Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who. Nor do I own Torchwood. Nor do I own Cowboy Bebop (to which I made references in the last chapter and will do so in the next chapter). Nor do I own any other random thing or pop culture reference I might make in this fanfic.
Author's Note: Just to reassure you, you don't need to have seen or know anything about Cowboy Bebop (aside from that it is an AWESOME anime). Anything you need to know will be explained in this story. As for the rest of the Doctor Who stuff, this is essentially AU from the New Series 4 series finale. And I'm a huge fan of the Tenth Doctor/Rose pairing, so that will arise later on. And there is a logical explanation for everything. So yeah, what I'm trying to say is, expect a lot of focus on the Tenth Doctor and Rose, a little bit on Jack, minimal on the Gwen/Jack pairing (as I'm not a fan) and a LOT of drama.
Collision of Worlds...Again
Chapter II
When Jack had received the distress calls, presumably from Gwen, he'd been irritated, panicked, worried, nostalgic and a host of other emotions he'd been striving to ignore and forget. But he'd gone straight to his ship and set the tangents for Earth.
An emergency was an emergency. Even if he was drowning in misery, he couldn't just let the Earth be destroyed, not after watching the Doctor save it so many times and not when he cared about too many people there.
Which was how, a few hours later, he landed his ship in the familiar rural Welsh areas and made his way towards where he had seen a ship that had seemingly crashed. It was a long, hilly walk but, uncertain as to the happenings, he couldn't risk contacting anyone or hitching a ride, so he chose to walk in the drizzle, relishing in the familiarities of the surroundings.
He had missed it.
What he hadn't missed were the heart-stopping moments that seemed to come along far too frequently on Earth. It had taken him a good solid forty minutes (at least) of walking, and when he had walked over the peak of the final hill, he found himself staring at what was clearly Gwen and all those left from his team, pointing guns at the spaceship that remained closed.
They had the ship surrounded – which was good. But the guns they were holding, from what he could see, were the basic kind, the kind you grabbed when something unexpected happened and you needed it in a hurry. That was bad; depending on what was inside the ship, it could be very bad.
Lucky for him, he had one of his more powerful, all-rounder weapons with him but this looked big. Debating it in his head, his choice ended up being very simple, really. He couldn't afford to lose any more of his team and there was only one being that could help out. He sent an SOS signal to the Doctor.
Uncertainly, he announced his presence, well aware that he could be shot dead before they could recognise him. No matter how many times he died, he didn't get used to it and it most definitely did not get any more fun. Raising his arms, he said, "Hey there, people."
As expected, all guns were trained on him, until a wavering voice that he recognised as Gwen's spoke up. "Jack? Is that you? You actually came?"
He smiled his trademark smile. "What can I say? Saving the Earth is a bad habit of mine. Mind if you point the guns away from me?"
Gwen barked the order – sounded like she was in charge, Jack mused, impressed – and he relaxed his arms as the guns moved away.
"Care to tell me what kind of trouble's brewing now?" The spaceship looked completely alien to him, internally sniggering at the pun, even as he acknowledged that that alone made the whole situation a whole lot scarier.
"We don't know," came Gwen's terse reply. "We got signs of 'things' happening, not entirely sure what but it was all there. We tried to predict what was causing it, what was happening but we just had nothing to explain it all. And then this thing crashed, all of a sudden, a few hours ago. I sent you the distress call straight away and then came here. Nothing's happened since then." She turned to look at him, and even in the dark, he could see the toll the last few months had taken on her. "Any idea what's in there?"
His decision was made instantly. "I'm going to take a closer look."
There was a murmur of protests that he chose to ignore. He was distantly aware of feeling relieved that Gwen hadn't protested, aware of his immortal nature, but the most pressing emotion was a mixture of frank curiosity and dread mingling with anxiety.
The material was familiar, a well-known compound in the further etches of this galaxy but the design of the ship was completely inconsistent with that area of the galaxy. The design of the ship was entirely original, as far as Jack was aware. It looked like a fair few designs had been melded together, all from different periods of time gone by and a variety of different cultures. He was pretty damn impressed that it was functional – that spoke of considerable skill and creativity.
He couldn't perceive any etchings or markings on the ship to indicate what could have created this. The material was in its natural colour and state, seemingly nothing attempted to beautify it. And yet, it was a treasure in his eyes, the novelty of such a new thing, however dangerous it may be.
(If he was honest, he'd always been attracted to dangerous. He loved it, revelled in it. It's why his times with The Doctor were some of his happiest. Why he'd been attracted to Rose in the first place... It was always dangerous being attracted to someone the Doctor was possessive of.)
Maybe the thing knew this. Or maybe he was just a catalyst for things happening because the instant he touched it, felt the cool material beneath his hands, he could feel it shuddering. He heard its whirring sounds surround him and he instinctively moved backwards, away from it.
Still too close for Gwen's liking; he heard her panicked shouts to move away, get away from it. He'd never really been one to listen to people's advice. He preferred to stand there, full view of what he now could see as the door. He dimly realised it meant that Gwen wouldn't have a good shot at whatever was inside and, therefore, vice versa, but he pushed all thoughts of his former comrades away. He could dwell on them later, when this impending crisis was handled and over with.
He didn't realise he was holding his breath until he heard himself letting it out in one big gasp. The door had opened and he could just about peer inside it. Empty. Unfurnished. What the hell? Everything was indicating that this was a spontaneous kind of trip or an urgent one, but he'd never seen anything like this before. Was this another change in the timeline that the Doctor was currently sorting out or... Or what? He had no idea what else it could be.
He took a step closer, heard all of the guns and weapons getting cocked. His own was all prepared to be used instantly. He moved closer, one slow step at a time. His immortal heart started thudding when he saw some slight movement to the right side of the door, a small huddle on the floor moving. Struggling to stand up, he realised. It had a humanoid form, though he couldn't be sure what species it exactly was. It looked injured, if its stilted movements were anything to go by.
It managed to stand up, leaning heavily against the wall next to the door, as Jack stepped closer, barely a metre away. It turned, continuing to lean against the wall, obviously preparing to exit from the ship and he swore his heart stopped. He felt sick, he felt like crying or killing or something. Fuck!
All he did was shout, "Halt fire" in a raspy voice that didn't sound like his at all. Three swift steps took him to the door of the ship. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
"Rose?" He managed to question through the bile rising inside his throat.
She turned to look at him, a feeble smile trembling on her lips. She whispered faintly, "Jack. Hey..."
She wasn't supposed to be in this bizarre alien ship. She wasn't supposed to be in this universe. And she most definitely wasn't supposed to be bleeding so heavily that her clothes – he could now see that it was a hospital gown – was drenched in red. Fuck, fuck, fuck.