fic: All the Myths are True [PG] 6/? Torchwood/Abney Park crossover
Title: All the Myths are True
Author: A Lanart
Fandom: Abney Park/Torchwood
Pairing: None
Characters: Abney Park circa 06-08 - Robert, Kristina, Magdalene, Finn, Nathaniel, Jean-Paul, Daniel. Torchwood Team
Rating: PG
Warnings/Spoilers: crack!fic Mid S2 in the Torchwood scheme of things
Summary: Abney Park are a steampunk band with alter-egos as Airship Pirates. It just so happens that in this universe, all the myths are true; this is the story of one Captain Robert, his merry band and how they acquired the Airship Ophelia from a certain top-secret government agency, and then had to explain it decades later...
Disclaimer: None of this is mine except for the freaky plot bunny. I even nicked the title from Abney Park - it kind of seemed appropriate.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
*
It hadn’t taken Robert long to discover where and when they had ended up. He’d merely switched on the radio receiver, locked onto the strongest signal and within 2 minutes the announcer had helpfully informed them of the current date, time, weather conditions and local shopping opportunities.
“So we’re in Cardiff?”
“Seems that way.”
“And we’re not in Seattle, too?” For one not born to the realities of Time Travel, Kristina had quickly picked up on the potential pitfalls and paradoxes.
“Luckily, no. Allowing for the different time zones, it’s about 3 hours since we left and we were planning on being away for a couple of days at least. We’ve got that long to figure out a way of either hiding Ophelia or repairing her, although going by what they’re playing I don’t think it would hurt if we made this ‘official’ and dropped some cds off at the radio station.” The comment was met with subdued chuckles.
“The idea has merit, but don’t you think they’ll realise there’s an airship hanging around the coast for 2 days?” Finn sounded amused, but not averse to the idea. Robert grinned.
“They’re Welsh. They won’t even notice, apart from when they point out that Ophelia isn’t shiny enough to be a decent publicity gimmick.”
“Since when did *you* become an expert on the Welsh?” Daniel asked with a smirk.
“I had Welsh friends in school.”
“But that’s...” Kristina waved a hand, “a long time away. Ago. Whatever.”
“Yeah, but I bet Welsh practicality hasn’t changed a bit.”
*
Gwen’s pronouncement galvanised Jack into action. It might have been over 80 years ago, but he remembered only too well his conclusion that only another Time Agent could have stolen the Ophelia. If he was lucky, it was this very Captain Robert Gwen had found - which would account for why the other vm signature had been unfamiliar at the time as the R classes had been some years below him in the academy. All he had to do was access the files. All. He knew he would need a little bit of mundane help to do that as his vm’s memory capacity wasn’t limitless and searching the memory dump without specific cues would take too long.
“Ianto, you wouldn’t happen to have Nichols’ journal in the archives here, would you?” Jack didn’t know exactly what had come over from the remnants of the Torchwood One archive - he’d left that to Ianto - but he suspected that the journal hadn’t been part of the official archive in the first place.
“Not exactly in the archives, no. But I can put my hands on it fairly quickly,” Ianto said evasively.
“Then get it. Fast.” Ianto disappeared, and gratifyingly quickly. Jack grinned. “Gwen, I want to know as much about these ‘Airship Pirates’ as possible,” she nodded in answer before turning back to the computer and Jack strode towards Tosh. “You just do your ‘thing’ as usual.” He didn’t have to elaborate - Tosh’s ‘thing’ was based around misdirection, misinformation and observation; seeing the patterns in something in order to better disrupt them.
“Will do,” she said, sounding almost cheerful. Jack breathed a sigh of relief; with the whole team all working with him, they would soon get to the bottom of the mystery, and hopefully find a solution. He glanced toward the empty autopsy bay and frowned; Owen still hadn’t arrived.
At that moment the cog door rolled back and the sirens wailed, revealing one Owen Harper looking decidedly the worse for wear.
“Owen! Glad you could join us at last.”
“I was busy...” Jack didn’t stay to hear Owen’s excuses; he’d heard all of them at least three times by now and wasn’t particularly interested in hearing them again. “Tosh, update him,” Jack said as he swept into his office.
*
Jack grinned as the data scrolled by on the holographic display of his wrist device. Once again, Ianto had come up trumps and provided not only Nichols’ journal, but a copy of the official report to boot which meant that Jack now had enough information to contact the so-called Captain Robert directly if he was so inclined. He was cautiously hopeful of the outcome if he did; the guy appeared to have been in hiding since the late 1990s, only beginning to use his vm regularly again about 2 years ago. Jack found he liked the thought of talking to a person from his own time who wasn’t out to get him, but didn’t want to get his hopes up too much. The fact that the information about the band was genuine - with the music and live footage to prove it - was a point in their favour. That they’d donned the Airship Pirate personas at around the time Captain Robert’s vm had become active again was too much of a coincidence; the theft of the Ophelia had been planned in advance, and for no obvious reason. Jack intended to find out why, and to do *that* he needed the captain and crew of the Ophelia to be in the Hub. It was time to examine all the options.
*
They gathered in the conference room, the image of the Ophelia on the large screen reminding them that the situation had the potential to go in any of several divergent directions. To that end, they’d been discussing how best to contact the crew of the Ophelia without spooking them.
“It’s all very well to be able to contact Captain Robert directly using your wrist strap, but if you’re right and he’s been in hiding, won’t he be just as likely to run as he will to listen?” Ianto said. Jack had to admit Ianto was probably right. If a previously unknown Agent had contacted *him* in his first 20 or so years on earth, he would have taken the opportunity to run if at all possible too, and he *knew* that the other man’s vm was fully functional.
“So, what do you suggest?”
“Radio,” Tosh helpfully supplied.
“Radio?”
“Yes. It would work - it fits with the tech I’ve been able to detect on the airship - and it gives us the chance to prepare. We radio them with our initial contact, send out a boat to pick them up and bring them back here.” Tosh explained.
“What about the bloody great airship in the Bristol Channel?” Gwen asked.
“Publicity stunt.” Ianto replied. “They’re a band after all and they’d be shooting themselves in the foot not to take advantage of the opportunity it offers. They aren’t that well known over here yet by all accounts, but the steampunk thing is catching on rapidly in alternative cultures.”
Jack smiled at Ianto; he loved it when he and Tosh got their heads together over a problem, they made it seem like nothing was insurmountable.
“Sounds like you’ve got it all covered. Let’s do it.”
*
Author: A Lanart
Fandom: Abney Park/Torchwood
Pairing: None
Characters: Abney Park circa 06-08 - Robert, Kristina, Magdalene, Finn, Nathaniel, Jean-Paul, Daniel. Torchwood Team
Rating: PG
Warnings/Spoilers: crack!fic Mid S2 in the Torchwood scheme of things
Summary: Abney Park are a steampunk band with alter-egos as Airship Pirates. It just so happens that in this universe, all the myths are true; this is the story of one Captain Robert, his merry band and how they acquired the Airship Ophelia from a certain top-secret government agency, and then had to explain it decades later...
Disclaimer: None of this is mine except for the freaky plot bunny. I even nicked the title from Abney Park - it kind of seemed appropriate.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
*
It hadn’t taken Robert long to discover where and when they had ended up. He’d merely switched on the radio receiver, locked onto the strongest signal and within 2 minutes the announcer had helpfully informed them of the current date, time, weather conditions and local shopping opportunities.
“So we’re in Cardiff?”
“Seems that way.”
“And we’re not in Seattle, too?” For one not born to the realities of Time Travel, Kristina had quickly picked up on the potential pitfalls and paradoxes.
“Luckily, no. Allowing for the different time zones, it’s about 3 hours since we left and we were planning on being away for a couple of days at least. We’ve got that long to figure out a way of either hiding Ophelia or repairing her, although going by what they’re playing I don’t think it would hurt if we made this ‘official’ and dropped some cds off at the radio station.” The comment was met with subdued chuckles.
“The idea has merit, but don’t you think they’ll realise there’s an airship hanging around the coast for 2 days?” Finn sounded amused, but not averse to the idea. Robert grinned.
“They’re Welsh. They won’t even notice, apart from when they point out that Ophelia isn’t shiny enough to be a decent publicity gimmick.”
“Since when did *you* become an expert on the Welsh?” Daniel asked with a smirk.
“I had Welsh friends in school.”
“But that’s...” Kristina waved a hand, “a long time away. Ago. Whatever.”
“Yeah, but I bet Welsh practicality hasn’t changed a bit.”
*
Gwen’s pronouncement galvanised Jack into action. It might have been over 80 years ago, but he remembered only too well his conclusion that only another Time Agent could have stolen the Ophelia. If he was lucky, it was this very Captain Robert Gwen had found - which would account for why the other vm signature had been unfamiliar at the time as the R classes had been some years below him in the academy. All he had to do was access the files. All. He knew he would need a little bit of mundane help to do that as his vm’s memory capacity wasn’t limitless and searching the memory dump without specific cues would take too long.
“Ianto, you wouldn’t happen to have Nichols’ journal in the archives here, would you?” Jack didn’t know exactly what had come over from the remnants of the Torchwood One archive - he’d left that to Ianto - but he suspected that the journal hadn’t been part of the official archive in the first place.
“Not exactly in the archives, no. But I can put my hands on it fairly quickly,” Ianto said evasively.
“Then get it. Fast.” Ianto disappeared, and gratifyingly quickly. Jack grinned. “Gwen, I want to know as much about these ‘Airship Pirates’ as possible,” she nodded in answer before turning back to the computer and Jack strode towards Tosh. “You just do your ‘thing’ as usual.” He didn’t have to elaborate - Tosh’s ‘thing’ was based around misdirection, misinformation and observation; seeing the patterns in something in order to better disrupt them.
“Will do,” she said, sounding almost cheerful. Jack breathed a sigh of relief; with the whole team all working with him, they would soon get to the bottom of the mystery, and hopefully find a solution. He glanced toward the empty autopsy bay and frowned; Owen still hadn’t arrived.
At that moment the cog door rolled back and the sirens wailed, revealing one Owen Harper looking decidedly the worse for wear.
“Owen! Glad you could join us at last.”
“I was busy...” Jack didn’t stay to hear Owen’s excuses; he’d heard all of them at least three times by now and wasn’t particularly interested in hearing them again. “Tosh, update him,” Jack said as he swept into his office.
*
Jack grinned as the data scrolled by on the holographic display of his wrist device. Once again, Ianto had come up trumps and provided not only Nichols’ journal, but a copy of the official report to boot which meant that Jack now had enough information to contact the so-called Captain Robert directly if he was so inclined. He was cautiously hopeful of the outcome if he did; the guy appeared to have been in hiding since the late 1990s, only beginning to use his vm regularly again about 2 years ago. Jack found he liked the thought of talking to a person from his own time who wasn’t out to get him, but didn’t want to get his hopes up too much. The fact that the information about the band was genuine - with the music and live footage to prove it - was a point in their favour. That they’d donned the Airship Pirate personas at around the time Captain Robert’s vm had become active again was too much of a coincidence; the theft of the Ophelia had been planned in advance, and for no obvious reason. Jack intended to find out why, and to do *that* he needed the captain and crew of the Ophelia to be in the Hub. It was time to examine all the options.
*
They gathered in the conference room, the image of the Ophelia on the large screen reminding them that the situation had the potential to go in any of several divergent directions. To that end, they’d been discussing how best to contact the crew of the Ophelia without spooking them.
“It’s all very well to be able to contact Captain Robert directly using your wrist strap, but if you’re right and he’s been in hiding, won’t he be just as likely to run as he will to listen?” Ianto said. Jack had to admit Ianto was probably right. If a previously unknown Agent had contacted *him* in his first 20 or so years on earth, he would have taken the opportunity to run if at all possible too, and he *knew* that the other man’s vm was fully functional.
“So, what do you suggest?”
“Radio,” Tosh helpfully supplied.
“Radio?”
“Yes. It would work - it fits with the tech I’ve been able to detect on the airship - and it gives us the chance to prepare. We radio them with our initial contact, send out a boat to pick them up and bring them back here.” Tosh explained.
“What about the bloody great airship in the Bristol Channel?” Gwen asked.
“Publicity stunt.” Ianto replied. “They’re a band after all and they’d be shooting themselves in the foot not to take advantage of the opportunity it offers. They aren’t that well known over here yet by all accounts, but the steampunk thing is catching on rapidly in alternative cultures.”
Jack smiled at Ianto; he loved it when he and Tosh got their heads together over a problem, they made it seem like nothing was insurmountable.
“Sounds like you’ve got it all covered. Let’s do it.”
*