Chapter 3: The Secret Submarine
Jack lead the team down another secret hallway. Gwen and Ianto had never seen it before, but they trusted Jack enough not to question him. Eventually they came to a door at the end of the long hallway. Jack punched in the code required to open the door. When the door opened, Jack, Gwen, Ianto, Martha, and Mickey saw that the floor of the room on the other side was flooded. Water covered the floor entirely. No one could even see what was under the water or how deep the water went. They were all standing at the top of a very large tank. There was only a small area like a boardwalk for them to stand on that ran alongside the walls of the room. The team visually scanned the room. It was massive. A whale could fit inside of it. They wondered why a room that was flooded with water and huge enough for a whale even existed down here. Gwen and Ianto were the most shocked. In all their time working for Torchwood, they never knew this room was here. They thought that Jack had run out of surprises for them, but obviously not.
"How long has this been here?" Gwen asked sounding very astonished.
"Too long." Jack responded.
"How deep does the water go?" Martha asked.
"No one knows." Jack responded mysteriously, though his tone of voice implied that he actually did know and he wasn't going to tell.
"What's down there?" Mickey asked.
"What makes you think there's something down there?" Jack asked him.
"Well why else would this room be here? It's got to be containing some aquatic alien or something." Mickey replied.
"Well you're on the right track." Jack said.
Jack then walked over the narrow boardwalk like platform to a large red button on the wall. Smiling with glee, he pressed it. Then, an alarm went off.
"What's happening?" Ianto yelled so that he could be heard over the loud alarm.
Jack didn't answer. He simply smiled and stared at the water. Then, a large black object started to emerge slowly from the water and come into view. It was an American submarine from the 1980's. This vessel was huge and fit perfectly in the colossal room. The alarm ceased once the top half of the submarine was above the water.
"Where did you get a bloody submarine?" Gwen asked Jack.
"It fell through the rift in the early twentieth century. We quickly built this place to keep it out of sight until time caught up with it. Now we have to use it to get to that ship and find out what's going on." Jack responded.
"Can I drive?" Mickey asked. "Always wanted to drive a submarine."
"You know how?" Jack questioned him.
"I had a lesson once when I was on that parallel world." He responded.
"You had one lesson?" Jack asked
"Ya, but how hard can it be? It's not like we're going deep into the ocean. We're just going right out there." Mickey responded.
"Alright. Fine. I need one more of you to come with us." Jack said.
"I'll go." Gwen volunteered. "I wanna know what's on that ship."
Martha and Ianto watched as Jack, Gwen, and Mickey literally jumped onto the submarine and climbed down the hatch on top of the outside that lead to the interior of the submarine. Then, Jack sealed the hatch and soon the submarine disappeared underneath the waters. Ianto and Martha ran through the hub and went outside to see what was going to happen.
"So how do we get out of here?" Mickey asked Jack from the driver's seat inside the submarine.
"Just keep going down." Jack instructed him.
"But the sub is in a massive tank. How do we get into the ocean?" Mickey asked again.
"Just keep heading down. I'll tell you when it's time." Jack responded.
Gwen entered the control room carrying a large silver gun. It looked more like a small canon.
"What is this?" Gwen asked.
When Jack turned and saw Gwen holding the gun, he was pleased. He loved a woman with a big gun.
"I forgot that was even down here." Jack commented. "It's a special gun. It fires a toxic gas that causes temporary paralysis. It could come in handy."
"Could I see it?" Mickey asked.
"Just keep lowering us." Jack said. "You'll get your turn to play with the big gun later."
"So what do you think that boat is?" Gwen asked.
"Well given that it looks rather old, I think it probably just fell through the rift and ended up here." Jack responded.
"But that's not how it's happened before." Gwen stated.
"Does this happen a lot with you?" Mickey intervened.
"Yes." Jack and Gwen said simultaneously.
"But the other times that something fell through the rift from somewhere else, they just sort of appeared. They didn't come out of a giant green whirlpool in the ocean." Gwen said.
"We barely understand the rift at all when you think about it." Jack said. "We're learning new things about it all the time."
"But those readings on the screen in the hub were different from when things normally come through the rift." Gwen said.
"What are you trying to say?" Jack asked.
"I just think we should be prepared for the possibility that these aren't people from the past who fell through the rift by accident. I think they might have been trying to come here." Gwen said.
"But why?" Mickey asked. "What's in Cardiff?"
"Nothing much just a massive underground hub with advanced technology and dangerous alien artifacts deemed too harmful for humanity." Jack said.
"How much farther down until we get out of this tank and into the ocean?" Mickey asked.
"I'll give you a signal." Jack said.
"What signal?" Mickey questioned.
"You won't miss it." Jack said.
Suddenly, the entire submarine shook.
"What was that?" Gwen asked.
"The signal." Jack replied.
"She meant what happened." Mickey corrected him
"We hit the floor." Jack responded.
"Alright. Now what?" Mickey asked.
"Ok Mickey Mouse what do you see on the viewing screen?" Jack said referring a small television screen next to him which was installed some time ago by Torchwood and projected an image of what was directly in front of the massive submarine.
"Nothing. It's just black." He responded.
"You're looking at a wall." Jack informed him.
Jack then, pressed a series of buttons.
"What about now?" He asked Mickey.
Mickey looked at the viewing screen. The black wall in front of him was opening. Like a door, the wall seemed to slide open. On the other side of it, was the deep blue sea. Mickey smiled and propelled the submarine forwards into the ocean. He set a very small course for the mysterious old ship which appeared out of nowhere. Little did Torchwood know that The Evil Queen was waiting for them.