The creature she saw had two arms like a human, two legs like a human, and was wearing a black suit, but the rest of it was definitely not human. The shape of its head was similar to a horse's head. It had yellow, cat-like eyes, and there were six sharp claws on each hand. The creature was green with blue stripes on its face. Toshiko had seen plenty of aliens over the past few years, but none of them were as bizarre as this one.
"What are you?" Toshiko stared at the creature.
"We are Arthrads," The creature said in that same grating voice. Toshiko felt like she was going to get a headache from listening to it. She then heard footsteps right behind her. Turning around, she saw two more of these creatures. They were also wearing black suits.
"How do you know my name?" Toshiko asked, turning back towards the creature that answered her before.
"We actually know quite a lot about you and those colleagues of yours," the Arthrad replied, "We had a feeling one of you would turn up eventually. I was personally hoping it would be that man with the big military coat."
"What have you done to me?" Toshiko pointed the gun at the Arthrad's chest, but it was hard to sound threatening when she was lying on the ground, clearly in pain.
"Oh yes, the dart. It causes intense pain in whichever limb it hits," the Arthrad explained. "We had to stop you from leaving."
Toshiko attempted to pull the dart out of her leg, when the Arthrad shot her with another dart. This time it hit her right hand, which was still holding her gun. The pain caused her to drop the gun. "No!" Toshiko thought.
"This was your warning. Don't try to pull those darts out."The Arthrad crouched down and picked up Toshiko's gun. "That's better."
Toshiko tried to use the comms to call Jack. "Jack! Jack?" Toshiko called, but there was no response. She realized that these Arthrads probably blocked the signal. "Of course they did."
"What do you want?" Toshiko asked. Toshiko tried to think of a way out of this, but there didn't seem to be any possibility of getting out.
"A place to hide, and information," the Arthrad responded. "We were on the run, and then the three of us found this planet."
"What information?" Toshiko asked.
"About nuclear weapons," the Arthrad smiled. "Our planet may have ships for travelling in space, but we don't have weapons as powerful as yours."
"What do you need weapons for?" Toshiko knew it couldn't be good.
"War. There have been no big wars on our planet in ages, but our government can't stay the same. People are unhappy with it. If we go to war with them, they'll have to change." The Arthrad said. Toshiko understood why they wanted to do it, but she knew it wasn't right.
"You're going to kill your own people?" Toshiko asked. "Are you sure that's going to work?"
"Our government promised never-ending peace! If we start a war, people will get angry at the government for not keeping its promise." One of the other Arthrads said. "Now you're going to tell us where we can find the instructions on how to build these nuclear weapons."
"I don't know where the blueprints are!" Toshiko said. She tried to stand up, but the pain was still too much.
"Then you'll tell us where we can find nuclear weapons." The third Arthrad replied.
"I don't know where you can find some." Toshiko lied. She remembered the events from several months earlier, involving aliens Jack called Cell 114. Jack didn't know much about them. They infiltrated planets, gathering enough information until they were ready to take over. They disguised themselves as humans, even giving themselves fake memories. One that was activated, tried to access nuclear warheads, located in a mine shaft, underground in the middle of nowhere.
"Don't think you can just lie to us. If you're lying, tell us the truth now!" the first Arthrad raised their voice, stepping closer to Toshiko. "Tie her up!" the Arthrad said to the other two Arthrads. The second and third Arthrads pulled out the darts in her hand and leg. As soon as the darts were pulled out of her, the intense pain was gone.
They used a long piece of rope to tie her up. A few minutes later, she was completely covered in rope, except for her feet, neck, and head. The pain was gone, but now she couldn't move.
"You won't get anything from me. I'd rather die than tell you!" Toshiko glared at the Arthrad.
"Hmm? Do you fancy becoming a slug?" The Arthrad said. "We do have the equipment to do so. Trust me, it's very painful."
Then Toshiko heard footsteps. "What are you doing?!" A man's voice cried. Then she saw a young man approach the first Arthrad.
"We are trying to get information!" the Arthrad yelled at the young man. He had curly, blonde hair, and blue eyes. He was wearing a dirty, grey sweater, and blue jeans.
"I told you not to go outside. What if someone else saw you?" The young man replied.
"These aliens seems to know him, but how? He looks human to me." Toshiko thought.
"Then we would kill them. Just like we killed those other people who wandered near this warehouse." The Arthrad explained, turning to look at Toshiko. "Plus, we didn't go outside. She came to us."
"But...The door was locked!" The young man said, with a confused expression on his face.
"She must have used a lock pick." The second Arthrad responded.
The young man walked towards Toshiko, "Who are you?"
"Toshiko Sato," She said. She noticed how terrified this man looked. "Was he forced into some kind of deal with them?"
"She's from Torchwood." The third Arthrad added.
The young man took a step back from Toshiko. "Tor...Torch...Torchwood?"
"It's surprising that they only sent one of them. I was expecting all five of them to show up with their guns out." The first Arthrad said, circling Toshiko.
"They found us? They found out that there are aliens here?" The young man didn't seem to have heard what the first Arthrad just said.
The second Arthrad said, "Well? Toshiko, did you expect to find people that are not from this world when you came here?"
Toshiko didn't reply. "Well?" The first Arthrad said.
"No..." Toshiko finally replied. She glanced at the young man. "If he's been forced into this, I have to try and help him if I can." Toshiko thought.
