Mid-West Campaign
Session One Hundred and Twenty

Sunday, 11 November 2001

The FBI agents look at the woodland that surrounds them. It could still be Spring. It could still be 1984. They have no way of knowing when it is. In truth, they have known way of knowing where they are - it looks like the forest in Montana that they left, but all forests look alike, and none of them have the skills of Elise Steiger.

The puzzle of why Benedict Oaxaca is a man again is to put to one side, and the agents press on through the trees at a random, if consistent direction. Bradley Ecks, Jane Munroe, Jack Burchill, Todd O'Connell and Benedict Oaxaca have been to Heaven. They have spoken to God. They have given the human race control of its own destiny. They are now lost in the woods.

Jane opines that Artemis Black's plan of travelling back in time to the moment that the ancient Signai accidentally opened hostilities with the Sil empire is filled with problems, contradictions and uncertainties. It's an opinion that she has voiced before and many of her companions have stopped listening. She fears that if they start messing about in the past they could destroy their reality - that their loved ones, and families could be erased as if they have never lived. She says that they should consult an expert. She wants to speak to Alan Hamblin III.

Eventually, the agents find their way to a road. A car is waiting for them. It is fellow special agent, obnoxious psychologist and shrimp connoisseur, Jacques Jackson. He was told to meet the agents here by Artemis Black and he has been freezing to death ever since. He tells them that it is 11 November 2001. A day after they went to the past with the Doctor.

The agents bundle into the car and head to a diner in Whitefish, where they enjoy the first hot meal in six relative months. After thirds, Ecks phones Black to give a report (although Artemis had been summoned to heaven anyway) and to ask how he knew to send Jacques. Artemis replies that he had a letter from God about the matter on his desk. Artemis seems keen to continue with his original plan and intends to meet with the agents shortly.

From the diner, the agents head to the local airport and then catch a red-eye flight back to Wichita. From there they head to the Blackcave.

Monday, 12 November 2001

The agents arrive at the Blackcave at about 2:16am. Burchill and Ecks are exhausted and head into the dormitories on the first level. Jane is interested to learn of the fruits of their labours against the Master and the Signai. Are Georgeson, Memphisto and Arles free? And if they are how do the agents find out? Ecks tells Jane to go home and go to bed.

Todd and Jane head back to Jane's house. Todd talks about the potential of he and Danni finding somewhere else to live in the area. Jane is a little deflated by this news, she likes living with her sister and she likes being an aunt. On the doorstep the pair discover a UPS delivery man who had been told to arrive at this specific moment to deliver a packet to Jane. Jane is wary, but takes the packet and opens it.

Inside is two tickets and a letter. The letter reads: "To Jane Munroe. You are cordially invited to the opening of the Kerheb Exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute." It is from Alan Hamblin III. Well, that's handy. And the exhibition starts tomorrow. Inside the house, Jane phones (and wakes) Ecks to let him know what has happened. She puts off calling Black until the morning.

After a chat with Danni and cooing with baby Janey, Jane telephones Artemis Black. He's just opening his post. He's been offered a Chair in Psychology at Texas University. He also finds the same invitation from Hamblin. He tells Jane to gather the agents together and meet him at the Smithsonian this afternoon. They will talk to Hamblin and Jane can raise her concerns with him.

A few hours later a very grumpy and exhausted Ecks and the rest of the agents are on a plane heading to Washington. The in-flight movie is that Star Trek episode with the giant space amoeba that Ecks has never seen. Sadly he promises the Gift House in Los Angeles that he would never see it. He folds his arms crossly and tries to get some sleep.

Half way into the flight, Jane is passed a note by the stewardess. It is from a blonde haired man answering the description of Alan Hamblin. The note requires Jane to "meet him in the toilet". A few minutes later an embarrassed Jane and an unrepentant Alan Hamblin are squeezed together into a cramped toilet cubicle.

Hamblin knows that something has happened to the space-time continuum. He says that time travel is easier. The future has been changed. It is less complex than before. The south east economy collapsed and the Vatican stepped into support. Jane explains that happened in Heaven, and that god and all the NTOPs have taken a step back from interfering in Earth. There's no-one looking out for us any more.

Hamblin looks grave, but he seems to understand repercussions that Jane does not. He says that his time door is not working as it did before. He reminds Jane of the mechanical time machine that sent travellers from an apocalyptic future where the war between the Signai and the Shaggai had devastated the Earth. Jane remembers. She remembers meeting her older self. She remembers that that whole sorry business cost Alex Drake his life.

Hamblin says that the time machine those travellers used was one step from destroying the universe. Using science for time travel creates these problems. The Time Door has always used magic, which isn't affected in the same way. However (Jane grimaces), recently the time door has been behaving more "sciencey". Hamblin says that there are periods of history and in the future that he has visited so frequently that he has damaged them. The time door cannot be used to go back there again without terminal consequences.

Jane understands. Time travel is failing. The ability to use the time door (any time door) to visit different parts of history is no longer certain. Hamblin says that the Kerheb collection may be the last of the artefacts he can retrieve from ancient Egypt. He says that he just has to pop over to the British Museum and pick up the face mask and collection will be complete.

Suddenly Jane understands that these are Hamblin's last days. He is about to come full circle. When he goes to the British museum he will send Artemis Black his copy of the Book of Entrance. Shortly after that he will be abducted by Ukrainian commandos possessed by brain bugs. He will be forced to use his magic to teleport an attack helicopter to the Wyoming of the past. He will be found dead in the snow by evidence response two weeks before Christmas.

Jane tells Hamblin of Artemis's audacious plan to save the Earth. The Shaggai fleet is five years away, but it is only coming because of something that happened thousands of years ago. If the Signai's experimentation into time travel had not accidentally devastated the Sil empire then the Sil would not have waged war. The Signai would not have fled. The Sil would not have created the Shaggai to pursue them. Earth would not be imperilled.

Jane says that the explosion caused by the Signai was a universe altering event. To go back and change that would have enormous repercussions. Surely the timeline would fragment into two separate realities? Hamblin agrees. Black's plan might work and might save the Earth. As far as Hamblin can see the plan will have one of four effects:

1. History will be rewritten in this reality as Black intends. A divergent reality will also be created by the shift. Both realities will survive.
2. History will be rewritten in this reality as Black intends. A divergent reality will be created, but it will be destroyed shortly after.
3. This reality will be destroyed, but the new divergent reality will survive and prosper.
4. The forces involved will destroy this reality, the divergent reality and all realities in all existence anyway ever. The universe and all parallel universes will cease to exist.

Jane is more than shocked. What Hamblin is saying is that Black's plan has a 1 in 4 chance of destroying everything, everywhere… ever. Hamblin has to tell Black this! But Hamblin says that he won't tell "Planetary President Black" anything of the sort. In fact, in the future, Planetary President Black has told him specifically not to do such a thing.

Jane is beside herself. She says that she will get to Black first, that she will tell him the truth! Hamblin seems unconcerned about this. How can she get to Black faster than a time traveller? Jane briefly considers shooting Hamblin in the head, but quickly dismisses the notion. She storms from the toilet and back to the other agents to inform them. She ignores the looks from the cabin staff who assume that she and Hamblin are now in the mile high club.

Why would "Planetary President Black" order such a thing? Bradley Ecks has a theory. Artemis is tied to comfort and ease. He enjoys the arts and civilisation. Jane has seen a potential future. Even if the human race gets enough allies and enough power to stop the Signai and the Shaggai, Earth will be devastated. Artemis Black couldn't live in a world without culture. He must think that the risk to the universe is worth taking if he can avoid such a fate.

Jane is aghast. This can't be Artemis Black's decision to make! He cannot decide the fate of all realities everywhere. Trillions and trillions will die. But they won't die, says Jacques Jackson. They will just never have lived. You will not remember them. So what difference does it make? Jacques cannot see what Jane is so worked up about. But this does matter to Jane!

Just because the lives of people in alternative realities (or in this one) are erased as if they had never lived, just because no one remembers them, doesn't invalidate them. They are living now. They are breathing and working and dreaming and loving now. Rewriting history whole scale will end all that. No one will remember, no one will care but it will still have happened. Jane cannot see beyond her emotional attachments and can't think of anything except her family, and Janey and Michael.

As soon as she can she telephone Artemis Black and tells her everything that Hamblin told her. Black can tell that Jane is emotional. He doesn't believe her. He thinks that she is making things up to get him to call off his plan. Jane can't believe this. She appeals to Jacques and Todd (also psychologists), but they're not so sure that Jane is telling the truth either. If Hamblin had no intention of revealing this information to the Artemis Black of this era, then why would he tell Jane. She is the one person who you could guarantee would tell Artemis everything. Suffice to say that Jane is frustrated.

The agents are still arguing about it when they arrive at the Smithsonian and Artemis Black has to order them to silence. He says that they will talk about it later. He tells Jane that he has already spoken to Hamblin, and he will make his decision later. Jane bites down her arguments.

The agents spend a few hours inspecting Hamblin's artefacts, while Black hob-knobs with the elite. As Jane walks through the exhibition she swoons slightly. She senses a presence around her, and she can hear a sinister voice saying: "Kerheb Kadmus… we have returned!"

She quickly finds her fellow agents tells them what she heard. Ecks can tell her that "Kerheb" means a diviner, a scribe, a speaker with the dead… a necromancer? Maybe its latched onto Jane because of her past? Come to thing of it, those death masks do look a bit like Jane. He doesn't know what Kadmus means. Jane goes and finds Black, pulling him away from an important discussion with some Washington bigwig. An exasperated Black tells her that Kadmus is another name for Enoch, the seventh master of the world after Adam.

However, Black is concerned for Jane's safety and says that he will take her from the Smithsonian and put her in his infamous Elder-Sign protected bolt hole here in the capital. He whisks Jane and Todd away in his limousine, leaving the rest of the agents there.

Meanwhile, Jacques Jackson is loading up on shrimp at the free buffet. He notices a strange grey miasma floating in the air. It leaves the building. He phones Artemis who speaks from his limo. It does seem to be following Jane, but what is it and what does it do? Jackson steps into the middle of the mist. Nothing happens. He says "Kerheb Kadmus" and it spirals around him. He quickly retreats.

Artemis, Todd and Jane arrive in Artemis's vault. Jane sits on a chair in the middle of the elder sign. It then occurs to Black that with the exit of God and the other NTOPs from this reality, the elder sign actually offers no protection at all! He is stumped for a moment and then calls the East Coast Team (the only team that he really trusts) for assistance. Unfortunately they are currently in Florida fighting zombies. He calls Los Angeles.

The phone is answered by SCHULT. The butler is back, but the mansion is not quite finished. The cellar and the kitchens are available though, and the ancient Signai defences are in order. Artemis says that he and Jane will travel to Los Angeles in his private jet (the miasma probably can't catch up). Once in the west coast HQ, Jane will be safe. Jane is becoming suspicious that Artemis is just trying to get rid of her so he can use the time door in peace.

As Jane, Todd and Artemis head to the airport, the other agents are following the strange grey miasma at approximately 1 mile per hour. Jackson is walking behind it, while Benedict, Ecks and Burchill are in the car. This is torture for Burchill who feels the need for speed. They are also walking through some of the dodgier neighbourhoods in Washington and Jackson is feeling slightly vulnerable.

Suddenly, the cloud changes direction and starts to head toward the airport. At this speed it would take the cloud over three months to get to Los Angeles. Burchill isn't sure he could cope with that pace.

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