Chapter 3: Hijacked

Matt sat at his desk, making some minor adjustments to the monitoring programs, only for a message from Adeola to appear on his screen. Want to see something cool.

He turned to where she was gazing at him and mouthed "What?"

She typed again. The message came up that said Come and see.

She stood up to go. Matt briefly thought about getting someone else's attention, but some desperate part of his mind that told him Adeola fancied him convinced him that she only wanted him alone. He thus blindly went after her.


As Yvonne led the Doctor and his companion down a concrete corridor in the underground levels, he took the opportunity to tell the Doctor a bit more about them. "All those times I've been on Earth, I've never heard of you."

"Of course not." She said. "You're listed in the official Torchwood charter of 1879 as an enemy of the crown."

"1879..." The Doctor thought for a moment. "That house in Scotland was called Torchwood."

"Of course. 1879 was the year you and Victoria had a run in with a werewolf." Yvonne nodded.

"I think he makes half this stuff up." Said Jackie.

Yvonne continued "Her Majesty created the Torchwood institute with the express intention of keeping Britain great. And fighting the alien horde."

"But if aliens are the enemy, does that make me your prisoner?" Said the Doctor.

"Oh yes." Yvonne smiled. "But we'll make you perfectly comfortable. And there is so much you can teach us. Starting with this." She swiped her key card on a reader and a steel door slid aside to reveal the sphere chamber. "What do you make of that?"

Seeing the Doctor coming in, Rajesh hurried over to him "Rajesh Singh. It's an honour sir." He offered his hand, but the Doctor was too preoccupied with starring up at the sphere. Understandable.

With the Doctor busy starring, Jackie took over the talking. "What's that thing?"

"Don't know." Said Yvonne. "We were hoping you could shed some light."

"What's wrong with it?"

"What makes you think there's something wrong with it?" Said Sebastian.

Jackie hadn't expected to be put on the spot like that. "Dunno. It just seems... wrong."

"The sphere has that effect on everyone." Said Yvonne.

The Doctor ran up to the sphere to have a look through some 3D glasses. Since he didn't seem keen to talk straight away, Rajesh continued. "We've analysed the sphere with every device imaginable. They're all negative. The sphere has no mass, no heat, no radiation. It doesn't age. All our tests show that the sphere doesn't exist."

"But I can see it." Said Jackie.

"I know." He sighed. "That's what's so disturbing. This thing is an impossibility. It twists the mind just by being there."

"Any thoughts, Doctor?" Said Yvonne.

"This is a void ship." He said.

"And what's that?" Sais Yvonne.

"Well, it's impossible for starters. It's a vessel designed to exist outside time and space. Travelling through the void."

Yvonne looked at Rajesh, but he was as clueless as she was. "What's the void?" He said.

"Space between realities. The space between dimensions. There's all sorts of realities around us, different dimensions, billions of parallel universes all stacked up against each other. The Void is the space in between, containing absolutely nothing. Imagine that. Nothing. No light, no dark, no up, no down, no life, no time. Without end. My people called it the Void. The Eternals call it the Howling. But some people call it Hell."

"But someone must have built that ship." Said Rajesh. "Why would they?"

The Doctor thought for a moment. "To explore, to escape? Sit inside that thing and an eternity could pass you by. The Big Bang. End of one universe, start of the next. You wouldn't even touch the sides. You'd exist outside the whole of time and space."

"So there is something inside then." Rajesh grinned. "How do we get them out?"

"We don't!" The Doctor snapped. "We send that thing back to hell! How did it get here in the first place?"

"Well that's how all this started. It came through and the ghosts followed in its wake." Said Yvonne.

"Show me." The Doctor spun on his heel and marched out the door, leading the way down the corridor.

"This way, Doctor." Yvonne called.

He spun round again and walked the other way down the corridor.


As Adeola led him deeper into the walled off office, Matt's hope that she'd brought him here to confess her feelings was waning fast. "Seriously, what is it?" He said.

"Just go to your left." She replied.

He peeled apart a dust cover and looked down a passageway with a sickly red glow. That filled him with dread for one simple reason. "Yvonne's going to be back any minute."

"Just go to your left." She said again.

"What, in here?"

She nodded.

Curiosity getting the better of him one last time, he stepped through.

At around this time, Gareth knocked over a tea tray to cover the sound of the blood curdling screams coming from the walled off office.


Rose waited for ten minutes after the TARDIS stopped moving before stepping out and looking around cautiously. She found herself in a corner of the warehouse, obscured from the main hall by a spaceship wreck and an Osyran sarcophagus. Peering round the side, she saw soldiers wandering everywhere and hurriedly dropped back.

Looking around, she saw a lab coat hanging over the edge of a table. Quietly she edged up and grabbed it, before ducking back again. She pulled it on and straightened her hair out.

She went for a look around. As she'd hoped, no one was really looking for an intruder, so her paper thin disguise would conceal her nicely, as long as she didn't look like she was trying to avoid attention.

The next step was to find something to investigate. Spotting a man walking between some crates at a hurried pace, she decided he looked like the sort who wanted to avoid attention, so she followed him as he hurried through a door and down a corridor.


Up in the lever room, Matt and Adi were returning to their desks, but the Doctor paid them no attention. He was too busy looking over at the wall at the end.

"It came through here." Yvonne explained. "Not active now, but when we fire particle engines at that exact spot, the breach opens up."

"How did you find it?" Said the Doctor.

"RADAR black spot. We've been getting signs for years. So we built this place, Torchwood Tower, to get a closer look."

The Doctor pulled on his 3D glasses again. "You built a skyscraper just to get at an energy breach! How much money have you got?"

"Enough."

Jackie, meanwhile was looking out the window. 50 floors below, she could see the familiar landscape of the London docklands. "Hold on. This is Canary Wharf!"

"That is the official name for it, yes. To those in the know, it's Torchwood." Said Yvonne.

The Doctor, at this point had got a grasp of what was going on and decided there was no more time for diplomacy. "So, you lot, you find this rift, this tear in the fabric of reality. You build your way up here for a closer look, but instead of thinking "Shall we back off? Shall we play it safe?." You think "nah! Let's make it bigger!""

Yvonne sighed. "It's a massive source of energy. If we can harness that power, we need never depend on the Middle East again. Britain will become truly independent. Look, you can see for yourself. Next ghost shrift's in two minutes."

"Cancel it."

"I'm sorry. You're not in charge here."

"I'm warning you, cancel it."

"Oh, exactly as the legends would have it. The Doctor, lording it over us. Assuming alien authority over the Rights of Man." She laughed.

"Let me show you, sphere comes through..." He took his sonic and cut a small hole in one of the glass partitions around her office. Cracks rapidly spread out like spider webs. "But when it made the hole, it cracked the world around it. The entire surface of this dimension splintered. And that's how the ghosts get through. That's how they get everywhere. They're bleeding through the fault lines. Walking from their world, across the Void, and into yours, with the human race hoping and wishing and helping them along. But too many ghosts, and..." He tapped the glass. The whole pane shattered.

Yvonne frowned at the display. "We'll be more careful then. Positions! Ghost shift in one minute."

The Doctor was rapidly losing patience. "Miss Hartman. I am warning you, please don't do it."

"We've done this a thousand times!"

"Then stop at a thousand!"

"We're in control of the ghosts! The levers can open the breach, but they can just as easily close it!" See braced herself for the Doctor's next arrogant response.

Instead, the Doctor smiled. "OK."

"What?"

"I said OK. As you were."

"Doctor, you can't stop us."

"Oh no, absolutely not." He went and grabbed an office chair and sat in the middle of the room. "Just carry on, don't mind me. Pull up a chair, Rose. Come and watch the fireworks."

Jackie went to stand next to him, in a display of solidarity. Despite everything, she was actually beginning to enjoy this companion stuff.

"Ghost shift in ten seconds." Said Adeola. "9... 8..."

Yvonne stared the Doctor down. What he was doing was blatant reverse psychology. She wasn't going to let him get to her that way.

"7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1."

"Stop the shift!" Yvonne announced. "You heard me, shut it down."

"Thank you." The Doctor said.

"I suppose it does make sense to get as much intelligence as possible. But the program will recommence, just as soon as you've explained everything. In the meantime, someone clean up this glass! They did warn me, Doctor, you do like to make a mess."

They went into her office to talk. Several ghost forecasters were called to explain to their bosses why they'd failed to predict all these fluctuations, some ghost whisperers grew hopeful that they may have seen the last of these ghosts, meaning they could have their careers back. And three Torchwood employees silently communicated with each other, and with their masters. They agreed that they would need to push the timetable forward. The only way they could succeed was to go all in. They began to key in a new program, rapidly jump starting the whole system and bringing the power back online. They would either be discovered, or they would finish what they'd started.


Rose kept a safe distance behind the man she'd decided to follow. She watched as he torched a card to a reader on the wall and went through a metal door. She followed, pulling out the psychic paper and kissing it for luck. She touched it to the reader and, as she'd hoped, the door came open.

Rose stepped into the sphere chamber and promptly forgot what she was doing as she starred up at the sphere in awe.

"Try not to look at it, it does that to everyone." Rajesh said, once he'd noticed she was there. "Can I help you?"

"Hmm?" Rose said, as she shook herself off a bit, then thought of a good excuse. "They sent me from... personnel, just checking lines of comunication. They said someone had been taken... some Doctor. I was wondering if you'd heard anything."

Rajesh raised an eyebrow. "Let me see your identification."

"Er... yeah." Rose handed him the psychic paper.

Rajesh took the paper and promptly smirked. "Here's the thing. This paper's completely blank. Basic psychic training is compulsory for all staff." He got on his radio. "I need a lock down on the sphere chamber. Oh and Sebastian, check the locks would you? I don't want any more security leaks."

"Doing it now." Said Sebastian, before giving a stunned Rose a wink. It was Mickey!


Up in Yvonne's office, she was taking notes of what the Doctor had told her. They were a lot more civil with each now that they'd reached some kind of truce.

"So these ghosts, whatever they are, built the sphere then?" She said.

"Must have." The Doctor shrugged. "Aimed it at this dimension like a cannonball."

At this point, Rajesh apeared on the video chat. "Yvonne. I think you should see this. We have an intruder. I don't know who she is but she arrived the same time as the Doctor."

Yvonne Showed the Doctor a live video of Rose sat by Rajesh. "Do you recognise her?"

"Never seen her before in my life."

"Good. Then we can have her shot."

"Oh well, it was worth a try. That's Rose Tyler."

"Hello. Sorry." Said Rose.

"And who's she then?" Yvonne nodded at Jackie.

"That's her mother."

"You traveled through time and space with her mother?" Yvonne grinned.

"I was kidnapped!" Jackie insisted.

"Please." Said the Doctor. "When Torchwood writes my autobiography. Don't say that I travelled through time and space with her mother."

"Charming." Muttered Jackie.

But Yvonne wasn't listening. She'd been distracted by a series of clunks coming from the lever room. She stepped in and heard the unmistakable sound of machinery powering up. What's more, the activation levers were shifting over of their own accord. "Excuse me, what are you doing? I ordered you to stop ghost shift. Who's doing that? Someone stop the levers."

Two scientists hurried and grabbed the levers, but found they couldn't push them back. They could barely keep them in place. And the force was building.

"Right, step away from the monitors, everyone. Gareth, Addy, stop what you're doing, right now. Matt, step away from your desk. That's an order! Stop the levers! Andrew!"

Everyone stepped away, except for three operatives, the Doctor approached the nearest. "What's she doing?"

"Addy, step away from the desk. Listen to me. Step away from the desk."

"She can't hear you. We're going into ghost shift."