Outbreak (audio story)

A medical trial's gone terribly wrong, and one of the test subjects is loose on the streets of Cardiff. Within hours a virus is raging out of control and the bodies start piling up.

The Government scrambles to control the outbreak, but isn't too keen on anyone finding out the dark history of the virus. Captain Jack Harkness has encountered the infection before and knows that something alien is hiding inside it.

With the city sealed off and murderous mobs rampaging through the streets, Torchwood has to save something even more important than the human race.

Plot

Incubation: Know

A man thinks that he is in a cave back when he was younger when he realises that he is in Cardiff, covered in blood and holding a knife. Andy tells him to drop it and has him arrested. He remembers what has happened and says that he has to speak to Torchwood. Gwen and Ianto are on a speed boat watching Jack ride a Keranium like a horse when Gwen receives a call from Andy, telling her about the man he arrested.

Frances Godalming is in a facility full of muffled people and reports to someone over the phone with connections to Whitehall that a test subject, Luke, has escaped. She asks that he get Whitehall involved before setting fire to the test subjects, telling them that Ice Pharmaceuticals thanks them for their assistance.

Jack has been underwater for two hours repairing an alien spacecraft when he finally re-emerges and the Keranium takes off. The three of them return to the Hub.

In police custody, the man - Luke - scratches his skin and babbles, talking about loving someone that he wants to kill and that he needs to speak to Torchwood.

Gwen answers the phone to Rhys, who is returning to the UK, and apologises for not making it home. Jack leaves for the police station and tells Ianto to look into the ongoing phenomenon of people going into dream states and causing accidents. Andy takes him to see Luke, who is asking for his wife and tearing into his skin, exposing moving wires and saying that it is "all good thinking". Jack recognises the symptoms and takes a sample. They meet Godalming, who is looking for Luke.

Gwen and Ianto investigate a bus accident caused by the driver entering a dream state and meet a road block captain who scratches his skin. Jack calls Davey and threatens to expose Operation Red Dawn if he does not explain how a Good Thinking test subject could be in Cardiff. Davey hangs up and Godalming tells Jack that the Ministry of Health agrees that nobody should leave the city. He orders Gwen and Ianto to return to the Hub and the city is quarantined.

A man walking around the city on the phone begins scratching, as does a woman with her GP and multiple people across Cardiff. Andy worries that he might have caught it from Luke, to whom somebody gives a gun in his cell. He escapes and brandishes his gun, demanding to see his wife. Rhys arrives at the road block and Gwen and Ianto return to the Hub, where they find that Jack has locked himself away to keep them safe.

Andy subdues Luke after he tries to shoot him. Godalming shoots Andy and goes to kill Luke as part of a cover-up. Jack tells Gwen and Ianto about the Good Thinking programme and Gwen asks Rhys to keep away. Ianto is sealed in the Hub when it enters lockdown but Gwen makes it out.

On the news, Emilia Martin says that they can only pray that Cardiff will survive to see another day.

Prodromal: Love

to be added

Invasion: Kill

to be added

Cast

References

Luke thinks about his mother, father and Hester.
Andy arrests Luke on Castle Street.
Jack repairs a spacecraft for a Keranium, which Gwen calls a "space octopus".
Ianto hates sushi.
Ianto mentions tentacle porn.
Ianto was planning to nap in the conference room.
A bus driver crashes into a florist's on Westgate Street.
Godalming gets ID from the Ministry of Health.
South Wales Police have the Home Office breathing down their necks.
South Wales Police work with the National Counter Terrorism Security Office to contain the virus.
The virus is part biological component, part alien nanotech, allowing it to be reprogrammed by computer.
Good Thinking was a shadow organisation that first engineered the virus back in the 1950s. Jack Harkness and Norton Folgate, both working for Torchwood, thwarted an outbreak at that time, and both made long term plans of their own to prevent another outbreak from occurring.
Having his consciousness time travelled to 2009 and threatened by Ianto, upon returning to the 1950s, Norton programs the Hub to go into lockdown and the cells to unlock at a certain time out of revenge, in order for an infected Jack to attempt to kill Ianto.
The Steel Ring is a security measure installed by the government which deploys a steel wall around the whole of Cardiff in under and hour. While it is mostly successful in containing the virus, Rhys manages to smash a hole through one security gate with a lorry.
Ianto says that Cardiff Castle was built by the Victorian Marquess of Bute.

Notes

This story was recorded on 16, 17, and 18 May 2016.
Each episode has its own name:

Stage One - Incubation: Know
Stage Two - Promodal: Love
Stage Three - Invasion: Kill

Continuity

Gwen's answerphone message is the same as heard previously. (AUDIO: More Than This)
Norton is aware of Ianto's impending death. Jack says he will be the death of Ianto. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four)
Norton hints that he has met Andy Davidson. (AUDIO: Ghost Mission)
Ianto learns from Norton that Andy will be promoted to sergeant. (PROSE: Long Time Dead)
Janet the Weevil is mentioned. (TV: Everything Changes, Combat)
Jack's blood is remarkable. (TV: The Blood Line)

Cover gallery

Stage One Incubation: Know
Stage Two Prodromal: Love
Stage Three Invasion: Kill

External links

Official Outbreak page at bigfinish.com