Former Mission; Recreational Forest Bukit Lagong, Malaysia
John Hart walked around the outside of the facility. He didn't remember it from the original time line. His Anwen would want to see it. Based on Global files, the meteorite situation was new. The time changes somehow affected the technology. It was difficult to predict and control minor corrections. The Time Agency prided itself on that. Torchwood made major changes. Unexpected consequences were guaranteed.
His ear com click. He tapped it. "John," the youngest Keara said over the connection.
They met in Cardiff soon after he arrived. She had no idea what she was capable of. He doubted she figured it out. Or maybe he hoped she hadn't. "Just looking around." He needed to walk around in the daytime. A tropical paradise was a good backdrop for a shared-dream.
"Jerard found something."
The girl had bad judgment when it came to men. Her friend Colin's obsession with Jack brought her to Cardiff. "Is it urgent?"
John found nothing to indicate an immediate threat. The airport had luggage and passengers from Auckland but no contamination. He left a concealed maintenance bot but didn't expect anything. While the freight plane that landed in Jakarta was headed for Kuala Lampur there was no evidence its cargo intentionally carried dangerous biologicals. There was an issue with the pilot, but he suspected that was simply contraband.
"Interesting." Her tone said she didn't know.
From what he knew of the older version of Keara on the station, she had no aptitude for science. He then realized he overlooked the obvious. They had the same taste in men.
"How do I find the entrance?" John needed to meet Jerard. It was possible they had a lot in common. The similarities between the two psychics meant the girl might be manipulating him. Or the older version was manipulating him through the girl.
Once inside, John reminded himself that the girl was a different person. Her life was very different than the woman that faked her death and sent him on a path to self-destruction. While that led to his relationship with Anwen, he wasn't ready to forgive her.
Keara met him at the second door leading into the facility. She still looked vulnerable. It was possible. Aman/Azrael prevented her from experiencing the same trauma as the older version. "Do you know anything about organic chemistry?"
"Some." Not enough to keep up with Jerard.
She led passed a maintenance bot cleaning a wall behind an energy shield. "This building is full of unusual plants that do strange things."
That reminded of something that happened in Australia in the original time line. "Any aphrodisiacs?" They were fun.
Keara stumbled, catching herself on the wall.
"Need a hand?" John moved closer, startling her. He retreated. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." She started walking again.
John replayed the conversation in his head wondering what he missed. "Any meteorites or similarities to the plant problems?"
"Jerard thinks at least one of the meteorites landed near here more than a hundred years ago."
If so, they could determine if it was part of a terraforming probe and possibly how to differentiate between intentional and unintentional modifications. Depending on the researchers documentation. It also meant Torchwood information could have been transferred or leaked and been used to cause one or more of the problems.
A door creaked as Keara approached and opened partway. John opened his wrist-strap and remote-accessed the device. The entire door and mechanism needed to be replaced.
She squeezed through the opening. "There's something growing in the wall."
John pushed on the door to get through. He suspected that meant relocating for awhile to assess and repair the location. If it was worth the effort. While his Anwen wouldn't mind living at the new recruitment center, the younger one wouldn't like him leaving Cardiff. That was not a conversation he looked forward to having.
The massive laboratory distracted him from his thoughts. He'd seen nothing like it on Earth. It shared some of Four's technology. That suggested a quantum entanglement energy source and offered an alternative explanation for the plants. It could be like Atmore or the terraformed island. If the meteorites were connected to that, it was a different type of technology than he originally thought.
The ship crash, John thought. It blanketed the area on the other side of Australia with exotic energy. The giant sea turtle in the reservoir indicated the potential for change. It could have long-term side-effects. Ianto set-up presets to monitor reports of reptiles, primarily affected by Atmore energy, and human reproduction rates. It might have affected the meteorites.
"It's more interesting in here," Jerard called from farther into the lab.
John followed his voice through two open doors and found a smaller lab with an adjacent quarantine. It was filled with long-established plants. That only made sense if the power remained on after the researchers left.
"They didn't shut down their research?" He wondered allowed.
"According to their files, they thought they did." Jerard sounded fascinated. He sat at a console that looked like a combination of maintenance bots and manual repair.
Keara claimed a seat next to him looking enamored.
Crazy and dangerous appealed, John thought. "What went wrong?"
"Stupidity. They were evaluating biomechanical power sources and assumed by shutting off the facility power it would kill the plants."
"They generated the energy to survive?"
Jerard nodded. "And breached the initial quarantine and networking through the walls."
Theories on the parasites came to mind. "Spores?" The parasites could in theory be a type of spore that worked like a pathogen to spread it or even protect a larger organism.
"Definitely. The building is filled with fungus." Jerard's hands flew over the console. "The mushrooms at the NIU greenhouse had similarities."
That made John uneasy. "It's contained?"
"Completely. Four and the space station are monitoring it."
There were too many things that could go wrong for John to find that comforting. "Could this type of research explain the parasites?"
Jerard nodded. "Definitely." He motioned at a screen. "Imagine an AI, like Four, based on these plants."
That was a horror movie John didn't want to see. He reviewed the computer screen with a growing sense of dread. "Under the right circumstances, that could power a city."
Jerard agreed. "While producing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."
John wanted to believe no one was that stupid. "We can track the effect it has on the atmosphere…" Another idea came to mind. "If the plants minimally contaminated the water, it would affect the immune systems of anyone with long-term exposure." He spoke into his wrist-strap. "Anwen Williams."
"What?"
"Is Ianto there?"
"Yep." He sounded overwhelmed.
John needed to get back to Cardiff. "I have a lead. Someone needs to check where the girl with the antibodies against the parasite is from. Her hometown, or a place she lived for years, could have contaminated water. That could lead to the source of the parasites."