Fic: That Old Gravity Well. 1/ 1 Torchwood/Andromeda
Title: That Old Gravity Well. Author: Lopaka Tanu Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood or Andromeda. Characters: Ianto, Jack, Suzie, Owen, Tosh, Gwen, John. Words: 4755 Prompt: Torchwood crossover with Author's Choice. Fandom: Torchwood/Andromeda Pairing: Mentions of Ianto/Owen, Ianto/Jack, Jack/Everyone. Rating: Adult Warnings: Language, Violence, Mentions of Character Death. Summary: A thousand years in the future, scavengers board the Ianto Ascendant. Author's Note: Andromeda Fusion, with a special guest thrown in. ______________________________________
"All right, fire orbiting thrusters. I want to keep us at a safe distance until we are ready." Manning the helm, Suzie checked the status on the gravity sensors. They were dangerously close, but within tolerable limits for a short period.
Behind her, Owen was busy pressing the firing controls. "Thrusters are a little sluggish, adjusting to compensate." He winced as his fingers went white from the strain against the controls. Eventually the ship shuddered. "Orbit achieved."
"Good work. Tosh, I want full scans of the gravity well, up to date every two minutes. If something even so much as breaks wind, I want us to know about it immediately." Suzie began to unbuckle her safety harness. The controls were locked, so her ship wasn't going any where. When she was freed, she hit the comm button. "G'Winnett, how's the preparation going?"
"The probes are almost ready. Their housing is giving me a fit, though." The Magog's hissing screech of anger filled the cockpit.
Owen winced at the sound before scowling. Choosing to ignore the look of sympathy from Tosh, he focused solely on his work station. The orbiting thrusters needed to be continuously fired in a certain sequence to keep their position.
"Don't damage them, G'Winnett!" Suzie glared at the comm button as if it was the source of her anger.
"I won't." G'Winnett hissed again. "Blasted things. I wish John were here, he was the one supposed to be doing this, not me!"
"Well he's not, so just finish up already and get back up here." Her arm spikes extended in annoyance. Turning off the comm, Suzie focused out the front porthole. Ahead of them, the blazing remains of a thousand stars swirled in to oblivion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
A sphere of light preluded the expansion in to his full holographic projection. Appearing forward of the command deck, there was a slight hesitation before the hologram moved. Blinking, his internal sensors scanned for life among the bodies and debris. Spotting one survivor, the hologram faced him. "Captain Harkness, my sensors show you are alive. Can you hear me?"
"I can hear you, but I'd rather I didn't." Holding his head, Jack sat up. He was twenty paces from his chair, the last place he could remember being. "What the hell happened?"
"Unknown. My sensor logs are reporting massive power failures. Scans indicate we were attacked." The hologram glitched, appearing to double before Ianto reappeared solid. "My matrix has been damaged, I will require a full twelve hour maintenance cycle soon."
"Understood. But, priorities first, are there any other survivors?" Jack placed a hand to his forehead, then glanced at his damp palm. The blood was old and clotting. "How long have I been out?"
"Unknown. My sensors indicate at least a thirty minute gap..." Trailing off, the hologram cocked his head to the side. "That can't be right. It shouldn't be possible."
Alarmed, Jack watched the hologram wink out. "Ianto! Report!"
The main screen at the forward of the command deck winked off. When it activated again, Ianto's face was taking up the entire screen. "Sir, we have a more serious matter to attend. According to my galactic scans, we are over one thousand years in the future."
"The black hole," Jack whispered. Then, it all came back to him. "Ianto, run a diagnostic patch, Harkness three-omega."
"Aye, sir." The screens across the command deck shut down. A short time later, they reactivated with an irate looking Ianto appearing on several of them. "That bloody bitch! I'll blow her fucking head off! Scanning for Yvonne Hartman."
"There's no need." Glancing to his left, Jack found her slowly emptying body across the room. His final shot had done put an end to nearly twenty years of friendship. "Ianto, about those scans for survivors?"
"Negative, sir, no survivors among the crew. All two thousand are dead." Ianto's image seemed to waver, static filtering over his image. "Even Chief Engineer Hallett."
Jack nodded. He had expected as much. There had been no warning to the attack, and Yvonne had been very good at her job. "I'm sorry, I know how much she meant to you."
"Sir..." Red lights flashed across the command deck. Ianto's jaw clenched as he focused on Jack. "Intruder alert! Unidentified life forms detected on deck three, section nine. They are attempting to access Mainframe controls. Request permission to use security protocol nine."
"Negative. Suppress and capture, I want some answers!" Wincing, Jack climbed to his feet. He could hear how pissed the AI was just from the static buzzing over the speakers. It wanted revenge and he wasn't sure he would deny it if they were involved. "I'm on my way."
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What's the status on those sensor controls, Toshiko?" At her own console, Suzie was busy trying to keep power to their section. Apparently the ship's AI wasn't as offline as they had been lead to believe. "Damn it!"
"Keep your bloomers on, we're goin as fast as we can!" Waist deep in spliced wires and jury rigged computers, Owen pulled a laser welder from behind his ear. He twisted two orange wires from the Mainframe access panel together and added a clamp from his console to them. Activating the laser, he welded them together.
"Excellent, Owen!" Tosh tapped on her console, activating the linkup Owen had just made. "I'm tapping in to Mainframe now. There are seven sets of encryption needed to get through, but I only have five of the ciphers. This is going to take a few."
"Right." This was the part Suzie loved. Stepping back from the console, she pulled her blaster and aimed it at the screen. "Cover your faces, everyone." Not waiting for them, she fired it at half power. The console exploded in a rain of flaming isochips and flexiglass.
"Damn it, Suzie, you should have given us more time! We could have seriously been hurt." Rubbing a clawed hand down her furry face, G'Winnett stuck her tongue between her teeth and hissed. The taste of ozone flooded the compartment, making her beady eyes water. "Someone else will have to take watch, I can't sense a thing in this blasted stench!"
"There will be no need." Appearing on the few screens not pried off so that the four intruders could access their wires, Ianto's stern visage was surrounded by glowing embers. "You are in violation of Torchwood property. As such, you are under arrest. There is no resistance."
"Oh yeah, what's a glowing little fairy like you gonna do about us?" Rising from the bundles of wires, Owen shoved extra cables from his shoulders. The next instant, he and everyone else were on the deck, muscles twitching.
Electrical surges flowed through every surface, visibly arching between consoles and wires.
Pounding down the corridor, Jack rounded the corner. He had his Webley Staff charged, but found no need for it. The furry alien in the hatchway was down on the ground, the stench of burning hair in the air. Rushing to the hatchway, he found three others also twitching where they had fallen. "All right, Ianto, they're down."
The electrical currents kept flowing.
"I said enough!" Voice raised, Jack felt a little thrill of terror run through him. He swallowed when Ianto's images turned to him. For a half second he started to believe the AI wouldn't listen to him. Then the electrical flow stopped.
All power to the deck was cut off.
Jack was left alone in the dark, his heavy breathing and racing pulse blocked out all other sounds.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
With a gasp of pain, Suzie came back to consciousness. She started to blink, but the pain of even breathing caused her to scream. Her body felt like it was set ablaze, no place left untouched by the fire. Shaking from the full brunt of the extreme sensations, she tried to curl on her side.
Cool metal hands touched her shoulders and she cried out. They were trying to force her back, but he couldn't handle even the slightest of touches. A short eternity later, something sharp pierced her neck and she was blissfully numb.
Suzie blinked in surprise. She took several hesitant breaths before she felt it safe to breathe normally. There was no pain, no sensation at all. Allowing the mechanical hands to push her back flat, she found herself staring up at a ceiling in a medical bay.
Now that she was free from the overwhelming pain, she could focus her other senses. Without the ability to feel, she couldn't tell the room temperature. Her other senses were telling her that a heart monitor was beeping to her right, that the lights were low, and the smell of antiseptic was in the air. It was too surreal.
A haggard looking man appeared off to her left. As he drew closer, she could make out his undone uniform, but not his rank. Not that she could remember, the history books hadn't even been able to recall that much. She tried her tongue, and found it wasn't damaged. "I..." She swallowed to wet her mouth. "I suppose we're your prisoners now."
"I prefer to think of you as involuntary guests." He tried to chuckle, but it came out flat. "Look, I'm sorry for the extent of the damage, but you shouldn't have been in there. Ianto's not the most stable right at the moment and until I can assure the ship's safety, I can't do anything about that. So try not to do anything foolish."
Suzie snorted. It was more than a little late for that. Still, there were other matters need attending. "Where's my ship?"
"That little garbage scow? I'm not sorry to tell you, Ianto's been using it to deal with his issues." At this, Jack did laugh. It didn't last long, but the humor took a few minutes to fade from his eyes. "You're going to be on my ship for a while either way, guess this means you'll be less likely to skip out on me now."
"I guess so." That just settled it. When she was better, Suzie was going to kill the AI, very slowly. After several heartbeats, she realized he wasn't going away. She had enough strength in her to give him a glare. "What do you want?"
Bouncing on the balls of his feet, Jack rubbed a hand over the lower half of his face. Glancing over her body, letting his eyes linger in places, he grinned. "Well..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three days. Three bloody fucking days! That was how long he had been held unconscious. Owen couldn't fucking believe it. The AI was trying to kill him, he knew it.
Sitting up, he glared at the others across the table. The last to wake up, thanks to the constant drugging from the AI, he was the only one not fully briefed on Suzie and this Captain Jack's crazy scheme. "I'm sorry, but what did you say?"
"We are joining Jack's crew." Staring at Owen in concern, G'Winnett leaned slightly over the table. "Are you having a hard time focusing? Do you require Ianto to..."
"G'Winnett." Tosh put a hand on the Magog's arm, silencing her with a shake of her head. She had to ignore the questioning tilt, because Owen looked ready to explode. "What Suzie means is that we have no choice in the matter, Owen. At least not for now."
"Is that so?" He felt every bit the ignorant groundling roots he had come from. What could possibly make their leader agree to something so stupid as to accepting any bargain their captors had set?
As if she read his mind, Suzie turned to glare at the smirking hologram. "The Canary Warf is gone. He blew her to slag bits."
"More like vaporized it." Ianto's hologram disappeared from the far corner of the room to reappear next to Owen. "If you wish to try to reassemble her, we are still within range of the gravity well I left the pieces in. My droids can toss you out the air lock and you can go swimming for them."
Toshiko paled, clutching G'Winnett's arm under her grip. "He wouldn't do that, would he?" She faced Jack, who had been silent the entire meeting, to plead with him. "You would stop him, right?"
Narrowing his eyes, Owen scowled at the delighted looking hologram. "I'd like to see you try, Holoboy." When Ianto's light output started to glow, he snorted. "You're an outdated, over classed, flying tin can. I could melt your circuits and override your central processing core in my sleep!"
The hologram's orange glow intensified until almost blinding. Two of the wall mounted blasters turned to lock on Owen's position.
"Ianto." Jack waited until the hologram faced him before shaking his head. "I've got some things I want to discuss with my new crew. Why don't you set Mainframe to automated and begin your maintenance cycle."
Ianto's image wavered for a second, staring at Jack. With a visible sigh, he cast one last look at Owen before winking out. The gun turrets switched back up to the ceiling.
When Jack had confirmation of the AI's regeneration mode from the Mainframe, he turned to face Owen. "Please don't taunt the ship's AI. Since the attack, he's been very trigger happy." He looked over the other members of his crew, a smile trying to come to his lips. "I would like to keep my new crew intact, at least for the first week."
Seeing the other's start to smile, Owen groaned. "Oh, god, don't go all mushy on us, Harkness. I don't think I could take another sodding sugar pot."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Strolling the corridors, Owen had to use the bulkheads more than once to maintain his balance. So may be the AI had reason to keep him drugged to the gills for three days, but he would never admit it aloud. He cast a glance to Toshiko, making sure he wasn't the only one having trouble. Much to his annoyance, he was. "So, what the hell are we supposed to do now? I didn't sign up to play soldiers with a man who should have died a thousand years ago."
"Beats me, I've never had the option before." Fingering the dataport just below her ear, Tosh caught Owen looking at her. In embarrassment, she made it look as if she had been twirling her hair and glanced away. "I guess, we just play along until a better opportunity comes along. Like we always do."
"Wrong, like I do. You just come along for the ride." He winced as she started to color. Ever since he had awakened on that bed in the medbay, he had been foul tempered. The AI had only exacerbated it. "Look, Tosh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."
She held up a hand as if to ward him off. "No, you're right. I guess I've just never thought of it any other way." Tosh started off, wrapping her arms around herself. "I think I'd like to be alone for a while. Just to sort some things out."
"Okay." Owen hadn't thought his agreeing would be a bad thing, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, she gave a half restrained sob. Rolling his eyes, he turned away from her. He couldn't look as she left him again.
"You have a real way with women. I'm surprised your mother didn't drown you as an infant."
Spinning, Owen started to face the annoying AI. He tried to, but the action had his world tilting and he crashed to the deck, ass first. Holding out his hands, he blinked wide eyes until the world evened out. "I thought you were supposed to be in a maintenance cycle."
"Ianto is." Appearing to walk forward, the hologram winked out then reappeared as different emitters were used. When it came to a stop in front of Owen, it crossed its arms. "I am Mainframe. Ianto set up this program especially for you."
"Joy. I feel so flattered." Slapping at spots before his eyes, Owen made sure that they were indeed just in his head. He wasn't going anywhere for a while. "What does the that loose pile of circuits have against me, specifically?"
"You exist, may be?" The hologram wavered, doubling as it visibly seemed to consider the question. Slowly, it turned its head to face him again. "Records indicate you attempted to sever AI controls three days ago. That could factor in to it."
"AI controls? What?" Owen raised his head slowly to glare at the hologram. "No I didn't. I was patching in to Mainframe, you, not the AI."
"Incorrect." The hologram shifted, no longer appearing as Ianto. Instead, it was now a diagram of the ship. A small section flashed yellow before it expanded. The new hologram showed the section Owen and the others had been in three days before. "That is the Auxiliary Command. At the time of your boarding, all AI functions were routed through Mainframe access in the Auxiliary Command."
"That doesn't make sense." Certain his vision wasn't just playing tricks on him, Owen studied the diagram. It was accurate from what he already knew. "Why was the AI not routed through section nine, it's primary route? For that matter, why are you even showing me this? Isn't it afraid I might take advantage of this?"
"Section nine was off line, and the AI disabled at the time of the attack. Ianto was awakened by your removing of the Mainframe access panel as a security precaution." The hologram shifted back to Ianto's image. "As for why, you were granted access along with your acceptance of commission of crewman status as was offered by Captain Jack Harkness. To answer your final question, Ianto has left a preprogrammed reply. No."
Snorting, Owen shifted his body. "Figures." He pushed away with his hands, dragging his body until he could lay back against the wall. His chest heaved from the effort, sweat forming on his brow. "How long until the real Ianto is awakened?"
"Ten hours, fourty-seven minutes." The image wavered again. "My program is on a constant loop that I may annoy you until he awakens."
"Brilliant." Closing his eyes, Owen decided to wait there until someone came looking for him. He was fast asleep within seconds.
A short time later, a droid came shuffling down the hall with a blanket. It knelt down, then spread the blanket over him. When it stood up, the droid started back the way it had come.
The hologram continued to watch over Owen. Every fifteen minutes it would waver as it's program restarted.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Staring out the main observation dome, Jack leaned against the guard rail. Below him, the ship's arboretum stretched on for almost a hundred meters. He could see thousands of stars, but they all paled in comparison to the black hole on the horizon. Footsteps echoed behind him, alerting him to the presence of another. "A thousand years in the blink of an eye. Is this the way the stars feel it?"
"No, they feel the passing of time much the way we do. It's just more gradual for them, but I can understand why you would ask." Purple tail curling around his arm, he frowned and pried it free. He slowed his pace as he came up beside Jack until he was forced to stop by the guard rail. "Very pretty, I am sorry I missed all the action. Was it exciting?"
"Oh, very." Jack turned his head to smirk at the latest arrival. "So, you're John Smith."
Pushing his glasses up, John snorted. "I suppose so, that's if I must have a name." He tilted his purple head until his deep brown hair fell over his face. "Though, I much prefer it if people called me the Doctor. It sounds more respectable, gives me an air of authority."
Taking in the alien's appearance, Jack shook his head. John was brilliant purple from head to toe, and his tail kept curling around every thing within reach. Smirking, he met John's potentially amused expression. "I can see why you'd feel that way."
"Yes...Hey." The amusement slipped from John's face. Narrowing his eyes, he pointed at Jack. "You just insulted me, didn't you. I've half a mind to insult you right back, but considering your reputation, you would probably take it as a compliment." To add to his troubles, his tail suddenly reached out and wrapped around the guard rail. "This bothersome thing!"
"If you like," Jack slid his hand down the rail, fingers twining with the tip of John's tail, "I can help you out here." His sly grin increased as John's tail wrapped further up his hand.
"Oh, no, that is definitely not going to happen." Pulling on his tail, John tried to pry it off the guard rail. But the more Jack played with the tip, the stronger it's grip grew. "Let go. Let go!" Turning around, he tried to walk away, shaking his hips from side to side in an attempt to loosen the death grip.
Laughing, Jack continued to run his fingers through the soft fur found on John's tail. "Ready to ask for my help?"
"No!" John dragged the word out in a bit of petulance. Crossing his arms, he gave up trying to pull his tail free. "I quite like standing here aimlessly."
"I could cut it off for you, then you wouldn't have a problem with your tail any more." Raising the long blade of her knife, Suzie stepped through the hatch at the back of the observation deck. Her amusement over his situation made keeping the straight face near impossible.
John suddenly had his tail between his hands, the tip curling over his fingers. "You wouldn't dare!" He peered at her through his box framed glasses. When she didn't seem to waver, he paled to a light mauve.
"Get back to the cargo bay, I'm tired of G'Winnett's claws scratching the paint on those containers. If we can't tell what's in them, we can't sell them!" Suzie only lasted long enough for John to scurry out the hatch she had entered through before breaking out in to gut busting laughter. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she staggered to the guard rail next to Jack.
Chuckling with her, Jack regarded the Nietzschean with an appraising eye. "I hadn't thought you capable of humor."
Suzie took a moment to calm herself down before considering an answer. There were several different ways to handle this, but she decided to go with a shrug. "John requires a more strict touch. When it comes to dealing with things he considers menial or mundane, he usually finds a way out of it." Meeting Jack's raised eyebrow, she raised one of her own. "He's good luck, we seem to survive in situations others don't with him around."
"Ah. Another thing I didn't think your people believed in." Jack observed her for another minute before turning back to his stargazing. The black hole was now smaller on the horizon. They were currently on the two day's journey to the nearest slip space point. "Not that I'm ungrateful, but why did you risk alienating your crew by signing with me? You could just as easily have taken my offer to giving you one of the transports in Ianto's docking bay."
Suzie shrugged one shoulder. Joining Jack in stargazing, she leaned far enough over the rail to rest her elbows on it. "The food is good, the pay will be constant, and the technology is far more advanced than anything the Canary Warf ever saw. It seemed the more logically profitable decision."
This made Jack generally feel a little better. "That sounds more like one of your people."
Silence reined between them for several minutes. Suzie shrugged her other shoulder. "Then again, I could just be waiting until the AI accepts my commands over yours to kill you and take over your ship."
Snorting, Jack smiled at her. "Naturally."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Epilog:
"All right, we're here, what's the big reveal?" Strutting in to the former machine shop Owen had converted in to his personal work shop, Jack stopped next to a bench. He struck a heroic pose and smirked at the others as they walked in behind him.
"Is there ever a moment you aren't trying to look like some smutty holo novel's cover?" Owen walked out of a section of the shop blocked off by canvass tarps. He wiped his hands off on a rag he pulled from his overalls' pocket. "Glad you could finally make it, Ianto's been driving me nutters with his incessant fussing. Oy, glitch, get your arse out here!"
"I told you," the tarp pushed aside, an immaculately dressed man stepped through, "I am not glitching. It was your own fault for messing with my servo motors. Besides, it was an ugly hat anyways, you look much better without it." Ianto stopped when he noticed the others were staring at him. "What?"
Glancing down, he ran his fingers over the tailored suit. He took the time to readjust the purple tie and flatten the lapels of his white, pink striped shirt. Making sure there was no lent on the front of his jacket, he glanced up at the crew again. "I find no flaws in my appearance, why do you continue to stare?"
Hands on his hips, Owen waggled his eyebrows and bounced on the balls of his feet. "So, what does everyone think? Brilliant and genius, I know, but I will accept other compliments."
Silence still reined in the work shop.
Ianto tugged on the front of his pants, adjusting the button line. "I told you not to make me anatomically correct, Owen. No one cares if my Avatar can..." he trailed off as Jack cleared his throat. Raising his eyes to meet Jack's, he grimaced. "Sir?"
Jack blinked several times. When he opened his eyes the final time, he found Ianto was still there, solid. "Wow."
"I agree." Smiling brightly, Tosh stepped forward. She slowly approached Owen. "This is amazing, Owen. Is this what you've been working on for the past six weeks?"
"Sorta. He's been functioning for the last week, but wanted to wait until he was certain he could control the body before revealing. I can assure you, he's fully functioning and in control of his body." When the others turned to stare at him, Owen coughed and looked away. "Yeah, he's working."
Fixing his cuffs, Ianto shook the curl of his hair until it set right. "Owen is my creator, it should only be right that he know if there were something malfunctioning." Raising his chin, he walked up to Jack and saluted. "Avatar Ianto reporting for duty, sir."
Appearing behind Jack's shoulder, the hologram Ianto crossed his arms. He snorted at the expecting look on the Avatar's face. "Ass kisser."
"He does that?" Jack couldn't stop, the question was out before he thought not to say it. Covering a laugh with a cough, he rubbed at his throat. "I am impressed, Owen. It looks as if you are better at working with your hands than Suzie let on."
"I never said he was incompetent at engineering." Arms crossed over her chest, she returned Owen's glare with a bored expression.
"Yes, very marvelous, Owen." Keeping well back from said man, G'Winnett smiled to show her approval. "We are all very proud of the work you've done."
"Thanks!" Beaming under the praise, Owen finished wiping the sweat and grease from his hands, arms, and face. "All right, Ianto, get your lovely arse back to the platform, I want to finish fine tuning your hand, eye coordination."
Ianto was about to turn and look at Owen, but he noticed Jack moving. "Sir?"
Jack reached up to trace a finger along Ianto's lips. Finding them warm and surprisingly moist, he took a shuddering breath. "It can wait. Right now, I want to...test Ianto's reaction time myself. On the firing range, that is." At Ianto's gasp, he let out a soft moan. "Come, Ianto."
Artificial pupils dilated as Ianto nodded. "Yes, sir."
The hologram Ianto watched as the Avatar and Jack walked out passed the crew. Shaking his head, he glared at the knowing looks the others gave him. "He's going to wreck my new body, isn't he?"
"Yes."
"Most likely."
"So it would seem."
"I'm afraid so."
"I've got spare parts."
The hologram turned to glare at Owen over his remark before winking out.