Atlantis Café
by Soledad
Disclaimer: the usual: don't own, don't sue! Everything belongs to RTD and BBC and whoever owns the rights for Stargate right now.
Author's note: This chapter has grown too long to post it on one go, so I broke it down to two parts. This one follows immediately after Part 18/1. Obviously.
I'm not sure what Ianto does to alternate Tosh's computer is possible at all – I'm the biggest techno-weenie on this planet. So, please just ignore any impossibilities or chalk it up to Ancient tech working differently.
Part 18/2 – Stowaways and Other Inconveniences
Not having anything else to do, McKay comes up to the bridge and takes over the sensor controls, just to occupy his overactive mind with something useful.
"All right!" he says, clearly relieved. "The ship of those Cyber-guys is gone and I'm reading a planet with no energy signatures. It's the first reality we jumped to. One more and we're home!"
"I hope so," Ianto mutters darkly. "I've had enough of the TARDIS act for a while. A lifetime without would do just nicely.
Sheppard shoots him an annoyed look but chooses not to ask – yet.
"Let's go to the hangar bay," is all he answers.
They hurry down the corridor, in the direction of the hangar bay. McKay leads the way, as he's the one who knows the ship's systems best and can override any blocked doors if necessary. And it does prove necessary, as soon as they reach the first closed blast door that won't react to the usual manual override.
"Why in hell did the block the door anyway?" Ronon grouses.
"Experience?" Ianto guesses with a raised eyebrow. "Apparently, we aren't the first uninvited guests on board."
"McKay, can you open the damn door or not?" Sheppard asks impatiently. "We need to get out of here, now!"
"Care to do it in my stead?" McKay snaps, and Sheppard shuts up, because he can't, and they all know it. McKay opens the panel next to the door and tries to bridge over the scorched crystals behind it by swapping them with still working ones. The first few attempts fail, but in the end, the door slides open…
… only to reveal a Cyberman standing at the far end of the corridor. It extends the retractable weapon housed within its arm and fires, hitting McKay, who screams as his right arm bursts into flames.
Ianto leaps into action without thinking. He charges at McKay and shoves him out of harm's way as Ronon races forward and fires his blaster at the Cyberman. It ducks around the corner. Sheppard opens fire at it, too, but the bullets slide down the metallic suit harmlessly.
"Aim at its head!" Ronon guns, producing a Cyber-blaster from somewhere under his clothes and firing at the thing from both guns.
In the meantime McKay cowers on the floor, holding his arm that Ianto has wrapped into his uniform jacket to put out the flames. His voice is high-pitched with pain and indignation. "I got shot!"
"Happens to the best of us in battle," Ianto replies. "Stay put. We need to finish his while there's still time."
He pulls a Cyber-blaster from the waist of his trousers and runs up to the other two who're still exchanging energy bolts with the Cyberman. He can hear Ronon growl in anger-
"Thought we got 'em all!"
"Apparently not!" Sheppard replies through gritted teeth.
At that moment the Cyberman comes out of hiding and Ianto catches him in a hail of green energy beams. As it reels, Ronon, too, fires both blasters at it, and the onslaught finally sends it crumpling to the floor. Sheppard moves closer to fire a few more shots at it, but Ianto holds him back.
"Don't," he warns. "We can't know what other weapons it's hiding, and it isn't quite dead yet. Let's hope it didn't have the chance to send a distress call."
"Think there's any more of them?" Ronon asks.
Ianto shrugs. "It's hard to tell. We'd need to know how many of them have initially crashed into the Daedalus, and even then…"
"We're not waiting around to find out," Sheppard interrupts. "Let's move on, people; but give that thing a wide berth."
They're about to move on when Ianto suddenly freezes mid-movement, as he hears an ominous beeping sound coming from the Cyberman.
"Bloody hell, it has activated self-destruct!" he realizes with a jolt of fear. The weapons technology of the Cybermen aims at the widest possible scale of destruction. If such a device goes off on board of a starship…
"They have such a thing?" Sheppard asks in surprise, just as the Cyberman's arm flops onto the floor and reveals a small, beeping, blinking… gizmo in its nerveless hand.
"Usually, they don't; not in our reality anyway," Ianto replies, already running back the way they've come. "Although there've been recorded a few isolated cases…"
"Save the history lesson for later," Sheppard tosses the whimpering McKay in his direction. "Move, move, move!"
Ianto grabs McKay's good arm and practically drags the man with him. Sheppard and Ronon race after them for their lives. Ronon manages to slide around the corner and out of harm's way in the last second, but the explosion catches Sheppard and sends him flying across the corridor, where he hits the bulkhead with a loud thud.
"Everyone still alive?" he asks, sliding into a semi-sitting position, pretty winded. Ianto nods.
"We've been lucky," he says. "The blast doors closed behind us just in time, containing the worst of the explosion."
"Oh, yeah?" Sheppard asks sarcastically. "Then why does that darn alarm sound again?"
Ianto just shrugs. To tell the truth, he's been too busy trying not to die to even realize that the alarms are sounding indeed. McKay, still clutching his arm, stumbles across to a console in the wall and activates it.
"Oh, no!" he mutters, wide-eyed, after a first, cursory glance at the screen.
"Now what?" Sheppard asks, exasperated; not so much with McKay, who can't help with what's happening, after all, as with new problems popping us as soon as they have – barely – solved the previous ones.
"The explosion's caused a hull breach," McKay replies, deathly pale all of a sudden. "The whole section's been depressurised."
"Including the hangar bay?" Ianto asks, knowing that it would make impossible for them to reach the jumpers. McKay just nods in defeat.
Sheppard is getting really nervous, perhaps for the first time since this whole mess has started.
"Our stop is coming up, Rodney," he presses. "It's time to get off this train."
"There's no way off!" McKay replies with depressing finality.
"Oh, c'mon!" Ronon is still trying to hang onto his optimism. "Once we jump into our own reality, Atlantis will detect us and they will send help."
"Yeah, but we broke orbit to get away from the fighters, remember?" Ianto reminds him. "If we keep our position after each jump, we might end up too far away from Atlantis for them to find us."
"He's right," McKay says grimly. "Look, we carry our momentum and relative position in space from one reality to the next, which means by the time we next jump, we're gonna be, like, half a million kilometres out. They're never gonna get to us in time!"
"We've got C4," Ronon answers with a shrug. "I say we wait until we get back and we'll blow the drive."
"That could work," McKay admits reluctantly, only to snip their hope in the bud right afterwards. "or" it could tear a hole in the space-time continuum, not only killing us but destroying the entire solar system. Been there, done that, not interested in a repeat performance."
They're all quiet while the ghost of the Doranda disaster passes over them, then Sheppard stirs again.
"Well, we'd better think of something fast!" he looks at McKay expectantly. McKay stares back at him in shock and clearly without a clue. Ianto raises a hand.
"May I make a suggestion?" he asks politely.
"Go on," Sheppard replies. He sounds weary beyond relief.
"This is a starship," Ianto points out. "If it's anything like our Daedalus – and we already know that it is – there ought to be spacesuits stored at every airlock, for exactly such emergencies."
"What?" McKay stares at him in shocked disbelief. "You wanna leave the ship in spacesuits? Do you know how much – or should I say how little – oxygen reserves they have?"
"Enough for eight hours, if I'm not mistaken," Ianto replies calmly. "That will give Atlantis eight hours to find us. The alternative is to stay on this ship. I'm certain you can calculate how many realities we'd jump backwards in those eight hours before the drive burns out completely."
"Rodney," Sheppard says almost gently. "We all know you're claustrophobic, but he's right. This is our only chance."
For a moment, McKay stares at him in absolute terror… then he nods reluctantly.
The depth of space is endless and almost impenetrably dark. The stars aren't twinkling out there as they would do seen through a planet's atmosphere. They are tiny, steadily glowing lights in a distance the human brain can't even begin to understand. Ianto, floating motionlessly in the middle of nowhere, beholds them in awe. Hyperspace might have been a gleaming wonder; here he can see eternity.
There's a fair chance that he will die out here, in the loneliness of deep space, but he's not afraid. His life might have been short, but he's seen enough for several lifetimes; wonders that are beyond full human comprehension as well as unspeakable horrors. Here, at the end of all things, he pities Suzie who could only ever see the horrors. And he pities Jack – his Jack – who can never come to full circle because he's curse to go on forever. For his part, Ianto prefers an end that perhaps will come too soon, yet completes a full life nonetheless.
He briefly wonders whether the Jack Harkness of the previous reality is an immortal, too, or if he's been granted the grace of a normal human lifespan. He's apparently met the Doctor, as he knew about the TARDIS, but he didn't react to Ianto's name. So Ianto's wondering whether that reality has ever had a Ianto Jones – as it obviously did have a Tosh and still has a Mickey Smith – and if yes, what kind of life his alternate self might lead there.
Has he managed to finish his studies and is now living somewhere on Earth as a young scientist, happily married to Lisa? Or has he thrown over everything and running a coffee shop somewhere? Or did he get converted and killed at Canary Wharf? Or has he escaped the ruins of Torchwood One and is now living in a mental clinic, drugged into oblivion?
Whatever the truth might be, he won't find it out. Even if there were a way back to that particular reality, even if he'd be willing – or able – to face the Cybermen again, he won't live long enough to…
"Colonel Sheppard, come in," the comm device built into the helmet of his spacesuit suddenly comes alive. "Doctor McKay, this is Major Lorne, do you read?"
The connection isn't very good, static's crackling all along the line, but he can still hear Dr. Zelenka's voice in the background. "There's too much interference…"
At the same time, the bright white light envelops him, and the Daedalus blinks out of existence. But after that moment communication comes back online. He can hear the voices of Sheppard, Lorne and Zelenka assess the situation, somewhere far, far away, and before he passes out, he marginally realizes that they're just about to get rescued, against all odds.
Mission briefing is a lengthy affair this time. It lasts the whole afternoon – after Martha has checked them out and treated McKay's arm – and all section leaders and every singly officer participates. Ianto is forced to give his colleagues a crash-course in everything about Cybermen, so that they would get an idea what they were going through. Martha, who's also had gathered ample experience with he creatures, fills in the gaps. They both adamantly refuse to speak about the TARDIS and her role in Earth's dealings with this reality's Cybermen – for different reasons – and after some useless poking, the others reluctantly stop asking them.
"How many jumps do you think that drive has left in it before it burns out?" Zelenka then asks McKay, steering the conversation back to the actual events.
McKay picks up alternate Tosh's computer tablet that he's somehow managed to rescue and pokes at it. "Half a dozen, tops, then it'll be completely inert." He finally declares.
"Good," Sheppard says with emphasis. "I'd hate to think of somebody else getting trapped inside that thing like we did."
"Actually, you know, I've been thinking about that," McKay replies distractedly. "Now, true, the navigation system was flawed to start, but the basic principles of the drive are fundamentally sound. This Toshiko Sato person was really onto something here. And if I could find the time to study her theory about…"
"I don't think that would be a good idea, Doctor McKay," Ianto comments quietly.
McKay doesn't listen to him, his mind already several steps ahead of the conversation. "See, I've saved the relevant data. A few minor adjustments and I should be able to have this thing up and running..."
"Forget it, Rodney," Sheppard interrupts. "Ianto's right. It's a very bad idea… has been a rotten one since the beginning."
"I'm afraid I must agree," Mr. Woolsey says. "Some things are better left alone. All right, you all need to rest. But I'm looking forward to read your detailed reports. Tomorrow."
That last little detail leads to a great deal of disdain and a very quick departure of the rescued heroes. But as Ianto's waiting for the department heads to file out of the conference room, Woolsey signals him to stay behind for a moment.
"Mr Jones, do you think you can see that those data get lost somehow?" he asks. "Permanently would be preferable. I'm not sure we can trust Doctor McKay to leave the idea alone."
Ianto nods thoughtfully. "I'll do my best. Although the thing is with scientific discoveries, sir: once the geenie is out of the bottle, you can't put it back. Not in the long run."
"Perhaps not," Woolsey agrees unhappily. "But we can at least try pushing the stopper in tighter, before it's out all the way. It would give us time to deal with the possible aftermath."
"I'll see what I can do," Ianto promises. He, too, thinks that it's the best for them all, although he is a little sorry for McKay who's just about to lose a new, shiny toy.
Hacking into alternate Tosh's computer tablet isn't an easy task; not even for Ianto, with all of his Tosh's codes and passwords in his head. Fortunately, every single computer in Atlantis is networked wirelessly, so he doesn't have to break into McKay's lab physically to do the deed. Even so, it takes him half the night, as McKay's up and working on the tablet well beyond two o'clock – probably needing to use up all that nervous energy in a productive way.
While he's waiting, Ianto writes his detailed report for Mr. Woolsey. He still doesn't intend to reveal what a TARDIS is; or go into any detail concerning Canary Wharf. But he gives very precise descriptions of both the ships and the looks of those alternate Cybermen. He hopes by God that they'll never need those details, but he also knows that the gateway between realities can re-open any time. And when it happens, they need to be prepared.
He smiles regretfully at this echo of Jack's standard hiring speech and tries his luck again. He finds the target still activated but currently not in use. McKay must have been distracted or called away. Ianto sighs; he hates to destroy Tosh's work, even that of an alternate version of her; he can imagine the ungodly amount of work she must have put into this project. And he feels bad about backstabbing McKay, after the man has repeatedly saved his life.
But the risks involved are simply too great, and Ianto has learned at Torchwood that sometimes you just have to do what you have to do, even if people get hurt – physically or emotionally. He's seen often enough Jack making the harsh decisions no-one else would be able – or willing – to make.
Now the ball is in Ianto's court. Now it's he who must do the hard thing, to sacrifice something for the good of the many. He knows this will only be a temporary solution. As he told Mr. Woolsey, scientific discoveries do have the tendency of popping up again, no matter how deeply one tries to bury them. In theory, it's even possible that McKay would be able to recreate the whole thing from memory. But it would take time, and in that time, they could prepare Atlantis for unpleasant surprises.
Although… how does one prepare oneself for the opening of an interdimensional gateway? For entire fleets of homicidal Cybermen flooding one's reality? They've only fought a small group of them and nearly died. Would Atlantis ever stand a rat's chance against a whole army of them?
Ianto shivers, remembering that – by hiding Lisa under the hub – he very nearly unleashed this plague on Earth once. Because of his weakness, Cyber-Lisa nearly managed to raise a new army of those murderous creatures, turning first Cardiff, than the entire Great Britain, then the whole planet into a realm of cyborgs. He'll never make that mistake again.
"I'm sorry, Doctor McKay," he murmurs as he sends the Trojan virus on its way. "I truly am. I hope one day you'll understand why I had to do this."
The Trojan is a highly sophisticated little programme, created by Tosh with the single purpose to find and delete previously written by her, in case the Hub should be infiltrated. It would look for characteristics that can help it recognize Tosh's work and destroy it, leaving everything else untouched.
Since he and Martha are using various other programmes written by Tosh, Ianto establishes firewalls to make sure that only alternate Tosh's computer tablet would be affected. Then he waits.
Two minutes alter the programme reports back that the files have been deleted. Ianto double-checks every other computer that uses anything written by Tosh and finds them intact. Only the one brought from the alternate reality has been wiped clean. The hard drive is completely reformatted, so that there can be no hope of restoring the data. Ianto sends the Trojan the instruction to auto-destruct, then switches off his own laptop and rises to leave his office.
For some reason, he feels like a murderer.
Crossing the Control room, he pauses for a moment at the console of Sally Jacobs. She has the graveyard shift this week… not that it would bother her very much. It gives her the opportunity to correlate all the data coming in via long-range sensors and to look for patterns that could reveal enemy movements barely within sensor range. She's good with the sensors, she's always alert, and she's not easily frightened.
She survived the Sycorax invasion, after all.
Of course, the same fact has made her chronically insomniac. Being under Sycorax mind control is not something that would pass without lasting effects. But that makes her eminently suited for the night shift.
She looks up when she hears Ianto's footsteps and gives him a distracted smile.
"Everything's quiet, sir," she reports. As a UNIT technician, she'd technically outrank a simple Torchwood agent, but Ianto is the personal assistant of the expedition leader here. He outranks everyone, except Sheppard and McKay.
He accepts the report with a nod. He hasn't expected anything unusual for tonight. In his opinion, they've exhausted the unusual ration on the previous day.
"Put the internal sensors on the control screen for me," he says. "Add the lifesign detectors, too."
Sally is a little uncomfortable with the order, as it means that – theoretically – they could check out the whereabouts of every single member of the expedition.
"Sir, this isn't exactly... we shouldn't use the internal sensors that way," she protests.
"I'm not trying to spy on our people," Ianto replies tiredly. "I'd just like to talk to someone… a specific someone… but I don't want to wake them. All I need is to see if there's still movement in their quarters. If there is, I can go over. If not, I won't bother them."
Sally hesitates for a moment, then she does as she's told, turning away from the screen demonstratively. Ianto hurriedly checks out a particular section of the city and sees with relief that the person he's like to see is still moving around in her quarters.
"Thank you," he says. "That would be all. Have an uneventful night."
Sally just nods curtly, still unhappy that he's made him break the rules. Ianto shrugs and leaves. He isn't particularly bothered by her disapproval.
Standing in front of Miko's door, it's now his turn to hesitate before using the door buzz. Sure, she's awake, but would she want to see him in this extremely late hour? Perhaps he should go back to his own room. But he doesn't think he could be alone tonight, after having faced the worst terror of his life, and having almost died several times. So he pushes the button anyway.
The door opens almost immediately, and Miko peeks out in surprise. She's wearing a flower-patterned kimono of heavy silk – the same one Tosh had got as a gift from her Mam but never wore. Tosh wasn't big on tradition… Miko apparently is.
And it suits her. This is the first time Ianto can see how beautiful she truly is. Until now, she was always hiding that beauty behind her shyness, behind the big glasses, behind the unattractive Atlantis uniform. Now she's looking like a princess from a fairly tale.
"Ianto," she says in that sweet, child-like voice of hers. "Is something wrong?"
"No… yes… I'm not sure," Ianto admits. "Look, I know it's late… I shouldn't be bothering you…"
"Nonsense," she grabs his arm and practically pulls him inside, with a firmness he wouldn't have expected from her. "We're friends, and friends are supposed to be there for each other. I was just about to prepare some tea. Do you want a cup, too?"
"What I want… What I need is company," Ianto admits. "I don't think I'd be able to sleep tonight. Not much, at least. And waking up from nightmares twice in each hour is no fun at all."
"I can imagine," Miko shepherds him into her small living room that's practically empty, save from her desk and a few pillows strewn on the hand-made Athosian carpet that covers the floor from wall to wall. Before he could protest, she's already peeled him off his suit jacket and vest. "Sit," she orders, and when he obeys, he pulls off his shoes as well. "You need to relax."
She fetches a few blankets from her bedroom, beautiful Athosian handiwork every single one of them, and builds a soft, warm nest for him among the pillows. Then she takes off the heavy silk garment and slips under the blankets with him, wearing only a simple, white cotton under-kimono.
"So," she says, taking him into a protective hug," and now talk. You look like someone who needs it."
There's nothing sensual in her touch – not yet – but her closeness and warmth are soothing. Ianto slowly relaxes in her arms, and after a while he begins to talk indeed.
He tells her about Lisa and how happy they used to be. Then about the horrors of Canary Wharf, and how he tried to save her and lost her a second time, causing the horrible death of two innocent people in the process because he couldn't let her go. How he still misses her sometimes, despite having gone on with his life. How the memories of the half-machine-monster that she's become still causes him nightmares.
Miko listens to him without comment, without trying to judge him or offering him empty words of comfort. She's seen her fair share of horrors and knows how pointless they are. But when he finally runs out of words, she kisses him. slowly and deeply, as if wanting to remind him that he's still alive and that life goes on, no matter what.
And as her comforting touches become more intimate, until they finally end up making love on the living room floor, for the first time for months, Ianto feels something akin to happiness. It's not the all-encompassing passion he used to have with Jack, but for the moment, it is enough.
The awakening in the next morning should be awkward – only it isn't. When the alarm clock goes off, Miko extracts herself from his arms and gives him a somewhat uncertain smile.
"Any regrets?" she asks.
Ianto shakes his head. "Someone once told me there's nothing wrong with comfort sex," he replies.
It was Jack, actually, after the horrors of the Brecon Beacons. When things started between the two of them.
"True," Miko says in relief; clearly, she doesn't intend to turn this into a permanent thing, either. "Until something more serious comes along."
"Is that an offer?" Ianto asks, tilting his head to the side. He didn't expect her to be this direct and practical. Especially as he knows she's still nursing that four-year-old crush on McKay.
Miko shrugs and blinks owlishly. Without her glasses she probably can't even see his expression from that distance. She's tousled and sleepy and entirely adorable like that.
"I'm tired of being alone all the time," she replies with disarming honesty. "And I like you as a person. There are worse arrangements, you know. Even here, in Atlantis. Especially here."
Ianto knows she's thinking about the love/hate relationship between Doctors Nichols and Porter and nods in agreement. Sometimes comfort sex is really the best thing one can get in such places.
"Until something more serious comes along," he repeats Miko's words from earlier. "No strings attached."
"None," Miko agrees. Perhaps she still has hopes concerning McKay. Or perhaps she's just being practical. An informal affair based on friendship is still a hundred times better than being alone.
They share a shower and go to have breakfast in the mess hall together, not caring whether someone has seen Ianto leave Miko's quarters or not. Sooner or later, the rumour mill will catch up with them anyway, so the best thing is to be straightforward about it from the very beginning.
Besides, the rumour mill is already busy with McKay's bad luck. The news that he's mysteriously lost all data about the alternate reality drive is everywhere in the city before breakfast.
"Tell me, Mr. Jones," Sheppard plunges his plate onto Ianto and Miko's table and takes a seat without being invited, "Why do I have the gut feeling that you've got something to do with Rodney's… accident?"
"Perhaps because you're an observant man, Colonel," Ianto replies bluntly. The thought to deny his involvement doesn't even occur to him. "Clearing up potential mess is something I'm very good at it. That's part of why I've been selected for this job – among other things."
"You acted on Woolsey's orders, haven't you?" Sheppard asks.
Ianto nods. "Of course. I'd never take the initiative on my own in a matter of such magnitude. I happened to agree with Mr. Woolsey, though – and so did you, I believe."
"I did," Sheppard admits. "But you are the one who destroyed the data; that's the difference. Rodney's never gonna forgive you."
"That would be unfortunate, but I'd have to live with it," Ianto answers tiredly. "sometimes you just have to do the right thing, even if it makes you unpopular. Fortunately, I still make the best coffee in two galaxies, so I'll be able to maintain my fanclub. Let's hope that Doctor McKay will understand one day why I had to do what I did… given enough time."
Sheppard has his doubts that Ianto's rotation would be long enough for that, but he doesn't want to argue. Breakfast time's almost over, and they have to go. A new day in the Pegasus galaxy is about to begin.
~TBC~