Chapter 11
Jack, Gwen, Tosh and Nathan were in the corridor when they heard the announcement. Jack immediately sped up and dashed down the corridor. Whatever the announcement was on about it didn't seem good. Jack's mind was thinking about an utter disaster.
They had been heading for the room that they had found Tegana and Arikahs in anyway; it was just now a bit more of an urgency to reach that room.
Owen and Ianto had paused as they listened to the announcement, Tegana stopped crying and listened too. Flashing thoughts of previous cases that they had encountered possible alien bomb threats re-entered their minds, Ianto could literally see the numerous case files in pure detail in his head.
"Arikahs!" Tegana shouted breaking away from the two men. Owen and Ianto quickly darted after Tegana, she disappeared around a corner and they followed…they didn't get much further than that.
In front of them stood one of the two guards they had been trying to get away from only moments before.
Tegana had stopped before she had ran into the guard which was a blessing as otherwise she would have been well and truly stuck. She walked carefully backwards until she could sense that she was besides Owen and Ianto.
The guard looked suspiciously as though it was going to chase them, and so, not wanting to let him catch them, the three took off back down the way they had come.
Jack hesitated at the end of the corridor; he waited for the others to catch up. Ahead of him he could see the oncoming guard that was heading back towards the room, probably to check on him and Nathan. But they weren't where the guards had left them; they weren't even in the room.
"Get back!" Jack hissed at them.
Tosh was already ushering Nathan back down the corridor. Gwen was unable to just take Jack's word for it and so she quickly took a peek round the corner, she saw the Guard getting closer and darted to catch up with the rest.
They moved into the room with a speed that they had never quite managed before, the Guard was hot on their heels and as soon as Gwen was behind the threshold, the Guard slammed the door shut and bolted it, leaving them trapped.
The guard quickly disappeared back down the corridor and Jack whacked his fist on the door, in anger.
"Alright, anyone got any ideas how we're going to get out of this one?" Jack said through gritted teeth.
Between them Owen and Ianto lifted up the manhole, Ianto lifted Tegana up through the manhole and then helped Owen through, and then hoisted himself through.
The three of them scrambled up to a standing position, helping each other.
Owen noticed it first, then Tegana and finally Ianto.
The crowd of possessed teenagers were now standing in a neat circle, staring out towards them. It was like a strange scene out of a movie yet so much creepier when reality kicked in.
They stared at the circle. They stared back.
"OK, is anybody slightly creeped out by this?" Owen said knowing that no one would answer him.
"They look like they're guarding something…" Ianto observed. Tegana was beginning to see what he meant.
Arikahs grinned at the screen; finally he could rightly say that something was going his way. It wasn't quite as he had planned it but it would do just as well. All that was left to do now was watch and wait. Soon the people of Arika would have their landing area and with the rubble left over could start building up a new civilisation.
Jack, Tosh, Gwen and Nathan were searching avidly for some way of getting out of the locked room. Nathan had been set the task of looking on the desks for any sign of something they could use to leaver to door open. Tosh was trying to hack into the computer and see if there was any way of electronically escaping from the room. Gwen and Jack were trying manually to prise the door open, but it was proving too heavy to be able to make it budge even a little way.
Gwen was on the verge of giving up, it was just no use. Jack was determined to escape and Gwen didn't want to disappoint him but she had a feeling there was no way out.
Nathan was desperately scraping around the desk; the desk was now a mess and any hope of finding something useful was just about gone. Nathan threw his hands up in frustration and in doing so flicked up a switch. The dim lights suddenly became brighter, so bright it was dazzling. Immediately everyone yelled at him to turn it off and so feeling along the wall he push the switch down.
A loud noise filled the room; Nathan had hit the wrong switch.
"TURN IT OFF!" Jack shouted over the din. Nathan fumbled for the switch and managed to turn the noise off and the lights back on.
"What did you think you were doing?" Jack reprimanded the newest recruit.
"He didn't know what the switches did, no one did!" Tosh defended Nathan when he looked too scared to reply.
"Wait, turn it back on…" Gwen interrupted.
"What?" was the joint reply from Jack and Tosh.
"Well, it might be just what we need, bring ourselves the attention, then someone will come and open the door to see what we're up to and then we have our chance to escape." Gwen explained.
Jack exchanged glances with Tosh; it could work and anything was worth a try.
Jack ordered Nathan to turn the switches back on and keep flicking the light switch so it would be noticed more.
Nathan did as he was asked; wondering if this was usual to be told one thing and then immediately told another.
He carried on for a while, waiting for something to happen so he could stop switching it on and off because his hand was starting to hurt. To his disappointment it didn't seem very likely that he was going to be relieved any when present.
Gwen was keeping a lookout, watching the corridor for any signs of anyone, so far nothing. But she had discovered that the light switch controlled the rest of the underground lair. If someone hadn't noticed it, they soon would.
Curious, Tegana edged forwards trying to get a better look in between the circle of people. Ianto pulled her back; he was worried about what the possessed people would do if she tried to get close.
Owen was just as curious as Tegana and so Ianto compensated for their curiosity and they walked closer as a group, each trying to see in-between the people. They got close enough to see vaguely what was being guarded, but not close enough to prevent anyone from harming them.
"It's a bomb!" Owen exclaimed, Tegana looked up at him and sighed, when was he going to work that out!
"It's been ticking for a long time it needs to be demobilised before…well you know what!" Ianto included. Tegana looked at Owen and Ianto, all realising the devastating fate that lay in their hands.
Arikahs lay back in his chair confident that there was nothing else to speed up the process. He closed his eyes; he could have a rest while he waited. With his eyes closed Arikahs was unaware of the flashing lights but when the noise started Arikahs awoke, frowning and attempting to work out why the din was blasting through the place and the lights were flashing. Had something gone wrong with the systems?
Standing up he checked his computer, fine. Then someone was playing around with the switches. He would have to put a stop to that! How was he meant to catch some rest with that going on!
Arikahs walked down the hall towards the room in which prisoners were held until Arikahs ordered them to be brought into the questioning chamber. On reaching the room, he tried opening the door, it was locked. That was strange it was never usually locked, there was no need, the prisoners were always kept in the cage at the back of the room.
Fiddling around in his pocket and found the bunch of keys, it took a while to find the right key but was quickly inserted into the lock and opened.
Gwen and Jack were poised ready to ambush the person who opened the door so they were free to escape and stop Arikahs from letting the bomb go off. No one expected that it would be Arikahs himself opening the door.
Gwen jumped on the newcomer, but she was thrown back as Arikahs held out his arm. She cried out in pain as she fell to the floor with a loud thump.
Tosh rushed to her aid and Jack glared at Arikahs.
"What did you do to her?" Jack demanded.
"It's just a mild Taser she'll be fine in a few hours." Arikahs said plainly. Jack glanced back at Gwen; Tosh was trying to revive her but without any luck.
"Alright, what about the bomb? Is it really necessary?" Jack asked, his tone of voice softer know that he had nothing else to be angry about.
"Of course. It is a necessary part of my plan to transform this planet to fit to our needs." Arikahs informed him.
"You can't just do that to our planet! There are rules, laws that have been set with in the intergalactic police force that clearly state that you can't just come to another planet and try to take it over." Jack argued using knowledge that he picked up from the time he spent travelling with the Doctor.
"Arika isn't part of the interplanetary system; we don't apply to those rules." Arikahs explained. Jack looked momentarily defeated.
"It still gives you no right to do that!" Jack attempted to redeem his argument. He had spotted Nathan creeping closer to the door. If Nathan could get out of the room he could find Ianto, Owen and Tegana and then they could hack into the computer and stop the bomb going off. He just had to keep Arikahs busy for a little while.
"I have every right! Just as much as you, human!" Jack flinched he hated being referred to as 'human' it made him sound worthless.
Nathan was edging closer to the door. Tosh had seen what he was trying to do and moved ever so slightly to the side so Nathan could get passed, so far so good. Creeping carefully around Gwen Nathan was almost out the door.
Arikahs saw out of the corner of his eye, Nathan's movements. He reacted quickly, his arm reached across the door stopping Nathan in his tracks.
"Don't even think about it!" Arikahs warned. Nathan recoiled back from the door and looked at Jack, defeated. Now all of them where stuck in the room. There was no chance of sneaking away from Arikahs' sight. Jack glanced around at his team, Gwen was still out unconscious, and Tosh was cradling Gwen, trying to wake her. Nathan was looking very alarmed having not experienced this sort of thing before. He didn't seem to have a very reliable team with him.
"Ten seconds to destruction" the overhead voice reminded them. Jack sighed. This hadn't been the way he had hoped it would go.
Tegana, Ianto and Owen were standing in silence considering how to go about this.
"So… do you reckon that they'd move, if we ask them, nicely?" Owen broke the silence. Ianto and Tegana simultaneously gave Owen a hostile look. This was no time to be pulling people's leg.
"Whoa! I was just joking, alright!" Owen defended himself.
"This isn't the time for jokes Owen! We'll try running through them, see what happens," Ianto scolded.
Ianto, Owen and Tegana got ready to try and duck under the teenagers arms. They lined themselves up in between the gaps and at the same time they charged.
Ianto and Owen were thrown backwards, they had been too tall to duck under and so the teenagers had prevented them from passing.
Tegana looked back; she had been able to duck through the gap and was surprised that Ianto and Owen hadn't.
"Tegana, you're going to have to disable the bomb!" Ianto shouted to her. Tegana glanced at the bomb in fear, one wrong move and that would be the end. She walked cautiously towards it.
"Ianto I don't know what to do!" Tegana shouted back.
"Don't worry we'll walk you through it," Ianto yelled at her.
Taking a deep breath Tegana knelt down beside the bomb. She lifted the metal plate which covered the wiring that was as far as she knew what to do.
"What next?" Tegana bawled across the distance.
"You need to remove the timer by taking a wire out!" Ianto shouted.
Tegana looked back at the bomb. She looked carefully into it and located the timer; it was telling her that she had 5 seconds to get the correct wire disconnected. Two wires ran out from the timer, two possible choices. One would stop the bomb; the other would set it off.
"Ianto! There's two wires, which one?" Tegana cried out.
Ianto froze. Which wire was supposed to be cut? He couldn't remember. His mind had gone blank. Ianto buried his head in his hands racking his brains to try and remember which wire had to be disconnected. It wasn't working, whatever he did to try and recall it didn't work. He had to face the fact that he didn't know. He doomed the entire population of London, including the Torchwood team by his lack of memory.
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