Atlantis Café 17 - The Return of the Cybermen
Title: Atlantis Café
Author: Soledad
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis/Torchwood x-over
Rating: Teens, for this part.
For disclaimer and background trivia go to the secondary index page.
Warning: still not Gwen-friendly - nothing I ever write would be. You’ve been warned.
Author’s note:I do use rewritten parts of the original episode here. Obviously. However, the context is a very different one as you’ll see. And yes, I have messed up SGA timeline just a teeny bit. But this is an AU.
Details considering the Cybermen are all results of Wikipedia research. I hope I get them right - the descriptions are a little confusing at times.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PART 17 - THE RETURN OF THE CYBERMEN
“All right,” McKay says when the other two are gone. “Let’s close the blast door and see if this Miss Sato of yours was really such a genius as you seem to think.”
“Doctor Sato,” Ianto corrects, indignant on Tosh’s behalf, whatever reality she might have belonged. “Trust me, she wasthat isn’t a surprise…”
“We’re also sneaky, vengeful and good at holding grudges,” Ianto replies mildly and reaches out for alternate Tosh’s computer tablet. “Let’s see if I can get in.”
It takes him about ten minutes to find the correct password - he’s somewhat surprised that if would be the maiden name of Owen’s dead fiancée, but again, Tosh’s never gone for the obvious. He also recognizes one of her highly efficient data compression systems, and as he knows how to unpack the compressed data blocks, McKay can soon dive headfirst into the depths of alternate Tosh’s research.
“Hmmm…” Atlantis’ head geek says, clearly impressed. ”She was good, very good. Perhaps not directly a genius, I wouldn’t go so far, but…”
“You’re just jealous cos in the alternate reality she has gotten your job,” Ianto says with a bland face.
“And not just in this alternate reality, apparently,” McKay replies, obviously baffled.
Ianto raises an inquisitive eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Look at this,” McKay shows him one of the particularly cramped data packs. “It looks like the drive itself was created by yet another Toshiko Sato, from the original reality.”
“Well,” Ianto decided, having studied the data for a while, “there is a certain, elegance to the design that I recognise.”
“I’m sure that’s what the crew were saying when they abandoned ship,” Sheppard comments cynically.
McKay shrugs. “Well admittedly there are problems, but it is still a monumental achievement.”
“So you admit that she was a genius?” Ianto comments sotto voice. McKay turns and glares daggers at him.
“I didn’t say that,” he protests.
Ianto gives him The Eyebrow™. “Like I said - simply jealous,” he sates.
“Okay, okay, stop this now!” Sheppard interrupts their banter. “Rodney, what do we do? Can we just throw this thing in reverse?”
“Uh, yeah, it’s a little more complicated than that,” McKay replies. “The first problem is navigation. They’ve developed a co-ordinate system to identify the various realities and allow them to get back, but, uh, obviously that didn’t work.”
“No shit!” Sheppard raises the fake surprise routine to new heights, but McKay pays him little to no attention, his overactive brain already ten steps ahead.
“But that’s not what really bothers me,” he says, more to himself than to the others.
“Well, good for you,” Sheppard comments sarcastically. “It kind of bothers me, you know.”
McKay doesn’t listen to him; he probably doesn’t even hear the comment amidst of his monologue. “It’s power generation. I mean, jumping from one reality to another requires massive amounts of power. We’re talking ZedPM levels here. Obviously they didn’t have one of those rattling around, so they created a capacitor that’s constantly drawing power from sub-space.”
An alarm beeps on one of the consoles, interrupting his rather vocal thinking process.
“And it looks like it’s almost charged," Ianto adds calmly. “I wonder if we’re going to find coffee in the next reality. I’m kinda feeling useless without operating a coffee machine.”
Sheppard ignores him. He’s too busy glaring daggers at McKay.
“Is this your long-winded way of telling me you just can’t turn it off?” he asks.
McKay shrugs. “Think of it like a tap pouring water into a bucket,” he explains. “When the bucket is full, the drive engages - except this particular tap has no valve.”
“It seems like a pretty serious design flaw, don’t you think?” Sheppard asks.
“Exactly,” McKay agrees, and it’s no Ianto’s turn to glare daggers at him, because it’s Tosh’s design, and he won’t take kindly anybody speaking ill of Tosh or her work, even if it is, technically, not about his Tosh.
“Which leads me to believe they were tampering with it in a vain attempt to generate more power,” McKay continues.
“You mean the team we found here dead?” Sheppard clarifies-
McKay nods, while the ship begins to shake. “As they got further and further from their own reality, I guess they figured they needed to get back.”
The shaking becomes more violent as Ianto watches the control screen of the generator reach 99 percent, and then go to 100 percent.
“And here we go,” he announces.
The already familiar white flash briefly envelops the entire room. Ianto sees McKay grimace and blink as the glare fades.
“Okay,” Sheppard says. “Where are we?”
“Don’t look at me,” McKay snaps, irritated. “I haven’t had time to route the main systems to these control panels. I’m flyin’ blind down here.”
“You’re not flying the ship, McKay,” Sheppard points out unhelpfully. “She’s doing all the work on her own.”
“Colonel,” Ianto intervenes smoothly before they could get into a really ugly fight, “perhaps we ought to go up to the bridge and make a sensor sweep.”
Sheppard gives him a doubtful look. “Are you familiar with the bridge systems?”
“Well, I couldn’t exactly fly the ship,” Ianto admits, “but I can use the communication system and the scanners well enough.”
“Works for me,” Sheppard picks up his rifle and activates his headset. “Ronon, meet me and Ianto at the bridge.”
“Okay,” Ronon grunts over radio.
“Keep it up, Rodney,” Sheppard tells McKay’s back and leaves the room, Ianto in trail.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When they reach the bridge, Ianto goes directly to the sensor controls and makes a thorough sweep of their surroundings - including the planet which they are still orbiting.
“Colonel, Atlantis is back,” he reports in surprise. “I’m picking them up on the sensors.”
He types on the console to put the image on the wall screen. Sheppard looks at him with newborn respect.
“You’re really good at working this stuff,” he says. “When did you learn it?”
“When I came to Atlantis on board the Daedalus, “Ianto explains. “Doctor Novak and Hermiod were generous enough to explain me a great deal about how the board systems work.”
“Yeah, Major Marks wanted to give me some preliminary training, too,” Ronon comments, “but I was too busy.”
Ianto shrugs. “Your loss. Colonel, shall I call Atlantis?”
“If it’s not too much to ask,” Sheppard replies with an eyeroll. Ianto activates the comm system. “Atlantis, this is Sheppard, come in.” Like before, there’s no reply. “Atlantis, do you read?”
“Maybe they already have a Sheppard,” Ronon suggests with a smirk.
Sheppard gives him a baleful look and activates his headset. “Rodney, what are the odds of us randomly jumping back into our own reality?”
“I’d say slim to none,” McKay’s voice replies via radio.
Ianto, in the meantime, is distracted by some unexpected readings on the sensor control screen.
“Colonel, I’m detecting another ship in orbit,” he reports. Sheppard whirls around to face him.
“What kind of ship?” he demands.
“I’ll see if I can pull it up on screen,” Ianto is already typing away on the console. A moment later the external cameras show the other ship.
It’s a design neither of them has seen before: vaguely triangular in shape, silver-grey, and with one mean-looking gun on each side, each almost as big as the ship itself. Which, according to the scale on the bottom of the control screen, is about the Daedalus’ own size.
Ronon looks at Sheppard questioningly, but the colonel shakes his head.
“I don’t recognise it,” he admits, then he points to a particular section of the hull. “Can you magnify that section?”
Ianto nods and types, and the cameras zoom in on the area and show a symbol painted on the side of the ship. It’s more or less X-shaped, although the lines are broken at unusual angles.
“What’s that?” Ronon asks.
“Presumably either something giving the ship’s or the race’s designation,” Sheppard replies with a shrug.
Ronon raises an eyebrow. “You know it?”
Sheppard shakes his head. “No.”
“But I do,” Ianto says quietly. “Granted, it’s been years since I saw something like this, and even then only for a moment - junior researchers were not supposed to view confidential material at Torchwood London - but I’m fairly certain that it’s the symbol of the planet Telos… or rather the alternate equivalent of it.”
“Which means… what exactly?” Sheppard asks, the name not ringing any bells with him.
“If I’m right, and I don’t see how I could be wrong about this, we ought to destroy this ship before its crew has the chance to destroy us, “Ianto replies grimly.
“Whoa, whoa, slow down for a moment!” Sheppard protests. “We can’t just start shooting at an unknown ship, only because you think they might fire at us.”
“No?” Ianto glances down at his console, which begins to beep. “What about this, then: the ship is powering up its weapons. Do you still believe I’m exaggerating?”
Sheppard jogs over to him, checks the readings and frowns. “What’s our shield status?”
“Minimal,” Ianto replies curtly. “Certainly not sufficient to withstand the laser cannons of that ship. They’re bloody large, in case you haven’t realized.”
“What does tell you those are laser cannons?” Ronon asks. “By the sight of them, they could be anything.”
“Cybermen of our own reality used laser cannons when attempted to destroy an entire base… or a spaceship,” Ianto answers matter-of-factly. “And cobalt bombs, if they were trying to destroy whole planets. According to the records of Torchwood London, a Cyber-megatron bomb could have destroyed all life on Earth.”
“Cybermen?” Sheppard replies, clearly unfamiliar with the term. “You mean human-form Replicators?”
“No," Ianto says,” these are a different race. Listen, colonel, I’ll gladly update your knowledge in this particular area once we’re back in our reality, but I really think we ought to take counter-measures now, as long as we still can.”
As if on clue, the alien ship begins to fire multiple energy bursts - but not at the Daedalus. It fires them down towards the planet.
“It’s firing on Atlantis!” Ronon realizes with a shock.
“Then the city is doomed,” Ianto says grimly. “Her shields are failing already.”
“We’ll see that!” Sheppard hurries over to the weapons console and sits down. “Rodney, do we have enough juice to power up the Asgard beam?”
“Maybe,” McKay replies distractedly. “I mean, you might be able to get a couple of shots off. Why?”
“There’s some alien ship attacking Atlantis,” Sheppard explains.
“So?” McKay doesn’t see the problem. Or he’s too busy down there to care.
“What do you mean, so?” Sheppard demands. “It’s Atlantis!”
“Yeah, well, it’s not our Atlantis,” McKay points out. “We have no idea who’s down there. Look, we should just stay out of it.”
“Colonel,” Ianto warns. “If we do not intervene, the city will be destroyed. Then the ship will turn around and finish us off. One way or another, we won’t get around fighting it.”
“And you’re absolutely sure about that?” Sheppard asks.
Ianto nods. “I’ve fought them before… well, sort of. Mostly, I was hiding and hoping they won’t find me and turn me into one of them. I’m one of the twenty-seven people out of almost eight hundred who survived when they last paid Earth a visit.”
“They were on Earth already?” Sheppard is baffled.
“Several times,” Ianto says. “Of course, it was covered up by UNIT and has been considered top secret, ever since. I doubt that anyone in the States aside from your President knows about it… perhaps not even he does.”
“Okay,” Sheppard forces himself to focus on the problem at hand. “That’s another story you ought to tell when we’re back home. Rodney, we need all available power for the Asgard beam. Ianto says we ought to blow that ship of the sky, and my gut tells me we should listen.”
“I hope you’re right!” McKay answers; then the weapons console suddenly comes alive.
“Yeah, well, me too,” Sheppard hits the fire button. The control screen shows the Daedalus turn and fire a single Asgard beam which strikes the alien ship. Then a second beam is fired, and the bombardment of the planet ceases.
“Direct hits on both laser cannons,” Ianto reports. “The ship’s been damaged. It’s stopped firing.”
“That’s good,” Sheppard says. “Hopefully we took out its main weapons.”
Ianto re-checks the sensor control screen. “We have. But it isn’t over yet. They’re launching fighters.”
“Great!” Sheppard comments sarcastically, as Ianto calls up on the wall screen the image of a whole lot of small craft deploying from the ship and heading towards the Daedalus. The heck view of the fighters is amazingly similar to the symbol on the ship’s side. “I think I’ll have to do some piloting here, assuming the sub-light engines are still working. Ronon!”
As the Satedan walks towards him, Sheppard vacates the chair. “You should’ve taken Marks’ offer up when you had the chance. Now you’re gonna have to learn fast.”
“No, he hasn’t,” Ianto says. “I can do this.”
Sheppard glances at him in disbelief. “You can handle the weapons controls?”
Ianto walks over to them and sits down in the chair without being invited to do so.
“Rail gun targeting systems,” he points to the console. “The buttons on the right control radar, tracking and target acquisition. And I’ll use the red button to fire. Anything else?”
For a moment, both Sheppard and Ronon stare at him in open-mouthed awe; then the colonel runs over to the pilot’s seat. Ianto concentrates with narrowing eyes, hands hovering over the console, as if he’d be playing some highly advanced video game. Soon, the rail guns begin to fire towards the approaching fleet. He manages to score a few hits, but the fighters continue to soar towards the Daedalus, firing at her.
One has to give the Cybermen that: they’re nothing if not thorough, Ianto thinks grimly. A quick glance at his control screen alarms him to another problem, though.
“Colonel, the weakened shields can’t keep everything from getting through,” he reports, without turning his eyes from Tactical. “We’ve got multiple hits all over the ship.”
“Great!” that single word seems to be Sheppard’s preferred expression of sarcasm. Just in that moment, multiple explosions go off on the bridge.
“There’s too many of them, and the systems react sluggishly,” Ianto adds. “I can’t cover them all.”
“Keep trying!” Sheppard orders.
Ianto keeps doing his best and manages to hit the rear of another one of the fighters, which rolls, trailing smoke behind it. Suddenly, it turns and plunges towards the Daedalus, breaking through the shields and smashing into the top of the ship. Everyone reels as the ship shakes violently and more explosions go off on the bridge. It has an eerie similarity with space battles in Star Trek - only that it’s frighteningly real.
Sheppard tries to complete the evasive maneuvers he’s started before the collision, but the pilot’s console doesn’t react.
“Have we just lost sub-light?” he asks unhappily.
Ianto gets up and hurries over to the life support console that’s beeping frantically.
“More than that, I’m afraid,” he replies grimly. “We’ve got a hull breach and are venting atmosphere.”
“Try to seal off the damaged areas,” Sheppard orders.
“I’m already at it,” Ianto’s working on the console furiously, then leans back and sighs in relief. “Done. We ought to be okay for the moment.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Ronon mutters.
McKay’s voice interrupts them, high pitched in indignation and terror. “What the hell was that? Consoles are exploding all around me down here!”
“We’re under attack,” Sheppard tells him. “We’ve lost sub-light and have a hull breach. Any change of getting that hyperdrive back online?”
“No!” McKay replies, way louder than it would be necessary. “It’s completely shot! I already told you that. But…” he trails off, and the others can almost hear the wheels in his head whirring. “But I might have an idea.”
“It’s about time,” Sheppard mutters. “Let’s hear it.”
“I’ve set up a few protocols that should increase the efficiency of the alternate reality drive,” McKay explains. “If I enable them, we might be able to jump sooner.”
“To the next universe?” Ianto asks.
“Exactly,” McKay replies. “But if I do this, I can’t undo it. I mean, we’ll just start jumping faster and faster.”
Sheppard looks at Ronon in askance, and the big Satedan shrugs. “Well, we can’t stay where we are,” he says, tilting his head in the direction of the wall screen that’s still showing the alien ship.
“No,” Ianto agrees. “If the Cybermen of this reality are anything like the ones that have visited ours, they won’t stop until we’re all dead.”
“All right,” Sheppard sighs. “Do it, Rodney. We’ll keep an eye on the enemy in the meantime. Ianto, take weapons controls again. You seem awfully good at this kind of thing. Ever been in any space battles before?”
“Do video games count?” Ianto asks, while taking the seat again.
“In the matter of hand-eye-coordination… yeah, they do,” Sheppard replies. “When we get back to our Atlantis, I’m challenging you to a battle simulation.”
“If,” Ianto says quietly, switching on the targeting systems.
Sheppard looks at him in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”
“If we get back to our Atlantis,” Ianto repeats. “Cos unless Doctor McKay works his miracles very soon, we might not get that chance.”
Sheppard follows his glance at the control screen, which shows three fighters drawing into tight formation and heading towards the Daedalus on a kamikaze run. Ianto opens fire at them, but to little effect. They’re simply too fast for the sluggish targeting system, and he’s not familiar enough with the ship to even try a manual override. Miraculously, though, shortly before impact, the now-familiar bright light envelops the bridge again, and the attackers disappear.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Moments later, the white light fades, and instead the room is bathed in an ominous red glow, coming from the outside.
“Huh!” Sheppard says in pleasant surprise. “It worked!”
Ronon frowns at the sight out of the front windshield… if one can speak about a windshield in context with a spaceship, that is. “Where are we?”
Sheppard rises from the pilot’s seat and walks with him towards the front of the bridge. Ianto, however, goes back to life support. Something - he isn’t sure what - doesn’t feel right. When he gives the control screen a cursory look, he also realizes what that is.
“Colonel, we’ve got a problem,” he reports. “Hull temperature is rising rapidly. By this rate, we’ll be toast within minutes.”
Sheppard doesn’t react. He’s still staring ahead through the windshield, stunned. “What the hell is this?”
Ianto walks up to him and takes the look. “I’d say, the surface of a star,” he judges. “And an uncomfortably close one, by the sight of it. According to sensor readings, we’re less than two million kilometres from the outer corona.”
“I thought we always jumped to the same place in every reality?” Sheppard says with a frown. Ianto shrugs.
“Theoretically, we do. But who says all alternate realities ought to be the same? They’re called alternate for a reason, ain’t they?”
“Good point,” Sheppard admits. “When I was thrown into the future last year, I saw the Lantean sun expanding into a red giant. Perhaps in this reality, it happened sooner. Much sooner.”
“Perhaps,” Ianto agrees. “In any case, we need to find a way out of this without getting fried. I hope Doctor McKay does have an idea, as I’m fresh out of them, myself.”
Sheppard contacts McKay, who tells them he has no idea how long it would take him to repair the sub-light engines and suggest rerouting all available power to the shields and riding out the whole situation ‘til the next jump. It’s not a solution either of them would be really happy wit, but all things considered, it seems to be the most promising one. So they all relocate to Engineering, and Ianto sits down to one of the consoles to help McKay, who’s still in the drive room, giving him instructions via headset.
“All right,” he says, “tell me what I’m supposed to do here.”
“I need you to kill all power to non-essential decks,” McKay replies, “which means you’re gonna have to access the main administrative interface. That should bring up a list of all available override commands. Do you think you can find them?”
“Just give me a minute,” Ianto calls up the interface, as Hermiod has shown him on his first trip to the Pegasus galaxy, and after a moment, he manages to find the appropriate programme. A long list starts scrolling down the screen, and he transfers the list down to McKay, to the drive room. “I think that’s all of them.”
“Dammit!” McKay doesn’t sound happy with the results. “That didn’t buy us nearly as much power as I would have thought.”
“There’s gotta be something else,” Sheppard, who’s looking over Ianto’s shoulder, says in frustration.
“Right, um, all right,” McKay trails off as he’s thinking furiously. “Look, the ship has auxiliary power modules for most of the main systems. Most likely they’re depleted but, if not, well, they might buy us a little more juice.”
Ianto calls up a different interface, and soon he finds access to the modules McKay is speaking about. He sends McKay the information. “Did that help?”
Before McKay could answer, however, they hear repeated gunfire from the corridor. By the sound of it, it’s Ronon’s blaster - they realize neither of them has noticed the big Satedan leaving the room. Ianto rises automatically; his hand on his gun already, but Sheppard holds him back with a gesture. They both turn to the doorway and listen as the fire continues in the distance.
“Colonel,” Ianto says in a low voice, not wanting to alarm McKay any more, “if the Cybermen have managed to board this ship, we’ll need a great deal of firepower to kill them - preferably energy weapons. There are various kinds of them; the ones from a parallel dimension I’ve met were bullet-proof metal exoskeletons with a human brain inside. They were equipped with retractable energy weapons housed within their forearms and could electrocute their victims by mere touch.”
“Charming,” Sheppard comments, raising a sarcastic eyebrow. “Are you trying to scare me, Mr. Jones?”
“No,” Ianto replies seriously. “I’m trying to forewarn you.”
“Warning duly noted,” Sheppard says. “We still need to deal with them, whatever brand they are, though. And since you’re needed here to help Rodney, I’ll go to see how Ronon’s doing. Follow me when you’re done.” And with that, he chases off.
Ianto sits down again. “Doctor McKay? Tell me what to do next.”
McKay whimpers plaintively - he must have heard more of their conversation that Ianto meant him to hear. After a moment, however, he manages to get his nerves under control and starts giving instructions. Ianto tries to stay focussed, which isn’t easy with the continuing gunfire outside the room and the steadily rising panic inside him, but he can’t afford any mistakes right now.
After a few minutes, he’s done everything McKay’s told him to do and is ready to go help Sheppard and Ronon. “That’s it,” he reports to McKay. “That’s all of them. I must go help Colonel Sheppard and Mr Dex. Good luck, Doctor - to all of us.”
Picking up the rifle Ronon’s left behind, he stands up to leave, but McKay’s voice stops him in mid-movement. “No-no-no-no-no-no-n’-no! It’s not enough!”
“What do you mean not enough?” Ianto asks, trying very hard not to panic.
“Without sub-light engines to keep us in standard distance, our orbit is decaying which means more radiation slamming into the shields,” McKay explains, his voice steadily rising in pitch. “The alternate reality drive is only charged to seventy per cent, which means it’ll never make a hundred before the shields fail.”
Ianto sinks back into his chair and tries to stay calm. If McKay loses it now, they won’t stand a chance to get out of here alive. “All right, Doctor McKay. Is there anything I can do from here? Are they any other sources of power that we could use?”
His calm, even voice - that mirrors nothing from the chaos inside him - seems to have a soothing effect on McKay’s nerves.
“Look, ju-just give me a second,” the head scientist replies… and then there’s nothing more coming from him for a while.
Ianto’s anxiety is growing with every passing second. From the corridor, he can still hear the rattling of Sheppard’s P-90 and the blasts of Ronon’s gun. But there’s another sound, one he is vaguely familiar with: a high-pitched whining that ends in a loud blast. An energy weapon of some sort, sounding eerily like the ones the Cybermen used at Canary Wharf. Not quite the same, but frighteningly similar. He feels a near uncontrollable urge to run out and see with his own eyes what’s happening out there.
“Doctor McKay, Colonel Sheppard and Ronon are under attack!” he says urgently.
“All right, I got it,” the nervous voice of McKay answers. “I got it. Drop the shields.”
“What?” Ianto believes he hasn’t heard it right.
“Drop the shields,” McKay repeats. “I will transfer all available power to the drive. Hopefully it’ll be enough to induce a jump.”
“Hopefully?” Ianto doesn’t like the sound of that.
“It is our only option, and every second we argue about it is less of a chance it’s gonna work!” McKay snaps.
“Very well,” Ianto sighs in defeat. “Dropping shields. I really hope, Doctor, that you know what you’re doing - or else we’ll burn extra crispy within moments.”
He types the appropriate commands into the console. Immediately an alarm starts to sound. Ianto checks it and isn’t the least surprised by the results.
“Hull temperature is passing critical,” he tells McKay.
“OK, transferring power to the drive now,” McKay replies.
From the corner of his eye, Ianto watches the counter of the alternate reality drive on the control screen. It races up from seventy per cent into the nineties, but when it reaches ninety-seven it hesitates, then clicks up to ninety-eight and stops there.
“Oh, no-no-no-no-no-no-no!” McKay wails.
“What is it?” Ianto asks tersely, stomping down the urge to be really rude to the man.
“It’s not enough!” McKay says. “It’s only ninety-eight per cent!”
“I can see that,” Ianto comments dryly, as the alarm continues on his console. “For your information, the hull is beginning to deteriorate.”
He stares at the control screen in barely controlled panic. They’re truly between a rock and a hard place there - being cooked alive by the red giant and attacked by alternate reality Cybermen at the same time. This was definitely not what he expected when he left Torchwood for the Atlantis expedition: to have to face his arch enemies again and die a fiery death, together with them. Life can be really unfair sometimes.
After a moment, the counter clicks up to ninety-nine per cent.
“Come on! Come on!” McKay chants desperately, as if trying to bend the belligerent machine to his will. At long last, the counter clicks up to one hundred per cent.
“That’s it!” McKay cries in triumph. “Sheppard, we’re jumping!”
The Daedalus begins to shake. Before the white flash can hit Engineering, Ianto’s out of his chair and running towards the corridor. He barely reaches the doorway when the ship jumps into a different universe - together with an unknown number of hostile Cybermen fighting their team in the corridors.
Part 18/1 - Stowaways and Other Inconveniences
Author: Soledad
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis/Torchwood x-over
Rating: Teens, for this part.
For disclaimer and background trivia go to the secondary index page.
Warning: still not Gwen-friendly - nothing I ever write would be. You’ve been warned.
Author’s note:I do use rewritten parts of the original episode here. Obviously. However, the context is a very different one as you’ll see. And yes, I have messed up SGA timeline just a teeny bit. But this is an AU.
Details considering the Cybermen are all results of Wikipedia research. I hope I get them right - the descriptions are a little confusing at times.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
PART 17 - THE RETURN OF THE CYBERMEN
“All right,” McKay says when the other two are gone. “Let’s close the blast door and see if this Miss Sato of yours was really such a genius as you seem to think.”
“Doctor Sato,” Ianto corrects, indignant on Tosh’s behalf, whatever reality she might have belonged. “Trust me, she wasthat isn’t a surprise…”
“We’re also sneaky, vengeful and good at holding grudges,” Ianto replies mildly and reaches out for alternate Tosh’s computer tablet. “Let’s see if I can get in.”
It takes him about ten minutes to find the correct password - he’s somewhat surprised that if would be the maiden name of Owen’s dead fiancée, but again, Tosh’s never gone for the obvious. He also recognizes one of her highly efficient data compression systems, and as he knows how to unpack the compressed data blocks, McKay can soon dive headfirst into the depths of alternate Tosh’s research.
“Hmmm…” Atlantis’ head geek says, clearly impressed. ”She was good, very good. Perhaps not directly a genius, I wouldn’t go so far, but…”
“You’re just jealous cos in the alternate reality she has gotten your job,” Ianto says with a bland face.
“And not just in this alternate reality, apparently,” McKay replies, obviously baffled.
Ianto raises an inquisitive eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Look at this,” McKay shows him one of the particularly cramped data packs. “It looks like the drive itself was created by yet another Toshiko Sato, from the original reality.”
“Well,” Ianto decided, having studied the data for a while, “there is a certain, elegance to the design that I recognise.”
“I’m sure that’s what the crew were saying when they abandoned ship,” Sheppard comments cynically.
McKay shrugs. “Well admittedly there are problems, but it is still a monumental achievement.”
“So you admit that she was a genius?” Ianto comments sotto voice. McKay turns and glares daggers at him.
“I didn’t say that,” he protests.
Ianto gives him The Eyebrow™. “Like I said - simply jealous,” he sates.
“Okay, okay, stop this now!” Sheppard interrupts their banter. “Rodney, what do we do? Can we just throw this thing in reverse?”
“Uh, yeah, it’s a little more complicated than that,” McKay replies. “The first problem is navigation. They’ve developed a co-ordinate system to identify the various realities and allow them to get back, but, uh, obviously that didn’t work.”
“No shit!” Sheppard raises the fake surprise routine to new heights, but McKay pays him little to no attention, his overactive brain already ten steps ahead.
“But that’s not what really bothers me,” he says, more to himself than to the others.
“Well, good for you,” Sheppard comments sarcastically. “It kind of bothers me, you know.”
McKay doesn’t listen to him; he probably doesn’t even hear the comment amidst of his monologue. “It’s power generation. I mean, jumping from one reality to another requires massive amounts of power. We’re talking ZedPM levels here. Obviously they didn’t have one of those rattling around, so they created a capacitor that’s constantly drawing power from sub-space.”
An alarm beeps on one of the consoles, interrupting his rather vocal thinking process.
“And it looks like it’s almost charged," Ianto adds calmly. “I wonder if we’re going to find coffee in the next reality. I’m kinda feeling useless without operating a coffee machine.”
Sheppard ignores him. He’s too busy glaring daggers at McKay.
“Is this your long-winded way of telling me you just can’t turn it off?” he asks.
McKay shrugs. “Think of it like a tap pouring water into a bucket,” he explains. “When the bucket is full, the drive engages - except this particular tap has no valve.”
“It seems like a pretty serious design flaw, don’t you think?” Sheppard asks.
“Exactly,” McKay agrees, and it’s no Ianto’s turn to glare daggers at him, because it’s Tosh’s design, and he won’t take kindly anybody speaking ill of Tosh or her work, even if it is, technically, not about his Tosh.
“Which leads me to believe they were tampering with it in a vain attempt to generate more power,” McKay continues.
“You mean the team we found here dead?” Sheppard clarifies-
McKay nods, while the ship begins to shake. “As they got further and further from their own reality, I guess they figured they needed to get back.”
The shaking becomes more violent as Ianto watches the control screen of the generator reach 99 percent, and then go to 100 percent.
“And here we go,” he announces.
The already familiar white flash briefly envelops the entire room. Ianto sees McKay grimace and blink as the glare fades.
“Okay,” Sheppard says. “Where are we?”
“Don’t look at me,” McKay snaps, irritated. “I haven’t had time to route the main systems to these control panels. I’m flyin’ blind down here.”
“You’re not flying the ship, McKay,” Sheppard points out unhelpfully. “She’s doing all the work on her own.”
“Colonel,” Ianto intervenes smoothly before they could get into a really ugly fight, “perhaps we ought to go up to the bridge and make a sensor sweep.”
Sheppard gives him a doubtful look. “Are you familiar with the bridge systems?”
“Well, I couldn’t exactly fly the ship,” Ianto admits, “but I can use the communication system and the scanners well enough.”
“Works for me,” Sheppard picks up his rifle and activates his headset. “Ronon, meet me and Ianto at the bridge.”
“Okay,” Ronon grunts over radio.
“Keep it up, Rodney,” Sheppard tells McKay’s back and leaves the room, Ianto in trail.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When they reach the bridge, Ianto goes directly to the sensor controls and makes a thorough sweep of their surroundings - including the planet which they are still orbiting.
“Colonel, Atlantis is back,” he reports in surprise. “I’m picking them up on the sensors.”
He types on the console to put the image on the wall screen. Sheppard looks at him with newborn respect.
“You’re really good at working this stuff,” he says. “When did you learn it?”
“When I came to Atlantis on board the Daedalus, “Ianto explains. “Doctor Novak and Hermiod were generous enough to explain me a great deal about how the board systems work.”
“Yeah, Major Marks wanted to give me some preliminary training, too,” Ronon comments, “but I was too busy.”
Ianto shrugs. “Your loss. Colonel, shall I call Atlantis?”
“If it’s not too much to ask,” Sheppard replies with an eyeroll. Ianto activates the comm system. “Atlantis, this is Sheppard, come in.” Like before, there’s no reply. “Atlantis, do you read?”
“Maybe they already have a Sheppard,” Ronon suggests with a smirk.
Sheppard gives him a baleful look and activates his headset. “Rodney, what are the odds of us randomly jumping back into our own reality?”
“I’d say slim to none,” McKay’s voice replies via radio.
Ianto, in the meantime, is distracted by some unexpected readings on the sensor control screen.
“Colonel, I’m detecting another ship in orbit,” he reports. Sheppard whirls around to face him.
“What kind of ship?” he demands.
“I’ll see if I can pull it up on screen,” Ianto is already typing away on the console. A moment later the external cameras show the other ship.
It’s a design neither of them has seen before: vaguely triangular in shape, silver-grey, and with one mean-looking gun on each side, each almost as big as the ship itself. Which, according to the scale on the bottom of the control screen, is about the Daedalus’ own size.
Ronon looks at Sheppard questioningly, but the colonel shakes his head.
“I don’t recognise it,” he admits, then he points to a particular section of the hull. “Can you magnify that section?”
Ianto nods and types, and the cameras zoom in on the area and show a symbol painted on the side of the ship. It’s more or less X-shaped, although the lines are broken at unusual angles.
“What’s that?” Ronon asks.
“Presumably either something giving the ship’s or the race’s designation,” Sheppard replies with a shrug.
Ronon raises an eyebrow. “You know it?”
Sheppard shakes his head. “No.”
“But I do,” Ianto says quietly. “Granted, it’s been years since I saw something like this, and even then only for a moment - junior researchers were not supposed to view confidential material at Torchwood London - but I’m fairly certain that it’s the symbol of the planet Telos… or rather the alternate equivalent of it.”
“Which means… what exactly?” Sheppard asks, the name not ringing any bells with him.
“If I’m right, and I don’t see how I could be wrong about this, we ought to destroy this ship before its crew has the chance to destroy us, “Ianto replies grimly.
“Whoa, whoa, slow down for a moment!” Sheppard protests. “We can’t just start shooting at an unknown ship, only because you think they might fire at us.”
“No?” Ianto glances down at his console, which begins to beep. “What about this, then: the ship is powering up its weapons. Do you still believe I’m exaggerating?”
Sheppard jogs over to him, checks the readings and frowns. “What’s our shield status?”
“Minimal,” Ianto replies curtly. “Certainly not sufficient to withstand the laser cannons of that ship. They’re bloody large, in case you haven’t realized.”
“What does tell you those are laser cannons?” Ronon asks. “By the sight of them, they could be anything.”
“Cybermen of our own reality used laser cannons when attempted to destroy an entire base… or a spaceship,” Ianto answers matter-of-factly. “And cobalt bombs, if they were trying to destroy whole planets. According to the records of Torchwood London, a Cyber-megatron bomb could have destroyed all life on Earth.”
“Cybermen?” Sheppard replies, clearly unfamiliar with the term. “You mean human-form Replicators?”
“No," Ianto says,” these are a different race. Listen, colonel, I’ll gladly update your knowledge in this particular area once we’re back in our reality, but I really think we ought to take counter-measures now, as long as we still can.”
As if on clue, the alien ship begins to fire multiple energy bursts - but not at the Daedalus. It fires them down towards the planet.
“It’s firing on Atlantis!” Ronon realizes with a shock.
“Then the city is doomed,” Ianto says grimly. “Her shields are failing already.”
“We’ll see that!” Sheppard hurries over to the weapons console and sits down. “Rodney, do we have enough juice to power up the Asgard beam?”
“Maybe,” McKay replies distractedly. “I mean, you might be able to get a couple of shots off. Why?”
“There’s some alien ship attacking Atlantis,” Sheppard explains.
“So?” McKay doesn’t see the problem. Or he’s too busy down there to care.
“What do you mean, so?” Sheppard demands. “It’s Atlantis!”
“Yeah, well, it’s not our Atlantis,” McKay points out. “We have no idea who’s down there. Look, we should just stay out of it.”
“Colonel,” Ianto warns. “If we do not intervene, the city will be destroyed. Then the ship will turn around and finish us off. One way or another, we won’t get around fighting it.”
“And you’re absolutely sure about that?” Sheppard asks.
Ianto nods. “I’ve fought them before… well, sort of. Mostly, I was hiding and hoping they won’t find me and turn me into one of them. I’m one of the twenty-seven people out of almost eight hundred who survived when they last paid Earth a visit.”
“They were on Earth already?” Sheppard is baffled.
“Several times,” Ianto says. “Of course, it was covered up by UNIT and has been considered top secret, ever since. I doubt that anyone in the States aside from your President knows about it… perhaps not even he does.”
“Okay,” Sheppard forces himself to focus on the problem at hand. “That’s another story you ought to tell when we’re back home. Rodney, we need all available power for the Asgard beam. Ianto says we ought to blow that ship of the sky, and my gut tells me we should listen.”
“I hope you’re right!” McKay answers; then the weapons console suddenly comes alive.
“Yeah, well, me too,” Sheppard hits the fire button. The control screen shows the Daedalus turn and fire a single Asgard beam which strikes the alien ship. Then a second beam is fired, and the bombardment of the planet ceases.
“Direct hits on both laser cannons,” Ianto reports. “The ship’s been damaged. It’s stopped firing.”
“That’s good,” Sheppard says. “Hopefully we took out its main weapons.”
Ianto re-checks the sensor control screen. “We have. But it isn’t over yet. They’re launching fighters.”
“Great!” Sheppard comments sarcastically, as Ianto calls up on the wall screen the image of a whole lot of small craft deploying from the ship and heading towards the Daedalus. The heck view of the fighters is amazingly similar to the symbol on the ship’s side. “I think I’ll have to do some piloting here, assuming the sub-light engines are still working. Ronon!”
As the Satedan walks towards him, Sheppard vacates the chair. “You should’ve taken Marks’ offer up when you had the chance. Now you’re gonna have to learn fast.”
“No, he hasn’t,” Ianto says. “I can do this.”
Sheppard glances at him in disbelief. “You can handle the weapons controls?”
Ianto walks over to them and sits down in the chair without being invited to do so.
“Rail gun targeting systems,” he points to the console. “The buttons on the right control radar, tracking and target acquisition. And I’ll use the red button to fire. Anything else?”
For a moment, both Sheppard and Ronon stare at him in open-mouthed awe; then the colonel runs over to the pilot’s seat. Ianto concentrates with narrowing eyes, hands hovering over the console, as if he’d be playing some highly advanced video game. Soon, the rail guns begin to fire towards the approaching fleet. He manages to score a few hits, but the fighters continue to soar towards the Daedalus, firing at her.
One has to give the Cybermen that: they’re nothing if not thorough, Ianto thinks grimly. A quick glance at his control screen alarms him to another problem, though.
“Colonel, the weakened shields can’t keep everything from getting through,” he reports, without turning his eyes from Tactical. “We’ve got multiple hits all over the ship.”
“Great!” that single word seems to be Sheppard’s preferred expression of sarcasm. Just in that moment, multiple explosions go off on the bridge.
“There’s too many of them, and the systems react sluggishly,” Ianto adds. “I can’t cover them all.”
“Keep trying!” Sheppard orders.
Ianto keeps doing his best and manages to hit the rear of another one of the fighters, which rolls, trailing smoke behind it. Suddenly, it turns and plunges towards the Daedalus, breaking through the shields and smashing into the top of the ship. Everyone reels as the ship shakes violently and more explosions go off on the bridge. It has an eerie similarity with space battles in Star Trek - only that it’s frighteningly real.
Sheppard tries to complete the evasive maneuvers he’s started before the collision, but the pilot’s console doesn’t react.
“Have we just lost sub-light?” he asks unhappily.
Ianto gets up and hurries over to the life support console that’s beeping frantically.
“More than that, I’m afraid,” he replies grimly. “We’ve got a hull breach and are venting atmosphere.”
“Try to seal off the damaged areas,” Sheppard orders.
“I’m already at it,” Ianto’s working on the console furiously, then leans back and sighs in relief. “Done. We ought to be okay for the moment.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Ronon mutters.
McKay’s voice interrupts them, high pitched in indignation and terror. “What the hell was that? Consoles are exploding all around me down here!”
“We’re under attack,” Sheppard tells him. “We’ve lost sub-light and have a hull breach. Any change of getting that hyperdrive back online?”
“No!” McKay replies, way louder than it would be necessary. “It’s completely shot! I already told you that. But…” he trails off, and the others can almost hear the wheels in his head whirring. “But I might have an idea.”
“It’s about time,” Sheppard mutters. “Let’s hear it.”
“I’ve set up a few protocols that should increase the efficiency of the alternate reality drive,” McKay explains. “If I enable them, we might be able to jump sooner.”
“To the next universe?” Ianto asks.
“Exactly,” McKay replies. “But if I do this, I can’t undo it. I mean, we’ll just start jumping faster and faster.”
Sheppard looks at Ronon in askance, and the big Satedan shrugs. “Well, we can’t stay where we are,” he says, tilting his head in the direction of the wall screen that’s still showing the alien ship.
“No,” Ianto agrees. “If the Cybermen of this reality are anything like the ones that have visited ours, they won’t stop until we’re all dead.”
“All right,” Sheppard sighs. “Do it, Rodney. We’ll keep an eye on the enemy in the meantime. Ianto, take weapons controls again. You seem awfully good at this kind of thing. Ever been in any space battles before?”
“Do video games count?” Ianto asks, while taking the seat again.
“In the matter of hand-eye-coordination… yeah, they do,” Sheppard replies. “When we get back to our Atlantis, I’m challenging you to a battle simulation.”
“If,” Ianto says quietly, switching on the targeting systems.
Sheppard looks at him in surprise. “I beg your pardon?”
“If we get back to our Atlantis,” Ianto repeats. “Cos unless Doctor McKay works his miracles very soon, we might not get that chance.”
Sheppard follows his glance at the control screen, which shows three fighters drawing into tight formation and heading towards the Daedalus on a kamikaze run. Ianto opens fire at them, but to little effect. They’re simply too fast for the sluggish targeting system, and he’s not familiar enough with the ship to even try a manual override. Miraculously, though, shortly before impact, the now-familiar bright light envelops the bridge again, and the attackers disappear.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Moments later, the white light fades, and instead the room is bathed in an ominous red glow, coming from the outside.
“Huh!” Sheppard says in pleasant surprise. “It worked!”
Ronon frowns at the sight out of the front windshield… if one can speak about a windshield in context with a spaceship, that is. “Where are we?”
Sheppard rises from the pilot’s seat and walks with him towards the front of the bridge. Ianto, however, goes back to life support. Something - he isn’t sure what - doesn’t feel right. When he gives the control screen a cursory look, he also realizes what that is.
“Colonel, we’ve got a problem,” he reports. “Hull temperature is rising rapidly. By this rate, we’ll be toast within minutes.”
Sheppard doesn’t react. He’s still staring ahead through the windshield, stunned. “What the hell is this?”
Ianto walks up to him and takes the look. “I’d say, the surface of a star,” he judges. “And an uncomfortably close one, by the sight of it. According to sensor readings, we’re less than two million kilometres from the outer corona.”
“I thought we always jumped to the same place in every reality?” Sheppard says with a frown. Ianto shrugs.
“Theoretically, we do. But who says all alternate realities ought to be the same? They’re called alternate for a reason, ain’t they?”
“Good point,” Sheppard admits. “When I was thrown into the future last year, I saw the Lantean sun expanding into a red giant. Perhaps in this reality, it happened sooner. Much sooner.”
“Perhaps,” Ianto agrees. “In any case, we need to find a way out of this without getting fried. I hope Doctor McKay does have an idea, as I’m fresh out of them, myself.”
Sheppard contacts McKay, who tells them he has no idea how long it would take him to repair the sub-light engines and suggest rerouting all available power to the shields and riding out the whole situation ‘til the next jump. It’s not a solution either of them would be really happy wit, but all things considered, it seems to be the most promising one. So they all relocate to Engineering, and Ianto sits down to one of the consoles to help McKay, who’s still in the drive room, giving him instructions via headset.
“All right,” he says, “tell me what I’m supposed to do here.”
“I need you to kill all power to non-essential decks,” McKay replies, “which means you’re gonna have to access the main administrative interface. That should bring up a list of all available override commands. Do you think you can find them?”
“Just give me a minute,” Ianto calls up the interface, as Hermiod has shown him on his first trip to the Pegasus galaxy, and after a moment, he manages to find the appropriate programme. A long list starts scrolling down the screen, and he transfers the list down to McKay, to the drive room. “I think that’s all of them.”
“Dammit!” McKay doesn’t sound happy with the results. “That didn’t buy us nearly as much power as I would have thought.”
“There’s gotta be something else,” Sheppard, who’s looking over Ianto’s shoulder, says in frustration.
“Right, um, all right,” McKay trails off as he’s thinking furiously. “Look, the ship has auxiliary power modules for most of the main systems. Most likely they’re depleted but, if not, well, they might buy us a little more juice.”
Ianto calls up a different interface, and soon he finds access to the modules McKay is speaking about. He sends McKay the information. “Did that help?”
Before McKay could answer, however, they hear repeated gunfire from the corridor. By the sound of it, it’s Ronon’s blaster - they realize neither of them has noticed the big Satedan leaving the room. Ianto rises automatically; his hand on his gun already, but Sheppard holds him back with a gesture. They both turn to the doorway and listen as the fire continues in the distance.
“Colonel,” Ianto says in a low voice, not wanting to alarm McKay any more, “if the Cybermen have managed to board this ship, we’ll need a great deal of firepower to kill them - preferably energy weapons. There are various kinds of them; the ones from a parallel dimension I’ve met were bullet-proof metal exoskeletons with a human brain inside. They were equipped with retractable energy weapons housed within their forearms and could electrocute their victims by mere touch.”
“Charming,” Sheppard comments, raising a sarcastic eyebrow. “Are you trying to scare me, Mr. Jones?”
“No,” Ianto replies seriously. “I’m trying to forewarn you.”
“Warning duly noted,” Sheppard says. “We still need to deal with them, whatever brand they are, though. And since you’re needed here to help Rodney, I’ll go to see how Ronon’s doing. Follow me when you’re done.” And with that, he chases off.
Ianto sits down again. “Doctor McKay? Tell me what to do next.”
McKay whimpers plaintively - he must have heard more of their conversation that Ianto meant him to hear. After a moment, however, he manages to get his nerves under control and starts giving instructions. Ianto tries to stay focussed, which isn’t easy with the continuing gunfire outside the room and the steadily rising panic inside him, but he can’t afford any mistakes right now.
After a few minutes, he’s done everything McKay’s told him to do and is ready to go help Sheppard and Ronon. “That’s it,” he reports to McKay. “That’s all of them. I must go help Colonel Sheppard and Mr Dex. Good luck, Doctor - to all of us.”
Picking up the rifle Ronon’s left behind, he stands up to leave, but McKay’s voice stops him in mid-movement. “No-no-no-no-no-no-n’-no! It’s not enough!”
“What do you mean not enough?” Ianto asks, trying very hard not to panic.
“Without sub-light engines to keep us in standard distance, our orbit is decaying which means more radiation slamming into the shields,” McKay explains, his voice steadily rising in pitch. “The alternate reality drive is only charged to seventy per cent, which means it’ll never make a hundred before the shields fail.”
Ianto sinks back into his chair and tries to stay calm. If McKay loses it now, they won’t stand a chance to get out of here alive. “All right, Doctor McKay. Is there anything I can do from here? Are they any other sources of power that we could use?”
His calm, even voice - that mirrors nothing from the chaos inside him - seems to have a soothing effect on McKay’s nerves.
“Look, ju-just give me a second,” the head scientist replies… and then there’s nothing more coming from him for a while.
Ianto’s anxiety is growing with every passing second. From the corridor, he can still hear the rattling of Sheppard’s P-90 and the blasts of Ronon’s gun. But there’s another sound, one he is vaguely familiar with: a high-pitched whining that ends in a loud blast. An energy weapon of some sort, sounding eerily like the ones the Cybermen used at Canary Wharf. Not quite the same, but frighteningly similar. He feels a near uncontrollable urge to run out and see with his own eyes what’s happening out there.
“Doctor McKay, Colonel Sheppard and Ronon are under attack!” he says urgently.
“All right, I got it,” the nervous voice of McKay answers. “I got it. Drop the shields.”
“What?” Ianto believes he hasn’t heard it right.
“Drop the shields,” McKay repeats. “I will transfer all available power to the drive. Hopefully it’ll be enough to induce a jump.”
“Hopefully?” Ianto doesn’t like the sound of that.
“It is our only option, and every second we argue about it is less of a chance it’s gonna work!” McKay snaps.
“Very well,” Ianto sighs in defeat. “Dropping shields. I really hope, Doctor, that you know what you’re doing - or else we’ll burn extra crispy within moments.”
He types the appropriate commands into the console. Immediately an alarm starts to sound. Ianto checks it and isn’t the least surprised by the results.
“Hull temperature is passing critical,” he tells McKay.
“OK, transferring power to the drive now,” McKay replies.
From the corner of his eye, Ianto watches the counter of the alternate reality drive on the control screen. It races up from seventy per cent into the nineties, but when it reaches ninety-seven it hesitates, then clicks up to ninety-eight and stops there.
“Oh, no-no-no-no-no-no-no!” McKay wails.
“What is it?” Ianto asks tersely, stomping down the urge to be really rude to the man.
“It’s not enough!” McKay says. “It’s only ninety-eight per cent!”
“I can see that,” Ianto comments dryly, as the alarm continues on his console. “For your information, the hull is beginning to deteriorate.”
He stares at the control screen in barely controlled panic. They’re truly between a rock and a hard place there - being cooked alive by the red giant and attacked by alternate reality Cybermen at the same time. This was definitely not what he expected when he left Torchwood for the Atlantis expedition: to have to face his arch enemies again and die a fiery death, together with them. Life can be really unfair sometimes.
After a moment, the counter clicks up to ninety-nine per cent.
“Come on! Come on!” McKay chants desperately, as if trying to bend the belligerent machine to his will. At long last, the counter clicks up to one hundred per cent.
“That’s it!” McKay cries in triumph. “Sheppard, we’re jumping!”
The Daedalus begins to shake. Before the white flash can hit Engineering, Ianto’s out of his chair and running towards the corridor. He barely reaches the doorway when the ship jumps into a different universe - together with an unknown number of hostile Cybermen fighting their team in the corridors.
Part 18/1 - Stowaways and Other Inconveniences