A Life Unexpected (10/15)
Apr. 10th, 2008 10:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amberfocusChapter Ten: 2 + 2
Rose Tyler was thinking hard. To those who didn’t know her, which was pretty much everyone but her mum and Mickey, she looked just like she was staring off into space daydreaming, but little things would give it away to those who knew what to look for. The way she cocked her head to the side, furrowed her brow just a bit, and allowed her focus to shift to a level that allowed her to be completely aware of her surroundings if an emergency should arise, but to tune out the unimportant otherwise.
Strange things had been happening since she’d met her new partner. Usually strange things happened to her because she was a trouble magnet. But lately strange things had been unusually strange. And the common denominator there was Ian. The time corridor opening up behind her the first day she’d met him had been a little disconcerting. But it was Torchwood 4 moving to London that had been the strangest thing of all.
It hadn’t moved through time, but it had certainly moved through space. Not outer space of course, but from one place to another, certainly. So the big question was how? She was pretty sure this dimension didn’t have Time Lords. She’d cast a wide net into the Torchwood files from time to time with the help of one of Mickey’s secret computer trawling programs and she’d never found mention of Time Lords, or even the Doctor himself. That didn’t mean that they didn’t exist, but if they did they hadn’t bothered enough with Earth to be of any notice.
But what if they had something else? Something that could move through space, something that could generate some kind of field, similar to what she thought of as time corridors, that were merely space corridors. And what if it didn’t need a ship or a machine to do it? The Doctor had always said that time travel without a capsule was not a fun trip. What if this was the same? Moving sideways across the Earth without a capsule certainly hadn’t been fun. It had been nearly as awful as riding in the invisible space ship.
But what had generated the…she decided to call it spacial corridor? The enormous purple field that had expanded to absorb the entire building and wrench it around the world had to be caused by something. Certainly not something human. Humanity didn’t have technology like that for centuries to come.
She had been desperate to help Gwen and she had been panicked. She hadn’t thought Torchwood 4 would have the needed expertise to help the woman, despite their being the closest place with medical facilities. She had been so very afraid Gwen would die if they didn’t get her someplace that could help. She had thought of Martha’s hospital and all of a sudden everything had changed.
Had it been her? It couldn’t have been her. She’d know if she was channeling that kind of power. She still had vague memories of having the Time Vortex flowing through her body and how it had taken her over until it was like the very air she breathed. And nothing like that had happened. She would have known. She would have felt it.
She had looked over at Ian as he carried Gwen through the door and she had said “I don’t think they’ll be able to help her here and she cannot die!” She had said it desperately and emphatically while meeting his eyes and the next moment everything had changed. The spacial corridor had swallowed them whole and spat them out in London.
The only thing that had changed in her life was Ian. So it had to be him that was doing it. So was he aware of it? Did he have any idea? Was he even human? Was she crazy thinking any of these thoughts?
She bit her lip and decided to set a trawl going through the Torchwood files for Ian McCullen. When it came back to her in a very short time with no information other than what she might find on a standard CV, she frowned. No one at Torchwood had a file that looked like a standard CV. Okay, someone had been messing about in the files. She sent a subset trawl deep below the surface and within a few minutes she found out who had been playing in Ian’s file. Toshiko Sato.
On a hunch she trawled her own file and found the same thing had happened to it. Again, the signature came across loud and clear: Toshiko Sato. And the woman had taken great pains to cover her tracks. Mickey just knew how to write a program that could uncover them.
Reaching into her purse for a crumpled piece of paper she dialed the number Jack had given her. “Hey, Jack,” she said, when Jack picked up. “Can I speak with Tosh?”
“If this is about the computer files, she’s protecting you and Ian on my orders,” Jack said.
“And why is that?” Rose wanted to know.
“Because you need protecting. Look, where are you?”
“I’m at the office, but I’m going to be heading up to my mum’s for the weekend,” Rose said.
“I’m going to be giving Ian some information and he can fill you in when he sees you. In fact, maybe you should wait for him, take him with you.”
“To Mum’s?” Rose asked, surprised.
“Yeah. We found some disturbing things in One’s computers. I’ll let Ian explain it to you when he sees you. Just do me a favor and wait for him before you head up to see her, okay?”
Rose frowned, but she trusted this Jack instinctively almost as much as she trusted her own. “All right. I’ll wait. But I hope you’re sending real answers.”
“Putting you on the track of them anyway. And Rose?”
“Yeah?”
“If I never see you again, I’m so glad I met you.”
*****************************************
“You look lost to the world.” Ian glanced up at Ianto Jones who was busy packing up the temporary offices his team had been granted in the Torchwood 4 building.
“Heading back to Cardiff?”
“We can’t stay away from the rift too long. Too much can happen. Gwen’s stabilized now. Owen just left with her. There’s no reason for the rest of us to stay any longer.”
“Rose will miss her.”
“And we’ll miss Rose,” said Captain Jack striding into the room. “But duty calls. And Ian?”
“Yeah?”
“You might want to think about putting this building somewhere less conspicuous. Not that I’m not grateful you parked it in front of the best hospital in London. You saved Gwen’s life. But two Torchwoods in London is really calling attention to yourself. Maybe stick it somewhere like Islington until you can find a better place for it,” Jack said.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t move the building.”
“Could have fooled me,” Jack said. “Do you normally go around projecting spacial distortions out of the back of your head?” Ian just stared at the woman, dumbfounded. “I wouldn’t be letting Torchwood 1 know about that little trick, of course. They might take it into their heads to dissect you.”
“But I didn’t--.”
“I don’t think he knows, Jack,” Ianto said.
“Knows what?” Ian said, his eyes narrowing in sharply on Ianto.
“That you’re an anomaly in space/time.” Toshiko had entered the room and dropped a file in his lap. “And so is Rose Tyler. I pulled everything I could out of the computers,” she told Jack, handing the woman a duplicate file. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if One doesn’t already know. Saree was always a bright woman. That may be why they’ve paired you with Rose.”
“Rose?”
“Rose is different, but not in the way that you’re different. I think it's time the two of you had a real conversation,” Jack said, tapping his copy of the file. “With this file.”
“Why do I get the feeling you know more than you’re letting on?” Ian asked Jack.
“Because I do.”
Ch. 11: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/34756.html
Rose Tyler was thinking hard. To those who didn’t know her, which was pretty much everyone but her mum and Mickey, she looked just like she was staring off into space daydreaming, but little things would give it away to those who knew what to look for. The way she cocked her head to the side, furrowed her brow just a bit, and allowed her focus to shift to a level that allowed her to be completely aware of her surroundings if an emergency should arise, but to tune out the unimportant otherwise.
Strange things had been happening since she’d met her new partner. Usually strange things happened to her because she was a trouble magnet. But lately strange things had been unusually strange. And the common denominator there was Ian. The time corridor opening up behind her the first day she’d met him had been a little disconcerting. But it was Torchwood 4 moving to London that had been the strangest thing of all.
It hadn’t moved through time, but it had certainly moved through space. Not outer space of course, but from one place to another, certainly. So the big question was how? She was pretty sure this dimension didn’t have Time Lords. She’d cast a wide net into the Torchwood files from time to time with the help of one of Mickey’s secret computer trawling programs and she’d never found mention of Time Lords, or even the Doctor himself. That didn’t mean that they didn’t exist, but if they did they hadn’t bothered enough with Earth to be of any notice.
But what if they had something else? Something that could move through space, something that could generate some kind of field, similar to what she thought of as time corridors, that were merely space corridors. And what if it didn’t need a ship or a machine to do it? The Doctor had always said that time travel without a capsule was not a fun trip. What if this was the same? Moving sideways across the Earth without a capsule certainly hadn’t been fun. It had been nearly as awful as riding in the invisible space ship.
But what had generated the…she decided to call it spacial corridor? The enormous purple field that had expanded to absorb the entire building and wrench it around the world had to be caused by something. Certainly not something human. Humanity didn’t have technology like that for centuries to come.
She had been desperate to help Gwen and she had been panicked. She hadn’t thought Torchwood 4 would have the needed expertise to help the woman, despite their being the closest place with medical facilities. She had been so very afraid Gwen would die if they didn’t get her someplace that could help. She had thought of Martha’s hospital and all of a sudden everything had changed.
Had it been her? It couldn’t have been her. She’d know if she was channeling that kind of power. She still had vague memories of having the Time Vortex flowing through her body and how it had taken her over until it was like the very air she breathed. And nothing like that had happened. She would have known. She would have felt it.
She had looked over at Ian as he carried Gwen through the door and she had said “I don’t think they’ll be able to help her here and she cannot die!” She had said it desperately and emphatically while meeting his eyes and the next moment everything had changed. The spacial corridor had swallowed them whole and spat them out in London.
The only thing that had changed in her life was Ian. So it had to be him that was doing it. So was he aware of it? Did he have any idea? Was he even human? Was she crazy thinking any of these thoughts?
She bit her lip and decided to set a trawl going through the Torchwood files for Ian McCullen. When it came back to her in a very short time with no information other than what she might find on a standard CV, she frowned. No one at Torchwood had a file that looked like a standard CV. Okay, someone had been messing about in the files. She sent a subset trawl deep below the surface and within a few minutes she found out who had been playing in Ian’s file. Toshiko Sato.
On a hunch she trawled her own file and found the same thing had happened to it. Again, the signature came across loud and clear: Toshiko Sato. And the woman had taken great pains to cover her tracks. Mickey just knew how to write a program that could uncover them.
Reaching into her purse for a crumpled piece of paper she dialed the number Jack had given her. “Hey, Jack,” she said, when Jack picked up. “Can I speak with Tosh?”
“If this is about the computer files, she’s protecting you and Ian on my orders,” Jack said.
“And why is that?” Rose wanted to know.
“Because you need protecting. Look, where are you?”
“I’m at the office, but I’m going to be heading up to my mum’s for the weekend,” Rose said.
“I’m going to be giving Ian some information and he can fill you in when he sees you. In fact, maybe you should wait for him, take him with you.”
“To Mum’s?” Rose asked, surprised.
“Yeah. We found some disturbing things in One’s computers. I’ll let Ian explain it to you when he sees you. Just do me a favor and wait for him before you head up to see her, okay?”
Rose frowned, but she trusted this Jack instinctively almost as much as she trusted her own. “All right. I’ll wait. But I hope you’re sending real answers.”
“Putting you on the track of them anyway. And Rose?”
“Yeah?”
“If I never see you again, I’m so glad I met you.”
*****************************************
“You look lost to the world.” Ian glanced up at Ianto Jones who was busy packing up the temporary offices his team had been granted in the Torchwood 4 building.
“Heading back to Cardiff?”
“We can’t stay away from the rift too long. Too much can happen. Gwen’s stabilized now. Owen just left with her. There’s no reason for the rest of us to stay any longer.”
“Rose will miss her.”
“And we’ll miss Rose,” said Captain Jack striding into the room. “But duty calls. And Ian?”
“Yeah?”
“You might want to think about putting this building somewhere less conspicuous. Not that I’m not grateful you parked it in front of the best hospital in London. You saved Gwen’s life. But two Torchwoods in London is really calling attention to yourself. Maybe stick it somewhere like Islington until you can find a better place for it,” Jack said.
“What are you talking about? I didn’t move the building.”
“Could have fooled me,” Jack said. “Do you normally go around projecting spacial distortions out of the back of your head?” Ian just stared at the woman, dumbfounded. “I wouldn’t be letting Torchwood 1 know about that little trick, of course. They might take it into their heads to dissect you.”
“But I didn’t--.”
“I don’t think he knows, Jack,” Ianto said.
“Knows what?” Ian said, his eyes narrowing in sharply on Ianto.
“That you’re an anomaly in space/time.” Toshiko had entered the room and dropped a file in his lap. “And so is Rose Tyler. I pulled everything I could out of the computers,” she told Jack, handing the woman a duplicate file. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if One doesn’t already know. Saree was always a bright woman. That may be why they’ve paired you with Rose.”
“Rose?”
“Rose is different, but not in the way that you’re different. I think it's time the two of you had a real conversation,” Jack said, tapping his copy of the file. “With this file.”
“Why do I get the feeling you know more than you’re letting on?” Ian asked Jack.
“Because I do.”
Ch. 11: http://amberfocus.livejournal.com/34756.html
