The Uncharted Dark
By Vanya
Part 1
"Report Dr Goscinny." the captain barked.
"Sir, approximately thirty minutes ago navigation sited a small, unidentified object in space, and we changed course to intercept. The object turned out to be a body, a human male, perfectly preserved and he was brought on board. A preliminary examination revealed no contaminants, no obvious cause of death nor any negative effects from being in a vacuum. We're awaiting your orders of how to deal with him."
Captain Jordan surveyed the man on the table, "Poor bastard," he muttered, "There's nothing you can do for him now. I don't believe a postmortem would be the best use of your time or our resources. We'll put him into storage as we would one of our own, then when we get back to Earth the authorities can do a proper identification and autopsy."
"Yes, right away sir."
Preparing a body for storage was never pleasant, but Dr Goscinny was getting used to it, even in her few short years with the service she had dealt with her share of deaths. He's warm, she thought to herself as she took hold of his shoulders, when he had first been taken aboard the body had been frozen, but now he was almost back to normal temperature. Suddenly his eyes snapped open, Dr Goscinny stumbled backwards and let out a small shriek as the corpse sat bolt upright and drew his first, pained breath.
Twelve years later
In the deep recess space, the uncharted dark of the universe, a Raven class stealth ship held it's position observing the planet Velitrax. The name was one of the few things they had been able to distinguish so far. Sitting amongst the ship's highly advanced communication systems Hugo Horowitz sifted through endless intercepted chatter from the planet, it's outlying moons and space stations. He was the Raven's communications officer and linguistics expert and this ship was his first post, he had been recruited for the mission straight out of university. On paper his orders seemed straight forward, determine if Velitrax constitutes a potential ally or threat to the Earth Empire. In reality this meant deciphering an entire alien language without the benefit of a Rosetta stone, but he was an gifted man, he would get there. Indeed, he had done it before, he had managed to successfully decipher the languages of more than one planet before he had even graduated, alliances had already been formed based on his his work. Sadly this was also the loneliest position on the ship, the rest of the crew had their tasks to do his was the only full time post. As if to torment him the ship's surveillance center had been set up in the same room, every time he glanced over at the monitors he could see the rest of the crew enjoying down time. Up until this point he and the rest of the crew had spent a lot of their time asleep, able to pass months at a time thanks the the latest sleep induction and metabolic altering technology. They would be woken periodically to take on food, expel waste and generally make sure the ship was working and they were on course. But now they had found a planet the crew was up and alert full time.
"Hi Hugo," a voice broke the silence, "Fancy a drink?"
Standing in the doorway holding two steaming cups of coffee was Clemence Goscinny, the resident doctor. Like the rest of the crew she had found herself with very little to do. Everyone had stepped aboard with a clean bill of health and since they were in a sealed environment there was no source of disease and so little activity that she rarely had to deal with even the most minor injury. But she saw her role as more than just a medic, she was in charge of the well being of the entire crew and the last thing she needed was for someone to go stir crazy.
"Thanks Clem," Hugo replied taking the cup, "Perfect." he proclaimed, taking a sip. It wasn't, but it was as good as ship coffee could be and had become a running gag between them.
"How's the work coming, made any breakthroughs yet?"
"Not with the language, this seems to be one of the more complex ones I've encountered. So far I haven't got beyond the names of things, the planet, moons, stations and such, but it's only a matter of time. However I did come across this," Hugo indicated to a chart on one of his screens, "Which I think is quite exciting. I intercepted it as part of a data packet, it looks like some kind of an intergalactic shipping route. I'm still working out exactly what it says, but based on it I don't think Velitrax is actually these people's home world. In fact it seems to be a colony on the the edges of their known space, this could be the tip of another empire, stretching out light years in other directions. With all the traffic I'd say Veletrax the source of an important natural resource."
"You should show that chart to Helena," Clem said helpfully, "Maybe she could make more sense out of it, and it'll give you two something to talk about."
"Maybe later."
"Good." she paused, "A few of us will be kicking off another poker tournament in a bit, if you feel like taking a break you should join us, you did really well last time."
"Thanks for the offer, but I really need to press on here. I'm getting close, I can feel it."
"Alright, but there'll be a film screening at twenty hundred hours, classics from the twenty third century, I expect you to be there."
"Yes Ma'am," Hugo said with a salute and a chuckle, "Anyway, must be getting back to work. Thanks for dropping by Clem, I really appreciate it."
"No problem," as she was leaving Clem caught sight of one of the surveillance monitors, "Hugo, is that the cargo hold?"
"What? Oh, yes."
"What's that?"
Hugo turned his full attention to the screen, "I have absolutely no idea, but it sure as hell wasn't there ten minutes ago."
"I think we need to inform the Captain."
xxxx
"So we're on another spaceship?" the tone of disappointment was barely disguised in Haze's voice. She'd been traveling with the Doctor for some time now, and while alien worlds and different historical periods of the Earth remained endlessly fascinating she found insides of spaceships incredibly dull. She had never been a fan of long haul travel nor had she ever had any particular interest in the advanced mechanisms that powered these vessels. Even looking out of the window had lost it's appeal, once you got over the new constellations space tended to be a bit samey.
"Yes, and apparently in the cargo hold," the Doctor had a much more enthusiastic take on the situation, he wandered round scanning the shelves, "Food, this all food. Whoever's on board must be here for the long run. Judging by the packaging this all seems to be military issue but top quality, this is the good stuff."
"Great, so we've just slipped aboard a military spaceship, why did you even want to come here?"
"I didn't, I just put the TARDIS on random."
"Well how about we skip this one?"
"Not until I've had a chance to look around, really figure out where we are. Let's see, based on the structure I'd say we're looking at around 28th century, this all looks pretty new so we're in a top of the line ship rather than some old tub floating around. We feel like we're stationary and that looks to be an inhabited planet out there. Since we're so far out and they don't seem to be paying us any attention I'd say they can't see us. The food suggests a long term mission...." suddenly the Doctor became quite excited, "Oh! We're on a Raven."
Haze knew she would regret question, but at the same time she was overcome with curiosity, "Alright, I'll ask: What's a Raven?"
"They were a series of long range stealth exploration ships. There was a stand off with the Draconian Empire on one side so the Earth Empire, well the First Earth Empire, but obviously they don't call it that, was desperate to expand in other directions. They a constructed a load long range exploration vessels and sent them off in to explore beyond the edges of the known universe. These were the edges even as far as their allies concerned, this was truly the unknown. Anyway, one of these could sit in orbit for months observing a planet and the crew's job was establish if the world was a potential ally or threat."
"So much for your traditional first contact, this is a pretty paranoid era of space exploration then."
"It was."
"You know. for some reason I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of being on paranoid military ship. I vote we get out of here before we get caught."
"That's not a bad idea, but don't think we should be in too much of a hurry to move."
"And why's that?"
"The men with guns might get nervous and do something silly."
Haze spun around to see four armed men standing in the doorway of the cargo hold, "Great," she muttered, "Captured already, this has to be a new record for us."
As they security team entered two things struck Haze as being unusual, the first was their lack on uniform, despite the Doctor's claim that this was a military ship they were all dressed in civilian clothes, one was even wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt. The other was that although they carried weapons they weren't held in a threatening manner, it was as if they just happened to have guns with them.
The lead man approached them and said, "The Captain would very much like to have a chat with the two of you."
"No, it's OK," the Doctor replied, "We don't want to be a bother, do we Haze?"
"Of course not," she added, "In fact we were just leaving."
"But Doctor," the soldier said, "He was most insistent."
xxxx
"OK, I'll admit it, I'm confused," Haze said as they were escorted down the corridor, "Are we prisoners or not?"
"I'm really not sure." replied the Doctor.
The men who had taken them had been extremely unhelpful in that respect, refusing to tell them anything more.
"But this captain, you know him right, you two must be old friends?"
"Or he could be a really laid back enemy looking to settle a score. To be perfectly honest, I don't even recall ever meeting a Raven captain. I just hope I recognise him, if he's someone from my future then things could get really awkward."
As they arrived at the the captain's cabin the lead soldier pushed an intercom and announced "The visitors have arrived." and in response the door slid open.
The cabin was spacious, tastefully decorated and very white. An efficient looking work station provided everything that a captain who was never off duty needed and was accompanied by a comfortable high backed chair. A few pieces of art, some pictures and small sculptures were dotted around the room and a door lead of the equally comfortable sleeping quarters. The captain himself stood in the center of the room, ready to greet his visitors. The soldier may have been casual, but the captain himself was and anachronism dressing like someone out of the second world war rather than the near future.
"Captain." said the soldier.
"AJ." acknowledged the captain.
"Capitan?" exclaimed the Doctor.
"Doctor."
"Captain?" Haze was even more surprised to see the man before them.
"Well hello there." said Captain Jack Harkness.
xxxx
The arrival of the visitors was the most interesting thing to have happened on the ship for a while, not that there had been much competition. Consequently Hugo had abandoned his work and joined the rest of the crew in the mess hall, the social hub of the ship. Clem was already sat at the table, along with Gordon O'Rourke, the ship's chief engineer, Joseph Rennes, his adopted assistant and Caroline Nash, the computer specialist. Helena Lake, their pilot, paced back and forth at the head of the room. Hugo's arrival signalled that they were all present.
When the Raven project was first conceived there was great pressure to prevent it from being an entirely military operation and so many of the participants had been recruited from civilian organisations. Despite Clem's efforts a social schism had formed amongst the crew, with the soldiers on one side and the civilians on the other. Even though her own background was with the armed forces Clem had found herself bonding more with those outside of the service and became increasingly infuriated with the military men, in spite of all the years they had spent together they seemed unwilling to associate with the rest of the ship. They kept to their own quarters and even took their meals at separate times. In many ways Jack was the worst, barely leaving his cabin and seemingly incapable of having a conversation that didn't relate the mission.
"Right, so what do we know?" said Clem, determined to make as much of the situation as possible.
"Not much," Hugo began, "The Captain called the man 'Doctor', but didn't mention the girl by name, she was just 'his companion'. I'd assume they're old friends somehow, but I can't even begin to guess their history."
Clem nodded, she'd known Jack for years and there was still a lot about his past she didn't know. Even though she'd been there when his body had been discovered he had never been very forthcoming about his past and all his files were classified at the highest levels. She decided to try a different tactic, "Gordon, Helena, any idea how they got aboard."
The pilot shook her head, "It's impossible for any ship have got within a thousand kilometers of us and certainly no way to get past the hull without us seeing them. Besides, we're in a stealth ship, no one should even be able to see us, let alone get on board." Helena had been on spaceships most of her life, piloting them as soon as she was able. Her early career was spent with a mining company, working out of facilities located in an asteroid field and taking on some of the most dangerous shipping routes in the galaxy. She had enthusiastically accepted her invitation to fly for the Raven project but soon regretted it, exploring new galaxies was not as exciting as she had believed it would be. Before she had been an adrenaline junkie looking for a new challenge, but now she was board, working off he excess energy as best she could with home made gym equipment in her cabin and at strategic points on the ship.
"Long range teleport?" Gordon suggested helpfully, "Maybe that box has the ability to just appear at it's destination." He was the oldest member of the crew, at least in terms of physical age. Like Helena he had been recruited from the private sector, his background had been in the design and manufacture of cargo ships. Ever the optimist he refused to rule out technology that was years ahead of them, because he believed that it was possible and that somewhere someone may have mastered it.
"Maybe," Helena pondered it for a moment, "But still where would it have originated from? Couldn't have been anywhere round here, they're both human, and they know the Captain."
"I don't trust them." Rennes injected.
"Yeah, but you don't trust anyone," Helena retorted, "How long did it take you to come to terms with us?"
"That's not the point," he continued, "These two appeared out of nowhere. As for knowing the Captain, how much do any of you really know about Jack?" Rennes was the only member of the crew to lack any real purpose, although had begun to learn the basics of interstellar maintenance from Gordon.
"Jack has his secrets, there's no denying that," said Caroline, "But someone higher up knows who he really is. Whatever aspect of his past they don't want us to know about I doubt that he'd let pirates, spies, saboteurs or whatever it is you're worried about on board." No one really understood Caroline's motives for joining the expedition. Back on Earth she had been head of R&D for a highly successful computer company where she had been responsible for some of the most significant advances in recent years and her personal fortune was estimated to be in the top 10% of the Empire. But there she was, providing technical support to the ships systems and the personal computer of the crew. She even seemed uninterested in the idea of exploration or making contact with new cultures, content to just relax and wait out her time.
"May I remind you that you're ten years into deep space," Rennes said, still unwilling to just accept the visitors, "This isn't the sort of place where you just run into old friends."
"I agree with Caroline," said Clem, "I sincerely doubt Jack would welcome dangerous criminals with such open arms. But this level of secrecy isn't healthy, I'm going to have a serious talk with him about this whole affair. He can only keep his silence for so long."
xxxx
After the pleasantries had been exchanged the members of Jack's crew had been dismissed, leaving the three of them standing in silence. Each of them was burning with a hundred questions, but none of them quite knew where to begin.
"So," Jack began, "Welcome to Raven 16."
"Jack, it's good to see you," said the Doctor, "But how did you end up on a Raven?"
Jack didn't return the sentiments, his tone quickly became more serious, "How long has it been since you last saw me? Months? Weeks? Days? Because I'm not like you Doctor, I can't just turn up at any point in time and space I choose. I didn't just waltz in here on a whim, I had to get here the hard way. It's been more than seven hundred years since I last saw you, ten of them spent on this ship, and I have lived them all. More or less."
"I'm sorry Jack, I really am."
Haze said nothing, she had seen a lot of strange things in her time with the Doctor and in her work before that, but she could still barely believe what unfolding before her. She had recognised Jack as soon as they had walked in, the years spent chasing aliens and reporting sightings had brought her face to face with Jack and his Torchwood team on more than one occasion. There were so many questions that she wanted to ask, in the past she would have done almost anything for an opportunity like this, but now wasn't the time. Tensions were running high, and although she was curious to know what the history between these two was she had no desire to be in the same room while they sorted out their differences. Whatever the truth of the matter was it wasn't her business.
"Anyway....." she said, breaking the awkward silence, "I think it's best if I leave you alone, you clearly have a lot of catching up to do. If you don't mind I'll go and check out the rest of the ship."
"Of course," Jack pressed the intercom, "AJ, escort this young lady the the mess hall won't you?"
"Right away Captain." came the reply.
The door slid open, letting Haze out into the corridor. Waiting for her was one of the security team she had encountered earlier, she assumed he was AJ.
"This way." he said, directing her down a corridor.
Unwilling to tolerate another awkward silence she decided to get at least one niggling questions off her chest, "If this is a military ship what's with the you and the rest casual Fridays brigade?"
Even though his clothing didn't look military issue AJ appeared to at least made an effort to dress like a soldier, wearing combat trousers, heavy army style boots and a plain white t-shirt.
"That was Dr Goscinny's idea," AJ responded irritably, "Since we were going to be sitting in deep space for years at a time she thought it would be beneficial to create a more relaxed atmosphere, no uniforms and no ranks. Jack's the captain, I'm his second in command, but after that everyone is equal."
"Interesting, and how's that working out for you?"
"The civvies seem happy enough but I think it's the wrong way to go about things."
"And why is that?"
"This is a military operation, without structure people get lazy and make mistakes."
"Had any major problems yet?"
"It only takes one to get us all killed."
"So that's a 'no' then."
AJ's lack of response signalled to Haze that she's won the argument.
xxxx
"You didn't flirt with her, you didn't even ask her name. Jack, you're slipping." The Doctor said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Sorry to disappoint you, it's a by-product of being captain of the USS Abstinence."
"So how did you end up here, if you don't mind my asking? And what did you mean when you said 'more or less'?"
"It's a long story, but the abridged version: I spent about a hundred years floating through space."
"What, really?"
"Yes, really, a hundred and nine years, two months and thirteen days to be precise. I spent a while drifting round the universe acting as a kind of soldier of fortune. You see, there was the group slavers, trafficking life forms all over the known universe. They were human, mostly, but had no qualms about dealing in human slaves, they'd quite happily sell their own kind to whoever could afford them. They were despicable people, but the authorities on Earth were getting nowhere with them, so went after them on my own. I infiltrated one of their ships with the hope of bringing down the entire operation, but they discovered what I was doing and didn't take a very favorable view of it. I tried to escape but they managed to catch me and I was executed. And then I was executed again. After the third time the situation got a lot more complicated. Some of them wanted to try and sell me, they had the contacts and believed I could be work a lot of money on the black market, there were plenty of people who would pay top dollar to cut me open and see how I work. But this was one of the rare cases where professionalism won over. I knew too much, I was capable of down the operation but I couldn't be killed, so they settled for throwing me out of an airlock in deep space."
"You know, you're extremely lucky to have been found at all."
"Tell me about it. Anyway I was picked up by a scout ship, I can tell you that Clem, she was the doctor who was working on me by the way, got a pretty nasty shock when I woke up. We get along great now though, she's only just down the hall, she's the medic on this ship too. Captain Jordan decided that not dying was actually a pretty useful skill for a soldier and so joined the crew, not that I had much of a choice. Not long after that he was killed in action and after we returned to Earth I inherited the command, apparently the higher ups had some secret files on me and decided I was the best man for the job. And these really aren't to sort of people you say 'no' to. Then the first assignment with my new command was the Raven project."
The Doctor pondered Jack's story, "Any idea why they put you on a Raven? I'd have thought there would be better uses for a man of you talents."
"Well I have a colourful history and over the years I haven't been very good with authority. Even through they have my records it's a while since I worked for any kind of official body. Maybe they're just testing the waters, see if I can be trusted with a serious command."
"When it comes to you Jack one thing they have is time."
"True," Jack let out a sigh of relief and collapsed into the chair, and for the first time he smiled, "It's good to see you Doctor, it really is. After everything that's happened I haven't let anyone get to close, I've been on this ship ten years now and I barely know anyone out there and I've had to keep who I am hidden. But seeing you again, I feel more myself than I have done in a very long time. You remind me of the good times, remember Kyoto?"
"Oh yes," the Doctor chuckled, "That was a close one. Still always glad to help, how about we get out of here and get better acquainted with the ship?"
xxxx
The mess had gone quiet at the first hint of talking down the corridor. One was the gruff, if little heard voice of AJ Warren, committed but anti-social soldier, the other however was new. There was definitely only one person with him, the girl, who spoke with a distinct Scottish accent. Still riveted by the new arrivals all eyes turned to the doorway as they stepped into the mess. Next to AJ the girl seemed tiny, the soldier had well over a foot on her. Like the rest of the crew she was dressed casually, blue jeans and a red t-shirt, her dyed purple hair coming down to her shoulders and her green eyes, behind stylish glasses. After a moment she realised that all eyes in the room were on her, feeling slightly awkward she raised her hand and said "Hi."
"Hello," replied Clem, smiling broadly and accompanied by a general murmur from the room, "Have a seat, would you like anything?"
"No, I'm fine thanks." Haze replied as she was guided into a chair.
"Sorry to be so blunt," Clem said once she was seated, "But who are you?"
"My name's Haze, Haze McCall," she paused, trying to work out what to tell them. Her story would sound utterly ridiculous, she came from Earth, but hundreds of years ago, before things like space flight were routine. That in her time aliens were rare and she had spent years of her life finding and reporting on them, and then one day she had met a Time Lord who offered to show her the wonders of the universe and that they had blundered onto the ship by accident rather than any kind of plan. Eventually she decided to keep it vague, "I'm just a lost traveller."
In this situation vague wasn't good enough, she was in a room full of people desperate for answers, and so Clem continued with her questioning, "Come on, there's got to be more to it than that, what are you doing here, how do you know Jack?"
"I met him briefly a few years ago. On Earth," she added helpfully, "But I don't think he even remembers me, it's the Doctor he's interested in."
"Who is this Doctor?" Rennes demanded, with a little more destruction than was necessary, "What's his connection to the Captain?"
"I don't really know, we......" but she was cut off.
Around the mess hall red lights started to flash and an alarm started to ring.
xxxx
The lights in the captain's cabin dimmed, replaced by a dull red glow and a low, rhythmic alert sounded.
"Jack," the Doctor said slowly, "Is there something you want to tell me?"
The Captain dashed over to his work station, a panic look in his eyes, "Someone's activated the weapon systems, but there's no one can see us, nothing even close to our position, we're the one's on the offensive!"
"Can you shut it down?"
"Too late!"
They both rushed to the window to see a pair of missiles streaking towards the alien world.
End of Part 1