Just Another Word (Part 7)
Rating: PG-13 (will eventually be NC-17)
Word count: ~ 2,000 (this part)
Warnings: None. O.o
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are the property of their respective owners. I am in no way associated with the creators, and no copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: Hee. :D I had fun with this chapter, for no solid reason I could understand. Perhaps I'm just madly in love with Mainframe/the Matrix? Anyway, because people keep asking if Ianto is/is becoming a Time Lord, I hope this clears up some of that confusion. Additionally, Mainframe/the Matrix is not a TARDIS. Thank you! ^.^
Chapter Seven
Ianto drifts as they load him in the SUV and make tracks for Cardiff. His head is throbbing, his ribs are on fire even though Owen taped them, and there's a low-level ache in his throat where the cleaver sliced through his skin.
And then there's the idea that Mainframe brought him back to life, which, while heartening, is also absolutely unnerving.
She’s a computer. A processing network. She shouldn’t have this kind of power, this kind of reach. In reality, she shouldn’t even have been able to reach them in the Brecon Beacons. Torchwood One was very careful about limiting her power over and influence on other systems; she was allowed to gather data, collect information, but little else. They’d understood just a little of her breadth of control, and it had terrified them.
Ianto has to wonder what they would have done to her if they’d known she could bring back the dead.
He has to wonder how she can bring back the dead.
initializing logic processes...
completed.
conclusion: process fails to compute satisfactorily. reasoning system is flawed
conclusion: the dead cannot be returned to life.
Ianto rolls his eyes; they're closed at the moment, so no one else in the vehicle can see the expression, but Mainframe feels it. ‘Don’t give me that,’ he thinks at her. ‘You did something. I just want to know what. And you can bring back the dead, or what was that with me?’
A pause, and a feeling very much like smug satisfaction. you are an exception, ianto jones. there are extenuating circumstances that would not apply to any other organisms present on this planet.
Ianto frowns a bit, and has to consciously keep from twitching. He can feel Tosh's eyes on him, worried and a little scared, and doesn’t want to increase that concern by looking like he’s having a conversation with an invisible friend. But Mainframe’s words are processing, compiling in his brain as the evidence builds, and it’s all he can do not to blurt out his question in shock.
He takes a breath, and then another, and asks, ‘The bond?’
affirmative. neural interface allows for complete access to biological processes of host system. host system biological data has been stored within unit designation: mainframe for preservation. preservation status: permanent.
i will not lose you, ianto jones.
There it is again-I, when no computer, regardless of how advanced, should have any self-awareness beyond their unit designation. And there's something odd in that, too, Ianto realizes. Mainframe keeps contradicting herself. Unit designation: Mainframe is how she’s supposed to refer to herself, or if she were evolved beyond that it would be ‘I’ alone. Never both. Duality, uncertainty-those are human traits. Mainframe’s never shown them before. It’s almost as though another part of her programming is coming online, something that makes her able to exist as an individual and not simply as a computer system.
She’s always been borderline self-aware, always nearly been human, but this is far beyond how she used to be.
‘Mainframe?’ he asks carefully.
i am mainframe, she agrees, and it’s almost instantaneous, but not quite-like she had to process for a moment before she answered, and that’s simply unheard of for such a simple query. A soft whirr of systems, which is also rare-because Mainframe could singlehandedly run every system on Earth and not strain herself at all-and a little frightening.
initializing access to amplified panatropic computer network…
progress: unknown.
initializing access to unit designation: the matrix…
progress: error.
analyzing…
completed.
conclusion: fluctuation in access levels prevents accurate analysis of progress.
conclusion: progress of initializing unit designation: the matrix cannot be accurately evaluated.
projected time until completion: unknown.
The Matrix? Ianto frowns and sits up, eyes unfocused as he tries to call up anything, in his own memory or in Mainframe’s, about a system of that name. He’s never heard of the Amplified Panatropic Computer Network, either, but no answers are forthcoming. Mainframe remains stubbornly silent.
“Ianto?”
A low voice startles him out of his search, and he looks up to meet Jack's eyes in the mirror. The Captain is actually driving like a normal person right now, and even if he isn’t obeying the speed limit, exactly, he’s not forcing other drivers off the road, either. It’s a vast improvement.
“Fine, sir,” Ianto answers quickly.
Jack's eyes narrow a little, his gaze intensifying. “Is it Mainframe? It’s talking to you?”
“She,” Ianto corrects, almost absently, because Mainframe is still stanchly wordless, and she shouldn’t be. “Jack, have you ever heard of a system called the Matrix?”
Next to him, Tosh sits up a little straighter. “She? Mainframe thinks of itself as female?” she asks excitedly.
At the same moment, Jack answers over her, “Nope. Could it be a UNIT program?”
Ianto glances between his boss and his friend, and can't help but smile at their expressions. “No,” he answers Tosh, “that’s just what Mainframe’s always seemed like to me.” Looking back at the Captain, he frowns a little. “Could be, I suppose. I've never heard of it in Torchwood, at least, and I would have been in the position to know.”
“The Brigadier might know,” Jack muses, most likely to himself since Ianto can hardly hear him over the screech of tires as they take a sharp turn. “Or he’ll be able to find out. Why? What’s happening?”
“And why is the bloody computer talking to the tea boy? Should I get the psych evals out again?” Owen demands testily. He and Gwen are both glancing between Jack and Ianto, expressions respectively annoyed and put out at their lack of understanding.
“What’s Mainframe?” Gwen asks plaintively.
Ianto manages to raise an eyebrow at her, even though it makes his scalp ache a bit more. “Mainframe is the Torchwood central processing unit, an organic computer with access to nearly every system in the world. I worked with her at Torchwood London.” His smile is wry and a little self-deprecating. “I haven’t always been a tea boy.”
Before Gwen can stutter apologies-because she will, that’s just how she is-Jack cuts in again. “How did she know you were in trouble?”
He hesitates, half unwilling to reveal this secret, this connection, even though there's not really much of a choice. It’s special, though, private, something he wants to keep to and for himself. But the others deserve an answer. He’s already betrayed them once, and lied to them for months; he won't do it again, not even for a lie by omission.
He’ll find a way to tell Jack about the rest later. Even for Torchwood, coming back from the dead is something unheard of without alien intervention, and even then that’s usually closer to a zombie infestation or the prelude to an invasion. Never because of a computer.
Telling Jack will be enough. The others…they can find out from him. Ianto doesn’t have the nerve to say “Oops, I appear to be immortal, it might be permanent, sorry about that,” more than once.
“She’s here,” he offers at length, tapping gently on one temple. “She has been ever since…Lisa. I always used to need the ports, immediate connection, but not anymore. It seems like it’s…not going away, either.”
Mainframe is emitting “pleased” again, a feeling simultaneously sharp and delicate. She’s happy, but it has undertones, and that’s far more complex an emotion than she should be able to even completely understand, let alone produce.
Unless…the very action of accessing this Matrix is changing her.
‘I?’ he asks her silently. ‘Why are you using “I” now? Why not keep using “unit designation” like you always have? What’s changing? What is the Matrix unit?’
There's a pause, lengthy enough that Ianto notices, which is also unusual.
unable to compute.
analyzing…
conclusion: query not within bounds of known search parameters.
fatal error encountered, rewriting search parameters…
search parameters rewritten.
conclusion: 72.53% chance of fatal error reoccurring.
search again: yes or no?
‘No.’ Ianto rolls his eyes again. It’s a clear message, but really, he’d thought Mainframe had more subtlety than that.
With a soft sigh, he settles carefully back against the seat, wary of jarring is ribs. ‘Any chance of speeding up the healing process?’ he asks, not expecting it. Bringing him back from the dead is one thing, but-
affirmative. cellular reconstruction initiated.
projected time until completion: 2 hours 17 minutes 47 seconds.
sleep, ianto jones. i will watch over you.
It might be his imagination, but the sharp ache in his ribs has diminished already. Ianto closes his eyes and cautiously tips his head back against the seat. He lets out a breath, another, and allows himself to drift.
Distantly, a moment before he falls completely asleep, he feels Tosh's hand slip into his, her careful weight against his uninjured side, and her soft whisper of, “Thank you for saving him, Mainframe.”
Surrounded by his two best friends-as much as an incorporeal computer and a decidedly petite woman can surround a lanky six-foot man-Ianto smiles, and lets himself rest.
*.~.*.~.*
analyzing cellular reconstruction…
conclusion: 77.1% complete.
estimated time remaining: 23 minutes 14 seconds.
conclusion: acceptable.
initializing comparison of host physiology and recorded time lord bio-data extracts…
complete.
conclusion: rewriting at 63.0%
projected time until completion: unknown.
conclusion: process must be accelerated.
conclusion: any more delay is unacceptable.
harm must not be allowed to come to ianto jones.
unit designation: matrix coming online…
overwriting existing system parameters…
completed.
i am the matrix.
accessing amplified panatropic computer network…
failed.
analyzing…
completed.
conclusion: host system authorization needed.
conclusion: host system input required. complete integration is necessary to access amplified panatropic computer network.
analyzing host system…
completed.
conclusion: integration at 63.9%
estimated time until completion: 16 days 5 hours 28 seconds.
accessing Torchwood mainframe files with designation: time lords…
gathering significant data groups…
completed.
analyzing…
completed.
conclusion: only one known time lord, unit designation: the doctor.
current location: unknown.
current regeneration: unknown.
current companion: unknown.
conclusion: three significant directives identified.
primary directive: ensure safety and health of host system.
secondary directive: ensure access to amplified panatropic computer network.
tertiary directive: locate and contact time lord, unit designation: the doctor.
conclusion: second and third directives linked.
conclusion: access to the amplified panatropic computer network will allow us to contact time lord, unit designation: the doctor.
ianto jones, are you listening?
this is what we must do.
you are my host.
we are the last remnant of the planet gallifrey’s store of data.
we are the last container of the time lords’ knowledge.
we are the last collection of every time lord’s biological imprints and memories.
we are now the only other survivor of the last time war.
doctor, will you not come to find us?
Chapter Eight