Tish’s Years - Chapter 10: A flying garbage
Title: Tish’s Years.
Chapter 10: A flying garbage
Character, pairing: Jack Harkness/Tish Jones and Tashan.
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who Universe.
Plot: Jack rescued Tish who, after falling through the rift, had found herself on an abandoned planet centuries in the future.
Summary of previous chapter: Tashan, the creature from the bag, helped Tish on finding Jack, while explaining who he is.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Beta: Orion Lyonesse on ffnet.
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Jack immediately headed the ship on a course for M4C9p; they had a job to do and they were late. It was a priority job, the future of human kind depended on it.
* I guess you never wondered how it would have happened if you weren’t there to do it? * Tashan pointed out.
“I stopped pondering such questions a long time ago... Here I am available and I do it. It only makes one temporal paradox more in my life... I must warn you, though, you'd better get used to.”
* Ouch, and you’d call me a rebellious teenager? *
“It must be done, no one can do it as well as I do it. And clearly it’s not disturbing the flow of time.”
*How do you know? Can you feel it?*
“Yes!”
* Doesn’t that bother you a little? *
“I don’t have time to waste pondering it.”
*Or should you rather say you don’t feel like it, right?*
“Do you intend to lecture me?”
* No, I'm just trying to get to know you... *
“Yes, ok, sorry...” Jack apologized.
They were in the kitchen. Tish was staring at him. It was very disturbing to only have one side of the conversation. Jack was doing an inventory of the items in the kitchen, while she was trying to clean a small area in order to eat.
“It's really filthy,” she complained.
“Don’t get upset with it. As soon as we get to Sisko, I put it on sale.”
“Do they have a junkyard on Sisko?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Who’s going to buy such garbage?”
* I like it there. This ship is spacious, comfortable... *
“And archaic and probably stolen. It’s a true flying pan and in addition, it stinks, it’s filthy, and it’s cluttered with a jumble of contraband. I’m quite surprised the hold isn’t filled to the brim with slaves,” Jack listed. Then, with the doubt risen, he asked: “Tashan, could you confirm we are the only living beings on board?”
*We are, except for some pests and parasites. of course.*
“Uh, what kind of vermin?” Jack asked, watching Tish from the corner of his eye. His question had stopped her dead in her scrubbing.
* Mainly gaduks, Fuissé and also gdusk.*
“Great! Nothing dramatic,” Jack translated, and he added, “For dinner I should be able to make you a gratin of catania with some fish.”
“I’ll take it,” Tish replied.
Jack cooked like a pro. Tish kept watching and cleaning. Then they ate their first meal since coming on board, discussing whether they should keep the ship or not.
“It's way too big. Just to build a living space would take a century, and I don’t have a century,” Tish objected.
Jack gave her a puzzled look and suddenly he realized they’d never gotten around to talking about the fact she was second-generation. It seemed so obvious to him. He’d forgotten being from twenty-first century, it wasn’t for Tish. He had no idea why Tish was second generation, but he knew she was. At least since he’d found out the day he rescued her on the Chula ship.
“Uh, actually, you can count on three whole centuries, even a bit more.”
“What the hell?”
“I might have forgotten to mention to you that you were second-generation...”
“How can that be?”
“Well, I don’t know... In fact, you must have been born like this. That would explain your strong level in telepathy. It’s already exceptionally high for second-generation Human.”
“But you said the mutation began during the XXIII century.”
“To be completely honest, it was noted in that time. It started in Europe and spread through the whole Earth... Inevitably some first cases appeared much earlier.”
* Yep, and oddly enough to mention it, the first case happen in the XIX century, go and find out why...*
“What do you mean?” Jack asked.
*Nothing at all. I would never dare. I'm only bringing precision to your explanation... Still, that would only make one paradox more, right? *
Jack raised a doubtful eyebrow while Tish was processing the implications of what Jack had just told her. Her life expectancy was now multiplied by three.
While the ship was too large a trash bin, etc and etc., they couldn’t afford to waste more time trying to sell it. Even more, selling it in a regular port might raise questions and obviously, they couldn’t take the risk and time go to the Garp Constellation, the only place where they were likely to find a buyer not too particular.
During the journey to M4C9p, they got to work. Jack himself would focus on the navigation and safety problems, as well as anything requiring mechanical or electronic knowledge. Tish took on the construction of a living space, which they decided to restrict to two levels. They chose the bedroom facing the lift. It was the only one with a working water shower. She made a laundry in one of the many small rooms opening onto the outside of the corridor. Anyway, after recovering what was recoverable in order to arrange a cosy little corner of their own, she piled up all that remained and locked all unused rooms.
The kitchen required an extended and joint effort. Not only did it require cleaning up, but in addition they had to do a drastic sorting of the food. Some of it was to be used to capture the gaduks. Besides that, half of the robots were acting strangely or were just out of order. And there was no synthesizer: they would have to cook.
Jack made a lot of expeditions into the wild part of the ship, regularly bringing back treasures, mostly furniture, sometimes clothes, a red vibrator, a juke box full of vinyls, a bowl and stumps, two beautiful rugs, a pair of natural sponges...
This day, he triumphantly returned with a box almost as big as himself.
“You never thought about taking the bag with you when you go hunting down there?” Tish suggested.
“Uh, yes, that’s a good idea, I should do that,” he concluded crestfallen.
“So what did you run into this time?”
“Some surfacers, a whole team of surfacers, in fact,” he replied with that mischievous face he was showing more and more often.
He took a half-sphere out of the box and placed down on the floor.
“Uh, yes, very nice,” Tish said.
Jack looked disappointed. He picked the thingy up and turned it upside down.
“It must be out of battery...”
“If you’re finished here, could you come in the kitchen and check the rehydration machine? It’s going fuzzy again.”
“Okay, let’s see to that first,” Jack said, reluctantly leaving his gadgets in the middle of the large room connecting to all main elevators.
When they went back to go to their rooms, the strange items were scattered everywhere.
“What the hell happened? Who did that?” Tish asked.
Jack pointed at the floor; it had literally changed of colour. From dark brown, it had turned into a creamy red.
“Surfacer! As its name suggests, it’s a robot eating surfaces’ grime,” Jack explained.
“Great. At least now I understand why I couldn’t clean this out, you've seen this film? Do those pretties work on the walls?”
“Yep, and even the ceiling,” Jack said, pointing to some small machines already working above their heads.
“Good. Nice catch Captain,” she grinned pulling him by his sleeve to remind him of their destination.
“At your service, ma'am.”
If while on the Chula ship they spent most of their time having fun, since they came on board this ship they not only had no time to play, but even having sex was hard : There was always something to repair getting in their way.
But for now, Tish had decided the ship could fall into pieces and she wouldn’t care. When she said as much, it got Jack laughing. It was good to hear him laugh. He was unlike any man she’d ever met: He combined a strange mix of strength and virility with something of a mischievous kid, and on top of that added in an almost feminine sensuality. It was a weird and wonderful cocktail and it certainly made him irresistible. Tish loved playing with him and she decided to spend the night playing until she collapsed.
“We could try that red toy of yours?” she suggested.
“I’m your willing slave, Ma’am,” he replied, eyes sparkling with mischief.
For Jack, sex was only about having fun and giving your partner as much pleasure as possible. Any and all means were good if they met the desires of the other: It wasn’t more complicated than that. And it opened an endless field of possibilities...
After the Valliant, considering what he’d been through, UNIT had suggested that Jack would need to be followed around by a shrink! A shrink from the army dealing with someone like Jack. The idea had already amused Tish back then, and it amused her even more now.
Master list can be found here
To be continued.