45
All good things must come to an end, and what an unpleasant end it was as they stood on the tarmac looking at the plane that sat silently before them.
"I listened to the landing via the air traffic control recording and everything seemed normal… watched the pane land on the CCTV for the runway and it taxied this way then seemed to… run out of juice" Lucy said as she stood with her brother.
"And nothing since?"
"The ground crew tried all the usual things including plugging into the internal systems but the plane is… for a better word… dead. Nothing works, responds and nothing has moved at the windows." Lucy confirmed.
"And the girlfriend is on board?" Jack asked, now looking more than a little interested in the mystery.
Crew manifest along with the 63 passenger list was held by Ianto who handed it to him silently, the fact there were five children in board not lost on him. They took a moment to think of best case scenarios before both sighing softly and agreeing it was not likely. Not bloody likely at all.
"And you say it came from Sierra Leone?" Jack asked Lucy as he slid his hands into his pockets, looking up at the plane as the rest of the team fanned out to walk around it slowly.
Ianto on the other hand, headed straight to the back of the plane, running one hand's fingertips up as high as he could reach along the undercarriage as he walked. "You see, these carriers have a thinner hull in one particular place. Most do not know about it."
"Yes, like the ships of my time that still do it, the outer hull will have one part thinner than the rest, the inner hull three instead of two to compensate like extra skins" Jack agreed, knowing where Ianto was going with this "Beckett, we heed a blowtorch!"
Ianto turned to look at him with silent agreement as the team looked at Jack with surprise.
"Each plane has a place we can cut into it, a breach space" Ianto said calmly "In the case of this plane, being an older model it is here. We can cut, slip up and in, and then see what is inside."
"An airlock!" Andy got it straight away.
"Yep."
"I think there was movement" Rex called out from further back on the edge of the tarmac, at the side with binoculars trying to see into the windows. Even though some of the window blinds were open the plane in side was all together too dark to be normal either. Nothing in there seemed alive but his voice seemed sure of it.
Jack walked over and looked up, "Not a shadow from these bloody pidgins flying about?"
"No… a shadow in there, moved near the wing" Rex said as he pointed and Jack looked over at Ianto who stood with a blowtorch in his hand.
Ianto reached up, those goggles on making him look so damned dangerous as he stated to slice into the metal but then he withdrew the flame, and stepped bak. "Jack… something made a sound in there."
Jack looked over at him and sighed "You don't want to open it now?"
"The problem is Cariad, in order to get in… we have to let something out yes?" Ianto replied sagely "And is it more important to get in…or to keep it contained?"
Jack pondered.
"Let's get a cherry picker" Andy suddenly said "We can take it up and look in the windows, flash some light in there, get a good look and then… then if we think we might go in … can we just cut the window for the cockpit and climb in that way? At least then we can keep the door shut from the cockpit to the rest of the plane if it is Decayed in there like we think."
"And if it is Decay?" Beckett asked with alarm.
"Then … we …" Jack looked to Ianto for the rest of the conversation.
"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure." Ianto said with a straight face and Jack blinked as those around them started to snigger.
"Ellen Ripley" Jack said with a theatrical sigh "You are gonna quote her?"
"Well … I prefer that one to…" Ianto pondered then said "Come on, Spunkmeyer, we're rolling."
"Ianto…" Jack grimaced as everyone laughed some more and Jack sent a silent thanks to Ianto for trying to lighten the mood slightly. Like whistling in the graveyard. Something bad was in there. They all knew it. Something none of them wanted to look at but knew they had to. The fact the ground crew had scattered like scared rabbits their first clue, the second the fact that there ws something in there not willing or able to communicate. The feeling of dread hung thickly around this plane.
"What if someone is in the toilet, alive and trapped" Gwen asked over the comms and Ianto held back the growl of annoyance even if it ws loud in Jack's mind. So much for maternity leave, the mad thing in the Hub with the baby asleep in the little pram.
Poor Rhys, she ws more married to the job.
