for rude_not_ginger Terra Novus: Outpost 7

[quitehomoerotic]

Follows this.

Smack.

Jack landed on the marbled floor with an unceremonious fall.

"Yeah, but you missed it," he said finishing the sentiment the Doctor started before he activated the manipulator.

He pulled himself up from the floor and stretched himself out, looking over to the Doctor to make sure he was okay and all in one piece.

"We're about 800 years to the left," he said as he checked his wrist strap. "Set it on random, thought it'd be more fun that way."

He grinned over at him, and stretched his neck out a little more as he looked around.

What he saw, was nothing short of spectacular.

The walls looked to be made of stone and were decorated with gargoyles and elaborate gold filigree flourishes. Ahead of them, up on the wall, was a vast round glass stain window. Small lights illuminated it around the circle, but just about visible through the other side was the vague starlight in the distance. They were still in space, not on a planet surface.

"Well this is new... what is this, some sort of space monastery?"

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"It doesn't matter if it is," Jack said quietly, "we're here, and we can't stop it. Even if we can stop it, we can't. We just have to watch."

Jack, for a moment, wondered if they could. But he cut himself off. No point in considering it. The Doctor had considered it on Mars, Jack saw that, the Doctor had done it, and look where that had got him. No this, they just had to see through.

"The current runs through the nexus between every outpost. They manage to evacuate 47 outposts, but that's out of 400 dotted around the area. They stopped the death toll after about three million. They'll leave some of the outposts there. Still there even when I was a kid. Too scared to go back in case anything stuck around. They say when it happened the sky lit up like fireworks. Burning brightly in a thousand different colours. I always thought that sounded too romantic."

He looked back to the Doctor again, "Like one big magnet, Doctor, that's us."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Barely a blip for the Time Lords," the Doctor admitted. "We knew about it, but I picked it as a topic for its uniqueness. But when you're young you don't always see the big picture."

He looked back to Jack. Two big magnets pulling in all of the bad of the universe. Three million dead, and if they didn't figure out a way out of here, it would be two more.

"We could stop it," he offered, though there was no enthusiasm to his voice. Just saying what he felt he had to, even if it was only said once.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"I did exams on it in school," Jack told him with an almost laugh, "it was one of those things people just knew about. Like the first and second world wars is for people in the 21st century. Just part of the psyche."

This was part of his own past. And though he'd never really touched it, it was close enough to feel strange.

"Yeah, we probably could," Jack agreed sounding non-nonplussed and non committal. He didn't say that they wouldn't, because they knew that.

He looked at his wrist strap again, it was 9:17pm. Whatever would happen, would happen in less than three hours.

"Come on," he said, giving the Doctor's hand a squeeze. "Lets see if we can't make sure those 47 get evacuated."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Remember the story about the two strangers who helped evacuate the people in those outposts?" the Doctor said. "No? Because we're not there. And if we're not changing things..."

He wanted to change things. He wanted to think he had that ability, that nothing could stop what he could do, now. But too much hung on these events. Too much hung on fixed events.

"All we can do, right now, is run."

He raced around the platform to where the life pods would've been. No pods were attached. No one on Outpost 7 at all, it appeared.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

The Doctor was right. Jack knew the Doctor was right. He wished he wasn't right, but he couldn't argue it, not really. And he knew to even attempt to protest would be to throw in the Doctor's face all he'd done. All he'd been through.

He wouldn't do that.

"Yeah," he said with a sigh, "yeah, you're right."

He followed him, with a little less spring in step. He poked at his wrist strap as he went, but it was throwing up errors. "Well we can't use this to go," he told him, "looks like the rip that occurs in a few hours is causing a temporal fissure that's bouncing back. We'll have to find another way out."

Stepping around the platform he reached for a screen suspended above one of the pod entrances.

"There was activity here. A couple of hours ago." He frowned. "This outpost evacuated."

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The Doctor nodded at the manipulator. "Almost rather be ripped apart anyway," he said, giving Jack a small, teasing smile. He had to smile now, they had to make it through this. Fixed point in time or not.

"Why would they evacuate?" the Doctor asked. He slipped on his glasses and peered over Jack's shoulder at the screen.

"Everyone's left, no reason stated. Considering the damage that comes out of this outpost..." He pulled off his glasses and looked back at the empty pods. "They wouldn't have made it away from the blast radius, no one heard of any survivors from ground zero. No one."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Really, Doctor, it tickles, that's all," he smiled back at him. "Don't tell me you don't love that little tingle down the spine." Well okay, it was neither a tickle nor a tingle, but he liked it, in a strange sort of way.

"Maybe they knew," Jack theorised with a shake of his shoulders. "Maybe whatever happens... has already happened. Some desperate attempt to get away, even if they knew they couldn't. But there's no distress signal or anything."

He shook his head. Why wouldn't they send out a signal? Covering something up? Scared of causing a panic? Oh that was more like it. If something huge was going to happen, and something they couldn't prevent, why scare the population?

But they couldn't solve this. He had to stop thinking about it.

"Okay," he said, shaking his head, "don't suppose we can... recall the TARDIS or something?" No, he didn't suppose so.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"We could," the Doctor said. "Potentially. Don't think the Proclamation would follow us to this part of space."

Oh, but they were so close to a mystery right now. The Doctor did love a good mystery. He raised an eyebrow and looked back to Jack.

"Or, I could call one of those pods from another Outpost over here and we could get some more information before we leave. Figure out exactly---" He shook his head. "No, no, no. We can't. Can't get into this, can't start looking, because we can't change it."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack looked back at the Doctor with a look that almost mirrored the one he was given.

Oh it was so tempting, so very tempting, and Jack just wanted that reason to say yes. The look the Doctor gave him qualified as enough.

"Maybe not," he said, "but someone should know. Even if it's only us. Someone should know why. Someone should know what happened here. Three million people dead, Doctor. Three million. We won't change it, we won't, but..." he nodded towards one of the empty pods, "call one over. We'll keep each other in check, won't we."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor gave Jack a grin. Of course they would.

He slammed a few buttons down on the control pad, and an automated spacepod headed towards their outpost. Ten minutes or so, that was how much longer they had on this little hunk of rock.

"Let's see if we can't find the source of the explosion, shall we?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack offered his own grin back, he couldn't help it, the Doctor's smile was infectious. Maybe something terrible was going to happen and... well, they could be pretty certain it was, but that didn't matter, because they'd do what they were best at, and they'd do something, even if that something wasn't stopping it.

"Doctor," he beamed, "I thought you'd never ask."

He stepped around him and took place at the station beside him, frantically keying away himself.

"Okay well it looks like the last activity here was precisely three hours and fourty seven minutes ago. That's when the last pod left. Only thing I've got logged here is a minor power surge about 45 minutes before that."

He glanced over and offered another smile as he spoke, but this smile, a little more personal than the last.

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"Very minor," the Doctor agreed, heading behind Jack and looking over his shoulder. "Barely a power hiccup, but in a place this well-fortified, it shouldn't have happened at all."

He reached across and pressed another button, bringing the layout of the outpost into a hologram in front of them. The Doctor gestured to where the screen indicated.

"A small burst of energy originating here. Could've been nothing, but considering what happens to this outpost not all that long in the future..."

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Jack looked at the hologram and nodded. "So I'm guessing that's where we're heading, right? Section... C. Well, not quite what I had in mind for tonight, but I'm sure we can make it interesting."

He shot another grin at the Doctor and nodded towards the door. "Okay the doors in these places are usually on some sort of lock system. They use that I46 locking. You know that? With the questions. Hows your trivia? On second thoughts maybe we can try and disable it."

He took another step around the Doctor, putting his hand on the small of his back as he moved, and nodded, "Right! So we've got, what, how long before that pod gets here? Better not waste any time!"

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"Deadlock seal," the Doctor said. "We'll have to wing it. Shouldn't be too hard, though. And we can always call a lifeline."

He pulled out his mobile and gave it a little wave in Jack's direction. "Martha'll help us out. She's handled pop quizzes like this before."

This was better. Running around, death on their heels, preparing to uncover one of the great mysteries of the universe. The Doctor's smile was wide and genuine as he led the way to Section B. He grabbed a door clamp and a small computer, which he tossed to Jack.

"Piece of cake."

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Jack caught hold of the computer and grinned at the Doctor.

"Oh yeah? You think Martha's got time to help us with a pub quiz? Call her and I might owe her an apology before anything else."

He smiled though, and as true as the sentiment was, he was light with it. Martha would forgive him, of course she would, and he was with the Doctor again and that was good. Very good.

Jack headed out through the first open door behind the Doctor and ahead towards the first door seal.

"So!", he asked him, "Theories yet?"

They reached the first locked door and he nodded to it, lifting the computer. The question was both amusing and surprising. He read it aloud.

"Name the Earth organisation set up by Queen Victoria of Britain in order to monitor alien activity."

He looked over at the Doctor, incredulously. "Hard one."

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The Doctor snorted. "That how difficult they get? Really? Preferred the ones that were recreational mathematics, myself."

He slammed the end of the clamp to the center of the door and turned back to Jack.

"And as for theories, I've got a few. Nothing that could explain all of the damage, though. It was such a wide-spread disaster..."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack keyed 'Torchwood' into the hand held device and laughed to himself.

"Recreational mathematics? Seriously? Oh Doctor what do I see in you?" he teased him as the door unlocked ready for them to head through the corridor and along to the next.

"I always thought it was the magnets," he offered. "Central magnetic core these things have, these outposts. And that's all well and good until something comes and knocks off the polarisation and them bam. But even that wouldn't be enough to rip a hole like that. No that's something specific. Some sort of time technology."

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He gave Jack a grin. What did they see in each other? They had so much in common, but yet so very little, as well.

"Rumors were," the Doctor spoke as he headed to the next door. "That the Eternals wanted to undo this section of space for their own amusement. But, they weren't really the sort to admit their mistakes."

He shrugged. "Or a multicausality link overload with those magnetic cores. Another very solid theory."

He slammed the clamp into the section of wall. "But! If you ask me, I'd say this was definitely no accident."

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"Going a bit far for a game, isn't it?" Jack said pulling a none to amused face. "They all seem to fall short. I think that's why people were so interested it. Because they never could work it out. That and the fact so many died. All that morbid curiosity. Humanity, gotta love it. Death always draws them. They'd have a field day with me."

Jack held the device out again and waited for the next question to pop up, doing his best to ignore that voice in his head that told him that maybe it wasn't an accident, but maybe someone was trying to make it look like one. And maybe that someone was them.

The computer pinged as the next question arrived, and Jack looked down to read it, but when he did... he couldn't. He frowned. In front of him was something that looked more like art than writing. It looked familiar too, like he'd seen it somewhere but he wasn't sure where.

"Doctor..." he called, "I think it's another language or something. I can't read it. Think you can work this one out?"

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"If it's in another language, the TARDIS should translate it," the Doctor snapped irritably. They had too much to do, and not enough time to sit around and discuss what might've been. Not really enough time to do what they were doing right now.

All the same, he pulled away from the clamp and raced to Jack's side. The words didn't need to translate in the Doctor's mind, not like every piece of English he'd read did. The swirls and loops made perfect sense to him.

"But that's impossible," the Doctor said. He shook his head. "It's Gallifreyan, a very simple number sequence. Hit that third button, sixth from the right."

He slammed the clamp back to the door. "Causality loops and the time referberation recortorators probably linked the avaliable minds to the machine, creating questions only you and I could answer because only you and I are outside of the time center."

That had to be it. That could be the only reason.

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"Yeah well the TARDIS is taking a holiday!" he snapped back, "Just you and me now."

He held the device out towards the Doctor for him to take a look at and watched his face as he regarded the screen. His brow furrowed again at seeing the Doctor's expression change, and he felt the urge to reach out and just rest a hand on his side. He held back, but the intent was there in his eyes.

Gallifrey. Oh that's where he'd seen it before. On the walls in that tower, etched into the side of that tomb. But that seemed so long ago now.

Jack hit the button as he was told and smiled, and in an attempt to lighten the mood or lift things a little he tried to tease, "oh you know I love it when you talk dirty like that."

Right on cue, the door opened and he nodded as he advanced forward. "Only things we'll know. Well, this should be fun." he didn't even attempt to sound as though he meant it.

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"Yes, so we should start seeing Beatles trivia and drink mixes soon," the Doctor said, clinging to Jack's light tone as he threw the clamp into the next door.

This would be easy to pass through. Too easy. The Doctor counted the number of doors left.

So many dead, they stopped counting bodies before they hit the center of the blast. The Doctor and Jack could've easily been atomized, and Jack wouldn't have time to pull himself back together before the Marquis arrived.

"Hurry."

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"You know I mix a really mean Manhattan now you mention it! Remind me to show you some time." Jack said, attempting to continue the thread.

What were they doing this for? He wondered. Habit? Some incessant need for adventure? It was like an addiction. Instead of getting out they always jumped right into danger. But then he supposed he wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" he protested with a huff as he waited for the next question to come through.

"Come on come on!" It popped up and he recited it as the words appeared, "Give the name of--" but he stopped. He repeated the question in his head the name of Captain Jack Harkness as given on his birth record.

He input the answer, stone faced, and waited for the door. "It's fine," he said, "I've got it."

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The Doctor looked back over his shoulder to Jack. He opened his mouth to question him, but the clamp in his hands undid the lock.

Something private, maybe? Very personal? The Doctor felt a surge of panic as he worried what information the link might pull from him, or force him to call the answer to Jack for.

After all, the Doctor didn't always think in Gallifreyan.

He raced through the next door and threw the clamp. He took in a deep breath and then let out a cough. "Can you smell that?" he asked. "Like...mildew, decay."

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Jack headed through the next door without looking to the Doctor. "Almost there, right? Can't be long to go now." He hoped not. What else could be asked? He'd rather not have to find out.

As soon as he crossed the threshold though the smell hit him.

"Oh yeah," he said, scrunching his face up and lifting a hand to cover it, "Smells like a trench. Like disease. Doctor, you know you really take me on the nicest dates."