Odyssey
a Torchwood & Stargate story
by RoadrunnerGER
Disclaimer: I own neither Torchwood nor Stargate.
Summary: Abducted away from Earth and sold into slavery Team Torchwood has to fight for survival. Being left behind Tosh works with the Stargate team, going on a frantic odyssey across the universe in order to save her friends. Crossover, set s2
Chapter 13
"And I tell you, we should act now! None of them will expect an attack, least of all now!" Rupert shouted. "There won't be many of them aboard right now! It's the best opportunity!"
"You should think about it twice," Grant replied. "We don't have any kind of plan. Acting on the spur of the moment could ruin everything."
"He's right," Jack tried to support Grant. "We have no idea what's waiting for us outside of this cargo hold. We should at least know what we are doing. We should know who we can count on in a fight and what skills the others can contribute if we do manage to take over the ship!"
"That's true!" Owen shouted. "I've been in a log of fights with Jack! He knows what he's doing! Listen to what he has to say!"
"But Rupert's right!" someone screamed hysterically. "The sooner we get out of here the better! I say, let's try it now!"
Most people were standing at the front bars now, shouting and gesticulating at each other. It was difficult for anyone to make one's voice heard.
"Wait!" Gwen snapped. "Wait! Calm down! Let's talk this over like civilized people!"
Ianto chuckled as he heard her complain. When Jack looked around at his young Welshman he saw him smirk.
"What's so funny?" he asked.
"That's so typical of Gwen," Ianto said. "Always searching for the good in people."
"Is that a bad thing?" Jack wanted to know.
"Not necessarily," Ianto said. "I just mean that it's so much like her."
"It's one of the reasons I hired her."
Ianto smiled warmly at his lover. "I know. I wouldn't want her to be any other way."
Realizing that the noise really died down Jack turned back to the aisle. Ianto stepped beside him, taking his hand. A small smile played around Jack's lips. It was right, he was the man from the future, the one man who was supposed to be strong for all of them, be the hero Gwen saw in him, and lead them to freedom. Jack knew that his background predestined him for that job.
That did not change the fact that he was scared.
He was not scared for his own life. Jack had lived far too long and through too many dangers and deaths to be afraid. Pain was something he feared, but the fear of pain alone was not enough to make him sit back and do nothing.
No, he was scared for all the other people, first of all for his team. If they acted rashly, people would get hurt… maybe even killed. He could not let that happen.
Feeling Ianto's hand hold his own, squeezing softly, reassured Jack. Ianto trusted him. Knowing that warmed Jack's heart and gave him the strength to face the desperate crowd now.
"Thank you for calming down!" Jack said. "What Rupert said is essentially right…"
The loud murmur of renewed discussion cut him short. The captives all were agitated. Jack could not begrudge them that.
"Silence, please!" Grant shouted. "Please let Jack finish his thought!"
Thankfully his words made the others pull themselves together. They still were not completely silent, but Jack could at least make himself heard.
"Okay, what Rupert said is not wrong," Jack started again. "I just don't think we have to seize the first opportunity that presents itself!"
Squeezing Ianto's hand he searched for renewed reassurance. Ianto squeezed back and felt him let go then. He could not be angry, though. It just did not fit with the image of their brave hero if he held hands with his lover.
"What Grant said is true!" Jack continued. "We shouldn't attack blindly without knowing what we're doing! We need a basic plan and a backup plan in case something goes wrong."
With quiet relief Jack saw quite a lot people nod approvingly. They will listen. That's encouraging. We're making progress.
Rupert, though, was having none of it.
"Do you hear him?" he shouted. "Aren't those the words of a coward? Why does he want to keep us from acting? Because he isn't the one who initiated it?" Challengingly he looked around, spurring the crowd on with powerful gestures along with his shouts. "No! Because he's scared! That's why!"
"Scared?" Jack laughed out loud. "You have no idea yet what fear really is, pal."
"I know what fear is!" Rupert shouted back, turning to face Jack, only to find him merely one step in front of him. When Jack leaned slightly forward, getting into Rupert's personal space, Rupert had to fight not to flinch back. Jack did not say anything. He did not need to. The pale blue eyes pierced the other man like swords. His calm determination was more terrifying than any words he could have shouted to command respect. In that second the butcher realized that the captain was dangerous.
"You feel it now, don't you?" Jack murmured so softly that no one but Rupert and Ianto, who stood close enough, could hear him. "You feel the prickle on the back of your neck crawl down your spine. Ants are scuttling in your stomach and from there into all your limbs. They're crawling up your chest into your throat, choking you from inside."
Rupert's breaths wheezed in and out audibly. His fear, sparked by Jack's unrelenting gaze, sparkled in his eyes.
Ianto watched the standoff with a strange mixture of pride and fear. He could not help but feel intimidated by his lover as well. Seeing Jack like this reminded him of what his captain had told him in the privacy of his bedroom. Tales of a life from a long time ago in the future. In this former life Jack had been a soldier. He had been an interrogator. He had been a torturer. He had been a different man. Now he was Captain Jack Harkness, leader of Torchwood. As that Ianto respected and loved Jack with all of his heart.
"Anything you want to say?" Jack snarled.
Rupert ducked and made a step back, shaking his head.
"I didn't think so." Jack smirked. Then he directed his attention back to the crowd. "Now, I don't want to scare anyone more than necessary…"
His choice of words made the anxiety of the other prisoners return. They were talking excitedly over each other and Jack had to raise his voice to make himself understood.
"But we have to face the bitter truth," Jack told them. "Once we accept it, it won't have as much power over us as it has now! I know that you all are frightened! There's no shame in being scared."
Consenting murmur swept through the cargo bay.
"We're all facing an uncertain future. Nothing is like it was before. We're on a spaceship! The people who abducted us are slave hunters! They're going to sell us…"
Once more Jack was interrupted by anxious shouts and cries. Between the hysterical voices he could hear Gwen who did her best to calm the other women down. That was easier said than done.
"Silence, please!" Jack said, deliberately keeping his voice down. If they wanted to know what he was saying they had to calm down and pay attention.
"Thank you," Jack smiled at the others when the murmur ebbed away enough to talk again. "Now that we have confronted our fear we can face it! Now we can make a plan! We can determine who will be in the strike group, who'll stay in the middle, and who'll protect the rear."
"Don't we have to get out of these cages somehow first?" Alyssa threw in.
"Yes, but there's a way to achieve that," Jack told her. "When the time's come we'll be ready to act."
"How do you plan to open the cells?" Grant asked. "There are no locks to pick. It must be something electronic."
"Yes. The guards wear a device that they can activate the locks with," Jack explained. "Getting a key is our first priority."
"And how are we gonna get a key?" Gwen wanted to know. "The guards stayed well away from us!"
"Yeah! They didn't get close!"
"Oh, God! We'll be sold! We'll die on another planet!"
"What if whatever we do goes wrong?" someone shouted. "They'll kill us!"
"They won't kill us!" Jack yelled. Inwardly he rolled his eyes. This was bloody hard work. Behind him he sensed Ianto, one hand resting on his shoulder, and he was grateful. "We're their capital! They won't risk losing that!"
"As if they'd care!" a woman screamed hysterically. "Did you see what they did to that man? He looked pretty much dead when they dragged him out!"
Other excited comments followed her outbreak. So nobody noticed at first that the door opened and Tebr'ox came into the cargo bay. They carried in new prisoners that hung unconsciously down their shoulders. One was hauled in like the man who was removed earlier.
"Gant!" the first one shouted. "Gant!"
Ianto tried to pull Jack back from the bars. "Do you happen to know what that means?" he asked, his voice slightly wavering.
He's scared, Jack realized. Who wouldn't be. Making a step back he fixated on his lover, taking him by the shoulders and steadying him. "I assume they want us to shut up," he said. "It's logical, isn't it?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Ianto murmured.
"Shhh." Soothingly Jack brushed his hand over Ianto's dark hair.
Suddenly they heard another scream.
A scream of rage.
It was a high female voice that echoed back from the metal walls as one of the new captives twisted out of the Tebr'ox's hold and attacked him.
"Kree!" another woman shouted.
All captives rushed to the bars to watch the ensuing fight. The women tackled the Tebr'ox. One was battling her opponent in close combat.
The females looked basically human. They wore leather clothes, some armoured with metal parts. Except for one woman they all had dark hair. The other had a long blonde mane. What they all had in common was a black tattoo on their foreheads.
"Kree!" one yelled again.
Suddenly two cage doors clicked open. Then a third one unlocked. For a moment nothing happened, but then the men and women surged out of the cages and onto their captors.
A Tebr'ox cried out with alarm when he fell. At once a bunch of people were on him, holding him down, choking him. Two others abandoned their prisoners and jumped forward to help their fallen companion.
"That's our chance!" Grant yelled. "Jack! We've got to help them!"
Jack still had his doubts that they could make it, but he had to admit that Grant was right. This could be their chance. Now he had to trust the others.
"Jack!" Owen screamed.
"Ianto," Jack turned to his lover.
The Welshman understood and took a position in front of Jack, preventing anyone from seeing the captain who was fiddling with his wrist strap. In a matter of seconds the other doors were unlocked and the captives pushed forward into the aisle.
The three Tebr'ox were taken by surprise.
"Kar'yn!" one of the women yelled in alarm. It was the blonde one who slowly got up from where the Tebr'ox had dropped her.
Kar'yn spun around and ducked to evade the blow that was aimed at her. She punched the man hard into his middle, winding him.
"Ginra! Kree!" Kar'yn yelled.
Her fellow Amazon let herself fall and rolled aside, just in time to avoid being hit by one of the Tebr'ox batons. The guard grunted and aimed at her again. This time his baton grew on both ends, changing its form to a staff. He hit her and then aimed at her with the staff weapon, ready to shoot.
That was the last scene Jack could clearly see before the aisle was filled with people who tried to get a hold on their captors and beat them down. It was a tangle like on an ant hill, only that the ants were better organized.
Who are they, Jack wondered as he tried to get to Kar'yn. They're good fighters. What's their home planet?
He could not reach her because the confused and panicked people scuttled through the aisle in a blind fight.
"Ishta!" Kar'yn shouted.
Jack saw the Tebr'ox direct his baton at her. "Look out!" he yelled, hoping that it would alarm her.
Then, suddenly, a blinding headache overcame Jack. He groaned and broke down to his knees. Around him more fighters dropped to the ground, gasping and moaning. A sudden pain flashed through Jack's skull, knocking him out.
All the other humans also lay on the ground, unconscious, the Tebr'ox towering over their captives. One of them put a strange looking item back on his belt, smirking a rather alien smirk. Then they began to push the prisoners back into their cages.
tbc…