Writer
– James Moran
Director
– Colin Teague
Producer
– Richard Stokes
In the middle of the
night, Beth Halloran is awoken by noises coming from another room of their flat
at 114 Brodsky Gardens. She wakes her
husband Mike, who switches on the bedside lamp.
He reaches for the cricket bat just under the bed and goes to investigate
while Beth calls the police. As she
gives the police their location, Mike falls back in the room followed by the
burglars. Beth screams, dropping her
phone by the bed. She calls out for the
benefit of the police on the phone that there are two burglars. Mike is knocked to the ground.
“My
husband has been injured, send an ambulance.” Beth yells loudly. Beth tells the burglars to take what they
want in a hope they’ll leave quickly, but one of the men hears the voice on the
phone. The phone picks up the noises in
the flat as suddenly Beth cries out, the burglars panic, begging her to
stop. Beth continues to cry out as if in
pain, a burglar is heard to apologise and screams out in pain.
“Tosh,
what happened here?” Jack asks as
the SUV pulls up alongside a wrecked squad car, its roof caved in from the fall
of a burglar onto the roof. Paramedics
are on the scene.
“Two
IC one males, one fatality, one seriously wounded,” she replies as Jack and
Owen step from the SUV for a closer inspection.
“after a fall from a 5th
floor window onto a police vehicle.”
Jack glances up at the
window as Owen inspects the injured burglar.
“Bloody
hell.” He exclaims. He looks to see if he’s been stabilised. Jack instructs Owen and Gwen to go with the injured
man to the hospital.
“See
if he says anything. Interview the wife
and husband while you’re there. Tosh
with me.” Jack instructs before
heading upstairs to the flat.
“Bit
weird this one.” Says the on duty
officer in the fluorescent jacket, waiting in the flat. “Might
be one of yours. Nobody saw or heard
anything, blah, blah, blah.”
Toshiko scans for alien activity.
“Usual,
don’t know why I bother asking anymore.”
“Thanks so much, we’ll take it from here, if
you wouldn’t mind stepping outside.” Jack replies courteously, guiding the officer
towards the door.
The officer stops short of the door to
continue his evaluation. “In my experience the husband did it.” He says.
“He’s looking for trouble,
expecting to be burgled.”
“Really.” Says Jack,
disinterested in the police officer.
“Yeah,
the only reason I can think of is the sports equipment around the bedroom.”
“Oh you should come around my place for a
game of hockey sometime.” Jack says, ushering the officer out of the
door and shutting it. Toshiko grins.
“Making
friends?”
Jack shakes his head. “Not
really.” Directing the attention
away from the officer he asks Tosh: “What
have you got?”
Toshiko glances towards the window summing
up. “No
glass inside the room so it was definitely broken out.”
Jack studies the dead burglar against the
wall with evident puncture wounds in his chest and body. Blood stains smear down the wall. “The
stab wounds were caused by a long narrow blade, which that isn’t.” Says Jack pointing towards the cricket bat on
the blood stained carpet. “No other weapons in the room could have
done this, so how the hell did they manage it?” Jack asks, stumped.
“The
husband was unconscious and the wife weighs less than I do, I can’t see how
either of them could do this.”
Toshiko says.
“When
you fear for your life, you’ll be surprised what you can do.” Jack replies.
In the hospital, Mike
lies in bed, a strip of plaster covering his head wound. Beth recounts the events of that night to
Gwen, while Owen takes swabs for blood splashes on Mike’s hands. The tests come back negative and the pair
leave.
“There’s
no trace of blood on their hands on either of them.” Says Owen.
“So
who did it?” Gwen asks.
“She
did obviously.” Owen says.
“Why
obviously?” Gwen asks.
“Well, look at her.”
Gwen peers around the curtain at the
couple, then looks back at Owen. “Yeah, I see what you’re saying, she’s
absolutely terrifying.”
“It’s always the one you least suspect.”
Says Owen. “They’re all in a room together, hubby’s out cold and somehow she
survives while two burglars get mangled.
She did it. She must have.”
“How?”
“I haven’t worked that bit out yet.”
“I see.”
“Alright
then Jessica Fletcher, whodunit?”
“The husband. His wife’s in danger, he keeps a cricket bat
under the bed, and we fill in the blanks from there.”
Replies Gwen.
“Right
ok, so he kills one man and he swallows the murder weapon and the gloves and
knocks himself out.”
“Something like that, yeah.”
Owen receives a call on his Bluetooth. “To be
continued.” He says raising his hand
to pause the conversation. He walks away
from Gwen pressing his ear piece.
“It’s
me, anything?” Comes Jack’s voice
through the earpiece.
“No, nothing. They’re completely clear.”
“Well
one of them did it, we’ve just got to figure out how.” Says Jack.
“Stay with the burglar, all night
if you have to and keep an eye on those two.”
“Ok, fair enough.”
Owen signs out.
“Tosh...” Jack shouts just before he’s cut off.
Owen returns to Gwen to relay the
information from Jack with a slight alteration.
“Er
that was Jack, he said you should stay with the burglar, all night if you have
to, yeah I know, and keep an eye on the other two.”
“Brilliant.”
She exclaims. “Oh, will you get me a coffee before you
go?”
“Yeah,
yeah of course, what are mates for?”
Owen says, glad he got out of that.
“You haven’t got a pound for the
machine?” He asks as the lights
fizzle out above them. “Hospitals fall apart before anyone fixes
them.”
Gwen hands him the coins for the coffee.
As the monitor gently
bleeps beside the bed of the injured burglar, Gwen’s eyelids become heavy and
she gives in to sleep. She snaps awake
as her empty plastic cup drops to the floor.
Gathering it up, she sees that the burglar is awake and staring at her,
petrified. She reaches over to calm him,
telling him he’s safe, and asks him who did this to him.
“The
woman.” He replies as his heart rate
rises to 100. “Keep her away from me.” He
begs before flat lining.
Inside the Hub
Interrogation room, Jack enters and removes Beth’s hood tossing it away. Slipping his hands into his pockets he stands
across from her while Gwen stands between them at the wall.
“Tell
me everything.” Jack insists.
“Where
am I? Where’s my husband?” Beth asks.
“He’s
safe.” Jack tells her.
“What
do you mean safe, what have you done with him?” Beth asks.
“Nothing yet.”
Jack presses his hands on the desk and leans towards Beth. “Tell
me what happened at the flat Beth, with you and Mike. How did you do it?”
“You
can’t treat people like this. I’ve been
burgled and attacked. I want a phone
call, if you’re charging me with something...”
“We’re
not charging you with anything, we don’t have to. And, there’ll be no lawyer, no phone calls,
just us and this room for as long as it takes.
NOW TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED?”
“I
told her.” Beth says looking at Gwen. Jack shoots Gwen a look.
Gwen lay out the photographs of the dead
burglar with the gruesome injuries sustained.
Beth looks away.
“LOOK
AT THEM.” Jack says raising his
voice. Beth looks back at the
photographs. “The second one just died in the hospital. ‘Keep her away from me, the woman in the
flat’, those were his dying words now WHY WOULD HE SAY SOMETHING LIKE THAT?”
“I don’t know, I swear.”
Beth replies emotionally.
“IS
IT MIKE, ARE YOU COVERING FOR HIM?”
The lights in the room grow brighter.
“No.”
The lights blow.
“Jack.” Gwen says. Jack gets up from the desk and leaves the
room, closing the door loudly.
“Beth,
we know these men attacked you and your husband. Now if you fought back people will understand
it was self defence.” Gwen says.
“I
promise! I promise I have no idea what
happened. All I know is it wasn’t
me.”
Jack storms through to
view the Interrogation from the window above.
Ianto restates Jack’s interrogation technique.
“Just
us... in this room...for as long as it takes.” He nods.
“Terrifying.”
“Really?” Jack smiles,
impressed.
“Absolutely! Shivers down my spine.”
“You
don’t look scared.” Jack replies.
“It...
passed.” Ianto confesses.
Jack balls his fist in
mock annoyance and growls at Ianto. He
strides over to Toshiko curious to see if anything has come up on the body
scan.
“Nothing
out of the ordinary.” She tells him.
“What
about the lights, power surge?” He
asks from his office.
“Nothing
from us. There was an electromagnetic
build up around her but I can’t see how she caused it.”
“Same thing happened at the hospital Jack.”
Owen confirms. “It can’t be a coincidence.”
“It’s her.”
Says Jack. “I know it is.” Sitting
upright in his chair he plans their next move.
“Ok, let’s do some tests and see
who or what we’re dealing with.”
Owen nods.
“I’m on it.”
“What
kind of tests?” Asks Beth as she
walks along the corridors with Gwen.
“Just
things to clear this all up, blood tests...”
“Blood tests?”
Beth is horrified. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Look,
I believe you,” Gwen assures her. “but this is our job. Something really strange happened at your
flat and we’ve got to make sure you’ve got nothing to do with it.”
“I didn’t.”
Beth says.
“Then
you’ve got nothing to worry about.
They’re doing these tests whether you like it or not Beth. Don’t make this any harder on yourself. Come on.”
Gwen says softly.
Gwen takes her past the
Armoury and into the main hub area where Beth stares in wonderment at the
interior of the building.
“This is where you work?”
“Yep, cosy isn’t it?”
Gwen smiles.
“Who
are you people?” Beth asks staring
upwards. “Do you have any windows?”
“It wouldn’t really be in keeping with the
whole secrecy thing, people looking in, you know.”
Beth sniffs the yellow rail around the
water tower as Ianto interrupts her.
“We
don’t sniff the subetheric resonator.”
Beth apologises as Gwen
shakes her head at Ianto.
“It’s
so big it’s crazy.”
“Yep.”
“I suddenly feel very very small.” Beth says.
“Come
on, let’s just get these tests done then we can get home ok?” Gwen calls for Owen.
Owen, donning his medical
lab coat with several pop badges, removes the cap of the syringe in his
hand. As Beth sees this, she tenses, so
much so that as Owen attempts to break the skin, he only manages to break the
tip of the needle. Jack calls over at
Owen’s apparent confusion.
“What?”
“Needle snapped.”
“Haven’t you got a nurse to do this stuff?”
Beth asks.
“He’s
a doctor.” Gwen tells her.
Undeterred Owen lifts another needle and
attempts again to carry out the blood test, but once again, the needle breaks. Beth doesn’t find this very amusing. When Owen raises a scalpel, she gasps with
fear.
“What
are you doing?”
“Bear with me.”
Again the same happens. There’s
no explanation for it. “When
was the last time you were in hospital Beth?” he asks.
“I
don’t remember, I don’t think I ever have, why what’s wrong with me?”
“Operations? Check ups?”
“No, nothing.”
“When
was the last time you felt ill, had a cold? Anything?”
“I don’t think I have, I take a lot of
Vitamin C.” She tells him.
Owen stares at his broken scalpel before
dumping it back on the tray. “Hell of a lot I reckon.”
“Ok Beth, you make light bulbs blow, we
can’t break your skin, what planet are you from?”
Asks Jack impatiently.
Beth laughs lightly. “Earth.”
“STOP WASTING OUR TIME WE KNOW YOU’RE AN
ALIEN.” Yells Jack.
“There’s
no such thing as aliens.” Beth
replies.
Dragged by her arm into
the cells, Jack introduces her to Janet, the resident alien.
“Beth
– Janet, Janet – Beth!”
“What is it?”
“It’s an alien, you know that coz you’re one
too.”
“No I’m not, I work in an office.”
Beth defends.
“Why
do you give off electromagnetic waves? WHY?” Jack demands.
Beth tearfully cries out. “I
don’t know. Why are you doing this?” She begs as Janet stalks close to the
glass. “I want Mike, I want to go home.”
Janet recoils from Beth
and lowers its head, edging back towards the back of the cell, whining in a low
tone. Jack looks from Beth to the Weevil
curiously.
“Why
is it doing that?” Beth asks.
“I
don’t know, it’s never done it before.”
Jack replies, equally as curious.
“This is real isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t, I don’t know about my skin or any
of that other stuff. How can I prove it
to you? How can I prove it to you that
I’m not an alien?” Beth asks.
Jack looks back at Janet cowering
submissively at the back of the cell as he considers this.
Ianto wheels in a metal
chair while Jack carries through a metal box and looks directly at Toshiko at
her work station. He lifts out the mind
probe head wear.
“You
said we weren’t allowed to use that again.”
She says.
“It’s
just a mind probe.” Jack insists.
Behind him Ianto stops what he’s doing and stares in horror at Jack.
“Remember
what happened last time you used it?”
“That was different.”
Jack replies while Ianto returns to the task in hand. “That
species had high blood pressure.”
“Oh right, their heads must explode all the
time.” Ianto replies.
Gwen is horrified.
“Jack,
you can’t do this, what if you’re wrong.
If she’s human it could kill her.”
“I’m not wrong.”
Jack replies confidently. “We have to find out what she is.”
“Take it easy Jack, stop at the first sign
of trouble.”
“Or the first sign of exploding.”
Replies Ianto.
Jack folds his arms and instructs Gwen to
bring up Beth, as Ianto demonstrates the effects of the chair. Jack calls for him to stop. Owen looks on shaking his head.
Beth is secured in the
chair by leather buckled straps on her wrists, by Toshiko, who checks to see if
they’re tight enough.
“Are you sure this is safe?”
Beth asks Gwen, who nods her assurance, although seriously doubts her
answer. “Just try not to kill me or anything ok?” Beth jokes, while Owen and Toshiko prepare
for the test.
“You’ll probably get dehydrated during the
probing.” Ianto says holding out a bottle of water with
a straw. Beth takes a small sip.
With a nod from Jack,
Owen places the metal probe on Beth’s head.
It lights up. Toshiko types in
the commands for the program. She nods
to Jack when she’s ready.
“The
probe digs down to your sub consciousness, if anything’s hidden, it’ll pop to
the surface.” Toshiko explains.
“Will it hurt?”
“Yeah.” Jack replies.
“Your
bedside manner is rubbish.”
“You
should see his manners in bed, they’re atrocious, apparently.” Gwen replies receiving a glare from
Jack. “Least we’ve heard.”
“Well
they are. I remember this one time...” Confirms Ianto.
Jack clears his throat before more
confessions are revealed to the prisoner.
“Alright.” Says Gwen as she plops down in front of Beth,
hands resting on her knees. “Ready?”
“I suppose.”
“Ok, we’ll do this slowly. Tosh will control the probe, Owen will ensure
you’re in no danger.” Owen and Jack exchange glances. “Ianto
will have more water if you need it, and I’ll be right here, ok?”
“What about him?” Beth says looking to Jack. “What
does she do?”
“I’ll be watching.”
Jack smiles.
“Are you ready Beth?”
The test begins. Toshiko keys in the commands on her computer
and the probe begins to dig into Beth’s mind, searching deeper and deeper
opening up channels. Beth cries out at the
pain. “Human.” She cries through
gritted teeth. The probe deepens its
search.
“Who
killed the burglars, Beth?” Jack
asks stepping closer.
“I don’t know, I don’t...oh...my...”
“Safe.” Owen says
monitoring her stats.
“What
planet are you from?” Jack asks
again.
“I’m human.”
Beth replies gasping as the vessels expand. “Oh my
god it hurts, please stop.” She
begs.
“Go
deeper.” Jack insists.
“Are
you sure?” Toshiko asks.
“DO
IT.” Jack yells.
The pressure in Beth’s head continues to
bear down on her.
“Her
vital signs are all over the place but she’s still safe.” Owen assures Jack.
“Getting
electromagnetic build up again.”
Toshiko says as the lights become extremely bright in the room.
“Who
killed those men?”
“I don’t know, make it stop!”
Beth begs.
Gwen can’t bear it any longer and insists
Jack stops. Jack doesn’t listen and
instructs Toshiko to probe deeper.
Toshiko isn’t enjoying it and feels uncomfortable. The vessels are torn, the lights are
brightening and an alarm signals somewhere in the room. The team are really concerned for Beth’s
welfare. Eventually it’s all too much
for Beth and she collapses forwards. For
a few moments she doesn’t move, then sits up and back, eyes open staring trance
like, her wrists facing upwards, her right
arm lights up with five red circles of light through a skin ripple of shell
like proportions, to reveal an alien implant that the team have never seen
before, except for Jack.
Gwen advances for a
closer look but is held back by Jack, suggesting she’s close enough.
“Toshiko,
what happened?” He asks.
“It
hit a hidden compartment, locked away.
She couldn’t have been aware of it.”
“Who are you?”
Jack asks taking a step closer.
“Kayehla
janees, putaak graszh, ish nin fas du hap vac nal.” Alien Beth replies.
“Where are you from?” Jack asks.
“Kayehla janees, putaak graszh, ish nin fas
du hap vac nal.”
“How do you like my boots?”
Beth studies the boots and repeats herself. Jack snatches up the scanner and runs it over
Beth’s arm.
“Jack, what is it, what is she saying?” Gwen asks for the team.
“Name,
rank, serial number, and that’s all she’s gonna say.” He tells her.
“How
do you know?” Toshiko asks.
“Because I know who she is and why she’s
here.” Jack replies.
“Switch off the probe.”
As the probe is switched off, Beth returns
to her human self, her arm returns to normal and she has no knowledge of what
had just occurred.
“You
weren’t lying, that really hurt.”
Looking up towards Jack, Beth hopes for news. “Did
you find anything?”
“She’s a sleeper agent.”
Jack tells the team a while later in the boardroom. “It
all clicked when I saw the implant.”
“Sleeper agent, who for?”
Owen asks.
“No-one
knows very much, they don’t make survivors.
Official designation is Cell 114.
They infiltrate planets, adapting their bodies, gathering intelligence,
sometimes for years, watching until they’re ready to take over.” Jack tells the team.
“Okay,
that’s creepy.” Says Gwen.
“If
we’re lucky, she’s the first.” Says
Jack. “They send an advanced guard to gather intel, given false memories, so
they blend in. She has no idea she’s not
human. Her real cell must have taken
over briefly, killed burglars, self preservation. The point is,” Jack continues, “by the time they attack, they know every single thing about the
planet.” Jack gives up the floor to
Toshiko.
“The
implant gathered information normal x rays don’t show, setting a false image, but
all this data stored inside it.”
Toshiko said glancing at the monitor behind her showing images of past
Earth history, from wars to nuclear explosions.
“This is a forcefield generator.” She says showing the team the program on her
laptop. “It’s an impervious layer above the skin, just a nanometer thick. That’s why you couldn’t get the needle in.” She tells Owen.
“Right
well...” He says about to launch into a comment as he sees images of
personnel ID’s cast up on the screen. “God, look, they even know about us.”
“They
know more about this place than I do.”
Says Ianto, slamming his fist on the table. “Nobody
knows more than I do.”
“What if there are more of them, what do we
do about this?”
“For a start...” Jack speculates. “I
think we should tell her.”
Beth watches from the
play back from the cells and can’t believe what she is seeing.
“Can you turn it off please?”
Gwen turns it off. Beth stares at
her hands. “So I killed those men?”
“Yep.” Says Jack.
“And
I’m a mass murdering alien?”
“Yes!”
“My whole life, all my memories, they can’t
be fake? I know I love Mike and he loves
me.”
“He does, you do.”
Gwen replies, smiling lightly.
“So
what’s real?”
“They both are. When you both fell in love that happened.”
Gwen replies stepping towards the cell.
“Do you feel human?”
“Yes.”
“Well then you are. What makes us human is in our minds not our
bodies.” Gwen explains.
“What
happens when the disguise comes off? I
want to have kids one day, feel human, will I have enough for that?” Beth looks to Jack. “Can
you fix me, can you make me human?”
“No.
Eventually you will activate.
Your real memories will come back and Beth will disappear.”
“What do you mean, activate?”
“You will gather enough information, you’ll
send it back home and start the invasion.”
“There
must be something you can do. All this
technology...everything you do here. You
can’t keep me locked up next to that thing.” Beth cries.
“Are you going to kill me?”
“No.” Replies Gwen
quickly. “Of course we’re not.” Jack
shoots her a look.
“Have
you killed other aliens?”
“Only when we’ve had to.”
Admits Gwen. “When it was the last resort – kill or be killed.”
Beth gasps and takes a step back. She tries to calm herself but fails. “I
wish this wasn’t happening. I’d never
know... I’d just live a normal life.”
“Until the day of attack?” Jack says.
“I
won’t do anything. I’m not that person.” She begs Jack to believe her.
“I’m sorry but you are.”
He tells her before leaving the room.
Beth is beside herself, Gwen feels helpless. Gwen follows after Jack.
“We
can’t let her go, she’s too dangerous.”
Jack tells Gwen when they return to their workstations.
“We
could freeze her.” Suggests Toshiko. “Using
alien cryogenics. Wake her up when we
figure out how to stop her memories from coming back.”
“Freezing her for how long?”
Gwen asks.
“For
as long as it takes.” Toshiko
replies. “At least she’d be alive.”
“Her
implant will still gather information.”
Jack points out.
“Can’t
we deactivate it?” Gwen asks Jacks.
“I
can isolate the transceiver and fry it with an E.M. pulse. Right now it’s not sending or receiving
anything, I’ve checked it five times on every frequency.”
“Won’t that let them know we’re onto them?”
Owen asks while spraying a potted plant.
“No.” Confirms Toshiko. “If we
freeze her, she’ll never activate and they’ll never know.”
“What about her husband?”
Owen asks.
“She’d
have to disappear completely.” Jack
says. “No goodbye’s.” He says,
turning to Gwen before leaving the room, leaving them chance to reflect.
As Gwen brings Beth
through from the cells, Jack following after them, Beth talks about a weekend
away with Mike, her husband.
“Am I
ever going to see him again?” She
asks.
“No.” Gwen replies just as Beth feels a sharp blast
of pain and sees disturbing images flashing through her mind from the burglary
at the flat. Jack supports her as she
falls back.
“Oh
those men.” She gasps realising she
really was the culprit. “What’s happening?” A big red mushroom cloud flashes in her mind
terrifying her.
“The
real memories are coming back, destroying the fake human persona. The sooner we do this, the better for
everyone.” Jack explains.
Owen pulls out the heavy
cryogenic chamber from the wall.
“Answer
me something...” Beth asks as she
lies contained on a bed. “If you can’t figure out how to keep me
human, then don’t wake me up, just turn the machine off.”
“That’s not a promise I can keep.”
Gwen tells her.
Beth looks up towards Jack as he enters
the room. “I’ll bet you can!” She says
to him. “Just don’t let me hurt anyone.”
“You’ve got my word.”
Jack promises.
“It’s
funny.” Beth says. “I’ve
always had this nagging feeling that I didn’t fit in. So desperate to have a more exciting life.”
“I’m
going to hit the transceiver with an E.M. Pulse.”
“You won’t feel anything I promise.”
“It will take out your forcefield generator
I’m afraid, so I’ll have to take out them both.”
Toshiko says calmly holding the device for this purpose.
“Do
it.” Beth advises. “I
don’t want to be invincible.”
“After
that, I’m going to sedate you, and we’ll freeze you.” Owen tells her.
“It’ll
be just like going to sleep.” Gwen
assures her.
“Only a bit colder.” Owen
adds.
“Bye
Gwen.”
“Bye.” Gwen
replies.
Jack looks on as Toshiko runs the E.M.
pulse over the transceiver allowing Owen access to inject the sedative in order
to proceed with freezing Beth. Unbeknown
to anyone, the monitor displays the implant pulsing displaying three active
cells.
David and his wife enjoy
banter in their kitchenette as he recalls his tales for the day. He pours his wife a drink and sets about
making one for himself when something distracts him. As he pulls up his sleeve, his implant
reveals itself, giving him details of where he needs to be. His wife calls to him but he doesn’t
hear. As he walks to the door, she calls
him back.
“David,
you’re scaring me, what you doing, what’s happening? Come back?”
David returns only briefly to snap his
wife’s neck before leaving.
In the street outside
Mimosa’s bar, two paramedics deal with an unconscious male. While the dark haired paramedic disappears to
the front of the ambulance the blonde haired paramedic is seen to carry out CPR
on the male on the ground. Without
warning he leaves the patient as his arm reacts to the implant. He walks away from the body and the
ambulance.
A young mum pushing a
pram along a pedestrian walkway also stops what she’s doing, turning her
attention to her arm and away from the pram as it careers towards traffic.
Beth is sedated and lies
inside the cryogenic chamber.
“It’s done.”
Owen says, setting the data on the computerised screen just below the
viewing window on the chamber. “I’m
sending her down to the bottom.” He tells
Gwen sitting on the walkway above him, she gets up and follows the chambers
journey, while Owen feels some regret at the chore.
Downstairs, Ianto pushes
the chamber into its final resting place, drawer 007 and locks it securely
while Gwen observes. They walk out of
the room arm in arm.
Inside the 007 a very
chilled Beth lies in stasis, the monitors showing her body very much sedated
and frozen but after a few moments her eyes snap open.
As Gwen returns to her
workstation, the lights flicker and dip, a security alarm signifies trouble,
yet the details regarding Beth appear normal.
Jack calls out across the workstations.
“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?”
When Gwen patches into the downstairs
crypt, she sees the door to 007 is open and empty. She can’t believe it. “Beth’s
gone.”
“I thought she was frozen.”
“She was, all her vitals were at zero.”
Yells back Owen.
“Checking
systems command history.” Toshiko
calls over.
“What
is she doing? Is it a virus? A lockdown?”
“No, she just turned off the lights.”
“What is it with her and light bulbs?”
Jack growls.
The lights come back on.
“She
went through the tunnels.” Toshiko
announces locating the images.
“Time
to change the locks again.” Ianto
says.
“I
don’t know.” Jack ponders. “She
knew everything about this place, it was all on her arm, the tunnels, layout,
security codes. She could have shut us
down, blown us up, anything.”
“Well she didn’t.”
“No, I swear she was frozen.”
Says Owen.
“Tosh,
you turned off the transceiver?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure?” Jack asks.
“I
was until you asked.” She replies.
Jack’s hopes fade. “Unless it was another false image.”
“Hang on.” Owen says
glancing back at the screen behind him. “Everything about her was a lie; all of her
vital signs were a false image. She can
fool the equipment, tell it what we’re expecting to see, so she gets scared, so
it projects an increased heart rate, so we freeze it and it does the opposite.” He explains.
“Assimilating
that much information would need a huge amount of energy. No wonder she had a big electromagnetic
field.”
“Well
that’s why the lights blew every time she got upset.”
“So what is she doing, did we activate her?”
“She couldn’t be activated we’d all be
dead. We took her off the network.”
Jack says before realising. “She has some other agenda.”
Beth sits beside Mike as
he wakes in his hospital bed.
“Hi,
how are you feeling?”
“What’s going on?"
He asks. “Nobody will tell me anything.
You alright?”
Beth nods.
“I’m fine. Listen, you know I love you.” She says, “Don’t you?”
“Of course I do.”
He laughs. “I love you too.”
“I
have to go away.” Beth explains that
it’s for his own good, but Mike doesn’t understand why and sits up in the bed.
“What
are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry, I have to stay away from you, if
I don’t, I’m going to hurt you.” Mike doesn’t understand how his loving
wife could say such things. “Whatever happens just know that I love
you.” She tells him tearfully. “And I
always will.”
“If you’ve done something, I don’t care,
just don’t leave me. We’ll get through
this.”
“No, not this time.”
She tells him. “I have to put things straight and I can’t
do that when I’m near you.” She
cries. “I love you too much.” Beth
cries against his shoulder, pulling him into an emotional embrace.
“I’m
not going to let you go.” Mike
replies just as tearfully. “I don’t care what it is, I just want
you...” Mike hears a strange
sound. “What was that?”
Beth isn’t sure. Suddenly Mike’s face is a picture of horror,
something pierces his body and he contorts in pain. As Beth pulls away from him, she sees her arm
resembles a large blade and it’s covered in blood. Mike’s white bed clothes are covered in blood
and an artery pumps blood across the sheet after being severed with the
blade. Beth is horrified at what is
happening to her. She presses the buzzer
on the bedside table for medical help and screams for attention, completely in
shock as her husband flat lines.
Jack and Gwen enter, weapons drawn.
“She’s
got a defence system built into her arm.” Jack says feeling for a pulse in
Mike’s neck. Beth feels light headed and
drops to the floor, allowing Gwen to run the E.M. Pulse device over her
affected arm, now only showing the original implant. “It’s
getting worse.” Says Jack, his
weapon trained on Beth. “She’s losing control, we need to contain
her fast.”
“Come
on Beth, we’ll take you back.”
Distraught at what she’s done to her
husband, Beth doesn’t want to leave him, but Jack lifts her to her feet, and
with help from Gwen, walks with her towards the exit of the hospital.
“So what else happened in school today?”
Patrick Grainger asks his daughter as she comes down the stairs in their
suburban house.
“Alex
has got a girlfriend.” She replies
teasing her little brother, carrying plates to the table.
“Have
not.” The boy shouts, muttering
under his breath about what he’d like to do to his sister, as he carries the
plates over to his mum.
The doorbell rings,
Alien David waits patiently.
“Patrick
Grainger?” He asks as the man of the
house opens the door.
Mrs Grainger takes the dinner plates from
her son and asks him not to kill his sister.
Alien David extends his
hand towards Grainger, a hand that becomes a weapon, that retracts before
jerking forward as if on a spring and punctures Grainger’s stomach more than
once. As the family enter the lavish
hallway, Mrs Grainger is horrified to see a man with blood spatters on his face
push her husband backwards into the hall.
She has already seen the bloodied stain through his back, as have her
children, before she shields their eyes from further violence. She calls for the man to leave her husband
and not hurt her children. As Grainger
falls to the ground, Alien David punctures the man’s body several more times
before leaving.
A petrol tanker swerves
beneath a fly over and pulls to a halt.
The paramedic climbs out. A ‘road
rage’ driver behind him yells to him to shift the lorry, just as the paramedic
pulls a star shape device from his implant and attaches it to the tanker he’s
driven. The ‘road rage’ driver doesn’t
need a lesson in physics to know what the paramedic is planning, and makes a
run for it.
Jack, Gwen and Beth are
almost out of the hospital. Jack comms
Toshiko to tell her they’re on their way back when a massive explosion rips
through the hospital showering people in the corridor including the trio with
debris and shattered glass, they’re knocked to their feet.
“You
ok?” Jack calls to Gwen.
A little shaken, Gwen answers as she
glances over her shoulder. “I think so, yeah.”
“What
the hell was that?” Jack wonders.
Toshiko glances at the
monitor back at the Hub. “Petrol tanker, looks like someone wants to
take out the A4 link road for some...no, it’s not the road,” She corrects
herself, “It’s an underground fuel
pipeline, a special supply for the military.” She tells Owen. “They
use for emergencies.”
“Not
anymore, hold on.” Says Owen. “I’ve got reports coming through...Patrick
Grainger has been murdered.” He says
reading off the screen. “In with the Council, stabbed seven times
in the chest and once in the head, sound familiar?”
Back on their feet and
heading for the exit, Gwen asks Owen about Grainger.
“Why would anyone want to kill him?”
“Also
the city co-ordinator, takes charge, in case the city has emergencies, has all
the security protocols.” Ianto calls
over.
“How
do you know all that?” Owen asks
amazed.
“I
know everything.” He says before
adding, “and it says so on the bottom of
the screen.”
“They’re putting all the pieces in place.”
Says Jack unburdening himself of Beth.
“Gwen take her.” He says stepping out towards the SUV.
The young mother makes
her way along the street towards the Telecommunications Switching Station &
Mobile Switching Centre with a shell-like incendiary device in her hand, within
moments of entering; a huge explosion rips through the building, blowing
pedestrians nearby off their feet, causing massive disruptions, and killing the
entire network.
At the hospital Jack and
Gwen’s Bluetooth squeals before it stops working.
“Tosh?” Jack strides back
to Gwen and Beth, angered by this. “It’s not just her, she’s part of a cell,
and they’ve activated. It’s
happening...TELL ME HOW TO STOP IT.”
“It can’t be...”
“THINK!”
“Beth, look at me.”
Gwen says calmly but firmly. “LOOK AT ME! How do we stop this?”
“I don’t know...I don’t...”
Beth replies emotionally distressed.
“I’m cut from this side, I don’t
know what the mission is I’m sorry.”
“What about your implant, how did you get
out of Torchwood?”
“The technology I suppose, I can switch it
on, I can use it to...”
“Can you do that now?” Beth
shakes her head. “You can trace the other cell!” Gwen
pleads.
“No,”
Beth sobs. “What if it goes wrong?”
“Beth other people will die, not just Mike.”
Controlling her emotions as best she can
Beth prepares to locate the other cells, placing her hand over the transmitter
that allows her to gain access to the others.
She gasps. “There’s only one left.” She
nods. “I can track him.”
“Let’s
go, come on.” Says Jack hauling Beth
to her feet and to the SUV where they leave immediately.
Pulling up in a street
lined with parked cars, Jack hops out.
He has an idea.
“No,
I can’t just hook something up.”
Toshiko says as if for the umpteenth time of Owen asking. “The
entire telephone network is down.”
“What about...a mobile connection?”
He asks holding his phone towards the laptop.
“THE
ENTIRE NETWORK IS DOWN.” She
reiterates.
“Mobiles,
landlines, tin cans with bits of string, everything, absolutely everything, no
phones, all broken.” Ianto says
demonstrating with his hand as a telephone.
“Hello, anyone there? No because
the phones aren’t working.”
“What’s
that?” Asks Gwen as Jack appears at
the window with a roll of duct tape in his mouth.
“CB
Radio. They knocked out the phones but
they can’t knock out the radio waves.” He
says securing the radio aerial to the wing mirror on the driver’s side. “Not
yet anyway.” He casts a glance
towards Beth.
“What
about we try...” Owen suggests refusing to believe in this day and age that
there’s absolutely no way of re-connecting to the outside world.
“There
is no way of getting in touch with Jack, no way.” Toshiko says, just as a crackle of static and
a tinny voice calls from Jack’s office. “Jack!”
Toshiko runs to answer it. “Thank god, what happened?”
“There’s a Cell, its active.”
He tells her as he drives. “Four including Beth, two are dead, we’re
tracking the last one. If we can get him
before he does anything, we can stop this.”
He says confidently.
“What
can we do?” Toshiko asks.
“He’s
heading for an abandoned farm just outside of the city, I need to know what’s
out there.” Jack tells her.
David keys in the
details in his implant.
“Where the hell’s he going?”
Owen ponders as he stares at the projected map on the wall. “There’s
nothing there.”
“Nothing on the surface.”
Toshiko confirms, delving deeper into records.
“He’s nearly there, we need to hurry.”
Beth calls from the back seat, her hand still over her arm.
“Yeah! Hurrying thank you.”
Jack replies, rather sarcastically.
“What
happens if it starts there?” Gwen
asks.
“How
did you get involved in heavy weapons?”
Jack asks glancing in his rear view mirror at Beth.
“I
don’t know.” She replies. “We
just have this arm stuff.”
“How did you manage to take over so
quickly?” Gwen asks her.
“I don’t
know. I didn’t even know how to use this
thing until today.”
David arrives at a
Minefield Testing Ground full of razor wire fencing and large KEEP OUT
signs. He ploughs through the red and
white road barrier and trespasses on private land.
“This
is as far back as they go, there used to be a coal mine in the cliff, the army
sealed it off in the ‘40’s, doesn’t say why.” Says Ianto reading from a book as he walks
above them in the Hub.
“I’ll
see if I can get into the military files.” Says Toshiko applying herself to the
task. “Come on guys, “ she smiles hacking her way in, “it wasn’t even difficult.”
She accesses Authorisation code 3769416.
“You disappoint me.” She says smugly.
“It’s
almost obscene how you break into a security system.” Ianto says, inwardly impressed.
“Oh
god.” Toshiko exclaims when she
discovers the truth. Owen holds up the
CB two way radio for her to talk to Jack and Gwen.
“What
is it?” Says Jack.
“Mine
shaft.” Toshiko stares at the
detailed images on her screen. “The military are using it for storage of
warheads...ten of them. Nobody is
supposed to know, not even us.” She
says with an air of disgust.
“That’s how it starts.”
Gwen realises.
“No
heavy weapons.” Jack replies.
“See
they don’t need any. They use ours
against us.”
“We
left the key under the door mat, all we need is for you to take over.” Jack realises.
“Please
tell me you know how to stop this?”
Toshiko asks with a worried tone.
“We’re
going as fast as we can, if we don’t, we won’t feel a thing. We’re in the centre of the blast radius.” Jack replies.
“That’s
comforting.” Toshiko says in a small
voice.
“Come
on, have a little faith. With a dashing
hero like me on the case, how can we fail?”
He says in a jolly voice, despite failing to convince Gwen.
“He
is dashing, you have to give him that.”
Ianto admits after a moment’s silence.
“And what if they can’t stop it?”
Owen says silencing the radio connection.
“They’ll
stop it.” Toshiko assures him,
smiling lightly.
“Yeah
but what if they can’t.”
“Then it’s all over.”
Ianto says solemnly.
“Let’s
all have sex.” Owen adds finally.
“And
I thought the end of the world couldn’t get any worse.” Ianto sighs.
Thundering towards their
destination David nears the site, while the SUV has some distance to go. David pulls up amidst cries of STOP from the armed soldiers ahead of
him.
“GET
OUT OF YOUR VEHICLE, NOW!” David
complies after a soldier orders him to do so from a dug-out up ahead, other
soldiers get into position, including one soldier running to the back of the
vehicle, apprehending David from behind.
David pulls the soldier over his soldier and slams the blade through his
stomach. With his force field in place
the bullets merely puncture his shirt but don’t enter his body. Using the weapon left by the dead soldier, he
fires at the soldiers who are killed where they stand.
The SUV drives on
through the destroyed barrier into the abandoned site, searching for the last
Cell, while David continues to gun down the soldiers. Arriving at the checkpoint, David uses his
knowledge already taken from the stabbed soldier and that of Patrick Grainger
to key in the access code details to open the silo’s ready to launch the attack. As the lights change from red to green, Area
4 has been unlocked.
“Have you thought this part of the plan
through?” Gwen asks as they locate David.
“It’s
not going to be pretty.” Jack
says. “Brace yourself.” He says,
spotting the target up ahead.
“How
are you going to stop him?” Gwen
asks.
“Like
this.” Jack replies, slamming into
the alien, knocking him to the ground.
Jack slams the brakes on and jumps out as the alien attempts to continue
his mission and crawls as best he can with damaged lower half. Jack runs over to him and physically pulls
David over, pulling his revolver out.
“This
wasn’t supposed to happen today.”
Jack says as Gwen grabs the E.M. Pulse device to fry the
transmitter. “How do we stop it?” Jack growls,
his weapon trained on the alien on the ground.
Suddenly David’s arm takes the position of the blade weapon and as Jack
calls to Gwen, David plunges the blade through Jack’s chest, inches from his
heart. Painful as it is, knocking the
wind from him, Jack knows he has to focus.
Gwen continues with her task of frying the
transmitter but it takes time.
“Gwen?” Jack grimaces.
“It
doesn’t matter.” David says. “You
can’t stop us. We know what your
weakness is, we know who you are Jack Harkness, we know about you and
Torchwood.” He says as Jack’s pain
increases. “We got a lot of information before you switched her off.” David tells him, nodding towards Beth. “You’ll
be factored into our plans.
“GWEN?” Jack struggles
against the pain.
“I’ve
got it, he’s done.” She says
finally, getting out of the way.
Jack forces himself up, allowing the blade
to slide from his body, leaving alien David completely vulnerable.
“Don’t
bother, your transmitter’s dead, and so is your forcefield.” Jack tells the alien.
“You’re
lying.” David replies.
“Oh yeah?” Jack fires a
fatal shot. “Factor that into your plans, now WHEN ARE THE OTHERS COMING?”
“They’re
already here.” David says, holding
open his hand to reveal a shell like bomb counting down. “I
won’t let you take me.” He says.
“RUN.” Jack orders Beth and Gwen and runs with them
away from the buildings. An explosion
blows David apart but brings no danger to the buildings. Disaster averted.
“It’s done.”
Owen says much later in the Hub.
“I
don’t like it, I’m not happy.”
Toshiko replies storming from Jack’s office under a cloud.
“It’s
alright, you don’t have to.” Jack
laughs pulling on a fresh shirt. He
catches Ianto looking over curiously concerned and returns to his office
shaking his head. Ianto carries the CB
radio antennae and exits. Gwen heads
off in search of Beth, while Toshiko returns to her workstation.
In the hothouse Beth
stares at the plants in their own little eco system.
“We’ve
set up the cryogenics when you’re ready.”
Gwen says, breaking the silence.
“Will
it work this time?” Beth asks.
“Toshiko
has reconfigured the casket, working it around the implant, so no more false
images.”
“If we’d been one minute later.”
Beth still can’t believe how close they had come to seeing the end of
the world.
“We
weren’t. We stopped him!” Gwen tells her.
“And
what happens when you have to stop me?”
Beth asks. “If that freezing doesn’t work?”
“It won’t come to that.”
“I can feel it coming.”
Beth says, her hand over her implant, hiding the red lights. “It’s
pushing me out. What will you do if I
lose the last bit of me?”
“We will figure something out Beth.”
“No, we won’t!” Beth
says. “I’m too dangerous for that, we both know.” She walks towards Gwen. “Do
you have someone, at home?”
“A fiancé.”
Gwen smiles.
“Have
you ever hurt them?”
“More than once, yes.”
“Remember
how guilty you felt?” Gwen
nods. “Imagine that, times a billion, all the time.” Beth tells her tearfully. “Every
second of the day, that’s how I feel now.
And the worst part is, when I turn back, I won’t feel guilty any more,
I’ll want to carry out my mission. I
won’t even care about Mike, I’ll forget all about him. I don’t want to die as one of those things,
Gwen. I don’t want to forget about
Mike.”
“Then
don’t. Let’s do this. Who knows what we’ll be able to do in a
month, a year?” Gwen says, offering
a shred of hope.
“Thanks
for being so good to me. Remember me,
the way I am now. Remember – Beth.” Beth shoots her bladed arm towards Gwen who
gasps with fright.
“Beth...Beth.” Gwen says terrified.
Beth makes a grab for Gwen, holding the
blade against her neck and shouts loudly to the team below, making her
stand.
“I’LL
NOT LET YOU FREEZE ME!” Toshiko
looks up from her workstation. “I’LL KILL YOU ALL!” Jack runs from his office brandishing his
weapon.
“LET
HER GO!”
Toshiko grabs her gun from her bag by the
computer desk and follows suit, as do the rest of the team.
“No,
wait, wait, wait, don’t shoot.” Gwen
pleads. “It’s a trick, she won’t hurt me, she won’t.”
“MOVE AWAY FROM HER NOW.”
Orders Toshiko, her gun raised towards Beth above them.
“EVERYBODY CALM DOWN.”
Jack orders. “Beth...”
“Beth.” Gwen says.
“You don’t want to do this. Let Gwen go.”
“I’ll
kill her first, then all of you, then the rest of your miserable species.” Beth yells aware only too well she’s signing
her own death warrant.
“Beth,
please, they will kill you. You have
proved you’re better than that, you’ve helped us stop the invasion, you can be
human...please, Beth.” Gwen pleads.
“Not
human enough.” Beth says,
tearfully. “Goodbye Gwen! Good luck!”
Beth raises her arm as
if to strike and is gunned down as she knew she would be, by Torchwood.
Jack and Owen race up the adjoining stairs
blocking the exits but Beth is well and truly dead, her blade separated from
her arm. Gwen sits beside her.
“She wanted you to shoot her. She used her last shred of humanity to do
this.”
“We
couldn’t take that chance.” Owen replies.
“She must have known.”
“She did.” Jack says. “She
just wanted to make it easier for us.”
He says holstering his weapon. He
holds his hand out to Gwen but she remains beside the body of Beth Halloran.
In the evening, Jack
admires the blade, while he sits at his desk in the Hub. He turns his head towards the door as he sees
Gwen standing there. She smiles
softly. Jack relaxes in his chair,
setting down the blade and rests his feet on the corner of the desk.
“Do
you think we stopped it?” Gwen asks.
“Maybe.” Jack puffs out
his cheeks. “Maybe we just put it off for a while, I
don’t know. We don’t know anything.” He admits.
“We
know plenty. We know about the
implant. We can disable a
forcefield. We know how they
attack. We know that they can be
killed. And while they think they have
the element of surprise, we know they haven’t, but until that day we just keep
doing what we do.” She says finally.
“Ohhhh!” Jack says, slipping his feet off the desk and
straightening up in his seat and adopting the accent of a pirate on the high seas. “They be fighting words they be Gwen.” They laugh.
“So,” changing the
subject. “have you set a date?”
“Oh please don’t get me started.”
Gwen groans. “My Mam’s already been on the phone saying ‘What about the local
church, and it’s ever so lovely and...”
“Gwen, go home.” Jack says already wishing he’d never
asked. “Keep doing what we do.” He
tells her. She nods; he nods back,
dismissing her for the night.
“Goodnight
Jack.” She replies as she leaves.
Sighing, Jack returns
his attention to the blade, turning it over in his hand.
The
End.
©BBC Torchwood 2006
Next
Episode – ‘To The Last Man.’
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