Chapter Four
25 November
Jack figured he should have known an entirely quiet shift was too much to ask for. It was the first day he'd called everyone back in to work, and they'd spent it separately, everyone trying to catch up on his or her personal projects and paperwork. Not a blip from the rift monitor. And then, late in the afternoon, Tosh's computer had beeped.
"Multiple reports of a UFO over the bay," she reported calmly.
"Pull up whatever we have, would you?" Jack asked her, moving swiftly to her work station. He started at the various feeds for a moment before announcing, "Ianto, it's you and me. The rest of you can finish up what you're doing and head home. See you in the morning."
Owen stared at Jack in disbelief.
"Someone tried very hard to kill him five days ago, and nearly succeeded. He's barely able to walk around the Hub without holding his ribs. You can't be serious about taking him out in the field. Not to mention he's the butler, not a bloody field agent." Owen turned away from Jack and shot a quick wink at Ianto as he paraphrased the younger man's earlier outburst, taking the sting out of his words.
Jack glared at Owen.
"Seems to me he did as well as anyone on our last mission. And I'm the one who decides when someone is or isn't fit for the field. Your objection is noted, but overridden. Finish what you're working on and go home." He glanced across the Hub where the youngest member of his team stood uncertainly on a cat walk. "Ianto?"
"Coming, Sir."
* * *
Jack toned down his driving out of deference to Ianto's ribs, going slower than usual, taking curves with greater care, trying to minimize the bumps.
"You all right, Yan?" he asked.
"Yep. Do you mind if I ask where we're going?"
"CCTV showed a first generation Arkan leisure crawler over the bay."
Ianto threw him a curious look.
"Don't we usually just send them a friendly wave, remind them that this is a Level Five planet and send them on their way?"
"Usually, but in this case the ship looked like it was having engine trouble. Based on the feeds, I think it may have crash landed, somewhere around Goldcliff. The Arkans are no threat, other than being the longest-winded talkers in the universe, but we still need to get there before the locals do and get them on their way."
Ianto pouted a little.
"So you picked me because you knew there wasn't going to be anything to do. To have someone to talk to."
Jack glanced over at him.
"I picked you because I needed the person who could think the fastest on his feet, and be able to intercede if the locals do beat us there. You do officious better than anyone. I've heard you talk down the Prime Minister. Cardiff PD knows to back off when Torchwood arrives, but who knows about the Newport constabulary? Besides, I thought you probably want to get out of the Hub. You've been locked up for days. Not to mention, I thought you might like an up close look at a real UFO. And," he paused, then admitted, "I want your company. But that wasn't my primary motivation."
"Aren't you sick of me yet?"
Ianto had yet to move from Jack's quarters, although Jack himself had transitioned from the bed to his office couch after the second night. Ianto found himself missing the comfort of sleeping in the older man's arms.
"Hardly."
"That couch can't be all that comfortable."
"A lumpy couch isn't what's keeping me up at night." He shot a hot innuendo-laden look across the car at his companion. Ianto flushed, and bit back a smile. So, at least he wasn't the only one affected by this attraction…
Ianto knew that Jack, quite reasonably, had questions about whether Ianto's initial flirting had been calculated , and Ianto certainly would have done almost anything to get access to the Hub had it occurred to him, but the reality was that he had never before felt the instant attraction he had to Jack for ANYONE. And his first comment on Jack's coat had been out of his mouth before he was even conscious of the thought, much less making a decision to say it out loud.
Ianto would have liked to be able to pretend that it had all been a part of some master plan, but the truth was that, even with everything going on with Lisa, Jack had swept him off of his feet from the moment he'd laid eyes on the captain.
It was about a forty-five minute drive up the coast, which meant that Jack would have normally made it in twenty or so. With his driving restraint they'd been on the road for a good half-hour before reaching the turn-off from the M4 onto Docks Way, which led into Pillgwenlly and Somerton, and more than three quarters of an hour when Jack turned from Spytty Road onto Nash for the final three miles or so into Goldcliff. They'd driven through some fairly heavy downpours en route, but arrived to a strong gusty wind but no precipitation. And the unseasonably balmy weather that they'd had all month persisted, so the wind lacked that biting cold edge typical of Wales in November. The Captain pulled to a stop just past the intersection with Chapel Road, where a finger of the bay (or at that point, was it already considered the mouth of the Severn?) reached up and touched the roadway. Ianto was busily scanning for alien tech as the car gently came to rest. A family of swans waddled along the roadside and cast them an unconcerned look. Further inland a handful of sheep were scattered about, looking for late November sprouts.
"It's just southwest of here, Sir, about 800 meters."
Jack eyed his companion thoughtfully.
"Would you prefer to stay here or do you feel up to a walk through the marsh? I certainly could use you to wave off the locals, but…"
"If it's all right with you, Sir, I would like to see the ship."
"Okay, then, let's go."
With Jack uncharacteristically carrying both the pack with their supplies and a gear bag, they headed out across the windswept flats. They were unable to see anything out of the ordinary from the roadway, but followed their sensors toward the bay. When they were roughly a half-kilometer in, a thin wisp of smoke appeared in the sky.
"Oh, that doesn't look good," Ianto muttered under his breath. Jack followed his gaze.
"Hopefully that's just the pilots venting their systems," Harkness told him, "and not something that will keep us from being able to get them back in the sky and off planet. Have I told you that they're mostly made of liquid, and the cells would be a mess if we needed to put them up?"
"I think you've mentioned it a time or two, Sir," Ianto answered dryly, fairly certain who would get those janitorial duties, regardless of recent injuries.
The ship was about the size of a small caravan and looked remarkably like a flying saucer from a 1950s B movie. Ianto glanced at Jack in amazement, to find his captain watching him with amusement.
"Who woulda thought, eh? Makes you wonder a little about Fred Sersen, doesn't it?"
Ianto looked at him curiously.
"Special effects guy for The Day the Earth Stood Still," Jack explained.
"Do all space ships look like Hollywood flying saucers?"
Jack chuckled. "Hardly. But I'm sure that's one of the reasons I have such affection for these first generation Leisure Crawlers. " He turned towards the ship and cupped his hands around his mouth as they approached.
"Ahoy, the ship!"
The two men paused twenty feet or so from the gently steaming saucer. After a minute a wispy high-pitched voice wafted over the marsh.
"Captain Jack Harkness?"
Jack cocked his head, listening, considering.
"Oooolie? Is that you?"
"Jack! Come aboard! It's been too long…"
Jack looked to Ianto for consent. Intrigued, the young man nodded.
"Love to, Oooolie. Thank you."
A previously invisible hatch opened in the side of the ship, and Jack led the way on board. Ianto looked curiously around at the smooth surfaces and blinking lights. Except for its two occupants, the inside the ship looked every bit as much the product of a Hollywood set designer as the outside. The crew on the other hand…
"Oooolie, I'd like you to meet Ianto Jones, my right hand man. Ianto, this is my friend Oooolie. Oh! And this can't be Luuuu!" Jack commented, looking at the smaller of the two rippling spheres of liquid. At his comment, the sphere's hue morphed from a clear blue to a slightly muddy light green.
"Sorry, Buddy! Didn't mean to embarrass you—it's just that you're so grown up! Out traveling around the universe with your dad!" He turned to the senior member of the ship's two-man crew. "So, Oooolie, what are you doing on Earth?"
Now it was the elder Arkan's turn to color slightly.
"I wanted to show the boy whales."
Jack shook his head slowly, putting on a disappointed face.
"Oooolie, Oooolie, Oooolie, you KNOW Earth is a Level Five planet. No contact, no flybys."
If a six foot tall drop of water could hang its head in shame, this one did.
"I just wanted him to see… While there still are… We saw a bubble net. It was amazing, but then…" He mumbled. "Didn't mean any harm. Didn't mean to crash land."
"No, I know you didn't," Jack conceded. "And every boy should see whales." He glanced up to see Ianto's perplexed look. Jack cocked an eyebrow in enquiry.
"Every boy should see Wales?" Ianto asked quietly. "I mean, I love my country but… And what's a 'bubble net'."
Jack's face split in a smile of sudden enlightenment.
"Whales, Ianto, not Wales. Moby Dick, not the land of the rhudd draig. And a bubble net is a method humpbacks use to confuse and catch fish. Really spectacular. We should go whale watching sometime." He turned his attention back to his alien friend. "So… What's the matter with your ship? What do we need to do to get you back in the air?"