Part 6

They were introduced to the rest of the Council.

Robina, Julietta, Flaccette and Sandi nodded pleasantly to them after Xavier had introduced them.

"Actually, all the rest of the Council are related to you three in some way." Xavier told them with a smile.

"Richelieu and Annakarenin are direct descendents from you, Richard." The two nodded and smiled shyly at him.

"Francois and Timiny are part of your line, Tim." Tim stared at them. They certainly had the dark eyes and hair, he acknowledged, although they were a little lacking in the looks department.

"And Jean-Paul and myself are your descendents, Paul." Xavier said, turning to face him.

"That would be a little difficult, unless Jo and I have children � which I find very hard to believe will ever happen." Paul glared at him.

Jean-Paul laughed. "You weren�t always exactly, um, careful in the early days of the Allstars, were you, Paul?"

"S---!"

"We did try to warn you, if you remember, Paul." Richard struggled unsuccessfully to suppress a smile.

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"And now to the reason you are here."

Jean-Paul and the others turned towards what at first appeared to be a blank wall.

"Display target area alpha-zero-zero-six-three-five." The President�s instruction to the computer produced immediate results.

The trio stared in shock as they took in the enormity of the spacecraft hovering over the eastern coast of Australia.

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They looked at each other, suddenly uncertain. Because the aliens had been playing the opening of the Dead and Alive CD, they, and the Council, had decided that they should probably respond with the first song from that CD � The Sun. They�d been brought to Sydney aboard what Xavier had described as an air car � it was small, seating only themselves, Xavier, Jean-Paul, and the pilot. It took them just under an hour to reach the east coast of Australia.

Jean-Paul had apologised for the trip taking so long � larger, faster vehicles had been affected by the power fluctuations.

They�d just looked at him and then each other with wry grins. Yeah. Right. Nearly a whole hour to come from Geneva to Sydney. Disgusting.

And so they found themselves in a small studio in the depths of the major broadcast radio station for the Australasian region � The Jays.

Tim cleared his throat nervously, then nodded to Richard.

"Good evening! We�re the Doug Anthony Allstars! Elvis is alive �..and living in the Queen mother!" He exclaimed, over the opening chords.

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Part 7

"Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha! Gotcha!"

"Lust crazed and underage � " Before Paul could complete the line, all three were bathed in a blindingly bright light.

Tim and Richard seemed transfixed, frozen in place. Paul, on the other hand writhed in agony, falling to the floor and clutching convulsively at his throat. Xavier moved to help him, but Jean-Paul held him back. "Wait!"

As suddenly as it had come, the light disappeared.

Richard and Tim shook their heads as if to clear them.

"What happened?"

"Jesus! Paul!"

They knelt anxiously beside Paul, who lay on the floor between them, eyes wide open, staring at nothing. Tim gathered him into his arms. His body was rigid, and he gave no sign that he even knew they were there. There was something strange about his eyes, Richard noted. Dear God! They were blue!

Jean-Paul no longer restrained Xavier, who rushed to kneel beside Tim and Richard. Almost fearfully, he reached out to feel Paul�s neck for a pulse. It was there, but it was ominously slow.

"Paul?" Richard touched his cheek gently. "Paul? Can you hear me?"

Paul�s gaze shifted to Richard�s face. Richard watched, fascinated, as Paul�s eyes slowly returned to their normal hazel. "Rich?" His eyes closed and he went limp in Tim�s arms.

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When next Paul opened his eyes, he looked around at the anxious faces surrounding him. "What happened?" He asked, his voice hoarse, mouth dry.

Tim held a glass of water for him to drink from. "Thanks. So, what happened? How long have I been out?"

"Nearly a day." Xavier informed him.

"S---!" He went to sit up. Richard and Tim helped him. "So, are you going to tell me, or do I have to guess?"

They quickly filled him in on what had happened.

"And the spacecraft?"

"Is still there. Only it�s not broadcasting anything at the moment. It�s almost as though it�s waiting for something."

"President!" An aide came running into the room.

"Report!" Jean-Paul snapped out the order.

"Another broadcast from the ship, sir!"

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Part 8

"When did it start?"

"Approximately five point twelve minutes ago, sir."

"About the time Paul woke up." Xavier muttered.

"What�s the message?"

"The message is repeating over and over. Just one word, a date, a time, and a series of co-ordinates. We�ve placed the co-ordinates at Stonehenge, sir. Right in the centre. The time is 10am, Greenwich Mean, and the date is February 14, 2200." That was one week away.

"And what�s the word?"

"It�s a name, sir." The aide glanced guiltily at where Paul sat on the bed. "�Paul�."

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Xavier insisted on giving Paul a thorough checkup himself. They returned to the Citadel in the same air car in which they�d travelled to Australia.

Paul looked around the lab curiously. "What�re they?" He asked, pointing to a series of metallic containers lined up against one wall. There were eight in all.

"Cloning tanks." Xavier shrugged.

"Wow! Really? You can do all that stuff now?"

"Oh, yes. The technique was perfected nearly a century ago. We routinely clone vital members of society, using cryogenics to preserve the clone in case we ever have need of it."

Paul shivered. "That�s a bit cruel, isn�t it?"

"Oh, no, not at all." Xavier went on to explain the entire process to him as he finished his examination.

"Hmmm. Still sounds pretty strange to me." Paul grinned and shrugged. "So, what�s the story, Xav? Will I live?" He asked with a laugh.

"Probably until you�re a hundred." Xavier told him with a strange smile. "There�s something different about your brainwaves, though. I can�t pinpoint it, but there�s something different just the same." He instructed the computer to perform an analysis of the anomalies and report back as soon as it had the results, no matter where he was or what he was doing. He was frustrated by the fact that he had no idea if the difference was normal for Paul � they hadn�t thought to conduct thorough physical examinations on any of them when they�d first been brought forward to the present time.

"Let�s go find your friends, shall we?" He asked, helping Paul off the examination table. He glanced at the two closest tanks as they walked from the lab. The orange light indicated that they were in use. Jean-Paul had instructed him to make a second clone of Paul, just in case. Suspecting Jean-Paul�s motives, he�d taken his own, completely unauthorised action, using something he had found in Paul�s belongings.

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Part 9

"Well, there�s no way I�m just going to sit here and wait for whatever it is to happen!" Paul muttered to himself as he paced the length of the room that had been assigned to him at the Citadel. Tim and Richard�s rooms were on either side of his. He was starting to go crazy stuck inside the Citadel and waiting for the fourteenth to arrive.

He strode out of the room and barged into Tim�s room without knocking.

"I�ve got to get out of here!" He exclaimed, startling Tim, who had been sitting, thinking, on his bed, his back propped up against the wall.

"Yeah, but will they let you? I mean, they might let Rich and me, but you�." Tim sighed and shook his head.

"And what makes you think that I intend to ask permission?" Paul asked with a wicked smile.

Tim grinned and got up off the bed. "Let�s go get Richard."

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The Council meeting had become quite heated. Jean-Paul and Flaccette had put forward the idea of returning Tim and Richard to 2000, with a clone to take Paul�s place.

"No one need ever know, once transferral has taken place." Jean-Paul had argued, at his most persuasive.

"We can�t keep him here against his will, Jean-Paul." Xavier had frowned. "And at the moment, I think he needs the support of his friends. Goodness only knows what�s going to happen on the fourteenth."

"I agree." Annakarenin said quietly. "If we return two, we must return three � originals, not clones."

The debate raged for the better part of an hour. Finally, Jean-Paul put the issue to the vote. The motion was defeated, seven votes to three. Timiny had unexpectedly voted with Jean-Paul and Flaccette.

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Paul, Tim, and Richard moved quietly along the corridors of the Citadel. They�d managed to find a storeroom stocked with clothing, and had quickly changed out of their rather conspicuous �DAAS� outfits and into something a little more normal for the time.

"There must be a bar around here somewhere." Paul muttered as they slipped out onto the walkway.

"But what are we going to use for money?" Richard wanted to know.

"We�ll think of something." Tim grinned, happy to be out of the confines of the Citadel without their ever-present �escorts�.

"Over there." Paul pointed to small building that seemed to have a lot of traffic in and out.

They hurried over, pausing in the doorway to look around. Music played loudly from several hidden speakers, and people were either dancing, or talking, or, um�.hmmmmm! Xavier had mentioned that this was a very � er � permissive and tolerant society.

The Allstars entered the bar. All conversation stopped as every eye turned to look at Paul. Even the music stopped abruptly.

"Oh, f---!" He sighed. He�d forgotten about that.

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Part 10

No one moved for a long moment.

"Um, d�you think we should go?" Tim whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, probably." Richard whispered back.

A tall blonde woman approached them, a smile on her face as she looked Paul up and down appreciatively. "Hi, honey, care to join me and my friends?" She had to be at least 185 centimetres tall.

Paul gazed up at her for a moment before a wicked gleam came to his eyes. "Sure." He smiled broadly as she took his hand and led him away, turning to throw a cheeky grin at the others.

As they stood there watching Paul walk away, two more people approached them.

A tall blonde man reached out to run his hand softly along Tim�s cheek. "Can I buy you a drink, sweetie?"

"Ah, yeah, sure. Thanks." Tim smiled hesitantly back. He shrugged at Richard. "When in Rome�."

Richard turned away to find himself staring up at a well-endowed brunette. "We can�t have you standing there all by yourself, can we, darl?"

"Um, nope, I guess not." Swallowing nervously, he allowed her to lead him away.

Slowly the conversations started up again around the room, and the music once again blared from the walls.

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There was a considerable commotion at the Citadel when it was discovered that Paul was not in his room.

A search of the building revealed that Richard and Tim were also missing.

"I have a very bad feeling about this." Richelieu muttered softly as they gathered in the Council Chamber to decide what they should do. No one outside the Council and the Time Wardens knew that the Allstars had been brought forward in time, so they could hardly broadcast the fact that they were missing.

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"So what�s your pleasure, gorgeous?" The blonde, whose name was Rachelle, asked as she drew Paul down to sit in her lap.

"I don�t know. What�s on offer?" He asked, his eyes dancing with mischief.

She threw her head back and laughed before capturing his mouth in a passionate kiss. "Does that give you any ideas?"

"Yeah. Lots." He laughed.

Doug Trek continued