Shadow Twin
There had been no more incursions from the parallel world for several days, and the Alien Deprivation of Liberty Inspection was nearly upon them. At two the inspector would arrive.
Whilst she waited Gwen and Jack looked over the post.
There was a half laugh from Jack, Gwen looked up and Jack just shook his head and handed her a picture post card. On the front there were three semi nude dancing girls surrounding a cheerfully grinning man holding a bottle and a Martini glass. Gwen realised it was Captain John, to her surprise he appeared to wink and grin at her. Gradually the picture faded to be replace by a message.
"Howdy folks, Hope you'll are enjoying yourselves saving the world. I certainly am. As you got in contact with me I thought I would return the compliment. Love to you all. Say hello to Eye Candy for me. And Jack any time you want a vacation.......
Oh by the way this card will self destruct 1 minute after Jacks' DNA touches it."
The card started to burn at the edges and with a yelp of pain Gwen dropped it onto the pile of papers on her desk. She managed to flap it off into the bin, but not before it had burned a hole through the top three pages of the Deprivation of Liberty forms.
Gwen had been working hard to fill in the government forms. As usual they seemed to bear no resemblance to real life working and there had been reams of them, many seemingly asking the same questions. They had to be filled out for all the aliens currently in the cells and a different set for the ones transferred to long term storage. Alien plants were just listed along with a list of their known properties but the Alien fish in the storage basement had the same forms as the more humanoid type of species. This made answering questions such as what language do they speak? What information have you gathered about their intentions towards the human race? Just a little hard to answer.
Some of the forms seemed to be geared towards human immigrants. Asking "At what time did the person ask for asylum and on what grounds?" seemed particularly pointless as most if not all of their guests had come in at the point of a weapon of some sort.
Nevertheless the forms had been completed and she was now awaiting the arrival of Dr Ivory Ghosh. Gwen just hoped she could explain about the burn marks and the hole.
Ianto called out over the intercom to say the inspector had arrived, Gwen looked up at the CCTV coverage of the little Tourist Information centre that acted as the legitimate cover for the entrance to the Hub. She saw what appeared to be a beige gabardine raincoat with a beige trilby walking along by itself. As she peered closer Gwen could see tiny trousered legs with almost triangular shoes poking out the bottom, and as Dr Ghosh looked up a small, preternaturally pale face peeked out from under the brim of the hat. Dr Ghosh seemed about the size of a very thin twelve year old. At this point it was hard to tell if the being was male or female. Dr Ghosh carried a a large aluminium briefcase with both hands in front of him/her. It seemed very heavy , banging against its legs as it walked.
The cog wheel door rolled open and the being walked through. Gwen walked down to meet it. When she got up close Gwen realised that her perception of the person as a possible alien was incorrect. Dr Ghosh was in fact a petite and pretty elfin faced woman of about 20 – 25. She greeted her and offered to carry the bag.
"Thank you very much, it is rather heavy" Her accent was difficult to place, she could have come from anywhere in the country.
"Can I take your hat and coat?"
"Thank you but no. I would like to see your storage facility first, and I know that it is likely to be cold and damp, hence the rain wear."
"Ianto is going to show you around. He takes care of the aliens and we thought he would be the most appropriate person, actually it is quite warm and dry despite being underground"
"I hate to take chances – I have a very weak chest., whilst we are down stairs, you could start filling in the forms."
"But I have already filled in all the forms"
"Ah those would be forms DOL B/adf/20078934 to 20079962?"
"Yes"
"Those are just the application forms, now I am here you need to fill out forms DOL open brackets Aliens close brackets no.s 1 to 55. and 66 to 77. It shouldn't take more than two hours."
Gwen noticed Jack out of the corner of her eye. He was grinning and running very quickly and silently up the stairs to the boardroom, no doubt to hide. "I'll get you for this Jack Harkness" Thought Gwen.
"Certainly, can Ianto get you a coffee before you start? No, then I'll leave you in his capable hands."
"Thank you, here are the forms and the manual. Make sure you follow the manual carefully, any mistakes can mean starting all over again. If you could give me form 20078346, the list of Aliens currently held in the cells and form 20078347 the list of Aliens held in long term storage." With that Dr Ghosh opened the brief case and took out a sheaf of forms and a manual the size of a Complete Works of Shakespeare. In return Gwen gave her the forms she requested. Dr Ghosh looked disapprovingly at the burn marks on the paper but did not comment.
Gwen put them on her desk, and set to work. In the meantime Ianto conducted Dr Ghosh to the cell area. Currently home to several weevills and a shape shifter.
The inspector was impressed with the security of the holding cells, "The cleanliness and tidiness of the food preparation area is particularly good. However there is a disgusting smell, what is it?"
"The Weevills are coprophagous, so we buy in a certain amount of manure from the Zoo ma'am. It keeps them healthy."
"I see and how long do you keep them here before transferring to long term storage?"
" Average is about 3 weeks whilst all the paperwork is done and the necessary medical procedures and studies carried out."
"Fine, fine, well all seems in order here, take me to the long term storage area."
Ianto led the way down to the lowest basement level. The lighting was poor on the way down , and the air a little danker. Ianto showed the doctor the fish, but she just nodded approval and they moved on.
Ivory allowed Ianto to walk a little in front of her as they entered the long term storage facility, as he walked through the door she shed her raincoat and hat and stretched out an arm that was much longer than human. She pinched him hard on the shoulder causing him to wheel round in surprise and pain. As he turned her other arm swung upwards and hit him hard between the eyes. Ianto fell dazed and moaning to the ground. She dragged him into a side room and using plastic bracelets from the pockets of the raincoat, cuffed him around the wrists and ankles. Finally she stuck some duck tape over his mouth. "Well why use alien tech when woolworths are having a closing down sale" she murmured to him.
Ivory then took the list provided by Gwen and started searching for Unit 559/b. She was still searching twenty minutes later. She had underestimated the size of the storage area.
Each alien had it own unit, size determined by the alien inside. The numbering was erratic, as the system had been changed several times depending on the fad of the person doing the storing. Ivory would have done better to have coerced Ianto into showing her where 559/b was, he was the only one who had worked out all the systems. Inside each storage unit the Alien was held in suspended animation, and there was a descriptive label as well as number on the outside.
Ivory turned yet another corner to see a line of units stretching out before her. She started walking down the row reading each label in turn. Finally she found what she was looking for. Taking a small device from a skin pouch on her stomach she manipulated It and aimed it at the lock on the unit. There was a whirring noise and the unit slid open. Vapour escaped with a low hissing noise. Ivory breathed out and reached into the unit. As she did so she heard a noise to her right, like shuffling shoes. She turned her head and stared searching for the source. As she turned her head she felt a cool point press into the back of her neck and the click of a gun being cocked. "OK 'Dr' Ghosh, I think its time we had a little talk about what you are doing in my storage area." said Jack, Gwen stepped out in front of her with cuffs in her hand. " Put your hands out slowly in front....." Before Gwen could finish a long arm streaked out of the unit and a long single claw ripped Jack from sternum to navel. He screamed, and fell clutching his stomach. Gwen leapt back from the blood spray throwing the cuffs into the face of the alien in front of her, turning and running. She turned the corner and ran down the next aisle of storage units. Pressing herself against the units she drew her gun and waited.
She heard a running noise and raised her gun, to see 2 naked women run by the end of the aisle, confused she ran to the end and peered carefully around the end storage unit. She was just in time to see a naked bottom disappearing up the stairs. She ran quickly forward, gun ready. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted Ianto. Pausing to release him and to tell him what had happened to Jack she carried on carefully up the stairs, keeping to the wall and looking up all the time.
Ianto pulled himself up and ran towards the last line of storage units. He could see Jack about halfway down, collapsed and still on the floor, blood drifting away from him like a small tidal pool. Ianto's heart lurched and his stomach flipped, fear gripped him and he started to shake. "Oh God Jack" he could never believe that Jack would survive such terrible wounds as these, felt that one day they had to be fatal. As he reached Jack he realised he was still breathing, gasping for air and in agony. Ianto knelt down beside him and turned him gently onto his back, Jack groaned and more blood spurted from the wound. As Ianto took off his jacket and used it to help apply pressure to the wound Jack opened his eyes, looked at Ianto without recognition and died. Ianto gathered him into his arms and rocked him, keening his name over and over and over.
Gwen carried on carefully up the stairs. As she crested them she could see two women or was it aliens? They appeared to be either, changing back and forth as Gwen looked at them. They were by her desk with the brief case open in front of them. As she looked they took out a small cuboid, it pulsed gently green and blue. They both touched it with one finger/claw. The pattern continued to change as Gwen looked. Gwen considered her chances of stopping both at the same time. She was alone, no back up. She decided to take out one of the aliens before she was spotted, and improve her chances of getting them both. She took careful aim and fired at the one on the left. She screamed as the bullet hit her, blue green blood spurting from her chest, and she fell backwards. The remaining alien looked at her in shock and bewilderment as if she could not believe it had happened. "My twin, you shot my twin …....."
"Kneel down on the floor and put your hands behind your back or I will do the same to you."
"But you killed her.......don't you realise..."
"Do as you are told and you will be fine. I am sorry about your twin but you gave me no choice."
The alien woman fell to her knees "You - don't – understand, without my twin there is no life for me"
"As I said, sorry about that, but I can spare your life if you do exactly what I say"
"You - don't – understand, I am her shadow, without her I cannot live" As Gwen watched, the alien appeared to collapse inwards, falling onto the body of her sister, and lay there like a grotesque deflated doll. The cuboid pulsed once and faded to dull grey.
Ianto was holding Jack tight. He was as close to praying as he ever came, "Please Jack, come back to me, please, oh god, please, please." Tears rolled down his face, as he rocked him.
Suddenly Jack convulsed and took a great gulping whoop of air, flinging his arms apart and knocking Ianto backwards.
Ianto laughed aloud with joy, he scrambled to his knees and hugged Jack as though he would never let him go. Jack pushed him away and grinned his huge grin, then kissed him hard and long.
Later they were all sat together in the hub boardroom. Gwen had made coffee whilst Ianto dealt with the bodies and now they were reviewing the scans and information they had on the alien/women.
"Why did we think they looked like women?" asked Gwen.
"Low level perceptual filtering. The shadow sister could maintain it only over a certain time, and she couldn't project clothes, hence the big mac and hat. Once the sister was reanimated they could project more efficiently but not perfectly. The brief case appeared heavy because the shadow sister had grown weaker whilst her sister was in suspended animation." said Jack
"Scan shows that they were a type of mirror image of each other, with the metabolism of the shadow being reliant on the life of the other. Once the twin died, the link was broken and her metabolism shut down, she literally deflated. The link was communicated through the cuboid and strengthened when they both touch it. I have put it into storage." Said Ianto
"So if I had chosen to shoot the twin on the right....."
"you would have had a bigger fight on your hands, but I know you would have got her." Said Jack.
Gwen was suddenly aware of a change in the atmosphere, she had the distinct feeling that Ianto and Jack had moved towards each other, although they hadn't visibly moved. The room seemed a little hotter and Gwen understood what it was to be the third person in a party of two.
"Well, its getting late, Rhys is cooking tonight, spag bol and a bottle of wine....."
"You don't have to dash off Gwen" said Jack but he wasn't looking at her.
Gwen slipped out the door, and when she glanced back Jack and Ianto were in each others arms. "Oh God not the boardroom table" she thought. Then pushed that picture out of her head as fast as it would go.
Next day Gwen was sorting the post. "Jack there's another post card for you"
The post card had a picture of tweedledee and tweedledum, and was apparently from Disneyland. Jack held it carefully by the Corner. The twins disappeared to be replaced by a grinning John.
Fin