Time Heals (audio story)

Time Heals was the second story in the Big Finish UNIT audio series. It was written by Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett.

Publisher's summary
The UK branch of UNIT is under threat. The Government wants its own military investigative organisation, one under its sole control. The public want answers to the strange things that have been happening recently.

When the division's commanding officer goes missing whilst transporting a dangerous cargo, Colonel Emily Chaudhry, UNIT's political officer, is thrown in at the deep end. Things are not helped when a series of accidents show a bizarre pattern.

The Brigadier, meanwhile, is trying to enjoy his retirement — but it seems it is time again for him to come to the rescue.

Plot
Colonel Chaudhry holds a press conference regarding UNIT's transportation of nuclear missiles across the United Kingdom by road, the safety of which Currie asks her to assure the British public. She does so and, after the conference, checks with Lieutenant Hoffman that the supposed warheads have begun their journey and that the real cargo discreetly left the depot five minutes later in a petrol tanker with Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood.

Before long, the petrol tanker is attacked. Chaudhry and Hoffman head to the scene and find that the soldiers have been attacked with anaesthetic darts. Whilst the soldiers are all accounted for, Brimmicombe-Wood and the alien spaceship that he was transporting have vanished. There is a small amount of blood, which Chaudhry has tested to confirm that it is Brimmicombe-Wood's.

The 9.47 from Lancaster to King's Cross collides with another train which suddenly appears on the tracks in front of it. Alistair gets off the phone with his wife and sees a news report covering the fatal train crash, during which he experiences a strange phenomenon and inexplicably loses thirty minutes of time.

Professor Meade, assisted by Bernard Kelly, is attempting to find out why his experiment caused an energy wave when the energy should have dissipated. He insists that the train crash was not his fault, telling Kelly that it would be best for him if he believed the same given whom they are working for. Kelly tells Meade that a spaceship stolen from UNIT is on its way.

Currie reports on the train collision, believing it to be a terrorist attack and being aware of government leaks implicating a radical Islamic faction. He asks Chaudhry for details on the incident, but she refuses to make any speculation and claims that UNIT are only investigating as they were nearest. She and Hoffman continue their investigation whilst Currie shares his suspicions with an acquaintance over the phone.

Meade and Kelly have the spaceship for an hour before their employers move it on, although they do not know what they plan to do with it. They install a component into their machine, a matter transmitter, and activate it. Although there is a small energy pulse, the experiment is successful. Meade goes to inform his employers, but Kelly says to himself that they already know everything that he says.

Hoffman shows Chaudhry that the watches of everybody aboard one of the trains all stopped at 11.30, more than half an hour after the crash, and that one of the trains should have been forty miles away. Chaudhry is told by Westminster that Brimmicombe-Wood's disappearance will be investigated by the police and military intelligence and that the train crash should be UNIT's priority.

After experiencing another time jump, Alistair calls UNIT but is unable to speak to anybody in authority given that Brimmicombe-Wood has disappeared and Chaudhry is busy. He goes to investigate himself and accesses the latest UNIT files.

Currie reports on a bug in the banks' security has led to three quarters of cashpoints in London being emptied by the public, causing a loss to the banks of more than £70 million. Chaudhry has Darlington fire warning shots to keep a mob from killing a police officer but, before Darlington can do so, another man does. He introduces himself as Colonel Dalton, an officer brought in from a mission in Syria to act as commanding officer in Brimmicombe-Wood's absence.

In the morgue, Chaudhry, Dalton and Hoffman find that the bodies of some of those aboard the train have merged with doors, suitcases, books and other objects without there being wounds. Dalton orders the bodies to be sent to scientific bodies for analysis and tells Chaudhry to deal with applying for clearance and informing the families of the deceased. In Dalton's absence, Hoffman asks Chaudhry what she thinks of their new CO; Chaudhry says that she will not tell him whilst on duty and asks him to pull Dalton's file.

The energy residue from the matter transmitter experiment begins to build again. Kelly suggests that they allow the build-up to continue so that they can observe it and gather data so that they can control it in the future, which Meade reluctantly agrees to do despite the likely loss of life. Kelly advises Meade to have a nap whilst they wait.

Hoffman hands Chaudhry Dalton's file and informs her that he had previously served with Winnington, receiving commendation with her for the same action. Given that Dalton did not mention this connection, Chaudhry confronts him; he confirms without reservation that he served with Winnington and found her "rather intense".

An alarm sounds and Meade and Kelly hurry to the lab where the equation is being completed. Once it has finished, Kelly refuses to allow Meade to kill the power as he has received orders that no evidence is to be left here. They flee as the machine goes critical. The energy surge causes Alistair to experience another time jump and an aeroplane with five-hundred people aboard to crash into Windsor Castle. Currie reports on the crash and the uncertain fates of a prince and his close friend, saying that there is no doubt that the country is being attacked by terrorists.

Chaudhry is called by Alistair, who tells her to look at the email he has sent her, showing radioactive spikes during the plane crash, the train collision and the issue with the banks' central computers. She presents it to Dalton before he and his men attempt to enter Windsor Castle and joins him in investigating the site of the spikes. Hoffman finds that the facility is owned by British Amalgamated, a dummy corporation, and Lieutenant Dodds at Basildon Naval Base reports that the reactor of HMS Perthshire, a nuclear submarine, is overloading. Dalton heads to Basildon with half of his men and sends Chaudhry on to the facility.

The laboratory is destroyed. Kelly tells Meade that he has worked for ICIS for ten years and was paid to "babysit" Meade during the experiments, which he had failed to succeed in for five years. A proximity alarm goes off, alerting them to UNIT's presence, and Kelly tells Meade to wait at a blank wall with a button he claims will open a secret passageway. Meade realises that Kelly has lied to him and hands over part of the machine to Chaudhry and Hoffman before pressing the button, destroying the facility.

Dalton and Dodds take HMS Perthshire out to sea and bring a shelf down on top of it using torpedoes. The sub is destroyed, but Dalton and Dodds are able to escape in a bathysphere and are picked up by Chaudhry and Hoffman. The newspapers practically blame UNIT, however, which Dalton bemoans. Chaudhry supplies him with UNIT files for him to read to educate himself on events including the London Underground Incident and Project Inferno, which he is sceptical of until he sees that they have been signed by the Prime Minister and a general. He wonders what he has gotten himself into.

Cast

 * The Brigadier - Nicholas Courtney
 * Colonel Emily Chaudhry - Siri O'Neal
 * Colonel Robert Dalton - Nicholas Deal
 * Captain Dodds - Matthew Brenher
 * Kelly - Stephen Carlile
 * Lieutenant Hoffman - Robert Curbishley
 * Francis Currie - Michael Hobbs
 * Meade - Alfred Hoffman

Individuals

 * Dalton's wife will not get in the car if he is driving. He tells Dodds that his wife says that he is mad.

UNIT

 * Dalton has been involved in a British Army operation in Syria.
 * Hoffman has served two tours in Rwanda and a tour in Chechnya.
 * The Brigadier thinks his wife would disapprove of his involvement with UNIT.

Terrorism

 * Francis Currie speculates that the incident with the train may be an Islamic terror attack.
 * There had been recent terrorist attacks in Spain and Portugal.

Science

 * Kelly thinks Meade could become as well known as Einstein, Newton and Brunel if his experiment goes successfully.
 * Kelly says that Albert Einstein was able to "pull" Marilyn Monroe.

Pop culture

 * Kelly compares the matter transportation experiments to Star Trek.
 * Dalton compares the corpse to Mickey Mouse.

Continuity

 * Colonel Dalton reads files covering the London Underground Incident (TV: The Web of Fear) and the Inferno Project (TV: Inferno).
 * Francis Currie mentions a mutilated Kosovan found washed ashore at Foulness Island. (AUDIO: Snake Head)
 * The Brigadier is looking for Colonel Brimmicombe-Wood. (AUDIO: The Wasting)