The Spirits Within 18/21 + epilogue

[madbottoms]

The Spirits Within

Chapter: 18/21 + epilogue

Characters: Jack, Ianto Owen, Tosh, Rhys, John Hart, the Doctor

Rating: PG

Warnings: Character death

Spoilers: Only if you’ve never seen Torchwood of Final Fantasy

Notes: See chapter 1 for notes and disclaimer.

Chapter 18

 

The airlock hissed open in front of General Hart and he floated into the Hub space station, not really enjoying the feeling of pulling himself along. Zero-g was not something he liked, but at least he was at the station.

 

Two soldiers secured against the walls on either side of the airlock snapped to attention as he boarded. He returned their salute, but said nothing. Right now he had work to do if he was going to destroy the cause of all those deaths in London.

 

The Hub station main control room was large. There were a dozen stations on different levels around the room, and when he entered, each station except the main one was manned. Major Swanson was the woman in command of the station when he wasn't here, and right now Major Swanson was floating in a standing position to one side, saluting, as did every other person in the command area.

 

"Return to your posts," Hart said, snapping off a salute and kicking himself toward the command chair.

 

With a quick motion he was in the chair and had the belt on, holding him down. At least that gave him a feeling of normal gravity.

 

"Happy to see you made it out of London," Major Swanson said.

 

"Happy to have made it," Hart said, keying in the command to call the Council. He had asked en route that they be ready for his call when he reached the station, and they had agreed.

 

"What caused the London barrier to fail?" Councilwoman Noble asked without a word of greeting.

 

Hart had expected such an attack, and he had spent the last few hours getting ready for it. "I was afraid," he said, shaking his head in sadness, "that it was only a matter of time before the Phantoms developed an immunity to our barriers. I actually saw Phantoms swimming in the ovo-energy pipes leading from the main energy station."

 

The Council sat there in stunned silence. He knew exactly what they were thinking. If London could fall, then so could every other barrier city in the world. The human race would be wiped out. And that was exactly what he wanted them to think.

 

"But I am relieved to see that you, Councilwoman Noble, and the rest of the Council, were able to evacuate to Geneva without incident."

 

Hart waited as the tiny holographic images of the council shifted in front of him, taking in the fact of the Phantoms developing an immunity to the barrier energy.

 

Finally Councilwoman Noble spoke again, talking slowly, as if she were forcing herself to say things she did not want to say. "It was a terrible loss we suffered in London."

 

General Hart nodded, saying nothing. It was better that he didn't speak.

 

Councilwoman Noble went on. "The Council has reconsidered your proposal to fire the Hub Cannon."

 

Hart could barely contain himself, and didn't trust himself at that moment to utter a full sentence without showing emotion. So instead, he said softly, "I see."

 

"We are transmitting the access codes to the Hub Cannon now," the councilwoman said. She then turned to an aide standing behind her and nodded.

 

The computer beside Hart beeped softly. He looked at the screen, watching as the computer verified the security information, then put the six-number code on the screen.

 

"I have it," he said.

 

Councilwoman Noble, her small holographic image looking even smaller and more tired, nodded. "General," he said, "best of luck to us all."

 

The Council then cut the communication.

 

He wanted to fly into the air with joy, but instead he just sat there. His plan had worked, although maybe not perfectly, but it had worked. Now it was time to clean the planet of the enemy, and the best place to start was their home.

He stood and turned to Major Swanson. "Prepare to fire the cannon."

 

Major Swanson smiled and snapped off a salute. "Yes, sir!" She turned and said to the officer at the weapons station. "You heard the general. Prepare to fire the cannon."

 

"The target, sir?" the officer asked, also smiling.

 

General Hart knew that this day was the day every soldier on this station had worked so hard to attain. Finally they were going into action, and they all believed, as he did, that they would save the world with this weapon.

 

"The Phantom rift."

 

His fingers ran over the board in front of him, and on the main viewscreen the Phantom rift appeared.

 

"Yes, sir!" the officer said.

 

"Finally," Major Swanson said, floating to a position beside General Hart.

 

Hart didn't take his gaze from the image of the rift. Yes, finally. The cost had been high, but without a doubt, saving the human race and winning this war would be worth it.

 

*~*

 

Ianto levelled the Myfanwy out over the impact rift in the centre of what used to be Cardiff Bay. It was a massive scar ripped into the Earth. When it had hit the planet, years before Ianto had been born, millions had died in the earthquakes and tidal waves that immediately followed the collision, and it had caused years of cold temperatures from all the dust and debris tossed into the air.

 

But those millions of deaths were nothing compared to the deaths that came as the Phantoms slowly spread out from the rift over the years that followed, killing as they went. It was amazing that the human race still existed, let alone could fight back against the Phantoms.

 

He looked down into the rift at the remains of the meteor, the dream flashing into his mind. There, in that rift, he was sure, was the hunk of planet he had seen blown into space in his dream.

 

"How's this?" he asked into the communications link.

 

"Going to have to do," Jack said. "We don't dare go any lower. This will be fine as long as we're right over the meteor."

 

"We are," Ianto said and set the controls to keep the ship hovering there for as long as they needed it to. Then he got up and moved into the lab. The Doctor was studying the images of the Phantoms in the rift.

 

He glanced up at him. "There are so many of them."

 

"Didn't need to hear that," Ianto said. "Just find the right one." He patted him on the shoulder and moved on down toward the cargo bay.

 

Jack was making the final adjustments on the Weevil. He had decided they were going to use it as a base, staying inside it as they were lowered into the rift. He was convinced that the barrier shield around the Weevil would last for hours before it needed new fuel cells. He had also stocked it with just about every weapon he could fit inside, and had even managed to mount a small cannon on the outside. He was a soldier, and he told Ianto that he wasn't walking into the enemy camp without being fully armed.

 

Ianto had agreed, and was silently glad Jack was doing what he was doing.

 

"Ready?" the captain asked as he entered the cargo hold.

 

"As I'll ever be," Ianto answered.

 

"We can find another way, you know."

 

Ianto shook his head. "This is the best way."

 

"If you say so." Jack indicated he should get inside the Weevil, then he followed, snapping the hatch down. The Weevil was big enough inside for both of them to sit beside each other and stare out the large front window. The controls and sensory equipment were showing active, with at least a half dozen small holograms on the panel and another dozen control holograms around them.

 

The feel of Jack’s shoulder against him gave Ianto confidence. No matter what happened, they would be together.

 

Ianto checked out what Jack had done over the last few hours to the Weevil. It was now really the ultimate in all-terrain vehicles. It had wheels and tracks. It had lift jets that could power it twenty metres into the air and then land it safely, and it was completely shielded from the Phantoms. It also had claw arms for lifting and ripping anything from hard metal to entire trees. Now, with Jack's help, it had enough firepower to defend itself against an army.

 

"Powering the shield," Ianto said, his hands moving over the control panel in front of him.

 

The barrier shield snapped on around them, giving everything they could see through the bubble a faint, swirling, golden tint.

 

"Starting descent," Jack said.

 

The Weevil rocked as the lift picked it up and moved it out over the open cargo bay door. They were going down on the end of a cable. That also had been Jack's idea. When Ianto had worried about such long a cable being strong enough, he had laughed. He had said it would pull Myfanwy out of the sky before it would break.

 

Jack overlaid the main window with a scan of what they were lowering themselves into. Never in all his life had he seen anything so horrifying in its emptiness.

 

Below them, a twisted rock tip of the meteor stuck into the air. He knew, from their readings in orbit, that there had to be Phantoms there. Millions of them, but all he could see was the barren insides of the impact rift.

 

Jack glanced over at Ianto. "You sure about this?"

 

"No," he said, imagining the swarming Phantoms he couldn't see coming closer and closer as they were slowly lowered into the rift.

 

"Doctor," Jack said into the com link with Myfanwy, "do you have our target in sight?"

 

"There are so many of them," the doctor said.

 

Now Ianto was glad he couldn't see them.

 

"Wait!" the Doctor shouted, his voice echoing in the small space inside the Weevil. "Yes, I'm tracking the eighth spirit, moving along the rift's surface."

 

The screen on the Weevil's control panel lit up as the Doctor highlighted the Phantom target. It seemed, as far as Ianto could tell, to be pretty much right below them.

 

"Let’s take a closer look," Jack said.

 

The next moment a Meta Phantom tentacle pounded into the Weevil's shield and bounced off. Golden sparks flew and the lights inside dimmed slightly. Ianto knew, without a doubt, that if the shield hadn't held, they would now both be dead.

 

The lower they went, the more invisible Phantoms bumped and ran into the shield. It flared, it sparked, but it held. He had no idea how long the Weevil's shield would last. With luck, just long enough to do the job and get out.

 

Without luck, just long enough to do the job.

 

*~*

 

General Hart leaned back in his command chair and listened to the well-run control room as it prepared to attack the enemy. He had sat in this very chair during many trial runs, hungry for the time when this master weapon would be allowed to fire for real. Today was that day.

 

On the main screen was the image of the impact rift. And in that rift were millions of Phantoms. Soon they would all be dead.

 

"Ready to fire in three minutes," Major Swanson announced from where she stood at the secondary control board. General Hart had the master board in front of him, but at the moment he was content to let the major do the work.

 

"Ovo-packs at maximum,'' one soldier said from a station near the back of the room. "Transferring plasma flow to auto."

 

"Confirmed," Major Swanson replied. "Plasma flow on auto."

 

"Counter-thrusters are engaged," another soldier said.

 

General Hart leaned forward and checked that on his main board. The counter-thrusters had to fire, or the power of the weapon would drive the entire station up and out of orbit. He could see that all the counter-thrusters were green and set to go.

 

"Lox flow status is green," another soldier said.

 

"Confirmed," Major Swanson answered.

 

All of these responses were like presents to a child on Christmas. He loved and treasured every one of them. It was all moving so-

 

An alarm broke the perfect order of the room, blaring a warning so loud that he came up out of his chair.

 

"We have a ship over the impact site, sir," a soldier said from the tactical station to Hart's right.

 

"What?" General Hart said, staring at the young soldier for a moment. Then he dropped back into his seat and pulled the information up on his own board.

 

It took him a moment to understand what he was looking at. But when he did, he laughed - not because it was funny, but with the irony of it all. The ship was the Myfanwy. That was Dr. Jones's ship, and clearly they were trying something with their crazy theory, since a shielded Weevil was dangling from a cable underneath it.

 

"Turn off that alarm," he said.

 

He stared at the image of the ship as the alarm went silent.

 

Dr. Jones would die with his beloved Phantoms. What a wonderful end. Perfectly fitting.

 

"One minute to firing,'' one soldier said.

 

"What do we do about the ship?" Major Swanson asked. "You want us to warn them off?"

 

"No, we fire as planned," General Hart said, sitting back in his chair, trying not to laugh.

 

"Sir?" Major Swanson asked.

 

"That ship is just a traitor's ship, under the influence of the enemy. I'm familiar with it. We continue the countdown. We'll just take them all out at once. A fitting end to a traitor, don't you think?"

 

"Yes, sir," the major said.

 

Hart sat and stared at the screen. The Myfanwy was now clearly visible against the background of the Phantom-infested rift. It would soon no longer exist.

 

"Target locked," Major Swanson reported. "We are ready to fire on your order."

 

General Hart savoured the moment for just one second, then he said, "Fire!"