Chapter One
Caroline Bingley fans herself. It has been two days since her ship was lost in the storm. To her knowledge, no one else survived—including her fiancé. It was troublesome, but she tried not to think on it. There were more pressing matters at hand—like trying to keep the sun from tanning her skin and the water from leaking onto her gown.
Suddenly, the raft shudders. Caroline grasps the side—her bonnet falling in her eyes. Oh dear, she thinks, not those sharks again. She will have to get her parasol.
Once the shuddering stops, she adjusts her blanket and looks up, searching for her handy dandy shark poker. Instead, she finds a young man in very unusual clothing sitting across from her. He extends a hand.
"The name's Captain Jack Harkness and you are?"
Caroline scrambles to the back of the boat and brandishes her fan like a sword. "Get away from me, foul demon!"
"Demon? No. Alien maybe." He smiles at her, but when she doesn't back down from her defensive stance, he takes in their present surroundings. "This won't do at all. No wine. No cabana boys. No romantic lighting. It looks to me, sweetheart, that you're in need of a lift?"
"A lift?"
"Off this dinghy of yours. " He clicks his tongue at her. "You don't look like you're had a good meal in days. I know this little place on Odalgotron. Best fried koragami this dimension. Difficult to get in, but I know a waiter." He winks.
Caroline frowns. Well, perhaps he isn't a demon, but he most certainly doesn't seem to be a well bred man. Or British. Too fresh. "How. . .how did you get on my ship?"
"Vortex manipulator. It's a bit faulty. I meant to land in London in 2008. Looks like I'm off by a couple thousand miles and a couple hundred years."
"You are mad."
"How exactly do you think I magically appeared on your dinghy in the middle of the ocean? I didn't swim, sweetheart."
"Well, you must be a mirage then. I have heard those in dire circumstances often experience such phenomena."
"I'm no mirage."
"Then what are you?"
"A captain. And a Time Agent."
"You are a captain, you say?"
"Absolutely. Decorated on more than one occasion."
She finally lowers her fan and draws it close to her chest. Having never had a hallucination before, she does not fully know what to expect from this experience. Should she engage her companion or ignore him completely? A very small, niggling part in the back of her brain, however, keeps asking "What if this man is real?". She tries very hard to ignore that voice because it simply would not be convenient to believe that strange men can appear at random in the middle of the ocean. No. He must be gone away with before she descends into complete absurdity.
"Captain, I would very much like to be left alone at present. Would you mind disappearing off to whereever you came from?"
"And leave you here?"
"That would be my preference."
"Sorry, sweetheart. No can do. I wouldn't leave a pretty woman alone in the middle of the ocean unless she was from Raxacoricofallapatorius."
"You believe you can rescue me from my raft?"
"I don't believe I can. I know I can."
"And what then? Can you return me to land?"
"Land? Well, if you insist, but I'd much rather take you some place a bit more comfortable."
"Land would do just fine."
"Suit yourself."
He grabs her hand, and Caroline nearly jumps out of her skin.
"What are you doing! Unhand me!"
"Hold still, please. It's difficult enough getting where we're going with one person to worry about." He smiles winningly and sets to fiddling with a band on his wrist. "Deep breath now."
She hyperventilates instead. "Let me go!"
"You'll thank me later."
And with that, Captain Jack Harkness and Caroline Bingley disappear, leaving an empty raft rocking in the middle of the ocean.