Time Flies (audio story)

Time Flies was the second story in the audio anthology Seabird One, produced by Big Finish Productions. It was written by Alison Winter and featured Angela Bruce as Brigadier Bambera and Alex Jordan as Sergeant Savarin and introduced Yemisi Oyinloye as Dr Louise Rix.

Publisher's summary
Bambera and Savarin are summoned to a secretive genetic research facility by Dr Louise Rix, UNIT's rebellious new scientific adviser. Two scientists have vanished in mysterious circumstances, and despite the assurances of the sinister Dr Grange, UNIT suspects there's something very wrong with the centre's caterpillar population. Can they survive the fruits of Dr Grange's experiments? And will Savarin survive Bambera and Rix's rocky new relationship?

Plot
At the Caverhurst Seedbank and Research Facility in Hampshire, Dr Andrews finds that all of the butterflies in Greenhouses A-D have gone missing and that the floors are covered in caterpillars. He reports to head botanist and site manager Dr Grange, who asks him to examine one of the caterpillars; when he does, the caterpillar bites him and he ages backwards.

Sergeant Savarin shows Brigadier Bambera around the new UNIT base in Central London when Dr Louise Rix, appointed by Central Control as the new scientific adviser, calls and tells her about goings on at the CSRF. Rix tells her that she needs to come and investigate, which Bambera does not appreciate, and she is pulled away from the payphone by security. Bambera and Savarin head to the CSRF to meet her and learn that Dr Andrews has gone missing and that research student Amy Flynn has died, although the staff seem unable to comprehend what happened to her.

Bambera, Savarin and Rix meet with Dr Grange and are told that the quarantine was apparently initiated in error and, in any case, would only be to protect the seeds. Bambera is content to leave the matter upon learning that Dr Andrews' funding for his pollination project was pulled and that he may have committed suicide, but Rix insists on investigating the greenhouses where Flynn was last seen.

The trio find that the butterflies are missing and that there is a pile of clothes inside, but the bees seem to be cowering and Rix suggests that they review the camera footage rather than enter. They watch as the butterflies are fed synthetic pollen and turn first into chrysalises and then into caterpillars before biting Flynn, causing her to age backwards into nothing. Bambera is initially sceptical about what they have just watched but changes her mind after the caterpillars swarm around them and has the area isolated with a view to firebomb the building.

Rix looks at Dr Andrews' files and tries to find the nectar re-sequence code whilst Savarin has electrified containment panels placed around the facility and begins destroying the caterpillars with flamethrowers. Bambera and Savarin head to Compton upon learning that five-hundred chrysalises have been moved by Tyfield Tech and Rix looks for Dr Grange. She finds him and learns that he was married to Marjorie Gower, who died from cancer, and that he has created butterflies which will carry the re-sequencing code. The chrysalises at Tyfield are in a loop of growth and reversal.

Operations manager Sylvia Brooks shows Bambera and Savarin to the CSRF shipment. A butterfly escapes and erases a plant before Savarin shoots it and calls Eyrie Nine to have the shipment incinerated. Bambera finds an Amrak disk and Dr Grange's initials on the invoice, so she and Savarin quickly return to the CSRF. Rix has survived an attack from a butterfly, which is too big to fly, and knocked Dr Grange out before tying him up. She reverses the re-sequence and synthesises a new nectar which she, Bambera and Savarin add to the flowers for the bees, which spread the nectar and restore the caterpillars to butterflies.

Dr Grange has awoken and is to be locked up for his unethical experiments, but he asks Bambera to use the re-sequence code, which he calls "Marjorie", when she needs to. She promises him that it will be destroyed, however, and he commits suicide by allowing himself to be bitten by a remaining caterpillar. Afterwards, Bambera gets a call and tells Savarin and Rix that they have to go to the British Library.

Cast

 * Brigadier Winifred Bambera - Angela Bruce
 * Sergeant Jean-Paul Savarin - Alex Jordan
 * Dr Louise Rix - Yemisi Oyinloye
 * Dr Winston Grange - Silas Carson
 * Dr Andrews - Simon Ludders
 * Sylvia Brooks - Simone Lahbib
 * Eyrie Six - George Watkins

Worldbuilding

 * The UNIT base is in Central London, between a theatre and a language school. It has the following facilities:
 * A shooting range on Level -3.
 * A 24/7 canteen, which serves fish and chips on Fridays, on the first floor.
 * A Control Centre, where the Telephone Surveillance Team listen out for keywords on calls to the emergency services and where the computer geniuses work, on the first floor.
 * A main briefing room on the first floor.
 * A main meeting room on the second floor.
 * Human Resources on the second floor.
 * Archives on the second floor.
 * Weapons on the second floor.
 * A gym on the top floor.
 * A garden on the roof.
 * Savarin's call sign is Seabird Two.
 * UNIT Central Control appointed Rix as Bambera's scientific adviser.
 * The Caverhurst Seedbank and Research Facility is located in Hampshire. It is the largest flora genome editing hub in Europe.
 * Rix has access to the CSRF's chat rooms.
 * Amy Flynn was a research student.
 * Savarin quotes Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun, a French poet.
 * Butterflies taste with their feet.
 * Dr Andrews has a copy of DNA: The Way We Grow by M. Gower (i.e. Marjorie Gower), published in 1979. Gower died of cancer.
 * Dr Andrews uses Amrak, a computer program, to re-sequence nectar.
 * Tyfield Tech is a cryogenic storage facility. In addition to Sylvia and Dave, who transported the shipment of chrysalises, Gary and Chris work there.
 * Compton is ten minutes from the CSRF.
 * Rix has a medical degree but is a scientist.
 * Tyfield have invoices for medical projects from the University of Sherborne and Cleris Institute.
 * Karma is the Sanskrit word for "cause and effect".
 * Rix's call sign is Eyrie One.

Continuity

 * Savarin refers to how not all of UNIT can do "hand-to-hand" fighting in the Niger. Bambera corrects him she was in the Zambezi. (PROSE: Battlefield)