Fic: Just another day at the office (PG- Tosh / Team)
Title: Just another day at the office
Characters: Tosh / Team (Post S1 - i.e. no Jack)
Written for: TWFemFicFest
Recipient: beesandbrews
Prompt: Toshiko making a major life or death decision.
Preferences: canon compliant. Something that could slot easily into continuity.
Rating: PG
Beta: Thrace_Adams
Summary: Sometimes people really under estimate Tosh.
Banner by alt_universe_me
____
“Come on, just do it, damnit!” Owen shouted.
“No. Tosh, you can’t,” Gwen countered.
Moonlight flickered through the clouds casting eerie shadows across the standoff of human and aliens in the clearing.
Ianto and Gwen stood off to one side, while a purple skinned alien in a three piece suit pointed a gun at them. All the Torchwood team guns were gone, taken when they were overwhelmed by the aliens. There was mud and blood on Ianto’s cheek, evidence of his efforts to keep both his gun and their technology out of the alien’s hands. The fact that his hands were on top of his head, evidence that he’d lost. Gwen wasn’t in much better shape, though her limp wasn’t noticeable when she was standing still. Owen was in a heap on the ground between Tosh and the others, a bullet wound in his shoulder, cuts and scrapes across his face and hands.
Tosh looked from Owen to Gwen and then to Ianto. Each of them pleading with her to make the right choice.
The ring leader of this nightmare strolled away from Owen toward Tosh, Ianto’s Gloch held firmly in his lavender-colored hand.
“Come now, Miss Sato. You must know that we will take the Star Cluster from you one way or another. Consider Doctor Harper our, what is it you humans call it? Collateral? You help us. He lives. You don’t. He dies.”
“You sound like a bloody comic book villain, mate. Just give over with the small talk and be done with it already,” Owen growled, from his place on the wet ground.
A massive boot connected with his shoulder. “Tha’s enough outta you, mate,” said the mountain attached to the boot.
“Alright!” Tosh shouted. “I’ll do it. Just leave him alone.”
“See? Now wasn’t that easy?”
Tosh bobbed her head in a quick affirmation. She didn’t dare look at the others right now. “I’ll need my lap top,” she said breathlessly.
The Slimy ring leader, they never did get his name, though they had confirmed that he and his crew had gills and were literally slimy like a toad, snapped his fingers. “X’Taxal. Get Miss Sato what she needs.”
“Yes, Z’Ganan,” the mountain-sized henchman said, before moving through the clearing to collect supplies.
“And access to your ship’s on board nav program.”
“What for?” Slimy’s eyes slit vertically as he squinted at Tosh.
“To pass on the Cluster’s coordinates. You didn’t think we kept it on site did you?”
“Ah. Well then.”
Slimy nodded to Mountain as he returned with Tosh’s laptop and an assortment of additional technical parts, a stool, a collapsible table, and a work light. Faster than Tosh would have thought possible, and gentler than she would have thought the creature capable, he had the table set up and her sitting in front of the open laptop ready to work, a startled “thank you” spilling from her mouth.
“When you are ready…” Slimy prodded.
“Yes.” Tosh nodded. She started typing strings of numbers, tying into an available satellite to route into Mainframe’s database and have her look for anything that would match the words “Star Cluster” and “purple amphibious alien” since they had no idea what the heck Slimy was looking for or if Torchwood even had the thing or things.
“You know,” Gwen said, pulling Slimy’s attention away from where he was hovering over Tosh’s shoulder. Tosh looked up and saw Gwen wink at her just before she started to wave her hands at Slimy and put on her best stubborn-little-girl act. “UNIT will never let you get away with this.”
“How do you figure that?” Slimy asked, stalking toward Gwen.
“They have a standing policy. They claim anything alien.” She twitched her foot in the muddy ground and Tosh had to hide a chuckle. Gwen was doing a good job of looking and sounding like a kid who’d had her favorite toy taken away. “They take stuff from us all the time. Keep it locked up in London.”
Behind Gwen, Ianto hissed and Owen reared up shouting. “Gwen what the bloody hell?!”
“Shut up, Owen.” Gwen said, then looked over at Ianto. “You know it’s true.”
Ianto shrugged. “Yvonne would not approve of this.”
“Who is Yvonne?” Slimmy demanded.
“Yvonne Hartman - Head of Torchwood London,” Ianto replied, his voice stiff and rough.
“Can she stop your little mouse from giving me what I want?”
Ianto and Gwen answered at the same time with opposite replies.
Slimy grabbed the back of Gwen’s neck and pulled her against his chest. “Well, which is it?”
Ianto started forward, but stopped when his guard jabbed him in the side with his gun. “No!” Ianto shouted. “No, she can’t.”
“Good, then she won’t be any trouble.” He let go of Gwen and rounded on Tosh. “What’s taking you so long?!”
Tosh jumped, startled, and then took a deep breath. “It’s not exactly easy to work around UNIT, the ESA, and NASA to set all this up,” Tosh said, thinking quickly.
“Why?”
Tosh glared at Slimy and tried to channel Gwen at her most officious. “Would you like to get your Cluster or do you really want me to spend an hour explaining temporal astronomy and global defense system tracking to you?”
Slimy chuckled. “Mmm, so spirited. I like that in a human.” He walked away, a frown on his wide face. They all held their breath as he turned back to glare at her. “Fine. Just get me the Cluster.”
Tosh nodded and looked back to her screen. There was something there in the code. An option just under all the static. She tapped a response, waited to see how Mainframe answered, sent an additional query and managed to hold in her shout of triumph at the last moment.
Tosh looked up at Slimy. “I’m ready to send the coordinates to your ship.”
“Very well.” Slimy said. He stepped into Tosh’s space and input a set of numbers into the computer. “You are logged in for the next two minutes.”
“But it will take…”
“Two minutes. Not a second longer.”
“Fine,” Tosh said, her hands flying across the key board. She was barely aware of the silence stretching around them as she worked. Numbers flashed across her screen, data flowing between Mainframe, her fingers, and the alien ship as she established the link and sent her information. When it was done, she sat back with a sigh, her hands resting on her key board.
“It’s done.”
“Very good,” Slimy said, with what might have been a smile. “Kill the doctor.”
The Mountain aimed a pistol at Owen.
“No!” Gwen and Tosh shouted at once.
“You promised,” Tosh hissed.” You said if I did this for you, you would let him live.”
“I lied.”
“So now what?” Gwen asked.
“Now I access the coordinates Miss Sato sent to my ship, retrieve my treasure, and you all die. Can’t leave any witnesses to track me down.”
Tosh looked up at Slimy. “There’s one problem with that.”
“Oh? And what might that be?”
“You let me access your ship while you held my friends hostage. And I am a genius.” Tosh pressed the enter key on her board.
Static crackled across alien ear pieces.
“What is it? What’s happened?
“Z’Ganan,” the suited henchmen spoke up from behind Ianto. “The ship, it’s not responding.”
Slimy turned on Tosh, his skin flaring orange as he shouted. “What did you do?!”
Tosh stood up and glared at Slimy. “I sent it away. And if it ever comes back I will make sure UNIT knows all about you and your interest in Subatomic molecular diamonds. Or didn’t you think we would find out what the Cluster was?” Tosh laughed. “I suspect that would ensure that you and your ship never leave UNIT’s clutches, don’t you?”
Slimy’s color shifted from orange to purple to blue in rapid succession. Tosh figured that was his race’s version of blanching and took it as a good sign.
“Now. Shall I input my next code? Are you really willing to see what that will do to you and your body guards?”
Slimy’s skin flared briefly orange and then went completely yellow. Tosh was willing to bet it was his equivalent of queasy. She could live with that.
“No.” Slimy said, shaking his head. He tossed his gun at Gwen’s feet and nodded to his men. They followed his example and dropped their weapons.
Tosh let out the breath she’d been holding and pulled her hand away from the laptop, immensely grateful that Slimy hadn’t called her bluff. There were only so many miracles she and Mainframe could work in a few minutes.
“Right.” Gwen placed a hand on Tosh’s shoulder. “Ianto, help me get these three tied up. We can decide what to do with them once we’re back at the Hub. Tosh, can you help Owen into the SUV?”
Tosh nodded, shaking now that the adrenalin was starting to wear off. She knelt in the grass beside Owen and squeezed his hand.
“Thanks, Tosh.”
“Sure thing.”
“And Tosh-“ Gwen called.
Tosh turned back to Gwen. “Mmm?”
“Good work.”
Tosh smiled and nodded her head. “Thanks.”
.
This entry was originally posted at http://wynkat.dreamwidth.org/26506.html.
Characters: Tosh / Team (Post S1 - i.e. no Jack)
Written for: TWFemFicFest
Recipient: beesandbrews
Prompt: Toshiko making a major life or death decision.
Preferences: canon compliant. Something that could slot easily into continuity.
Rating: PG
Beta: Thrace_Adams
Summary: Sometimes people really under estimate Tosh.
Banner by alt_universe_me
____
“Come on, just do it, damnit!” Owen shouted.
“No. Tosh, you can’t,” Gwen countered.
Moonlight flickered through the clouds casting eerie shadows across the standoff of human and aliens in the clearing.
Ianto and Gwen stood off to one side, while a purple skinned alien in a three piece suit pointed a gun at them. All the Torchwood team guns were gone, taken when they were overwhelmed by the aliens. There was mud and blood on Ianto’s cheek, evidence of his efforts to keep both his gun and their technology out of the alien’s hands. The fact that his hands were on top of his head, evidence that he’d lost. Gwen wasn’t in much better shape, though her limp wasn’t noticeable when she was standing still. Owen was in a heap on the ground between Tosh and the others, a bullet wound in his shoulder, cuts and scrapes across his face and hands.
Tosh looked from Owen to Gwen and then to Ianto. Each of them pleading with her to make the right choice.
The ring leader of this nightmare strolled away from Owen toward Tosh, Ianto’s Gloch held firmly in his lavender-colored hand.
“Come now, Miss Sato. You must know that we will take the Star Cluster from you one way or another. Consider Doctor Harper our, what is it you humans call it? Collateral? You help us. He lives. You don’t. He dies.”
“You sound like a bloody comic book villain, mate. Just give over with the small talk and be done with it already,” Owen growled, from his place on the wet ground.
A massive boot connected with his shoulder. “Tha’s enough outta you, mate,” said the mountain attached to the boot.
“Alright!” Tosh shouted. “I’ll do it. Just leave him alone.”
“See? Now wasn’t that easy?”
Tosh bobbed her head in a quick affirmation. She didn’t dare look at the others right now. “I’ll need my lap top,” she said breathlessly.
The Slimy ring leader, they never did get his name, though they had confirmed that he and his crew had gills and were literally slimy like a toad, snapped his fingers. “X’Taxal. Get Miss Sato what she needs.”
“Yes, Z’Ganan,” the mountain-sized henchman said, before moving through the clearing to collect supplies.
“And access to your ship’s on board nav program.”
“What for?” Slimy’s eyes slit vertically as he squinted at Tosh.
“To pass on the Cluster’s coordinates. You didn’t think we kept it on site did you?”
“Ah. Well then.”
Slimy nodded to Mountain as he returned with Tosh’s laptop and an assortment of additional technical parts, a stool, a collapsible table, and a work light. Faster than Tosh would have thought possible, and gentler than she would have thought the creature capable, he had the table set up and her sitting in front of the open laptop ready to work, a startled “thank you” spilling from her mouth.
“When you are ready…” Slimy prodded.
“Yes.” Tosh nodded. She started typing strings of numbers, tying into an available satellite to route into Mainframe’s database and have her look for anything that would match the words “Star Cluster” and “purple amphibious alien” since they had no idea what the heck Slimy was looking for or if Torchwood even had the thing or things.
“You know,” Gwen said, pulling Slimy’s attention away from where he was hovering over Tosh’s shoulder. Tosh looked up and saw Gwen wink at her just before she started to wave her hands at Slimy and put on her best stubborn-little-girl act. “UNIT will never let you get away with this.”
“How do you figure that?” Slimy asked, stalking toward Gwen.
“They have a standing policy. They claim anything alien.” She twitched her foot in the muddy ground and Tosh had to hide a chuckle. Gwen was doing a good job of looking and sounding like a kid who’d had her favorite toy taken away. “They take stuff from us all the time. Keep it locked up in London.”
Behind Gwen, Ianto hissed and Owen reared up shouting. “Gwen what the bloody hell?!”
“Shut up, Owen.” Gwen said, then looked over at Ianto. “You know it’s true.”
Ianto shrugged. “Yvonne would not approve of this.”
“Who is Yvonne?” Slimmy demanded.
“Yvonne Hartman - Head of Torchwood London,” Ianto replied, his voice stiff and rough.
“Can she stop your little mouse from giving me what I want?”
Ianto and Gwen answered at the same time with opposite replies.
Slimy grabbed the back of Gwen’s neck and pulled her against his chest. “Well, which is it?”
Ianto started forward, but stopped when his guard jabbed him in the side with his gun. “No!” Ianto shouted. “No, she can’t.”
“Good, then she won’t be any trouble.” He let go of Gwen and rounded on Tosh. “What’s taking you so long?!”
Tosh jumped, startled, and then took a deep breath. “It’s not exactly easy to work around UNIT, the ESA, and NASA to set all this up,” Tosh said, thinking quickly.
“Why?”
Tosh glared at Slimy and tried to channel Gwen at her most officious. “Would you like to get your Cluster or do you really want me to spend an hour explaining temporal astronomy and global defense system tracking to you?”
Slimy chuckled. “Mmm, so spirited. I like that in a human.” He walked away, a frown on his wide face. They all held their breath as he turned back to glare at her. “Fine. Just get me the Cluster.”
Tosh nodded and looked back to her screen. There was something there in the code. An option just under all the static. She tapped a response, waited to see how Mainframe answered, sent an additional query and managed to hold in her shout of triumph at the last moment.
Tosh looked up at Slimy. “I’m ready to send the coordinates to your ship.”
“Very well.” Slimy said. He stepped into Tosh’s space and input a set of numbers into the computer. “You are logged in for the next two minutes.”
“But it will take…”
“Two minutes. Not a second longer.”
“Fine,” Tosh said, her hands flying across the key board. She was barely aware of the silence stretching around them as she worked. Numbers flashed across her screen, data flowing between Mainframe, her fingers, and the alien ship as she established the link and sent her information. When it was done, she sat back with a sigh, her hands resting on her key board.
“It’s done.”
“Very good,” Slimy said, with what might have been a smile. “Kill the doctor.”
The Mountain aimed a pistol at Owen.
“No!” Gwen and Tosh shouted at once.
“You promised,” Tosh hissed.” You said if I did this for you, you would let him live.”
“I lied.”
“So now what?” Gwen asked.
“Now I access the coordinates Miss Sato sent to my ship, retrieve my treasure, and you all die. Can’t leave any witnesses to track me down.”
Tosh looked up at Slimy. “There’s one problem with that.”
“Oh? And what might that be?”
“You let me access your ship while you held my friends hostage. And I am a genius.” Tosh pressed the enter key on her board.
Static crackled across alien ear pieces.
“What is it? What’s happened?
“Z’Ganan,” the suited henchmen spoke up from behind Ianto. “The ship, it’s not responding.”
Slimy turned on Tosh, his skin flaring orange as he shouted. “What did you do?!”
Tosh stood up and glared at Slimy. “I sent it away. And if it ever comes back I will make sure UNIT knows all about you and your interest in Subatomic molecular diamonds. Or didn’t you think we would find out what the Cluster was?” Tosh laughed. “I suspect that would ensure that you and your ship never leave UNIT’s clutches, don’t you?”
Slimy’s color shifted from orange to purple to blue in rapid succession. Tosh figured that was his race’s version of blanching and took it as a good sign.
“Now. Shall I input my next code? Are you really willing to see what that will do to you and your body guards?”
Slimy’s skin flared briefly orange and then went completely yellow. Tosh was willing to bet it was his equivalent of queasy. She could live with that.
“No.” Slimy said, shaking his head. He tossed his gun at Gwen’s feet and nodded to his men. They followed his example and dropped their weapons.
Tosh let out the breath she’d been holding and pulled her hand away from the laptop, immensely grateful that Slimy hadn’t called her bluff. There were only so many miracles she and Mainframe could work in a few minutes.
“Right.” Gwen placed a hand on Tosh’s shoulder. “Ianto, help me get these three tied up. We can decide what to do with them once we’re back at the Hub. Tosh, can you help Owen into the SUV?”
Tosh nodded, shaking now that the adrenalin was starting to wear off. She knelt in the grass beside Owen and squeezed his hand.
“Thanks, Tosh.”
“Sure thing.”
“And Tosh-“ Gwen called.
Tosh turned back to Gwen. “Mmm?”
“Good work.”
Tosh smiled and nodded her head. “Thanks.”
.
This entry was originally posted at http://wynkat.dreamwidth.org/26506.html.