Of the Vortex Born: Chapter Twenty-eight

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Chapter Twenty-eight:  Caught

Landon Tyler strode into his mother’s laboratory glancing around with a frown when all he saw was his sister’s head with its long, straight brown hair bent over a microscope instead of his mother’s new, jet black curls.

“Mairi, where’s Mum?” he all but barked at his sister.

“And hello to you, too, brother dear,” she said mildly turning around on her lab stool to look at him.

“Sorry,” he said giving her a distracted smile and running his hands through his hair. He’d been doing that a lot today. “Hello. Where’s Mum?”

“She and Dad took the Moon Bubble out on the surface to test it out.” At his grimace she added, “Why?”

“I’ve detected a surge in multi-particulate yet strangely congruent non-affective radiation,” he told her.

Mairi rolled her eyes at him. “Why give a simple explanation when a vastly pompous one would do instead?” she asked him.

He rephrased. “I think the Ganyites are on the moon. I think they used a safe form of radioactive matter transmission to get here.”

“I understood what you said perfectly well, just…never mind. The Ganyites? Are you sure?” she asked calmly.

“Of course, I’m sure. I don’t make it a habit of making things up or guessing,” he said in annoyance. “It’s near mare Imbrium,” he told her. “Uncle Jake’s mobilizing a squadron.”

“Mare Imbrium? But that’s the direction that Dad was going to take Mum,” Mairi said rising to her feet.

“Does that Moon Bubble of Granddad’s have a communication device in it?” Landon asked.

“Yes, it does.” Mairi walked over to a small black box and pushed a green button. “Mum, Dad, sorry to interrupt but Landon says he thinks there are Ganyites on the moon. Over.”

There was a long pause and then Rose’s voice came over the communicator. “We’re pretty well aware of that, sweetie. Being as we’re surrounded by them. Over.”

Landon swore. “Language,” Mairi said disapprovingly. She thumbed the switch again. “Are you okay? Over.”

“So far they aren’t doing anything. If I didn’t know better I’d say they were just a strange rock formation. But since onyx and black diamonds don’t form on the moon, I’m going to go with Ganyites. Over.” Rose’s voice had humor in it despite the situation.

Landon elbowed his sister to the side and took the com. “Mum, Uncle Jake is organizing some troops to come out and take control of the situation. They should be there within the hour. Over.”

“I’m not sure if that’s such a good idea,” said the Doctor. “It might antagonize them if you come at them in one of your rovers. Right now they’re completely frozen.”

“Over,” added their mother’s voice.

“How did they surround you, anyway?” Landon asked. “I thought the bubble was in constant motion. Over.”

“We stopped for a picnic,” said Rose and both kids locked eyes. They could almost hear their mother blushing. “We put up the opaque shielding and when we put it down again they were there. Over.”

“And you used to complain about me being a slave to my passions,” said Landon with an eye roll. “Over.”

“Don’t you roll your eyes at me, young man,” Rose said primly. Mairi laughed. Their mother always knew even when she wasn't looking. “I guess we’re stuck until Jake gets here, then,” Rose said. “I don’t think there is anything we can do to get out of this situation. Over.”

“Well, there is one thing, but it’s untested and a bit risky,” said Mairi. “So I wouldn’t use it unless your safety is threatened. Over.”

“Best tell us,” came the Doctor’s voice. This time he remembered to add the obligatory, “Over.”

“There should be a button on the gravity ring. A big, red, don’t push this button unless you’re in trouble button. See it?” asked Mairi. “Over.”

“Yeah. What does it do? Over,” said Rose.

“It initiates a gravity bounce. Emergency thrusters will fire into life and first pull the bubble down with 2 g’s of force and then when it lets go the bubble will shoot up off the surface. Landing is the tricky part. There’s no control over it, you go where the bubble bounces. It should be quite some distance and get you safely away from the Ganyites,” said Mairi. “Over.”

“All right. Thanks for letting us know, sweetie. I love you. You too, Landon,” Rose said. “See you when this is done. Out.”

Mairi clicked the communicator over into standby mode. “Are you going with Jake’s squadron?” she asked him.

“Yeah,” he answered. He glanced at his watch. “And I best get to it. You should probably check in on Jamie. There’s no telling when Mum and the Doctor will be safely back here and she’s still a bit unsteady emotionally."

“Will do. Keep in touch with me, you hear? Use telepathy if you have to,” she told him. “Bring them back safe.”

Landon hugged his sister, tousled her hair much to her disgust and left her alone in the lab. Mairi left one of the other lab techs in charge of the communicator and went to check on her sister.



Jamie had spent much of the day dozing, still recovering from her overwhelming use of the Vortex energy. As she ranged in and out of consciousness she was aware of Luke beside her, holding her tightly to him, the holoplayer making a dim sound in the background as he spent his day watching movies.

She was lucky, she thought as she surfaced in the late afternoon, that her untrained use hadn’t caused her to regenerate. She liked the way she looked now, loved the fact that she and her mother finally looked related after Rose’s regeneration, and didn’t want that to change. Besides, this was how she looked when Luke had met her and she was shallow enough to want him to remain attracted to her and her next body might not be this pretty.

She sighed and felt Luke’s grip on her loosen a bit. “Awake?” he asked her softly.

“Yeah. Sorry I keep going in and out like that.”

“There’s no need to apologize. You put your body through a lot of stress this week. And with what else happened to you…”

Jamie stiffened in his arms. “I don’t want to talk about that,” she told him.

“We don’t have to,” he said simply and she relaxed. Hesitantly he reached out and brushed her curls back from her face. Her hair often threatened to swallow her features and he liked looking at her. His fingers lingered against her face, the backs brushing her cheekbone tenderly.

“Can I kiss you?” he asked her, his heart beating a million miles a minute.

She smiled and nodded at him and then he brought his lips to hers and brushed them lightly together. His hand crept into her hair to cradle the back of her head and Jamie rolled a little closer to him. He strengthened the pressure of his mouth and felt hers firming against his. He wondered how she might feel if he took the kiss any further and was trying to get up the nerve to press forward with his tongue when the door to Jamie’s bedroom flew open.

“Jamie Jacqueline Tyler! Just what the hell do you think you’re doing in bed with a boy?”

Jamie and Luke jumped apart and Luke sat up quickly at the sound of Mairi’s voice.

“I’m in bed because I’m recovering from using the Vortex energy,” Jamie huffed indignantly. She sat up and crossed her arms and glared at her big sister.

“That’s not the part I’m questioning,” Mairi said glaring ferociously at Luke. He made a move to get off the bed but Jamie grabbed hold of his hand, stopping him.

“Luke didn’t do anything wrong,” she said with narrowed eyes. “All we were doing was kissing.”

“Kissing and kissing lying down in bed are two entirely different things,” Mairi said crossing her own arms. “After what happened to you at Torchwood why on the moon would you do such a thing? What if he--?”

“I would never!” Luke roared at Mairi. Jamie gave him a startled look. Since she’d met him he’d never even raised his voice once about anything. “I care about your sister so much and I would never, ever push her to do anything she didn’t want to do!” His eyes bored into Mairi’s with a force she would never have expected to see in a boy so young. It reminded her of Landon when he got angry and her brother’s temper was something she’d always done everything in her power to avoid.

“Especially,” Luke continued, “After what happened. I couldn’t protect her from that. But I certainly won’t make it any worse now I’ve got her safely back with me. You have no idea, no idea at all. I would never hurt Jamie!”

Mairi’s expression softened at the boy’s vehemence and her posture relaxed, her arms falling to her sides. “No, I don’t think you would. Not on purpose anyway. But she’s been through a shock, Luke and…just be careful with her, please? She needs to take things slow.”

“Mairi, I’m in the freaking room,” Jamie snapped. “And if I want him to slow down then I’ll be the one to tell him.”

“Would you, though? You have absolutely no experience with boys and what they’ll do to get what they want. You’ve never even kissed another boy--.”

“That’s enough, Mairi,” Jamie said in a voice of exasperation.

“I don’t think that it is. Mum is going to go spare when she finds out I found the two of you making out.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, yes, I bloody well would. You’re fourteen, Jamie!”

“Oh, and I don’t suppose it was you I found with Sutton Pierce with half your clothes missing when you were only fifteen and in Mum’s bed, too, then? That was ten times worse than a simple kiss and I never told her about that,” she said. “And I was eight. I told Mum everything then. She would have killed you if I hadn’t kept my mouth shut.”

Mairi looked uncomfortable. “That was different,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because I’d been dating Sutton for a year, that’s why and you only just met Luke.”

“So? Luke’s honorable. Sutton never was and you know it. So just stop it, Mairi. I can make my own choices and they don’t involve bedding him. But if you screw this up for me, and tell Mum so she keeps us apart, I’ll never forgive you!” Jamie hollered.

“He means that much to you?” Mairi’s voice had softened considerably.

“He took care of me, Mairi. He means…more than you can imagine.”

Luke felt his breath hitch at her words. Jamie didn’t look at him but her hand tensed a bit against his. He squeezed it reassuringly and she started to relax. “All right. But I’m staying here the rest of the evening. And that door stays open.”

She turned to leave the kids alone when Jamie said, “Mairi, what are you doing here, anyway? Where’re Mum and Dad?”

“Oh,” said Mairi turning back slowly to look at her sister. “That what I came here to tell you.”