Title: The Space Between 8/20
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 8

The door hissed open and Ianto appeared bearing a tray that held their morning dose of caffeine. It turned out he was the only one capable of making palatable coffee with the coffee machine in the galley. Owen followed close behind with the breakfast that had been his turn to cook today. As Ianto made his round around the table, setting each cup of coffee down next to its designated drinker, Owen plonked his own tray on the very edge and slid each plate across to his team mates. Gwen barely managed to catch hers before it zipped over the edge, and the eggs on it slipped precariously to the rim. She glared at Owen. "Would it kill you to walk?"

"Begging you pardon, ma'am," sneered Owen in a posh tone of voice, before he turned on his heel and stalked back out of the door. "And yes," he tossed over his shoulder flatly before the door sealed shut. Gwen rolled her eyes, then grimaced at her breakfast. Bacon and eggs and toast had been piled higgledy piggledy onto the plate in one rather unappealing looking mess. Picking up a fork, she poked at it cautiously then looked up at Jack, who had already chomped down half of his.

"Do we really need to have Owen on the cooking roster? I mean, he's a decent cook, but his attitude in the morning just ruins my appetite," she grumbled.

"Fher, fher," Jack managed to force through a mouthful of food, spraying the table with bits to egg and bacon. Gwen pulled a face. Across from her, she saw Ianto's own disgusted expression. To his credit, Jack looked embarrassed and grabbed a napkin to wipe the table. After an almighty swallow and a gulp of coffee to wash it down, he said, "It's only fair that everyone takes turns. And as long as its edible, it's not a big deal." He shrugged dismissively and turned back to his food.

Gwen sighed and poked the yolk of a greasy egg. She looked around the table just as the door slid open once again and Owen stalked in with his own plate. He sat down next to Tosh and started eating. Tosh herself hardly looked at her own plate, she just absently stabbed whatever food was in reach of her fork and brought it to her mouth, her eyes fixed all the while on the PDA projection before her. Gwen watched as the bit of egg on her fork dropped back onto the plate and bit back a giggle when Tosh's eyes widened in surprise as she bit down on her empty fork.

The clink of utensils against plate across for her made her turn to Ianto. He was eating slowly and steadily, as though each mouthful required massive amounts of concentration. Gwen watched curiously. Maybe it did. Maybe his computer-brain was working on so many other things that that simple stuff like food and eating was squished so far back that he had to think really hard to remember how to do it. She frowned, wondering what it would be like to have to remember how to eat.

He coughed and she jumped, then blushed when she realized she'd been staring. The AI simply raised an eyebrow, then nodded minutely in Owen's direction and mouthed "Decaf."

Gwen snatched up a napkin and managed to disguise her laugh as a sneeze just in time. Ianto winked at her, then returned his attention to his food once again.

"You'd better not be falling ill, Cooper," said Owen, "I have not time to be treating coughs and colds."

"Because you're so busy playing computer games and watching porn in your lab," Gwen sniped back.

"Oi, that was a dissection recording," Owen retorted.

"Kids," boomed Jack from the head of the table, his mouth this time thankfully food-free. "Two weeks and already squabbling. How about we take planet-leave this weekend, drop by Mars for a day. Tosh, what does the Rift Predictor say?"

For the first time since she'd entered the room, Tosh looked up from the PDA. "We have a Rift flare, well, more like a wormhole actually, predicted for today and tomorrow. It's supposed to open today at around 1539 hours, then close tomorrow at 2328."

Jack frowned. "That's a pretty long time. How large is it expected to be?"

"About half a kilometer in diameter."

Jack harrumphed, then turned to Ianto. "Ianto, is a wormhole like this an unusual occurrence?"

The AI sat back in his chair and his eyes went briefly blank. Gwen had almost gotten used to it, the sign that he was looking deep into his mind to find the right information he needed, but it still creeped her out a bit. Creeped them all out a bit, she noted, since everyone else was looking anywhere but Ianto's face. Except Jack, who was staring at the AI with fascination, but then again she'd learned quickly that her new boss could be rather strange. Every time Jack looked at Ianto, it was like he wanted nothing more than to fuck him against the nearest wall. Or dissect him. Or fuck him then dissect him. Or something. Was it creepy that she felt turned on by all outcomes?

She then wondered if Ianto's mind looked like a computer to him, his thoughts all stored in neat files and folders in his head. Or did he have a Memory Palace, a whole mental library full of information? With a CPU in his brain did he even need a Memory Palace?

"-or three times a year." Gwen snapped out of her thoughts in time to catch that last bit of information. "Longest was three days in one go. Had lots of useless crap fall through, including about a ton of snow."

"Right. Thanks, Ianto," said Jack. "Tosh, is there any way we can predict what will be coming through today?"

"Sorry, Jack, no."

Jack scowled. "Very well, team. Make sure we're ready for just about anything, and if we can get everything cleaned up by Friday, we have the weekend off."

Grins blossomed on all the faces around the table except on Ianto's, who frowned instead. "You're coming along too," said Gwen, reaching across to pat his hand. "Isn't he, Jack?" she asked, turning to Jack, looking at him almost challengingly.

Jack grinned. "Of course. Captain's orders. Goddess knows you need a break from this place, Ianto."

Ianto's frown only deepened. "I do hope you have taken into consideration the fact that we are here to monitor a highly unstable Rift-"

"The Rift Predictor says it'll be quiet for a week after tomorrow," Tosh cut in, looking at Ianto annoyedly. "And it's been programmed to send alerts to Jack's wrist-strap and to our PDAs."

"See," said Jack beaming. "It'll be fine." He stood up and clapped the AI hard enough on the shoulder that he lurched forward a little. "Now chop chop, people, we've got to get ready for whatever crap the Rift's gonna spit out at us today."

88888

"We've got the scout ship prepped and ready," said Tosh, beaming as she walked up to Jack, wiping her oily hands on her coveralls. Behind her, Gwen crawled out from under the guts of the ship, her face and hands liberally streaked with engine grease.

Jack grinned. "As much as I'd love to get dirty with you girls, I've got work to do. Thanks, Tosh, Gwen. How about the cargo ship?"

"Didn't Owen tell you last week that the thing's scrap metal? Ianto thinks he can find some magic alien device that will make it work, but I'm not really counting on that happening. If we need to haul something, we're using my ship."

"Right," said Jack, and stuck his hands in his pockets, surveying the "scrap metal". A pity. It still looked salvageable. Maybe Ianto would be able to find something to fix it. "Where's Ianto?"

"Archive," said Gwen, and pointed her thumb over her shoulder. "There's an entrance back there. You should be able to get in."

"Mmm. Once you're done, Tosh, please head to the bridge and monitor the Rift readouts. Gwen, see if Owen needs any help."

The two women groaned, but offered no words of protest as they picked up the various tools scattered across the hanger floor.

Jack sauntered past them to the far hanger wall and the huge Archive door set into it. After having been granted access to the Archive, Jack had only entered Ianto's domain twice, both times to check on the AI rather than out of any need for information. On his second visit Ianto had showed him the second level of the Archives, where they housed the alien artifacts and other physical objects that had fallen through the Rift. He had yet to use the hanger access to the lower Archive, having entered it the last time through the trapdoor in the data Archive.

He keyed his service number into the biometric keypad and allowed it to read his bioscans. Immediately a holographic Access Granted flashed up from the keypad, but the doors did not open. Jack frowned. Was this Ianto's work? It had granted him access, but maybe the AI was just fucking with his he-

An almighty groan disrupted his train of thought, and with a shudder, the huge doors parted before him, revealing the sterile, fluorescent interior of the lower Archive. Jack turned around to give Tosh and Gwen a swift thumbs up, then stepped through the threshold. The doors ground shut behind him and he made a mental note to tell Ianto to check the mechanism after they'd dealt with the Rift spike.

"Ianto!" The Archivist was nowhere to be seen. Jack walked down the gleaming white corridor, keeping a eye out for the younger man in his sober black suits, but after rounding the gentle curve of the ship, it was quite clear that Ianto was nowhere in the lower Archive. Jack walked over to the ladder that led up to the data Archive when the hatch above him opened and Ianto's perfectly shined shoes appeared, followed by his pinstripe clad arse, and finally the rest of him.

The first time he'd watched the Archivist use the ladder, he'd tried to "help" him up, by putting his hands on Ianto's waist. Ianto had "reflexively" responded by kicking him the chest. This time Jack stood a respectful distance away and simply admired the view.

"Sir," said Ianto the moment his feet touched the brilliant white floor. He straightened his suit.

"Ianto," said Jack brightly. "Tosh told me you may have something here to repair the cargo ship in the hanger."

A tiny frown curled the corner of Ianto's lip. "Tosh misunderstood. We don't have any alien repair tools here, none that are compatible with Earth technology anyway, but I was under the impression that we had some spare parts stored here in the Archives." His frown deepened. "Apparently I was wrong."

"You were wrong?" Jack teased. "That must be a record! How about I-"

"Very amusing, sir," Ianto interrupted. "But maybe we should worry about the lack of one ship. We may-"

Jack cut him off. "Tosh has volunteered the use of her ship if we need to any hauling."

"Her ship is a Japanese FY763 Nissan Serenity-class transport ship, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Should do." Ianto sighed. "Anything I can do for you, sir?"

Jack grinned. "Plenty, but for now you can help Tosh out on the bridge. And make us all some coffee, will you? It's going to be a long day."

88888

The alert came at 1628 hours, just when Jack was in the toilet taking a leak. He quickly finished up, washed his hands and raced for the boardroom only to find Ianto there, sitting at Tosh's station, fingers flying over the keyboard.

"Hanger, they're waiting for you," Ianto said and Jack rushed to the lift and descended to the lower level to find Tosh and Gwen waiting impatiently by Tosh's ship. The scout ship and Owen were nowhere to be seen.

"Owen's gone ahead to scout the area," explained Gwen, while Tosh warmed up the engines.

"Couldn't he have waited?" Jack snapped at he buckled himself into the co-pilot's seat.

"Sorry," said Gwen. "We're all a little jumpy and he just took off. Ianto said it should be safe though, the Rift's stable at the moment, and as long as Owen stays in the ship and just takes scans he should be all right."

Sir, Ianto voice crackled to life in his earpiece, the scanners have identified it as a cylindrical object about three meters across and seven meters long. Owen can give us the exact dimensions when he reaches it ETA five minutes.

"Anything else?"

Myfanwy identifies it as a life pod, sir. We'll have Owen confirm it.

Jack? Owen here. I've reached it. Looks like a life pod to me.

"I don't want to know what you think, Owen. What do the scanners say?" To Tosh, Jack added, "Take us out to it."

Tosh nodded and the ship shuddered as the docking clamps released.

"What do the scans say?"

Definitely not of human make. I'm scanning for life signs -shit!

"What is it, Owen?" Jack pressed urgently. "Owen, come in!"

Two very weak life signs. I'm going in.

"No!"

They're dying, for god's sake!

"Wait till we get there!" Jack thundered, his voice filling the cockpit. Tosh pushed the engines to go even faster; it wasn't far, they'd be there in minutes.

I'm not going to just wait here for them to die!

"Then don't. Get your ass back here."

Fuck you, Harkness.

Jack ignored him and turned to Tosh. "Suits."

"Storage space near airlock. You'll find it."

"Thanks." He hurried out of the cockpit, one hand on the hull to stop himself from losing his balance as the spaceship lurched around some debris.

"Owen!" he heard Gwen yell into the open comm channel as he pulled out a space suit. "We're almost there!"

Almost isn't good enough!

It was hard to scramble into the suit with ship moving the way it was, but Jack finally managed to get his boots in, and it went easier from there. He'd just sealed up the helmet when Tosh's voice spoke in his ear, We're here. Are you in position, Jack?

Jack shuffled into the airlock and sealed the door to the rest of the ship. "Yes."

Double check your suit please. If you die we'll loose valuable time.

He quickly made sure all the safety lights of the heads-up-display were green then gave Tosh a confirmation.

Okay then, opening hatch. Be careful, Jack.

"Yes, ma'am. Tell Gwen to suit up, I might need her. And tell her to prepare the winch."

Will do, Jack.

Jack? This was Owen. Can you hurry up, please. Whatever they are in there, they're dying.

"I'm going as fast as I can, Owen." Jack was glad that he'd managed to get Ianto to allow him access to the Archive. All the shorts minutes he'd spent there (both check on and check out the AI) had at the very least reacclimatized him to the feel of zero-G. He still hadn't reached the level of skill he'd had back at the Time Agency, but he could more with more grace and economy than he'd previously had.

He kicked out one more last time and glided the last two meters to the life pod, curling his hands around metal seam that jut out. He tuned in to Ianto's comm channel.

"Ianto?"

Yes, sir?

"I'm sending you feed from the pod now. Can you identify the make?"

There was a pause of thirty seconds or so, then Ianto said, Looks like Jwa'qlqui'iaa make. Jwa'qlqui'iaa are-

"I know what Jwa'qlqui'iaa are, thanks," interrupted Jack without any malice. He switched comm channels back to Owen. "Owen, don't get your hopes up, they can't be saved."

For chrissakes, Jack, we haven't even tried.

"We could but we don't have the necessary equipment. Jwa'qlqui'iaa are completely different from us. They're not even carbon based-"

Jack! Owen! Tosh's voice rang in his ear and he winced. Is this really the time?

Owen sighed loud static into his ear and Jack winced again, this time so hard he almost lost grip on the alien life pod. All right, Jack. Do whatever the hell you want. I'll be on standby if you need me.

"Thank you, Owen. Believe me, there's really nothing we can do for them."

Yeah, yeah, Jack, I believe you. Now let's just get this thing loaded so we can go back. I need a drink.

"Thank you, Owen," said Jack quietly, then changed channels to Gwen's.

"Gwen, are you suited up?"

Yes, Jack.

"Okay, double check the seals then go to the cargo bay. Open the doors. There's a winch to the left side, release it."

Jack waited until the saw the cargo bay open, then pushed off the life pod and towards Tosh's ship. Gwen stood at the edge, the ship's artificial gravity grounding her, but with one arm twined around a strut just in case, and with the winch's clamp dangling from her other hand. He motioned for her to throw it to him and she swung it out to him in a long arc. Jack caught it easily, then swam back through vacuum to the life pod, and attached the magnetic clamp to the nearest surface.

Once he'd made sure it was secure, he gave Gwen a thumbs up and held on as the winch wound it into the cargo bay of the ship.

Jack opened his comm to Owen's channel. "Owen, get back to the station and be ready for any emergencies." As soon as Owen voiced his confirmation, he changed channels to: "Ianto, once Owen gets back, go to the cargo bay and help him with anything he needs."

Yes, sir.

Getting the pod to the ship was simple, until the artificial gravity took over. Tosh was finally forced to shut it down momentarily while Jack and Gwen got the life pod settled and secured. Owen had already returned to the station, grumbling and swearing under his breath.

An hour after they'd gone out to retrieve the pod, Tosh landed her ship in the hangar of Torchwood Three. Owen and Ianto were standing ready by the door with two stretchers and a medical cart, both dressed in bio-hazard suits. They rushed to the cargo bay as soon as the drives shut down while Jack and Gwen worked to open the hatch. The seal opened with a hiss of gas that Ianto immediately analysed and once the scanner determined that it was relatively harmless, Jack pulled the hatch wide open.

Cautiously Owen peered into the pod's chamber, his bioscanner held out before him. After a moment he shook his head. "Dead," he said flatly. Jack peered over his shoulder. The two Jwa'qlqui'iaa hung limply from their harnesses that had strapped them safely to their seats. Neither of them responded when Owen touched them, then tried to find a heartbeat (if they even had hearts), then scanned them again for any electrical activity.

"Dead," he said again, and shot Jack a vicious glare, who simply stepped past him and gently undid the harnesses before lifting one of the Jwa'qlqui'iaa into his arms. It took a bit of effort of gather up its many tentacles, but Ianto helped him lift it onto a stretcher. Once both the aliens had been removed from the pod, Ianto and Owen wheeled them to the lift to be taken to the lab, while both Gwen and Jack stripped out of their space suits and ran them through a quick decontamination cycle in the hanger's cleanup unit.

Tosh had meanwhile emerged from the cockpit and was walking admiringly around the pod, and would have probably climbed in to have look at the controls had Jack not ordered the whole team to the boardroom immediately.

The moment everyone was seated Gwen asked, "What are we going to do with Jwaqul-ah,um-"

"Jwa'qlqui'iaa," said Ianto.

"Jwaqul-whatever. What are you going to do with them."

"Owen will autopsy them, take some biological samples, then we'll send the bodies for cryo-storage on Mars."

"Shouldn't we cremate them or something? Give them a proper send off?"

Owen rolled his eyes, but the rest of team was giving her somewhat sympathetic looks. "Gwen," Jack said gently, "We can't get sentimental in this line of work."

"I know," she muttered. "I just feel sorry for them. They must have been so scared, lost and alone and dying. Are you sure we couldn't have saved them?" She looked up at him, eyes wide and beseeching, begging assurance.

"Yes." It was Ianto who spoke. "Their planet or space sector must lie close to a rift too, because we've had them come through our Rift before. The Rift, possibly the radiation from it, affects them a lot more than it does humans. They too were dying when they were retrieved and the team medic tried everything but couldn't save them. Human technology is simply not compatible withe their systems."

"Don't we have alien technology that could help?" Owen asked angrily.

"Even if we did, I don't think we could have gotten it there in time to save them," was Ianto's calm reply.

"Fuck this," muttered Owen, and let his head drop in his hands.

"You did your best, Owen," said Tosh, petting him on his shoulder, but he simply shrugged it off.

"About the life pod," said Jack, trying to get the meeting back on track. "We should-"

"Keep it? asked Tosh eagerly.

"I'm not sure we have the space. Ianto?"

"Well, Alex used to send stuff this big to the Torchwood outpost on Mars, but I'm with Tosh on this one. I suggest we keep it. I'll try to make space in the hanger. If we get rid of the old cargo ship-"

"Whoa, not so fast! I'm captain here, I make the final decision." Jack looked from Tosh's unashamedly eager face to Ianto's impassive mask. When he turned to Owen and Gwen they simply shrugged. He weighed the odds. It was a life pod, still in good working condition. They would definitely find more information about the Toraxians this way, maybe even a way to give some kind of medical aid. Besides, Tosh would definitely be able to modify it for human use. "Okay. We're keeping it."

Tosh beamed and stood up, possibly to go and run experiments on it right that instant, but Jack held up a hand to stop her.

"The Rift. It's still going to be open for another twenty-four hours. So back to your stations everyone. Except Gwen, you're cooking. Something fast, use the ration packs. We'll sleep in shifts tonight. Dismissed."

To be continued...