Ficlet: What Is It?
Title: What Is It?
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Owen, Jack, Andy, Ianto, Mickey, Tosh.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Team Torchwood is once again faced with a mystery object.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 242: Round at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
“What the fuck’s that?” Owen demanded when the team located the latest Rift delivery.
“I’ll go with ‘round’,” Jack said, circling warily around the object. “Mostly.”
It was an unappealing shade of greenish-grey, globular, slightly smaller than a beachball, but warty like a toad. In Ianto’s opinion, it looked somewhat fungoid. He hoped it wasn’t about to explode, spreading spores over everything; Jack’s coat had only just come back from being dry cleaned following an incident involving two Weevils and a lot of mud.
“Maybe it’s a ball used in some type of alien sport,” Andy suggested.
Jack glanced at the former police constable. “Remember the last time we got something round that we assumed were balls?”
Andy pulled a face. “Right, they hatched. Space Turtles. They were cute though.”
“Pink turtles hatched from pink eggs.” Ianto gestured with his head towards the new arrival. “Bit different from that.” He kept his hands firmly in his coat pockets; there was no way he was touching this thing, not without gloves. It looked sort of slimy. Probably wasn’t, there was no slime visible on the concrete beneath it, but that didn’t make the idea of touching it any more appealing. It wasn’t that he was particularly squeamish, or that he’d never had to handle anything gross; he was the one tasked with the disposal of dead bodies after all. Nevertheless, he preferred having at least some idea of what he was dealing with before getting too close to it. Overalls were a good idea too.
“Could be a bomb, or maybe more of a grenade,” Mickey said. “What?” he added as everyone turned to look at him. “Someone had to say it.”
“I bloody hope not!” Owen, who’d been crouching beside the thing, straightened up and took a few hurried steps backwards before pausing. “Too big for a grenade though, isn’t it?”
“Just because it’s big for us doesn’t mean it would be for whatever alien race made it,” Jack pointed out. “Humans aren’t the standard size for sentient life; we’d look like midgets compared to some species, giants beside others.” He pointed at the item under debate. “It could even be a spaceship with a tiny little crew inside.”
“Been there, done that,” Ianto drawled.
“Seriously?” Andy stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Before your time. Jack shook it before we figured out what it was. Owen had to treat half a dozen tiny aliens for whiplash.”
By now, Tosh was kneeling on the ground beside the ball, having fetched a more sensitive scanner from the SUV.
“It’s inorganic,” she said after a moment.
“Not going to hatch then.” Andy sounded relieved.
“There’s no chance of it exploding either, in case anyone was worried,” Tosh continued. “No explosives, wires, electrical components, or power source, so it isn’t tech.”
“We know what it’s not.” Jack crouched beside Tosh. “But what is it?”
“A container of some kind. I think I can…” It popped open. “Are those clothes?”
Ianto sighed. “Wonderful. Alien lost luggage.”
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Owen, Jack, Andy, Ianto, Mickey, Tosh.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Team Torchwood is once again faced with a mystery object.
Word Count: 500
Written For: Prompt 242: Round at anythingdrabble.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
“What the fuck’s that?” Owen demanded when the team located the latest Rift delivery.
“I’ll go with ‘round’,” Jack said, circling warily around the object. “Mostly.”
It was an unappealing shade of greenish-grey, globular, slightly smaller than a beachball, but warty like a toad. In Ianto’s opinion, it looked somewhat fungoid. He hoped it wasn’t about to explode, spreading spores over everything; Jack’s coat had only just come back from being dry cleaned following an incident involving two Weevils and a lot of mud.
“Maybe it’s a ball used in some type of alien sport,” Andy suggested.
Jack glanced at the former police constable. “Remember the last time we got something round that we assumed were balls?”
Andy pulled a face. “Right, they hatched. Space Turtles. They were cute though.”
“Pink turtles hatched from pink eggs.” Ianto gestured with his head towards the new arrival. “Bit different from that.” He kept his hands firmly in his coat pockets; there was no way he was touching this thing, not without gloves. It looked sort of slimy. Probably wasn’t, there was no slime visible on the concrete beneath it, but that didn’t make the idea of touching it any more appealing. It wasn’t that he was particularly squeamish, or that he’d never had to handle anything gross; he was the one tasked with the disposal of dead bodies after all. Nevertheless, he preferred having at least some idea of what he was dealing with before getting too close to it. Overalls were a good idea too.
“Could be a bomb, or maybe more of a grenade,” Mickey said. “What?” he added as everyone turned to look at him. “Someone had to say it.”
“I bloody hope not!” Owen, who’d been crouching beside the thing, straightened up and took a few hurried steps backwards before pausing. “Too big for a grenade though, isn’t it?”
“Just because it’s big for us doesn’t mean it would be for whatever alien race made it,” Jack pointed out. “Humans aren’t the standard size for sentient life; we’d look like midgets compared to some species, giants beside others.” He pointed at the item under debate. “It could even be a spaceship with a tiny little crew inside.”
“Been there, done that,” Ianto drawled.
“Seriously?” Andy stared at him, wide-eyed.
“Before your time. Jack shook it before we figured out what it was. Owen had to treat half a dozen tiny aliens for whiplash.”
By now, Tosh was kneeling on the ground beside the ball, having fetched a more sensitive scanner from the SUV.
“It’s inorganic,” she said after a moment.
“Not going to hatch then.” Andy sounded relieved.
“There’s no chance of it exploding either, in case anyone was worried,” Tosh continued. “No explosives, wires, electrical components, or power source, so it isn’t tech.”
“We know what it’s not.” Jack crouched beside Tosh. “But what is it?”
“A container of some kind. I think I can…” It popped open. “Are those clothes?”
Ianto sighed. “Wonderful. Alien lost luggage.”
The End