We Could Be Heroes 18/30
Title: We Could Be Heroes 18/30
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, John/Nick, Gwen/Rhys
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Rhys, John Hart and a cast of (probably!) thousands.
Spoilers: Set after Exit Wounds. Sequel to 'Will My Arms Be Strong Enough?'
Rating: Adult - it's going to get very dark in some places.
Warnings: Slash, language, angst, dark themes.
Summary: Nick sees some of the more interesting aspects of the future and a stunning revelation about his partner is revealed. (By the way, there's a bonus point to anyone who gets the Anne McCaffrey reference!)
Disclaimer: I'm a student. I don't own Torchwood.
The Master List (as it stands) is here: anduria-trianys.livejournal.com/27610.html#cutid1
Chapter 18
The train rattled and juddered along for hours on end, moving so erratically that it often seemed to Nick that it would actually fly off the sides of the tracks - if there were any tracks there to begin with. He had looked out of the windows several times just to make sure that they hadn’t actually fallen off the rails, only to be less than reassured that, save for a few sparks which he presumed to be the result of the wheels touching metal, there didn’t seem to be any rails. Of course, it was only after that that it occurred to him to look behind him and then he saw that there were, in fact, very thin and faintly lit lines behind him with the glow reflecting off pieces of very heavily worn metal. So, there were railway tracks, but they didn’t look sturdy enough to be able to hold up a piece of rice paper, never mind something as heavy as a train.
Time Agency transport isn’t really that reassuring, he thought to himself, unless it’s stronger than it looks, but with all these years of wear and tear, who knows? He didn’t really care if Orion could hear his thoughts this time; after what had happened before, the older man’s attitude towards his vision of Ianto had made him feel past caring about whether he knew what Nick thought of his organisation. Logically, he knew that wasn’t entirely fair; it wasn’t as if everyone at the Agency had been unfriendly to him; some, such as Shivna and, eventually, Shani, had been exceptionally kind towards him, even made him feel as if he had a family to care for him. Even Nergal, the sometimes brusque man who had given him lessons in combat, had shown moments of kindness towards him and had even amused him with some of the more light-hearted tales of the Agency, back in the days when it had been at the height of its powers.
As unfair as he knew it was to tar those good friends with the same brush as Orion and those of his ilk, Nick found that he was feeling less than complimentary towards the organisation as a whole. Being treated with such suspicion on his arrival at the place when he had no idea what had happened to bring him there, while understandable on some level, had been bad enough, but now, having just told the other man what he had seen involving someone as important to him as Ianto, the uncaring and callous attitude he had received in return had really been too much. The suggestion that Ianto wasn’t worth fighting for, or even dying for, made the anger boil inside him as if his stomach had turned into a volcano.
“For someone who struts around like he owns everyone and everything in the universe, that man seems to know absolutely nothing about personal relationships of any kind,” he growled to himself. “I don’t want to rip the universe to pieces, but surely it’s worth at least trying to save someone, even if it doesn’t turn out the way you planned it.” He got up and paced around, trying to stave off the tremors shooting through his body. “I mean, really; what if it was his cousin or close relative or friend who was potentially in danger? I would bet my last month’s salary that he’d do everything he possibly could to ensure that they were kept safe! So if he can fight tooth and nail to keep people he cares about safe, why can’t I? Isn’t that what people are dying for back at home - isn’t that what Jack has devoted so much of his life for?”
With a growl of fury, he slammed his fist violently against the wall so that the hangings surrounding him trembled and the windows rattled, even from three carriages away. When he eventually removed his hand, however, he was briefly shocked out of his anger when he saw that the place where he had bashed the wall now had a large burn mark engraved in the wood and tiny flames were occasionally hissing in the charred surface. Startled, he pulled his arm towards him and gasped in surprise as he realised that a small ball of flame was burning in his palm. Cursing softly, he clapped his hands together and, forgetting in his panic that the fire wouldn’t physically harm him, attempted to snuff the flames out with his hands. However, the harder he tried and the more worked up he made himself, the stronger the flames were burning until they were leaping almost a foot in the air, even as he tried to control them in his hands.
His heart pounding even more, Nick clamped his hands tighter together, hoping that the lack of air would choke the fire and put it out as he sat down and breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. To his surprise, however, he found that as his heartbeat slowed, the fire also calmed down; clearly, it wasn’t governed by lack of air or anything else that would put out a normal fire back at home as much as by the conjurer’s emotions. Having realised this, Nick leaned back against the wall and made a concerted effort to relax until all the flames had finally faded away, leaving no trace behind them, apart from the burn mark on the wall.
However, as he lay back down on the mattress he had been using as a bed, his eyes suddenly hit upon the leather cuff that he had only moments before strapped to his wrist. Gently, he stroked John’s wrist strap, absently fiddling with the fastenings on the bottom, before a thought suddenly hit him and made him sit bolt upright again. Hadn’t John told him that there was a teleportation device installed within a Time Agent’s wrist strap that could transport a person to any place and any time they chose? Didn’t that mean - and Nick’s heart started pounding again at the thought and he had to fight to keep himself calm - that he could go back to Cardiff and warn Ianto about what he had seen? Even if the vision didn’t actually turn out to be true, but instead was merely a bad dream, at least he would have been able to do something!
~*~
“Nick…Nick…”
Nick sleepily batted the voice away with his hands; he was pretty sure it was only Orion calling him to order him to clean up some mess or other, or to interrogate him on his - theoretically - private thoughts.
“Nick! I know you can hear me - wake up!”
But that wasn’t right, he suddenly realised. Orion had never once called him by his Christian name, only by his Time Agency alias. And, now Nick actually thought about it, that wasn’t the other man’s voice calling out to him. He sat up and grabbed his gun with one hand and put on his glasses with his other hand, swearing softly in Welsh as he poked himself in the eye with them.
“Who’s there?” he called out quietly, flicking the safety catch off his gun. “I can hear you…show yourself or I’ll…I’ll shoot!” But his hand trembled as he said it and he knew that he could no more shoot at thin air than he could at a wounded puppy.
Suddenly, a small white light started glowing in front of the only blank wall in the room. Slowly, it expanded and twisted until it was the shape and size of a man. Then, the light dimmed slightly so Nick could see who his visitor was. His jaw dropped open.
“John?!” he spluttered.
“Hello, Nicky.” The vision smiled in a way that only John Hart knew how to. “It’s good to see you.”
Nick sank backwards and rested his hand on the wall. “I’m sure I’ve seen this very situation in The Empire Strikes Back!” he spluttered. “Dear God, I think that makes me Luke Skywalker!”
“Hey, being Luke Skywalker is better than being old Ben Kenobi!” said John with a laugh. “At least I look sexier than him, right?”
“Help me, Obi-John Kenobi, you’re my only hope!” simpered Nick, laughing. “Oh, wait, that’s Princess Leia.” He paused. “Hang on, doesn’t that make you Han Solo?”
John burst out laughing as well. “Didn’t you just call me Obi-Wan?”
“Actually, I technically called you Obi-John.”
“Whatever,” said John and then folded his arms, the amusement previously shown in his face vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. “Listen, Nick, I know what you’re planning to do and I need to tell you…well, don’t. Don’t do it.”
Nick blinked. “Are you serious?” he spluttered.
“Completely,” said John. “I know what you saw, Nick, and I know what you’re thinking. But you can’t just go tearing backwards through time like this, not when -”
“If you had seen what I saw, you wouldn’t think twice about trying to do something about it!” retorted Nick angrily. “This is Ianto we’re talking about!”
“I know it’s Ianto we’re talking about!” replied John. “And in any other circumstances, I would be right there with you helping you do whatever it took to contact him. But, as much of an ass as I know Orion is, on this occasion, he is right. You can’t do this, Nick - not just because of what could happen in the long term, but also because of what could happen to you.” His eyes hardened. “Be honest, Nick; do you trust yourself to do this? Do you honestly think you could do it without knowing how?”
Nick froze. In his panic over what he had seen, that thought had never occurred to him, but now that John had said it, he realised that he was right. “No,” he admitted, his shoulders slumping.
“Exactly,” said John, more gently this time. “It would be like, what’s it called, going betwixt in those Chronicles of Porn -”
“Pern,” corrected Nick automatically. “And I think what you mean is going between.”
“Whatever,” said John. “My point is that you remember how dangerous doing that was? Well, this is a hundred times more dangerous, at least, if you don’t know what you’re doing. You could get trapped in the Void, Nick, and then you’d have no way of getting home at all - you’d never see anyone you cared about again.” His voice seemed to crack. “Is that what you want?”
“I…no, of course it isn’t,” gasped Nick, the reality of the situation hitting him even harder now. “But…but what can I do? I have to warn Ianto or Jack about what might happen. I know I don’t know if it will, but I can’t take that risk, can I?”
“No,” said John. “You can’t - and I wouldn’t expect you to. But there is a better way to do it than what you were thinking and it’s something you can do quite easily now.” He grinned suddenly. “How do you think I let Jack know I was here?”
“You left a message,” said Nick. “He told me - oh!” He slapped his forehead in understanding. “You’re suggesting I leave a message for Jack to warn him!”
“Exactly!” grinned John. “And don’t forget - it’s the button on the top.”
Nick laughed softly, and then frowned as something else dawned on him. “Hey…how are you hearing what I’m saying? Unless something’s gone really weird since we last saw each other, you can’t suddenly materialise through walls.”
“No, I can’t.” Suddenly, John looked rather sad. “I’m not really here at all, Nicky. I’m just…” he paused to think, “I’m not really sure how to explain it. I guess it’s a combination of future technology and your subconscious mind that brought me here. In fact,” and suddenly it seemed to Nick that his image began to fade back into the woodwork, “my time’s running out as we speak.” He smiled and his voice faded even more. “Good luck, Nick…we’ll meet again, soon.”
“John!” Nick cried out, reaching out with one hand (and not realising just how much he resembled Luke Skywalker at that precise moment) as his lover’s image slowly disappeared until he was left staring at a blank wooden wall. Shaking himself, he sat up and blinked several times, before he suddenly remembered a part of John’s message.
“It’s the button on the top,” he whispered, smiling as he pressed the button in question. Instantly, a bright blue light started glowing in front of him, accompanied by a long beep before silence fell.
Nick frowned. “Right, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that was whatever the equivalent of an answer phone is on this thing,” he said. “Well…hi, Jack, it’s me. Well, I suppose you’ve gathered that one already.” He took a deep breath. “Jack, this might sound a bit stupid, but…well, I had a dream where I saw…you and Ianto in London facing an alien called the 456. You both,” he stopped and collected himself, “you both died when they released a poisonous gas in the room you were in.”
He shut his eyes briefly. “I don’t know if what I saw was of your future, or whether it was from a parallel universe, or whether it was just a dream, but I just felt I had to warn you and short of doing something I later realised was really stupid…this was the best way I could think of to do it. That’s all I wanted to say - oh, except give my love to everyone and…and tell the kids that Daddy’s thinking of them and he hopes to see them again one day and…” he swallowed hard, “and that he loves them very much.”
With the message finished, he pressed the button again and sighed as the blue light faded away, leaving the carriage seeming darker than it had ever been before.
But he didn’t have long to brood. Barely a minute later, the door opened and Orion stepped inside. “We’ve arrived,” he said. If he knew what Nick had just done, he gave no sign of it. “It’s time to go.”
~*~
“What is this place?” asked Nick as they walked through dark and cobbled streets flanked by buildings with glowing signs all with lettering he couldn’t understand. “I mean…what is this area we’re standing in?”
“Rehab Central,” said Orion with a small grin. He waved his hand around. “This is where all the rehabilitation centres are in this century.”
“All of them?!” spluttered Nick. “How big is this place?”
“No one’s ever found out,” answered Orion dryly. “People tried, but eventually it got so ridiculous, they just realised that they couldn’t be bothered. But yes, this part of the planet is basically where everyone comes for rehab of some sort or another.” He paused. “Well, obviously, the Time Agency has medical rehabilitation there, but that’s a whole different pound of flesh.”
“This century is so weird,” said Nick fervently. He was about to ask which rehab centre was which, when Orion gave him a condescending glare and he remembered that his wrist strap had a translator function on it. Flushing slightly, he turned the function on and held his wrist cautiously towards the sign on one of the buildings. He read it and gasped out loud.
“There really is such a thing as Murder Rehab?!”
“Ah, yes murder rehab,” said Orion, grinning again. “There’s quite a story about that little place, you know. You remember I told you about meeting Jack the Ripper in the 1880s and you thought I was joking?”
Nick gasped. “Oh, you cannot be serious.” The thought that had entered his mind was at once highly unpleasant and completely ridiculous. “You actually brought Jack the Ripper in for rehab?!”
“We did.” Orion’s voice was unrepentant. “Well…we tried too, anyway. It went…slightly awry.”
“You mean more awry than bringing a murdering psychopath through time and space?” spluttered Nick, laughing. “Well, that’s an achievement.”
Again, Orion wasn’t remotely worried. “Our rehab centres are somewhat different to yours, I believe. You see, here, we have one centre for weaning someone off something and another one for making the same thing seem less…abhorrent.” He licked his lips. “Unfortunately, there was a mix-up with the case notes and our friend was taken to the wrong place.”
“Wait, wait,” Nick whipped round. “Are you seriously telling me you made Jack the Ripper even more addicted to murder than he already was?!”
“It wasn’t intentional,” said Orion, “but yes, we did.” Suddenly, he chuckled. “Mind you, I wasn’t the only one to put a bit of a spell on the man. When he was in murder rehab, he got hold of a former Time Agent who had also enrolled there and…I think the phrase was ‘got himself dragged into his bed.’, if you get my meaning.” He chuckled and shook himself. “Anyway, we’d better get going; time is short and we have much to do.”
Silently, Nick followed the older man, but his mind was actually racing. The phrase Orion had used to describe Jack the Ripper and his other lover had struck a chord inside him and had also reminded him of a story he had heard.
I knew John had been with several partners in his life and I knew that his taste was sometimes a little suspect, he mused to himself. But Jack the Ripper?! My partner shagged Jack the Ripper?! He was so shocked, he didn’t even care that Orion could probably hear his every thought. I’m not sure if I should be amused or just plain disturbed!
~*~
“Behold,” Orion gestured ahead of him, “the Neokin royal citadel of Amion.” He indicated a large fortress made out of what looked like ebony and ivory with several nooks and crannies carved intricately into the wood, putting Nick in mind of the pictures he had seen of foreign temples with their multitudes of carvings.
As he followed Orion up to the citadel, Nick could see multitudes of different coloured flames flickering in the window frames. The effect, however, wasn’t gaudy or tacky; instead, it actually looked quite beautiful, if rather unusual, especially when he caught sight of the coloured flames reflecting in the large fountain in the courtyard that they were currently walking through. He was, however, startled to see that there seemed to be more creatures than people pottering around the grounds and asked Orion if the Neokin race was a race of animals rather than humans.
“Not exactly, no,” said Orion thoughtfully. “The Neokin possess the ability to transform into an animal at will. In fact,” and he started moving faster as a large blue butterfly soared towards them. “I believe that may be R’nessa, the Neokin Queen.” He dropped his voice. “Now, listen carefully. The Neokin are a peaceful race, but they take slights against them very seriously and, while they may have called on us for help, the Time Agency isn’t popular here.”
“Why?” asked Nick.
"It doesn’t matter why. What does matter is that you need to be careful what you say.”
“Okay,” said Nick. That made sense; he was on his first mission with the Time Agency and he had no desire to offend a nation whose relationship with the Agency was already shaky.
“Good,” said Orion, but then he stopped and thought. “Actually, it may be better if you don’t actually speak at all and just stay out of trouble while I meet with the delegates.”
Nick frowned. “You’re going to be meeting them alone?”
“That’s right.”
“Then why did you bring me here?” asked Nick, sounding annoyed.
“Because Time Agency law states that everyone has to have a partner when they go out on a mission of any kind, and I wanted to show you what that entails. Now, be silent.”
Nick barely had time to scowl at the insinuation that he was nothing more than a body to make up the numbers when a tall woman wearing long blue robes escorted him and Orion inside. She had strange markings on her face - markings just like those that had been on the wings of the large butterfly Orion had pointed out. Ah, she must be Queen R’nessa. The theory was confirmed when Orion looked at him and gifted him with a subtle nod.
When they entered the citadel, R’nessa turned to Orion. “The delegates are meeting in the conference room down the corridor. I trust your partner will be able to occupy himself.” Orion nodded. “Good; then we should begin without delay.”
“Make sure you stay out of trouble,” Orion growled in Nick’s ear before he followed the Neokin Queen into the conference room, where several other delegates were already assembled. They went through the mandatory introductions before R’nessa spoke again.
“We have a severe incident on our hands that must be handled immediately,” she said, her quiet voice whistling through the room. “It appears that, in between fifty and a hundred years, the alien race known as the Nova Djinn will get hold of a device that could create or control a black hole, moving it into a part of the galaxy it shouldn't be in and creating on where there shouldn't be one. Such a situation will threaten the home worlds of several species, as well as a world where an important sentient species will one day evolve. Unfortunately, as you know, the Nova Djinn are not a friendly race and are very easily offended. However, currently, the device is being held by others, and it is the job of whoever undertakes this mission to retrieve it from them before it falls into the wrong hands.”
“Where are these places?” asked one of the delegates.
“I cannot say where all of them are,” sighed R’nessa. “But I do know that one of them is the Panjassic Asteroid Belt.”
Orion inhaled sharply. “The Forest of Cheem,” he said and stood up. “My partner and I will go. Since it is clear that the device must be found before the Nova Djinn get hold of it, a Time Agent is surely the best option.”
R’nessa nodded. “We may have had our differences with your institution in the past, but what you say is true,” she said. “You will go.” She paused. “You must find the Omega Device.”
***
Next Time: Orion gave Nick instructions to stay out of trouble, but how well is that really going to work out? Disgruntled at being treated like a piece of baggage, our young hero goes for a walk, and makes a shocking discovery.
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, John/Nick, Gwen/Rhys
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Rhys, John Hart and a cast of (probably!) thousands.
Spoilers: Set after Exit Wounds. Sequel to 'Will My Arms Be Strong Enough?'
Rating: Adult - it's going to get very dark in some places.
Warnings: Slash, language, angst, dark themes.
Summary: Nick sees some of the more interesting aspects of the future and a stunning revelation about his partner is revealed. (By the way, there's a bonus point to anyone who gets the Anne McCaffrey reference!)
Disclaimer: I'm a student. I don't own Torchwood.
The Master List (as it stands) is here: anduria-trianys.livejournal.com/27610.html#cutid1
Chapter 18
The train rattled and juddered along for hours on end, moving so erratically that it often seemed to Nick that it would actually fly off the sides of the tracks - if there were any tracks there to begin with. He had looked out of the windows several times just to make sure that they hadn’t actually fallen off the rails, only to be less than reassured that, save for a few sparks which he presumed to be the result of the wheels touching metal, there didn’t seem to be any rails. Of course, it was only after that that it occurred to him to look behind him and then he saw that there were, in fact, very thin and faintly lit lines behind him with the glow reflecting off pieces of very heavily worn metal. So, there were railway tracks, but they didn’t look sturdy enough to be able to hold up a piece of rice paper, never mind something as heavy as a train.
Time Agency transport isn’t really that reassuring, he thought to himself, unless it’s stronger than it looks, but with all these years of wear and tear, who knows? He didn’t really care if Orion could hear his thoughts this time; after what had happened before, the older man’s attitude towards his vision of Ianto had made him feel past caring about whether he knew what Nick thought of his organisation. Logically, he knew that wasn’t entirely fair; it wasn’t as if everyone at the Agency had been unfriendly to him; some, such as Shivna and, eventually, Shani, had been exceptionally kind towards him, even made him feel as if he had a family to care for him. Even Nergal, the sometimes brusque man who had given him lessons in combat, had shown moments of kindness towards him and had even amused him with some of the more light-hearted tales of the Agency, back in the days when it had been at the height of its powers.
As unfair as he knew it was to tar those good friends with the same brush as Orion and those of his ilk, Nick found that he was feeling less than complimentary towards the organisation as a whole. Being treated with such suspicion on his arrival at the place when he had no idea what had happened to bring him there, while understandable on some level, had been bad enough, but now, having just told the other man what he had seen involving someone as important to him as Ianto, the uncaring and callous attitude he had received in return had really been too much. The suggestion that Ianto wasn’t worth fighting for, or even dying for, made the anger boil inside him as if his stomach had turned into a volcano.
“For someone who struts around like he owns everyone and everything in the universe, that man seems to know absolutely nothing about personal relationships of any kind,” he growled to himself. “I don’t want to rip the universe to pieces, but surely it’s worth at least trying to save someone, even if it doesn’t turn out the way you planned it.” He got up and paced around, trying to stave off the tremors shooting through his body. “I mean, really; what if it was his cousin or close relative or friend who was potentially in danger? I would bet my last month’s salary that he’d do everything he possibly could to ensure that they were kept safe! So if he can fight tooth and nail to keep people he cares about safe, why can’t I? Isn’t that what people are dying for back at home - isn’t that what Jack has devoted so much of his life for?”
With a growl of fury, he slammed his fist violently against the wall so that the hangings surrounding him trembled and the windows rattled, even from three carriages away. When he eventually removed his hand, however, he was briefly shocked out of his anger when he saw that the place where he had bashed the wall now had a large burn mark engraved in the wood and tiny flames were occasionally hissing in the charred surface. Startled, he pulled his arm towards him and gasped in surprise as he realised that a small ball of flame was burning in his palm. Cursing softly, he clapped his hands together and, forgetting in his panic that the fire wouldn’t physically harm him, attempted to snuff the flames out with his hands. However, the harder he tried and the more worked up he made himself, the stronger the flames were burning until they were leaping almost a foot in the air, even as he tried to control them in his hands.
His heart pounding even more, Nick clamped his hands tighter together, hoping that the lack of air would choke the fire and put it out as he sat down and breathed deeply, trying to calm himself. To his surprise, however, he found that as his heartbeat slowed, the fire also calmed down; clearly, it wasn’t governed by lack of air or anything else that would put out a normal fire back at home as much as by the conjurer’s emotions. Having realised this, Nick leaned back against the wall and made a concerted effort to relax until all the flames had finally faded away, leaving no trace behind them, apart from the burn mark on the wall.
However, as he lay back down on the mattress he had been using as a bed, his eyes suddenly hit upon the leather cuff that he had only moments before strapped to his wrist. Gently, he stroked John’s wrist strap, absently fiddling with the fastenings on the bottom, before a thought suddenly hit him and made him sit bolt upright again. Hadn’t John told him that there was a teleportation device installed within a Time Agent’s wrist strap that could transport a person to any place and any time they chose? Didn’t that mean - and Nick’s heart started pounding again at the thought and he had to fight to keep himself calm - that he could go back to Cardiff and warn Ianto about what he had seen? Even if the vision didn’t actually turn out to be true, but instead was merely a bad dream, at least he would have been able to do something!
~*~
“Nick…Nick…”
Nick sleepily batted the voice away with his hands; he was pretty sure it was only Orion calling him to order him to clean up some mess or other, or to interrogate him on his - theoretically - private thoughts.
“Nick! I know you can hear me - wake up!”
But that wasn’t right, he suddenly realised. Orion had never once called him by his Christian name, only by his Time Agency alias. And, now Nick actually thought about it, that wasn’t the other man’s voice calling out to him. He sat up and grabbed his gun with one hand and put on his glasses with his other hand, swearing softly in Welsh as he poked himself in the eye with them.
“Who’s there?” he called out quietly, flicking the safety catch off his gun. “I can hear you…show yourself or I’ll…I’ll shoot!” But his hand trembled as he said it and he knew that he could no more shoot at thin air than he could at a wounded puppy.
Suddenly, a small white light started glowing in front of the only blank wall in the room. Slowly, it expanded and twisted until it was the shape and size of a man. Then, the light dimmed slightly so Nick could see who his visitor was. His jaw dropped open.
“John?!” he spluttered.
“Hello, Nicky.” The vision smiled in a way that only John Hart knew how to. “It’s good to see you.”
Nick sank backwards and rested his hand on the wall. “I’m sure I’ve seen this very situation in The Empire Strikes Back!” he spluttered. “Dear God, I think that makes me Luke Skywalker!”
“Hey, being Luke Skywalker is better than being old Ben Kenobi!” said John with a laugh. “At least I look sexier than him, right?”
“Help me, Obi-John Kenobi, you’re my only hope!” simpered Nick, laughing. “Oh, wait, that’s Princess Leia.” He paused. “Hang on, doesn’t that make you Han Solo?”
John burst out laughing as well. “Didn’t you just call me Obi-Wan?”
“Actually, I technically called you Obi-John.”
“Whatever,” said John and then folded his arms, the amusement previously shown in his face vanishing as quickly as it had appeared. “Listen, Nick, I know what you’re planning to do and I need to tell you…well, don’t. Don’t do it.”
Nick blinked. “Are you serious?” he spluttered.
“Completely,” said John. “I know what you saw, Nick, and I know what you’re thinking. But you can’t just go tearing backwards through time like this, not when -”
“If you had seen what I saw, you wouldn’t think twice about trying to do something about it!” retorted Nick angrily. “This is Ianto we’re talking about!”
“I know it’s Ianto we’re talking about!” replied John. “And in any other circumstances, I would be right there with you helping you do whatever it took to contact him. But, as much of an ass as I know Orion is, on this occasion, he is right. You can’t do this, Nick - not just because of what could happen in the long term, but also because of what could happen to you.” His eyes hardened. “Be honest, Nick; do you trust yourself to do this? Do you honestly think you could do it without knowing how?”
Nick froze. In his panic over what he had seen, that thought had never occurred to him, but now that John had said it, he realised that he was right. “No,” he admitted, his shoulders slumping.
“Exactly,” said John, more gently this time. “It would be like, what’s it called, going betwixt in those Chronicles of Porn -”
“Pern,” corrected Nick automatically. “And I think what you mean is going between.”
“Whatever,” said John. “My point is that you remember how dangerous doing that was? Well, this is a hundred times more dangerous, at least, if you don’t know what you’re doing. You could get trapped in the Void, Nick, and then you’d have no way of getting home at all - you’d never see anyone you cared about again.” His voice seemed to crack. “Is that what you want?”
“I…no, of course it isn’t,” gasped Nick, the reality of the situation hitting him even harder now. “But…but what can I do? I have to warn Ianto or Jack about what might happen. I know I don’t know if it will, but I can’t take that risk, can I?”
“No,” said John. “You can’t - and I wouldn’t expect you to. But there is a better way to do it than what you were thinking and it’s something you can do quite easily now.” He grinned suddenly. “How do you think I let Jack know I was here?”
“You left a message,” said Nick. “He told me - oh!” He slapped his forehead in understanding. “You’re suggesting I leave a message for Jack to warn him!”
“Exactly!” grinned John. “And don’t forget - it’s the button on the top.”
Nick laughed softly, and then frowned as something else dawned on him. “Hey…how are you hearing what I’m saying? Unless something’s gone really weird since we last saw each other, you can’t suddenly materialise through walls.”
“No, I can’t.” Suddenly, John looked rather sad. “I’m not really here at all, Nicky. I’m just…” he paused to think, “I’m not really sure how to explain it. I guess it’s a combination of future technology and your subconscious mind that brought me here. In fact,” and suddenly it seemed to Nick that his image began to fade back into the woodwork, “my time’s running out as we speak.” He smiled and his voice faded even more. “Good luck, Nick…we’ll meet again, soon.”
“John!” Nick cried out, reaching out with one hand (and not realising just how much he resembled Luke Skywalker at that precise moment) as his lover’s image slowly disappeared until he was left staring at a blank wooden wall. Shaking himself, he sat up and blinked several times, before he suddenly remembered a part of John’s message.
“It’s the button on the top,” he whispered, smiling as he pressed the button in question. Instantly, a bright blue light started glowing in front of him, accompanied by a long beep before silence fell.
Nick frowned. “Right, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that was whatever the equivalent of an answer phone is on this thing,” he said. “Well…hi, Jack, it’s me. Well, I suppose you’ve gathered that one already.” He took a deep breath. “Jack, this might sound a bit stupid, but…well, I had a dream where I saw…you and Ianto in London facing an alien called the 456. You both,” he stopped and collected himself, “you both died when they released a poisonous gas in the room you were in.”
He shut his eyes briefly. “I don’t know if what I saw was of your future, or whether it was from a parallel universe, or whether it was just a dream, but I just felt I had to warn you and short of doing something I later realised was really stupid…this was the best way I could think of to do it. That’s all I wanted to say - oh, except give my love to everyone and…and tell the kids that Daddy’s thinking of them and he hopes to see them again one day and…” he swallowed hard, “and that he loves them very much.”
With the message finished, he pressed the button again and sighed as the blue light faded away, leaving the carriage seeming darker than it had ever been before.
But he didn’t have long to brood. Barely a minute later, the door opened and Orion stepped inside. “We’ve arrived,” he said. If he knew what Nick had just done, he gave no sign of it. “It’s time to go.”
~*~
“What is this place?” asked Nick as they walked through dark and cobbled streets flanked by buildings with glowing signs all with lettering he couldn’t understand. “I mean…what is this area we’re standing in?”
“Rehab Central,” said Orion with a small grin. He waved his hand around. “This is where all the rehabilitation centres are in this century.”
“All of them?!” spluttered Nick. “How big is this place?”
“No one’s ever found out,” answered Orion dryly. “People tried, but eventually it got so ridiculous, they just realised that they couldn’t be bothered. But yes, this part of the planet is basically where everyone comes for rehab of some sort or another.” He paused. “Well, obviously, the Time Agency has medical rehabilitation there, but that’s a whole different pound of flesh.”
“This century is so weird,” said Nick fervently. He was about to ask which rehab centre was which, when Orion gave him a condescending glare and he remembered that his wrist strap had a translator function on it. Flushing slightly, he turned the function on and held his wrist cautiously towards the sign on one of the buildings. He read it and gasped out loud.
“There really is such a thing as Murder Rehab?!”
“Ah, yes murder rehab,” said Orion, grinning again. “There’s quite a story about that little place, you know. You remember I told you about meeting Jack the Ripper in the 1880s and you thought I was joking?”
Nick gasped. “Oh, you cannot be serious.” The thought that had entered his mind was at once highly unpleasant and completely ridiculous. “You actually brought Jack the Ripper in for rehab?!”
“We did.” Orion’s voice was unrepentant. “Well…we tried too, anyway. It went…slightly awry.”
“You mean more awry than bringing a murdering psychopath through time and space?” spluttered Nick, laughing. “Well, that’s an achievement.”
Again, Orion wasn’t remotely worried. “Our rehab centres are somewhat different to yours, I believe. You see, here, we have one centre for weaning someone off something and another one for making the same thing seem less…abhorrent.” He licked his lips. “Unfortunately, there was a mix-up with the case notes and our friend was taken to the wrong place.”
“Wait, wait,” Nick whipped round. “Are you seriously telling me you made Jack the Ripper even more addicted to murder than he already was?!”
“It wasn’t intentional,” said Orion, “but yes, we did.” Suddenly, he chuckled. “Mind you, I wasn’t the only one to put a bit of a spell on the man. When he was in murder rehab, he got hold of a former Time Agent who had also enrolled there and…I think the phrase was ‘got himself dragged into his bed.’, if you get my meaning.” He chuckled and shook himself. “Anyway, we’d better get going; time is short and we have much to do.”
Silently, Nick followed the older man, but his mind was actually racing. The phrase Orion had used to describe Jack the Ripper and his other lover had struck a chord inside him and had also reminded him of a story he had heard.
I knew John had been with several partners in his life and I knew that his taste was sometimes a little suspect, he mused to himself. But Jack the Ripper?! My partner shagged Jack the Ripper?! He was so shocked, he didn’t even care that Orion could probably hear his every thought. I’m not sure if I should be amused or just plain disturbed!
~*~
“Behold,” Orion gestured ahead of him, “the Neokin royal citadel of Amion.” He indicated a large fortress made out of what looked like ebony and ivory with several nooks and crannies carved intricately into the wood, putting Nick in mind of the pictures he had seen of foreign temples with their multitudes of carvings.
As he followed Orion up to the citadel, Nick could see multitudes of different coloured flames flickering in the window frames. The effect, however, wasn’t gaudy or tacky; instead, it actually looked quite beautiful, if rather unusual, especially when he caught sight of the coloured flames reflecting in the large fountain in the courtyard that they were currently walking through. He was, however, startled to see that there seemed to be more creatures than people pottering around the grounds and asked Orion if the Neokin race was a race of animals rather than humans.
“Not exactly, no,” said Orion thoughtfully. “The Neokin possess the ability to transform into an animal at will. In fact,” and he started moving faster as a large blue butterfly soared towards them. “I believe that may be R’nessa, the Neokin Queen.” He dropped his voice. “Now, listen carefully. The Neokin are a peaceful race, but they take slights against them very seriously and, while they may have called on us for help, the Time Agency isn’t popular here.”
“Why?” asked Nick.
"It doesn’t matter why. What does matter is that you need to be careful what you say.”
“Okay,” said Nick. That made sense; he was on his first mission with the Time Agency and he had no desire to offend a nation whose relationship with the Agency was already shaky.
“Good,” said Orion, but then he stopped and thought. “Actually, it may be better if you don’t actually speak at all and just stay out of trouble while I meet with the delegates.”
Nick frowned. “You’re going to be meeting them alone?”
“That’s right.”
“Then why did you bring me here?” asked Nick, sounding annoyed.
“Because Time Agency law states that everyone has to have a partner when they go out on a mission of any kind, and I wanted to show you what that entails. Now, be silent.”
Nick barely had time to scowl at the insinuation that he was nothing more than a body to make up the numbers when a tall woman wearing long blue robes escorted him and Orion inside. She had strange markings on her face - markings just like those that had been on the wings of the large butterfly Orion had pointed out. Ah, she must be Queen R’nessa. The theory was confirmed when Orion looked at him and gifted him with a subtle nod.
When they entered the citadel, R’nessa turned to Orion. “The delegates are meeting in the conference room down the corridor. I trust your partner will be able to occupy himself.” Orion nodded. “Good; then we should begin without delay.”
“Make sure you stay out of trouble,” Orion growled in Nick’s ear before he followed the Neokin Queen into the conference room, where several other delegates were already assembled. They went through the mandatory introductions before R’nessa spoke again.
“We have a severe incident on our hands that must be handled immediately,” she said, her quiet voice whistling through the room. “It appears that, in between fifty and a hundred years, the alien race known as the Nova Djinn will get hold of a device that could create or control a black hole, moving it into a part of the galaxy it shouldn't be in and creating on where there shouldn't be one. Such a situation will threaten the home worlds of several species, as well as a world where an important sentient species will one day evolve. Unfortunately, as you know, the Nova Djinn are not a friendly race and are very easily offended. However, currently, the device is being held by others, and it is the job of whoever undertakes this mission to retrieve it from them before it falls into the wrong hands.”
“Where are these places?” asked one of the delegates.
“I cannot say where all of them are,” sighed R’nessa. “But I do know that one of them is the Panjassic Asteroid Belt.”
Orion inhaled sharply. “The Forest of Cheem,” he said and stood up. “My partner and I will go. Since it is clear that the device must be found before the Nova Djinn get hold of it, a Time Agent is surely the best option.”
R’nessa nodded. “We may have had our differences with your institution in the past, but what you say is true,” she said. “You will go.” She paused. “You must find the Omega Device.”
***
Next Time: Orion gave Nick instructions to stay out of trouble, but how well is that really going to work out? Disgruntled at being treated like a piece of baggage, our young hero goes for a walk, and makes a shocking discovery.