A MATTER OF Time
by Soledad
Fandom: Star Trek – Enterprise/Whoniverse x-over
Genre: Action-adventure, Alternate Universe, Romance
Rating: T, for now
Series: None really, though this can eventually become the pilot to a couple of stories set in the same alternate universe.
Disclaimer: Star Trek belongs to Gene Roddenberry, first and foremost, and secondly whoever happens to have the rights at the moment. It's hard to follow. I don't own anything just a few secondary characters and the alternate plot idea.
Introduction
Alternate Enterprise universes have been created many times, mostly by devoted Star Trek fans who were affronted by the canon divergences of the show and disappointed by the regurgitated plotlines. I've created such an AU myself, starting with an alternate pilot and the promise of possible later stories.
The basic premise if that universe was: what if Archer had been somebody more like Torchwood's Jack Harkness? Without the immortality but with the competence, the charisma, the good looks and the larger-than-life personality? In short: with everything canon!Archer seemed to lack so much. Well, not the competence, perhaps, but definitely the rest of it,
But if I had a Jack Harkness look-alike, I couldn't really go without a Ianto Jones of some sort. So I recast Crewman Daniels to make him more enigmatic and to create some chemistry between him and Archer. As the next step, I changed Hoshi's background, giving her one similar to that of Torchwood's Toshiko. Then I caught myself bringing back the other Torchwood characters, though in different roles.
At this point I decided that – while I still kept that particular AU – an Enterprise/Whoniverse crossover of some sort would be fun. The Temporal Cold War offered the ideal starting point for that. It would be so much easier to explain when rivalling Time Lords would be pulling the strings from the background.
Of course, with the Enterprise events taking place a century and a half after Torchwood ended, I would be playing with the – hypothetical – offspring of the original TW characters. With one exception: Ianto, whose unnecessary and undignified death in CoE made me swear off Torchwood entirely. So I decided to bring him back, with the help of my favourite Doctor, who was also written out way too early.
How it is possible? Well, timey-wimey, remember? Besides, this is an AU.
Enjoy!
Chapter 01 – Like a Phoenix
Ianto's last memory is dying. Well… that and having confessed his love to Jack with his last breath. Which, true to form, Jack has not been able to return. Actually, it's been worse than that: the bloody wanker even tried to stop Ianto's confession.
Damn him! Couldn't he be bothered to lie, out of compassion for his dying lover… partner… whatever they might have been?
Ianto realizes, of course, that this is now a moot point anyway, seeing that he's dead and all that.
Or is he?
Carefully, not quite trusting his limbs to actually work, he pushes himself into sitting position and takes a look around him. The surroundings don't reveal anything. The plain little room could be in a better hotel or in the private wing of a hospital, anywhere on Earth.
Or beyond it.
If this is the afterlife, he doesn't find it very impressive.
Besides, why would he be wearing silk pyjamas in the afterlife? Or something very similar, only cut in one piece and without any buttons?
For a delusional near-death fantasy it isn't very impressive, either.
"Oh, you're awake!" says a pleasant enough voice with a slight Northern accent. "Good, good. For a moment, I was afraid it wouldn't work."
"What wouldn't work?" Ianto asks.
The owner of the voice enters through a door that Ianto could have sworn hasn't been there a moment before. It's a tall, lean man of wiry strength, with short-cropped dark hair, piercing blue eyes and large ears. He's wearing blue jeans and a black leather jacket over a black pullover.
"The cure, of course," he replies Ianto's question readily enough. "The antidote hasn't been created with humans in mind. Do you feel any unpleasant side effects?"
"Other than every part of me hurting as if I'd been beaten within an inch of my life?" Ianto asks back dryly. "Nah, none."
The man frowns. "I could try to give you something against the pain…"
"Don't bother," Ianto replies. "I've had worse. Much worse. And my pain tolerance is higher than the average; I'll deal. What I'd like, though, is some answers."
The man nods. "Go on and ask then," he says.
"So you've cured me from the 456's poison," Ianto begins.
The man nods again.
"I appreciate that," Ianto says. "Really, I do. But I'd like to know who you are, where I am… and where Jack is."
"If you mean Captain Harkness, he's left Earth aboard a passing alien ship, destination unknown," the man starts answering his questions backwards. "You're currently aboard my ship. I've brought you here so that you can heal fully. Because trouble is brewing in the 22nd century, and I may need your help."
"And you'd be…" Ianto trails off expectantly.
"I'm the Doctor," the man tells him simply.
Ianto shakes his head, suppressing the resulting nausea by sheer willpower.
"No, you're not. I've seen the Doctor and you don't look like him at all. He's a lot shorter, thin like a wraith, has sentient hair and wears a long coat and trainers."
The man frowns. "I never looked like that, in any of my previous regenerations. Oh, dear!" his shoulders slump as realization hits. "You must have met a future me. That's not good, not good at all!"
"It depends," Ianto says. "Which one are you?"
"This is my 9th incarnation," the man – well, the Doctor, obviously – replies, still a little confused.
Ianto nods. "That explains it. I met Number Ten, and let me tell you, he's a real wanker. Jack and Tosh preferred this version of you, too."
The Doctor gives him a blank look. "I never had companions called Jack or Tosh," he says.
Ianto sighs. "Not yet… listen, I really should shut up. This must be very early for the current regeneration of you, and I don't want to mess up the timeline."
That statement clearly surprises the Doctor.
"You know about the danger of that?" he asks. "Are you with UNIT?"
"Not quite," Ianto tries to remember what this particular doctor ought to know this early on, uncertain whether he should take the risk or not; but he has to set a few things straight. "Ever heard about Torchwood?"
"Of course," the Doctor replies. "They were the driving force behind human space exploration for centuries. Or will be. Well, should have become. But somewhere in the 21st century something happened and the whole future changed as a result. I actually came back to see what happened – when the TARDIS rook me to Thames House. Where I've picked up you."
He thinks for a moment, clearly playing over different scenarios in his mind.
"Since you've already met my future self, it won't be safe if you told me anything," he then continues. "I'll have to learn about the events in a different way."
"So I can't help you, after all?" Ianto asks, a bit disappointed.
"And how you can!" the Doctor exclaims. "Since you count as dead in your own time, I can take you to the 22nd century to act as my agent, restoring the timeline."
"The 22nd century," Ianto repeats slowly. "Just like that."
The Doctor shrugs. "This is the TARDIS; she can travel in time. It won't take her much effort to take you where you're needed. Unless you want me to put you down on some nice, tropical planet for the rest of your life."
"That's tempting," Ianto admits. "I've been overdue for a vacation for at least five years. Can you offer me an alternative that would be even more tempting?"
The Doctor grins. "How does space exploration sounds? I could put you on the first Earth-built ship travelling thirty million kilometres a second."
For a moment Ianto is absolutely stunned by the offer. This is so much more than even Torchwood One could have offered!
"What's the catch?" he then asks.
"It will be dangerous," the Doctor admits. "Extremely so. The first mission of the ship is one several forces would like to see fail. It must not fail; and not only for Earth's sake."
"And you believe I could prevent it?" Ianto asks doubtfully. "I'm just an average human, not an im…"
He catches himself in the last moment. This Doctor hasn't met Jack yet. More than that: in this Doctor's timeline Jack is still mortal, running from his past, conning his way through the galaxy.
"Never mind," he finally says. "I can't do something like this alone."
"You don't have to," the Doctor replies. "I could give you the necessary knowledge and equipment, but your main support would be the captain of that ship and his crew. All you'd have to do is to persuade him to work with you."
Ianto gives him a jaundiced look. "And how on Earth am I supposed to do that? An outsider, out of my time, with no idea about the century you're planning to send me to?"
"It's been my experience that for a race of hairless apes humans are a very resourceful species," replies the Doctor blithely. "As for not knowing anything about the 22nd century – you're in the TARDIS, remember? I'll show you how to access her virtual library and you can learn anything you want… well, within reasonable limits, of course. I can't have you snooping around in the future."
"You're sending me into the future," points out Ianto reasonably.
The Doctor waves off his argument. "Not too far, though. You'll be able to view events up to 2151 and not any further – unless and after you've signed up for the job."
"You still haven't told me what the job is," Ianto reminds him.
"Finding out who's behind the factions that are trying to sabotage the mission of the Enterprise – which is your ship," the Doctor replies promptly. "It won't be easy and it will be dangerous, as I said; you could easily get killed."
"Been there, done that," Ianto comments dryly.
"Perhaps," the Doctor says. "But I may not be able to be on time to save you again."
"Why did you save me in the first place then?" Ianto asks.
The Doctor shrugs. "Because the alternate timeline showed that you ought to be on the Enterprise to prevent a disaster of galactic proportions."
Ianto stars at him in shock. "You can see into the future?"
The Doctor shakes his head. "Not in the way you seem to believe. I've simply visited the same time period repeatedly and found things changed. Profoundly changed – and for the worse, I'd say. Which always means that somebody, somewhen has tampered with the timeline. Things have first branched out in the 21st century – your own time. I assume that your death and Captain Harkness abandoning Torchwood had something to do with it."
The 21st century is when everything changes, Jack's often repeated mantra echoes in Ianto's mind. He often wondered what, exactly, had been the point of departure from the proper timeline – if there had ever been one. He is wondering now what Jack would do in his shoes.
"Obviously, I can't bring you back to the breaking point," the Doctor adds. "You'd be crossing your own timeline – with disastrous results. Granted, the breach would be a lot wider in the 22nd century, but still not irreparable… I hope."
"You hope?" Ianto echoes incredulously.
"There are no guarantees," the Doctor answers grimly. "But we must try; well, I must try. And I could really use some help."
Ianto doesn't answer immediately. On the one hand, a lifelong vacation on a tropical planet is very tempting, and he's been holding grudges against the Doctor on Jack's behalf for years.
On the other hand, this isn't the Doctor that abandoned Jack on that game station, among dead bodies and Dalek dust, in the far, far future. This Doctor hasn't even met Jack – young, reckless, mortal Jack – yet. This is the Doctor whom Tosh had met and liked. The Doctor who hasn't had any quarrel with Torchwood yet.
Besides, saving Earth – or the future of mankind – is something Ianto had signed up for when he joined Torchwood One what now seemed like several lifetimes ago. He still remembers what his fellow survivors said when they learned that he'd joined Torchwood Three. "You can take the boy out of Torchwood but you can't take Torchwood out of the boy."
It is depressingly true.
Nonetheless, he doesn't intend to rush headfirst into unknown danger any longer. He can't bounce back from death like Jack; and as the Doctor said, he can't count on the Time Lord and his amazing timeship to come to the rescue every time.
"I have to think about it," he finally says. "And I'll need data before I'd make my decision. Lots of it."
The Doctor nods. "Of course. I wouldn't have you go into battle unprepared."
Ianto scowls at him. "I haven't agreed to go yet."
"No," allows the Doctor, "but you will. I saw you on that ship, remember?"
"What happens when I decide not to go?" Ianto asks.
"Then history will be rewritten again," the Doctor replies with a shrug. "Despite what you humans may believe, time isn't a linear process, set in stone. It's a… wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey… thing."
For a moment Ianto seriously considers the possibility that the Doctor might be slightly insane at this particular point of his personal timeline: freshly regenerated, right after the Great Time War that has supposedly wiped out both his species and the Daleks. Ianto knows from horribly painful personal experience that the latter part isn't true, but this Doctor can't know that. Not yet.
So yeah, maybe he is a little insane… or more than just a little.
"This is not a very scientific description, sir," Ianto says.
"No, it isn't," the Doctor agrees. "Science, though, is just the summary of our efforts to understand the universe; and time is the part of the universe that always tends to escape our understanding."
"And yet you call yourselves Time Lords and keep tampering with it," Ianto says, sharper than intended.
The Doctor laughs mirthlessly.
"One can't be more a lord of time than a surfer riding the waves is lord of the oceans," he says. "The actual Gallifreyan word means more something like time-walker. The bad translation into other languages comes from a period when we actually believed we could lord over time. We've learned our mistake the hard way. Repeatedly… and, I'm afraid, never thoroughly enough."
"But isn't it exactly what you want me to do?" Ianto asks. "To tamper with time?"
"To correct a mistake," the Doctor emphasizes.
Ianto shrugs. "Seems still like tampering to me. What if I make everything worse? In my eyes it's bloody risky to lay the future of mankind into the hands of one dead man."
"You won't be alone," the Doctor promises. "I'll get you in touch with a group of people dedicated to monitor the timelines."
"You mean the Time Agency?" Ianto frowns.
"You know about the Time Agency?" the Doctor asks back in surprise.
""I met some of their people," Ianto replies evasively. "And quite frankly, I wouldn't trust them with walking my dog, let alone with watching over the future of my planet."
"They aren't the most reliable of people," the Doctor admits. "But I won't get you in touch with them. There's a different organization in the 31st century; much more professional and trustworthy. They'll train you properly for your task – should you accept."
"But wouldn't that take a lot of time?" Ianto asks. "Time that we can't afford to waste?"
The Doctor grins at him. "Mr Jones, you keep forgetting that you're currently aboard the TARDIS – one of the few ships in this universe that can move back and forth in time at will."
"At will seems to be the key word here," Ianto mutters. "I'm told she doesn't always take you where you intend to go."
"No," the Doctor says seriously. "She always takes me where I need to go."
~TBC~
Note: Tosh being the 9th Doctor's companion is a hint at my other stories, "Travellers' Tales" and "Without Dreams".