26

Ianto woke to a feeling of falling, grunting as he jerked awake and then lay still until his heart stopped trying to slam out of his chest cavity. Wow. That had been so vivid. Flying in the clouds as the world below looked like a child's play area only to tumble and fall towards the earth.

He had always had this dream when things were about to change.

It was what he called his 'Wake Up' dream when the dragon in his blood tried to reach out to him, to warn him of impending doom and he looked over to find Jack asleep with their daughter on his chest, the poor man sitting up on pillows with his baby still on his breast, both dead to the world with the little one using Jack's tit like a dummy.

Ianto rose and plucked up the bub, putting her back on her crib and wondered if that was it. Their baby had been in need of being safer, not the first baby to potentially slide off into the bedding. Though, none had ever died from this, a friend of their had lost their baby this way and Ianto always scolded Jack for doing it.

Ianto closed his eyes and let himself drift in the ethos. IT was OK. Things were OK. No fear, alarm or worries out there. Whatever had woken him… it was not something that was there to examine.

Ianto pulled the overs over Jack and wandered to the head, relieving himself as he went over the strange feeling that he had learned long ago not to ignore. Something was wrong.

He decided to go for a wander of the vessel while it was quiet, something that it had not been for a long time either and maybe he just needed to reset. Mybe the quiet was the problem? He dressed in some light clothing and took a wander about the vessel looking for something to do. It was afternoon and so damned peaceful.

The quiet before the storm kinda peaceful.

"Tosh? Still here?" he asked as he entered the bridge to find a little air of dainty feet poking out from under the dashboard to one side.

Toshiko slid out and glared at him, cobwebs in her hair. Really? They had spiders? Spiders in space … wow. Space spiders. They had brought them to this planet now, god… imagine if they become super spiders, or mega spiders. Monster spiders. Ianto tried not to giggle at himself for the stupid thoughts.

"I can't quite get this coms unit reactivated. I think it's a dicky wire and I've almost located it" she replied, then disappeared again and he hummed softly, taking a walk over to the bank of monitors, looking along the display of the outside of the vessel. Mostly just the planet surface but he could see Rhys and a few others working on a building's main structure in the distance and he knew it would be the meeting hall that went up first.

Then he turned to the ones that showed the remote camera angles for security of the valley in their area. He found himself scanning them with intensity and scolded himself, about to step away when movement took his eye.

Ianto stepped closer and leaned in, almost with his nose to the screen.

"You can zoom it in you know" Toshiko grumbled as she wandered past seeking a different tool, given her mood hopefully not a hammer.

Ianto grunted, not taking his eyes off the weird moving shadow. Something flapping in the breeze? Not the monsters, in the wrong area. This was the next valley over, the entrance that joined the two. Was it some sort of animal? It seemed to move like a liquid, it flowed. Undulated… got larger as it drew close to the camera that sat on the ground in the open.

Toshiko had stopped working and turned as she felt the temperature in the room drop suddenly, Ianto taking a deep breath in with open alarm and she ran over to look at what he could see.

IT was not an animal.

It was a small sea of them. Little, compact fat balls with teeth were rolling and tumbling over one another, moving at a fast rate and as they grew closer she could see those teeth eating the foliage and then rolling over the spot, a strange sound now starting to come through the speakers.

Squeaking, no… squealing.

"Ianto… are they… are they squashing and eating those on the bottom of the pile?" she whispered like they could hear her.

"I think so, I think these… land piranha things are in a frenzy. Whatever they find, they eat and if there are patches of bare sand… those on the bottom ore forfeit." Ianto agreed, then he reached out to pan the camera up, over the top of the mess. "Is it a migration? Or invasion do you think?"

"Oh my god" Toshko breathed with horror, the river of fuzz still coming around the bend, "There must be hundreds of these things… thousands."

Ianto stepped back as he now knew the reason for his inner dragon's fear.

"And they are heading for the picnic spot."

Ianto turned and ran for Jack.

.

.

"What?" Jack was rubbing his face as he tried to focus "Tell me again?"

"Little balls like… like... orange sized balls with teeth and they roll like a ball, they are in some sort of feeding frenzy and are migrating or something, everything in their path will be consumed. Even some eating one another if it slows down too much, not in a welcome pack, not warned of because I don't really know if they even know these things are here. This might only be a once in a five or ten year thing or something. They've only bene here for four years, right?" Ianto said, growing impatient as Jack yawned and stretched.

"And it's a problem because….." Jack asked.

"Because they are eating everything… cariad… possibly every… ONE!" Ianto hissed his voce becoming usually deep and Jack's hands froze lowering from his face he was again scrubbing at to stare into pools of fire.

Ianto's inner dragon growled.

"Ianto... are you saying those things are heading for the picnic spot?"

"And they are too far away to get to their camp… or ours. Cariad, they are in the open, in the feckin open. They are not all at the picnic spot, there is a group of them are at the new well they drilled … remember? Too far… the speed these things move at…"

"So just contact them and tell them all to get to shelter" Jack shrugged not peeking over at the sleeping baby.

"Contact them" Ianto was angry now as he rose from the bed "Sure… wanna help me start the fire for the smoke signals?"

Jack finally remembered that the coms unit was down and he looked up at Ianto with renewed horror "Fuck."

"Yes, they may well be" Ianto huffed as he slapped at Jack and turned to leave "But we might get there in time if you fire this old girl up."

Jack scrambled from the bed and snatched up the baby, then paused as he saw the trousers being thrust at him in a silent scold. Not the first time a naked captain was running about, not the last.

Jack shucked them on and then headed for the bridge to fire the engines and possibly destroy the building Rhys was almost half way tough building.

Rhys.

Ianto reached out to hit the siren for a general alert, knowing the outside speakers of the vessel would sound and Rhys and the others would head inside before Jack could get the bitch off the ground and forgetfully leave them behind. Also… not the first time he did something like that… probably not the last.

He had a Ianto to fix things like that.