Stepping out of the lift that carried her down into the Hub, the first thing that hit Gwen was the sound of phones ringing. Given how few people were even aware of Torchwood's existence, that wasn't a good sign for the shape of the day ahead.
Not stopping to answer any, she found Ianto standing outside Jack's office. As always when he was frustrated with outside interference, their boss was pacing slightly behind his desk. From where Gwen was standing, it didn't look like Jack was getting much of a word in. She watched his lips.
'Yes, I understand… Yes sir, we're doing all we can…'
'Doesn't look good,' she muttered.
'First Minister for Wales was apparently a big fan.' Ianto didn't say who of. The answer was obvious. It wouldn't be the unnamed man in the park. 'As were several high-powered members of UNIT. We've had calls from both Manhattan and Geneva. They want to know if we've got a problem that we can't handle. Seems like everyone wants answers and fast.'
'What about the other body?'
'He's the same. Cutler's securing that scene now. Clothes and skin were fused as they were cut open. And just like Maria Bruno and the others, the vocal cords were gone.'
Gwen chewed the inside of her mouth. 'But no one would be causing all this fuss just for him or those three other poor sods, would they? How crap is that?'
Ianto shrugged. 'It's the way the world works.'
'Yeah, maybe, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. I want to get this bloody alien for all of them.' Biting her lip, Gwen tried to calm down. Snapping at Ianto was a tell-tale sign that she was getting emotionally involved in a case and, as much as she couldn't stop herself, she didn't want Ianto or Jack to see that it was getting to her.
'We all do, Gwen.' Ianto looked at her sideways. 'You think Jack is affected by celebrity? That he sees one victim as more important than another?'
Gwen stayed silent. Ianto was right. She couldn't blame him for the behaviour of the rest of the world. If anyone was untouched by its shallowness, then that person was Captain Jack Harkness. He'd seen too much. He was too different. Jack was, and she couldn't help but feel a tingle run down her spine, Jack was special.
On the other side of the glass, the subject of their conversation slammed down the receiver and flung open the door.
'Get those phones switched off. Now.' Striding past both Ianto and Gwen, Jack ran his hands through his hair. 'Jesus, I can't even hear myself think. If I have to say "yes sir" or "no sir" one more time today then I swear to God I think I'll shoot myself.'
Gwen glanced back at Jack's office and the old Second World War revolver that lay on his desk. 'So you think adding a headache to your problems will help us sort this mess out, then?'
Jack glared at her. 'Whereas you seem to think humour will?'
Her smile fell. Gwen could see that he was tired and his patience was wearing thin. While she'd been home with Rhys, he'd been here working.
'Sorry.'
He waved her apology away. 'Not your fault. Just too much bureaucracy for this time in the morning.' He took a deep breath and planted his hands on his hips.
Behind them, Ianto flicked a switch and the sound of telephones abruptly ceased. The Hub fell mercifully silent.
Jack finally smiled. 'Thank you.' He leaned against a workstation and let out a long sigh, his shoulders slumping slightly as they released some tension.
'Have you been working all night?' Gwen asked. Over by the coffee machine, Ianto set the water burbling.
'In the words of the great Lionel Richie, I have indeed been working all night long.' Jack looked up. 'But it was worth it.'
Both Ianto and Gwen stared.
'This isn't the time for a dramatic pause,' Gwen said finally. Her heart was thumping hard. 'What have you found?'
'I think I know who our alien is. Or at least where he comes from.'
Gwen looked over at Ianto and saw her own excitement reflected there. Five people were dead, and they hadn't been able to do anything about it. This was the first time they'd had anything that even resembled a lead.
Jack leaned over the large computer screen next to the Rift monitor. 'Come take a look.'
Ianto and Gwen leaned in on either side of him, and Gwen wondered if Ianto felt the same slight electric charge when his arm brushed against Jack's that she did. Probably. And probably a lot more. After all, their relationship was somewhat more intimate. For a moment her mind drifted, wondering not for the first time, how differently Jack would touch her from how he touched Ianto. Heat crept into her face and, frowning, she forced herself to focus on the screen. This really wasn't the time for that kind of daydream.
'What are we looking at?' she asked.
'This, my friends, is what the furthest corner of the known universe looks like.' Jack hesitated. 'Known to Earth, anyway.'
Beneath the gridlines marking out coordinates, the screen was filled with swirls of coloured gases and dark spots of various shapes that Gwen could only imagine were planets. Dotted more sporadically were brighter orbs. Suns.
'Isn't it amazing?' Jack's voice had taken on the hint of childish wonder and enthusiasm that Gwen had heard so much less of in recent months. It made her heart glow warm inside her. Her own sun. She looked over at the handsome man and he turned away from the screen for a second and grinned at her. Maybe he was their sun, she thought. And like the planets tugged in by gravity, once they'd been pulled into his orbit there was no real way out. Other than Retcon or death. And neither was a good option.
'So one of these planets is inhabited then?' Ianto asked. 'Which one?'
Jack laughed. 'Jeez, Ianto, all your years in Torchwood and that's the limit of your imagination?' He shook his head. 'There are thousands of planets on that screen, and hundreds of them are inhabited.' He grinned. 'And some of them are pretty good fun to visit.' He nudged the young man beside him. 'You'd love it. Beautiful boys, beautiful girls…' He paused, and shrugged. 'Well, near enough boys and girls. Humanoid at least.'
'Are we getting off the point here?' Standing back a little, Gwen folded her arms across her chest.
'Just giving you the full tour.' Jack's eyes narrowed. 'See here.' He pointed to the top left-hand corner of the flat monitor. This area of space was darker, the stars spread more infrequently and glowing less brightly as if fighting to stay burning against the blackness that threatened to swallow them up. Gwen could just about make out the occasional darker spot within the shadowy surrounds.
'Are those planets?' she asked, pointing one out.
'Uh-huh.' Jack nodded. 'And I think our alien comes from that one.'
He indicated a blur of darkness that was so far to the edge of the screen it was almost out of view.
'It doesn't look much like a planet,' Ianto said. 'Looks like a ball of gas.'
Gwen wasn't sure how Ianto could tell. Space was just space to her. It was only when it brought its business to Earth that she paid it any attention.
Jack stood up. 'That's because the planet itself is tiny, but it's wrapped in this black atmosphere. I'm not even sure it is gas. But whatever it is, it houses the inhabitants of the planet. They spend most of their time invisible in it, with no real form to speak of, each one simply a dark shadow lost in a cocoon of nothing wrapped around solid earth.' His voice was soft and serious. 'They choose to spend their lives disembodied and only re-form into their humanoid shapes in order to mate. It was thousands of years before anyone else in the galaxy even realised there was life on it.'
Ianto glanced at Jack. 'Well, we're looking for something that can change its shape and get through small spaces. I guess if one of these aliens were in its formless state that would fit the criteria. It would also explain some of the element of surprise. If it didn't take its solid shape until the last moment, there would be no time for the victim to call for help.'
'Exactly,' Jack said.
'They're not friendly then, on this planet?' Gwen asked. 'Although I suppose we can tell that from their habit of ripping out people's vocal cords.'
Jack shook his head. 'No, they're not friendly. But they're not unfriendly either.'
'How do you mean?'
'It's known as the Silent Planet. It doesn't have any other name because the creatures that live on it have no communication with the outside universe. They don't name themselves. Therefore they didn't name their planet.' He sighed. 'It's kind of a forgotten place. I'm surprised I even had it in the database. Must have been feeling thorough that day.'
'They don't have names?' Gwen looked at him. 'So how do they identify each other? Smell?'
Jack frowned and thrust his hands into his pockets thoughtfully. 'They don't identify each other. That's the point. It's known as the Silent Planet because there is no communication. They exist entirely contained within themselves from birth. There's no speech, no touch. Nothing. The idea of sharing their existence with another being is abhorrent to them.' His frown deepened. 'That's what the studies show at any rate. I mean, it's not as if you can just drop in and ask them. And even if you could then they wouldn't have a language to answer you with, so I'll take the researchers' word for it.'
'They never communicate with anyone at all?' For a moment Gwen tried to imagine how that would feel. The closest she could get was remembering a film she'd seen about a deaf, dumb and blind girl who'd eventually learned to read Braille and write. But even then she'd had touch. She had known other people. 'Must be lonely.'
'Guess it would seem that way to us. But it's the way they live. So to them it's perfectly natural. Our world would be a nightmare to them.'
The coffee machine gargled and spat the last of the boiling water through the filter and into the sizzling jug. Ianto was still staring at the screen as if the image would somehow force everything else to make sense, so Gwen went and poured, suddenly aware of every sound; the gentle thwump of her boots on the tiled floor underneath, the soft whisper of the milk hitting the base of the mugs, and then the clear tinkle of the metal spoon against ceramic as she stirred. They were noises that she almost didn't hear normally, they were just part of life. She tried to imagine silence — the non-existence of sound. She couldn't. Blowing her hair out of her face, she picked up the mugs and headed back. Ianto was still looking puzzled.
'So what happened? If our world would be such a nightmare to them, and I can see how it would be, then how did one of them end up here?'
Jack shrugged. 'What do we know about the Rift? It brings stuff to Earth that doesn't belong here. And sometimes it takes people away to where they don't belong as well.' He sipped his coffee. 'Maybe the Rift has opened up on the Silent Planet, or near it, and pulled someone through.'
'It still doesn't make sense.' Gwen's brow furrowed. 'Imagine if you were suddenly taken from that planet to this one where everything is about sound and communication. TV, radio, constant traffic noise, mobile phones…' She stretched her hands out as if to elaborate her point. Even in that movement there was communication. 'It would send any creature insane.'
'Maybe it is insane,' Ianto cut in. 'Maybe that's why it's killing people.'
Gwen shook her head. 'No, these deaths are too organised. If this creature was insane, it would just be charging through the streets of Cardiff ripping apart everyone it came across. This alien is selecting its victims specifically.'
'Singers.'
'Good singers,' added Jack. He looked over to Gwen. 'I think you're right. I'm not convinced that this alien is crazy. What it's doing might be crazy, but I don't think the essence of the alien is. Hell, I don't think it would even understand the concept.'
'Maybe the Rift didn't drag it through. Maybe it came through because it wanted to.' Ianto's eyes were back on the small dark corner of the screen that showed a place so very, very — impossibly — far away.
'It's a possibility,' said Jack. 'But one that we may never find the answer to, even if we do manage to catch this thing.'
Gwen looked up. 'And do we have a plan for doing that?'
'Ah…' Jack sighed and looked at his expectant team. 'Knowing what it is doesn't give us any help in finding it. The Rift activity only spikes pretty much immediately before an attack, which makes me think that this creature is somehow hiding just inside the Rift and only coming through when it's ready to kill.'
Gwen stared at Jack, and then glanced over at Ianto, whose face looked as surprised as she felt. 'Hiding inside the Rift? Is that even possible?'
Jack matched her gaze. 'You know as well as I do, with the Rift, anything could be possible.'
'So we're in exactly the same position we were in yesterday?' Ianto asked.
'No. We now know we can catch it. A portable prison cell will work on it, at least for an hour.'
'And then what will we do with it?' Gwen peered over the top of her coffee mug. 'Sing it a lullaby and send it back through the Rift?'
'Let's worry about that when we've caught it.'
'Which brings us back to the original question.' Ianto finally looked away from the screen and back at Jack. 'How are we going to do that?'
Jack's sparkling grin flashed. 'We're going to have to set a trap.' The sound of his mobile ringing pealed out from Jack's pocket and he groaned. 'Great.' Pushing away from the workstation, he took his coffee with him and headed back to his office. 'Gwen, I want you to get hold of Cutler and bring him in on this one. If we set a trap, I want it done with him in the know.'
'Are you sure?'
'Yeah.' Jack paused at his door and looked back over his shoulder. 'I read his file last night. I figure maybe Torchwood owes him.' The phone refused to go silent. 'Ianto, you get all the information from the crime scenes and see if there's anything we can use. Anything at all. Let's not lose any more people to this thing.'
Closing the door, he finally flipped open his phone. Gwen sighed and pulled out her own mobile to find out exactly where Cutler was. Up to his eyes in crap, she should imagine, just like Jack Harkness was.