Chapter 1
Consciousness returned slowly to MHA. His limbs refused to function, his blurred vison revealed a plastic tube, a cannula taped to the back of his hand, a belt across his hips and away below restrained him. He was aware of others out of sight but electronic beeps and small LED lights put him in the 21st Century.
He drifted off again.
He awoke. It was night time. He lay bathed in a soft glow of artificial light, the ceiling above dark. Still the beeps. A nurse sat by him, the glow from her communicator lit her face. Phone he thought. He stirred, she jumped up, holstered her device and reached to restrain him but he was too weak. She offered him water, a drinking tube guided to his mouth. Nectar.
He was taken outside to sit in the sun. In pleasant surroundings, the grounds of a stately home. It looked like Capability Brown’s work, an earlier rogue time manipulator who’d had to be eased out. Like Einstein and Newton. The troublethey’d caused, and that idiot Jesus.
“And I say you do, and more.You’ve been scanned, analysed, just short of a post mortem. You are not of this Earth, our time. You are a spare parts surgeon’s dream, a kit, a human designed by an advanced robot species,stangely fallen foul of our pathogens. You shouldn’tbe ill. Or even here.
Whoever you are Mr....Emmay Chay? - the name you muttered in your delirium by the way.... whatever you are, our dear old country is going to the dogs and we think you could be the means to save us.”
“And if I were? Look at you, you represent an elite cadre, you even wear its uniform. Look at these surroundings, where are the public? This isn’t your average Health Service facility. My own dedicated nurse, my own room. An alien, a wrecked ship? Your Press, your public would be clamouring for news...
...spoiler, I know your type did this to your country.”
“How do you know?”
“Your own people know. It’s the Why they don’t understand…
…do you know how your car works? Could you build one? Build your own home? Like this?”
MHA directed a thumb over his shoulder at the big house behind. The man acquiesced, tight lipped.
“Nor could I, I can only point in certain directions.And,so can you.”
“Such as?”
“There’sa comet called 3l/Atlas coming. Your scientists think it’s another lifeform. Or a vehicle. They only start talking about it publicly in 2025. I suspect it’s why I’m here now.
Your government will collapse and an even worse one will take it’s place.”
“And you know this how?”
“You demand my help yet question me already. Not a good start.”
**
