55. 5.30pm Day Five
Tosh was glad of the food, Ianto watching her eat it on the floor of the bridge surrounded by the circuitry scattered around her like children's Lego or something as he floated gently in the captains chair.
"Right" Luke called out, "We have a satellite coming close by, can I scan this one?"
"Sure" Tosh said without looking up from her salad as Luke made a noise that was eerily similar to Ianto's when seeing a new bag of coffee.
"Careful Luke, don't bring us too close" Ianto said softly, watching as Luke manoeuvred close enough to read the plaque in the side of it.
"Russian?" Luke frowned, "Hang on, this is old. Way old. I don't think it even goes anymore"
Jack leaned on the back of the chair as he looked at Luke's screen, "Yeah. I think this is just space junk. You know what?"
Luke turned and raised an eyebrow.
"We could blow it up" Jack whispered with glee and Owen hooted from behind Tosh.
Ianto smiled and went to give the chair to Jack but Jack waved a hand at him to stay and ran to a workstation.
"Ianto, you call the numbers out, me and Luke will triangulate" Jack said with glee, knowing the boy would be able to work out the mathematical increments needed to sight up the weaponry and Ianto called out calmly as they got close.
"We are half a click, a little to the left Luke, we need it dead bang" Ianto said and Jack sniggered.
"Dead bang, good one" Owen agreed as Ianto smiled, settling to feel the vessel dip slightly as Luke over compensated, then realised the mistake and corrected. Jack looked over and smiled encouragingly as Luke concentrated, his tongue between his teeth as he finally got the hang of it.
"Well done" Ianto said softly, "Perfect."
"Right, let's see how much power we have here" Jack said happily and then looked to Ianto expectantly who stared but, then started as he remembered who was in charge and he laughed softly along with the rest of the crew.
"Ok" he said "So I forgot. OK. Lets settle ya shites!"
"Right" Ianto took a deep breath, "Engage."
Jack pushed the button and a bright light flashed.
Then nothing.
"Cariad?" Ianto frowned, "It's still there."
Jack looked over at Tosh and then hurried over to kneel and start wriggling wires, hissing at her at they tried to find the bad circuit.
Ianto turned to remind Jack that the weaponry was still armed, then Jack pushed in a board and there was a blinding flash and Ianto felt the Vessel shudder as she fired and the satellite seemed to evaporate.
"Lovely" Ianto said dryly as Owen chortled and slapped at Rhys, the large man gripping Ianto's chair with shock.
"What the hell!" Rhys spluttered, "Who fired that?"
"Jack did several minutes ago, he never belayed the order to the computer" Ianto sighed.
"Um. Oops?" Jack grinned.
"Jack!" Ianto scolded.
"Aw, come on. It was safe and locked on, we could have moved anywhere and it would have still hit it, we calibrated it correctly" Luke said with confidence, "There was no danger."
Ianto nodded, "But there was no one at the switch. I do not like that."
"Sorry love, we found the fault" Jack said softly, "I can fix the controls so it needs a manual release?"
"OK" Ianto nodded, "Best."
"Or voice command?" Jack said with glee and rushed to Luke where they took the next twenty minutes creating a programme for voice commands that recognised Ianto's voice.
Jack was excited and Luke showed satisfaction in a job well done.
Rhys just wanted to tell them there was dinner ready when they were, he hadn't been ready for all of that but was soon leaning in to watch Tosh as her fingers flew, knitting the new programme into the alien system with ease.
"Did you say food?" Ianto sighed, "We will get fat porkers at this rate."
"Nah" Rhys snorted, "A good meal sorts things out. Do you realise it's been ages since breakfast?"
"Morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea…" Ianto said with a raised eyebrow.
"Aw, they don't count" Rhys said and Ianto smiled as he heard his grandmother's phrase.
"What is it now…6.30?" Ianto checked the clock and fond he was correct, "OK, Tea at seven, that work?"
"Lovely" Rhys said happily, "It's all ready, I will go set up now."
Ianto stifled a yawn and was surprised to find he was tired.
Then he remembered that stag and smiled.
Yes.
It has been a long day, tea and maybe a shower before bed. Ianto glanced over at Jack and smiled softly.
Jack looked like he could do with a good scrub too.
