Chapter Eight
****August 13th 2007****
"Carys Fletcher, born 13th November, 1987. School reports, personnel files from her temping agency, swimming badges. Reports of her mother's death in a car crash. And last year's emails discussing the merits of Orlando Bloom and Heath Ledger." Gwen said, pulling up the research she had gathered on the display board.
"Why have you done this?" Jack asked curiously. Trying to understand what the point of Gwen's research was. It wasn't exactly helpful in finding out what the alien was, what it wanted or how to stop it while possible saving an innocent girl's life. All it did was invade the young women's privacy, and since they had essential kidnapped her, she probably deserved that little amount of privacy.
"This isn't about meteorites or gases. We have a trapped girl and we have to save her. When I was with her in the cell, Carys told me she was losing. We have to find a way to keep her fighting. Remind her to hold on to who she is. Have I got something on my face?"
"No." Jack shook his head, turning his face from the look of disbelief he had been giving Gwen to a more natural expression. "How do you expect us to keep her fighting?" Jack asked.
"I think we should bring in her dad." Gwen proposed.
"You're kidding, right?" I demanded. Did Gwen not get the whole secret organisation thing?
"We've got to find something to connect with her. Make her fight back." Gwen said passionately.
"Our priority is to contain the alien threat, not put civilians in a cell with it." Jack reminded her.
"We should be helping her." Gwen said stubbornly.
"Gwen, there is no way." Jack disagreed.
"If we don't, who will, Jack?" Gwen said, trying to guilt trip him.
"Are you always this awkward?" Jack demanded.
"You should take a look at this." Tosh's voice said over the coms, interrupting the argument. Once they had all gathered around her desk, she explained what she had found. "This is the normal chemical composition of the air in that cell. And these are the readings from the last hour. The alien's secreting an ultra-powerful blend of airborne pheromones. Sex pheromones. A thousand times more potent than anything we'd normally experience."
"She's a walking aphrodisiac." Jack said, amused.
"I did wonder why I…" Gwen hesitated and look to Jack. "Actually, I sort of snogged her."
"We know." The three of us responded together.
"Now, still wanna put her father in the cell?" Jack said, more than glad that there was a very valid excuse not to. And excuse that didn't involve a long winded and pointless argument.
"God, no. We can't let any man near…"
"Owen." I exclaimed a split second before Tosh and Gwen. He had gone down to take some more readings and see how Caris's body was holding up.
I was the first one to make it down to the cells to find Owen naked and handcuffed in Carys' cell. Luckily Carys had handcuffed him with his hands in front of his body so that Owen could cover his cock.
"Are you alright?" I asked, moving over to the key pad to enter the code to let him out.
"Jack, Carys is out of her cell." Tosh reported, pressing the com on the door.
"Cheeky bitch took my swipe card." Owen complained, moving forward as I opened the door.
"I'll deal with it. And tell Owen he needs to work on those abs a bit harder." Jack's voice came over the coms.
"I was taking some readings, you know, keeping an eye on her, and bang." Owen complained.
"You got away lightly. Be thankful she was only interested in your swipe card." Tosh said, suppressing a smile.
"Are you all right now? Or are you still feeling a bit of a cock?" Gwen said, getting her dig in.
Realising that Carys was on the loose and Ianto didn't know, I ran back to the top of the hub. I didn't stop, I carried on going, taking the stairs instead of the lift.
"Raven?" Ianto asked confused when I ran into the tourist office.
"Carys escaped. Came to let you know she's releasing sex pheromones; she's already stripped Owen of his cloths." I explained, just as a noise came from the passageway. I turned to stand in front of the door and drew my gun.
"Need me to do any attacking, sir?" Ianto asked, keeping Carys attention on him and Jack.
"Appreciate the offer." Jack said, putting his gun away and keeping his attention mostly on Carys who was holding the jar with the hand in from down in the hub. "Just open the door." Jack ordered.
Ianto moved behind his desk and pressed the button which opened the door behind me. Jack caught my eye for a moment, and nodded very slightly to Carys, he didn't want to lose the hand but he didn't want to set Carys loose on everyone.
"Now give me the jar." Jack ordered, opening his hands for it.
But Carys threw the jar over the desk, before turning to run out the door. She didn't expect to come face to face with my gun however.
"I'm sorry, Carys but I can't let you go. I can't let you hurt anyone else." I told her as Gwen and Tosh ran in.
"Tosh, Gwen could you please escort Carys back to her cell?" I asked, drawing their attention away from Jack who was gentle cradling the twitching hand.
They nodded and gentle grabbed Carys arms to lead her back into the hub. With them gone I moved over to Jack.
"Do you have another jar for the hand?" I asked, not questioning why the hand was so important to Jack.
"My office. Combination .6.7." Jack muttered.
"Right." I ran ahead so that I could get the jar before he made it back.
"Thanks." Jack muttered once the hand was safely away in the jar.
"Glad I could help. The hand belonged to someone important, didn't it?" I asked him.
"The Doctor." Jack explained. "It so I know when a Doctor appears in Cardiff that will recognise me."
"I hope he appears soon." I smiled at him, noticing how sad he was.
"Oi. You'd better get in here." Owen appeared, calling everyone's attention to the autopsy room.
"So, I'm trying to interpret the results of the bio-scan. Yeah, but it's just a mess, like there's no definitive readings. Because everything in her body keeps changing, nothing stays constant. So as soon as you think you've got something clear, the metabolic rate, the blood pressure, whatever, it all goes wild again." Owen explained.
"Because she's fighting the alien for control of her own body." Jack said, informing Owen of something they had figured out earlier.
"Yeah. So anyway, I decided to do a comparative diagnostic. Recreate the circumstances, accelerate the process a little, see what's gonna happen to Carys." Owen explained, simplifying it while looking to Gwen.
"Yeah, thanks." She muttered.
"I infected the rat with a combination of the Vorax and the Suranium gas traces we found at the crash site and the nightclub." He motioned to the white rat that was caged on the autopsy bay.
"Looks fine so far." Tosh frowned.
"Once the gases start to flow round the body, the party really starts. The heart rate triples. The brain swells, pressing against the skull. As that keeps going, the lungs began to shrink, making it impossible to breathe. The pressure increases on all the internal organs until…" he pointed to the rat that exploded. "Rat jam."
"You timed that suspiciously well." I frowned over at Owen. "How many rats have you done that too?"
"Four." Owen answered, realising that he had been caught out.
"You can be the one to inform Ianto." I warned him.
"That's what's gonna happen to Carys?" Jack asked, bringing the topic back but also sending a short glare at Owen.
"I'm losing, that's what she said to me." Gwen said softly.
"Right now, it's a struggle between where Carys ends and the alien begins." Owen continued.
"So, how do we stop it?" Tosh questioned.
"I have an idea." I muttered softly.
"Share with the class." Jack questioned with a smile.
"Owen, the alien, how long do you think it will survive in our atmosphere?" I questioned.
"Not long, couple of minutes at most. That's why it went after a host body." Owen responded.
"Right, Jack, the portable cell that Owen used. How long is its battery life?"
"Forty-three minutes." Jack responded.
"More than enough, then." I responded.
"What are you thinking?" Tosh asked, confused.
"Carys' body is failing. So, we convince the alien to leave her, take someone else as host. But before it does, trap it in the cell." I explained my idea.
"But who's going to do it?" Owen asked.
"I will." Gwen volunteered. "It was my fault the ship was damaged. It's my responsibility to fix this."
"Alright." Jack nodded his assent.
