Superiority Complex (audio story)

Superiority Complex was the fourth audio episode of Aliens Among Us. It marked the first time Orr investigated a case with Torchwood Three, though just returning a favour. It also marked a watershed moment in the Sorvix invasion of Cardiff when Ro-Jedda became the mayor.
== Publisher's summary ==
Poverty and homelessness are on the rise in Cardiff. The streets are full of the desperate and the dispossessed. So, of course, it's the right time to open a 7-star luxury, all-inclusive hotel. And, naturally, the hotel is for aliens only. As the humans stand outside the gates and look hungrily in, there's one thing that makes them smile. Someone is murdering the guests.
== Plot ==
Toobert Jailert enters the Cardiff Bay Intelligent Hotel and Spa and complains to the hotel manager about the humans protesting at the gates before checking in. In his suite, he and Suzanne find the dismembered and liquefied remains of its previous occupant in a bath of acid.
Ro-Jedda confronts the Mayor about the five unsolved deaths at the hotel, which she believes are hate crimes committed by humans. She threatens to kill him if he does not find the culprits and, once she has left, he calls Tyler into his office.
Jack arrives at the Hub with Tyler, whom he found outside, and Tyler tells him, Ng and Mr Colchester about the hotel and the killings. Ng and Mr Colchester go to the hotel, with Ng attempting to get information unsuccessfully from the manager whilst Mr Colchester looked into the plumbing. Ng decides to call in Orr due to them being an alien and more likely to get answers.
Orr receives a massage from Kate and asks about her experience in the hotel, directing her towards Suzanne. Their physiognomy begins changing in unusual ways.
Jack poses as a barman at 360 Degrees Bar and Leisure Area, and serves a personal trainer who is being threatened with lawsuits for the malfunctioning machines in the gym after a power surge gave a Sorvix on the elliptical a heart attack. The trainer believes that the machines were sabotaged.
Orr goes to Suzanne to persuade her to show them the death threats the manager had received. The manager joins them and Orr intimidates him with his humanophilia, convincing Suzanne to help them. She tells them that only the manager has access to the CCTV.
Mr Colchester manages to tidy up the Sorvix remains and Ng identifies them as belonging to Ratlan, a Sorvix politician from a party with separatist members. Jailert enters and takes pictures for his insurance claim before being taken to a new room where he overhears Lady Dakar and finds her not breathing. Ng gives her CPR and revives her, prompting her to complain about being touched by a human. Mr Colchester theorises that the air conditioning had been hacked to release gas in an attempt to kill Dakar and that Tyler, on behalf of the under-duress Mayor, had been the one to do it.
Orr meets with Ng and tells her that they now have a lift as part of their internal organs. The two try to rescue a Sorvix from boiling water, but he dies.
Torchwood regroup and exchange their information. They suspect the manager, who had sent himself the death threats and pretended that they were from Humans Against Sorvix. Rioting begins outside the hotel and is met with fire drones and the manager gathers the guests together at the bar. He accuses Suzanne of sending information to the rioters and Jack confronts him about the emails. The drones stop killing the humans and the hotel starts sucking out the oxygen.
Orr comes to the conclusion that the hotel is sentient and behind the murders and goes to communicate with the computer whilst the others try to find a way out. Through the phone, the hotel tells Orr that it is disgusted by the Sorvix and wants it to end. They give it the name Resine and are told that they will survive if they lock themself in the office. Orr refuses.
Jack and Mr Colchester manage to smash their way out of the hotel and usher everybody out, only for them to be wiped out by fire drones as the humans refuse to help. Suzanne saves Jailert, but the two are found and killed. To stop the hotel, Jack and Mr Colchester go to the CPU where Jack dies absorbing its power. The hotel says goodbye to Orr as it powers down and Ng says that its brain will be taken to the Hub, which upsets Orr.
Torchwood return to the Hub and Jack welcomes Orr to the group. Meanwhile, the Mayor tells Tyler that he wants to have a press conference, planning to tell everybody about the Sorvix.
Gwen shouts at Ng and tells her that she will not let go nor give up, but Ng ignores her.
Tyler tells the Mayor that the press has gathered and he goes to speak to them, finding only Ro-Jedda there. He tries to escape but she eats him as Tyler listens. She tells him to put out a statement about the Mayor's unfortunate death and announce that she was to be the interim mayor. He uses his connection to Torchwood as a reason for her to keep him around.
== Cast ==
* Captain Jack Harkness - John Barrowman
* Mr Colchester - Paul Clayton
* Ng - Alexandria Riley
* Tyler Steele - Jonny Green
* Gwen Cooper - Eve Myles
* The Mayor - Stephen Critchlow
* Ro-Jedda - Rachel Atkins
* Catrin Parry - Sam Béart
* Hotel Manager - Anthony Boyle
* Toobert Jailert - Sam Jones
* Personal Trainer - Wilf Scolding
== Worldbuilding ==
* Toobert comes from the Edamime Bedalex for Sorvix.
* Suzanne Williams works as a receptionist in Cardiff Bay Intelligent Hotel and Spa. Kate is a masseuse there.
* Ng remarks that she can see Bristol from Jailert's suite.
* Jack invented a cocktail called the Harkness on the Rocks.
* Lady Dakar demands not be touched by humans.
* The manager is planning to replace the human staff with androids.
* Raltan found in Toobert Jailert's room was a 62-year-old Sorvix politician. He had two hatchlings and was sent to the investigate the hotel on behalf of the Mayor's office.
* Cardiff Bay Intelligent Hotel and Spa is across from Cardiff Bay Barrage.
* Tyler Steele describes the hotel as "Trump Tower shagging a cruise liner".
* Toobert Jailert is thinking of showing a human to the Sorvix prince.
* Lady Dakar is surprised the hotel manages to procure Sorva squid.
* Orr describes their muscle as being solid as Inxian rock.
* Cymrophobia is the dislike of Welsh people.
* A non-human's sexual desire for humans is called humanophilia.
* Not all Sorvans are Sorvix. A denizen of Sorva is called Sorvan.
== Notes ==
* Although the synopsis says that the hotel is 7-star, Toobert says in the story that it is 8-star.
== Continuity ==
* Staffing for Cardiff Bay Intelligent Hotel and Spa is contracted to 3Sol, which performs a lot of other tasks in the city. (AUDIO: Changes Everything)
* Orr mentions the death of their husband. (AUDIO: Orr)
Category:Aliens Among Us 1 audio stories
Category:Stories set in Cardiff
Category:Stories set in the 2010s