Torchwood: Medusa
Chapter 10
Friday
The high pitched thud thud thud of the rotor blades cut through the night. Even the guards at the gates could hear it, several hundred metres away at the entrance of RAF Cardiff Bay air station. A solitary black painted Merlin helicopter was getting ready, its rear ramp lowered ready to receive it's passengers, navigation lights were switched off, nobody was to see this helicopter, even though plenty of people especially in Cardiff and along the coast could certainly hear it. The pilot, co-pilot, and loadmaster were veterans of hundreds of flights, danger, was a by-word for Special Forces' missions, which this was classified as. They patiently waited for their cargo, which was arriving.
A black SUV, closely followed by a dark blue Ford Transit van sped into the air base. Nine people were in them, six men, and three women.
Jack allowed Gwen to drive; she seemed to be pre-occupied with something or someone, and needed the distraction. A casual glance round, Owen sat in the back, in the middle was a uncomfortable looking Toshiko, then Sam. Yeah, that's it. He thought. Always Owen, always relationships, always something up with this team. He made a mental note to speak to her, after all this hullabaloo was sorted with HMS Medusa.
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Earlier that day…
"We find the machine or whatever it is that controlling the ship's cloaking device!" Jamie glanced briefly at Toshiko. "All going well we simply switch it off!"
"Where do we switch it off?" Owen leaned back awkwardly onto a chair. "A switch?"
Jamie nodded. "Or pull the plug!" Owen grimaced.
Everybody watched the holographic plan of the aircraft carrier. "Our other priority is to determine what exactly happened!" Armitage added.
"How do we do that?" Sam folded her arms, she was sitting uncomfortably close to Owen, too close for Armitage's liking. "It's very simple!" The holograph zoomed into the Island superstructure particularly the bridge.
"This is actually the easy part." Armitage said, the projector showed a 3D image from where they landed to where the bridge of the ship was. "Navy doctrine, the ship's log must be kept on or near the bridge in a safe."
"Er – a safe usually needs a lock to crack!" Owen raised his hand, in a childish way. Travers laughed out loud. "There is the tried and trusted method!"
"Which is?"
"A small piece of plastic explosive, with a twenty second prima-cord fuse!" Owen grimaced. "Simple, quick and noisy!"
"Are you describing Owen, or plastic explosives!" Jack strode in bold as brass, Gwen followed in behind a few seconds later. Owen folded his arms in a pretend huff. Jack grinned, as he took his place beside Armitage. "You're no fun Owen!"
Jamie coughed, to draw attention to himself, and to continue the briefing. "We'll give ourselves forty minutes on the carrier, a max of fifty to reach the minimum safe distance!"
"Safe distance?" Owen coughed. "What do you mean?"
Jamie smiled. "If we're within ten kilometres of the ship in a helicopter, when the tachyon pulse hits!" Jamie drew pleasure from Owen's discomfort. "The helicopter will crash into the sea, and we'll either drown or go for a swim!" Owen gritted his teeth, and breathed deeply. "I can't swim!"
Eight pairs of eyes looked at him. Owen avoided the glares, and the tell-tale sniggers that followed. "Yeah that's right, I can't swim." His body-language was uncomfortable.
"Lets make it forty minutes, and to be absolutely certain there's a rubber ring in the helicopter!"
The sniggers were louder this time.
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"Roger that Commander, we're twenty minutes out from contact!" The pilot spoke into his intercom. "It'll get a little bit bumpy over the channel!" Jamie patted the grinning pilot on the back, and gave him the thumbs up. The flight crew were UNIT veterans. "No Taliban this time!"
"There was this one time in the South Atlantic, we were on approach to the Ark Royal in a force five gale, when one of the engines shut down!" A pocket of turbulence rocked the Merlin, shaking it violently. The loadmaster gleefully explained. A row of white faces, desperately tried to stay focused, and keep the contents of their stomach down. Jack, Armitage, and Travers were enjoying it especially. Jack gripped tightly overhead hand railing, his long dark blue jacket swirling with the helicopters motion. He loved this.
"It was bloody awful, the entire floor was awash with puke, you could even tell what they had for dinner!"
Owen gulped, the taste of bile briefly rose and subsided in his throat.
"You hear me okay Ianto?" Jamie spoke louder into his mouth piece. "I hear you loud and clear!" Ianto's quiet voice replied, so clear it was almost like he was standing beside Jamie. Ianto was back at the RAF base, in the back of the Ford Transit, monitoring the sensor feeds from Phillip, and the spy satellite over head; the slightest change Ianto would tell them. Of course Jamie remembered, Ianto was sitting on terra-firma with a flask of coffee, and large Hawaiian pizza. He smiled, as he watched Gwen. Eyes closed, only opening her mouth to breathe ever so slightly.
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Jamie woke up sharply. There was a mobile ringing in the hotel room. In the darkness for a few moments he grappled to find the bedside lamp, he switched it on. It wasn't his mobile. Gwen lay beside him, stirring in her sleep. Jamie reached over her to the bed-side table, he grabbed it. Vibrating and lights on, Jamie read the name and number. Rhys. On cue the mobile stopped ringing.
"Any excuse to get on top!" A sleepy Gwen chided. Jamie smiled. "Your mobile was ringing!"
"Oh that old excuse!" Gwen giggled, as Jamie kissed her on the lips.
The mobile started to ring again. Jamie broke off the kiss, his enthusiasm gone. Gwen breathed deeply. He's pissed, had too many curries, and has lost his wallet, every fucking office Christmas party. Gwen turned over frustrated, she felt Jamie's arm cover her midriff, she slipped her hand into his, and squeezed it tightly. Gwen watched the name on the mobile, ringing until it stopped. She smiled as she felt Jamie kiss her neck.
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"Jamie – I've picked up a slight tachyon pulse lasting a micro-second!" Ianto's calm voice announced. On cue, Jamie turned round, and tapped the co-pilot, he turned round, Jamie made a hand signal. On cue, all electronics within the Merlin were switched off.
Jamie turned round. The cabin light was switched off. "Ianto call me when our target appears!"
"You got it Jamie!"
Seconds that felt like minutes passed by.
Jamie was joined up front by Jack. Both scanned the dark sleet blasted sky out of the cockpit windows. ""Any second now!" Jack said.
There was a flash, tens of miles away, lasting a couple of seconds. Jamie looked at Jack. Jack thinly smiled. "My sixth, seventh and eight senses are very tuned into the abnormal!"
"Does that include danger?"
"No!"
Jamie sighed as he switched on his comms device. "Ianto?"
"I'm looking right now at the ship Jamie!"
Jamie turned round. At the end of the cabin, next to the ramp, Jack was watching him, with a devil may care look, he had done this countless times before. Those leaps into danger, the unknown ahead of him.
The fear was in there too.
"Thirty seconds to landing!" The pilot announced into Jamie's intercom. On cue, the loadmaster moved to the back of the helicopter, where the ramp was. He clipped himself onto a lifeline.. "Lowering ramp!" He replied.
A wall of air hit the inside of the cabin, as the loading ramp was lowered. Outside of the helicopter was the pitch black of night, and below the rolling storm-boiling dark grey seas. Swirling clouds sprayed out from the sides, as the helicopter descended through the clouds rapidly. The loadmaster grinned. "Like Saltcoats in January!"
Only Jack laughed.
Owen looked out. Glad he was given a life-preserver, and inside a perfectly sound helicopter in perfect working order. Glad he wasn't carrying the black metallic briefcase type boxes the UNIT team were carrying, he kept forgetting to ask Sam what was in them. Sam was watching him too. She winked at him, in a bid to get his spirits up.
"Twenty seconds to landing!" Jamie's voice boomed. Jamie listened into what the pilot was saying to him. The Merlin started to bank slowly to the left. "We're doing a slow circle of the ship." Jamie announced.
Jack saw HMS Medusa from the helicopter's side windows, in the eerily green light of the cabin. The helicopter flew parallel to it at three hundred feet. The hull moved gently up and down in the swell of the storms, occasionally the spray of the waves was blasted over the bow.
"The flying dutchman, the Marie Celeste, and now HMS Medusa!" Jack proudly. "One for the history books Commander!" Jamie looked at him, then looked out. "That ship disappeared for a reason!" Jamie whispered. "Let's find out why!"
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"Feet dry!" The pilot announced. There was a metallic clang as the ramp was lowered and hit HMS Medusa's deck. Onto a pitching and heaving deck, in driving rain and a howling gale, the team slowly and carefully edged their way onto the ship. Jamie checked his watch.
Forty-five minutes and fifteen seconds to go.
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A gust of wind blew over the flight deck. Eight figures moved cautiously, eight powerful LED torches shone onto the island superstructure of the carrier. A light drizzle blanketed every-where. There was a metallic whine of engines powering up.
"Okay circle the ship, and stand-by for an immediate evac on my signal!" Shouted Armitage into his mouth-piece.
"I copy!" Replied the pilot. One hundred feet away the Merlin lifted off, first into a hover, then rising steadily away.
"Where are they going?" Queried Toshiko.
"It's okay, they're going to orbit the ship." Jamie shouted over the wind. "Standard procedure, the second Ianto or us pick up anything out of the ordinary they'll land, and get off asap!"
Jack whistled, drawing everybody's attention.
"Now lets split up – like we discussed. Team Alpha – Me, Gwen, Colonel and Sam – the hanger deck. Team bravo – Jamie, Owen, Tosh and Al – the bridge!" The teams started to form. "Hurry up people, we're not getting paid by the hour!"
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"Ever visited a haunted house as a kid?" Owen whispered to Toshiko, as he shone a torch-light up a dark flight of stairs. Jamie glanced at him, as he walked past Owen. The look was to put up or shut up. Travers stood ten feet behind them, down the corridor.
Toshiko thinly smiled following Jamie up the stairs, grabbing a railing as the ship rolled to starboard. "Are haunted houses – cold dark places full of decaying objects and cobwebs?" She confidently replied to Owen.
Owen followed her up the stairs. "Yeah!"
"Then why is this ship all clean?" Everybody moving on the stairs stopped abruptly, and took a very good look around.
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A hatched slammed open. It echoed across the cavernous hold of the flight deck. Torch-beams cut into the darkness, bouncing off objects that cast unrecognisable shadows. Jack strode onto the flight deck, Armitage followed closely behind, with Sam. Gwen was last, dropping a chemical flare onto the steel deck, marking their route.
Jack walked ten paces, he seemed transfixed, with something down at the end. In the darkness at the aft of the ship, something was calling out to him.
"Ianto!" He said into his mouthpiece. "Is it just me or it getting warm in here?"
There was a moment's silence. "The temperature is twenty-three degrees Celsius Jack!" There was another moments silence. "In fact-"
"Ow!" Gwen muttered, rubbing her un-gloved hand. "The bloody walls are hot!" Jack wryly smiled. "Thanks Ianto, Constable Cooper just confirmed your analysis!"
Gwen stared daggers at Jack, who grinned. Armitage sighed. "We better get a move-on, thirty-eight minutes."
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"Wow!" Was all that Toshiko could manage. Lightning in the distance flashed through the windows of the bridge. Aided by the torches of the team that bounced off the stations of the bridge, in the centre was the helmsman steering wheel. Jamie instinctively walked over to the Captain's station, a high back leather and steel chair directly in the centre of the deck. Travers flanked Jamie, Toshiko followed them. Owen stood bemused, then abruptly walked into the navigator's plotting board. A slide rule, pencil, and a tin cup clattered onto the floor. Jamie, Travers, and Toshiko sharply turned round in the direction of the noise. Three torch-lights blinded Owen. Travers and Jamie had their right hands on their pistol holsters.
"My fault!" Replied Owen privately cursing himself for being an idiot.
Jamie grinned.
"Well spotted Owen, scan that map that is on the plotting board will you?"
Jamie turned back round again. Toshiko saw the gesture that Owen made, and shook her head.
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"It's a Grumman Avenger – it's an anti submarine torpedo bombing aircraft!" Jack whispered with reverence. "Still as fresh as the day it rolled off it's Long Island production line!" Jack shone the torch along the ungainly looking plane's structure, along to the ball turret mounting twin machine guns.
"Do you two want to be left alone?" Gwen candidly remarked. Jack stroked the aircraft's folded wing. "It's the past Gwen, I can never go back to it." Or the future. Jack turned round, watching Armitage and Sam moving further along the hanger deck. His torch produced shadows of their figures. "This place is a tomb Gwen!" He whispered.
Gwen looked around her, wishing she was elsewhere, in somebody else's embrace.
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"Bust it open Chief!" Jamie patted the safe, in the Captain's quarters behind the bridge. Travers grinned, and crouched down going to work. Removing the safe cracker explosives from a utility belt.
"Hopefully Toshiko, this will give us a lot of answers." Jamie and Toshiko casually walked out of the Captain's quarters. A few moments later, Travers followed them, gently tapping Jamie on the shoulders.
Jamie smiled and put both hands over his ears. Toshiko, and Travers followed suit.
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A dull boom echoed throughout the ship.
"What was that?" A startled Sam jumped, and turned round. Her torchlight briefly blinding Gwen in the process. Jack watched her rapidly flick her eyes to remove the flash. "I guess they've found the cabin's safe." He casually remarked.
"Come on." Whispered Armitage. "Thirty minutes!"
"Aren't hanger decks big open spaces?" Gwen shone a torch from the deck to the ceiling.
"Experience tells me they are!" Jack joined alongside her. He looked at the scene before them, and took a deep breath. "Then why is there are a bulkhead here?"
"There's a hatch there!" Armitage shouted.
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"The next time you're gonna use flipping explosives, a little warning would be ok!"
Toshiko tried to stifle a snigger, and failed very badly. Owen paced up and down the bridge, shouting in great pain. "The ringing in your ears will subside after a wee while." Jamie casually remarked, whilst stuffing a thick beige book into an watertight clear plastic bag, beside him Travers was putting the maps and charts into another. "It's an unpleasant sensation the first time around!" He said.
Jamie turned away from Owen and Toshiko. "Team Alpha, this is Team Bravo. We've got what we've come here for, you need a hand over?"
The hissing of static answered Jamie.
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There was fading glowing blue light at the end of the sealed compartment. Jack squinted his eyes to filter out the glare, roughly the size of a small car he estimated. It had taken Armitage and him, five minutes to prise open the sealed hatch door which was over a foot thick. Touching it, he reckoned it was lead lined. Just like the deepest recesses of Torchwood-three. Very interesting, he looked up, there was lots of piping. He'd been in a nuclear-powered submarine's engine and reactor compartment, and a feeling of deja-vous was beginning to materialise from that.
A shadow on the wall a few feet ahead of him caught his eye.
"It's like a furnace down here." Gwen whispered as she walked past him. Jack held out his arm to block her, and turned to look at her.
"Your manners leave a lot to be desired Captain." Gwen coldly responded. Jack still looked ahead unflinching. Gwen turned and looked in the direction Jack was looking at. Her eyes went wide with horror.
A shape was melted into the wall, twisted blackened, and charred. The shape was of a man, his face was etched in pain and horror, mouth wide open in a silent terrible scream, and the way his body was contorted he was trying to escape from the wall which was trying to consume him. He was a sailor. His left hand was stretched out, as if he was reaching out for a salvation that never came.
Gwen recoiled in anguish, eyes tightly closed. Jack stepped forward blocking her from the horror. It was too late. The sound of something liquid hitting a steel surface was heard moments later. Sam rushed over to help her. Armitage stood transfixed with the horrific sight.
"Team Bravo!" Jack whispered into his mouth-mike.
"Yes – where have you guys been?" An annoyed Jamie replied.
"Fighter Command!"
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"Fighter Command!"
Jamie replied, hand signalling Travers. Toshiko and Owen heard it too. Both on cue, drew their hand-guns. Toshiko with her Walther, and Owen, a Sig-Sauer P226. There was a clatter of metal locked being opened, and a few moments later a metallic clack of a weapon being cocked. They watched Travers as he turned round, he cradled a stub-nosed G36 assault rifle, with a laser dot sight that flashed in the darkness. Behind them, there was a similar sound, Jamie held his assault rifle. There was menace in his eyes.
"Traver's get the evidence into the back pack, we're moving out."
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"My Colonel what a big weapon you've got!" Jack nervously whispered, as he and Armitage walked towards the melted man shape. Jack's Webley revolver was outstretched in front, Armitage coolly cradled the assault rifle, laser dot sight targeted on the shape. "He's dead!" Armitage replied, lowering his rifle. Gwen breathed deeply, her nerves coming back to her. Jack turned round. Two white sad eyes stared past him. "I'm sorry!" She said.
"Hey it's okay!" Jack softly replied.
"What do we do?" Sam asked, her dainty figure cradling an assault rifle, to Jack, just did not work well with him. Sigourney Weaver she wasn't. But then again in this environment, who knew what she was capable of.
"We go on!" Armitage slowly walked further down the corridor. "Nobody touch nothing!"
Jack looked at his watch. Twenty-one minutes. An element of doubt started to take hold in his mind. Just what in earth have we gotten into.
They all walked slowly on.
"Oh god!" Sam whispered. Shining a torch up into the ceiling. Jack, then Armitage looked up, Gwen did not. Melted into the ceiling, spread-eagled was a form of a human, just the back of him was showing. He was wearing a white lab technician's coat, that hung down. Hands were buried into the ceiling. "God was not here." Jack answered.