Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
Session 3.10 Index Session 4.1
At Colmar Technologies in Shoreditch Servo continues to talk to Dr Clinton. He logs into the company computer net and commits a bit of industrial espionage, adding flaws to the Servo project as stored on the computer network. Of course, the system may have been backed up before now, so who knows how effective it will be...
On the Thames, Blitz watches closely as David Clarence pilots their boat up and down the river, and figures out how it is done. Truth relaxes and eats a lot. Chronos mooches about.
Servo and Doctor Clinton make plans to ditch Colmar Tech. and form a new company under their control. This will not be 'Wilberforce Throckmorton Device Limited', but yet another company.
At Professor Barker's, Noesis remains conscious as Prof. Barker transfers his living brain to his new shell (the brain having no sense of touch or pain). He watches through the eyes of Prof. Barker as this is done. The new shell is closed and sealed, and everything seems to be working fine. They test the shell and all its new functions - the extending vision sensors, its IR vision system, its resistance to high and low pressures, and to extremes of temperature (into the oven, and into the bucket of liquid nitrogen). Everything seems to be working perfectly.
Once Noesis is ensconced in his new shell, Professor Barker mentions that Professor Timothy Blank, to whom he had given the sample of John Doe which Noesis took a while ago, has been wanting to talk to Noesis. Speak of the devil, Prof. Blank rings at that very moment. He accuses Noesis of playing some kind of trick on him - no creature he is aware of has a genetic structure like this one, with millions of times more DNA than a normal cell. Noesis manages to convince him that the sample is genuine, and Prof. Blank calms down. He mentions that even if it had been a hoax he would have been interested to know how it was done. Once he's convinced that the sample was genuine, he says he'll send the results over.
Noesis tells Prof. Blank that he'll be sending him over some new samples for analysis. These will include some 'alien evil DNA'. Prof. Blank is very sceptical about this, and says so. Noesis just tells him to be careful with them. Prof. Blank rings off. Noesis arranges for the various samples he has to be couriered over to Prof. Blank.
John Doe practises flying under rocket power at high altitude, trying to develop his resistance to low pressure environments. He doesn't seem to have quite figured it out yet. As he flies, he is passed by a group of UFOs. He tries to pursue them, but they're just too fast. After a while he gives up on flying and goes to look for a place to sleep - he (like the rest of the group) has been up all night, after all.
Suddenly, everyone's cell phone rings. It's STOP HQ on a conference call. After a bit of confusion and farting about, the luckless STOP person on the other end manages to tell everyone that D.I. Dickinson would like to speak with everyone, along with Mr Stannard and Miss Jaspers of SI-12. Truth doesn't want to go to STOP HQ, so after a bit of shilly-shallying everyone arranges to meet at the Seven Bells pub in Aldgate.
Out on the Thames, the 'Wilberforce Throckmorton Device The Second' heads for the St Catherine's Yacht Haven by Tower Bridge, and moors there in the place arranged for it six months ago. Truth and Blitz leave the boat and head for the pub. Everyone else does likewise.
Servo, who coming from Shoreditch is nearest to the place, arrives at the Seven Bells first and buys a pint of Guinness. Fortunately, he is wearing an inner mask under his helmet, so he takes off the helmet and drinks his beer.
John Doe arrives next, in the form of Avenger. The pub goes a bit quite for a while. He gets himself a lager (no surprises there).
Noesis arrives, and orders a glass of Polish spirit that he starts slowly feeding into his brain's nutrient fluid. Hope that glass was sterile.
Blitz, Truth and Chronos all arrive at about the same time, and order drinks.
The London Knights take over a table and chat.
Some time later, a black cab pulls up outside and D.I. Dickinson, Captain Tyrell, Sven, Mr Stannard and Miss Jaspers all get out. They all come into the pub. John Doe slides up onto the ceiling over the bar, directly above Miss Jaspers and Mr Stannard. They order drinks, as do Dickinson and Tyrell. John Doe sheds dandruff over Mr Stannard and Miss Jaspers.
They come over to the London Knights. After a bit of conversation it is suggested that thing might be better discussed in private. D.I. Dickinson talks to the landlord, and passes over some cash. The landlord unlocks a back room and leads the group in, then goes back to the bar.
Mr Stannard asks everyone all the details of where the London Knights have been for the last six months. John Does head explodes at the questions being repeated again. Everyone else tells them what really happened, including the alien abduction and planet destroying parts. The two SI-12 agents listen impassively.
Once the tale has been told, they ask about Sven. He says he met the group as they came back to London, and returned with them. Well, it's not strictly a lie. Just not the whole truth.
The SI-12 agents thank the group for the information, and say they will investigate. They get up and leave, as do D.I. Dickinson and Captain Tyrell.
The London Knights leave the pub and return to the 'Wilberforce Throckmorton Device The Second'. On the way there is some talk about trying to be subtle in going to and from the boat to keep its being the London Knights' as secret as possible. John Doe leaps to the 'Wilberforce Throckmorton Device The Second' from boat to boat in a less than subtle manner.
Everyone gathers in the boat's lounge. Sven turns on the TV, and finds a news station. The headlines at the moment are:
Blitz starts up the boat and steer out of the yacht haven onto the Thames.
Sven asks whether he can borrow some cash to invest in the stock market - he wishes to investigate the way the human economic system functions. After a bit of discussion, Servo lends him a hundred pounds.
After some more discussion, the London Knights decide the best way to go at present is to talk to the Lost Girls, in the hope they may be able to locate and help in destroying the Brood-enslaved Acanti that seems to be loitering near the Earth.
Blitz turns the boat around and it is moored again.
The group leave the boat (in more subtle ways, this time) and head for Vallance Street in East London, which is where the Lost Girls were in the footage of them shown on the news earlier.
Truth sniffs about the area, but although she can pick out many many scents (it is a main road, after all), she has never met the Lost Girls and so can't really tell if any of the scents is one of the ones she is looking for.
The decide to try another approach.
John Doe phones the BBC and talks to Bill Julian again - he would like to make a broadcast on local news to contact the Lost Girls, and wonders if Bill could put him in touch with the right people? Bill says he'll talk to Alan Chessex, the head of local news in London and get him to ring John Doe.
He rings off. A little later Alan Chessex calls. He's quite happy for the London Knights to broadcast their request on the local news, though a bit disappointed when they say they won't do an interview. Oh well. Truth arranges to go on air to appeal for the Lost Girls to make contact in an hour or so.
Everyone heads for the BBC in Shepherds Bush. They land outside reception. John Doe is in the form of a smartly dressed man wearing a suit and fedora. They talk to the receptionist and after a short wait Alan Chessex, a slightly plump, balding man in his forties bustles up, greets everyone and leads them off to the studio.
He leads Truth and Servo into the studio (Servo is there to stop Truth's compulsion to tell only the truth causing problems). Everyone else waits in the hospitality suite right outside and watch on a monitor.
The cameras go on, and the female presenter does some other London news, then turns to Truth and Servo. Truth brain takes thirty seconds or so to catch up, leaving her staring gormlessly into the camera. Then she starts talking, and appeals for the Lost Girls to contact the London Knights on a matter of some urgency. If the Lost Girls contact the BBC, then they'll be put through to John Doe.
While they do the appeal everyone else scoffs sandwiches in the hospitality suite.
Once the cameras stop rolling, Truth is assured that her thirty seconds of gormless staring will be edited out of the broadcast version - phew! It will be going out in about half an hour, and will be repeated.
After the appeal is done Alan Chessex persuades everyone to do an interview about what has been going on. During the interview, everyone manages to avoid revealing anything too alarmist (although Truth nearly does once or twice). Once the interview is over, he thanks everyone profusely, and they leave the BBC.
Once he is out of the BBC Chronos call his agent, Brian Cooper, to see how his sponsorship deal with Nike is doing. Brian Cooper tells him that the deal is still going - Nike included clauses allowing for Chronos' superheroic activities interfering with photo shoot and the like. Chronos is pleased by this.
John Doe heads back to the boat. He wants to test his strength and see if he can lift it out of the water. He ducks underwater some way from the yacht haven and comes up under the boat. He roots himself on the bottom, grabs the boat and starts to lift. He manages to lift it partly out of the water but isn't strong enough to lift it up entirely.
Chronos arrives back at the yacht haven to see the boat slowly rising out of the water with no sign of what is causing it. He dives into the water to see what is going on and sees a tree-like thing lifting up the boat (John Doe). The thing waves tentacles at him and text scrolls over it. Chronos gets the idea, gesture to him, and returns to the surface.
John Doe lowers the boat back into the water.
The other arrive back at the boat by various fairly subtle routes.
Sven tells everyone they were on the TV.
John Doe arrives on board in the form of a sea gull.
Everyone watches TV and waits for the Lost Girls to call.
People eat, go out to shop and various other mundane things.
Servo buys some tools and starts to design an underwater hatch for the boat so people can come and go with more subtlety.
Sven takes the hundred pounds Servo gave him earlier and opens a bank account.
At five p.m. John Doe's phone rings at last. It is Scarlet of the Lost Girls. She asks what the London Knights want with them. John Doe says they wanted to contact them to see of they can detect cloaked spaceships from the ground. Scarlet is dubious, but the best idea seems to be to meet rather than discuss this information over an open phone line.
They arrange to meet at the northern island in the Regents Park boating lake in an hour. And to bring a picnic. John Doe asks the Lost Girls to bring some pickled eggs.
They ring off. A picnic is procured and everyone sets off for Regents Park. The London Knights get there first and set out the picnic (Sven stays on the boat). Truth eats lots. Again.
At about the arranged time three young women come into sight walking towards the lake. They are recognisable as the Lost Girls from the news footage seen earlier. Scarlet (clearly it is her, from her scarlet costume and flowing red hair) is in the lead, carrying a jar of pickled eggs. Kate Bodkin (all in black) and Mestnusen (in a green and gold Egyptian-style costume) follow close behind.
When they reach the lake Scarlet and Kate Bodkin simply take a short run-up and jump over to the island. Mestnusen stops by the like, murmurs something in a language no-one understands and makes a gesture as if drawing something up over herself. Bands of green energy rise up, following her hands, and she vanishes to reappear on the island in the same burst of green energy.
At this point, the London Knights can't help noticing that Kate Bodkin seems to have hard plastic skin (what there is visible on her face, anyway).
The two groups sit down and eat the picnic. John Doe enjoys the pickled eggs. As the picnic is eaten the London Knights tell the Lost Girls the tale of what happened to them since their storming the Canary Wharf tower in February, including the Brood, Acanti, Sven and everything else. The Lost Girls boggle.
Scarlet seems quite a bubbly personality. Mestnusen is serious about things. Kate Bodkin seems morose and somewhat down. It appears she has plastic eyes, too.
The Lost Girls do not have any way to detect invisible things with their powers. Mestnusen says she could detect them if their powers were magical in nature, but would have to be close enough for the power to work - it wouldn't reach into orbit from the ground. Oh well.
Because the Canary Wharf ship was heading for the Project Safeguard orbital prison, a plan is formulated where the London Knights will go up to Project Safeguard and wait for the Brood to attack it. They will then destroy them. Another plan is discussed to mind control the enslaved Acanti the Brood are using as a ship and make it fly itself into the sun (as its mind has been destroyed by the Brood slaver virus). As Project Safeguard is a joint EU-USA project both NASA and the ESA take prisoners up to it in their different types of space shuttle.
The Lost Girls are reluctant to go up to Project Safeguard, but do say they'll help if the chips are down.
Truth's ability to survive in vacuum when desolid is discussed. John Doe (who has mastered that ability) forms a vacuum chamber into which Truth (while desolid) puts her hand. Her gaseous form starts to dissipate, which hurts, and she quickly pulls her hand out. She seems to have lost all the skin from it - ouch! Servo heals her. Looks like she hasn't yet mastered vacuum survival...
A way for the London Knights and the Lost Girls to get in touch is agreed upon. Both groups will have copies of the same books (making sure they're the same editions, too!), and messages will be passed by referring to words in them via a book, page, paragraph and word number. The books are:
John Doe intends to just read the books and memorise them. Scarlet is not keen on doing this, and is relieved when it's pointed out she doesn't actually need to - just have them handy when they're needed.
John Doe asks the Lost Girls whether they would be interested in some joint social activities between them and the London Knights (or at least him). Scarlet thinks this is a good idea. Kate Bodkin is less enthusiastic. Regardless, Scarlet gives John Doe her mobile phone number for easier communication in future.
Goodbyes are said and the Lost Girls leave in the same way as they arrived. They vanish off into the night.
The London Knights clear up their picnic and also leave the island. They return to the 'Wilberforce Throckmorton Device The Second'. On the way back John Doe buys copies of all the code books, and once he's back at the boat, starts to read them. It's slow going.
The group discuss making contact with the Guardians in the USA and asking for their help (in getting up to Project Safeguard at least). And this is what is decided as the next course of action...