The Torchwood team was gathered around the boardroom table in their usual seats. They had become traditional over time. Jack was at the head of the table with Ianto on his right. Everyone, well everyone except probably Hart, knew that Ianto's chair was angled towards Jack so that his dress shoe was touching Jack's boot. Gwen was on Jack's left, her hands folded in her lap. Miranda was at her usual place at the foot of the table with Fish on her left. When Hart joined the team, he had taken the only seat available to him on Miranda's right which was, unfortunately, right next to Gwen. Since Hart's arrival, Gwen had edged her seat as close to Jack's as possible. There was a large assortment of items in the middle of the table. All had been taken off of the kid from the future.
"Fish you want to start us off?" Jack said.
The technician tapped the tablet in front of him, bringing up the display. He sounded weary, his voice rough. It was very late.
"Right, so, the energy reading at the Capitol Shopping Centre wasn't technically a rift spike. Our equipment picked up an increase in rift energy and an accompanying fluctuation brought on by a piece of future technology, specifically time travel technology," Fish said. He rubbed at one of his eyes. "It utilised the rift energy and dropped a group of people… Sorry, thirteen you said, Jack?"
Jack nodded in response.
"Thirteen individuals from the future on our heads. You said you and John had some background for us?"
Hart cleared his throat. He gestured on the table top as he spoke. "By Jack and mine's time, humanity's expanded out into what's called the Great and Bountiful Human Empire. It spans across three separate galaxies, the Milky Way is in the middle. The two other closest galaxies, the Canis Major Dwarf and the Sagittarius Dwarf Sphere, are the satellite regions."
"You're certain is safe to tell us all that?" Fish asked.
Jack and Hart nodded. "It's not like we're telling you anything that's breaking news," Hart said, shrugging. "You already know there are aliens. You've seen humanity break into space. This isn't really anything you couldn't have guessed from a few intuitive leaps."
Jack continued, "Anyway, when time travel was first invented, a lot of people thought it would be the end of existence. Like anything that controversial, it stirred things up and terrorist organisations formed. One used the technology to travel backwards in time. The media dubbed them, 'The Linearists'."
"They targeted the history of key planets in the core of the Empire," Hart said, gesturing with his finger pointed at the table. "They'd choose a smaller city on a significant planet, travel back in time and commit nuisance crimes."
"They travelled back in time to commit nuisance crimes?" Gwen asked, unbelieving. She looked at Jack when she spoke.
"Mostly vandalism. Sometimes they'd do something as big as interrupt utilities," Jack said, shrugging. "This kid says their original plan was to disrupt a planet's spring festival by dropping some smoke bombs."
"That doesn't make any sense. Why use a technology you believe could wipe out the universe?" Miranda asked.
Hart and Jack both shrugged as if they really didn't care about the answer.
"I didn't say it made sense, Will. I said it's what they did," Jack said. "The group was largely composed of young people, teenagers and university age kids. They'd usually travel in groups of between five and ten. A group this large isn't unheard of but I've never heard of them traveling back this far."
"Seems an like an awful lot of people to drop some smoke bombs," Gwen said, mostly to herself.
"I believe the kid, Jack. He said it was a mistake," Hart said. He waved his hand by his ear. "That early technology? It was a fucking mess. They're lucky they made it here alive."
"What sort are we talking about here, Jack? Chavs?" Gwen asked.
Jack shook his head. "Oddly enough we're going to be dealing with the Empire's elite - university age kids who are used to privilege and money."
"So, well educated spoiled brats. Fantastic," Miranda said, rolling her eyes. "What century are they from?"
"This one's from the forty seventh century, it's just before the fad died out."
"Fad?" Fish said and gestured at the equipment on the boardroom table. Not all of it was benign. "This was a fad?"
"The movement was more political than anything else, a lot of talk. There were some extremists, other members of the movement who wanted to cause a temporal paradox, but mostly, it was young kids looking for a way to rebel who had too many opinions and way too much money," Jack said. He gestured at the equipment. "Run through the tech with us, Fish."
"Our little delinquent was well equipped. I've arranged everything into rough groups," Fish said, gesturing at each item in turn. "We have a bunch of items for his own protection. This tactical vest is similar to our time current body armour. It will stop knives and bullets. There is some repelling equipment, a length of rope and some carabiners. There was also a small ear piece that functions as a translation and communication device. This is your basic torch. There are some other tools, a few of those automatically molding adjustable screwdrivers - glad to have more of those - an adjustable spanner and a wire cutter. This is a small collapsable trowel. There were two knives of different sizes and a projectile weapon, that is basically no different from our sidearms."
"Have you gotten ballistics information yet?" Miranda asked.
"They're copper slugs, just like our bullets but of a shape and size that no time current bullets will work in this weapon," Gwen said. "Whatever ammo they have with them is what they're limited to."
"And we think that what they have isn't much. This kid just had the clip that was loaded, nothing else. There was also this," Fish said pointing to a small tin. He wiggled the top off to reveal a white block. He opened another similar looking tin that appeared to be filled something that looked like button batteries. "It's an explosive. Inert right now but combine it with those detonators and you will get a very big boom. This block could destroy the Hub, the Millennium Centre and the Plass."
Gwen whistled. "Wow…"
"Evie?"
Miranda stood up after Fish nodded at her and tugged a small bag towards her, also indicating several items in turn. "There were some other incidentals on our friend. We have some ready meal bars and a canteen of water. There's also a small personal first aid kit, bandages and the like. My examination indicates that he is mostly human. Jack has informed me that may not be the case for the others but that they may be human enough to go unnoticed. Do they have means to return to their own time, Jack?"
"Absolutely. These weren't suicide missions. These kids went back in time, made some mischief, and went home so they could tell everyone," Jack said and then nodded towards Fish. "But…"
Fish flipped open the tactical vest, the inside appeared to be covered in circuitry. "We have their time travel device and John's right. I'm amazed they made it here alive."
"That's a completely daft place to put that!" Gwen said with a shake of her head.
"It's a early model of our vortex manipulators - larger, bulkier and inaccurate," Hart said and then tapped his wrist strap. "With the proper calculations, this is accurate to plus or minus three attoseconds and can carry up to three people, more if you're willing to sacrifice some accuracy and maybe lose your lunch. This thing? I'm guessing it's plus or minus a couple of fucking centuries and one person will be lucky to get to their destination without having to be scraped off the walls."
"Sports car vs golf cart. The worst bit?" Fish said, tapping the vest. "The jump was too much for it. It's burned out. Likely the other devices are fried as well."
"They're all stranded here and they are going to be panicked. They're used to sweeping in, doing what they came here for and then leaving," Jack said, waving at the equipment in front of him. "They probably don't have enough supplies with them."
"They could have one device still working," Miranda said, optimistic.
"If they did, we would've picked up them leaving," Fish said, waving towards the main Hub. "This device is only made to carry one person at a time. It'd be nothing short of a miracle if even one of their devices is functioning. They're fucked."
"This century is far back enough that they're going to be completely lost," Hart said. He waved at the technology in front of them. "They won't understand the current media, the Internet, the social customs, the economy…"
"You seem to be doing pretty well," Fish said to Hart.
Hart looked to Jack for a second and Jack gave him a small nod of permission. Hart said, "When Jack and I were at the Time Agency, this was our territory, Earth's Industrial Revolution through First Contact."
"You're always saying you're rubbish in this century, Vera," Gwen teased. Her tone wasn't playful, it was nasty.
"You might know the American colonies rebelled against England, but that doesn't mean you'd do well dropped into eighteenth century America," Hart said, sarcastically. "There's a difference between knowing history and living it."
"All right everyone, focus," Jack said, cutting off the argument. "These kids are going to stick together. They're not going to be able to pay for anything so they'll be on the street. Fish? First thing in the morning, let's start with the CCTV footage, see if we can't narrow down where these kids ended up. Gwen, the locals are going to be important with this one, these kids are going to get desperate enough to start stealing when their supplies run low. All right everyone, it's two in the morning. They've probably bunkered down for the night so we're going to do the same. I don't want to see anyone back here before ten."