The team sat around the conference room table eating lunch while Jack regaled them with yet another story of his exploits during his stint with the Time Agency.
"…and how were we to know that the shooting stars of New Galactica were actually anti-ballistic missiles?"
The team laughed.
"Go ahead and laugh," Jack continued good-naturedly, "but it's not funny when you are the missile they are shooting at."
"We always knew your stories were an a-bomb-ination," Owen snarked.
"Wait, how did they mistake you for a bomb?" Gwen asked.
"We were traveling with some standard atmospheric survey equipment, which their scans picked up as weapons. It seems that they used some of the same advanced alloys, but only in the manufacture of their offensive interplanetary missiles. It would be several millennia before they began to use the same technology for peaceful applications."
The rest of the story was cut short by a beeping from the rift projector. The team quickly cleaned up lunch and headed over to see what had caused the alert.
Tosh looked at the readings and shook her head. "These readings are hard to interpret, there seems to be some sort of interference in receiving the signal. I'll have to recalibrate the ion receptor when I get a moment." She stared at the images for another few seconds. "My best guess is that it's something small, just outside of Newport."
With the rift detector providing imprecise readings, it took several hours for Tosh to guide them to some space junk that had landed closer to Cwmbran than to Newport. The drive home found Gwen and Owen complaining about the long day to Jack.
"Four hours to retrieve a handful of ball bearings," Owen grumbled.
"And having to drive to three different locations before we found them, that's ridiculous," Gwen complained.
Jack patiently explained that like his story at lunch, these bearings contained a metal alloy unknown on Earth. "Who knows what could have happened if they had fallen into the wrong hands."
"Yeah, someone could have tripped on them, and then everyone would have noticed that they look exactly like every other ball bearing they've ever seen," Owen added sarcastically.
"What do you think, Ianto?" Jack asked.
"What? Nothing, whatever you say sir."
Gwen, Owen and Jack stared at each other and then burst out laughing.
"Concentrating on my driving here, not listening to you all natter on in the back of the van," Ianto explained.
It was late when they got back to the Hub, and Jack sent Owen and Gwen home. Tosh was still at her desk looking at her computer screen as columns of numbers scrolled past.
"Find anything?" Jack asked.
"It's definitely interference from outside the Hub." To Jack's look of concern, she added, "not sabotage or accidental human interference. More like a natural phenomenon, but I'll need to run several more diagnostics to be sure."
Jack and Ianto left the Hub only after Tosh assured them that she would just set up the next set of tests and leave them to run over night. The drive back to Ianto's flat was nearly silent. Jack carefully observed Ianto's face, and while he didn't seem upset, something was a bit off.
They had just entered the flat and taken their coats off when Jack asked, "Is something the matter, Ianto? Are you angry at me or upset?"
Ianto startled out of deep thought. "Of course not, it's just that story you were telling at lunch…"
"You're not jealous of John are you?" Ianto shook his head 'no.'
"Was it too explicit? Not explicit enough? What's wrong?"
Ianto sighed. "I was just thinking about all the places you've traveled to, all the sights you've seen, all the people and aliens you've met. This is going to sound silly, but I'm in my mid-thirties, and I've never been anywhere. Not to the continent, not to the States, let alone another planet. You've seen the Shooting Stars of New Galactica, the cities of Andromeda, creatures and cultures that won't even evolve for thousands of years."
Ianto smiled. "I, on the other hand, have seen a few shooting stars and the Milky Way while camping, lived in London for a couple of years, and eating Thai food is about as exotic as my exposure to other cultures is likely to get."
"Ianto, don't feel that way; you've seen many things that few other humans of this time will ever get to," Jack replied.
"I know, I'm just feeling sorry for myself. After all, I've been up close and personal with any number of Weevils, escaped being eaten by a Hoix, survived being farted on by the 456 and been spit at by giant spiders." Ianto hesitated. "And watched the Cybermen and Daleks almost destroy the world," he said in a much lower voice.
Jack came over to where Ianto was standing and pulled him close. "Some things are best left unseen."
Ianto sighed and relaxed his body into Jack's arms. They stood together silently, each lost in their own thoughts.
Jack finally broke the silence. "Don't think you'll ever get to see the twin moons of Casius Minor, but I can probably make you see stars right here in this flat."
Ianto chuckled into Jack's chest. "You do have a way of changing the topic."
"You say that like it's a bad thing," Jack said mischievously. He moved toward the bedroom pulling Ianto along behind. "Yeah I think we'll shoot for Mars tonight." He didn't need to turn and look at Ianto to know he was responding with his best eye roll.
The next two days brought more indistinct rift alerts which resulted in prolonged searches for items that came through the rift. After a three hour wild goose chase that resulted in them locating a jar of strawberry jam from Earth, circa 1940, Jack decided to look at the data from Tosh's programs on his own.
As he studied the readouts, something seemed familiar about them, but he just couldn't recall where he had seen similar data before. Mainframe was of no help and Ianto's search of the archives turned up nothing of interest.
"We shouldn't even be picking things up like a jar of jam," Tosh told the team as they ate lunch, "unless the jar was from the future and contained matter that isn't currently present on Earth. I've run every test I can think of and recalibrated the predictor three times, and I'm still picking up interference and strange ion spikes. I hate to admit it, but I'm out of ideas."
"Tell me about the ion activity," Jack asked.
"It's actually photon activity in the Earth's upper atmosphere. It seems to be linked somehow to the Earth's electromagnetic field, but I can't trace the source. The activity spikes every few hours, but there has been an overall increase in the magnitude over the last two days."
"What day is it?" Jack asked.
"It's Tuesday, which is normally 'chase a Weevil day,'" Owen replied.
"The date, what's the date?"
"It's September 12th," Ianto answered. "Is that important?"
"It could be," Jack said rising from his chair. "I've got to go call Archie. Ianto, go home and pack a bag. We'll only be gone for a couple of days, but we may have to rough it, so make sure you bring warm clothes. If I'm right about my hunch, we haven't much time, so be back here in an hour."
"Where are you going?" Gwen asked.
"No time to explain," Jack replied as he left the conference room. "Get moving Ianto, we haven't much time.
A little over an hour later, Jack and Ianto arrived at the Cardiff Airport. To Ianto's surprise, security officials met them at a service door and took them directly to their flight. Soon they were on their way to Glasgow.
Ianto was suitably impressed. "Not bad Jack. First class seats, no lines, no security screening, how did you do it?"
"I had Gwen call the Queen's personal assistant. It's amazing what a call from her can accomplish."
"Just how well do you know this, uh, personal assistant?" Ianto asked.
"Not personally, but well enough to get her assistance once in a while."
"What did you tell her? That the safety of the British Empire was at stake?"
Jack shrugged in response but couldn't hide a small smile.
"Hold on, is the safety of the British Empire at risk?"
"Something much more important," Jack replied.
For the rest of the flight, Jack refused to divulge anything more about their mission. When they landed in Glasgow, more security staff escorted them to another flight.
Ianto looked around in confusion. "Where's Archie? Isn't he coming? Is he meeting us at our final destination?"
"Don't be ridiculous, he's way too old for this type of activity. Besides, three's a crowd."
"What are you up to? We're on our way to Inverness. What can there possibly be in Inverness that would be related to photon spikes being detected by the rift predictor?"
Jack smiled. "I knew there was something familiar in those readings. I was working for Torchwood in 1901. I remember an event that happened in September of that year, involving significant changes in the Earth's electromagnetic field. I'm pretty sure it's going to happen again."*
Ianto's mind was spinning. His nearly perfect memory tried to remember events of historical significance from that time. "The Boer Wars? Queen Victoria's Death? Wellington Town won the Welsh Cup?"
No matter how much Ianto pressured Jack, Jack wouldn't say anything more and Ianto didn't want to risk making a scene on the small commuter flight.
At Inverness a grey Mercedes CL was waiting outside the main entrance for them. Jack tossed the car keys to Ianto. "Since we have to drive a ways, I thought you might like to do the driving."
Ianto stared at the car for a moment and then got in the driver's seat. He turned over the engine and went to put it in gear, when he stopped.
"Now I know something is up." He turned the engine off. "We're not moving until you tell me where we are going, and why."
"Don't you like a little mystery in your life, Mr. Jones," Jack teased.
"Enough is enough, Jack. What is going on? We are hunting for something related to fuzzy rift spikes, we have no weapons, it happened before a hundred and fifty years ago, and you're acting like we're off for a vacation!"
"Well we are, in a way."
Ianto was not amused. "You drag me to the ends of the Earth, with hardly any warning, and just expect me to…"
Jack leaned over and interrupted Ianto's rant with a kiss. Ianto resisted for just a moment and then let himself be drawn into the warmth of the moment.
"Just trust me, Ianto. For once, just trust me. There isn't any danger that my Webley can't handle, this is related to the rift readings, but it's not Torchwood related business. It's something I've been thinking about since you pointed out that you'll never get to visit other planets like I have. Let me surprise you, okay?"
Ianto was stunned. "Do the others know?"
"I told them just before I left the Hub, and if I'm right, they are going to be so jealous when you tell them what you saw. And even if I'm wrong, I think they'll still be jealous of what we do instead."
Ianto smiled.
They arrived an hour later at a small house far from any villages or other homes. Sitting off the road in a clearing on the edge of the forest, it was rustic and made of stone, probably several hundreds of years old.
"This is where Emily and Alice brought me the first time this happened. It's one of the few good memories I have from this time."
Ianto got a fire going in the fireplace. "And just where is this buried in the budget?"
Jack chuckled. 'It's not. It actually belongs to the Queen. She loans it out to friends on occasion."
They ate a light supper from the canned goods in the pantry.
"Now all we have to do is wait," Jack said.
They sat by the fire, Ianto dozing until Jack shook him awake.
"Get your coat on, we're going outside."
Ianto groggily put a heavy fleece hoodie on, his coat over that as well as gloves and a scarf. Oddly, it seemed a bit bright outside and he hadn't noticed any lights on the property.
As they stood in the clearing by the house, the sky grew lighter and lighter, taking on a green cast.
"What the…?" Ianto started to say.
"Yeah, the Aurora Borealis. Pretty impressive isn't?"
Ianto didn't say anything as his eyes were riveted on the light display across the sky. Jack moved close and took his hand and they stood silently watching the green and yellow lights flash across the sky.
Sometime later, Jack sighed. "We had a similar light display on my planet, red streaks across the sky. As a child I was told that it was the protective spirit of the Goddess. I was almost a teen when I learned that it really was one of the many missiles launched at Boeshane hitting our protective shield and exploding. Almost as beautiful, until you understood the cause."
Ianto glanced over at Jack and saw that he too was focused on the sky.
"So you never know, Ianto, what's out there. Maybe these lights are just ionic interference. Maybe they're another civilization trying to contact Earth."
"That's ridiculous," Ianto replied.
"Maybe, but you can see why your ancestors would have looked at them with awe and fear. There are so many wonders on planet Earth, and it's time you saw one that doesn't happen very often."
"And you reckoned this how?"
"When Tosh mentioned ionic distortion in the upper atmosphere it sounded so familiar. After you searched the archives and found nothing alien related to the events, I began to think about natural phenomena. Which lead me to think of Boeshane, and then to the Northern Lights on Earth."
"But why did Alice and Emily bring you here? It's not exactly like you had a warm and cozy friendship with them?"
Jack laughed. "Now that's an understatement if there ever was one." Jack moved to face Ianto. "I was despairing about ever finding the Doctor, about getting back to my time and space. I'd begun to, uh; think that life wasn't worth living, which is a bit inconvenient for a man who can't die. I'd killed myself very publicly three times in less than a week and they were furious with me. They were afraid to leave me alone for any length of time. So when they began to get strange signals on their primitive equipment, they had to come up here, closer to the poles to get any idea of what was going on. They dragged me with. Talk about three being a crowd," Jack said chuckling.
"But when I saw these lights, I believed, for just a moment, that the Goddess from my childhood was protecting me. Something changed; I didn't feel so lost and alone anymore."
Ianto pulled Jack into an embrace. "And you'll never be lost or alone as long as I'm alive."
Jack didn't reply, and as they kissed, he concentrated on the feel and smell and taste that were Ianto Jones. "Remember this," Jack thought.
They continued to watch until lights began to taper off as the night ended. Cold and tired, the reentered the little house, made some tea and then snuggled into the small bed wrapped in a thick down comforter.
"How long will they last?" Ianto asked.
"The lights? I think tonight was the peak and they'll start decreasing over the next week. We can stay another night or two and then we should be heading back."
"They were amazing Jack. If I live to be a hundred, I'll never forget seeing them. It's a shame that something so beautiful comes along so rarely and is so short lived."
"The best things often are," Jack replied as he spooned against Ianto's back.
They didn't speak and eventually Jack heard Ianto's breathing even out.
"Like you Ianto Jones," Jack whispered, "the best thing to happen to me since I was marooned on this planet. Ephemeral, here for just the briefest moment in my life, but engraved on my heart forever."