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fandomweekly2025-06-22 03:23 pm
m_findlow) wrote in fandomweekly2025-06-22 03:23 pm
Entry tags:
[#263] INCOMMUNICADO (TORCHWOOD)
Theme Prompt: #263 - Genius
Title: Incommunicado
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Torchwood are stuck inside their own base and getting help seems hopeless.
Ending up locked inside your own secret base was a fairly embarrassing situation to find yourself, but here they were. Torchwood's lockdown procedures, specifically designed for the express purpose of preventing any dangerous alien threat from escaping and having unfettered access to the world above, had some very large unintended consequences.
The lockdown had worked perfectly in the past, sealing the hub off from the rest of the city. It had prevented the Cybermen from getting out, beginning the terrible process of killing and converting humans into more of the unthinking, unfeeling machines that had very nearly already taken over many times before. Ianto had a collection of reports on the Cybermen and their history on Earth. Most of the files were UNIT files, and on each occasion that Cybermen had managed to find Earth, the Doctor had always been there to stop them. At least he had until Ianto had foolishly brought one right into the heart of Torchwood Three, risking the safety of the whole planet on some one in a billion hope that he could undo the conversion of his girlfriend, returning her to her human form. In hindsight it was madness, and a damn good thing that Torchwood had gone into lockdown as a result of a complete power cut to all their systems. The computers had determined that such a loss of power could only mean danger, sealing off the hub using the small auxiliaries that it fed off for that singular ten second process.
Of course, a lockdown to secure the hub was all well and good, but it wasn't much use when that same lockdown protocol was used against them. Admittedly it would be extremely difficult to activate a lockdown of the hub. For starters, it had to be done from within the hub itself. Rationally, no enemy, assuming it was able to breach the hub and overpower any Torchwood agents inside, would choose to lock the place down. Even if you did, it was almost impossible to initiate it without knowing how to go about it. You needed insider knowledge – the kind that only a bonafide Torchwood agent would know.
And therein lay the rub. One of their own had done this. Suzie Costello, weapons expert and Torchwood second in command once upon a time, had set in place a series of ingenious fail-safes. The last piece of research that had destroyed her had been study on a metal gauntlet that was able to resurrect the dead. Although she'd never managed to get it to work for more than a few minutes, she'd become obsessed with learning how to master it, setting her on a serial killing path just to dredge up more victims on which to experiment.
What she hadn't shared with anyone was that in those last moments she'd figured it out, before she herself had been found out, forcing her to go on the run. when she'd been cornered back Jack trying to make her escape, she had committed suicide. But she'd also known that wouldn't be the end of Suzie Costello. The glove was only able to do what it did by taking life from the wearer and channelling it into the deceased. And so, having finally figured it out, she'd made plans to ensure that if she was ever killed in the war line of duty, that a chain of events would instantly trigger that would lead the team to eventually use the glove on her. Once they did, she'd make her escape, locking them in behind her as she ran, whilst slowly draining the life out of whichever of them had brought her back. It didn't seem to matter which of them would die so that she could love, only that she did.
And now here they were, except that Suzie had taken Gwen with her, not realising that she was being slowly killed as Suzie grew stronger. They needed to get out, to find Gwen and stop Suzie, but Suzie's complex array of contingencies left them locked inside with no way of getting help.
They needed to get a message out, if for no other reason than to have someone tracking Gwen’s car to intercept it, but how? The lockdown was preventing them from calling anyone.
Ianto chewed his lip, thinking about it as the others were getting tetchy and argumentative with each other, which wasn't helping. They couldn't call anyone because the hub had a protective shield that stopped phone reception. It wasn't scrambling the signal, it was just dampening any ability to get a single bar of reception. What they needed was a bigger antenna, strong enough to breach the dampener. He leaned back against the water tower and then it hit him. Of course. The tower was nothing more than a big metal skeleton covered in mirrors. It was perfect for boosting the signal past their telecommunications defences. All he had to do was link in the tower as a secondary relay and... Bingo. Four bars of perfect phone reception. With a glee that he could barely contain at his own cleverness, he bounded up the metal steps. ‘Sir, I've got reception.
Jack looked at him in disbelief. Things like this were expected from Tosh who was, for all intents and purposes, their resident genius. No one expected Ianto to be more than the man who knew everything about coffee and the Dewey decimal system. There'd be time to seek his rewards later so he kept his smugness to a minimum. The “nice work” he received as praise was immensely gratifying.
Then Jack looked at him, puzzled. ‘But who the hell do we phone?’ Great question.
‘What about that bird who was investigating those murders?’ Owen offered.
Jack arched an eyebrow. ‘The police?’
‘I know. God, I can't believe I just said that. We'll never hear the end of it.’
Jack cringed. ‘What choice do we have?’
Ianto watched as Jack dialled their one lifeline to the outside world. What choice indeed?
Title: Incommunicado
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating/Warnings: PG
Bonus: Yes
Word Count: 1,000 words
Summary: Torchwood are stuck inside their own base and getting help seems hopeless.
Ending up locked inside your own secret base was a fairly embarrassing situation to find yourself, but here they were. Torchwood's lockdown procedures, specifically designed for the express purpose of preventing any dangerous alien threat from escaping and having unfettered access to the world above, had some very large unintended consequences.
The lockdown had worked perfectly in the past, sealing the hub off from the rest of the city. It had prevented the Cybermen from getting out, beginning the terrible process of killing and converting humans into more of the unthinking, unfeeling machines that had very nearly already taken over many times before. Ianto had a collection of reports on the Cybermen and their history on Earth. Most of the files were UNIT files, and on each occasion that Cybermen had managed to find Earth, the Doctor had always been there to stop them. At least he had until Ianto had foolishly brought one right into the heart of Torchwood Three, risking the safety of the whole planet on some one in a billion hope that he could undo the conversion of his girlfriend, returning her to her human form. In hindsight it was madness, and a damn good thing that Torchwood had gone into lockdown as a result of a complete power cut to all their systems. The computers had determined that such a loss of power could only mean danger, sealing off the hub using the small auxiliaries that it fed off for that singular ten second process.
Of course, a lockdown to secure the hub was all well and good, but it wasn't much use when that same lockdown protocol was used against them. Admittedly it would be extremely difficult to activate a lockdown of the hub. For starters, it had to be done from within the hub itself. Rationally, no enemy, assuming it was able to breach the hub and overpower any Torchwood agents inside, would choose to lock the place down. Even if you did, it was almost impossible to initiate it without knowing how to go about it. You needed insider knowledge – the kind that only a bonafide Torchwood agent would know.
And therein lay the rub. One of their own had done this. Suzie Costello, weapons expert and Torchwood second in command once upon a time, had set in place a series of ingenious fail-safes. The last piece of research that had destroyed her had been study on a metal gauntlet that was able to resurrect the dead. Although she'd never managed to get it to work for more than a few minutes, she'd become obsessed with learning how to master it, setting her on a serial killing path just to dredge up more victims on which to experiment.
What she hadn't shared with anyone was that in those last moments she'd figured it out, before she herself had been found out, forcing her to go on the run. when she'd been cornered back Jack trying to make her escape, she had committed suicide. But she'd also known that wouldn't be the end of Suzie Costello. The glove was only able to do what it did by taking life from the wearer and channelling it into the deceased. And so, having finally figured it out, she'd made plans to ensure that if she was ever killed in the war line of duty, that a chain of events would instantly trigger that would lead the team to eventually use the glove on her. Once they did, she'd make her escape, locking them in behind her as she ran, whilst slowly draining the life out of whichever of them had brought her back. It didn't seem to matter which of them would die so that she could love, only that she did.
And now here they were, except that Suzie had taken Gwen with her, not realising that she was being slowly killed as Suzie grew stronger. They needed to get out, to find Gwen and stop Suzie, but Suzie's complex array of contingencies left them locked inside with no way of getting help.
They needed to get a message out, if for no other reason than to have someone tracking Gwen’s car to intercept it, but how? The lockdown was preventing them from calling anyone.
Ianto chewed his lip, thinking about it as the others were getting tetchy and argumentative with each other, which wasn't helping. They couldn't call anyone because the hub had a protective shield that stopped phone reception. It wasn't scrambling the signal, it was just dampening any ability to get a single bar of reception. What they needed was a bigger antenna, strong enough to breach the dampener. He leaned back against the water tower and then it hit him. Of course. The tower was nothing more than a big metal skeleton covered in mirrors. It was perfect for boosting the signal past their telecommunications defences. All he had to do was link in the tower as a secondary relay and... Bingo. Four bars of perfect phone reception. With a glee that he could barely contain at his own cleverness, he bounded up the metal steps. ‘Sir, I've got reception.
Jack looked at him in disbelief. Things like this were expected from Tosh who was, for all intents and purposes, their resident genius. No one expected Ianto to be more than the man who knew everything about coffee and the Dewey decimal system. There'd be time to seek his rewards later so he kept his smugness to a minimum. The “nice work” he received as praise was immensely gratifying.
Then Jack looked at him, puzzled. ‘But who the hell do we phone?’ Great question.
‘What about that bird who was investigating those murders?’ Owen offered.
Jack arched an eyebrow. ‘The police?’
‘I know. God, I can't believe I just said that. We'll never hear the end of it.’
Jack cringed. ‘What choice do we have?’
Ianto watched as Jack dialled their one lifeline to the outside world. What choice indeed?
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