"The Generational Purge"
11. The Science in the Fiction
Inside the TARDIS
Jack was secure in the knowledge that there was nothing but the slimmest chance in hell that the woman could ever find a way to break in. But he could still hear her banging on the doors, so she was either stubborn or she really did have something to break in. He ran to the viewer, getting a visual on their unwanted guest. She was young, younger than he'd originally guessed. He wouldn't put her over twenty-five. Her hair was dyed a striking shade of turquoise and ran straight down to the small of her back. She wasn't discreet about her look, people would remember her, and he didn't know if that impressed him or scared him.
"Who's she?" Noah asked, standing behind him. He could see the woman on the viewer, pacing, like a hunter circling its prey.
"We didn't have time to exchange contact information," Jack shook his head.
"But she wants to kill me?" Why? And who are you?"
"My name's Jack," he sighed. "Jack Harkness," he left out the Captain, seeing how inquisitive the boy was.
He had to focus on the woman, especially now that she'd stopped banging at the door. She just stood there, looking at the TARDIS, and then… she smiled. There was something about it, too: he knew exactly what she'd thought about that made her so happy all of a sudden. She took two steps away from the ship and then they watched her vanish.
"What just happened?" Noah sputtered, while Jack scrambled.
"Oh no you don't," he went looking about, spotting something in the ground. "Yes," he pulled a grate back and started digging at the trunk.
"Hey!" Noah raised his voice. Jack's head popped back up.
"About a thousand years from now, one of your descendants is in jail, and there's a man there who is able to send someone back in time to kill one of his ancestors so he's never born," Jack rambled on.
"Like in Terminator?" Noah frowned, while Jack shut the trunk and went looking through another. He'd heard the Doctor say he had this thing once, he knew he did.
"Yeah, sure," Jack told him.
"I'm the ancestor?"
"That'd be it in a nutshell, yes."
"You're not going to sleep with my mom and become my dad, are you?" Jack looked up.
"What are you…"
"Like in the movie," he gestured. "Wait, but I already exist, so that can't be." Jack ignored this and went back looking. "How come you have a space ship?"
"It's not mine, I borrowed it…" That wasn't exactly right, but the other story would take too long. They had to hurry.
"Why?"
"Because I can't let you die. Not just because it would be wrong and disrupt time, but… That man they're trying to purge, he's a friend of mine."
"How is she going to get me now that I'm here though?" Jack emerged again, changing spots.
"She's not."
"I thought you said…" The boy was taking this whole thing very calmly, which might have been helpful if it wasn't for the fact that, instead of being concerned, he was asking question upon question, which was distracting Jack from his search. So he turned to him again.
"Say there was something you wanted. You tried it one way, but it's not working. What do you do?"
"Pound the guy?" Noah guessed, and Jack frowned, so he answered seriously. "I don't know, I'd just find another way to… oh."
"Right. She's going to go after someone else, between you and her target, your descendants."
"You mean… I have kids someday?" Noah looked halfway between discouraged and apologetic. "Those people, they're like family. We can't let her hurt them," he begged.
"Oh, so it's 'we' now, I'm not a 'perv' anymore?" Jack asked him before going back trunk diving.
"I haven't made up my mind. Now what are we supposed to do?" Jack cried out in surprise when he saw what looked like…
"Got it," he climbed out of the hole with something Noah frowned at immediately.
"What's that?"
"This… this is how we figure out where she's going. Seeing as I've got you, I can use this to track… I guess you could say disturbances in your line."
"Wait, this is going to be where I have to give you blood, isn't it?" he took a step back.
"Not even," Jack simply held up the object and pointed it at him. The boy froze, which was just as well, giving them a cleaner scan.
"Is this going to turn into Back to the Future? Like I'll start to disappear?"
"You watch a lot of movies, don't you?"
"Beats studying," Noah shrugged.
"How old are you?" Jack had to ask.
"Eighteen," he stood up tall, and Jack gave him a look. "Fine, fifteen," he corrected.
"Since when?"
"Couple weeks ago," he sighed.
"You're just a kid," Jack hated to think that they'd try to get at Jaime through him. Before Noah could complain about being called a kid, there was a blip on the machine. There was a match. "If we get out of this, less movies, more homework." And they were off.
TO BE CONTINUED (TUESDAY)