The Adventures of Tintin: The Girl and the Tesseract Machine
A Science Fiction Romance
Written by: FossilQueen1984
Disclaimer: Hey again, fellow readers! I am taking a break from my Star Wars crossovers stories to break into a new fandom, the Adventures of Tintin. Having grown up watching the cartoons in the early 1990's, imagine my surprise when I started reading fan fiction. I am disappointed with the lack of stories where Tintin gets the girl, there are a few good stories, The Lungo Drom and its sequel, Two are the best I have read thus far. I was also inspired after watching Doctor Who and Torchwood. This said, this story is a partial crossover with Torchwood as several characters (in our universe) are/were members of Torchwood Europa- Torchwood's mainland division, as are two characters in the Tintin universe. Also, Dalek Sec from Doctor Who and Death from the Sandman Saga make appearances. Enjoy!
I don't own anybody or anything mentioned, except for Hélène and her mother Rosamund. Hélène resembles Lady Cybil from Downtown Abbey.
Suggested Soundtrack: Doctor Who Theme, Night time Coming- Spirited Away, Princess Leia's theme
Chapter 1: In Media Res
In retrospect, investigating the building outside Brussels's industry belt was a bad idea. Nineteen year old Helene Dupont Slid of her helmet, and began to look around. Passing motorists shook their heads as they caught a blur of someone scampering over a rusty fence. In fact, she was the only person there. As a cartographer for Torchwood Europa, she had heard stories from Uncle Hergè and Mother about aliens, Time Lords, and Jack Harkness's insane stag parties. Glancing around the creaking ruins of cement and steel, she could hear the faint drip of water and her own heartbeat.
"Honestly, I'm not a child anymore, what would Augustin say," she chided herself. Ambling about, she reflected on the memory. When she had been a little girl, about five or six, she and her mother had been stationed in Russia. While there, she couldn't remember exactly, she met a little boy, Augustin Berlioz. His parents had been their on business, and they had met in the hotel lobby while their parents had gossiped. He had been a bit older than she was, with copper hair and light blue eyes. He had not been too thrilled to spend the evening with a girl, but by evening's end, they had become friends, mostly over discussing football, reporting and world travel. The rest of her time is Moscow had been a blur. What she could remember was this: she and Tintin (that was the nickname she had given him) were exploring a cave, when they stumbled across a rusty supercomputer hooked up to an elaborate door in the cave wall. Tintin had activated it, and the first person through was… an alien! He had ordered the alien to stay where he was, but Dalek Sec was in no mood for playing. He scolded them both for wandering off. When they got back to the hotel, Mother was getting ready to leave and Hélène had to say good bye quickly. Before leaving, Tintin handed her a package before kissing her on the cheek.
During the drive back to Ghent, Hélène opened her gift. It was necklace, laden with amber and rose sapphires. It was Freya's necklace, and Sec explained that in Russian society, men gave jewelry to the woman they were going to marry. She had squealed in laughter, Tintin was her friend. Then, she remembered the world quaking and crying out. In the car accident, she lost her sight in her left eye and wore an eye patch. That was the day her mother resigned from Torchwood, and she never saw Tintin again.
Breaking out of her thoughts, she commented, "Nobody's been here since 1943. Still though, with Russia and America at each other's throats, maybe Torchwood should move." Not only was Torchwood being investigated by NATO for possible technology, any supernatural activity had switched over to England. Just as well, Helene thought, her mother never let her go on any missions. Groping a door to get it, the latch gave way and she fell into the stairwell.
"Vashta Nerada, I know better than that. Oh well, down I go," she mused. Cobwebs the size of army tanks sat listlessly in the milky light overhead. Passing by a dulled mirror, Helene caught sight of herself. A small, slender thing with dark hair curled into a simple ponytail, porcelain skin, and large brown eyes, one covered by an eye patch. Frowning, she turned away. She wasn't pretty in the least, not like her mother. She considered herself rather plain, and wearing an eye patch didn't help matters. She remained aloof and outgoing to mask her broken heart and pain. At the very least, she was a kind hearted girl with a taste for exploration.
Making her way down towards the bottom floor, her eyes widened at the sight in front of her. Covered in decades of dust and trash was a machine! "It can't be, can it? It's just like the one in Russia…" she reasoned. She knew what they were now, the machine here and the one she and Tintin had found was called a Tesseract machine. She smiled at the memory of Sec trying to explain to the 7 year old Belgian he was not a Martian, he was a Dalek! Wondering if it still worked, she started typing on the key board and pushing buttons.
An ear-splitting screech echoed throughout the area as the machine sputtered to life. A series of lasers engulfed the excited and somewhat confused young woman, before the floor split asunder and swallowed her whole!
Unlike Alice falling through the rabbit hole, Hélène was surrounded by warmth and light. Soon, she thought she heard voices, traffic, and people. A gust of fresh air whipped around her as she fell from the sky. From below her, she heard the barking of a dog, and an angry voice shouting, "Come back here!"
Landing with a sharp thud, Hélène landed between a white fox terrier and a large man wielding a butcher knife. "Eek! Excuse me sir, but is the knife really necessary," she inquired softly. The man blinked, where had the girl with the eye patch come from? He waved the knife in her face as she scooped up the dog. Surprised she wasn't flinching, he explained, "Your rotten mongrel ate one of sausages, fraulein. You owe me 3 pounds." Reaching into her satchel, she produced the payment. Still fuming, he roughly grabbed Hélène by her free arm and began dragging her towards the center of the open air market.
"Where on Earth are you taking me? I paid you back," Hélène protested as she struggled to worm her way out of his grip. The man grunted something about payback, when Snowy jumped out of Hélène's arms and darted off towards its owner. Finally free, she began to run away when the butcher began to give chase. Groaning in disgust, she lost him in a crowd near the antiques. As she rounded a corner, Snowy began barking happily. She smiled, "Hi there- lost him I see. Good thing too, he seemed a little to eager for payback. Is your owner here somewhere?" The excited dog barked as he scampered off.
A worried, clipped male voice called out into the area, "Snowy, where are you? Blast, where did get off to know? There you are." Tintin let out a sigh of relief as he scooped up the dog. Snowy whimpered, indicating he had found something. Praying it wasn't a cat or cut of meat, Tintin walked around a bench when Snowy leapt onto it. Sitting on the one opposite it, was a slim, pretty girl. Smiling when she saw Snowy, she laughed, "Your back… Your owner… is Augustin?"
Blushing profusely, she strolled over to the confused journalist. "Thank you so much for finding Snowy; he has a tendency to get lost…Are you alright?" She slowly nodded, when it dawned on him that he knew this girl very well. Laughing he embraced her.
"Hélène, is it really you? It's wonderful to see you again. You're just as beautiful as when we first met," he smiled softly as he stroked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. She smiled, "Stop please, I'm not beautiful at all, I'm just…" Offering her his arm, they walked towards the nearest pub to catch up.