An Alienated Doll

[ILLYRIAN]

Echo’s “talents” had been bought by the Annuikan - Pavmirse Alliance, listed on the London Stock Exchange as a Solar Energy Corporation.
Echo had been programmed to help find some missing business friends.
Unknown to the organisers of the Dollhouse they had been tricked, as neither the Annuikans nor the Pavmirse were of this planet. She is Gillian Devonish.
DISCLAIMER
The mentions of the Dollhouse are by me but the ownership is to Mr Joss Whedon.
The mentions of The Annuika are copyright to Mr Jason Martell CEO of Booya! Media Inc.
Mentions of the X-Files characters Fox and Scully, Dr Who, Professor Quatermass and Barbara Judd are used without copyright permission, my apologies to the copyright owners, hopefully though, this will only further the interest in them.
Virtually all the rest is either fact or I wrote it for this story.

AN ALIENATED DOLL
Living on their farm in the quiet stillness not far from the city limits, Steve and Bethany had almost become accustomed to their nightly visitors, this was the ninth time that the foot-prints had been found. They had been concerned the first time, and maybe the next few times but now they were becoming accustomed to them and whilst they were a bit concerned by them they were not overly worried. They were even interested as to where the visitors could be going, where they were from and why they came to their farm. So far, all they could see was that the long footprints were between the roads edge and part way up a hill, with no-where visible that seemed to be of interest. There was another thing that Steve had noticed which was unaccounted for, part of a large rock had been cleaned, that rock was near the hilltop. Steve had often gone to that rock to look at the farm, there was nothing out of place on the land except for the mound on top of the hill but then that could only be noticed from a certain angle. When the footprints were first noticed Steve and Bethany thought the animals on the farm must have cleaned the rock but then Steve realised that none of the animals were ever in that area but it could have been wild animals.

He went on his way to the entrance to the farmhouse, then to the vehicle shed, got his tractor with the front end bucket and drove down towards the road entry. Steve had decided to create a large rain water ditch with a run off. So he got on with the task of digging out the ditch, ready for the when the heavy rains came. The time was right, also the earth he removed would fill in another area, an old dam that had lost its use and was causing a problem for the horses and the sheep that he kept. He ran the blade on the grounds surface, to mark out where he was going to dig. After half an hour he struck a rock, then another and another, cursing his bad luck he took a coffee break, he took a long look at the rocks, cursed his bad luck again then carried on in another place but found another rock. He sat in the cab and pondered where to dig next, gradually he became aware of the shape of the rocks, he got his spade and began to dig around a couple of the rocks and sure enough they all appeared to be rectangular, not a shape normally found in nature. Three hours later and after much very careful digging he realised that he had a rock circle on his property.

A year or so ago both Steve and Bethany headed a team that studied UFO sightings in Western Australia, that is how they met. Steve rang the person who was in charge of the team now, a David Baxter, hearing a commotion there Steve wanted to know what was happening.
As David replied, “The one place you would expect to be quiet and what happens?
a crop circle.”
David considered what had just been found then taking it that there was a connection to Steve’s farm he decided to see them the next day.

Bethany and Steve were waiting to see him as they had many questions about the crop circle. Answering the door David and his assistant were shown into the lounge, David sat down and looked at them.
“I thought as much,” he turned to his assistant,
“They are reluctant to speak in front of you, until they know a bit more about you, so if you do not mind?”
“Okay, my name is Gillian Devonish, I was born in Eastlands Road in Tile Hill Coventry, my formative years were at Westlands School in Old Bilton, Rugby. I experienced several alien incidents at which point my parents moved to this country where strangely enough I had a few more encounters. Before becoming Mr Baxters assistant I had a close encounter of the third kind on the Nullarbor Plain.”
David knew full well that now they would want to know all about the crop circle, he was right as before he could mention the subject Bethany had asked him where it was.

“That is the thing, it is local, about ten kilometres from here. I have a few photo’s of it but no real details as yet, it was only discovered the day before yesterday.”
Steve had been looking at one of the photo‘s, he started to be excited wanting to know who was dealing with it and why.
“Two people from England, they are on holiday here, they came here to take part in the Avon Descent. A Miss Christine Rudyard and a Dr Cornworthy, they have asked me not to say where the crop circle is though. I did get a phone call from them last night, he reckons it is a major discovery. That is apart from there only having been one crop circle found in WA, speaking of which have either of you deciphered the photo?” asked David.
“Sort of, I have no idea why there is a curved line of twenty one circles but the larger circle to the side, the one that has a design on it that design could be Australia and the small area that has the crops flattened would be near here, I am not sure about the five lines that are underneath it though,” said Bethany.

David stared at them, then muttered some words that were a mixture of blasphemy and swearing with sexual connotations. He got out his phone and pressed in a sequence of numbers, listening to him as he wandered about the room.
“I have just invited miss Rudyard and Dr Cornworthy here, I hope you don’t mind.”
In ten minutes they were at the door, Bethany invited them in inviting them into the lounge. While a few packets of Tim-Tams were being devoured miss Rudyard started telling what they had found. Dr Cornworthy’s phone began to ring, listening to the message.
“What these two said about the large circle, the five lines though? maybe I could put four meanings to it, not to sure about the fifth yet,” said Dr Cornworthy.
Looking at him David questioned what they could mean.

“That phone call, we are wanted at some army base near here, the body of an alien is being taken there and at another place a spaceship has been discovered. David, you can come with us I am not sure about you two though.”
“I would definitely like to see this alien, if nothing else then to see what it’s feet look like,” said Steve.
Miss Rudyard was about to ask him what he meant as David told them about the Stone circle and the footprints.
“Plus I took over from them.”
Walking into the military hospital, they were approached by one of the surgeons, either that or he was going to a fancy dress party.
“Who are you?” he asked.

Dr Cornworthy faced Steve and Bethany, “This is Fox and Scully, he is Professor Quatermass with Barbara Judd and I am Dr Who, this is my assistant Miss Rudyard.”
The surgeon, suitably puzzled just looked at him.
“I work for a department of the UK Government investigating cases that have a possible alien or supernatural influence, we are the experts you asked for.”
The surgeon indicated a viewing room,
“I am Mr Roper, my colleagues are Mr Davies and Mr Andrews. If you would care to go in, there is a large glass window so that you can see what is happening from there without having to see us taking it apart.”
Steve had gone to the window to look at the alien.
He laughed “Its feet are wrong, they are too small but whose idea was it to sit the alien up?”

“I am Mr Andrews, none of us sat the alien up it chose to do that by itself.”
“Another curiosity is that the alien did that, although I would not describe it as a living breathing alien, it is more like a robot in the sense that we removed its head a few minutes ago.”
“And yet it lives!” exclaimed Dr Cornworthy smiling.
Miss Rudyard gave an exasperated sigh.
"He has wanted to say that for years, he is a big fan of the Frankenstein films.”
Leaving the confines of the Viewing room they all gazed at the alien, Miss Rudyard went closer toward the alien.
“Careful, not to close miss, we have no idea what reaction you’re being that close to it may provoke.”
She looked at it, studying its face.
“What should we ask it first? I wonder if you speak English? That being so my telling it to look at me, that is out then.” The alien’s head turns to face Dr Cornworthy. They all step back, quickly.
“No, it couldn’t have done, it was just a reflex action.”

“But it moved, is it really alive?” Moving closer to the alien, Miss Rudyard inspected it.
“Look at my feet, then look at my eyes.” The alien did as she asked.
“Do you understand English?” asked Miss Rudyard.
Mr Davies peered at her.
“Why did you ask it that?”
“He followed a command, but did not answer a question.”
“So?”
“Just like a robot, which was how they described it before,” said Miss Rudyard.
“Yes, but one that understands our language?”
“Or we understand his language!” added Miss Rudyard.

“Before we say that to those big-wigs we had better have some proof,” said Dr Cornworthy.
“And what do we ask? Forget twenty questions, this could be at least two thousand. And if we get the answers we want, there will be another two thousand questions.”
“So let us start with how he got here,” said Dr Cornworthy.
He goes to Mr Davies.
“Where did it come from?” asked Dr Cornworthy,
“And what direction is it in?”
“It would be that way.”
Mr Davies points in the direction. Dr Cornworthy faces the alien.

“Which way is your space ship.”
The alien points the opposite way to Mr Davies.
“I think we can rule out the reflex actions.”
“Which way were you going,” asked Miss Rudyard.
The alien points the same way as Mr Davies did.
“Was it much further?” asked Miss Rudyard.
“Yes,” replied the alien.
“Oh my god, it can speak,” said Mr Davies.

“Not just that Mr Davies, he can speak English,” said miss Rudyard.
“Yes, my power is returning,” said the alien.
“It seems as though you were right Christine, we are speaking his language,
is there a map we can have? And double the guards here,” said Dr Cornworthy.
“There should be a map in the office, I will get it,” said Mr Davies.
He goes into the office tells the UFO watchers what is happening then invites them to join in.
“I do not think we will be opening it up now.”
He went back with a map of Perth and surrounding areas.
“Will this do?”
Dr Cornworthy looks at the map then to the alien, handing the alien the map,
“Where was it you were going?”
The alien looks at the map, then points to an area that is just of the map.
“I will get that area,” said Mr Davies.

Mr Davies comes back with another map and puts it adjoining the map.
The alien looked at the map, “I need to go here,” said the alien.
Dr Cornworthy looked at where the alien pointed to.
“That is near Toodyay, what is at Toodyay?”
“I need to call for help, we crashed and they are,” the alien looks around, “or were here.”

“Ignoring the obvious,” said Dr Cornworthy.
“Why? what is the obvious?” asked Mr Roper.
“The alien just said we crashed, there is more aliens! he also said they are here, so, is the they friends?”
“When you get to Toodyay, is the help there?” asked miss Rudyard.
“Our spacecraft is there, the help will need to be called,” said the alien.
“So where is the help?” asked miss Rudyard.
The alien looks about the room, it goes to a whiteboard then tries to make a mark on it with his finger.
“I know what he wants, a marker pen,” said Mr Andrews.
He picks up a pen and hands it to the alien.
The alien draws a circle, then a short distance from that it draws a smaller circle. It points to the larger circle then points to its feet.
“Oh my!” states miss Rudyard. She goes to the whiteboard and points to the larger circle, then she points down.

“That explains my close encounter,” said Gillian Devonish,
“The alien is exactly the same as the one I saw.”
The alien faced her, “Others were here?”
“Stands to reason, you went missing, so others came to find you.”
“That may be true of your kind but we were here to find others that have gone missing, we were programmed to find the experimental spaceship that they were in.”
“This experimental spaceship? when was it sent here?” asked Steve.
“Just over a thousand of your years ago but it did not go there until recently, the Annuika have been trying to perfect time travel. I was also to contact the Pavmirse but we cannot find them either.”
They look to each other then to the alien.
“Who are the Pavmirse, we have not heard of them before?” asked Dr Cornworthy.

“They are from our galaxy, we joined to form an alliance. We provide the defence, they give us the energy we need to run the planet,” said the alien.
“So they may have been on this planet for quite a while,” said Mr Davies.
The alien looked to him, “I think I understand why you said that, it is because you do not know. Those who built me are The Annuika, they have visited this planet for many thousands of years as have the Pavmirse. I need to call for help.”
“And we will help you, it is for my curiosity that I want to know more of you though,” said Dr Cornworthy.

The alien looks to him.
“Also,” continued Dr Cornworthy, “The more information we have, the better the chances of us helping you.”
Once again the alien was quiet,
“Okay, The Annuika were on this planet many years ago, they were known as the Sumerians, later in the history of this planet they were known as the Druids. The Pavmirse have been on this planet for nearly as long as the Annuika, collecting solar energy.”

Gillian attracted Miss Rudyard’s attention, together they went into the office,
“Just a thought, the aliens mention of the druids,” said Gillian Devonish,
“And once again, this is just a thought, it could have far reaching consequences. For one, a legend of England may have been true and that legend is of Merlin, it is said by some historians that Merlin was a druid and that he has been known by many names for several centuries.”
“I am interested but what is the point you are trying to make Gillian.”
“The point is this, about Merlin not only being a druid but also an Annuikan and this is where you need a bit of imagination. A spaceship had gone missing right, a time travelling spaceship, about a thousand years ago. That would be about the time written by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his book. It is said that Merlin was friends with a dragon, well what if that dragon was in fact a spaceship? a jet planes exudes flames from the back, from it’s engine but after fifty people relaying a story, it may well have been flames from its mouth which would seem more logical.”

Miss Rudyard considered the possibilities.
“Ok, it is not likely but it is within the realms of possibility.”
“Right, good, Merlin is said to have lived in a cavern under the castle known as Camelot, when I lived in England I went to Tintagel, under where the castle is said to be there is an entry to a cave, Merlins cave! From what the alien stated, that could be where the spaceship could be.”
Miss Rudyard stared at her, “You may have just hit the nail on the head. Hey up every one, listen! Miss Devonish may well have a place to start looking for the spaceship, it could quite conceivably be there.”

Mr Roper continued looked at the whiteboard, “Where is your help? on the moon?”
“The ... you would call it the mother craft is on the far side off the moon, they will signal for our help,” said the alien.
“How will you get a message to it though?” asked Dr Cornworthy.
The alien draws a line that the message would take going to a spaceship on the dark side of the moon. The alien looks at the line around the moon that Dr Cornworthy drew bouncing of various satellites.

“I understand, your way is by using a carrier of the thought, our way is to use a carrier to send the thought. My way is quicker and there is no distance restrictions.”
“If there is no distance restriction why not send the message from here?” asked Bethany.
“There is less friction if the message is sent from the moon,” replied the alien.
“Now to find my spacecraft. Then to get them here and get the location of where to go.”
“Oh! my! God! it couldn’t be that simple,” said Bethany, “The location of where to go, if that is seen when in the earth atmosphere it could be a crop circle that informs them! A way of travel when on the earth is via a stone circles, Steve, the footprints! walking up a slope just after the rain! the feet slip making longer footprints.”

“Then there is another way to get there, what you know as Stonehenge,” said the alien.
“How do you know about Stonehenge?” asked miss Rudyard.
“We built both of them,” said the alien.
“Both of them? where is the other one?”
“The one that was there before that one.”
There is a knock at the door, going to see who it is miss Rudyard opens the door.
“This fax just came for you people miss,” said a soldier.
She reads the fax.

“Thank you, can you get a truck for us?”
She goes to and hands the fax to Dr Cornworthy.
“What now?” asked Mr Davies.
“Now I try to find my spaceship,” said the alien.
“Is that in or near Toodyay?” asked Miss Rudyard.
“Near there,” replied the alien.

“How will you know where it is?” asked Mr Davies.
“I just know which direction to go in,” said the alien.
“Then I think if we all get in the truck, it will be safer as people won’t see the alien,” said miss Rudyard.
Passing any directions to the driver of the truck they started to make their move. They took the road to Toodyay. As they passed through the town the alien gave them more and more directions until they were at a forest.
Moving through the trees they came to a large clearing where there was no plant life, not even any grass.
“An area in the middle of a forest, at least a mile wide and it is plant free, this is odd,” said Steve.

“Not at all, as I understand how plants grow, they would need rain and sunlight, as the trees have grown around here they are stopping the rain and sun getting here. Once again you are not understanding what has happened, my spacecraft is here, it is invisible yet it is here, as you would say, it is physically here. So you have a choice travel in the spacecraft or via the stone circle.”
Gillian looked to the alien.
“You are ignoring our ways, if we travel at night we will not be seen.”

“Taught how by a human? fair enough. We need to be in the spacecraft to call the others and to be ready for the darkness.”
“Just a minute,” said Dr Cornworthy, “I will need to tell the driver that we will call him later.”
“The others you are calling? how long to they get here?” asked David Baxter.
The alien tried to smile, “We will not be here, we will be there,” it turned to Steve and Bethany, “Mention was made of the stone circle you have uncovered, that is our connection with this world, then we go up the hill to our other circle. The, as you call it, lump on the hill? well the entrance is blocked by a tree that is two times bigger than the others, it is what you would call a hologram. Using the other circle to get to where it is needed to go,” the alien looked at Steve again.
“What are you doing?” asked Steve.

“I am reading your thoughts, trying to find the knowledge to say what you will understand. Right, this circle is fairly new, a couple of thousand years old, the one we used before has yet to be repaired, it is the twin circle.”
“The twin circle?” asked Mr Davies.
“Oh, yes, the Grey Wethers stone circle at the base of Sittaford Hill or Tor as it is known.”
“Now, to make the call and find out how they will be coming,” said the alien.

Early in the evening the massive spaceship hovered two hundred feet above Stonehenge. A few people were near the circle.
“Good evening, this is Tina Standish, reporting for your evening news. I am outside the ancient ruins of Stonehenge, a place that has had many reasons said, about its reason for being, many of the reasons include some form of Druidic usage. Which gives me my lead in to tonight’s story, it is about the resurrection of the pagan beliefs, and those who have chosen to follow them. I have been told that some choose to follow the religion of Wicca, some say it is an old religion, some say it was started in the nineteen fifties, some choose to do witchcraft, some choose both. So, are they self proclaimed witches, or are they real witches.”
“Tina!” interrupted the camera man, “Behind you! three women just appeared behind you!” Tina turned quickly, she faced the three women then looking in awe at them, they vanished.

“Please, oh please tell me the camera was kept running.”
“Yep, we got it, better call the office.”
“Jeff?, it’s Tina, we have just got something on film, three women just appeared, then a minute later they disappeared, we are at Stonehenge!. One of the women was glowing, the other two were dressed in some sort of ancient military garb.”
“It is to late to go on the news tonight, get the footage to us as fast as possible, we might be able to use it on the late news.”

At just past three thirty.
“There’s a glowing, from within the inner circle at Stonehenge, where the A344 joins the A303, the roads are clear, but there’s a few people on the roadside,” said a disturbed PC Bertrand. The noise on the radio became a soft white noise, then a reply from the Bourne Police Station,
“At half past two the all the telephone lines in Salisbury and Andover police stations were busy.” A group of astronomers from the ’Official’ astronomers club in Salisbury had thrown a spanner in the works, they rang the Salisbury police station saying that the full moon of that night, wasn’t meant to happen until three nights time! the waxing moon hadn’t happened.

At four thirty a police officer called the station,
“Sarge the glowing just increased, oh my god ! some young women just appeared, there’s more of them, they’re coming from the middle of Stonehenge, each one, they are wearing some sort of medieval armour, there is about thirty of them.”
“Have they got any weapons? if so, what are they?” asked the Bourne police sergeant.
“They have each got a long sword, a short sword, and they have each got a crossbow,” said PC Bertrand. “It isn’t a good idea them having those weapons have a talk with them, explain the situation.”
Hesitantly Constable Bertrand approached a couple of them,
“Look, I don’t understand what’s happening here, but we don’t want you to be wearing those weapons.”

“Wearing these weapons is a necessity, but I’ll tell the others, it’ll be up to them, the thing is, we are the advance guard, we are here to protect you and to stop those who want to stop us, I’ll have a talk with our leader and get back to you.”
“What is your name?” asked PC Bertrand.
“My name is Hope.” Came the reply.
PC Bertrand was about to ask another question but he was distracted as the night sky turned red.

The leaders of the Annuikan army appeared in Stonehenge, the spacecraft appeared over Stonehenge, a wide light beamed down to the earth and the leaders and the advance guards were taken on-board.

“My name is Annu Ikania, I am the leader of The Annuikan Armies, I was told you may know of where our missing craft is.”
The alien robot approached her.
“The human that told me of where it may be is Gillian Devonish also, in this time you do not need to announce your arrival.”
Gillian slowly looked more and more surprised, the realisation that the sky becoming red was done by Annu Ikania.
“Not needed? maybe! but what an entrance! that was excellent!”
Annu Ikania appreciated what Gillian said, looking into her mind she realised why Gillian was there. Looking to the robot, “Take us to where she has said.”

“The part of the England where it is, is called the Devils Country it is at Tintagel in Cornwall.”
They were soon standing on the sea shore by the entry to Merlins cave. They all began to go to Merlins cave, for hours they walked. Eventually they entered a large cavern.
“Girls, what can you see in here?” asked Annu Ikania.
“Towards the other end, near the side, there is a series of stalactites,” said Hope. They went to where the stalactites were, Dr Cornworthy and Gillian made a small fire, mainly for them to see what they could.
“I don’t think these are natural,” said Hope, “I can’t find where the join is.”
“Well if they are not natural, they are not stalactites, they could be columns. If so it may well be that they are holding something else up,” said Miss Rudyard.

“Holding something up? I wonder,” said Gillian,
“Maybe then this isn’t the Merlin’s cave that legend speaks of, what is being held up by the columns might be Merlin’s cave.”
“Clean them, there maybe directions to what’s above,” said Annu Ikania.
Annu concentrated on the base of each column, watching as some writing began to be seen.
“I have the letters R and I,” stated Miss Rudyard.
“There’s some more letters on this one, they are S, E, T.”
“Add O, N, E to them,” said Hope, ”what are yours?”
“I have just a W,” said the robot.
“And T, I and M, E,” said Gillian, “So put the letters together and we have the answer.”

“R, I, S, E, T, O, N, E, W, T, I, M, E, put into words, that might be Rise To New Time.”
“That could be right,” added Steve, “If what is up there gives you the time travelling spaceship then finding it may give a new future and to get up there we’d need to, rise to.”
“I don’t no if any-one has noticed it yet, but these column’s don’t reach the top,” declared Mr Davies.
Bethany and Miss Rudyard looked closely at the column’s, then turned the first one a quarter of a turn to the right. The other column’s were done, then slowly a large rock slid into the wall, revealing another cavern.
“If you girls go up first tell us what you see,” said Annu Ikania.

They had only been there a moment before Hope called down to them, “It is here, as is Merlin.”
Quickly, the others followed them, when all of them were up there and they were about to start looking.
“Who is she?“ asked Miss Rudyard.
An elderly looking man stood before her, “She is who Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote of she is a helper, her name is Guen,” said Merlin.
Moving out of the shadows stood a fearsome figure wielding a sword that hummed as it slowly cut through the air.
“Hello again Guen, it has been a long time,” said Annu Ikania.
Guen knelt on one knee to her.
“Why is she here?” asked Bethany, “Is she really her?”
Merlin smiled, “We became friends with Geoffrey, he helped us repair the spaceship for two years then when that part was done we would use the spaceship to go back in time to when he first joined us, so he knew of us and the work could be finished.”

“As we were unable to pay him we graciously agreed to his writing a story based around us that had Merlin, me as the Lady Guenivere and the spaceship as a dragon. He made up a few other characters, I think we still have a copy of the book, I will go and get it,” said Guen.
Guen re-appeared a minute later carrying a book.
“Here it is, the Historia Regum Brittaniae, he signed it Geoffrey of Monmouth, it was nice of him to give us this copy.”

“I think he kept the second copy but this is the third copy of his book,” said Merlin then looking to Annu Ikania, “Hopefully we will be going home soon so providing you keep that it. As this is due to your finding us this should be .. .. oh you are not you, are you?”
“Gillian was hired by Hob Eaza Boul of the Pavmirse to try to find you,” said Annu Ikania.
“Are you saying that Gillian is not real?” asked David Baxter.
Annu Ikania smiled to them, “She is real, but not as Gillian Devonish, a real doll? we will return her to the Dollhouse.”
“Another thing, if you don’t mind? the crop circle what does it mean?” asked Steve.
Annu grinned.
“There is twenty one circles in the line, they represent the number of planets but not moons between our planet and this one.”
“And what do the lines represent?” asked Dr Cornworthy.
“That is the number of clues we could give, the crop circle, the stone circle, us, the Pavmirse and this spaceship,” said Annu Ikania.