THE HIVE

Chapter Seven

Jack sighed softly as he stood outside Jeremy Spencer's cell and stared at him. He had now lost all traces of humanity. All that was left was a gigantic wasp. A gigantic wasp that was extremely agitated. It had been trying for an hour to break out of the cell and had been hitting his body repeatedly against the plastic. Owen had recommended sedating him to prevent him from hurting himself, but Jack had a feeling that wasn't necessary. He could see that Jeremy's exoskeleton was rock hard and he was sure he wasn't even feeling the impact. He had spent the past half hour looking up facts about wasps on the internet and from what he could determine; the species of wasp Jeremy most resembled was the Yellow Jacket. The sites he looked at said that only the female wasps had stingers so that was one big difference between this species of wasps and Earth specimens.

He also found out that reproduction took place between males and the queen. But, he wasn't sure if this was the case with this species since it seemed they reproduced by stinging others. On the other hand, they could reproduce both ways and that scared Jack even more. If they could make wasps both by fertilization and mutation then they could overrun the Earth in no time.

There was one ray of hope however. He had read that wasps usually die out within a year including the queen. Then a new queen is selected from the females and the nest begins again. If that was true, then it meant that the colony would not last forever. But he wasn't sure if that applied to this species and if it did, it still meant the wasps would have a year to grow and rampage across the country before they died. He couldn't let that happened. These creatures had to be stopped before they hurt anyone else.

He noticed that Jeremy had finally stopped banging into the cell wall and was looking at him.

"Jeremy, can you hear me?" Jack said.

He cursed when he got no response.

"I can't save you now, Jeremy, but I promise I will stop the other wasps and prevent them from ruining any more lives." He said to him.

He sighed when Jeremy began to ram his body against the cell again.

"Owen's right, you need to be sedated before you kill yourself." He said.

He turned and started to walk away when he noticed Ianto running towards him.

"Police just called, there's been another stinging victim. They need you to get back to London as quickly as you can" Ianto said to him.

Jack shook his head and sighed. He put his hand on Ianto's shoulder.

"Keep an eye on Jeremy while we're gone. I'm gonna get Owen to sedate him before we leave and I'll leave you the tranquilizers. We'll be back as soon as we can."

Ianto nodded.

"Be careful." He said.

Jack smiled and squeezed his shoulder.

"You too."

He walked past him as Ianto stared sadly at Jeremy.

The Doctor knew something was up the moment he and Rose walked into the flat. Jackie was perched on the edge of the couch staring at them. He could tell she was hesitant to speak and he figured it was because Rose had gotten on her the last time she had ambushed him at the door.

"What is it, Jackie?" he asked her.

She hesitated.

"It's alright, just tell me what's wrong."

Jackie let out a sigh of relief.

"There's been another one. A woman this time. She was stung and taken to St. George's. It's been on the news for the past hour."

Rose looked at the Doctor and saw all the color drain from his face. She quickly took his hand when she saw the anguished look on his face. He staggered back and slumped against the wall.

"Doctor," Rose said concerned.

For a moment, she saw his eyes darken and she thought he was going to fly into a rage at his failure to protect this latest victim. Instead, he leaned back up from the wall and sighed sadly as he fought to compose himself.

"Come on, Rose, let's get back to the hospital before someone moves her." He said to her.

Rose nodded. She glanced over at Jackie who was staring at him sadly.

"We'll be back later, mum." She said.

"I'll fix something for you to eat when you get back." She replied.

Rose had the feeling that the Doctor was in no mood to eat, but he didn't say anything. His hand unconsciously found Rose's and she squeezed it giving him the comfort and strength she knew he needed. She noticed that he didn't look her way like he usually did when she did that. He just started walking back out the door determined to get to this woman before someone else did. Rose looked back at her mum and smiled at her before she went out with him and closed the door behind them.

"At last," the Doctor muttered as he and Rose got into the lift.

They had just reached the hospital and this time the woman, Monica Simpson, hadn't been moved. She was up on the third floor in the intensive care unit and this time he had managed to convince the receptionist to let them go up. They had walked past several police officers standing guard in the hallway and he showed the psychic paper to the ones who stopped him and asked for identification. When they finally got to the lift and reached the floor, he had shown the psychic paper to the head nurse and then he and Rose walked to the room.

He paused when he saw her lying strapped down in the bed. He could see that the change was already starting. Her skin was jaundiced and her eyes were black. Other than that, she was still human. He and Rose walked to her side and he smiled down at her when she looked up at him fearfully.

"Monica, I'm the Doctor, can you speak?" he asked.

"Help me, please help me." She said in a soft voice.

The Doctor felt his hearts tear in two. He smiled reassuringly and put his hand on his shoulder not wanting to tell her that at the moment he didn't know what to do to reverse the effects.

"Trust me, Monica, I will do everything in my power to help you." He said to her.

Monica smiled up at him taking comfort in that. Suddenly, she let out a scream and her body jerked as an agonizing pain ripped through her body. The Doctor looked at Rose and handed her the psychic paper.

"Go find a nurse. Tell her Monica needs a sedative. If they ask who you are, flash the psychic paper at them.

"Yes, Doctor," Rose said.

She ran out of the room as the Doctor turned his attention back to Monica.

"Monica, listen to me," he said urgently. "Just try to breathe normally. My friend is going to get a nurse, but you need to try to calm down. Do you understand?"

"Oh God, it hurts!" Monica screamed. "Please help me!"

The Doctor cursed under his breath as he tried to help her fight the pain.

Rose ran up to the nurse's station. She cursed loudly when she didn't see anyone there. She looked around, but she couldn't see any nurses or aides in the hallway. She took off down the hallway looking in all the rooms for anyone who could help.

As she ran past the lift, she didn't notice the door open and Jack and the Torchwood team get out and walk the other way towards Monica's room.

"It's this way," Jack said looking back at his team.

He reached Monica's room and paused as he looked in the room.

"What is it?" Gwen asked.

Jack looked back at them.

"Someone's in the room. He's wearing a trench coat and standing by the bed." He said to her.

"Probably a detective inspector or something." Owen replied.

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," Jack replied. "Ah well, he'll just have to get out of the way and let us do our job then. Just wait out here and I'll explain who we are."

The others nodded and waited by the door while Jack went inside.

The Doctor was staring down at Monica when he sensed someone coming in the room.

"Thank Rassilon, it's about time she got back." He muttered to himself.

He turned around expecting to see Rose with one of the nurses, instead he saw someone he hadn't expected to see in a million years. He froze in his tracks and stared at him with wide-eyed shock.

"Hi, Captain Jack Harkness," he said. "And you are?"

Back                         Home                              Doctor Who Main Page                          Next