Chapter One.
THE DOCTOR.
The Spiders Touch.
BOOK ONE.
WARNING not suitable to read if you have a fear of spiders.
Introduction.
A series of short bedtime children’s stories of a travelling female doctor who has adventures in time, with the use of her time machine.
Please note these stories were written some four plus years ago long before the BBC decided to have a female time travelling doctor, which not please was my idea and not theirs.
Somerton in Somerset United Kingdom is usually a restful town and almost set within the past, and where those living there, enjoy a good quality of life, in many ways although it is an active town, it is almost like stepping into the past, only unexpectedly the residence was about to face a fear far greater than any had ever faced before.
Millions of miles away and in the distant past a huge asteroid collides into Mars, and such is the force of the impact huge chunks of rocks are thrown into deep space, and with some on a collision course for planet earth.
A microbial alien life form within one of these meteorites arrives from Mars, and it has survived impacting into the ground of a lower Somerton Farm in Somerset, and months later there are complaints of sore throats and strange happenings. In time people are unexpectedly dying, and with some wild and farm animals having been eaten alive from within, and with others an alien spider uses the throat to build a tunnel web, as the spiders gets older it extends the web to the heart and starts feeding from the oxygenated blood.
A stranger arrives who calls herself the doctor, and offering to help those in need, only people are wondering from where she came, and not realising the doctor was from the future, and for some they were been influenced by the alien life force now inhabiting their bodies. The Doctor recruits the help of one Janice Winston Reed, and between them they set about hunting the controlling mind and source of these alien life forms which are slowly taking over the town.
“Did you see that”? Cried out young Jimmy Moss an eleven-year-old who was out with his father star watching. Three days earlier Jimmy had received a Celestron NexStar 8SE computerised telescope as a birthday gift, and was on this occasion out during the early hours of the morning with his father star gazing, and his favourite web site was to be found in one of the NASA Files, http://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/how-do-stars-form-and-evolve/ .
Jimmy was excited and still not tired, but his father had work in the morning, and as great fun as it had been to spend such valued time with his son, he knew if they went searching for the meteorite which just impacted onto his land, that he would get no sleep for this day.
It was the school holidays and Jimmy was up early the next morning having only had three hours’ sleep. Quickly he ate some corn flakes and drank a mug of coffee, and then kissed his mother and went out searching for the meteorite. His parent’s farm covered some two thousand acres, so it took him some time before he discovered the location, and took photos of the impact site, and then spent the next three hours documenting his extraction of the meteorite. He had a passion for Astrology and science and realised the importance of presentation.
Jimmy had wanted to put together a documented paper, so he could use it as a presentation within his next school’s science class. His teacher Miss Julie Stewart was herself a keen astrologer and had actively encouraged her pupils to take up the hobby. Only she had not been prepared for the sheer enthusiasm it had sparked in young Jimmy and opened up a world of possible opportunities.
The meteorite had not been the only one to have fallen from the skies that night, not long after Jimmy Moss and his father retired for the night two further meteorites fell, one burnt to ash only before impacting, but the other fell onto marsh ground, and by the farm Jimmies parents owned, and went unobserved and for a time undiscovered. It was three months and two days later when a farm hand was clearing away fallen trees after a storm, that he noticed a patch of water which was different and almost as if it had an incandescent texture about it, and fluorescent in nature.
This single patch of water stood out from the rest and was approximately 4 meters square, and it also appeared to have attracted a host of insects and wild life. As William reached across from his tractor, he lifted his metal detector and decided to explore the area, as he had heard about young Jimmies meteorite find, and had wondered if any others had fallen that nigh. Quietly he scanned the pool and soon had results, his metal detector was alerting him to something larger than expected and buried some twelve inches within the ground.
As William waded into the water and knelt reaching in and digging with a small spade, he eventually hit something solid and maneuvered his hand under it and carefully lifted the meteorite from the water. It was about the size of a lemon, but strangely it still felt slightly warm and the water around it radiated a bright incandescing light. Just a few metres away a patch of wild mushrooms had grown, and as William knew his wife loved their flavour, he picked them, and carefully stored everything within his tractor, and then carried on working.
Unbeknown to William he had a host of miniature insect life secreted away upon his clothing from the pool, and from when he had extracted the meteorite and also a few rather unusual spiders. These were water fishermen spider’s which could build a web to trap air and live within a watery moist environment and actually hunt underwater for its meal.
Only these had acquired a parasitic host which had started altering their basic DNA and genetic structure. As it happened William finished his shift at the farm and took his treasures to his home. Ester his wife was pleased with the batch of wild mushrooms and cooked them that very evening for their meal, along with liver and bacon. The taste was incredible and like non they had tasted before, so William promised to look for more within that area, not realising they had become contaminated by an alien microbe.
His dirty clothing had gone into the wash room ready for the next day’s wash, only during the night the host of insects and spiders had sought refuge and found hiding places where they could obtain warmth and stay away from bright light. William was thrilled with his find and quickly had sold it on Ebay, and with it actually reaching an amazing thirty-four thousand UK pounds, and been sold to a specialist collector in London.
Winter was approaching and the usual flue jabs were being given, only the nurses noticed an unusual amount of throat problems but told people at first to take lozenger’s and paracetamol. However, in Somerton the problems persisted, and patients were complaining of persistent coughs, and finding it difficult at times to swallow, especially their saliva. It was as if their throats were dry and had an unusual irritation, yet upon examination the doctors could not locate the problem or see as to what was causing the irritation, and still believing it to be a typical winter medical problem.
After some month’s certain older patients were dying, and upon a post-mortem, there had been no sign of what was causing these deaths. Yet more and more people were starting to report throat problems, only to later strangely refuse investigative treatment. It was two days before Christmas when a visitor arrived and introduced herself as the Doctor.
The Doctor, first appeared in the grounds of Saint Michael’s Church in Somerton and later happily spoke with Alan, the Priest in charge and his Curate Chris. Neither Alan nor Chris had noticed the extra tomb to the rear of their church cemetery, the time machine transformed itself to give the appearance of a large tomb which had gone unseen by others.
However, to be fair they were extremely busy with various Christmas activities, and in simple truth rarely had reason to investigate that side of their grounds. Yet to the casual observer the tomb blended in well and for a time remained unseen.
The doctor seemed to know his way around the town and quickly became accepted by the locals after meeting up with one Janice Winston Reed, and residing in her home. Janice had introduced the doctor as an old friend, and she had lived in Somerton ever since she was a young girl and had originally met the doctor at aged sixteen when she had been visiting family in Royal Windsor where the Queen of England occasionally lives at the castle. Janice never forgot this stranger and now all these years later and in her sixty third year, the doctor turns up at her home.
As Janice was about to enter her garden, she noticed someone looking through her window in the front garden area. “Can I help you,” inquired Janice, the doctor turned and faced her and smiled. Janice dropped one of her shopping bags as within her mind she recognised the person standing before her. “Doctor…, is that truly you,”
The doctor smiled. “Hallow Janice how are you keeping, I was in the area and thought I would pay you a little visit,” replied the doctor.
It took Janice some seconds to regain her composure then she placed her other shopping bag down and ran over to hug her old friend. “Doctor…, oh doctor it’s wonderful to see you again…, but you look as I remember seeing you all the years ago, I on the other hand have aged.”
“Oh, I think time has been rather kind to you,” said the doctor, and they hugged once more. The doctor took Janice’s arm and they picked up the shopping bags and together walked into her home.
Across the road and a few metres along the way sat William the farm hand, he had just parked his land rover and was about to get out when he saw Janice and then the doctor. Instantly his body tensed, and he leaned back to avoid been seen, although he personally had never seen the doctor before, something within is mind registered danger, and he carefully observed their interactions, and then watched the doctor leading Janice into her home. As soon as the front door closed William reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
