Ianto Jones (iantoofcardiff) wrote in theparadox, @ 2010-06-02 02:21:00 |
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Ianto looked over at Gwen from where he was standing near one of the computers, scanning for information about what had happened. "Three hours and twenty-seven minutes," he replied, without consulting his own watch. He wasn't picking anything up, but hadn't really expected to given that there was unlikely to be a CCTV camera or even a television camera anywhere near wherever the Doctor (and therefore Jack) was. And Gwen had no idea how long this was supposed to last. Interesting how they were trained for the worst but were rarely prepared for the worst. She had realized that their phones weren't ringing out as she had tried once to Rhys, but was met with an annoying buzzing sound. So she had given up on it and rested her elbow on her hand and her free hand on her face. "Oh, shit," she made a sound then and sat up straight. She turned her head to look at the Daleks frozen in time and their bullets frozen in the timelock. "What?" Ianto asked, instantly straightening up from where he was bent over the computer and looked over at the frozen Dalek too. Was the timelock done? They really had no idea how Tosh had managed to create this technology so how were they supposed to know how it worked? He moved over towards her from behind the desk, gun in hand, ready to protect her if necessary. "No, no," she raised a brow and moved to stand up. "Three hours, it feels longer than three hours." She said and moved over to the lock, poking a finger in it. Or against it. "I mean, did you know she was working on this at all?" "Oh." Ianto relaxed his stance and rolled his eyes. "Here I was, thinking it was something important." He holstered his gun and watched as she poked at the lock, wincing a bit as if she might break it just by poking it. "Tosh always had a project or two on the go. She usually didn't talk about it until she knew it would work." Gwen rolled her eyes and shook her head. She let it go with a flick or the wrist and looked at it. "Well, it works obviously, but ... " the obvious question was, what would happen when it wore off? And when would it wear off? Or were they trapped until they could figure out how to turn it off. So many questions she wasn't sure that Ianto had the answers to. But how did they stop it? That was the million pound question. He had already been searching through their database for any reference to something like this, figuring Tosh had to have some notes somewhere, but hadn't been able to find them yet. "I don't think we should stand too close to it," he said, looking up from Tosh's computer which he hoped might have a folder hidden away on it somewhere. "If it wears off, those bullets might keep flying. Of course, they might also drop to the floor too." Did moving objects keep dimension after being frozen in time? Ianto guessed they were going to find out...if it ever wore off. Of course, they could die of old age while waiting. Cheery thought, that. And with that, Gwen took a few precautionary steps backwards closer to Ianto. She didn't have to say she though he had a point because he did obviously. He knew everything or she had been told numerous times that he knew everything. By him, anyway. "Right," she answered finally. "It's odd for her not to have left some kind of notes somewhere, she was always leaving notes ..." "Yeah, but we've cleaned up a lot since..." He didn't have to say it. They both knew since what. "And she could have hidden it. You know how secretive she could be when she wanted to be." Pot, kettle, black, but wasn't that true of all of them? "Besides which, how likely is it that we'll understand her notes?" he asked wryly. They both knew how technical Tosh could get sometimes, to the point where even Jack was lost. "Well, true," she said and looked at him and sighed some. She just wanted to know how long they were going to be trapped here. She slid her hand through her hair and sighed some, exhaling slowly and looking around. "Those things ... what do you reckon they are?" she motioned towards the Daleks with a wiggle of her fingers. "What kind of creature they are, I mean." "They're Daleks," Ianto replied in a tone darker than anything he had ever used before. Daleks and Cybermen were the bane of his existence. "They were at Torchwood Tower when it fell," he explained, his voice fainter now and he didn't look up at her, intent instead on Tosh's terminal which hadn't really been touched except to clean away her personal items from the desk around it. "Well, yes," she said and tilted her head a little. "Do you know where they're from?" She wasn't as skilled, she didn't see any of these up close and personal. The cybermen were another issue entirely. "I mean, you do know everything," she tried to put a lighthearted spin on things. Ianto looked up then, leaving the computer alone for a moment to smile at her. "I know everything that is in the archives," he admitted. "And the information there is limited. What we do know is that they have no emotions, no empathy. Their only drive is to destroy. 'Exterminate' is pretty much all they say. And even if you can draw them into conversation, they're not going to show mercy." Gwen made a sound and sighed some. Why couldn't they be invaded by aliens that didn't want to destroy the world? Jack was always harping on the fact that there were aliens out there who didn't, but she had yet to meet any of that nature. "If these aliens are so superior to us, why are they so intent on destroying us for our puny planet?" she asked, not that she thought he had an answer for that. It was instinct though, to answer questions, particularly when he was the only one around. "I don't actually think we are the objective here," he said, thinking aloud. "Apparently we are not the only stolen planet, so there is some greater purpose here that we are not aware of. I just hope Jack and the Doctor are having better luck at figuring things out." "I bloody well hope this Doctor is as brilliant as Jack has been fangirling over these last few years," she wagged a finger. "I mean, these Daleks have been here before, haven't they? They aren't very good or they'dve succeeded the first time." "He defeated them last time," Ianto replied grimly. "At a hell of a cost, but it could have been much, much worse if he hadn't figured out how." Returning his attention to the computer, Ianto kept sorting methodically through file after file, scanning for words that seemed applicable to the situation they found themselves in. "And yet they keep coming back," she sighed some. "Intergalactic cockroaches," and somehow the imagery made her giggle. Better than crying, she figured. Ianto snorted. "Sounds about right." If he sounded distracted, it was because he was. "I think I might have found something," he said, clicking on 'print'. It was a document of Tosh's that may be related, but it was full of technical jargon. "We might need a PhD in computer science to read it, however." "With as long as we might be stuck in here, we could take one of those online courses and get one," she muttered, looking over his shoulder at it. It all looked like Greek to him anyway. She pursed her lips and chewed on the corner of a nail. "We'll figure it out," Ianto said with renewed determination His thoughts had strayed to Jack and the Doctor and realising that if they couldn't figure this out, they would be next on the list to be 'rescued' after the world was safe was not a nice thought at all. Ianto didn't want to be rescued like a girl and he doubted Gwen wanted to be either. They could save themselves. Going to the printer, he pulled the pile of sheets off it and started reading through it more carefully. Gwen just watched him and hoped so. They were supposed to be a part of this heroism thing, not be saved like women. Well, she was a woman, but Ianto ... he'd not appreciate that more. And she was worried about Rhys, her parents and even her horrible in laws. She slid her hands against her hips, watching Ianto as he tried to decipher the mathematical jargon on the printed pages. "Tosh would not have left this on if there wasn't a way out," Ianto was muttering as he skimmed the pages, running his finger down the words as he read them. "She wouldn't have risked trapping us here like this. Either it'll end naturally after a certain period of time or there's an off switch. We just have to find it." Gwen watched him and didn't say anything, pursing her lips together and crossing her arms over her chest. She wondered about what was going on out there, where Jack was with the Doctor and if they were really going to be able to fix this. "There has to be," she repeated and was looking around, then looked at the computer. "If we just hope hard enough," Ianto quipped, his voice tight with frustration. Hope was about all they had right now, if they didn't figure this out. He skimmed along another page and then stopped and went back to read more carefully this time. "Hmm," he murmured as he sat down in Owen's chair (they would always be Owen and Tosh's chairs) to consider what he was reading. "If only this was Euro Disney," she muttered, moving to sit down on the couch with her feet on the coffee table. She watched him as he considered the papers, since he knew more about this than her. She was more the executor, putting a plan into motion and logical (sometimes) problem solving. Tactical, mathematical, anything else-ical wasn't her area. Ianto has a pretty decent grasp of computers, but they all knew Tosh was way out of all of their leagues. Ianto missed her more than he could say, but never moreso than right now. Even just the way these notes were written out was just her and it made his chest ache. Grabbing a pencil, he circled a few lines, his forehead creasing as he frowned. Tapping the pencil on the desk as he thought hard for a few minutes, then turned to the computer, opening a program and started typing, copying part of Tosh's notes into the window. After a few minutes, he looked over at Gwen. "Okay, I think this might work, but if it does, we have to figure out what we're going to do about the Dalek. We need the gun Jack took. It's the only thing powerful enough to take it out." And Gwen moved to get off the couch, watching him and then moving to stand behind his chair. Owen's chair. Either way. "Okay, so .... you're going to try and turn it off now?" that gave her -- as fast as Ianto could type to figure something out. Run was a good plan. That seemed to work. But that wasn't logical right now, but where was logic when you needed it? "Right, he took the big gun with him. So what else do we have?" Ianto was running through an inventory of the armoury in his mind. "We have some explosives," he realised, unsure if that was such a good idea, but if they managed to unlock the timelock then the Dalek would start trying to kill them again. "The problem is, getting it close enough to kill the Dalek so we don't have to destroy too much of the Hub." Not the best plan, but with no decent guns at their disposal, what choice did they have? "But do we really want to risk opening the timelock at all if they're going to shoot us? They have armor, Jack said nothing could penetrate it, that's why he took that gun," she said and shifted some, biting her lip. "So what do you think the best idea would be?" she asked, pursing her lips together and resting her hands on her hips. "Why can't this shit be easy. Always something like this." Ianto wasn't sure about any of this and really wished Jack was there to make the final decision. There was a reason he was the boss. "As far as I can see, we have two options here. One, leave the timelock on and wait for Jack to come and rescue us with his big gun." The innuendo was far too obvious so Ianto ignored it. Besides, it wasn't as much fun without Jack there to appreciate it. "Or two, we figure out a way to solve this problem ourselves. I vote for option two, but you're second on command. So it's your call." Gwen knew what she wanted to do, but she wasn't sure it was the right thing to do. She knew that they should wait for Jack, but she also knew that they were hired to defend their planet. So that was the most logical thing to do. She chewed at the corner of a nail and considered Ianto for a long minute. "Open it," she said, and moved to dig under the couch for something. Ianto nodded in satisfaction. He would have been willing to bet good money that Gwen would agree with him. She wasn't the sit around type, waiting for someone else to rescue them. Knowing they wouldn't have long to move once the timelock was lifted (assuming he had actually figured out how to do that) Ianto moved across to the armoury, looking to see what explosives they had that wouldn't take out half of Cardiff along with the Dalek. If the big gun would do it, surely an explosive would too. "What are you doing?" he asked Gwen, baffled when he saw her digging under the couch. She wasn't any damsel in distress. Far from it. She didn't answer him right away as she kept digging until she found what she was looking for. She had hidden a gun under there with bullets that could pierce a bullet proof vest, so she was hoping that it would work. She smiled and held up the gun, smiling a little. "Well, these bullets can slice through anything, let's hope it works for dalek armor." Ianto's eyebrows rose, impressed. "Let's try that first then," he suggested. It was much better than his idea. "Give me a minute to make sure I can turn the timelock back on, in case they don't work." Hurrying back to the computer, he studied the pages again, nodding to himself as he re-read the instructions. "Okay. Ready?" When Gwen nodded, he pressed the button to release the timelock. And Gwen exhaled and moved to stand in front of the dalek, just waiting for him to turn the lock off. She had her finger on the trigger, waiting and ready to face down her doom. That's what this was. Doomed. They both were. And when that lock was off, she closed her eyes and started shooting. Ianto's fingers were hovered over the keyboard, ready to reverse the timelock as fast as he could if it turned out Gwen's bullets didn't work. His eyes were on the Dalek as Gwen started shooting, the Dalek shrieking 'EXTERMINATE', watching as the green laser started shooting back, ducking as one of the beams headed in his direction, before it seemed that finally the bullets started penetrating. And Gwen was just leaving her finger on that trigger, squeezing and the bullets were coming out in a rain. The others were bouncing off, but these were penetrating and she was just letting them have it. It seemed like they were working finally and they stopped moving. She kept pulling the trigger until she ran out. "Turn it back on just in case .... " Ianto did as he was told, sealing them back inside the Hub within the timelock and then walked over to stand beside her, staring at the bullet-riddled Dalek. "Think it's dead?" It was hard to tell, particularly when it was frozen again, but at least they'd given it a bloody good try. "I don't really know," she said and sighed some, tilting her head some. She reached up to slide her hand over her face. "I don't want to give it a chance to not be, you know?" she asked, moving back to the couch and digging underneath it for the bullets. "Better safe than sorry," Ianto replied, glancing at her briefly as she went back to the couch and then moved a bit closer to the edge of the timelock to study the Dalek. He had no idea what was inside, but that armour had to be protecting something alive. Figuring Gwen wanted to give it another go, he went back to the computer and waited for Gwen's signal before releasing the timelock again. Gwen started loading the gun and looked down at it, sighing some and closed her eyes. This job took it out of you, but after doing this, how could you do anything else? She pursed her lips together and looked at him once she was set. "Yeah, one more round and then we'll see what we're dealing with," she said and nodded. "Okay, go ahead." Ianto released the timelock and watched as Gwen started shooting again. The Dalek fired back a few times, but it became obvious this time that it was having trouble until eventually it wasn't firing back at all. Was it just lulling them into a false sense of security, or was it really dead? Gwen stopped firing for a few minutes and when the thing didn't make a move to fire, she made a move to approach. She wasn't going to let it get an upper hand, but she was curious. She inhaled a little, pursing her lips together as she peeked into the 'eye.' And nothing. "Seems to be dead." Ianto hesitated a moment by the computer, but when Gwen got closer and it still wasn't reacting to her, he deemed it safe to leave his post. Walking over to her, he studied the thing, finally allowing himself to feel a bit of hope. "Seems to be," he agreed. It could have killed them both easily by now, so it must be dead. "Now what?" "I don't know, I think this is where Owen would open it up and dissect it," she pursed her lips. "But ... other than that, I don't know what to do with it. Leave it? See what Jack says?"