Hello again all! Just taking a break out of studying for exams to bring you the next installment of 'Strange Happenings' I hope you enjoy!

bbmcowgirl: I'm glad you enjoyed it and I hope you do like Taye, because he's sticking around!

Pirate Treasure 1

Ianto sat at his desk in the Information center. There hadn't been anyone in for a few hours now, but then again, they didn't actually encourage people using the Information Center. He was searching the web looking for Alien objects being put up for sale. Nothing much was really jumping out at him today. He was about to give up a search, when an advertisement caught his eye.

Cardiff University Science Association

Presents

Out of This World

May 17 - May 21

A Convention for all things Science Fiction

Come and Pick up your real space artifact

along with experts and stories of alien encounters

-Students Only-

Ianto clicked print and the printer whirled to life as the advertisement started coming out. It was their job to check out these conventions, as stupid as they usually were. Once or twice they had found some real stuff at these things. He took the printout and headed down into the hub. Downstairs, the others were busy working on various other issues, Gwen as checking the Police files for anything unexplained, Taye was dissecting an alien that they'd accidentally killed the day before, Astra was working on something with the rift monitors and Jack was in his office.

"There's another one of those conventions," Ianto said.

Gwen groaned, it was her turn to go. Jack came out of his office to listen, "Where?"

"The University," Ianto replied and handed Jack the printout.

Jack read it over, "Students only, huh?"

Gwen's eyes lit up, "Really?"

"Isn't it something that we have a Cardiff U. student working here?" He crossed over to where Astra was working and put the print out on the desk beside her.

She looked down at the paper, then up at him, "No way! I am not going to the Science Association's sci-fi convention."

"Astra, it's a responsibility of all Torchwood people to go to these things," Jack said.

"Except, I don't actually work here Jack. I'm just filling in till you hire someone to do this job... Which over the past two months I haven't seen much of," She added.

Jack frowned, she was right, "Ok, but it does say students only and, well, I'm asking really nicely, please?" He flashed her his largest charm smile.

She frowned at him, sighed, "Fine, but this is seriously going to seriously kill my reputation!"

"What reputation?" Taye asked, coming out of the medical bay.

"Of being one of the only Engineering students not into aliens and the such..." She muttered.

Gwen cracked up laughing, "Thank god no one knows where you work!!"

Jack and Ianto couldn't hide the grins off their faces, "So you'll do it?" Jack asked.

Frowning Astra nodded, "But only if someone can help me come up with a good enough excuse for being at this thing should I run into somebody I know."

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

Astra grumbled to herself as she parked her bike outside the University. She wanted to throttle Jack Harkness and his idea, how hard would it have been to fake an ID card and send Gwen? She kept her head down as she made her way into the Science display center. She wore her hair down, as to cover her face and her ear piece. In her bag was a scanner, that would allow the others back at the hub to tell her if she passed anything truly alien, but she doubted it that she would find anything.

She walked around, feigning interest in the stuff on display. People walked around in Star Trek Uniforms or costumes from other shows. Jack had forced her to at least wear a hat advertising 'The X-Files.' She pulled it lower down over her face. People were wildly discussing alien abductions and little green men. She rolled her eyes. Even before meeting Torchwood, she had never believed in the little green men theory. She passed the so-called 'experts' and didn't bother to talk to them. It was as she was making her way to the 'Real Alien Artifacts' stalls that disaster struck.

"No way! It's Astra!" A guy called, he made his way over to her and reached out to take the hat from her. She groaned, "I thought you didn't like these things!"

"I don't Jason."

"Then what are you doing here? Awesome hat by the way, I mean, the truth really is out there! Scully and Mulder were onto something!"

She sighed and heard Jack laughing over the comm system. So nice that he found this funny, "A friend has this geeky little brother, but he's not a student here, asked me to come get him something. I'm really not here by choice. I kind of owe him one." Back in the hub, Jack knew she wasn't talking about a favour that she was repaying. He was in for it when she returned.

"Righto! Want me to show you some cool stuff the kid would probably like?"

Astra sighed, "Yeah... Ok Jason..."

Excitedly, the guy lead her over to the stalls and started pointing things out. She nodded, smiled and made reassuring sounds at the right times. Not a peep from the hub. Not till the fifth stall.

"Astra, check out the box beside you," Jack's voice.

Before she'd left, she'd hacked into the University Security System so that they could see what was there. She looked up, the camera was pointing right at her. Jason was still talking about something, which she knew was scientifically flawed, on earth and every other planet in existence. She picked up the box and opened it.

"That's it, what is it? Right, don't ask questions. Buy it."

Astra nodded to herself, but Jason thought she was nodding about something he'd said. "You know, this looks alright..." She said handing it to the guy behind the stall.

"Student ID," He said. She handed it over. He scanned it, then handed it back, "Cash or credit?"

"Credit," She replied then handed over the credit card Jack had given her before sending her to this horrendous event.

The guy behind the stall handed her the box and the card back, "Thank you!"

She excused herself from Jason, under the excuse of going to the bathroom, but instead found somewhere quiet to talk to Jack. She pressed her finger to the ear piece, "Would you stop laughing at me now? Please! Now, is there anything else here?"

"There's a faint reading from the stall by the back entrance if you can go there before you leave... And I'm not going to stop laughing."

"Wrong answer Jack. I'll look at that stall, and then I can go?"

"Yes! What's in the box by the way?"

She took the box out of her bag and opened it again, "They look like big gold coins and I'd hate to see the price!"

Jack was silent for a moment, then his voice replied, "I did hate to see the price!"

She laughed back at him, "Serves you right! Ok, I'm going back out there..."

She made her way back into the main area and headed towards the stall by the back door, she idly glanced at the stuff on the table. There wasn't really anything of interest to her, but then she spotted a a watch, just like vortex manipulator.

Jack's voice chirped over the comm, "That's it! Is it what I think it is?" She nodded in response and handed her Student ID card over to the guy manning the stall, then gave him the credit card. Finally done, she stepped through the doors of the hall and made her way to the car park where she'd left her motor bike. She took the hat off and stuffed it at the bottom of the carry box. Then grabbed her helmet and replaced it with her bag.

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

"We found microchips inside the coins, which you already know and as soon as we figure out how to read them, we'll let you know Jack," Astra said, looking up from the coins. Ianto was seated beside her. He'd brought his chair over from his desk and they'd spent the last five hours trying to figure out the dumbloons. It had taken them two hours to figure out that there were microchips inside to start with. Another three and they were still going, trying to find out what kind of technology was responsible for the chips.

Astra rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn. It had been a long day. Taye had already left, he met once a month with the guys from his old squad from the Navy. Today was their day. Gwen had gone home to Rhys. Jack had told her unless she knew anything about small circuitry there was no point for her to be there. Jack sighed and made his way to to his office. After checking the time, he realised it was well past nine o'clock. He looked out to the main hub. He still hadn't hired anyone to be their technician and if he didn't hurry up and do it soon, there wouldn't be any letting go of Astra. The team loved her. For Taye, she'd been the link between the new and the old, helping him to understand them as people, not just weird people who hunt aliens.

He sat at his desk and went through paperwork that needed to go to UNIT and the Prime Minister. Several more hours passed unnoticed, till Ianto stood in his doorway with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand, "We have some news," He said.

Jack got up and made his way over to the Welshman. He took the cup from his hand and motioned for Ianto to lead the way, which he did. Astra was typing away at the keyboard, pulling maps onto the screen, "What's this?" Jack asked, sipping at his own coffee. He noticed two cups on the desk.

"Well, this one I'm not so sure about, it seems to be a star system of some sort, seeing as you've traveled, maybe you know?" Astra asked, looking up at him.

Jack leaned over and peered at the screen. His eyes carefully read over the names of planets, "It's a map of the seven systems," He said, "A very old one that survived the Time War..." He added softly.

"What?" Ianto asked.

He pointed to a dot on the map, "Gallifrey, home of the Time Lords and the Shining Planet of the Seven Systems, so I've been told. It was destroyed in a Time War, basically, the planet ceased to exist through all of space an time... Except some references."

"Like this one," Astra concluded.

"Like this one," Jack confirmed.

"Ok, so, this map is of the entire universe?" Jack nodded and she continued. She typed something and another map popped up on another screen, "The Milky Way," She said, "Then I think we're missing something, because, hell, we might be wrong, but both Ianto and I believe this to be the United Kingdom." A third screen filled with a map, definitely the United Kingdom and Ireland was circled.

Jack nodded, "Is it just me, or does this seem like a treasure map?"

"You might be right Jack," Astra said, pulling up the fourth and final map. It was smaller then the others and appeared to be a building of some sort or maybe something underground. In a block, indicating a room, was a big giant X.

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

They were seated around the table in the Board room, going over the information that they'd found so far, when Astra finally asked, "So, what are we talking about here Jack?" She asked, "Space Pirates?"

"Yes," Was Jack's reply.

Ianto, Taye, Gwen and Astra looked at each other, "I was kidding..." Astra whispered to Ianto who was sitting beside her.

"Tell him that," Ianto whispered back, motioning towards Jack.

Jack looked at them and they both straightened up, "So... What exactly do we do about Space Pirates?" Taye asked. He'd officially joined the team a month and a half ago. A week after being asked to join and two weeks after Astra had accepted her 'temporary' position. They'd been faced with a case where an alien was impersonating school teachers and luring children in.

"Exactly what were those things Jack?" Taye asked.

"Killitanes. I heard of a case at the Deffry Vale School, same type of thing. They were also using the children to solve the Skasis Paradigm."

"What's that?" Taye asked.

Jack paused, "It's an algorithm that can unlock all of time and space," He paused and looked at Taye, "It should never be solved."

Taye looked at the children, milling in the school yard, "The seniors... Astra's barely older then them."

Jack laughed, "I wouldn't go around comparing her to a high school student if you value your health."

Taye laughed sadly, "And the juniors... Jack..."

"All we can do is step in and try to solve these things before it's too late. We have no way of knowing what anyone is after," Jack started off towards the SUV where Gwen andIanto were waiting.

"I want in!" Taye called, coming up behind him, "I wasn't sure before, but I am now!"

"What kind of Space Pirates Jack?" Gwen asked.

Jack shrugged, "I don't know. Space Pirates don't come from one specific planet, but every pirate in the galaxy is going to be looking for this thing. Those that come will be looking for the coins. We have the home turf advantage though!"

"What do you mean by... Home Turf advantage?" Taye asked.

-T-O-R-C-H-W-O-O-D-

While they were missing the planet map and continent map, the country map proved to be all they needed. Living on Earth and in the British Ilse, picking out Ireland on the map wasn't that hard. The shape, the distance from other islands.

"The map leads right to Ireland..." Gwen said, looking over their shoulders.

"We knew that already," Astra replied.

"What area is that?" Taye asked.

Ianto grabbed a regular map of Ireland, "It's in the area of Galway County."

Astra added that into the system, but shook her head, "It's no good. We still don't have enough information."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"We don't have the County map," Gwen said, "We have a map of a town, but after we have no idea what town."

"What if we compare the map to satellite images of every city, town and village in Galway County?" Ianto suggested.

"Right..." Astra said, immediately typing away at the computer to get the images they wanted, "That would work. It'll take some time though."

"Ianto, get get the SUV ready. No matter what city it is, we have to go," Jack ordered.

"Right Sir."

"Taye, Gwen get ready to leave. We'll leave as soon as Astra gets a name on a city. Ianto, get ready as soon as everything is secured. Astra, you'll monitor things from here and keep everything running," Once Jack had finished with the orders he disappeared.

Everyone got to work getting ready and within two hours were ready to leave, "You sure you can handle things here?" Ianto asked Astra.

"I've got it," She replied not looking back at them, "Have fun in Ireland hunting for Pirate treasure."

"Do we have a name?" Jack asked, coming up to her.

"Just one for minute Jack," She typed a few more things and an image appeared on screen with a a name. You're going to Rossaveal."

"Right, let's go, We'll be back in a few days," Jack said as the others headed out.

"I know Jack. I'll be fine and tell Ianto not to worry about the Office upstairs."

"Ok. Take care," after that, Jack headed out after the others.

As they were driving to the UNIT base, Taye looked at Jack, "She's pissed you know?"

"Who?"

"Astra," Gwen told him.

Jack looked back at them, "She is?"

From beside him Ianto nodded, "Yep."

"What makes you say that?" Jack asked looking briefly away from the road, then back in front of the car.

"Oh, it was obvious. She wanted to come to Ireland with us," Gwen said.