DISCLAIMER: I only own the Isabel and Margaret. The rest I wish I did, haha.
Chapter 1
In a tiny, dark kitchen, the glow from several computer monitors lit up the eager face of a young woman as she held her finger above the launch key. A thrill went up her spine and she could almost feel the power emanating from the device. A small but powerful battery charged up, feeding into the device. Would it be enough?
---
Meanwhile, the TARDIS sailed silently through the heavens.
In the kitchen, Captain Jack Harkness was reading a magazine while waiting for his eggs to cook on the cast-iron skillet atop a cast-iron stove. Sure, there was the nutrition machine, but Jack enjoyed cooking things from scratch. He'd gotten used to it in the 19th century and found it took up tedious travel time.
Travel time he had. After the whole children of earth incident, the Doctor had invited him to hang around for a bit, and well, Jack had nothing better to do. He didn't work for Torchwood anymore and his daughter wanted nothing to do with him. No, it was just a pair of old bachelors winging it around the universe. Not too shabby, if you didn't mind being gunned for by various cranky ol' aliens.
Suddenly, the TARDIS shook. The skillet with Jack's breakfast slid right off the stove and crashed into the wall, spilling its contents. With a curse, Jack threw down his magazine and held onto a brass arch. "What's goin' on, Doc?" he shouted into the intercom. "It had better be someplace—or some somewhen---good; you spilled my breakfast! And I'm starving!"
"You'll live," replied the Doctor, not realizing the pun. "We have encountered a very strange anomaly in space. Hurry up and see it. It's a doosey."
Jack sighed, glancing longingly at his ruined breakfast. Grabbing a banana, he sprinted toward the main consol room even as the ship continued to shake.
--
The brainy specs were out by the time Jack reached the consol room ten minutes later. The Doctor leaned over the computer screen. "What do you make of this?" he said, running his hand through his semi-spiky brown hair.
Jack looked down. "It looks like a tear in space…with particles being sucked into it." Indeed, multi-colored streamers of light and small rocks were being sucked into the rip.
The Doctor nodded, a bright, inquisitive light in his eyes. "Ten minutes ago, it opened up right in front of us. Its gravity well immediately stopped the TARDIS's forward motion and pulled us into real space, in front of a nova, bits of which are also being sucked in. It's also giving off a strange signal that---" The TARDIS rocked again.
"Can we stop it?" asked Jack.
"I can try. Hold on." The Doc's thin hands flew over the controls, pulling this, pushing that, pressing another.
Jack grabbed the deck rail as the ship rocked even more violently. "Not workin', Doc…"
"Here we go!"
The rip in space suddenly grew larger and a bright flash of light assaulted their eyes as the TARDIS was sucked in. Jack and the Doctor were thrown to the deck after a final spin and sway. Then the lights went out.
--
Far away, the young woman yelped as sparks flew from her computer, her device and the triangle-shaped metal frame in front of her. Several pieces fell off. "Monkey muffins, not again!" she muttered. "Nothing at all! Six months and nothing at all!" She put on a welding mask and set to welding the metal pieces back together.
---
The Doctor and Jack rose to their feet. The Doctor fished for flashlights under the deck. "That's better," he said cheerfully, throwing one to Jack. "Never travel without one."
"Good for you," Jack said sarcastically. "What's with the deep night?"
"Weeelllll," drawled the Doc with a frown. "I hope it's not what I think it is."
"And that would be…?"
"Parallel universe." He held up a glowing green crystal. "24 hours."
Jack winced inwardly and the Doc sighed. "Let's have a look, then."