BARREN EARTH
2: Better the Devil...
Under guard, Ben Chatham is taken by a Torchwood van into an underground basement. After four security checks - passcard, voice recognition, retinal scan, they enter a lift and emerge on the top floor of Torchwood Tower. Ben is marched through to the glass office where Rose is placing three cups of tea on the desk. Mickey is looking out the window.
Rose: Ah, Mr. Chatham. Do sit down. You have milk or sugar in your tea?
Ben: (suspicious) I'll just have it plain.
Rose shrugs and puts aside the milk and sugar. She sits behind her desk.
Rose: You know how old I am, Mr. Chatham?
Ben: No.
Rose: Twenty-one. And you know what I've learned after all those years? You don't get something for nothing. There's always a price. And at the end of the day, the only choice we have is whether we are going to pay that price. You still with me?
Ben: Of course. I'm not an idiot.
Mickey: Course not. You gotta a first from Cambridge. Then again, standards are going downhill.
Ben glares at him.
Ben: Do you mind? I'm speaking to the organ grinder. Not the monkey.
Mickey: (smiles) If I'm the monkey, YOU are the hat we get the spare change in.
Ben: Look, I want to get on with my studies without you lot pestering me. Promise me that, and you can have this gadget.
He holds it up. Rose moves to take it, but Ben pulls it out of reach.
Ben: Deal?
Rose: (sighs) Any idea what it is?
Mickey runs his palm pilot near the device.
Mickey: Some kind of field generator. Still working, but that's all I can make out.
Rose: Any obvious use?
Mickey shakes his head.
Rose: Pity. All right, Mr. Chatham. Those are your terms. These are mine. You'll get your carte blanch - but first I want you to answer a question.
Ben: Go on?
Rose: When was the last time you saw a pregnant woman?
Ben: Just now. You. Obviously.
Rose: And before that?
Ben is quiet.
Rose: This year? Last year, maybe? When was the last time you saw a newborn baby?
Ben: (shrugs) I don't know. A couple of months ago.
Rose: And not one since. You heard about Barren Earth?
Ben: Oh, it's just another doomsday fear. Like global warming. That sorted itself out.
Rose: (bitterly) Cause it wasn't global warming, it was a dimensional breach. The facts, Mr. Chatham, is that there hasn't been a baby born in Britain for eight months. A year in New Germany. Three years for South Africa. Mankind is becoming sterile.
Ben: Nonsense.
Mickey: Is it? You read the papers. President Jones is authorizing a cut back of day care centres and nursery schools. Why? Cause they're not needed. The whole world is turning into Children of Man, 3-D.
Ben: What?
Rose: Never mind.
Ben: Look, you two seem rather... expectant. Are you infertile too?
Rose: No.
Mickey: But we're special. Not from this universe. But, oddly enough, having one breeding couple isn't going to save humanity, now, is it?
Rose: Hope not, this is painful enough the first time.
Ben: So... what?
Rose: We've checked it out. If things don't change, humanity has about another twenty five years and that's it. Extinction. Doesn't matter if we colonize Mars or cure all diseases, we're all gonna die and no one is going to replace us.
Ben: ...what's this got to do with me?
Mickey: (laughs) You're not part of humanity then?
Ben: I mean, why tell me this? What can I do? Stop being gay?
Rose: I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, you're a fit bloke. Your file says you've got not just boyfriends, but girlfriends.
Ben: So what? Breed for Britain, is that it?
Mickey: You couldn't anyway. I checked it out. You're as sterile as a petri dish. Dunno if you ever wanted kids, student boy, but you ain't ever having them, Barren Earth or not.
Ben blinks, falling quiet. He sips from his cup of tea.
Rose: But I can fix that.
Mickey: (quickly) Not the way you think.
Ben: Oh? How then?
Rose: Xeno-tech. One injection, you're fertile again. It's been adapted into a kind of benevolent STD. Any one of your parters will become fertile too. We just need someone...
Ben: As a test subject?
Rose: No. Just to be the first.
Ben: If you've got this magic potion, why not use it?
Rose: Because... it will make our children different. Strong, yeah, healthy, yeah. But not like us. I mean, they'll be human, no two heads. But genetically, they'll be, well, pure. None of your kids will have your DNA. If we do this... ethnic diversity ends.
Ben: Ethnic cleansing?
Mickey: Fraid so. In a hundred years time, there'll just be one type of humans. Not black, not white, not Chinese, not Asian... It's not some kind of evil master plan, you get that, right? We've spent over a year trying to change it. But it won't. And unless we get this into the population starting now, it won't make a difference.
Rose: So... Ben. Are you willing to be the first? The man that saves mankind as a species?
Ben is uncertain.
To be continued in 3: Two Paths You Can Go Down