Election day appeared, Lucy watched the clock as it turned 6pm and voting shut. The fate of the earth for the next year was sealed; The Master was their new Prime Minister even if it hadn't been officially announced yet. Gwen came down from Jack's office where she had very smugly gone to take a phone call from Mr Saxon.

"Yes sir, not a problem sir, thank you sir." She said as she hung up.

"What's up?" Owen asked as he came up from his newly repaired medbay, it had been decided by the team that the medical area was the first thing they should get repaired seeing as they used it so often.

"Mr Saxon has a job for us, Ianto can you book us plane tickets to the Himalayas please?"
Lucy had been walking over from Gwen's workstation, where she had been working while the Welsh woman wasn't using it, to the sofa, hearing Gwen's announcement she stumbled and lost her balance as she tried to save the laptop - managing to throw it onto the sofa as she fell. When she hit the floor she shouted in pain and as she landed on her side and rolled into a ball.

"Shitting fucking hell OW!"

Owen and Ianto ran over to her and gently helped her up as Owen quickly checked her over to make sure she hadn't done any more damage to herself.

"Are you ok?" The doctor asked

"Apart from the fact that bloody hurt I'm fine. Saxon? Gwen since when did we answer to a not-quite member of the government?"
"We all know that Saxon is a shoo in, why shouldn't we do a job the new Prime Minister has asked us to do?" Gwen replied shrugging off Lucy's question, Lucy also noticed the tapping in a beat of 4 that all the team had started doing. Her only guess for why she was not affected by the low level of hypnosis was because she knew what was happening, the truth about the Time Lord and because her brain was wired differently.

"I just think that we're supposed to answer purely to the monarchy, you know be outside the government. What's the job?"
"There's something weird going on, and he trusts us more than UNIT to get the job done. Ianto, plane tickets?"
Ianto sighed and after he was sure that Lucy was ok on the sofa he grabbed the laptop she had thrown, (which amazingly still worked) and started the process to get them a chartered plane to the Himalayas. Annoyingly Jack was the only member of the team with a pilot's licence so they would have to rely on someone else to fly them there, but at the price they would pay it wouldn't be too problematic.

"Lucy can't go. She's not allowed in the field, let alone on a plane." Owen said. Lucy rolled her eyes, she was glad she wasn't allowed to go into the field as it had been weighing on her mind for while, she would now stand a chance of surviving the beginning of the year from hell - she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet. However she was also aware that she had to put up a token resistance as it would raise suspicion if she didn't.

"I'm fine." She argued.

"Lucy you just tripped over nothing on our flat floor and swore loudly in pain when you landed due to your back, which tugged at your neck when you curled into a ball. There is no way you'll be able to cope on a mountain and you can't fly because of your medication, even if I thought for one minute that letting you come with us was a good thing."

"I feel fine though."

"And that's because those tablets and the daily injections you're taking is numbing part of your brain from registering most of the continual pain signals that it's receiving."

"But..."
"No, Lucy."

"Fine." She raised her arms in surrender, "Someone needs to keep an eye on the rift anyway. How long are you going to be gone and be aware that UNIT will be annoyed if I need to call them in for help because you are going away to deal with something that sure be their job."

"We'll probably be at least a week and UNIT will get over it." Gwen said, not really listening to anything apart from her own voice and her pride in the knowledge that Mr Saxon thought enough of them to ask Torchwood to deal with it and not UNIT.
"So a chartered flight for four then?" Ianto asked

"If you are willing to leave me completely alone for a week. I mean nothing could possibly go wrong?!"
"You're just jealous that you can't come with us." Gwen replied, allowing Lucy to get under her skin as usual.

"Oh yeah, cause searching through the Himalayas for 'something' sounds like my favourite thing ever. I can't believe that you're going without me and I'll never forgive any of you ever again. I was just pointing out that I'm medically only allowed to go into the field in a case of life or death and things that could result in the end of the world. So maybe, just maybe, leaving me on my own isn't the best idea." Lucy smirked, enjoying riling Gwen up but getting equally riled up by the Welsh woman.

"We all know you won't listen to that rule anyway."

"A fully trained Roman soldier sliced my neck and back open, running after a weevil is not something I can really do. No matter how annoyed I am about it. I do understand that concept of resting while my wounds heal so they can heal as quickly as possible. I just haven't always had that freedom, that's all. I don't like being forced to not do anything but I do understand it."

"Oh shut up the pair of you" Owen snapped. "We can't leave Lucy here by herself because I haven't cleared her for the field yet. Gwen you stay with her and the three of us will go - Ianto needs more experience in the field anyway. After this when Jack is back he'll be fully cleared for field work and not just joining in on weevil hunts when we're busy with other things."

"What?!"
"No way am I staying with her."
Both Lucy and Gwen immediately voiced their unhappiness at the idea

"I'm the one Mr Saxon spoke to, I know all the information."

"You can write it down." Owen shrugged. "But this arguing between the pair of you is getting stupid, especially now we're a man down."

"So I'm stuck here with her for at least a week." Lucy's face showed just how displeased she was with this idea and Gwen looked equally unimpressed. Owen's face stayed harsh as he turned to Ianto.
"Get a plane for three."

Ianto couldn't help but catch his new girlfriend's eye and tried not to smile at how the two women were going to cope alone as he sorted out a plane to leave Cardiff City Airport first thing the next morning to send them to Gatwick where they would jump straight onto a different plane to Nepal.

"For the record, I'm not happy about this job, let alone being left here with Gwen" Lucy mumbled

"I think the record is pretty aware" Tosh said with a small smile. "But if Saxon has asked for our help then we'll go to the Himalayas and help. It's an honour to be asked."

Lucy was knew that it was not worth arguing with them, they were under the thrall of the Master.
"Fine." She sagged into the sofa, "I'm not happy about it but fine. Before you guys piss off and leave me in my own personal hell can we work out what we're going to do without Jack."
"How long is he going to be gone?" Tosh asked worried about the answer she was going to get.

"Dunno." Lucy replied, shrugging and then wincing in regret with a small stab of pain. "I honestly can't remember when he comes back. But we've got another series of Torchwood to go - he's just jumped back to the original show for a couple of episodes."
"End of series three yeah?" Tosh asked remembering something Lucy had said a while ago, and she nodded.

"So that was what was important about Election Day" Gwen said glad to have got to the bottom of what had previously been annoying her as it had seemed to be a random date by which she would have been told the truth about her colleagues past.

"Yeah, they mention it in episode 3.12 and it's just one of those things that I randomly remembered." Lucy said trying to make it seem like it wasn't important.

"You are such a geek." Owen said mockingly "Remembering something a throwaway line from a TV show. When did you last watch it?"
"Six, seven months ago." Lucy replied. "I prefer to watch the Classic Who right now. I don't know those stories as well as I know the modern ones yet. Plus there is always other things to watch, films, other things the BBC in this world made instead of Doctor Who, other TV shows that looked interesting but I never got round to watching. Most aren't quite as good and some are downright rubbish - Atlantis for one, it had so much potential but didn't actually use it. Just cause I'm a Doctor Who geek and technically Doctor Who doesn't exist in this world it doesn't mean that I can't do other things with my life. And I'm quite proud of being a Doctor Who geek really."

"You've managed to catch a fiery one here, Ianto. The geeks and quiet ones are always the ones with the secrets." The doctor joked, Lucy threw a cushion at him who dodged it as the team laughed.

"Before my girlfriend murders our doctor," Ianto said wryly and Lucy smiled at the term 'girlfriend' "and before we take the risk of leaving Lucy and Gwen together alone for at least a week we haven't actually answered her question about how we cope without Jack."

"I guess we just keep going." Tosh shrugged. "There's not much we can do."
"I mean do we tell our bosses and how to do we split up Jack's work?"
"Jack is our boss." Gwen said stubbornly. "And apart from give us orders what does Jack do?"
"You mean apart from all the paperwork involved in being the leader? Having a fuck lot of knowledge that we use most of the times we go into the field when the rest of us have no idea what we are dealing with? Talking to the heads of all the other agencies? Making sure we stay on top of everything? Nah, Jack does fuck all really."

"I was only asking so I know what we should split."

"Well I don't want all the added paperwork and there is nothing we can do about the knowledge." Owen said with a shrug none of them were expecting anything different from the doctor, who would shove any work that wasn't medical onto the others if he could get away with it.

"Well you and Ianto are the senior officers as medic and head archivist, Ianto's got the longest serving record but hasn't got the field experience." Tosh pointed out. "I can't do it."

"Why not?" Gwen asked.

"I just can't." Tosh shrugged looking uncomfortable at the question.

"I'm busy with the archives, I can help with the paperwork but that's all."

"Well I'm the newest."

"And I don't want the job."

"So none of us want to take over from Jack then." Gwen said summing up the problem.

"Why don't we just see who naturally takes the lead." Tosh offered. "We split the paperwork and phone calls between us and just see what happens. That way no one can complain because we all have the opportunity to step up"

"Seems fair enough to me." Gwen agreed.

"As long as we can agree that the budget shouldn't change until Jack is back" Owen said "That way none of us can give more money to our own area."
"I'm going to write a list of things you'll need to do while we're not here." Tosh said as she turned back to her workstation. "You know how to do the basic things, CCTV, Crimnet, tracking and hacking etc. But there are some extra regular searches that you'll need to do." Lucy couldn't help but be worried but knew that asking any more questions would mean answers that were way over her head.

"Simple and tick list, Tosh, keep it simple and as a tick list." Lucy begged

"I'll make it as simple as possible and give it to Gwen, don't worry." The technician replied with a smile.

"If you're leaving tomorrow morning you may as well go pack and get ready for the trip." Gwen said. "I'll write down everything Mr Saxon told me. Tosh is there any way you can reroute the alerts to come through on our mobiles so we don't need to be in the hub 24/7"

"Not too difficult to get it to go on my PDA. I'll leave you with my second-best one and take my favourite with me and pack once I've sorted everything out for you. That way you can go home at night."

"Thanks Tosh." Gwen said and Lucy echoed her sentiments

"I'll make sure you've got enough meds too." Owen added, "Gwen how good are you at injections?"
"Not brilliant why?"
"Lucy can do her daily one herself but I'll give you a crash course in case anything happens and you need to do it in an emergency. Only to be used when you need it mind Lucy - this stuff is damn strong and addictive, there's a reason I keep it to a minimum."

"Yeah, yeah." Lucy waved him off but it was still obvious that she was grateful that Owen was thinking of her. "So what do I do then, while you're all prepping stuff for this mission?"
Everyone looked at her not sure what she could do, Lucy sighed and went to tug on her plait but stopped just before she could hurt herself.

"I want to go shoot something, dammit. Ok I'll send a quick text and then get a head start on trying to understand Jack's paperwork and splitting it into piles for when you get back. Maybe tidy up the tourist office or something..."
"Who are you texting?" Ianto asked as he came and sat next to her now he had sorted their flight out, Lucy leant into him and pulled out her phone.
"Jack. He might not be able to get it when he's travelling but we have no clue when he's back and he might want to know that half of his team has gone on holiday to the other side of the world"

"Not a bad idea."
"I know," She said with a straight face, "It's amazing what I can think of when I'm bored out of my mind. Don't forget to take the earpieces with you, it'll mean not having to pay to talk to each other in case anything happens."

Tosh grabbed the pile that were on her desk, to show that she had already thought of that and they all returned to their own work preparing for tomorrow, when Mr Saxon would officially be Prime Minister of Great Britain.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

All the monitors in the hub flashed red. "ALERT MESSAGE FROM MR SAXON BROADCASTING ON ALL CHANNELS"

"GWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN" Lucy called to the Welshwoman who had been feeding Myfanwy. Ianto had left strict orders about how much meat should be left in her nest and how often, Lucy was unable to help out as it involved lugging heavy bags of meat.

"What?!"
"Broadcast from Saxon, coming in on all channels. He's on every screen."

"I'm coming." Lucy heard a thud as the meat was dropped where ever Gwen had previously been and her feet hitting the ground as she ran down to the central area.

"Britain, Britain, Britain," Mr Saxon said on the screen. "What extraordinary times we've had. Just a few years ago this world was so small. And then they came. Out of the unknown. Falling from the skies."
"What the hell is he doing?" Lucy asked.

"Jack always said the 21st century is when everything changes, why not because of this?"
"You've seen it happen, Big Ben - destroyed. A spaceship over London. All those ghosts and metal men, the Christmas Star that came to kill. Time and time again and the government told you nothing."

"I love how he hasn't mentioned anything that's happened in Cardiff, honestly London couldn't care less about us." Lucy scoffed.

"Shush, he's English it happens."
"Well not me. Not Harold Saxon. Because my purpose, here today, is to tell you this. Citizens of Great Britain..." He took a dramatic pause. "... I have been contacted. A message for humanity from beyond the stars."

The image changed to show a floating gold sphere with bright lights on it.

"People of the earth." The sphere said, it sounded feminine but Lucy and Gwen had long ago stopped thinking like that with regards to alien species, you could easily be wrong and they could be very offended. "We come in peace. We bring you great gifts. We bring technology and wisdom and protection and all we ask in return is your friendship."
"Oh sweet." Mr Saxon said in a voice that you would use when talking to an infant. "and this species has identified itself. They're called the Toclafane. And tomorrow morning they will appear, not in secret, but to all of you. Diplomatic relations with a new species will begin. Tomorrow we take our place in the universe. Every man, woman and child, every teacher and chemist and lorry driver and farmer and, oh I don't know, every medical student?" The screen turned black as the broadcast finished and it returned to what it had been previously.

Lucy and Gwen stared at each other, everything they had been working for had been broken, there was plans in place for something like this, plans that Mr Saxon had completely ignored, plans that were there to try and keep as many people as safe as possible.

"Errrr, I'll start the phone calls and you try and get through to the others." Lucy said, looking uncomfortable. "And you might want to let Rhys know you're not coming home till late tonight if you go home at all."

"You start with UNIT, I'll call Frobisher see if he heard anything that might now be useful."

Gwen pulled her phone out of her pocket and sent a quick text to Rhys as she turned on the ear piece so she could let the rest of the team know what was happening. In a few hours the whole world would be aware but the internet reception was not known for working well in the peaks of the Himalayan mountain range. Lucy grabbed her own phone and called their contact in the upper levels of UNIT.

"Major. It's Torchwood, did you have any idea he was going to do that?" She asked knowing that Major Bambry would also be busy and getting straight to the point was the best thing for both of them. "... No sir, this was news to us as well, the name doesn't ring any bells. We'll check our archives later though... yes sir I understand... we are separate from the government sir. The Prime Minister isn't even supposed to know we exist, that's what you are for... no sir, I didn't mean it like that. I just meant UNIT is the official face of alien investigation and we're just a small team... ... yes sir... sir I understand that he's my Prime Minister, but I didn't vote for him and we had no clue, there was no sign that he was going to do this... sir I understand that when you met him he was a lovely man... he was a great secretary for defence, I'm not saying anything about that... yes sir... I'll let you know if we find anything sir, if you could do me the same honour... sir I understand that you've been picked as one of the men to go on board the Valiant tomorrow, I'm just asking that you keep us in the loop..."

"Bastard." She muttered as he hung up on her. "I'm going to make some coffee then call the royal family and start the search in the archives. Ask Ianto if he has any idea where we might find anything." Lucy called over to Gwen who had got through and was fervently talking to the rest of their small team, Gwen replied with a thumbs up and returned her concentration to the voices on the other side of the ear piece.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

"We've got an email from an unknown email address" Gwen called over as she went to check the computers. It had been a full on day trying to find out everything they could about what Saxon was going to do, without her explaining that she already knew. Jack, the Doctor and Martha had become the three most wanted people in the UK, which made their job harder because they were getting phone calls from their normal contacts asking about Jack instead of about what was going to happen tomorrow. Lucy walked over to join her and have a look over her shoulder.

"Open it then, and we should probably forward it onto Jack. I mean we know he's back in same time zone as us."
"Why hasn't he contacted us yet then?"
"Because we're supposed to be in the Himalayas." Lucy replied, "Plus he's now one of the most wanted people on the planet, he's hardly going to be contacting us. They'll be staying underground. We've seen the footage of what he's done to Martha Jones' family."
"I suppose. But he's supposed to trust us, we're his team."

"He's on the run and we're supposed to be somewhere else. Just open the video attached to the email and let's see what they have to say." She leant across Gwen and opened the attachment.

"If I haven't returned to my desk by 2200 this file will be emailed to Torchwood." The woman on the screen said. "Which means if you're watching this then I'm... Anyway the Saxon files are attached, but take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started, when Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network"

"Who's she?" Gwen asked as Lucy pushed her out of her seat and started typing away so it could be sent on to Jack. "How did she get hold of an email address for Torchwood?"
"Journalist I would guess and no idea. We'll find that out when we have the time, maybe tomorrow." Lucy replied. "I've added this message for Jack 'Captain, thought you might want this. I'm not allowed in the field and while the others are in the Himalayas I've been left with Myfwany even though we've always hated each other, might release our pets if everything goes badly as I don't want them locked up and scared. UNIT are all arses of the highest order but I'm glad we're separate from their bosses. Give my love to your friends and let them know that Cardiff isn't the safest place right now but we are good at keeping the vermin out. Lucy. P.S my hometown has made my brain different from everyone elses'

"What the hell does that mean? Why didn't you mention me?" Gwen asked irate and confused.

"Because as far as Saxon is concerned we shouldn't be in Cardiff, if anyone apart from Jack reads that email they won't get the actual message."
"What is the actual message?"
"Basically that the two of us are in Cardiff, UNIT are working with the government, we'll help out in any way possible and that if the world goes to shit I'm going to release weevils and a dinosaur onto the street of Cardiff. The P.S is just a way of confirming to Jack that it's actually come from me, no one else knows where I come from and even if they do they won't know about the research that Owen did and what it means." She didn't say that it would also inform Jack that she wasn't affected by the Master's hypnotism.

"And you think that's useful?"
"I think Jack would want to know. Do you want me to add anything else to the email or can I encrypt it and send it now?"

"Fine, go for it."

"Good." Lucy pressed the encryption button that Tosh had on her computer and sent it on to Jack's wrist strap. By sending it that way it would add an extra layer of encryption which would hopefully mean that no one else would be able to read it, and if they did Lucy was pretty certain that they wouldn't be able to completely understand it. She was also pretty certain that Tosh had added a big red button marked 'encrypt' just for her.

(*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*) (*_*)

The next morning Lucy and Gwen sat around the computer screen, like everyone else with access to the internet on the planet that morning they would be watching 'first contact'.

"And in just 30 seconds time we'll be going live to First Contact. It's been announced that Harold Saxon has invited President Winters to take the address."
"Invited or been forced do you think?" Lucy asked. "We've both read the original plans."
"Forced probably, UNIT would have had no choice because he broke the rules. Winters is an idiot though."

"All politicians are."
"Saxon's a good man, he's probably doing what he thinks he right, the people do deserve to know." Gwen defended him and before Lucy had the chance to say anything the image on the screen changed to Winters' face. It was 8:00, first contact had started

"My fellow Americans, patriots, people on the world. I stand before you today as an Ambassador for humanity. A role I will undertake with the utmost solemnity. Perhaps our Toclafane cousins can offer us much. But what is important is not that we gain material benefits, but that we learn to see ourselves anew. For as long as man has looked to the stars he was wondered what mysteries they hold. Now we know we are not alone we will no longer have to wonder, we will know and we will never look at the sky in the same way again. Our lives will be changed forever, new jobs will be made..."
"Yeah and old ones will either be destroyed or become a lot more complicated." Lucy muttered, Gwen nodded in agreement but still shushed her.

"And I ask you now, I ask of the human race, to join with me in welcoming our friends. The Toclafane." As he said their name they appeared, four of them floating around the President. "My name is Arthur Coleman Winters, President Elect of the United States of America, and Designated Representative of the United Nations. I welcome you to the planet Earth and its associated moon."

"You're not the Master." One of the Toclafane said.
"We like the Mr Master."
"We don't like you."

"I can be Master if you so wish." Winters said trying to regain control of the situation as they floated in a circle around him

"What's going on?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know but my guess is that everything has gone wrong."

"Man is stupid."
"Master is our friend."

"Where's my Master? Pretty Please?"

"Oh all right then. It's me!" Saxon said jumping up from his seat. His claim of 'ta-da' was accompanied with jazz hands. "Sorry. I have this effect, people just get obsessed. Is it the smile, is it the aftershave, is it the capacity to laugh at myself? I don't know, it's crazy"

"Gwen check the files for A Master, The Master, anything that might help us." Lucy ordered as she started to the process to put the hub in lock down, no one could get in or out.
"What are you doing that for?" Gwen asked as she opened up the laptop.
"Something has gone wrong and whatever happens the hub needs to be protected. If I'm wrong we can reverse the lockdown and open it up again and you can shout at me later."

"Saxon what are you talking about?" Winters demanded

"I'm taking control Uncle Sam. Starting with you. Kill him" The bottom of the spheres grew knives and a laser shot at the President vaporising him in less than a second, he didn't even have time to scream. Suddenly a lot of the men in suits pulled guns out keeping the other guests in the same place, of course there were no soldiers in the room to protect them because the treaty declared that there should be no armed personnel at first contact as a show of good faith.

"Nobody move! Nobody move." The cameras continued filming. "Now then. Peoples of the Earth, please attend carefully." Someone shouted 'stop him' and Saxon stopped looking at the camera and at someone off screen. "We meet at last Doctor. Oh! I love saying that!"

"Stop this! Stop it now." The Doctor shouted

"As if a perception filter is gonna work on me. And look it's the girlie and the freak. Although, I'm not sure which ones which." Jack ran into view as the Master pulled something out of his inner pocket and a laser came out from the end and killed him. "Laser screwdriver. Who'd have sonic? And the good thing is he's not dead for long. I get to kill him again!"

"Master, just calm down. Just look at what you're doing, just stop! If you could see yourself" The Doctor begged, the TV camera's turned back to face the Master.

"Oh do excuse me, a little bit of personal business back in a minute."

The test card appeared on the screen and Lucy and Gwen stared first at it and then at each other.

"Still believe Saxon is the be all and end all?" Lucy asked sarcastically.

"He killed Jack." Gwen breathed.

"Yup and by now he's probably alive again, and maybe dead again too."
"He's an alien?"

"A Time Lord according to the UNIT files you found. One who had a lot of plans to enslave Earth in the 70s or 80s depending on what record you look at. UNIT don't seem to be too sure about it either."
"Rhys is out there and you've locked us in." Gwen said accusingly
"And an alien is the Prime Minister and has plans to take over the world. I hate to say this Gwen but right now your boyfriend is not our priority. We need to do our job, we'll rescue Rhys as soon as we can. I promise."

"So Earthlings!" The Master said as the screen turned back on again. "Basically, um... End of the world" He raised the laser screwdriver. "Here. Come. The. Drums." Voodoo Child started playing as Lucy Saxon started dancing and nodding her head in time to the music, not caring about what her husband was doing or the sky splitting in two and Toclafane pouring through. The Master blew a kiss at the Doctor as he pulled his wife to the viewing platform and they looked out at the invasion together.

"How many do you think?"
"I don't know."

"Six billion." He flicked a button and the music turned off "Down you go, kids!"

Lucy and Gwen watched on the CCTV as people ran out into the street to get a proper look at what was happening and the killing started.

"Shall we decimate them? That sounds good, nice word, decimate. Remove one tenth of the population."

A/N: So this is the beginning of the Year-That-Never-Was. Hope you enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to seeing what you think about next weeks chapter *cackles evilly* You have NO idea what's coming.

And Happy 10th Birthday Modern Who!

See you all next Friday as normal

Rea