The Torchwood - 7/10
“So Jack, this is gonna work, right?” Owen asked skeptically for the third time. “I mean, we’re not gonna wind up floating in outerspace with our insides on our outsides are we?”
“For the last time, Owen, Tosh and I have done the calculations. We’ve modified the amplifier enough so that the TARDIS should pick all of us up. Just make sure you’re touching the coral so she grabs you too.”
“All set Tosh,” Jack called. Tosh and Gwen had gone to the armory to pick up more weaponry. As the two women entered the main Hub, Owen and Jack were gob-smacked to see them. Dressed in form-fitting gear, both had weapons strapped to their ankles, thighs, and waists. They had done their hair up in identical buns, and Tosh was loading clips into yet another pistol as Gwen slid a hunting knife into the sheath on her belt.
“Charlie’s Angels my ass! Give me Torchwood Angels any day!” Owen howled as Jack gave a low growl.
“Let’s just get on with this,” Gwen sighed as Tosh did a small twirl in Owen’s arms.
“Tosh, after this is done, I think you and I should get in some practice down in the firing range,” Owen said.
“Trust me Owen,” Tosh purred seductively, “I don’t need any practice. I’m ready to go at a moment’s notice.”
“Damn…..”
“Right, ok then!” Jack said cheerfully clapping his hands to get Owen’s eyes away from Tosh’s rather well-proportioned chest. “Everyone grab hold of the coral, and I’ll turn on the amplifier. You might feel a slight twinge, don’t worry, that’s normal.”
As Jack reached over to switch on the amplifier, Owen turned his face up, horrified. “Twinge? You never said anything about a ‘twinge’! What kind of twinge are we looking at? A ‘Getting Stitches’ Twinge or a ‘You Have Multiple Sharp Weapons Embedded In Your Chest’ kind of twinge. You never said -“
His rant was cut off by a rather non-twinge-like stab of pain as all four members (coral included) were surrounded by a ray of white light.
“Ok, that was so not a twinge,” Gwen said, picking herself up off the grated floor of the darkened TARDIS. “What the bloody hell is this place?”
“Hey Sweetheart, did you miss me?” Jack crooed to the console. Suddenly, the TARDIS console lit up, as if it had been waiting for Jack the whole time. “I know, baby, I know. We’ll get them both back soon. I won’t let the Master get you this time.”
Jack punched in a few commands and turned the console’s viewing screen around so that the others could see. “It looks like the TARDIS is inside the Master’s ship, so we’re lucky. I’ve tapped into their internal cameras, a bit like CCTV but way more advanced.”
“Jack, can she search for specific life forms? Maybe she can tell us where Ianto, the Doctor, and Mrs. Saxon are,” Gwen suggested.
“”Hang on, let’s see,” Jack said, typing on a few more buttons and turning what looked suspiciously like a clear paperweight. “Come on sweetheart, I know you want him back. Give me some help here!”
As if the TARDIS has heard his pleas (and Owen would never believe that the TARDIS had actually heard and responded to Jack, computers just don’t do that sort of thing), a schematic popped up on the viewscreen, complete with seven colored dots.
“Ok, this looks like the ship. Typical Ugorian design. That’s us, here,” Jack said, pointing to four of the dots clustered together. “And that must be the Doctor and Ianto over there, which makes this one the Master.”
“Jack, not to disrupt you here, but all these colors are pretty vivid. Why’s this one… “Owen said, pointing to one of the Doctor/Ianto dots, “…so much lighter than the others?”
“The TARDIS isn’t just tracking us, she’s also tracking our health,” Jack answered grimly. “Now, reconfiguring the amplifier took a lot of time, and we still need to come up with a plan. We’ve only got 8 hours left, so let’s not waste any of it, yeah?”
Jack ran to the other side of the console and opened the TARDIS’s main viewscreen above their heads. He typed in a command, and within seconds, he, Tosh, and Gwen were going through the ship’s cameras to determine points of attack, guard rotations, and emergency escape plans. Owen, ever the medical professional, had been set up with the smaller console viewscreen. He poured through the TARDIS database, searching for any and all references to Cagavian snake venom and Gregnatch bushes. He’d be damned if Tea-Boy was going to die on his watch. Not after they’d spent all this time rescuing him. He meant what he said before; no one, and he meant no one, got to mess with the Tea-Boy except him. And Jack. But there was no way Owen would ever think of messing with the Tea-Boy the same way Jack messed with the Tea-Boy. Even he had standards. Then again, if he was really, really, drunk…
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The Doctor had a magpie mind. He’d been told this often enough and had come to accept it as reality. He simply couldn’t forget. Oh, he occasionally misplaced things, but he’d remember them soon enough. Faces, names, lives, histories, technology, everything was burned inside his mind, permanent exhibits in a mental museum.
So now, as he sat cradling his possible great-grandson against his chest(and wouldn’t it be amazing if it were true and there was a brother still living out there somewhere?), he was remembering all the adventures with Susan and Ian and Barbara. Aztecs and dinosaurs and Shoreditch and so much more. If it was true, if he could only hope…. That’d mean he wasn’t alone anymore! He wouldn’t have to travel alone, he’d have someone to talk to, someone to open his mind to, someone to ease the neverending emptiness since….but no, he wouldn’t think of That Day now. Now he needed to be focused on Ianto, focused on keeping him breathing and calm and cool. The poison was progressing faster than their un-named scientist had originally intended; apparently the masters ‘minion’ had been a bit liberal with its application. The temporary injections were helping, but they were only that, temporary. Ianto’s temperature was still dangerously high and climbing. He had long ago stopped shaking, but that was only because his muscles were simply too drained for any further movement. His skin had turned a sallow yellow color, heralding the failing of kidneys or his liver, which both elated and angered the Master when he’d last come to the cell.
“I refuse to let him die until I say so!” Lucy/Master shouted when the scientist had told him of Ianto’s progression. “I say when he dies, no one else! Up the dosage, keep him alive!”
“But Sir, if we up the dosage it will have side effects in his brain. Intense pain, possible seizures…He’d be in agony!”
“Then let him be in agony! And tell me which organ fails first! I want to bomb something!”
Ianto had been awake for this conversation, as well as for the injection of a double dose of the injection. The Doctor still hadn’t been able to figure out what was in it exactly. If he’d only been in the TARDIS, she’d have been able to analyze the exact poison compound and create an anti-venom. But no, here he was, failing yet again to protect someone else.
Ianto moaned against the Doctor’s chest, and the Doctor shifted him so that he was lying on one of the mattresses, head and chest propped up on the two pillows to ease his breathing. The Doctor gave a grim smile as Ianto opened his eyes. The boy was certainly capable of hiding how much pain he was truly in; the only indication was the slight shaking of his hands and the tenseness of his shoulders.
“Come up with… an ingenious plan… yet?” Ianto asked. His sentences were now punctuated with frequent gasps for breath and bubbles of blood on the sides of his mouth. What most disturbed the Doctor, though, was the distinct lack of sarcasm Ianto was showing. He had found the young man to be of quick wit, but he could see how the poison and injections were slowing his brain processes.
“I’m working on it. I’ve half a plan. I’m going to have to kill the Master, permanently this time. There’s only one way to do that at this point.”
Ianto raised an eyebrow in question. Oh, the range of emotions and thoughts that man could convey in a single motion!
“The TARDIS is going to have to do it. He’s going to have to look into her heart. The core of the Time Vortex is there; she can either kill him forever, or trap him inside it. We tried it once before with Blon Fel-fetch. Turned her back into an egg. She owns a lovely B&B on Raxocorricofallipatorius now. Gets a five-star International Zagat rating, and you have to book two years in advance.”
“How…” Ianto coughed, “How are you going to get the Master into the TARDIS?”
“That’s the part I haven’t figured out yet. She’s somewhere on this ship, I can feel her. But she knows him, hates him, and so won’t let him anywhere near her. He has my key, but she can feel his DNA and is locking him out.”
“Doctor,” Ianto rasped, pausing to take several short breaths, “If he’s making a body…. of your DNA, won’t she think… he’s you? Then he could just go in and… take her.”
The Doctor’s face fell as he considered Ianto’s words. “Ah. Right. Forgot about that. Guess we’ll need a new plan, huh?”
“We didn’t…. have one to start ….with,” Ianto said, offering a small smile.
“I find those tend to work the best anyway! Who needs plans when you’ve got need and improvisation! Mother of invention and all that! And it hasn’t failed me yet!”
“Again, Sir, not to …..be rude, ….but you’ve been locked up by …..a psychopathic dead man who’s telepathically controlling…. his ex-wife via a ‘magic ring’. Personally, I’d …prefer a plan.”
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After what seemed like ages, the Torchwood team had finally concocted a plan. Like all Ugorian ships, this one was arranged in a circle, with concentric circles moving outwards for four levels. The main observation deck sat in the middle, controlling the ship like the hub of a large wheel. That was where they would find the Master. Ianto and the Doctor were being kept in a cell on the third ring and to the left of the Observation Deck. The four teammates would stage a precision strike on the cell. Gwen and Tosh would set off electromagnetic grenades at various areas on the ship, disrupting the ship’s computer systems and taking out its internal sensors. They would then stage distractions for the guards, leading them away from Ianto’s cell. Jack and Owen would head towards the cell, and retrieve Ianto and the Doctor. Tosh and Gwen wanted to come as well, arguing that they would need all the help they could get and that the Master obviously wanted Jack as a prisoner, but Jack was adamant.
“Ianto will need a medic, and I can’t die,” he said, trying to convince the girls. “If the Master finds us, he won’t hesitate to kill you. I don’t know why he wants me, but he at least he can’t kill me. Tosh has the TARDIS extrapolator; that should act as a shield and keep you protected from most weaponry, but if the Master has his laser screwdriver, he’d be able to deactivate it. Please, just follow the plan and be careful. Keep in constant contact.” Tosh, Gwen, and Owen nodded.
Owen looked at his three friends. “Right then, looks like Torchwood is going to war. Saddle up, pilgrims!”