Chapter 3
"Any theories, Ziggy?"
The cool measured tones of a woman entered the room. "This situation is outside of my parameters, Admiral. Dr. Beckett did not program me to compute these probabilities when other time travelers are involved. However it appears that Dr. Beckett has already changed history," the parallel hybrid computer replied. "According to the records that I have found, Rose Tyler died at what had become known as the Battle of Canary Wharf."
"Torchwood," Rose suddenly stated, her gaze at nothing in particular.
Jack looked uncomfortable. "Um... Torch... what?"
"The Battle of Canary Wharf. Torchwood was behind it. The Doctor and I were there. The ghosts were Cybermen and..." She stopped her memory failing her slightly. "And I was going to fall."
Al nodded. "Those... robots... They were in the US too and then... gone." He looked at Jack. "You were in England then. Is that where they went? Canary Wharf?"
"Into the Void," Rose added, sounding unsure of her own words. She shook her head to clear it, regaining her composure. "Who was giving you all that info? Did she say I... died?"
"Ziggy's our computer. She was reporting on the timelines."
"That was a computer? Sexy voice," she commented. "Your idea, Jack?"
"Dr. Beckett's," the computer intoned.
"Yes, Ziggy," Al dismissed. He turned to Rose. "She's... temperamental."
"I heard that, Admiral."
Rose chuckled slightly. "I think she likes you."
"We get along."
She hesitated before giving him a wicked grin. "That's not what I meant."
He didn't respond to her innuendo. "Anyway, Ziggy monitors the room and reacts to our requests."
"Kind of like how the TARDIS does," Jack added.
"Oh," Rose replied softly. Giving a weak smile, she asked, "I'm guessing she can't just let me out of here though."
"No," Al said kindly. "But we'll make your stay as pleasant as we can."
"I suppose I'll just have to trust you on that," she commented. After a pause, she requested, "Could Jack and I can be alone for a bit?"
Al nodded. What could he say? Jack was his boss. "I'll be outside, Jack."
"Okay, Al. I'll be right out. I'm putting Ziggy on privacy though."
"I understand." The door opened and Al left.
Rose sat in silence for a few seconds, a thousand thoughts running through her mind. "I missed you," she admitted.
"I missed you." He paused. "In fact, I've missed you for a hundred seventy years."
"A hundred..." she began, stunned by the amount of time. "But... you don't look that different. Different hair... looks like you got some work done but... You can't be that old."
"Well, you know how time travel is..."
"So, does that mean you traveled from 170 years ago? Or have you actually been around for the last 170 years?" She huffed. "And here I thought you were human like me. The Doctor's over 900 so... doesn't bother me."
"I am human. But not like you."
"So what's that supposed to mean?"
"It means, if you and the Doctor weren't so close, maybe you and I..."
With a sigh, she shook her head. "You're covering up something." Seeing the look he gave her, she explained, "You always flirted with me like mad whenever you didn't want me to be hurt."
"I'm not covering anything."
"You don't want to tell me, fine," she proclaimed, a hint of anger and annoyance in her voice as she brought up her legs to sit Indian style on the table. "You're the one who said you haven't seen me in 170 years."
"That's true."
"The Doctor said you were busy rebuilding the Earth. I assumed you'd stayed voluntarily." She bit her lip as the implications of her words hit her. "But you didn't, did you?"
A sad look crossed his face. "No, not voluntarily."
She dropped her hands, hurt in her eyes. "But why would he do that? Why would he just... leave you? People were dying and... he sent me home and... I don't remember the rest."
The ex-Time Agent looked at Rose with sympathy, not knowing whether it was the amnesia from leaping or something else that had blocked the horrible memories of the battle on Game Station. He wished he could block it out. He still remembered standing before the Daleks, waiting for the killing blow... and then suddenly finding himself alive after he had died. He almost envied Rose at that moment. "You don't have to remember."
Rose looked at him with growing frustration. "Why not? What happened?"
He sighed. "It was... bad. I wasn't sure if any of us would survive."
"You did. All three of us did. Well, sort of."
Jack cocked his head, wondering what she remembered. "What do you mean?"
"The Doctor was dying," she explained. "And he changed. Called it 'regeneration.' New face and everything. Took me a while to accept that he still was the Doctor."
"So... do you think he looks as good as Beckett?"
Rose chuckled slightly. "Well, Beckett may be cute but... he's no Doctor. He likes his new looks, but much to his chagrin... he's not ginger."
"Did he complain about that?" Jack queried with a laugh.
"Yeah. He said he always wanted to be ginger. You remember. He was so... down to Earth, I guess, but still had a great sense of humor and that grin. He hasn't lost the grin but now... well, he practically bounces off the walls. It's like... he's on his fifth childhood or something."
"Well, he deserves another childhood with as much as he's faced. What do you think of him?"
"Oh, I LOVE him! He's so different and yet... he's still the Doctor." She lowered her head. "I miss him already."
"I don't think this project is going to be able to contact them. At least not until they land in Dr. Beckett's lifetime on Earth."
"So, no contact with Rextar Seven."
"Nope. As I said, this project is primitive. Sorry, Ziggy, but to me, it's true."
"She's listening in?"
"She always listens. She's in privacy mode, though. I'll be the only human that will see these transcripts."
"I suppose that's something. She isn't... like... alien technology or anything?"
Jack shook his head. "Beckett is brilliant. He has six doctorates including one in computer science and another in quantum physics. He figured out a way to build a parallel hybrid computer years before they become common."
"Sounds like he and the Doctor are going to get along just fine," she groused.
"I'm sure you'll be back with him in no time, Rose." He looked at her concerned with her change in attitude.
"And in the meantime, I'm stuck."
He took a breath. "When Calavicci told me about this changing time thing, I didn't believe him. I've read the transcripts of the man's leaps though. This is for real, although I still don't really like it."
"Is it true then? That I was... dead?"
Jack saw that Rose was becoming somewhat distraught. He put his hand against her neck, kindly.
She jumped slightly at an odd feeling, like a pinprick. "What was that?"
"I guess my ring scratched you. Sorry." He then went on to answer her question. "Yeah, you were dead. Well, at least from the perspective of Earth. You know how it is with the Doctor. Dead doesn't mean forever."
Rose blinked, unsure what Jack meant by those words. Deciding that she was reading more into it than was really there, she sighed and quickly found the sigh turning into a yawn.
"Well, Rose Tyler. I'm sorry to say that, for the time being, you're going to need to stay here with this project, at least until Dr. Beckett leaps again."
"And when will that be?" she questioned, a second yawn invading her words.
"I don't know. I guess when God, Fate, Time, or Whatever, as they call it here, decides it's...time."
Rose hummed slightly as she leaned against Jack's shoulder, her eyes drifting closed. "I missed you," she muttered, repeating her previous sentiment.
He gave her a hug. "I've missed you too. I'm glad we've met again."
She didn't answer, her steady breathing indicating that she had fallen asleep on her friend's shoulder.
He kissed the top of her head and, lifting her from the table, carried her and laid her down on the queen size bed that had been added as part of the upgrade, pulling the covers over her. "Take care of her, Ziggy."
"What did you do?" the computer asked suspiciously.
He readjusted his ring. It was a sleep enhancer from the planet Salliniar which he had obsconced from Torchwood. "Oh, old Sallitorian trick. Used a sleep ring to put her out. This situation is pretty stressful for her and I want her to rest. She won't wake for a few hours. Just watch over her, okay?"
"Of course, Captain Harkness," Ziggy replied, stating his name in that peculiar way she had always done, as if she knew a secret she wasn't going to reveal.
When he left the room, he wasn't surprised to find Al waiting for him in the Control Room. "We've got to talk."
"We'll talk in my office," Al suggested.
Agreeing, they headed back to Al's office. Once inside, the Admiral waited for Jack to speak first. Jack tucked his hands into his trouser pockets, unknowingly imitating the very man he'd had just been talking about. He gave Al a firm look. "Rose Tyler is a very special person, Al, and I expect her to be treated as such. For her, the rules about keeping the guest in the dark don't apply. If she wants to know something, you tell her, especially if it has anything to do with Dr. Beckett's leap."
"Jack, that's a pretty tall order. I'm not sure that's such a good idea."
"Believe me, whatever you tell her wouldn't be in anyway dangerous to the timeline," Jack told him bluntly. "She's already seen far more than you can possibly imagine and she's the most trustworthy person I've ever met."
"You do know that this is way outside of protocol. Are you sure?"
Jack gave him a winning smile. "Oh, if you knew her, you wouldn't be asking that question. Suffice to say, she, the Doctor, and I have a history."
Al blew out a breath. "Who is this Doctor you keep talking about? Is he the man Sam's with? I wasn't very impressed. He seemed... strange... arrogant..."
Laughing slightly, Jack responded, "That sounds like him, all right. I can tell you, he deserves to be a little arrogant. There is literally no one else in the universe like him."
"That could be said for a lot of people."
"When I said literally, I meant literally. Do you have an open mind, Al?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
The ex-Admiral was rather taken aback by the question. "Well... yeah. You know I do, Jack."
"And what if I told you that there were billions of planets out there teeming with intelligent life?"
Al had been in space. He'd worked with people that had put forth that premise. "I can believe that. Billions of stars. There's got to be life out there somewhere."
"What if I told you that the Earth was being visited by aliens constantly and no one even knew? I mean, other than the Cybermen, the Daleks, and the ship that was over London that Christmas."
Al's forehead crinkled. He remembered the leap with Max Stoddard. He supposed it was possible but was surprised that he wouldn't have known about the fact of the existence of aliens. Still, he'd been out of the loop and he knew full well that there were secrets his own government kept. "It's a bit of a stretch, but okay. I guess that's possible too."
"A bit of a stretch? After all that's happened?" He chuckled slightly at his friend's stubborn stance, firm in believing what he could see and touch... as long as it wasn't supernatural, that is. "It's not just a possibility, Al. It's a reality. And guess what? You saw an alien."
"Who? Rose?"
Jack laughed again. "Rose is a shop girl from the Powell Estates in London, England."
"Then who?"
"The Doctor."
"Sam's with an alien?" Al's worry level went up. "Is he safe?"
"Yes, he's safe. Well... relatively safe. The Doctor won't hurt him."
"Still, we need to find them. Do you know where they are?"
"According to you, they went to Rextar Seven. Very safe place. Best tea in the universe. Dr. Beckett will love it."
"And Rextar Seven is... where?"
"About 400,000 light years from Earth," Jack told him, watching for his reaction.
"Yeah, right. Stop kidding, Jack."
Jack lowered his eyelids slightly, his gaze set on Al. "Do I look like I'm kidding?"
"No, but... How could they go for tea 400,000 light years from here? You've got to be kidding me."
"Seriously, Al. Seventh planet in the Rextar planetary system. Nice stable trinary star system in..." He looked around the room, orienting himself with the constant knowledge of spacial location that he'd carried with him since he was a Time Agent. "...that direction." He pointed towards the upper southeast corner of Al's office. "Very nice this time of year too."
Al gazed at him, gauging what he was saying. "You're not kidding, are you."
"Been there several times myself," he informed him. "Purple grass, yellow hills, orange sky. And the best chai tea I've ever had."
Al closed his eyes with realization. "So, Sam has really left the planet?"
"Yeah. Just like Elvis." Seeing Al give him a narrow eyed look, Jack waved it off. "Oh, I'm sure the Doctor will come back to Earth in a few hours. He's very attached to this rock."
"That's good." The visibly older man paused. "Why do I get the feeling I'm not in Kansas anymore?"
"Maybe because you're in New Mexico," Jack quipped.
