12
John stood with his arms folded, his anger wafting off him like a bad small that had Ianto's final steps faltering.
"What the fuck were you doing" Jack demanded.
"Creeping" John replied sagely, then grinned "You don't know do you! Secondary flight deck does not have a patch into our the VR link."
Ianto felt relief as he realized Jack thought they were just playing with the Bots. All he would have seen in the flight deck were the lights on the board to show three service bots active. He thought they were fooling about. Ianto let the other two talk, standing well back as Toshiko was next to defend them "We each took a bot out to check the hull damage, inside the room with the life pods to check for signs of life."
Jack's arms fell from in front of his chest a he gaped at them "Are you serious? What if we lost one, what if they didn't work and what if… god forbid you make it… they are all dead in there?"
"But they are not!" John said with triumph, a little jig on the balls of his feet for emphasis "each pod we checked was super green lit with the emergency protocols in place, life signs intact!"
"Really?" Jack looked between them with surprise "Bullshit… really?"
"Yes. We did it covertly so if it was a negative result the others would not know and… we could keep the illusion alive as Ianto put it… but they ARE. Jack… they ARE alive in there, we can give her hope. Real hope. The footage can be played for the others, we can show them… there is a chance of us all getting to space dock." Toshiko said with glee and jack finally looked past the two talking to the third one who stood back regarding Jack with his chin ticked in, that look Jack knew well as he had watched it employed a few times when everyone else was busy.
Contemplation.
"So? What do you think Ianto?"
"What she said."
Toshiko giggled "You know... he is very sneaky too… could have been on our team."
"I do not doubt that." Jack sighed, "OK… set it up and … we are all one team now."
They nodded as turned to leave, Ianto holding Jack's gaze a moment or two longer before exiting as well and Jack felt a weird sensation of pulling. It took him a second to realize Ianto was calling to him.
What?
.
.
They were all watching the video footage from the VR walk as seen by Toshiko's Bot. As they got to the fuselage she explained to them the dangers for the bot right now, making it an educational thing as everyone watched.
At the back of the 'class' Jack was whacking Ianto as he leaned forward examining the screen intently and he knew Ianto was not looking at whatever she was pointing at but at something else on the screen, his frown deep as he then leaned back and drummed his fingers, then he rose and left the room with Jack following quietly.
Ianto was raising the VR goggles for her Bot to look into the small screen as Jack came up behind him "What is it? What did you see?"
"She was at a different angle to me, I saw but dismissed it but… from her angle… it is more apparent." Ianto handed him the goggles and Jack looked down at the spot the video was paused on. He frowned as he stared at it, and then looked up at Ianto with confusion.
.
.
They were celebrating. Daisy was singing softly as she wiped her face, crying with joy as she accepted a drink and Gwen sat back with a sullen look as she was proven wrong. Rhys shot her occasional threatening glances as he tried to comfort Daisy's delighted crying now.
Toshiko, John, Suzie and Owen had followed Jack from the room at his silent hand signal when he had returned and now they stood as Ianto placed the two different VR videos next to one another on the wall. Playing them to the spot he wanted paused. He then retrieved John's and played to it's pause, superimposing all three so the image of the hole in the hull was complete.
Toshiko asked "What is that? There?"
"Grappling holes" Ianto replied as he moved to tap the wall where three symmetrical marks were next to the hull breach.
"Why the fuck would they be there? You can't pull her around in space dock with a tug from that spot on the hull!" John said with a snort. "Besides… there are no skin tags for that, they would have to punch into the….skin…"
Owen grunted as he rose from his seat "Fuck. How many?"
"No idea… we need to wake all the Bots and check for signs of infiltration to know how bad this is." Ianto said without turning around, still staring at the screen.
"What?" Suzie asked. "What am I missing here?"
"Babe… someone broke in. Not simple meteor storm… this was an advanced and premeditated hit. We were boarded. See those marks? Someone fired at us, hooked their vessel to us and then… slid along the ropes to there, blew the side of the vessel and entered" John said slowly to her "If the flight deck was taken out, the crew's cabin area... they targeted anyone and everyone they thought could stop this bitch form moving in the direction they wanted. Not meteors… phaser blasts."
"But we are awake. An unforeseeable thing and now they are on board… we are moving about and they are not sure if they should kill us too or see where we take them… bit it is clear we have hitchhikers somewhere on this boat. Stowaways." Jack huffed. "Fucking pirates."
"Wait! WE are the pirates!" Owen said with anger "Those fuckers are trying to hijack US?"
"Which is why they have not done anything. They are as confused as we are right now" Ianto rose from his seat and turned to face them "The real question is... how long before they decide to vent us into space like the flight crew?"
"The moment they work out how…" Toshiko answered as she looked around "We're gonna be screwed.."