Future Pain (audio story)

Future Pain was the first audio story in God Among Us 1.

Publisher's summary
Torchwood pick up the pieces and move on. After all, there's a whole new set of alien threats to deal with.

While Yvonne Hartman is asserting her authority as the new leader of Torchwood, Jack Harkness is hunting an alien god in the sewers – but what's he really hiding from?

Plot
On a recording of a rainy beach, Mr Colchester and Colin Price make their wedding vows. Yvonne leaves the room and goes to the Torchwood cells where Ro-Jedda is incarcerated, with Yvonne saying that she is there for her own protection and that their deal, whilst not forgotten, has changed due to certain deaths.

In the sewers, Jack is following a creature that has been eating Weevils and is pointed towards it by one. Tyler is working in a call centre phoning people about PPI. Fed up, he tells one such person about the Sorvix and their God. God's presence has changed the situation in Cardiff and Yvonne demands proof of them from Ro-Jedda. Ro-Jedda insists that her people will be coming for her.

Jack locates the creature, wondering if it is God, and repeatedly shoots it. Orr arrives and stops him, using their powers to read it and finding that it wants "future pain".

Ro-Jedda tells Yvonne that the Sorvix fled from God because they had to and surmises that Sorva was completely destroyed and that Earth will be next. Yvonne leaves as Ro-Jedda shouts that her people will soon have broken her out.

The creature retreats from Jack and Orr through the roof after finding that Orr was not yet of use to it. Orr was also able to tell from it, due to its strange relationship with time, that the Hub will explode. They leave for Mr Colchester's funeral but a device tells Jack that the creature is following them, Orr elaborating that it had latched onto their futures.

Colin talks to Sally, the celebrant, about the memorial. Later, Tyler arrives and briefly speaks to Andy, who asks after Yvonne, and Jack and Orr, who arrive and ask him to lock the doors to keep out the creature. Colin shows his and Mr Colchester's wedding video and Sally addresses everybody.

In the cells, Ro-Jedda becomes aware that Ng is there too and learns that she is the Herald, blaming her for the destruction her God caused.

At the memorial, Tyler begins crying and leaves the room because of a cough. He is given a glass of water by a fellow mourner who encourages him to talk about his feelings regarding Mr Colchester. He tells her that he wishes that he was alive and that he would give anything for him to be back. Colin delivers a speech, after which Gwen and Rhys slip away before Jack can see them. Jack and Tyler leave the building to track the creature and quickly find it, also being joined by Orr and Colin. It tells them that it wants their future pain.

Jack tells Colin about his immortality before returning to the fight with the creature. It feeds on Tyler's future pain before Colin confronts it. They talk about Mr Colchester, shielding their grief from being eaten by the creature. Orr transforms into the psychovore and gives it its own future pain, destroying it.

Yvonne, having looked for the Sorvix at an empty building and the Cardiff Bay Intelligent Hotel and Spa, goes to 3Sol and finds that there are no Sorvix there either.

Orr talks to Colin about their first experience at a funeral and transforms into Jack, telling him that that is what Colin desires. Jack is surprised. Tyler scoffs food in the building and is approached by the woman again whilst, in the cells, Ng asks Ro-Jedda to take her with her. Ro-Jedda tells her that she plans on burning the world once the Sorvix come and rescue her.

Colin thanks Tyler, who is tidying up after the funeral, for his candour and offers him help should he ever need it. In the smart car, Jack tries to ask Orr about them transforming into him, but they refuse to discuss it. They say that he missed "him" a lot and asks Jack to return to Torchwood as they do not trust Yvonne.

Yvonne visits Colin and apologises for missing the funeral. He shouts at her for not letting him see Mr Colchester's body and she tells him to go with her to the Hub. There, she leaves him with his husband's last message recorded shortly after he joined Torchwood. Colin listens to it before listening to the "real" Yvonne. She goes to the cells and Ng reveals herself as having been working for her the whole time she was locked up. Yvonne shoots and kills Ro-Jedda.

Cast

 * Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
 * Yvonne Hartman - Tracy-Ann Oberman
 * Ng - Alexandria Riley
 * Mr Colchester - Paul Clayton
 * Orr - Samantha Béart
 * Tyler Steele - Jonny Green
 * Andy Davidson - Tom Price
 * Rhys Williams - Kai Owen
 * Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
 * God - Jacqueline King
 * Colin Colchester-Price - Ramon Tikaram
 * Ro-Jedda - Rachel Atkins
 * Sally - Laura Singleton

Worldbuilding

 * For their wedding vows, Colin reads an extract from The Rubaiyat and Mr Colchester reads Plato.
 * Jack and Orr drive on Newport Road.
 * Ng eats rats to stabilise her form, needing the protein.
 * Mr Colchester hated The Birdie Song.
 * Sandwiches, coronation chicken, Scotch eggs, mini burgers, smoked salmon, pork pies and shop-bought cocktail sausages are served at Mr Colchester's funeral.
 * Mr Colchester left Colin with a large supply of cardigans and home-made lasagne.
 * Mr Colchester's mother and father are dead and his sister, Jane, sends her regrets from New Zealand.
 * The major-general overlooked Mr Colchester for Head of Procurement.
 * Mr Colchester told a female friend that he was jealous of a sergeant's medals.
 * Jack calls Tyler a dodo.
 * The plasmic psychovore tells Tyler that he will find love again and that it will end in betrayal. It also says that he will never show mercy and tells Colin that the worst pain for him is yet to come.
 * A fat woman went to Mr Colchester's funeral. She had only met Mr Colchester twice since leaving university.
 * Colin and Mr Colchester both mention Strictly Come Dancing.
 * Yvonne mentions Torchwood One in her final message.

Continuity

 * Mr Colchester recorded a final message, to be played in the event of his death, as per Torchwood protocol. (TV: Exit Wounds)
 * Cardiff is run by the Sorvix. (AUDIO: Superiority Complex etc.)
 * Tyler used to work for the mayor. (AUDIO: Aliens & Sex & Chips & Gravy etc.)
 * Ro-Jedda became mayor after eating the old mayor. (AUDIO: Superiority Complex)
 * God is in Cardiff. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)
 * Torchwood has protocols for dealing with aliens claiming to be deities. (TV: End of Days)
 * Mr Colchester didn't like Tyler when they first met. (AUDIO: Changes Everything)
 * Jack offers his life energy to the plasmic psychovore. He had previously done the same when facing Abaddon. (TV: End of Days)
 * Jack says there is nothing when you die. (TV: Everything Changes etc.)
 * Jack wonders how long it will be before he sees whole planets die. A speculative future for Jack is that he becomes the Face of Boe, who watches the Earth die in TV: The End of the World.
 * Orr says Jack misses "him", to which Jack replies "narrow that one down". This could refer to a number of people, most notably the Doctor, (TV: The Empty Child etc.) Gray, (TV: Adam, TV: Exit Wounds) John Hart, (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang) and Ianto. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Four)
 * Yvonne has been in N-Space for a decade. (TV: Doomsday, AUDIO: Poker Face)
 * Yvonne threw Jack off a building. (AUDIO: Poker Face)
 * The hub is a wreck after being blown up. (AUDIO: Herald of the Dawn)
 * The N-Space Yvonne died at Torchwood One. (TV: Doomsday)
 * Colin and Mr Colchester used to live in Hove. (AUDIO: A Kill to a View)
 * In her final message, N-Space Yvonne said she probably died doing her duty for queen and country, echoing her final words in TV: Doomsday.
 * Orr says that the Hub will explode. (AUDIO: Thoughts and Prayers)
 * Tyler says "what's occurring". Gwen Cooper also said it. (TV: Children of Earth: Day One; AUDIO: More Than This)