Chapter Three: Caught Out
"Your adventures stop here!" Jack shouted as he swung open the cell door.
Gwen stood outside the cell, she had the feeling she would only be there to monitor the situation and calm Jack down a little. Which seemed easier said than done. It didn't help that the alien girl had a smug, amused look on her face.
"First off, how did you get out?" Jack ordered an answer from her. He didn't get many escapees and he surely wasn't happy to find out he'd had one.
"Well, to be honest, it was actually quite easy," she smiled, though Jack didn't look at all impressed, "You don't really want to hear the details and anyway, you could probably figure it out from watching me re-lock myself back in."
"I'd rather you explain yourself," Jack said, "and the less waffle the better."
"I don't waffle. It's all actually very important information; you just don't think it is," she explained rather cheekily, "that or you don't care."
"Jack," Gwen called, "Table. Chairs. Let's do this properly. Its known to get answers out a little easier!"
"They say the same thing for torture, you know," Jack added as walked out of the cell. Gwen would have retorted back but she realised that Jack was joking, or at least trying to mock her normal police ways. The alien girl followed, understanding the situation and sitting down on a chair.
"So go on. Tell us," Jack added sitting down. Gwen was sat next to him, acting as the associate. Most probably she was going to act out 'good-cop', as Jack was acting out 'bad-cop' quite well.
"I was messing with my device again. Okay?" she moaned, but continued, "didn't mean to escape either. Or, at least, mess around with the electronics of the door and some how make it not work for a few moments. It must have been some kind of pulse or wave of energy that messed with the wiring or short-circuited it."
"Why tweak or mess with it?" he asked suspiciously.
"I was bored," she rolled her eyes, "Stuck in a cell. Which is pretty small by the way, and it smells, too."
"What? You expected five star accommodations?"
"I expected that my co-operation would actually go somewhere. Apparently being helpful doesn't help," she glared.
"You have only done one thing to make it worse for yourself! Now tell me, why did you really try to escape?"
"I didn't try to escape!"
"Then why unlock yourself?" Asked Gwen.
"I said, I didn't mean too! This is because you're camera went out too, isn't it? You'd have seen me messing with the device if it hadn't. What I was trying to do was see if I could manually upgrade it. The force field on this version's shockingly bad – so I took a screw driver and fiddled," she explained.
"Who gave you a screw driver?"
"You did. When I was repairing it, the small one fell on the floor and… I, kind of, didn't realise it until you were gone and we'd finished repairs and done the replicating."
"What do you mean: kind of?" Jack asked, not believing a word she was saying.
"Well it's not like you checked if I hadn't given you one back, and it's only small," she tried to cover her tracks.
"So you're a wanted alien, you escape and you're also a thief?!"
"I was gonna give it back. Plus, its not like I actually escaped, I mean I didn't go outside and I went back," she said looking around the room. Avoiding the eye contact of Jack and Gwen.
"Then we'll take back that screwdriver," Gwen added. Holding out her hand and the girl rolled her eyes again, before taking from her pockets a small instrument, and placed it in Gwen's outstretched hand.
"So, why did you come back?" she asked as she placed the small screwdriver in her own pocket.
"You mean other than your Pterodactyl? I don't want to escape. I'll have UNIT on to me if I do, and the rest of Torchwood! And it's not going to be a good day when either of them gets me."
"What makes us different from the rest of Torchwood?" Gwen whispered to Jack. Jack evaded her question and stood up, but looked down angrily at the alien girl. "Jack?" Gwen tried to get an answer, but didn't reply with what she wanted.
"Because Gwen," Jack finally answered, "She's got three bounties on her head," she opened her mouth to butt in but Jack just pointed a finger at her and she kept quiet, "Three bounties; from Torchwood Base, UNIT and her home world. The only problem is that it is a bounty for two aliens, and we need the other. She's going to help us do just that."
"That's what you told us before Jack, but that doesn't change the question. Why does she think we are different to the other Torchwoods?" She asked again. It was obvious that the girl had heard the whisper and that is why Gwen had changed her voice. The discretion of the topic wavered but it was obvious that neither of them cared.
"From our evidence, from my own background with her race, and from every angle – except one – I can't trust her. Yet I keep her here, alive and safe. I haven't informed Torchwood that we have her, yet, because she's the only one who knows the whereabouts of her friend. Torchwood Base gave out the order that once you find her, you send her to them. They'll store her with all their other aliens until they find the other one and then they will claim the bounty."
He paused, his face was crumpled. The girl kept quiet, as she knew all of this, before sighing and looking on the floor. Gwen looked at Jack and would have said something had he not began to talk again.
"And yeah, you're right it's not that different to what we are doing. But, they won't look into if she actually deserves this and they won't even think about using her to find another alien. She's too much of an asset for that."
"So we are harbouring a wanted criminal and hiding it from our own organisation, UNIT, and an alien planet more advanced than us?" Gwen asked, but from her tone it was more of a question of why? and are you stupid?! Jack ignored the question.
"Do you realise how much trouble you are?" Jack asked turning to the girl, "All the evidence points that you actually are telling the truth – but with three bounties, no witness, and a broken ship that you stole I'm going to take the higher up's side when it comes to taking you in."
"All because I'm clever enough to tweak my own technology and fix things I damage?" she asked.
"And the ship?" asked Jack with a raised eyebrow.
"The Ruby 3000 series was not designed to crash into the earth!" She pointed out, not bothering to mention the simple fact that ships that crash into things, mostly planets, are not able to be suitably repaired with out the right equipment. No earth man could give her what she needed. She probably would have mentioned this, though, if Ianto hadn't walked in with drinks for Jack and Gwen. None for the alien girl it seemed, "And its not like it was designed for interstellar travel, or worm-holes, or jumping rifts in space. So I think you'll find, I did quite a good job keeping it together as it's pilot whilst it was in one piece. Not to mention the fact, it wasn't actually stolen," she added, with a matter of fact and intelligence about her, "It belongs to the Princess."
"Oh no, we've got a Princess involved in all this? What's her name then Mario or Bowzer?" Ianto added motioning to the alien.
"I'm sorry?" Jack drifted to wonder what Ianto was going on about.
"You know, Nintendo, or I am the only geek in the room," Ianto asked.
"I'm sorry, you're Princess is in another castle," the girl said shrugging and Ianto nodded to her.
"See, she knows what I'm going on about."
"Well, thanks for that Ianto, and the drinks," Gwen said, as he left the room.
"So, what is her name?"
"Ummm," Jack moved back and sipped his coffee. The alien girl smirked; the amusement she could get from these people could be put into three simple words: quite a lot.
"He doesn't know your name," Gwen almost laughed, "You know she's got a bounty on her head but you don't know her name. What does it come with a photograph? Because with her camouflage device-"
"DNA strand, and yes a description and picture," Jack butted in; "She's only the Princess' body guard – they don't know her name because their records have been wiped. People nearest to the family are very loyal to them, it seems."
"I wouldn't know anything about that, though, because I left before the wiping happened. Kind of had to save a Princess from being executed for just existing," she said rather blasé, "could have stayed around but I was given orders to keep her alive."
"And you have never asked her for her name?" Gwen asked.
"No, well… Fine!" He exclaimed, before shaking his head at Gwen, "Alright, what's your name?"