The choice was down to two scientists from Cambridge, Elizabeth Shaw and Ian Chesterton. Being a military man, the Brigadier was leaning slightly towards Ian who had served in the fifties. However, there was the small matter of Mr. Chesterton's questionable politics and the fact that both he and his wife had vanished on the same day as a student at the school they had been teaching at and returned two years later sans student. The Chestertons claimed that the girl's grandfather had taken her with him when he moved and that they'd been doing missionary work in Africa, but there had been several holes in their stories.

Because the girl's grandfather was gone and unable to confirm or deny that his grandchild was with him and because a letter that had indicated that the trip to Africa was something that had to be jumped on right at the moment Mr. Chesterton and the then Miss. Wright had vanished had been found shortly before the two had returned from their trip, the matter had mostly been dropped. If he brought Mr. Chesterton in as a scientific advisor however, a number of questions would be raised.

Liz Shaw's background on the other hand was impeccable, and her credentials included a medical degree and fluency in French on top of her scientific degrees. There should be absolutely no contest between the two even though Shaw was a woman, but still, that touch of the Sight that the Brigadier had supposedly inherited from his grandmother was telling him he should pick the Chesterton fellow.

Knowing he was probably going to get yelled at by his superiors who would likely accuse him of sexism, the Brigadier picked up the phone and made a call...

Ian sighed as the car that had picked him up at the station drove him to his destination. He hadn't planned on doing anymore military work after he'd done his national service, and had hoped to live a relatively quiet life teaching at Cambridge, but he'd been called in by some organization called U.N.I.T., and from the looks of things, he couldn't refuse.

Queen and Country and all that...

After being driven to what was undoubtedly a secret facility, he was introduced to the Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart who started nattering on about meteorites and alien invasions, two things he'd thought he was done with after that bizarre adventure with that young man who'd turned out to really be the Doctor who was apparently able to change his face shortly before he and Barbara had finally gotten married.

"You seem rather calm about all of this." the Brigadier said when he failed to call the man a crackpot or deride his story as being Science Fiction rather than Science Fact.

"You'd be amazed at what I've lived through." he replied with a slightly enigmatic smile. "You'd likely not believe it either."

"You'd be surprised." the Brigadier said with a smile of his own.

While he was looking over the scientific reports regarding the unusual meteor shower and a similar one that had taken place six months before that the Brigadier had supplied, the phone rang and after some words from the person on the other end of the line, the Brigadier caused all of his mental functions to come to a screeching halt when he softly exclaimed "A Police Box!".

"Not again!" he groaned when he finally regained his senses, just barely resisting the urge to slam his head against the Brigadier's desk.

Sure, he liked the Doctor and wouldn't mind a short emphasis on short visit from the man, but he and Barbara had returned to their own time for a reason. They had wanted to live a quiet and relatively normal life where they weren't being arrested by aliens and sentenced to death or being kidnapped by historical figures and sold into slavery, both of which and more had happened while he and his now wife had been forced to travel with the Doctor.

"Tell me Mr. Chesterton," the Brigadier said, looking at him intently for the first time "Does the name the Doctor mean anything to you?"

"Yes." he moaned as he buried his face in his hands.