- 5 -

"Which reminds me..." said Toshiko, reaching under the neck of her blouse and pulling out her telepathic pendant, which she then hung over a parallel pair of small hooks on the wall behind her so that the chain formed an inverted triangle with the pendant at its low point.

"It's a trust thing," she said, seeing my quizzical expression, "a way of showing the team that I would never spy on their thoughts."

"So they all know?"

"That I'm Arcateenian? Of course. They've always known."

"I think you'd better explain that. Please start at the beginning."

"Six years ago an Oraculum appeared here in the Hub, an object that's a sort of thermometer for the health of a planet. Where they come from we don't know, but forget the current limits of projections and computer modelling. An Oraculum somehow takes a reading of the whole world and predicts the future health of a planet based on those readings. It is always one hundred percent accurate. Physically, it's a floating purple energy globe about a metre across that you place your hand on to receive those predictions. After a year of its short term projections proving wholly accurate, the team here at Torchwood Three knew that its longer term projections must also be accurate... and they predicted planetary catastrophe. It was still possible to avert this if those with the power and wealth chose to do so, but the chances of that happening were slight. Everyone had known back in the 1980s what needed to be done to avert global warming and it hadn't been done. Those with the power to effect the necessary changes put their short term personal interests and their greed first. It was their duty as its major custodians to save the world but they ignored that duty. Instead they proved to be parasites wholly unworthy of their wealth and power. Which is where I came in.

"I appeared in the Hub and offered to save the world. I explained that by taking over the right two thousand or so humans in the beginning - national leaders, the super wealthy, heads of international companies, etc,. - and others as it proved necessary to do so, my people could fix everything. The team communed with the Oraculum which projected what would happen, confirming the truth of my words. Understandably they were concerned when I explained what this would entail. As it happened one of their number, Toshiko Sato, had terminal cancer and when I told her that melding with an Arcateenian would make her immune to all disease she agreed to meld with me. I explained that though her memories and to some extent her personality would survive it would be me in the driving seat, that she would only then exist within me as information. Since she would soon die and everything that made her who she was would then be lost forever anyway, she agreed to the meld, and so here I am.

"After a couple of months of living with me, when they were comfortable with situation, Torchwood Three dedicated themselves to the project of saving the world by having Arcateenians become those two thousand people, a number which is now up to ten thousand. We achieved this by transporting in behind each of them when they were alone and immediately performing the meld. It was a big leap of faith on the team's part, but you've seen the results on TV."

"So you've basically taken over the world," I said, not knowing whether to be impressed or appalled.

"We have. Given the likely reaction to that news very few people know, of course. The average person in the street doesn't really care who's in charge as long as they're doing a good job, and to them it looks as if a miracle has occurred and the governments of the world have finally got their act together to work for the common good of everyone."

"You might be doing a far better job of planetary management than those who used to run things," I said, "but even without knowing they're now being ruled by aliens there will always be malcontents who want to buck the system."

"As such people rise to prominence we meld with them, too. It's been a mostly peaceful transition so far, unlike it was for us."

"What do you mean?"

"It was an Oraculum appearing to Arcateenians a century ago that showed us the inevitable consequences of our own situation and led to the Enlightenment, but the priesthood did not give up their power without a fight. Millions died in that conflict before we emerged triumphant. After the royal family came out against them the priests knew the game was up."

Toshiko regarded me thoughtfully.

"Melding with humans is a one-way process," she said, "one that can't be undone and a sign of our commitment to this planet, yet we gain more than we lose. True, we can no longer see as far into the electromagnetic spectrum as we used to, but we gain a sense of taste and smell. As Arcateenians sexual coupling was just something we did when we were in heat so sexual promiscuity as recreation was a concept didn't even exist for us, but oh these bodies! The physical pleasures they're capable of experiencing! So many and so varied, like nothing I could ever have imagined. It's quite intoxicating."

So saying, she took a last, long drag on her cigarette before stubbing it out, as did I. Almost simultaneously, Gwen Cooper reappeared to take away the tray, Toshiko and I having consumed our coffees while she talked.

"How did you and Toshiko meet?" I asked her.

"It was when I was still a policewoman," she replied. "I stumbled into a Torchwood investigation and was immediately captivated by the beautiful, stylish Japanese woman in charge. I'd only ever been interested in men before but when she looked at me it was as if I'd been struck by lightning."

"I felt it too," said Toshiko, smiling at the memory. "It was L'Quallha. I recruited Gwen to Torchwood and two months later we got married."

L'Quallha is what Arcateenians call the meeting of two souls who were meant to be together. Most go a lifetime without feeling it, but when we do it's too powerful to be denied and resistance is futile, as I knew only too well.

"I always believed my prince would come along one day and sweep me off my feet," said Gwen, "but I never imagined that prince would be a princess and that we would live together in a castle. My only regret was hurting my fiance when I broke up with him."

"Poor Rhys," I said, nodding.

"Rhys? Who's Rhys? My fiance's name was Andy. He was a fellow police officer."

- 6 -

After Gwen had taken the tray away, Toshiko eyed me shrewdly.

"When I mentioned L'Quallha," she said, "the look on your face... You too?"

I nodded.

"Strange that for both of us it was a human woman," I replied.

"Might I ask who... oh."

She saw it in my eyes.

"My Toshiko died in my arms," I said, "so being here with you, knowing intellectually that you're not her when your voice, the way you move, and your every familiar gesture is telling me otherwise, is hard. It's easy to see why your team accepted you so quickly after the meld."

She laid a sympathetic hand over mine, and though it wasn't what she intended her touch was electric.

"So," I said, gruffly, "what did Gwen mean with that comment about living in a castle?"

"I'll show you," she said, getting to her feet. "I need to get back there anyway since that's far more my base of operations these days than the Hub is. Come with me. Don't forget your things."

I stuffed my book and the device that had brought me here into my bag and followed her. She led me out through the tunnel leading to the Hub garage where, parked next to the familiar SUV, was a bright red Ferrari 308. Toshiko got behind the wheel, I took the passenger seat, and she drove us up the ramp to the street. Here she gunned the engine and we roared off.

"Where are we headed?" I asked.

"Llantwit Major," she replied. "Gwen and I live in St Donat's Castle. Are you familiar with it from your world?"

As private eye Mary Milenski I'd been lured there in 1935. It was not a happy memory.

"The place American newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst bought and spent vast sums on," I said, "turning it into the last word in opulence? Oh, yes. But it was eventually sold off and is a college now."

"Well here it remained in the family, and his heirs gave it to me."

"Gave it to you?"

"They're Arcateenians too, of course, as is everyone now with that level of wealth and the power it gives to affect the course of world events."

"Llantwit Major..." I mused, "that's where Ianto and Lisa were going surfing."

"They often come over to ride the waves down on the beach. Not something I'm into myself being more of a hedonist than a thrill-seeker, but I'm told it's not for beginners. Apparently there's a significant rip current."

On the thirty minute drive I filled Toshiko in on my own story, omitting nothing.

"Our Lady Mary died before she could assume leadership of Torchwood Cardiff," she observed, "so instead a woman named Victoria Waterfield was made its first director. She was already in her early forties then and quite small, but a tough and resourceful character, apparently."

When we arrived at St Donat's Castle, we pulled up in the courtyard and were greeted at the main door by a very pretty uniformed maid, who curtseyed to Toshiko before leading us into to the main entrance lobby.

"I'll take it from here, Bronwen," said Toshiko.

"Very good, ma'am."

I watched appreciatively as she walked away, because that uniform was also a costume.

"A French maid outfit?" I said, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Why not?" shrugged Toshiko. "With what I pay her Bronwen is happy to be eye-candy, and I like to surround myself with beauty."

"No shortage of that here," I said casting my gaze about and marvelling at the place.

"The Rift runs through Cardiff but is not constrained by its borders," said Toshiko, "which are just lines on a map after all. It actually reaches out to a little way beyond this castle, which given the beneficial effect its energies have on our hybrid forms makes it a popular place to hold meetings with other Arcateenians. But with the co-ordination required to keep the world running smoothly we need to stay in constant touch anyway."

Toshiko led me though to a large, circular chamber lined with monitors, and with clocks on the wall displaying the time in every major city across the world. In the centre of the room was a large, throne-like high-backed swivel chair.

"Where I spend most of my time," she said.

She then led me though room after room, each more impressive than the last, until we arrived in the master bedroom with its mahogany panelling and enormous four-poster bed. Turning to face me, Toshiko gently ran a finger down my cheek sending a shiver of pleasure through my body.

"I know I'm not your Toshiko," she said, "but for a while, if you want, we can pretend I am."

She kissed me softly on the lips, and I was lost.

I nodded, my throat dry, and she smiled as she started to undress. I quickly followed suit and then we were in each other's arms kissing with a passion that was anything but soft. I had yearned to run my hands over the familiar lines of Toshiko's body again and now, miraculously, I was. We made love and it was glorious. For over an hour she was able to fill the aching void that had been left by the death of my Toshiko. I will always be grateful to her for that. Afterwards there was pillow talk.

"We've raised many millions out of poverty across the world," she told me, "and will raise many millions more in the coming months and years, but there's a price of course."

"What price?"

"Where your melding with a human was involuntary we have total control over ours, however the other part of it remains the same. We still have to occasionally feed on a human life force, and the most efficient way is to tear out the heart. Once every five years or so is enough, but for ten thousand of us that still works out at a two thousand a year, which would be hard to conceal."

"The return of the death penalty!" I said. "One of the news reports I heard mentioned Sweden was the latest to restore it."

"With our power and control of the media it's been easy to influence people into accepting its restoration. The way it works for us is that while it appears the condemned is being given a lethal injection they're actually being given a sedative. Time of death is declared by the doctor - who's an Arcateenian, of course - after which they're wheeled into an adjacent room where one of us who needs it is waiting to tear out their heart. After that the remains are cremated. It's a small price to pay for what we've given the world, but it's still something we obviously have to keep secret."

I nodded, agreeing with this assessment. Then something that had been tickling the back of my mind came to the fore.

"To be given a place like this castle...," I said, the penny finally dropping. "It was given as tribute, wasn't it? When Gwen referred to you as a princess she meant that literally. You're one of the Queen's daughters."

"Of course," came the reply.

Which meant that every other Arcateenian on the planet deferred to Toshiko. To all intents and purposes I had just had sex with the ruler of this world.