Andy Davidson pulled a face as he sipped the stone cold coffee. What is it about coffee that's gone cold and not coffee that's started out cold? He wondered. He also wondered what he was doing here. Guess the old copper in me couldn't resist… he said to himself but immediately scoffed. No, you're just pathetic enough to think it might be something this time.
Ever since he'd left the South Wales Police, Andy'd been looking for something to get him out of the family restaurant. His folks hadn't thought him the sort for the police but he'd been determined and he'd been good at it. After bombs had exploded all over the city and strange creatures had emerged from the sewers, Andy had received a quick promotion to sergeant. At first, he'd been thrilled but suspicions brewed quickly that his promotion had been to buy a measure of silence from him. It'd all started when he'd aced the detectives' examination but had been denied the promotion. When he was moved sideways into a job as a paper pusher, it became clear he'd never make detective inspector and he'd had enough. He was more than that.
He'd always passed along anything to Gwen that he thought may be one of her spooky-dos. Sure, not all of them panned out... okay, none of them had panned out since Jonah Bevin, but that didn't mean Andy didn't keep trying. The city was full of strange and unusual happenings. Every time Andy passed a possible spooky-do case to Gwen, he asked about openings at Torchwood. He thought he'd handled the bombs and sewer creatures quite well and he was a fast learner and a hard worker.
Lately, he had to admit he was more desperate because he did not want to keep working at the restaurant. His parents had been muttering about retiring and having him take over the business and if that happened, Andy would be really stuck. He still couldn't believe he'd had to swallow his pride and ask his father for a job. It was like he was a bloody teenager. He'd sworn that he'd never work there when he was all grown up, but he had to make ends meet somehow. At least his Mum and Tad hadn't been smug about it or said, 'I told you so' when he'd left the police.
He had to admit that the job had put him in the right place at the right time. After delivering the lunch rush sandwiches, he'd gone into Jubilee Pizza for something to eat. Sure, his Mum had packed him a sandwich but a bloody sandwich was the last fucking thing he'd wanted. He'd been tucking into his second slice when the odd, rude woman had walked in. She'd jumped the queue and acted bizarre. She hadn't even known what to order. She'd just pointed at the picture menu and then dumped random money onto the counter. Andy had assumed she was some badly mannered foreigner and had dismissed it. What had been harder for him to dismiss was the ugly van he'd seen her get into that had been missing its driver's seat.
The whole thing was very queer to Andy and the old copper in him had decided to investigate. He'd followed her to the Penarth Marina. He hadn't seen anything strange or unusual but something in his gut told him to wait and watch. So that's what he'd done. He'd told his parents he'd be taking some days off. They hadn't been too keen on it but Andy hadn't cared. Because anything, absolutely anything, was worth the possibility of him getting the hell out of there and finding a different line of work. He felt like he had nowhere else to go but Torchwood. He hadn't been able to find anything in private security. He'd gotten his private investigators' licence but had no prospects there either. He suspected higher ups at the police of sabotage.
So, he'd spent them sitting in the car park, waiting for the dilapidated white van to return and it had. This strange woman was the closest thing he had to a spooky-do in months. Yesterday, he'd almost phoned Gwen to tell her he had another case, but seeing the strange woman driving a van without a seat wasn't proof positive that this was some sort of spooky-do. There could be a perfectly logical explanation for the seat missing. He'd been trying to follow where she'd gone once she'd gotten onto the docks, but he hadn't been able to sort that yet. Every time he'd followed her, she'd vanished before he could see which boat she was boarding. He'd blamed himself and his caution. He'd been parking on the far end of the lot, away from where she usually parked the rusting van. Today, he'd been bolder. He'd parked a few spaced away from the entrance. If she saw him, so what? There could've been a thousand plausible explanations of why he was at the marina this late in the season.
He sipped the cold coffee again, grimacing at it. He opened up the lid and stared down into the liquid trying to decide whether or not to pour it out. It was vile. He didn't want to leave to get another cup but he couldn't carry on drinking this one. He opened the door and poured it out over the pavement. Just as he was sitting back up, heard the distinctive sound of a high pitched whine. It was the old white van. Actually it was an old white van, it wasn't the old white van he'd been seeing. This one had a broken window and a rusted dent in the driver's door.
As usual, the strange woman parked it illegally and got out. This time, she looked agitated and in a terrible rush. Usually, she looked about carefully to make sure no one was following her. Today, she got out of the van and strode across the car park without a second glance. Andy dropped the half emptied coffee cup, and feeling a surge of bravery, he bounded after her. He maintained a safe distance as he followed her. He'd attempted this a few times, pursuing her after she'd gone into the dock area but each time, she'd vanished into thin air on him. Now he had her in his sights. He tried to keep his footfalls as gentle as possible. Keeping pace with her, he followed at a respectable distance and did his best to look like a bloke that belonged there. He kept his head down and walked with an even pace, putting up the facade that he had a destination and knew his way around. Hopefully, he'd see which boat she was visiting.
He doubted his eyes when he saw her step onto a gangway where there was no boat. Or rather, a gangway that disappeared into thin air. He thought he'd lost his mind when she walked up it and vanished from sight.
This was a spooky-do. It was the spooky-do he'd been waiting for!
He jogged over to the gangway. It was like something out of the movies. The gangway disappeared into nowhere. There was nothing but a worn trainer sitting at the bottom. Andy reached into his pocket and took out his notepad. After tearing off a sheet of paper, he crumpled it and tossed it to where the gangway should be. The ball of paper vanished.
Woah… Well, here goes nothing… he thought as he took a step forward. What was the worst that could happen? He fell into the bay and got a bit wet? She'd gone through, hadn't she?
When he stepped onto it, it seemed solid enough. He picked up his foot at the end of the gangway, expecting to take a dip in the cold water. But his foot impacted something solid and when he opened his eyes, Andy found himself… somewhere else. Not wanting to tip off his quarry, he picked up the small ball of paper and put it into his pocket. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the paint-like water. Then he stood up and looked at the sky. Alarmed, he turned and didn't see the dock he came from.
He nearly cried out but instead took a few steps back away from the water and stumbled. He scrambled onto the deck and pressed himself against the wall of the bridge. That was when the scent of decaying flesh reached his nose. A police constable never forgot that smell. He cupped his hands and look into the window, seeing the bodies within and suddenly felt like he was in way over his head.
Just then, he heard the sound of footsteps. He crouched down just as the strange woman appeared.
Is that a bloody TAIL!?
She was wiping the stinger on the billowy leg of her trousers. He saw her adjust the band around her thin waist, pulling them up and that was when he had to stifle another cry of surprise.
Her feet! They weren't feet at all! They reminded him of the two toed feet of an ostrich or some other large bird. Andy's grin became wider.
When she'd stepped off the boat and back to the dock – God Andy hoped it was back to the dock – he decided stood up. He cupped his hands again, counting the bodies in the navigation room. There were three. He felt badly but there was nothing he could do for them. He mind began to form so many questions. From what Andy could tell, he wasn't in Cardiff anymore. There was no ocean on earth that looked like this one so he could only conclude he was on an alien world and that this woman had, somehow, managed to transport this ship here while still maintaining a portal back to Cardiff.
The whole thing made no sense to Andy. There were too many missing pieces. He walked over to the doorway determined to step inside and explore the ship. There could be someone alive here, maybe hiding from that woman. He opened the door and immediately shut it again. He staggered back a few steps so fast that his back hit the railing.
"Ach-y-fi!" he shouted, as he threw his arm over his nose. The stench was overpowering and he took a couple of deep breaths through his mouth as his nose burned. The ship was a small transport vessel – much too large for the fishing boat moor it was tied to back in Cardiff. If most or all of the crew were dead, the interior would have filled with all manner of noxious fumes from the decomposing bodies. Guiltily, Andy shut the door. He wasn't going in there. He decided to amass as much information as he could from the deck of the ship. He took as many pictures with his camera phone as he could.
He took out his mobile, not surprised that there wasn't a signal. Feeling pretty satisfied, he stepped back onto the gangway and walked towards the water. He smiled when he ended up back on the dock in Cardiff, wobbling a little from the strangeness of planting his foot somewhere he couldn't see. He brought up Gwen's number from his contacts list. "Hello, Gwen. Ring me back when you get this, yeah? I got one hell of a spooky-do for you, I do."
When he looked down at the trainer, he saw there was a spot of blood on the sole. Andy wondered if someone had escaped the boat. Or it could be nothing... It might not be blood at all. He picked the trainer up by the laces and walked back to his car. He turned it in his hands, looking at the dried blood on the sole and the few odd droplets on the top and the laces. He put it into a plastic bag and started his car. He hoped Gwen rang him back soon because he definitely had a bad feeling about it.
"Oi! Anybody home?" Andy shouted as he banged on the Tourist Office door with his fist and kicked it with his foot. The foreboding feeling had grown in him throughout yesterday. It was the blood stained trainer that had gotten him. He'd even spoken to a bloke he was still friendly with in forensics who'd snuck him a blood test kit. The stain on the trainers was blood and it was human. It could've been nothing, someone cutting themselves by accident but the bad feeling in Andy's gut had grown. He'd sent Gwen texts and left some more messages on her answer phone but he still hadn't heard back from her.
Today he hadn't been able to get out of delivering the lunch rush. His Mum had begged him because his father's eyesight wasn't what it used to be and the other delivery person had cried off sick. By the time he was done with the lunch deliveries, he'd decided to head down to Torchwood and see if he couldn't speak with her. It seemed like a great idea at the time but it was turning out to be more problematic.
He'd been banging at that door for a bloody hour. Since no one was answering, he decided to wander around the Millennium Centre car park, searching for the distinctive SUV. The car park was almost completely empty and he saw no sign of the SUV anywhere. He kept telling himself he should give up and just ring again or wait for Gwen to get in touch with him but the dreadful feeling was twisting Andy's gut.
Didn't think they'd go parking out in the open, did you? he thought with a sigh. Why couldn't anything involving Gwen Cooper Williams be easy?
He walked back above ground and circled back to the Tourist Office door. It was still locked, and still no one was answering. Looking around, he spotted the CCTV camera pointed at the door. He waved his hands and shouted a few times. He even picked up a few pebbles on the ground and tossed them at it with no luck.
Frustrated, he resumed banging on the doorway while beneath his feet, Torchwood continued their search for Fish. Unfortunately, Gwen was engrossed and she hadn't bothered checking the numerous texts and messages from Andy. Oh, she knew they were sitting on her phone but she assumed they could wait, that it was just silly old Andy trying to toss her another dead end case. The last one had been a real laugh – some sort of hoax some kids had concocted about an alien. She was doing her best to ignore her mobile but even though it was on vibrate, the buzzing was interrupting her concentration. After yet another double buzz, she let out an annoyed huff and picked the phone up.
Going on bloody silent, you are, she said to herself.
She didn't even want to take the time to answer Andy just to tell him that she was occupied and would see to whatever imaginary case he'd discovered when she had a chance. To her utter shock, when she saw the screen, there were nearly two dozen text messages and almost ten answer phone messages in the past two hours! Guilt immediately flooded her. She shifted in her seat and felt a twinge in her bladder. If she was going to use the loo, she may as well listen to the messages while she did. Two annoying birds with one stone. While she walked towards the washroom, she began to play the messages.
Hello, Gwen. Ring me back when you get this, yeah? I got one hell of a spooky-do for you, I do.
She rolled her eyes. It was what she suspected. The man thought he'd caught a case. With a sigh, she unfastened her trousers and sat down on the loo, moving on to the next message.
Hi Gwen. It's me, Andy. Look, I have something that may be one of your spooky-dos. It's just not right and I think it's important. Ring me back as soon as you get this.
After she cleaned herself up and righted her clothing, she decided not to even listen to most of them. She deleted a few of them and then played one that was left last night. Three in the bloody morning?!
Gwen. It's me Andy. I know you're busy and think that silly old Andy is full of nonsense, but I need you to read your bloody text messages and ring me back as soon as you get this. I don't care what time it is.
It wasn't the content but the distressed and anxious tone to Andy's voice that caught her attention. Andy was never flustered like that. She skipped to the last message, letting it play while she washed her hands.
Gwen, I'm outside the Tourist Office. Will you please check your fucking phone and stop bloody ignoring me! Not now in a minute, fucking NOW!
In all the years Gwen had known Andy, she'd never heard him speak like that. She dried her hands quickly and went back to her desk. She brought up the video for the Tourist Office, and there was Andy, banging on the door in between waving at the camera. Feeling badly, she stood up and headed upstairs.
When she got there, the sound of Andy hammering at the door filled the room. She was surprised he hadn't decided to break the thing down! She stepped out of the hidden hallway and opened the door. Andy burst inside.
"FINALLY! You lot have got to install a bloody doorbell!" he shouted. He rounded on Gwen. "Thanks for letting me know where I stand! Left a dozen messages on your answer phone, I did! I don't fancy being ignored!"
Gwen looked sheepish and said, "Andy, look, I'm sorry. One of the team's gone missing and-"
Andy's mouth dropped open. The whole situation finally became clear. He said, "I know where he is!"
"WHAT!?" Gwen shouted.
"A few days ago I saw this tall, thin thing of a woman at Jubilee Pizza. She was odd, like Torchwood odd," he said. He took out his mobile telephone and brought up the pictures he'd taken. "I followed her to Penarth Marina. She's got a boat there, docked but it's invisible."
Gwen snatched the phone from Andy's hand.
"Oi, be my guest!"
"Oh my God, that's Cassie," Gwen breathed. If she'd answered Andy's messages yesterday…
"You've been on this boat?"
Andy pulled out the plastic bag out from his rucksack. "Yes, and I found this."
Gwen took it from him, turning it over in her hands. She immediately noticed the blood on the sole. "Oh my God."
She had no idea if it was Fish's or not. She'd have to show it to Henry. At the least they could get DNA off of the blood. "I'm sorry I ignored you. I shouldn't have done. Thank you, Andy."
"Oh now you're sorry? Now that you know it's important to you, eh?" he snapped. "Look, I know how you see me – silly old Andy, always trying to find his spooky-dos, always trying to get on Torchwood's good side. That's how everyone's seen me. My parents didn't think I had what it took to be in the police, told me I'd wash out. And here I am, yeah? Washed out." He shook his head. "Let me help."
"Andy, I don't know if that's a good idea. This all can get very rough," she said, winding up.
She had her hand up and sounded like a mother speaking to a wayward child. Andy was having none of that.
"No, Gwen, I'm not having it this time," he said. He folded his arms and gave her a piercing look.
Gwen chewed at her lip and then sighed. "C'mon then."
She turned towards the hidden door and he followed. They both got onto the lift and it descended down. Andy tried to contain his excitement as the lift stopped and it opened to reveal the cogwheel door.
This is it!
His excitement evaporated once he saw Jack Harkness standing in the doorway looking very cross. "Gwen? Care to explain?"
The UNIT soldiers shifted, looking uncomfortable.
"Stay right here, Andy," she said, then left him to join Jack. She leaned over, whispering in his ear.
Andy watched as Jack's expression turned from curiosity to surprise to focus. She held up the bagged trainer. He nodded to her once and then turned to Andy and said, thunderously, "Mr. Davidson, you have information as to the whereabouts of one of my team members?"
"Err," he said, surprised at the immediate interrogation. "Aye, I do."
Jack craned his neck. "Anyone seen Henry?"
"He's in the Archive, seeing to the maintenance backlog," Ianto replied.
"Leave him to it for now. Mr. Davidson will be briefing the rest of us." He tossed the bagged trainer at his husband. "Start DNA on that. Boardroom in five, everyone."
Andy's jaw dropped.
"Flies, Andy," Gwen teased. She patted his arm and said, "Careful what you wish for."
The eagerness from before had done a complete turnaround. Now his feet felt like lead and his stomach was a pit of nerves. Brief the team? How was he going to brief anyone on anything? All he had were a few pictures on his phone and a trainer in a bag! He remained rooted on the spot until Gwen sharply dug her finger into his ribs as she passed him on her way to the boardroom. He hurried after her. She took her seat at Jack's left. The Torchwood captain was at the head of the table, sitting in his chair, giving Andy an impatient look. The man in the suit to Jack's right Andy had seen from time to time along with the Asian woman at the foot of the table. Andy swore the man in the red jacket next to her was leering at him. There was a single empty seat that he assumed belonged to the missing team member. Andy racked his brain, trying to think of the name and the face but he couldn't. Finn? Fitz? No. Something with an F. Fitch? Fish? No that's ridiculous.
"Mr. Davidson," Jack said, sharply.
Andy snapped his head up and out of his thoughts.
"Whenever you're ready," he urged.
"Uhh, right. Right. Sorry," he said. He took a step towards the empty chair, wondering whether or not he should take it. He felt too on display just standing there. He cleared his throat and sat. "Right. Two days ago, I was having lunch at Jubilee. That's when I saw..." He looked at Gwen. "What did you say her name was?"
"Cassie," Jack supplied.
"Right, Cassie." He took out his mobile phone and put it down on the table. He opened up his pictures and then handed it to the woman next to him. Instead of passing the phone around, as he'd intended for her to do, she put it down on the table and then tapped the table's edge a few times. The picture on his screen was immediately enlarged and displayed across the table top. He recovered from his surprise quickly. "Anyhow, she jumped the queue and was acting rudely. She dumped her money at the poor bloke at the till and pointed at the menu. I thought she might be foreign."
Hart let out a snort. "You've no idea how foreign, mate."
"Right. So, just happened she was leaving same time I was. I saw her get into this white van. Nothing too strange about that but when I had a look, I saw there was no driver seat."
Miranda looked at Hart, "Modified transport."
There were mutters around the table and Andy said, "I thought it was odd so I followed her to Penarth Marina."
"Why are we just hearing about this now?" Hart asked. "You said you saw her two days ago?"
"It was odd but I wasn't sure it was 'spooky-do' odd," he said, making quotes in the air. "So I staked out the marina. I wanted to see which boat she was visiting but it was hard to follow her. She was always vanishing, she was. Anyhow, yesterday afternoon, she came ploughing into the car park in a different van. She was distracted, nervous like. I was able to follow her this time." He looked at them and said, "Do you have a map of the marina?"
Ianto leaned forward and tapped the tablet in front of him. The boardroom table split, displaying the picture of Cassie on one half and a map of the marina on the other.
"Right. Thanks." He assumed the table functioned like a normal touch screen and he was right. He used his hands to rotate and enlarge the image. "So I followed her at a safe distance – didn't want to arouse her suspicions. She stopped at this moor here but there wasn't any boat. Then I saw her step off the dock and vanish into bloody thin air. When I went over, I saw this gangway. Well, half a gangway. The end was on the dock and the other end was vanishing into nothing. I must've walked past it a dozen times and never noticed. I tossed a piece of paper at it and it – the paper not the gangway – disappeared so I thought if the paper made it, maybe I could too. I took a chance, I did, and stepped over."
"You had no way of knowing whether or not the paper had 'made it' anywhere, Mr. Davidson," Miranda said, sternly.
"Aye, I suppose. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. I walked onto the gangway and stepped to where it should've been. And there I was, on another bloody planet."
"So Fish isn't on Earth anymore," Gwen said, frowning.
"No," Andy said. He swiped on his mobile and the picture on the table changed to one of the strange sky. "The boat is a large commercial vessel – way too big for the moor it's at. I've no idea how she's done it."
"Did you explore the ship?" Jack asked.
Andy shook his head. "No, I tried but all of the crew are dead and have been left laying about. I tried to get into the navigation room but the smell was overpowering. When I left the ship, I saw that trainer at the end of the gangway. I didn't notice it on the way in. The blood made me concerned."
"You're positive it's blood?" Miranda asked.
Andy nodded. "A mate of mine in forensics gave me a test kit. Positive for human blood."
"DNA is running," Ianto said. Frowning, he asked, "You said this was yesterday?"
Gwen cleared her throat. "That's my fault, Ianto."
"Mine as well," Andy said. "Don't blame Gwen. I've been the boy who's cried wolf a lot lately. She had no reason to think whatever tip I had would pan out."
Jack held up his hand. "Whatever the oversight, we know where Fish is now. We need to strategize a rescue and capturing Cassie."
Ianto leaned over to Andy and asked, quietly, "Do you have any more pictures of the ship?"
"I do," he said, tapping his phone.
Ianto stopped him, tapping at the tablet in front of him. Andy watched as the pictures on his phone appeared on the table in front of everyone. Everyone began swiping through the pictures, enlarging and rotating them as they saw fit.
"Ianto? Can you get a schematic for this ship?" Jack asked.
"Yes, sir," Ianto said as he tapped the tablet a few more times. The schematic appeared in front of every seat at the boardroom table. Every one of the Torchwood team leaned forward, examining it closely.
"The ship is the Stowe, a container ship," Ianto said, tapping at his tablet. An image appeared on the screen. "It's one of the smaller types, probably so Cassie can manage her easier. There's a crew of about twenty." He tapped again and Andy's pictures appeared in the middle of the table.
"What other intelligence do you have, Mr. Davidson?" Jack asked.
Andy stood up and leaned so he could reach his pictures in the centre of the table. "Pictures of the planet's sky and the body of water – if it is water – in panoramic format. Pictures of the boat deck and as much of the outside I could get above the surface without dropping my phone."
"I don't recognise the planet," Hart said, dragging the panoramic to him. "Do you, Jack?" He touched the picture and then flicked his finger in Jack's direction, moving the image to Jack.
"The colour isn't very true to life," Andy said. "The sky's more yellow, like light caramels and the sea is rusty, not brown. It was thick, almost like paint. It left a film on the boat."
Jack and Hart looked back and forth at each other, shaking their heads and shrugging. "It doesn't sound familiar to either of us but it could be anywhere."
"Or anywhen," Ianto pointed out.
"Well it must be something that supports human life," Miranda said. "That should narrow it a fair amount."
"Doesn't have to be. Given what he's saying," Hart said, jerking his head towards Andy, "it's probably time current. It sounds like Cassie's created a pocket of Earth on this planet. Sort of like pushing your finger into a bread dough. The atmosphere might not be compatible but whatever she's done to push the boat into that world is keeping the local atmosphere out. That sort of technology requires a lot of energy. To do it across time? That's a horse of a different colour."
"Is there any danger from backflow?" Ianto asked, furrowing his brow. "Do we need to worry about that planet's atmosphere ending up in ours?"
Jack shook his head. "If she's using the technology we think she is," he said as Hart nodded, "then it's self-contained. If the connection is severed, the boat will reappear back here. Worst case? When the bubble pops, the local atmosphere will invade the boat and the connection to this planet will sever simultaneously."
"And Fish will die if that atmosphere isn't compatible with human life," Miranda said, shaking her head.
Everyone dropped into silence and Jack cleared his throat. He asked Andy, "What else do you have for us?"
"She also comes and goes on a regular schedule. Every twelve hours she comes back, stays for maybe five, ten minutes, and then leaves."
"Probably to deliver food and water," Miranda said.
"The past few times she hasn't had anything like that with her, but I've seen her with cases of water and whole pizzas," Andy pointed out.
Jack turned the schematic in front of him. "She could have him in any one of these rooms. We'll have to do a thorough search, deck by deck."
Hart cast Jack a nervous look and Jack nodded at him.
"We need to be especially careful. Cassie is a fully trained and highly skilled Time Agent. Every inch of this ship could be a trap," he said.
"Which is why you and I are going in first," Jack said.
Miranda opened her mouth to protest but Jack cut her off. "Warder's Orders don't apply here, Will, we need fifty first century eyes to look for fifty first century booby traps. End of discussion."
Hart tapped the back of her hand and she met his gaze. They shared a wordless communication and she nodded, once.
"Once John and I have cleared the way, Will, you and Ianto can follow behind us," he said.
"What about Henry?" Ianto asked.
"I'll talk to him when we're done here," Jack said. "Gwen? We'll need you up top, keeping a look out in case Cassie comes back ahead of schedule."
"What will I be doing?" Andy asked.
All eyes swivelled towards him, looking at him as if they'd all only just remembered he was even there. He held Jack's gaze and said, strongly, "I just broke your case wide open, I did. I'm going too."
Jack stared at Andy for a few seconds, narrowing his eyes and considering. Without breaking their stare, he said, "Gwen, Mr. Davidson is your responsibility. What time is she due back aboard?"
Andy held Jack's gaze for another heartbeat, breaking it only to look down at the clock on his phone. "If she's kept to that, then she's gone. We've probably only just missed her."
Jack stood up. "This is a good window. We'll use it. I want all of you to study this schematic. Commit as much of it to memory as you can. Brainstorm on a plan to capture Cassie. Alive. I'm going to go talk to Henry."
He walked out of the boardroom and Andy jumped up to follow him. He caught Jack by the arm and said, "I want to help as much as I can. Is there anything else I can do?"
Jack turned, and deadpanned, "Yeah. Don't get yourself killed."