"…the Race of Men, who above all else desire power."
Lord of the Rings
Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales
Monday, September 6, 2021
Entering the garden reminded Ianto Jones of better times. When they were first together, the hub after hours was theirs. They spent more than one night in the garden. Life had been simpler then. Without illusions of permanency. Somehow he let himself believe the impossible.
Jack stood scanning an alien tree with his wrist-strap. "A similar tree appeared in Four's above-ground garden," he explained without looking up.
"Four has a sense of humor." A practical joke wouldn't be surprising.
Jack flipped his wrist-strap closed as he turned to face Ianto. "The general's concerned it's connected to Nessa's problems."
"Is it?" Ianto wondered. That tree had been in the hub since it was transferred to this universe. There was no indication it was dangerous.
"I don't know." Jack reached for Ianto's hand; they twined their fingers together. "His scans were the same as mine."
"What can we do?"
"Nothing at the moment."
Ianto nodded. "I brought lunch." He had hoped to avoid the inevitable argument if they tried to plan anything.
Jack ran his thumb lightly over Ianto's. "Good." He paused. "I need to get groceries."
Ianto's suspected it was a request and his first thought was to offer. He didn't mind. But he wanted Jack to come home. Ianto hoped the extra effort would accomplish that. Jack looked like he expected a different reaction. After a moment, he started toward the door still holding Ianto's hand. He followed.
An alarm sounded.
"What is that?" Ianto was certain he'd never heard it before.
"I don't know." Jack flipped open his wrist-strap.
Torchwood Nova Scotia; Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada
Eryn Sylla sat in the adjacent room with the com activated. Weeks of reading through Ruthie Beaupre Sarkisian's files on alchemy and the Sarkisians made Eryn's head hurt. She had to find books explaining what most of it meant. Like Luc, Ruthie used multiple languages easily and often wrote notes in whichever language worked better. That meant translating as well as researching. From some of what Eryn had deciphered, Kailen hadn't found everything.
A crash came over the com from Luc's secured cell.
Eryn gave him a moment for the anger to pass. "Hey."
"The simulations failed," Luc growled.
"Why?" Making him think helped with the anger.
A chair hit a wall.
Usually, Eryn thought. It increased at times for no apparent reason. "Was it energy distribution this time?" She hoped that was right. Robotics made less sense than biology.
Rather than respond, Luc walked over and hit his punching bag. Xiu at Four helped redesign one that could withstand his temper. But it still required monitoring. His strength increased with his anger. Eryn checked the scan readings. Kailen created a program to translate Luc's scientific scan reports to something easier to understand. The red bar was nearing the danger zone. If she couldn't calm him down, she'd have to sedate him.
"Luc," she said carefully, "What's wrong with the design?" If she could get him talking, it might help.
The ear com chimed. She tapped her ear com. "Problem?"
"Nigeria sent scan data." Kailen sounded concerned. "For Luc to look at."
A puzzle might help. "Transfer it."
The conversation distracted Luc. Eryn eyed the danger bar. When his console chimed, announcing the information arrived, he moved to it. The red decreased. It was hard to believe, she thought, watching him settle into a chair that the picnic had only been a few weeks earlier.
Despite the strange life working for Torchwood gave them, they were happy. Sometimes living and working with people was too much. They needed time to themselves. But spent a lot of time together. Being unable to share a room with Luc was painful.
"The island south of Vietnam was disrupted." Luc sounded coherent. "The energy maintaining the artificial environment fluctuated."
Before the change, Eryn would have asked him to clarify. Now she was happy he wasn't hitting things. "How bad?"
"I don't know." Luc sat back. "We need Atmore drones over the island."
Eryn relayed what Luc said. She suspected Kailen already had drones in the air, but she didn't want to risk Luc's temper flaring. They needed him calm to work the problem.
A few minutes later, Kailen said, "The first drone is down."
That didn't sound good. "Any data?" The first one her brother landed in Atmore crashed but was still operational.
"Completely destroyed," Aman added.
Torchwood Three; Cardiff, Wales
After reviewing the island details, Jack Harkness sat back at his desk wondering how bad the situation was. From his medical scans, it was likely the device that altered the island also changed him. After the second explosion, they declared a no-fly zone and had automated beacons announcing the island dangerous. As far as they knew, none of the curious that went to the island anyway were affected.
The door opened and Ianto entered with a tablet. "Nova Scotia and Nigeria concluded a bomb detonated in the caves under the island." He stood at the edge of the desk. "Azrael checked the surrounding area. The ocean and nearby islands are now affected. He ordered an evacuation, replaced the beacons and barricaded the area."
Jack held his hand out for the computer. "Ocean damage?"
"Nothing obvious yet." Ianto handed it to him. "The energy is affecting reptiles."
That was expected, Jack thought, and skimmed the information.
"Tosh and Owen are reviewing reports potentially related to the explosion. Gwen is dealing with law enforcement."
"Coordinate with Nova Scotia and Nigeria," Jack said absently.
"I need to pick up the kids. Rhys is still working."
"Call Ken."
Ianto hesitated a moment. "Ken can't handle solo babysitting."
"Go."
Jack watched the door close and wondered about his reaction. Jealousy was an unusual for him. Being jealous of the baby was irrational. He moved out. From everything Ianto said, Jack knew he could move back in whenever he wanted. The baby wasn't competition.
He sighed. One more piece of the puzzle he didn't understand.
Gwen Cooper stood in front of the conference room screen for a video call. With Rex dealing with bureaucrats, she fielded nonstop calls. Robert's translation device made life easier. Finding translators varied. Sometimes accents made it difficult to understand a fully fluent speaker. It helped with that too.
The split screen showed Interpol officers. Dass from Malaysia and Kusama from Indonesia. Their countries and Vietnam were the closest to the transformed island.
"Our information is limited, unfortunately."
"What caused the explosion," Dass asked in Malay, his words translated perfectly.
Gwen provided the simplified version she received from Eryn. Tosh was the only one that understood Luc's conclusions. She reviewed his files looking for ideas. With Luc out of his head, they weren't positive his assessment was solid.
"It was intentional?" Kusama asked in English. The translator filtered out his accent.
"Based on what we know." The only technology Robert reported seeing in the caves was the hibernation chamber he escaped from. Scans and exploration had been minimal. And found nothing dangerous.
Dass gave it a moment. "For what purpose?"
"We don't know. Our current theory is someone attempted to destroy the island." An alternative was someone attempted to spread the terraforming which based on what was known about it would destroy the planet.
Kusuma looked as confused as she was. "Why?"
"We don't know."
Torchwood Four; Dublin, Ireland
General Trefor Williams set down the tablet. He had no idea what any of the information from Nova Scotia meant. He already tried contacting Ettie. She was more concerned about Luc than the explosion. As she had their cousin in lock down for questionable behavior, he couldn't blame her. Monty was the other Sarkisian possibility, but he was spacier. And had a very different specialty. The general was out of ideas.
"Xiu has an interesting idea," the computer said. "The explosion affected technology with quantum entanglement power sources."
"Affected how?"
"It may have revealed their locations."
That didn't sound good. "What would that accomplish?"
"The effort to find Robert's ship in Antarctica may have resulted in technology able to detect anomalies at the quantum level."
The general groaned. "Do we have that ability?"
"Potentially. Nigeria has global sensors."
Another thought than occurred to the general. "Were you and Atmore exposed?"
"Yes. Possibly several locations including the Nautilus were."
"Is Nemo at risk?"
"Unlikely. O'Malley has gone undetected despite several governments actively looking for him."
Torchwood Nigeria; Sokoto State, Nigeria
Idrissa Oliveira stood, rubbing the back of his neck. Running comparison scans gave him a headache, stiff muscles, and no answers. They needed a physicist. Finding one was easier said than done. It hadn't been a priority previously. The level of stupidity necessary to disrupt that island was unforeseeable. He understood the frustration but not the agitation.
An alarm sounded. It took a moment to recognize. One of the special needs psychics had escaped.
Idrissa deactivated the alarm and activated the intercom. "Who is missing?"
Vijay replied, his Punjab accent thicker than usual, "Mata and Jama."
Indrissa groaned. "Are you all right?"
"I don't know what they did to me."
"Medical is on the way," one of the Refuge people said.
Idrissa grabbed a tablet. They had all the special need psychics tagged with GPS. The dangerous ones, including his sisters, should have activated sensors. It did not take long to find them. They were approaching his office. A moment later, the door opened.
"I have them." Idrissa gave his sisters a pointed look. Then disconnected the intercom.
"The Labyrinth was disrupted…" Mata said.
Jama continued, "The Mistress is angry."
"Ariadne?"
"Yes," the twins said in unison.
The ancient from his dream. He researched the Greco-Roman myths associated with her, and found nothing to explain the vision or the symbolism.
"What's happening?"
The girls replied, "People declared war on the gods."