Torchwood: Exodus Code

true, in a couple of days she might not have a home to return to. No one would.
    ‘Shelley,’ said Jack, ‘let’s see this model of the Earth from above.’
    Shelley flipped the animation and zoomed out, the glyph linking all the chimneys with the top one, the geyser in Wales.
    ‘Fuck me,’ said Vlad.
    ‘That program is not yet operational,’ said Shelley.
    ‘When all the chimneys are linked together like this, it’s Gwen’s design,’ said Cash. ‘And the map to a bloody big bang.’
    ‘If that is what’s occurring,’ said Shelley, ‘then we must assume that these hydrothermal vents are connected deep inside the Earth. Like this.’
    Shelley reconfigured the image, stripping the top layers from the earth, slicing the earth in two, and showing what the linking of the hydrothermal vents might look like from beneath the Earth’s crust: three overlapping, smouldering tunnels of fire stretching across the world.
    ‘What does this all mean?’ asked Eva, her voice high pitched with fear, the colour draining from her face the longer she looked at Shelley’s model of the core of the Earth.
    ‘I think it means,’ said Jack, ‘that the Earth is self-destructing.’
    ‘That’s ridiculous,’ said Eva. She looked from Jack to Vlad to Cash to Shelley and back to Jack.
    ‘Is it so hard to imagine, lass?’ asked Cash. ‘Think about it. We’ve worn this planet out. It’s over-populated, terribly polluted and the oceans’ temperatures are rising fast. The old girl might just have decided she’s had enough.’
    ‘Look,’ said Eva, standing and pacing across the tiny space, her fear tightening in her chest. ‘I can believe that the Earth is a series of complex organic systems. I can even believe the Gaia theory that the planet’s constantly changing and evolving on a massive scale to stay in balance, to sustain life, but the Earth is not a sentient being.’
    ‘But what if she is?’ interrupted Jack.
    ‘O puhleeze,’ said Eva. ‘The Earth’s not thinking, she’s not processing all that’s happening to her and keeping score. Oh, too many people now. Check. Too much global warming. Check.’ Eva was ticking off on her fingers as she spoke. ‘Oceans are losing salinity. Check. Until one day the sun rises in a smoggy haze and the Earth says to herself, screw it, had enough, time to blow myself up and start life somewhere else in the universe.’
    ‘Snark all you want, Eva, but I think Jack’s right and that’s essentially what’s happening,’ said Cash.
    ‘And we need to stop it,’ said Jack.
    ‘Eva,’ cut in Vlad, ‘in that entire rant why did you keep calling the Earth a she?’
    ‘Because everyone does… you know… Mother Earth,’ Eva spluttered, throwing herself onto her chair with such force she almost tipped it over.
    ‘Eva,’ said Jack. ‘Do you have any other explanation for what’s happening?’
    ‘If I may interject,’ said Shelley, who appeared behind Eva’s desk. ‘Every culture from the ancient Greeks to the Egyptians, the Native Americans, African tribes, the Chinese, the Norse, and the Celts have a creation story and many of those creation stories have humanity being birthed from the Earth in some manner. The Earth is the mother to humanity. One sustains the life of the other. Even Judeo-Christianity gave us the garden of Eden, a paradise on Earth and—’
    ‘Shelley, stop! I get it,’ Eva yelled. Cash scowled at her. Vlad put his hand on her arm to try to calm her. She pushed him away. Everyone was looking at her, except Jack who was using the pad to zoom in on the map of South America.
    She stared at him for a beat, an awful realisation dawning. ‘You bastard! You knew this was happening,’ hissed Eva. ‘You knew before you even boarded our ship.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ asked Vlad, sensing he had missed something important.
    Eva pointed at Jack, who stood and faced her. ‘He was the one who sent us to monitor those hot spots in the ocean. He knew the Earth’s crust was cracking, that these fissures were forming. He’s the one who’s paying for the
Ice Maiden
’s mission. He’s the one responsible for all this incredible equipment.’ She looked for confirmation to Cash. ‘Isn’t he?’
    ‘Aye,’ said Cash.
    ‘How could you possibly know this was going to happen?’ Eva shouted at Jack, her yelling drawing Hollis out of the mess to the passageway where he hovered, listening.
    Eva stood up, her fear and anger morphing to a dangerous mix.