It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

The Alien Virus

It was a rare occurrence indeed for Ricard and Benton to be left in charge of UNIT for more than a day or so. It was almost a regular occurrence that Yates ad Benton were left in charge or even Yates and Richard but, although it was not unheard of, it was seldom for the two Sergeants to be left in command at all. The officers though, along with about half the men were all down with some alien virus. Handily about forty percent of humans were immune. Richard tried (and failed) not to mention that everyone who had been susceptible had been from the British contingent at HQ. He and his fellow foreigners had all been immune. They were still carriers of the virus, and thus couldn't leave HQ until they had been cleared. Granted the foreign contingent made up only about ten percent of the men but the statistic was interesting. Especially considering The Auckland, Sydney and Adelaide UNIT bases had also been infected with the virus with an immunity rate of almost eighty percent. Richard had said something about this being further proof of Benton being an honorary ANZAC. Given the remarkably consistent and firmly founded reputation The British Brass had of using ANZACs as cannon fodder Benton was fairly sure he shouldn't like this idea but he did a bit. Listening to Roy Eastick talk about The ANZAC Legend. The way he'd explained the nuance to Kate that night a few weeks prior.

Richard had promised his three eldest children a camping trip that weekend. He'd invited Benton along too, at the request of his sons. Even if they were, by some miracle, cleared of the virus by the weekend it was unlikely Yates and The Brigadier would be fit for duty by then. According to the Doctor, it would be at least a fortnight before any of the infected would be fit for duty. Camping would have to wait until everyone was back on their feet. Richard and Benton thanked their lucky stars that it had been a relatively quiet fortnight. Torchwood had asked to borrow some of the men as backup to deal with a minor invasion in Cardiff late in the second week but up until that point it had been the quietest fortnight in UNIT history and Benton, who had been with UNIT from the very beginning, could attest to it.