IC-Ep 4-Best Laid Plans(Chad/Leonek/Tobias/Valerie)

[Mr. Handy]

UNIT HQ - London, England
8:15 PM - Thursday, September 5, 1985

Chad Engraham, Leonek Novak, Tobias Maddox, Valerie Soames, and Dr. Valerie Kirby were all asssembled in Brigadier Charles Crichton's office at UNIT HQ. The Brigadier had set out chairs for them, and he sat behind his large oak desk, where he rested his arms and clasped his hands. "Welcome back to HQ," he said. "I'm relieved you've made it out, and I still have hope that the rest of the team can make it back. First, let's put together what we know, and then we'll put together our plan of action. Dr. Kirby, you were the first in Dunwich. Why don't you start us off?"

"Certainly, sir," said Dr. Kirby. She was now wearing a black minidress with an unbuttoned lab coat over it, and she sat with her legs crossed, which proved somewhat distracting for the men. "I arrived at nine in the morning two days ago and checked into the Ship Inn, Room 104. When I spoke to Annie Howard, the woman behind the front desk, I noticed that she had a similar look to Simon Armistead, though far less pronounced. If I didn't know what to look for, I might have missed it. She might have even seemed pretty to someone ignorant of her...condition. I learned a little about Dunwich from her before setting out on my investigation. The first thing I did was find the public phone and place a trunk call to the Brigadier to report my arrival."

"Yes, I recall this part. Do go on."

"After that, I went to the Dunwich Museum and spoke to Amelia Cressy, the curator. The museum was not open yet, but I was able to convince her to have a chat while she set up for the day. That's where I learned about Dunwich's history, though the vast majority of it turned out to be irrelevant. Most of what concerns us has occurred within the past forty years. She did not know much about recent goings on in Dunwich, but she did direct me to Zeke Baker, an old local fisherman. By her advice, after lunch I purchased a drink for him to loosen his tongue and found him on the beach. Once I gave him the drink and took some time for the alcohol to sink in, he opened up about what's been happening there since 1945, when Captain Josiah Lake returned from the war."

[MikeTheMoose]

Chad listened not having anything to add at this point.

[DrPeterson]

Leonek looks a lot less stressed now the release of Dr. Kirby was confirmed and later, when she's giving her briefing he has a very eager look about him as he is listening intently to the good doctor.

[aine]

Tobias smiles wryly at the mention of Annie Howard; he is glad his judgement was correct even though he hadn't noticed any deformities. He listens carefully.

[Cearlan]

"If I may ... I think it may be wise to assume that the entire village is <cough> shall I use the phrase 'infested.' That way whatever action we take needs to be swift and total, after all we wouldn't want any escapes infecting other towns, the ramifications of this are too horrid to bear thought, wouldn't you agree Brigadier?" Valerie smiles sweetly at the group, though her cheeks feel as though they are on fire and glowing with embarrassment.

[MikeTheMoose]

Chad hears Valarie and is somewhat startled. And jumps in ahead of the Brigadier "I didn't know we had concluded that we had an infectious pathogen...Perhaps we should finish the debrief before jumping to plan specifics?"

[Mr. Handy]

"It's not a pathogen," said Dr. Kirby. "The condition is purely genetic, as I'll explain in a bit. Still, we don't want any of them getting away."

"You and Mrs. Soames are quite right," said the Brigadier. "When we're ready to move on Dunwich, our first order of business will be to surround the village with overwhelming force and cordon the place off, at least from the land. Escape by sea could still be a problem, but that's where the destroyer I'm requesting from the Royal Navy comes in. There are a number of innocent tourists there, and we'll need to keep them safe as well as separate them from the inhabitants. Our first order of business will be to secure the Ship Inn. If we go in at night, all of the tourists should be there. We can also use it as a field HQ."

"Some of the residents, especially the older ones, are fully human. And the younger ones won't be showing any of the signs yet. We'll need to do genetic testing to sort them out. Fortunately, I know what to look for, and we have a live specimen against whom to compare the DNA. However, the testing will take several weeks."

"Then we'll have to intern the lot of them, tourists and all. After all, some of the villagers could try to impersonate tourists to slip away. The population of Dunwich is only a couple hundred, so that shouldn't be a issue. We have facilities that can handle that. But we really should finish the debriefing before we make our plans."

[Cearlan]

"No no Chad, Dr Kirby, I didn't mean it was a pathogen, or even infectious. You have misunderstood my use of the word infested I think. The 'infestation' I was referring to ..." the old lady blushes and looks towards Dr Kirby before continuing "... was through some mating process between humans and these creatures. Dr Kirby and I have discussed this already and we both agree that the humans would not partake willingly if you take my meaning." I fold my hands on my lap and look down.

[aine]

Tobias smirks slightly, "From what I saw, there wasn't much else to do in that village. Not surprising the place is inbred. However, you can't tell me that 'Rover' was some form of human mutation, you'll need a lot more than small arms to stop that thing." The two Valeries looking a little puzzled, he expanded, "Underneath the ruins is a cave network with, well, how would you describe it? You saw it better than me, I was driving." Tobias asks Leonek and Chad.

[DrPeterson]

Leonek clears his throat, casts a nervous glance at Dr. Kirby and then addresses Brigadier Crichton.


"It was very big, and slightly spherical, it had too many eyes and sharp fangs and talons everywhere and it moved with great speed. It seems to be resistant to our smaller sidearms. I managed to hit it right in one of its eyes and it just kept coming at us.
"

[Cearlan]

"Oh my!" I exclaim. "How frightening. However did you cope, I'm just glad I never saw it."

[MikeTheMoose]

Chad looks down at Valerie's question "The military term is retreat and rapid withdrawal"

[MikeTheMoose]

Chad looks up. "Sorry for the interruption, go ahead and continue Dr. Kirby"

[Cearlan]

"I look down abashed. "Of course, I'm very sorry for interrupting Dr Kirby."

[Mr. Handy]

"Quite all right," said Dr. Kirby, looking a little relieved to change the subject. "From Mr. Baker I learned that Captain Josiah Lake had returned from the war a hero - and a very wealthy one. He was flush with gold, and nobody knew where he had gotten it, though some suspected he had looted it from the Japanese. He spread it around freely, essentially buying his way into control of Dunwich and corrupting the town leadership. There was some resistance, and at first they were successful, even going so far as to arrest Lake and his cronies, but then something disastrous happened in early 1946. Lake and his supporters were set free and their opponents were killed suddenly in the middle of the night. Josiah Lake was later murdered by Edward Soames, Jr. in 1970, who was later himself found dead, but Lake's legacy lives on. His son Albert, or Bertie as he likes to be called, is now in charge, and he's...well, there's very little human left about him. I mentioned to Zeke that I was considering going diving to explore the sunken ruins, and he warned me not to quite vehemently. When I asked him why, he told me...and I found out what had happened to poor Beth Armistead in 1954." She blushed and lowered her head.

[DrPeterson]

Leonek hangs on Dr. Kirby's lips. Figuratively.

[aine]

'So Captain Lake comes back with gold and some disease which he passed on to his heirs and other villagers?' Tobias says, almost to himself. He shakes his head 'Sorry. So what happened to Beth Armistead?'

[Mr. Handy]

"Not a disease," said Dr. Kirby. "The people with the strange condition, such as Simon Armistead, are actually the offspring of humans and the amphibious creatures we call Sea Devils. The Sea Devil genes are dominant, but they don't express themselves early in life. Such a child would appear normal until some time after reaching maturity, at which point the amphibian features begin to assert themselves. Eventually, the hybrids would fully transform into Sea Devils themselves! Bertie Lake, the son of Josiah Lake, is very nearly there. Zeke Baker told me he had seen the full-blooded creatures that night in January 1946, when he was just a boy. From his descrption, I recognised them as Sea Devils, having read accounts in the UNIT archives."

She cleared her throat. "Anyhow, Mr. Baker found Beth Armistead washed up unconscious on the beach one night in 1954, completely naked and covered with what turned out to be bruises, bites, and claw marks. He took her to Dr. Richard Strong, who treated her. He showed me the spot where he found her, out past Horsham's shack. The tide was out at the time, and I was able to see the underwater entrance to those caves you mentioned, though I didn't go inside. It would actually have been possible at low tide to just wade into the cave. He also told me about Virgil Soames and the history of his family's feud with the Lakes, but I'll get to that later.

"I went to visit Dr. Strong next. It took some convincing to get him to open up to me, but I was able to persuade him to breach confidentiality given that his former patient was dead, I was a fellow doctor, and I finally told him why I had come to Dunwich. Beth had been unable to recall what had happened to her after she had regained consciousness. The last she knew, she had been diving and exploring the underwater ruins. He discovered when examining her that she had been...assaulted. Sexually, I mean." She gulped. "It must have been a Sea Devil. Simon Armistead's real father."

[DrPeterson]

Leonek looks at the ground, trying not to imagine what Dr. Kirby is saying.

[MikeTheMoose]

Chad is aghast at the implications, especially with the multiple hybrids he had seen carrying on ordinary lives within Dunwich. He gulps pensively.