Update! Ta-dam! Thanks to people who reviewed my story so far: specialfrancine, deemama66, milady dragon and CSIGeekFan.
BTW, believe it or not I didn't even think about Countryside before I got first draft of this chapter.
Chapter 1, part 3
"How do we convince somebody in our intelligence when that someone thinks we are bunch of cockroaches?" asked one of the Departments head.
"Rabbit," corrected the Doctor. "You don't eat cockroaches. Well, not nowadays. Not in Britain. And the question should be how do you convince somebody that you are not in fact rabbit, if you look like it, smell like it and behave like it most of the time?"
Peter Tyler coughed warningly.
"Be it as it may, Doctor, question still stands. What are your suggestions, lady and gentlemen?"
The erupted in dozens of voices: arguing, demanding and speculating. The Doctor got closer to Peter Tyler.
"Peter, listen carefully, whatever you do, just don't…Don't. Start. A. War."
"My daughter is up there."
"I promise you that I'll get Rose home."
"You always do."
"Yep, that's me. But seriously, no war."
Peter tiredly nodded. What a way to start a day. And that's just a day before Christmas. They all should be back at manor decorating the Christmas tree.
"No war, people," he said and asked tiredly. "Was there any other abduction reported?"
"Not in Europe. We are still gathering data for the rest of the world, sir."
Doctor jumped again and started measuring quite short distance between table and nearest window.
"But why Rose? Why take Rose?"
"She is director of key Torchwood branch."
"They believe we are animals!" corrected the Doctor with a maddening intonation of bored maniac. "They should have just grabbed a random pair… Oh!"
"What?"
Doctor with guilty look collapsed into the nearest free chair.
"She wasn't the only one taken. We all seemed to forget about my good old friend Jack's young man that fell on our laps this morning. That's not good. As in "being abducted by the passing by aliens and experimented on" not good. But! That means we have time."
"We don't have time. Space cannibals kidnapped my daughter! How do you know she is still alive?"
"Oh, I would have felt it there." the Doctor dismissed the grim question tipping his temple. "And they are not cannibal, Pete. They respect intelligence. And Rose is smart girl. So I hope is young Mr Jones. A little bit unlikely that."
"Why?" dared to asked shushed Jake.
"Torchwood Cardiff: good looks and blazing guns."
"Nothing wrong with that!" took offence Jake.
"Yes. Yes. That's just no what we need right now."
"Ye, sure you are our only walking wet dream."
"Out! Jake Simmons. Out! Don't return until you find some brain!"
"Good! Enjoy you meeting while I gather some brave boys, because we gonna need them."
Peter waved a hand.
"Jake. Doctor. Stop it. It's not a kindergarten."
"Sure feels like one."
"You are one to talk. How old are you. Two? Two and a half?"
"I'm sending both of you to Scotland," he warned.
"Shutting up, boss," muttered unhappily Jake. The Doctor just fidgeted uncomfortably and even that didn't last longer then five seconds.
"So where was I? Or, that's right. Rose. She is up there and our best chance to convince hiwah how brilliant human race are."
Sometimes, just sometimes Rose was too much of her own mother daughter. And that nagging six sense told Pete that today would be one of these days. And how slapping alien arthropod with spaceship will help her to convince them in general humanity intelligence?
"So it's up to these two now. Up to Rose?" asked grudgingly Jake, not able contain himself any longer.
"Yep, but don't worry, she will think of something. She is brilliant like that. Oh, and Pete, don't mention anything to Jackie, will you?"
Peter Tyler silently groaned.
"Don't recognize the design..." trailed off Ianto looking with suspicious at Rose. She shrugged helplessly.
"Never met these guys before in my life."
"But that are defiantly aliens," he said. "Which means it is either invasion or serious case of interplanetary miscommunication."
"They didn't kill us."
"Yes. Always a plus," said Ianto trying to sound cool, managing more of a hell I should have died ten ways this week and I don't care if universe hates me.
"Didn't even search us," she continued making way to the door. Making sure that no one was outside the stepped into another corridor not much different from the one they were before.
"Not that there were all that much to begin with," he noticed clenching liberated gun, too alien in his human hands. "Which way now?"
"I let you know, Mr. Jones, that this," Rose shook her screwdriver and continued: "saved the day more times than anybody bothered to count. I think – that way. Picking up some major energy readings."
"So if worse come to worse we could always blow up they reactor."
"Let's hope it wouldn't come to this."
Looking at her Ianto wandered if once upon a time Captain John Hart was right and they really needed a blond. Preferably not poodle-lover himself. Then again Hart and his manners would have come handy in the last few days.
Ten minutes later, two barely avoided alien contacts and seven picked up locks behind they stood in mostly bare room with built into the walls consoles and a thing in the centre that was either a chair that looked like plastic garden swimming pool or an object of really abstract alien art.
"A lot of thing you learn to do running around time and space with alien boyfriend," Rose Tyler said not without a proud. "Picking up the locks on random alien spaceship? Easy!"
"Some dates you must have got."
Ianto leaned on a wall and closed eyes for a second. Last days where row of running, planning, surviving and more running. And he was fucking tired. He just wanted to kiss Jack, go home and sleep for a week. And he wasn't even in the right universe for all that simple stuff.
Bloody Torchwood.
"Better then it sounds."
Yes, Ianto could certainly sigh under this. That was the problem, it was better than alternatives: living ordinary life, letting somebody else retcon you and deceive you and protect you. How he could let go of this? No Torchwood? No Jack? Ha, don't fool yourself Mr. Jones, Ianto Jones.
"I learned in Torchwood," he said opening his eyes.
"Picking locks? Was Jack good teacher? Because from what I remember he preferred to blast a lock to hell, preferably with a door."
"No." Ianto measured her with the glance. That wasn't like he will see her after today, if they live that is. She will not judge. "It wasn't Jack. It was lady Hartman."
"No way!"
Ianto examined machinery presented in the room.
"Seven years in time loop, I am lucky not to have crocheting for a hobby. Not that Yvonne knew how. Well, I don't think so. That's a scary though: lady Hartman and crochet hook."
"It would probably be alien anyway."
"True."
Powering some of the system Ianto desperately tried not to look like he didn't know what he was doing. He wasn't Tosh. He wasn't Jack for that matter. But he was Torchwood. And if Gwen few months ago managed to hack UNIT database from Rhys computer…
"Can you open that panel?" he asked lowering on his knees.
"Sure."
She encircled frame with screwdriver that looked like a sci-fi magic wand and it fell off. They looked inside into interlacement of machinery that didn't look like anything found on Earth.
Rose raised her eyebrows with a dubious expression.
"I usually leave this part to the Doctor."
Ianto nodded.
"I think..," he started uncertainty and liked his lips. Torchwood – beyond and outside and so all powerful. Then why even in parallel world he was crouching in stale suit on bloody spaceship on the back of beyond that belonged to aliens bent on doing who know what to Earth and no backup. But that was his job, now he just needed to remember that he bloody loved it. "Rose, I think, I recognize enough to build a transmitter to get in touch with Torchwood."
"What are you doing in Cardiff again?"
Ianto smiled. One million question. If only he knew the answer himself.
"Beside Jack?" he asked disconnecting power circuit.
First Officer KrrrL liked animals: they did not talk or scheme or try to make his life difficult. He would never tell this to another living soul, but phii were his favourites: all scales and fur. Not very warrior-like. Rhens were another matter. Bigger, stronger, defiantly smarter they weren't made for petting or indoor keeping. Too savage, too big. Back home his parents got a farm. Just six thousand heads. Not very big, sure, but Krrrl treasured that quite place like nothing else, even more than Megapolis with its bright lights and bustling life. At night when both moons were rising above the jungle he used to tenderly listen to rhens' cries in the night. It gave him the sense of closer to all his ancestors. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds assembling into thousands planetary cycles ago, when they people only dreamt about stars breeding rhens was warrior thing to do. It was about power and strength.
How strange it was that here they are? Another galaxy and what did they find? Rhens. Some things were universal.
KrrrL considered for a moment if it was polite to borrow a pair of rhens like this? But native life didn't seem to have any purpose for them beyond pets and bio-department was ready to rebel as it is if not given some work to do. Cycles and cycles stretched for crew till they will attempt the first contact. How in universe dominating species could be essentially living, breathing machinery that seemed to encircle whole planet was beyond his imagination. And not only his. Shak from R&D told him that Admiral thought that fleet was noticed, but no sure news were published on the main server. So the wait might be not so long.
And now that wretched pair of rhens managed to escape? In a way, it was refreshing. So if anyone asked KrrL when he was enlisting to the most daring expedition of his generation, what he was expecting? Chasing after two domesticated rhens on the dawn of the first contact with alien civilization so wouldn't make it even into top-100.
Krrrl checked his stunner and give a sigh to Thiflr, his second in command. Secondary control centre where poor animals managed to crawl was right before them.
"Stun, don't kill."
Two boys from R&D that had tagged along with them whistled in agreement.
"Aye, Captain."
The scene that greeted then behind the doors wasn't what any of them could expect. One of the rhens, female would be educated guess KrrrL, was standing on the hind legs and pointing EM gun at them.
Did they train them? run a thought thorough KrrrL head with half-forgotten memory of some old crazy coot that schooled a rhen to bring him sticks and gather pih-pi fruits. And really dressed rhens? What for?
"What?!" shrilled Thiflr from his right.
And then his brain at least caught up with the whole picture because second rhen kneeled over trashed console was bloody…
Oh damn!
… rhen. Rhen! Built something. And Krrrl was ready to bet his third chela that that something was transmitter. He would certainly built one in fine fix like that.
"Hold fire!" he ordered.
"Sir?"
"Don't breathe! Don't do anything!" he cut off shortly lowering his gun. "We just fucked up our first contact with natives."
Next time: Ianto thinks he is finally going home, Doctor is sceptical and Rose has an excellent idea.
A/N: I needed that line about Y.H. and seven years in time loop 'cause later on Ianto will tell this story in more details (hint – that's how he joined Torchwood One). There will be one more bit from Chapter 1, then I'll post interlude and after that I'll start uploading chapter 2. I finally got this whole plot thingy sorted out, so what hopefully you will see is 13 + 1 chapters. There will be sort of four arks roughly 3-4 chapters long. Each chapter will be one separate adventure. Oh, and I'm really exited about chapter # 8 "That's good to be a king."
Also if you noticed Doctor got certain prejudice towards Ianto, the reason lies in TYTNW, which Doctor remembers and Ianto obviously doesn't. It will be explained and explored properly in #9 and #14.
