THE HIVE

A/N: This chapter has a couple of small spoilers for Fragments, but nothing major.

Chapter Eighteen

The Queen was extremely frustrated. She had been trying for several hours now to seize control of the Time Lord's mind. But, no matter how hard she pushed, the Doctor pushed back and she kept finding herself hovering on the periphery of his memories, getting a tiny glimpse of his power and knowledge, but never fully able to access it. She had never had a problem accessing the human's minds before, but this Doctor was different, unique. And, it was that uniqueness that made her want him all the more.

She pushed off from her perch and flew over to his cell. She entered it and gazed at him. He was shaking and shivering, his eyes closed and his face scrunched up in agony. Two antennae had sprouted from his forehead and his skin was slightly yellow, but other that that, he still retained his humanoid form. She came towards him. She noticed he had shed his coat and jacket and they were lying behind him in a wad. She knew that her future subjects experienced hot and cold flashes during the metamorphosis, so she assumed he had stripped off the clothes when he had become overheated. She inched forward, keeping an eye on his face. She assumed the pain from the mutation must be unbearable by now, she could tell that from looking at him. Perhaps, she could try again to reason with him, convince him that the only option left for him was to surrender his mind to her and become one with the hive.

She concentrated and reached out once again into his conscious mind. She had flashes of memory, but nothing important. Mostly memories of his time with Rose and some glimpses of what he had been doing in the warehouse just before he had been taken. She tried probing deeper into his subconscious and once again, she was repelled. Buzzing angrily, she telepathically communicated with the Doctor.

Doctor, it is no use resisting any longer. You are only delaying the inevitable. Surrender your mind to me.

NO!

The Doctor's response was so forceful, the Queen's head jerked back. Angered, she buzzed furiously, wanting nothing more than to run her stinger through his hearts and be rid of him. But the temptation to control such a powerful being was stronger than her need to kill him.

She slowly backed out of the cell and flew back to her perch. She knew the Doctor couldn't hold control over his mind forever. With each passing minute, she was gaining more of a foothold into his brain and he was losing more and more of his identity. It wouldn't be much longer before he was her willing servant and then he would order him to find Rose and his friends and kill them.

Owen and Tosh were working in the laboratory. They looked up when Jack came into the room.

"Is Rose alright?" Owen asked.

"Yeah, she's got some bumps and bruises and her legs are scratched up, but she'll be okay. She's exhausted, so I put her on the couch, so she can take a nap. How about you two, have there been any breakthroughs?"

"Well," Owen said, "we've been studying a sample of Jeremy's blood that we took from him. We used a centrifuge to separate the blood we got and we've been looking at the DNA contained in the white blood cells. Most of his nucleotides had already mutated when we took the sample, but there was still some of his original genetic material left. We've been comparing the two and trying to formulate a way to change the wasp DNA back into human DNA. As far as we can tell, the wasp venom acts like a virus, attacking the DNA and mutating it. We've tried a couple of different things and have had some success altering the nucleotides back to their original state, but only for a short period. We're trying to figure out a way to make the change permanent."

"And are you close to doing that?"

Owen sighed and glanced at Tosh.

"We're making some progress," she said, "but it's been slow and tedious. It may take some time to perfect an antidote. Both of us aren't experts at doing this sort of thing."

"I understand that, guys, but you're gonna have to go faster. The Doctor and everyone else in that hive are counting on us."

"We're trying, Jack," Owen said, "but we can't go much faster. You can have it done quickly or you can have it done right, can't be either way."

"I understand, but the Doctor's life is at stake. It might be too late for some of the people the Queen has taken, but not him. I want you to be accurate, but you need to go faster before it's too late."

Owen sighed, angrily.

"I'm only one man and Tosh is only one woman. We are the only ones out of the five that can do this and we can't conjure up an antidote out of thin air; you'll just have to be patient."

Jack nodded. He knew Owen was right, but he still didn't like it. He knew his friend was strong, much stronger than any human was, but even he wouldn't be able to hold out forever. Watching Jeremy and Monica's transformation had been horrifying. It sickened him to think that the Doctor was undergoing the same transformation, far from the people who cared about him. He ran a hand through his hair. He wished he had enough scientific knowledge to be able to assist them. He was grateful to Owen and Tosh for tackling this and he knew they would keep working until they found a cure, but they weren't robots. Sooner or later, they would need to sleep and once they did, vital seconds would be lost. Knowing that his worrying wasn't doing anyone any good, he went off to find Ianto. Gwen had already gone home for the night and he wanted him to do the same. He had a feeling the wasps would not be back tonight, not when they had what they wanted. He was sure it was safe for him to go home now and he wanted him to, so he could try to get a good night's sleep. He wasn't any use to him or the others, half-awake.

He found Ianto sitting at his desk going over some papers.

"Ianto, go home," Jack said.

He looked at him.

"I don't want to."

"I'm ordering you to go home. There's nothing we can do tonight. If Owen and Tosh have a breakthrough, I will contact you and Gwen, but for now, I want you to go home and get some sleep."

"Sir, I want to…"

Jack laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Ianto, go," he said, firmly.

Ianto looked into his eyes for a moment and then nodded, reluctantly. Sighing, he rose from his chair.

"Thank you," Jack said.

Ianto gathered his papers into a pile and picked them up.

"Jack…I know that I haven't known the Doctor for as long as you have. But, I don't want this change to happen to him any more than you do. I know what Torchwood's mission statement says about him--"

"That is not our mission statement, though. Not anymore," Jack cut in, "It's true that when I first "volunteered" to work here, monitoring his activities, and capturing him was the main purpose. But when I…became head of Torchwood on New Year's Eve, 1999, I changed all that. The Doctor is not a threat, never was, never will be."

Ianto nodded.

"I know that now and he's been a great friend to us. This is why I want to help get him back to normal any way that I can."

Jack smiled.

"Then, you can start by getting some rest and recharging those brain cells of yours. Like I said, if we learn anything new, we will call you and Gwen, but until then, good night."

"Good night, Jack."

He and Jack shared a quick kiss on the lips. Jack squeezed his shoulder and watched while he grabbed his coat and went out the front door. Once the door closed, he turned and started to head back to his office. He paused when he noticed Rose was standing in the doorway, staring at him.

"Rose, I didn't realize you were there," he said.

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to walk around the Hub and look around," she said.

She came forward.

"You said Owen and Tosh are working on something, what is it?"

Jack put his hands on her shoulders.

"They've analyzed a blood sample we took from Jeremy and they're trying to use the information they found to make an antidote."

"Are they close to making one?"

Jack sighed.

"I'm not sure, Rose. They're trying their best, but neither of them are geneticists. They're using what they know, coupled with the Torchwood database, and probably looking up some information online, but they've told me that it's moving along slowly."

Rose sighed.

"Isn't there anyone you know who could help them out?"

Jack shook his head.

"Gwen doesn't know about genetics and neither does Ianto. I know a little bit, but not enough to help them out. The only other person I know of who could help them is the Doctor."

Rose walked around in a circle.

"And the only thing I can think of that might help is the TARDIS, but the TARDIS is in a warehouse somewhere in London and I don't know how to read Gallifreyan, so we couldn't use the information even if we could access it," she said, sadly.

Jack put his hand on her shoulder.

"Rose, we're doing the best we can. All we can do now is wait and hope that a miracle comes and we'll be able to save the Doctor and everyone else. It does no good to make yourself sick with worry."

He jumped when Rose suddenly banged her fist on the desk.

"I'm such an idiot!" she said.

Jack frowned.

"What do you mean, Rose?" he said.

"This is all my fault, Jack! If I hadn't let the Queen into my head, then you wouldn't have been forced to let me go and the Doctor would be safe now."

"Rose, you had no way of keeping the Queen out of your mind."

"I should have been stronger, Jack. I should have been able to resist her, just like the Doctor could."

"Rose, you're many things, many wonderful things, but you're not superhuman," Jack said, gently, "the Doctor has a more advanced mind than we do. That's not a putdown, Rose. It's just a fact. The Doctor is better equipped than we are to keep others from accessing his mind. I know you think you failed him, Rose. But, you haven't. The Doctor doesn't blame you for this, I know that for a fact. It's not the first time he's been in a situation like this, and it won't be the last. The Doctor did what he did to protect you. When you finally saw him, he didn't jump on you, did he? He didn't blame you for what happened?"

Rose shook her head.

"Well, then, he doesn't blame you in any way. Trust me, if the man is pissed, he lets you know it. The Doctor may be in this Queen's clutches right now, but it won't be for long. I promise you, if we can't find an antidote by tomorrow, we are going to go back to that hive, go in there with guns blazing and get him out. Then, we'll figure out a way to isolate him, so the Queen can't harm us through him and work on the cure. But, we will find a cure, Rose, one way or another. Even if we do have to go out and find the best geneticists in England to help us, we will do what it takes and never stop until he is himself again. Okay?"

Rose nodded. Jack pulled her close and hugged her tight.

"Now, go ahead and go back to sleep, Rose. If something comes up, I'll be sure to tell you too, alright?"

Rose nodded. Jack smiled and gave her a kiss on the forehead. He watched while she turned and walked away, hoping with all his heart that they really would be able to save the Doctor before it was too late.

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