The Hub was a lot bigger than most of the team realised. There were levels even below the cells that were in use, and the archives went down deep into the bedrock beneath Cardiff. Jack had long been aware there was more to Torchwood Three’s base than they actually used, but even he hadn’t explored the full extent.

Ianto had gone further than anyone on record, beyond the parts that were constructed and into the natural caves beyond. He’d spent a lot of time mapping the most easily accessible areas of the Hub when he first joined the team, looking for a suitable place to hide Lisa, but after the Cyberwoman was executed, when he was finally allowed back at work, he’d taken to exploring deeper and deeper. Partly, he now realised, it was out of a desire to hide from his colleagues, even from Jack, by going where no one else would venture. Mostly, it was out of simple curiosity, a desire to know just what was down there, and indeed, how far down it went.

The other members of the team seldom ventured into the lower levels. They’d visit the morgue, if they needed to, or the inhabited cells, which were easy enough to navigate. They preferred not to go into the archives, partly out of the fear that they might disturb something and incur Ianto’s wrath, but mainly because, unlike Torchwood’s designated archivist, they found the place creepy. It was a poorly lit maze of passageways connecting rooms of various size, and it was easy to become lost down there if you didn’t know your way around.

If anyone urgently needed something from down there when Ianto was unavailable, they would take with them the electronic map he’d programmed, with Tosh’s help, which would access the computer catalogue of artefacts and files, and provide directions to whatever was required. No one other than Ianto or Jack would ever enter the archives without the little handheld device. Wandering around in the semi-dark for hours, trying to find the way out, was not an enjoyable experience, and it was too humiliating having to call over their Bluetooth communicators for help.

No such map existed for the lower levels, however; not outside of Ianto’s head.

Even now, after years of exploring, Ianto thought there were still areas he hadn’t seen yet. There was only so far he could walk, jog, or even cycle on the bike he kept down there during the course of a day while still allowing enough time to return to his starting point on schedule to carry out his regular duties. Still, he estimated he’d mapped a good seventy-five, maybe even eighty percent of the tunnels below the parts of the Hub that were currently in use.

Given the opportunity, he sometimes thought it might be fun to take supplies and camping gear down with him and spend several days seeing if he could reach the Hub’s limits, but that was never likely to happen. Who’d feed the inmates and provide the team with coffee if he went off the grid for an extended period? Even taking a day off tended to throw everyone into chaos; he’d spoiled them to the point that they could no longer function without him.

It was a shame, but he suspected the Hub’s deepest secrets, including exactly where in the lower levels the Archive Monsters made their home, would probably have to remain a mystery, at least in his lifetime.

With a regretful sigh, Ianto turned on his computer and settled once more into his ongoing project of creating a 3D interactive map of the Hub. His hope was that, once it was completed it would allow future generations to navigate the Torchwood maze without becoming hopelessly lost. Despite his eidetic memory, the task was proving surprisingly difficult, so much so that he was beginning to wonder whether parts of the Hub might exist outside of normal space-time, or perhaps in other dimensions. It wouldn’t surprise him; when it came to Torchwood, anything was possible!


The End