Doctor Who and the Cathedral of Light - Durham Cathedral 6/7
Title: Doctor Who and the Cathedral of Light - Durham Cathedral 6/7
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, The Doctor (10), OFC, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Benton, Harry Sullivan, Michael Yates, Wilfred Mott/Tom Campbell
Parings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Neither Torchwood or Doctor Who are mine
Summary: Someone is stealing soldiers
Spoilers: All Torchwood, including Children of Earth, all Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Minor character death
A/N: This answers the questions. Well… my questions anyway.
A/N2: This is a sequel to Doctor Who and The Infernal Inferno. You don’t have to read it, but it explains where the OC came from.
A/N3: Only the epilogue next, aww
Prologue - Old Soldiers
The Doctor made some last adjustments to his sonic screwdriver and headed for the door, closely followed by Benton. ‘If Jack’s right, and knowing him he always is, then any kind of weapon powerful enough to ignite the planet’s oxygen would have to be mounted somewhere overlooking the town.’ Benton nodded but said nothing.
Leaving the TARDIS, the Doctor and Benton followed the constant beeping from the sonic screwdriver and he headed up the bank back towards the cathedral. Stopping the Doctor looked up and nodded, ‘That, my young friend, would just be high enough to fire the weapon.’ As they walked the Doctor mused over the situation he now found himself in. ‘Benton, someone’s been behind all of this from the beginning. Someone that could bring the Rutan Host and the Sontarans together in peace talks has to be an unbelievable individual.’ Benton nodded,
‘What… someone like you?’ The Doctor nodded, realising exactly who Benton was referring to.
‘We’re talking about someone evil enough to want to decimate the entire Earth for their own personal gain, but intelligent enough to talk two war-like races into complicity.’ Benton nodded again,
‘I thought he was behind it as well but didn’t like to say anything at the time.’
‘My dear sergeant Benton, you’ve always been a mine of information. Next time speak up when you have any ideas like that.’ Heading towards the cathedral the Doctor stopped and looked up at the central tower. The sun was bright and distorted his vision slightly but he was sure he saw something move. Entering the large double doorway the Doctor smiled and looked around.
‘There’s no gift shop.’ Benton looked at the Doctor and shrugged. ‘There should be a gift shop here… you know selling those amazing fridge magnets, information books and audio equipment telling you what everything is.’ Benton looked bemused, not understanding the significance or need for a souvenir shop at this precise moment in time.
Bracing themselves for the climb, they entered the far doorway and headed for the 325 steps that led to the roof, the only place around that would be high enough to fire the weapon. ‘Whatever happened to the ‘Thirty-Nine Steps,’ now that was a good number to have,’ the Doctor asked Benton as they trudged up the stairs one at a time.
‘I enjoyed the film Doctor, but I preferred Robert Donat to Kenneth Moore. Never saw the Robert Powell version. The kids told me there was one of those TV movies about it but I couldn’t… figure out how to record it on… on the sky box… thing.'
The Doctor smiled as he climbed. ‘Never saw any of them… read the book… John Buchan… did you know… was the Governor General of Canada?’
‘There you go Doc… learn something new… every…day.’ Despite their fitness both Benton and the Doctor were out of breath.
‘I was in Broadstaires… when I was asked to see him… he was sick with something or other… I had to walk up the steps from… from the beach to the garden… commented that there were thirty-nine… Buchan wrote it down… said it sounded like a good title for a novel.’ Despite the climb Benton smiled.
‘You crafty sod…’
‘What…?’ the Doctor asked… a look of innocence on his face.
‘You’d read the book before you saw him… hadn’t you?’
The Doctor smiled, a far away look on his face as if remembering the moment. ‘All that running around over the Scottish moors, being pursued by who knows what… remind you of someone.’
***
The six pursuers headed in from the north and, disregarding signs asking people to ‘keep off the grass,’ ran across the immaculately kept Palace green. Jack, Yates and the Brigadier burst through the door heading towards the steps. Louise Ruth and Ianto stopped at the doorway catching their breath.
‘Someone… needs… to…’ Louise Ruth started as Ianto, hands on knees nodded his agreement and finished what she was about to say.
‘Protect the rear… in case… pursuers.’ She also nodded, too out of breath to add a comment. The sound of footsteps hammering up the stairwell reverberated throughout the cathedral as the three gave pursuit.
***
Heedless to the noise behind them, the Doctor and Benton looked out over the city of Durham and marvelled again at its beauty. Sometimes, the Doctor wondered, why he loved humans so much; why he spent so much time in their presence, and knew it was times like these. The view had already been there but the architecture and sheer preservation of beauty almost took his breath away. A bright flash of light to his right drew his attention as a transmat beam plucked someone from the tower sending them anywhere, off into the galaxy.
The first thing that shattered the beauty was the two dead men lying to one side of the entrance, as if discarded, no longer needed. Burns on their face and chest showed clearly where an electrical weapon had punched a hole right through them.
The second thing to disrupt his enjoyment of the moment was the giant energy weapon aimed at the sky’s ozone layer. Benton had been crouching down, checking the dead men’s vital signs, but found none, as the Doctor wandered off to the left when the transmat beam had been activated.
Benton stood and faced the Rutan, as he ran around the energy weapon preparing to fire it. Before he could raise his arm to shoot, a bolt of electricity caught Benton in the arm, throwing him back against the wall. It was a few seconds before he realised he wasn’t dead, but he might as well have been. The wrist gun had taken the brunt of the explosion, which rebounded off the metal casing and hit him in the shoulder. Falling to the ground he sat there in agony, unable to move.
The Rutan, tending to the weapon, was yet to notice the Doctor but it was only a matter of time before he too would end up like the last two visitors to the tower. Walking up behind him, the Doctor raised both his hands showing that he was unarmed and that he’d come in peace.
***
Jack stumbled on the stairs, the hem of his greatcoat catching on his unfamiliar shoes. Yates took the stairs two at a time and quickly overtook him. The Brigadier helped Jack to his feet and together they ran after Yates.
‘Tally ho old boy, tally ho,’ the Brigadier said as he tried to keep up with Jack. Despite his youthful figure he still had the mind of an octogenarian and wished he’d stayed at the entrance with Ianto and Louise Ruth.
***
‘No, no, no,’ the Doctor pleaded. ‘You don’t want to do this.’ The Rutan turned and immediately levelled the gun on the Doctor. ‘If you fire that gun it will ignite the atmosphere. Your opponents will die but so will you and all the rest of the earth’s population.’
‘We are the last Rutan on planet Earth. We must activate the weapon. Failure is not an option.’ The Doctor shook his head while continuing to walk towards the Rutan.
‘Failure is an option and should be embraced more. It stops people repeating previous things that didn’t work. You can learn from your mistakes, right wrongs and stop this stupid war. Killing shouldn’t be an option, ending people's lives who come up here, only wanting to enjoy the shear beauty of the view, shouldn’t be a priority.’ The Doctor gestured toward the two corpses near the entrance and Benton lying next to them, his shirtsleeve smouldering slightly.
‘We are the Rutan Host and we must win at any cost.’ The Doctor shook his head vehemently.
‘You can’t win. No one wins. If you pull that leaver we all die, each and every one of us. There are no winners in war only victims.’ The Rutan hesitated then took a single step back, away from the weapon. He was just about to say something when a bolt of electrical energy exploded in his chest throwing him forward into the energy cannon. Turning, he released a burst from his own wrist gun then fell back and died. Seconds later the Doctor heard an explosion from behind him just as the Rutans wrist gun exploded in front of him.
Jack and the Brigadier leaped out of the doorway noticing the black burn mark that had once been Captain Michael Alexander Raymond Yates. Jack shook his head, ‘What a waste.’ Then headed over towards the Doctor, anger showing clearly on his face.
‘You didn’t have to do that. I’d talked him out of it. He was going to switch off the machine.’ Jack looked over towards the energy weapon then back at the Doctor.
‘It’s over Doctor. The last Rutan is dead; no more bad guys, no one to fire the energy weapon.’ The Doctor turned on Jack anger clearly flaring in his eyes.
‘He doesn’t need to fire the weapon. It’s not that sort of weapon. It has to build up to critical mass before it will fire.’ The Brigadier crouched down, helping Benton to his feet, not understanding what was going on.
‘Then why can we not just turn it off?’ He asked, knowing that it wouldn’t be that easy.
‘I was going to get the Rutan to turn it off until Yates shot him. His wrist gun exploded and melted the control panel. Now no one can turn the thing off.’
‘How long before it goes critical Doctor?’ The Brigadier asked looking at the weapon before him. The Doctor was kneeling in front of the weapon, his sonic screwdriver buzzing around what was left of the control panel.
‘About ten minutes should see it setting fire to the atmosphere and a further two days to destroy the rest of the world.’ The Brigadier took an involuntary step backward then realising the futility of it continued to support Benton.
‘Is there anything you can do Doctor?’ He asked as the Doctor kicked out at the metal and managed to remove the panel in the process. Rummaging around in his pocket he produced a black pair of glasses and put them on. With eyes wide open he gazed inside the machine.
‘Oh yes… you beauty. Here we go.’ The Doctor pulled out a section of wiring from the gaping hole that had once been the control panel.
‘I didn’t know you needed glasses Doctor,’ Benton asked as he watched the Doctor strip wires and bind them together.
‘I don’t, it just makes me look like I know what I’m doing… gives those that are watching a sense that I’m in control of everything and there’s nothing to worry about… is it working?’ Benton smiled then looked at the mass of wiring the Doctor was hunting through, his sonic screwdriver buzzing over each section.
‘Not really Doctor… but I trust that you’ll do your best.’ The Doctor smiled despite the predicament he found himself in. Humans always amazed him… their ability to adapt to any given situation, despite the hopelessness of it all.
‘Yahoo… right…. Found it.’ The Doctor shouted out in glee. ‘All I need is a thin piece of plastic tubing for insulation and I can rewire the system. That should reverse the polarity of the neutron flow and when this weapon fires it will lift off and be sent into outer space where it can fire as much as it wants because there’s no oxygen up there to ignite.’
‘Where are we going to get a plastic insulator tube from?’ Jack asked as the Doctor looked at the three men standing before him.
‘I knew there should have been a little gift shop here somewhere… fridge magnates… post cards and pens.’ He emphasised the last point as the penny of understanding finally dropped. All three began looking for a biro of any description. As the Doctor frantically began rewiring the system Jack patted his pockets but they were empty, the Brigadier and Benton checked the two dead men by the door but to no avail. Then the Doctor remembered and smiled,
‘Louise Ruth has a pen in her pocket. Keeps it all the time. Takes it with her everywhere, crosswords and such. We can use that.’ The Brigadier breathed a sigh or relief as the Doctor turned back to his wiring. ‘Only thing is we’ll need it in the next two minutes. How fast can you run down the stairs, get the pen, then run back up here and give it to me? It’ll take about fifteen seconds to put it in and the clock, as they say, is ticking.’
Jack looked at the Brigadier and Benton who shook their heads in unison. It was up to him. He knew what he had to do but he wasn’t happy doing it.
‘Tell Ianto to start running up with it.’ Jack quickly removed his greatcoat and turning ran for the stair well. Leaping down sections at a time he knew that the going would be much slower coming back up, so tried to conserve as much energy as he could on the decent, slamming into the walls and cutting himself badly on the protruding stone as he went.
***
Ianto’s wrist communicator exploded into life, shocking him back into reality. They had been enjoying the view across Palace green when the Brigadier’s authoritarian voice thundered over the communication link.
‘Jack’s on his way down; he wants the pen in Louise Ruth’s pocket. Start running up with it and give it to him when you see him. It’s urgent we only have a few minutes left.’
Turning towards Louise Ruth she already had the pen out. He took it and ran for the stairwell. Jack was almost at the bottom when Ianto reached him. Without saying a word he took the pen from Ianto’s outstretched hand and ran. Taking the stairs two and three at a time he ran faster than he had ever ran in his life. With renewed energy he cleared the stairs without any problems. With each step he expected to hear an explosion from above him, a flash and the world beginning to end. Hitting the door like a relay runner he ran to the machine and handed off the pen to the Doctor.
‘I need a vacation.’ He said, as he collapsed in a heap, watching as the Doctor, without any signs of panic removed the biro from the plastic outer cover and threw it away. Taking the hollow plastic tube he ran a single wire through it then inserted it into the energy weapon.
‘I think we should be getting out of here,’ the Doctor said with a smile. Standing he ran for the door closely followed by the Brigadier, who was still supporting Benton. Jack managed to make it to his feet but had given every last ounce of strength just to get him back to the top of the Cathedral. Picking up his greatcoat he walked towards the door just as the energy weapon exploded.
***
A bright flashing light seemed to pulsate from the top of the cathedral as Ianto finally made it back to where Louise Ruth stood. Crouching, they watched as the weapon, just like an Apollo space rocket, took off from the top of the cathedral and headed off into space. Behind them a smouldering figure landed on the grass, smoke disintegrating what was left of his Polo shirt and Chinos. Ianto ran to Jack and, patting out a series of fires, covered him in the greatcoat that had miraculously survived the fall without too much damage.
By the time the Brigadier, Benton and the Doctor walked out onto Palace green, Jack was sitting up and drinking from a bottle of water Louise Ruth had produced from her shoulder bag. She looked up at the Doctor and smiled, happy that he was ok.
‘Can I have my pen back… haven’t finished the crossword.’ The Doctor looked up as the vapour trail given off by the energy weapon and shook his head.
‘I know just the time and place to get you a new one.’ Louise Ruth smiled, shaking her head as she did so.
‘What did you do, kill it?’
Epilogue - The Beginning of the End
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, The Doctor (10), OFC, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Benton, Harry Sullivan, Michael Yates, Wilfred Mott/Tom Campbell
Parings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Neither Torchwood or Doctor Who are mine
Summary: Someone is stealing soldiers
Spoilers: All Torchwood, including Children of Earth, all Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Minor character death
A/N: This answers the questions. Well… my questions anyway.
A/N2: This is a sequel to Doctor Who and The Infernal Inferno. You don’t have to read it, but it explains where the OC came from.
A/N3: Only the epilogue next, aww
Prologue - Old Soldiers
The Doctor made some last adjustments to his sonic screwdriver and headed for the door, closely followed by Benton. ‘If Jack’s right, and knowing him he always is, then any kind of weapon powerful enough to ignite the planet’s oxygen would have to be mounted somewhere overlooking the town.’ Benton nodded but said nothing.
Leaving the TARDIS, the Doctor and Benton followed the constant beeping from the sonic screwdriver and he headed up the bank back towards the cathedral. Stopping the Doctor looked up and nodded, ‘That, my young friend, would just be high enough to fire the weapon.’ As they walked the Doctor mused over the situation he now found himself in. ‘Benton, someone’s been behind all of this from the beginning. Someone that could bring the Rutan Host and the Sontarans together in peace talks has to be an unbelievable individual.’ Benton nodded,
‘What… someone like you?’ The Doctor nodded, realising exactly who Benton was referring to.
‘We’re talking about someone evil enough to want to decimate the entire Earth for their own personal gain, but intelligent enough to talk two war-like races into complicity.’ Benton nodded again,
‘I thought he was behind it as well but didn’t like to say anything at the time.’
‘My dear sergeant Benton, you’ve always been a mine of information. Next time speak up when you have any ideas like that.’ Heading towards the cathedral the Doctor stopped and looked up at the central tower. The sun was bright and distorted his vision slightly but he was sure he saw something move. Entering the large double doorway the Doctor smiled and looked around.
‘There’s no gift shop.’ Benton looked at the Doctor and shrugged. ‘There should be a gift shop here… you know selling those amazing fridge magnets, information books and audio equipment telling you what everything is.’ Benton looked bemused, not understanding the significance or need for a souvenir shop at this precise moment in time.
Bracing themselves for the climb, they entered the far doorway and headed for the 325 steps that led to the roof, the only place around that would be high enough to fire the weapon. ‘Whatever happened to the ‘Thirty-Nine Steps,’ now that was a good number to have,’ the Doctor asked Benton as they trudged up the stairs one at a time.
‘I enjoyed the film Doctor, but I preferred Robert Donat to Kenneth Moore. Never saw the Robert Powell version. The kids told me there was one of those TV movies about it but I couldn’t… figure out how to record it on… on the sky box… thing.'
The Doctor smiled as he climbed. ‘Never saw any of them… read the book… John Buchan… did you know… was the Governor General of Canada?’
‘There you go Doc… learn something new… every…day.’ Despite their fitness both Benton and the Doctor were out of breath.
‘I was in Broadstaires… when I was asked to see him… he was sick with something or other… I had to walk up the steps from… from the beach to the garden… commented that there were thirty-nine… Buchan wrote it down… said it sounded like a good title for a novel.’ Despite the climb Benton smiled.
‘You crafty sod…’
‘What…?’ the Doctor asked… a look of innocence on his face.
‘You’d read the book before you saw him… hadn’t you?’
The Doctor smiled, a far away look on his face as if remembering the moment. ‘All that running around over the Scottish moors, being pursued by who knows what… remind you of someone.’
***
The six pursuers headed in from the north and, disregarding signs asking people to ‘keep off the grass,’ ran across the immaculately kept Palace green. Jack, Yates and the Brigadier burst through the door heading towards the steps. Louise Ruth and Ianto stopped at the doorway catching their breath.
‘Someone… needs… to…’ Louise Ruth started as Ianto, hands on knees nodded his agreement and finished what she was about to say.
‘Protect the rear… in case… pursuers.’ She also nodded, too out of breath to add a comment. The sound of footsteps hammering up the stairwell reverberated throughout the cathedral as the three gave pursuit.
***
Heedless to the noise behind them, the Doctor and Benton looked out over the city of Durham and marvelled again at its beauty. Sometimes, the Doctor wondered, why he loved humans so much; why he spent so much time in their presence, and knew it was times like these. The view had already been there but the architecture and sheer preservation of beauty almost took his breath away. A bright flash of light to his right drew his attention as a transmat beam plucked someone from the tower sending them anywhere, off into the galaxy.
The first thing that shattered the beauty was the two dead men lying to one side of the entrance, as if discarded, no longer needed. Burns on their face and chest showed clearly where an electrical weapon had punched a hole right through them.
The second thing to disrupt his enjoyment of the moment was the giant energy weapon aimed at the sky’s ozone layer. Benton had been crouching down, checking the dead men’s vital signs, but found none, as the Doctor wandered off to the left when the transmat beam had been activated.
Benton stood and faced the Rutan, as he ran around the energy weapon preparing to fire it. Before he could raise his arm to shoot, a bolt of electricity caught Benton in the arm, throwing him back against the wall. It was a few seconds before he realised he wasn’t dead, but he might as well have been. The wrist gun had taken the brunt of the explosion, which rebounded off the metal casing and hit him in the shoulder. Falling to the ground he sat there in agony, unable to move.
The Rutan, tending to the weapon, was yet to notice the Doctor but it was only a matter of time before he too would end up like the last two visitors to the tower. Walking up behind him, the Doctor raised both his hands showing that he was unarmed and that he’d come in peace.
***
Jack stumbled on the stairs, the hem of his greatcoat catching on his unfamiliar shoes. Yates took the stairs two at a time and quickly overtook him. The Brigadier helped Jack to his feet and together they ran after Yates.
‘Tally ho old boy, tally ho,’ the Brigadier said as he tried to keep up with Jack. Despite his youthful figure he still had the mind of an octogenarian and wished he’d stayed at the entrance with Ianto and Louise Ruth.
***
‘No, no, no,’ the Doctor pleaded. ‘You don’t want to do this.’ The Rutan turned and immediately levelled the gun on the Doctor. ‘If you fire that gun it will ignite the atmosphere. Your opponents will die but so will you and all the rest of the earth’s population.’
‘We are the last Rutan on planet Earth. We must activate the weapon. Failure is not an option.’ The Doctor shook his head while continuing to walk towards the Rutan.
‘Failure is an option and should be embraced more. It stops people repeating previous things that didn’t work. You can learn from your mistakes, right wrongs and stop this stupid war. Killing shouldn’t be an option, ending people's lives who come up here, only wanting to enjoy the shear beauty of the view, shouldn’t be a priority.’ The Doctor gestured toward the two corpses near the entrance and Benton lying next to them, his shirtsleeve smouldering slightly.
‘We are the Rutan Host and we must win at any cost.’ The Doctor shook his head vehemently.
‘You can’t win. No one wins. If you pull that leaver we all die, each and every one of us. There are no winners in war only victims.’ The Rutan hesitated then took a single step back, away from the weapon. He was just about to say something when a bolt of electrical energy exploded in his chest throwing him forward into the energy cannon. Turning, he released a burst from his own wrist gun then fell back and died. Seconds later the Doctor heard an explosion from behind him just as the Rutans wrist gun exploded in front of him.
Jack and the Brigadier leaped out of the doorway noticing the black burn mark that had once been Captain Michael Alexander Raymond Yates. Jack shook his head, ‘What a waste.’ Then headed over towards the Doctor, anger showing clearly on his face.
‘You didn’t have to do that. I’d talked him out of it. He was going to switch off the machine.’ Jack looked over towards the energy weapon then back at the Doctor.
‘It’s over Doctor. The last Rutan is dead; no more bad guys, no one to fire the energy weapon.’ The Doctor turned on Jack anger clearly flaring in his eyes.
‘He doesn’t need to fire the weapon. It’s not that sort of weapon. It has to build up to critical mass before it will fire.’ The Brigadier crouched down, helping Benton to his feet, not understanding what was going on.
‘Then why can we not just turn it off?’ He asked, knowing that it wouldn’t be that easy.
‘I was going to get the Rutan to turn it off until Yates shot him. His wrist gun exploded and melted the control panel. Now no one can turn the thing off.’
‘How long before it goes critical Doctor?’ The Brigadier asked looking at the weapon before him. The Doctor was kneeling in front of the weapon, his sonic screwdriver buzzing around what was left of the control panel.
‘About ten minutes should see it setting fire to the atmosphere and a further two days to destroy the rest of the world.’ The Brigadier took an involuntary step backward then realising the futility of it continued to support Benton.
‘Is there anything you can do Doctor?’ He asked as the Doctor kicked out at the metal and managed to remove the panel in the process. Rummaging around in his pocket he produced a black pair of glasses and put them on. With eyes wide open he gazed inside the machine.
‘Oh yes… you beauty. Here we go.’ The Doctor pulled out a section of wiring from the gaping hole that had once been the control panel.
‘I didn’t know you needed glasses Doctor,’ Benton asked as he watched the Doctor strip wires and bind them together.
‘I don’t, it just makes me look like I know what I’m doing… gives those that are watching a sense that I’m in control of everything and there’s nothing to worry about… is it working?’ Benton smiled then looked at the mass of wiring the Doctor was hunting through, his sonic screwdriver buzzing over each section.
‘Not really Doctor… but I trust that you’ll do your best.’ The Doctor smiled despite the predicament he found himself in. Humans always amazed him… their ability to adapt to any given situation, despite the hopelessness of it all.
‘Yahoo… right…. Found it.’ The Doctor shouted out in glee. ‘All I need is a thin piece of plastic tubing for insulation and I can rewire the system. That should reverse the polarity of the neutron flow and when this weapon fires it will lift off and be sent into outer space where it can fire as much as it wants because there’s no oxygen up there to ignite.’
‘Where are we going to get a plastic insulator tube from?’ Jack asked as the Doctor looked at the three men standing before him.
‘I knew there should have been a little gift shop here somewhere… fridge magnates… post cards and pens.’ He emphasised the last point as the penny of understanding finally dropped. All three began looking for a biro of any description. As the Doctor frantically began rewiring the system Jack patted his pockets but they were empty, the Brigadier and Benton checked the two dead men by the door but to no avail. Then the Doctor remembered and smiled,
‘Louise Ruth has a pen in her pocket. Keeps it all the time. Takes it with her everywhere, crosswords and such. We can use that.’ The Brigadier breathed a sigh or relief as the Doctor turned back to his wiring. ‘Only thing is we’ll need it in the next two minutes. How fast can you run down the stairs, get the pen, then run back up here and give it to me? It’ll take about fifteen seconds to put it in and the clock, as they say, is ticking.’
Jack looked at the Brigadier and Benton who shook their heads in unison. It was up to him. He knew what he had to do but he wasn’t happy doing it.
‘Tell Ianto to start running up with it.’ Jack quickly removed his greatcoat and turning ran for the stair well. Leaping down sections at a time he knew that the going would be much slower coming back up, so tried to conserve as much energy as he could on the decent, slamming into the walls and cutting himself badly on the protruding stone as he went.
***
Ianto’s wrist communicator exploded into life, shocking him back into reality. They had been enjoying the view across Palace green when the Brigadier’s authoritarian voice thundered over the communication link.
‘Jack’s on his way down; he wants the pen in Louise Ruth’s pocket. Start running up with it and give it to him when you see him. It’s urgent we only have a few minutes left.’
Turning towards Louise Ruth she already had the pen out. He took it and ran for the stairwell. Jack was almost at the bottom when Ianto reached him. Without saying a word he took the pen from Ianto’s outstretched hand and ran. Taking the stairs two and three at a time he ran faster than he had ever ran in his life. With renewed energy he cleared the stairs without any problems. With each step he expected to hear an explosion from above him, a flash and the world beginning to end. Hitting the door like a relay runner he ran to the machine and handed off the pen to the Doctor.
‘I need a vacation.’ He said, as he collapsed in a heap, watching as the Doctor, without any signs of panic removed the biro from the plastic outer cover and threw it away. Taking the hollow plastic tube he ran a single wire through it then inserted it into the energy weapon.
‘I think we should be getting out of here,’ the Doctor said with a smile. Standing he ran for the door closely followed by the Brigadier, who was still supporting Benton. Jack managed to make it to his feet but had given every last ounce of strength just to get him back to the top of the Cathedral. Picking up his greatcoat he walked towards the door just as the energy weapon exploded.
***
A bright flashing light seemed to pulsate from the top of the cathedral as Ianto finally made it back to where Louise Ruth stood. Crouching, they watched as the weapon, just like an Apollo space rocket, took off from the top of the cathedral and headed off into space. Behind them a smouldering figure landed on the grass, smoke disintegrating what was left of his Polo shirt and Chinos. Ianto ran to Jack and, patting out a series of fires, covered him in the greatcoat that had miraculously survived the fall without too much damage.
By the time the Brigadier, Benton and the Doctor walked out onto Palace green, Jack was sitting up and drinking from a bottle of water Louise Ruth had produced from her shoulder bag. She looked up at the Doctor and smiled, happy that he was ok.
‘Can I have my pen back… haven’t finished the crossword.’ The Doctor looked up as the vapour trail given off by the energy weapon and shook his head.
‘I know just the time and place to get you a new one.’ Louise Ruth smiled, shaking her head as she did so.
‘What did you do, kill it?’
Epilogue - The Beginning of the End