Jack sighed and went back into the sickbay. The Doctor was sound asleep and seemed to be peaceful enough. He went and sat beside Josh who was working on the monitor. He seemed to be proficient in using the interface already. He'd worked out how to keep the Doctor's vital signs in a small box at the top of the screen while he was looking at something else. Jack peeked at what he was doing.
"Comics?" Jack asked when he saw there was some sort of cartoon drawing on the screen.
"It's a representation of the animals," Josh informed him. "I'm trying to extrapolate their DNA further and see what has been added to them in order to make them the way they are. The Doctor tried to work out their planet of origin yesterday because he thought they could be alien, but when we discovered they were made up from bits of DNA from Earth animals he didn't go into that much more depth. I'm trying to figure out exactly what they're made of."
"Why?" Jack checked with him. "We don't really need to know that do we?"
"They are terrifying," Josh informed Jack. "I didn't really see it properly, even the one when we were attacked, it was really dark in there and all I could see was the shadows and their yellow eyes. It was like they were glowing and I have never been as scared. I was sure I was going to die and it feels like there is some kind of evil monster from a horror movie down there. I heard them ripping the others apart a few metres away from me."
"This doesn't seem like a very smart way to forget about it," Jack commented indicating towards the screen.
"There is no way I am ever going to be able to forget them or what happened," Josh stated. "Looking at them more closely though? I can see they're not monsters. They are victims of experimentation into genetics. I can't see how they would be designed. I don't think they could have been, it's like someone grafted bits of DNA from random animals to see what would come out at the end. They haven't been put together well. They are too volatile and now they're breeding? The Doctor said the egg that we looked was unlikely to develop because there are sections of DNA that are messed up. I could do with a bit of an adult to do this properly, but I can start on this, and I'm still trying to identify the toxin."
"The Doctor is healing well now."
"I know, but if the toxin did that to him then what would it do to a human?" Josh asked him. "I know the Doctor put a sonic beacon up, but that was only supposed to be short term until UNIT came in and dealt with them. UNIT don't seem to be dealing with them, but are just waiting."
"They're not just waiting, they are gathering information, and are making preparations in order to carry out the operation as safely as possible."
"Yeah, but what if the creatures are doing the same?" Josh asked him.
"Nothing you've said suggests they are intelligent in that way."
"They don't have to be intelligent like a human or a time lord," Josh argued. "There was a delivery of fresh meat dropped off for them yesterday and there is also a sonic beacon keeping them away from it. It may be driving them mad in the tunnels. Their DNA is a mix of lots of different species all with different instincts. There is no way of being able to predict how they are going to react. No one really knows the answer to nature or nurture in a single species. They've got Komodo dragon in them and Hyena in them and I've also identified that they've got shrew and jellyfish DNA. How can we predict how they are going to behave?"
"We thought the creatures attacked yesterday because they were hunters, but there is no evidence of them hunting. The Doctor thought that they might be going out and taking livestock to begin with because of the carcasses he found in their larder, but that has probably all been dropped off for them and they're storing it like a scavenger would, so why would they start to take people? They've taken and fed on three people even though they had lots of food stored. Their behaviour doesn't follow any normal kind of pattern. I've not been hunted in the woods and there are still plenty of rabbits around. What if they didn't kill because they were hunting, but because we were in their territory and they were protecting their young or because they thought we were a threat to their food supply? We need to work out more about them and about the toxin."
"Why?" Jack queried trying to follow Josh as he tried to explain what he was talking about. Some of what he was saying was making sense, but he seemed to be jumping from theory to theory. There was someone else in the room that did that and expected everyone to keep up with him.
"UNIT are going to clear them out aren't they? I know that they can't be relocated anywhere else or anything, so they are going to have to kill them. Even if it goes really well and they gas them without any incident it might not get them all, and, even if they do and they're all dead if the toxin is in their claws or on their skin what if someone accidentally scratched themselves on a dead one? Some toxins can be absorbed through the skin. They could still be dangerous even when they're dead."
"Any team that went down there to retrieve the dead animals would be wearing protective clothing, but that is a valid point," Jack accepted.
"I think one of three things could happen," Josh informed Jack. "And I don't know if we can predict which one it will be. I think the longer they have fresh food outside and are being held by the sonic beacon the madder they are going to become. They are used to being fed, and there is a delivery of butchered meat right outside their tunnel, but now the sonic beacon is keeping them underground. They will know that the meat is all there, but they can't go and get it. It is going to be driving them crazy. They could break through the perimeter to get the food regardless of the sonic beacon and end up attacking because there are soldiers everywhere. If they don't break through the perimeter then the stress they are under could lead them to attack each other and they might kill and eat their own young or the young of other individuals. The Doctor said there were different groups of eggs and different animals guarding them, that means it is more likely that more than one individual is breeding rather, but it might be that only one female is laying the eggs, but then the adults cooperate to keep them safe and to raise them — but that would make it all quite a complex social matriarchal colony."
"How do you know all this stuff?"
"I like documentaries," Josh informed Jack.
"You know it from the telly?" Jack checked and then laughed.
"Mum was into conservation and I liked the documentaries. You can only save an animal if you understand them, what they need, and how they are going to behave when there are interventions," Josh reported. "That's why it's usually habitats rather than animals which they try to protect. I think the same must apply whether you're going to try to save them or try to get rid of them. If you don't work out how they are going to behave then the things you try to do to contain or to stop them might be the wrong things and make it worse," Josh commented. Jack shared his view but he was interested in listening to how Josh was working things out.
"What is the third way they might behave?"
"The might behave in more than three ways, but the other one I think is possible is that they could perceive the sonic beacon as a threat and move deeper into the cave system and relocate their young further away. If they move beyond the active area of the sonic beacon there won't be anything to hold them underground anymore and they won't have their larder store. They might have to go out and get more food."
"So, Josh, you think that they might attack the perimeter or they might head deeper into the cave system and they might eat their babies or they might move them somewhere safer?"
"You can't look at the animals they are made up of and decide that is how they are more likely to act. How do you compare the way a Komodo dragon, hyena, worm, shrew, and jellyfish are going to react to a stressor? The sonic beacon was supposed to be a passive defence to keep them underground until UNIT got here, but when there is fresh food right outside their tunnels and they can't get it then it's not passive anymore. It's now a stressor, which is why UNIT need to do something rather than just sit and wait. I know the Doctor is the one who called them in and he said he would consult, but he didn't know he was going to get so sick. They're not just waiting for him to get better are they? It might take him too long. Martha said they have their own scientists here are they looking at this and trying to work it out as well?"
"They do have their own science team. I'm not sure who or how many of them have come on site, but they have a lot of research capabilities and a lot of resources. They need to find a balance between finding things out about the creatures and about the caves and acting to get the animals under control and remove the risk they pose, but do you know who UNIT's chief scientific advisor is?" Jack asked Josh.
"I don't really know much about UNIT." Josh admitted that he didn't, but Jack just pointed toward the Doctor. "Oh."