Part Two.
Chapter 10.
The dead, weeping body had now been transferred to the medical bay. Even as Ianto walked past on the upper levels of the hub, the smell still made him gag. Owen's clothes had gotten covered with the sticky black liquid, in fact there were drips of it all around the place. His monitors seemed to be flashing, but not as much as Tosh's. As Ianto and Jack had entered, the hub was buzzing. Tosh and Owen were both rapidly working, Gwen running between them, relaying what the other one was doing.
"Jack you're back!" Gwen stopped in her running to and through, and greeted the two men, "Find anything?"
"No." Jack answered sternly, "What's happening here?" Jack quizzed, slowly walking to look over the medical bay, hands behind his back.
Owen looked up, wiping his brow and spreading a great smear of the black across his forehead. "It's an alien, Jack, a bloody alien. How could we not realise?!"
"Well, it is bleeding black stuff," Ianto said, just as he too took a step forward to look down at the medical bay, stepping in a small blob of it as he did so, "Or am I the only ones that sees that?" He shook the stuff off his shoe.
Owen glared up at Ianto, "Alright, Office Boy, haven't you got some coffee to make or something. Listen, you better leave this to the big boys, Ianto, yer? Yer."
"Owen." Jack snapped. "Let me guess, DNA doesn't match for human, Tosh is running it through the alien database, but there's no match," Jack was suddenly very lax, as Gwen, Owen and Tosh started to nod in agreement, "It's a Honorata. Beautiful creatures, they just turn up really,"
"What, you mean this dead alien just turned up on it's own accord?! It's got nothing to do with anything?!" Gwen sparked.
"But what about the coordinates?" Toshiko asked, looking timidly over her desk.
"See, John could still be all behind this! And how come you only know this now?! Why couldn't you tell it was a... a..." Gwen shouted now, pointing back and down at the body.
"Honorata," Jack finished. "Honorata, it means honour. They're neither good nor bad, like I said, they just turn up. It's a huge crime to kill one... Look at those readings," Jack pointed towards one of Owen's monitors, "and those tools that Owen's obviously used as a makeshift ribcage opener," Jack then pointed towards a medieval-looking pair of large, harsh metal scissors that had been covered in the black liquid. "And putting those two clues together I know it's a Honorata."
"I'm... I'm sorry?" Gwen stuttered.
Jack padded down the steps to the medical bay, and walked up to the body, pushing Owen slightly to the side. Jack poked the broken ribcage with his index finger, and then, as a silence captivated the hub, he plunged his hand into the chest cavity and held his hand around the creature's heart. "The ribcage is extra thick to protect the heart, so you need near industrial tools to break it. The rhythm of the heart is perfect, exactly as it should. To the minute,"
"It's fake?!" Owen realised.
"Exactly!" With his spare hand, Jack pointed with one finger at Owen. "The heart is the key," Jack looked back down at his other hand that remained wedged around the heart, and slowly, he squeezed the heart between his fingers. A red light began to radiate from the creature, and Jack stepped back.
"What have you done, Jack?!" Gwen screamed, her eyes wide open.
"Whoever killed the Honorata will be revealed. It's what you're meant to do. If you find a dead one, squeeze the heart and the Honorata will take the form of it's killer," Jack stood back, picked up a nearby cloth, and started wiping his fingers. One by one.
And finally the mist cleared, continuing to spiral up towards the roof of the hub. In the decaying creature's place a young looking man lied in his place. He lied topless but with baggy leather trousers on hung low around his hips. He had a built-up torso, incredibly so, and was extremely pale. His thick black hair was slicked over his strong forehead. In fact his whole face was very square, with a thin nose that protruded from it, matched with thin, pale lips. His expression serene with closed eyes, as a puddle of the black liquid was collecting on the examination table, staining his back.
Everybody was transfixed by the man, he couldn't have been much older then 20, maybe even younger. But then, one by one, they looked up at Jack. He was stood stock still, breathing heavily and slowly, his arms folded across his chest. His eyes were wide though, and he couldn't take his eyes of the body.
"Jack? What is it?" Gwen questioned.
"Do you recognise him?" Toshiko asked cheerily, hoping that this mess was about to have some order.
Jack looked up his team, then around at Owen. He looked down at the floor for a second, and reluctantly made loose eye contact with Ianto. He walked back to the body and placed a hand on the man's cheek. His eyes searching for some hope.
"It's me,"