Glow - chapter 3
Fandom : Torchwood
Rating : PG13
characters : The entire Team
Summary : Something comes through the rift, people die, the team investigates.
They arrived at the spot where they hoped to catch cluster buster. Cluster buster was now the official name of the thing. Owen had rolled his eyes when hearing it, but then again, he rolled his eyes at everything Ianto said; Jack had never figured out what it was between those two.
They got out of the car and got straight to work. Placing the devices at a (hopefully) large enough distance. Ianto was in the sewers trying to find the power course shown on the blueprints. He just had to connect the cables and hook everything to the devices. Tosh was going to redirect the Cardiff energy supply to this exact spot and with a bit or luck all this will result in the activation of the devices and a dome like energy field will encapsulate the cluster buster. Gwen had contacted the police to see how they were going to secure the area. The evacuation was still ongoing but most of the population had already left. It wasn’t a densely inhabited area. That’s why they chose this point to hook up the devices. The less prying eyes, the less problems later on.
Now the only thing they hoped for was that the cluster wouldn’t change his of her mind and change the trajectory. Right now things looked good. It was coming nearer at a regular pace leaving them enough time to put all thing in place. Devices were hooked up, power redirection was ready to be activated, citizens were mostly gone and the team had put themselves at a safe distance. The only thing Jack feared was that once the buster didn’t feel life energy in proximity it might change it’s course, So Jack would have to lure him closer. Nobody had more life energy than Jack. He’d done this before, with Abbaddon, and survived. He could do it again.
Everybody held their breath, they watched the cluster’s progress on screen and saw it edging close to the devices, where jack had positioned himself inside the circle but just close enough to the border to be able to run out once the creature had entered the trap. He couldn’t see anything but he heard Tosh over the coms.
“Get ready Jack. I can see it approaching. I think It sensed you, it’s accelerated slightly.”
“Jack, estimated time of arrival twenty seconds.”
“Thanks Gwen, I can’t see anything so when it’s in the right position would you be so kind as to yell please. I don’t want to be trapped with that thing if I can avoid it.”
“Ten seconds… eight… six… five… four… it’s almost inside the circle Jack… two… one, RUN!!!”
He heard all four voices shouting to get the hell out, one sounded more anxious than the rest.
Ianto took hold of Gwen’s arm and squeezed just that little bit too hard.
Tosh monitored the screen with an unfailing concentration and the moment she got view of the creature within the circle of devices she activated the power surge but not before checking if Jack was safe and sound.
Jack turned around just in time to see a bright white light spring to life all around the buster. It worked, he saw sparks all over the place. The creature seemed to become denser, trying to get as far away from the walls. It couldn't, the field was to strong. The cluster got stretched out to all sides of the dome and where it touched the walls it emitted a blue radiant light.
“Hah ! Busted buster!”
“Always had a way with words sir.”
Ianto and the rest of the team stood next close to him. Looking at the thing inside the ring of light. He looked at Ianto and couldn’t stop touching his hand just for a second. If it would have been night all the lights would have gone out in the city, all electricity was being used to keep up the field. It won't take long before everybody left his job to find the source of the problem. Still, it was a wonderful sight, a big blue dome glowing and shining bright, probably visible from all over town. This was messy to say the least.
“So, what do we do now?”
“Well if we can’t sort this by tonight, we’ll set up our tents.”
“We’ll do what?! Oh no Jack , the last time we did that we ended up almost being eaten! You must be kidding!”
“We can’t go back to the hub or leave all this unattended and we don’t squat in other people’s home, so let’s try to solve this ASAP, ok, if we do we'll be home by tonight. But you know Owen, a night in the tent might just turn you into a man.”
No matter how much Owen respected Jack sometimes he felt like killing him all over again. Gwen had gotten closer to the energy barrier, as if she tried to feel what was inside. She was very empathic but this, jack thought, was out of her league. He went over and stood next to her.
“Jack, is it sentient? Can we communicate with it?”
“I haven’t got a clue. We have the translator with us but as long as it doesn’t emit a sound we’re not close to understanding what it says… or doesn’t say.”
“What's the plan then? We just stick around until mister buster here sings us a song?”
“You know what Owen, you're right Why don't you do something useful. It's almost noon so while we 'stick around' you can get us some food.”
“Gwen I'd like for you to go around town. Call the cops, see if they can still cope with the curious. Try to see how far they are with the casualties. I'd like you to pick up the and get them in the morgue. Maybe we can still save them if this creature releases their energy.”
“Right, Jack, it's not that easy,” Apparently Owen hadn't left for food yet.
“This is not like the glove, we won't be able to resuscitate them, even if buster releases the energy, there is no way to jump start their system. By the time we've dealt with this creature, they will have been dead too long.”
Ianto looked panicked.
“There's not enough room in the vaults for more than one hundred and thirty-four dead bodies Jack, no matter how I'll stack them. It's just too much.”
“Everybody calm down, we have a job to do. Tosh is trying to communicate with that buster there. Once we've done that, we can see if it can do something else than kill things. Owen, go, we're hungry! Ianto, help Gwen with the bodies. It'll take some time to get them all to the hub, find a way to store them. If family or friends are in proximity please be discrete, try to look like coroners. I don't know just how, but be imaginative OK? This is an unusual situation we all need to use our resources at best.”
When everybody had left to do what they were supposed to do Jack went over to Tosh. She seemed so concentrated it looked funny. Tosh was at her best behind her computer and applications, confident, a genius. It was a pity that she was shy and closed off once she left the security of her screens. Still, she had saved them many times before and he was sure she'd be able to do the same now. He wanted it all over as soon as possible because the longer it took the more problems this was going to cause later on.
“Anything Tosh?”
“No, it's not speaking, it's not emitting any waves that can be translated into language. But I did find something.”
Jack laughed, he knew Tosh well, and when she said she'd found something, most of the time it was something big. Especially when she had that little crooked smile.
“Look here Jack, this is buster, look at these specks of light that shine within it. If I'm not wrong, those specks don't belong to the buster, they belong to our world, they are what's left of our dead. If we can get it to free them, then maybe we can save them after all.”
“According to Owen no chance of that happening. Any chance of it dying soon?”
“I don't think it will Jack, it's not losing energy, but it's not growing stronger either, it's constant.”
“Any way of killing it then?”
“Except for lighting a fuse and blowing Wales of the map, not really. Destroy this amount of energy and everything goes boom!”
“OK, emit every possible language you know. Code, French, that queer little one we got from the Juskedi's, whatever we’ve got. It should react to something. I'm calling a friend at U.N.I.T. See what they've got and if they can find anything in their database concerning major energy blob here.”
Twenty minutes later still no reaction from buster but they had pizza. Not the type of pizza they liked because the only one who knew exactly what everyone liked was Ianto. Still it was food and it killed time.
------------------------------------------
Ianto and Gwen had been busy for five hours. Driving to and from the morgue to the Hub. One hundred and sixty-nine corpses was a lot of work and Ianto was right. There wasn't enough space. What the hell where they suppose to do with all these corpses afterwards? If Owen was right they were going to stay dead, and Ianto knew just who was going to be responsible for the disposal of all these bodies.
“Ianto, I've just stacked the last two in Jack's office. Sorry, I don’t know where to put them anymore. The morgue is full, there are a few in the archives and the rest.....” Gwen couldn't speak anymore, she had tried to stay calm and not look at all the faces, but it all came crashing down.
The last two corpses had been of children. A little girl with pigtails and a little ginger boy, he couldn't have been older than five.
“All this death Ianto.”
Big sobs escaped her, she wasn't like the rest, she felt things, her heart broke with every death. No matter how hard she tried to disengage herself from all the destruction Torchwood was about, she couldn't be as tough as the others. Ianto closed the distance between them and took her in his arms. After a while he disengaged himself.
“Gwen, I understand, believe me… we see more deaths in a month than a coroner sees in a lifetime but we're needed. We're the only one between death and more death. If we don't do our job today, or any day for that matter, this world, these people, would have been dead a long time ago. Be strong Love, not for those in the morgue, but for those who are still alive. We have to keep the rest alive!”
“I just don't get it Ianto, how do you deal with all this?”
“This Gwen,” He pointed at all the dead and the Hub, “This is all I have left. Torchwood took everything from me, and now Torchwood is all I have left to care about. This is my duty, to protect other people so that they won't have to deal with this. It's your duty too. So, we do this, it's part of the job, part of our duty. Jack needs us to be strong, so we will be.”
Gwen hugged him, she took a deep breath as if filling herself with his strength, then exhaled very slowly.
She let go, looked him in the eyes.
“I can see why he loves you Ianto.”
Ianto offered his arm which she took with a big sad smile. They made their way to the door, careful not to step on the bodies. There was still work to be done.
Rating : PG13
characters : The entire Team
Summary : Something comes through the rift, people die, the team investigates.
They arrived at the spot where they hoped to catch cluster buster. Cluster buster was now the official name of the thing. Owen had rolled his eyes when hearing it, but then again, he rolled his eyes at everything Ianto said; Jack had never figured out what it was between those two.
They got out of the car and got straight to work. Placing the devices at a (hopefully) large enough distance. Ianto was in the sewers trying to find the power course shown on the blueprints. He just had to connect the cables and hook everything to the devices. Tosh was going to redirect the Cardiff energy supply to this exact spot and with a bit or luck all this will result in the activation of the devices and a dome like energy field will encapsulate the cluster buster. Gwen had contacted the police to see how they were going to secure the area. The evacuation was still ongoing but most of the population had already left. It wasn’t a densely inhabited area. That’s why they chose this point to hook up the devices. The less prying eyes, the less problems later on.
Now the only thing they hoped for was that the cluster wouldn’t change his of her mind and change the trajectory. Right now things looked good. It was coming nearer at a regular pace leaving them enough time to put all thing in place. Devices were hooked up, power redirection was ready to be activated, citizens were mostly gone and the team had put themselves at a safe distance. The only thing Jack feared was that once the buster didn’t feel life energy in proximity it might change it’s course, So Jack would have to lure him closer. Nobody had more life energy than Jack. He’d done this before, with Abbaddon, and survived. He could do it again.
Everybody held their breath, they watched the cluster’s progress on screen and saw it edging close to the devices, where jack had positioned himself inside the circle but just close enough to the border to be able to run out once the creature had entered the trap. He couldn’t see anything but he heard Tosh over the coms.
“Get ready Jack. I can see it approaching. I think It sensed you, it’s accelerated slightly.”
“Jack, estimated time of arrival twenty seconds.”
“Thanks Gwen, I can’t see anything so when it’s in the right position would you be so kind as to yell please. I don’t want to be trapped with that thing if I can avoid it.”
“Ten seconds… eight… six… five… four… it’s almost inside the circle Jack… two… one, RUN!!!”
He heard all four voices shouting to get the hell out, one sounded more anxious than the rest.
Ianto took hold of Gwen’s arm and squeezed just that little bit too hard.
Tosh monitored the screen with an unfailing concentration and the moment she got view of the creature within the circle of devices she activated the power surge but not before checking if Jack was safe and sound.
Jack turned around just in time to see a bright white light spring to life all around the buster. It worked, he saw sparks all over the place. The creature seemed to become denser, trying to get as far away from the walls. It couldn't, the field was to strong. The cluster got stretched out to all sides of the dome and where it touched the walls it emitted a blue radiant light.
“Hah ! Busted buster!”
“Always had a way with words sir.”
Ianto and the rest of the team stood next close to him. Looking at the thing inside the ring of light. He looked at Ianto and couldn’t stop touching his hand just for a second. If it would have been night all the lights would have gone out in the city, all electricity was being used to keep up the field. It won't take long before everybody left his job to find the source of the problem. Still, it was a wonderful sight, a big blue dome glowing and shining bright, probably visible from all over town. This was messy to say the least.
“So, what do we do now?”
“Well if we can’t sort this by tonight, we’ll set up our tents.”
“We’ll do what?! Oh no Jack , the last time we did that we ended up almost being eaten! You must be kidding!”
“We can’t go back to the hub or leave all this unattended and we don’t squat in other people’s home, so let’s try to solve this ASAP, ok, if we do we'll be home by tonight. But you know Owen, a night in the tent might just turn you into a man.”
No matter how much Owen respected Jack sometimes he felt like killing him all over again. Gwen had gotten closer to the energy barrier, as if she tried to feel what was inside. She was very empathic but this, jack thought, was out of her league. He went over and stood next to her.
“Jack, is it sentient? Can we communicate with it?”
“I haven’t got a clue. We have the translator with us but as long as it doesn’t emit a sound we’re not close to understanding what it says… or doesn’t say.”
“What's the plan then? We just stick around until mister buster here sings us a song?”
“You know what Owen, you're right Why don't you do something useful. It's almost noon so while we 'stick around' you can get us some food.”
“Gwen I'd like for you to go around town. Call the cops, see if they can still cope with the curious. Try to see how far they are with the casualties. I'd like you to pick up the and get them in the morgue. Maybe we can still save them if this creature releases their energy.”
“Right, Jack, it's not that easy,” Apparently Owen hadn't left for food yet.
“This is not like the glove, we won't be able to resuscitate them, even if buster releases the energy, there is no way to jump start their system. By the time we've dealt with this creature, they will have been dead too long.”
Ianto looked panicked.
“There's not enough room in the vaults for more than one hundred and thirty-four dead bodies Jack, no matter how I'll stack them. It's just too much.”
“Everybody calm down, we have a job to do. Tosh is trying to communicate with that buster there. Once we've done that, we can see if it can do something else than kill things. Owen, go, we're hungry! Ianto, help Gwen with the bodies. It'll take some time to get them all to the hub, find a way to store them. If family or friends are in proximity please be discrete, try to look like coroners. I don't know just how, but be imaginative OK? This is an unusual situation we all need to use our resources at best.”
When everybody had left to do what they were supposed to do Jack went over to Tosh. She seemed so concentrated it looked funny. Tosh was at her best behind her computer and applications, confident, a genius. It was a pity that she was shy and closed off once she left the security of her screens. Still, she had saved them many times before and he was sure she'd be able to do the same now. He wanted it all over as soon as possible because the longer it took the more problems this was going to cause later on.
“Anything Tosh?”
“No, it's not speaking, it's not emitting any waves that can be translated into language. But I did find something.”
Jack laughed, he knew Tosh well, and when she said she'd found something, most of the time it was something big. Especially when she had that little crooked smile.
“Look here Jack, this is buster, look at these specks of light that shine within it. If I'm not wrong, those specks don't belong to the buster, they belong to our world, they are what's left of our dead. If we can get it to free them, then maybe we can save them after all.”
“According to Owen no chance of that happening. Any chance of it dying soon?”
“I don't think it will Jack, it's not losing energy, but it's not growing stronger either, it's constant.”
“Any way of killing it then?”
“Except for lighting a fuse and blowing Wales of the map, not really. Destroy this amount of energy and everything goes boom!”
“OK, emit every possible language you know. Code, French, that queer little one we got from the Juskedi's, whatever we’ve got. It should react to something. I'm calling a friend at U.N.I.T. See what they've got and if they can find anything in their database concerning major energy blob here.”
Twenty minutes later still no reaction from buster but they had pizza. Not the type of pizza they liked because the only one who knew exactly what everyone liked was Ianto. Still it was food and it killed time.
------------------------------------------
Ianto and Gwen had been busy for five hours. Driving to and from the morgue to the Hub. One hundred and sixty-nine corpses was a lot of work and Ianto was right. There wasn't enough space. What the hell where they suppose to do with all these corpses afterwards? If Owen was right they were going to stay dead, and Ianto knew just who was going to be responsible for the disposal of all these bodies.
“Ianto, I've just stacked the last two in Jack's office. Sorry, I don’t know where to put them anymore. The morgue is full, there are a few in the archives and the rest.....” Gwen couldn't speak anymore, she had tried to stay calm and not look at all the faces, but it all came crashing down.
The last two corpses had been of children. A little girl with pigtails and a little ginger boy, he couldn't have been older than five.
“All this death Ianto.”
Big sobs escaped her, she wasn't like the rest, she felt things, her heart broke with every death. No matter how hard she tried to disengage herself from all the destruction Torchwood was about, she couldn't be as tough as the others. Ianto closed the distance between them and took her in his arms. After a while he disengaged himself.
“Gwen, I understand, believe me… we see more deaths in a month than a coroner sees in a lifetime but we're needed. We're the only one between death and more death. If we don't do our job today, or any day for that matter, this world, these people, would have been dead a long time ago. Be strong Love, not for those in the morgue, but for those who are still alive. We have to keep the rest alive!”
“I just don't get it Ianto, how do you deal with all this?”
“This Gwen,” He pointed at all the dead and the Hub, “This is all I have left. Torchwood took everything from me, and now Torchwood is all I have left to care about. This is my duty, to protect other people so that they won't have to deal with this. It's your duty too. So, we do this, it's part of the job, part of our duty. Jack needs us to be strong, so we will be.”
Gwen hugged him, she took a deep breath as if filling herself with his strength, then exhaled very slowly.
She let go, looked him in the eyes.
“I can see why he loves you Ianto.”
Ianto offered his arm which she took with a big sad smile. They made their way to the door, careful not to step on the bodies. There was still work to be done.