The Gatekeeper (conclusion)
Title: The Gatekeeper (12/12)
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Jack & Ianto, Gwen, Martha + original fictional characters & Classic Doctor Who characters.
Summary: The conclusion.
A/N: Another story in the Something that Starts with "S" AU set several months after the events of Syntropy.
PART ELEVEN
Lazlo stood next to Romana, as they looked through the keep's gate towards the Movellan ships. "The core is in place my Lady, we may begin." Romana nodded and held her sonic screwdriver aloft, pointing it towards the Movellans.
"Time to unleash the Nightmare Child."
Jack recognized the disc-like device sitting on the workstation. He'd found it in the wreckage of a ship that crashed decades ago and caused quite the blackout in Cardiff. Luckily it was too far in the past for computers to be widespread, unlike where he was at the moment. He felt Ianto grasp his hand tightly as they slowly backed away from the immediate area when the device's lights changed from green to yellow. The Movellan primary battle computer sounded several alarms which had both editions of Sharrel looking toward the command interface, "Emergency. Remove the prisoners from the command vessel." Jack and Ianto did not let go of each others' hand as they were quickly pushed into a corridor and towards the ship's exit hatch.
"Great plan Ianto, seems to be working just perfectly." Jack quipped, dripping with sarcasm.
Ianto glared back, "Actually, its working just fine." Ianto pulled his pocket watch out, "Time to go. Now!" As he pressed the button.
Romana felt the ionization in her teeth as the capacitor primed and then released the electromagnetic pulse. Her Tharil companions had expected a dramatic explosion, with pieces of Movellans flying through the air; so the resulting static discharge that felt similar to a lightening storm was somewhat uneventful. She sighed at her now useless sonic screwdriver, but at least she'd wisely left K-9 with the progeny of the Hydrax. She could build a new one later, now there was work to be done. She looked to her companions, "Collect wagons and carts. We'll need to transport at least a few of the Movellans and some of their smaller equipment to her so she may begin the process." She began walking towards the now useless piles of technology with a smile, "There should be more than adequate base material for her to shape a carapace worthy of the Gatekeeper."
"Oh god, I really hate that!" Ianto had his knees pulled up and his forearm covering his eyes as he lay on the hub floor pulling in air like it was going out of style. Jack rolled over on his side and looked at Ianto, trying to laugh as he too worked to get air into his lungs. Ianto hit Jack with his free arm and rolled over to face him, "One rescue from dashing hero as ordered, Sir." His words intentionally ironic, making both of them smile. Ianto pushed himself upright and looked at his smoking pocket watch, "Oh no." He quickly opened the face, he was relieved to see the movement still operating.
Jack sat up and looked carefully as the smoke cleared from the antique watch, "So mind telling me about that little piece of pyrotechnics? And just what exactly did we help to do back there?" Jack stood up and offered a hand to Ianto, "Don't make me talk to you like a toddler Ianto, it really doesn't suit you at all."
Ianto jumped to his feet and started running towards the archives, "Later! Gwen and Bran are locked in the bolt hole! We need to get them out." Jack was quickly at Ianto's heels as they ran towards the deepest sections of archives and Ianto was gasping out, "I locked them in when the Tharil and Time Lord showed up on the Plass." He turned a corner quickly and jumped down a short flight of stairs, "But when I tried to get in, mainframe was busy creating a seed consciousness so I couldn't access the upper security functions." He quickly pulled the hatch open and darted through, "When we came back, we were so busy talking to mainframe and learning about how she was the Nightmare Child, I didn't even think about getting them out." Ianto skidded to a halt in front of the now open secured tactical office and looked at Jack with a bit of relief, "She's going to be furious about the food stock."
Jack opened his mouth to say, well, something; but was quickly drowned out by a very irate Welshwoman, "Ianto Jones! If I never see another pickled vegetable it will be too soon!"
Romana and her Tharil companions eyed the small Asian woman with trepidation as they looked around the impossibly white interior of the newly created TARDIS. She gestured them over to the large round couch that surrounded the central spire of the ship's command deck before sitting down herself. Romana frowned at the central column, noting there was a distinct lack of manual controls; in fact, as she looked around the command deck there wasn't a control panel in sight. Lazlo allowed his distaste at the surroundings show through displayed teeth, but the woman just smiled before saying, "I'm sorry if you don't find the interior to your liking, but I was in rather a hurry to get a superstructure in place so I borrowed some of the Movellan interior components. I rather like it, its very Zen." She ran a hand over a throw pillow that was of a distinctive silver yarn, "I suppose it is a bit stark, but I was more concerned with getting the trans-dimensional stability correct- didn't want any of you walking through the door only to end up stuck between there and here." She smiled at them.
Romana finally sat down and looked hard at the woman, noting she wore white clothes similar to the Movellans, except the jacket was shorter and there was no power pack at her waist; and the high heeled boots were definitely not Movellan issue. "Sorry, but who exactly are you?" The dark haired woman laughed and chose to ignore the indignant huff from the Tharils.
"We've met, you can call me Tosh; I'm your interface to the Gatekeeper." Toshiko Sato rose from the couch and placed a hand on the central spire. "We thought it was a bit more elegant than those silly buttons and switches, wouldn't you agree?" Tosh ran her hand along the spire as holographic image displayed before them, "We've successfully attached to the event horizon to secure our power source; and the binary fusion drives of the Movellan cruiser and command ship have been adapted to act as backup sources should the need arise. This should supply more than adequate power to distort the interface between this domain and n-space so there shouldn't be any uninvited guests."
Biroc approached Tosh and growled, "You were supposed to make the boundary permanent; there was to be no travel between the universes anymore." He turned to Romana, "Make your machine do as it was instructed. This is un..." Biroc was suddenly swallowed by a blue light and then he was no longer standing there. Both Romana and Lazlo jumped at Tosh who continued to have a smirk on her face.
"I merely sent him back into the keep; he was being unacceptably rude. As I was saying, there shouldn't be any uninvited guests but we can permit entry to those we choose or we may exit into normal space." Tosh turned and made to exit the control room, "I would very much like to learn about the inhabitants of exo-space at this time, shall we go?" Seeing no alternative, Lazlo and Romana followed her out of the control room and back into the void of the gateway. They noticed the woman looking at the structure she'd created and they both looked as well. It was a perfect reproduction of the mirrored metal water tower they'd seen on Earth, standing proudly before the Tharil keep.
As they followed her towards the keep, Brioc appeared at the gate spitting furiously, "How dare you! No machine may treat a Tharil like that. We walk the time winds and the spaces between, you will show respect! Who do you think you are!"
Toshiko Sato smiled at the enraged Tharil and stepped directly in front of him before saying quietly, "I am an aspect of Toshiko Sato, I was the Torchwood Mainframe, I was born of the Nightmare Child and we are the Gatekeeper." She stepped closer, only a breath away and finished, "And we've drawn the line; this far - no further." She pressed past the spluttering Tharil into the keep and lightly asked, "Now; exo-space, tell me all about it."
Jack was still reading over Ianto's report surrounding their strange visitors. He still couldn't believe that the blond woman he'd caught only a glimpse of was an actual Time Lord, or Lady in this case. He was even more disconcerted to learn that the mainframe sitting in the depths of Torchwood was actually the sentient core of a TARDIS- the infamous Nightmare Child that the Doctor had said destroyed the lead Dalek vessel carrying Davros during the Time War. He spent nearly a century working in the hub and never knew that he was within reaching distance of that sort of technology. From the notes, mainly where the mainframe referenced the rift as a power source, he deduced that when her superstructure was destroyed, a part of her core intelligence was dragged through the rift it was linked to and ended up here. Jack was still musing about what might be accomplished with this new knowledge when he was pulled from his reverie by the scent of fresh coffee and a small child being dropped in his lap.
Jack smiled at his daughter, "Hey there trouble. I hear you helped deliver a baby today; that takes talent. Maybe next you can master walking?" Branwen giggled at Jack's silly faces and grabbed at his braces. He turned his smile to Ianto who had taken a seat across from Jack's desk, holding a small non-descript item. "So, what's the status of Gwen and Torchwood's newest operative?"
"Martha completed the birth certificate and took them to hospital for a routine check, Gwen's fine as is little Pyrs. Rhys was a bit peeved that no one called him, but Martha told him the baby came so fast that there had been hardly enough time catch the mite as he came flying out." Ianto frowned, "I don't like that we keep having to lie to Rhys, but in this case its probably for the best. After all, you're the only one that will get back up after he kills us." Ianto placed the pale purple lump he was holding on the desk, "That's for him. If or when he shows up; I figure you should keep it since it may be a long time before he appears."
Jack shifted Branwen in his lap so he could see the crystalline lump more clearly. "What is it?"
Ianto ran a finger over the mineral and smiled as it hummed and light danced inside, "A gift from mainframe. She said it would help, in her words, 'keep that old buggy from falling out of the sky' but we're to tell him it was from Romana." Ianto got up from the chair and walked over to stand in front of Jack as the chair swiveled. "We can't let him near mainframe. Ever. You do understand that?" He took Branwen from Jack's arms and laughed when she failed to let go of Jack's brace, causing it to snap back with force.
Jack rubbed his chest trying to cut the stinging then sighed, "Teah. He'd only try to take her away figuring we were too primitive to have access to the technology." Jack stood up and walked over to Ianto as they made to leave the hub.
Ianto picked up his overcoat and Branwen's bag of supplies as they headed for the cog door, "Well, he could try; but as she non-too-subtly informed Romana, she has very sharp teeth and knows how to use them."
The world continues in Storm Warning.
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Jack & Ianto, Gwen, Martha + original fictional characters & Classic Doctor Who characters.
Summary: The conclusion.
A/N: Another story in the Something that Starts with "S" AU set several months after the events of Syntropy.
PART ELEVEN
Lazlo stood next to Romana, as they looked through the keep's gate towards the Movellan ships. "The core is in place my Lady, we may begin." Romana nodded and held her sonic screwdriver aloft, pointing it towards the Movellans.
"Time to unleash the Nightmare Child."
Jack recognized the disc-like device sitting on the workstation. He'd found it in the wreckage of a ship that crashed decades ago and caused quite the blackout in Cardiff. Luckily it was too far in the past for computers to be widespread, unlike where he was at the moment. He felt Ianto grasp his hand tightly as they slowly backed away from the immediate area when the device's lights changed from green to yellow. The Movellan primary battle computer sounded several alarms which had both editions of Sharrel looking toward the command interface, "Emergency. Remove the prisoners from the command vessel." Jack and Ianto did not let go of each others' hand as they were quickly pushed into a corridor and towards the ship's exit hatch.
"Great plan Ianto, seems to be working just perfectly." Jack quipped, dripping with sarcasm.
Ianto glared back, "Actually, its working just fine." Ianto pulled his pocket watch out, "Time to go. Now!" As he pressed the button.
Romana felt the ionization in her teeth as the capacitor primed and then released the electromagnetic pulse. Her Tharil companions had expected a dramatic explosion, with pieces of Movellans flying through the air; so the resulting static discharge that felt similar to a lightening storm was somewhat uneventful. She sighed at her now useless sonic screwdriver, but at least she'd wisely left K-9 with the progeny of the Hydrax. She could build a new one later, now there was work to be done. She looked to her companions, "Collect wagons and carts. We'll need to transport at least a few of the Movellans and some of their smaller equipment to her so she may begin the process." She began walking towards the now useless piles of technology with a smile, "There should be more than adequate base material for her to shape a carapace worthy of the Gatekeeper."
"Oh god, I really hate that!" Ianto had his knees pulled up and his forearm covering his eyes as he lay on the hub floor pulling in air like it was going out of style. Jack rolled over on his side and looked at Ianto, trying to laugh as he too worked to get air into his lungs. Ianto hit Jack with his free arm and rolled over to face him, "One rescue from dashing hero as ordered, Sir." His words intentionally ironic, making both of them smile. Ianto pushed himself upright and looked at his smoking pocket watch, "Oh no." He quickly opened the face, he was relieved to see the movement still operating.
Jack sat up and looked carefully as the smoke cleared from the antique watch, "So mind telling me about that little piece of pyrotechnics? And just what exactly did we help to do back there?" Jack stood up and offered a hand to Ianto, "Don't make me talk to you like a toddler Ianto, it really doesn't suit you at all."
Ianto jumped to his feet and started running towards the archives, "Later! Gwen and Bran are locked in the bolt hole! We need to get them out." Jack was quickly at Ianto's heels as they ran towards the deepest sections of archives and Ianto was gasping out, "I locked them in when the Tharil and Time Lord showed up on the Plass." He turned a corner quickly and jumped down a short flight of stairs, "But when I tried to get in, mainframe was busy creating a seed consciousness so I couldn't access the upper security functions." He quickly pulled the hatch open and darted through, "When we came back, we were so busy talking to mainframe and learning about how she was the Nightmare Child, I didn't even think about getting them out." Ianto skidded to a halt in front of the now open secured tactical office and looked at Jack with a bit of relief, "She's going to be furious about the food stock."
Jack opened his mouth to say, well, something; but was quickly drowned out by a very irate Welshwoman, "Ianto Jones! If I never see another pickled vegetable it will be too soon!"
Romana and her Tharil companions eyed the small Asian woman with trepidation as they looked around the impossibly white interior of the newly created TARDIS. She gestured them over to the large round couch that surrounded the central spire of the ship's command deck before sitting down herself. Romana frowned at the central column, noting there was a distinct lack of manual controls; in fact, as she looked around the command deck there wasn't a control panel in sight. Lazlo allowed his distaste at the surroundings show through displayed teeth, but the woman just smiled before saying, "I'm sorry if you don't find the interior to your liking, but I was in rather a hurry to get a superstructure in place so I borrowed some of the Movellan interior components. I rather like it, its very Zen." She ran a hand over a throw pillow that was of a distinctive silver yarn, "I suppose it is a bit stark, but I was more concerned with getting the trans-dimensional stability correct- didn't want any of you walking through the door only to end up stuck between there and here." She smiled at them.
Romana finally sat down and looked hard at the woman, noting she wore white clothes similar to the Movellans, except the jacket was shorter and there was no power pack at her waist; and the high heeled boots were definitely not Movellan issue. "Sorry, but who exactly are you?" The dark haired woman laughed and chose to ignore the indignant huff from the Tharils.
"We've met, you can call me Tosh; I'm your interface to the Gatekeeper." Toshiko Sato rose from the couch and placed a hand on the central spire. "We thought it was a bit more elegant than those silly buttons and switches, wouldn't you agree?" Tosh ran her hand along the spire as holographic image displayed before them, "We've successfully attached to the event horizon to secure our power source; and the binary fusion drives of the Movellan cruiser and command ship have been adapted to act as backup sources should the need arise. This should supply more than adequate power to distort the interface between this domain and n-space so there shouldn't be any uninvited guests."
Biroc approached Tosh and growled, "You were supposed to make the boundary permanent; there was to be no travel between the universes anymore." He turned to Romana, "Make your machine do as it was instructed. This is un..." Biroc was suddenly swallowed by a blue light and then he was no longer standing there. Both Romana and Lazlo jumped at Tosh who continued to have a smirk on her face.
"I merely sent him back into the keep; he was being unacceptably rude. As I was saying, there shouldn't be any uninvited guests but we can permit entry to those we choose or we may exit into normal space." Tosh turned and made to exit the control room, "I would very much like to learn about the inhabitants of exo-space at this time, shall we go?" Seeing no alternative, Lazlo and Romana followed her out of the control room and back into the void of the gateway. They noticed the woman looking at the structure she'd created and they both looked as well. It was a perfect reproduction of the mirrored metal water tower they'd seen on Earth, standing proudly before the Tharil keep.
As they followed her towards the keep, Brioc appeared at the gate spitting furiously, "How dare you! No machine may treat a Tharil like that. We walk the time winds and the spaces between, you will show respect! Who do you think you are!"
Toshiko Sato smiled at the enraged Tharil and stepped directly in front of him before saying quietly, "I am an aspect of Toshiko Sato, I was the Torchwood Mainframe, I was born of the Nightmare Child and we are the Gatekeeper." She stepped closer, only a breath away and finished, "And we've drawn the line; this far - no further." She pressed past the spluttering Tharil into the keep and lightly asked, "Now; exo-space, tell me all about it."
Jack was still reading over Ianto's report surrounding their strange visitors. He still couldn't believe that the blond woman he'd caught only a glimpse of was an actual Time Lord, or Lady in this case. He was even more disconcerted to learn that the mainframe sitting in the depths of Torchwood was actually the sentient core of a TARDIS- the infamous Nightmare Child that the Doctor had said destroyed the lead Dalek vessel carrying Davros during the Time War. He spent nearly a century working in the hub and never knew that he was within reaching distance of that sort of technology. From the notes, mainly where the mainframe referenced the rift as a power source, he deduced that when her superstructure was destroyed, a part of her core intelligence was dragged through the rift it was linked to and ended up here. Jack was still musing about what might be accomplished with this new knowledge when he was pulled from his reverie by the scent of fresh coffee and a small child being dropped in his lap.
Jack smiled at his daughter, "Hey there trouble. I hear you helped deliver a baby today; that takes talent. Maybe next you can master walking?" Branwen giggled at Jack's silly faces and grabbed at his braces. He turned his smile to Ianto who had taken a seat across from Jack's desk, holding a small non-descript item. "So, what's the status of Gwen and Torchwood's newest operative?"
"Martha completed the birth certificate and took them to hospital for a routine check, Gwen's fine as is little Pyrs. Rhys was a bit peeved that no one called him, but Martha told him the baby came so fast that there had been hardly enough time catch the mite as he came flying out." Ianto frowned, "I don't like that we keep having to lie to Rhys, but in this case its probably for the best. After all, you're the only one that will get back up after he kills us." Ianto placed the pale purple lump he was holding on the desk, "That's for him. If or when he shows up; I figure you should keep it since it may be a long time before he appears."
Jack shifted Branwen in his lap so he could see the crystalline lump more clearly. "What is it?"
Ianto ran a finger over the mineral and smiled as it hummed and light danced inside, "A gift from mainframe. She said it would help, in her words, 'keep that old buggy from falling out of the sky' but we're to tell him it was from Romana." Ianto got up from the chair and walked over to stand in front of Jack as the chair swiveled. "We can't let him near mainframe. Ever. You do understand that?" He took Branwen from Jack's arms and laughed when she failed to let go of Jack's brace, causing it to snap back with force.
Jack rubbed his chest trying to cut the stinging then sighed, "Teah. He'd only try to take her away figuring we were too primitive to have access to the technology." Jack stood up and walked over to Ianto as they made to leave the hub.
Ianto picked up his overcoat and Branwen's bag of supplies as they headed for the cog door, "Well, he could try; but as she non-too-subtly informed Romana, she has very sharp teeth and knows how to use them."
The world continues in Storm Warning.