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wintercompanion2017-07-22 08:52 am
wojelah) wrote in wintercompanion2017-07-22 08:52 am
beesandbrews: Jack Harkness & the Lilliputians (Jack/Nine) [T] - SUMMER HOLIDAYS PROMPT 11
Title: Jack Harkness and the Lilliputians
Author:beesandbrews
Prompt: 11 - joy, waiting, key, alphabet song
Rating: T
Pairing: Jack/Nine
Spoilers/warnings: Some violent imagery
Summary: A lads' day out doesn't go exactly as planned. After the TARDIS experiences a cataclysmic system failure, she is sucked into a wormhole. The Doctor is injured. The TARDIS is out of commission, and Jack must rely on the kindness of strangers if he is to get them all home.
* * * * *
Come on, Jack. While Rose is visiting her mother and Mickey Mouse, we can have a lads' day out. We'll put the old girl through her paces, and then go do a bit of sightseeing. It'll be fun!
Some fun! What was supposed to be a milk run to check out a repair to a faulty circuit in the spatial compensator, was turning into a serious situation. Jack grabbed hold of the TARDIS console as the deck under his feet seemed to take a jump to the left. He glanced at the readouts on the handheld analyser and announced, "We've lost another link in the relay line! It's turning into a cascade failure!"
On the other side of the console, the Doctor grimaced and stabbed at an open panel with his sonic screwdriver. "Lock it down!"
Jack tried. He hooked a bypass circuit into the faulty unit and tried re-routing the phase modulator, but it was no good. Everything was going down the pan.
Fast.
An alarm began to sound. "What now?" Jack groaned as he diverted his attention from the mess of modules and wires and darted a glance at the display. "Doctor?"
"Not now."
Jack looked over at the Doctor. He had cables draped over his shoulders, and he was attempting to fuse them together with the sonic screwdriver. "Come on," he muttered.
Jack tried again. "You really need to hear this."
Through clenched teeth the Doctor said, "Not now!"
Whatever the Doctor was attempting wasn't working. He cast the sonic screwdriver aside and reached for what looked like a hose clamp and a spanner.
Some things needed to be said. As Jack watched the numbers on the display panel climb, he knew this was one of those things, even though it was inconvenient. He shouted over the ominous rumbling noise, "The tachyon particle count is going through the roof!"
The Doctor completed his patch. He smiled triumphantly. The smile faded as, simultaneously, Jack's words registered and the TARDIS began to tremble in earnest.
"No. No. No!" The Doctor snatched up his sonic screwdriver and waved it over the console. The trembling turned into a rolling, and then the TARDIS began to lurch as she was swept up in a wave of tachyon particles and ripped out of normal space-time.
Jack was thrown off his feet as the lights dimmed and then went completely out. He hit the deck hard and everything went black as the TARDIS was sucked in, out of control, down a wormhole through space and time.
* * * * *
"Ow." Jack blinked his way back to consciousness, and instantly regretted it. He was in a great deal of pain. He coughed acrid, smoke-filled air out of his lungs and became acutely aware that, although the TARDIS had stopped lurching about, they weren't out of trouble yet. "Doctor?" he called. His voice was no more than a whisper. He coughed painfully and tried again. "Doctor?"
There was no reply. Gritting his teeth, Jack climbed slowly to his knees and looked around the console chamber. Emergency lights cast an eerie glow that made it difficult to see, but it was obvious that the place was a mess. Panels had come loose from the bulkhead and sparks arced and danced from blown and fused circuitry. "Doctor?" It took an effort, but Jack regained his feet. He gasped as he saw the Doctor, still draped in cabling, lying like a broken doll across the board where he had been labouring.
Jack wasn't given to panic, but in that moment, he was tempted. On unsteady legs he staggered to the Doctor's side. "Doctor? Come on now. Don't do this to me!"
With trembling fingers he felt for a pulse and blew out a profound sigh of relief when he finally detected a faint stirring underneath his fingertips. "Thank God," he murmured. Gingerly, Jack began to disentangle the cable from the Doctor's shoulders, mindful that there could be less obvious injuries than the burns and cuts that marred the Doctor's face and hands.
A new alarm began to wail.
"What now?" Jack raked his eyes across the riot of blinking lights and readouts and sucked a shaking breath through his teeth as he took stock. The TARDIS was going into self protection mode. At first Jack thought that meant she was shutting down all unnecessary functions. But then, as a new alarm sounded, he realised she was shutting down all functions, including life support. "Damn it! I know you're hurt," Jack shouted at the ceiling, "but I could really use some help here!"
As if the TARDIS understood, the door of the police box swung open, letting in a pale slice of moonlit night. Jack nodded he understood as he gently swung the Doctor into his arms. He needed to seek assistance elsewhere.
One painful step at a time he crossed the deck, mentally making a list of supplies he needed to collect once he had got the Doctor safely outside. He made it to the threshold without his knees buckling and paused for a breath. The air was clean and cool and it tasted of lush vegetation. Temporarily reinvigorated, Jack took stock of his options and decided to make for an enormous tree with a hollow in its base. As he crossed the clearing, Jack searched the Doctor's face for any sign that he might be regaining consciousness. He found nothing, and the gnaw of worry in his gut began to intensify.
Behind him, the door to the TARDIS slammed shut. Jack spun around, the weight of the Doctor nearly sending him down to the ground as his legs protested against the sudden change in direction. He compensated, barely, planting his feet against the mossy ground as he stared in disbelief. Hurriedly, he deposited the Doctor next to the chosen tree, and then he rushed back to the TARDIS.
Jack tried the handle. Nothing happened. He removed the chain from his neck which held an old fashioned looking key. The key slotted into place and turned, but the door stayed firmly shut. He remembered his wrist strap, and how he had been able to use it to bypass all sorts of locks and security systems. He stabbed buttons fruitlessly, and then realised that it was dead, its circuits shorted out by the electrical storm inside the TARDIS.
Close to panic, Jack leant his forehead against the blue box and shut his eyes. He tried to open his mind to the ship, but she was too lost in her own pain to hear him. He took several shaking breaths. He had been in bad situations before and survived them. He just needed to keep his head and take things one step at a time. He could do this. He would do this. The Doctor needed him to be strong for them both. It was the only way they would get home. Slowly. Painfully. Jack straightened his spine. He took a deep breath, and then another, deliberately releasing the tension that was cramping his neck and shoulders. He opened his mouth and took another breath, tasting the air again. It had rained recently, and moisture still hung heavy on the breeze.
A twig snapped.
Jack glanced unobtrusively to his left, and then to his right. He sensed motion behind him. Very casually, he turned around, and found he was surrounded.
There were a dozen of them. Little blue people clad in coarsely woven cloth and fur garments. Not one of them reached above his knees. Jack was tempted to smile, but he didn't. The little people composed a hunting party, and each of them was armed with either a bow with an arrow nocked or a lance with a lethally sharp looking tip that was poised to strike.
One of the group was bent over the Doctor, gently turning his head this way and that, as if assessing his injuries. Jack reacted without thinking, lunging forward to protect his companion. He stopped just short of the lance points, and held up his hands to indicate he meant no harm. "My friend, he's hurt." A trickle of blood from a cut on his forehead dripped down his cheek and dropped to the ground. Jack pressed the back of his palm to his head, noticing the injury for the first time. "I guess I am too. Will you help us?"
One of the little people approached. It wore a crown of feathers in its hair, and had a choker of shining metallic beads around its neck. None of the others were similarly accessorised, so Jack interpreted the finery as being symbols of rank. Painfully, he lowered himself to his knees and addressed the little hunter again. "Will you help?"
There was a buzzing in his head. Jack frowned. The little hunter was trying to communicate telepathically, but there weren't any commonalities between any of the languages Jack spoke and that of the natives. He relaxed mental shields that had gone up reflexively and projected thoughts of good will and distress. Words could come later, once the Doctor had been taken care of.
The hunter who had taken an interest in the Doctor and the one in the feathers and beads clicked and hooted at one another. Jack watched intently, trying to work out what they were saying. Whatever it was, it seemed they were going to give Jack the benefit of the doubt. At a whistle, the hunters lowered their weapons and dispersed into the forest, only to return a few moments later dragging springy sapling trees and coils of a thick vine, which they began to fashion into a pallet.
Tired and woozy from both injury and stress, Jack sank the rest of the way to the ground. Someone handed him an animal skin flask, and reflexively, he drank from it. There wasn't water inside, but a faintly bitter tea-like liquid. Jack felt the strength leach from his muscles, and everything went dark again.
* * * * *
When he regained consciousness the next time, Jack was lying on a pallet in front of a fire. His wounds had been tended to, and he felt much stronger. He propped himself up on one elbow and looked around. The fire was located in the centre of a tidy village composed of tiny wood and thatch structures that blended neatly with the surrounding forest. He felt a bit like the character Gulliver, from an animated film he had once viewed. Not because he had any real interest in the animated film, but because he had hoped he might get even more friendly with a cute ambulance driver he had met during a blackout. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head. Yep. That was him. Jack Harkness come to the Land of the Lilliputians. He decided that wasn't a bad name for the little people. At least it was one that would do until they could be properly introduced.
The Doctor was lying on a pallet opposite him. Jack frowned because the Lilliputian healer was frowning as he bent over the insensible form of the Time Lord, doing the things healers did to assess their patient's state. Still sore, but no longer dizzy, Jack joined the healer, who looked up at him with wide black eyes.
The buzzing in his head returned. Jack recalled his days in the Time Agency. In order to build bridges, they needed to be able to communicate. In order to communicate, they needed to build bridges. Start with the fundamentals, his instructors had always said. Because he was out of practice, he would have preferred to work with his eyes closed. But Jack didn't want to give any negative impressions, so he kept his gaze on the face of the healer as he visualised each letter of the alphabet and a word associated with it, while he sang aloud a centuries old children's song. Some letters were more difficult than others, but he muddled through, pointing at a bird for B, his head and hand for H, and sticking out his tongue for the letter T. At X he came to a dead stop as he tried to describe an X-ray, and then he shrugged. It didn't matter. There were other ways to communicate besides words. The healer nodded his head and smiled compassionately. At least to Jack it seemed like a compassionate smile. Even without the TARDIS, they were beginning to understand one another.
"My friend." Jack pointed to himself first and then the Doctor. "How is he?"
He asked the question more as a courtesy than out of an expectation of a diagnosis. The Lilliputian healer had done what he could for the external injuries, but the Doctor had lapsed into a coma, and Jack doubted that an herbal tonic or a poultice would be of much benefit. "May I?"
The healer moved aside. Jack peeled back the Doctor's eyelids and tried not to panic when he saw that his eyeballs had rolled backwards, showing only the whites. He pressed his head against the Doctor's chest and was relieved to hear two hearts beating regularly. However, when Jack took the Doctor's hand in his and felt for a pulse, he found it weaker than normal, and thready. "Why won't you wake up?" he asked, frustrated. There didn't seem to be anything useful Jack could do. Nothing but wait.
He knelt at the Doctor's side, holding his hand, and visualised gifting the Time Lord with his strength and energy, only peripherally aware that the healer was holding his other hand, and that another one of the Lilliputians was holding the hand of the healer, and on and on, until all the villagers had joined the chain, projecting their thoughts of strength and health and goodwill to the stranger in their midst.
* * * * *
As the days passed by, the buzzing in Jack's head began to form pictures, and then words. He learned that the leader of the Lilliputians name was Ril'Ta, and the healer's name was An'Ta, and that the Lilliputians had no name for themselves at all other than People of the Great Forest. When Jack asked about the name of the planet they inhabited, they looked perplexed. It was home, they said, and left it at that.
The Lilliputian language was difficult. A blend of clicks and trills, at times it resembled birdsong. Jack tried, but he found it easier to communicate telepathically, or not at all. There were only two topics of real interest to him, the health of the Doctor and the well-being of the TARDIS, and while the Lilliputians were sympathetic, they didn't have much to contribute on either subject, although they were openly curious about both. When Jack went into the forest to check on the ship, he was rarely without a companion.
His days quietly fell into a routine. Each morning he got up at dawn and walked out with a hunting party. He helped them empty their traps and set their snares, and then he checked on the TARDIS, trying his key to see if the door would open for him. Defeated, he would place his palm against the unyielding portal and open his mind to the ship.
At first he got nothing from her but pain and fear. The ship had huddled into herself like a wounded animal, unwilling to accept help. But gradually, those impressions faded and were replaced by something different. There was an absence of presence, much like Jack felt when attempted to touch the Doctor's mind. Both he and the ship were elsewhere. Out of reach. This puzzled Jack, and he wondered if maybe their coma-like states were related. Were the Doctor and the TARDIS communing on a frequency he was unable to tap into? He had no way of testing this theory other than to project his thoughts in all the different ways he had been taught, and then, when those were exhausted, a few he created in the moment as he held the Doctor's slack hand in his, or sat, for hours, with his eyes closed and his back pressed against the door of the police box.
Frustrated, he would return to the village and make himself useful in whatever way he could. He built a hut, modelled on that of the Lilliputians but sized to fit him and the Doctor. He moved their pallets inside, and then built a frame to hold them off the ground. Each night he would curl close to the Doctor and hold him, offering his strength as he whispered pleas that he wake up.
On the fifteenth day, Jack approached the TARDIS and fitted his key with no expectation of anything other than once again being refused. The key turned in the lock and to Jack's delight and surprise, the door swung open. Cautiously, he entered. The ship was still a wreck, but warning lights no longer flashed, and smoke no longer choked the air. Life support had been restored. When Jack placed his palm against the main console, the absent feeling was gone. The consciousness of the ship had returned from wherever she had hidden herself.
"Oh, baby," Jack said joyfully, "am I glad you're back!"
He did a fast inspection of the damage, and then, once he had calmed down a little, a more careful one. There was plenty of work to be done, but the TARDIS could be made whole again. Jack felt tears on his face as he finished his assessment. He hadn't realised just how much the ship had come to mean to him.
He kissed his fingertips and pressed them against the bulkhead. "I'll be back, sweetheart. Soon. And I'll bring the Doctor with me. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
As if in reply, there was a deep thrum, as one of the many systems came online.
Jack raced back to the village, with a single thought burning in his mind. If the TARDIS had returned, then perhaps there was hope for the Doctor.
* * * * *
The Lilliputians were in a high dudgeon when Jack tore breathlessly into the village. They ran up to meet him, hooting and clicking and sending a cacophony of confused images at him until he was forced to throw up his hands in defeat.
"Hold up!" He pressed his hands to his forehead and shut his eyes, trying to slow the flow of information until it became sensible. Gradually, the mental pictures and individual words fitted together in a way that he could understand. A gathering party had been attacked by a large and dangerous animal. Two were hurt. Two others were injured so seriously that they might not survive. Three others had been killed outright, their bodies ripped into pieces by the claws of the beast.
The Lilliputians tugged at his trouser legs and urged their lances upon him. Jack cast a frustrated glance towards his hut, wanting nothing more than to shove the little people out of his way so that he could check on the Doctor. He started to push past the warriors who encircled him, but then he caught hold of himself.
The Lilliputians had been kind to him. They had shared their food and the protection of their village. They had dressed his wounds and cared for the Doctor, assisting Jack in his vigil and offering what comfort they could to alleviate his worries.
Now they needed him.
It went against Jack's nature not to put his own interests first, but travelling with the Doctor had started to wear away at his inherent selfishness. He owed the Lilliputians a debt, and now it was time to pay off. He reached down and took a lance from a hunter named Pa'Ta. "Show me the way to this beast," he said grimly. With a last forlorn thought for the Doctor, Jack let himself be led towards the scene of the Lilliputians' tragedy.
* * * * *
In the forest clearing, signs of carnage were everywhere. Blood, too much blood, was spattered on the moss and tree bark. Bits of clothing and body parts littered the ground. Jack forced himself to assess the scene clinically. This wasn't the first massacre whose aftermath he had been a witness to. The creature was big, and not just in relative size to the Lilliputians. The torn branches and broken shrubbery, not to mention the heavy impressions of a three clawed foot, created their own picture. Jack felt his stomach clench. The Lilliputian hunters were as terrified as they were angry, and the intensity of their emotions was a force onto itself. Deliberately, he took a breath and raised mental shields. He needed a clear head if he was going to go up against a monster.
Jack wished for a blaster. Or maybe a sweet, snub nosed laser pistol or a particle beam rifle. He had the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, that he had been carrying like a talisman, and his shorted out wrist strap. Granted, the lance he carried was razor sharp, and dipped in a paralysing venom, but it was meant for spearing small game, not a creature that was the size of an assault transport. He wondered just how many strikes it would take to bring it down.
They followed the trail of devastation through the forest to a rocky cliff face near a winding river. There the trail ended at a cave. No doubt the beast was lying within, hopefully sleeping off its most recent meal.
The Lilliputians looked up at him. Jack nodded back. As designated leader of the hunt this was where he was supposed to come up with a plan. If the beast was slow and sleepy, then they could swarm it and sent a hail of lances and arrows to pierce its flesh before it could properly react. But that was risky. The creature might have just regarded the Lilliputians it had killed as a mid-morning snack, and they might not be weighing on its belly at all. If it had any kind of feral intelligence, this could be a trap, and a way to lure more of the little people to their doom.
No, Jack decided. It would be better to face it out in the open. He reconsidered his options again, took another breath, and explained his plan. The Lilliputians looked sceptical, but they reached a silent accord. Jack took the sonic screwdriver from his pocket, fiddled with the settings, and then strode into the mouth of the cave, projecting more confidence than he felt.
Really, his plan was simple. First he had to find the creature. That part was easy. The cave stank of its recent kill. Jack choked on the scent of gore as he cautiously moved forward. Almost immediately, he sensed movement. "Now or never," Jack thought grimly to himself, and then he flicked the switch on the sonic screwdriver and broadcast a wide band of high frequency noise.
The creature shrieked, as Jack hoped it might, and then it lunged forward out of the blackness. Jack scrambled backwards. He tripped over a rock, flailed and went down. Painfully.
The beast, enraged, charged towards him.
Jack swore. Of all the ways to die, why this?
As the beast grew closer he remembered the lance, more like a long knife, really, in his other hand. It was a slim chance, but any damage he could inflict could only help the hunting party. He concentrated on the sound of slavering, rasping, breathing and when it was directly over him, Jack stabbed upward with all of his strength into the body of the beast.
It howled in pain and anger.
Realising he wasn't going to have his throat ripped out just yet, Jack scrambled away, using his forearms and heels, until he was clear of the beast. Cued by the scream, the Lilliputians poured into the cave around him, attacking en mass. The deadly sharp lance tips pierced the furry hide until it bristled with them. The poison took effect with a rapidity Jack hadn't dared hope for, and the creature fell.
The Lilliputians erupted in a triumphant chorus. Jack hooted along with them as he delivered the killing blow, and then slit the beast's throat for good measure. When the blood had finished spilling, they dragged the body out into the open, the easier to strip away the hide and flesh, until nothing was left but gleaming white bone.
* * * * *
Jack was exhausted when the Lilliputians made their final return trip to the village laden down with sledges stacked with bone. Despite the gruelling work, there was a festive feeling in the air. The Lilliputians grieved their dead and wounded, but rejoiced in the defeat of their foe. Jack drank the celebratory mug he was offered and ate the roasted flesh of the beast. He danced with the other hunters and offered tributes to the fallen, but as soon as he was able to slip away from the party, he did, first to wash the gore of the hunt away, and then to check on the Doctor.
Without bothering to light the lamp, Jack collapsed wearily onto his bunk, and reached for the Doctor's hand. He interlaced their fingers together and said, "You would not believe the day I've had."
"It sounds like quite the party out there. What have I missed?"
Jack didn't believe his ears. He froze the moment in his mind and replayed it, wondering if he wasn't still lying on the dank floor of the cave waiting to be mauled to death.
"Doctor to Jack, are you receiving? I asked you what was going on."
The Doctor's voice was raspy from lack of use, but real, and there was strength in the fingers that squeezed Jack's.
Jack rolled over abruptly and stared at the Doctor. "You're awake!"
"Yep. That's me. Awake," the Doctor said in a voice that suggested he was willing to humour Jack up to a point. "And feeling very well rested, I might add." He sat up. "This is nice. A bit rustic, but nice. Where are we?"
Jack sat up as well. In the dim light he stared at the Doctor and then lunged at him, sweeping him up into a bear hug.
"Oi! Easy there!" the Doctor protested.
Jack loosened his grip, but only so he could welcome the Doctor back properly, with a kiss.
"Not that I'm unappreciative," the Doctor said when they parted, "but why all the fuss?"
Jack couldn't answer. He felt as if he was radiating joy, and there were no words that could adequately describe his emotions. He leant in and kissed the Doctor again, and even though he felt eyes upon him from the doorway of the hut, he didn't break off again until they were both breathless. Only then did Jack compose himself sufficiently to introduce the Doctor to their hosts, and his new friends.
* * * * *
The Doctor watched with an amused smile bowing his lips as Jack knelt, surrounded by Lilliputians. Jack didn't mind the Doctor's amusement. He was touched and a little bit humbled by the ceremony, and he accepted the Lilliputian hunting lance with grave dignity. He bowed low before Ril'Ta and raised the lance over his head as the Lilliputians cheered his adoption into their clan.
He rose to his feet and began to say his goodbyes. The TARDIS was repaired, more or less. Some of the fine tuning could only be made once they were in space. But circuitry no longer spilled from the bulkheads or maintenance panels, and the TARDIS herself hummed serenely when Jack opened his mind to her.
"Come on," the Doctor said as he clasped Jack's shoulder. "It seems to me, I promised you a lads' day out. After that nap I had, I feel like I could use a bit of an adventure."
Jack surveyed the diminutive village and his contribution to it. He had been pleased and a little bit proud when Ril'Ta had praised his work on the shelter he had constructed, and asked permission if they might keep it as a place of gathering and celebration.
Oddly humbled, Jack had agreed immediately, and now he found himself wondering why he was so touched. He gazed upon the lavishly decorated structure, now strewn with flowers and vines, and committed the image to memory before turning away. He slung his arm over the Doctor's shoulder and together they began the journey to the clearing where the TARDIS rested, and towards whatever adventure they might stumble onto next.
end
xpost: http://wintercompanion.livejournal.com/264992.html
Author:
beesandbrewsPrompt: 11 - joy, waiting, key, alphabet song
Rating: T
Pairing: Jack/Nine
Spoilers/warnings: Some violent imagery
Summary: A lads' day out doesn't go exactly as planned. After the TARDIS experiences a cataclysmic system failure, she is sucked into a wormhole. The Doctor is injured. The TARDIS is out of commission, and Jack must rely on the kindness of strangers if he is to get them all home.
Come on, Jack. While Rose is visiting her mother and Mickey Mouse, we can have a lads' day out. We'll put the old girl through her paces, and then go do a bit of sightseeing. It'll be fun!
Some fun! What was supposed to be a milk run to check out a repair to a faulty circuit in the spatial compensator, was turning into a serious situation. Jack grabbed hold of the TARDIS console as the deck under his feet seemed to take a jump to the left. He glanced at the readouts on the handheld analyser and announced, "We've lost another link in the relay line! It's turning into a cascade failure!"
On the other side of the console, the Doctor grimaced and stabbed at an open panel with his sonic screwdriver. "Lock it down!"
Jack tried. He hooked a bypass circuit into the faulty unit and tried re-routing the phase modulator, but it was no good. Everything was going down the pan.
Fast.
An alarm began to sound. "What now?" Jack groaned as he diverted his attention from the mess of modules and wires and darted a glance at the display. "Doctor?"
"Not now."
Jack looked over at the Doctor. He had cables draped over his shoulders, and he was attempting to fuse them together with the sonic screwdriver. "Come on," he muttered.
Jack tried again. "You really need to hear this."
Through clenched teeth the Doctor said, "Not now!"
Whatever the Doctor was attempting wasn't working. He cast the sonic screwdriver aside and reached for what looked like a hose clamp and a spanner.
Some things needed to be said. As Jack watched the numbers on the display panel climb, he knew this was one of those things, even though it was inconvenient. He shouted over the ominous rumbling noise, "The tachyon particle count is going through the roof!"
The Doctor completed his patch. He smiled triumphantly. The smile faded as, simultaneously, Jack's words registered and the TARDIS began to tremble in earnest.
"No. No. No!" The Doctor snatched up his sonic screwdriver and waved it over the console. The trembling turned into a rolling, and then the TARDIS began to lurch as she was swept up in a wave of tachyon particles and ripped out of normal space-time.
Jack was thrown off his feet as the lights dimmed and then went completely out. He hit the deck hard and everything went black as the TARDIS was sucked in, out of control, down a wormhole through space and time.
"Ow." Jack blinked his way back to consciousness, and instantly regretted it. He was in a great deal of pain. He coughed acrid, smoke-filled air out of his lungs and became acutely aware that, although the TARDIS had stopped lurching about, they weren't out of trouble yet. "Doctor?" he called. His voice was no more than a whisper. He coughed painfully and tried again. "Doctor?"
There was no reply. Gritting his teeth, Jack climbed slowly to his knees and looked around the console chamber. Emergency lights cast an eerie glow that made it difficult to see, but it was obvious that the place was a mess. Panels had come loose from the bulkhead and sparks arced and danced from blown and fused circuitry. "Doctor?" It took an effort, but Jack regained his feet. He gasped as he saw the Doctor, still draped in cabling, lying like a broken doll across the board where he had been labouring.
Jack wasn't given to panic, but in that moment, he was tempted. On unsteady legs he staggered to the Doctor's side. "Doctor? Come on now. Don't do this to me!"
With trembling fingers he felt for a pulse and blew out a profound sigh of relief when he finally detected a faint stirring underneath his fingertips. "Thank God," he murmured. Gingerly, Jack began to disentangle the cable from the Doctor's shoulders, mindful that there could be less obvious injuries than the burns and cuts that marred the Doctor's face and hands.
A new alarm began to wail.
"What now?" Jack raked his eyes across the riot of blinking lights and readouts and sucked a shaking breath through his teeth as he took stock. The TARDIS was going into self protection mode. At first Jack thought that meant she was shutting down all unnecessary functions. But then, as a new alarm sounded, he realised she was shutting down all functions, including life support. "Damn it! I know you're hurt," Jack shouted at the ceiling, "but I could really use some help here!"
As if the TARDIS understood, the door of the police box swung open, letting in a pale slice of moonlit night. Jack nodded he understood as he gently swung the Doctor into his arms. He needed to seek assistance elsewhere.
One painful step at a time he crossed the deck, mentally making a list of supplies he needed to collect once he had got the Doctor safely outside. He made it to the threshold without his knees buckling and paused for a breath. The air was clean and cool and it tasted of lush vegetation. Temporarily reinvigorated, Jack took stock of his options and decided to make for an enormous tree with a hollow in its base. As he crossed the clearing, Jack searched the Doctor's face for any sign that he might be regaining consciousness. He found nothing, and the gnaw of worry in his gut began to intensify.
Behind him, the door to the TARDIS slammed shut. Jack spun around, the weight of the Doctor nearly sending him down to the ground as his legs protested against the sudden change in direction. He compensated, barely, planting his feet against the mossy ground as he stared in disbelief. Hurriedly, he deposited the Doctor next to the chosen tree, and then he rushed back to the TARDIS.
Jack tried the handle. Nothing happened. He removed the chain from his neck which held an old fashioned looking key. The key slotted into place and turned, but the door stayed firmly shut. He remembered his wrist strap, and how he had been able to use it to bypass all sorts of locks and security systems. He stabbed buttons fruitlessly, and then realised that it was dead, its circuits shorted out by the electrical storm inside the TARDIS.
Close to panic, Jack leant his forehead against the blue box and shut his eyes. He tried to open his mind to the ship, but she was too lost in her own pain to hear him. He took several shaking breaths. He had been in bad situations before and survived them. He just needed to keep his head and take things one step at a time. He could do this. He would do this. The Doctor needed him to be strong for them both. It was the only way they would get home. Slowly. Painfully. Jack straightened his spine. He took a deep breath, and then another, deliberately releasing the tension that was cramping his neck and shoulders. He opened his mouth and took another breath, tasting the air again. It had rained recently, and moisture still hung heavy on the breeze.
A twig snapped.
Jack glanced unobtrusively to his left, and then to his right. He sensed motion behind him. Very casually, he turned around, and found he was surrounded.
There were a dozen of them. Little blue people clad in coarsely woven cloth and fur garments. Not one of them reached above his knees. Jack was tempted to smile, but he didn't. The little people composed a hunting party, and each of them was armed with either a bow with an arrow nocked or a lance with a lethally sharp looking tip that was poised to strike.
One of the group was bent over the Doctor, gently turning his head this way and that, as if assessing his injuries. Jack reacted without thinking, lunging forward to protect his companion. He stopped just short of the lance points, and held up his hands to indicate he meant no harm. "My friend, he's hurt." A trickle of blood from a cut on his forehead dripped down his cheek and dropped to the ground. Jack pressed the back of his palm to his head, noticing the injury for the first time. "I guess I am too. Will you help us?"
One of the little people approached. It wore a crown of feathers in its hair, and had a choker of shining metallic beads around its neck. None of the others were similarly accessorised, so Jack interpreted the finery as being symbols of rank. Painfully, he lowered himself to his knees and addressed the little hunter again. "Will you help?"
There was a buzzing in his head. Jack frowned. The little hunter was trying to communicate telepathically, but there weren't any commonalities between any of the languages Jack spoke and that of the natives. He relaxed mental shields that had gone up reflexively and projected thoughts of good will and distress. Words could come later, once the Doctor had been taken care of.
The hunter who had taken an interest in the Doctor and the one in the feathers and beads clicked and hooted at one another. Jack watched intently, trying to work out what they were saying. Whatever it was, it seemed they were going to give Jack the benefit of the doubt. At a whistle, the hunters lowered their weapons and dispersed into the forest, only to return a few moments later dragging springy sapling trees and coils of a thick vine, which they began to fashion into a pallet.
Tired and woozy from both injury and stress, Jack sank the rest of the way to the ground. Someone handed him an animal skin flask, and reflexively, he drank from it. There wasn't water inside, but a faintly bitter tea-like liquid. Jack felt the strength leach from his muscles, and everything went dark again.
When he regained consciousness the next time, Jack was lying on a pallet in front of a fire. His wounds had been tended to, and he felt much stronger. He propped himself up on one elbow and looked around. The fire was located in the centre of a tidy village composed of tiny wood and thatch structures that blended neatly with the surrounding forest. He felt a bit like the character Gulliver, from an animated film he had once viewed. Not because he had any real interest in the animated film, but because he had hoped he might get even more friendly with a cute ambulance driver he had met during a blackout. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head. Yep. That was him. Jack Harkness come to the Land of the Lilliputians. He decided that wasn't a bad name for the little people. At least it was one that would do until they could be properly introduced.
The Doctor was lying on a pallet opposite him. Jack frowned because the Lilliputian healer was frowning as he bent over the insensible form of the Time Lord, doing the things healers did to assess their patient's state. Still sore, but no longer dizzy, Jack joined the healer, who looked up at him with wide black eyes.
The buzzing in his head returned. Jack recalled his days in the Time Agency. In order to build bridges, they needed to be able to communicate. In order to communicate, they needed to build bridges. Start with the fundamentals, his instructors had always said. Because he was out of practice, he would have preferred to work with his eyes closed. But Jack didn't want to give any negative impressions, so he kept his gaze on the face of the healer as he visualised each letter of the alphabet and a word associated with it, while he sang aloud a centuries old children's song. Some letters were more difficult than others, but he muddled through, pointing at a bird for B, his head and hand for H, and sticking out his tongue for the letter T. At X he came to a dead stop as he tried to describe an X-ray, and then he shrugged. It didn't matter. There were other ways to communicate besides words. The healer nodded his head and smiled compassionately. At least to Jack it seemed like a compassionate smile. Even without the TARDIS, they were beginning to understand one another.
"My friend." Jack pointed to himself first and then the Doctor. "How is he?"
He asked the question more as a courtesy than out of an expectation of a diagnosis. The Lilliputian healer had done what he could for the external injuries, but the Doctor had lapsed into a coma, and Jack doubted that an herbal tonic or a poultice would be of much benefit. "May I?"
The healer moved aside. Jack peeled back the Doctor's eyelids and tried not to panic when he saw that his eyeballs had rolled backwards, showing only the whites. He pressed his head against the Doctor's chest and was relieved to hear two hearts beating regularly. However, when Jack took the Doctor's hand in his and felt for a pulse, he found it weaker than normal, and thready. "Why won't you wake up?" he asked, frustrated. There didn't seem to be anything useful Jack could do. Nothing but wait.
He knelt at the Doctor's side, holding his hand, and visualised gifting the Time Lord with his strength and energy, only peripherally aware that the healer was holding his other hand, and that another one of the Lilliputians was holding the hand of the healer, and on and on, until all the villagers had joined the chain, projecting their thoughts of strength and health and goodwill to the stranger in their midst.
As the days passed by, the buzzing in Jack's head began to form pictures, and then words. He learned that the leader of the Lilliputians name was Ril'Ta, and the healer's name was An'Ta, and that the Lilliputians had no name for themselves at all other than People of the Great Forest. When Jack asked about the name of the planet they inhabited, they looked perplexed. It was home, they said, and left it at that.
The Lilliputian language was difficult. A blend of clicks and trills, at times it resembled birdsong. Jack tried, but he found it easier to communicate telepathically, or not at all. There were only two topics of real interest to him, the health of the Doctor and the well-being of the TARDIS, and while the Lilliputians were sympathetic, they didn't have much to contribute on either subject, although they were openly curious about both. When Jack went into the forest to check on the ship, he was rarely without a companion.
His days quietly fell into a routine. Each morning he got up at dawn and walked out with a hunting party. He helped them empty their traps and set their snares, and then he checked on the TARDIS, trying his key to see if the door would open for him. Defeated, he would place his palm against the unyielding portal and open his mind to the ship.
At first he got nothing from her but pain and fear. The ship had huddled into herself like a wounded animal, unwilling to accept help. But gradually, those impressions faded and were replaced by something different. There was an absence of presence, much like Jack felt when attempted to touch the Doctor's mind. Both he and the ship were elsewhere. Out of reach. This puzzled Jack, and he wondered if maybe their coma-like states were related. Were the Doctor and the TARDIS communing on a frequency he was unable to tap into? He had no way of testing this theory other than to project his thoughts in all the different ways he had been taught, and then, when those were exhausted, a few he created in the moment as he held the Doctor's slack hand in his, or sat, for hours, with his eyes closed and his back pressed against the door of the police box.
Frustrated, he would return to the village and make himself useful in whatever way he could. He built a hut, modelled on that of the Lilliputians but sized to fit him and the Doctor. He moved their pallets inside, and then built a frame to hold them off the ground. Each night he would curl close to the Doctor and hold him, offering his strength as he whispered pleas that he wake up.
On the fifteenth day, Jack approached the TARDIS and fitted his key with no expectation of anything other than once again being refused. The key turned in the lock and to Jack's delight and surprise, the door swung open. Cautiously, he entered. The ship was still a wreck, but warning lights no longer flashed, and smoke no longer choked the air. Life support had been restored. When Jack placed his palm against the main console, the absent feeling was gone. The consciousness of the ship had returned from wherever she had hidden herself.
"Oh, baby," Jack said joyfully, "am I glad you're back!"
He did a fast inspection of the damage, and then, once he had calmed down a little, a more careful one. There was plenty of work to be done, but the TARDIS could be made whole again. Jack felt tears on his face as he finished his assessment. He hadn't realised just how much the ship had come to mean to him.
He kissed his fingertips and pressed them against the bulkhead. "I'll be back, sweetheart. Soon. And I'll bring the Doctor with me. You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
As if in reply, there was a deep thrum, as one of the many systems came online.
Jack raced back to the village, with a single thought burning in his mind. If the TARDIS had returned, then perhaps there was hope for the Doctor.
The Lilliputians were in a high dudgeon when Jack tore breathlessly into the village. They ran up to meet him, hooting and clicking and sending a cacophony of confused images at him until he was forced to throw up his hands in defeat.
"Hold up!" He pressed his hands to his forehead and shut his eyes, trying to slow the flow of information until it became sensible. Gradually, the mental pictures and individual words fitted together in a way that he could understand. A gathering party had been attacked by a large and dangerous animal. Two were hurt. Two others were injured so seriously that they might not survive. Three others had been killed outright, their bodies ripped into pieces by the claws of the beast.
The Lilliputians tugged at his trouser legs and urged their lances upon him. Jack cast a frustrated glance towards his hut, wanting nothing more than to shove the little people out of his way so that he could check on the Doctor. He started to push past the warriors who encircled him, but then he caught hold of himself.
The Lilliputians had been kind to him. They had shared their food and the protection of their village. They had dressed his wounds and cared for the Doctor, assisting Jack in his vigil and offering what comfort they could to alleviate his worries.
Now they needed him.
It went against Jack's nature not to put his own interests first, but travelling with the Doctor had started to wear away at his inherent selfishness. He owed the Lilliputians a debt, and now it was time to pay off. He reached down and took a lance from a hunter named Pa'Ta. "Show me the way to this beast," he said grimly. With a last forlorn thought for the Doctor, Jack let himself be led towards the scene of the Lilliputians' tragedy.
In the forest clearing, signs of carnage were everywhere. Blood, too much blood, was spattered on the moss and tree bark. Bits of clothing and body parts littered the ground. Jack forced himself to assess the scene clinically. This wasn't the first massacre whose aftermath he had been a witness to. The creature was big, and not just in relative size to the Lilliputians. The torn branches and broken shrubbery, not to mention the heavy impressions of a three clawed foot, created their own picture. Jack felt his stomach clench. The Lilliputian hunters were as terrified as they were angry, and the intensity of their emotions was a force onto itself. Deliberately, he took a breath and raised mental shields. He needed a clear head if he was going to go up against a monster.
Jack wished for a blaster. Or maybe a sweet, snub nosed laser pistol or a particle beam rifle. He had the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, that he had been carrying like a talisman, and his shorted out wrist strap. Granted, the lance he carried was razor sharp, and dipped in a paralysing venom, but it was meant for spearing small game, not a creature that was the size of an assault transport. He wondered just how many strikes it would take to bring it down.
They followed the trail of devastation through the forest to a rocky cliff face near a winding river. There the trail ended at a cave. No doubt the beast was lying within, hopefully sleeping off its most recent meal.
The Lilliputians looked up at him. Jack nodded back. As designated leader of the hunt this was where he was supposed to come up with a plan. If the beast was slow and sleepy, then they could swarm it and sent a hail of lances and arrows to pierce its flesh before it could properly react. But that was risky. The creature might have just regarded the Lilliputians it had killed as a mid-morning snack, and they might not be weighing on its belly at all. If it had any kind of feral intelligence, this could be a trap, and a way to lure more of the little people to their doom.
No, Jack decided. It would be better to face it out in the open. He reconsidered his options again, took another breath, and explained his plan. The Lilliputians looked sceptical, but they reached a silent accord. Jack took the sonic screwdriver from his pocket, fiddled with the settings, and then strode into the mouth of the cave, projecting more confidence than he felt.
Really, his plan was simple. First he had to find the creature. That part was easy. The cave stank of its recent kill. Jack choked on the scent of gore as he cautiously moved forward. Almost immediately, he sensed movement. "Now or never," Jack thought grimly to himself, and then he flicked the switch on the sonic screwdriver and broadcast a wide band of high frequency noise.
The creature shrieked, as Jack hoped it might, and then it lunged forward out of the blackness. Jack scrambled backwards. He tripped over a rock, flailed and went down. Painfully.
The beast, enraged, charged towards him.
Jack swore. Of all the ways to die, why this?
As the beast grew closer he remembered the lance, more like a long knife, really, in his other hand. It was a slim chance, but any damage he could inflict could only help the hunting party. He concentrated on the sound of slavering, rasping, breathing and when it was directly over him, Jack stabbed upward with all of his strength into the body of the beast.
It howled in pain and anger.
Realising he wasn't going to have his throat ripped out just yet, Jack scrambled away, using his forearms and heels, until he was clear of the beast. Cued by the scream, the Lilliputians poured into the cave around him, attacking en mass. The deadly sharp lance tips pierced the furry hide until it bristled with them. The poison took effect with a rapidity Jack hadn't dared hope for, and the creature fell.
The Lilliputians erupted in a triumphant chorus. Jack hooted along with them as he delivered the killing blow, and then slit the beast's throat for good measure. When the blood had finished spilling, they dragged the body out into the open, the easier to strip away the hide and flesh, until nothing was left but gleaming white bone.
Jack was exhausted when the Lilliputians made their final return trip to the village laden down with sledges stacked with bone. Despite the gruelling work, there was a festive feeling in the air. The Lilliputians grieved their dead and wounded, but rejoiced in the defeat of their foe. Jack drank the celebratory mug he was offered and ate the roasted flesh of the beast. He danced with the other hunters and offered tributes to the fallen, but as soon as he was able to slip away from the party, he did, first to wash the gore of the hunt away, and then to check on the Doctor.
Without bothering to light the lamp, Jack collapsed wearily onto his bunk, and reached for the Doctor's hand. He interlaced their fingers together and said, "You would not believe the day I've had."
"It sounds like quite the party out there. What have I missed?"
Jack didn't believe his ears. He froze the moment in his mind and replayed it, wondering if he wasn't still lying on the dank floor of the cave waiting to be mauled to death.
"Doctor to Jack, are you receiving? I asked you what was going on."
The Doctor's voice was raspy from lack of use, but real, and there was strength in the fingers that squeezed Jack's.
Jack rolled over abruptly and stared at the Doctor. "You're awake!"
"Yep. That's me. Awake," the Doctor said in a voice that suggested he was willing to humour Jack up to a point. "And feeling very well rested, I might add." He sat up. "This is nice. A bit rustic, but nice. Where are we?"
Jack sat up as well. In the dim light he stared at the Doctor and then lunged at him, sweeping him up into a bear hug.
"Oi! Easy there!" the Doctor protested.
Jack loosened his grip, but only so he could welcome the Doctor back properly, with a kiss.
"Not that I'm unappreciative," the Doctor said when they parted, "but why all the fuss?"
Jack couldn't answer. He felt as if he was radiating joy, and there were no words that could adequately describe his emotions. He leant in and kissed the Doctor again, and even though he felt eyes upon him from the doorway of the hut, he didn't break off again until they were both breathless. Only then did Jack compose himself sufficiently to introduce the Doctor to their hosts, and his new friends.
The Doctor watched with an amused smile bowing his lips as Jack knelt, surrounded by Lilliputians. Jack didn't mind the Doctor's amusement. He was touched and a little bit humbled by the ceremony, and he accepted the Lilliputian hunting lance with grave dignity. He bowed low before Ril'Ta and raised the lance over his head as the Lilliputians cheered his adoption into their clan.
He rose to his feet and began to say his goodbyes. The TARDIS was repaired, more or less. Some of the fine tuning could only be made once they were in space. But circuitry no longer spilled from the bulkheads or maintenance panels, and the TARDIS herself hummed serenely when Jack opened his mind to her.
"Come on," the Doctor said as he clasped Jack's shoulder. "It seems to me, I promised you a lads' day out. After that nap I had, I feel like I could use a bit of an adventure."
Jack surveyed the diminutive village and his contribution to it. He had been pleased and a little bit proud when Ril'Ta had praised his work on the shelter he had constructed, and asked permission if they might keep it as a place of gathering and celebration.
Oddly humbled, Jack had agreed immediately, and now he found himself wondering why he was so touched. He gazed upon the lavishly decorated structure, now strewn with flowers and vines, and committed the image to memory before turning away. He slung his arm over the Doctor's shoulder and together they began the journey to the clearing where the TARDIS rested, and towards whatever adventure they might stumble onto next.
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