- 1 -
Walking down the street from my apartment building in Cardiff Bay I glanced briefly at the poster advertising the concert dates for the current UK tour by The Rolling Stones before continuing to my destination.
I took a seat at a table on the pavement outside my favourite coffee shop, then pulled my cigarettes, lighter, and a make-up mirror out of my shoulder bag. I briefly checked my appearance in this before nodding approvingly. I liked what it showed me. I was Mary Sato-Novak - blonde, pretty enough to turn heads, a shade over five-five tall, and wearing a leather jacket over a sports bra and tiny skirt, my feet clad in strappy high heels. It was the same ensemble I'd worn yesterday, but this time in red rather than black. I appeared to be in my early-to-mid twenties and physically I was. But I first came to this city, this world, in 1812.
"Can I take your order?" asked a waiter, appearing at my elbow.
"Just my usual espresso, thank you."
Reaching into my bag I brought out the multiversal transporter I had used yesterday to take me to a parallel world, an Earth that was secretly being saved by Arcateenians led by Toshiko Sato. Only as delightful as the encounter had been she wasn't *my* Toshiko.
Though much smaller, the device bore a strong resemblance to the transporter that brought me here two centuries ago and which for the longest time I thought could take me home to where they could separate me from my human host should I ever want such a thing. I knew from experience that in very rare circumstances the bond could be transferred to another host, but what I learned yesterday was that it could not be undone. Once melded with a human, always melded with a human. I was not unhappy with that revelation.
It's amazing what the Rift coughs up. The multiversal transporter had been recovered two days ago from a school playing field in Llanrumney, and to me it represented hope, hope that somewhere in the infinite vastness of the multiverse was an Earth on which my Toshiko didn't die. Gods, how I missed her! I think it was suddenly feeling her loss that sharply again which made me act so impulsively, activating the transporter right there and then without any planning ahead or consideration for the possible consequences.
One moment Roald Dahl Plass contained only human pedestrians, and the next a dozen Judoon were circling the table, facing outward. It was the same table overlooking the Plass, but now I was seated opposite a surprised looking Arcateenian Inquisitor, one who had taken on the form of a movie star.
"Tom Cruise?" I said, surprised.
"You just blinked into existence," he gasped, "and...no! It's impossible! You can't both be the fugitive!"
That's when I became aware of the man sitting next to me. A look of astonished recognition passed between us.
"OK, that *hurt*!" said another voice.
The figure on the floor had come back to life and was getting up, to the evident amazement of the Judoon captain and the Inquisitor.
"What blasphemy is this?" said 'Tom', aghast. "You were dead!"
"Yes, I was, wasn't I?" came the reply. "Lisa, you should have our unwanted visitors lined up by now. Please send them all back except for the Judoon captain and Tom Cruise here."
And with that the platoon of brutal rhinoform humanoid rentacops all winked out of existence.
"We remotely set all their teleporters to return them to your ship, but we could just as easily have sent them into the sun," said Harkness. "If you ever, *ever* try anything like this again in Cardiff that's just what we'll do. Now scram."
The Judoon captain didn't need to be told twice, activating his own teleport and following his platoon.
I was dumbstruck, my mouth agape. Not because of my deja vu over what I had just witnessed - it was obvious these events were occurring a day later here than they had on my own Earth - but because the person in that RAF greatcoat was a woman.
"Hi," she said, grinning at me and giving a little nod, "Captain Jacqueline Harkness."
- 2 -
I could see the family resemblance, and apart from a lack of braces - or suspenders as Jack would call them - which were no longer needed given those wider female hips, she was dressed almost identically to my universe's Captain Harkness, her long dark hair flowing down to her shoulders.
"But before we can get acquainted there's what to do about you, 'Tom'," said Jac, dropping down into a chair next to the Inquisitor. "Looks good on you, by the way."
"I am a duly appointed officer of my planet's legal system..." he protested.
"But this isn't your planet and you don't have an extradition treaty with us," said Jac. "Plus this is a level five world and under the articles of the Shadow Proclamation I'm pretty sure you're forbidden from violating it by dumping criminals here. If word ever got out you'd lose your standing in the various galactic councils. So here's what's going to happen. You're going to stop doing that immediately and you're going to leave Robert here alone. He's now off-limits to you. Otherwise that word *will* get out. This world is no longer the quiet little backwater it used to be and we protect our own. Now I think it's time you amscrayed, too."
Shooting us both a venomous look the Inquisitor did just that, activating his teleport and returning to the Judoon ship in orbit above us for what will be a very interesting conversation.
"Robert," I said, turning towards the man sitting next to me. "I never knew the name of the soldier who shot me in 1812."
Unlike humans Arcateenians have perfect recall, so though I'd only seen him for a few minutes two hundred years ago I had never forgotten his face.
"Captain Robert Penrose," he said, "but how can this be? Torchwood recovered the remains of the woman whose heart I tore out that day, yet here you are."
"The Inquisitor protested that we couldn't be the same fugitive despite what his telepathic pendant was telling him, but we are," I explained. "On my Earth I was drawn into Mary Wozniak's body, but on yours Robert Penrose got to the clearing first so you were drawn into his."
"Sounds like you've got quite a story to tell," said Jac Harkness, taking a seat.
So I told them everything. Nor had the little drama here gone unnoticed or unappreciated. As on my Earth a waiter came by at one point with coffees and pastries "compliments of the management."
After listening to my story Jac rubbed her chin thoughtfully. At which point the gorgeous Lisa Hallett came by.
"Is everything alright out here?" she asked. "I thought I'd better check."
"Everything's fine now, babe," Jac replied, smiling, "better than fine. In fact I think I'll come back to the Hub with you. These two have a lot to talk about and I've got that Rift safety assessment report to finish for US President Elizabeth Warren's visit to Cardiff next week."
They set off across the Plass together, holding hands.
"Are they...?" I began.
"A couple? Yes. Lisa's a survivor of the destruction of Torchwood One by the Daleks and Cybermen. Jac was furious when she discovered Lisa had her semi cyber-converted boyfriend Ianto Jones hidden away in a sub-basement of the Hub. He got loose and would've converted us all if we hadn't finished him off. She was on probation after that, but then she and Jac developed feelings for each other."
Everyone familiar with it knows that when you travel to a parallel universe you're taking a trip through the looking glass, but I'm not sure whether it's the similarities or the differences that disturb me more.
We talked for a long time and even allowing for the difference in how men and women were treated in the days we lived through, our experiences were remarkably similar, right down to Robert becoming a phantom for several months in the same way that I had.
"I became solid again just as Jac's brother Gray was about to shoot Toshiko," he said. "No punch has ever felt as good as the haymaker I laid on him then. It broke his jaw and laid him out cold. I saved Toshiko, but we couldn't save Owen."
"Unfortunately in my world I didn't become solid again until after he shot Toshiko. She died in my arms."
"I'm sorry," he said, laying a sympathetic hand on my shoulder.
"Just a few minutes difference," I said, tearing up, "yet it made all the difference in the world. Where is your Toshiko now?"
"In London, visiting family. I'm expecting her back tomorrow. Do you... do you want to meet her?" he asked, tentatively.
"I really do, but I don't think that would be a good idea."
"L'Quallha?"
"L'Quallha."
And before I could change my mind I activated the transporter, returning me to my own universe. It did so to a second or so after I'd departed. I glanced around, curious as to whether anyone had noticed me blink in and out of existence, but apart from a small child who was staring at me slack-jawed and goggle-eyed no one appeared to have.
The waiter returned with my coffee and set it down on the table in front of me never suspecting that in the time he was getting it I had travelled from this universe to another then returned.
And all without leaving my chair.
- 3 -
Lighting a cigarette, I exhaled thoughtfully and sipped my espresso. L'Quallha is what Arcateenians call the meeting of two souls who were meant to be together. Most beings go a lifetime without feeling it, but when you do it's too powerful to be denied and resistance is futile, as I knew only too well.
"I always believed my prince would come along one day and sweep me off my feet," the Gwen Cooper of the Earth I visited yesterday had said, "but I never imagined that prince would be a princess."
And that was the point. It was about souls, not bodies. Robert Penrose was me. His L'Quallha was my L'Quallha so his Toshiko would be as attracted to me as to him. Which meant that if I eliminated him she would be mine. The L'Quallha between us was strong enough that - if only for a moment - I had contemplated doing just that. No, it was obvious now that I needed to locate a world where Toshiko had lived and I had died. That way I could take that other self's place with a clear conscience. The only problem is that I have no control over where in the multiverse the transporter takes me. I might have to visit dozens of other Earths before I find the one I'm looking for.
But if that's what it takes then so be it.
Once I've found my Toshiko again I'll happily leave this world behind forever.
*The End
*
