Chapter 2: Torchwood

Rose came into the TARDIS waving a newspaper. The Doctor was tinkering with something beneath the floor. "According to this, they've elected a ghost as the mayor of Leeds. We're not just going to sit back are we?"

The Doctor sprang up with a power pack on his back, goggles on his face and a scanner that vaguely resembled a proton pack in his hands. "Who you gonna call?"

"Ghost Busters!" Rose sang.

"I ain't afraid of no ghost!" He hurried outside, where Jackie was waiting, looking despondent. "When's the next shift?"

"Three minutes. But don't go causing trouble." She said.

The Doctor pressed a button on the scanner and it divided into three poles, which he stuck in the ground in a triangle around a spot where some kids had said the ghost of their late school bully was appearing.

"What'll that do?" Said Rose.

"Triangulate the signal. I can find out what's bringing them here."

"Don't suppose it's the Gelth?" Rose offered.

"No. They were just coming through that one place. This lot are transposing themselves all over the planet, like tracing paper."

"You're always doing this. Reducing it to science." Said Jackie. "Why can't it be real?" When the Doctor ignored her, she added. "Think about it though. All those people we've lost coming back. Isn't that wonderful?"

"I think it's horrific." The Doctor unravelled a long cable from his bag and plugged it into the TARDIS console, before beckoning Rose over. "When the scanners activate, that line goes into the red. If it doesn't stop..." He handed her the sonic. "Setting 15B. Hold it for eight seconds. You got that?"

"15B, eight seconds." She nodded.

"If it stays on blue, activate the deep scan, which is..."

"Hold on, I know this one." Said Rose. "That one." She pointed at a switch.

"Er... close." He shrugged.

She pointed at the switch next to it. "That one?"

"Aaand now you've just killed us all." He grinned.

"Sorry." She pointed to the switch on the other side. "That one?"

"Yeah! Now, we've got, what, two minutes to go?"

At the same time, Yvonne was busy preparing for the next ghost shift. "Two minutes to go. Positions everybody."

At this point, Adeola and Gareth strolled back into the office and apologised for their lateness. Yvonne made a mental note to have a chat with them later about the appropriate length of time for a check of the stacks.

"And powering up." Said Yvonne. As Adeola and Gareth took their place at their desks, the men in lab coats pulled the levers into position.

Jackie watched her daughter operating the controls, with much more familiarity that the way she'd had a year ago. This life was becoming home to her now.

"What's the line doing?" The Doctor called from outside.

"It's alright, it's holding!" She called back.

"You even look like him." Said Jackie.

"Do I? Yeah, I suppose so." She smiled.

"You've changed so much."

"For the better." Rose picked up the sadness in her mother's voice.

"I suppose."

"Mum, I used to work in a shop."

"I've worked in lots of shops. What's wrong with that?"

"I didn't mean it like that." She said quickly.

"Yeah, I know what you meant. But what happens when I'm gone?"
"Mum, don't talk like that."

"Really though. When I'm dead and buried. You won't have any reason to come home. Think you'll ever settle down?"

"Well the Doctor can't so neither can I. I'll just keep travelling."

"And you'll keep on changing. And in forty years time, fifty, there'll be this woman, this strange woman, walking through the marketplace on some planet a billion miles from Earth. But she's not Rose Tyler. Not anymore. She's not even human."

Rose wasn't sure what to say to that. Fortunately, the Doctor chose this moment to interrupt. "Here we go!"

"The scanner's working!" She shouted. "It says... delta one six."

"Come on then, you beauty!" Shouted the Doctor.

Before him, a ghost faded into existence, But soon found itself being buffeted back and fourth by a pyramid of electromagnetic charge. The Doctor pulled on some 3D glasses and twiddled some knobs on the scanner he was holding. "Now where do you come from?"

In the lever room, an alarm sounded. "What's happening?" Said Yvonne, hurrying over to the nearest operative, Matt was his name.

"Someone's interfering with the ghost field." He said. "Someone's doing it deliberately this time."

"Right. Shut everything down." She said.

The ghost seemed aware of the Doctor and reached for him like it was trying to swat a fly, but couldn't get through the charge.

"Not so friendly now, are you?" The Doctor grinned. "Don't like this then?"

At this point, the shift ended early and the ghosts all vanished. The news people looked for a change in conditions that might explain it. The crew on EastEnders had to abruptly cut a filming session short, a ghost cleaning product tester asked if he'd done something wrong and the Police spokesman explained that this new course for the ghosts was no cause for alarm.

But the Doctor wasn't bothered. He'd got everything he needed. He hurriedly gathered up his things to bring them back to the TARDIS.

"It was a very specific excitation of the ghost field," Matt explained, "and that makes it easy to pinpoint. Almost there South London. South East fifteen. It's a council estate. The Powell Estate. SU15 7GO. It was a public area."

"Can you hack into the CCTV?" Said Yvonne.

"Doing it now... Here we go. Camera within 50 yards."

On the screen, there came up an image of the Doctor shooing away two kids who'd climbed on top of the TARDIS, before hurrying in and closing the door.

"Oh wow. It's him!" She gasped.

"I said so!" The Doctor was explaining. "Those ghosts have been forced into existence from one specific point, and I can track the source." He plugged his scanner into the console and pulled the handbrake. "Allons y!" The TARDIS set off with a shudder.

Yvonne watched as the TARDIS dematerialised. If he was investigating the ghosts, that only meant one thing. "He's coming. She touched her finger to her earpiece. "Rajesh, he's coming. The Doctor."

Rajesh leapt up with excitement and hurried over to the sphere. "Now we've got you."

"I like that. Allons y. I should say allons y more often. Allons y. Watch out, Rose Tyler. Allons y. And then, it would be really brilliant if I met someone called Alonso, because then I could say, allons y, Alonso, every time." At this point, the Doctor realised that Rose was giving him a slightly awkward look. "You're staring at me."

"My Mum's still on board." She said.

In the excitement, the Doctor had forgotten about her. Now he looked over and saw her sitting on one of the catwalks. "If we end up on mars, I'm going to kill you." She said.

Still, couldn't hurt to take her along for at least one adventure. And it was too late to worry now anyway, since they were just materialising. He turned on the scanner, to reveal about a dossen soldiers in urban camouflage forming up outside.

"Well, there goes the advantage of surprise." He shrugged, before heading for the door. "Still, cuts to the chase. Stay behind and look after Jackie."

"I'm not looking after my mum!" Said Rose.

"You brought her."

"I was kidnapped!" Jackie insisted.

Rose hurried ahead of him and stood across the door. "Doctor, they've got guns."

"And I don't, which makes me the better person. They can shoot me dead, but the moral high ground is mine." He stepped out and put his hands up as the soldiers all cocked their guns.

The Doctor had been through this routine plenty of times and he mentally prepared himself for the various responses he dreaded, such as "We shoot spies in this place." Or "He's clearly an evil spirit!" He didn't expect what happened next.

A woman in a business suit stepped through the soldiers, grinning wildly. "Oh, that is amazing!" And she clapped. The soldiers lowered their weapons slightly and joined her.

"Um, thanks." He said, lowering his hands slightly. "I'm the Doctor."

"Oh, I'll say." She said, and they all clapped again. "The Doctor and the TARDIS!"

The Doctor was beginning to worry that these people may be something far worse than enemies: Fans. "You've heard of me then?"

"Of course we have. None of us would be here if it wasn't for you."

"And you are?"

"Oh there'll be time for that later. But you're not one for travelling alone are you? The Doctor and his companion. That's the pastern. There's no point in denying it. Where is she?"

The Doctor thought for a moment. "Oh, sorry. She's just a little shy." He reached round the door. "Here she is, Rose Tyler!"

Jackie felt him grab her arm and he whisked her out the door before she had time to respond. By the way the Doctor was grinning, she assumed he'd done it deliberately and tried to look like she did this all the time.

"She's not the best I've ever had." The Doctor was saying. "A bit too blonde. Not too steady on her pins. A bit gobby. And last week, she stared into the heart of the time vortex and aged 57 years."

"I'm 40!" Jackie briefly forgot she was supposed to be inconspicuous.

"Deluded, bless." The Doctor grinned, while Jackie flexed her fingers to avoid another outburst. "I'll have to trade her in. Do you need anyone? She's very good at tea. Well, I say very good, I mean not bad. Well, I say not bad. Anyway, lead on. Allons y. But not too fast. Her ankle's going."

"I'll show you where my ankle's going." She hissed.

Back in the TARDIS, Rose was watching everything on the scanner. If he'd taken Jackie in her place, he clearly needed her to do something. She just had to think what.

Following the woman, who'd introduced herself as Yvonne, down the corridor, Jackie tried hard to think what Rose might say in these circumstances. Eventually, she decided that none of these people had met Rose so she could say what she liked.

"It was only a matter of time before you found us." Said Yvonne, as they approached a set of double doors. "Welcome to Torchwood."

The hall she led them into looked like Q's lab more than anything else, strewn with bizarre technology and people conducting tests. But it was much larger and the devices were clearly not of human origin. A man in a lab coat was disassembling a Askarian Eradicator gun. A second scientist was taking energy readings off a plasma bolt. Two more had got their hands on Beetlejuician laser swords, and were recreating Jedi fights when they thought no one was looking.

One thing in particular got the Doctor's attention. A medium sized spaceship, up on scaffolding towards the back of the hall. "That's a Jafal sunglider!"

"Came down off the Shetland Islands two years ago." Said Yvonne.

"Crashed?"

"We shot it down. It violated our airspace." She shrugged. "We stripped it for parts. The gun that shot down the Sycorax on Christmas day, that was us. She smiled at the obvious looks of suppressed rage on the Doctor's face. "Now, if you'd like to come with me."

She led them through a series of work benches, where a variety of technical tests were underway. The Doctor noticed some of the scientists were wearing alien jewellery, presumably looted from some spacecraft or other.

"Torchwood has a motto." Said Yvonne. "If it's alien, it's ours. Everything we find we test and catalogue, for the good of the British Empire."

"The what?" Said Jackie.

"The British Empire."

"There is no British Empire!"

"Not yet." She shrugged. "Now what do you make of this Doctor?" She picked up a device from a table.

It was missing it's casing and there were loose wires trailing from it, but there was no mistaking it. "That's a particle gun."

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Said Yvonne. "Took us eight years to get it to work."

"It's the 21st century. You can't have particle guns." The Doctor felt like he was watching a Cavalier riding around on a tank.

"We must defend our borders from the aliens." Yvonne said casually, as she handed the gun back to the soldier who'd brought it. "Thank you, Sebastian isn't it?"

"Yes Ma'am." Said Sebastian.

"It's important to learn everyone's names." Said Yvonne. "Torchwood is a very modern organisation. I'm a people person you see."

"Have you got anyone called Alonso?" Said the Doctor.

She thought for a moment. "I don't think so. Is that important?"

"I suppose not." He took a look at a couple more devices, which looked a lot less lethal than the particle gun.

"Ah yes. The magna clamps." Said Yvonne. "Found in a spaceship buried at the base of Mount Snowden. You attach them to an object and it instantly cancels the mass. I can use them to lift 20 tons with a single hand. And that's an imperial ton by the way, Torchwood refuses to go metric."

A technician who was in the middle of more calculation than was necessary muttered some unpleasant remarks about that particular policy.

Jackie looked one of the clamps over. "I could do with that when I do the shopping."

Yvonne took it off her. "These devices are for Torchwood's benefit. Not the general public's."

The Doctor had spent a good twenty minutes or so looking round their various experiments. Little that he saw filled him with confidence. Torchwood were irresponsible at best, outright malicious at worst. He'd seen a technician using a teleport pod to tap her friend on the shoulder from the other end of the room. He'd seen a firing range, where they'd set up dummies in full battle dress of several countries to test fire power. He'd had to explain to some of them that it was not a good idea to use a badly damaged matter replicator to make more chips.

He bit his lip though, and kept to the matter at hand. "So, what about these ghosts then?"

"Ah yes." Said Yvonne. "They're what you might call a side effect."

"A side effect of what?"

"All in good time. There's an itinerary to get through."

"Oy, where you taking that?" Jackie interrupted.

The Doctor looked to see where she was pointing and saw the TARDIS on the back of a trolley, being towed away.

"If it's alien, It's ours." Said Yvonne.

"You'll never get inside it." He grinned.

"Etcetera." She grinned back.

The Doctor took a look at the TARDIS scanner, where he knew Rose would be watching and gave a nod.

Rose saw the nod and got an idea what he wanted. She went over to his jacket, which was hanging across a pillar and rummaged in the pockets, pulling out some weirdly shaped coins, a red ipod shuffle, playing cards and an early draft of The Hobbit before she found what she was looking for the psychic paper. Now she could go where she wanted. She just needed to think where to go with it.

Author's Notes: It's been a while since I posted. Life got in the way a bit. But I've got some time now.