A/N: Would have updated sooner, but the document manager was down. So: next chapter. Please enjoy!
Disclaimer: This disclaimer was deleted by Torchwood, due to the fact that it contained evidence on the quasi-secret alien hunters. If you really wanted to find them, I suppose you could just ask the guy that delivers their pizza. Torchwood has got to be the least secret secret organisation in the history of the universe.
CHAPTER SEVEN: WAR BEGINS
For the last few minutes, Brittany had politely sat through a number of increasingly tedious presentations, making encouraging remarks every now and then to show that she was, in fact, listening, and not asleep. Most of the information passed right over her head, but she understood enough to get the general idea.
There was a war. That much was obvious. Who the war was with was a little bit harder to work out. The attackers called themselves the Sky Riders, but that was about the limit of everyone's knowledge. Brittany wasn't all that familiar with war tactics and strategies, but she did think that it would be rather difficult to fight something that you knew nothing about.
After the presentations were over, Jake walked over to where Brittany was sitting. "So," he said earnestly, "what do you think?"
She gave a general nod, trying to work out how she could bluff her way through this. "Very informative," she tried. When Jake seemed a little disappointed by her answer, she added, "Good work on holding off the Sky Riders. Just one question. Who are the Sky Riders?"
Jake looked taken aback. "I thought you would be able to tell me," he said at last, giving her a stare that she was sure could see right through her fabrications. "After all, you are from head office."
Brittany shook her head, recalling all those military movies she had watched in college. "We're, uh, no closer to the truth than you are," she replied, hoping that answer would be good enough. While she realised this war was a serious situation, she couldn't help but feeling that pretending to be a captain was slightly fun.
"Although," she continued, thinking back on the pictures that she had been shown of the Sky Riders. "They do seem kind of familiar, like something I've seen before. I just can't recall what." She frowned to herself. "That seems to be happening a lot lately."
As she finished saying that, a tremor shook the room, rattling the computer stations and creaking the roof alarmingly. "What," she said after it had finished, "was that?"
"Sky Riders," Jake declared, dashing across the room. "They're earlier than normal."
"Early? Since when do invaders come at set times?"
Jake shook his head, though Brittany couldn't decide whether it was because he had no idea, or that she was completely inept when it came to the war. "Every night without fail, the Sky Riders attack. They only ever strike at night, never during the day." Jake shrugged. "I don't pretend to know why. Maybe it's some alien ritual or rule? I'm not an expert on alien culture."
"Well, you're a great help," Brittany muttered under her breath. Another explosion rocked the room, longer and louder than the first.
"Power up the laser disrupters!" Jake shouted above the noise, seeming not to notice the explosions crashing all around them.
"That one sounded awfully close," Brittany pointed out after the noise died down. Jake paused his stream of instructions and walked over to her.
"Just want to ask you a question," he said in explanation. "Have you ever been in direct combat before?"
"Not as such, no."
Jake groaned. "Of all the people head office could send me, I get some untested new recruit." He looked apologetically at Brittany. "No offence meant."
She shrugged. "None taken."
"This war is important enough to bring all the nations of Messaline together, something not done since the founding, and to help me protect the planet, I get some wet behind the ears young captain with no knowledge of even basic weaponry!" Jake looked her up and down, eyes taking in her dirty blue dress, as if he hadn't noticed she was wearing it before. "And what were you thinking, walking around dressed like that? This is a war, not a fun get together!"
Brittany smoothed down the front of her dress self-consciously. "I was going to a party," she said defensively. "It wasn't my choice."
Jake threw up his hands in dismay. "If I don't ask stupid questions, I won't get stupid answers." Brittany was feeling increasingly sure that her charade was going to be uncovered, and she would be court-marshalled, or whatever it was they did to impostors. However, something beeped from within the Sergeant's pocket, distracting him from his questioning.
He pulled some kind of metal device from his pocket, pushing the small silver button on the side of the block. "Hello?" he said into the device, and Brittany decided that it must be some kind of two-way radio or communicator.
"Sergeant Jake, it's Miller," the radio replied with a crackle, and Jake visibly stiffened when he recognised the voice.
"General," he said formally, no sign of distaste in his voice, but the feeling was clearly etched across his face.
"I heard that some kind of officer has arrived. Would you care to report?" said the General, his gruff voice somewhat tinny through the radio.
Jake looked at Brittany, and remained silent for a long time, considering what he should tell the general about her. "A captain from head office has arrived. A Brittany Harvey. Her credentials seem in order," he added, a little bit disbelieving.
Brittany decided that she better distance herself from Jake, before she accidentally let slip something that would give her away. Looking around at the flashing screens and holographic displays, she felt even more out of place than ever before. She just wanted to go home, but she wasn't quite sure where that was anymore.
Sydoriv wasn't her home, and it never had been. Always, she had felt like there had to be something more to life than eating, working and sleeping. The Doctor had confirmed that, showing her that the universe was so much more than what everyone thought it was. The TARDIS was more of home than Sydoriv, her home planet, and she wasn't planning on leaving any time soon.
The only problem that came with living in the TARDIS was the Doctor, or rather, the trouble that the Doctor always got himself into. Maybe he was trying to make up for something? Guilty with being the last of his kind, perhaps he went around trying to save others from the same fate. Whatever it was, it was highly infectious, and Brittany couldn't help but enjoy herself while she was with him, no matter what was happening. She just hoped that wherever the Doctor was right now, he was keeping himself safe. If he wasn't, she had better find a way of rescuing herself.
She didn't fancy hanging around these soldiers for too much longer.
