Thank you to PCJanto and Badly-knitted for the delightful reviews and thanks to everyone for reading.

Chapter 10 Taking stock

Orion woke with a small start, as the first signs of the approaching dawn crept over the sky. He immediately regretted the slight movement as it produced a sharp pain in his neck. Sitting up in a pilot seat all night had done him no favours. He was also a bit banged up from being shaken around like he had the night before. He was restricted in his movements by the heavy weight of his mate sleeping in his arms. Its head was resting on his shoulder and each breath tickled the side of his neck. He gingerly moved a little to free his injured shoulder from the worst of the contact with the seat. The wound had reopened at some point during their tumble and he could feel the stickiness of his own blood coating his back.

"Warwyn?" he said softly and moved his free hand up to stroke its hair. "Warwyn, wake up." He placed a gentle kiss on the top of its head. It began to stir a little, snuggling closer to him, nuzzling his neck and making a little content purring sound. Orion chuckled to him self as he tried again.

"Warwyn, come on, sweetheart. You need to wake up now." There was a gasp and Warwyn pulled away suddenly, to stare at him. Their eyes were locked for a brief moment, then realisation struck and Warwyn's eyes filled with pain and fear. Orion noticed and hurriedly said:

"Shhh, it's going to be all right. But I need you to stay strong now." Warwyn looked close to breaking point. "There are things that needs doing and I can't do them all by my self. I need your help, so you have to be strong, okay?" Warwyn's lips quivered and in a tiny, frightened voice it said:

"I want to cry." Orion blinked a few times to stay in control of him self. He felt for his mate, he too wanted to sit down and just cry. It was all getting to be too much. He wanted his Daddy and Tad and the rest of his family. But they weren't there. They were on their own and there were things to do.

"You can, as soon as we've done all that needs doing. Then you can cry all you want to." Warwyn sniffled.

"You promise?" it sounded much younger than it really was in that instant and Orion resolved to do everything he could to ensure his mate would never again be this scared, vulnerable and unhappy.

"I promise." He said with firm conviction. "Now do you think you can stand?" He knew his mate hadn't sustained any serious injuries, just a lot of bruises. But they had spent the night in a rather uncomfortable chair and he for one couldn't feel his legs at all. Warwyn nodded and carefully climbed off his lap. It immediately felt cold and empty, but the feeling was soon exchanged with one of pain, as the tiny pinpricks of returning circulation set in.

"What do we need to do?" Warwyn looked at him uncertainly. Orion continued rubbing his legs and wiggling his feet up and down. Warwyn saw what he was doing, and crouched down and massaged Orion's left leg as he himself did the same on his right.

"We need to do some damage assessment. How badly damaged is the lifeboat? Can anything be salvaged? Do we still have communications? We also need to find food, water and shelter. And we need to do so before dark, so that gives us about… 15 hours, more or less." Warwyn squared its shoulders and set its jaw with determination. Orion was pleased that the prospect of having a series of practical tasks were enough for it to push all emotions aside. Maybe they stood a chance now.

"I'll look at the communications and the machinery." Warwyn said with a newfound confidence. "I'm good with engines and computers. My mum's a Master Engineer. She's been teaching me…" it suddenly stopped, as the memory resurfaced. Its mum was gone for ever. An intense pain flooded the bond, as Warwyn scrunched its eyes shut and tried to keep from crying. Orion knew that if he did what he wanted to, namely hugged Warwyn, it would break down again. Instead he put a hand on its shoulder and squeezed it in sympathy.

"You do that. I'll check on our provisions." It nodded. Orion got up and moved toward the bend in the vessel. He looked over his shoulder and saw Warwyn take a deep breath and get to work on the console.

xxXxx

Jack and Ianto were stunned into silence. Mr. Hoffsteader smiled at them and flicked a hand at Jacks arm.

"I know! How can an entire nation just disappear?"

"All of them?" Jack asked sharply. He was through playing nice with the simpering idiot. Ianto concealed his smug look, before anyone noticed. Myron Hoffsteader, being oblivious, continued with his flirtatious manner.

"Yes, pretty much. I mean, there are a few scattered groups of people at the outskirts of the country still there." He looked speculative for a moment. "It's almost as if someone drew a giant circle over the country and everyone inside it vanished." Before any comment could be made, they were all called to the meeting. The people all scurried to find seats or to stand along the walls of the room if they were unlucky enough to be left without a chair. Ianto and Jack managed to procure a couple of chairs along the back of the room. The room hushed as the Prime Minister stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, as you are now aware the country of Bangladesh is unexpectedly void of its population. An estimated 161 million people has vanished without a trace at 02.14 hundred hours GMT. There was no warning prior to the event, nor was there any visible sign of it occurring. One moment the people were there and the next they were gone." A low murmur rose in the room, as people commented this news between them. "Satellite images show that the plains, trains and cars kept moving until they either crashed or slowed to a halt. There are a large number of fires burning out of control. Animals are roaming the streets and farm animals are left untended. The power stations are still running, but it is only a matter of time before they break down too with no people to supervise them."

"Oh My God!" someone yelled "Does Bangladesh have nuclear power?" The Prime Minister looked uncertain and turned to the Foreign Minister and his advisors, who looked equally lost. The Prime Minister gave them a look, before continuing his briefing.

"We will ascertain that shortly. If need be a team will be assembled to go there to oversee their continued function." One member of staff frowned deeply; already speculating how they would get past security and gain access to the plants computer systems. Those things were heavily safeguarded against outsiders. He took off to an adjoining room to find some people to call. The fact that they had yet to find out whether there were untended nuclear power plants in Bangladesh was swiftly forgotten. The Prime Minister saw him leave and squeezed the bridge of his nose for a moment. He had been hauled out of bed at an ungodly hour to deal with a crisis no one in the history of the world had ever had to deal with before.

"There will undoubtedly be a plethora of things we need to deal with. We also have to be on guard to ensure that no other nation decides to claim the land. It could spell disaster for the political stability of the region. Not to mention create havoc in case the people of Bangladesh are returned." He held up a hand at the multitude of questions being thrown at him.

"No, we do not yet know what happened to them. We don't know where they are or if they will return. But until we know more we have to operate on the premise that they will return." A burly UNIT officer rose from his seat; his medals glinting in the overhead lights, almost outshining the silver in his hair.

"UNIT, UN and NATO will enforce the sovereignty of the nation of Bangladesh until such time said nations people are capable of doing so themselves." The man had spent a large part of the morning confirming just that from the involved institutions.

"You have the full support of the Commonwealth as well; Mr. Grier. Bangladesh is a member." The Minister of Defence said to him. The officer, Mr. Grier, nodded sharply and sat back down.

"Splendid," the Prime Minister said, feeling for the first time that they were getting somewhere. "Now, several different taskforces will be set up, to deal with this crisis. We need solutions, people. One taskforce will be set to tackle the many difficult problems that will arise in the country itself. Such as the power plants, fires and what have you. Another taskforce will deal with the international response, both the political and commercial. Bangladesh may be a developing country, people, but they are the world's fourth largest producer of rice and exporter of clothes. We may be facing a shortage situation soon of various items and that will influence prices and trade." He looked at everyone in the room, reminding Ianto of his old school headmaster.

"We will also need a taskforce to deal with the investigation. We need to know what happened and how and why; and most importantly, will it happen again?" Some of the people in the room looked quite startled by that, as if they hadn't considered it.

"I understand we have Britain's answer to Mulder and Scully here with us." His eyes made a searching sweep of the room until they landed on Jack and Ianto. Many eyes focused on them and several snickered, while others mumbled "Bloody Torchwood" under their breaths.

"Maybe they can call E.T. and tell them to return the missing people?" a snooty secretary commented to her seatmate, who giggled and sent both the Torchwood operatives an apprehensive glance. Ianto repressed the urge to roll his eyes, while Jack put on the trademark Harkness smile at full blast. 'Sparkle, Shirley.' He thought.

xxXxx

"So we have no water, the food packets were all but destroyed. We have enough for two or three days at the most." Orion was saying. "The good news is that we have an assortment of equipment, including blankets, sleeping bags, coveralls, socks. No boots though. We have some basic camping gear and utensils. There's also some survival gear, including an axe, some multipurpose knives and some rope. We also have a small tent, but I don't think it will be of much use, if there is another storm."

They were sitting outside their battered lifeboat, taking stock of their progress so far. Orion was actually rather pleased with how much of the stuff onboard that had survived. Most of it could be used, though some of it needed a cleaning first. The water that had leaked into the vessel had mixed with hydraulic fluids and lubricants and what not, making it unrecyclable. The water storage tank was broken, as was the pump, so they needed to find another water source somewhere.

"What about the first aid kit?" Warwyn asked and looked pointedly at Orion, whose back was partly soaked in blood again. His shoulder was throbbing again and he knew the slight wooziness wasn't just for lack of food or come down after the adrenaline rush. He needed to replenish his blood supply, but without access to a hospital that would be difficult.

"That survived as well." He pointed in the general direction of where he had put it. They had decided to remove everything usable from the vessel, since the lifeboat was anything but pleasant inside. It was covered in contaminated water and random splatters of vomit. The floor was tilted, the sides crooked. The electrics, including the vessels computers and communications unit, had shortened out completely, leaving the inside in a murky, silent semi-darkness. Warwyn went over to dig out the kit and returned with it moments later. Without grumbling Orion stripped to his waist and let Warwyn remove the soiled dressing.

As the wound was cleaned and a fresh dressing applied, he took the time to speculate if they were alone on the planet. They had not seen any signs of habitation or of people. He couldn't have known about the little science base on the other side of the planet. The people there had chosen the site for its arid, mountainous terrain that better suited their needs. He also worried that there might be predators around. There certainly was no shortage of herd animals, judging by the two different herds they had seen so far. Surely something ate those? He hoped if there were predators out there, that they weren't attracted to the smell of his blood. 'We may need to get some weapons. For defence as well as hunting.' He thought. They did have a handheld blaster and a laser cutter. But the blaster would turn an animal into minced meat in a single blast and the cutter needed to be held close to what it was cutting, like a knife. He sighed deeply.

"What's wrong?" Warwyn asked from behind him. It was still busily wrapping up his shoulder in a long green bandage.

"I was just thinking that we might need weapons to hunt with and to defend our selves against predators with. But I'm not sure where we can get the materials…"

"Why do we need that?" Warwyn interrupted. "Why can't we just change into a bigger predator ourselves? We could hunt that way too." Orion jerked around to look at his mate, who fumbled with the bandage as it was almost knocked out of its hands. "Hey! … What?"

"You're brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" he swept in and planted a big, sloppy kiss on Warwyn's lips, making it freeze in surprise. "We can just change shape!" Warwyn shook its head with a smile and forced Orion back down, so it could finish the bandaging. Orion was elated, even a bit giddy with relief. They were one step closer to making it. Now they just needed water and shelter. The thought sobered him up immediately.

He calmed himself even further. He needed to be "in the zone" so to speak if he was to succeed at what he was about to do. He vaguely felt Warwyn move away and start preparing a few of their remaining food packets. When he was ready he moved his awareness outward, getting a feel of the land around them. They were surrounded by open plains for as far as his senses could reach. The herd of massive animals they had seen on their first night was grazing in the far distance to the east. To the south there was a massive lake, but it felt off somehow. He guessed it was not a freshwater lake, but rather something hazardous to their health'. His senses usually worked that way. The chemicals in his Tad's broom cupboard gave off a bad vibe, prompting him to stay clear of them even as an exploring toddler.

He turned his attention to the north and west. At just the outskirts of his reach he found something promising. It seemed to be a rip in the ground and it had a positive vibe to it. His conscious mind interpreted the impression to mean a ravine. He was even pretty sure there was water there. Good clean drinking water, no less. But they would have to go there to be certain. He pulled his awareness back to find that Warwyn had the food ready. He told it about his discovery as they ate.

xxXxx

Orion Jumped alone to the ravine. It was magnificent. It must be at least 300 meters deep and about as wide. The river that had carved it still flowed at the bottom, though it had narrowed considerably. It flowed rapidly; in some places throwing up white foam on the rocky boulders that littered the bottom. Various dark holes along the side walls indicated the presence of caves. He spotted one on the sunny side of the ravine that had a rocky ledge in front of it. It was well above the water line and the only way to get to it was by Jumping or flying. He silently prayed it wasn't inhabited.

Once more he sent out his awareness. This time searching the caves for threats. Some of the caves were inhabited by various animals; none of them seemed dangerous though. He focussed on the cave with the ledge. It turned out to have a shallow cave in the front of the cliff face with a moderate size chamber behind it, accessed from off to the side. They would be able to be outside in the light, but sheltered from the sun and rain. Judging from the amount of vegetation growing in the ravine it seemed the strong winds on the plains didn't come into the ravine. The moderate cave behind the outer one was completely sealed off, with just that one entrance, making it easily defendable. It was perfect. He hurriedly Jumped back to share the good news.

Kudos to everyone who caught the reference to "Medicine Man".

Jack's thought: "Sparkle, Shirley" is from the words Shirley Temple's mother allegedly would tell her daughter every time she was about to perform.

And finally, if you don't get the Mulder and Scully reference, you are not old enough to read M-rated stories nor do you know your classics in alien/conspiracy pop fiction.