This is a call to the living,

To those who refuse to make peace with evil,

With the suffering and the waste of the world.

This is a call to the human, not the perfect,

To those who know their own prejudices,

Who have no intention of becoming prisoners of their own limitations.

This is a call to those who remember the dreams of their youth,

Who know what it means to share food and shelter,

The care of children and those who are troubled,

To reach beyond barriers of the past

Bringing people to communion.

This is a call to the never-ending spirit

Of the common man, his essential decency and integrity,

His unending capacity to suffer and endure,

To face death and destruction and to rise again

And build from the ruins of life.

This is the greatest call of all

The call to a faith in people.

-- Algernon Black

"Put the message through to my office, would you, Jimmy?" Jack asked as he reluctantly shrugged into a shirt. In a flash of buried memory, he wished not for the first time that aged salvage ships had the kind of ship-wide state-of-the-art communication systems he'd seen the various captains of the Enterprise enjoying on Star Trek. To be honest, The Welshman's communications system was far superior to those of most ships of her type, but only on the bridge and in the captain's office. And not SO much better as to attract unwanted attention. With a sigh, he clicked off the comm and looked over at his young lover still lounging stretched out across the bed they had so recently shared.

"You heard him, Kam. The message is to both of us."

"How can it be to both of us, Jack? There's no one who KNOWS both of us, except the people on this ship and Henry. Do you think it's from Henry?"

"I don't think Henry's ever tried to track me down that way before, but… The only way to find out is to go listen, Kam."

The pilot stretched, catlike, and looked at Jack beseechingly.

"But I'm SO comfortable." He continued to eye Jack with a teasing, pleading expression.

"Yeah, well, I was too, and if I have to go, YOU have to go."

"I'm not the captain."

"No, I am. And that's an order."

Kam grinned at him as Jack struggled to maintain a straight face.

"An order, is it?"

"Absolutely."

"And which kind of order would that be? The kind of order you give on the bridge, telling me where to take the ship, or the kind of order you were just giving me half an hour ago, when you wanted me to put—"

"Kam," Jack interrupted, not wanting to be further tempted. "Please, would you---"

"Yeah, all right," Anders answered more seriously as he rose gracefully from the bed. Making his way to the bureau, he pulled out a clean pair of pants and t-shirt. Jack watched admiringly as his lover slipped clothing over this lean, muscular form. And the sight of that titanium ring around Kam's neck—his ring, the closest he could get to making the kind of commitment that the young man at deserved, the ring he'd used to make exactly that kind of commitment to Ianto five centuries earlier --was still new enough to give him a frisson of pleasure each and every time. Oblivious to his lover's thoughts, the young man asked over his shoulder as he dressed, "Do we have time to get coffee on the way to the office?"

"I can't imagine that two minutes is going to make a difference regardless of what the message is. And I want a cup of coffee every bit as much as you do."

"Not getting enough sleep, Old Man?"

"Well, I have this insatiable young lover, and he's keeping me up nights…"

* * *

Of any guesses Jack might have had as to whom the message could be from, Commander Baker of the Pieri settlement almost certainly wouldn't have made it on his list.

"Captain, Mr. Anders, when we parted ways I had little doubt that we would never see each other again. But then you and your crew took a risk on our behalf, and now we find ourselves in the position of perhaps being able to return the favour. This is not the sort of conversation I hope to have over subspace, however; I'm hoping there might be some way for us to meet face to face."

Jack eyed her thoughtfully.

"I think we can come up with some place, not far off of your trade routes, not obvious to prying eyes. Give us a couple of days to think about it. How should we reach you with the coordinates?"

Arrangements for further communications made, the Captain broke the connection.

"Now what, Jack?"

Harkness looked over at his young partner.

"Okay, Kam. Sit down with Carsten and figure out a place we can meet the commander. And remember, we'll need a cover story."

Anders looked at him, stunned.

"Me?"

"You think you're going to spend the rest of your life taking orders from me? I'm handing over a little responsibility to you. Get used to it," Jack told him with a grin.