[OS] 46.4 Re-write an episode
ooc: Based on Doctor Who 4.11 'Turn Left'. A rewrite of DW 4.04 and 4.05 'The Sontaran Strategem' and 'The Poison Sky.' Warnings for character death.
"Look, Rattigan," Jack started, but then he paused in the middle of the sentence, his head cocked to one side. "By the way, anyone ever tell you that's a really unfortunate name? No wonder you don't have any friends."
"No," the boy cried, scrambling backwards and looking from Jack to Ianto and back. "No, that's not why. It's because I'm clever! Don't you see, that's always been why."
"Rattigan." Jack drew out the word. He seemed to be savoring it. It might have been threatening, Ianto thought, had it not been incredibly attractive. "Rattigan. Like a rat. A good name for one, don't you think, Ianto?"
"It's been done," Ianto said. And then, although that needed no explanation, "Disney."
"Pity," Jack responded, albeit slightly distantly. He looked away from Rattigan, who had apparently decided that the best reaction to the two of them was to cower. A good choice, and to further convince the boy of that Ianto schooled his features into a look of cool disapproval.
"So," Jack said suddenly, switching gears with a quick, disconcerting grin. "Tell me about ATMOS."
The boy opened his mouth to answer, but Jack didn't stop long enough for that. "Because, see, at first I couldn't figure it out. People being murdered by their cars? That's far-fetched even for me, not to mention that barely anyone has cars anymore. But then a friend of mine from UNIT-- well, friend isn't the word, really-- passed along a message. From a reporter who was investigating you, Rattigan."
Ianto knew his cue. He took a few steps forward, hedging Rattigan in. "Funny, then, isn't it," he supplied, "that nearly immediately after she left the message, she drove--" His fingers held flat, he mimed a car driving, adding a slight downward curve. "Straight into the river."
Rattigan said nothing. He looked stricken, which was probably a good sign. Testament to Jack's interrogation tactics, at least.
Jack just smiled. The smile was the key, Ianto had found. It was Jack going in for the metaphorical kill. "And that, that got my attention, so we found one of your ATMOS systems, ran some tests. Interesting results. A temporal pocket, cleverly hidden right there in plain sight. Set to release an interesting cocktail. Carbon monixodes, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides and-- and here's the kicker-- ten percent of it unindentified. You know what unidentified means to me?"
At his side, Ianto nodded and said, "Extraterrestrial." A pause, long enough for Rattigan to twitch. "Alien."
"You don't know anything," Rattigan protested in desperately insistent tones. "You wouldn't understand anything about it. And besides, you're wrong, you can't say ATMOS systems. That's a tautology. ATMOS stands for' 'Atmospheric Emmissions System,' so you're actually saying--"
"Oooh." Jack shivered theatrically, but it was all somehow hollow. "Pedantry. Should that be so hot?"
Ianto answered without missing a beat: "No."
"You always say no," Jack said, though if he was disappointed, it wasn't in his voice.
Just then, Ianto caught sight of Gwen hovering in the doorway. She spared a smile for their usual Team Bad Cop banter, but otherwise looked serious. He inclined his head, motioning for her to approach.
When she did, she leaned close to Jack. "I finished interviewing the students who were still here, but they're all packing up to leave. Immediately. Apparently he--" she nodded to Rattigan-- "was trying to set them up for some sort of breeding program on another planet."
Jack's eyebrows went up. "Was he?" He hmmed to himself before once again focusing on the boy genius. "ATMOS systems that spew alien gas and now a breeding planet. Do you want to tell me who you're working for, or do you want me to find out on my own? You probably don't want me to find out on my own."
"They lied to me," Rattigan protested, his voice high-pitched in panic at being caught out. "They betrayed me. The Sontarans, they lied to me. Don't tell anyone what I did. You can't."
"Sontarans?" Ianto didn't like the look on Jack's face. "You're in more trouble than I thought."
Ianto really didn't like the look on Jack's face as he glanced at the two remaining members of his team, sucked in a deep breath, and added, "We all are."
Gwen continued to look between them, Rattigan and Jack. She spoke first. "Who are they, Jack?"
"Let's just say that the first rule of fighting the Sontarans..." He paused for emphasis, and when he continued his face was darker, his jaw more firmly set. "Is that you can't fight Sontarans."
Ianto could think of a few choice responses to that, but the one he finally chose was, "We need a plan."
"You," Jack said, pointing to Rattigan. "The Sontarans. How do they contact you? A communicator, radio, video, what?"
"Video," the kid all but stuttered, "but I can do better than that." There was a moment in which an internal battle of visible was his face, as he tried to decide whether or not to follow through. Finally, objections quashed, he drew himself up to his full--and less than impressive-- height, and said, "I can send you to their ship."
To his credit, and even though he was obviously surprised. Jack only hesitated a second. "Do it."
"Right, Jack." Gwen planted herself beside their Captain, her arms crossed over her chest. "Ianto's right, we need a plan. What are we going to do when we get there? Find out what they want, try to negotiate..."
"You don't negotiate with Sontarans," Jack interrupted. "They see it as cowardice. That's rule two." He turned to point at Ianto. "Go back to the SUV. I need the-- ...it's rectangle, with the lights. Blue? Little lines?"
Ianto nodded. "The Computer Looter," he supplied, completely deadpan. The beginning of every dangerous mission needed a good rhyme to offset the mood, after all. And true to form, it got a flash of a grin from Jack. But just a flash, and then it was back to business, and Ianto hurried out to the car.
The device was found with little trouble, wedged in as it was between the jumper cables, the medical kit that desperately needed restocking, and a very large water gun filled with saltwater for fighting Maxilian freshwater swamp beasts. Once he had it, Ianto took a moment to make sure he had both a loaded firearm and a stungun.
By the time he returned to the others, they had moved to a room that was outfitted with a large tunnel, and Jack was busy admiring the technology.
"Teleport," Gwen explained when Ianto directed a questioning look her way. He nodded. Teleport. Of course.
He waited another few moments, watched Jack run his hands over the smooth lines, and then finally cleared his throat. When he turned, Ianto held out the device.
"A ha. This," Jack said, holding it up so Gwen-- and consequently, Rattigan-- could get a good look, "is illegal in nineteen galaxies and four centuries." He flipped open a panel on the top and pulled out a little rounded plug. "All-purpose access. If I'm right, this should be able to get us into the ship's main computer core."
Gwen looked dubious. "And if you're wrong?"
There was that grin again, far less certain than it wanted to appear. "Then we wing it."
Ianto slipped his hands into his pockets. "How is that different than usual?"
Jack huffed in mock-indignation. "None of that," he said, his eyebrows raised, and Ianto hid a smile.
As Jack flipped open the top of his wrist computer and hit a series of buttons, Ianto and Gwen both moved closer for a better look. Once he finished, it projected a holographic display, much like those John Hart had triggered. This particular display looked like an approximation of a computer interface.
Ianto took a moment to recreate the image in his mind, to commit it to memory.
"All right, here's what we do. We teleport to the ship, trigger the self destruct, and teleport back. No heroics, nothing fancy. Just in and out. Whatever the Sontarans are planning, it won't be good. Between that ship and ATMOS, we need to stop them now. All they believe in is war. They don't negotiate. They don't take prisoners. They decimate, and we have to make sure that doesn't happen."
"How?"
"Here," Jack started, motioning to the top left as everything shifted, "is what the self-destruct controls will look like. We want to set it to countdown, gives ourselves as much time as we can to get out. Best of all, this little beauty will take the disengage offline."
It made sense. Once, they might have arranged to shoot it down, saving the teleport as a last resort. But now, without petrol, without any number of supplies, they could never do that, even if they still had the capability, which they didn't. Torchwood One had taken that equipment down with it. The Valiant had been decommissioned. UNIT was crippled with the 'war effort,' though long ago people had ceased to argue that they weren't, actually, at war.
"Right," Gwen said quietly. She still looked and sounded unsure, but was prepared to do what Jack decided was best. They both were. "So when do we go?"
"I'm just going to reposition the transport beam..." Jack concentrated for a moment, keying in another sequence of buttons, and then gave his wrist device a pleased smile before announcing, "There. That should take us to one of the auxiliary teleport bays." Jack's eyes were ablaze with the enthusiasm saved for life and death situations and sex as he looked up, looked at Gwen, and said, "Straight away."
He motioned to the tunnel and without hesitation Gwen and Ianto stepped into place, side by side, each with their gun in hand. Jack nodded in approval and followed, taking up the point of the 'v' formation.
"Don't go anywhere," Jack directed at Rattigan, his voice stern, his index finger about to hit the final button. "When we get back, you and I are going to have a very long talk."
Next, Ianto was aware of a tingling sensation passing through his entire body.
"Actually," he heard Rattigan say, rather pathetically, to no one as the room faded from sight, "decimate really means..."
The interior of the ship was dim. It had great deal less light than he would have liked, and all of it in blues and purples. It was large, cool, and above all else, inarguably foreign.
But this room at least was thankfully empty, except for the three of them.
"Computer access terminal," Jack whispered, as they huddled together just outside of the teleport. He pointed to a large consol on the wall and took a step toward it, nudging Ianto as he did. "Gwen, cover us. You're our eyes and ears for this one. Any sign of guests, shout." Pause. "Quietly. Shout quietly."
Together Jack and Ianto got the Computer Looter connected to a small circular port just below the terminal's display screen. All-purpose access indeed. Ianto attentively watched everything Jack did, trying to get a feel for this job. He handled the device like a pro, and Ianto would readily admit that he wasn't certain if it could possibly be as easy as he made it look.
Either way, it was obvious it was going too well.
After a few minutes, Jack's wrist chirped.
"Oh, no, no," Ianto heard some seconds later, as Jack took in whatever information was being displayed. "They know we transported up. A full security sweep's been activated. There's not going to be enough time to do this before they get here. Ianto, take over."
He took the Looter without hesitation, and immediately glanced at the read-out. Establishing access. "Jack?"
"Keep at it," Jack said-- more loudly this time, so they could both hear. As he stood, he moved one hand to Ianto's shoulder and squeezed. "Whatever happens. All right? You guys know what to do. Stay out of the way of the Sontarans, but if you have no choice, aim for the back of the neck."
Ianto recognized that tone of voice. He didn't trust himself to speak, so he nodded, once, and when the pressure on his shoulder increased, he knew Jack had felt it. Acknowledged it, and with it everything he would have said. All the ways he would have liked to argue, but that he knew there was no choice and only one of them was immortal.
Gwen, he knew, wouldn't be so accepting. "Why?" she asked, turning around to face them. "What about you, Jack?"
Jack took a deep breath; out of the corner of his eye, Ianto studied the rise and fall of his chest. That was it, the refusal to answer. "Whatever happens," Jack repeated, and before any more words could be said, he turned, and was gone.
"Jack," Gwen called after him, her tone hushed but no less angry. "Jack. What do you think you're..."
As she trailed off, she turned and her eyes met Ianto's.
He was fairly certain he didn't need to speak.
"Bastard," she hissed.
Wordlessly, Ianto agreed.
And then shook himself. No. Thoughts of Jack had to be pushed aside. Personal relationships were secondary, when it came to the fate of the world. That was one of the truths of Torchwood, of any active service. With that in mind, he did the one thing Jack had ordered him to do.
He got to work.
"I'm in," Ianto whispered back to Gwen, as the device finally finished processing and gave him access to the ship's systems. Now he only had to find what he was looking for...
Before he could make a proper effort, the screen in front of him flickered once, and then switched from a display of ship-wide schematics to an image of a Sontaran.
"What," he started, at the same time Gwen, her voice somewhere between urgent and panicked, said, "What did you do?"
He shrugged, because to his knowledge he hadn't done anything-- he hoped he hadn't done anything-- just as the alien began to speak. "The day has come," the thoroughly ugly creature on the screen said crisply. "The humans have engaged us in battle on our own vessel."
Ianto and Gwen exchanged a glance. Whatever Jack had been trying to do, it hadn't worked. At least not yet.
Unless he'd been trying to buy them time. The patrol had been advancing on them, but none had shown; they'd been distracted by Jack, which, considering that he wouldn't have gone down without a decent fight, wasn't surprising. So perhaps time they had. Time to get into the computer systems...
Time to get away.
The Sontaran started to say something else, when from behind the guards came a familiar sound. The gasp of a drowning man newly pulled from the water, of empty lungs suddenly filling with air. On a Sontaran ship, with no water in sight, it could only mean one thing.
Jack.
Ianto breathed in sharply. Beside him, as she came to the same conclusions, Gwen did the same.
"The human lives!" someone shouted, followed by a commanding voice declaring, "Impossible!"
The Sontaran who had made the announcement to the crew made an ungainly about-face, moving to one side. Perhaps unintentionally, this put Jack into sight. He was pale, as was common when he returned. Even to an alien, it would be obvious that he wasn't well.
But of his captors, the leader seemed to be the least impressed.
"Your death was nearly honorable," he said, the barrel of oversized gun leveled at Jack's chest. "For a human. Yet you knew you would revive. That is not honor. That is stupidity."
"Yeah," Jack gasped, wincing even as he did, "I get that a lot."
There was a flash of red light and a strangled cry, and then Jack fell to the ground, dead.
"Remove the human to Sontar," the Sontaran instructed one of his subordinates. Ianto opened his mouth, but he could think of nothing to say. In a rush, Jack's words came back to him: Whatever happens. Maybe this was always a possibility. Maybe he knew. "He will make excellent target practice."
He always was ready to sacrifice himself at a moment's notice.
That said, the company commander turned back to the camera. "It is time. We will taste blood."
A three-fingered, gloved hand reached out and switched something off.
Immediately the display reverted to the schematics Ianto had been attempting to understand. For a moment, he didn't comprehend the change. For a moment, he could only stare, unblinking, at the collection of colors and lines. It didn't seem real, what he had just heard. They had Jack. They'd taken Jack. And there was no question that he and Gwen would have to leave him behind.
Personal relationships were secondary.
"Target practice," Gwen said, sounding numb. It wasn't the best thing she could have said, just then. "Ianto, we..."
"No." It was rough. It belied the calm he was trying so desperately to cling to. But he couldn't allow himself to be swayed. Not now, when it was this important. He wasn't about to let Jack down.
"He wants us here," he continued, and with a deep breath, he began to attempt to navigate the systems. Jack had been right about the technology, at least; it allowed him into the mainframe, past what he had identified as their version of a firewall, and into the more vital commands with nothing but ease. "So we stay here."
Gwen didn't argue. She didn't like it, but neither did Ianto, and the unavoidable truth was that there was nothing she could have said. He felt her turn back towards the exit, and registered the shift in stance that meant she was covering him.
They remained like that, in silence, for several minutes, as Ianto did his best to find his bearings. Even with the translation and the interface device, the Sontaran computer systems were a maze.
Finally, he found it. Several seconds went by as he studied the screen. When he fully realized what it was he had found, he inhaled sharply.
The controls, the commands. They were wrong. They didn't match. He remembered the instructions Jack had given perfectly and these didn't match.
"Gwen," Ianto whispered.
"What is it?" She was doing her best to keep her eyes on the doorway, gun pointed toward any advancing Sontarans (not that it would do any good, he amended privately) but he knew she kept glancing back. "Ianto, what's taking so long?"
For a beat, he didn't answer. He even double-checked, wracked his brain for anything similar in the archives, anything at all that could give him another idea. Any idea at all. But nothing came. Times like these, he really missed Toshiko. He was no computer specialist, had no miracle ready at a moment's notice.
"This isn't good."
"Ianto," she repeated through gritted teeth. "Tell me."
"It isn't right." Ianto ran a hand through his hair and looked up at her. "It's, it's different, somehow. I think I've figured out how to start the self-destruct."
"That's good," Gwen said. She was breathing heavily now. Nerves. "Do it, and we can get out here, and we can, we can figure out where they've taken Jack, and..."
He appreciated her optimism, he really did. He closed his eyes, though. Easier to deal with it that way. "No," he said, simply. "I can start the self-destruct, but Jack was wrong. There's no countdown." Perhaps Sontarans, warriors that they were, needed no opportunity to abandon ship. He stayed quiet a moment, stayed still. He could feel her, behind him, and felt the moment she understood.
She started to speak. He couldn't let that happen. "Gwen," he began instead, keeping his voice as even as he could. It was surprisingly easy, as though everything else had already shut down. Perhaps it had. "I need you to do something for me."
"No..."
"I need you," and he did have to breathe in, to gather strength, "to get on the teleport."
"I'm not leaving you behind."
"Gwen," he told her, so calmly. "Get on the teleport."
"I am not leaving you behind, Ianto Jones." She was angry now, and he could hardly blame her; if he were in her situation, he would be too. Her voice was low, pained and almost seething. And, too, almost shaking. "We lost Tosh and Owen. London is gone. Half of Southern England is gone. And they just took Jack God knows where, and that's too much. That's too much, Ianto, and I am not going to leave you."
She had Rhys, out of work and needing his wife more than ever. She had a future. She could leave Torchwood or rebuild Torchwood. She could have children. She could help the relief effort, volunteer with UNIT, do some good in the world.
But when he thought of the sheer amount of loss she'd just named, Ianto realized he couldn't have faced that either.
He got the distinct impression that in his silence something had been settled.
"We can't wait," she said. "Let's save the world, one more time."
"Yes ma'am," he replied, forcing a weak smile to go with it. As he finished in-putting the command, he just let his thumb hover over the key that would initialize the self-destruct. It would be near instantaneous. He thought. He hoped.
Ianto looked up at Gwen again, maybe thinking he could change her mind, get her to at least try, but there was no doubt in his mind that she was right, that even that would be in vain; they both knew that there was only one way this was going to end.
In her eyes, he saw a grim determination that was just so very Gwen.
He held out a hand.
She knelt down beside him and took it. Her grip was fierce, and she pressed herself against his side.
"For Tosh," she murmured so quietly he barely heard. "For Owen.'"
For Jack, Ianto added silently.
In the hallway that stretched behind them, there was an echo of "Sontar-ha!"
As Ianto tightened the hold he had on Gwen's fingers, he breathed out and let his thumb fall.
Ianto Jones
Torchwood
3,700 words
"Look, Rattigan," Jack started, but then he paused in the middle of the sentence, his head cocked to one side. "By the way, anyone ever tell you that's a really unfortunate name? No wonder you don't have any friends."
"No," the boy cried, scrambling backwards and looking from Jack to Ianto and back. "No, that's not why. It's because I'm clever! Don't you see, that's always been why."
"Rattigan." Jack drew out the word. He seemed to be savoring it. It might have been threatening, Ianto thought, had it not been incredibly attractive. "Rattigan. Like a rat. A good name for one, don't you think, Ianto?"
"It's been done," Ianto said. And then, although that needed no explanation, "Disney."
"Pity," Jack responded, albeit slightly distantly. He looked away from Rattigan, who had apparently decided that the best reaction to the two of them was to cower. A good choice, and to further convince the boy of that Ianto schooled his features into a look of cool disapproval.
"So," Jack said suddenly, switching gears with a quick, disconcerting grin. "Tell me about ATMOS."
The boy opened his mouth to answer, but Jack didn't stop long enough for that. "Because, see, at first I couldn't figure it out. People being murdered by their cars? That's far-fetched even for me, not to mention that barely anyone has cars anymore. But then a friend of mine from UNIT-- well, friend isn't the word, really-- passed along a message. From a reporter who was investigating you, Rattigan."
Ianto knew his cue. He took a few steps forward, hedging Rattigan in. "Funny, then, isn't it," he supplied, "that nearly immediately after she left the message, she drove--" His fingers held flat, he mimed a car driving, adding a slight downward curve. "Straight into the river."
Rattigan said nothing. He looked stricken, which was probably a good sign. Testament to Jack's interrogation tactics, at least.
Jack just smiled. The smile was the key, Ianto had found. It was Jack going in for the metaphorical kill. "And that, that got my attention, so we found one of your ATMOS systems, ran some tests. Interesting results. A temporal pocket, cleverly hidden right there in plain sight. Set to release an interesting cocktail. Carbon monixodes, hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides and-- and here's the kicker-- ten percent of it unindentified. You know what unidentified means to me?"
At his side, Ianto nodded and said, "Extraterrestrial." A pause, long enough for Rattigan to twitch. "Alien."
"You don't know anything," Rattigan protested in desperately insistent tones. "You wouldn't understand anything about it. And besides, you're wrong, you can't say ATMOS systems. That's a tautology. ATMOS stands for' 'Atmospheric Emmissions System,' so you're actually saying--"
"Oooh." Jack shivered theatrically, but it was all somehow hollow. "Pedantry. Should that be so hot?"
Ianto answered without missing a beat: "No."
"You always say no," Jack said, though if he was disappointed, it wasn't in his voice.
Just then, Ianto caught sight of Gwen hovering in the doorway. She spared a smile for their usual Team Bad Cop banter, but otherwise looked serious. He inclined his head, motioning for her to approach.
When she did, she leaned close to Jack. "I finished interviewing the students who were still here, but they're all packing up to leave. Immediately. Apparently he--" she nodded to Rattigan-- "was trying to set them up for some sort of breeding program on another planet."
Jack's eyebrows went up. "Was he?" He hmmed to himself before once again focusing on the boy genius. "ATMOS systems that spew alien gas and now a breeding planet. Do you want to tell me who you're working for, or do you want me to find out on my own? You probably don't want me to find out on my own."
"They lied to me," Rattigan protested, his voice high-pitched in panic at being caught out. "They betrayed me. The Sontarans, they lied to me. Don't tell anyone what I did. You can't."
"Sontarans?" Ianto didn't like the look on Jack's face. "You're in more trouble than I thought."
Ianto really didn't like the look on Jack's face as he glanced at the two remaining members of his team, sucked in a deep breath, and added, "We all are."
Gwen continued to look between them, Rattigan and Jack. She spoke first. "Who are they, Jack?"
"Let's just say that the first rule of fighting the Sontarans..." He paused for emphasis, and when he continued his face was darker, his jaw more firmly set. "Is that you can't fight Sontarans."
Ianto could think of a few choice responses to that, but the one he finally chose was, "We need a plan."
"You," Jack said, pointing to Rattigan. "The Sontarans. How do they contact you? A communicator, radio, video, what?"
"Video," the kid all but stuttered, "but I can do better than that." There was a moment in which an internal battle of visible was his face, as he tried to decide whether or not to follow through. Finally, objections quashed, he drew himself up to his full--and less than impressive-- height, and said, "I can send you to their ship."
To his credit, and even though he was obviously surprised. Jack only hesitated a second. "Do it."
"Right, Jack." Gwen planted herself beside their Captain, her arms crossed over her chest. "Ianto's right, we need a plan. What are we going to do when we get there? Find out what they want, try to negotiate..."
"You don't negotiate with Sontarans," Jack interrupted. "They see it as cowardice. That's rule two." He turned to point at Ianto. "Go back to the SUV. I need the-- ...it's rectangle, with the lights. Blue? Little lines?"
Ianto nodded. "The Computer Looter," he supplied, completely deadpan. The beginning of every dangerous mission needed a good rhyme to offset the mood, after all. And true to form, it got a flash of a grin from Jack. But just a flash, and then it was back to business, and Ianto hurried out to the car.
The device was found with little trouble, wedged in as it was between the jumper cables, the medical kit that desperately needed restocking, and a very large water gun filled with saltwater for fighting Maxilian freshwater swamp beasts. Once he had it, Ianto took a moment to make sure he had both a loaded firearm and a stungun.
By the time he returned to the others, they had moved to a room that was outfitted with a large tunnel, and Jack was busy admiring the technology.
"Teleport," Gwen explained when Ianto directed a questioning look her way. He nodded. Teleport. Of course.
He waited another few moments, watched Jack run his hands over the smooth lines, and then finally cleared his throat. When he turned, Ianto held out the device.
"A ha. This," Jack said, holding it up so Gwen-- and consequently, Rattigan-- could get a good look, "is illegal in nineteen galaxies and four centuries." He flipped open a panel on the top and pulled out a little rounded plug. "All-purpose access. If I'm right, this should be able to get us into the ship's main computer core."
Gwen looked dubious. "And if you're wrong?"
There was that grin again, far less certain than it wanted to appear. "Then we wing it."
Ianto slipped his hands into his pockets. "How is that different than usual?"
Jack huffed in mock-indignation. "None of that," he said, his eyebrows raised, and Ianto hid a smile.
As Jack flipped open the top of his wrist computer and hit a series of buttons, Ianto and Gwen both moved closer for a better look. Once he finished, it projected a holographic display, much like those John Hart had triggered. This particular display looked like an approximation of a computer interface.
Ianto took a moment to recreate the image in his mind, to commit it to memory.
"All right, here's what we do. We teleport to the ship, trigger the self destruct, and teleport back. No heroics, nothing fancy. Just in and out. Whatever the Sontarans are planning, it won't be good. Between that ship and ATMOS, we need to stop them now. All they believe in is war. They don't negotiate. They don't take prisoners. They decimate, and we have to make sure that doesn't happen."
"How?"
"Here," Jack started, motioning to the top left as everything shifted, "is what the self-destruct controls will look like. We want to set it to countdown, gives ourselves as much time as we can to get out. Best of all, this little beauty will take the disengage offline."
It made sense. Once, they might have arranged to shoot it down, saving the teleport as a last resort. But now, without petrol, without any number of supplies, they could never do that, even if they still had the capability, which they didn't. Torchwood One had taken that equipment down with it. The Valiant had been decommissioned. UNIT was crippled with the 'war effort,' though long ago people had ceased to argue that they weren't, actually, at war.
"Right," Gwen said quietly. She still looked and sounded unsure, but was prepared to do what Jack decided was best. They both were. "So when do we go?"
"I'm just going to reposition the transport beam..." Jack concentrated for a moment, keying in another sequence of buttons, and then gave his wrist device a pleased smile before announcing, "There. That should take us to one of the auxiliary teleport bays." Jack's eyes were ablaze with the enthusiasm saved for life and death situations and sex as he looked up, looked at Gwen, and said, "Straight away."
He motioned to the tunnel and without hesitation Gwen and Ianto stepped into place, side by side, each with their gun in hand. Jack nodded in approval and followed, taking up the point of the 'v' formation.
"Don't go anywhere," Jack directed at Rattigan, his voice stern, his index finger about to hit the final button. "When we get back, you and I are going to have a very long talk."
Next, Ianto was aware of a tingling sensation passing through his entire body.
"Actually," he heard Rattigan say, rather pathetically, to no one as the room faded from sight, "decimate really means..."
The interior of the ship was dim. It had great deal less light than he would have liked, and all of it in blues and purples. It was large, cool, and above all else, inarguably foreign.
But this room at least was thankfully empty, except for the three of them.
"Computer access terminal," Jack whispered, as they huddled together just outside of the teleport. He pointed to a large consol on the wall and took a step toward it, nudging Ianto as he did. "Gwen, cover us. You're our eyes and ears for this one. Any sign of guests, shout." Pause. "Quietly. Shout quietly."
Together Jack and Ianto got the Computer Looter connected to a small circular port just below the terminal's display screen. All-purpose access indeed. Ianto attentively watched everything Jack did, trying to get a feel for this job. He handled the device like a pro, and Ianto would readily admit that he wasn't certain if it could possibly be as easy as he made it look.
Either way, it was obvious it was going too well.
After a few minutes, Jack's wrist chirped.
"Oh, no, no," Ianto heard some seconds later, as Jack took in whatever information was being displayed. "They know we transported up. A full security sweep's been activated. There's not going to be enough time to do this before they get here. Ianto, take over."
He took the Looter without hesitation, and immediately glanced at the read-out. Establishing access. "Jack?"
"Keep at it," Jack said-- more loudly this time, so they could both hear. As he stood, he moved one hand to Ianto's shoulder and squeezed. "Whatever happens. All right? You guys know what to do. Stay out of the way of the Sontarans, but if you have no choice, aim for the back of the neck."
Ianto recognized that tone of voice. He didn't trust himself to speak, so he nodded, once, and when the pressure on his shoulder increased, he knew Jack had felt it. Acknowledged it, and with it everything he would have said. All the ways he would have liked to argue, but that he knew there was no choice and only one of them was immortal.
Gwen, he knew, wouldn't be so accepting. "Why?" she asked, turning around to face them. "What about you, Jack?"
Jack took a deep breath; out of the corner of his eye, Ianto studied the rise and fall of his chest. That was it, the refusal to answer. "Whatever happens," Jack repeated, and before any more words could be said, he turned, and was gone.
"Jack," Gwen called after him, her tone hushed but no less angry. "Jack. What do you think you're..."
As she trailed off, she turned and her eyes met Ianto's.
He was fairly certain he didn't need to speak.
"Bastard," she hissed.
Wordlessly, Ianto agreed.
And then shook himself. No. Thoughts of Jack had to be pushed aside. Personal relationships were secondary, when it came to the fate of the world. That was one of the truths of Torchwood, of any active service. With that in mind, he did the one thing Jack had ordered him to do.
He got to work.
"I'm in," Ianto whispered back to Gwen, as the device finally finished processing and gave him access to the ship's systems. Now he only had to find what he was looking for...
Before he could make a proper effort, the screen in front of him flickered once, and then switched from a display of ship-wide schematics to an image of a Sontaran.
"What," he started, at the same time Gwen, her voice somewhere between urgent and panicked, said, "What did you do?"
He shrugged, because to his knowledge he hadn't done anything-- he hoped he hadn't done anything-- just as the alien began to speak. "The day has come," the thoroughly ugly creature on the screen said crisply. "The humans have engaged us in battle on our own vessel."
Ianto and Gwen exchanged a glance. Whatever Jack had been trying to do, it hadn't worked. At least not yet.
Unless he'd been trying to buy them time. The patrol had been advancing on them, but none had shown; they'd been distracted by Jack, which, considering that he wouldn't have gone down without a decent fight, wasn't surprising. So perhaps time they had. Time to get into the computer systems...
Time to get away.
The Sontaran started to say something else, when from behind the guards came a familiar sound. The gasp of a drowning man newly pulled from the water, of empty lungs suddenly filling with air. On a Sontaran ship, with no water in sight, it could only mean one thing.
Jack.
Ianto breathed in sharply. Beside him, as she came to the same conclusions, Gwen did the same.
"The human lives!" someone shouted, followed by a commanding voice declaring, "Impossible!"
The Sontaran who had made the announcement to the crew made an ungainly about-face, moving to one side. Perhaps unintentionally, this put Jack into sight. He was pale, as was common when he returned. Even to an alien, it would be obvious that he wasn't well.
But of his captors, the leader seemed to be the least impressed.
"Your death was nearly honorable," he said, the barrel of oversized gun leveled at Jack's chest. "For a human. Yet you knew you would revive. That is not honor. That is stupidity."
"Yeah," Jack gasped, wincing even as he did, "I get that a lot."
There was a flash of red light and a strangled cry, and then Jack fell to the ground, dead.
"Remove the human to Sontar," the Sontaran instructed one of his subordinates. Ianto opened his mouth, but he could think of nothing to say. In a rush, Jack's words came back to him: Whatever happens. Maybe this was always a possibility. Maybe he knew. "He will make excellent target practice."
He always was ready to sacrifice himself at a moment's notice.
That said, the company commander turned back to the camera. "It is time. We will taste blood."
A three-fingered, gloved hand reached out and switched something off.
Immediately the display reverted to the schematics Ianto had been attempting to understand. For a moment, he didn't comprehend the change. For a moment, he could only stare, unblinking, at the collection of colors and lines. It didn't seem real, what he had just heard. They had Jack. They'd taken Jack. And there was no question that he and Gwen would have to leave him behind.
Personal relationships were secondary.
"Target practice," Gwen said, sounding numb. It wasn't the best thing she could have said, just then. "Ianto, we..."
"No." It was rough. It belied the calm he was trying so desperately to cling to. But he couldn't allow himself to be swayed. Not now, when it was this important. He wasn't about to let Jack down.
"He wants us here," he continued, and with a deep breath, he began to attempt to navigate the systems. Jack had been right about the technology, at least; it allowed him into the mainframe, past what he had identified as their version of a firewall, and into the more vital commands with nothing but ease. "So we stay here."
Gwen didn't argue. She didn't like it, but neither did Ianto, and the unavoidable truth was that there was nothing she could have said. He felt her turn back towards the exit, and registered the shift in stance that meant she was covering him.
They remained like that, in silence, for several minutes, as Ianto did his best to find his bearings. Even with the translation and the interface device, the Sontaran computer systems were a maze.
Finally, he found it. Several seconds went by as he studied the screen. When he fully realized what it was he had found, he inhaled sharply.
The controls, the commands. They were wrong. They didn't match. He remembered the instructions Jack had given perfectly and these didn't match.
"Gwen," Ianto whispered.
"What is it?" She was doing her best to keep her eyes on the doorway, gun pointed toward any advancing Sontarans (not that it would do any good, he amended privately) but he knew she kept glancing back. "Ianto, what's taking so long?"
For a beat, he didn't answer. He even double-checked, wracked his brain for anything similar in the archives, anything at all that could give him another idea. Any idea at all. But nothing came. Times like these, he really missed Toshiko. He was no computer specialist, had no miracle ready at a moment's notice.
"This isn't good."
"Ianto," she repeated through gritted teeth. "Tell me."
"It isn't right." Ianto ran a hand through his hair and looked up at her. "It's, it's different, somehow. I think I've figured out how to start the self-destruct."
"That's good," Gwen said. She was breathing heavily now. Nerves. "Do it, and we can get out here, and we can, we can figure out where they've taken Jack, and..."
He appreciated her optimism, he really did. He closed his eyes, though. Easier to deal with it that way. "No," he said, simply. "I can start the self-destruct, but Jack was wrong. There's no countdown." Perhaps Sontarans, warriors that they were, needed no opportunity to abandon ship. He stayed quiet a moment, stayed still. He could feel her, behind him, and felt the moment she understood.
She started to speak. He couldn't let that happen. "Gwen," he began instead, keeping his voice as even as he could. It was surprisingly easy, as though everything else had already shut down. Perhaps it had. "I need you to do something for me."
"No..."
"I need you," and he did have to breathe in, to gather strength, "to get on the teleport."
"I'm not leaving you behind."
"Gwen," he told her, so calmly. "Get on the teleport."
"I am not leaving you behind, Ianto Jones." She was angry now, and he could hardly blame her; if he were in her situation, he would be too. Her voice was low, pained and almost seething. And, too, almost shaking. "We lost Tosh and Owen. London is gone. Half of Southern England is gone. And they just took Jack God knows where, and that's too much. That's too much, Ianto, and I am not going to leave you."
She had Rhys, out of work and needing his wife more than ever. She had a future. She could leave Torchwood or rebuild Torchwood. She could have children. She could help the relief effort, volunteer with UNIT, do some good in the world.
But when he thought of the sheer amount of loss she'd just named, Ianto realized he couldn't have faced that either.
He got the distinct impression that in his silence something had been settled.
"We can't wait," she said. "Let's save the world, one more time."
"Yes ma'am," he replied, forcing a weak smile to go with it. As he finished in-putting the command, he just let his thumb hover over the key that would initialize the self-destruct. It would be near instantaneous. He thought. He hoped.
Ianto looked up at Gwen again, maybe thinking he could change her mind, get her to at least try, but there was no doubt in his mind that she was right, that even that would be in vain; they both knew that there was only one way this was going to end.
In her eyes, he saw a grim determination that was just so very Gwen.
He held out a hand.
She knelt down beside him and took it. Her grip was fierce, and she pressed herself against his side.
"For Tosh," she murmured so quietly he barely heard. "For Owen.'"
For Jack, Ianto added silently.
In the hallway that stretched behind them, there was an echo of "Sontar-ha!"
As Ianto tightened the hold he had on Gwen's fingers, he breathed out and let his thumb fall.
Ianto Jones
Torchwood
3,700 words