They decided that it was in the team's best interests to put Jack out for a bit. He was hanging over all of them, making it impossible to do any work. So far Dan said NG's unique signal was very weak. He jumped all right and wherever he went it was far into the future. The words "out of our reach" were something Jack didn't need to hear.

"John, I need you to work on those VM's a little faster. I'm going to call Martha and see if she can find the Doctor. If anyone can find him, it is the Doctor." He sat at his desk nagging Martha for hours, not aware that the coffee Mandy brought him was laced with a very powerful sedative that Anna had rigged for the Weevils. It was strong but wouldn't kill Jack; it would just keep him quiet. So he passed out, still holding the phone. Anna was in his office as he fell face first into the desk. She sighed as she picked up the phone.

"Martha, it's Anna, we are so sorry for this. I drugged him to give us some peace so we can work on a solution. If you happen to find the Doctor that would be great but if not, NG has a way of coming back on his own. Yes, I will be happy to let you know when he returns. Yes, love to Mickey and everyone." She placed Jack's cell on his desk in silence mode. John showed up with Harry. They nodded at Anna as they lifted Jack out of the chair and placed him on the couch.

"Now get some rest, Jack. We'll get him back, I promise." John ran his hand over Jack's forehead, ending with a tiny little pat.

"Now let's get NG home," he ordered as they left Jack behind a shut door in dreamland.


Children laughing on a beach under a hot summer sun, running in an out of the cooler ocean water. It was normal behavior for these three, having done it for many summers since they met. "Five years ago today we met, Andy." Blue spoke to his friend.

Grey laughed, dancing around Andy and singing a child version of Happy Birthday, which was rather not in tune. Grey didn't care because Andy joined in, prompting Blue to pick up his friend and toss him into the ocean. They laughed and splashed in the water until they became blue from the cold water and hoarse from laughing and screaming.

"Am I on Boeshane?" NG thought as he stood away from the children watching. He stayed for some time, watching his father and lover young and so free from the cares they grew up to have. "Thank you, whatever powers that be for this moment."

NG saw the image and smiled while the person that tended him watched. The silvered haired man rather alien in nature with yellow eyes checked the youth's vital signs, making sure the offspring were doing fine now that their father had fluids.

He pressed a cooling tablet designed to save water but cool the skin on his head saying. "Have pleasant dreams while you sleep yourself back to health." He checked the monitor one more time before he returned to his other work in the far corner of what looked like a lab. He check is results and sighed. This new fact lying in his presents changed the view on his past research. But he needed to concentrate on his patient and the off spring first. When the young man was awake than he could find out exactly how it is he could conceive young.


Jack bolted off the couch when he thought he heard NG call to him. " I shouldn't be sleeping, they are out there some where." He left his office heading straight to the main room where everyone seemed to be doing something more than Jack was at this moment. He began to mental rip himself up for falling asleep. And wondered why no one had woken him.

"Uncle Jack, you didn't fall asleep." It was Leon's voice off to the right after reading Jack's mind. He was working on one of the control panels on the Rift Monitor. "We drugged your coffee so we could get some work done. You were a little erratic, after all." He pulled a piece out of the compartment, making Jack gasp.

"Don't touch that!" He launched himself at his godson. Leon, not being able to avoid Jack was thrown across the floor. He yelped as his head hit the bottom leg of his desk.

"Jack!" Anna ran to Leon's side just as the dazed man sat up, blood pouring out of an inch long gash in the center of Leon's forehead. It wasn't long for John to have Jack pinned to the floor, his arms being crushed by John's strong leg muscles.

"You better have a good reason for harming my son or I will find many ways of ending you!" His face was pressed against Jack's while he whispered the threat into Jack's ear.

"Okay, this stops now. None of this is helping NG. John, get off of him now!" It was Dan that spoke with Mark standing next to him. As soon as John released Jack, Mark ran to Leon's side.

"Leon, are you okay, can you hear me?" He turned his son's face towards his, watching the confusion that manifested there that came with the shock of the impact. Anna took the moment while Mark held the cloth over Leon's wound to run and get her kit. She grabbed Harry and Beck as they came out of the Medical Bay alerted to the sound of shouting.

"Get the scanner, Becca. I don't want to move him until I make sure his neck is okay." Anna followed her assistant to get the first add kit.

"Oh gods, Leon! I'm so sorry, I didn't want the field disrupted if NG was on his way back." Jack panted while sitting up after John stood down and moved over to his son and husband.

Leon shaking slightly from the traumatic experience didn't smile at his Uncle, as he would have in the past; instead he yelled loud enough to send more pain through is already aching head. "There was a blown circuit you ass, if I don't replace it he is never coming back, at least not by the Rift!" He shook, turning his face a way from his Uncle. Anna returned Becca at her heels, followed by Harry with a stretcher.

Jack felt the fear and uneasiness Leon was experiencing. He also felt the shame that was brought on by Leon's reaction. "Leon?" Jack was torn; he had hurt someone he loved bad enough to put a wedge between the two of them. Jack stood up and left the room heading away from the group to some unknown place.

It was Gwen that went after him. Jolein watched her parents with Anna looking after Leon before she returned to Leon's job of fixing the broken circuit. "Come home NG before we all fall apart." She concentrated her thoughts up through the Rift's energy, hoping it might find her brother.


He was warm but not hot like before, just comfortable as he felt cool air hit his face. He went to the little ones inside, touching his bump while telling his children they appeared to be in a safe place. But before he opened his eyes he searched the room with his mind to make sure it was safe. He wasn't alone. There was a male playing with some devices in the room. He was big, almost 6'3" with broad shoulders. His build was more of a manual labor type or a weight lifter. He had soft skin, almost hairless, as NG let his inner sight come up close to the man.

The man was focused on the task almost as if his life depended on it. But that wasn't it. It was all the man knew, pushing buttons and watching each monitor until it hit a certain place, then pressing another button. The man was young, maybe younger than NG by a few years. Black hair cut short almost like a military man with pale skin and a pointed nose almost made NG think Roman or Greek in form. "Some God doing his job," he mused while he tried to understand the patterns the man was following each new little design on the monitors appeared, followed by the pressing another series of buttons with a knob thrown in almost for good measure. NG was hooked on the man's work as if it was a game of skill. He studied each move, trying to interpret which pattern would be next.

NG was too fascinated to be aware of another in the room. He felt a tug on his mind as it was pulled back to his body. He struggled against the intrusion, not liking the other's control over his mind. But he lost as he crashed into his waking subconscious.

"It wouldn't be good to have half of you over there with my android and the other half waking up. I'm glad you have enough skill to come back when you have to." He didn't like the voice; it was cold, not caring. It also sounded old. "But you are safe now. A few more hours and none of you would have survived. When my Android told me you were pregnant, I was shocked. I had heard that human men could conceive but I didn't think that it had reached the stage that you would develop a birth canal. You are very advanced." He opened NG's eyes one by one, allowing some kind of cold liquid to drop into each eye. It stung as NG scrunched his eyes together. It was as he went to rub his eyes it was then that he realized he couldn't lift his arms. NG knew that he reached for his bump before, or did he just think that? He began to thrash around in panic when he realized he was restrained.

"Oh dear, sorry, I didn't want you falling off the bed. Here, let me remove the paralyzing field." The voice showed some concern. He heard a blip-like sound and he felt as his arms freed.

He opened his eyes to older eyes peering at him. "Who are you?" He whispered, losing his voice to a sudden thirst. The old man nodded, getting a glass of water. He gently raised NG's head, allowing the water to evenly flow into NG's mouth. "Don't gulp it, that will hurt you a bit, just let it slide in. That's it, nice and gentle. You were in bad shape, but your body managed to keep your young alive. I'm impressed. I don't even think many women would have been able to live out there in that hostile world pregnant for as long as you did."

NG was more focused on the water. "How long." He asked, still a little winded and feeling very tired. He was worried about this man, but he didn't project that. He didn't know what to feel, it was almost as if his emotions were out of whack. So he tried to center his attention on the man's actions since he was having a hard time scanning the alien's thoughts. "Complex and interesting, he must be some kind of scientist or doctor. I just hope he isn't the mad kind like in the horror films." It was an honest thought as he sought out survival information about his "host" any way he could. It was part of the training his Dad told him was on line with keep your friends close but enemies closer. One had to play naive in order to seem less of a threat.

"I would say about 7 turns of this world which is the same as an Earth week. Not that we use Earth time much any more in most of the places in the Universe. My Android found you when one of the perimeter alarms sounded. We don't pay attention much to out there since nothing but small things are alive and they are far under the cooler ground to mean much most of the time. It was a good thing you stumbled into our home or you would surely have died. It is also a good thing that my Android can get curious and go to see if it is anything worth saving. You were lucky this was one of those times. But I didn't answer your first question that is rude. My name is Ismandle and I chose exile to death. I'm not a bad one as some may say but I am a wanted soul. I picked this place because it is nowhere. I have been here alone except for my Android for what would be 50 cycles of this planet. That my friend, is a long time to live here, let alone survive in this dust bowl. But I have managed to create a world from nothing. That is something, wouldn't you say? So with luck you have found my new world. But I have no idea who you are and what brings you here." His cracked face focused on NG.

NG went to his midsection, rubbing his children. They responded to him with love. They explained they were fine and that the man was taking care of them while Papa slept. They also said that they had no word from Daddy and they missed him.

"I miss him too, little ones. I'm sorry I have dragged you here. Let's hope we can figure this out. Maybe get home. I want to see your Daddy so bad right now." He let his mind wander around them unaware that Ismandle was listening in. He finally looked at the man hoping that the children's sudden trust that they felt for their caregiver was true when little Ianto spoke, "You can trust him Papa, he saved us all. It was his thoughts I wanted you to follow." NG smiled feeling lucky to have such children and so aware and helpful.

"My name is Nigel Gavin and I have a strange affliction. I was pulled out of my time by a force that is part of my very nature. I can't explain how or why it happens, but it was to avoid an accident. So that time it may have been self-preservation. It isn't the first time it has happened." He knew even to this old creature, for that is how he looked to NG, that he sounded mad. He also was testing his host's reaction to see if his abilities perked an interest in a negative way.

The way Ismandle's eyes shone at NG made his motives apparent. He was harmless, as the children had already discovered.

"I love how you talk to your children, yes that is what you call them, and it is wonderful. I see you are very advanced, that is a miracle. Such a fine specimen that wandered into my den." He felt NG recoil at his choice of words. "But don't fear, I think I may be able to help you. But if not, you can stay here and raise your family. It would be a welcome addition to this old Througe's last few cycles. Forgive me if I frighten you. But you are truly unique to me, Nigel Gavin."

The old man moved unlike a human and for the first time NG saw him as an alien with shocking gold eyes in an almost human face and light brown skin graying course goat like hair. He realized then that what words seemed sinister didn't really work that way. Scanning the man was easy and NG found Ismandle's language to be a little on the practical side, words were exact, not romantic. So it may seem like NG was a part of some study by the old man's language but it was just how his kind spoke.

"No malice, there is nothing evil in your words. Througe, that means old foolish man. You have not one bad thought about you." NG smiled. "And call me NG for short. It is a nickname, an easy version of my name."

"Yes, I see that now, you are a linguist of great skill! You are a welcome addition." He reached for NG and helped him sit up. It was as if the Android was alerted at NG's state that he was at his side helping him out of bed. "NG, it is interesting."

"I didn't have a name for a while so my Papa called me New Guy which got shortened to NG. He then came up with a proper name."

"This lab is no place for one to recover. Come Nigel Gavin; let's feed your children and you. We will eat and I will tell you my story. After you have rested we will work on your situation. I'm sure I can help you with a conclusion to your story."

Somehow NG felt a lot of hope from this very old Througe.


"You were wrong and you are going to have to fix that with Leon. But I would wait a bit. Jack, talk to me. You know you can." Gwen eased herself down against the wall. Jack was sitting still, not registering that she was there. She had found him in one of the damp lower levels of the Hub. Ianto use to call it the "bat cave" because it was the deepest part of the Hub and Ianto knew that was where Jack went to hide when the pain from living was too great. Gwen found him by luck. Since he wasn't on the roof, he had to have gone to a lower level to match his mood. Somehow she just knew where to go, years of being his friend was the best way to explain it.

"When I was buried for almost two thousand years, I spent what time I had alive thinking for brief moments of all the things I did wrong. I never thought I would get out of there. I thought this is it, you are fucked, and for once you do deserve it. I tried so hard to live without Karma chasing me after those events with Grey. But they came back again and again. Now I'm wondering what else I did to make more shit hurt me through the ones I love. Gwen, I know this time it isn't me. It has to do with NG and only him. I just didn't think and I lashed out, because I want them back where I know they are safe. You should know I don't like it when I can't control the world." He smiled so sadly before continuing. It was a smile Gwen had seen since Jack started to open up to her. "But I starting to understand that I can control myself." His head found her shoulder warm as he just rested there. They had so much history that Jack could just let him self fall apart on that warm shoulder. But he didn't. He felt he didn't need to.

"Leon needs you to explain yourself. We'll get NG back, I'm sure of that. Dan said he is working on a new bracelet that will hold him here until we can figure out what keeps pulling him away. Jack, you above all know that we just get stronger every time we fall down." She yelped as he was up, fast on his feet.

"You are brilliant! I should have married you!" He yelled to her as his feet pounded down the hall, leaving Gwen laughing in response.

"Glad it never came to that! I don't think I would have survived the experience!"


He slid into the main room at one of the terminals. All eyes were on him as he took on the system, typing away like some manic crazy man pushing more and more data onto the screen.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Sally asked, sneaking up beside him. Jolein wasn't far behind; she had just snapped the panel closed on the Rift Monitor when Jack flew into the room.

"It is strength. Something pulls at him. If we can counter it by creating a pull of equal strength, that will anchor him here. We may be able to pull him back when he does jump or it might just hold him here allowing the thing to leave him alone. But first we have to bring him back." He saw Leon with his bandaged head out of the corner of his eye. "Leon?" Jack blinked not knowing what to say.

"We'll talk about it later, right now I think I get what you're onto. So lets work on getting NG back. Then we can talk." His smile that very same smile he always did, warming Jack to the core. But Leon was right, NG first then he could grovel at Leon's feet hoping the young man would forgive him.


"Does the Android have a name?" NG asked Ismandle over dinner that night as the Android served them. Outside of being out of it for a week he wasn't as hungry as he thought he would be. But Ismandle was right; switching rooms from his laboratory to a dining room setting was making him feel more human than when he first woke up. NG had been seven days without Jack giving seven days for his family to panic. What must be going through their heads? He wondered as he took another bite of the mushroom like food that was on his plate with some green leafy spinach looking side dish. It didn't taste bad but seemed spongy.

"It is perfect for your condition, NG. Just eat up; your young need their strength. You don't think I mean you harm still?" Ismandle took a big bite of the food and chewed loudly. It was one of the things NG noticed about the Alien, his jaw was bigger than a human's and it made loud chomping noises like a cow. Otherwise Ismandle look more human especially since the room's softer light made his eyes seem more light brown than golden.

NG smiled, reaching for a bigger mouthful of the food. He found he was a lot hungrier than he thought he was now that the children were happy that they finally got something to eat.

"It isn't that, I could sense it if you were a danger. I felt that in the lab, that you weren't any harm to me. I was thinking of my family and of my children's father. They all must be so worried right now. I have to find a way back." He took a sip of the purest water he ever tasted. He looked at the waterfall that was in the stone-faced room and then it hit him. He turned back to Ismandle and said. "We are underground, aren't we?"

He watched his new companion before commenting. He liked NG, saw something different in him from the moment he first saw him. He seemed lost now, almost displaced but somehow curious. "Yes we are, that is the only way to beat the high temperatures of the surface above. I think there are only a few hours you can be topside safely. I mentioned the things that live deep here. I'm one of those. It has been a while for me since I have been topside. I have all I need down here." He smiled before taking another bite. When he finished his chewing ritual he answered NG's first question. "Pado, I call him Pado. It means one made with purpose. His purpose is to help me and keep me from going insane without anyone to talk to. I am alone here, after all." He held his head down for a few minutes before returning to NG and going on. "It gets lonely to the point of infinity down here. Ah, but I don't have to read minds to know you have that 'how did you get to this lonely, barren place' thought in your head. It is complicated NG and a long story."

NG finished his food and said. "Pado, can I have some more?" If the Android had been human NG would have thought his face seemed pleased at being referred to by his name. "I love stories at dinner. I also want to know if it would be okay to swim in that pool?" He took a sip of water and grinned at Ismandle before turning his attention to the clean water shimmering in the caves dimmed light.

"You are adorable. I'm so pleased to tell my story. I didn't think I would ever get the chance to pass on my life to anyone except a memory chip. Well here goes and I will even begin it like a proper story. When it is over and you have digested you can go for a swim."

NG sat back in his head and closed his eyes allowing Ismandle's words to enter his mind forming the images of his story.

"Once upon a time, in a land far away, I was a lonely young man that met the perfect mate to spend all my days with. She was everything to me despite what my clan said and her clan thought and still we were bounded together by tying our hands. It meant forever until we don't see, hear, speak or breathe and we go back to the earth, the clay we really are.

"I loved her more than my own life. I would have given her my life if it meant she was still in this Universe.

"We were so in love we never saw the problems. I worked as a researcher and scientist gathering information needed to help many other races living on my world. We loved Varity and many different peoples came to be amongst our own. It was a golden age of ideas and sharing cultures, a true concept of Utopia. We had our first child in that time period and our parents warmed up to each other and us.

"Myal my wife, held our daughter in her arms and smiled. She always looked so full of life. Her smile is what made me to do right for both their sakes. So I worked hard and never complained, getting my own department in genetic studies and biological engineering. With so many different species on the planet sooner or later one from one species would become interested and develop desires for another." Ismandle waited for NG to smile, guessing the young man understood what he was implying.

"Yes, you guessed correct I began a study in interspecies sexual compatibility, improving sexual function and breeding. Some were easy, almost naturally compatible and reasonable sexual bliss wasn't a problem. You know the saying where there is a will there is a way. But as for procreation not all are able to conceive young with another kind. So we engineered ways to retrofit means of allowing one species to mate and conceive with another. It was very advanced and it made so many happy. The golden age flourished.

"My Myal gave me my boy next and the years passed quickly, too quickly for my work. It made me miss me my children growing and I woke one day to a married daughter and a son going into law enforcement.

"Where did the time go, Myal?" I asked her one night as we finished our intimacy.

"It ran past a man that has done nothing but brought others life. You should never be disappointed, the great one had greater plans for you than just a family." She saw it that way, and I believed it. I'm not sure of that now." He paused his eyes almost shining with water, gold and blazing in pain.

NG bumped his mind easily, startling Ismandle. "I'm sorry, I just had such an image of her, so beautiful up until the end. It wasn't long after that they came to paradise and destroyed it. At first it was just like any other race, we welcomed them and let them live with us. It was plain that many of the other kinds that we shared our world with didn't see them as anything more than a threat. I can't even say their name it is just wrong, so wrong for anything living to say.

"They came because their race was dying looking like demons with wings. We gave them aid, which is our way. They didn't think it was enough and began to take out little towns on the planet each time they weren't happy.

"We tried and tried and worked on ways to give them what they wanted, offering our race as a surrogates for their pleasure. All we asked was that they let the other species go in peace.

"As a warning they gathered all of them up, millions of souls and killed them. When that didn't get their answers fast enough, they started on our people. In groups of a few thousand every day we failed to come up with an answer they killed my people."

He waited for NG to settle his emotions before Ismandle continued the story. NG was upset because the only image he had in his of the others was that of Loyalwin's people, his half brother's father. Ismandle nodded, seeing that NG and he shared a common enemy.

"You know of them? May I ask how?"

NG didn't want to give too much away. The voice of his Dad reinforcing "the never say too much" concept was in his head. So he just said a minimal version though it bothered him to not give his friend the whole truth. "My Papa was enslaved and mated to one. They aren't all bad at least his master was very kind. I feel horrid now, sick almost at what I know you are going to say next." He braced himself for the images.

Ismandle studied NG for a moment before he sighed. There was a bigger story with the youth than he thought. But there was no rush here; NG's story could unfold slowly if needed.

"We never got that far with them. So it wasn't our studies that helped them. Though I have a feeling that even though I came here far away from them, at some point they will find me.

"They took a thousand more one day, my wife being in that group. My son the next day and my daughter and her husband on the next. I didn't know until weeks later and we were still no closer to the solution. In desperation our leaders devised a plan to destroy our world. We had one ship to leave the world in and it was decided that the genetic engineering staff would go and create our race again. Our wise ones told our captures that they had found a way. They invited their leaders to show them and while they talked we escaped, detonating our beloved planet." He stopped there and wiped his eyes. "I can still hear Myal singing to our children and what would have been their children." He stood and went to gaze at the pond.

"Six months by Earth time into living here, my friends died from many different things, mainly from a broken heart, no will to continue. I survived and have been here since. But I still think one day 'they' will find me." He moved towards the far end of the room.

"Ismandle…" NG began but a raised hand stopped him from speaking.

"Go for a swim. Your body needs it, nothing too strenuous, just easy simple movements. I thank you for your sympathy but I have learned to understand as Myal taught me, that the Universe has plans for me. So I deal with what I lost and keep going with my research."

He left NG sitting at the table. Staring at the water.


Dan didn't like the reading he was picking up. After they sent Leon home or rather he was taken home. Polly was so mad, John thought that she would rip Jack apart, greeted them at the door. Dan didn't like letting Leon go, he needed him for tech support. Right now he was trying to replace another damaged circuit when he saw a fluctuation in NG's readings.

"Sally and Jolein, I need you back in the main room. I want you to cross-reference NG's last location with this new signal I'm getting. See if you can tell me if it is he." He careful put the circuit back with a sigh. He wiped his brow as his wife giggled at him.

"You were always afraid you were going to break it. Ianto used to fix that thing all the time. I remember the first time I saw him; he was climbing out of it with a scowl. Jack said something like "I love when the Rift pops out a good looking man in a suit," which made Ianto roll his eyes. I thought Jack was just such a pervert back then until I learned to laugh. I still can't believe you are scared of it."

Dan smiled. "Ianto was there to take care of it and then Leon took over. I seemed to only want to know how it worked and improve its functionality. After that touching it was never my thing. Just hope I have it lined up correctly?" He looked at Jolein typing away at her terminal.

"Affirmative, you have done it correctly Uncle Dan. Better than Leon but not as graceful as Uncle Ianto would have repaired the old girl." She smiled.

"How do we know it's a girl?" Sally asked.

"Because she has curves and is a bitch when not treated right!" John snickered as he went to kiss his daughter's cheek.

"Makes sense to me." Dan said as Sally frowned at the group.

"Never mind, how is Leon?" She turned her attention to John.

John didn't take his eye off the monitor as he spoke. "Hurt more than just physically. But I shouldn't blame Jack for all of it. I would have reacted the same way, and Jack was still a little doped up. I don't think Polly will let Leon back to work or Jack to set foot in her house again or near her children. I don't blame her there but I'm sure it will all work out. Leon just needs time to think and Jack needs to make it better." He sat down pulling out the three Vortex Manipulators from his desk drawer. He ran a few quick scans and stood.

"I'm going down to the lab to work on these. If anything happen let me know." He smiled at his daughter who didn't look up as she waved at him.

John sighed before leaving to work on the impossible.

End Chapter 28

TBC