Chap 1
A perfect blue marble - clouds, oceans, continents. This is Earth.
The Earth. From space. In all its glory, the most perfect, self-regulating entity you could imagine. We went out there; we turned around; we looked back; we saw it. You'd think we'd behold and learn something.
We didn't.
It was 1961 when we first went into space. There were four billion people in the world. And at a rate that was scarcely intelligible, we began to poison and populate our planet.
The big, sparkling blue marble that is Earth begins to lose its lustre and slowly turns grey. By the year 2000, the population is six billion.
We increased by 80 million people a year. Pumped out our toxins beyond measure. Destroyed our assets killed forests, trees, plants, animals...Anything that couldn't be trademarked and sold at a profit we annihilated without a thought. We killed half of what was on the planet. We didn't care. Right about the millennium, we got another warning...
We killed all the frogs. Every frog on the face of the planet. We'd killed species before, sure, even a species or two. But this time we wiped out an entire race. As the frogs breathe through their skin and react to toxins in the environment faster, this should have been a warning, canary in the coal mine kind of thing.
Nah, we didn't pay any attention to that either. The only people who were really upset were the French. And no one really likes the French.
By 2050 there were 12 billion people. It took us 100 years to go from the Industrial Revolution to putting a man in space. It took us only another 100 to poison and overpopulate the planet so seriously that if we didn't go out and find somewhere else to live, we realized we were gonna die out as a species ourselves in the next two generations.
Oops.
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Torchwood. A spaceship unlike anything you've seen. Thirteen spheres up front, cubical packing. The MEV (Mars Entry Vehicle), a large cylinder behind. The whole thing is slowly turning.
Red, huge, and very close. Mars looms as they settle into orbit.
"Houston, we are go for Mars orbit acquisition." Captain Jack Harkness says into the comms with his usual flare, a grin that is so wide it shines through the connection.
"You are go. Nice flight. Godspeed." Comes back the delayed response from Mission Control.
Engines light up in the back of the craft. The ship heads down towards Mars. Enters orbit. Disappears around the back side.
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A writhing ball of plasma reveals itself to be the sun. The surface roils, waves of energy pass by and a flare starts to grow and expand out from one quadrant like a giant volcanic eruption.
Two pencil pushers at Mission Control stare with mouths agape at the heliostat. Monitors around record the event as well.
"Jesus...It's gotta be 800,000 miles long. It's gonna shut down every comm satellite on this side of the planet." Rhys muttered as alarms start to go off.
"The good news is its directional, most of its gonna miss us." Rhys says calmly to the panel as he shows the screen he had been watching.
"The bad news" Gwen interrupts her partner, "is it's directional, and most of it's going toward Mars. Sub-light speed. It'll take 40 minutes to get there."
"Let 'em know." Michael Smith, Base Commander demands and then raises an eyebrow when the two look at each other like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar.
"No comm. They're on backside. They'll be clear in...40 minutes." Rhys finally says as he looks at Gwen and she grimaces.
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Dark side of Mars. The Torchwood is a slightly shining speck, moving towards the horizon and light. At 17,000 mph.
Captain Jack Harkness is at the helm. He's got a kind of quiet assurance. You'd like him. Everyone does. Mission co-pilot John Hart is beside and behind him. Jack speaks into a mike to rest of the ship "We have stable orbit. We've got three laps around, ninety minutes each. In four and a half hours, we will launch the Mars Entry Vehicle."
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Ianto Jones, a late replacement for their assigned science officer after a mishap in training, floats in through the hatch in the back. He's been waiting 309 million miles for this, his clever AI lovingly called Myfanwy has been going through her paces and he has just locked her down.
Owen had been scoffing at her, calling her a glorified Pepper Pot and he had taken immense delight in activating her "attack Mode" and watching Owen squeal like a girl as he ran around the room while chased by his wee girl.
"Are we there yet?" he asks with a soft lit that gives away his region of origin.
Owen shakes his head. He's about to respond when they just clear the edge of the planet, lights hit them and... Wham. One light starts to flicker to red. And then another. Some just go off.
"What the hell?" Owen barks as he watches the lights flicker. A seasoned flight officer, he doesn't like the look of this.
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Hart reaches for the Comm as it begins to blare static. "Comms out."
"No Shit!" Jack snarls as he begins to rapidly reset switches. Some hold, some flip back to red. Things are bad, but he's calm. "Single event, upseting everything. All over the board. Latch up. Free flow. We're gonna lose chips. Shut it down."
"Shut it down?" John gapes and Jack doesn't hesitate as he continues to push buttons.
Safety alarms start to go off.
"Everything. SEP, some kind of massive flare." Jack pants as he reaches over John's head to slam his fist into a ceiling panel. The alarms stop.
"Crew, correction, we will launch on this pass. In fact...in five." Jack yells into the comms to alert the ship then turns to see that John is shutting off every system he can get his hands on. Jack reaches to finish it off himself.
"Proton flux. Multiple Event Upsets. John, bye." Jack barks out as he now kicks at a wall panel while slamming buttons.
John is out of his seat and heading back as fast as he can. Jack still struggling with alarms behind him. New alarms sound now as he rushes out, the artificial gravity begins to fail.
The crew are madly scrambling everywhere.
On the Med Deck Chief Science Officer Doc, is pulling himself into a spacesuit.
Popping out of her bunk and into the wall, Toshiko Sato who is the only female on board, grabs a satchel of personal possessions and swims off down an access tube.
Tosh and John rush along, careening off the walls.
Emerging onto the deck, looking absolutely calm, Doc stops at an intercom station, presses a toggle – "Yo, Harkness, you could probably cut off that yowling now. I'm up from my nap."
A moment later, the ship goes silent.