Out of Place Chapter 2

[galadriel1010]

Jasmine placed her hands on top of a couple of photos and moved them around to try and make them make more sense, hoping that a new arrangement would show something. Greg and Nick watched her in silence as she muttered to herself and flicked back and forth from her computer, accessing files and sending messages pinging backwards and forwards across the world, “There was evidence of sexual activity, any DNA?”

The Californian blinked as he realised that her amused, glittering blue gaze was levelled at him and probably had been for some time. He shook his head, “No, they must have used protection. Some foreign DNA, but nothing that she couldn’t have picked up just form being in that alley.”

She laughed mirthlessly and touched the only photo of Ellen Carillo they had that was taken before her violent death. She was young and beautiful, so alive as she laughed in bright Miami sunshine whilst on holiday. “Practice safe sex, then get ripped to shreds by a Weevil. Just goes to show, live for today in case you don’t have tomorrow.”

“You keep saying that, ‘weevil’, but what is it? What killed her?” Nick asked, his gut churning as his mind filled with her words.

Jazz pulled yet another computer screen towards herself, her eyes dancing between the various readouts from the other monitors whilst she keyed in a few commands, “Weevils are aliens, a species that’s really common in Cardiff. We don’t know where they come from, apart from an approximate galactic co-ordinate we managed to pull once, all we really know is that they come through the Rift now and again, and have been breeding in Cardiff since the Rift first became active back in 1869. There are hundreds of them over there, Cardiff’s best kept secret, thanks entirely to Torchwood of course.”

“Who are Torchwood?” Greg asked

“We’re alien hunters, a UK only operation.” She chuckled, “Well mostly, but I have some specialised skills so I spread myself around a bit more, lot more… We’re based around the UK in London, Cardiff, Glasgow and… Yeah, and somewhere else, we’ll find it eventually.”

“What do you mean?”

She didn’t look up, but a slow grin spread across her face, “Torchwood 4 went missing during the 1960s, haven’t been seen since what appears to have been a spectacular drug high during a music festival in Yorkshire at which there was quite a lot of weirdness going on. They were the mobile branch, zipping around the UK to anywhere they were needed, but when they were still looking for them UNIT was founded, so we left them to it really.”

“You don’t sound very worried.”

“Before my time.” She waved a hand in the air, “Long before my time, and they’re professionals. Nothing I can do about it really.”

“So,” Nick folded his arms, his incredulity evident in his tone and posture, “You’re like the Men in Black?”

She glared at him, “Almost, except we have a clue and give a damn.”

“You mean,” Greg sent a meaning-loaded glance in Nick’s direction, telling him to calm down, “the Men in Black are real?”

Jazz now leaned back against a desk and hopped up onto it, sitting and swinging her legs as she watched the scans running with a scowl, “Sadly, that is the case. Run by the government, so completely useless.”

“And you’re better are you?”

“Nicky.” Greg muttered in a warning tone, shifting closer to him under the pretence of studying a scan that was running behind the Texan.

Jasmine didn’t appear to have noticed, “Hell yeah, like I said, we have a clue and will employ anyone who has the right credentials. Male, female, gay straight, alien or human. And we don’t have a no dating in the office rule, which makes life considerably more entertaining for those of us who work there. My boyfriend works for me in London, my best friends are having a civil ceremony in two months, Jack is Ianto’s boss.”

“Ianto’s a man’s name…” Greg almost asked

“That is correct. So is Jack.”

“They’re gay…”

“You’re sharp, aren’t you? Yes, or no. Jack wouldn’t limit himself to simple labels like that, Ianto… Oh God I don’t pretend to know what’s running through that boy’s mind sometimes.” She laughed, “I don’t think he does. But seriously, sometimes the stationary cupboard gets more action than the desks… I mean, they spend more time in the…” She glared at them, “You know what I mean.”

“Yes.” Nick’s jaw and fists had clenched, and he glanced over his shoulder nervously to check that the door was closed, “How did you know?”

“Know what?” She raised her eyebrows, “Oh, that. I don’t know anything for certain really, just a guess. But I’ve had my suspicions since I saw you in the alley together.”

“There’s a no dating in the office rule here, if anyone knew, we’d be split up and put on different shifts. We see little enough of each other as it is.” Greg explained quietly

She nodded in understanding, “Hence why we’re better, I’ll keep my lip buttoned. Plus, we really do have a clue. Over here you have two agencies, the mib, who are truly hopeless and we like to bitch about, and Liberty Towers, who are better in every way. They answer only to the head of the military.” She pulled a face, “And then only when they feel like it.”

“How many agencies are there?” Greg asked in wonder

“Dozens. UNIT are worldwide, you’ve got two official ones here, we’ve got one… Plus most countries have unofficial ones and a lot have official ones. You should see the Christmas party, it’s wild.”

“So, how often do aliens come to Earth, you’re talking like it’s almost an everyday thing for you.” Nick asked, thinking back to the day the Earth had almost been destroyed by Daleks. Terror attack it was not.

She met his eyes steadily and seriously, “Yes I am.”

“For how long?”

Jazz sighed, “First alien contact was in prehistoric times, quite a lot of it but not by today’s standards. Both Queen Elizabeths have met them, Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria founded Torchwood after meeting the same alien, lovely guy, called the Doctor. Absolute hero, saved the world on so many occasions.” She chuckled, “Actually, every monarch since Vicky has met an alien, although very few of them knew he was one.”

“The same one?”

“Yeah.”

“How could they not know?” Greg asked, glancing at the autopsy photos and thinking of every sci-fi movie he’d ever seen.

“Not all aliens look alien, and he’s actually human, but born on another planet so technically an alien.” She swung a screen around to show them and minimised a couple of scans so that they could see her desktop background. “That’s him, second from the right, his fiancé’s on his right, my boyfriend’s on his left, also an alien, and I’m sure you can recognise me.” She chuckled, “Two aliens, a Welshman and a girl of negotiable nationality and about as mentally screwed up as they get.” Her grin was thrilling, “Do I fill you with confidence?”

“No.” Nick stated, “Are they dangerous?”

“Yes.” She raised an annoyed eyebrow, “We’re all professional, trained killers, of course we’re dangerous.”

“Are any aliens safe?” Greg asked, glancing back at the photos

She glared at him and folded her arms, “Are all humans dangerous?” He looked down to his feet; “You can’t tar them all with the same brush. Jack has spent most of his life fighting to protect this planet, he would do anything to protect Ianto, and actually they’re rather adorable. I went out with him for a year or so, and he was the most charming, wonderful man I’d ever had the fortune to meet. But get him in to work, he’s all professional and shoots first, asks questions later. Yes he’s dangerous, he trained in a warfare situation. But so am I, probably more dangerous because I’m a slight, blonde teenager with a black belt in most martial arts and three knives and a gun concealed around my person.”

Nick folded his arms, “So how dangerous are you?”

“Very if you annoy me, or threaten the things I love. Do you realise how protective you are of him?”

“Stop it.” He growled

“And there you go again. Now,” she whirled the screen around and pulled a file up on the projector, “Weevils! That’s a Weevil.”

“That’s ugly.” Greg commented, slightly nervous

“Yeah. And vicious. All teeth and claws and killing instinct. And possibly a high level of psychic connection, and a strong community, and we haven’t really got a clue if I’m honest. The chief researcher into Weevil behaviour, by which I mean the guy who spent hours watching the only permanently captive one in an attempt to escape the irate archivist and his paperwork, died in… in the terrorist attacks in Cardiff. And he really wasn’t good at paperwork, we only have what he told us and what he wrote down whilst hung over.” There was a sad smile in her eyes as she thought about him

“You knew him?”

“Yeah, he was one of Jack’s team. I spent a lot of time with them in Cardiff.” She sighed, “They lost two that day, out of a team of five.”

“That’s gotta hurt.”

“Yeah, it did.” Her hair bounced as she shook her head, “But anyway, yeah, he never really wrote any of his findings down as such, not legibly. But you know what we’re looking for.”

”And how do we find it?”

She sighed and leaned on her knuckles against the work surface, “Wait for another death, there’s nothing else we can do. We need to find out if it’s stayed in the same area, if it’s gone to ground. If there’s more than one.” She uncurled her hands and tapped her fingers rhythmically, “So many variables to worry about.”

“What’s it doing here?”

“No idea.” She admitted with a wry smile, “There’s this rift in time and space that runs through the middle of Cardiff, and the Weevils come through it, they’re sort of picked up and dropped. The problem is that the operative word is Cardiff. Speaking of which…” She was a sudden whirlwind of activity, shifting active screens around flicking from one screen to another, swivelling monitors and keyboards for better access, “Rift storm across the pond, so I can’t get their help, let’s just see.” For a moment there was an image of a brick and chrome room filled with computers and tables, “Nope, Hub’s empty, damn. But…” She flicked to another monitor and shook her head, “No, no rift activity in Vegas since the rift was fully open, when you got a squad of small purple hedgehogs… Amongst other things. A bit of residual energy in places, but not the rift places and not enough to bring a Weevil through. Not enough to bring a small purple hedgehog through in fact. Unless it’s been there all along…”

“What’s a rift storm?”

“A burst of rift activity, several positive spikes happening in a short space of time. Really stretches their resources if it’s a big one. They’ve only been happening really since the Daleks…”

“Pardon?” They both turned to follow her progress as she bounced around the room to another computer.

“It’s complicated, and I don’t really understand it. Just accept that it does it.”

“Does what?”

“Positive spikes pick things up from somewhere else and leave them here, negative ones pick them up form here and leave them somewhere else.”

“Like tides.” Greg commented

“Possibly.”

“You fill us with confidence.” Nick growled

“Hey, we do our jobs, even if we don’t know how we’re doing it. We’ve stopped cybermen, small purple hedgehogs, the daleks…”

“You stopped the Daleks?”

She seemed to deflate slightly and gained a soft smile, “My friends did, I was stuck on Earth. I always seem to be the one left behind.”

“I’m sure you played your part.”

She smiled at Greg sadly, “I hope so, but I’ve got a damned good team.”

The door opened and a head poked around it, with Catherine waving a folder at them, “Doc Robbins has another body for you, Hodges says there’s something up your street about it, you must be the new girl?”

She nodded and smiled, “Jasmine Donovan, nice to meet you.”

“Willows, Catherine Willows. What’s your speciality?”

“We’re got a European link, you may have noticed I’m not a local.” She smiled and shook the woman’s extended hand, “We’ve had cases like this over the pond, surprised it’s got over here if I’m honest.”

“Cases?” Catherine looked confused, “I thought it was an animal

“Yeah, but it’s… I can’t say much, my boss would eat me alive.”

“Tough boss?” Catherine raised an eyebrow

“Nightmare, my ex.”

“And hence the no dating in the workplace rule.” She waved, “You’d better get over there.”

Jazz picked up some files and flicked on scans and turned off the screens, locking them against intrusion, then realised that the two men were staring at her, “You lied, you said you were the leader.” Greg stated

“I am, but I only have security clearances for you two, Archie and Hodges, they’ve been in on it for years. Look.” She held her hand up, “I can’t explain now, not here, we have to go. And this room is the only safe one because I’ve got a CCTV broadcast catcher. I’ve got another in my house, we’ll all meet up there this evening and I’ll explain it fully, I’m sorry but it has to be completely secure.”

“Commander.” Nick acknowledged her words grimly

“It’s Jay, you two have earned it.” She smiled and headed out of the door