Destruction: Chapter 3 - Mercy

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RATING: PG-13 for this Chapter for some swearing
WORDS: ~ 1900
CHARACTERS: Ianto, Owen, Jack, Ocs - Brigadier Hamilton, Sam Shuster, Molly
SPOILERS: None, Not canon. This Chapter set pre-Series 1.
SUMMARY: Owen finds a live one.

Mercy but murders, pardening those who kill (Shakespeare)

After Owen headed out with his search and rescue team, Brigadier Hamilton asked Jack to accompany him to their temporary morgue. Set up in a nearby warehouse, row upon row of corpses covered the floor. Several soldiers were methodically walking down each row, taking pictures of each body and their accompanying tags before zipping them into a body bag.

 

“We’re trying to identify as many as we can. If the body has ID, or is intact and the face reasonably undamaged, it shouldn’t be that hard. The Unit Coroner has been able to determine the cause of death fairly easily in most cases. Mostly, severe trauma to the body, though we had about a dozen who died from fire, chemical burns or smoke inhalation where one of the labs exploded. We had several victims where the cause of death wasn’t apparent – our pathologist has determined heart failure as the cause. Those we can’t identify outright we’ll do our best with dental records and DNA testing.”

 

Jack didn’t want to ask, but knew Hamilton was waiting to see if he would. “And Yvonne Hartmann?” 

 

“One of the first to be killed and fully converted.”

 

“And the converted bodies, what about those?”

 

The Brigadier shook his head and walked over toward the far end of the warehouse, motioning for Jack to follow. As they approached this area, Jack could see that it was cordoned off with large movable drywall-like partitions and plastic sheeting. Jack could hear the sound of power tools, as well as detect the smell of blood.

 

“Since we’re telling the public it was a terrorist attack, we can’t have hundreds of missing bodies. Some we really won’t ever find, but it’s better to be able to give the families something. It keeps them from getting suspicious, and they can have some closure. You don’t have to go in if you don’t want to.”

 

Jack indicated that he would take a look. Brigadier Hamilton pulled back the plastic sheeting. Jack thought he had never seen anything quite so gruesome, even during war. People in biohazard suits were dissecting corpses that had been partially converted. Saws were being used to cut off converted parts and the floor was littered with metal covered arms and legs. 

 

“It’s exactly as you explained to Owen. If the conversion process hasn’t been too extensive, we can remove the converted parts, pretty up what remains and ship them off to the families. Obviously, if the conversion was near completion, there’s nothing to be done. We’ll do DNA testing for our own records but they will be incinerated and recorded as missing. I’m going to owe some serious time off to the medics and support staff doing this work…cleaning up Torchwood’s mess.”

 

Jack winced at that statement. The Brigadier walked with Jack back outside the area.

 

“I’m sorry Jack, I know it’s not your fault, but I’ve been in combat and this….

 

“I know. What a total disaster. I don’t think Torchwood Three’s going to be of much use to you with the clean-up, but we do have some facial recognition software that might help with ID-ing the bodies.”   Jack went on to explain that they had enhanced a commercial scanner with a few bits of technology that had come through the rift. It was far superior than anything available to UNIT. 

 

“Actually, that would be a big help. We need to identify these bodies as fast as we can – we can’t have a warehouse or cold storage facility stuffed with corpses for an indefinite period.”

 

“Ok, I’ll contact my resident tech genius, and have her contact your liaison. “

 

“That would be Ms. Toshiko Sato,” the Brigadier stated, not asked. Jack grimaced as he realized that UNIT would, of course, know everything about Tosh. Jack confirmed that the Brigadier was correct and was surprised that he seemed to think that using her computer skills was a good idea.

 

As they left the warehouse and began to walk the short distance back toward the base area Hamilton explained that UNIT would also be contacting the dozen or so personnel who weren’t physically at Torchwood One during the attack due to illness or time off. They would be offered positions with UNIT or a government agency; they could also take the retcon option and be set up in a new life. 

 

Brigadier Hamilton told Jack that he would have one additional task for him to help with if necessary. “In one way, it’s a blessing there are only a handful of survivors, Jack. We’re going to have to watch them carefully. So far, two who were not badly injured have agreed to come to work with UNIT, we have about a dozen more that have said they want retcon, but we’re giving them a little time to make sure that’s what they want. I’m just not sure what to do with the rest. A lot of these folks have not only extensive physical injuries but not surprisingly, some pretty severe psychological trauma. Do we retcon them into menial jobs, lock them in secure psychiatric facilities, or what? My instinct as a UNIT Brigadier is to get them out of site, but after seeing what they’ve been through, I just don’t know if that’s even humane.”

 

Jack told Hamilton that he thought his first thoughts were right – retcon or remove them from society. What other choices were there really?

 

The Brigadier said he wanted to consult with his medical staff as well as Dr. Harper and see if they had any alternative ideas.

 

“And Jack, if any of the survivors are from Wales, they are going to fall under your jurisdiction. I’ll expect you to follow whatever guidelines we develop as a team. So far, there aren’t any, they’ve all been living in England for many years, with the notable exception of one survivor who relocated a year ago from Scotland. Archie from Torchwood House has agreed to be responsible for him.”

 

Jack nodded and sighed to himself. He had worked so hard to build bridges with UNIT. And while Brigadier Hamilton was being more than polite, Jack held no delusions that the Battle of Canary Wharf wasn’t going to drastically impact the operation of Torchwood Three.

 

He was about to ask Brigadier Hamilton about the search for files and alien technology when he heard some shouting coming from the operations base area. They both ran over to see what was going on. As they arrived they saw a couple of people running out toward one of the search and rescue teams.

 

They listened to a dispatcher tell the team that some structural engineers were on their way over and to let them know if they needed additional medical support. Jack could hear Owen’s voice over the comm. “You should probably have a stretcher with a backboard ready, but I won’t know anything more until, I can get a better look.”

 

The dispatcher looked at Jack. “Your Dr. Harper thinks he found a live one.”

 

As much as Jack wanted to run over and see, he knew he’d just be in the way. He could tell Brigadier Hamilton was thinking the same thing. “Well,” said Hamilton, ‘we should probably see if there’s anything around here to eat; it looks like we’ll be here well into the evening hours.”

****

As the structural engineers ran toward him, Owen continued to crouch on the ground and talk to the where the scraping noise was coming from. He had no idea if he could be heard but figured that talking might help the victim stay alive and calm.

 

The engineers borrowed Owen’s stethoscope, listened a little, and walked around the immediate area looking at building plans. They thought the survivor was probably trapped in the archives, but couldn’t tell exactly where. They discussed what was probably under the huge piece of concrete wall that was covering the top of the site.

 

“I’m concerned that if we start removing the top layer that debris lower down could shift and kill him. Perhaps we should wait for some back-up to take another look.”

 

Owen just stared at them, suddenly realizing how tired and angry he felt. “If you don’t get him out now, whoever is down there will die for sure either from shock or dehydration. They’ve been under there for what, 20 hours; given the injuries of other survivors, I don’t think they could last another night. And I don’t care if you’d feel better with a second opinion, get some equipment over here and at least try to get the poor sod out.”

 

The two engineers looked at the plans again. They realized that they might just have gotten a lucky break on this rescue. The archives were underground and constructed to be bomb proof. That meant that the special reinforced concrete shouldn’t have crumbled under the attack.

 

“Dr Harper, here’s what we’re thinking. We believe that your survivor is trapped in the secure archives. Given the strength of construction of that area, it’s possible that the rest of the floors coming down didn’t crush the ceilings of the archives completely. Our best shot is to have heavy equipment lift the above ground debris straight up off the area and see if we can access the lower levels.”

 

Owen asked for a moment to think. “Hey, are you in the archives?” he shouted toward the survivor. Tap once for no, twice for yes.” After a pause that seemed to last forever, two scratches were heard. 

 

The engineers radioed what equipment would be needed before they headed back to base. Powerful lights, a crane and other equipment were promised within an hour. As the engineers returned to base to oversee the process, they suggested that Owen and Sam join them and get something to eat. Owen was hungry, but he knew that he was the only lifeline the survivor had. “Send something back for me, will you. I’m staying with my patient.”

 

Sam nodded in agreement. “Molly and me, we’re staying too.”

 

Owen couldn’t say how relieved he felt when Jack and the Brigadier came over with sandwiches and coffee. Owen ate one, but didn’t think he could keep a second one down.   Owen held up the sandwich for Sam to see. Sam nodded yes and Owen tossed the sandwich to Molly. It was gone in two bites. “At least someone still has an appetite.”

 

Owen explained what he had heard to Jack and Brigadier Hamilton. 

 

“Oi, I haven’t spoken to my patient in a while, I better see if he’s still with us.” Handing the stethoscope to Jack he crouched down in his former position. “You still with us mate? Can you give us a little SOS tap?” Jack thought his heart might break when he heard the faint scratches – 3 short, 3 long, 3 short. Brigadier Hamilton listened as well.

 

The three men looked at each other and knew they were going to do everything to get the survivor out.

 

As the crane moved into position, the Brigadier told Owen and Sam that they would have to pull back to base while the debris was being lifted. They both protested loudly. Finally, with a little finesse from Jack and a lot of swearing by Owen, they agreed that once the crane had turned to deposit its load away from the area, they could go in and do a quick check to see if they could still hear scraping.

Chapter 4 is here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/2771.html