fandomweekly | [#092] Beyond The Rim (Torchwood)

Theme Prompt: #092 – Into The Depths
Title: Beyond The Rim
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Jack and Ianto are out exploring the depths of space far beyond where any other citizen of the Galactic Federation has ever been.

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t part of their job; Jack and Ianto were cargo hauliers and occasional traders, transporting goods of all descriptions, up to and including livestock, from one planet or orbital space station to another across the known universe. It was quite a lucrative business, and they’d earned themselves a reputation over the past few decades for being fast, efficient, and reliable. They’d never lost a shipment or failed to deliver on time, which meant that when they arrived somewhere they could take their pick of cargoes and destinations. Unlike some independents, they never had to travel with an empty hold.

It was a wonderful life, criss-crossing the galaxy, seeing all the sights, and the work was varied enough that they seldom grew bored, but despite all the benefits of their day-to-day lives, at heart they were explorers. The thrill of the unknown drew them like a magnet, and so they never missed an opportunity to set out beyond the frontier, into the depths of uncharted space, to see what they could see.

There were professionals whose job it was to chart the regions of space that had yet to be explored, and exploited, by the Galactic Federation, but there was a lot of space out there, far too much for the relatively small number of specialists to chart. Less than one percent of space beyond the Federation’s borders had been charted so far, and the explorer ships were limited in how long they could stay out before they needed to return for re-supply.

In that, Jack and Ianto had a distinct advantage. They were a crew of two aboard a cargo vessel that had plenty of space for storing supplies, spare parts, fuel, and power cubes. Add to that their immortality, and if they chose to, they could embark on a decade-long voyage of exploration, although they didn’t, because not encountering another intelligent being for such a long period of time would be a bit much. Happy as they were in each other’s company, they enjoyed meeting other people.

This trip was planned to last a Galactic year, as defined by the Shadow Proclamation, a period of time equivalent to approximately fourteen earth months. Even after all this time, Jack and Ianto still tended to think in earth terms.

They’d signed a contract with the Millineau Corporation of Zansa Major, one of the Federation’s largest manufacturers of spaceships, to survey and chart a region of as yet completely unexplored space, looking for new sources of certain ores and minerals that were essential for processing the alloys from which spacecraft hulls were constructed.

So here they were, four months into their voyage of discovery, and a considerable distance into a region of space where the stars were thinly scattered. The trip had been very successful thus far; the charting was going well, and they’d already discovered two asteroid belts that would yield impressive quantities of several rare metallic elements, and a small planetoid with, according to their sensors, a core of solid steel. They hadn’t gone too close to that because its density was such that the gravitational pull it exerted would likely be too strong for their relatively small craft to handle. They would need a gravity nullifier, which the Happy Wanderer didn’t have; something it might be worth investing in for future excursions.

The planetoid was a dozen light years behind them, however; what was centred in their viewscreen now was something else entirely.

“Well, that’s new.”

“Uh huh.” Okay, so that wasn’t the most intelligent response to Jack’s comment, but Ianto felt he could be excused for his lack of eloquence. It wasn’t every day you came across a space doughnut.

It wasn’t an actual doughnut of course, not some stray snack from earth that had been adrift for uncounted aeons. It was a planet, of sorts, only it was more like a solidified planetary ring system, like Saturn’s rings if they’d absorbed all the matter that made up the planet they orbited until all that was left was a solid ring with a hole through the centre.

“The question is whether it’s a natural phenomenon or a manufactured object.” Jack was busily running scans using the Wanderer’s long-range sensors; if the doughnut was natural then it was something that had never been seen before and any data they collected on it could be very valuable to the scientific community. If, on the other hand, it had been built, they could be looking at a first contact situation.

Ianto’s brain was still refusing to produce anything particularly coherent, mostly thinking about how Homer Simpson might react to a doughnut that big. He may have been travelling in space for over fifty years, but he still wasn’t completely immune to the effects of encountering things totally outside his experience. Times like this, his brain simply stalled, clinging to things it knew and understood as a way of coping until it could adjust.

Noticing Ianto’s silence, Jack glanced across at him. “Are you okay?”

“Mm.” Ianto hadn’t taken his eyes off the screen and had hardly blinked since the doughnut had first come into view.

“If it helps at all, looks like it’s been created, or more accurately grown, by some outside agency, but I have no idea why, or what purpose it might serve.”

“There’s something in the… um… hole,” Ianto said at last. “Something moving.”

“I see it.” Jack adjusted the ship’s sensors, moving their focus away from the doughnut itself and onto the hole in the middle. He increased magnification, and what he saw took his breath away. Swimming around in the centre were almost fifty huge creatures, and perhaps a dozen or so smaller ones.

“Space whales!” Ianto exclaimed, leaning forward, as if that would afford him a closer look.

Jack smiled, as completely enraptured by the sight as Ianto. “How amazing is that? We’re looking at the first space whale nursery ever to be discovered!”

This was what space exploration was all about!

The End

[#092] Beyond The Rim (Torchwood)

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