Chapter two – The elements of suprise

Violet Black being speechless wasn't an everyday sight, but now she was. In fact, she totally froze and took her several minutes to realize what has just happened. Her partners were abducted, more precisely were transported away. When she recovered from her shock, she started to recite all the alien races that had transport or any transport-like technology –the sycorax had it, the vogols were banned from the system, and the garrians weren't that stupid to anger Torchwood. While doing it, she started to run back to the Torchwood-tower, but her attempt – and internal rant – was stopped with a banshee-like scream.

'Oh crap,' she thought 'Jackie.' And with that, she turned to face the Tyler matriarch.

„What happened? They were abducted right? I told her that one day that would happen. But no, she had to do that job. Damn that Doctor, taking my little girl away and filling her head with these things. It will get her killed one day. What will happen now? Have you any plan? How do you want to rescue them? Do som..," ranted Jackie, but Violet cut her off.

„Look Jacks. I'm about to do my job, you are the one who's not letting me go. So please get off me, so I can go and figure out how to get them back. And until that, you should go and find Pete. Tell him what happened, and then go to the safe-house with Lily," said Violet, referring to the underground base where they used to hide the important people during emergencies. They used the place frequently, because being a family member to a Torchwood worker was not a safe thing. They got a lot of threatening letters, and while the most of them weren't serious, there were some rather dangerous ones.

When Jackie still didn't let her go, Violet sighed and turned back to the older woman , and said „I'll do my best, everything will be okay. I'll call you if anything happens. Now go!"

After the promise, Jackie let her go, and Violet hurried back to the tower. When she arrived, the others has already known that something'd happened, they picked up the strange signals from the ship, right before it disappeared. After Violet notified the senior staff about the situation, she was to tell the others about it. The technicians (mostly the physicists and radar experts) and the scientists in the tower immediately set to work, they were searching for ways to find the ship.

After four hours they still didn't find anything. They didn't know if the ship left or just raised some shields. There were no signatures, no changes after the transport beside the signal they picked up. As the ship was last seen near the Mars, they got the permission to use the satellites in the area; they found nothing, and that bothered everybody to no end. Everybody tried to help, even the ones – like Violet- who did not work in the radar department. The geeks of Torchwood were a family, so they were willing to spend hours bending over a monitor and watch it for any change, to save one of them. They scanned everything there, did several tests, but all came back without a useful result. After she went through the files for the sixth time in the hour, Violet got an idea. She called over Andrew, one of the geniuses in the lab. He was a physicist, his best subject were the different kind of shields – what they did, how they worked.

„Look Andy. Don't think, that I'm mental or something, but do we have any test, that can show us the nothing? I mean, not the nothing, but something, that is covered with nothing. Does it makes any sense?" she asked. After hearing Rose's story, she knew about the Daleks and their void ship. While she was sure it wasn't them, the technology may be something similar. And while she didn't understand the way a ship like that could function, she knew Andrew would.

„That can be a lead. Let me see what can I do with your thesis. I'll be back soon," he said.

Not even five minute has passed before he came back, grinning. „You were right. I looked over the scans, and I noticed, that there is absolutely nothing. Normally the space is full of radiation, background noises and what-not, but near the Moon there is a spot, where there is nothing. Brilliant job Violet! Anyways that not only means that we found them, but that they've come closer too. Will you tell the boss, or should I?" asked Andrew.

„Please tell them, I'll call Jackie, I sort of promised her."

„Of course."

A phone call later she was on her way to the conference room. As usual, the Director didn't admit her mistake, she was still sure that the abductors were the sycoraxes (sp?). Altough several member of the staff tried to tell her that the other races said the Sycorax wouldn't have abducted two agents, they would've gone for the ministers, Hartmann ignored them. Violet didn't even bother to try to reason with the Director; she learned the lesson the others didn't: Yvonne Hartmann never admits a mistake, not even when lives depend on it. All the Director was concerned with was the Great British Empire, and her duty to the Queen. She didn't acknowledge the fact, that there was no royal family since the World War Two…

An hour later, when she got back to the labs she bumped into an unfamiliar bloke. He was tall, with messy brown hair and had large brown eyes. He was wearing a blue suit, but instead of a jacket, he had a lab coat on. He was going through the scans they did earlier. When he heard her he froze and tried to hide the object he was holdig behid his back. If she didn't know better, she'd have thought, that it was a sonic screwdriver she heard about from Rose. She turned back to examine the stranger's face, when it hit her. The man was not a new guy or something, he was Rose's Doctor. There was no doubt, she saw him on Rose's pictures. She was happy, 'cause she knew that the man's return would make her best friend happy too. She couldn't wait to tell her, she was about to reach for her phone, when she realized, that Rose was unavailable right now, along with Ben. She snapped out of her musings, when the man cleared his throat; he caught her staring. When he had her attention, he stuck out his hand that wasn't occupied with the silvery object, and said,

„Hi, I'm doctor John Smith from Torchwood three. The boss wanted me and my co-workers to come up and take a look at the readings. So we came, and now here I am. But nobody is here except us, and I heard, that you might have found a solution, but experience might be needed. Do you know what's going on? Will you answer me, or you'll just continue staring at me. It gets a little creepy, when strangers just stood in front of you, doing nothing, just glaring, you know…but that's only my opinion. There are races where staring is a sign of," rambled the man, when Violet cut him off.

„OK, shut up already. You just remind me of somebody, that's all. I'm dr. Violet Black, and yes, I know what's going on. Now let's find your partners, I need to see your papers before telling you anything," she said. She didn't know what to think. At first she was so sure, that he is the Doctor, but now she wasn't. Maybe he was just an alternate self, maybe even a human. She was sure in only one thing, that the man was lying. She decided to play along.

The Do- the man was leading her to the end of the corridor, where he intoduced her to one of his partner, a girl named dr.Martha Jones. She was a physician like Ben, at least that's what she's said. They were chatting about the weather in Cardiff, when she heard somebody coming, then there was a voice she knew too well.

„Hey, Doc. I asked around, but nobody told me anything without showing my papers. These guys are very professionals. In Cardiff I'd have gotten the information in five minutes. Anyway who is your new friend?" asked a guy, who was no doubt Jack sodding Harkness, space-pirate, conman, terrorist.

When Violet turned to face him, he gave no sign that he knew her. That gave Violet the evidence she was searching for. The Jack she knew would've run when he saw her. They've met before, and the man was too experienced to cross his own timeline, so the man before her couldn't have been the Jack she's met on that conference years ago. So this man was an other Jack, probably the one from Rose's universe.

„So again where are you from? Torchwood three from Cardiff?" the three nodded „That's funny. We don't have any office in Cardiff," and with that she pulled out her gun she had to carry, and pointed it at Martha – as much as she knew, she really was a doctor, and that meant that she was the easiest target. The men moved to defend Martha, but Violet stopped them. „OK, new rule. Nobody moves, or i shoot her. Now let's talk about your true identities. You start," she nodded to the Doctor lookalike.

„Ok, but would you, lower your gun? We mean no danger. You too Jack," he said, the last part adressed to the ex-conman, who was reaching for his sonic blaster.

„No," answered Violet.

„Worth a try," shrugged the Doctor wannabe. „And about us, you won't like it. Or even believe it."

„Try me," came the reply.

„Ok. I'm the Doctor. Next to me are Martha Jones, and Captain Jack Harkness. We're time travellers. You've probably heard of me. I'm the reason you have your job," said the Doctor, and the way he was grinning now, Violet could tell, that he was enjoying the whole situation, like Rose said he would. The only thing she didn't understand was, that why the man wasn't asking after Rose. Did he even know that he was in a parallell universe? She wanted to find out, so she said:

„No, you're not."

„Yes, I am," argued the Doctor. „The whole misunderstanding with Queen Victoria. She didn't like time travelers. She even banished me and Rose," and with that information. Her every suspicion was confirmed, so she answered after lowering her gun:

„It's Rose and I. But back to the subject, she wasn't the one who founded the Institute. In fact, we've never had any Queen Victoria. There might have been in your world, but not in mine. Or should I say Pete's world?" And at the end of her sentence, the Doctor's jaw hit the floor.