"Heaven isn't going to help Jack," Gwen said with fierce determination. "We are."
"Changed your mind?" Owen asked and raised his eyebrows in a snarky manor.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing when he needs help." She gave him a stern look.
"What did you have in mind?" Ianto asked.
Gwen turned her head in thought for a moment, and then let her gaze fall on each of her teammates sitting around the conference table. "We may not know what kind of alien we're dealing with, but we know enough to work out a plan. So let's start with what we do know."
"Given that it looks like the Doctor, but isn't a Time Lord," Owen said with a thoughtful frown. "I'd say its a shapeshifter."
"So it can look like anyone?" Tosh asked with a worried look.
Owen nodded. "If that's what we're dealing with, then yeah."
"It's a start," Gwen said. "Let's gather everything we know about all the shapeshifters we have on file. I know this one isn't in our databases, but maybe we can find some common points that can help us."
"Bullets don't seem to work," Ianto said. "Owen shot it in the arm and didn't bother him too much."
"I know I shot him in the stomach too," Owen said. "Didn't even slow him down."
"So what do you suggest?" Gwen asked.
"Fire," Ianto said so matter-of-factly that he earned some raised eyebrow glances from his colleagues. "What?" He asked feeling a bit self-conscious. "Fire hurts everything, doesn't it?"
"We'll add flame throwers to the arsenal," Owen said with a shake of his head that made Ianto's suggestion seem ridiculous, but really Owen thought it was a damn fine idea.
Ianto didn't care at all what Owen thought. As far as he was concerned, Owen could go to Hell. Jack was in trouble, trapped on some spaceship somewhere in time, and that admittedly terrified him. Besides, he'd already planned on strapping a flame thrower on his back and burning that thing on sight.
"We know the alien is very strong," Tosh said. "I think I have an idea to counter that with electricity. If I can modify a taser to deliver enough of a shock, it may weaken him."
"Sounds like a great idea," Gwen said with a smile at the other woman. "How much of a notice will your tracker give us after the TARDIS lands in our time?"
"We should pick up the signal as soon as the time machine begins to materialize." She lowered her eyes. "Unfortunately, no sooner than that, I'm afraid."
"So basically," Owen said with a bit of sarcasm in his voice. "We're not going to know it's here until it's here. Perfect."
"If you have any other suggestions, then speak up!" Gwen glared impatiently at him.
Owen rolled his eyes and held up his hands. "Other than getting all our weapons and the SUV ready to go at a moment's notice, no. I don't have any other suggestions."
Gwen relaxed and nodded. "Then I think we all know what to do. Let's do it."
.
.
Jack gasped in a breath of air and opened his eyes as life flowed through him once again. "That son of a bitch!" He sat up and shot a look at the window. His double was nowhere to be seen on the other side. He heard a soft moan next to him and he looked over.
The Doctor lay sprawled out on his back across the floor with his eyes closed, but was slowly stirring into consciousness. A nasty red mark traced across his cheek and extended over his left eye into his forehead. Blood oozed not from a cut, but from the skin itself along the length of the injury.
"Doctor?" Jack turned around focusing his attention on his injured friend. "What happened?" He didn't really need to ask. He knew from experience that the Doctor had been hit with something fast and hard. Judging by the shape of the mark, Jack guessed one of those tendrils was the culprit weapon.
The injured Time Lord rolled his head toward Jack and opened his eyes. Immediately, he closed his left eye. "Ow," he said as he traced the fresh wound with his fingertips.
"You tried to stop Agrastol from killing me, didn't you?" Jack asked.
The Doctor nodded slightly. "Yes." He drew in a sharp breath when he touched his eye. "I know you're immortal, Jack, but I just didn't want to see anymore killing. No more death. Especially not you, my friend."
Jack sighed deeply and shrugged off his over coat. He rolled it into a ball and gently lifted the Doctor's head, sliding the coat underneath as a make-shift pillow.
The Time Lord managed a small smile. "Thank you," he whispered.
The captain tossed the Doctor a wink and glared back at the window, the one way portal, in thought. He noticed something sitting on the floor underneath it. Without hesitation, he crawled over on his hands and knees to investigate and found bread. A hoagie roll to be exact. Sitting next to the bread was a bowl filled with water.
How insulting, Jack thought as he carefully picked up the bowl and carried it over to the Doctor. The bowl was unmistakably a dog bowl. Still, it had water and it appeared to be clean water at that. Just to be sure, Jack took a sip and waited. If it was poisoned, it should kill him any minute.
Mercifully, nothing happened and Jack deemed the water safe. "Hey, Doc," he said as he tapped his friend lightly on the shoulder. "I've got some water and bread for you."
The Doctor started by opening his good eye and when he saw Jack holding the bowl, he slowly lifted his head.
As he watched his old friend drink the water like he'd never had anything to drink before, Jack grew angry and silently cursed that shapeshifting monster. He vowed that somehow, someway, he would make Agrastol pay for what it's done not only to the people it murdered, but to this proud and free Time Lord that has saved so many.
He had to get out of here. "Doctor," he started to say.
"Oh no," the Doctor said. "I drank all the water. I'm sorry, Jack."
Jack gave the Doctor a reassuring smile. "It's okay," he said. "Don't worry about it." He hardened his tone and didn't hide the desperation seeping in to his voice. "We have to think of a way to get out of here. Now come on! You're a genius, think of something."
The Time Lord blinked up at Jack a moment in confusion, but eventually he nodded. "I am that, a genius, aren't I?" He didn't sound too sure at first, but as he sat up and looked around the room, his felt his confidence return. The water helped tremendously and the chunk of bread he munched on restored enough of his energy to clear some of the fog in his head.
He offered some bread to Jack and when it was refused, he continued eating for another moment as he thought. Then his eyes fell on the vortex manipulator wrapped around Jack's wrist. Shoving the last of the bread in his mouth, he smiled wide. "You still have the vortex manipulator!"
Jack looked at the device and shrugged his shoulder. "Too bad somebody disabled the time travel part of it," he said with a playful wink and a smile.
"What was I thinking?" The Doctor shook his head and crossed his legs. "Take it off and empty your pockets. Let's see what we have."
"I've waited a long time to hear you say that," Jack said with a wide grin as he removed the vortex manipulator.
The Doctor sighed and shook his head slightly, then he smirked the way he always does when he's doing something particularly clever. "We may not be able to just pop on out of here, but we may be able to send a message." He dug into his own pockets and pulled out various items by the handful that included a bouncy ball, a plastic banana, a paper party hat and a small spool of wire. He dumped all the items, along with a few bits of pocket fuzz, on the floor in front of him.
Jack added his mobile phone, a small torch and a set of keys to the small pile. "So, who are you going to send a message to?" he asked as he watched the Doctor sort through the pile.
"My first thought was the Pond's," the Doctor said as he shoved the plastic banana and party hat back into his pocket. "But their stuck on that planet until I pick them up, so they won't be able to help this time. I am wondering if the Shadow Proclamation would forget about that little fuss I had with them not so long ago and come to my rescue. Not too sure about that though. Maybe UNIT instead."
The Time Lord laid the vortex manipulator across his knee and pulled off a length of wire from the spool. He then removed a small part from the manipulator and twisted the wire into the space that was left. "So much easier with my sonic screwdriver," he mumbled under his breath.
"I have an idea," Jack said. "Send a message to my team at Torchwood."
The Doctor paused and looked up at Jack with a scrutinizing gaze. He knew his old friend worked for that institution and that Jack has worked very hard to run Torchwood with the Doctor's beliefs in mind. But every time he heard that name, he thought of her and how he'd lost her. Still, that wasn't Jack's fault and it was true that his team had proved to be fighting for what's right. He relaxed his tense gaze. "How would they be able to help?"
"Agrastol looks like me now and if revenge is what it wants, then it might be heading back to the Hub," Jack said. "If we can let them know what's coming, they can be prepared and might even be able to stop it."
"That makes sense," the Time Lord said as he took apart the mobile phone and connected the needed part to other end of the wire. "And they would be able to get to us quicker than UNIT or the Shadow Proclamation." He nodded. "Alright, we'll send a message to your team. Now the question is, what exactly are we going to tell them? I don't think I can get more than about seven seconds with this."
"Hm. Do you know how to hurt Agrastol?" Jack asked carefully. He knew how the Doctor felt about hurting even his enemies, but he also knew that sometimes exceptions were made.
"Fire," the Doctor said evenly. "That may not kill it, but it will hurt it enough to get it back in here where it belongs. Aha!" He held up the small tangle of wire and components with a proud grin. "Cross time and space short message transmitter! I just made that up." He grinned.
Jack grinned too. Now he knew where the Doctor stood on the fate of Agrastol and it didn't involve killing it, but putting back in here where it belonged. A fate worse than death and a fate he rather agreed with.
At the sound of someone knocking on glass, both the Doctor and Jack looked at the window. On the other side, Jack's double stood with a wicked grin as it grabbed either side of the window. The view through the window spun and Jack realized that the monster was moving the mirror portal.
When the view stabilized, the ramp and exit doors in the console room were now clearly visible.
Agrastol stepped into view and smiled. "I'm about to land in Cardiff, Jack, and I wanted to make sure you had a good view as I tear apart your precious human friends. Doctor, I hope you enjoy the show." It slowly spun on its heel and disappeared out of view toward the center console.
Jack whipped his head around to the Doctor with worry spread across his face. "We'd better send that message and now."
.
.
To be continued.