Chapter 7
Ianto had sat quietly for the most part through the Doctor talking, preferring to listen and try to catalogue everything that he was hearing in his brain so that he could make some sense out of it. He did understand everything that the Doctor was saying and a lot of what had been said seemed to fit with both what he knew of the universe, of himself and of Gwen. What he did need to know though was whether or not the man Aeske that the Doctor had spoke of was his father. It seemed to fit to him, he didn't know why, maybe it had something to do with the mark on his hand, or the fact that the message that he had heard from the box was extremely personal, like a worried father trying to protect their son. He had to wonder if the Doctor knew anything, and he was definitely going to ask. He listened as Owen questioned the Doctor about his and Gwen's health and realised that the pain killer theory probably made sense, the chemicals being neutralised easily by something in his blood and making it harder for him to find working painkillers unless they were of an extremely strong nature.
Owen's question made him think though of how this had all started in the first place, of course he wanted to know his past his history, but he needed to know how this would affect his future, which brought everything back to the effect that the box had on him, and on Gwen. As far as he was aware from what the Doctor had said, Gwen should never have seen any images, only heard words of the message, a message that seemed to be more general than the one he had received.
"Doctor, what does this mean for Gwen and I, what about the box, why did it affect us?" Ianto asked.
The Doctor smiled a bit, "Pictures and images are not what are usually seen with these boxes, in fact I've never even heard mention of them, but Miss Cooper's Great aunt was very adept when it came to pictures. I'd say for Miss Cooper that it was just her family traits showing through. As for why the box affected you both, it sensed the Gallifreyan in you both, but why it burned you I cannot say. I don't believe that it will have any lasting effect though, Aeske was a kind ruler and never harsh, he would not harm anyone, even someone he had never met. He was one of the few who refused to pick up arms at Arcadia, trying his best to resolve everything without weapons or bloodshed. He was a great ruler and even better person, someone I could only aspire to be like."
The Doctor was quiet for a few moments, but before Ianto could ask anything more of him Toshiko spoke up, "Doctor, what about how the box got here, even with the rift if the fall of Arcadia was in a Time Lock how could it have got washed up here?"
"I have a few theories, although I'll never know for sure, Aeske was one of the last standing at Arcadia, the message would have been sent as the destruction occurred, it may have been able to leave Arcadia before the Time Lock went into effect, after all, I was at Arcadia and I am here. Another theory is the rift itself, we don't have any idea how far this rift spreads; it may have taken the box from Arcadia as soon as it was sent out. It could have been a result of Dalek Caan's actions; he went into the Time War by an emergency temporal shift, what's to say that nothing else latched onto him other than Davros when he left again. My last theory is that of zed neutrino energy, the walls between the universes, the whole of reality, they could have been erased easily, a TARDIS would explode, to that what is a Time Lock really." The Doctor hypothesised, "I doubt that we will ever really know, as there is no real way to test or check, all we can do is be vigilant and watch out for more occurrences or objects from the Time War. If we see other things coming through, then we know there is a problem, as for now I wouldn't worry about it."
Ianto nodded to himself, he was sure that the Doctor would say something like that, sit and wait. It wasn't as if there was anything else that they could do, especially as they were busy enough trying to monitor the rift in Cardiff and trying to have a bit of a life. He supposed now that he knew what he really was all he had to do was figure out who his father was, at least he now knew how he was conceived, he had never thought before of his father having two forms like he did, and he now felt stupid for not considering it, but he had assumed that he looked human as a result of his mother and feathery as a result of his father. To realise that in actuality that his father could have been any male in any of his mother's photographs rather than a bird waiting out of sight was somewhat anti-climatic. He had assumed that his mother had known about his father's nature, after all how could you not notice if your lover had feathers, but now he was aware that she may have been completely ignorant of any difference that could be passed onto their child.
"Do you have any idea of how, if there is a way to find out who my father is Doctor?" Ianto asked, never having imagined that he would be having this conversation with the Doctor. He had pictured the conversations in the past where he met the Doctor and asked for help to find out what he was, to narrow down his research and tell him what sort of creature he was descended from, but he had never thought he'd be asking for help to find out who he was, not of the Doctor anyway.
The Doctor shook his head, "I don't know of anything, all Gallifreyan records were destroyed or are locked behind a Time Lock, the Fires were even more secretive with their documents. I can't think of anything on my end of things, your best bet would be to look into what your mother knew, see if there is anything among her possessions that could tell you anything. I will say however that Aeske's mark must have something to do with it, or it would have faded when you were healed."
Ianto knew that as well, but he had hoped; there was one last thing he needed to ask though, something that he had to check. "Is there any possibility that you can think of that Aeske may be my father?" He had felt a kinship of sorts with the box, and the mark on his hand didn't bother him, like he felt it should be there, that with it there everything was right in the world.
"I know that he used to travel, he did have his own TARDIS and he frequently took trips off-world, but where he went and what he did I don't know. I suppose that it is possible, but I can't say for sure." The Doctor answered. The man then turned to Jack, "I know you have protocols, or I expect you to, but the box is coming with me. The only safe place for something like that is the TARDIS, the mental pleas or words of a Fire should be safe, but free, they can't be that here."
Ianto watched as Jack nodded, he hadn't really expected him to disagree; he was pretty sure that despite protocol if the Doctor asked for anything within the base that Jack would give him it, with the exception of the team and maybe Myfanwy.