Chapter 27

The "Mother Ship"

The Smith's Residence.

Northumberland Place.

Notting Hill, London.

07:15

'Morning Alice / Auntie Alice,' the Smith's called out as Alice walked into the kitchen.

'Morning everyone. Good to see you back Donna. Did you have a good day off?'

['Ooh, it was lovely thanks. Lots of hunky mechanoids about, if you know what I mean,'] Donna-the-Robot said, tapping her prosthetic finger against her virtual nose and winking.

Alice laughed. 'I hope you took some pictures.'

['I can upload all my visual inputs if ya like,'] Donna told her.

'Actually, I wouldn't mind seeing what a planet of robots looks like.'

'We could take ya if y'like,' Rose suggested.

'Yes. I'd like that one day,' Alice replied, and then looked at John. 'John. I've got some good news for you.'

'Hmm?' John queried.

'Those files from the Shadow Proclamation archive. I've managed to do some profiling on them and I think I might have a lead for you.'

'Really? That's brilliant Alice,' John said.

'Come and find me in my office and I'll run through what I've found,' Alice suggested.

'No problem. I'll check in with the Watch Supervisor first as I normally do, and then I'll be up to see you,' he said with a waggle of his eyebrows at Rose.

Torchwood Special Operations Standby Room.

Torchwood Tower, Canary Wharf.

09:27.

John entered the Standby Room to receive his usual mug of tea and kiss from the Watch Supervisor, whilst he checked to see if there was anything he needed to know about before he went to see Alice.

'Anything come in overnight to pique my interest?' he said as he drank his tea.

'Nah. Your interest will have to remain un-piqued for now. There are a couple of teams out on shouts, so somethin' might come in later.'

'Okay Love. I'll see you later.' He finished his tea and gave her a peck on the cheek.

John made his way up to Psychology on the fourth floor, and saw Alice at her desk through the glass fronted office. She stood, moved from behind her desk and opened the door for him.

'Right, what have you got for me then?' he asked with a smile as he entered the office.

'Opinions,' she replied. 'That's what we offer in profiling, based on the evidence.'

'Good enough for me.'

They sat on the sofa in her office as she called up her research on a tablet PC.

'Okay. The first thing I did was look at the planets that had reported an attack, to see if I could categorize them. That's when I found the first clue.'

'Which was?' John asked.

'Except for the Earth, they are all level six technology civilisations,' Alice told him. 'Using the Shadow Proclamation classification of course.'

'Of course,' John agreed. 'That makes sense.'

'According to that classification, a planet has united into one faction normally as one species.'

John nodded. 'A unified global government, where the populus have survived ecological disasters, pollution, and nuclear holocaust, that go hand in hand with level five. When you reach level five, you either make it to level six or get knocked back to level three or four.'

'And a united planet would have on average, ordered, caring, and compassionate societies. The perfect societies for the best chance of survival for an obligate brood parasite,' Alice reasoned. 'But it doesn't explain why they chose Earth. We'll be lucky if we even get to level six.'

'The Grange!' John exclaimed, tugging at his hair. 'Of course. What if someone was passing close by, looking for their next victims to impregnate, when they receive a subspace carrier wave.'

'Subspace carrier wave?' Alice queried.

'A modulated gravity wave that crosses the universe.'

'The artefact Professor Crimm was investigating,' Alice realised.

'Exactly. "Oh, hello. Only a level six society would have the technology to modulate a gravity wave. Let's go and sow our seeds",' John said.

'So we were a mistake.'

'A big mistake for them, because now they've got a BIG problem,' John told her.

'And what's that?'

'Me! Because now, I'm on to them . . . What else have you got.'

'Well, this is the really interesting part. I wondered if I could adapt the geographic profiling technique we use to zero in on serial offenders.'

'Oh yeah?' John asked with interest.

'Yes. The criminal investigative methodology analyzes the locations of a connected series of crimes to determine the most probable area of offender residence. Now I presume we don't have a residence for these guys, although I could be wrong. But by incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods, it assists in understanding spatial behaviour of an offender and focusses the investigation to a smaller area of the community. However, we don't have a smaller area of a community.'

'Ah. Not much help then.'

'You think? What it has shown is a logical, almost artificially intelligent journey from star system to star system,' Alice told him.

'Oh, please tell me you can predict where they are going next,' John said with an open mouthed smile.

Alice grinned. 'The boys up in Astrophysics were very helpful. They think the world of you.' John gave her a look as if to say, "why wouldn't they". 'They put in all the coordinates for me, and indicated all the known level six planets. Now, using the dates that the reports were logged by the Shadow Proclamation, and the distance between the planets, we can calculate their speed. AND, if the Earth was an unexpected stop.' She showed John the star chart on her tablet. 'That puts their current location here, on their way to that system there.'

John looked at the display in open mouthed wonder. 'Oh you beauty.' He grabbed Alice's face and kissed her forehead.

['John? What's up?'] Rose asked in his head. She'd felt his excitement.

['Alice has only gone and found our space cuckoos.']

['Oh brilliant!']

['Call the TARDIS to the Standby Room. I'm going to see Jack.']

['Okay. See you in a bit.']

'Thanks Alice. This is brilliant work. Sorry I've got to run, I've got to go and see Jack.'

The TARDIS Console Room.

21-13-11-0-1 by 0-5 from galactic zero centre.

Jack Harkness had a big grin on his face as he looked at the monitor hanging over the console. 'Oh this brings back memories.'

John looked up and matched his grin. 'The old universe. The old team.'

'The old clothes,' Rose added.

'Eh?' John and Jack said together.

'Brown pinstripe suit with brown coat. RAF uniform with grey coat.'

John and Jack looked down at what they were wearing, looked at each other, and looked at Rose. 'What?'

Rose just laughed. 'Y'know, I feel like I'm underdressed in this black, military twill. I need a long coat.' She'd changed into her old Special Operations uniform.

Jack nodded with a raised eyebrow as he looked her up and down. 'Hmm. It would set that outfit off nicely.'

'Oi, Gok Wan. We need you to concentrate on that monitor. Remember?' John told him.

'Yes sir,' Jack said. He grinned at Rose and winked.

'Okay. Dematerialising into three dimensional space,' John announced, and the pitch of the Time Rotor changed.

Jack tapped at the keyboard. 'Integrating the temporal shift recorded on the sonic screwdriver . . . Oh it's been ages since I did anything like this.'

'Enjoyin' yerself are ya?' Rose said with a smile.

'You bet, Gorgeous . . . Initiating scan for temporal flux . . . And . . . Bingo. Anomaly bearing twenty two-three-five-zero by one- seven-six.'

'Hah-ha,' John laughed. 'Gotcha! They don't stand a chance against the old team. Jack, can you send that to the navigational computer?'

'Er, yeah. Sending it now. I've got to say Doc, this console is a lot more user friendly than the old one,' Jack said.

'Yeah,' Rose agreed. 'The desktop reflects the personality of the owner when its first configured. When the old TARDIS reconfigured her desktop, he was damaged and broken after the Time War. This time though, he was focussed on rescuing me and EJ from those lizards. He was in control . . . and in love.'

'And, I've got some of Donna Noble, the efficient secretary in my head as well,' John added. 'That's why the console is so neat and organised,' John said. 'And now, if we do this . . . hold tight.'

He pulled down a lever, and the TARDIS swayed and shuddered, as it jumped a fraction of a second out of sync with the rest of the universe, causing the Time Rotor to judder. John and Rose joined Jack at the monitor to see what was there.

'Oh John,' Rose breathed. 'It's beautiful.'

On the monitor screen, they could see a vessel resembling a Portuguese Man o' War jellyfish which was illuminated from within. The body of the ship was roughly cylindrical, with a rounded bow which tapered to the stern. A large, fan-like crest ran the length of the hull, with a number of cylinders and masts projecting from the underside.

Jack checked the magnification and scale. 'That thing is HUGE . . . a thousand metres from end to end.'

'Oh I have just GOT to have a look at this beauty,' John said, and set the controls to do a slow fly-by, before hurrying to the doors.

He pulled both doors open, and saw something that looked like an upside down, artistically lit, oil refinery drifting past. Rose stood beside him and slipped her arm around his waist. He instinctively slipped his arm around her shoulders. Jack stood to the other side and crossed his arms.

'That is one hell of a ship,' Jack said as he watched it go by.

'Yeah. And I suppose we'd better get ready to have a look inside,' John replied, as he closed the doors and made his way up the ramp. 'The TARDIS is generating a standing wave which will cancel any psionic radiation while we're in here, but we're going to need the helmets when we enter the ship. I'll just nip to the workshop and knock one up for Jack.'

'Okay. We'll scan the ship and see if we can locate the bridge,' Rose said as John went into the corridor.

'Hmm,' Jack said. 'I'm not picking up any life signs. I wonder where the crew are?'

'Have you checked the smokin' pods?' Rose asked, thinking back to another ship that had no crew.

'Smoking pods?' Jack queried.

'Never mind . . . What's this in the centre of the ship?' she asked as she carried on scanning.

Jack looked at the readout. 'Organic matter.'

'It's not body parts is it? No, seriously, check the smokin' pods.'

Jack laughed and carried on. 'All communications and control interfaces seem to be focussed there,' he said, pointing to an area at the front of the ship. 'I think we've found the bridge.'

Around fifteen minutes later, John returned with the crash helmets, and a long, black leather coat.

'Here. Try this on,' John said with a lopsided smile as he threw the coat to his wife.

'Ooh. I'll look like Trinity from the Matrix,' Rose said with her tongue between her teeth smile. She slipped the coat on and did a spin. The coat flared out and swished around her.

'Now that suits you,' Jack told her.

'Thank you.'

John handed Jack a black helmet, and Rose her pink one.

'That completely ruins the look,' Rose said with a laugh as she put the helmet on. 'But I don't think we'll need 'em. There's no life signs on board.'

'Have you checked the smoking pods?' John asked.

'What is it with you two and smoking pods?' Jack asked them.

John gave him a lopsided smile. 'Long story.'

'Involvin' a king's mistress and a white horse,' Rose added.

'I can't wait to hear that one,' Jack said.

'Oh you had to bring that up again,' John protested jokingly.

'I'm your wife. It's my prerogative to remind you of your past misdemeanours,' she teased.

'The horse or the mistress?' Jack asked.

'The mistress!' John and Rose said together.

'She was an old flame,' Rose said with her teasing smile.

'She was not!' John said, and then scratched the back of his neck. 'Wellll, maybe a smouldering ember.'

Rose smacked his arm hard. 'She did not smoulder. If anyone's smoulderin', it's me.'

'Damp squib . . . I meant to say damp squib,' John corrected himself hurriedly.

'Can you two leave your domestic at home?' Jack asked. 'We've got a ship to investigate.'

'See,' John said. 'What did I say about bringing domestic into the TARDIS?'

Rose pointed a finger at him and gave him a smile. 'I'll see you later, mister.'

John grinned and waggled his eyebrows. 'Did you find the bridge or control centre?'

'Yep. We think we've got it,' Rose said, and showed him on the screen.

'Looks good to me. Let's go . . . Allons-y!'

The TARDIS landed in an organic looking, toroidal chamber, similar to being inside a ring doughnut. The outer wall and windows curved outwards from the floor, up to the ceiling. The main window was about thirty feet across, and showed a view ahead of the ship. The inner wall opposite curved inwards and was covered with screens and control consoles. The superstructure support struts were all organic looking. A circular corridor led into the interior of the ship from the inner wall.

The three of them stepped out of the TARDIS with their helmets on and looked around.

'This reminds me of your old TARDIS,' Rose said, looking at the curved support struts.

John nodded as he took his sonic screwdriver out of his jacket pocket. 'Yeah. The ship was probably grown over a skeletal framework.'

'I'd still like to know what happened to the crew,' Jack said.

'I'm not sure it ever had any crew,' John said as he took out his sonic screwdriver. 'Not an organic crew anyway.'

Jack frowned. 'What do you mean?'

'Oh yeah,' Rose said, picking up his filtered thoughts. John had fine tuned the settings after the problem with Zoriel.

'Look around,' John told Jack as he scanned the panels on the rear wall. 'No flight couches. No seats, and all the control consoles on the walls.'

'Like the Dalek's ships,' Jack suggested.

'That's the kind of crew I was thinking of, yeah . . . Oh, hello. Look what I've found,' John said, as a three dimensional control interface appeared, floating in front of them.

'That is nice,' Jack said. 'Is there a ship's log there somewhere?'

'Hand on,' John said as he swiped his fingers through the display. 'This is similar to other interfaces I've seen before . . . Yes, there we are.'

Rose and Jack stood either side of him and started reading.

'Hah. I knew it!' John exclaimed. 'Modulated gravity wave detected and course changed to locate source.'

'That was the Grange,' Rose said.

'Ah, that's interesting,' Jack said as he read further. 'A platoon of medical droids load a scout ship with in vitro embryos and descend to the planet's surface.'

'Does it say how they implant the embryos?' Rose asked. 'Because that young girl in the village was still a virgin. There was no evidence of penetration on any of the victims.'

'I've got an idea about that,' John said. 'We'll go and have a look at their equipment later, but first of all, if this ship is automated, then it must have operational protocols which it follows.'

'You want to see what criteria they use to select planets?' Jack realised.

'Yep,' John replied. 'And there it is. Ah, all those antenna under the ship are scouring the galaxy for signals. An algorithm sifts through them looking for anything indicating level six technology and a stable society. That gravity wave must have got its attention, and it saw a level five world with a little pocket of level six in a quiet community.'

'So it saw Dunwich as an oasis of a level six society in a desert of level five,' Rose reasoned.

'Yep. And it fitted all of the criteria. It was like a moth to a lightbulb . . . couldn't resist its programming . . . I'll just upload all this to the TARDIS . . . There we go. We can look at that later. Ah. And there's the log of previous destinations. We'll have that as well.'

'Right. So let's go find these embryos and medical droids then,' Jack said, heading towards the entrance of a cylindrical, organic looking corridor.

'Oh. The organic matter on the scan,' Rose realised.

'Embryos,' John and Jack said together.

'So this literally is a "mother ship",' Rose said with a grin. John and Jack rolled their eyes and groaned.

'I can't believe you just said that,' Jack said with a smirk.

'What are those markers moving towards us?' Rose asked as she saw several red dots moving across the virtual floor plan.

'Hmm. Not sure,' John said, adjusting his sonic screwdriver and pointing it at the console on the wall.

The view floating in front of them changed to an image of a running droid. It had mechanical legs, which were configured like an ostrich's. On top of those was a humanoid trunk, with an insect like head. The arms had no hands, just holes where the wrist should have been.

'See that, Jack?' John asked. 'No hands.'

'Security droids,' Jack replied. 'You don't need hands to carry weapons if the weapons are built into your arms.'

'What kind of armaments are we lookin' at?' Rose asked, as she took out her Heckler & Koch MP5SF and checked it. She could feel her husband's displeasure.

'They'll be here in seconds,' John said urgently. 'And that thing will be useless against them. They'll have armour plating and shields, just like a Dalek.' He grabbed Rose's hand and gave her that excited grin. 'RUN!'

He pulled her towards the TARDIS, with Jack close behind. As they ran, he adjusted the sonic screwdriver with his thumb and pointed it at the TARDIS, which was tantalisingly close, but not close enough. They heard the clatter of metal feet on the floor behind them as the security droids ran around the corner. John put the key in the lock, and Rose looked over her shoulder.

The droids were raising their arms and pointing them in their direction. Unlike the robots she'd seen in the Star Wars film Phantom Menace, who didn't seem to be able to hit the side of a barn, these droids had state-of-the-art targeting computers, and what they aimed at, they hit. And right now, they were aiming at her, her husband, and her best friend.

She saw the ends of the droids arms flash with a brilliant, crimson light.