IDChapter2
Janice Finch looked up over her glasses as Rose strode past her desk. "Good morning Janice," Rose called breezily as she walked into her office.
"Good morning Ms. Tyler," Janice responded as she sprang up and followed Rose, "There was another communication detected last night, again the source was from the Gliese 581 system and the destination was here in Great Britain. Your father wants to meet with you, Dr. Storm, and the Field Investigation Team immediately to discuss it. You both also have a meeting with the Space Marshal at 1pm. There is an article in page A2 if the morning newspaper you will want to read. Is there anything else I can get you right now?"
Janice was Rose's secretary, a model of efficiency, and kept Rose well informed and on-schedule. Rose could smell the freshly brewed coffee as Janice prepared a cuppa just how she liked it. Janice had been assigned to her as soon as she had returned to Torchwood, previously she had been one of Pete's secretaries, and one of the few hold-overs from Cybus Industries. It took Rose awhile to get used to having someone to do things for her, but she rapidly grew to appreciate Janice's ability to read her and anticipate her every need, and her attention to detail. The only thing that bothered Rose just a little was her insistance on formality.
Rose frowned at the brief regarding the communication that Janice had placed upon her desk, on top of the morning newspaper folded to page A2, and replied, "No, not now, thank you." Janice turned on her heel and returned to her desk while Rose pondered the brief. This had been going on for a month now, but Torchwood had never determined the exact location. Without fail, FIT (the Field Investigation Team) would be closing in on the receiver when it would seemingly vanish into thin air. It was as if it were turned off and flown away, but there were never any craft in the area. Rose had theorized that whoever it had been might have used the sewers to escape, but after thorough investigation there was no trace of activity in the sewers - no DNA, hair, fingerprints, nothing that didn't belong there.
Meanwhile, Jon and Pete had their hands full with the government. Unlike Rose's original universe, where Torchwood did not "officially" exist, here it had been taken over by the government, although Pete Tyler had inherited administrative control due mainly to his heroics during the Rise of the Cybermen. Certain people had taken advantage of the recovery period following the fall of John Lumic and had gained key positions in the British government. Those people now demanded that Torchwood report to them. Hence, the meeting with the Space Marshall. This was a new position, created shortly after Rose had been stranded on Pete's world the first time, and was created for a man Pete loathed, the former Air Chief Marshal Eustace Grimm.
Pete had known Eustace Grimm since childhood. Born to an upper-crust family, Grimm had been put in state schools by his parents because they felt he should experience "the less fortunate". He looked down upon his schoolmates and had few friends, unlike Pete, who was quite popular. Grimm was stiff, unimaginative, and of course, he took his GCSE early and left as soon as he could for Cranwell. Pete never heard of him again until he got the Space Marshal post. Pete had met with Space Marshal Grimm once, and ever after had managed to delegate such meetings to his staff, and now Jon had earned that "honor" since taking over the development of the Space Fleet.
Now that the first models of the fleet were nearing readiness to launch, and Jon and Rose had made it clear that they would be collecting their own promised ship and leaving, the Space Marshal wanted to take control of the fleet. While that was indeed what had originally been planned, with Torchwood continuing its role in further development of fleet technology, Torchwood had concerns about the Space Marshal's expectations of what the purpose of the fleet would be. Grimm had resisted all attempts by Torchwood to educate him regarding Alien Diplomacy. He seemed to feel that his own sense of duty and right vs wrong would see him through, and he could not comprehend that any organization headed by Pete Tyler could possibly teach him anything useful. The current dilemma of the off-world communications only bolstered his opinion. If Torchwood was indeed so advanced and educated, why couldn't they locate the receiver?
Rose groaned out loud at the thought of yet another failure that would be thrown in their faces by the Space Marshal (who she, Jon, and Pete privately referred to as "Spacey 'Stacey").
"Was that a "Spacey 'Stacey" groan, or a "yet another St. Jackie" groan?" Jon's voice came from the doorway. She looked up to see him grinning, waiting expectently for her reply. She put the brief down and picked up the newspaper, reading yet another account of Jackie Tyler's charity, in this case to aid to Haitian orphans, but like every other account of her donations to charity, it had to mention Rose's public status as a long-lost lovechild of Pete's, whom Jackie graciously adopted and called her own daughter.
Originally, she had even had to adopt a Norwegian accent, to support the story that Pete and Jackie had gone to Norway to rescue her after her "biological" mother and adoptive father had been processed by the Cybermen. The news tabloids marvelled at how quickly she had picked up "proper English" after only a couple of years in London. She still had needed to learn Bokmål and Nynorsk, just in case she actually ran into any members of the Scandinavian Press. So far she hadn't.
"That was a "Spacey 'Stacey" groan. I got over "St. Jackie" a long time ago," she joked, a grin spreading over her face. Jackie basked in the public's adulation for her, and Rose was happy that she did. She'd earned it, after all she'd been through being a single mom.
"Well, nothing for it, we'll have deal with him. At least this will be one of the last times though, yeah?" Jon grinned back at her. "I'm thinking a fortnight at most and we'll be off this planet."
Rose smiled as she gathered her brief and she and Jon walked down the hall to her father's office.
Janice picked up her cell phone and made a call. "It has to be soon, they plan on leaving within the next two weeks."