Explanation time at last. And some tough decisions to be made ...
When we got back to the Hub, about an hour later, Gwen was still on the couch. She was propped up with cushions and pillows and had a blanket over her. She looked remarkably comfortable. I gave her a bag with the requested Danish pastries together with her car keys. Owen was at his desk and got his sandwich, which was oozing grease and smelt vile. Toshiko settled at her own desk with a muffin. Jack walked out of his office and accepted the cream cheese bagel. I left my own plain bagel on one side and went to make coffees for everyone. The others were talking quietly when I returned and accepted the drinks gratefully. We were all appreciating a chance to recover from the violent start to our day.
"I suppose we'd better hear what you two have found out about getting me back to normal," began Jack, looking at Owen and Toshiko. "As Gwen is settled, let's do it here rather than in the Conference Room." I sat on the floor, beside the couch; this was likely to be a long meeting. I leant back against the wall and bit into the bagel hungrily. Jack stayed standing but, of course, this didn't give him his usual commanding height. He was on the same level as Toshiko and Owen who were sitting down!
"Okay, I'll start," said Owen. "The Zenotope gives off Tachyon energy. I found it in the sample from 1943 and Tosh found it in the Hub. It's officially theoretical at present but Torchwood has known about it for years as the Rift is riddled with it."
Toshiko cut in. "The levels we found vary. The sample was pretty low but a lot of that is due to degradation over the past 60 plus years. The scans of the Hub show about twice that level."
"Tachyon energy," took up Owen, "is a pesky little element. We know it's associated with time travel because we've found it in people who've come through the Rift from other eras. And, as you know, we've had a lot of those lately. The appearance of the Zenotope may be related, we don't know."
"If the this energy is the same, why did the boy in the 1960s …"
"Colin," put in Jack quietly.
"Why did Colin," amended Gwen, "get aged by 30 years and Jack made younger by what, over a hundred?"
"We only have two samples to test, the one from 1943 and the one that zapped Jack. Owen tested them, on some lab rats, and they had markedly different effects. The 1943 one is what we're calling positive – it ages whatever it hits – while the one that Jack experienced is negative – it makes people or whatever younger. In both cases the affect was the same in terms of years. We believe the reason Jack became so much younger is that he'd already been exposed to tachyon energy when he was a time traveller." Toshiko looked across at him and the rest of us followed her gaze. Jack was thinking hard, you could see that from his expression. "As for Colin, he was obviously exposed to the positive energy."
"The scans I ran on you," said Owen to Jack, "confirmed all that and showed heightened levels of the energy. Just as I'd expect if you'd been zapped with it."
Jack nodded, "Okay. That all makes sense. Can it be reversed?"
Toshiko and Owen exchanged a glance that did not bode well. "We think it can." She said no more and Owen seemed reluctant to add anything.
Jack looked from one to the other. "Well can it or can't it?"
"The only way we can see to get you back to normal is to expose you to the opposite version of the energy, with a little variation of our own to ensure you continue to age once you're back to normal. Well, age as normally as you do. Our theory is that if we do it again, as soon as possible and definitely within 48 hours of when you were exposed, then it should work the opposite way to how it did then."
"Your theory?" I queried. "Should work? Didn't you try it on the lab rats?" I couldn't believe how lax these two were being. I wondered if they were making it up.
"Yes, we did. It was only a small sample, I haven't had time to do more," explained Owen. "I used four rats. It worked with two of them, not the others. They were made younger."
"A 50/50 chance!? That's way too risky," put in Gwen. "You can't take that kind of chance, Jack. They'll have to come up with something better. Do more experiments."
"There is nothing better," responded Toshiko, forcefully for her.
"What if we do nothing? Would Jack age normally?" Gwen pursued.
"We only have the experience of the boy … sorry, Colin. He didn't." Owen gave us this bit of happy news!
"Hold on." Jack held a hand up for silence as we all started talking at once. "Let me get this straight. You're proposing to zap me with the opposite kind of tachyon energy. Best scenario is that it would reverse it completely. Right?" Toshiko and Owen nodded. "But if the levels aren't right, couldn't it just age me a bit, not back to where I was?"
"It might," replied Toshiko, "but we've calculated the original levels and can replicate them exactly. We'd be very close – within a couple of years - which for you is good enough." That sounded cavalier but as Jack didn't age like the rest of us we wouldn't be able to see a difference.
"Okay. Worse case scenario, it makes me younger. At the moment I'm about 10 years old. What if I'm made younger by the same amount as before, say 100 years for sake of argument? I won't exist." I hadn't thought of that and the horror must have been evident on my face because Jack gave me a grim little reassuring smile.
"That's possible," admitted Owen, unable to meet Jack's gaze.
"Hold on," said Gwen, equally as horrified as I was but also puzzled, "Jack can't die."
"If he's made younger by more than 10 years," explained Owen patiently, "it will be as if he never existed. His atoms will split apart and even his immortal body won't be able to put them back together in the right order." There was a moment's silence as we took that in. We'd all got so used to the idea of Jack being around forever that the thought he might not be required serious adjustment to our way of thinking.
"And if I decide to do nothing I could remain 10 years old for the rest of my life?" Jack spoke and no one said anything in reply. I imagine we were all thinking the same thing. For Jack, the rest of his life meant eternity. He would be 10 years old for thousands of years. "Interesting choice I have to make," he said wryly.
"You should wait. We should look further, consider other options," urged Gwen. She was passionate in her argument and Jack listened to her closely.
"If you want to try it, Jack, it has to be done in the next 15 hours. Before 2am tomorrow for the best results." Toshiko spoke quietly, aware of the risks to Jack and the difficult choice he had to make.
Jack looked at her. "Do you think I should do it?"
"It's the only chance you have of returning to normal," she said simply. She smiled at him sympathetically.
"I'm with Tosh," said Owen.
Jack turned his gaze to me. "Ianto?"
My head was whirling with what I had just heard. Of course I wanted Jack back to normal, for all our sakes. He was our leader and we needed him. Personally, I wanted him back too, back to share my life and my bed. But the risk! We could lose him altogether. Maybe doing nothing was the best course. I'd at least have him around even if he did look only 10 years old. We'd had fun together and would have more. But could I ask Jack to be that age forever, truly forever in his case, just to please me? He may have accepted the situation for a day but I doubted he would if there was no end in sight. I looked into Jack's eyes, "Do it."
Jack looked round at us all. "Thank you for your opinions. I'm going to weigh the options as I still have some time. If I decide I want to go ahead, how long to you need to set it up?" He looked from Owen to Toshiko.
"About an hour," said Toshiko.
"So we have time. I'll let you know as soon as I've made my decision." He turned and walked into his office, gently closing the door behind him.
What will Jack decide?!?
(My apologies if the science was a bit woolly - it was the best I could come up with!)