Disclaimer: I don't own what you recognise; the drill should be familiar to you by now
Feedback: I'd appreciate it; I'm trying to do something a bit different here
AN: This chapter ended up being a bit shorter than I was expecting, but for obvious reasons I didn't want to just go over the flashbacks to Jack's time with Angelo in 1927, and Jack and Gwen's talk in the car wouldn't have been significantly changed by the Doctor's presence during events so far, so I ended up with this.
The Age of Paradox 2.5: Miracle Day
"Pond and Cooper, political activists extraordinaire!" the Doctor grinned at the two women as they walked back into the apartment. "Good flight?"
"As good as you'd expect," Gwen said, a slightly distant expression on her face as she shrugged uncertainly.
"And as for us being political activists, we did have some help from Sarah, you know-" Amy began.
"Oh, Sarah's tops, obviously, but she couldn't have done it without you two as the sources of the right material," the Doctor said, still smiling broadly at the two women. "Getting into the camps, getting all that incriminating footage together and getting out with it and one of their own patients? Couldn't have done better myself!"
"Even when it didn't do much?"
"OK, so they haven't shut the camps down yet; nobody expected it was going to be that easy," Amy shot a frustrated glare over at Agent Matheson as he paced around the apartment. "We're making progress; isn't that what matters?"
"And we got Maloney fired from that camp," Vera added, a bitter glare on her face at the memory. "At least that asshole won't be making decisions like that any more…"
"And what guarantee have we got-?"
"You are strongly reminding me of Compassion right now, Agent Matheson," the Doctor cut Rex off.
"What?"
"An old friend of mine," the Doctor repeated, a briefly wistful smile on his face. "She often wondered why I did anything when half the time she felt that the problems we encountered could have been solved without my presence, even if most of the time my absence would have led to more innocent death or the innocent being enslaved or endangered for longer…"
"And she was called 'Compassion'?" Matheson observed.
"The nickname was meant to be ironic," the Doctor waved a dismissive hand. "The point is that sometimes we just have to be content that we've done the best we can with what's available, rather than making the big changes all at once."
"Even when we know that this whole operation was sanctioned by the government?" Esther asked, looking shakily around the room. "They have our names…"
"They have no reason to focus on any of us right now," Jack affirmed, looking reassuringly at the young American before he sighed and looked grimly around the room. "Unfortunately, like I said before, we just aren't equipped to stage the kind of political revolt necessary to get those camps shut down while we're in the middle of this kind of emergency. We need to get to the source if we're going to stop this, no matter what we feel about the camps themselves."
"So long as we're all agreed they're unacceptable," Vera nodded.
"You're sure that we can't use your UNIT contacts for this?" Amy looked over at the Doctor.
"I spoke with the Brigadier about it," the Doctor shook his head, his expression unusually solemn. "He agrees that the camps are unacceptable, but if we can't provide an alternative or a means of stopping the Miracle right now, UNIT have no choice but to accept the government's decision to maintain the camps to cope with the unprecedented situation."
"The Brigadier?" Matheson looked curiously at the Doctor. "Who the hell is that?"
"Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, an old friend of mine from my days working as a scientific advisor for a government task force," the Doctor clarified, briefly smiling at the thought. "He's retired now, but he has enough contacts to give me a few updates even now, even if he can't take action directly in the current crisis."
"…Right," Gwen looked thoughtfully around the room for a moment before she looked back at Esther. "Seriously, the camps are still in operation after that broadcast? I… I guess I was hoping something would have changed while we were in the air…"
"Without any evidence that they're doing anything to people who are still visibly alive… well, it's easy enough to argue that everyone they're putting in the incinerators would be dead without the Miracle and probably isn't aware of anything at this point anyway," Vera explained with a bitter edge to her voice. "Internet forums are constantly talking about how, as far as the general public knows, everyone in the modules could have suffered some kind of stroke or serious injury that would have killed them without the Miracle; we can protest about conditions, but we can't prove they're treating actual living people that way… if we define 'living' as people who'd definitively survive the Miracle."
The group fell silent at that comment, all uncomfortable at the point the doctor had just brought up. While they all acknowledged that the current state of society post-Miracle was unsustainable long-term, for the moment it was easiest to just try and not think about the fact that, if they succeeded in undoing the Miracle, they would essentially be 'killing' everyone kept alive by the current state of the world.
The Doctor could appreciate the concept of euthanasia as a principle if the relevant party was certain he didn't want to live any more, but the idea of making that kind of decision for everyone affected by the Miracle…
Something to work out when we get to the point where it's an option.
"Uh… Jack?" Gwen looked over at him. "Could you… come down to the car? I've got to show you something…"
"Anything good?" Matheson asked.
"Just… a few things I'd like to talk with you about," Gwen shrugged as she looked over at Amy. "Sorry I didn't mention it earlier, but… I mean, we had a lot going on, and I just remembered it when I was checking in on Rhys…"
"I get it; still not used to working with anyone who's not on the old team," Amy nodded at Gwen in understanding. "We all get used to keeping secrets when we're working with him."
"Oi!" the Doctor grinned over at Amy in mock hurt.
"On my way down," Jack nodded at Gwen with a smile as he followed her out of the room.
"…Old team?" Vera looked curiously at Amy. "I thought you all-?"
"The Doctor and Jack are old friends, but the rest of us… we knew of each other, but we haven't really worked together before all this," Amy clarified.
"What?" Matheson looked sharply at her. "After all that-?"
"I was never an official member of Torchwood, but once I made contact with Jack in his role as head of the organisation I made it clear that he was free to call me for assistance if he required my services," the Doctor clarified before fixing the ex-CIA agent with a cool stare. "And considering how you ended up trying to arrest us when you met us, I hardly think you're in a position to criticise us for telling a few white lies that would guarantee we'd all stick together."
"…I don't get you," Matheson groaned as he looked at the Doctor in frustration.
"Well, it would be a dull world if we all just 'got' each other like that," the Doctor countered with a cool smile.
"Talking of 'getting' people, shouldn't Gwen have finished showing Jack… whatever she had?" Natalie asked, looking curiously at the door the other two had left through earlier.
"Maybe…" the Doctor said, his expression thoughtful before he looked over at Esther. "Is Gwen still wearing those Eye-5 lenses?"
"Yeah…" Esther began, looking at the relevant laptop with idle curiosity that swiftly became more serious concern. "And they're blocked."
"Blocked?" Amy repeated. "Aren't they… I mean, don't we have unique access to that network?"
"We should…" Esther said, walking over to the relevant laptop and bringing up the appropriate window. The group in the apartment didn't need more than a cursory glance to realise that things weren't looking good; the distinct red 'BLOCKED' in the middle of the screen made it clear that something bad was going on. "Oh no…"
"That's not good," the Doctor said grimly.
"You think?" Rex shot a glare at the Time Lord before he looked back at Esther. "Can we track them?"
"Yes," Esther said, already rapidly working at the laptop. "I can follow the lenses from here; should we-?"
"Our more immediate priority is to make sure Gwen's family are safe from potential reprisals once whoever sent this message isn't in a position to do anything about it at their end," the Doctor explained firmly. "Keep tracking Gwen and we'll follow them soon; if she doesn't want to draw attention to herself, she won't be going fast enough that we'll have a hard time catching up, but we'll want to give ourselves time to get into a suitable position to do something once they stop…"
Amy didn't need her long training with the Doctor to realise that there were several holes in this suggested situation, but the anxiety on the Doctor's face made it clear that he was more focused on getting a general plan out there that he could refine later.