Cherry-Anne Sponge: Hehe, it'd be weird if I changed them all completely and as far as coffee's concerned. Addie won't be drinking coffee until she's sixteen.
SakuraKissy: No, Owen will be very important in this. He'll be popping up more... as for Gwen the jury is still out on her. Not sure whether to actually include her in this; she's happily unaware of Jack plus she is married to Rhys and working her way up Gwent Police force. As for Tosh, she spent nine years in a UNIT prison. That's going to have a big effect on her.
WickedWitchoftheSE: So do I but that's just the way things are. Doesn't mean he loves them any less and the fact that they aren't his makes him a stronger more caring person, if that makes any sense :/
katwinchester: Glad it made you laugh, my sense of humour has always been very dry. Yes we will be seeing more of Owen, don't worry!
Authors/Note: Throwing out an original character now. Partly in response to COE and because John and Rose are out there now... bound to have meddled... so here is Karroe. His name doesn't really mean anything apart from the word Praetor which is Roman. Has anyone heard of the Praetorian guard? Yes? No? If not go look them up, I think that a praetorian guard/soldier could easily work for the Shadow Proclamation. Enjoy this part and please as always review! Review! Don't make me beg, I'd enjoy it!
Part Eleven
Karroe Praetor Meshtan Fief-Kane worked for the Shadow Proclamation however, despite working for them, he wasn't on their official pay role like the Judoon were. He had read all of their strictures and guidelines but didn't follow them as devoutly as they tried to preach them.
He was only three hundred and thirty five years old and for as long as he could remember he had worked for the 'outer space police' and they'd given him this ship to carry out their work and he'd completed a lot of missions for them. Usually he got in trouble for not following the strictures properly but Karroe always managed to get out of it by reminding the Chair Woman that he'd got the job done and he was Freelance.
The red planet slipped past and he was impressed at how beautiful it looked but then he saw the Sol 3 and that really did take his breathe away. Not many planets in the Universe were blue like that... he'd never been to this planet or even this part of space before and he wondered why?
"Maybe I should take a holiday here after I've returned you all?" he mumbled as he glanced back over his shoulder. His ship was only small, suited for three or four people at the moment but over the years of owning it he'd fixed it up with enough space junk to be able to tow ship capable of pulling interstellar cruise liners like the QE7 or the SS Titanic. Right now he was pulling a cargo barge full of children from Sol 3.
Orders had come in about two months ago for him to lead a squadron of Judoon to visit the Macra home world after the Shadow Proclamation had received a report that they had stolen 10% of the children from Sol 3. Two percent out of that ten had already been lost but the Judoon managed to lay them to rest and he'd left them to deal with the rest of the offenders while he returned the eight percent to their planet.
He flicked autopilot on for a moment and unfastened his seat buckles allowing his body to float up, he'd been made fun of when he'd told fellow Free Lance pilots he'd made friends with that he enjoyed the feeling of gravity. He was mostly human and he loved the way his limbs felt as he moved through the weightlessness.
Karroe twisted in the air and tipped his head back to see the blue coming closer, he always enjoyed coming to planets like this. It made him feel at peace and for one brilliant moment it didn't matter that he couldn't remember who he was or where he'd come from all that mattered was he was doing good work and he felt content. Alarms interrupted his happy mood... the people from Sol 3 were trying to communicate with him
"Unregistered ship this is UNIT; United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. You are entering Earth atmosphere, state your intent. If you fail to declare your intent you will be considered Hostile and we will shoot you down" came a strong female voice over his radio
"UNIT, I am sending a Blue Alert under the Strictures and Guidelines of the Shadow Proclamation. Awaiting for co-ordinations for my designated landing strip"
*
The phone rang, she picked it up but it continued to ring when she realised that it was her mobile she pressed connect
"Hello?"
"Toshiko, it's Jack. I need you to come into the office. We have a serious situation"
"Did you cause it?"
"No." he replied there was a pause before he corrected himself "Not this time. There's a spaceship coming to Earth, UNIT has already made contact and the pilot sent ahead Blue Alert but UNIT has no idea what that means!" she could practically see him rolling his eyes "I need you to get yourself here with that science team yesterday"
"I'm on my way" she hung up then groaned out of bed.
*
Jack had just got to the office; he'd been alerted by the secret taps he'd placed in UNIT not long after taking over Torchwood One. What with Rose and John going off into outer space he wanted to make sure he had a way of knowing when they'd come back or when they'd send a message. He knew what UNIT was like and there was a good chance that they'd intercept signals quicker than they would.
"God what I wouldn't give for a wrist strap right now" he groaned as he made his way up in the elevator. As soon as he got all this sorted out he was going to give Toshiko the plans for his strap so she could make him one; he felt a little naked without it.
Twenty minutes later his phone buzzed alerting him to Tosh's, and the science team's, arrival at the Tower. They were making their way up in the lift to his office.
The science team seemed quite groggy and annoyed that they were up here at this ungodly time of the morning but they said nothing as she ushered them into Jack's office. He was stood there with his hands placed flat on the desk leaning forward all excited
"Right, we've got a space ship coming in. UNIT declared it hostile..." he glanced at his watch before putting his hand down back on the table "Three minutes ago. Now this ship has sent down a Blue Alert which clearly states that it's not hostile according to the guidelines of the Shadow Proclamation"
"What's the Shadow Proclamation?" asked Mayhew sleepily trying to keep up with what he was being told
"Like Torchwood but for all of Space. Questions afterwards, please" he said before continuing with his speech "Now. We need to get in touch with that ship before UNIT blasts it out of the Sky. I've brought you in here because I need you to figure out what frequency it's communicating on, get in touch with the pilot and tell him to change to another frequency only we can intercept"
"Okay, let's go team" he began to lead them from the room but Jack wasn't finished
"Hold on. I'm not done! Tosh I need you to ask him what type of ship he's flying, let me know so I can tell you how big it is"
"You could have told me last night" she grumbled trying to turn it into a joke, he smirked liking her sense of humour despite the lateness of the night
"He'll need a place to land and I'm sending you and half the science time to the landing site. You'll need to check for hostile radiation and toxic chemicals before he's allowed to officially step on British soil"
"What will you be doing in the meantime?" she inquired, Mayhew seemed to gape at her outright at demanding what their boss would be doing
"Keeping UNIT from doing something really stupid. Go!" he waved his hands and they moved out to do what he'd asked.
*
"Hello? Hello is this the Pilot of the alien space ship?"
"Who is this? Is this a representative of UNIT?" asked Karroe
"No I am a representative of Torchwood. I've been asked to tell you to change your frequency then re-contact me on that new frequency so we can co-ordinate your landing"
"Good" he replied "Because I sent a Blue Alert and UNIT declared me Hostile. Considering that I am an Agent of the Shadow Proclamation, albeit a Freelance Agent, that would have brought a whole lot of red tape not to mention the Judoon to your door. Who is giving your orders?" he asked as he switched frequencies
"Acting CEO Jack Harkness" replied the voice
"Tell him it is an honour to be greeted to Sol 3 and I am Pilot Karroe Praetor Meshtan Fief-Kane of the Shadow Proclamation. Do you have co-ordinates for me to land yet? I have been travelling for a while and I'm not sure my power reserves will hold out considering the ship I'm towing"
"You're towing another ship?"
"Yes. It's a Macra cargo ship with the reported eight percent stolen children of Earth" he explained, on the other end of the line Mayhew blinked before turning to another scientist. He told her to report this information to Jack straight away.
"We're working on your landing strip, before you can officially step on British soil you will have to be scanned for any toxins or biohazards"
"Understood. I'm just returning your children to you" he explained before flicking off. He headed towards the source of the frequency believing it would be better to be over Torchwood airspace as opposed to UNIT's.
Half an hour later he was given the green light to land the Macra cargo ship then land his ship. Karroe set the large cargo container down before landing down near it.
"Karroe, we're just scanning you and the cargo. It'll be a few minutes before it's complete but I'd like to say Welcome to Earth on behalf of Torchwood and the United Kingdom" Mayhew announced, Karroe rolled his eyes as he powered down his systems. The all clear was given and he was finally allowed to leave his ship.
He opened the hatch and jumped down the five foot drop to the ground, there was a man standing there with a team of scientists in the background and pretty Japanese woman standing next to him
"I'm Jack Harkness, acting CEO of Torchwood" said the man holding out his hand, there was faint recognition in his eyes "You must be Karroe Praetor Meshtan Fief-Kane, nice to meet you... Meshtan Fief-Kane, you wouldn't be from the Horse-Head Nebula Fief-Kanes' would you?"
"No. I was given my name by the Chair Woman of the Shadow Proclamation, she named me because I was..." he trailed off unwilling to talk about his past. Jack took the hint then nodded to the large container "The missing eight percent of Children stolen from Earth by rogue Macra. I am told to give you my deepest condolences for not being in time to rescue all of them, by the time we'd received word by our mutual friend they had already... consumed 2%. The rest I was ordered to bring back to Earth and they're all in that container"
"All of them?"
"All we could rescue, yes"
"We'll need more people and we'll have to set up decontamination. This is going to be a paper work nightmare. Toshiko... I want you to find and get Owen Harper here and the medical term from Torchwood One. Owen is in charge and he's to be paid accordingly"
"Okay Jack" she pulled out her PDA and began to tap away at with it
"I think the rest of us should begin getting the names out of those kids. Maybe set up some sort of list so we aren't swamped later on?"
"Yes sir" Mayhew nodded, Jack and Karroe opened the container revealing several thousand scared children all huddled together in the dark
"Come on... it's okay. You can come out now" Jack whispered to them gently beckoning them to come out of the container "You're safe... I'd like all the boys to stand on the left and all the girls stand on the right"
The children slowly crept out of the container and did as they were told; they were still swamped ant it would take a while before they got anywhere.
It didn't help that suddenly several UNIT army trucks came tearing up towards the space ship and the container "Great, just what I need"
"What is happening?" Karroe inquired
"I'll handle this" explained Jack "I told UNIT to back off but unless they find out for themselves they're never happy and the only way they find things out is with guns!"
"They are going to shoot you and the children?" Karroe glanced back and forth but Jack just shook his head
"Who the hell is in charge of this ridiculous outfit?!" hissed the General as soon as he jumped down from the jeep that had been chasing the arm trucks
"That would be me" announced Jack, he could clearly see why the Doctor hated these sorts of outfit and with the man pretty much stomping towards him "And you are?"
"General Armand, I want to know what the hell you're doing cutting UNIT out of communication with the Hostile Alien Enemy!"
"He wasn't a hostile enemy, he was sending a Blue Alert ahead! That signifies peaceful contact! He was returning the children!" he waved his arm angrily to the thousands of children milling about in the large open space. Armand looked at the scene and scowled
"Where is this alien now? Do you have it in captivity?"
"Why would I have done that? He's not a threat!" he hissed angrily, his mind was beginning to feel unravelled... what he wouldn't give to have some coffee.
"We don't know that! I think it would be best if we quarantine the alien until further notice and I take over the investigation"
"Fine. He's over there" he pointed to the man standing near the all the children. The general nodded at his soldiers while Jack ushered Karroe and Toshiko quietly away to their car "Be quiet, don't draw attention to ourselves. Let's get out of here"
Karroe sat in the back of the primitive land mobile as Jack commanded it away from his landing strip. He couldn't help but smirk as he looked back to see the soldiers arresting Mayhew and taking control of the scene
"I hope I'll be able to come back to my ship when this all blows over" he chuckled "I'm quite fond of it. It is my home, after all"
"We'll hide out for a while until I can get this sorted with higher authority than that idiot back there" he explained, Tosh said nothing but thought it best to cancel the medical team Jack had suggested be brought in... she got the feeling that their people would just get in the way and it would be more of a nightmare
"I thought you were supposed to work together? As far as I know you're not at War with any countries" Karroe turned back to face the front of the SUV
"Working together and liking them are two different matters" Tosh commented with a small smile "I have a feeling they're going to give us hell because we took the alien"
"Alien?" Jack looked incredulous "I don't see any aliens here. I see three people riding home after a late night out... so what if only one of them was born on earth?"
"You're not from Earth? Heh, I was wondering how you knew about Blue Alerts. I sent that Alert on ahead just in case anyone here had by some miracle heard of the Shadow Proclamation... if they hadn't then I would have notified them and explained to Earth as best as I could who I was and why I was there before they shot me out of the sky. So where are you from?"
"Boe-Shane Peninsula" he told him, glancing over his shoulder to look at him before turning back to the road
"Oh, I've been there!" Karroe explained, excited then scowled "After the Teilaras Massacre in 51... You were there, weren't you?"
"I lost my father and my brother" he answered quietly
They were quiet for the remainder of the journey, they were all reflecting on their pasts. Tosh was wondering if there was any more tragedy that Jack had suffered, he'd been through so much and she was a bit scared for herself... did his existence in the universe destroy peoples lives? Should she run from him? Karroe was wishing there had been more that he could have done for Jack, he'd been on that tiny planet after the massacre... hell he'd even knew that the invasion was going to happen, everyone had known but they weren't allowed to do anything until it was too late and Jack, Jack was thinking of his father and brother Franklin and Gray Harkness who had been lost to him. It had been years since he'd seen his mother, he'd lost track of time... time meant nothing to him and he suddenly felt unbelievably homesick.
It was a small clinic... a few steps up from a GP's surgery or a Walk In Centre but not large enough to be classed as a hospital. Owen had been reamed for being late and when he tried to explain he'd gotten nothing but shouted abuse so he gave up trying and got to work. Tonight was busy, so busy in fact that since he'd walked through the door two hours ago he had been running on automatic.
So when the doors opened and that nutjob attempted suicide walked in with a pretty Japanese lady and a scruffy oddly dressed teenager all he could think about was if they had a serious injury, if not they would have to wait like all the others who had cuts or bruises or the flu
"I'm here to see Owen Harper" Jack flashed his badge
"He's busy at the moment" Rachel the receptionist explained but he ignored her and moved to go through the doors Owen chose that moment to come out before Rachel would call security
"What are you doing here?"
"I've got a very important friend who needs a place to stay" he nodded at Karroe, Owen grunted scowling at the scruffy kid
"So put him up in a hotel!" snapped the Londoner "I've got work to do!"
"Owen! It's important"
"Saving lives is important. That's what I do and if you don't mind I have to get back to it!" he turned his back to walk off
"He's become such a loser since Katie died" he sneered making the receptionist gasp in surprise and disgust at his cold tone
"I could just stay at a hotel... leave it Jack, I do not want you to fight with your friend. I brought the children back and now I'm on declared holiday until further notice, I want to experience Earth custom" Karroe explained but Jack wouldn't listen and neither would Owen who had been deeply upset by what the older man had just said. He turned back round and punched Jack hard knocking him down to the floor, Karroe pulled out his gun and aimed it at Owen effectively ending the fight before it even started.
"Get out!" he yelled to the three of them pointing to the door
"Not unless you promise to put him up for the night" Jack ordered as he rubbed his jaw and nodded at the young armed teenager
"Alright!" he yelled "Now, kid, will you put the gun away?"
"Heh it's been a while since anyone called me kid. I haven't been called that in seventy three years!" he chuckled, Tosh just blinked then shook her head why was she still being surprised by statements like that?
"Do you need me anymore?" she asked Jack, he just shook his head "I'll be at William's then. If you need me..." she walked out in search of a taxi. Karroe put his gun away in the back of his black tight worn lenim pants before holding out his hand
"Thanks for letting me stay at yours, I'm Karroe Praetor Meshtan Fief-Kane" Owen glared at the offending hand when an ambulance team came through the doors with a trolley
"What have we got?" he took charge of the situation, Karroe followed him into the emergency room and scrubbed up "Kid, get out of here"
"I'm a trained first aider, I know my way in and out of all humanoid life forms" he replied as he pulled off his black lenim jacket and tossed it aside. He glared at the young kid before he began ordering him around and was surprised to find he knew what he was talking about.
Out in the waiting room Jack's phone went off. It was General Armand wanting to know what he'd done with the 'hostile' alien enemy.
TBC...