Hunger Moon (22/?)

[amberfocus]

                                                             Sanctuary

The brassy secretary, whose nameplate labeled her as Mrs. Domina McAvoy, frowned into the telephone disagreeably and then eyed the lot in front of her. “That’s not all, sir. Davin McBain’s here. From Torchwood Scotland.”

Rose could hear the loud exclamation through the phone but a moment later the secretary hung up and pressed a button. “Through that door, down the corridor, hang a right to the top of the stairs. Mr. Jones is waiting for you downstairs.” When nobody made a move towards the door the secretary barked, “Well? Get going. I haven’t got all day. I’ve got work to do and you’re cluttering up my foyer. Out.”

The little group made their way into the hall. “Bit of a ball buster, that one,” complained Jake.

“Oi! I heard that! Show some respect!” called Mrs. McAvoy and then the door slammed firmly shut behind them.

“She’s very good at her job, though,” Suzie allowed. “Don’t think this place would run nearly so smoothly without her. And she warms up once you get to know her. A good heart, but a lot of impatience for the stupidity of less than brilliant people. I like her.”

“You worked here, then?” the Doctor asked.

“For several years. Moved to London after the joint field assignment with Mickey and Jake went,” she paused and blushed deeply, “the way it went.” Mickey smirked and Jake looked down at his feet, but his hand crept out to hold Suzie’s.

When they finally arrived at the stairs Rose let go of the Doctor’s hand with an apologetic glance, straightened her outfit, adopted a professional no-nonsense posture and led the way to the base of the stairs where Ianto Jones and his team waited. She stopped two steps from the bottom.

“Mr. Jones,” she said calmly.

“Miss Tyler,” he replied in a quiet, cultured voice that was at odds with his scarred face, and eye patch, but went perfectly well with his Armani suit and an emanating strength held forcefully and quite visibly in check.

They eyed each other for several long seconds, each taking the measure of someone they’d heard of only by reputation before. Then Rose spoke, “Ianto Jones,” she repeated, “We seek sanctuary.”

The look of shock and utter surprise on Ianto’s face lasted only three seconds before he recovered. Sanctuary was a code word, used only in the direst of circumstances. It was also known only to the highest operatives within the Torchwood ranks, ones who had been thoroughly vetted and cleared of any possibility of corruptibility.

“Of course,” he said smoothly. “Katie, Tosh, Andy, see to the comfort of the others. Miss Tyler,” his eyes moved across the motley bunch, “Davin. With me.”

“Wait,” said the Doctor.

Rose shook her head. “I’m sorry, Doctor. You’re not cleared for this. It’s Torchwood business. Let Davin and I talk to Ianto. If he agrees that all protocols are met appropriately, we’ll bring you in.  We'll bring everybody in.”

The Doctor looked very annoyed at being left alone, but at a mental, “Let me handle this my way. Please?” from Rose, he calmed himself.

“Before you go, I need to check everyone to make sure they’re all human.”

“Why the hell wouldn’t we all be human?” one of the women demanded.

“That’s part of why we’re here.”

“It’ll only take me a minute.” He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and flicked it over to the scan for non-humanoid life forms feature. “That okay?” he asked Ianto. The Welshman nodded once. Slowly he ran it over the two women and two men. “All clear,” he said at last and his own group let out a collective sigh of relief.

Rose and Davin followed Ianto into a conference room. Ianto took something out of his pocket, some kind of wand and waved it over the camera in the corner of the room and then over a vase in the middle of the table. He slipped it back into his pocket. “Okay, all surveillance is blocked.” He turned to Davin. “Hello, you old git.”

“Hello, you worthless sod.” Rose was quite surprised when the two men moved into a brief hug with much pounding of backs. “It’s been too long.”

“You two know each other?” Rose asked. “You never said.”

“We go way back,” Davin admitted.

“To Uni,” Ianto said.

Rose sat down at the table, Davin across from her and Ianto at the head between them. Ianto steepled his fingers and looked back and forth at the two agents. “You mentioned Sanctuary,” he began. “Why?” His eye settled heavily on Davin. “Why come to me? Why not go to Scotland?”

“Because I trust you,” Davin said. “And I’m not sure who I can trust up there anymore. I’ve been out of that branch of the organization too long. You, at least, won’t betray me.”

“And you, Miss Tyler?” he asked swiveling his gaze over to Rose.

“Right now the only people I can trust are in that room out there with your team and in this room right here.”

“And how do you know you can trust me?” he asked carefully.

“Harriet Jones told me so.”

His eye widened momentarily but it was the only hint of surprise. “Did she?”

“Yes. She said should I ever need you to come to you and say six words. Just six words,” Rose said slowly.

Ianto tensed. “And those words are?”

“It’s time to save the world.”

The tension left his body then, but his gaze sharpened and he pursed his lips together. “Why aren’t you going to your father about this? Whatever this,” he swept the table with one hand, “is?”

“My father’s not in charge of Torchwood London anymore,” she told him.

“Of course he is. I talked to him this morning,” protested Ianto.

“No, you didn’t. You spoke to the shape-shifting alien that’s taken over his life. One of the many that have infiltrated London,” she said bluntly. “My dad is safe, recovering in a secure location from physical and telepathic torture. The rest of my family is in hiding with him,” she said. “Everyone except my husband, of course.”

“Your husband?” he said turning to Davin in surprise. “When did you two…?” He trailed off at the closed expression on Davin’s face.

“We didn’t,” he said shortly. “Rose and I aren’t together anymore.”

“My husband’s out there,” she said. “The older man in leather. He’s also the premier authority on aliens in this universe,” she told him. “He’s not in any system, but take my word for it, he’s one of the good guys and he knows more than all branches of Torchwood and UNIT and any other form of intelligence in this world combined.”

He glanced over at Davin who nodded his head reluctantly. “You can trust him. He’s good people, Yan.”

Ianto turned around and grabbed a palm top from a shelf behind him and turned it on, quickly bringing it online with the network. “What’s his name?” he asked.

“I told you he’s not in the system,” Rose said.

“Everyone’s in the system, Miss Tyler.”

“Will you stop with the Miss Tyler business?” she burst out. “Please, call me Rose.” Ianto raised his eyebrow then nodded coolly.

“His name?” he repeated.

“The Doctor.” Ianto didn’t even blink at the fact that he was given a title instead of a name to work with. He entered it into the database and sat back, waiting for the system search to do its work. Unsurprisingly it came up empty.

“Any aliases he uses?” he asked her.

“John Smith,” she answered. Ianto didn’t bother to type that in.

“And why is this husband of yours nowhere in the database if he’s the premier expert on aliens?” demanded Ianto.

Rose glanced at Davin who indicated she should trust Ianto with her deepest secret. She hesitated. “Go on, Rose. Ianto’s never broken a trust in the twelve years I’ve known him. With anyone.”

“He’s not human,” Rose said finally. “He’s an alien.”

Ianto leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “If I’m to trust you, and him, I need you to tell me everything.” Rose took in a deep breath and began.



Suzie was making up for lost time with Katie Harper, Andy Davidson was trading Weevil hunting stories with Jake and Mickey, and the Doctor had made a beeline for the techie and resident computer genius, Toshiko Sato. “It’s your help we’ll probably need the most,” he said when he introduced himself. He’d then proceeded to ask her a series of questions that tested her level of knowledge, far in advance of any other human he’d ever met, and had managed to impress her in what he was asking.

Tosh was not used to meeting anyone with anywhere near her level of intelligence and she almost automatically fell into a level of comfort with the man she’d not felt since she and Katie had started working together. Katie, of course, was brilliant in her own right, but had nowhere near the knowledge of the man before her. It surprised her because this sort of thing had never happened to her before. No one was her intellectual equivalent. She had started to think it didn’t exist. After talking to him for a while longer she realized she’d been mistaken yet again. He far outshone even her own brainpower.

It didn’t surprise her at all really when Rose, Davin, and Ianto emerged a while later and asked everyone to come into the conference room. Together they explained the entire situation and also that the Doctor was an alien. She looked at him with new respect, realizing that that was why he was so much smarter than her or anyone else she had ever met.

Tosh was almost disappointed when he sat down at the conference table and slipped his arm around Rose’s waist and the pretty woman sank wearily into him. She noticed that Rose had a matching band on her wrist to the one the Doctor was wearing and a ridiculously large diamond on her left-hand ring finger. Almost disappointed, but not quite. The man may have been attractive in mind but he was far from her physical type, although the way Rose was holding onto him, there must have been something about him that was spectacular. She rather suspected it was his--.

“Tosh?”

“What?” The woman shook herself and brought her thoughts back to the meeting at hand at Ianto’s voice speaking her name.

“You’ll be working with Davin, Rose, and the Doctor unraveling the sphere.”

“Okay,” she replied. She didn’t ask what sphere, didn’t indicate that she had let her mind wander and hadn’t been paying attention to what had been going on. She’d figure it out soon enough but she best bring her concentration back to the briefing. She was able to figure out from the way Ianto explained the remainder of the assignments what exactly the alien invaders seemed to want, but nothing about the spheres, other than Andy’s comment about what his old police partner Gwen had told him earlier about abductions and spheres appearing around Cardiff, and that Katie had reported her own husband’s comments. The Doctor had agreed everything was likely related. Good thing she was a quick study. She’d catch up.

The teams split up and the Doctor and Rose went to retrieve the mysterious sphere from, if he was to be believed, the Doctor’s space ship. She led Davin to the lab where she did most of her deconstruction of alien tech. Davin let out a low whistle. “Wow, Toshiko, this is some set-up. I’ve never seen some of this equipment before.”

“Call me Tosh,” she said absently. “A lot of it is alien tech that’s come through the Rift. I’ve adapted what I can to improve upon what humans have managed to cobble together. Gives me probably the best laboratory on the planet.” There was no trace of bragging in her voice, just simple statement of fact.

“I don’t doubt it,” he said. “Yan always said you were the most gifted techie he’d ever had the pleasure to work with.” She smiled on hearing of Ianto’s compliment.

“And are you,” she paused and looked him up and down, trying to gauge where he fit on the team from his appearance and failing miserably, “a techie?” she asked. He was really far too pretty to be taken seriously.

“Computer tech, yes. Alien tech, no.”

“Then why are you working with us on unraveling the sphere?”

“I knew you weren’t listening during the briefing,” he said with a challenging look. “You had that far off look on your face people get when they’re bored with what the riffraff have to say.”

“Riffraff?” she asked.

“In this case those of us who don’t have brains as big as yours.”

She glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’ll have you know I’m more than just a pretty brain, Davin McBain.”

He shrugged. “But you weren’t listening, were you?”

She narrowed her eyes but he just stared steadily at her. “No,” she finally admitted. “My mind was wandering.”

“Yeah, well with such a big brain to get lost in, I’m not surprised.” This time the look he gave her was a bit admiring and she relaxed. She smiled. “So,” he said, “where is there to unwind in this town after work lets off?”

“Like what?” she asked.

“Oh, a pub, a club, the like?” he replied.

“Lots of places. I can print you out a list with a map later on.”

“Or you could just show me yourself,” he said.

She glanced up from the piece of equipment she’d started calibrating. “Me?”

“Why not? You can show me just how much more than a pretty brain you are,” he told her.

“Are you flirting with me?” she asked him.

Davin stopped in his tracks and thought about it for a few seconds. “Yes. I rather think I am. So, you, me, pubbing and clubbing after work?”

She gave him a long look. “If,” she said slowly, “you explain to me just exactly what I zoned out on in the meeting.”

“Ah. The spheres are A.I.’s. That’s part of why I’m here. Computer tech is my specialty. I’ve run into A.I.’s twice before but never with this level of sophistication. These ones are able to use a series of pulses and lights to control the telepathic brain centers of human beings. And it’s up to us to figure out exactly how.”

She nodded and had no further time to question him as the Doctor and Rose reappeared. The Doctor set a lead-lined box down on the table and opened it. The sphere immediately rose from the box and the Doctor zapped it with his sonic screwdriver. “It needs to be held underwater for it to open,” he said.

Tosh opened a cabinet under the sink and filled a bucket with water and watched as the Doctor plunged it under the surface. The device opened and the Doctor lifted it out of the bucket and opened it into its two connected hemispheres. He handed it to her and she took it with trembling fingers. “Isn’t it beautiful?” he asked Tosh with a manic grin.

She had to agree. It was the most intricate, beautiful computer she had ever seen.

Ch. 23:  http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/189902.html