[#138] Magnificent Sight (Torchwood)

[badly_knitted]

Theme Prompt: #138 – Leviathan
Title: Magnificent Sight
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1000
Summary: In the depths of space, Jack and Ianto encounter something magnificent.




Space was vast, so big it was impossible for anyone, human or alien, to wrap their heads, if they had heads, around its immensity. No one had yet succeeded in counting the stars, they probably never would since new stars were being born and old ones dying all the time. Suffice to say there were a lot, although not all of them were orbited by planets, and of those that were, only a percentage of those planets were habitable. Still, it meant that life in the universe was very varied indeed, the different races having evolved to suit their environments.

After more than a decade of travelling with Jack from world to world, picking up and delivering a mind-boggling variety of cargoes, and even occasionally passengers, Ianto had still only encountered a few hundred alien races, a tiny percentage of the several billion sentient species that made up the Galactic Federation. What he was faced with now was something new and yet still faintly familiar, bringing back memories of his time with Torchwood Three back in Cardiff, before his first death. Even so, what he’d seen back then had in no way prepared him for this.

The first thing he’d noticed was a blip on the Happy Wanderer’s sensors, something moving through space several light years from the cargo ship, travelling roughly parallel to their course, although the distance between them and it was gradually decreasing. He called Jack, who was running routine checks down in the cargo bays.

“Jack? You’d better get up here, looks like we might have company coming.”

“On my way,” Jack replied.

Because of the distances involved, the Wanderer being approximately the size of Cardiff’s Millennium Centre and a bit of a maze of passageways and staircases connecting several levels, it took Jack almost ten minutes to get from the depths of the ship to the bridge, and during that time, the mystery vessel had closed the distance between them by another light year. It was still out of visual range, but from the readings he was getting, Ianto could tell it was big.

He and Jack were out beyond the rim of known space, doing some survey work for several large corporations that were seeking new sources of certain minerals and metallic ores. They were also mapping the sector for the federation and were qualified to make first contact if they came across any inhabited worlds, although that last was at their own discretion. Not everyone could be counted on to welcome visitors from beyond the stars, and there were strict rules regarding non-interference with races below a certain technological level.

“What have we got?” Jack asked, closing the bulkhead door behind him and slipping into the co-pilot’s seat.

“I have no idea. All I can tell you is it’s big, it’s fast, and it’s moving towards us. Not on an intercept course, providing we both continue on our current headings, but it’ll be crossing our path in approximately twenty minutes, a lot closer than I’m comfortable with, so we need to be ready to take evasive action. We don’t want to run into it if it decides to stop, I don’t think we’d come out of an encounter like that too well.” Ianto was doing his best to remain calm, but he was nervous. Even known space had its dangers, but this far out, everything had to be treated as potentially life-threatening. Being immortal wouldn’t help them much if they wound up floating in a vacuum with their ship destroyed.

“When you say big...” Jack was busily pulling up the sensor data to see for himself.

“Bigger than the Wanderer. A lot bigger.”

Jack let out a low whistle as data scrolled across a small screen on the control panel. “That’s big.”

“I noticed. Should we change course, detour around it?” Ianto hadn’t taken his eyes off his own computer screens.

“Don’t you want to know what it is? We’re out here to see what we can see.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to get up close and personal. We don’t head straight for planets or asteroids; we skirt around them at a safe distance.”

“Planets and asteroids generally have orbits that can be calculated so it’s easy to go around them. Whatever this is, it’s behaving more like a spacecraft.”

“And how many spacecraft have you come across that are anywhere near this big? Even the biggest Explorer Class ship is less than half the size of this thing,” Ianto pointed out.

“All the more reason to get a good look at it. We can always make a quick jump into the vortex if necessary. We’re a lot more manoeuvrable than anything that size can be. Besides, we’re almost in visual range. A few more minutes and we’ll be able to see it.”

When the object appeared on their viewscreens a few minutes later, still hundreds of miles away, Ianto’s mouth went dry, and his heart started pounding.

“Leviathan,” he breathed, awed.

“Space Whale,” Jack replied. “I’ve seen a few, but I had no idea they could grow that big!” From nose to the tip of its tail flukes, the creature must have been several miles long.

Ianto blinked, eyes refocusing as Jack slowed their approach, starting to take in more detail. “You mean like the one...”

“Yeah. Sometimes life persists, even in a vacuum. That one must have been a baby, or a different, smaller species.” It still stung to remember how Torchwood had failed to save the poor creature, butchered at the hands of greedy idiots who saw it as a quick way of making money.

“It’s magnificent!” As the Wanderer slowly drew closer, the Space Whale filled the viewscreen, its vast body, scarred by meteorites, gliding past them. Jack changed course, moving towards the whale’s head until they could gaze into an eye the size of their ship.

It saw them, but they felt no fear. It had no interest in harming them. In silence, they watched it pass.


The End


 

Comments

[badly_knitted]

Thank you! The Space Whales are gentle, kind, helpful creatures but they don't always get treated kindly, like the one that ended up in Cardiff, butchered for meat.

[wickedlittletown]

You're welcome. Oh no that's sad :(
And it hits so hard since that is how we treat so many animals as well.

[badly_knitted]

The poor space whale had to be put out of its misery =(

The ones in space are much better off, swimming happily through the darkness between stars.