Chapter 7
Al walked out of Chicago and back into the Control Room. Walking up to Gooshie he asked, "I know you've been monitoring. What do you think of this yo-yo Sam's hooked up with?" The Captain and Rose Tyler had made it clear they trusted this person but, until he was sure himself, he decided to go with his gut. Right now, his gut was telling him there was something very hinky about the blue box bozo.
"Hard to say, Admiral," Gooshie replied with a hint of hesitation. "He obviously can travel in time. I mean... Doctor Beckett was definitely in London 2007 before and now he's in Chicago 1987... and the guest in the Waiting Room is still the same young lady..."
Al closed his eyes. "This is a weird leap, no doubt about it." He gave the handlink to Gooshie. "I'm going back to my office. Let me know if Sam needs me."
"Will do, Admiral," the programmer replied with a nod before returning to his work at the control console.
Walking into his office, he was somewhat relieved to see Jack still draped in his chair. "You obviously know the leapee and the person Sam is with. I need to know more about this joker."
Jack turned his head upon hearing the door open and looked at Al with a smirk. The smirk widened into a grin which quickly morphed into a chuckle and then into a fully fledged laugh.
"What the hell are you laughing at? This is serious. Sam's apparently with someone that can truly travel in time too, but in a different manner."
"You... and the Doctor," he continued to laugh. "The way you went at each other... god, it made me want to hop into the Imaging Chamber and be there in person to see it." He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Oh, that was brilliant!"
"What are you talking about?"
"I swear I have never... never ... heard anyone stand up to the Doctor like you just did... with the exception of me, of course. Funniest damn thing I've heard in a long time."
Jack had obviously tapped into Ziggy's monitoring of the observation chamber. While he had the right to do it, he'd never seemed interested in doing so before. Al would need to get to the bottom of that but right now there were bigger issues. He tossed off Jack's surprise at the way he'd handled himself with the young time traveler. "I've dealt with bigger nozzles than him in my time. Seems like a snot nose kid to me."
Jack gave him 'the look' at his choice of words. "Oh, he can be stubborn, all right," he agreed. "But he's usually right, so he is in no way 'a piece of 21st century Earth plumbing.' And calling him a snot-nosed kid isn't very descriptive of him at all. Snot-nosed senior, maybe. If seniors lived as long as that. But...you gotta love his sense of humor, right?"
"No, you don't. At least I don't." His forehead creased. "Snot nosed senior? What is he? Some kind of Dorian Gray or something?"
"Oh, come on," Jack berated. "Lighten up, Al. I sometimes think you don't have a funny bone in your body." He looked him up and down appraisingly. "But I am willing to find out."
Al gave him a glare at the obvious teasing appraisement the man was giving. "It's staying in your dreams, Jack," he gave his usual response to such attentions. "And I'm not lightening up until I know what's going on with Sam."
Jack sighed slightly. "I suppose if I were in your position..." He gave him a reassuring smile. "Sam'll be fine."
"And just how do you know that? You keep saying it but you're not giving me anything about this guy. I'm simply not willing to trust him without knowing more about him.
"I already told you. He's an alien."
"Yeah, and that's supposed to make me feel better? Remember, I grew up on sci-fi that said aliens weren't exactly our best friends. And even if he is, you haven't shown me any proof of that." Al reconsidered. "Of course that ship that's bigger on the inside is a good down payment... that he's an alien anyways."
Jack took a deep breath, looking at Al for a long moment. He knew the Admiral wasn't going to let up on the subject - when Al wanted something, he could be extremely tenacious - and that, eventually, he'd have to give him the proof that he wanted. "I need your desktop," he stated bluntly. "I'm assuming it's red."
Al nodded. "Yeah, it's red. I can receive and send top secret information on it. I'll just need to put in the right passwords." He went over to his desk and typed in the code that would allow the computer to work in the red mode. As he did, he mentioned to Jack, "Thanks for asking, though, since you've every right to use it. You've certainly paid for it."
"It's just common courtesy," Jack replied with a winning grin as he stood and walked around the desk, taking a seat in Al's chair. "What I'm going to show you, not even the rest of my team has seen." Getting a confused look from Al, he took a breath. "What do you know about Torchwood? I mean, other than the fact we pay your bills."
"It's a project in England. Deals with strange technologies." Al actually had heard more, but it was never good to show all your cards if turning one was enough.
"That's awfully vague," Jack commented. "At least Ianto is doing a good job in hiding the truth. I suppose that means I'll have to give him a raise someday... or something equally as valuable. What I'm about to tell you doesn't leave this room." He looked up at the ceiling. "That goes for you too, Ziggy."
"Of course. Ziggy, code alpha four seven."
Jack looked at Al for a moment, knowing that he was being secretive about what he knew. He also knew that Al's information wasn't as accurate as he thought. Getting into the Torchwood Institute's mainframe using a series of complex passwords, he then started to type his way into his own personal files, files he had stored away from even the best hackers in the world. "You probably think Torchwood deals with weapons technology and such."
"That's what my sources tell me."
"Well, your sources are only partially correct. We deal with extraterrestrial technology, gathering it and adapting it to help defend the Earth against alien invasion," Jack informed him. "Torchwood was originally founded by Queen Victoria as a response to her encounter with the Doctor and a werewolf in 1879..."
"Werewolf?" Al's eyes widened. "A real werewolf?"
"Actually a lupine wavelength haemovariform," Jack clarified. "But that's neither here nor there."
"Lupine wavelength..." Al started. "You're beginning to sound like Sam, Jack."
"Then the Doctor is in good company because he talks just like that. All the time."
Al rolled his eyes. "Great! Sam's going to end up even more of a meganerd after this leap."
Jack moved his head from side to side. "Could happen, I guess." He then went back to his explanation. "Anyway... until 2007, the Doctor was actually considered an enemy of Great Britain, which is kind of ironic in that he worked as a scientific advisor for the British Division of UNIT."
"UNIT? They chase fairytales and legends. Besides, once they're involved, you never have any control over anything. I don't trust them."
Jack gave him a hint of a smile, despite having been interrupted for a second time. "Seems you know more about them than the general public," he commented. The ex-Time Agent gave him a firm look. "If UNIT takes control, they have a good reason to. As for fairytales and legends... well, I guess Torchwood is worse than UNIT. We don't chase them. We catch them." He focused on the screen. "Now... where is that file?" With a bit of a grin, he located it and then stood to allow Al to take the seat. "You wanted to know who the Doctor is. Well, here you are."
Sitting down, Al read the file, blinking more and more rapidly as he read what was on the screen. "This is science fiction, Jack."
"This is reality, Al," Jack countered. "This is all that Torchwood has on the Doctor. Of course, I had to bury it and update it. The original file made the Doctor look like some kind of monster, which is as far from the truth as possible."
"How do you know that?" the former Naval officer queried. "If what I'm reading is true, then this man… um… this alien is 900 years old at least! There's no way you could know him well enough."
"Actually, he tends to lie about his age. He's more like 1200 years old. But you didn't hear that from me."
"Funny, Jack, really funny. You expect me to believe this?"
Ziggy's voice was around them both in the next second. "There's a 98.9% probability that Captain Harkness' statements are true."
"How the hell did you get that number, Ziggy? This isn't possible."
"I have correlated the dates in the file that the Captain has provided with known unexplained phenomena. They match exactly. Add to that the feed from Doctor Beckett's mesons. What you are being shown is true."
"And if you still doubt it, you can ask the Doctor to allow Sam to listen to his hearts," Jack added. "The Doctor tends to be a show off. He'd probably get a kick out of it."
Al swallowed. "Hearts?"
"He has two of them. And a respiratory bypass system. He's also telepathic but he doesn't invade other people's privacy. He may be rude... but he's not that rude."
Al got up and walked over to his bookshelf and stood there for a few moments allowing the ideas that were being foisted upon him to sink in. Finally he turned. "How do you know all these things about him? How do you know the original report from 1879 wasn't true?"
Jack turned to him with a firm gaze. "Because I know him. I traveled with him for several months. He'd never hurt anyone out of malice, only in self-defense. He showed me a better life, a better way of living. Besides, Victoria was an uptight bitch."
"You met Queen Victoria?"
"Yeah. She visited the battalion I was with during the Crimean War," Jack started before letting his voice drop, realizing what he was saying. Clearing his throat, he took a breath. "She had very strong ideas of what was right and wrong, even to the point of calling anyone who disagreed with those ideas heretics."
"You were in the Crimean War?" Al questioned then threw up his hands. "Why the hell not? Sam was in the Civil War." He reached up and rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on once more. "Sam made this time travel stuff sound so reasonable."
"At least Sam didn't have to stay," Jack murmured under his breath. He swallowed tightly at the memories that came unbidden to his mind, forcing them away quickly. Now wasn't the time to dwell on his past.
"Well, you've turned my universe around, Jack. Gotta tell you, that isn't an easy thing to do. Last person to do that was Beckett."
"Guess that puts me in good company," Jack joked with a grin.
"The best, Jack. The best."