Torchwood - Dark Stranger

Chapter one : The arrival.

Captain Jack Harkness leant back on the battered leather chair and rubbed his eyes. He had been staring at the small device on his desk for hours. It looked like a common remote control, but he could decipher the letters on the buttons or figure out exactly what it controlled. Nor could the rest of the Torchwood team. They had run all the usual tests but the device didn't output anything a Terran control output. So far they had ruled out radio waves, infra red, ultra violet and about three quarters of the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum. There were a few things it might be, like gravity waves or ESP waves, but they had no easy way to test for them.

Even the device's delivery had been a mystery. Ianto had answered the door to find no one there, just a brown paper wrapped package bound by string which looked decades old and a note saying 'When the time comes, you'll know what to do with it'. That was it. No name, no signature, nothing.

Jack picked the device up and turned it over. On the bottom was a small logo, which reminded Jack of the theoretical wormhole pictures that the Terran scientists like to draw. He just knew he'd seen it somewhere before, but he couldn't place it.

It had been a bad week for the group. First the rising number of Weevils emerging from the sewers and then Suzie flipping out like that. He needed time to think, to unwind.

"I think you need a break." said a voice, seemingly reading his thoughts. "Coffee?"

Jack lifted his head and was greeted by Gwen Cooper's smiling face. He returned the smile, but didn't really feel it. Frustration over the device on his desk, the Weevils and Suzie had got the better of him. He knew it was important, but he had no idea why.

"Maybe you're right." sighed Jack.

"Look, it might not be my place to say, but the others are really shook up about Suzie." Gwen reached out a hand but Jack pulled back before she could touch him.

He slowly stood and put the device on a shelf behind his desk. He took the steaming cup from Gwen and took a sip, the hot aroma filling his nostrils.

Gwen sighed and tried to change the subject. "The others are talking about going for a drink after work. Why don't you come with us?"

"Sorry Gwen, but I've got a few things to sort out here."

"Suit yourself. You really should get out more, you know."

"Thanks for the advice, but I'll be fine on my own."

After the others had left, Jack decided to get some fresh air. He had just closed the main door when one of the computer screens Owen had left on in his hurry to get to the pub flicked through the CCTV pictures. On one of the pictures, showing the area right next to the invisble elevator, a shape materilised. The shape wavered for a second, then sharpened into an exact scale model of the fountain next to it.

Jack was unaware of this strange happening right on Torchwood's doorstep. He had picked a building at random and was heading for it as fast as he could. He made his way to the top of the large white building and emerged onto the flat roof. He smiled, feeling the wind on his face, tugging gently at his overcoat. He breathed in deeply, letting the cool night air fill his lungs, refreshing him. Standing right on the edge of the roof, with a sheer drop of two hundred feet in front of him, he watched the city sleep.

After a few drinks and a lot of loud (Ianto thought possibly too loud) chats about the recent antics of the Torchwood team, they all said their farewells and headed for home.

Owen was first to get home as he got a taxi. He was shattered. All he wanted to do when he got in was have a shower and drop onto his bed. He had just stepped out of the shower, dripping with water and a blue towel wrapped around his waist, when the doorbell chimed. He sighed, not wanting to answer it, when it chimed again and again. He opened the door and was greeted by a dark shadow holding two pizza boxes.

"Here's your pizza." the figure said. "That'll be £10.50 please."

"There must be mistake - I didn't order a pizza." Owen told the figure.

"Oh. Probably a mistake in the shop. Would you like it anyway?"

"But I don't have any cash on me at the moment."

"Oh, I'm sure we could work something out..." said the figure, stepping past Owen into his flat. The door swung shut on it's own behind him.

The first thing Toshiko did when she got home was to check her email. The only one she had was for someone looking for a slave girl. It sounded too weird for her liking so she deleted it. She jumped when there was a knock at her door. A tall, muscular man greeted her with a smile.

"You erased my email!" he said with a heavy sound of disappointment in his voice.

"You're the pervert, are you? Is there any wonder why I deleted it?"

"Thought it might be a turn on for you." the man shrugged.

Toshiko noticed something about the man. The aftershave he was wearing wasn't very strong, but it had a feint musk odour to it. It seemed to be affecting her more than she wanted it to. Then she realised her breathing had become deeper, and she felt hot.

"Are you alright?" asked the man "You look a little off colour."

"I'm fine, not that's it's any of your business. Who are you anyway?" Toshiko snapped.

"All in good time. First, I have a couple of questions for you." He said, pushing her gently backwards so he could step through the doorway. Toshiko surprised herself by allowing him in, then surprised herself even more by jumping on him and pulling his clothes off.

Ianto, after dropping Gwen off at her house, drove back towards the Torchwood site. As he arrived, the first thing he noticed was the extra fountain, as he had to swerve to avoid running headlong into it.

"What the...?" He said as he jumped out of the car. He walked around the structure, noting that the water running down the sides seemed to just stop about an inch above the ground. Reaching out a hand, his fingers were just inches from the waterfall when he heard a noise behind him. Spinning around, he caught a fleeting glimpse of a man with dark hair before something heavy landed on his head and the world went black.

Gwen had gone straight to bed after she'd got in, exhausted. Her boyfriend mumbled something about she should have told him what time she was getting home, but she ignored him.

He couldn't ignore her though, when she woke up screaming about a tall dark man at 3.30 in the morning.

At exactly 3.35 am, Jack kicked Gwen's front door off it's hinges. "Where is she?" he demanded.

"Who are you?"

"We're Torchwood." Jack replied. "Where is she? Don't make me repeat myself again."

"Upstairs."

"He just kept asking 'where is he?' over and over again." Sobbed Gwen, shaking in Jack's embrace. "I told him I didn't know who he was talking about but he wouldn't stop asking! 'Where is he? Where is he?"

"Where's who?" he asked her.

Gwen lifted her head and Jack saw the terror in her eyes. "The Doctor" she replied.

Jack grabbed the binoculars from his desk and sprinted back outside. Holding them up to his face, he studied the smaller fountain and gasped at what he saw. The fountain image was definitely a mirage - Jack saw a million images trying to be displayed at once.

"It's definitely a chameleon circuit." He told the others. "Which can only mean one thing. It's a TARDIS!"

"A TARDIS? You mean the Doctor, right?"