GIFT FOR THE COMMUNITY: A time to die, A time to build (Jack/Ten) [T] (Part Two)
Title: A time to die, A time to build
Author: luorescence
Recipient: the community
Rating: T
Pairing(s): Jack/Tenth Doctor, Jack/Eleventh Doctor (mentions)
Spoilers/warnings: Set after Waters of Mars for the Doctor, after The Wedding of Sarah Jane to be more precise. Future!Jack. References to all four seasons of Torchwood. TW: Dark and mental torture at one point
Summary: When the Doctor told Jack he needed him on that planet before running away like he always did, the Captain hadn’t thought they would meet again before hundreds of years, at least. And yet, he’s standing quite literally in front of Jack’s nose, while the latter just got shot by sonic bullets. And he’s not even the right regeneration. Typical.
Author’s notes: Many thanks to my betas for their work and wonderful support. The Doctor and Jack wouldn’t cooperate, things got way out of hand, and well. The result is quite long, and just a tad timey-wimey.
Part One
**
"Random time and space location input. Didn't do that in a while. Could be anywhere, anywhen. I should do that more often." The Doctor passed his tongue over his lips, then grinned in a manic way, making his face wrinkle. He expectantly patted the door, urging Jack to put his coat fast and join him. "Right then, let's see what's outside!"
When they stepped outside, the bright light made Jack put a hand over his eyes. It took a few moments for his vision to adjust before he could lower his hand. They were in a large room with dark silver walls that reflected the numerous light balls hanging above their head, hence the luminosity. Squinting his eyes, the Captain could make out the midnight blue tubes that attached the lamps to plates of funny shapes. Those were of the same colour, expanding in the air in a chaotic but familiar fashion.
"Oh!" the Doctor exclaimed, earning Jack's attention. His eyebrows were all the way up and his mouth open in a comical but endearing expression that made the immortal grin. He suddenly turned to kiss his ship's door. "Oh you, what could I do without you?"
The moment the Time Lord's lips touched the wood, a jolt went through Jack. He muffled his gasp in the fabric of his coat, wishing that the other hadn't noticed his antics. Thoughts and emotions that definitely weren't his filled his mind, stronger than any form of telepathy he had ever experienced.
She's beeping loudly while driving herself and letting her thief thinks he's got control (won't expect that). She transported them to where she wants to land and he's bouncy like one of those strays of his, and she can feel his genuine happiness (always the best at her functions when he doesn't tamper with her). Had to delete rooms to redirect the energy to her engines to get here. The cooling system is turning at full power, its liquid struggling to keep the circuitry from overheating (will need much rest). Her Time Lord's superior auxiliary ends are on the Temporal Anomaly's matrix case (not alone--now--anymore?).
It was a little too much for Jack, who staggered a few steps until his back was on the ship's door, feeling dizzy. He closed his eyes, focused all his attention on pushing the alien consciousness into a part of his mind where it wouldn't overwhelm his own thoughts. The tendrils--much larger now--pulsed under his touch, more glimpses of the TARDIS' thoughts bleeding through them, but he somehow managed to tune them down to a hum with mental barriers. A temporary solution--he could still feel the heavy press of the TARDIS against him--but it would do for now. Bless the training the Time Agency dispensed to its recruits.
The Captain crossed his arms over his chest, opening his eyes to see that the Doctor was now touching one of the long tubes suspended from the metal-like thing. He bit back an inappropriate comment when the other ran his fingers along the shape, softy humming. That was when he noticed it, a soft, ethereal note he wouldn't be able to hear over the din the TARDIS had made in his head.
"Do you hear that?" Jack eventually asked when he had waited enough to be sure he wasn't imagining it. "The flute-like sound. It's not loud but it's definitely there, like a background noise," he explained when the Doctor looked at him.
The Time Lord grinned. "I should have known you would hear it. Come, we're standing far too close." He made them walk to the closest wall, some thirty-something feet away. "Now, look at it."
Jack scanned the area, a circular room with the TARDIS in its centre. Now that he could see the whole scenery, the arrangement made much more sense. Whatever it was, it was shaped like a mechanical tree. Its branches and foliage made of metallic plates and the luminous balls its fruits. The ship was nestled in the trunk, half-buried in a heap of dark blue-grey tubes that formed a case around her. The roots--thick black conduits covered with glowing shards of white--covered the floor, some parts merging with the ground while other formed knots.
"Wow! Is that what I think it is?"
"Yeah. This is living metal, tree type. This is so rare and precious you'd have to sell entire systems only to buy one of the fruits. I've got one in the TARDIS."
"Of course you have," Jack replied with a cheeky smile that made the other shake his head.
"No, really. I'm not lying. The TARDIS' architectural reconfiguration system is made of one of these." He rubbed his neck. "Well, much smaller than this one. But you were talking about the noise." He took a deep breath. There was awe in his voice as he explained, "It's the sound of its breathing as it grows. One could say, the song of its life. It's more psychic than physical though, transmitting on a low telepathic field, so unless they have some psychic aptitudes, humans can't perceive it."
Jack chose not to comment on that. He had learnt since long how limited human senses could be, even more when compared to Time Lords'. The Doctor, the smug bastard he was, would never cease to remind his companions of that, in a way or another.
"They're beautiful," he eventually said after a while. "The song as well as the tree itself."
He crouched, reaching out to touch a root. As expected, the metal was cold under his fingers. He could feel a faint pulse running through it though. Her heart exploded, she's dying and it's so so hot (will have to shield the Time Child). And the Eye of Harmony has gone out of its stasis, destroying her every insides. It hurts. The engines failed. Pain flooded every bit of his body the same way it had when he had been blown up. Jack jerked his hand back. As soon as the contact broke, the sensation vanished, like it had never happened. Maybe the living metal was amplifying the mental link between the TARDIS and him, he thought as he stood up. Not touching the living metal then.
Jack caught the Doctor staring at him, a frown on his face. Unsurprisingly, he looked away when Jack met his eyes, and cocked a charming eyebrow at him with a cocky smile. "Now, Doctor, the question is: where are we?"
The Doctor didn't answer. During a while, he fidgeted as he carefully watched the area, then took deep breaths and even licked the wall only to shake his head. "The thing is," he sighed loudly. "I don't know."
He grimaced, as if he just had been defeated. Which was definitely weird. Even with his extensive knowledge of the universe, it wouldn't be the first time the Time Lord ended up in a place he didn't know. What was different about this one?
When Jack opened his mouth to ask about what was troubling him, the Time Lord was back to his usual self, a manic smile on his face. "Well, Jack, let's go find out!" He put his hand on the silver panel on the hexagonal door's right side.
It dematerialised. On pure instinct, Jack's right hand flew to his gun holder, ready to neutralise the alien that was standing there if necessary. He never finished his motion though, the Doctor had grabbed his wrist before, putting it away harshly.
"Don't. Do. That," he whispered through gritted teeth, without releasing his grip. Then, he smiled at the stranger. "Hello, I'm the Doctor."
If Jack was sure of one thing when looking at the alien, it was that he had never encountered that species before. If he had already seen his share of white hair and pure black eyes, the skin was a new one. It looked like it was made of space: a deep black covered with nebulous blots of purple and blue. Gorgeous, the Captain thought, wondering what the texture would be like under his palm.
The alien answered with a few words, and much more gesturing in the air, that neither the TARDIS nor his own translating chip deciphered. And, even more surprising, the Doctor was caught aghast too, eyes opened wide and making an “o” with his mouth. He slowly turned to Jack, gesturing to the other with his head, like the Captain could help him. Jack made a grotesque grimace, half-amused and half-worried by the situation. Well, at least the stranger didn't seem hostile and their expression--were they human--would have been affable.
Jack decided to try the Standard Galactic, which most spacefaring species were expected to speak, or at least have some notion of. If this was a spacefaring species and a time when Standard Galactic had been invented, of course. "Hello," he said with a big grin. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness." He pointed at himself with his free hand to illustrate his words, then at the Time Lord when he continued, "This is the Doctor. Can you understand me?"
The alien's round--as in ball-shaped--eyes fell on him. When they blinked a few time, Jack noticed a second eyelid, an inner lid closing from the left to the right. He didn't know if that was just a normal blink or a sign of acknowledgement, but he decided to go with the later.
"Where are we?" he asked. The sounds the alien made were still nothing more than gibberish to the Captain, but the Doctor made a pleased exclamation, followed by a puzzled look. "You can understand him now?"
"Yes. No. Just a little. We're in the Mutter's Spiral, Kemel Tau system, so the centre of the Galaxy. Well, as close as one could be without being sucked into the galaxy's supermassive black hole. And if I'm not mistaken, which I'm not by the way, this planet is called Silthainell, and that's a Silthain."
"I'm not sure I'm following you, Doc."
"Gallifreyan," the Doctor replied like that was evident. "Mutter's Spiral is the Time Lord's name for the Milky Way. Kemel Tau is my people’s designation for the system humans will call the Silver Crescent, when you discover it. I don't think it happens before the New Earth Empire. 5.5/Apple/26. The end of the world--I mean Earth--I went there with Rose, lovely times," he added with a nostalgic expression.
Jack sighed. "So, they're speaking Gallifreyan and you can't understand it?" He rolled his eyes like Jack was being thick on purpose. Jack rose an eyebrow. "Explain, because right now, you're not making any sense."
"It's not Gallifreyan per se. But our friend here did use the Time Lords' designation for our location. In Old High Gallifreyan, which I fortunately happen to know and believe me, it was extremely rare in my time. From that, it was easy to pinpoint the planet and species."
"Why would they use Old High Gallifreyan? You make it sound like it's a dead language, much like Latin."
"It is. It was already nearly extinct when I was a child. The Silver Crescent system is one of Kasterborous’ neighbours. Silthainell was a Gallifreyan colony--a conquered world--back in the Dark Time, when Racnoss used to roam the over the galaxy." He made a face at that. "But that's history and by the time I was around, Silthainell was just another free world, just like good old Earth." His tone was much more light-heartened when he spoke, a smile that made his cheeks dimple on his face. He was literally trembling with excitement when he continued, "Oh-- Oh-- I see, that's why. Jack, the key is here. As a Gallifreyan colony, speaking Gallifreyan was compulsory. And that era's contemporary Gallifreyan was Old High Gallifreyan--"
"--And some linguistic concepts must have stayed in their current language," Jack finished for him.
"Yes!"
He finally let Jack's wrist go to put his hand on the Captain's shoulder, beaming. And they laughed like they hadn't before during that Doctor's regeneration. The compulsive kind, where one wasn't able to stop and ended up aching like hell because it was hard to just breathe. It felt great, as if some of that heavy burden weighing on the both of them had been lifted. The heaviness of all the words they--mostly the Doctor--shouldn't have spoken, all secrets they--to be fair, that part was on Jack--couldn't tell. A glimpse of the true companionship they had shared and would share, should share in the present time, whatever their past interactions had been.
Even if Jack mostly remembered the harsh words, and they had made quite an impact, just like the Year That Never Was as well as the Stolen Earth. Even then, he had no difficulty remembering how amazing it had been to see him again. And piloting the TARDIS with the three Doctors and their companions? So fucking great. Moreover, he was there to snap the Doctor out of his so-typical spiral of self-deprecation and out of his loneliness. Laughing was definitely a step in the good direction.
"Unfortunately," the Doctor began when they had cooled down. "It doesn't solve the problem of translating the Silthain's language. But well, it helps. A little."
Jack sent an apologetic smile to the alien. "Sorry about that. That was quite rude of us. Never exclude the gorgeous ones, that should be a proverb. So, what's your name?"
The Silthain, in an imitation of Jack's earlier demonstration pointed successively at the Doctor and the Captain, while it repeated their names, stumbling on the T and D consonants. It pronounced Jack perfectly and the latter addressed them a charming smile.
Then, the alien made the same gesture at itself. Similar to when they had done so earlier, when the Silthain spoke a single word, there was flailing of limbs involved, which was very reminiscent of a certain Time Lord. Jack wondered if it was a trait of the whole species or if it was characteristic of that individual. Still, he didn't ponder long at the thought because it came to his attention the word, the Silthain's name had been clear, unlike the unintelligible sounds he had heard until now.
"Lunaska."
The TARDIS translated it into the sound of a rainfall hitting the ground, the petrichor it created and the sensation of the drop splashing against the skin and clothes, soaking them in no time. That was quite a lot of things for a single word, but somehow, Jack had no problem seeing how that would fit into the circular Gallifreyan writing system, a single, albeit large, circle would be sufficient because rain was the subject, the most important part in all three images. A concept. It would surround three separate rings with geometrical components of their own, each of which described one aspect of the rain. Its sound and smell would be of equal size, much smaller and simpler than its touch. After all, with the notion of drenched clothing and all the things that came from it, that last one was more complex. Thus, it would require more symbols.
Next to him, the Doctor motioned at the corridor behind Lunaska. "So, Lunaska, and that's a pretty good name by the way. In very old-fashioned Time-Lordy way. Why don't you show us around? I wonder what other wonders a place with a living metal tree holds. Lead the way."
***
While they walked in the corridors, Jack noticed quite a few things. There seemed to be quite a lot of Silthains and not enough noise for their number. They didn't speak much, but always made lots of movements with their arms and hands. Their hair colours were varied but always light and bright, like diluted watercolours. The nebula pattern on their skin differed in shape and shade. Some had only spots here and there while others seemed almost entirely covered in it.
Not least, the ceiling was covered in blue honeycomb-shaped panels that not only provided the light, but also were anti-grav. And people were walking on it, going in the opposite direction. Next to him, the Doctor was unusually calm, watching gravely, his hands twitching. Their host was walking ahead of them and navigated through the crowd easily: everyone went out of their way to let it pass, even when they had their back to it and couldn't have seen it coming.
"Lunaska seems quite important," he muttered to the Doctor.
"She is. See the writing on her jacket's sleeves?" It was a mix of Greek letters and mathematical symbols, utterly incomprehensible to Jack. When he looked back at the Time Lord, the later shrugged. "Not my fault if you can't read it. It means she's one of the highest authorities around here."
"If you say so. How do you know it’s a she?"
Jack himself was utterly incapable of differentiating between the male and female of the species: they all seemed to be flat-chested with low legs bowed backwards and a tail coiled against the small of their back. All of which was so very alluring and Jack couldn't help musing what sort of wonders they could do with that anatomy. Although he had been with a Jezark once, he had never been with someone who had a forked tail.
"Silthains have no concept of gender, but Time Lords always used the feminine form to speak of them."
They emerged into a gigantic round room with concave walls that formed a dome. Thanks to the transparent walls, Jack could see they were standing above the spires of countless buildings linked to each other by a maze of bridges and tubes. The sky was made of silvery clouds streaked with black and violet veins. Although it was raining hard, somehow the view of the city around wasn't altered a little bit.
The area was filled with Silthains, sitting at consoles, working with three-dimensional projections and holo-screens. They were dispersed throughout the whole area, the ground as well as the walls and the ceiling; anti-grav really did wonders. Jack couldn't help but wonder how advanced the Silthains really were, if they were spacefaring--and they seemed to have the technology to do so--and why the hell Lunaska seemed to understand Standard Galactic while not speaking it. Unless she was just making fun of them.
As they made their way to the middle of the room, a Silthain got up and ran to Lunaska, putting a hand on her shoulder. The two of them spoke for a few moments. Well, truth to be told, it was mostly gesturing around and occasionally slipping a few words in-between. The Silthain showed a few graphics to Lunaska, who answered by crossing her right index and middle finger and flexing them. She did it again when the other pointed the Doctor and him.
Jack's eyes followed the cluster of light green spots occupying her cheeks and nose, then addressed her a wink and an alluring smile. She blinked. The Captain didn't miss how her fingers tightened into a fist, even if she soon returned to her place. At least, it seemed like some of them wouldn't be immune to his charm. His grin grew when he noticed the Time Lord rolling his eyes next to him, an annoyed expression on his face.
"You know," Jack began, nothing but smug. "One day, I might begin to think you're jealous with your stop-flirting-around-me policy. And I didn't even say hello yet."
"Don't be ridiculous," the Doctor replied with a pout that made the Captain chuckle. "Like you need to say hello to flirt, you're the word's personification."
"I'm flattered. Such a compliment."
"Shut up. Come on, we've better things to do than blabbering," he added too fast for Jack to tell him how curious he was about how the Time Lord intended to make him shut up. He took Jack's wrist and urged him to resume walking. "Let's go to Lunaska."
Lunaska hadn't waited for them; she was now in the middle of the room, occupied by a large round console. She moved her hands, palms facing downwards, over it, then fisted them while saying a few words. The hum of the TARDIS went higher and, for a second, Jack's body seemed to vibrate. The Doctor's grip on him went harder, his fingers stiff.
When they were at her side--the Doctor hadn't let him go yet, Jack noted with a bit of delight--Lunaska was opening her hands. A white haze appeared above the console, lines of alien symbols gravitating around it like satellites around a planet. The Silthain took their free hands, and before they could protest, she put them into the mist. Her skin was warm, smoother than anything he had ever touched, almost slippery, of the sort that felt so very amaz--
An electric shock went through Jack's body, bright sharp pain that made him loudly gasp. He jerked his hand away, watching white strands of mist particles sort of absorbing into his skin. Next to him, the Doctor's yelp informed him the same had happened with him.
More than annoyed, Jack turned to their host, hand resting on the holster of his gun. "What the hell? What's that?"
"Sorry for that." Lunaska didn't sound sorry at all and that was weird because Jack hadn't been able to decipher anything of what she had said until now, much less in what kind of tone. "The connexion process can be a little painful." The way she said it, rubbing her digits together, made Jack think whatever the connexion process was, it was always painful. And, why the hell was he able to understand her now?
"Connexion process-- Connexion process." The Doctor's eyes lit up as he continued. "That's it! I was
asking myself why you made so many gestures when you speak so little words. You're telepaths, aren't you? And you just connected us to your telepathic field, brilliant."
"Silthains are telepathic, yes, but you're wrong, you're not connected to us, just to me. I need your help, Time Lord."
"What for?"
Lunaska's words were lost in the shrieking wail that filled the air. Jack felt it though the bones, a scorching ache that burnt from the inside. Shaking his wrist out of the Doctor's fingers, he put both hands on his temple like it would soothe the pain. Fortunately, it lasted less than a moment. He looked at his left, where the Time Lord stood, eyes closed and frowning.
"That. Something is messing with my ship a--"
"Wait, what? We're on a ship?" Jack interrupted her, eyes on the outside, following the tracks of raindrops as they fell on the walls. Below, he could see the neon publicity screen floating around the roads and buildings, drones and air cars circulating in large arteries.
He went back to Lunaska's face, who had raised a hand in the air. She snapped. The walls gradually darkened into a silver hue, much more similar to the metal living tree room, much more spaceship-like. Then the white mist was back. That time, it filled the room, shaping itself into a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way.
"You're aboard the Solrem, mothership of the Fleet. And we are here," it zoomed on the Horsehead Nebula, at the fringe of a small stellar system--no planets, just an asteroid belt and what seemed like a rather large space station--that Jack never had been to. "Horsehead Nebula, Helkan System."
"That's pretty far from home," the Doctor commented. "Are you on a mission or something? What's the Fleet? Never heard of the Fleet."
"You didn't? Really?" Lunaska sounded disgruntled, annoyed too. She made a dismissive gesture with a hand. "No, I shouldn't be surprised. The Fleet is home. The Silver Crescent Fleet, our largest fleet, roaming in the galaxy like vagabonds. That's what I was saying earlier."
The Doctor's face dropped. "You've lost your home world," he muttered. "What happened?"
"War happened. You happened, Time Lord, and the Daleks happened. We not only lost Silthain." Her voice was shaking and in a very human way, she passed a hand on her face, sighing. "We lost the entire system to the Time War. Silthain, Thesla and Joask, all gone now. Collateral damages."
"I'm so, so so--"
"Don't. It's not okay and there's nothing much you can do about that, can you?" The Time Lord shook his head in defeat. Jack put a hand on his shoulder in support. "But I'm just grateful we're alive. At least the Silthains aren't on the verge of extinction." She dismissed the map. "Anyway, I've got much more important matters on my hands right now. As I said before Jack cut me off, something is messing with my ship."
"The wails, that's the ship. The Solrem, that's it? So, the two of you are connected, hence the fact that we couldn't hear it before. Don't worry, big guy," he put a hand on the console, gently stroking it like he did with the TARDIS. "We're here to help. The TARDIS, she must have heard you and made us come here to help you," he said with a reassuring tone. "What's the extent of the damage?"
"At first, it was just some flickering of lights and cold water at times. Very mundane things that sometimes happen onboard. Power losses, tiny power losses that grew up so slowly I only noticed something was wrong when the Solrem began suppressing a few useless rooms to redirect the power into security scan programs. That showed nothing."
She displayed a blue map of the ship. There were ten decks and countless rooms. It was larger than any spacecraft Jack had ever been in; much more like a city than the average spaceship, except for the TARDIS and Jack was beginning to think the Solrem was much more similar to the latter than to the Lambda spaceship. Sentience, telepathic link with the commanding officer, architectural reconfiguration. He bet it was also bigger on the inside.
"There used to be much more. And now, he's beginning to delete rooms we actually use."
As she said that, the screen flickered and on the far left end, first deck, a room disappeared. The people who were in it--green points on the map, moving all over the ship--were transported into another room on the sixth deck.
"What's the power for now?"
"Basic functions. I made the Fleet stop at the nearest space station until we sort out what the problem is. I can't take the risk of flying when I don't know when he'll stop going. It's like he's terribly sick and trying to fight the disease but it doesn't work. And I can feel every moment of it."
The Doctor passed a hand through his hair, sighing loudly while examining the map. Jack could almost see the wheels turning in his head. Not that himself had a solution to offer right now. Sentient ship diseases weren't something he had ever dealt with before. The TARDIS was mysterious at best when she was in her normal state, he really didn't want to have to deal with her if she were sick.
"What about the other ships? Are they also sentient?" he eventually asked after a while.
"Yes. All of them. So far, no signs of the disease in the other ships, that's the positive point. Nonetheless, if we don't find a solution, we're in deep shit. Losing the Solrem would be dreadful."
"Well, he's the mothership," Jack retorted. "But--"
"Imagine a massive horde. Thousands of animals following a leader. A leader who's linked to every other member, source of the telepathic field that links them together. He's responsible for the cohesion of whole group. Without him, there'll be chaos amongst the ships themselves."
"Hive mind. If the leader falls, so does the horde. That's some pretty advanced technology you've got here. Very similar to TARDISes. Can they travel in time?" Lunaska shook her hands. "Good. So many ships jumping into the Time Vortex at once would be disastrous. The pressure exerted on the fabric of reality would be so intense it would literally be torn apart. Never ever use time travel."
"Back to the subject, Time Lord. Have you ever encountered that kind of disease with your ship?"
"Never. I suppose you already checked everywhere?"
"Our engineers already checked the drive cores, rotors and reactors. The ARS, as you could see, is also in good shape. From a mechanical point of view, there's nothing wrong with them. I al--"
The ship wailed. Jack and the Doctor put their hands to their ears, like that would stop the sound. Pain flooded him, stronger than before. Dizzy, Jack fell on his knees, half-spread over the console, gritting his teeth. Breathe, he reminded himself as his body jolted, another psychic wave passing through him. He shut his eyes, feeling so weak and sick. His stomach contracted, threatening to send his dinner back to where it had come from.
Around him, he heard worried exclamations and rushed footsteps, groans and ushered blabbering, making his head hurt even more than the ship's constant screaming. On the top of that, the TARDIS' pressure on the shields he had built was growing insistent.
The Not-Sisters-But-Almost scream and cry and speak all at once (they're only children, even younger than her Doctor when she stole him), the minds of a whole species that turned for her guidance while their Old Brother is in pain. And his agony is shared. The Not-Sisters-But-Almost are partly shielded by the Old Brother, but he can't do the same with that Nebula Skin symbiote. If the Nebula Skin was suffering, so were her thief and his Temporal Anomaly. It will be so bad (need to do something, she hates when her charges are hurting so much the echoes of their pain make her circuitry tickle in a very not-enjoyable way). She feels a poke at the edge of her consciousness.
Jack jerked into a sitting position, forehead crashing against a hard surface. It moaned, letting out a loud outraged, "Ouch."
"Sorry," the Captain muttered, grimacing. That must have been painful and the Doctor gently palmed his nose with one hand, grimacing at each touch, the other resting on Jack's temple, its warmth somehow soothing his throbbing headache. "What happened?"
Jack didn't remember lying down at any point. Moreover, they weren't in the same room anymore. Except for Lunaska, sitting not far away, the Silthains and their control room had disappeared. There was no wall, no ceiling, no ground, either, like they had been put in space. Except that space was one, black and without a horizon of shifting colours, and two, soundless and not some sort of discord of three superimposed harmonies. Positive point: they weren't in space and even if the atmosphere was oppressive, at least he wouldn't die from asphyxia. He had once, again and again until a cargo ship fetched his body. He wasn't keen on experiencing that again.
"Mindscape," Lunaska answered, tapping an index to her forehead. "In fact, it might be more precise to say mindscapes since you're also part of the plane. It's the heart of the Solrem. He transported us here, with some help from your ship, Time Lord."
"You can hear her?" Jack asked, much less surprised than what he should have been.
"Of course I can hear her. Our ships and their pilots share a symbiotic relationship. I'm part of the Solrem as much as he's part of me. I could hear his TARDIS the moment she answered the Fleet's calls for help. Even more when she materialised into the ARS room."
"And that's why the other Silthains didn't seem affected at all," the Doctor muttered to himself. "What happened to our bodies?"
"Don't worry, my peers are taking care of that." She closed her eyes. "They are moving us to the closest medbay. They'll keep an eye on us while we're here. Now, moving on to more important matters. If our ships' danger is here, the culprit must also be here, somewhere."
"I really wish I had my sonic screwdriver right now," the Doctor grumbled as he got up and offered a hand to Jack to help him get up. The Captain answered with a smile, then took it.
Much to his surprise, the other didn't let him go and Jack remembered fondly of all the times they had run hand in hand, with Rose when the Doctor hadn't any hair to grip as well as with Clara, when the Doctor had so much hair he somehow ended up gripping even when he didn't intend to.
"Blimey, I almost can hear you thinking, Captain." The Time Lord rolled his eyes. "Stop it."
"Don't you like it?"
"Not the time," he replied, turning to Lunaska. He offered her his free hand. "Come on, Lunaska, let's find the thing that's making the Solrem suffer and deal with it."
"Sounds like a good plan," she said with the ghost of a smile, grasping it tightly.
Part Three
Author: luorescence
Recipient: the community
Rating: T
Pairing(s): Jack/Tenth Doctor, Jack/Eleventh Doctor (mentions)
Spoilers/warnings: Set after Waters of Mars for the Doctor, after The Wedding of Sarah Jane to be more precise. Future!Jack. References to all four seasons of Torchwood. TW: Dark and mental torture at one point
Summary: When the Doctor told Jack he needed him on that planet before running away like he always did, the Captain hadn’t thought they would meet again before hundreds of years, at least. And yet, he’s standing quite literally in front of Jack’s nose, while the latter just got shot by sonic bullets. And he’s not even the right regeneration. Typical.
Author’s notes: Many thanks to my betas for their work and wonderful support. The Doctor and Jack wouldn’t cooperate, things got way out of hand, and well. The result is quite long, and just a tad timey-wimey.
Part One
**
"Random time and space location input. Didn't do that in a while. Could be anywhere, anywhen. I should do that more often." The Doctor passed his tongue over his lips, then grinned in a manic way, making his face wrinkle. He expectantly patted the door, urging Jack to put his coat fast and join him. "Right then, let's see what's outside!"
When they stepped outside, the bright light made Jack put a hand over his eyes. It took a few moments for his vision to adjust before he could lower his hand. They were in a large room with dark silver walls that reflected the numerous light balls hanging above their head, hence the luminosity. Squinting his eyes, the Captain could make out the midnight blue tubes that attached the lamps to plates of funny shapes. Those were of the same colour, expanding in the air in a chaotic but familiar fashion.
"Oh!" the Doctor exclaimed, earning Jack's attention. His eyebrows were all the way up and his mouth open in a comical but endearing expression that made the immortal grin. He suddenly turned to kiss his ship's door. "Oh you, what could I do without you?"
The moment the Time Lord's lips touched the wood, a jolt went through Jack. He muffled his gasp in the fabric of his coat, wishing that the other hadn't noticed his antics. Thoughts and emotions that definitely weren't his filled his mind, stronger than any form of telepathy he had ever experienced.
She's beeping loudly while driving herself and letting her thief thinks he's got control (won't expect that). She transported them to where she wants to land and he's bouncy like one of those strays of his, and she can feel his genuine happiness (always the best at her functions when he doesn't tamper with her). Had to delete rooms to redirect the energy to her engines to get here. The cooling system is turning at full power, its liquid struggling to keep the circuitry from overheating (will need much rest). Her Time Lord's superior auxiliary ends are on the Temporal Anomaly's matrix case (not alone--now--anymore?).
It was a little too much for Jack, who staggered a few steps until his back was on the ship's door, feeling dizzy. He closed his eyes, focused all his attention on pushing the alien consciousness into a part of his mind where it wouldn't overwhelm his own thoughts. The tendrils--much larger now--pulsed under his touch, more glimpses of the TARDIS' thoughts bleeding through them, but he somehow managed to tune them down to a hum with mental barriers. A temporary solution--he could still feel the heavy press of the TARDIS against him--but it would do for now. Bless the training the Time Agency dispensed to its recruits.
The Captain crossed his arms over his chest, opening his eyes to see that the Doctor was now touching one of the long tubes suspended from the metal-like thing. He bit back an inappropriate comment when the other ran his fingers along the shape, softy humming. That was when he noticed it, a soft, ethereal note he wouldn't be able to hear over the din the TARDIS had made in his head.
"Do you hear that?" Jack eventually asked when he had waited enough to be sure he wasn't imagining it. "The flute-like sound. It's not loud but it's definitely there, like a background noise," he explained when the Doctor looked at him.
The Time Lord grinned. "I should have known you would hear it. Come, we're standing far too close." He made them walk to the closest wall, some thirty-something feet away. "Now, look at it."
Jack scanned the area, a circular room with the TARDIS in its centre. Now that he could see the whole scenery, the arrangement made much more sense. Whatever it was, it was shaped like a mechanical tree. Its branches and foliage made of metallic plates and the luminous balls its fruits. The ship was nestled in the trunk, half-buried in a heap of dark blue-grey tubes that formed a case around her. The roots--thick black conduits covered with glowing shards of white--covered the floor, some parts merging with the ground while other formed knots.
"Wow! Is that what I think it is?"
"Yeah. This is living metal, tree type. This is so rare and precious you'd have to sell entire systems only to buy one of the fruits. I've got one in the TARDIS."
"Of course you have," Jack replied with a cheeky smile that made the other shake his head.
"No, really. I'm not lying. The TARDIS' architectural reconfiguration system is made of one of these." He rubbed his neck. "Well, much smaller than this one. But you were talking about the noise." He took a deep breath. There was awe in his voice as he explained, "It's the sound of its breathing as it grows. One could say, the song of its life. It's more psychic than physical though, transmitting on a low telepathic field, so unless they have some psychic aptitudes, humans can't perceive it."
Jack chose not to comment on that. He had learnt since long how limited human senses could be, even more when compared to Time Lords'. The Doctor, the smug bastard he was, would never cease to remind his companions of that, in a way or another.
"They're beautiful," he eventually said after a while. "The song as well as the tree itself."
He crouched, reaching out to touch a root. As expected, the metal was cold under his fingers. He could feel a faint pulse running through it though. Her heart exploded, she's dying and it's so so hot (will have to shield the Time Child). And the Eye of Harmony has gone out of its stasis, destroying her every insides. It hurts. The engines failed. Pain flooded every bit of his body the same way it had when he had been blown up. Jack jerked his hand back. As soon as the contact broke, the sensation vanished, like it had never happened. Maybe the living metal was amplifying the mental link between the TARDIS and him, he thought as he stood up. Not touching the living metal then.
Jack caught the Doctor staring at him, a frown on his face. Unsurprisingly, he looked away when Jack met his eyes, and cocked a charming eyebrow at him with a cocky smile. "Now, Doctor, the question is: where are we?"
The Doctor didn't answer. During a while, he fidgeted as he carefully watched the area, then took deep breaths and even licked the wall only to shake his head. "The thing is," he sighed loudly. "I don't know."
He grimaced, as if he just had been defeated. Which was definitely weird. Even with his extensive knowledge of the universe, it wouldn't be the first time the Time Lord ended up in a place he didn't know. What was different about this one?
When Jack opened his mouth to ask about what was troubling him, the Time Lord was back to his usual self, a manic smile on his face. "Well, Jack, let's go find out!" He put his hand on the silver panel on the hexagonal door's right side.
It dematerialised. On pure instinct, Jack's right hand flew to his gun holder, ready to neutralise the alien that was standing there if necessary. He never finished his motion though, the Doctor had grabbed his wrist before, putting it away harshly.
"Don't. Do. That," he whispered through gritted teeth, without releasing his grip. Then, he smiled at the stranger. "Hello, I'm the Doctor."
If Jack was sure of one thing when looking at the alien, it was that he had never encountered that species before. If he had already seen his share of white hair and pure black eyes, the skin was a new one. It looked like it was made of space: a deep black covered with nebulous blots of purple and blue. Gorgeous, the Captain thought, wondering what the texture would be like under his palm.
The alien answered with a few words, and much more gesturing in the air, that neither the TARDIS nor his own translating chip deciphered. And, even more surprising, the Doctor was caught aghast too, eyes opened wide and making an “o” with his mouth. He slowly turned to Jack, gesturing to the other with his head, like the Captain could help him. Jack made a grotesque grimace, half-amused and half-worried by the situation. Well, at least the stranger didn't seem hostile and their expression--were they human--would have been affable.
Jack decided to try the Standard Galactic, which most spacefaring species were expected to speak, or at least have some notion of. If this was a spacefaring species and a time when Standard Galactic had been invented, of course. "Hello," he said with a big grin. "I'm Captain Jack Harkness." He pointed at himself with his free hand to illustrate his words, then at the Time Lord when he continued, "This is the Doctor. Can you understand me?"
The alien's round--as in ball-shaped--eyes fell on him. When they blinked a few time, Jack noticed a second eyelid, an inner lid closing from the left to the right. He didn't know if that was just a normal blink or a sign of acknowledgement, but he decided to go with the later.
"Where are we?" he asked. The sounds the alien made were still nothing more than gibberish to the Captain, but the Doctor made a pleased exclamation, followed by a puzzled look. "You can understand him now?"
"Yes. No. Just a little. We're in the Mutter's Spiral, Kemel Tau system, so the centre of the Galaxy. Well, as close as one could be without being sucked into the galaxy's supermassive black hole. And if I'm not mistaken, which I'm not by the way, this planet is called Silthainell, and that's a Silthain."
"I'm not sure I'm following you, Doc."
"Gallifreyan," the Doctor replied like that was evident. "Mutter's Spiral is the Time Lord's name for the Milky Way. Kemel Tau is my people’s designation for the system humans will call the Silver Crescent, when you discover it. I don't think it happens before the New Earth Empire. 5.5/Apple/26. The end of the world--I mean Earth--I went there with Rose, lovely times," he added with a nostalgic expression.
Jack sighed. "So, they're speaking Gallifreyan and you can't understand it?" He rolled his eyes like Jack was being thick on purpose. Jack rose an eyebrow. "Explain, because right now, you're not making any sense."
"It's not Gallifreyan per se. But our friend here did use the Time Lords' designation for our location. In Old High Gallifreyan, which I fortunately happen to know and believe me, it was extremely rare in my time. From that, it was easy to pinpoint the planet and species."
"Why would they use Old High Gallifreyan? You make it sound like it's a dead language, much like Latin."
"It is. It was already nearly extinct when I was a child. The Silver Crescent system is one of Kasterborous’ neighbours. Silthainell was a Gallifreyan colony--a conquered world--back in the Dark Time, when Racnoss used to roam the over the galaxy." He made a face at that. "But that's history and by the time I was around, Silthainell was just another free world, just like good old Earth." His tone was much more light-heartened when he spoke, a smile that made his cheeks dimple on his face. He was literally trembling with excitement when he continued, "Oh-- Oh-- I see, that's why. Jack, the key is here. As a Gallifreyan colony, speaking Gallifreyan was compulsory. And that era's contemporary Gallifreyan was Old High Gallifreyan--"
"--And some linguistic concepts must have stayed in their current language," Jack finished for him.
"Yes!"
He finally let Jack's wrist go to put his hand on the Captain's shoulder, beaming. And they laughed like they hadn't before during that Doctor's regeneration. The compulsive kind, where one wasn't able to stop and ended up aching like hell because it was hard to just breathe. It felt great, as if some of that heavy burden weighing on the both of them had been lifted. The heaviness of all the words they--mostly the Doctor--shouldn't have spoken, all secrets they--to be fair, that part was on Jack--couldn't tell. A glimpse of the true companionship they had shared and would share, should share in the present time, whatever their past interactions had been.
Even if Jack mostly remembered the harsh words, and they had made quite an impact, just like the Year That Never Was as well as the Stolen Earth. Even then, he had no difficulty remembering how amazing it had been to see him again. And piloting the TARDIS with the three Doctors and their companions? So fucking great. Moreover, he was there to snap the Doctor out of his so-typical spiral of self-deprecation and out of his loneliness. Laughing was definitely a step in the good direction.
"Unfortunately," the Doctor began when they had cooled down. "It doesn't solve the problem of translating the Silthain's language. But well, it helps. A little."
Jack sent an apologetic smile to the alien. "Sorry about that. That was quite rude of us. Never exclude the gorgeous ones, that should be a proverb. So, what's your name?"
The Silthain, in an imitation of Jack's earlier demonstration pointed successively at the Doctor and the Captain, while it repeated their names, stumbling on the T and D consonants. It pronounced Jack perfectly and the latter addressed them a charming smile.
Then, the alien made the same gesture at itself. Similar to when they had done so earlier, when the Silthain spoke a single word, there was flailing of limbs involved, which was very reminiscent of a certain Time Lord. Jack wondered if it was a trait of the whole species or if it was characteristic of that individual. Still, he didn't ponder long at the thought because it came to his attention the word, the Silthain's name had been clear, unlike the unintelligible sounds he had heard until now.
"Lunaska."
The TARDIS translated it into the sound of a rainfall hitting the ground, the petrichor it created and the sensation of the drop splashing against the skin and clothes, soaking them in no time. That was quite a lot of things for a single word, but somehow, Jack had no problem seeing how that would fit into the circular Gallifreyan writing system, a single, albeit large, circle would be sufficient because rain was the subject, the most important part in all three images. A concept. It would surround three separate rings with geometrical components of their own, each of which described one aspect of the rain. Its sound and smell would be of equal size, much smaller and simpler than its touch. After all, with the notion of drenched clothing and all the things that came from it, that last one was more complex. Thus, it would require more symbols.
Next to him, the Doctor motioned at the corridor behind Lunaska. "So, Lunaska, and that's a pretty good name by the way. In very old-fashioned Time-Lordy way. Why don't you show us around? I wonder what other wonders a place with a living metal tree holds. Lead the way."
***
While they walked in the corridors, Jack noticed quite a few things. There seemed to be quite a lot of Silthains and not enough noise for their number. They didn't speak much, but always made lots of movements with their arms and hands. Their hair colours were varied but always light and bright, like diluted watercolours. The nebula pattern on their skin differed in shape and shade. Some had only spots here and there while others seemed almost entirely covered in it.
Not least, the ceiling was covered in blue honeycomb-shaped panels that not only provided the light, but also were anti-grav. And people were walking on it, going in the opposite direction. Next to him, the Doctor was unusually calm, watching gravely, his hands twitching. Their host was walking ahead of them and navigated through the crowd easily: everyone went out of their way to let it pass, even when they had their back to it and couldn't have seen it coming.
"Lunaska seems quite important," he muttered to the Doctor.
"She is. See the writing on her jacket's sleeves?" It was a mix of Greek letters and mathematical symbols, utterly incomprehensible to Jack. When he looked back at the Time Lord, the later shrugged. "Not my fault if you can't read it. It means she's one of the highest authorities around here."
"If you say so. How do you know it’s a she?"
Jack himself was utterly incapable of differentiating between the male and female of the species: they all seemed to be flat-chested with low legs bowed backwards and a tail coiled against the small of their back. All of which was so very alluring and Jack couldn't help musing what sort of wonders they could do with that anatomy. Although he had been with a Jezark once, he had never been with someone who had a forked tail.
"Silthains have no concept of gender, but Time Lords always used the feminine form to speak of them."
They emerged into a gigantic round room with concave walls that formed a dome. Thanks to the transparent walls, Jack could see they were standing above the spires of countless buildings linked to each other by a maze of bridges and tubes. The sky was made of silvery clouds streaked with black and violet veins. Although it was raining hard, somehow the view of the city around wasn't altered a little bit.
The area was filled with Silthains, sitting at consoles, working with three-dimensional projections and holo-screens. They were dispersed throughout the whole area, the ground as well as the walls and the ceiling; anti-grav really did wonders. Jack couldn't help but wonder how advanced the Silthains really were, if they were spacefaring--and they seemed to have the technology to do so--and why the hell Lunaska seemed to understand Standard Galactic while not speaking it. Unless she was just making fun of them.
As they made their way to the middle of the room, a Silthain got up and ran to Lunaska, putting a hand on her shoulder. The two of them spoke for a few moments. Well, truth to be told, it was mostly gesturing around and occasionally slipping a few words in-between. The Silthain showed a few graphics to Lunaska, who answered by crossing her right index and middle finger and flexing them. She did it again when the other pointed the Doctor and him.
Jack's eyes followed the cluster of light green spots occupying her cheeks and nose, then addressed her a wink and an alluring smile. She blinked. The Captain didn't miss how her fingers tightened into a fist, even if she soon returned to her place. At least, it seemed like some of them wouldn't be immune to his charm. His grin grew when he noticed the Time Lord rolling his eyes next to him, an annoyed expression on his face.
"You know," Jack began, nothing but smug. "One day, I might begin to think you're jealous with your stop-flirting-around-me policy. And I didn't even say hello yet."
"Don't be ridiculous," the Doctor replied with a pout that made the Captain chuckle. "Like you need to say hello to flirt, you're the word's personification."
"I'm flattered. Such a compliment."
"Shut up. Come on, we've better things to do than blabbering," he added too fast for Jack to tell him how curious he was about how the Time Lord intended to make him shut up. He took Jack's wrist and urged him to resume walking. "Let's go to Lunaska."
Lunaska hadn't waited for them; she was now in the middle of the room, occupied by a large round console. She moved her hands, palms facing downwards, over it, then fisted them while saying a few words. The hum of the TARDIS went higher and, for a second, Jack's body seemed to vibrate. The Doctor's grip on him went harder, his fingers stiff.
When they were at her side--the Doctor hadn't let him go yet, Jack noted with a bit of delight--Lunaska was opening her hands. A white haze appeared above the console, lines of alien symbols gravitating around it like satellites around a planet. The Silthain took their free hands, and before they could protest, she put them into the mist. Her skin was warm, smoother than anything he had ever touched, almost slippery, of the sort that felt so very amaz--
An electric shock went through Jack's body, bright sharp pain that made him loudly gasp. He jerked his hand away, watching white strands of mist particles sort of absorbing into his skin. Next to him, the Doctor's yelp informed him the same had happened with him.
More than annoyed, Jack turned to their host, hand resting on the holster of his gun. "What the hell? What's that?"
"Sorry for that." Lunaska didn't sound sorry at all and that was weird because Jack hadn't been able to decipher anything of what she had said until now, much less in what kind of tone. "The connexion process can be a little painful." The way she said it, rubbing her digits together, made Jack think whatever the connexion process was, it was always painful. And, why the hell was he able to understand her now?
"Connexion process-- Connexion process." The Doctor's eyes lit up as he continued. "That's it! I was
asking myself why you made so many gestures when you speak so little words. You're telepaths, aren't you? And you just connected us to your telepathic field, brilliant."
"Silthains are telepathic, yes, but you're wrong, you're not connected to us, just to me. I need your help, Time Lord."
"What for?"
Lunaska's words were lost in the shrieking wail that filled the air. Jack felt it though the bones, a scorching ache that burnt from the inside. Shaking his wrist out of the Doctor's fingers, he put both hands on his temple like it would soothe the pain. Fortunately, it lasted less than a moment. He looked at his left, where the Time Lord stood, eyes closed and frowning.
"That. Something is messing with my ship a--"
"Wait, what? We're on a ship?" Jack interrupted her, eyes on the outside, following the tracks of raindrops as they fell on the walls. Below, he could see the neon publicity screen floating around the roads and buildings, drones and air cars circulating in large arteries.
He went back to Lunaska's face, who had raised a hand in the air. She snapped. The walls gradually darkened into a silver hue, much more similar to the metal living tree room, much more spaceship-like. Then the white mist was back. That time, it filled the room, shaping itself into a three-dimensional map of the Milky Way.
"You're aboard the Solrem, mothership of the Fleet. And we are here," it zoomed on the Horsehead Nebula, at the fringe of a small stellar system--no planets, just an asteroid belt and what seemed like a rather large space station--that Jack never had been to. "Horsehead Nebula, Helkan System."
"That's pretty far from home," the Doctor commented. "Are you on a mission or something? What's the Fleet? Never heard of the Fleet."
"You didn't? Really?" Lunaska sounded disgruntled, annoyed too. She made a dismissive gesture with a hand. "No, I shouldn't be surprised. The Fleet is home. The Silver Crescent Fleet, our largest fleet, roaming in the galaxy like vagabonds. That's what I was saying earlier."
The Doctor's face dropped. "You've lost your home world," he muttered. "What happened?"
"War happened. You happened, Time Lord, and the Daleks happened. We not only lost Silthain." Her voice was shaking and in a very human way, she passed a hand on her face, sighing. "We lost the entire system to the Time War. Silthain, Thesla and Joask, all gone now. Collateral damages."
"I'm so, so so--"
"Don't. It's not okay and there's nothing much you can do about that, can you?" The Time Lord shook his head in defeat. Jack put a hand on his shoulder in support. "But I'm just grateful we're alive. At least the Silthains aren't on the verge of extinction." She dismissed the map. "Anyway, I've got much more important matters on my hands right now. As I said before Jack cut me off, something is messing with my ship."
"The wails, that's the ship. The Solrem, that's it? So, the two of you are connected, hence the fact that we couldn't hear it before. Don't worry, big guy," he put a hand on the console, gently stroking it like he did with the TARDIS. "We're here to help. The TARDIS, she must have heard you and made us come here to help you," he said with a reassuring tone. "What's the extent of the damage?"
"At first, it was just some flickering of lights and cold water at times. Very mundane things that sometimes happen onboard. Power losses, tiny power losses that grew up so slowly I only noticed something was wrong when the Solrem began suppressing a few useless rooms to redirect the power into security scan programs. That showed nothing."
She displayed a blue map of the ship. There were ten decks and countless rooms. It was larger than any spacecraft Jack had ever been in; much more like a city than the average spaceship, except for the TARDIS and Jack was beginning to think the Solrem was much more similar to the latter than to the Lambda spaceship. Sentience, telepathic link with the commanding officer, architectural reconfiguration. He bet it was also bigger on the inside.
"There used to be much more. And now, he's beginning to delete rooms we actually use."
As she said that, the screen flickered and on the far left end, first deck, a room disappeared. The people who were in it--green points on the map, moving all over the ship--were transported into another room on the sixth deck.
"What's the power for now?"
"Basic functions. I made the Fleet stop at the nearest space station until we sort out what the problem is. I can't take the risk of flying when I don't know when he'll stop going. It's like he's terribly sick and trying to fight the disease but it doesn't work. And I can feel every moment of it."
The Doctor passed a hand through his hair, sighing loudly while examining the map. Jack could almost see the wheels turning in his head. Not that himself had a solution to offer right now. Sentient ship diseases weren't something he had ever dealt with before. The TARDIS was mysterious at best when she was in her normal state, he really didn't want to have to deal with her if she were sick.
"What about the other ships? Are they also sentient?" he eventually asked after a while.
"Yes. All of them. So far, no signs of the disease in the other ships, that's the positive point. Nonetheless, if we don't find a solution, we're in deep shit. Losing the Solrem would be dreadful."
"Well, he's the mothership," Jack retorted. "But--"
"Imagine a massive horde. Thousands of animals following a leader. A leader who's linked to every other member, source of the telepathic field that links them together. He's responsible for the cohesion of whole group. Without him, there'll be chaos amongst the ships themselves."
"Hive mind. If the leader falls, so does the horde. That's some pretty advanced technology you've got here. Very similar to TARDISes. Can they travel in time?" Lunaska shook her hands. "Good. So many ships jumping into the Time Vortex at once would be disastrous. The pressure exerted on the fabric of reality would be so intense it would literally be torn apart. Never ever use time travel."
"Back to the subject, Time Lord. Have you ever encountered that kind of disease with your ship?"
"Never. I suppose you already checked everywhere?"
"Our engineers already checked the drive cores, rotors and reactors. The ARS, as you could see, is also in good shape. From a mechanical point of view, there's nothing wrong with them. I al--"
The ship wailed. Jack and the Doctor put their hands to their ears, like that would stop the sound. Pain flooded him, stronger than before. Dizzy, Jack fell on his knees, half-spread over the console, gritting his teeth. Breathe, he reminded himself as his body jolted, another psychic wave passing through him. He shut his eyes, feeling so weak and sick. His stomach contracted, threatening to send his dinner back to where it had come from.
Around him, he heard worried exclamations and rushed footsteps, groans and ushered blabbering, making his head hurt even more than the ship's constant screaming. On the top of that, the TARDIS' pressure on the shields he had built was growing insistent.
The Not-Sisters-But-Almost scream and cry and speak all at once (they're only children, even younger than her Doctor when she stole him), the minds of a whole species that turned for her guidance while their Old Brother is in pain. And his agony is shared. The Not-Sisters-But-Almost are partly shielded by the Old Brother, but he can't do the same with that Nebula Skin symbiote. If the Nebula Skin was suffering, so were her thief and his Temporal Anomaly. It will be so bad (need to do something, she hates when her charges are hurting so much the echoes of their pain make her circuitry tickle in a very not-enjoyable way). She feels a poke at the edge of her consciousness.
Jack jerked into a sitting position, forehead crashing against a hard surface. It moaned, letting out a loud outraged, "Ouch."
"Sorry," the Captain muttered, grimacing. That must have been painful and the Doctor gently palmed his nose with one hand, grimacing at each touch, the other resting on Jack's temple, its warmth somehow soothing his throbbing headache. "What happened?"
Jack didn't remember lying down at any point. Moreover, they weren't in the same room anymore. Except for Lunaska, sitting not far away, the Silthains and their control room had disappeared. There was no wall, no ceiling, no ground, either, like they had been put in space. Except that space was one, black and without a horizon of shifting colours, and two, soundless and not some sort of discord of three superimposed harmonies. Positive point: they weren't in space and even if the atmosphere was oppressive, at least he wouldn't die from asphyxia. He had once, again and again until a cargo ship fetched his body. He wasn't keen on experiencing that again.
"Mindscape," Lunaska answered, tapping an index to her forehead. "In fact, it might be more precise to say mindscapes since you're also part of the plane. It's the heart of the Solrem. He transported us here, with some help from your ship, Time Lord."
"You can hear her?" Jack asked, much less surprised than what he should have been.
"Of course I can hear her. Our ships and their pilots share a symbiotic relationship. I'm part of the Solrem as much as he's part of me. I could hear his TARDIS the moment she answered the Fleet's calls for help. Even more when she materialised into the ARS room."
"And that's why the other Silthains didn't seem affected at all," the Doctor muttered to himself. "What happened to our bodies?"
"Don't worry, my peers are taking care of that." She closed her eyes. "They are moving us to the closest medbay. They'll keep an eye on us while we're here. Now, moving on to more important matters. If our ships' danger is here, the culprit must also be here, somewhere."
"I really wish I had my sonic screwdriver right now," the Doctor grumbled as he got up and offered a hand to Jack to help him get up. The Captain answered with a smile, then took it.
Much to his surprise, the other didn't let him go and Jack remembered fondly of all the times they had run hand in hand, with Rose when the Doctor hadn't any hair to grip as well as with Clara, when the Doctor had so much hair he somehow ended up gripping even when he didn't intend to.
"Blimey, I almost can hear you thinking, Captain." The Time Lord rolled his eyes. "Stop it."
"Don't you like it?"
"Not the time," he replied, turning to Lunaska. He offered her his free hand. "Come on, Lunaska, let's find the thing that's making the Solrem suffer and deal with it."
"Sounds like a good plan," she said with the ghost of a smile, grasping it tightly.
Part Three