gaia_lulia: Legacy (Doctor/Jack) [G]
Title: Legacy
Author: gaia_lulia
Challenge: 2011 Doctor/Jack Bingo Fest
Prompt used: 'filling his shoes'
Rating: G
Pairing: Doctor/Jack
Spoilers/warnings: Vague for COE
Summary: After COE, Jack is just trying to find a little peace and quiet. The universe has other plans.
Jack hadn’t intended to start doing this. He’d been keeping to himself, working his way across the M’karn Cluster on a merchant freighter. He hadn’t planned on there being a reactor leak at Parnalus Station. When it was over, when he was surrounded by weeping, grateful stationers, he was horrified. He wasn’t supposed to get involved. He changed his name and caught the first outbound ship that would take his money.
The second time it happened, he had just started working as a mechanic in the spaceport on Sthenos. Some of his buddies started disappearing under mysterious circumstances. It was Jack who worked out that it was a Krynoid invasion and torched the damned thing before it could germinate. Four hours later, he was on another ship headed for anywhere.
Anywhere turned out to be Rodinia Prime. He stayed in-system for six months as an asteroid miner when his crew stumbled on a piece of ancient tech. Half the miners on the rock were mind-controlled by long-dead aliens within a day. Jack figured out how to communicate with them. He found new hosts for the Maruti and sent them out in a colony ship to re-found their civilization. He blasted off two hours after they did.
Barely a week after he’d stopped at the human colony on Luthien, he was caught up in a stand-off between the colonists and the corporation that indentured them. Barely a day after he showed up on Yavanna, he was dodging homicidal robots on his way to a well-guarded shutdown switch.
After Yavanna, he bought a one-man shuttle and stayed away from planets for a while.
He landed tentatively on Darwin Station when he ran out of supplies. He was there for three days when a gaseous alien infected the air supply and started driving everyone insane. Jack wasn't immune. He killed himself once before he realized what was happening. Once he woke up, though, it was a simple matter to put knockout gas into the air supply, isolate the creature and eject it from the station.
He was triaging the wounded when it happened. He was checking over an unconscious Lalandian girl when she started to wake up. "Doctor?" she breathed, hopefully. "Is that you?"
Jack's blood ran cold. "I'm not a doctor," he said.
She sat up. "No," she said. "It is you. Your face is different again, but your eyes-" she broke off, looking intently at him. "You saved us, just like you did when I was a child."
She smiled at him, her face full of trust, of adoration. It was the way that someone looks at a hero. Jack wasn't a hero- not anymore. "You've got the wrong guy," he told her.
She looked at him carefully. “I had hoped you would heal,” she said. “The pain in your eyes; it’s the same as it was when I saw you last.” She touched his coat lightly. “At least you’ve stopped wearing black animal skins,” she said, and half-smiled. Jack closed his eyes, swallowed his sudden stab of grief. “I’m sorry,” she said, somewhere outside him. “It’s a terrible thing, to kill one’s kin. The pain of it must never fade.”
Jack turned and ran. “Doctor?” she called, behind him. “Doctor!”
It was on Eridu III that he decided to go home. He punched a particular signal code into his wrist computer. “Doctor?” he said, as it connected.
Author: gaia_lulia
Challenge: 2011 Doctor/Jack Bingo Fest
Prompt used: 'filling his shoes'
Rating: G
Pairing: Doctor/Jack
Spoilers/warnings: Vague for COE
Summary: After COE, Jack is just trying to find a little peace and quiet. The universe has other plans.
Jack hadn’t intended to start doing this. He’d been keeping to himself, working his way across the M’karn Cluster on a merchant freighter. He hadn’t planned on there being a reactor leak at Parnalus Station. When it was over, when he was surrounded by weeping, grateful stationers, he was horrified. He wasn’t supposed to get involved. He changed his name and caught the first outbound ship that would take his money.
The second time it happened, he had just started working as a mechanic in the spaceport on Sthenos. Some of his buddies started disappearing under mysterious circumstances. It was Jack who worked out that it was a Krynoid invasion and torched the damned thing before it could germinate. Four hours later, he was on another ship headed for anywhere.
Anywhere turned out to be Rodinia Prime. He stayed in-system for six months as an asteroid miner when his crew stumbled on a piece of ancient tech. Half the miners on the rock were mind-controlled by long-dead aliens within a day. Jack figured out how to communicate with them. He found new hosts for the Maruti and sent them out in a colony ship to re-found their civilization. He blasted off two hours after they did.
Barely a week after he’d stopped at the human colony on Luthien, he was caught up in a stand-off between the colonists and the corporation that indentured them. Barely a day after he showed up on Yavanna, he was dodging homicidal robots on his way to a well-guarded shutdown switch.
After Yavanna, he bought a one-man shuttle and stayed away from planets for a while.
He landed tentatively on Darwin Station when he ran out of supplies. He was there for three days when a gaseous alien infected the air supply and started driving everyone insane. Jack wasn't immune. He killed himself once before he realized what was happening. Once he woke up, though, it was a simple matter to put knockout gas into the air supply, isolate the creature and eject it from the station.
He was triaging the wounded when it happened. He was checking over an unconscious Lalandian girl when she started to wake up. "Doctor?" she breathed, hopefully. "Is that you?"
Jack's blood ran cold. "I'm not a doctor," he said.
She sat up. "No," she said. "It is you. Your face is different again, but your eyes-" she broke off, looking intently at him. "You saved us, just like you did when I was a child."
She smiled at him, her face full of trust, of adoration. It was the way that someone looks at a hero. Jack wasn't a hero- not anymore. "You've got the wrong guy," he told her.
She looked at him carefully. “I had hoped you would heal,” she said. “The pain in your eyes; it’s the same as it was when I saw you last.” She touched his coat lightly. “At least you’ve stopped wearing black animal skins,” she said, and half-smiled. Jack closed his eyes, swallowed his sudden stab of grief. “I’m sorry,” she said, somewhere outside him. “It’s a terrible thing, to kill one’s kin. The pain of it must never fade.”
Jack turned and ran. “Doctor?” she called, behind him. “Doctor!”
It was on Eridu III that he decided to go home. He punched a particular signal code into his wrist computer. “Doctor?” he said, as it connected.