1
It was late, the Torchwood cruising slowly as the world inside her hull slept. She detected an incoming and sent it through to the flight deck where Ianto was in the Captain's Chair taking the night shift.
"Come on" Ianto was laughing as he flicked a pen at Andy, "Tell the truth. She terrifies you!"
"Look, I'm not saying that we are not suited but damn! She ate everything but the table cloth!" Andy wailed, his latest date a failure.
"Well .. there is Felliod in Security, she looked interested when you declared yourself ready for a bonding" Ianto said, Suzie starting to snigger as she turned to motioning for Ianto to stop.
"HER!" Andy squeaked, "She would eat me an' all!"
"Ianto … There is something here from Sol3" Suzie finally interrupted, "Apha 1. Sorry."
"Let's see" Ianto leaned over and opened the file, Suzie glancing at Andy as they all knew he had just opened Jack's mail. "shit."
"What is it?"
"Ianto?"
"We have an emergency back on Sol3, Suzie we need to get back there now. Push the engines" Ianto said then Ianto touched a button on the chair, "Captain, you are needed on the bridge."
He soon removed himself from the chair, Jack entering in his PJs to a chorus of "Captain."
"What do we have?" Jack asked as he took his chair and Ianto pointed to the screen.
"Franny, let's see"
They watched as a large building seemed to implode, followed by it's neighbour.
"Fuck" Andy blurted "What is that?"
"Earthquake?" Jack frowned as he leaned in.
"Franny? What's the scuttlebutt?" Ianto demanded as he stood with his hands behind his back, "The unofficial rumours?"
"Something is under the ground, they think it is some non-alien life form" Mainframe answered "a worm."
"What…like a Graboid?" Ianto frowned.
"I thought they were contained within that valley… all that rock in the hills?" Jack leaned back, "Shit, if a Graboid escaped…."
"Yeah. Then come those running doggie pig things followed by the flying farters" Andy sniggered. "I loved the Tremors franchise."
"Me too" Ianto smiled softly, then let it fade, "Based on fact."
"Bullshit"
"He's right" Jack nodded, "The Arseblasters and Screachers are different creatures all together that were simply chosen for the franchise. Graboids do not come up … they live their entire lives down there causing grief but are mostly in the Desperation valley. If they found a way out …. Shit. The earthquakes might have cracked the bedrock, technically they might be loose."
"Decision?" Ianto asked calmly.
"High high tail it back to see if we can help" Jack shrugged, "It's in the charter. If something that is not manmade is attacking, we must defend."
Good, cose we have been at full thrust for the last hour" Suzie replied with a grin, "Ianto made it so before even waking you."
"Of course he knows the rules as well as I do. For all our talk of being a seperate world up here … we are still of Earth and will always have a responsiblity to our fellow humans." Jack smiled softly at Ianto, their affection raw.
"Ship-wide alert?" Ianto asked with one eyebrow raising.
"Yes, of course Tiger" Jakc swung and waved a hand at Suzie who nodded to turn the lights to red, the entire vessel seeming to take a breath as she rushed back towards the long since doomed planet.
They were soon within range for a Vid-call and settled at the cpatain's table with the federated council discussing the problem.
"I don't see why we don't just nuke the area it is in!" one huffed, both tables erupting with anger as this clearly hadn't helped the atmo so far.
"It would not work, you would only be estroying the last true rainforest." Ianto sighed, talk stopping as one of the council leaned forward.
"Could you repeat that?" she asked, pulling papers over, "The green area. It's not just painted rocks to simulate trees?"
"Madam Secretary, that is the last natural rainforest on the fce of the planet. It produces over 50% of the world's oxygen right now. The Oxygen Facilities can only filter what is there, without trees we will be forced to abandon the topside for good. Within a matter of a year the air would be toxic without the natral filtering system. All that region beyond the mountains is dense, luh rainforest."
"And you know this for sure?" another asked as he snorted and held up the faint satelite image, "Looks fake to me. How can you be sure? Thr Earthers made fake trees and painted this area so we could not dump in it, if they had just…"
"Because I came from there" Ianto shugged, letting the green sleeves of his tunic show above the table as he placed his arms on it, the entire lower half of his tunic sleeves apple green. "My mother was an Earther."
The silence was deafening and Jack did the only thing he could under the curcumstances.
He put his arm around his mate and smiled for the camera, letting his own red lower sleeves show too.