Odyssey
a Torchwood crossover story
by RoadrunnerGER
Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the related shows. I just love to play with their characters.
Summary: Investigating mysterious disappearances Team Torchwood gets abducted away from Earth. As the only one left Tosh finds help at the SGC and begins a frantic odyssey across the universe in order to save the team.
Chapter 4
Toshiko returned to the Hub alone.
It was a peculiar feeling to enter the familiar base through the cog door and to know that no one would be waiting. No one would come in later.
Toshiko sat down at her workstation and activated the computer, uncertain about what to do.
The database, she thought. Jack said that he knew them. So they could be in the database.
She had seen their ships and two of the assailants. It might take forever, but she would search the whole database to identify the invaders who had taken those humans captive.
What will they do to them? Why have they taken them in the first place?
Toshiko shuddered when unwanted memories forced back into her consciousness. In her mind's eye she saw green hills, smelling of wet grass, and old cottages. She saw a cellar and heard the fear filled voice of Ianto who tried so hard not to let her see how scared he really was. The fridge. The rifle. The abattoir. The run through the woods. The bodies hanging from the ceiling.
She choked.
Is that what the aliens wanted the people for? Food? Did they stop by for a… snack?
Pushing this disturbing thought aside Toshiko pulled up Torchwood's alien database and began to go through it in search for the creatures that had taken her colleagues. She saw photos and illustrations of many aliens she had never heard about. When she spotted an especially interesting example she glanced over the description. She did that for about an hour, still hoping against hope that someone else would enter the Hub, before she slumped over her keyboard and dissolved in tears.
xXx
Rattling and screeching brought Toshiko back to her senses. She needed a moment to realize what was wrong, but then it hit her that their pet pterosaur was thumping against the bars that covered the exit from her nest to the central Hub.
She must be hungry, Toshiko thought.
Forcing herself to get up she padded down to the storage where Ianto kept Myfanwy's food. She filled a bucket with fish and splashed some of the barbecue sauce over it. Prepared like that the pterodactyl would know that this was her dinner and nothing else. Toshiko was about to carry the bucket up to the central Hub when her gaze fell on a box with dark chocolate bars. She swallowed. A note stuck to the carton, written in Ianto's neat handwriting.
Owen, this is NOT an emergency-survival-kit for our doctor (you)! Touch it and I'll spray your porn stash with barbecue sauce. Good luck explaining to Myfanwy not to touch it.
Toshiko could not help but chuckle as she read that, but then tears shot to her eyes. She needed a moment to collect herself before she could return to the central Hub and find the button that would open the gate and let the prehistoric animal fly.
Screeching Myfanwy left her nest and soared around the water tower one, two, three, four times, before she finally landed on the railing of a walkway.
"Here, Myfanwy," Toshiko said and went a bit closer with the bucket. She was uncertain how to do it. Usually Ianto fed the pterosaur. I wonder if she'll miss him. Ianto's definitely her favourite human. In the end she emptied the bucket onto the floor.
"Here."
Crying Myfanwy flapped her wings and hopped down from her perch. Then she began to pick up the fish.
Toshiko was grateful that it worked like this. She looked up to the nest. I guess I should clean it.
As soon as she thought it she was so fixated on the idea that she climbed up to the highest floor where the pterodactyl's nest was made in a tunnel. She knew she had better things to do and cleaning the nest might not become a priority for several days to come, but she just could not help it. The urge was too strong. When she entered the tunnel and went over to the nest it was smelling strongly. Toshiko tried to breathe as shallowly as possible as she hurried to scratch the worst dirt away.
One more thing Ianto's doing. You barely notice him being around and you wonder what he's doing the whole day. Because he's doing it so graciously. She smiled to herself. Oh, I remember when Jack was pissed at Owen and made him clean up here. You could hear his curses down in the Hub.
This memory once more drove tears to her eyes.
Once she was finished Toshiko realized with horror that someone had to feed Janet as well. And as no one else was there this someone would be her.
Oh, crap.
She never had been fond of the weevils. It made her sad to know that they were stuck on this planet, but except for that she did not like them.
I'll better get done with it.
So Toshiko went down to the vaults and gave Janet her dinner. The weevil protested loudly, but Toshiko suspected that she was always that wild. She was a weevil after all.
Back up in the Hub she kept watching Myfanwy until she returned to her nest. Toshiko closed the gate and returned to her workstation where she continued to search the database for the assailants from the beach.
How long have they been gone now?
Toshiko did not really know. She had not checked on the time when she had left the beach.
What else could I do? Should I call UNIT? Would they be able to help? Maybe they know how to reach Jack's mysterious friend, the Doctor.
Then another thought hit her like a sledgehammer.
Rhys!
Oh, my God. I'll have to tell Rhys!
Unable to find the strength inside her to take that step she remained sitting at her desk and brooded.
xXx
Ianto came to with a start. He did not know what had woken him. What he noticed at once, though, was that his back hurt from lying on hard ground. Trying to stretch he squirmed and noticed that he could not move his arms. His left foot hit something hard.
What the heck?
His eyes flew open like he woke from a nightmare.
A very real nightmare.
"Whoa!"
"Shhh," someone whispered close to his ear, the hold on his upper body tightening.
"What…?" Ianto gasped. Looking down he discovered a pair of arms wrapped tightly around him. That's why I can't move.
Frantically he looked around, his gaze darting from place to place of his unfamiliar surroundings.
Bars! Cold ground! More bars! This is a cage!
His breathing accelerated and he threatened to hyperventilate.
"Shhh," the soothing voice murmured again. "Easy, Ianto. Breathe. Just breathe."
Jack!
Ianto's head snapped around so fast that he almost hit his lover. At once a hand came up and held his head as Jack pressed his lips on Ianto's.
"Jack!" Ianto panted when the hold lessened again. "What happened? What's going on? Where are we?"
"Shhh," Jack hushed. "Not so loud, Yan."
"What? Why?"
"Shhhh!" Jack hissed more insistently, clapping a hand over Ianto's mouth. "I mean it. Don't draw attention," he whispered urgently. "I don't want to give them reason to separate us."
"Who?" Ianto gasped.
"Tebr'ox," Jack told him. "I once met them when I was with the Time Agency."
"Who are they?"
"A nomadic tribe. Some of them were…," he trailed off, hesitating to reveal the truth. A strangled gasp and scream saved him for now.
"What the heck…?" a woman shouted. "Where am I?"
"Gwen!" Ianto yelled back, struggling to free himself of Jack's hold and get to the bars of the cage. "Gwen!"
Jack let go of him but followed right behind, taking Ianto's shoulders when they were standing. "I said, don't draw attention."
"But it's Gwen," Ianto murmured back anxiously.
"Yes, Yan. It's Gwen. So what?"
"So… Jack! We've got to help her."
"And do what, Yan? Look around us."
So Ianto really looked around for the first time, his hands closing around the bars, holding on so hard that his knuckles shone white. There was a row of cages and each one was filled with people. And on the other side of the corridor were more cages, equally occupied. It smelled of sweat and fear and the people cried or talked anxiously.
"Owen!" he heard Gwen shout.
"Oh, Celi," the Welshman rasped, feeling his legs buckle. "What happened to us? What is this place?" He turned to his lover, murmuring anxiously, his voice almost breaking, "Jack?"
"Gwen," Owen's reply carried over to them. "Are you all right?"
Ianto did not hear him anymore. There was a noise in his ears that made it almost impossible to hear what Jack said.
"I think…" Jack swallowed dryly. "I think it's a space ship."
"And now?" Ianto asked.
Jack just wrapped his arms around Ianto, catching him as he broke down with the realization. They were on a space ship, taken away from earth, from their home, from their lives. Ianto shuddered. Hard tremors coursed through his body and he hid his face in the crook of Jack's neck and cried.
tbc…