Doomsday
a Torchwood story
by RoadrunnerGER
Dislaimer: Oh, really! They're the BBC's. I only borrowed them to explore what the series didn't show us.
Summary: Torchwood Three and Ianto Jones' point of view of the Battle of Canary Wharf... with a twist. starting with Army of Ghosts and Doomsday and going on
A/N: Welcome to everyone who's on board already and thanks for the nice comments. Special thanks to Mandassina who was so nice to squeeze beta-reading in so shortly before New Year's Eve. Hope you'll all have a good start into the new year. Enjoy!
Chapter 2 – Dangerous mysteries
Cardiff
Exactly a quarter to six was the time when the ghosts appeared each day for their second shift. Each time the shift lasted for exactly two minutes. But there was one thing that changed with each appearance.
The intensity increased.
From the start Jack had watched the development with growing anxiety. He was not the only one who worried. His whole team picked up on his unease. At first the ghosts came on a late January morning. In February their appearances became more regular, once a day at ten past two, then twice a day at ten past two and a quarter to six. Later a night shift established, too.
That was when Jack decided that he was fed up with being stalled by Hartman's secretary and drove to London to confront the Director personally. Upon his return he said nothing about the meeting or if he even spoke to Yvonne Hartman, but his occasional fits of temper became more frequent and unpredictable until he was acting like a weevil with a sore head most of the time.
So they began with their own tests in order to find out what headquarters had botched up this time. After the first disappointments Toshiko had worked feverishly on refining her scans. She did not make the two o'clock shift, but now she was looking forward to getting the best results so far.
It was time.
Toshiko had everything ready and was only waiting for the ghost to appear.
But it did not come.
"Now that's strange," Jack said, creasing his forehead. "Tosh?"
"I can hardly get any readings," she told him. "I believe it was about to appear and then it changed its mind. Do you think it noticed that we tried to scan it?"
"Why am I supposed to know?"
"Maybe because you always claim to know the answer?" Owen teased with a wry smile.
"Not always," Jack mused aloud and went down the stairs to the walkway where Toshiko had set up her equipment for the scan. He checked on his wrist strap, but it told him nothing new.
"For two months these ghosts appeared everywhere on earth, even in our Hub, and now we can't get any data about them because they smelled the rat and retreated before they could give anything away." They all could hear the frustration in their captain's words. "Tosh! Bring up the news. Let's see if it was only our ghost or…"
"If they didn't appear at all. There we go."
Bringing the latest news up to the biggest flat-screen of her workstation was one of her easiest tasks. The news presenter of the Ghost Watch appeared to be confused though he tried to maintain a professional attitude.
"After two months of increasing ghost activity all over the planet it is quite a surprise that the ghosts did not appear at their usual time at a quarter to six this evening. Now the whole world is wondering: Is that a bad sign? Did we do something that has driven them away? Do we have to worry…"
Toshiko shut him down. They knew what they needed to know.
"So it wasn't only our ghost," Owen mused. "But why would they stop coming so suddenly?"
"Actually that's a very good question, Owen," Jack said. "And I know who I'll ask."
Turning on his heels he strode back to his office and grabbed the phone before he even sat behind his desk. As usual Director Hartman did not consider it necessary to answer her phone, so Jack dialled another number. After a few rings his contact answered him.
"Hello! It's soooo nice to hear your beautiful voice again," Jack flirted reflexively, despite his growing annoyance. If the man on the other end recognized his false cheer, Jack did not know, but he heard the icy sound in his partner's voice when he interrupted.
"What do I want? Okay, I'll tell you what I want. First, I want to know what the heck is going on… and spare me the nonsense about the project being top secret. You already violated the Official Secrets Act when you told me that the ghosts showed up when Torchwood London started testing a new power source. Now I want to know what kind of source you are testing and why there was no…" Once more he was cut off.
"The tests were cancelled. I see. Do you know why?"
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Toshiko stop right under the doorframe, watching him attentively.
"What?"
Jack forgot about his computer expert. Jumping up from his chair he leaned on the tabletop with his left hand as he clutched the phone with his right. His stomach muscles fluttered and he felt his breath catch in his throat. The fluttering spread through his whole body, making him shudder with excitement.
No! No, that can't be… it… I have to get to London… I can't…
Even his thoughts stumbled over each other.
"Tell me what's going on in London," he finally gasped, surprising himself with being able to speak a whole sentence without stuttering. He listened hard not to miss a word and asked just occasional, short questions.
Then he smashed the ear piece down on the cradle.
"What's wrong, Jack?" Toshiko asked anxiously. Seeing her boss in such an agitated state could not be a good sign.
Jack still needed a moment to compose himself. "Whatever they are testing in London, it's been stalled. Maybe something went wrong and they stopped it to find out what they were doing."
Toshiko was not surprised to hear sarcasm bleed into Jack's final words. As well as the other two team members she knew that Jack often was cross with the Institute's management. What they did not know was what had led to Jack taking over the leadership of Torchwood Cardiff. Something bad had happened and Jack had severed the branch's links to the mothership in London.
"So what?" Toshiko wanted to know. "You don't think that there will be more ghosts tonight?"
"Actually I have no idea, Tosh." Jack dropped back down in his chair, suddenly feeling very tired. Hartman was pushing all his buttons and driving him crazy and he was sick of it. "London's unpredictable. Even if they do have problems they might continue… just to see if they can't make it worse."
"Jack?"
"That's the way Torchwood One operates: If it's alien, it's ours. If it could kill us, let's get it so that we can kill ourselves with it."
Toshiko suppressed her chuckles. Jack looked way too serious for banter with his furrowed brows, rubbing his chin with the knuckles of his left hand thoughtfully.
Suddenly he jumped up. With long strides he reached the office door and went past Toshiko out on the walkway.
"Suzie! Owen!" With a beckoning gesture he ordered them to come over. When he was sure that he had their attention he told them, "I don't know what London did, but it means trouble. Whatever those ghosts are, they are dangerous. If they appear again… keep your distance. Get your weapons. I want you to be prepared and ready to defend yourselves."
"Jack, aren't you overreacting?" Suzie asked, sounding a little confused.
"I don't think I am. Hartman's not answering my calls and my contact told me that there's a visitor in London. His presence tells me that we should be cautious with those things."
"I still don't get it," Owen grumbled.
"You don't have to get it, Owen, as long as you follow my orders," Jack snarled, his darkening features more frightening than the ghosts had been.
"Which would make more sense if you'd tell us more about that visitor you're talking about," Owen challenged him. "Why do you think he's trouble?"
"He's not the cause of the trouble," Jack told him brusquely. "But I know for sure that he only shows up when the shit hits the fan. So would you now please go and get your weapons from the armoury?"
A wide sweeping gesture across the Hub accompanied his heated words. They better went and did as he told them before he got really angry. Toshiko, however, hesitated.
"What is it, Tosh?"
"I managed to get some readings before we realized that the ghosts weren't coming," she said. "The scanners didn't pick up much and I can't be sure it's not related to the Rift, but I believe that it was the same kind of energy."
"Could it have been a rift spike?"
Shaking her head Toshiko said, "No, the radiation was slightly different." She paused, thoughtfully. "Jack? Is there a rift in London, too?"
For a moment that, second by second, made the team's anxiety more and more palpable, Jack remained silent.
"It's not exactly a Rift like ours," he finally said.
"Great!" Owen huffed. "When did you plan to tell us? When it started spewing out aliens intent on world domination or when it swallowed Canary Wharf and left a smoking hole in its place?"
"It was classified," Jack spat.
"To hell with classified, Jack!" Owen argued. "Since when do you care?"
"Owen!" Suzie cut in. "There's a time and a place!"
"Right, Suzie. And it wasn't the right time to talk yet," Jack snarled.
"Hope it is now, because it might be helpful," Owen taunted.
Jack scowled at him deeply. "You know that I went to London when they started to build Torchwood Tower?" His team nodded. "That was when I first was informed about the existence of the breach they have there. It appeared in the sky over London and they started to build the tower to reach it."
"To do what with it?" Owen wanted to know.
"To monitor it," Jack snorted with wry amusement. "At least that's what Yvonne Hartman told me. She said she wanted my expertise because I had been working with and around the Cardiff Rift for years. She demanded all information about our Rift in order to apply the same rules to their breach." His features darkened considerably as he spat, "I should've known better. You can't trust Hartman any further than you can throw a weevil. They were bound to do something stupid!"
The others looked at him as if he lost his mind.
"What was I supposed to do?" Jack snapped. "When I suspected that something went wrong I asked Tosh to run the first tests! Now all we can do is make sure we're safe first, find out what they're messing with, and then go and stop them. One step after the other. Now get your guns. Tosh, can you bring the news back up?"
"Sure."
Jack was about to make his way down the stairs and across the tidal basin to reach the armoury when beeps coming from Toshiko's workstation alerted the team of renewed activity.
A moment later a dark shadow appeared where they had expected the ghost to enter the Hub.
Instead of the beeps now the voice of the Ghost Watch presenter echoed out of the speakers, 'It's extraordinary, there are more ghosts than we've ever seen before! And it's happening all over the world.'
And down in the Torchwood Hub one of them was assuming a more solid shape by the second.
'As far as we know, the increase in ghost activity is harmless.'
Metallic thumps echoed through the Hub.
And then the foggy shape became a humanoid figure in a metal suit of armour.
xXx
London
When he returned to his workplace Ianto found a cart with five crates filled with manila folders and a whole stack of files in his inbox. Stifling a sigh he sat back down and took the first files to have a look at them but could not quite concentrate. All he could think about was the mysterious Doctor.
Forcing himself to actually look at the documents he held in hands he dismissed the first file as irrelevant.
He started.
Irrelevant?
Irrelevant in relation to what?
Irrelevant to my musings about the Doctor? Irrelevant to the ghost activity?
Shaking his head he pushed the thought aside and started to sort out the files, catalogue them, and put them back into the boxes for transport to the archives. While most people would be bored by such a task Ianto loved it. He found satisfaction in bringing order into the chaos and sense into the unclear system.
Having the feeling that still something was strange Ianto looked at his watch. It was twenty to seven now.
It's late. I totally forgot time over those files. Well, I can compensate for it when I need to leave early another day. One of the advantages of working flexible times.
Then it hit him.
No ghost shift! There was no ghost shift at a quarter to six! Now that is strange.
He heard some colleagues talk about the ghosts and noticed that they seemed to be excited and anxious at the sudden lack of ghosts.
When did we become so fixated on those ghosts?
That he had zoned out Ianto only realized when Dr. Markham nudged his shoulder.
"Mr. Jones. Torchwood doesn't pay you to stare holes into space."
"Of course not, Dr. Markham, sir," Ianto replied and got up quickly, grabbing the files and stuffing them into the last box. "I'll just bring these to the archives."
"Yes, do that, Mr. Jones."
As Ianto hurried off with the cart he could not see the amused smile quirking Dr. Markham's mouth. Waiting for the elevator Ianto had time to think about the missing ghost shift again.
So why didn't we go into ghost shift? I guess I should go to talk to Parry. See if he can't get news out of Matt over a couple of drinks.
Matt was one of the group working for the Director on the ghost shifts. He would know what had happened, the question was if he would tell anyone about it. Whatever they were testing upstairs, it was top secret. Only a handful of Torchwood employees knew what it was all about, and while Parry and Matt were friends, it was a collegial relationship, not a close personal friendship. The odds of Matt sharing anything with him were slim. People who breached Torchwood security often found themselves in places they did not want to be, often without any memory of how they got there. Ianto did not expect to learn anything more than what he could get from the rumour mill or the gossip grapevine but it was worth a try anyway.
Ianto wondered if Dr. Markham knew more. As the head of InfRet he had an A5 clearance level. So for all Ianto knew he might be informed. But even if he was that did not mean anything. Markham probably knew the gist of it, just not enough to be able to explain what effect the experiments had on the ghosts, or the ghosts on the experiments. Being his boss, Markham was not likely to confide anything in Ianto. Ianto could probably ask a few clever questions if the appropriate moment presented itself, but it would be a risk. Getting too curious about highly classified Torchwood activities often met with the same results as breaching Torchwood security.
I can't understand why everyone is so excited about the ghosts. People were scared to death when they first appeared and now the whole world is mad about them. People would miss them. They did miss them when they didn't come tonight.
His gaze fell on the tie of the colleague who was with him in the elevator. Instead of a classic pattern it sported rows of tiny ghosts that could be mistaken for white dots from further away. Inwardly Ianto rolled his eyes.
They were declared harmless, a side effect. So why don't I feel reassured?
Brooding he stepped off the carriage and almost walked past the entrance to the archives, but he noticed it in time and shoved the cart through the automatically opening doors. Walking along the rows of shelves he found the section he was looking for and pushed the handcart between them. Ianto found the right shelf and began to sort the files in.
He was completely engrossed in his task so that he did not notice that something was wrong until he heard a woman scream. His head shot up and out of widening eyes he stared down the narrow space between the shelves. As much as he could see nothing justified that furore.
"What the bloody hell…" he murmured, hearing more screams and thunderous stomps.
His heart jumped up into his throat and his stomach dropped into his shoes when he saw a big metallic figure appear in the main aisle.
"We are the Cybermen," an impersonal, synthesized voice called out. "You will be upgraded."
More stomps thundered.
More silver bodies lined up in the archive's centre.
More people screamed.
Ianto ducked behind his cart and prayed that they would not notice him.
Where are those things coming from? They came out of nowhere! They just appeared, like the…
Ianto could hardly finish that thought. His heart beat so hard that he feared the metal humanoids would hear it. Desperately he tried to control his breathing. Loud gasps would be a dead give-away, too.
The ghosts… these were the ghosts. They didn't come through at first. They just appeared like ghosts because they… they… they what? Because they couldn't reach our dimension yet? Or whatever?
Ianto felt paralyzed.
Not a single muscle seemed to work anymore. His body shut down with fear.
Lisa!
That name was enough to bring his fighting spirit back. Remembering Lisa he forgot about his own precarious situation.
He had to reach Lisa.
He had to rescue Lisa.
He had to bring them both out of here.
Alive!
Fear almost paralyzed him again, but then he pulled himself together and, using the shelves as cover, he sneaked to the door.
tbc…
