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fandomweekly2025-05-11 10:51 am
m_findlow) wrote in fandomweekly2025-05-11 10:51 am
Entry tags:
[#260] UP IN THE AIR (TORCHWOOD)
Theme Prompt: #260 - Mountains
Title: Up in the air
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Owen is less than thrilled to be leading the team on a wild goose chase of an expedition.
Owen glanced around, watching the so-called escort party that were meant to be their guides. They looked like they had no bloody clue which didn't bode well. He groaned under his breath. This was what you got for agreeing to step into a UNIT investigation. More to the point, UNIT hadn't given them much of a choice. Someone from way up the chain had made it more of an order than a suggestion, and without Jack here to sweet talk their way out of it, here they were.
‘Tosh, what's the chance that this is a complete waste of time?’ he asked, frowning at a ruddy-faced, four foot man in light khaki trousers and shirt. Stupid sod must be freezing up here, he thought, hunching and shoving his gloves hands deeper into the pockets of his thick snow parka. They were halfway up K2 and, despite the fact that the skies overhead were clear and blue, sun streaking down on the mountains and making the snow blinding to look at, it couldn't have been more than a degree or two above freezing.
‘Technically there's absolutely no reason to doubt that a second rift couldn't exist here,’ she replied, barely visible beneath the hood of her own parka. ‘Rifts are anomalies in space time that can either be fixed in place like what we experience in Cardiff, with the other end constantly changing, or we could be seeing a rift from another fixed location temporarily connecting with our planet and timeline.’
Owen was distracted by movement to his left. ‘Ianto, what the hell are you doing?’
He frowned. ‘Packing ropes and climbing gear.’
‘We're not gonna need it,’ Owen replied. ‘It's only a half hour trek to the spot where this rift thing is supposed to be.’
‘I know, but I was talking to the chopper pilot. He's worried about the conditions. If we get a drop in atmospheric pressure he's not going to be able to get the chopper up. Said he's going to take off and come back when we radio. If he can't land here we're going to have to climb further down the mountain to meet him.’
‘Climb?’ Gwen asked, suddenly sounding concerned. ‘What do you mean by climb?’
Ianto shrugged. ‘You know. Ropes and carabiners.’ He stepped towards the outermost rim of the narrow outcrop and peered over the edge. ‘Could get quite steep trying to descend. I took the liberty of watching a few instructional videos on how to find the best spot to hammer in picks for the ropes so that we don't accidentally choose brittle sections of ice.’
Gwen paled. ‘You don't think it'll come to that do you? I mean…’ She sucked in a breath, trying to steady obvious nerves. ‘It's just… I really hate heights.’
‘Better safe than sorry,’ Ianto replied, continuing to shove large bundles of rope into an oversized pack.
‘Hold your horses, Sherpa Jones,’ Owen told him. He stomped over and gave the pilot a piece of his mind. Nobody was sodding going anywhere. If they had to camp here for a day or two for better conditions then so be it, but he wasn't risking any of them trying to scale their way down one of the tallest mountains in the world. Not when they had a bloody helicopter to take them down safely.
The exchange wasn't polite but Owen got his way in the end. Just because UNIT had frogmarched them up here to investigate didn't mean Owen couldn't call the shots now that they were here. If they wanted Torchwood on the case then they'd have to play by Torchwood's rules. ‘Alright, Ianto, leave all that crap here with the chopper. The only stuff we're taking with us is all Tosh's equipment. Gwen, it's only a shallow slope from here up to where we think the readings are coming from.’
She nodded, appearing relieved and grateful. ‘Thanks.’
‘You lot,’ Owen barked at the three other bodies milling about – the ruddy-faced Indiana Jones and his two Pakistani sidekicks, who were supposed to be babysitting Torchwood – ‘you get the job of carrying all this muck up the hill.’ He'd be damned if they weren't going to pull their weight.
Hill, he thought with a bitter sense of amusement. He wasn't much for the outdoors but his bucket list had always included trekking through Nepal, from Kathmandu to the base of Mount Everest; not to climb the thing, but just to see it for himself. Not that he'd ever admit that to anyone here. To them, Owen was allergic to grass and wide open spaces. It wasn't Everest but it was pretty damn close. If only it wasn't being ruined by this waste of time exercise. So what if there was a rift up here? Anything that came though it was going to freeze to death before it had time to consider enslaving the planet.
‘I've got some analysis of the preliminary readings,’ Tosh announced, forcing them to huddle in to hear her over the wind that began to whistle between the mountains. ‘Nothing that matches the kind of Nelson Seepage activity we registered during the Abaddon incident.’
‘So, not connected?’ Gwen asked.
‘Wouldn't seem so. Even if this rift was linked to ours back in Cardiff, I'd expect more correlating data points. Right now there's nothing at all to suggest a significant presence of temporal anomalies.’ She squinted at her PDA which flickered, struggling to cope with the temperatures and altitude. ‘We really won't know anything for certain without getting closer and setting up much more sophisticated equipment.’
‘Great,’ Owen huffed. So UNIT had gotten it wrong again. He looked down at the stunning vista, but focusing on the clouds as they clustered in pockets between the peaks. So long as the weather held out long enough.
He took the smaller, much lighter pack Ianto offered him, containing nothing more than basic survival supplies, and his gun with extra munitions. ‘Alright kids, let's get this over with.’
Title: Up in the air
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Owen is less than thrilled to be leading the team on a wild goose chase of an expedition.
Owen glanced around, watching the so-called escort party that were meant to be their guides. They looked like they had no bloody clue which didn't bode well. He groaned under his breath. This was what you got for agreeing to step into a UNIT investigation. More to the point, UNIT hadn't given them much of a choice. Someone from way up the chain had made it more of an order than a suggestion, and without Jack here to sweet talk their way out of it, here they were.
‘Tosh, what's the chance that this is a complete waste of time?’ he asked, frowning at a ruddy-faced, four foot man in light khaki trousers and shirt. Stupid sod must be freezing up here, he thought, hunching and shoving his gloves hands deeper into the pockets of his thick snow parka. They were halfway up K2 and, despite the fact that the skies overhead were clear and blue, sun streaking down on the mountains and making the snow blinding to look at, it couldn't have been more than a degree or two above freezing.
‘Technically there's absolutely no reason to doubt that a second rift couldn't exist here,’ she replied, barely visible beneath the hood of her own parka. ‘Rifts are anomalies in space time that can either be fixed in place like what we experience in Cardiff, with the other end constantly changing, or we could be seeing a rift from another fixed location temporarily connecting with our planet and timeline.’
Owen was distracted by movement to his left. ‘Ianto, what the hell are you doing?’
He frowned. ‘Packing ropes and climbing gear.’
‘We're not gonna need it,’ Owen replied. ‘It's only a half hour trek to the spot where this rift thing is supposed to be.’
‘I know, but I was talking to the chopper pilot. He's worried about the conditions. If we get a drop in atmospheric pressure he's not going to be able to get the chopper up. Said he's going to take off and come back when we radio. If he can't land here we're going to have to climb further down the mountain to meet him.’
‘Climb?’ Gwen asked, suddenly sounding concerned. ‘What do you mean by climb?’
Ianto shrugged. ‘You know. Ropes and carabiners.’ He stepped towards the outermost rim of the narrow outcrop and peered over the edge. ‘Could get quite steep trying to descend. I took the liberty of watching a few instructional videos on how to find the best spot to hammer in picks for the ropes so that we don't accidentally choose brittle sections of ice.’
Gwen paled. ‘You don't think it'll come to that do you? I mean…’ She sucked in a breath, trying to steady obvious nerves. ‘It's just… I really hate heights.’
‘Better safe than sorry,’ Ianto replied, continuing to shove large bundles of rope into an oversized pack.
‘Hold your horses, Sherpa Jones,’ Owen told him. He stomped over and gave the pilot a piece of his mind. Nobody was sodding going anywhere. If they had to camp here for a day or two for better conditions then so be it, but he wasn't risking any of them trying to scale their way down one of the tallest mountains in the world. Not when they had a bloody helicopter to take them down safely.
The exchange wasn't polite but Owen got his way in the end. Just because UNIT had frogmarched them up here to investigate didn't mean Owen couldn't call the shots now that they were here. If they wanted Torchwood on the case then they'd have to play by Torchwood's rules. ‘Alright, Ianto, leave all that crap here with the chopper. The only stuff we're taking with us is all Tosh's equipment. Gwen, it's only a shallow slope from here up to where we think the readings are coming from.’
She nodded, appearing relieved and grateful. ‘Thanks.’
‘You lot,’ Owen barked at the three other bodies milling about – the ruddy-faced Indiana Jones and his two Pakistani sidekicks, who were supposed to be babysitting Torchwood – ‘you get the job of carrying all this muck up the hill.’ He'd be damned if they weren't going to pull their weight.
Hill, he thought with a bitter sense of amusement. He wasn't much for the outdoors but his bucket list had always included trekking through Nepal, from Kathmandu to the base of Mount Everest; not to climb the thing, but just to see it for himself. Not that he'd ever admit that to anyone here. To them, Owen was allergic to grass and wide open spaces. It wasn't Everest but it was pretty damn close. If only it wasn't being ruined by this waste of time exercise. So what if there was a rift up here? Anything that came though it was going to freeze to death before it had time to consider enslaving the planet.
‘I've got some analysis of the preliminary readings,’ Tosh announced, forcing them to huddle in to hear her over the wind that began to whistle between the mountains. ‘Nothing that matches the kind of Nelson Seepage activity we registered during the Abaddon incident.’
‘So, not connected?’ Gwen asked.
‘Wouldn't seem so. Even if this rift was linked to ours back in Cardiff, I'd expect more correlating data points. Right now there's nothing at all to suggest a significant presence of temporal anomalies.’ She squinted at her PDA which flickered, struggling to cope with the temperatures and altitude. ‘We really won't know anything for certain without getting closer and setting up much more sophisticated equipment.’
‘Great,’ Owen huffed. So UNIT had gotten it wrong again. He looked down at the stunning vista, but focusing on the clouds as they clustered in pockets between the peaks. So long as the weather held out long enough.
He took the smaller, much lighter pack Ianto offered him, containing nothing more than basic survival supplies, and his gun with extra munitions. ‘Alright kids, let's get this over with.’