"Jack?" Ianto asked as he sat on the edge of the desk, Jack's favourite Ianto position … during work hours.
"Hmmm?" Jack tried to look disinterested as he flicked through a file, he really didn't want to argue about John Hart again.
"What else might be affected by the Rift being opened? There was something else you were going to say, but stopped yourself."
Jack sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking at Ianto fully as he tried to gauge how much Ianto wanted the answer.
"OK. Let's say, opening the rift upset the cosmos as we know it, right?" Jack watched those baby blues lock into him, "So, the atmosphere might also be affected."
"Might?" Ianto canted his head and Jack smiled as he knew he was caught out pretending not to know.
"OK. Within the next eight to ten years we might experience some weird weather patterns" Jack leaned back and rubbed his eyes, "Not as biblical as the Mara but we will definitely feel it."
"How bad" Ianto rose with alarm, knowing any admission from Jack was the tip of the iceberg.
"Extremes" Jack shrugged, "crisis level extreme fluctuations. Flooding, drought, maybe even severe winds. Earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis."
"Not biblical though?"
"Not AS biblical sweets." Jack rose and stretched his back.
"We have to warn them" Ianto looked stricken, "If lives are in danger, property and businesses at risk, we have to warn them!"
"I did. I have. Several times, after each step that drove … er, will drive the earth to respond with her wrath." Jack reached into a drawer and flicked a file at Ianto.
"Yorkshire could flood, sections of London might be under water, the other extreme is that people will die from the heat, the extreme weather anomalies have been laid out but those in power don't care. Rivers are going to reach, if not surpass record levels."
"So … the pumps and extra anti-flood work done along the Thames …" Ianto frowned.
"Yeah. The fat cats look after their businesses. The real people, those in the outer regions, farmers and small villages will be the ones that suffer." Jack slapped the file down and Ianto blanched. "Communities."
"What can we do"?
"Nothing. Sorry Ianto but the government will only look at numbers, monetary values. Human life, human loss is all very uninteresting to them. Especially if they are personally not affected." Jack returned to his seat and started to swing in the chair as he watched Ianto flick through the many reports and letters Jack had sent.
Most hadn't even been acknowledged.
Ianto hoped when the time came, they could make a difference. 2015-16?
Ianto felt his heart drop as he wondered if he would still be alive to do anything at all.
The thought of those people, the heart and soul of Great Britain experiencing weather bombs capable of destroying everything left him feeling cold and bereft.
He wanted to shoot Owen again.
Lower this time.
…..
.
.
.
.
My thoughts and prayers are for those fighting for some semblance of normality in the face of the flooding around the world. I watch the news with growing horror at the images being broadcast.
If only we could blame it on something solid.
If only the governments had listened to the scientists who predicted this would come to pass.
.
.
.
"We are moving from a period of known extremes into a period of unknown extremes," said David Rooke, deputy chief executive of the government's Environment Agency, which manages the country's rivers. "We will need to reassess all the defences right across the country."