Ficlet: Not Today
Title: Not Today
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Raiders.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Set in my Ghost of a Chance ‘Verse.
Summary: The Happy Wanderer is targeted by raiders while on a rescue mission.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 484: Desperate, at slashthedrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
This wasn’t the first time they’d found themselves in a desperate situation. Working for Torchwood had been an education in all the many things that could go wrong when you least expected them to, and although they were out among the stars now, that tendency had continued. They got themselves into and out of scrapes on a regular basis, sometimes by skill and sometimes by luck; they’d learned to expect the unexpected long before they’d left earth far behind. Even so, no matter how many plans of action Ianto came up with to deal with every conceivable disaster, it wasn’t possible to think of everything.
Being immortal gave them an edge; even if they got killed they’d still survive, but that didn’t mean dying was ever an acceptable way around problems, and they had no intention of dying today if death was at all possible to avoid. In a situation like this, they could be adrift for thousands of years before someone happened by and salvaged the wreckage of their ship. Living for eternity didn’t make them any more willing than people with normal life spans to squander what time they had. It was a vast universe and there was so much to see and do.
They’d been out here in the black, travelling on the Happy Wanderer, for more than a thousand years. This was their fourth ship by that name, a little larger than the first, with half a dozen passenger cabins as well as cargo holds, although thankfully they weren’t carrying passengers this time. The holds were full to capacity, however, taking emergency supplies to a fledgling colony in desperate need of food and shelter after a severe storm practically wiped out their settlement. Now they were in trouble themselves.
Raiders seldom came out this far, there was little worth stealing, but this lot must have tracked the Wanderer; maybe they’d been tagged while the cargo was being loaded. It was only one ship, but it was on them the instant they were forced to drop out of the vortex because of engine trouble.
“In future we’re loading our own cargo,” Jack muttered. One of the loaders must have been in league with the raiders, tampering with their engines so they’d malfunction at a predetermined time and place.
The raiders boarded easily, flying their shuttle into the Wanderer’s shuttle bay, having opened it by remote. Ianto made a mental note to install state-of-the-art security systems the first chance he got. Raiders were getting sneakier all the time.
Still, he and Jack knew their ship better than anyone, all the hiding places, and a number of secret passages they’d built in. They picked the raiders off one by one, loaded them into their shuttle, and sent it back where it had come from. The resulting fireball was brief but spectacular as the ship’s atmosphere burned off in seconds.
“Good riddance,” Jack sighed.
“Shame we couldn’t have salvaged it.”
“Maybe next time. Right now there’s a colony to save.”
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Raiders.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Set in my Ghost of a Chance ‘Verse.
Summary: The Happy Wanderer is targeted by raiders while on a rescue mission.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 484: Desperate, at slashthedrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
This wasn’t the first time they’d found themselves in a desperate situation. Working for Torchwood had been an education in all the many things that could go wrong when you least expected them to, and although they were out among the stars now, that tendency had continued. They got themselves into and out of scrapes on a regular basis, sometimes by skill and sometimes by luck; they’d learned to expect the unexpected long before they’d left earth far behind. Even so, no matter how many plans of action Ianto came up with to deal with every conceivable disaster, it wasn’t possible to think of everything.
Being immortal gave them an edge; even if they got killed they’d still survive, but that didn’t mean dying was ever an acceptable way around problems, and they had no intention of dying today if death was at all possible to avoid. In a situation like this, they could be adrift for thousands of years before someone happened by and salvaged the wreckage of their ship. Living for eternity didn’t make them any more willing than people with normal life spans to squander what time they had. It was a vast universe and there was so much to see and do.
They’d been out here in the black, travelling on the Happy Wanderer, for more than a thousand years. This was their fourth ship by that name, a little larger than the first, with half a dozen passenger cabins as well as cargo holds, although thankfully they weren’t carrying passengers this time. The holds were full to capacity, however, taking emergency supplies to a fledgling colony in desperate need of food and shelter after a severe storm practically wiped out their settlement. Now they were in trouble themselves.
Raiders seldom came out this far, there was little worth stealing, but this lot must have tracked the Wanderer; maybe they’d been tagged while the cargo was being loaded. It was only one ship, but it was on them the instant they were forced to drop out of the vortex because of engine trouble.
“In future we’re loading our own cargo,” Jack muttered. One of the loaders must have been in league with the raiders, tampering with their engines so they’d malfunction at a predetermined time and place.
The raiders boarded easily, flying their shuttle into the Wanderer’s shuttle bay, having opened it by remote. Ianto made a mental note to install state-of-the-art security systems the first chance he got. Raiders were getting sneakier all the time.
Still, he and Jack knew their ship better than anyone, all the hiding places, and a number of secret passages they’d built in. They picked the raiders off one by one, loaded them into their shuttle, and sent it back where it had come from. The resulting fireball was brief but spectacular as the ship’s atmosphere burned off in seconds.
“Good riddance,” Jack sighed.
“Shame we couldn’t have salvaged it.”
“Maybe next time. Right now there’s a colony to save.”
The End