Notes taken by Alastair and Samantha Beadle.
On Project Safeguard we plan the search of the prisoners for Brood eggs.
John Doe decides he cannot do a lot to help so goes back to practising to be a video camera.
The group split into two teams, one centred about Truth and one about Noesis. Each has a group of security robots with them. Noesis decides to start with Aggro and his fellow prisoners; Truth's team head off to the psionics wing.
Noesis' team reach the cell of The Leech. Waves of madness emanate from the small, somewhat geeky-looking man who is The Leech, but although Noesis cannot read his mind he can tell that he doesn't have any additional minds. John Doe (with Noesis' team) is currently in the form of 'Chronos, Master of Time', chewing gum. They then check Smother (clouds of gases with a woman made of ash floating inside; her eyes glow red). Noesis can tell that she too is a total fruitcake; her mind is too strong to read but Noesis can tell she is mad. He can also tell that she too does not have any extra Brood minds in her.
Psiborg is the first of the psionic prisoners to be checked, Truth goes desolid - and invisible - and checks the otherwise invulnerable tank, surrounded by life support equipment that is the Psiborg. Inside is a brain and spinal column, which is clear of Brood infestation. They continue on with the checks. Although it does not take long to check each prisoner the transit time between cells is quite long...
Most of the other prisoners just look like normal people, but there are exceptions:
Warden Morgan goes off and Warden Andreopolis (a Greek woman) accompanies us instead. After eight hours or so, everyone has been checked and no eggs have been found. No sign of Brood are found either. Phew.
After the checks are finished Noesis goes to a guestroom and shuts down for the night. John Doe sneaks in after him, turns into a fried egg and sticks to Noesis. Noesis wakes up at this and puts up his force field, which throws John Doe across the room and into the wall; he sticks.
Everyone else also goes to their guestrooms and goes to sleep.
Noesis watches the fried egg dribble down the wall and hits the floor. Noesis is concerned so calls the duty warden and tells him what has happened. The warden suggests there may be an invisible intruder, and suggests Noesis use his powers to check. Noesis does so and finds out that is John Doe. Noesis apologises to the warden for disturbing him, and shuts down again.
Meanwhile, on Her Majesties Station Princess Sophia, in orbit around a completely different Earth in another dimension, Project Argosy, the British Empire's FTL drive programme, is preparing for the first test flight of its FTL Drive in the spaceship HMS Argo II. Its captain, Winston Gordon of the IAC (the Imperial Aerospace Corps), the leader of its 8-person crew, is preparing for the flight.
He and the rest of the crew don spacesuits and go to the departure docking port. Various dignitaries, journalists and gentlemen from the 'Times' are present to see them off. Station Commander Lord Arthur C. Clarke wishes Captain Gordon good luck and shakes his hand. Winston says that he hopes to be back for teatime. Professor Sir Steven Hawking, the leader of Project Argosy (who has no wheelchair) is also there to wish him good luck and also shakes his hand. The various journalists watch and film.
The crew board the Argo II and strap into their acceleration couches. The airlock swings shut. There is a countdown, and there is a clunk as the ship detaches from the station and accelerates away, on a course for Alpha Centauri.
At the appropriate moment, the FTL Drive is started. Various strange noises from emanate from the drive as it begins operation, followed by a thump and a crackle. It looks as if a black disc appears ahead of the Argo II, and the ship dives in. All the stars disappear. All the crew report all of the ship's various systems are functioning as expected. Outside there appears to be nothing but swirling black on black.
Suddenly red lights start to flash all over the control boards and alarms sound! The FTL Drive is malfunctioning. Everyone seals his or her space suit. Chief Engineer McTavish is contacted on the intercom. He says that the drive is overloading. Running wild. There is an explosion from the rear section of the Argo II - the drive section - and the ship goes out of control, tumbling, and starts to break up. A tear appears in the hull as it buckles, and tentacles of blackness start to seep in through it. A Mayday signal is sent, though who knows whether anyone will hear it?
The blackness is expanding in through the hull breach. Captain Gordon pushes the drive eject control and blacks out...
Meanwhile, on Project Safeguard, alarms sound. Perimeter breach!
Everyone wakes up to hear "PERIMETER ALERT. PERIMETER ALERT" alarms blaring from the PA system. John Doe becomes a rocket powered, fried egg coloured, tentacled Cthuloid thing and zooms off towards Security Control. He bounces off walls and down the corridors. Everyone else follows at a more sensible pace, apart from Truth who heads for Commander Perrallta's office.
Blitz, Servo, Noesis and John Doe (now in Chronos form) all arrive at Security Control.
Security Chief Vinkle says something is appearing within the station's security perimeter. The main display screen shows the view outside. They see black disc against the face of the Earth, like a tear in space. Servo and Truth see what looks like human shapes floating out there among the debris. Noesis tries to scan them to see which are alive, but it is just a display screen. He leaves to go to the canteen so he can see the drifting forms directly and sense whether there are any living minds there.
Servo and Blitz go to Engineering, where work pods are going out to recover survivors and debris. A shifting blob that is John Doe follows them. Lots of garden shed forms are visible, among all the others, as he changes.
The black disc disappears. Chief Vinkle says to tell the work area that he sent them.
Truth reaches Commander Perrallta's office, invisible and desolid, and goes in. She sees the same scene outside as the others. The Commander is giving orders over a microphone.
Noesis reaches the canteen. He can see the drifting figures outside, and scans them. He senses four living minds, some very weak. He tries to bring them in with his telekinesis, but cannot reach them - they are too far away. He tells the others what he can sense.
In Engineering, John Doe turns himself into an armoured beach ball, fills up with air, and leaves the station by the air lock. He divides his air supply into two, so that when the first half is gone he will know it is time to return.
Blitz gets a space suit and he and Servo head off outside to rescue the four humans. A couple of 2001-style work pods (spherical metal vehicles with robot arms, spotlights and rocket thrusters) also leave the station and thrust off to assist the rescue.
Noesis sees John Doe accelerate off towards the human figures, and uses his telepathy to tell John Doe not to forget to decelerate. John Doe flies through the vacuum of space; he finds the side in sunlight boiling and bubbling, that is shadow is freezing solid. He begins to spin about his long axis to equalise temperature. He takes note of Noesis' suggestion, too, and decelerates up to the first floating figure; their spacesuit is breached and venting air. The beach ball grows a huge mouth and swallows them, putting them into the chamber of air it is carrying.
Truth examines the Commander's office and finds nothing of interest; it seems he does his work electronically - there are no papers or whatever.
John Doe turns into a space shark and turns towards the next person. Noesis tries to give him advice. He reaches the person, swallows them, and flies towards another.
Servo and Blitz fly towards the remaining two figures in whom Noesis can sense minds. The minds are getting weaker. John Doe and Blitz meet at that victim. The shark swallows the person, turns, and Blitz accompanies them back to the station, holding on to the shark's dorsal fin. Servo grabs the last one, turns, and begins to fly back to the station. Their spacesuit is venting air too.
The pods have picked up the remaining dead bodies. John Doe flashes a sign across the skin of shark - 'Can you open the door?'. Noesis says not to worry, he will arrange it.
Servo slaps a healing pack on the person he has and patches their space suit (which is quite hard - the space suit is badly torn) and gets him back to the station.
John Doe approaches the station far too fast. Blitz decides now is the time to leave the shark, and bails out. The shark grows a huge impact-absorbing airbag on its nose.
Truth goes the engineering to meet them all.
The shark enters the airlock, and crashes into the far door. Fortunately the airbag absorbs most of the impact. The outer door closes and the inner airlock door opens. John Doe wheels out three patients on medical trolleys. The trolleys ask where to go. Dr de Hooke, who has arrived at the airlock, tells John Doe the way, and they are all carted of to the medical area.
As they go the doctor cuts open the remains of the people's space suits to give them a preliminary examination (the space suits appear to be of a somewhat unusual, non-standard, design). Under the first she sees a man with matt black glittery skin. The debris that has been recovered is also matt black with glittery bits.
Servo arrives back at the station with the last person and goes through the airlock. A trolley waits for him. The fourth person is also taken off to the medical centre.
Outside, Blitz returns back to the work pods and trawls through the debris to see what he can find.
In the medical bay the trolleys stop and Dr de Hooke starts sticking monitors on the patients. We assist by removing the remains of their spacesuits and other clothing. Servo arrives with the last living victim and sticks healing packs on them. Noesis can tell that two of them start to get better when this is done.
One of the patients starts to wake up. He asks where he is. Servo tells him he is safe. He asks about his ship and crew, and is told the ship is gone and he shouldn't worry. This does not reassure him. The man tries to sit up, but Servo pushes him down and the trolley grows straps and holds him down. The doctor tells him he has been through a great deal of trauma and should rest. He asks what nationality this station in and is told 'Joint USA / EU'. Strangely, this seems to mean nothing to him. He tells us he is Captain Winston Gordon, and gives a serial number.
He asks several questions - "Where am I? Who are you? How did I get here?"
He is answered as best we can. He obviously does not know what or who Project Safeguard or The London Knights are! The 'how did I get here' question is harder to answer. We are able to confirm that he is in orbit around Earth on August 21st 1995 - which is the correct time and place - the same as when he left.
When he describes launching from HMS Princess Sophia via the Cape Westminster launching site on Earth we all conclude that he is delirious. Dr de Hooke approaches with a syringe. "Are you in touch with the Admiralty?" he asks.
"Yes, yes, don't you worry," he is told. We tell him that we will contact STOP and SI-12 to find out what happened to him. Dr de Hooke's syringe needle bounces off his skin. She is a little taken aback by this. He goes on to state that his ship was secret. This sort of explains things to us, but his story about launching into space from Cape Westminster still does not make sense.
We step away to have a private conversation about this.
Captain Gordon fiddles with the straps John Doe grew and finds a buckle. He undoes it and sits up. Finding himself naked, he grabs a pillow to cover himself (it is attached to the trolley by a string; a cushion forms underneath him so he jumps off the bed). He demands some clothes. A medical gown is fetched.
The alarms on the monitors around one of the other casualty beds go off. The Captain goes over to the body, whom he identifies as Singh, and demands the doctor, "Do Something!"
He gets a robe, and as he puts it on he notices for the first time that he is matt black with sparkly bits. "What have you done to me?" he shouts.
Attempts to inject things into Singh are not going well - like the Captain he cannot be injected, as his black skin is too hard. John Doe grows an injector spike to penetrate the black skin; the Captain looks concerned. The other two patients start to show similar signs of distress. Truth takes injections from Noesis (Captain Gordon looks surprised as syringes and medicine bottles start floating around as Noesis uses his telekinesis) and places them directly into Singh's chest. The Captain is alarmed by what is going on, but appears to understand that we are trying to help and so keeps relatively quiet and out of the way.
As the injection goes into Singh he sits up and screams (though as far as Noesis can tell he is still unconscious). A black disc like a small version of the one the people and debris appeared from appears beneath him and he drops into it, severing one of John Doe's tentacles and taking it along too before the disc vanishes.
One of the remaining two patients arrests. Then the other. The doctor attempts to revive them. Much effort is put into saving them, including many charges of Servo's healing box. But it does no good. Both die. The reasons for this are not entirely clear.
The three linked medical trolleys move off into one of the other rooms of the medical centre to get rid of the bodies. They go out of the room. A short while later a man in a discrete Project Safeguard jump-suit appears from where the trolleys disappeared.
Dr de Hooke apologises. "I am sorry, I tried to save them."
When asked what has happened to the Captain she speculates that, "I guess you have just suffered one of those events that gives people super powers."
Outside, Blitz and the work pods pick up much of the debris and return to the station. He joins the others in the medical centre.
Winston asks more questions. When he mentions 'The Empire' Blitz demands "What Empire?"
Much discussion results into the real size of the British Empire, or the lack of same in the world the London Knights come from. Discussion about the number of superhumans also causes disagreement. Winston seems to think that there are around twenty or so; he names a few that we recognise - General Winter and The Red Lotus (who is imprisoned here on Project Safeguard). We, of course, insist that there are hundreds.
To help sort things out John Doe retrieves a large map of the world from an unfeasibly small pocket. It looks familiar to Winston in that the continents and so forth are all the same shape. But the names and shapes of the nations are all wrong. Where is Rhodesia? Why is there only one Germany, one France and one Italy? Why are there no Ottoman or Austro-Hungarian Empires? We finally begin to catch on to what may have really happened...
Mrs Rotherwood of SI-12 and Ms Sejnowski of the USAF ATD come in. They don't say anything, but just seem to be listening.
Feeling self-conscious Winston asks for some 'proper clothing'. John Doe brings out another jump suit from the same pocket. Winston goes off to change. John Doe also brings out a Styrofoam cup of warm (body temperature) tea, again from the same pocket, and offers it to Winston. Winston puts it down. John Doe retrieves it and starts to drink it himself.
The decision is made to go to the canteen to have some breakfast. The fact that Winston's skin colour is as new to him as it is to us is brought up. Blitz shows them a piece of the ship that also has the matt black with sparkly bits effect. It, and many other pieces, are taken away to be analysed by the boffins in the research centre. Strangely the spacesuits did not have the matt black and sparkly effect.
Mrs Rotherwood is asked to investigate to see if any of Winston's story matches official records. She says that she will see what she can do and goes off. However, we are now coming to the conclusion that Winston is from a parallel universe. The fact that we have never encountered it before is discussed.
As he has not been introduced to us, Winston calls Noesis 'Ball Thing', which causes John Doe some amusement.
It is suggested that we ask the Acanti about it as 'They Are Wise' says John Doe (John Doe and his powers are introduced at this point). A picture of the Acanti, and a description, is provided by John Doe - Winston does not recognise them. He calls Servo 'Tin Man' and Noesis 'Ball Boy', again causing much amusement. Servo calls Winston 'Captain Flint', but Winston misunderstands and assumes that is Blitz's name. We all head for the canteen.
En route the architecture and function of the prison is discussed.
At the canteen Winston is shown what can be seen of the station through the windows. Servo switches to calling Winston 'Black Head', and we all help ourselves to breakfast. We are all introduced.
A faint clunk is heard and the space shuttle Explorer is seen drifting off from the station. This is greeted with some disappointment as we had some plans to use it to find the Brood ship(s). It also represented Winston's only real chance to get down to Earth this week. Oh well...
Noesis asks Winston for a sample of blood to see how it matches with 'our' humans. John Doe states that Winston is '"exactly human" (he had previously used his genetic sensing/analysis ability to discover this). A further blood sample is promised when Winston has recovered enough. John Doe's offer of a pint of blood to drink to help him on his way is turned down by Winston.
The crisis with the Brood is described to Winston. "Good luck to you," he says. "Any assistance I can render, I will."
The problem is that he does not know what his own powers are. Truth offers to 'extract' the truth from him, to confirm or deny his story. She would have to take control of his mind to do this, and if he really believes what he is saying then that will not help.
Winston's world is discussed - the vast British Empire, it's workings in the modern day world (it is currently run by the Empress, Elizabeth II, with Governors running the colonies, and a parliament that meets infrequently). The existence of 'malcontents' who want home rule for their colonies and so forth. The other world super-powers of the Chinese and Russian Empires. During this conversation John Doe and Truth get bored and head off.
Mrs Rotherwood returns to state that no person matching Winston's details is known to live in Britain or anywhere else they have records for.
Six days pass, in the course of which:
On the sixth day, deep in the bowels of the rock on which Project Safeguard is built, Truth finds a space that does not exist on any of the maps - a dimly lit corridor. She can smell people in the corridor and recognises the scent of, among others, Mrs Rotherwood. Also present, but much fainter, is the scent of Ms Sejnowski.
She goes invisible and follows the scent trail. She enters a control room, similar to the station control room but smaller, with lots of monitor screens on the walls. All the equipment is switched off. Truth searches around, finding scents for Ms Sejnowski and at least five others. She also finds an armoured security door, a lounge-type area, an airlock door and a spacesuit locker, none of which have windows. She passes through the armoured door and follows the corridor that is there along, through another armoured door and finds a circular room with cell doors around its walls - six of them, each with a keypad and intercom screen by the door.
She returns to the surface part of Project Safeguard (that which is shown on the maps), phones Servo and tells him what she has found. Servo is annoyed and they summon the whole group to discuss it. Truth returns to the others.
We all meet up and Truth passes on her news. Blitz and Servo suggest confronting the SI-12 and ATD special agents. John Doe and Noesis favour just going in to find out. John Doe turns into a transparent model of the space station, in which Truth shows her route by sticking her hand into the model to point to the appropriate locations, which John Doe then changes the colour of. From the model we figure that the airlock will lead into space.
We decide on a compromise plan. John Doe and Truth will go down to the secret rooms while the rest of us go and confront the special agents. John Doe shrinks down to small size, Truth picks him up and goes desolid, and they disappear off through the walls. The rest of us go to Mrs Rotherwood to have a private conversation in her unmarked, windowless, office in the Administration section of Project Safeguard. She lets us in, and indicates that we should take seats, which are scattered across the large rug that fills most of the office in front of her desk.
"We are most concerned that we did not miss anybody in our sweep of the crew," says Noesis. "I am sure you share those concerns?"
"Absolutely," replies Mrs Rotherwood.
"So if we became aware that we had missed anybody you would agree that we should take measures to include them?"
"That would seem sensible."
"I am glad you said that, because we have found a small enclave where we believe other prisoners may be being held, and Truth and John Doe are there now investigating. We were wondering if you knew about this location and had let it, er, slip your mind? We are curious to know who these prisoners are," continues Noesis.
"I cannot tell you who or what they are," she says. "I can tell you that they are prisoners who, for the good of all, have been put where they are."
"I can well imagine that there are such dangerous supervillians, but that they could be more dangerous than The Leech boggles my mind," says Noesis. He goes on to hypothesise regarding various good reasons why SI-12 may want to keep these prisoners secret. He asks for legitimate access to "stop John Doe and Truth doing something."
"If you are willing to sign non-disclosure agreements and various other items of legislation, you may," says Mrs Rotherwood. We agree and she pulls out a sheaf of papers from her desk, which she offers around. Each one is about half a centimetre thick, and densely covered with small print. There is a place to sign and date at the foot of each page.
Winston signs with his new superhero name - Void. Noesis and Servo insist on reading it all. Blitz states that he is not interested. "If they do not wish my help they will not receive it," he says.
The corridor that Truth found appears to have moved - it is the same, just in a slightly different place to where she left it.
She and John Doe explore the six cells. They enter the third of the cells. It contains a man, in almost complete darkness, in a tiny cell, about 2 metres square with a bed filling half of it. He looks towards them as they enter. They duck back but they feel something brushing their minds as they do so. They decide not to talk to him right now, and try cell one instead.
It contains a scarred man in an identical cell. He has one brown eye and one blue eye and patchy coloured skin, as if it was put together from that of more than one person.
Truth tries to phone Noesis but there is no signal here. They go to the air lock and push some buttons. Nothing happens. They step through the door, into the airlock. Truth sticks John Doe outside into space to make the phone call, doing it quickly enough for her hand not to be affected by the hard vacuum. He calls Noesis and tells him what they have found. Then they go back.
In the other cells are a 60 year old-seeming woman, a 50 year old-seeming man, a 60 year old-seeming man and an apparently empty cell. None of them look familiar. They press the intercom button on the 60 year old mans cell and he looks up.
"Who are you?" he asks in an American-accented voice. Truth introduces herself, claiming they are "just passing through" and wondering who he is. He looks suspiciously at them (or at the intercom camera, anyway) and remains quiet. John Doe asks him if he has been implanted by a hideous alien egg that is going to take over his body.
"What the hell you talking about, man?" he exclaims.
They try to explain. He claims he is not infected, and when asked says he does not know how long he has been here - they are his first visitors, ever. They offer him a cappuccino without saying exactly how they get it. This surprises him, but he accepts it! Truth carefully puts it through the wall. He is surprised by this but picks it up and sips at it. Truth asks him again who he is. He says he forgets, but then it comes to him and he says "Hank." John Doe asks him why they put him here.
"Trying to save the world from the Reds" he says. "I came..." the picture dissolves into static.
They write a note, which says:
'Sorry, we didn't catch that. Someone is interfering.'
They pass him this through the wall, along with more paper and a pen. They wait for a minute, then look though. He is writing on the paper: "I came back in time to try and stop the Reds, from 2015, after the war."
"How and what war?" we ask in another note.
"WWIII," he responds.
"When is that?"
"1947 to 1985. We won. The USA. But the world was ruined."
"You succeeded then."
"No - Russia still Red."
"Not any more, communism is finished in Russia. Your work was not in vain."
Pause.
"Hmmm," he writes.
"How did you get back?"
"Time Machine."
"Where?"
"Under the Pentagon."
"Who put you here?"
"The Reds."
"Russian Reds or Fifth Column Reds?"
He doesn't know.
"Who ordered you put here?"
"The Kremlin."
"How were you to get back?"
"I was not to get back - it was a one way mission."
"Who invented the time machine?"
"Professor Temple invented it."
He does not know about the other people in the cells. He says he did not have a trial. John Doe and Truth have a lot of sympathy for him.
They leave Hank and try the 60 year old woman. There is a hissing sound from all around - a gas that Truth cannot identify. The old woman passes out. John Doe confirms that it is sleeping gas by starting to pass out too. They move around and find that the gas is coming out into all the rooms, but not the airlock, so John Doe is left there while Truth, who does not seem bothered by the gas, goes back. She checks how the prisoners are fed - there seem to be slots in the walls of the cells which lead back to the control room area and which are as heavily sealed and locked as the cells themselves. So are the toilets.
Truth pokes her head into the cells and confirms that they are all unconscious. Then she checks them for Brood eggs. They are clean. She also notices that the two old men and the old woman appear normal inside; the man in Cell 3 has normal organs but a strange brain; the patchwork man is a patchwork on the inside too.
As Truth runs her hands through the Patchwork Man his eyes open and he looks around. "Wait, whoever you are," he says, "I mean you no harm." His voice is deep and sincere. He clearly cannot see Truth.
She speaks and moves at the same time to keep him from discerning her location. "You are not asleep."
He says he is largely resistant to their gas, and introduces himself as Adam. Truth asks him why he is here.
Upstairs, as they plough through the non-disclosure agreements the others can see that Mrs Rotherwood is looking very slightly concerned.
Adam explains that he is a danger to 'them' because he knows too much about 'building a better world', and has plans to do so that could change 'everything'. When asked, however, he says he does not come from a different time or place. He says he has plans for a better society, and that the Diogenes Club put him here. "Can you let me out?" he asks.
Truth says she does not know how.
He says he has been here 10 years and in prison another 140 years on top of that, so since 1845 or so. Truth promises to do her best to win his freedom. They say goodbye. Truth goes and tells John Doe about Adam. They discuss how his plans can still be considered a danger after so long, but presumably someone thinks they still are. John Doe wants to meet him too, so he turns himself into a gas resistant form (small, with air sacs so he can hold his breath for a fair while) and Truth takes him back to speak to Adam.
They speak for a while. Truth and John Doe start to feel very sorry for him. He says there are forces behind world events and world history of which we know nothing. Secret Masters. Illuminated Ones. They are about to ask him more about this when suddenly there is an explosion from under the bed and the contents of the cell, including Adam, are destroyed. Bits of him splat about the cell. Truth and John Doe only survive because they are desolid. But they are very upset by this.
They try to find a way of talking to the others, but cannot from here, so decide to go back up to see Mrs Rotherwood, have a 'word' with her and tell the others what she and SI-12 have done...