Any other time Gwen might have felt grateful for getting to escape for a bit with Owen, but she was focused on the task in hand and very much aware of a time limit. Every passing second she spent alone in the doctor's company left her conscience gnawing more desperately with guilt.
She listened to her footsteps echo down the stone corridor and searched the back of her mind for the password. It wasn't often the team had to search through storage but she recalled the four-digit code and hurriedly pressed them into the keypad. The metal door pulled back with a groan.
"Right Owen, help me look for something that can harness energy." She said, using her clipped professional tone, and started towards the large crate labelled simply as 'Artefacts'.
"After all the aliens we've met there must be some kind of cyber technology that can block mind-readers or something," Owen muttered, picking up what looked like a dusty, broken hair dryer. "If that's even what we're supposed to do. How are we going to find anything to help if we don't know what we're up against?"
Gwen could feel panic rising as she realised just how much truth were in those words. There was a whole room to sort through and half of the stuff Jack kept looked like it came from the future, a time he may well be familiar with, but not something she could hope to understand. She dug deeper in her frustration and pulled out a long, thin piece of metal that looked as important as a twig yet could, for all she knew, hold the meaning of life. Without pausing to think she threw it against the wall and swore loudly when it rebounded with an ear-piercing ring.
"What did you do?" Owen asked incredulously, rising to a stand from his position next to the crate and tilting his head in the direction of the rod. It had begun to glow an eerie blue, like the heart of a hot flame, and continued to shake though it made no more noise.
"What is it?" she asked, stepping closer, her hand resting on the butt of her gun. She doubted anything mysterious would fly out at her but, well; this was alien technology after all.
"There's something glowing in there, too…" Owen said and she turned to see a second crate, several feet from the first and black with damp, giving off the same eerie light. Before she could warn him to stay away Owen had strode over, sunk his hand into the pile and pulled out another of the metal rods.
"Can you see?" He murmured, tilting it in his hands. "It's the same glow that egg had right before I removed it from Jack's body. Maybe it's from Gorgli-whatsits."
"But Jack said the Varna haven't visited Earth before," Gwen interrupted. "So why would their technology be here?"
"But he didn't say the Icoram haven't and this could just be debris blown in from The Rift," Owen replied. "It's our best lead down here, anyway. I don't know what they are."
Following suit, Gwen picked up her metal rod, too. She made as if to head back up the corridor with Owen when it began to vibrate in her hand, a desperate pull towards its matching soul mate. Owen could feel a burning heat searing his palm and he dropped the rod with a shock. Gwen's resounding shit! followed by the rod clattering to the floor once again assured him he wasn't the only one to receive such a reaction.
They watched with guarded fascination as the metal poles began to shake violently again, the magnetic force pulling them closer, the eerie glow flaring into a bright and blinding flash. Owen watched as a figure seemed to appear amongst the bright lights and he took Gwen's hand in his, backing away towards the entrance.
"Oh God Owen, what have I done?" she whispered, a trembling wreck beside him, and he shoved her through the door, his body ablaze with adrenaline.
There was a deep, throaty bellow that quickly swallowed the space in the small storage room and hit Owen's eardrums like the sound of a cannon let off too close to a building. It was too big, too real in the little stone chamber. Muscles bulged from the scaly mass, quivering with anticipation, readying for danger. Its feet the size of dustbin lids set on the end of limbs thick as tree trunks, armed with talons that looked like they could tear the walls apart brick by brick. Large black eyes blinked in the fading light and saw Owen recoil as he slammed the door shut.
Behind the wooden frame, the Varnashan roared.