GTHW 9/10
chapter nine
The Captain's face was unreadable.
“The colony didn’t fail, they were abandoned." Ianto paced the width of the office. "They were having trouble with the crops, with the weather, and there was an illness that escalated. They were left here, left to die. Human and Kriida. That’s why they keep coming. To the Kriida, we’re desecrating a burial ground.”
He knew better to plead for the Captain to believe him. Either he did, or he didn't. "They're willing to stop the attacks and leave us alone."
"On what conditions?" demanded the Captain.
"Just one." Ianto looked away. "The colony is in the eye of the main storm. The colonists generated the storm in order to the contagion from spreading. A milder version, the one that surfaces here every now and then, is carried here by the wind, but the one that killed the colony requires physical contact. The storm kept outsiders and animals from the infected."
"The Kriida have developed a cure for the illness, which they are willing to give to us to treat the victims of the inferior strain here. In return for the cure, and leaving us in peace, they... they ask that the storm be turned off."
The Captain frowned. "Turned off?"
"The storm was first created by a terra-forming machine at the heart of the colony, which they'd been using for environmental control. The same machine maintains it. They need somebody to shut it down."
"At the heart of the colony," the Captain repeated. "In the eye of a storm."
"And the virus is still active. The Kriida that managed to get through the storm, a few years after the colony died, were on site for less than an hour before they keeled over."
Understanding dawned on the Captain's face. "It'll be me, won't it? The man who can't die. You want me to go out there and do this."
Ianto bit his lip. "I don't want you to do this," he said. "Or, at least, I wish it didn't have to be you. I'd rather it be me."
The Captain was quiet for a good long while. Ianto waited, watched. But he hated, too, that in the end there was no question; the Captain would do it, because his men were dying.
"Thing is, even if I do this, they'll still hate me," said the Captain quietly. "But I couldn't live with myself, if I didn't."
It was always difficult to find something to say to hard truths. Ianto sighed, and hesitantly slipped his arms around Jack's middle, pressing in close.
- - -
They waited until the middle of the night, and there was another bombing early in the evening. They used the shuttle that Ianto had arrived in, because of the considerable distance. The storm knocked the ship around like an insect caught in a hailstorm, but it was not the reason for the sour taste in Ianto's mouth.
After an hour of flight, the Captain landed the ship in a small niche in a rocky outcropping, and secured it there using anchors that thrust out from the bottom and punched into the rock itself.
They didn't speak, only nodded at each other before the Captain opened the ramp and struggled out of the shuttle. Even inside, Ianto stumbled back from the ferocity of the winds, winced when sand was literally being propelled into the ship; he was wearing the harness without the protective suit.
Hovering above the main console was a map of the area. A square marking the ship's position sat in the bottom left-hand corner, while an outline of the colony took up a little less than half the screen - their best estimate on its position, anyway. A small blinking dot indicated the Captain's position.
They'd brought the shuttle as close to the site as they could; as it was, the ship was near vibrating from the strength of the winds outside.
Ianto watched the Captain's dot travel over the terrain contours. The Captain carried his own nav tablet, but every now and then Ianto advised him on an easier route, or simply spoke to him, about the base and the men and little nothings. It was, essentially, like being on monitor duty back at the Hub while Jack went on one of his midnight runs.
The Captain's responses grew more sporadic the closer he got to the colony, the deeper into the storm. Ianto chased away the images swimming in his mind, of what such forces can inflict upon the human body, and kept talking. At one point, the Captain turned off his mic, but the signal for the receiver continued strong, and Ianto poured his voice through the secure channel.
Finally, finally, the mic was turned on again and the Captain's voice came through, "I'm in." He sounded tired, voice scratchy, out of breath.
Ianto let out a long breath. "That's good." He enlarged the screen on the map of the colony, showing the Captain at its fringes. "I plotted a course on your nav tablet to get to the machine. Tell me if any of the roads are impassable and I'll find a different way."
"Affirmative." The little dot moved steadily along the Ianto's planned course, significantly faster now that he wasn't battling a gale. A few times he reported that the road was blocked, or there was a thick growth that would take time to hack through, and Ianto transmitted new directions.
Ianto wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but the Captain did not sound ill or weak at any point. If he keeled over and died during one of the walking intervals, Ianto did not pick it up. But perhaps his body regenerated faster than the virus could kill it.
The Captain's dot reached the designated building. For some reason Ianto tensed - this was always the point where great plans went awry, the moment before the mission was accomplished - and he listened intently as the Captain puttered around "something that looks like a gizor, you know, with the tubes and one end that glows".
The Speaker had given him the directions to turn it off. The Captain reported each switch he hit, each adjustment, and then, "There, it's off now. Well, it's stopped glowing."
Ianto breathed out, and looked at the storm through the screen. It didn't look any different, but Speaker had warned him to expect that. The machine started the storm and sustains it when the winds die down, but it is a real storm, and it must run its course.
"That's... that's great. Thank you, Captain." He covered his face with his hands. "Come on home."
The Captain certainly sounded a great deal more energetic now. "Not much of a difference, but it feels less... fierce, now." He cleared his throat. "Okay, Knight, don't be alarmed, but I'm going to try something. Take the faster route down the mountain, as it were."
Ianto had a sinking feeling at the almost boyish excitement in the Captain's voice, especially when the mic was turned off again. Sure enough, when the green dot arrived at what must be the edge of the storm, it suddenly flew off into a different direction, moving at breakneck speed. After a few seconds it changed direction, heading towards the ship again but occasionally being buffeted backwards. The dot twisted and zigzagged its way out of the storm, and finally stopped moving twenty miles away from the ship.
The Captain was still several minutes away when the ship notified Ianto that it was being contacted. Ianto hesitated, glancing at the Captain's dot, but he straightened up and agreed to accept the transmission.
A separate screen popped up. The Kriida's headgear was far more elaborate than the soldiers', and Ianto could not make out the expression under the visor.
"Is this the Knight, who spoke to our Speaker?" asked the Kriida.
"It is," replied Ianto.
"You have completed your part in the bargain, and now we honor ours." The sensors alerted him that there was a ship, a long way above, and then an object was dropping down. Too small for a person, and too bulky for a bomb. "The package contains the composition of the antivirus, and a few samples."
"Thank you," Ianto said sincerely. "And the attacks?"
"We ceased them the moment the bargain was struck."
Ianto blinked. "We had a bombing right before we left the base. And in the last week."
"Those were from the humans. It is against our custom to continue hostile actions in the middle of a bargain."
A dark shape landed right in front of the ship. "I see the package now," reported Ianto, head swimming. The bomb that had hit their skater, that had killed Varys. "Thank you."
"And we thank you, for returning the land to us. If your people require asylum, know that we are willing to grant it to them, on the condition they bring no arms nor agent of conflict among us."
"That is... very generous. Thank you."
Ianto ended the transmission, and stared down at his hands. The Kriida ship left. Presently, the Captain reached the ship, and Ianto told him to pick up the package on his way up.
- - -
The Captain's lack of surprise at the news stopped Ianto short. "You knew. You knew it hasn't been the Kriida bombing us," said Ianto accusingly.
"I suspected after they stopped the incursions," replied the Captain, as he piloted the ship back to base. "They find bombs, mass destruction from a distance, dishonorable, and only did it to get us to come out of the base. We never check the ships dropping the bombs, since it's pretty safe to assume that they are enemies, but the last one, especially after you spoke with their Speaker - and it had no call sign, no markings."
Ianto sat down. Ran his hands over the sleek metal of his chair. "But why?"
"Didn't I tell you? They want to wash their hands clean of us. And this way, they can pin it on the Kriida. Just another justification to fuel the war."
- - -
Ianto thought they had time. Time to figure things out, to get as many people out of the whole mess alive as possible. The antivirus was distributed, the patients showed signs of recovery.
Then Ianto saw Wire and Aberdeen and Heels, a woman from Oakland's squad, deep in discussion. They went quiet at his approach, which should have been a sign. He mentioned it to the Captain, but there was nothing to be done about it.
He asked River about the date. River recited it without hesitation. Ianto thanked him, and used the nearest computer console to make some calculations, all the while fingering the piece of metal hanging from his neck.
One night, the news spread through the base: Aberdeen had taken their one shuttle, and was shot down. And not by Kriida. It was a spark falling on dry tinder.
"What are you-?" The sharp impact with the wall cut off all further words. He'd thought he was alone.
"He's got my brother," said a familiar voice, right next to his ear. "I couldn't believe- but you spend so much time with him. I'm sorry, Knight, I don't want to do this. But he's got my brother, and maybe. For you, he will."
Before he could blink away the stars in his vision, much less ask what the fuck is going on, strong hands manhandled him out of the locker room and down the hallway.
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