Title: The Space Between 7/?
Rating: PG-13
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, mentions of other canon characters; Jack/Ianto, various permutations of pairings
Summary: Torchwood! In Space! Escaping from the Game Station, Captain Jack Harkness finds himself in the 29th century. Conscripted by Torchwood, when a Rift in time and space reopens, he finds himself sent to the abandoned space station Torchwood Three, with his own ragtag team. Alternate Universe. Unbeta-ed. All mistakes are my own; point them out, and I shall correct them.
Disclaimer: If I owned Torchwood, the boys would have had more screentime together, more sex, and Ianto would still be alive. Unbeta-ed, feel free to point out any mistakes.


Chapter 7

The moment Jack stepped over the threshold, he felt a tug behind his navel, then a sensation of falling. He instinctively threw out his arms to stop his fall, but the impact never came. Instead the sound of laughter, Ianto's mocking laughter rang out, and to Jack's amazement the Archivist sailed past him effortlessly and gracefully through the air.

"Shit," he heard Owen swear somewhere above him. Gwen and Tosh, probably floating around behind him, made similar exclamations.

Jack kicked experimentally with his legs, hoping it would propel him forward but instead ended up shooting towards the ceiling. He reached out with one hand to brace himself against it, but inches from the smooth black surface, an iron grip curled around his left ankle and pulled him back down. The grip transferred to his shoulders and he found himself face to face with a furious Ianto. "Do not touch anything," the AI snarled. Then he released Jack and turned to the others. "Do you hear me," he shouted. "Touch nothing, not the ceiling, not the floor, not the walls. Follow me."

He kicked minutely with his feet, immediately propelling himself sideways to the left side of the circular wall. It was then that Jack noticed the rail that ran straight through the room. He watched as Ianto gripped it, then used it to propel himself single-handedly to the end of the huge room.

It looked easier than it was. Jack twisted so that he was facing the left, but overshot, and found himself facing the entrance again. He then had to twist back again, a lot slower this time, then gave little kicks that propelled him little by little to the rail. By the time he managed to get a firm grip on it, he decided that there was no point in attempt to upstage Ianto's grace in zero gravity and simply used his two hands to haul himself through the room.

The Archive central computer station had gravity, it seemed, for Ianto was leaning casually against console, is arms crossed and an amused smile playing about his face.

"So," said Jack as he welcomed the feel of solid ground beneath his boots, "any chance of zero-G sex?" Pulling himself across the room and marveling at the feeling of weightlessness had brought back memories of Time Agency training. His instructor would have been horrified at Jack's lack of grace in zero-G. He'd been top of class back then, but with over a century without practice, it wasn't very surprising that he was terrible at it now.

The smile on Ianto's face grew a little wider, like he was considering Jack's suggestion, then like a shutter had been drawn over his face, it vanished completely. Jack simply shrugged at what he considered a refusal and looked around the Archive instead.

They were standing on a platform that jutted out from the wall furthest from the entrance. What he took to be Ianto's work console stretched in a semi-circle that faced the room. The room itself was like a tube, with circular walls that seemed to be made of a smooth black material that reflected none of the light that reached it. The circular passage that led through the room wasn't very large itself, its diameter just about 9 feet across.

Gravity was very clearly working on the platform, and looking down, Jack saw a hatch beneath his feet. It probably lead to another Archive hall.

With lots of swearing, and some giggling on Gwen and Tosh's part, the entire team managed to squeeze onto the entire platform. Jack had sat himself down on the only chair, and Ianto, with a look of long suffering on his face, had perched himself on the edge of the console.

"This," he gestured to the room at large, "is why I cannot give you access. You have no idea how to use it. If you blunder in every time like you did just now, you may end up damaging sensitive equipment and destroying vital information."

"You could train us," suggested Jack.

Ianto firmly shook his head. "No. It requires more than just training. Alex built the Archive before I came to Torchwood Three, but it was already created with a technopath in mind. They had one working for them, an alien that had come through the Rift. The Archive was built with ze help, but unfortunately ze caught a human virus and died. It was one of reasons I was was persuaded to join. They needed someone who could integrate properly with the the computers and the information kept here."

"But why didn't Alex create it with human physiology and technology in mind? Wouldn't that have been easier?" asked Tosh.

"Yes," agreed Ianto, "but its more complicated than that. Several years before I joined Torchwood Three, a library - yes library, don't ask, I have no idea how that happened - fell through the Rift. Part of it anyway, according to Lisa. Torchwood Three scavenged the remains, and after several years of research found that the entire inner structure of the library was actually a huge storage system. Forget datachips and infinity drives or whatever they're called. This," he waved a hand to the smooth black walls, "far more advanced than any human technology could possibly achieve in a thousand years.

"Every square nanometer of this room, except this platform we're standing on, houses millions of bytes of information. All the information ever gathered by every Torchwood institute on every alien encounter since it's establishment in stored safely in here."

"But what if it's attacked? Wouldn't all the information be destroyed?" Gwen queried, gazing at the room with undisguised awe.

"Alex thought of that. That's why this whole section of the station is self sustaining, with own generators. Therefore in event of an attack, or eminent destruction of the space station, this whole segment which is the Archive will detach from it. There's enough power here to make a trip back to Earth, or at the very least, the the Mars outpost."

"So it wouldn't be to hard for you to sabotage the station and escape of own your own, wouldn't it?" Jack speculated mockingly. "Especially since you'll be the only one with access to what is essentially a very large escape capsule."

"Yes, I suppose so, were I predisposed to random acts of violence," countered Ianto.

"It's still a security liability. You are a security liability," insisted Jack, stabbing a finger forcefully in the Archivist's direction.

Ianto looked at the digit intruding on his personal space like it was some slimy creature he was contemplating squashing beneath his foot. His gaze flickered up to meet Jack's. "Only you," he said firmly.

"Wh-what?" Caught off guard by what seemed to be a non-sequitur, Jack looked bewilderedly at the other man for a moment before remembering his role as the forceful leader and schooled his face into a more authoritative expression. "Sorry, what did you just say?"

"You. Get access. Only you." Ianto had a pained expression on his face as he spoke, as though every word was clawing its way up his throat, tearing it to bloody shreds. "As Captain."

"Oi, what about us?" demanded Owen from where he was squashed up against the wall behind Jack. "What if neither you nor the Captain are on board? What then?"

The AI crossed his arms resolutely. "It's either the Captain only, or no one at all."

"We could just kill you and take it by force," said Toshiko. She made it sound like a suggestion, rather than a threat.

Ianto simply shrugged. "You could. But it'll be your loss, not mine. You may be able to hack into the systems, I don't doubt your ability, Miss Sato, but you won't get far with the interface. You may be able to find a way to access the data, but it'll be slow and incomplete. And if you're going to survive Torchwood Three you're going to have to know everything."

"And you know everything?" quipped Gwen.

"Yep. Says so on the bottom of the screen." He pointed, and sure enough, under the rotating Torchwood emblem that was the wallpaper, in tiny script was written 'Ianto knows everything!' followed by three minuscule hearts.

Jack looked up at Ianto. Sure enough, the AI's face had crumpled momentarily, before swiftly being replaced once again by his expressionless mask. "Okay," he said, decision made. "For now, it'll be just me and Ianto here with access to the Archive." He clapped his hand on the AI's knee and observed with interest as a muscle spasmed through the leg, as though Ianto had fought the urge to flinch.

"But-" asked Gwen, and Jack cut her off. "I'll be spending most of my time in the Hub anyway, even if Ianto here decides to take planet-leave or something."

"Or something," muttered Owen, but offered no further resistance.

Jack looked at Tosh, and she nodded once, briefly. Gwen took her lead and gave her acquiescence too.

"Okay, that's done then." He clapped his hands together, admittedly satisfied with the outcome. "Okay, you've all got jobs to do, move along. Ianto, stay here and set up my access codes and biosigns."

Ianto nodded briefly, then suddenly shot up and lunged across Jack to grab Gwen who was just about to launch herself from the platform. "Wait."

She pulled her arm free, and around them, Jack, Owen and Tosh who had all tensed up and reached for their weapons when he'd moved relaxed minutely. Ianto wordlessly plucked a hair from his head, and extended his arm out past the platform to the smooth surface of the Archive wall. They couldn't really see the hair against the black surface, but there was a sudden spark of blue light, and a sizzle and the faint smell of burnt hair filled the room.

"That's why," said Ianto quietly. "It won't kill you, but it'll paralyze your entire body, including your involuntary muscle movement for five minutes. You won't be able to breathe and you may soil yourself too. That won't be pretty." A corner of his mouth turned up into a small sardonic smile. "So don't touch the walls."

"Can't you disable it?" asked Jack, eyeing the Archives with a new sense of irritation, though he now realized that the AI had been overprotective for more reasons than paranoia and selfishness.

Ianto shook his head. "It'll zap even me. It's part of the defense system."

"Right," muttered Jack. "One by one, then," he ordered his team. "Gwen first, then Owen, and then Tosh. Touch only the rail."

With trepidation, Gwen stepped off the platform and Jack saw her eyes flutter shut momentarily as the morbid fear of falling overtook her. But she remained buoyant, and opening her eyes, she struck out for the rail with tiny pedaling motions of her feet. Once she was halfway across the room, he motioned Owen to go and a while later the doctor was followed by Tosh. They all landed safely, and trooped out, Tosh last, and she turned to give him a warning glare before she was gone.

Ianto snorted. A look of amusement played across his face.

"What did you do?" asked Jack suspiciously.

"I could decrease the charge. Not remove, just decrease it. It would only be strong enough to briefly paralyze whatever part of that touched it." The sardonic smile was back, but was a little wider, and Jack allowed himself a small chuckle.

Then the moment of levity passed. "Right," he said, "about my access code-"

"Let me take my seat and I'll do it."

"I'd rather watch you bend over t-"

"Captain, please."

"You're no fun." Jack pulled an exaggerated pout, but got off the chair and allowed Ianto to settle into it, taking up position behind him. For a moment Ianto shifted around in his seat, possibly uneasy with Jack's looming presence behind him, but then he laid his hands on the smooth, seamless console and ceased to move completely.

Slowly, like fluorescence spreading through his veins, the tips of Ianto's fingers shone blue, the same shade and brightness of the blue lights that had suddenly lit up along the console. Leaning to the side to catch a glimpse of the AI's face, Jack saw that Ianto's eyes emitted the same blue light. Peering closely, he once again saw the tiny streams of data running through the glowing iris. Close inspection of the AI's glowing fingers revealed equally minuscule circuits embedded in the flesh.

On the holographic screen, numbers and words popped up, too fast for Jack to read, but his profile, including his biosigns stored on the mainframe came up for a few seconds, before vanishing again in a stream of binary. Jack suspected that the projector was more for show now and that Ianto was only using it to intimidate him, though the AI had definitely entertained visitors to his precious Archives when the previous team had been around.

"You could just ask, you know," said Ianto quietly and Jack straightened in surprise. He hadn't even noticed the blue glow fade from the AI's eyes and fingers, and the look mild amusement settle on his face.

Jack found himself saying, "Um," and quickly shut his mouth. Then, with a quick glance at the other man's face, who was still watching him with that curl at the corner of his lips, he took one of Ianto's hands in his own. It looked like any other hand now with the blue glow gone. Without the illumination, he could no longer see the tiny circuits in the fingers.

He sighed, and was about to release the hand, but then changed track, and slowly, his eyes remaining on Ianto's face, brought the fingers to his lips. Ianto stared back, until his middle finger brushed Jack's lower lip, then he blinked and snatched his hand away. And there it was, like a shutter closing over his face, that mask slipping over.

It was almost unnatural, and gave credibility to Owen's "robot-boy" nickname.

Now seemed to be the perfect time to test his suspicions. Jack leant forward, hands bracing himself on the arms of the chair, trapping Ianto between him and the back of the seat. It was very close into the AI's personal space, and Jack could clearly see that the other man was trying not to shrink back into the seat.

"Ianto," he said, taking his time to roll the name in his mouth and savour it like fine wine; it was a very nice name, lots of pretty vowels. Jack liked vowels, and he liked them better when they were screamed in heights of pleasure. And with that delicious accent, he was definitely planning on making this enigmatic man before him scream lots of them.

"Ianto," he repeated, and a look of irritation flashed quickly across Ianto's face. Jack decided to get to the point. As much as he enjoyed irritating the AI, he had things to do. "When you told us your story, you said you'd sworn allegiance to Torchwood and the Human Republic. So why are you so intent on safeguarding the projects and ideas of a man who was clearly against all Torchwood stands for?"

The other man's face was impassive but Jack could clearly imagine the "Oh bollocks" going through his head.

"Just a thought," he murmured, barely above a whisper, "I'll be watching you." As a parting shot he then tapped the AI gently on the side of head.

Jack didn't look back, but he was pretty sure Ianto was still sitting there when he drifted down on the other side of the room and left.

to be continued...