That night the rift alarm had gone off.
Tomorrow night… was something she said to herself over and over again as the rift continued to interrupt her plans. Her more superstitious nature wanted to see it as a sign. The interruptions continued for weeks and in early October, Fish twisted his knee and was laid up, leaving the team shorthanded. Miranda held off, easily justifying the procrastination to herself. But when Fish returned to the team in late November, the rift predictor program, invented by Tosh and tweaked by Fish, showed a near week long hiatus of activity.
The predictor had been right, two days had gone by without so much as a blip and the Torchwood team had decided to call it an early night and head out to the pub together. They were still on their first round and Jack was in the middle of one of his barely believable stories. Everyone was listening with rapt attention, laughing at Jack's absurdity. That was when an unexpected rift alert had occurred.
Ianto went to pay their tab as everyone collected their coats and headed for the SUV. Jack was narrowing the area with his wrist strap while Gwen, Fish and Miranda were checking their guns. It was a moderate spike down in Penarth and twenty minutes later, they'd arrived at Alexandra Park. After they'd all gotten out of the SUV, Jack began tapping on his wrist strap.
"You all know the drill…" he said as he started walking towards the ruined gazebo.
Gwen, Fish and Ianto all followed Jack and Miranda several metres behind the two immortals. All their guns were drawn. There was a large furry heap on the grass. It looked like whatever it was had fallen out of the sky, hit the roof of the gazebo and crumpled to the ground. The physician inside Miranda wanted to rush forward and give aide but the Torchwood operative in her knew that this creature could be dangerous. While she and Jack took point as a matter of precaution to protect the mortal members of the team, if she died, she could protect no one while she waited to revive.
"Jack? Cover me?" she said as she holstered her gun.
"Be careful, Will…" he warned, as always.
The creature was about the size of a large breed dog. Instead of paws, there were sloth-like claws. It clearly was alien. The fur was dull yellow and green. Miranda knelt down beside it. It was laying on its side, unconscious. A cursory examination told her little but enough that when she felt along its back, whatever this creature had for a spine was broken. "It's back is broken, Jack. Do you recognise the species?"
He leaned over and shook his head. "Nope. Is it still alive?"
"Yes, it's breathing, though it's having trouble. Whether that's from its injuries or incompatibility with our atmosphere, I have no idea. I'm feeling what I think are vertebrae along what I think is a spine… here? I feel something not aligned properly… and there's a crunching… like broken bones."
Jack leaned forward and touched the soft fur. "Looks like it might be from one of the Rakaylik moons, but I don't think-" He stopped speaking when the creature let out a loud wail and its front legs flailed slightly.
Miranda stood up and took a step back at the noise and movement. "We should sedate it so I can do a more thorough exam. I don't know the physiology but risking a sedative is better than-"
The creature suddenly flailed, it's front impacting Miranda's legs, knocking her to the ground. It turned as if to attack and Jack fired his Webley, emptying the revolver into it. Instead of falling down and dying, the creature stood up on all fours, staggered and then fell. Jack didn't have time to wave the other's off. Gwen, Ianto and Fish were rushing forward to their teammates' aide when the creature flailed again and stood, circling in place, disoriented.
Suddenly, the creature crouched and leapt in a direction it appeared to chose at random… a direction that had Ianto Jones in its path. No one would have expected such a bulky and injured creature would have been able to leap so far, so fast. Ianto was nearly six metres away but he fell to the ground as the creature impacted his chest. He didn't even manage to get off a shot.
Panicked and disoriented, the creature flailed wildly, clawing at the man pinned beneath him. Aided by adrenaline, Ianto pushed the creature upwards as blood poured from its wounds, taking himself out of the line of fire. Gwen and Fish both emptied their guns into the creature and it finally rolled off of Ianto, dead. They were all at his side immediately shouting his name.
"I'm fine… just a few scratches," Ianto said as he stood up with Fish's help. His suit was a ruined mess, ripped and covered in the alien's blood. There was a look of revulsion on his face as he took in his own appearance, the alien's blood the same dark red colour as his own. "This suit was new…"
"I'll buy you another one…" Jack said as he turned away to help Fish lift the creature's corpse.
"This thing is lighter than it looks!" Fish called up to Jack, lifting the creature easily by himself. "Yeah, Evie, this'll be an interesting xenopsy for you. Can't weigh more than fifteen? Twenty kilos?"
"Less…" Jack said as he went to help Fish anyway. The Australian's knee still gave him trouble on occasion.
Gwen laughed and said, "Care to make a wager, Miranda? We could start a pool?"
The former PC was already at the SUV's boot, opening it for the two men, helping them. The alien may be light but it was bulky. Miranda had followed and was observing with a slight smile, chucking to herself. She turned around to ask Ianto what his guess was… only to see him laying face down on the grass.
"IFAN!? JACK!" Miranda shrieked, sprinting towards her fallen friend, sliding on her knees over the grass to his side. When she rolled him over, the sleeve of his suit felt odd, like it was filled with water. Using the dagger from her boot, she slit the cloth up to his shoulder. A gush of blood came from the sleeve, like a popped water balloon. There was a deep gash to his upper arm. The wound, now free from the confines of the cloth, spurted blood up and across her face with each beat of Ianto's heart. Sitting up, she removed her belt, tying it tightly above the wound. The spurting slowed to a trickle.
By then, the rest of the team was at her side. Jack seized Ianto under his arms, careful not to dislodge the belt, while Fish lifted under his knees. Gwen ran in front of them, opening the door and helping them load Ianto into the back seat. Jack got behind the wheel and floored the pedal.
"Which hospital is closest, Will?" he asked, panic in his voice.
But Miranda wasn't listening to him. She was taking vital signs and examining Ianto with the SUV's portable medical equipment. Once she'd scanned the readout, she closed her eyes and said, "Not the A&E, Jack… take us back to the Hub."
"What?!" Jack roared.
"The Hub, Jack!" she shouted back.
Everyone in the SUV started speaking at once in objection.
"I SAID THE HUB!" she repeated thunderously.