Fic: The Oncoming Storm (Slash, AU, Janto 36/40 Act 8/10)
Author: d8rkmessngr
Pairing: Jack/OMC, Jack/?, Jack/Ianto eventually, het and slash
Rating: NC-17 (betaed)
Summary: He left Jack on the game station. Abandoned. But then…he came back…different. An AU look on what happens if things happened differently. Doctor Who 'verse with Torchwood later on. Be sure to read the warnings.
Warnings: Please read each chapter's individual warnings. Some parts down the road may briefly mention non-con, abuse, and/or violence. Dark in the beginning. Please note there are some dark thoughts as my boys are broken…for now. Each chapter will be labeled for your convenience.
Author's Notes: Please note this is an AU that will cross over DW to TW season one. I'm probably spoiling my own story, but it will eventually be Janto. There's a bit of a journey first. I hope you enjoy. I'm working on this and intend to post regularly every other day. And again, I always believe in happy endings. So without further ado…
Disclaimer: RTD and BBC owns them. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Warning For This Chapter: strong language, dark, angsty, disturbing imagery (a matter of reader's interpretation, though)
Notes For This Chapter: Note there are parallels to DW's "Utopia" and briefly mentions things from DW's "Army of Darkness" but hopefully even without seeing them, the story's fine.
Prologue + Ch , Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18. Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27, Ch 28, Ch 29, Ch 30, Ch 31, Ch 32, Ch 33, Ch 34, Ch 35, Ch 36 Act 1/10, Ch 36 Act 2/10, Ch 36 Act 3/10, Ch 36 Act 4/10, Ch 36 Act 5/10 1/2, Ch 36 Act 5/10 2/2, Ch 36 Act 6/10, Ch 36 Act 7/10
Master Fic List: here
Chapter 36 "Utopia 2.0"
Act VIII
Malcassairo
Year 100 trillion…
It was like looking at one of Maygin's games she'd used to play with Lisa the last time they had visited. It was hard to imagine all the swirls and blots represented a dying universe.
Into stirred uneasily as he stood behind the Doctor and Yana. They were both huddled around a screen that looked far too old, too antiquated to be up to the task of saving what was left of humanity. It reminded him of a refurbished submarine radar.
Yana pointed to the lone blip among the swirling blotches of nothing. "The call came from across the stars, over and over again. 'Come to Utopia'. Originating from that point."
The Doctor looked enthralled and Ianto reluctantly admitted it was hard to ignore the flutter in his gut at the innocuous blinking. Ianto rubbed his thumb across the top flap of the wrist strap. The well-oiled leathery surface squeaked under his thumb, giving only after a bit of pressure. The firm, yet supple surface made Ianto feel marginally better. He'd even hovered closer with Martha to take a better look over the Doctor's shoulder.
"Where is that?" the time traveler asked as he stared at the screen like it was the shiniest bauble he'd ever encountered.
Yana gazed at the blip like it was the North Star. Perhaps it was. "Oh, it's far beyond the condensed wilderness, out towards the wildlands and the dark matter reefs, calling us in. The last of the humans scattered across the night."
"What do you think is out there?" Ianto couldn't help but ask. He stared at the blinking dot and tried to imagine it as Utopia. He hoped it was something brilliant in the black canvas out there.
"We can't know," Yana murmured. He answered Ianto's question out of civility than from truly listening. Yana looked dreamy as he mused out loud.
"A colony? A city? Some sort of haven? The science foundation created the Utopia project thousands of years ago to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself." Yana touched the dot with a reverence that made Ianto avert his gaze. "Perhaps they found it. Perhaps not, but it's worth a look, don't you think?" Yana directed the last question to the Doctor.
"Oh yes," the Doctor breathed. He looked over his shoulder at Ianto and Martha. "And the signal keeps modulating so it's not on automatic."
Ianto bit his lower lip, thinking. "So it's not a beacon," he guessed. These humans weren't alone then? Somehow, it made the future look a little better.
The Doctor agreed. He beamed towards Martha, who had perked up at the news. "That's a good sign. Someone's out there?"
Martha returned his grin. "A very good sign," she cheered. She glanced over to Ianto who gave her a shaky smile.
"And that's a navigation matrix, isn't it?" The Doctor twisted around back to the green tinted screen and tapped at the bottom where numbers scrolled up line for line. "So you can fly without the stars to guide you, Professor?" The Doctor glanced up towards Yana. His brow furrowed. "Professor?"
It was then Ianto realized Yana had stopped paying attention to the conversation long before. The professor sat there by the Doctor, his eyes far away.
Something in Ianto's belly stirred uneasily. There were times Ianto caught Jack staring off to the distance with the same look, although Jack didn't wear his with such an acute look of pain. It drew him away from the screen immediately.
"Professor?" Ianto called to him cautiously. He touched Yana by the sleeve. Yana was old and obviously had worked for a long time on this. It was a wonder the professor was as mentally stable as he was. Ianto shook the elbow closest to him, careful not to jar him or startle him.
The Doctor was not as cautious. "Professor!" he shouted out before Ianto could warn against it.
Yana shook violently out of his reverie. "I..." Yana stood up from his stool like he was a rocket himself and blinked furiously at his surroundings, blinked at a shadowed corner to his right, and suddenly appeared a little lost. Ianto could see his momentary confusion.
"Sir, would you like to lie down for a spell?" Ianto inquired worriedly while he frowned mildly at the Doctor, who at least has the grace to look apologetic. Ianto spied a spot in the back with some furniture crammed up under a sloped ceiling. He wondered briefly if there was a way to make a spot of tea.
Yana flapped his hands at Ianto, echoing eerily like the Doctor. "Right, that's enough talk. There's work to do." He was already motioning Chantho to follow and they broke away from the cluster to head towards another cramped area of machinery. It reminded Ianto a bit of his Torchwood as the professor had to move equipment aside to get to what he needed.
"Now if you could leave, thank you," Yana declared, his voice brisk but not rude. He was pointing at something to Chantho, ducking under cables.
The Doctor frowned mildly. He straightened and peered over to Yana. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine," Yana said, irritated. Already, he was fiddling with dials and switches. "And busy," Yana added pointedly.
Martha shared an uncertain look with Ianto. They both watched the Doctor veer around the processors, his hands in his pockets.
"Except that rocket's not going to fly, is it?" the Doctor suddenly said in a quiet voice.
Martha darted Ianto a dismayed look. "Doctor?" she asked. Her voice wavered.
Ianto remembered the fragmented pieces of the conversation from before. "This footprint mechanism thing," Ianto recalled. He felt his heart clenched.
"It's not working," the Doctor agreed.
Yana spun sharply towards the time traveler. "We'll find a way!" he protested. He wrung his hands together. "There is a way!"
"You're stuck on this planet," the Doctor murmured, his eyes dark as he leaned over to fix his gaze on Yana. Chantho lowered her eyes.
"And you haven't told them, have you?"
Ianto swallowed. He glanced at the door. He thought about all those people sleeping out in the halls, blankets marking their spots, their possessions tacked up woefully on walls. Ianto leaned back against the large processor behind them. The thought of what was on the surface made him ill. He wiped his hands on his trousers and wished he could stop feeling like something thick and oily was crawling up his skin.
"That lot out there, they still think they're going to fly."
Ianto wished the Doctor would shut up at that point. All Ianto could think about was how dark and empty the sky had looked. There was nothing to stare up to.
"Well, it's better to let them live in hope," the professor said, defeated. He deflated and sat down heavily on the stool.
Martha stood right next to Ianto. Ianto said nothing when he felt her lean her cheek against his arm, her hand slipping into one of his. He edged closer to her as well. The room had never felt so silent, so cold before. Ianto became very aware of how far away he was to everything he knew. He found himself giving her a hand a squeeze.
"I know we'll get there," Yana muttered. "She'd seen it. I'd seen it." He absently rubbed his thumb over the ring on his finger. "I won't give up now."
"Quite right, too," the Doctor declared suddenly. He shrugged out of his long coat as he wove around to the professor. "Hold this, Torchwood." Ianto barely caught the coat with a fumble as the Doctor joined the professor. "And I must say, Professor...What was it?"
"Yana." The professor tracked him with open curiosity.
"Professor Yana, this new science is well beyond me." The Doctor gestured around him with an apologetic shrug. "But all the same, a boost reversal circuit in any time frame, must be a..." The Doctor fought for words. "…Circuit which reverses the boost."
The Doctor reached behind the professor, grabbing what looked like a circuit switch connected to yet more thick cables. Yana started, as if he was about to stop the time traveler.
"So, I wonder, what would happen if I did..." the Doctor mused, "this?" He pulled out his sonic device from his pockets and pointed at it like he did with the telephone.
All the panels around them suddenly lit up like a fireworks display. Clear, thick freestanding panels flared up as if lit on fire and all the mainframes began beeping madly. From dead silence, the room suddenly filled with a choir of blips and chimes and alarms.
Martha gave a laugh, jumping where she stood. She slapped Ianto's arm with glee. She grinned at the Doctor. Ianto simply stared. The room transformed right before them. Everything was alit with power.
Chantho gasped. The alien swiveled her head round and round. "Chan, it's working, tho!" she gasped.
The professor stood, staring around him in disbelief, his mouth opened. "But how did you do that?" Yana cried out in amazement.
"While we've been chatting away, I forgot to tell you," the Doctor began. He burst into a broad grin.
"I'm brilliant."
"Professor Yana! Professor!" The speakers around the walls crackled to life with a frantic voice. "What is happening?"
Yana's face was aglow with all the lights and equipment. "You," Yana declared, his face shining, "are going to Utopia!"
She closed her eyes when the sirens blared. Everyone around her was shouting, scared, frightened. Such children. She smiled to herself when they all cheered at the garbled message "All passengers, prepare for boarding" ringing out to all the corridors.
She reveled in their joy because she knew it wouldn't last. She knew what they would find and that bright light would all be for nothing.
"But it will all be well," she whispered as she watched them pack up their belongings, the meager items the humans stubbornly clung to as part of their identity.
"It will be alright, children," she murmured, as she watched around a corner. "We will bring you back from nothing. The Master and I. We shall take you away from the darkness." She held tight her right hand that trembled, having trembled since the Doctor's arrival. She had stayed away because she feared the Doctor would somehow know her. Or the others.
She couldn't remember if they would, if their pre-Doctor timelines have crossed with hers before. It was often hard to remember her own timeline, her own name even. She had carried his memories as she searched, until she found the right one. His thoughts, his memories had mixed with hers by then and she no longer knew what was hers and what was his.
She waited until her hand stilled-most her limbs barely obeyed her any more because the journey had changed her too much-before she ducked into an empty corridor. The residents that had lived in here had already gone to their assigned gates.
Such eager fragile flesh. So eager for Utopia.
Empty, the sirens blaring around her, she tipped her head back and laughed as she padded down the empty passageway to where she needed to be. The rocket must fly in order for the Master must return.
Another laugh, this one so grating, it made her cough up blood. She ran down the halls empty of life, laughing uncontrollably because every corridor she encountered was now empty of life. She had waited so long. Searched so far. It would now finally all begin. His plan. His wonderful plan would spark to life.
"It will all be for nothing!" she screeched as she raced through the corridors, past the discarded blankets and tin cups of abandoned food. Droplets of blood trailed behind her each time she spat.
"Repeat, all passengers prepare for immediate boarding."
It will all soon begin. The end that would herald the beginning.
"Destination, Utopia."
"All passengers prepare for immediate boarding."
It was an explosion of activity. The Doctor practically manhandled Professor Yana to a station, already running to wrestle Ianto to another.
"Martha, you transfer those disks. Miss Chantho if you could show her where." The Doctor was spinning Ianto around to face a tall processor. "I think this is the, no, of course it is, just put each one in the slots and transfer each one to me once the green light is on. Okay? Good man."
A big clap to his shoulders and the Doctor was gone again.
"All passengers prepare for immediate boarding."
There was no time to think or question what he was doing pulling out square metal disks like a monkey. Ianto's head spun, still reeling that the once quiet room was now filled with all this activity. Too much activity. It was like being caught in a riptide.
"Chan-there is not enough frequency cards-tho!" Chantho lifted up one of the metal disks Ianto just tossed over to the Doctor.
"Check with Commander-no, Lieutenant Atillo for more!" Yana sounded frazzled but alert. He pounded furiously on his panel.
"Martha, help her!" the Doctor ordered.
"Oi!" Martha confirmed, already chasing after Yana's assistant. The door opened and Ianto could hear the flurry of people outside.
"Navigation matrix's loaded!" Yana reported.
Ianto's panel was stubbornly staying red. "There's nothing turning green," Ianto shouted to no one in particular. He braced his hands on the dented surface and stared hard at them. Still red. "I assume that's not good?"
Ianto jumped when an arm reached from behind, sonic screwdriver squawking like his mobile's accursed ringtone and it pointed towards his charge.
"Red, red, red," the Doctor muttered by his ear. "Always red. Must be confusing in dance halls and all that flashing lights you humans like to do."
The sonic screwdriver screeched and Ianto flinched as the device waved madly at the panel. "Why they didn't adapt to the universal mauve escapes me."
Mauve?
All the lights changed to green.
Ianto started at the exuberant thump to his back. "There you go, Torchwood! Now stop your staring and start reformatting those frequency cards for me! Hurry up!" And the Doctor was gone before Ianto could reply.
"All passengers are boarding, Professor."
"Are the couplings primed?" Yana called out as he flipped a few toggles.
"Radiation levels are steady. Jate's preparing to enter."
"Sir," the Doctor interrupted. He waved wildly towards the speakers until he realized he couldn't be seen. "Commander, is it?"
"Lieutenant Atillo, Doctor."
"Ah! Lieutenant. They were going to send up something of mine. A blue box. I need it here, right here-"
"It's already on its way, sir."
Ianto felt a pounding relief even as he yanked out each metal card and tossed it neatly towards the Doctor like a saucer. It was ridiculous to feel such a relief for a police box but Ianto nearly sagged against the processor he was in front of when he heard it was on its way here.
Ianto felt a friendly pat on his arm.
"I feel that way about her myself sometimes," the Doctor chuckled. "And wait until you try her tea."
"When we get Jack back, ask him to make his," Ianto muttered back with little rancor.
The Doctor gave a "Hah!" before he joined Yana by the clear panels.
Ianto shook his head, but found he couldn't be angry as he thought he would be as he returned to the processor and his task.
After a few minutes of passing cards and confirming green lights, the Doctor took a tentative sniff at the brown ribbon he was holding in front of a thick, translucent divider with what looked like circuits to Ianto. With a pang, he realized Tosh would've been thrilled to be here surrounded by all this strange and wonderful technology.
The Doctor sounded flummoxed. "Is that…"
"Gluten extract," Yana confirmed from the other side of the thick glasslike panel. "It binds the neutralino map together."
Ianto glanced over his shoulder. "But isn't that food?"
The Doctor gawped at Yana through the transparent sheet. "You've built this system out of food and string and staples?" The Doctor took off his spectacles and beheld the panel before him with awe. "Professor Yana," the Doctor breathed, "you're a genius."
Ianto bit back a smile as he continued to interchange the metal cards when the light turned green.
Yana scoffed. "Says the man who made it work." Ianto thought he could hear a little bitterness in the old man's voice. Ianto checked over his shoulder again. Yana was looking around himself with longing and regret.
The Doctor's shrug was audible in his voice. "Oh, it's easy coming in at the end. But you're stellar." The Doctor gazed at the brown ribbon he held with amazement. "This is magnificent. And I don't often say that 'cause…Well, 'cause of me."
Ianto rolled his eyes.
"Well, even my title is an affection," Yana dismissed the Doctor's compliments with a sigh. "There hasn't been such thing as a university for over a thousand years," he mused. "I've spent my life going from one refugee ship to another."
"If you had been born in a different time, you'd be revered. I mean it." The Doctor sounded warm and sincere. "Throughout the galaxies."
"Oh, those damn galaxies, they had to go and collapse," Yana chuckled wearily. "Some admiration would have been nice. Just a little. Just once." The professor sounded wistful.
"Well, you've got it now," the Doctor told Yana quietly.
"And mine," Ianto added solemnly from his station. He caught the Doctor giving him an approving nod. Ianto quickly turned back around to his processor, his face flaming.
"But that Footprint engine thing…" the Doctor continued, his voice suddenly lower. "You can't activate it from onboard. It's got to be done from here."
Ianto spun around, his eyes wide on the professor. "You're not going? You're staying behind?"
Yana shrugged. "With Chantho. She won't leave without me. Simply refuses." He looked both exasperated and touched at the same time.
The Doctor studied Yana with an impressed expression. "You'd give your life so they could fly."
"Oh, I think I'm a little too old for Utopia." Yana dismissed the concern. He made a disparaging smile. "Time I had some sleep." He suddenly looked very old, very tired. "It's been so long. She said it was time…"
"Doctor," Ianto murmured, dismayed. He paused when he heard himself. He didn't know why he automatically called for the Doctor.
The time traveler, however, didn't acknowledge him. He merely pursed his lips, silent.
"Professor, tell the Doctor his blue box is on its way."
Ianto leaned back against the processor, his knees suddenly weak. The blue box was being rolled in carefully on some sort of wheeled cart. He wondered how undignified it would be to hug it.
The Doctor brightened at the sight. "Ah."
Yana eyed the time traveler with a furrowed brow. "Doctor?"
The Doctor grabbed Yana by the shoulders and hurried the old man over. "Professor, it's a wild stab in the dark, but I might just have found you a way out." The Doctor pointed at the entering box.
As the blue box came through the door, Yana broke away from the Doctor and stared at the blue box with amazement as it was moved to an empty wall.
"What…what is this?" Yana whispered. He clasped his hands together and worried the ring on his finger again.
"That," the Doctor said with what Ianto thought sounded like fatherly pride, "is the TARDIS."
Act IX
Additional Notes: Many thanks to soullessminion for betaing this chapter. And trtmx for her magic trick that saved my sanity! LOL.
Pairing: Jack/OMC, Jack/?, Jack/Ianto eventually, het and slash
Rating: NC-17 (betaed)
Summary: He left Jack on the game station. Abandoned. But then…he came back…different. An AU look on what happens if things happened differently. Doctor Who 'verse with Torchwood later on. Be sure to read the warnings.
Warnings: Please read each chapter's individual warnings. Some parts down the road may briefly mention non-con, abuse, and/or violence. Dark in the beginning. Please note there are some dark thoughts as my boys are broken…for now. Each chapter will be labeled for your convenience.
Author's Notes: Please note this is an AU that will cross over DW to TW season one. I'm probably spoiling my own story, but it will eventually be Janto. There's a bit of a journey first. I hope you enjoy. I'm working on this and intend to post regularly every other day. And again, I always believe in happy endings. So without further ado…
Disclaimer: RTD and BBC owns them. I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Warning For This Chapter: strong language, dark, angsty, disturbing imagery (a matter of reader's interpretation, though)
Notes For This Chapter: Note there are parallels to DW's "Utopia" and briefly mentions things from DW's "Army of Darkness" but hopefully even without seeing them, the story's fine.
Prologue + Ch , Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6, Ch 7, Ch 8, Ch 9, Ch 10, Ch 11, Ch 12, Ch 13, Ch 14, Ch 15, Ch 16, Ch 17, Ch 18. Ch 19, Ch 20, Ch 21, Ch 22, Ch 23, Ch 24, Ch 25, Ch 26, Ch 27, Ch 28, Ch 29, Ch 30, Ch 31, Ch 32, Ch 33, Ch 34, Ch 35, Ch 36 Act 1/10, Ch 36 Act 2/10, Ch 36 Act 3/10, Ch 36 Act 4/10, Ch 36 Act 5/10 1/2, Ch 36 Act 5/10 2/2, Ch 36 Act 6/10, Ch 36 Act 7/10
Master Fic List: here
Chapter 36 "Utopia 2.0"
Act VIII
Malcassairo
Year 100 trillion…
It was like looking at one of Maygin's games she'd used to play with Lisa the last time they had visited. It was hard to imagine all the swirls and blots represented a dying universe.
Into stirred uneasily as he stood behind the Doctor and Yana. They were both huddled around a screen that looked far too old, too antiquated to be up to the task of saving what was left of humanity. It reminded him of a refurbished submarine radar.
Yana pointed to the lone blip among the swirling blotches of nothing. "The call came from across the stars, over and over again. 'Come to Utopia'. Originating from that point."
The Doctor looked enthralled and Ianto reluctantly admitted it was hard to ignore the flutter in his gut at the innocuous blinking. Ianto rubbed his thumb across the top flap of the wrist strap. The well-oiled leathery surface squeaked under his thumb, giving only after a bit of pressure. The firm, yet supple surface made Ianto feel marginally better. He'd even hovered closer with Martha to take a better look over the Doctor's shoulder.
"Where is that?" the time traveler asked as he stared at the screen like it was the shiniest bauble he'd ever encountered.
Yana gazed at the blip like it was the North Star. Perhaps it was. "Oh, it's far beyond the condensed wilderness, out towards the wildlands and the dark matter reefs, calling us in. The last of the humans scattered across the night."
"What do you think is out there?" Ianto couldn't help but ask. He stared at the blinking dot and tried to imagine it as Utopia. He hoped it was something brilliant in the black canvas out there.
"We can't know," Yana murmured. He answered Ianto's question out of civility than from truly listening. Yana looked dreamy as he mused out loud.
"A colony? A city? Some sort of haven? The science foundation created the Utopia project thousands of years ago to preserve mankind, to find a way of surviving beyond the collapse of reality itself." Yana touched the dot with a reverence that made Ianto avert his gaze. "Perhaps they found it. Perhaps not, but it's worth a look, don't you think?" Yana directed the last question to the Doctor.
"Oh yes," the Doctor breathed. He looked over his shoulder at Ianto and Martha. "And the signal keeps modulating so it's not on automatic."
Ianto bit his lower lip, thinking. "So it's not a beacon," he guessed. These humans weren't alone then? Somehow, it made the future look a little better.
The Doctor agreed. He beamed towards Martha, who had perked up at the news. "That's a good sign. Someone's out there?"
Martha returned his grin. "A very good sign," she cheered. She glanced over to Ianto who gave her a shaky smile.
"And that's a navigation matrix, isn't it?" The Doctor twisted around back to the green tinted screen and tapped at the bottom where numbers scrolled up line for line. "So you can fly without the stars to guide you, Professor?" The Doctor glanced up towards Yana. His brow furrowed. "Professor?"
It was then Ianto realized Yana had stopped paying attention to the conversation long before. The professor sat there by the Doctor, his eyes far away.
Something in Ianto's belly stirred uneasily. There were times Ianto caught Jack staring off to the distance with the same look, although Jack didn't wear his with such an acute look of pain. It drew him away from the screen immediately.
"Professor?" Ianto called to him cautiously. He touched Yana by the sleeve. Yana was old and obviously had worked for a long time on this. It was a wonder the professor was as mentally stable as he was. Ianto shook the elbow closest to him, careful not to jar him or startle him.
The Doctor was not as cautious. "Professor!" he shouted out before Ianto could warn against it.
Yana shook violently out of his reverie. "I..." Yana stood up from his stool like he was a rocket himself and blinked furiously at his surroundings, blinked at a shadowed corner to his right, and suddenly appeared a little lost. Ianto could see his momentary confusion.
"Sir, would you like to lie down for a spell?" Ianto inquired worriedly while he frowned mildly at the Doctor, who at least has the grace to look apologetic. Ianto spied a spot in the back with some furniture crammed up under a sloped ceiling. He wondered briefly if there was a way to make a spot of tea.
Yana flapped his hands at Ianto, echoing eerily like the Doctor. "Right, that's enough talk. There's work to do." He was already motioning Chantho to follow and they broke away from the cluster to head towards another cramped area of machinery. It reminded Ianto a bit of his Torchwood as the professor had to move equipment aside to get to what he needed.
"Now if you could leave, thank you," Yana declared, his voice brisk but not rude. He was pointing at something to Chantho, ducking under cables.
The Doctor frowned mildly. He straightened and peered over to Yana. "Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine," Yana said, irritated. Already, he was fiddling with dials and switches. "And busy," Yana added pointedly.
Martha shared an uncertain look with Ianto. They both watched the Doctor veer around the processors, his hands in his pockets.
"Except that rocket's not going to fly, is it?" the Doctor suddenly said in a quiet voice.
Martha darted Ianto a dismayed look. "Doctor?" she asked. Her voice wavered.
Ianto remembered the fragmented pieces of the conversation from before. "This footprint mechanism thing," Ianto recalled. He felt his heart clenched.
"It's not working," the Doctor agreed.
Yana spun sharply towards the time traveler. "We'll find a way!" he protested. He wrung his hands together. "There is a way!"
"You're stuck on this planet," the Doctor murmured, his eyes dark as he leaned over to fix his gaze on Yana. Chantho lowered her eyes.
"And you haven't told them, have you?"
Ianto swallowed. He glanced at the door. He thought about all those people sleeping out in the halls, blankets marking their spots, their possessions tacked up woefully on walls. Ianto leaned back against the large processor behind them. The thought of what was on the surface made him ill. He wiped his hands on his trousers and wished he could stop feeling like something thick and oily was crawling up his skin.
"That lot out there, they still think they're going to fly."
Ianto wished the Doctor would shut up at that point. All Ianto could think about was how dark and empty the sky had looked. There was nothing to stare up to.
"Well, it's better to let them live in hope," the professor said, defeated. He deflated and sat down heavily on the stool.
Martha stood right next to Ianto. Ianto said nothing when he felt her lean her cheek against his arm, her hand slipping into one of his. He edged closer to her as well. The room had never felt so silent, so cold before. Ianto became very aware of how far away he was to everything he knew. He found himself giving her a hand a squeeze.
"I know we'll get there," Yana muttered. "She'd seen it. I'd seen it." He absently rubbed his thumb over the ring on his finger. "I won't give up now."
"Quite right, too," the Doctor declared suddenly. He shrugged out of his long coat as he wove around to the professor. "Hold this, Torchwood." Ianto barely caught the coat with a fumble as the Doctor joined the professor. "And I must say, Professor...What was it?"
"Yana." The professor tracked him with open curiosity.
"Professor Yana, this new science is well beyond me." The Doctor gestured around him with an apologetic shrug. "But all the same, a boost reversal circuit in any time frame, must be a..." The Doctor fought for words. "…Circuit which reverses the boost."
The Doctor reached behind the professor, grabbing what looked like a circuit switch connected to yet more thick cables. Yana started, as if he was about to stop the time traveler.
"So, I wonder, what would happen if I did..." the Doctor mused, "this?" He pulled out his sonic device from his pockets and pointed at it like he did with the telephone.
All the panels around them suddenly lit up like a fireworks display. Clear, thick freestanding panels flared up as if lit on fire and all the mainframes began beeping madly. From dead silence, the room suddenly filled with a choir of blips and chimes and alarms.
Martha gave a laugh, jumping where she stood. She slapped Ianto's arm with glee. She grinned at the Doctor. Ianto simply stared. The room transformed right before them. Everything was alit with power.
Chantho gasped. The alien swiveled her head round and round. "Chan, it's working, tho!" she gasped.
The professor stood, staring around him in disbelief, his mouth opened. "But how did you do that?" Yana cried out in amazement.
"While we've been chatting away, I forgot to tell you," the Doctor began. He burst into a broad grin.
"I'm brilliant."
"Professor Yana! Professor!" The speakers around the walls crackled to life with a frantic voice. "What is happening?"
Yana's face was aglow with all the lights and equipment. "You," Yana declared, his face shining, "are going to Utopia!"
She closed her eyes when the sirens blared. Everyone around her was shouting, scared, frightened. Such children. She smiled to herself when they all cheered at the garbled message "All passengers, prepare for boarding" ringing out to all the corridors.
She reveled in their joy because she knew it wouldn't last. She knew what they would find and that bright light would all be for nothing.
"But it will all be well," she whispered as she watched them pack up their belongings, the meager items the humans stubbornly clung to as part of their identity.
"It will be alright, children," she murmured, as she watched around a corner. "We will bring you back from nothing. The Master and I. We shall take you away from the darkness." She held tight her right hand that trembled, having trembled since the Doctor's arrival. She had stayed away because she feared the Doctor would somehow know her. Or the others.
She couldn't remember if they would, if their pre-Doctor timelines have crossed with hers before. It was often hard to remember her own timeline, her own name even. She had carried his memories as she searched, until she found the right one. His thoughts, his memories had mixed with hers by then and she no longer knew what was hers and what was his.
She waited until her hand stilled-most her limbs barely obeyed her any more because the journey had changed her too much-before she ducked into an empty corridor. The residents that had lived in here had already gone to their assigned gates.
Such eager fragile flesh. So eager for Utopia.
Empty, the sirens blaring around her, she tipped her head back and laughed as she padded down the empty passageway to where she needed to be. The rocket must fly in order for the Master must return.
Another laugh, this one so grating, it made her cough up blood. She ran down the halls empty of life, laughing uncontrollably because every corridor she encountered was now empty of life. She had waited so long. Searched so far. It would now finally all begin. His plan. His wonderful plan would spark to life.
"It will all be for nothing!" she screeched as she raced through the corridors, past the discarded blankets and tin cups of abandoned food. Droplets of blood trailed behind her each time she spat.
"Repeat, all passengers prepare for immediate boarding."
It will all soon begin. The end that would herald the beginning.
"Destination, Utopia."
"All passengers prepare for immediate boarding."
It was an explosion of activity. The Doctor practically manhandled Professor Yana to a station, already running to wrestle Ianto to another.
"Martha, you transfer those disks. Miss Chantho if you could show her where." The Doctor was spinning Ianto around to face a tall processor. "I think this is the, no, of course it is, just put each one in the slots and transfer each one to me once the green light is on. Okay? Good man."
A big clap to his shoulders and the Doctor was gone again.
"All passengers prepare for immediate boarding."
There was no time to think or question what he was doing pulling out square metal disks like a monkey. Ianto's head spun, still reeling that the once quiet room was now filled with all this activity. Too much activity. It was like being caught in a riptide.
"Chan-there is not enough frequency cards-tho!" Chantho lifted up one of the metal disks Ianto just tossed over to the Doctor.
"Check with Commander-no, Lieutenant Atillo for more!" Yana sounded frazzled but alert. He pounded furiously on his panel.
"Martha, help her!" the Doctor ordered.
"Oi!" Martha confirmed, already chasing after Yana's assistant. The door opened and Ianto could hear the flurry of people outside.
"Navigation matrix's loaded!" Yana reported.
Ianto's panel was stubbornly staying red. "There's nothing turning green," Ianto shouted to no one in particular. He braced his hands on the dented surface and stared hard at them. Still red. "I assume that's not good?"
Ianto jumped when an arm reached from behind, sonic screwdriver squawking like his mobile's accursed ringtone and it pointed towards his charge.
"Red, red, red," the Doctor muttered by his ear. "Always red. Must be confusing in dance halls and all that flashing lights you humans like to do."
The sonic screwdriver screeched and Ianto flinched as the device waved madly at the panel. "Why they didn't adapt to the universal mauve escapes me."
Mauve?
All the lights changed to green.
Ianto started at the exuberant thump to his back. "There you go, Torchwood! Now stop your staring and start reformatting those frequency cards for me! Hurry up!" And the Doctor was gone before Ianto could reply.
"All passengers are boarding, Professor."
"Are the couplings primed?" Yana called out as he flipped a few toggles.
"Radiation levels are steady. Jate's preparing to enter."
"Sir," the Doctor interrupted. He waved wildly towards the speakers until he realized he couldn't be seen. "Commander, is it?"
"Lieutenant Atillo, Doctor."
"Ah! Lieutenant. They were going to send up something of mine. A blue box. I need it here, right here-"
"It's already on its way, sir."
Ianto felt a pounding relief even as he yanked out each metal card and tossed it neatly towards the Doctor like a saucer. It was ridiculous to feel such a relief for a police box but Ianto nearly sagged against the processor he was in front of when he heard it was on its way here.
Ianto felt a friendly pat on his arm.
"I feel that way about her myself sometimes," the Doctor chuckled. "And wait until you try her tea."
"When we get Jack back, ask him to make his," Ianto muttered back with little rancor.
The Doctor gave a "Hah!" before he joined Yana by the clear panels.
Ianto shook his head, but found he couldn't be angry as he thought he would be as he returned to the processor and his task.
After a few minutes of passing cards and confirming green lights, the Doctor took a tentative sniff at the brown ribbon he was holding in front of a thick, translucent divider with what looked like circuits to Ianto. With a pang, he realized Tosh would've been thrilled to be here surrounded by all this strange and wonderful technology.
The Doctor sounded flummoxed. "Is that…"
"Gluten extract," Yana confirmed from the other side of the thick glasslike panel. "It binds the neutralino map together."
Ianto glanced over his shoulder. "But isn't that food?"
The Doctor gawped at Yana through the transparent sheet. "You've built this system out of food and string and staples?" The Doctor took off his spectacles and beheld the panel before him with awe. "Professor Yana," the Doctor breathed, "you're a genius."
Ianto bit back a smile as he continued to interchange the metal cards when the light turned green.
Yana scoffed. "Says the man who made it work." Ianto thought he could hear a little bitterness in the old man's voice. Ianto checked over his shoulder again. Yana was looking around himself with longing and regret.
The Doctor's shrug was audible in his voice. "Oh, it's easy coming in at the end. But you're stellar." The Doctor gazed at the brown ribbon he held with amazement. "This is magnificent. And I don't often say that 'cause…Well, 'cause of me."
Ianto rolled his eyes.
"Well, even my title is an affection," Yana dismissed the Doctor's compliments with a sigh. "There hasn't been such thing as a university for over a thousand years," he mused. "I've spent my life going from one refugee ship to another."
"If you had been born in a different time, you'd be revered. I mean it." The Doctor sounded warm and sincere. "Throughout the galaxies."
"Oh, those damn galaxies, they had to go and collapse," Yana chuckled wearily. "Some admiration would have been nice. Just a little. Just once." The professor sounded wistful.
"Well, you've got it now," the Doctor told Yana quietly.
"And mine," Ianto added solemnly from his station. He caught the Doctor giving him an approving nod. Ianto quickly turned back around to his processor, his face flaming.
"But that Footprint engine thing…" the Doctor continued, his voice suddenly lower. "You can't activate it from onboard. It's got to be done from here."
Ianto spun around, his eyes wide on the professor. "You're not going? You're staying behind?"
Yana shrugged. "With Chantho. She won't leave without me. Simply refuses." He looked both exasperated and touched at the same time.
The Doctor studied Yana with an impressed expression. "You'd give your life so they could fly."
"Oh, I think I'm a little too old for Utopia." Yana dismissed the concern. He made a disparaging smile. "Time I had some sleep." He suddenly looked very old, very tired. "It's been so long. She said it was time…"
"Doctor," Ianto murmured, dismayed. He paused when he heard himself. He didn't know why he automatically called for the Doctor.
The time traveler, however, didn't acknowledge him. He merely pursed his lips, silent.
"Professor, tell the Doctor his blue box is on its way."
Ianto leaned back against the processor, his knees suddenly weak. The blue box was being rolled in carefully on some sort of wheeled cart. He wondered how undignified it would be to hug it.
The Doctor brightened at the sight. "Ah."
Yana eyed the time traveler with a furrowed brow. "Doctor?"
The Doctor grabbed Yana by the shoulders and hurried the old man over. "Professor, it's a wild stab in the dark, but I might just have found you a way out." The Doctor pointed at the entering box.
As the blue box came through the door, Yana broke away from the Doctor and stared at the blue box with amazement as it was moved to an empty wall.
"What…what is this?" Yana whispered. He clasped his hands together and worried the ring on his finger again.
"That," the Doctor said with what Ianto thought sounded like fatherly pride, "is the TARDIS."
Act IX
Additional Notes: Many thanks to soullessminion for betaing this chapter. And trtmx for her magic trick that saved my sanity! LOL.