The Doctor whipped around, his coat almost entangling his legs as he did so, and saw a small black sphere floating about two meters above the ground. There was a spark as a sixth bullet glanced off the hard outer shell of the Toclafane. Jack quickly reloaded.
"No, no, Jack, put your gun down," demanded the Doctor as he put out his hand towards the captain, palm up and fingers spread, reinforcing his order to stop.
"What! Are you kidding?" asked Jack, who shifted his stance as he divided his attention between the Doctor and the Toclafane, training his weapon on the latter. "Have you forgotten what they can do? What they did do?"
"No, I haven't. How could I? But, this one may be different. Just like all humans don't carve up alien visitors while they are alive, maybe all Toclafane aren't violent. You wouldn't want me to judge you by that, just because you are the same species, would you? It hasn't attacked yet. Let's give it a chance, see what it does before you try to destroy it."
"Give a Toclafane a chance? Are you insane?"
"No, I'm not. Trust me. I don't think this one means any harm."
Jack shook his head as he stepped away from the Doctor, giving himself a clearer shot and freeing himself from any further Time Lord interference. The Doctor glanced at him and hoped the captain would hold his fire and not scare the Toclafane off. He took a quick look at Rhys and Gwen. Gwen had her firearm out, taking her cue from Jack, Rhys towering behind her, looking protective, but also upset and unsure as to how to proceed. Ianto, stood on the other side of Rhys, his gun also out.
For its part the Toclafane hung in the air bobbing quietly for a few moments as if trying to decide something, then suddenly it deployed its spikes. There was a sharp intake of air from Jack and the click of the gun's hammer being pulled back. "No, Jack!" shouted the Doctor, as the sound of the shot was followed by the ring of a bullet hitting the sphere's hull. He heard the scrape of a shoe on the tarmac and looked to see Gwen side-stepping in a flanking maneuver, her aim steady.
"All of you, stand down! There's no need for this!" the Time Lord ordered, to no avail.
"I'll stand down when it does," declared Jack never taking his focus off the Toclafane.
The situation was escalating and the only thing the Doctor could think of to defuse it was to put himself between the Toclafane and Jack. He stepped towards the sphere only to be stopped in his tracks by what the Toclafane did next.
One by one the spikes dropped from the sphere, chiming musically as they hit the tarmac. The Doctor suppressed a laugh at Jack's puzzled expression, pleased his guess had apparently been correct. He then winced as the sphere emitted an earsplitting screech. Suddenly small pieces of glass, the lenses of the energy weapons the Toclafane carried, erupted from the sphere and joined the spikes on the tarmac.
"What? What's it doing?" Jack asked, obviously confused as he kept his aim on the sphere.
"You said you would stand down when it did. I think it just laid down its arms and surrendered. That symbol on the fence was a very primitive form of Gallifreyan. It said 'surrender Toclafane'. It's not very precise, I wasn't sure if it was an order for us to surrender or if the Toclafane would be surrendering. Now we know," explained the Doctor with a cheeky grin.
"The Doctor is wise," said the harsh metallic voice of the Toclafane. "I wait for the Doctor."
"You didn't wait very patiently, did you? You've been following me since I landed, haven't you," accused the Doctor, relieved he had found the answer to what had been dogging him, appearing only at the edge of his vision. That relief died with the Toclafane's answer.
"No, I stay here. I felt your ship. I make you come here. It's safe, no one remembers."
"I remember," growled Jack, steadying his aim, keeping the Toclafane in his sights.
The Doctor sighed. "Jack, this one isn't one of those. It can't be. Think about it."
"What do you mean it can't be? How can you tell, one looks just like another," Jack protested.
"If it had killed anyone, it would have been part of the paradox and have disappeared when the paradox was destroyed," the Doctor explained patiently. "This one had to have been here before the paradox occurred and not killed anyone."
"You have a point," said Jack as he reluctantly lowered his gun, but didn't holster it.
"Is it this that's been breaking my lorries?" Rhys asked. "What is it? It's like one of them things Harold Saxon used to kill that president, but they said they were just fake. Some bit of hocus pocus Saxon cooked up and pretended were aliens."
"Oh, they are real alright," the Doctor assured him. "Or rather they were. This is probably the last one in existence."
"And it had to pick on my firm? Why couldn't it go after Davis' lorries down the road?"
"The woman," answered the Toclafane.
"Gwen? What's Gwen got to do with it?"
"She likes you. She would help you. She would get the captain and he would bring the Doctor," the Toclafane explained.
"So you use my lorries to ring him up?" yelled Rhys gesturing at the Doctor. "You couldn't think of another way to get his attention?"
"Rhys, settle down now," Gwen said, trying to reassure him. "It's an alien, it's not going to think like we do. I don't think it knows what it did."
"Well someone should tell it!"
"We will. It won't happen again. Jack'll take care of it."
"Alright, he'd better. I have enough problems keeping people on in this economy without this thing ruining the business." said Rhys.
"If you can keep quiet now Rhys, I have some questions I would like to ask it," said Jack. He then addressed the Toclafane, who was now hovering close to the ground in what the Doctor suspected was the closest it could approximate to a submissive stance. "How did you know the Doctor and I would be together? That I would bring him here?" the captain asked.
"I was there. On the ship. I saw you try to help the Doctor. The Master said you made him sick and the Doctor was sick for being friends with you. "
"You were there and you did nothing to help? You just went along with it?" accused Jack, his growing anger apparent.
"I was scared. Like the humans who went along with him. But I did not hurt anyone or kill anyone."
"How did you manage that? Didn't any of your friends notice?" asked Jack.
"I always missed. They did not care, more for them. They enjoyed it. The spikes, I never used them. I would just hesitate and the rest would do it. They would laugh because there was never anything left for me, but it's what I wanted."
"That still makes you a party to it," said Jack, again raising his gun.
The Doctor stepped over to Jack and put his hand on his arm making him lower his weapon. "Jack," he said quietly. "It did no more than all the humans who gunned people down at the Master's orders, less in fact. You going to round up all of them and execute them?"
"That was different. They had no choice. He would have killed them if they didn't obey. They were forced to. If he hadn't had the Toclafane on his side they would have fought him and won."
"It is the same. The risks were the same for it as they were for the humans," the Doctor insisted.
"What, he would kill one of them? Wouldn't the rest of them have rebelled then?" argued Jack.
"No," answered the Toclafane. "They thought I was one of them. If they knew I was different. They would tell him. He would fix me. Make me like them."
"Fix you? How would he fix you?" asked the Doctor.
"I was different. I wasn't part of the network. Not the real network. If he knew, he would make me part of it."
"The archangel network?"
"No, the bigger network. The network that the archangel network was a part of. He created it when he made us. He tied us to his mind with it."
"What, he made you? I thought…" The Doctor was interrupted by the sound of sirens getting closer.
"Okay, boys and girls," Jack said as he took control of the situation. "We need to move this out of the open. Rhys, can we use your office?"
"Yes, but Jen's in there. And what's all this about Toclafane killing people and the Master? How come I never heard of it? You Retcon the whole planet or something?"
"It was a rather unpleasant period of Earth's history, which fortunately was erased and not by Retcon," Jack explained. "Now, go tell Jen to have an early lunch. Ianto can handle your phones. Gwen, explain things to your former co-workers." He looked over at the Doctor. "Think you can convince your new friend to come with us?"
"I will meet you there," the Toclafane answered and disappeared. Gwen was already at the gate talking to the local police while Rhys entered the small building that served as the haulage firm's office.
Jack looked at the Doctor as he holstered his gun. "So, you really think you can trust it?"
The Doctor bent down and picked up the spikes and lenses off the pavement. He held up one lens, rolling it between the tips of his thumb and index finger, squinting as he examined it carefully in the sunlight, while he absentmindedly put the rest of the Toclafane's offering in his coat pocket. "Yes, I think so," he commented as he continued to peer at the lens. "I can't figure out how it could still be here otherwise. Though it saying the Master created it does give me some cause for concern."
"Concern?" asked Jack raising an eyebrow suggestively. "We just sent that thing into the office with Rhys, and you have concerns?"
The Doctor sighed as he put his hand down and brought his attention to Jack. "Yes, concerns. I had thought the humans had transformed themselves to become Toclafane. But if the Master did it, they might not all be descended from humans. Some of them may have started out as life forms on other planets."
"The paradox collapsing wouldn't affect them then, would it?" said Jack.
"No, it wouldn't. Any that were here before the paradox could have stayed even if they killed thousands of humans." The Doctor tossed the lens in to the air and caught it. "But this is a high energy lens. It can focus more power than any material earth technology can produce at this time. I can't imagine the Toclafane giving it up if it wasn't sincere. It's basically toothless now. Harmless unless it butts someone in the head." He put the lens in his pocket and glanced at the haulage firm's office. A heavy set woman was heading down the stairs.
"It looks like the coast is clear," the Doctor observed. "Shall we go see what it wants?"
"What? You don't know?"
"No, haven't a clue," replied the Doctor with a shake of his head as he started towards the office stairs. "It's a puzzle. Why here? Why now? And most importantly, why me?"
"Just don't let your curiosity get the better of you," warned Jack. "You're not exactly on your game right now."
The Doctor stopped at the top of the stairs and turned to glare at Jack. "My game is just fine I'll have you know. A few headaches are hardly enough to put me 'off' it. Now try not to kill our guest before he tells us his purpose in being here."
Before Jack could respond the Doctor turned his back on him and entered the office, cutting off any further discussion.