9

"They've stopped rising" Toshiko said softly from her coms chair on the flight deck, swinging in said chair to look at Ianto was stood by the Captain's chair with surprise.

Since the Away Vessels had docked and the Valiant had sat in the upper Atmo, things blew had changed significantly. He motioned with his hand for her to continue as John sat in the Captains chair fiddling with things, Jack standing on the other side of the room going over a console "She's right. Looks like the fifth level is almost flooded but the water had stopped rising. They have stopped trying to break the seal to go higher towards our quarters."

"They know we are gone" Ianto surmised, "They know there is no point. They are likely hunting us outside."

"Yep" Toshiko popped the P in a parody of Ianto who smiled at her and she continued "there are at least twenty of them swarming the village, seeking. Looks like they are setting it on fire too."

'Probably trying to smoke us out?" John snorted, looking over at Jack "Jax, check the thermals. Might like to see that random creativity from Bots."

"Random… no not random. How would they know to do that? Would they be smart enough for that?" Toshiko asked Jack.

"In our time, the AI was like a human, could argue, sulk and punish" Jack replied as he glanced at John who nodded his agreement. "Like Bishop in the Alien series, Ripley had every reason to fear them."

"I doubt they would take any guidance from a human, they might have looked at our history though. Looked at how we react to things, our warfare techniques and be employing them thus" Ianto said to her with a soft smile, "The World Wide Web might be gone but the AI had total control over it for long enough hot amass quite the library of actions and reactions."

"Ianto's right" John rose from the chair as Jack approached rightful seat.

"How are the engines looking?" Jack asked as John moved to check and give the thumbs up.

"The battery cells look good, we can stay up here for at least a week before she starts to complain" John replied.

"So another six hours up here before we move on to ensure we are not being detected is a god idea then" Owen chimed in.

"No, we will move to a site we do NOT want and set down, let the engines settle while we watch to see if the Bots respond. THEN we will know if they tagged us" Ianto cut in.

"What he said" Jack hooked a thumb.

"Ooooo, a dummy site" John said, and then sighed as Owen gleefully started to snigger. "Go on monkey… say it."

"So you choose?" Owen giggled.

"Actually I chose it already" Jack said in a warning tone "Wanna make a comment on that then?"

"Now, now children. Don't make me turn this bitch around" Ianto muttered as his fingers danced over the controls.

Jack grinned at John who watched Ianto work, and then turned to Jack in silent question.

"Ianto has flown her before" Jack said softly, so softly it was almost a whisper. John stared at him a moment or two longer, then nodded. TYTNW. Ianto had told him some of that, even if he had never admitted to knowing… he knew.

Time to change the subject then? "Location?"

"So are we going somewhere tropical? No… to the beach?" Owen asked with wide eyes "I don't know if I have me bathers."

"Seriously Owen, no one needs to see you in your swimming togs" Ianto said with that dry tone that made John giggle like a school girl.

They set down on a flat patch of ground and let her settle, the soft ticking of her engines as she cooled down barely perceptible as Ianto stood in the engine room next to them, his hand on them to check the heat coming off them.

"All good?"

Ianto turned to find Jack in there as well, watching Ianto intently.

"All five by five. They didn't' skip a beat. Poor of girl, sat for so long and then fired up, flew and is now waiting for more work. She must have been a beauty back in the day" Ianto patted the machinery affectionately.

"This model was a junker by the time I was born but they were still around. Apparently they are one of the longest lasting models made, touch and durable. Are we really going to talk ships?" Jack canted his head as he continued to watch Ianto.

"I want to check they did not tag us as we flew over, some were visible to us, I means we were to them too. I've looked over the Away Vessels and they are clean, Vally's undercarriage is all there is left to sweep for any tics." Ianto said as he continued to stare at the gauges on the wall.

"Good idea" Jack agreed, a tic (or more precisely a tracking device) could have been shot up at them and with the side of this bird they would not have heard it hit.

"We gonna suit up and do the whole enchilada?"

"I think the time for that is over. Let's not go through the parody of poisoned air when we both know it is going to be perfectly safe to walk around out there' Ianto shrugged "But just us. Just in case we are in a hornet's nest, yeah?"

"Agreed."