Fic: Essential Supplies
Title: Essential Supplies
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack has a surprise for Ianto, a shopping trip to a superstore unlike any his lover has ever visited.
Word Count: 1158
Written For: Prompt 200 - Duct Tape at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
A/N: Set in my Ghost of a Chance ‘Verse.
“When you said you had a treat for me, this isn’t exactly what I was imagining,” Ianto admitted as he and Jack parked their solar-powered buggy outside the massive building on the far edge of the spaceport. It looked a little like an old-fashioned out of town superstore: a low structure with wide doors, fronted by parking for several hundred vehicles, although its organic appearance made it seem like it had been grown rather than built. “What is this place?”
“Think of it as a sort of hardware store, specialising in everything the responsible spaceship owner needs for repairs and proper maintenance.” Jack turned the buggy off and jumped out, plugging it in to charge. “The small parts stores you find at the ports on most space stations are okay, but space is at a premium in those places and rent is expensive, so they can only carry a limited inventory. That’s why all long-range spaceships are equipped with onboard machine shops, where all but the most complex replacement parts can be manufactured as needed instead of having to order them and then wait for delivery. That can take weeks, and in the meantime, you’re stuck paying docking fees, taking up valuable space and unable to go anywhere.”
“Not an ideal situation to be stuck in,” Ianto agreed.
“This place has it all though. It’s part of a galaxy-wide chain, with stores at all major land-based spaceports, but this one’s the biggest. I love coming here; you can get just about any tool and any part, for practically every make of spaceship ever made, not to mention whatever raw materials you might be running low on.”
“So you decided since we had a delivery to make here, you’d drag me along on your shopping trip?” Ianto raised an eyebrow.
Jack shook his head. “Not exactly. I accepted the job of delivering our last shipment just so we’d have a reason to land here.” He beamed at his lover. “Landing fees are a lot lower for anyone making a delivery than they would be if we just wanted to shop.”
“Ah. I should’ve known there was an ulterior motive behind your sudden and unprecedented desire to transport a load of stinky Oglar fruit.”
“Hey, it was fine; we didn’t get so much as a whiff! When they’re properly packed in stasis containers, the smell can’t get out, otherwise I wouldn’t have them aboard for any price.”
“For which I’m very grateful.”
When ripe, Oglar fruit, though considered a rare delicacy by several races in the Galactic Federation, smelled rather strongly of rotting fish, which was understandably less than appealing in a confined space.
“You should be. Exporters of Oglar fruit are willing to pay premium rates to have their wares transported to where they’ll make the highest profit. We just made almost five times what we would have if we’d been carrying any other cargo.” Jack frowned. “Why are we standing here discussing stinky fruit when we could be exploring the wonders of the biggest spaceware emporium in the universe?”
“I can’t begin to imagine,” Ianto commented dryly, not particularly enthused about the shopping trip.
“No need to be sarcastic,” Jack chided, a touch disappointed by his lover’s lack of enthusiasm. “You just wait until we get inside, then you’ll see. Come on!” Grabbing Ianto by the hand, he set off towards the entrance doors so fast Ianto almost had to break into a jog to keep up.
Inside, the store was divided into various departments, and shoppers travelled along the wide aisles between shelves on compact one- or two-person electric carts. Small items could be dropped into the rear compartment, but for larger ones, you used a scanner attached to your cart to scan the product details, and once payment was made at the checkout, your order would be delivered straight to your ship.
Jack steered their shopping cart around with a sense of purpose, deftly avoiding other carts. Beside him, Ianto did his best to take it all in. There were shelves packed with everything imaginable. Hand tools, electric tools, chargers and power cells, welding equipment and soldering irons. Stasis technology, transport webbing, storage modules, and shelving. Floor coverings, lamps and other lighting, bathroom and kitchen fixtures, pots and pans. Survival equipment, bedding, communication devices, paint, detergents, air circulation and water reclamation systems, sonic showers… One entire aisle was nothing but catalogues for each make and model of spaceship imaginable, showing full schematics and a breakdown of every single component, with pictures.
“I’m assuming you know what you want?” Ianto asked as they swept by a rack of something he couldn’t even begin to identify.
“We can browse the wares in a few minutes, there’s just a few things I want to grab before I forget.” Jack swung the cart around into the next aisle. “Ah, here we are!”
Both sides of the aisle were arrayed with what appeared to be roll after roll of duct tape, in various widths and every colour imaginable. Not just black, white, grey, and silver, but reds, blues, yellows, greens, even shades of purple, pink, brown, and orange.
Bringing the cart to a stop, Jack hopped out and headed for a section where the reels of tape were all red, studying the display and selecting two reels.
“I know red’s my colour,” Ianto said nervously, “but I hope that’s not for me.”
“Don’t be daft. Red tape is for heating systems, blue for quick repairs to water circulation, brown for sanitation systems, green for life support, silver for spacesuit repairs, yellow for the interior hull and white for the exterior, pink for electrical, purple for sealing anything containing dangerous contaminants, and the black is extra heavy-duty for emergency use in propulsion systems.” Jack grinned.
Ianto stared at Jack wide-eyed. “You can’t be serious!”
“Why not? Duct tape can fix just about anything; if you use the right kind and do the job properly, it’ll hold until you can carry out permanent repairs. I’ve known ships travel twenty light years or more, with practically every system held together by duct tape, and arrive safely. No ship should ever be without a good supply, and you won’t find a better selection anywhere.” Jack dropped the red tape into their ‘basket’ and went back to the shelves, picking out a selection of other colours for purchase.
Watching him, Ianto frowned. “The idea of duct-taping a spaceship together is a bit… alarming.”
Jack laughed. “That’s only because you’ve never seen anything like this before. What we have here is state-of-the-art, way better and stronger than anything you’d find back on earth, with specialised adhesives that will stick to whatever they’re designed for, regardless of temperature fluctuations or other environmental variations.”
“Suppose I’ll have to take your word for it. Wow, shopping for duct tape; what an exciting treat.”
“Don’t knock it, Ianto; listen and learn. It’s not just tape; someday it might save your life.”
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Jack has a surprise for Ianto, a shopping trip to a superstore unlike any his lover has ever visited.
Word Count: 1158
Written For: Prompt 200 - Duct Tape at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
A/N: Set in my Ghost of a Chance ‘Verse.
“When you said you had a treat for me, this isn’t exactly what I was imagining,” Ianto admitted as he and Jack parked their solar-powered buggy outside the massive building on the far edge of the spaceport. It looked a little like an old-fashioned out of town superstore: a low structure with wide doors, fronted by parking for several hundred vehicles, although its organic appearance made it seem like it had been grown rather than built. “What is this place?”
“Think of it as a sort of hardware store, specialising in everything the responsible spaceship owner needs for repairs and proper maintenance.” Jack turned the buggy off and jumped out, plugging it in to charge. “The small parts stores you find at the ports on most space stations are okay, but space is at a premium in those places and rent is expensive, so they can only carry a limited inventory. That’s why all long-range spaceships are equipped with onboard machine shops, where all but the most complex replacement parts can be manufactured as needed instead of having to order them and then wait for delivery. That can take weeks, and in the meantime, you’re stuck paying docking fees, taking up valuable space and unable to go anywhere.”
“Not an ideal situation to be stuck in,” Ianto agreed.
“This place has it all though. It’s part of a galaxy-wide chain, with stores at all major land-based spaceports, but this one’s the biggest. I love coming here; you can get just about any tool and any part, for practically every make of spaceship ever made, not to mention whatever raw materials you might be running low on.”
“So you decided since we had a delivery to make here, you’d drag me along on your shopping trip?” Ianto raised an eyebrow.
Jack shook his head. “Not exactly. I accepted the job of delivering our last shipment just so we’d have a reason to land here.” He beamed at his lover. “Landing fees are a lot lower for anyone making a delivery than they would be if we just wanted to shop.”
“Ah. I should’ve known there was an ulterior motive behind your sudden and unprecedented desire to transport a load of stinky Oglar fruit.”
“Hey, it was fine; we didn’t get so much as a whiff! When they’re properly packed in stasis containers, the smell can’t get out, otherwise I wouldn’t have them aboard for any price.”
“For which I’m very grateful.”
When ripe, Oglar fruit, though considered a rare delicacy by several races in the Galactic Federation, smelled rather strongly of rotting fish, which was understandably less than appealing in a confined space.
“You should be. Exporters of Oglar fruit are willing to pay premium rates to have their wares transported to where they’ll make the highest profit. We just made almost five times what we would have if we’d been carrying any other cargo.” Jack frowned. “Why are we standing here discussing stinky fruit when we could be exploring the wonders of the biggest spaceware emporium in the universe?”
“I can’t begin to imagine,” Ianto commented dryly, not particularly enthused about the shopping trip.
“No need to be sarcastic,” Jack chided, a touch disappointed by his lover’s lack of enthusiasm. “You just wait until we get inside, then you’ll see. Come on!” Grabbing Ianto by the hand, he set off towards the entrance doors so fast Ianto almost had to break into a jog to keep up.
Inside, the store was divided into various departments, and shoppers travelled along the wide aisles between shelves on compact one- or two-person electric carts. Small items could be dropped into the rear compartment, but for larger ones, you used a scanner attached to your cart to scan the product details, and once payment was made at the checkout, your order would be delivered straight to your ship.
Jack steered their shopping cart around with a sense of purpose, deftly avoiding other carts. Beside him, Ianto did his best to take it all in. There were shelves packed with everything imaginable. Hand tools, electric tools, chargers and power cells, welding equipment and soldering irons. Stasis technology, transport webbing, storage modules, and shelving. Floor coverings, lamps and other lighting, bathroom and kitchen fixtures, pots and pans. Survival equipment, bedding, communication devices, paint, detergents, air circulation and water reclamation systems, sonic showers… One entire aisle was nothing but catalogues for each make and model of spaceship imaginable, showing full schematics and a breakdown of every single component, with pictures.
“I’m assuming you know what you want?” Ianto asked as they swept by a rack of something he couldn’t even begin to identify.
“We can browse the wares in a few minutes, there’s just a few things I want to grab before I forget.” Jack swung the cart around into the next aisle. “Ah, here we are!”
Both sides of the aisle were arrayed with what appeared to be roll after roll of duct tape, in various widths and every colour imaginable. Not just black, white, grey, and silver, but reds, blues, yellows, greens, even shades of purple, pink, brown, and orange.
Bringing the cart to a stop, Jack hopped out and headed for a section where the reels of tape were all red, studying the display and selecting two reels.
“I know red’s my colour,” Ianto said nervously, “but I hope that’s not for me.”
“Don’t be daft. Red tape is for heating systems, blue for quick repairs to water circulation, brown for sanitation systems, green for life support, silver for spacesuit repairs, yellow for the interior hull and white for the exterior, pink for electrical, purple for sealing anything containing dangerous contaminants, and the black is extra heavy-duty for emergency use in propulsion systems.” Jack grinned.
Ianto stared at Jack wide-eyed. “You can’t be serious!”
“Why not? Duct tape can fix just about anything; if you use the right kind and do the job properly, it’ll hold until you can carry out permanent repairs. I’ve known ships travel twenty light years or more, with practically every system held together by duct tape, and arrive safely. No ship should ever be without a good supply, and you won’t find a better selection anywhere.” Jack dropped the red tape into their ‘basket’ and went back to the shelves, picking out a selection of other colours for purchase.
Watching him, Ianto frowned. “The idea of duct-taping a spaceship together is a bit… alarming.”
Jack laughed. “That’s only because you’ve never seen anything like this before. What we have here is state-of-the-art, way better and stronger than anything you’d find back on earth, with specialised adhesives that will stick to whatever they’re designed for, regardless of temperature fluctuations or other environmental variations.”
“Suppose I’ll have to take your word for it. Wow, shopping for duct tape; what an exciting treat.”
“Don’t knock it, Ianto; listen and learn. It’s not just tape; someday it might save your life.”
The End