16

Ianto was bored, the rain outside forcing them all inside and he sat with a tablet in his hand going over some of the 'Fat Files' as they referred to the UNIT documents in the overflow folder. Why now? He was bored and he needed to read something he had not read three or four time like every damned book here.

Why did they not have a little library or something?

God he was bored.

The last of the family were now there and hidden away, Rhiannon reluctant to come but she was there, as was Idris and his family too. The village was now almost completely cut off apart from UNIT in and out. The last gates had closed mere days after the last of their people got out. They were bursting at the seams.

Idris had brought three other families as well, his workers were like family. Now all they could do was watch the village implode like Ianto said said it was, the fear and distrust like the cancer they had mocked.

Since their departure, Gwen had become acting Captain and she had revelled in it, becoming a little UNIT extra. Apparently everyone hated her and considered her a turncoat. They had considered reaching out to her several times but hesitated, their weird feeling well founded as she turned in a family hiding a teen pregnancy with undeserved viciousness and it was the girl being dragged from the house in tears that had promoted the village to start to revolt.

And UNIT finally showing teeth in demanding curfews while telling those inside the cordons that they signed the paperwork and they agreed to this so… tough.

UNIT still had not detected Toshiko's back door and she was able to keep abreast of things her nightly updates getting more starting by the day. Forty six babies. It was madness. UNIT had named them all TC001 through to TC46. Torchwood Child… designation. It interested Ianto that they numbered the babies according to streets, 001 at the first entrance and as you might wander the roads of the village around to get back to here you started at the welcome sign, the names were numbered accordingly.

Ianto found that weird.

And it niggled

He went back to his most read Fat Folder, looking at with mild interest. 'Cuckoo Zap' it was called. Weirdoes seemed to have names like this for files, maybe to make it harder for others to connect the dots but with horror Ianto did.

"Toshiko… what would you think about a ray gun that zaps someone preggers?""

"Are you mad?"

"Well, slightly annoyed but I am getting there" he responded and sat back to give a layman's version of all he had just read "Right, so… they did put something in the water. This Retcon is real, they used it on Thursday afternoon, ensuring by that night everyone would have imbibed with their cuppas. Then while…"

"What about the kids?" Andy cut in, leaning against Rhys "they don't have afternoon cuppas."

"No... they have juice at school. Watered down juice, half juice and half water" Ianto corrected gently, something he had found ridiculous.

"Fuck" Rhys grunted then nodded, "our cafeteria does the same. Go on. So everyone drank."

"And fell asleep. Then with this Cuckoo Gun, they walked the streets firing on all the houses, every house to be certain that anyone inside that was eligible for the ray's effects got a zap. Would have taken hours."

"Where did this gun come from?" Owen had taken the tablet and was flicking though it as Toshiko opened more files on her own, Cuckoo now the search word.

"Well... seems you were right. Alien. They used some sort of DIY plan sent from somewhere they … solarium? What?"

"Silurian?" Ianto corrected "like that spaceship thing they flew over the arena at the last Olympics when there was the bomb threat phoned in, and tried to tell us was for a movie?"

Everyone sat in stunned silence as it sank in.

"Right, found it. Yeah. They tested it on mice, rats, pigs, monkeys… next step was humans. A little out of the way place they could… oh." Toshiko stopped talking.

"Cleanse?" Ianto filled in for her "Or did they use… erase? Exterminate? Hmmmm? Delete?"

"Oh god" she said in a small voice, looking over at Owen as Jack took the tablet and read it.

"So, they knew. Apparently the tests show any female that was of healthy age became pregnant… hang on… how did it distinguish between males and females?" Jack asked. "Men would have gotten a few hundred sperm in their balls sacks zapped at least, right?"

Owen answered calmly "Estrogen. Testosterone levels high in men, estrogen in women. The thing would have tested Estrogen levels, like those gates we went through. Luckily Ianto had high levels due to his cancer meds like we thought he would, it protected Tosh."

Ianto had gone eerily quiet, his face devoid of expression or colour as he stared at a medial finding regarding the monkey trials. He let his eyes slide up to meet Toshiko's as she sat across from him with equal horror in her eyes.

Yeah.

Something was rotten in Denmark.

"But not all women, even if they are of right held bearing age and would have been eligible… or all of them would have got banged up" Owen and Jack were still talking.

"Well, I know those who fell in were all sexually active. Like, Mona. Right? Wham Bang Thank you Ma'am. She had sperm in her still, the machine woke it or enhanced it, I mean… come on. Not all were ovulating either but all popped. So, no egg needed for the mission, the thing must have told the egg to choose a spot and dig in, right?" Jack shrugged "Maybe… the sperm is told to check the DNA is not the same and if a woman has a man's sperm in her… she's off to the races. A man's sperm would tell if's it's still in its original maker and not activate? Something like that?"

"Makes sense to me" Owen agreed, swinging to ask Toshiko but finding her chair empty. He turned to Ianto's and found that empty too.

While they were all talking, the two had simply left the room.

"Could have come up with a better name though" Rhys interrupted the silence, and they all started talking again, coming up with names for a gun that can zap you preggers.