Lost and Found - Chapter Six
Author: Milady Dragon
Author's note: I mention Jack's mother in this chapter. I have written the story where she's introduced, but I haven't posted it yet.
12 June 5119 (Earth Standard Date)
Gliese 581g (Hubworld)
It had been three days since the news that Rhys Williams had made his way fairly safely through the Rift and deposited onto one of the more paranoid places in the Twelve Galaxies. Neither Jack nor Ianto had wanted to leave Hubworld, even though they could have gotten back from Ddraig Llyn fairly quickly, and so they'd taken rooms in one of the Torchwood employee buildings, waiting to hear word back on the progress their daughters, Sabrina and Cadi, had made.
So far, everything had gone according to plan. Sabrina had reported in that she'd succeeded in getting Rhys out of his cell and onto Cadi's transport, which was now in hyperspace and about two more days out from Madrina, where they were due to leave Rhys in Morgan's care. It would then be over another standard week with one stop along the way – Morgan had been planning on heading to Dahlnia Prime in order to perform a special concert in aid of the recovery efforts there after the near-planet-wide disaster it had just suffered – before they would arrive on Hubworld, and while Ianto did feel the same as Jack about wanting to wait, they had six young dragons at home who would be demanding to see them long before that.
It didn't matter that Jack's mother, Samara, was there to keep an eye on things; as much as the youngsters adored their Gran, it was their fathers that they really needed to see. And, while William, James, and Oswyn were finally getting over their separation anxiety issues and Robyn was overcoming her fear of flying, they were all still fragile, especially Lisa, even though they now knew what was wrong with her, thanks to Jack's Mam. Alyce was perfectly fine and willing to play with her adopted siblings, but it still wasn't the same as having parents there. Ianto honestly didn't see them being able to stay as long as it would take for Rhys to arrive.
They were having breakfast in their unit when both of their comms chirped.
"Director Harkness; Second Jones," said the voice of Phillip's assistant, Bratsk. "Director Coulson needs you both back to the tower immediately."
"Did Phillip say what it is?" Jack asked, activating his earwig.
"No," Bratsk answered, "but the Andralan are on a secured channel, asking for the Director personally."
Of course they were.
Ianto wiped his fingers on his napkin as Jack assured Bratsk that they were on the way. He hadn't really known what to expect from the Andralan, however direct communications hadn't been it. Ianto knew his daughter; knew that Sabrina was one of the best agents they had, and he couldn't think of a thing that could have given away Torchwood's presence in events. Maybe it was a coincidence…but then, neither the elder dragon nor his mate truly believed in coincidence after so many centuries.
"This can't be good," Jack murmured as they rode the lift down together.
Ianto agreed.
Their lodging unit was only a five minute walk from Torchwood Tower. Both of them took it at a ground eating stride, wanting to get there before anything happened. People moved aside for them on the walkways as if sensing they were on urgent business, for which Ianto was grateful. He couldn't help but think this was bad news.
Could the Andralan have somehow traced Cadi's ship? That didn't seem plausible. Their daughter was good at what she did, which was why she was hardly ever caught at it. The Free Wheeler might not have looked like much on the outside, but Cadi had made her ship that way on purpose, hiding some of the most state of the art systems on any ship out there. Ianto was willing to bet that the Andralan hadn't been able to trace them no matter what sort of sensors they had.
He wasn't even going to consider that Sabrina had somehow given the game away. She was just too much of a professional for that to happen.
That didn't leave Ianto with any sort of clue that would have the Andralan calling and asking to speak to Torchwood's Director. He knew that Phillip would be able to handle anything the Andralan threw at him, but the dragon was glad that their son-by-mating had called them in to at least witness the conversation. That had to be the reason he'd had Bratsk call for them; so they could be present at whatever the Andralan had up their collective sleeves.
They made it up to Phillip's office in record time. Bratsk sat at hir desk, today wearing the form of Phillip's old SHIELD Second, Agent Melinda May. Ianto had once asked him how he felt about the Zygon taking the shapes of so many old friends and family, and Phillip had simply smiled, saying that as long as Bratsk could pluck their images from his mind it meant that he remembered them, at least a little.
The shape of Melinda May nodded at them, and they entered the office as Phillip was coming to sit at his desk. "Thank you for getting here so quickly," he greeted. "I didn't think I should keep the Andralan representative on hold that much longer."
"Thanks for calling us in," Jack answered, shutting the door. "We'll stay out of vid-shot and let you deal with it. We don't want to be seen to undermine your authority."
Phillip smiled. "Let me get them connected and we'll see what they want. Although I think we can all agree it has to do with our wayward Mr Williams." He pressed a touchpad on his desk. "Communications, please put through the Andralan representative to my office."
The Communications Officer on duty acknowledged the request, and the holovid dropped down from the ceiling in front of Phillip. Ianto and his mate could see through it, but the Andralan would not be able to see them.
"I apologise about the delay," Phillip opened the conversation, his voice bland, "however I was offsite. How can Torchwood help you today?"
"You can deliver us back your spy for trial," the Andralan answered sharply, a slight accent to his Galactic Standard.
"I'm afraid I don't have any idea what you're talking about," Phillip reposted. Ianto thought the small bit of boredom in his response was a nice touch. "We have no spy on Andrala, nor would we have a reason to even plant a spy on your world."
"Do not lie to us, Torchwood," the Andralan spat. "We have proof of your culpability."
Ianto glanced over at his mate. Jack was frowning, and the dragon didn't blame him. There really couldn't be any proof that Rhys was with Torchwood; after all, he was from the twenty-first century, and he knew that his daughters would have been very careful when they'd rescued him.
Still, it bothered Ianto, and he could tell that Phillip was as well. The Andralan would not have noticed; it took someone who was familiar with Torchwood's current Director to catch the slight tightening around Phillip's eyes.
"Then you should probably show us this so-called proof," Phillip challenged calmly. "Because we don't have any reason to send anyone to your world, let alone use them to spy on you."
From the various files he'd read on Andrala, Ianto knew this was true. The only planets that would have had any sort of interest about Andrala would have been its sister planets, Indira and Halistra, and they both didn't care enough to bother. Besides, hadn't Andrala been blaming Indira for Rhys' presence? This change of mind didn't make any sense.
The holographic image of the Andralan moved slightly off camera, and then returned holding something in their hand. Ianto narrowed his eyes, trying to get a better look through the back of the video.
It looked like a leather wallet.
Suddenly, Ianto knew exactly what the Andralan had found, and he barely stifled the curse that bubbled up into his throat.
Jack caught his change of mood, and put a hand on the dragon's shoulder. Ianto wondered if Jack remembered, since he'd argued against it vociferously with the then-Queen of England.
The Andralan opened the wallet, and withdrew a business card from inside. While the being might not have been able to read the old English writing on it, the Torchwood 'T' on it was easily recognisable.
"The spy carried your symbol," the Andralan accused.
Phillip didn't even blink at the reveal, and Ianto decided he was never going to play poker with his son's mate ever again. "If you would look closely," he said, "you would see that this is not, in fact, the Torchwood symbol. While ours does indeed have that stylised 'T' on it, where is the dragon? I think you have this confused with our coat of arms. Now, if this is the only proof you have, then I wish you a good day."
He moved his hand toward the disconnect button, but not before the Andralan snarled, "We will make a formal complaint to your Emperor, Director. You will not get away with this outrage!"
Phillip disconnected the call, leaning back in his chair and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Torchwood business cards, Jack? Really?"
"I seem to remember it wasn't my call," Jack defended. "I also seem to remember that I fought Lizzie tooth and nail about it, but she insisted that at least the higher level Torchwood employees carry some sort of identification with them to give to anyone questioning Torchwood's reason for being on any sort of site."
Ianto nodded, glad that his mate recalled that bit of history. "He's right. Besides, do we have to remind you how SHIELD used to logo everything?" He said it teasingly, because Jack had, at one point, been particularly bad about the obvious branding.
"No, you don't." Phillip sighed. "I'm going to call Steve and warn him that the Andralan might be calling and to give him the information that we have. Because this is a spacio-temporal event jurisdiction would usually fall to Torchwood, but we all knew that the Andralan wouldn't buy that explanation going into this."
"Which is why Sabrina and Cadi were sent in after him," Jack finished.
"We'd also better warn Cadi, Sabrina, and Morgan," Ianto added. "While I doubt the Andralan will be able to track Rhys, we might want to cover every possibility."
Phillip nodded. "The last thing we need is to have them ambushed if the Andralan do manage to get to them. Although, I'm more than certain they'll go through channels before resulting to attempted kidnapping. They have to, according to the agreements they have with the Empire."
"Unless of course they want to provoke us," Ianto pointed out.
Jack barked out a laugh. "Yeah, let's be all pessimistic!"
The dragon couldn't help but chuckle. "It's not like you don't love me anyway."
"You do have a point…"
"You are both disgusting," Phillip said primly. "And in my office as well."
"Yes, but we've seen you and our son together," the dragon answered. "If you think we're disgusting…"
"I don't know what you mean. And I have to get back to work."
"We'll get to Communications and contact the girls," Jack offered, snickering, "if you want to tackle Steve."
"That sounds like a plan. Now please leave my office before we all dissolve into puddles of romantic goo."
"I've seen that before, you know," Jack exclaimed. "It was this weird spore from this planet where everyone was – "
"And that's enough of that," Ianto laughed. He tugged on the sleeve of his mate's jacket, pulling him from the office. "Let's go and talk to our daughters, shall we?"
Jack didn't put up a fight, and he even shut the door as they left.
The Communications Suite of Torchwood Tower took up a large chunk of the twelfth floor, and the lift door opened into a bustle of employees running back and forth between various stations, carrying messages to whoever needed them. The low-level hum of conversations surrounded them, and it was almost comforting.
Ianto and Jack joined the flow of people easily. They'd been the ones who'd built up the Communications Suite from the first days of the Torchwood Institute on Hubworld, and Ianto knew that both of them were rightly proud of it. Everything was handled under various procedures that they'd put into place, once it was decided that the Institute would have jurisdiction beyond the then-budding Empire. It had only grown since then.
Ianto knew that he and Jack hadn't really had to go through the Comms Suite in order to contact their daughters, since both of them still had their passcodes and were technically in charge of the Institute – even though Phillip was the official Director – but they would never even think of usurping Phillip's authority. They could have very easily turfed Phillip out of the Director's office and used the equipment there and Phillip wouldn't have said a thing.
But Phillip was family, even before he'd mated with Clint. Plus, he was a great Director, one that didn't deserve to be treated like that.
However, they weren't above taking over one of the consoles. The Earth Reptile that had been sitting at their chosen cubicle gave them a double-take, obviously recognising Ianto's dragon-ness, and then scuttled away with an honourable bow to them both.
Ianto thanked him politely, taking the now empty seat. He would have to make a note to the specialist's supervisor as to the cleanliness and orderliness of the station when they left, which Ianto appreciated.
Jack knelt beside him as Ianto input the Free Wheeler's comm code, waiting for their daughter to accept the connection. A hand snaked about Ianto's waist and the dragon smiled over at his mate, Jack's head a few inches lower than his own from his position on the floor.
The holovid came online, and Cadi's face appeared. "This is the trading vessel Free Wheeler…oh hey, Dad and Tad!" She grinned. "This is a pleasant surprise."
"How far are you out from Madrina?" Jack asked.
Cadi rolled her eyes. "We're 56 standard hours out, but I think you probably already knew that…" The grin faded, replaced by a shrewd stare. "Okay, what's going on?"
Ianto explained about the Andralan's call to Torchwood, demanding Rhys' return. "We know you're careful," he ended, "but would there be any possible way that the Andralan could know about the pick-up?"
Cadi gnawed on her lower lip. "I didn't use the spaceport, but I still had to observe air traffic rules. The last thing we'd have wanted was to have a mid-air collision. And you know that the transponder on the Wheeler has been banjaxed almost since the day I won her. There's certainly a possibility that the Andralan Security Forces could have pinpointed my ship as the one with their prisoner on it, but there had to have been several launches at the same time, and once I hit hyperspace there would have been no way to trace my course unless there was some sort of transmitter onboard, and I know damned well there wouldn't be."
She had a point. Out of the corner of his eye Ianto could see Jack nodding in agreement, and Jack was the one who was far more ship-savvy than Ianto could ever be. He still hated flying anywhere, because he just didn't feel like it was safe. Cadi – and to a lesser degree, Anwyn and Jack – had often teased him about it. However, he wasn't like his Star Dragon children; the vacuum of space would be just as deadly to him as it would be to anyone else, and he would be completely defenceless against it. Even Morgan, Pryce, and Kaitlyn, who hadn't yet gained their dragon forms, would have had some sort of minimal protection against decompression.
"How is Rhys doing?" Ianto asked, trying to cover his discomfort.
"He's exhausted," their daughter reported. "He's been sleeping mostly since we got him off Andrala. Brina did a basic medical scan on him, and he seems to be physically fine, but getting him under the more sensitive scans at Torchwood Tower would make me feel better." She grinned. "I like him. You should have heard some of the more colourful language he used in describing his time under the mind probe. He pretty much told them everything…" Cadi paused. "Wouldn't the Andralan have had all that translated? Wouldn't that prove that Rhys is nothing more than an innocent in all this?"
"I doubt they'd go to all that trouble," Jack scoffed. "My opinion is the Andralan only used the mind probe to get Rhys to trip up and use a language they could understand, and thus prove he was indeed a spy for someone."
"Of course that wouldn't happen," Ianto added. "The only other language Rhys knew – knows – is Welsh, and there are far less people who speak that than they do old Earth English." He'd have to get used to thinking of Rhys in the present tense once more.
"And that's only a handful of people outside our own family," Cadi agreed. Then her expression turned sly. "It's good to have our own private language. We can pass along all sorts of secrets and no one would know the difference."
"I'm surprised you haven't suggested using it as a sort of smuggler's tongue," Jack snorted.
"What makes you think I haven't?"
"Speaking of languages," Ianto cut into what could possibly turn into another sharing of old times between father and daughter, "Morgan will have one of the special translators for Rhys once you arrive on Madrina."
While the translators available through commercial means were excellent pieces of technology, the "Merlin" Specials as they were called had been augmented by magic. It gave the translators a larger range and access to more languages than the normal units did, which was a good thing when the person using them spoke a language that, technically, no longer existed.
"Good," Cadi said. "Rhys is fine now, but once he gets out among other races he'll want to be able to understand what they're saying. He really is a curious one. He actually wanted me to teach him how to fly the Wheeler!"
That sounded like Rhys Williams. "I'm sure we could find someone to teach him once he's settled," Ianto smiled.
"You're not going to find a way to send him back then?"
Jack sighed. "According to history, Rhys never came back. We thought he was dead…until Phillip showed us that video with the Andralan using the mind probe on him."
Ianto knew there would be ways to send Rhys back to 2016, but Jack was right…Rhys Williams had never come home. They would have to obey the Laws of Time on this; they couldn't risk changing the past. They'd all been witnesses to attempts to do just that, and none of them had worked. There were reasons the former Time Agency had rules against any of their agents going back to the twentieth and twenty-first centuries…that was when everything changed. Torchwood had been ready, and they just couldn't risk Rhys coming back and disrupting things too much.
He just hoped Rhys would understand.
"Then it sounds like we have a new member of the family," Cadi answered.
Ianto smiled. "No…he's a member of the family finally coming home."