fredbassett | Fic, Silk and Steel, Part 50, AU, 18

Title : Silk and Steel, Part 50
Authors : fredbassett & munchkinofdoom
Fandom : Primeval
Characters : Nick, Stephen, Anne Morris, Lester, Ryan, Thomson, Helen
Rating : 18
Disclaimer : Not ours, no money made, don’t sue
Spoilers : None
Summary : Nick gets another shock, and Ryan is implicated in the sabotage of the Anomaly Detection Device.
Warning : Slave!fic.
A/N : 1) Well, folks, we’re posting again, thanks for your patience! At the end of the previous story arc, the ADD was sabotaged, with devastating consequences. The team arrived late at an anomaly at an expensive boarding school and various children and adults were killed. Lester was summoned to Downing Street and arrived back in company with the last person Nick expected to see. 2) Captain Thomson appears by kind permission of

deinonychus_1.

*****

"Helen?" said Nick, staring in amazement at the woman standing next to Lester

It couldn't be. Not here, not now, not when he was so far away from home and safety. Nick stepped forward, unconsciously shaking off Stephen's hand when he made to stop him.

Helen smiled at him, her expression possessing an even sharper edge than Nick ever remembered having seen before. "You're looking well, Nick. Well, actually, you're looking a little stressed, which is understandable, considering the circumstances." Helen's smile widened.

"What are you doing here? I don't understand." Then Nick felt a hand at his elbow again and a voice whispered in his ear.

"Not here," Stephen said urgently, pulling at Nick’s arm.

Nick shook Stephen's hand away again, only to find Annie at his other side, her own gaze shrewd as she assessed the woman standing so calmly in front of them. Nick stared closely at his wife, his thoughts racing at how well she seemed to fit her new surroundings. The Helen he remembered had sported long, carelessly-cut hair and khakis; a woman more at home exploring the distant past than wearing a smart suit in the glass and chrome monstrosity of the ARC. She’d always had poise, but she’d now acquired elegance as well.

"Won't you introduce us, dear?" Annie Morris said mildly, her eyes belying her conversational tone.

Nick took a deep breath. "Professor Morris, this is Helen, my wife."

"Ex-wife," Stephen said, under his breath, his words echoed eerily by Helen, who shot him a sharp look, which lingered speculatively on the steel band around his throat.

Helen held out her hand, shaking Annie's as she continued, "Doctor Helen Cutter, palaeobiologist. And divorced, but Nick can be excused for not remembering that small fact, I’m sure."

Her smile took on shark-like qualities, and Nick shuddered. What the hell did Helen know – and what was she doing here? And what did she mean, divorced? In his world they’d still been married when she’d abandoned him for the lure of the past.

"Palaeobiologist?" Annie asked, the steel clear in her tone. "Not an evolutionary zoologist, dear?"

"Complementary disciplines only, Professor Morris. As I’m sure you’ll agree, it's never wise for a woman to follow too closely in her husband's footsteps."

"Of course, dear. And, please, call me Annie. I’m sure we shall soon be good friends." The steel in Annie's tone took on a razor-sharp quality as her own smile widened.

Nick blinked. The exchange between the two women was surreal in the extreme as they shook hands and smiled at each other, their body language telling a tale of friendship offered even as their voices held a timbre of barely concealed, undeclared war. And he couldn't help but notice how Annie had deftly shifted Helen's attention away from him.

Then other voices impinged on the scene taking place in the atrium.

"Captain Ryan, your weapons please," Captain Thomson's strong, cultured voice echoed around the cavernous control room.

Nick looked past his wife, his attention pulled back to what was happening beyond his immediate circle. Ryan still knelt before Sir James Lester, his head bowed as Lester's hand rested on his closely-cropped blond hair.

"What is the meaning of this, Thomson?" Lester demanded, his tone bland but authoritative.

"Captain Ryan has questions to answer concerning his whereabouts last night, Sir James."

Lester raised one eyebrow questioningly. "Captain Ryan was with me last night."

"All night, sir?" asked Thomson.

"Are you questioning my word, Captain?"

"No, Sir James … "

"I believe the correct term of address is master."

"No, master." Thomson lowered his gaze respectfully. "Merely your ability to vouch for Captain Ryan's whereabouts for the entire night."

Nick felt a chill run down his spine as Lester's gaze sharpened.

"And do you have reason to question my ability in this regard, Captain?"

Thomson's gaze lifted to meet Lester's, and Nick held his breath. "Yes, master, I do. I have testimony that places Captain Ryan outside the atrium just before the period of time unaccounted for by the sabotage of the security cameras."

"Impossible, Captain." Lester glared at Thomson, his hand clenching to a fist in Ryan's hair.

"I’m sorry, master, but the technician involved swears he saw Captain Ryan in the corridor leading to the atrium."

"Testimony no doubt obtained under stringent questioning?"

"The technician's testimony can be quite easily proven – or otherwise – by the CCTV footage, master," Thomson said, with a triumphant gleam in his eyes.

Lester nodded, looking down at Ryan. The captain lifted his head slightly, barely meeting his master's gaze, and Nick held his breath for a moment, aware that there was more going on here than he understood.

"Connor," Lester called, not breaking eye contact with the man knelt at his feet.

Connor struggled to lift himself from the computer chair, his face haggard with pain and exhaustion. He’d barely had any rest since the beating administered to him a few hours earlier. He rocked on his feet for a moment, and Abby caught his arm, helping to steady him. He took a deep breath and approached Lester, giving Captain Thomson a wide berth. "Master?"

"Connor, you have … " Lester looked at his watch, "… one hour to scan the footage from the CCTV outside my private quarters."

"If I may, master?" Thomson added.

Lester stared at the soldier for a long moment and then nodded.

"Checks of the footage for the corridor leading to the atrium, for half an hour before the sabotage, will also settle this once and for all." There was something about the captain’s confidence which disturbed Nick to the core.

Lester simply nodded again, his own expression impassive.

Connor looked at the two men for a moment, the fear clear on his face, and then he turned back toward the ADD and its attendant computers. Nick watched as his young protégé lowered himself gingerly into the chair again and began his work.

"Now, master, I must insist," said Thomson, staring pointedly at Ryan. “I have your personal safety to consider as well.”

Nick watched as Lester’s face clouded with anger again as Thomson approached him and Ryan. Ryan looked up at Lester and they held eye contact for a long moment, and then Lester nodded.

Ryan rose gracefully to his feet, Lester's hand falling away, and proceeded to strip off his weapons. Thomson waved his sergeant forward, and the man took Ryan's guns and knives from him, his face gloating.

"If you would accompany Sergeant Miller, Captain?" Thomson said, his tone polite but adamant.

"There is no need for incarceration, Captain Thomson," interjected Lester.

"I have to disagree, master. This issue involves the deliberate sabotage of vital equipment, leading to loss of life. I must insist."

Lester sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as if the whole subject was giving him a headache. "Very well. But understand this, until you have indisputable proof that Captain Ryan was in any way involved in last night's sabotage, I will hold you personally responsible for any and all injuries he sustains while in your custody. Do I make myself understood, Captain Thomson?" Lester’s glare was as sharp as steel.

Thomson inclined his head respectfully, then nodded to Miller, who led Ryan away, ignoring the glares of Ryan's men stationed throughout the atrium. As Miller and Ryan exited through the doors to the ground floor corridor, Thomson turned back to Lester, stepped forward, and dropped to his knees. "Your orders will be obeyed, master," Thomson said, his eyes discreetly lowered for once.

Nick felt like he was about to throw up. He didn’t think he’d ever get used to the sight of one human being kneeling to another, no matter how long he remained in this sick travesty of a world.

Lester looked down at Thomson, his face impassive, then simply stepped around the kneeling soldier as if he were a stain on the immaculate, tiled floor and walked over to the ADD. Connor jerked with fright when he realised that the ARC's controller was standing over him, and gasped at the pressure on his abused back as he turned in his chair to look up at Lester.

Nick cringed as he remembered what Thomson’s sergeant had done to the lad only hours before.

"Mr Temple," said Lester, "I shall expect you in my office in one hour."

"Master," Connor nodded, swallowing hard.

Lester turned away and walked up the ramp up to the first floor, never once looking back at the people standing still with shock and anger in the atrium below. Behind him, Thomson rose swiftly to his feet as if being on his knees in collared obeisance was an everyday event of no consequence. Then the captain turned smartly and traced Lester's path to the ADD.

Nick watched him as he leaned over Connor's work station and whispered something. Connor paled, and Cutter saw Abby straighten her back in indignation. The green-eyed soldier stationed next to the ADD took a single step forward, only to be brought to a sudden halt by Thomson's glare.

Then the captain turned away and headed for the corridor after his sergeant and Ryan.

Closing his eyes for a moment, Nick took a deep breath. This place was getting crazier and crazier as each day passed, and he was terrified of what would happen if it turned out that someone in the ARC had been responsible for the sabotage that had led to the attack on the school going unreported until too late. It couldn't be Ryan. If Nick was certain of anything in this madhouse of a timeline, it was that. Ryan was no traitor. Not to his country and certainly not to the Anomaly Project. Nick would stake his life on that fact.

"Well, that was all somewhat embarrassing."

Nick’s eyes widened in shock. He'd forgotten all about Helen in all this mess.

"My first day on the job and already there are secrets and conspiracies," Helen continued. “How very tiresome. I do hate distractions when I’m trying to work.”

"What the hell are you doing here, Helen?"

Helen smiled at him, and Nick knew that particular smile had never boded well.

"How extremely remiss of Sir James not to have formally introduced me." Helen's smile widened. "I'm your new Chief Scientist, Nick. Now, isn't anyone going to give me a tour of this facility?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

canadian-jay.livejournal.com

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

*literally gasped aloud upon seeing this on flist*

ITS BACK! YAY!

And of course it was Helen. *vbg* I was sure it was - but there was that tiny niggling doubt that it might be someone else!

But egad! Tension! Poor Ryan & Lester & Connor (and was that Blade at one point, too?). But also mrrow, Helen in a suit!

Although, if Helen & Nick are divorced in this 'verse, why did Helen keep Nick's surname?

From:

munchkinofdoom.livejournal.com

*grins* Yep, that was Blade near the ADD. I have a giggle every time Nick can't remember his name.

Although, if Helen & Nick are divorced in this 'verse, why did Helen keep Nick's surname?

We have an answer for that too! But you'll have to wait a couple of parts... *veg*

Fic, Silk and Steel, Part 50, AU, 18

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