4
"Tosh!" he cried out, "Download, hurry we are about to lose contact!"
The Bot's eyelids fluttered as she desperately tried to recover the files that were being sectioned out for erasure, also sending a distress signal back to her mothership.
It was like being strapped to a bucking bronco and Phoenix felt himself getting whipped about, crying out in pain.
The bot reached out, ripping itself from the seat and plastering itself over him, creating a safety cage.
Her face rested against his, holding it firmly against the side of the headrest and stopping the whiplash he was starting to suffer.
His last conscious thought was that she smelt different.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Jack was still angry but had calmed enough to stop ranting, standing and rubbing at his face as he tried to rationalize what had happened.
He felt anger still, but now he also felt a considerable amount of shame in how he had reacted.
If Ianto had been fine, allowing Phoenix to purchase it, why couldn't he?
"Gods, I overreacted" Jack sighed softly.
"You think?" John snorted from the nest where he was cradling Bennu as he slept.
"It's just …. This is not a pretty bauble or a new shirt!" Jack sat with a soft thump, "This was major credits. Simply for a toy for the vessel?"
"Bollo has two in the kitchen, right?" John tried to rationalize, "So they are already on board."
"This was not a simple service bot" Jack felt his annoyance level rise again, "This was a full Cyborg. She has skin, hair … she was in the image of a dead friend for Godsake!"
"Toshiko?" John guessed easily.
"Yeah" Jack sighed.
"God you are a bloody twit sometimes" John sorted, "Of course it would look like her, it's an avatar right? I mean, are you saying you don't trust this ship? That this boat of yours might somehow go nuts because it has a means of voyeurism?"
Jack stared at him and winced as he processed the truth of the words.
"Gods." He looked over at Bennu who had woken and was stirring in the bed. "I suppose you've had time to …"
"TADDY!" Bennu was screaming, struggling in John's arms moments before the emergency klaxons started to sound.
An image came on the vid-screen, it was not Toshiko but a generic image of a crew member.
"Captain. We have an emergency." A toneless voice said.
"Talk to me" he demanded, feeling a spike of dismay as the unrecognizable image moved its mouth like a puppet.
"It appears that there was a malfunction on disengaging. The shuttle has crash landed on the planet's surface below, I have lost contact." The image informed him emotionlessly.
"What?" he gasped, "How long ago?"
John was sliding from the bed and Bennu started to cry softy for his Taddy again.
"Toshiko, can you get Phoenix to come in" Jack said as he stated to leave the room.
"Unfortunately that would be an impossibility at this juncture Captain" the voice droned, "He was onboard with the Bot you demanded he remove from this vessel. He was taking it to the planet surface to gift it away."
Jack spun to stare at the screen with horror as Bennu wailed softly in the bedding.
What had he done?
.
.
.
.
.
Ianto could hear water dripping and he sighed as he started to wake.
He heard fluttering and smiled to himself as he listened to Myfanwy overhead.
Jack must already be up, the bed was cold, so damned cold and he moved his arm to pull the covers up, hitting something inches from him.
He opened his eyes and looked into Toshiko's.
"Tosh?" he croaked, "why are you in my bed?"
She smiled softly as she climbed from him and he looked around with confusion.
"Did Jack crash the SUV again?" he asked shakily as he looked around at the wreckage, the fluttering now obviously fuselage and the dripping smelled uncomfortably like fuel.
"Ah fuck" he moaned as it all came back to him and he looked at the bot as she started un-strapping him from his seat.
Then he screamed.