The Captain Chronicles 5: Gray

by StarKayak

Captain Jack Harkness receives an alert that the Gray's cryogenic unit has been damaged. He returns to revive his brother and retrieve what is left of the Torchwood Archives. Jack has a new team, a daunting mission, a mysterious enemy with a familiar pattern, and an old family problem. (Post C of E and Miracle Day.) Note the genres and rating. Hard to write, hard to read.(5th of 6)

10. Chapter 10 The Prisoner

Jack gasped and shuddered back into consciousness. As his eyes cleared, he could see he was no longer in the cave. The smell of decaying corpses replaced by the sharp scent of bleach. As his eyes adjusted to the bright light, he could see it was small, a windowless cell. One wall held metal door with a closed grate with the red eye of a camera the upper right corner of the tiled wall. The opposite wall was plumped with a sink and simple toilet. A bright light of a ceiling lamp in a wire cage reflected off the glossy ceramic tiles.

As Jack attempted to sit up, he found himself on a bed, naked, and wrapped in a bloodstained red quilt. He fell back, his body healed, but still weak and aching from the assault. He struggled to sit up again, noted that there were no restraints on his hands or feet. Someone had washed the dried blood and fluids from his body. Putting his ear to the wall, he listened for voices. There was no sound, just a slight constant vibration of engines could be felt. His heart dropped. He was on a ship in transit. Where? The thought of escape evaporated from his mind.

He remembered an Adyan approaching his brother's hiding place before he died the third time, wondering if he escaped. Take my place," echoed in his thoughts. Gray endured these horrible creatures for years…years! Jack thoughts ran back to the centuries he spent buried under Cardiff, and shuddered at the memory of the cycles of waking and dying choked by the probe of root and crushed by the weight of soil. Not enough. "Take your turn." His turn. It was his turn. Betrayed. Abandoned. Alone. Jack pressed his eyes closed, buried his head in the quilt, and silently wept.

The guard continued to watch the captive through the grate. He did not know what to make of this man who came back from death. When he washed the body, he could see the cuts heal and bruising fade, but there is more to life than physical healing. None of the captives taken by the raiding party on his ship had lived beyond a few days, except for the occasional child the leader kept as a pet. Those wretched creatures eventually also died. He looked back at the anguished man huddled in the corner. So alone. He quietly slid the observation panel shut, and stood at his post, waiting for the next shift.