Using the facilities available at Torchwood, information coming through on scans from UNIT controlled satellites that were ordinarily pointed at the stars but had been turned back onto their own planet, and information from the TARDIS they managed to locate the source of the teleport. It had been activated from a vessel of some kind that was at sea within the Arctic Ocean where it would not be interrupted. They got visual data of the vessel from the satellites and it seemed to be some kind of cargo liner. It was large and although there was nothing on the deck, it looked like there was plenty of space below the deck. They had seen no persons on board and could not identify the ship by name or number. They did not alert the coast guard to it. They did not know what the ship was doing with the Doctor and they didn't want anything horrible to happen to him, or to any coast guard officers, if the ship was boarded without proper planning.
UNIT were clearly anxious to get the Doctor back. They allowed Jack to take part in the plan learning from Martha that he would be invaluable and that he was a close personal friend of the Doctor. Donna was also being taken on the mission as a civilian observer having proven herself during the alert with the Sontarans. The Valiant was at their disposal and it was redirected, but to get to Alaska there was a need to travel across areas that were not UNIT controlled so there was some administrative duties to be done with that. The Valiant's top air speed would not see them reach Alaska for over 24 hours and the massive fuel consumption would mean that they would have to refuel three times to get there. It did not mean they did not want the resources of the Valiant, it just meant that they were not going to wait that long to get there. The Valiant was the first to leave to get toward the ship, but that was not how the immediate response was going to get there.
As soon as preparations were made Jack got into his SUV and drove with blue lights from Cardiff to London. He had a clearway on the M4 right the way along and by drawing on the power of Torchwood he had police clearance as all the electronic boards along the route flashed to make sure the inside lane was cleared for him to pass at top speed. There was some issues with travelling so far, but a small jet was made available. It would take them to the main airport in Alaska, then a light aircraft would take them to a small airfield as far North as they could get where they would be met by a UNIT helicopter that would fly them out to the ship. They would then get onto the vessel, either by landing the helicopter on the deck, or abseiling down into an inflatable and making it to the ship that way. Until they got close they would not be able to gauge which it was. Donna was worried and scared but she was not going to let her fears stop her from taking part in this rescue. If they could all abseil then she could as well.
They were estimating that it was going to take them a total of 14 hours to get to the ship. That included all the transfers, but it was a long time. They couldn't get there any quicker. The TARDIS was not a viable form of transport without the Doctor and Jack's teleport was out of the question as it did not work. They had to get there using their own steam and it was going to be a long and a difficult journey. They had not yet got any confirmation that the Doctor was still on the vessel either. All they knew was that it was where the teleport had originated from so it was where he had been taken. Fourteen hours was a long time for things to change, so UNIT and Torchwood teams were performing constant surveillance to make sure that if there were any changes that they would know about it as soon as possible.
When they were all on the jet that would see them over to Alaska as quickly as they could get there Donna was introduced to Jack. If it was not so urgent and she was not so worried about the Time Lord then she might have paid more attention to how handsome he was and that smooth American drawl he spoke with, but she didn't. She was terrified for her friend. Every minute that they were away from him. Every moment it took them to get to him and to affect his rescue was another moment that they could be doing despicable things to him. What if he was dead?
During the flight the UNIT soldiers that were accompanying them slept. Martha also managed to get some sleep, but Donna didn't know how she could. Even when Jack suggested that it was eight hours until they landed and that she should sleep she couldn't. What about the Doctor? Was he going to be able to sleep? Had he even woken up from being hit on the head? How could she rest unless she knew that he was safe? She should never have taken him to the shops. She should have known he'd have gotten restless and got into trouble, and what kind of trouble was this? He'd been taken? She was terrified for him. She could see the same fears in Jack as he stared out the window down at the ocean that they were crossing.
It was taking too long. The flight to Alaska was too long and when they got there it had to circle three times before it was cleared to land due to the coming in of planned commercial flights. The UNIT pilot could do nothing since their landing was unscheduled and had to be fit in without it causing major disruption. Thank fully the airport was not one of the busiest or they may have been circling for hours before being made to take an emergency route due to lack of fuel.
They landed safely. They then had the rigmarole of having to book in with UNIT again as they were from the UK branch and not from the states. They had their ID's checked. Jack and Donna were held to one side and they had special confirmation from UNIT authorities in the UK confirmed. They were then escorted across the airfield to a light aircraft. The jet that they had crossed the Atlantic in would not be able to land on the small airstrip they were going to. They all got into the small aircraft and that took off. It flew at a much slower speed and it was frustrating. Didn't they know that their friend was being held and that he was in danger?
As they flew there was an update given from UNIT. They had spotted movement on the base of the ship, but it was just one individual. The data was sent through to Martha's phone and she showed Donna a picture and she confirmed it looked like one of the people who had kidnapped the Doctor. Jack had a look and he wasn't sure of the species. He didn't think it was someone he had come across before, but that certainly didn't mean that the Doctor hadn't. The update confirmed there had been no movement on and off the ship and that it appeared to be anchored rather than making passage anywhere. The downside of the update was to suggest that there was weather moving into the area that might prevent the helicopter from getting close enough to the vessel to land. If that was the case then they would have to travel further by sea than by air and in the rough seas it would be hard, or, they would have to wait for the storm to pass in order to get on the ship. They would do everything they could do in order to ensure that they didn't have to wait.
Two hours in the light aircraft was worse than nine hours on the jet. One of the UNIT soldiers definitely felt it worse as he started to get air sick as the light aircraft was buffeted by the rising winds in the area. Several times the plane dropped enough for it to turn their stomachs over and on one occasion Donna had gripped onto what she had thought was going to be the arm of her seat only to find she was gripping hold of the Captain's hand as he had already taken his grip on the arm of the seat between them. He didn't fly too well either. He wasn't going to be sick, he just wanted to be down on the ground. When the light air craft came in to land it was on a short grassy runway that was covered in a thick blanket of snow. The plane skidded and bounced and came to a halt just before a shed that had a makeshift sign on it suggesting that it was check-in. The pilot of the light plane wanted to get off again as quickly as possible to return to the main area before the storm hit so he unloaded their equipment, refuelled and left.
Snow started to fall and the wind was whipping through the pine trees that lined the edge of the runway. The cloud was thick and low and the wind whistled. They all headed into the shed. There was UNIT issue warm weather clothing waiting for them and they happily put that on, but the helicopter pilot and co-pilot were studying satellite images of the storm that was growing outside them. They looked apologetic as they announced that they were not going to be able to fly until the storm had passed. It looked like it was going to be short lived. Only a couple of hours or so, but they did not have the visibility to make the flight and the sheer cross winds were going to make take off too dangerous for a helicopter.
Donna was about to argue about it until she saw the light aircraft taking off. It banked and rocked and barely made it into the air at all. They couldn't get to the coast and even if they could they couldn't get all the way over to the ship in a dinghy. They had no choice. They had to sit out the storm, while their imaginations ran wild, not only about what was happening to the Doctor eighty miles out to sea, but what else but the wind was howling around the cabin they were all crowded into. Jack did nothing to calm their nerves as he suggested that there would be brown bears and maybe grizzly bears and possibly polar bears and that there might be wolves and… Martha had tossed a seal skin cushion at him with a comment that unless he wanted to join them that he should be quiet.
The storm raged on. They ate rations heated over a fire and drank rank UNIT tea as they listened to the wind. They watched it on the satellite images until the storm knocked out their access. They didn't need the laptop to know that they were in the middle of it when the hut was being buffeted and they could hear the wind in the trees and the snow fell so heavily that all they could see out the window was white, the trees and the mountains behind them were invisible. At least the fire and their clothing was warm. They could not relax though. Their thoughts remained the same. With every minute they were delayed. Every moment they were not mounting a rescue. Every second that passed that they didn't receive a garbled message from a disgruntled Time Lord that no one had bothered to rescue him and he'd had to get out himself and did they know how cold it was to swim in the Arctic Sea? They knew he'd not try that. Even the Doctor wasn't that idiotic was he? He was out at sea on that ship and even if he could get away from his captors what was he going to do? Where was he going to go? He was trapped out there and he needed them and they were snowed in!