger shouted, holding up a picture of three people. Barry looked at it through wide eyes. “Tha’s Ben Chatham, wiv his mates, the pikey lad and her with the big jugs.”
“You are an idiot.” The stranger told him. “Where can I find these people?” he shouted.
“We’re right here!” came a voice from the door. The stranger turned, and saw the blonde man from the photo, flanked by two others, one smaller, dressed in black. “Where is the Crystal Diadem?” he screamed, throwing Barry across the room. He hit the bar, flipped, and crashed into the bottles, showing the place with broken glass, and fell limply to the floor. Anselm gasped, and dodging round the stranger, ran to the bar.
“Who are you?” Ben demanded. “I am Ben Chatham, and whatever you are planning to do, be sure that I will stop you!”
“I don’t care who you are, give me the Crystal Diadem!”
“I don’t have it on me.” Ben half-lied. It was actually in the car, but he didn’t want the stranger to know this.
“Then I will make you tell me!” The stranger cried, and reached out and grabbed Craig. Ben tried to stop him, but he wasn’t quick enough.
“You have until midnight to provide me with the Crystal Diadem, or he dies. I will tell you where to meet me!” Pulling Craig close to him, he threw himself through the window and ran down the street, as police sirens grew louder. Ben looked around him. The place was a mess, and if the police found him at the scene, they might make a connection with the attack at the university, and assume he had something to do with it. He didn’t have time for UNIT or Torchwood to arrange his release, he needed all the time he had to save Craig. He walked over to the bar, where he found Anselm peering at Barry.
“Is he still alive?” Ben asked.
“Only just. He’s had a very nasty knock, and there’s blood everywhere” Anselm answered, slightly shaking.
“The police will be here any minute; they can take care of him.” Ben said “We have to get out of here, now!” He grabbed Anselm’s arm, and dragged him out to the car. Ben hit the accelerator, and they were round the corner as the first police car arrived.

Two Become One - Part 1

TWO BECOME ONE

Part 1

Five years later...

St Cedds College, Cambridge.

Ben, Craig and Anselm walked through the sandstone arches of the college corridors, and went down the stairs to the basement. He knocked on the office door, and it opened.
“You’re late!” Katie Ryan said “I’ve got a lecture to give in five minutes.” She looked at the trio. “Kyle not with you?” she asked, slightly disappointed.
“No,” Ben answered, “He’s with Jake, doing something or other in the labs at OD.”
“So it’s just you three then?” she said, giving a small smile to Craig, but glaring at Anselm.
“I thought it would do Craig some good to get some practical experience, plus I’m not letting Anselm out of my sight again.” He said, glaring at him.
“That’s nice, now I really have to go.” She picked up a laptop from the desk and pushed past them. “The collection is down the hall, monographs are in there, and if you have any real trouble, Frank should be able to help.”
“I do know what I’m doing, I have done this before!” Ben snorted, but Katie had already disappeared up the stairwell. Ben sighed, and lead the way to the collection.
“You see, Craig,” Ben said as the entered the room, “this is the F.J. Lewis collection from All Souls College in Oxford. Apparently he left it to St Cedds because he got into a name-calling match with the Dean at All Souls, and didn’t want it staying there. Rather childish man, by all accounts.”
“I wish Isobel was here…” Craig said morosely, his head hidden inside the hood of his top.
“You know she had to go back to Cardiff, so they could give her a check-up.” Ben said unsympathetically.
“Couldn’t Jake have done it?” Craig asked.
“No.” Ben said firmly. “Anyway, moving on, we’ve got drawers to sort.” He span the handles of the roller stacks, and pulled out a drawer. “Looks like Mesopotamian artefacts today!” he said with a grin. Anselm and Craig did not return the sentiment…

They’d only been working for an hour, and already Anselm was bored. All they were doing was taking out artefacts, rewriting the labels and giving them new accession numbers, and adding them to the card index. Anselm had done this before, but it was still boring. He looked over at where Craig was sitting. He had his headphones in, listening to something depressing, no doubt. He also seemed bored, and was doodling on the cards. They all seemed to be dripping hearts. Ben came over, and nudged Craig’s arm. “You’re meant to be cataloguing, not doodling!” he said.
“I miss Isobel, without her my life is nothing…”
“Oh, stick it in your livejournal!” Anselm snapped. Ben shot him a glare.
“Don’t talk to my nephew like that, Anselm.” Ben scolded, “He misses his loved one! Still,” he added, pointedly, “at least he knows he can trust her!”
Anselm went back to the drawer. It was mostly pottery, all covered with years of dirt. His hands were black, and he’d had to wash them several times since starting.
He moved a large chunk of pot, and saw something that clearly did not belong in the drawer. He picked it up, and held it up to the light.
It looked like part of a bowl, made of glass, it seemed. He turned it in the light, and could see small criss-cross marking within the glass. Ben saw him looking at it, and came over. “What’s that?” he said, snatching it his hand, and holding it up to the light. “I don’t know,” Anselm said “Looks like part of a glass bowl.” Ben took it over to the binocular microscope and peered through the lenses. “Very odd…” he said.
“What is it?” Anselm said.
“These scratches, they seem to be inside the glass. And they look almost completely parallel.”
“Could they be from the manufacturing process?” Anselm asked.
“No,” Ben said. “they’re in some sort of pattern, and…” he increased the magnification. “They’re not scratches!”
“What’s not scratches?” Katie said, walking into the room with a harassed look.
“I’ve found something unusual in the collection” Ben said, invoking a look of annoyance from Anselm. “This fragment of glassware appears to have a fine metal mesh set into it. But it isn’t layered. It seems to have been formed around the mesh.”
Katie’s shoulders fell. “Oh, Ben,” she sighed, “You’re not suggesting it’s alien, are you?”
“I am!” He said.
“Can’t we do anything without it involving aliens?” she said, exasperated…

Craig sat sullenly in the car while Ben, Katie and Anselm drove to Operation Delta’s Headquarters. It wasn’t the large country house that they’d been promised, it was more an old farmhouse, with a lab built into the cowsheds, on the outskirts of Cambridge. Facilities were good, but it was far less than Ben had hoped for. Still, it served its purpose.
They pulled up, and getting out of the car walked across the yard to the shed, where Kyle and Jake were. They had just finished melting down a strange brown substance when Ben burst in, holding up a bundle of kitchen roll.
“Jake, we need this analysed.” Ben said
“What is it, man?” he asked, peering into the bundle. He plucked the glass fragment from the tissues with a dirty hand, and peered at it.
“We think it’s an alien artefact, we need to know if it’s dangerous.”
“Cool!” Jake said, carrying it over to the spectroscope. “Should have some results for you in, like a few minutes.”
“Excellent!” Ben said.
Katie went over to the bench where Kyle was stood. “Hello Kyle,” she said, “been up to much?”
“Alrigh’,” he replied nonchalantly, “we’ve just bin looking at this stuff, and Jake thinks it might be alien resin.”
“Looks like cannabis resin.” She said, sniffing the brown gloop.
“That’s what I said, but he went off on one, saying I was being all ‘negative, man!’, so I let him get on with it.”
“Why does Ben keep him around? He’s clearly a nut!”
“He’s a bit odd, yeah, but he’s bloody good at this science lark. ‘Ere, Craig!” Kyle shouted at the teenager, “You should get him to help you with your homework!”
Craig just grunted, and sat on a stool, engrossed in his PSP.
“He misses Isobel, bless him.” Katie said.
“Well, she’s a good girl, once you get past all the alien superbitch stuff.” He noticed Katie was smiling at him “What?”
She never got the chance to say, as Ben came over. “Nice to see you two being friendlier!” he said, “Until recently, you’ve hated each other.”
“Yeah, well,” Kyle said “we had time to chat in that holding cell on the Dalmanite spaceship.”
“Well, that’s marvellous!” Ben said. “It’s nice to see that even a chav and a University collections manager can get along!”
“What about you and Anselm?” Kyle asked. Ben looked over to where Anselm was hovering, unsure of what to do. “I don’t know.” Ben said. “Do you think I can trust him?”
“He’s a complete tool,” Katie said, holding back her true feelings “but I think…”
“I’ve got the results!” Jake called to them. They went over to where the analyser was, and pulled out a sheet of paper from the printer. “According to this, right, the metals are from somewhere really far out.”
“How far out?” Ben asked irritably. He found Jake’s usage of language quite tiresome.
“Not in this solar system, that’s for real!”
“But what was it for?” Anselm asked from the back.
“Judging from the structure, it’s some form of circuit, possibly an amplifier of telekinetic power, which is really heavy, man!”
“So, ancient aliens were present in Mesopotamia!” Ben said, “Shall we put that on the index card, Katie?” Katie just glowered. “So, put it in the Operation Data collections then!”
“Hang on, you can’t just take it! It belongs to the college!” Katie protested.
“It’s an alien artefact, it might be dangerous.”
“Ben, it’s at least four thousand years old. Anybody who knew how to use it is long dead…”

Frank emerged from his office, and knocked on Katie’s office door. He’d only recently started at the college archive, and Katie was the only friend he’d really made. There was no reply, and he tried the door. It was locked.
He was about to go back into his office when he heard a noise from the rollerstacks. He made his way towards them, and found a tall figure pulling out drawers, tipping the contents onto the floor. He backed away, and made for his office. In doing so, he dislodged a pile of maps from a table in the corridor, spilling them all on the floor. The figure turned, and made for the corridor. Frank ran into his office, and started to dial for security, when the figure burst in and grabbed him by the neck.
“Where is the Crystal Diadem” shouted the creature, it’s foul breath blasting Frank’s face.
“The what?” Frank struggled to say. He could see his tear-streaked face reflected in the creatures large black eyes.
“A dish-like fragment of crystal. It was here. Where is it?”
“I don’t know. Katie might know.”
“And who is Katie?”
“The collections manager. She was here a while ago, with some friends.”
“Do you know when they will return?”
“No.”
“A pity.” The creature said, and it tightened it’s grip until Franks went still. It threw his lifeless body to the floor, and went to Katies office door. It smashed the door open, and looked around. The place was a mess, with piles of books, bits of pot and photocopied pages on every surface. It picked up a photo, and stopped. It showed an attractive human female with a dark haired youth and a blond man. If he could find them, he could find the missing fragment. He looked at a sign in the background of the picture. The Mermaid Winebar...

Two Become One - Prologue

The Planet Gopha, the Camellan System.

Rabb shuffled through the archive, wishing he wasn’t there. It was the Festival of Grench, and he was stuck at work. While everyone else was celebrating, he was left to do filing in the largest archive in the system. There was information here going back millennia, covering everything from Imperial constitutions to planning permission forms. The historical importance of the archive was immense, but Rabb hated it. It was just boring old papers, and nobody ever came to visit. It was tedious, but someone had to do it. He just wished it didn’t have to be him.
He was surprise to hear a noise from one of the older parts of the archive, the sound of rollerstacks moving. He made his way over to where the noise was, and stopped. Standing in the rollerstacks was a tall creature, with pale, scaly skin and large black eyes. It was rummaging through a box.
“Excuse me…” Rabb started, but was cut short by a blast from the intruders gun. It turned back to the files, and pulled out a sheet of paper. It showed four planets. He read the names.
Polp
Mufta
Kalgon 6
Earth…