A/N Sorry its short but things are heating up and I didn't want to break it badly. Please enjoy read and review.
The hub fell silent. No one, save Jack and Tish knew exactly what had happened aboard the Master's flagship, but they had heard bits and pieces about a year that only some of them had been alive for and didn't remember save in nightmares, ten percent of population killed immediately, forced labour camps and starvation, death and horror. No one had to ask when either, it was apparent from his tone of voice that he wasn't talking about the new Valiant, just rebuilt after its destruction by the daleks. Neither Ianto nor Gwen had ever had the heart or the courage to ask Jack directly what had happened to them or to him, but sometimes they could see the looks.
"Tish, I need you down here," Jack said tersely. The colour was starting to come back to his face, replaced by determination. "Micky, none of this gets to Martha, got it?"
"Gotcha, Boss," he said.
"Jack," Ianto had come down and put a hand on his lover's arm, just a light touch, a little reassurance, and Jack gave him a smile that was only a little haunted.
"Ok, most of the people aboard the Valiant were caught in the Master's mind control, most of the planet, in fact. The killings broke some of them out of it, but some were willing participants, psycho's looking to follow a bigger psycho. Problem was, once the Doctor took over Archangel and people came back to themselves, it was damn hard to figure out which was which. Some were ret conned right off, unable to cope with what they'd been put through."
"You offered us, Jack," Tish said, softly, having got down to the floor. "All of us, Mum, Dad, Me, Martha, it was our choice not to take it." Jack nodded but Ianto could see that he still kept the scars, though only inside.
"Anyway, some people were ret conned, some chose not to, others tried but couldn't cope. Tish, you recognize this guy?"
"Yeah, think so. He was one of the electronics blokes. I took food down once or twice, mostly ugly talk, at least they kept their hands to themselves. You'd not have seen him, Jack." That was all that was said about that.
"Well, looks like he refused the ret con but his behavior became an issue, written up several times for his attitude, couple of fights, finally he was offered ret con and a psych discharge. Didn't take it, he's been AWOL since. Jake, you two listening?"
"To every word, Sir."
"When you come off, can you see…"
"UNIT's huge but I'll check among my electronics friends, see what kind of secret squirrel this bloke is. Meanwhile ready to follow him, when he leaves."
"Ok, Ianto, can you contact…"
"I'm on, Jack," Clyde said. "Want me to read the Brig in?"
"Yes, please. Tell her we need to know everything we can about Valiant survivors who are still at UNIT. Ianto, you get the ones who took ret con, either immediately or later. Background, location, you know what I need."
"I always do," he said, but was already turning to the nearest monitor.
"Patrick, I want everything on Tarleton, we should have done this already but I think we've been too scattered. Everything, Patrick, and I mean everything."
"I'll have you the first person who put a nappie on him," he said turning back to his computer.
"We are through with defense, its time we turned the tables on them and to do that we need information."
Once again everyone scattered to their separate stations, this time feeling like they were getting somewhere.
