Chap 4
Ianto has his own thoughts running through his head, ironically of the same early days.
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*********************FLASHBACK*******************
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MEV DECK - DAY
Ianto comes in too fast. Stumbles up. It's just confusing. He resets. Opens up a locker, about three feet by three feet. He calls in to what seems to be a large tangle of silver pipes. "Good morning, Myfanwy. Step out carefully, we're in multi-directional gravity."
Myfanwy, the Mobile unit, unfolds and steps gingerly from the cabinet. About waist high, eight legs, stereo camera eyes. Like a big silver spider. Old attachments have been cut off and buffed down. She's a piece of off-the-shelf gear that's been modified. When the light hits her at the right angle, we can see a Torchwood insignia still etched under the refinishing.
"How are we after launch? I'd like to run a systems check." Ianto speaks to the robot as if she were real, "Shall we do the hokey-pokey? Just to satisfy me?"
She rapidly shakes each of her legs in turn. Ianto turns on a wrist panel display. Built into the fabric of his suit. He sees what she sees. "Take a look around."
He flips off the lights. She flicks over to IR, sees just fine in the dark. Turns the lights back on. "And how is your C.P.U. today?"
Hundreds of quick calculations flash by and then - "Good."
"Okay, run the occasional self-test. Let me know if anything's wrong. And back to storage." Ianto tells her and she climbs back into her locker. Ianto shuts the door as the display reads "Good-bye" and winks out.
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Owen has his own memories niggling.
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*********************FLASHBACK*******************
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All six of them are gathered. First dinner in space.
"Any Space Adaptation Sickness? Vertigo? No?" Owen looks around the table, "Liars. You'll wake up all night long thinking you're falling. Promise. I'll hear you scream."
"Status?" Jack asks as he tries to ignore Owen and finds himself looking over the young man who is fiddling with a piece of tech.
"Garden's good." Owen mutters as he still looks around the table.
"Didn't lose a plant." Doc smiles.
"Anything else?" Jack asks as he prepares to leave the table.
Ianto holds back here a little. Not a scientist, not an astronaut. Suddenly he feels like the most inferior member of the crew. "Ahh, Sir...Bunch of the HVACs jammed from the lift-off. Reset 'em. They're fine now."
"I'll tell you what, unless we pass a recruiting station on an asteroid and you sign up for the military, you can call me Jack for the next six months, okay?" Jack smiles as he warms to the man. Maybe it's the accent.
"Okay Sir." Ianto blushes and Jack eyeballs him.
Ianto relents, "Jack."
"Why'd you come, Ianto?" Owen asks suddenly and Ianto starts as he tries to formulate an answer.
"I did two years as a mechanic at NASCAR. A year and a half at McMurdo in the South Pole. Three years on subs. I had the highest military tech ratings you can get. And I went cross-country once with my cousins in a motor home." Ianto shrugs, "This didn't seem so bad."
"That's why they called. Why'd you come?" Jack is interested in the answer so Ianto thinks carefully before giving it.
"You ever been to Europe? Europe's horrible. It's full of stodgy people whose ancestors didn't have the balls to go to America and try something new. Earth is gonna be like Europe. You might visit there and admire some old buildings and crap, but you wouldn't want to live there. This was like getting a call to go with Columbus to America the first time. But harder. How could you not go?"
Owen grins and claps, "I don't like Europe much either, mate. Didn't quite figure it the same way, but damnation, you don't turn down a phone call like that, do ya?"
"You?" Owen asks Jack who is still looking at Ianto.
"I spent my entire life training to fly the biggest, fastest thing you can fly. This is it. It's the best job in the world." Jack then points at John who is feeding his face, "He's going 'cause he got the second best job in space. He's a little pissed about it, but he still came."
"I was never supposed to come. I came 'cause my boss couldn't." Tosh added hers quickly on the hopes that they would move on, "He failed the medical. Heart arrhythmia. So here I am. They tapped me on the shoulder, told me I was going to Mars. I was supposed to be second in charge of the Terraforming office till I died."
Doc's the last. They turn to him. His reason's a little different. "Psalm 107, verse 23 - They that go down to the Sea in Ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep.' So I figured how much wonder for those in space?"
Everyone is stunned and John speaks first, "You're going to Mars because of a poem?"
Doc thinks about it. "Basically."
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Tosh wonders when they became a family.
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*********************FLASHBACK*******************
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DAY 13
There's no gravity up here, equipment is attached to the floor, ceiling and walls. John and Owen are on a large spinning bicycle-driven machine. John's pedalling. By keeping up the speed, he's able to provide enough extra gravity for Owen, on the other side, to lift free-weights. They're both dripping sweat so it must work. TIMER goes off, they slow to a stop. Ianto comes in. He looks a bit uncomfortable. Certainly out of his element. A little, well, puny.
"So...required exercise. Haven't had this since grade school." Ianto says softly to Tosh who is waiting next to him.
"Yeah, you musta been doing some kind of reverse thing where you get small..." John Leers.
John's got years in the gym. Muscles on muscles. Jack enters and takes a two-second evaluation of the situation.
"You're done. You can shower." He demands.
"I'm not done. I was gonna..." John whines.
"No. You're done." Jack barks as he glares at him.
John can't believe he's being thrown out. But he's also a product of the military and couldn't argue if he tried. "Yes, Sir."
He leaves. Ianto feels embarrassed, "You didn't have to do that."
"No. I did. If I didn't nip that in the bud, I wouldn't be doing my job." Jack assures him and feels the need to explain, "Flying this beast is only half the job. The whole job's to get the crew in place in shape to do what they have to do. And the funny thing is, flying's the easy part."
Tosh has shifted closer and wants to comfort Ianto but notices the way the Captain seems to be moving closer as well.
Ianto stands thinking for a moment and then his resentment just bursts out, "I just hate all those fucking guys. I feel like I've spent my entire life being the guy who was hassled in PE. I lost the first girl I ever cared about to some thug who could throw a football farther than I could. It's like women are hardwired to think that guys who are proficient at sports are going to be better providers. It's not like we hunt and kill our own food anymore."
Ianto snorts, "He sells cars for a living now. Cars. I end up working on a project that may save the existence of mankind and he sells cars."
Jack finds this impressively obsessive. "You kept track of him. What happened to her?"
Ianto looks at him blankly.
"The girl." Jack prompts.
"Lisa? I wasn't interested in her once she betrayed me," He has no idea.
"Little competitive?" Jack needles him good-naturedly, "Who's hardwired for what, Cave man?"
Ianto can't help it, he grins, a little blush shows his pleasure at the attention and Tosh grins from the side-lines.
"We're gonna start with the bungees. Try to quit being pissed off you weren't chosen for dodgeball, will ya?" Jack snorts with humour at the glare he receives and turns to Tosh, "coming Ms Sato?"
"Yes" she turns to Ianto, "You really alright?"
"I'll try. Twenty years of hating the bullying motherfuckers is a hard habit to break." Ianto whispers and she pats his arm encouragingly as they begin their team exercise.