Everyone Says Hello (audio story)

Everyone Says Hello was the second release of the BBC Torchwood audio stories later collected in Torchwood Tales.

Publisher's summary
Across Cardiff, ordinary people are behaving in odd ways: saying hello to one another, and going out of their way to greet people. Torchwood discovers that an alien communications field is gathering strength in the city.

The team must find the device responsible and shut it off — before civil unrest engulfs the city.

Plot
An exotic energy field is broadcast across Cardiff by something undetectable that came through the Rift which causes members of the public to greet and introduce themselves to one another, leading to inconvenience, violence and confusion and bringing down the telephone network and the emergency services. Based on his and Gwen's ability to guess the cards that Owen draws, Jack deduces that the energy field is connecting minds, possibly to gather information on Earth, and hands out bracelet-like signal jammers to protect the team. He, Gwen and Owen head out into the city where some of the unaffected have taken advantage of the chaos by looting and rioting and an explosion temporarily separates them.

Whatever is creating the energy field senses Tosh's scans and attacks the Hub's computer systems, but she and Ianto are able to save some of the hardware by shutting it down. She informs Jack, Gwen and Owen that she was able to detect the source to the Shepherd's Hill area of Pentwyn and they make their way there, finding that Greg Randall and John Davies are killing those that are unaffected as they have "rejected the light". Jack realises that his signal jammer was damaged by the explosion in the city centre and is beginning to come under its influence, but he is now able to feel who can and cannot be trusted and agrees to work with PC Tony Pratt, whom Gwen knew when she was a police officer. Tony takes them in his car to follow their scanners to the source of the phenomenon.

Jack, Gwen, Owen and Tony are chased by John Davies, who dies after crashing into concrete bollards. Tommy Kincannon attempts to kill them by driving into them in a lorry, but they are able to get out and flee. Gwen and Tony head to the source of the energy field whilst Jack and Owen are chased by Tommy in an alley until Jack stops resisting the field and Vic Royce has Linda Sosa take him to the source: a black sphere surrounded by light, inside of which is a dead alien. Jack reveals to Owen that he is partially immune due to him being from the future and confirms that the energy field is intended to gather information, but the alien is dead and unable to turn it off, so it has assumed that the Earth is hostile.

Jack has Tosh and Ianto send gibberish to his phone and presents it to the sphere, which shuts down the energy field as it assumes that the Earth is too complicated for it to comprehend. Vic and Tommy come to their senses before they can kill the injured Gwen and Tony and everybody starts bidding one another goodbye.

Characters

 * Jack Harkness
 * Gwen Cooper
 * Owen Harper
 * Toshiko Sato
 * Ianto Jones
 * PC Tony Pratt
 * Gemma Sands
 * Samir
 * Dev
 * Kishor
 * Dean Milburn
 * Angie Mercer
 * Brian Hatter
 * Ivor Brown
 * Lori Coleman
 * Lionel Meli
 * Colleen
 * Barry
 * Pat
 * Lol

People possessed by the computer
 * Johnno Bates
 * Clive Bevan
 * Jane Broading
 * Janie Clowes
 * Dr Cornfield
 * John Davies
 * Harvey Devlin
 * Christine Dell
 * Sarah Fiennes
 * Sally Gatterson
 * Bob Gordon
 * Julie Hatter
 * Vernon Hines
 * Dai Hughes
 * Ishram Kapoor
 * Alan Kennedy
 * Tommy Kincannon
 * Ronald Lucas
 * Alison Martin
 * Jules McDonald
 * William McGarish
 * Benjamin Okano
 * Ryan Parrish
 * Lucy Philpott
 * John Purves
 * Greg Randall
 * Vic Royce
 * Colin Scott
 * Linda Sosa
 * Terry Spicer

Worldbuilding

 * John Davies is thirty-four and used to work on the trains but is now a milkman. He is married to Annie, who comes from Pontypridd and with whom he has two children, Sally and Tom.
 * Kurt Stortzman comes from Hamburg and was born in 1968.
 * Gwen likes lasagne.
 * Alan Kennedy is a twenty-six-year-old supply teacher. His mother is Miriam and his brother is Chris, a fan of aircraft.
 * Vic Royce was once held at HMP Maidstone. He has a brother called Gary and his mother is called Enid.
 * Jane Broading lives in Carlisle.
 * Sarah Fiennes has a son called Matthew.
 * Alison Martin's mother is Sandra Bennett.
 * Jules McDonald likes Martin Scorsese films.
 * Terry Spicer does not like council tax but does enjoy dog-racing and football.
 * Clive Bevan's father is called Frank.
 * Tony Pratt is twenty-two.
 * John Purves collects stamps and likes books by Dick Francis. He once hit a boy on a zebra crossing.
 * Sally Gatterson has never had a proper orgasm and is allergic to nuts.
 * Ronald Lucas drinks too much and strikes his wife on occasion. He visits prostitutes twice a month and pays them for unprotected sex.
 * Colin Scott has a gay boyfriend.

Continuity

 * Jack says that he has been to the end of the universe. (TV: Utopia)