Lost and Found - Chapter Seven
15 June 5119 (Earth Standard Date)
Hyperspace, in transit to Planet Madrina
Rhys stretched, yawning. He felt so much better having slept, and even though he thought he could have gone back to bed that tiny bunk was putting what could become a permanent kink in his spine. Besides, he needed to go to the loo - or the head, as Cadi had corrected him - and he really was gasping for a cup of coffee and some food.
He had no idea how long he’d slept, but he didn’t much care. Rhys shuffled around the small cabin, using the facilities and then pulling on his clothes and shoes, heading into the corridor once he was done.
It was empty, and he guessed that both Brina and Cadi were up in the cockpit. He made his way in that direction, passing the galley and grabbing some of the still warm coffee from the carafe sitting on the bench along with a piece of what he thought might have been fruit; it was a glossy purple, about the same shape and size of an apple. He sniffed it, inhaling the slight citrusy scent. It made his stomach rumble so he took a bite, barely able to keep the moan of pleasure inside. The fruit tasted like a combination of lime and pear, and it was one of the loveliest things he’d ever put into his mouth.
Well, food that was.
Bloody hell, he’d been around Jack Harkness far too long.
That thought brought back his current predicament, and the reminder that both Jack and Ianto had thought he’d been long dead.
That was a sobering thought.
He grabbed a second piece of fruit and headed up toward the pilot deck. The walls of the corridor that ran the length of the spaceship were a maple-looking wood, much like what he’d have seen in a fancy hotel. There was a burgundy coloured rug under his feet, so the effect was about as less a spaceship than Rhys would have imagined.
The corridor opened up into the flight deck and, as he’d thought, both women were there; Cadi in the pilot seat, and her sister next to her. Rhys took the jump seat behind Brina. “Anything exciting going on?” he asked, glancing out of the large front window. Stars were streaking by at an alarming rate, but Cadi had told him they would be travelling through hyperspace, otherwise it would have taken them years to get to Madrina.
Not even Rhys had enough patience for that long a trip.
“Got word from Hubworld,” Cadi answered, looking sombre. “Turns out the Andralan figured out that you’re with Torchwood, so now they think Phillip sent you to spy for him.”
“How the bloody hell…!” he exclaimed, before he thought about it. “What did they do? Finally translate all the shit I gave them under their fucking mind probe?”
“Afraid not. Apparently you had some cards in your wallet with the Torchwood symbol on them.”
Rhys exhaled loudly. “Those cards…Jack argued against them, but the Queen insisted that all high ranking Torchwood employees carry them.” He’d only had to use them a couple of times, and Ianto had considered them a waste of the stationery budget. “Bet she didn’t know they’d get us all into trouble.”
Cadi shook her head, smirking. “I’m sure they were of use at the time.”
“So,” he sighed, “what’s the plan now?”
“Same as before. We’re going to drop you off with our sister, Morgan, on Madrina. She’ll take you as far as Hubworld. Dad and Tad will be waiting there for you, and you’ll be safe back at Ddraig Llyn. They’ll get everything straightened out.”
Rhys nodded. Being safe sounded good. And it was good to know that Jack and Ianto still had a home in the valley. Rhys had loved it there the times he’d been able to visit. But he had to ask, “Are you sure this can all be sorted?”
“Oh yes,” Brina answered. “Phillip will be able to do it, with his connections. It won’t matter that the Andralan are going to make a complaint in front of the Emperor, because what they don’t realise is that we have all the evidence we need to prove you’re just an innocent in all this, and that the Andralan are just blowing hot air.”
“There are certain protocols set up in case of a proven spacio-temporal event,” Cadi added. “Every planet that’s allied with the Empire signs these protocols. And one of those protocols means that such events are always under Torchwood’s jurisdiction…” A beeping sound came from the control panel, and she turned back to check it. “We’re about to come out of hyperspace over Madrina,” she reported.
That sounded fantastic. As much as Rhys loved travelling by spaceship, it would be good to get his feet back on good old solid ground again.
The racing stars began to collapse, and in the ship’s window appeared a blue world that seemed to be mostly water. Green islands dotted the surface, and even from their height Rhys could make out ships shuttling between the islands. They were on the daylight side of the planet, but there was a bare shadow of night side visible, and lights glittered in that separation between light and dark.
It was an incredible sight, and Rhys wished he had a camera to record it.
“Madrina,” Cadi announced. “The surface is eighty-three percent water, so not only are there cities on the land masses but under the water as well. We’re going to land on one of them, and then go by submersible down to where Morgan is staying.”
Rhys found himself getting more and more excited about seeing another alien world…well, at least this one didn’t have people coming after him wanting to torture him and, quite possibly, kill him. He settled into the jump seat as Cadi took them in lower, calling in to some sort of air traffic control to get permission to land…well, he assumed that was what she was doing, since he didn’t speak the language. It was frustrating him, and he’d asked about it; Cadi had said they would work something out. There were personal translators available, and he hoped to get one so he could at least understand what the hell everyone else who didn’t speak bloody English was actually saying.
Landing on another planet was almost boring, but he couldn’t help but act like the tourist that Brina had once accused him of being. As they got closer to the surface, Rhys noticed that the water wasn’t exactly blue; there was a greenish cast to it, and the waves that were kicked up had slightly yellow foam caps to them.
The island they were heading toward seemed more man-made than natural. There wasn’t any sort of plant life on it, with only a black sand beach besides the tall building that poked up from the middle of the island like a metallic finger. The rest of the island was all some sort of concrete, and there were all sorts of spaceships parked on it, some with long umbilicals hooked to them, and others simply standing there. Ground crews were bustling around, and Cadi pointed the Free Wheeler toward an empty patch, where several people waited for them to land.
She set the spaceship down with nary a bump, and was up and out of the cockpit before Rhys could even react. “It’s okay,” Brina assured him, “she’s going to speak to the Portmaster and arrange to have the ship serviced.”
That made sense. Rhys stood and followed Brina up and down the central corridor, toward the rear of the ship. There was the main airlock; it was already open, and as they walked down it Rhys noticed Cadi speaking to a tall, thin man with green skin and large frilly ears that waved slightly in the breeze. The air smelled of salt and something else that he could not identify but was pleasant, and he couldn’t help but take a deep breath of it, smiling.
Brina was grinning at him. She took his arm, drawing him toward Cadi and the man she was talking to. The wind caught their words, more that Rhys couldn’t understand, but he’d been assured that he’d be getting a translation device of some sort. He couldn’t wait to be able to finally communicate with someone who didn’t speak English.
Cadi shook hands with the man - the Portmaster, obviously - and then turned as Brina and Rhys approached. “Rhys, this is where we part company,” she said. “I’m off to my next stop, and Brina has an assignment to get to.”
Rhys had known that would happen, but he’d hoped that he wouldn’t be left with strangers so soon. Something must have shown in his face because Cadi put a hand on his shoulder.
“Hey, it’s going to be fine,” she replied. “Nathan is here, and you can trust him. He’s going to take you down to the venue where Morgan’s set up for her concert tonight.”
“Aunt Cadi! Aunt Brina!”
Rhys turned in the direction of the voice. It was a young man, but he didn’t look human. He was about Rhys’ own height, skinny as a rail, with silver hair cut in a short style that was ruffled as soon as he was close enough for Cadi to do so, which he tried to duck without success. He had dusky skin, and what looked like fine scales running from his temples, across his cheeks, and down his neck. The rest of his face was clear, and in it Rhys could see the Harkness-Jones cleft chin and nose. His eyes were a brilliant blue, with a bit of green and brown mixed in.
His clothes were…well, flamboyant was a good word to describe them. The shirt was multi-coloured, slashes of green, blue, yellow, and white in chaotic patterns across his chest. His trousers were white, glowing in the sunlight, and his boots were a brilliant purple. It should have looked horrific, but it really didn’t.
“You must be Mr Williams,” Nathan enthused, putting a hand out.
Rhys took it, charmed by the young man’s happy grin, even if he thought he should have been vaguely alarmed by the enlarged canine teeth the boy had. “It’s Rhys. And you’re Nathan.” He’d expected the young man to look like his aunts, and this was actually a pleasant surprise. Of course Jack had shared stories of all sorts of aliens that he’d had sex with before meeting Ianto, but Rhys had always taken them with a really large grain of salt. To know that one of his own children had had their own kid with someone not dragon and not human was proof that Jack really didn’t have a prejudiced bone in his body, and that he’d passed that along to the rest of his family.
Well, except that his boss was prejudiced against idiots. But that just made sense.
“Oh! I have something for you.” He dug into a pocket of his trousers, pulling out a small device that was almost dwarfed by his long fingers. It was a dull silver and didn’t look like much. “I promised Granddad and Grandtad that I’d give this to you right away.”
Rhys took it. The moment his fingers touched it, a tingle zapped his palm, up his arm, and into his shoulder. He almost dropped it, but managed to close his fist around the device. “What is it?”
“It’s a translator,” Brina was the one to answer. “Just put it in your ear and not only will you be able to understand anyone around you, but they’ll be able to understand you as well.”
“Oh thank God,” Rhys couldn’t help but exclaim. He slid the tiny device into his ear, and it didn’t even feel like there was anything in his ear canal after it was seated. “How does that work, anyway?”
“My cousin Merlin used magic,” Nathan said proudly. “That translator is better than anything else out there currently.”
Rhys had heard about Merlin, along with the entire Harkness-Jones clan, during those times when he’d hung out with Cadi and Brina. Honestly, if he hadn’t already been raised by someone who believed in magic and had worked for an organisation like Torchwood he might have scoffed at the whole reincarnation thing, but with all the weird shit he’d heard about and seen he’d found it disgustingly easy to accept.
Well, apart from the fact that Clint Barton had been reborn as one of Jack and Ianto’s kids, that was.
Maybe he shouldn’t. Clint had been an equal witness to crazy stuff. Rhys just wasn’t sure why him, and no one else? Surely the others in Torchwood should have been somehow worthy of being reborn? Or was it just the few in the family that anyone knew of? Perhaps they’d already been reincarnated at some other point?
He’d have to ask about that when he saw his bosses again.
“I need to head out,” Brina interrupted. She wrapped her arms around Rhys in a hug, and he had absolutely no problem hugging her back. He was going to miss her, but he had no doubt they’d meet again at some point. “You take care of yourself.”
“I will,” he assured her. He pulled back, smiling at her. “Thanks for coming to the rescue.”
“Anytime. Only don’t do it again, yeah?”
He laughed. “I’ll try not to.”
“Bye, Aunt Brina,” Nathan said, also accepting a hug. “I’ll look after him.”
“I’m sure you will.” Brina turned and headed deeper into the spaceport, twisting once to wave over her shoulder.
“And you should get our friend here down to the venue,” Cadi prodded. “Morgan is going to be expecting him before her next performance.”
Nathan shrugged. “We have plenty of time, but you’re right.” He hugged his other aunt as well. “Be safe out there, Aunt Cadi.”
“I always am.” She winked at him. Then she regarded Rhys. “It’s been a pleasure, and I’m sure we’ll cross paths again.”
Cadi held out her hand, and Rhys took it, pulling her into her own embrace. “Thanks,” he murmured in her ear.
There was a warm puff of air against his ear as she chuckled quietly. “Not a problem, handsome.” She stepped back and gave Rhys a wink as well. “You’ve got a place on the Wheeler anytime, Rhys Williams. Maybe next time I’ll even teach you to fly her.”
Rhys rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I doubt it. You love that ship too much to let anyone else mess with her.”
Cadi laughed delightedly. “You’re right!” She waved her hands at them. “Take him below, Nathan, and keep an eye on him. He’s Torchwood, which means he has the same trouble gene we all have.”
“I don’t know whether to be insulted or pleased!” Rhys exclaimed.
“You can be both,” she answered. With that, she was walking back toward her ship, where there was a ground crew bustling around, doing whatever needed to be done before Cadi could take her back into space.
“Come on,” Nathan urged. “Our submersible is this way.”
Chapter Eight