Title: Fallen To Earth
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Tosh, Owen, Gwen, Alien.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 8353
Spoilers: Nada.
Summary: Something has fallen to earth, so it’s Torchwood’s job to find it, but that’s just the beginning of the story.
Content Notes: None needed.
Written For: Challenge #147: Amnesty, using Challenge 145: Metal.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
A/N: This is an idea I had way back a couple of years ago when I was doing Cottoncandy Bingo, but I didn’t pursue it back then because I realised it had the potential to be a long story and I was very short of time if I wanted to get a blackout. I decided to write something else much shorter for the square but I kept my notes. I tried to get it written for the Metal challenge, and I nearly made it, but it still needed a final edit and I ran out of time. Thank goodness for Amnesty!



The coordinates of the ‘meteor strike’ had turned out to be well off the beaten track, so despite the SUV having four-wheel drive, Jack and Ianto had only been able to drive it so far. The hill was just too steep and the track too narrow to accommodate their vehicle’s wide wheelbase, meaning they’d had to get out and walk the last few miles. Not that they’d minded. It had been a beautiful autumn day when they’d set out, the sun had been shining and only a handful of clouds had dotted the blue of the sky.

But this was Wales and the weather could be unpredictable. By the time they were approaching their destination, after more than two hours of walking over increasingly rough terrain, the sun had vanished behind steadily thickening cloud and a mist was starting to settle over the ridge they were walking along. The temperature was also dropping and Ianto, who only a few minutes earlier had been sweating from exertion, was starting to feel distinctly chilly.

He’d changed into casual clothes before leaving the Hub; jeans, sturdy walking boots, shirt and denim jacket, but the thick sweater he’d brought with him was back in the SUV because he hadn’t wanted to carry the extra weight up the steep incline, his standard kit was enough of a burden. He should have known better, but scrambling up onto the ridge had taken a lot longer than he’d anticipated and now he was paying the price for his lapse in judgement.

“How much further?”

Jack was carrying the hand-held GPS that was guiding them to whatever had crashed.

“About 500 metres, just past that pile of rocks ahead I think.”

“Good. The sooner we’re on our way back down again the better. The mist’s getting thicker, we need to get off the ridge before visibility shuts down completely.”

“I know. We just need to collect whatever came down and we can head home. What do your readings say?”

Ianto checked his scanner.

“Background radiation is normal, so it’s not radioactive.”

“That’s a plus.”

“I’ll know more when I can scan it at close quarters. Right now, I’m picking up too many readings from the surrounding rocks and vegetation.” Tucking his scanner under one arm, Ianto rubbed his hands together, trying to get some warmth into them; the mist was making everything damp.

A sudden gust of cold wind sent a swirl of thicker mist coiling around them, cutting visibility to just a few metres. They were nearly at the pile of rocks though, so they kept inching forward carefully, watching their footing rather than focusing on their destination. Ianto shivered as the clammy tendrils of fog brushed the bare skin of his face and hands. He tried thinking warm thoughts, but it didn’t help.

Past the rock formation, the ground dipped down into a small hollow, which took them out of the worst of the rising wind. Visibility was slightly better there too; the mist seemed to be getting blown straight past overhead without being given a chance to sink into the sheltered depression tucked behind the massive weathered sandstone boulders. Ianto turned slowly, keeping his eyes on the scanner.

“Can you see anything, Jack?”

“Not yet. No, wait, what’s that over there?” Jack pointed towards a clump of stunted bushes. Something seemed to be moving near them so they approached cautiously. It looked like they’d found what they were searching for.

“What is it?” Ianto asked, trying to keep his teeth from chattering. He crouched down and ran the scanner over it. The composition of the creature, if that’s what it was, registered as an amalgam of both known and unknown metallic elements.

It looked similar to a dragonfly, but about twenty centimetres long and made of delicate copper-coloured filigree. One wing was badly crumpled, presumably from the impact of its crash.

“Not sure. It’s not from around here though.”

Ianto chuckled.

“What gave it away?”

Jack glanced over at his partner and grinned, then frowned.

“Are you okay?”

“Bit cold, that’s all.”

Shrugging out of his coat, Jack draped it around Ianto’s shoulders.

“Here, put this on.”

“But what about you?” Ianto tried to protest. Despite being half frozen, he still felt guilty about taking the heavy wool overcoat from its owner.

“I’ll be fine, I can put up with the cold for a bit. You warm yourself up while I see about getting our visitor packed for transport, then we can head back down to the SUV.”

Ianto stopped arguing, letting Jack help him slip into the coat and gratefully pulling it close around him. It felt amazing; the lining was still warm from Jack’s body and Ianto’s chilled flesh drank in the heat gratefully.

Jack pulled a containment box from the rucksack Ianto had been carrying over his shoulder and carefully coaxed the injured dragonfly into it. As soon as it was inside, it settled down, folding its undamaged wing flat. It seemed to understand that they were trying to help it, or perhaps it just felt that anything was better than being stranded in such a cold, inhospitable place. Putting the lid on the box but leaving it ajar, Jack thrust it at Ianto.

“Here, tuck it inside the coat. I think the little fella’s nearly as cold as you are.”

Ianto did as instructed, looking at Jack dubiously. “Are you sure you’ll be alright?”

“I can survive practically anything; you can’t. Now come on, let’s get off the high ground before the weather gets any worse.”

“At least take my jacket. It’s not much protection, but it’s better than nothing.” With a bit of wriggling, Ianto managed to slip out of his jacket and pass it to Jack without completely removing the coat.

“Fine.” Jack pulled it on and picked up Ianto’s rucksack, slinging it over his shoulder before reprogramming the GPS to guide them back to where they’d left the SUV. “Can we go now?”

“Yep!” Ianto shoved his scanner into one of the coat’s deep pockets and stood up, following Jack out of the hollow and immediately feeling the wind buffeting him as he left the shelter provided by the rocky outcrop.

The path along the ridge was narrow, the hillsides dropping away steeply to left and right, not that they could see much through the enveloping mist. Jack took the lead, with Ianto close behind holding on to his belt, head down and watching his feet, trusting his captain to guide him safely down. They didn’t talk, just concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. Time lost all meaning, the mist made everything unreal, muffling sound and making them feel as if they were the only living things left in the world. Even wrapped in Jack’s coat, Ianto soon started to feel cold again and he knew it must be even worse for Jack, but there was nothing to do except keep going.

As they made their way down the steep track, Ianto noticed the mist was gradually getting thinner, but it still came as a surprise when they suddenly stepped out of the low, swirling cloud into the grey light of an overcast afternoon. The improvement in visibility allowed them to pick up speed, and that, combined with the absence of clammy vapour against their skin, soon had them feeling if not warmer, then at least less cold.

“We’re on the home stretch now!” Jack said to Ianto, who was now walking alongside him on the widening path. They were off the ridge at last, making their way down a hill towards a stretch of woodland. On the other side of that was the rutted track that would lead them to where they SUV was parked.

Ianto glanced up at a steadily darkening sky. “Good thing too, because it looks like it might rain soon.” That would be all they needed.

Thankfully, they beat the rain, arriving back at the SUV just as the first drops started to fall. They quickly swapped coats again before climbing into the car and shutting the doors behind them, settling into their seats and listening to the pattering of raindrops on the roof.

“Soon be warm now.” Jack started the SUV and turned the heater on. “How’s our little friend doing?”

Ianto lifted the lid from the box that was now on his lap and looked inside. “Wing’s still badly bent, but aside from that it seems okay. Have you ever come across living metal before?”

“No, but I’ve heard stories of metallic creatures.”

“From the Doctor?”

“Of course. He’s seen a lot of strange things in his travels.”

“I imagine he has. Do you think we’ll be able to fix the damaged wing? It looks so delicate.”

“I hope so, otherwise he’ll not be able to fly.”

The metallic insect fanned its good wing gently. It seemed to like the growing warmth in the SUV. Ianto coaxed it onto his hand and held it in the stream of warm air from the heater, studying it curiously. Its six legs didn’t seem to have any joints, they were more like flexible tentacles, the feet merely a slightly rough area near the tips which seemed able to cling to surfaces, preventing the creature from slipping. Its head bore two large compound eyes, similar to those of earth insects, and a set of quite dextrous mandibles that it was using to investigate his finger. The touch was gentle, it seemed as curious about him as he was about it.

Instead of having a neck, the head was attached to the long, streamlined body by a kind of ball joint, giving it an impressive range of movement. Unlike an earth dragonfly, it had only two wings. Ianto estimated the undamaged one to be about fifteen centimetres long by approximately six or seven centimetres at its widest point. The other wing was at present half that length, bent and twisted. Ianto hoped it wasn’t causing the little creature pain, but it really didn’t look comfortable.

“I wonder how it got here.”

“You saw the reports, a bright light was seen by hikers several miles away, appearing to drop from the heavens.”

“Humans aren’t the most reliable witnesses. Besides, it can’t have come from space unprotected. Even if it can survive in a vacuum, and considering its dislike of cold that seems unlikely, it would have burnt up on re-entry, yet the only damage is to its wing. We could’ve missed something in the fog, maybe it had a spaceship, or an escape pod.”

“The bright light was most likely the refraction of sunlight off its body. Maybe it came through the Rift and got caught up by the wind. With the gales we’ve been having the last few days, it wouldn’t be surprising. It could have been carried for miles, out of control, until it was blown against the rocks and injured, then crawled into the hollow trying to find shelter.”

Ianto nodded. “Seems as likely an explanation as any I guess, but we’ll probably never know for certain.”

“I’ll have Tosh monitor the area closely for a few weeks, just to be on the safe side. If there’s anything else out there, we’ll find it.”

They were driving along narrow lanes by now, working their way back to the main road. The rain was a fine but steady drizzle, just heavy enough that Jack had to keep flicking the wipers on briefly to clear the windscreen. Behind the clouds, the sun would be moving slowly down towards the horizon, but it looked like they should be back in Cardiff before it set.

Ianto relaxed in the passenger seat, thinking of hot soup; he was hungry. They’d expected to be home by two thirty at the latest, so they hadn’t bothered to bring a packed lunch with them. Not that they could’ve eaten it even if they had; scrambling over slippery rocks in the mist isn’t ideally suited for having a picnic, but Ianto did regret not bringing a flask of coffee.

He looked at the dragonfly. What would a creature made of metal eat? That was a mystery he’d need to solve quickly; they couldn’t let it starve while trying to work out how to send it back where it belonged. If that was even possible, which seemed unlikely, considering they had no sure way of finding out where it had come from. There was a good chance it would be stuck on earth for the rest of its life. That was a depressing thought. It should be soaring through the air, flying free, not locked away in the Hub. Speaking of which…

“Home sweet Hub!” Jack announced, pulling the SUV into their underground garage. “Time to wake up!”

“I wasn’t asleep, I was just thinking.”

“Must’ve been some deep thoughts,” Jack teased.

“Not really, mostly a lot of unanswered questions about our guest,” Ianto admitted with a wry smile. “And thoughts of hot soup.”

“Oooh soup, that sounds good!”

“I’ll heat some up after I shower. First, I need to set up suitable accommodations for a metal dragonfly, preferably with a heat lamp.” Ianto climbed out of the SUV, the dragonfly still perched on his hand, and led the way into the main Hub to show their find to the rest of the team and get it settled.


OoOoOoO


Tosh was fascinated by the metallic creature, perched contentedly on a smooth rock beneath the lamp Ianto had found for it. She examined it through alien magnifying goggles that made her look a bit like a large insect herself. Ianto had left their resident tech wizard in charge of the visitor while he and Jack got showered and changed into fresh, dry clothes. Despite the heat in the SUV, when they’d arrived at the Hub they’d still been feeling a bit damp and clammy from their trek through the Welsh mists.

She was so engrossed in her studies that she didn’t even realise someone was behind her until Jack spoke, making her almost jump out of her skin.

“What’s the verdict?”

“Jack!” Tosh put her hand over her pounding heart. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that, you nearly scared the life out of me! Where’s Ianto?”

“Fixing coffee and soup, we got pretty chilled out there, need something to warm us up on the inside now we’ve got our outsides warm.”

“I thought the two of you would have warmed each other up in the shower!”

“Cheeky!” Jack pretended to be shocked. “Anyway, back to my question; what d’you make of our friend here?”

“It’s amazing! I thought at first that Ianto’s scanner must be faulty, but I’ve checked and double-checked, it really is metal! Living metal! If I hadn’t seen it for myself I wouldn’t have believed it.”

“The universe is full of amazing things, Toshiko, and once in a while we’re lucky enough to see some of them. The big question though is whether or not its wing can be fixed.”

“I’m not sure, I think I’ll have to talk to Owen about that. He’s going over the results of his medical diagnostic scans, hopefully they’ll give us a clearer picture. The structure of the wings is so intricate I don’t think I have any tools small enough for such delicate work. If I could get a watchmaker’s or jeweller’s repair kit, then maybe I could do something, those are about the tiniest tools I know of that might be suitable, but…”

“But?”

“It’s alive, and most living things heal when they’re injured. If we can straighten the wing, and I’m not sure if that would even be possible without causing more damage, then maybe it will mend itself given time and rest, like broken bones knitting back together.”

“That’s a lot of ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’.”

“This is a totally unknown species, Jack, at least as far as we’re concerned. Everything is going to be guesswork and speculation until we learn more about it. I wish I could give you some answers instead of more questions, but right now we don’t know enough to do more than make educated guesses based on what little we’ve been able to discover about the few non-carbon based life forms Torchwood’s encountered, and none of them were metallic. This is a whole new field of biology for us and we’re flying blind.”

“I have faith in you, Tosh, you’ll figure something out. Ask Ianto to order whatever you think you might need in the way of tools and raw materials. Guess I’d better check in with Owen. Bring your findings to the boardroom in an hour, I’ll call a general meeting and we’ll go over what we know so far, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Good. Don’t work too hard, you’ll give yourself wrinkles and that would be a shame. You’re too beautiful to be all wrinkly.” Jack winked and kissed Tosh lightly on the forehead, leaving her smiling fondly at his retreating back before turning her attention to her painstaking study of the dragonfly’s injured wing.


OoOoOoO


Down in the autopsy bay, Jack approached Owen, who had his scan results up on the wall screen and was going over them, making copious notes in the untidy scrawl he called handwriting.

“What have you got so far?”

“Quite a lot, just not sure any of it’ll help,” the medic grumbled. “It’s got a cellular structure similar to most life forms, but it’s mostly made up of a complex metallic alloy. About seventy-five percent is a mixture of metals that exist on earth; I’ve identified copper, zinc, aluminium, titanium, gold, silver, and platinum. But there are several elements in the mix that are definitely not of earth origin. Two or three of them we’ve come across before in alien artefacts and stuff, but that still leaves between ten and fifteen percent of its makeup that’s a complete mystery even to me. It has blood that’s similar to mercury, in that its metal that remains liquid at relatively low temperatures, but its circulatory system slows right down when its temperature drops below sixty degrees. Wherever it comes from, the climate must be pretty hot.”

“So Ianto’s right about the heat lamp.”

“Definitely. Teaboy said he’s set the temperature at around eighty, but from the data I’ve collected, your metal bug could probably stand being quite a lot warmer. I’d recommend trying it at a hundred, see how it likes that.”

“I’ll pass on the message. Have you figured out what it eats yet?”

“Yeah, metallic ores. No surprise there, you are what you eat. It needs metals because that’s what it’s made up of. To grow or to heal, it needs the raw materials; only way to get them is to ingest them.”

“So what? We give it a snack of scrap metal?”

“No, not just any metal, I’d recommend a mixture of the elements it’s made from, either in raw form or filings, somethin’ easy to absorb. About five percent of its body is made up of non-metallic elements, probably from whatever ore-bearing rock it’s been munchin’ on. It probably excretes most of the minerals.”

“I’ll have Ianto look into getting hold of some ore, copper will probably be easiest to come by… Would zinc supplements be any good?”

“The zinc content would be pretty low, but it probably wouldn’t hurt.”

“Give me a readout on the alien metals in its makeup too, we might have some in the archives. If we can’t grate it down, maybe the dragonfly can lick it… does it have a tongue?”

“Sort of, but it’s more like a rasp for scrapin’ the surface off rocks. If the metals are soft enough, I suppose it might be able to scrape particles off that way.”

“Okay, that gives us something to work with. Meeting in the boardroom in forty-five minutes, bring your findings.”

“Fine. Now get outta here so I can get on with my job, or I won’t have anythin’ else to report.”

“Just don’t be late.”

“Yeah, yeah, now scoot!”

Laughing, Jack left Owen to his notes, going in search of Ianto and the promised soup.


OoOoOoO


The meeting didn’t add much to what they already knew. Ianto had found some junk in the archives made from the same alien metals that were part of the dragonfly’s biology, plus some bits and pieces of aluminium, copper, a broken length of silver chain from a pendant, and a couple of titanium screws from a futuristic medical implant. Owen had okayed the potential food, so after the meeting Ianto planned to see if their guest was hungry, then he’d look into sourcing some metallic ores, although that might have to wait until the following day. There was a place in the St. David’s Shopping Centre that sold crystals, fossils, and geological specimens; they might stock what was needed. The dragonfly wasn’t very big, so hopefully it had a modest appetite, however there was always the possibility that it might need to eat more than usual because of its injuries.

Owen had some interesting things to report about the very alien creature’s internal organs, which amounted to the fact that inside, it looked like some kind of steampunk mechanism except that there weren’t any miniature cogs and gears. Jack noticed that Ianto seemed a bit disappointed about that.

“It has recognisable circulatory and digestive systems, a nervous system made up of microfilaments, and a brain. Nothin’ identifiable as sexual organs, but then, there’s no way of knowin’ if this thing is an adult or a juvenile. Maybe it just isn’t mature enough to have developed them yet. So far, so good, but…” Owen shrugged helplessly. “Half the organs are like nothin’ I’ve ever seen before, I can’t even begin to guess at their functions.”

“Do you think it could be dangerous in any way?” It was probably a bit late in the day to consider that possibility, so far the creature had done nothing that could be considered even remotely threatening, but Jack still had to ask. Even though it seemed perfectly happy sitting on its rock under the heat lamp, more grateful for being rescued than hostile, all possibilities needed to be considered.

“Always possible; for all we know it could be venomous, but it doesn’t have anything resembling a stinger, so your guess is as good as mine,” Owen admitted.

“If it wanted to hurt us, surely it would have done so by now,” Tosh said.

“Playing the Devil’s advocate,” Jack suggested, “could it just be waiting until it’s warmed up enough to attack?”

“Could be, but it doesn’t seem likely,” Owen decided. “It’s very placid, shows no signs of fear. Most creatures only attack when they’re scared. It’s more likely to cause unintentional harm, but my scans haven’t picked up anythin’ that could be hazardous to our health. No radiation or toxins, no potentially harmful microbes. In fact it reads almost completely sterile, not even a trace of bacteria on its outer surface, just a few specks of dust, pollen grains, and earth-normal fungal spores it’s probably picked up since it crash-landed here.”

“So we keep an eye on it, but consider it harmless unless it proves otherwise,” Jack said decisively.

“Is it just an alien insect, or could it be sentient?” Ianto asked.

“A race of intelligent insects?” Owen looked thoughtful. “Haven’t really seen any evidence either way, I’m not even sure how we could find that out. How would you go about trying to communicate with a bug?”

“There are quite a few sentient insectoid races, and some aren’t much bigger than our friend, so we shouldn’t rule it out. I’ve seen stranger intelligent races; tree people, living plastic, even living stone. The universe contains a great many civilisations that have never had any contact with earth, there are wonders as yet undiscovered; you people have no idea. Okay, back to work or…” Jack checked his watch, “go home. It’s gone seven already.”

“Really?” Gwen checked her own watch. “Oh my God! I’d best get off. I told Rhys I’d try to be home by seven-thirty tonight. He’s cooking lasagne.” She jumped up and headed for the door. “’Night, everybody.”

“I’ll feed the dragonfly, then see to the rest of the inmates.” Ianto stood up and started putting the empty coffee mugs on his tray to take back to the kitchenette.

“I left some programmes running, I want to check the results before I leave.” Tosh got up too, closing her laptop.

“Don’t get carried away and stay here all night,” Jack warned her.

“I won’t, I promise. Another hour at most.”

“I’m outta here too.” Owen didn’t bother to say goodnight, just got up and left.

Jack followed Ianto to the kitchenette in the hopes of getting more coffee, and possibly some biscuits, but Ianto slapped his hand away from the biscuit tin. “If you stuff yourself with biscuits, you won’t want dinner. Thought I’d order Chinese and get enough for Tosh too.”

“I like that plan! Does that mean you’re staying here tonight?”

“Of course! Can’t leave you alone all night with a strange alien loose in the Hub,” Ianto teased.

“Good thinking, I might need protecting,” Jack smirked back. “Why don’t I feed the residents in the cells while you feed the ones up here and order our food?”

“Works for me.”

“Don’t forget to order my prawn balls!”

Ianto rolled his eyes. “You only get those because you like asking people if they want to taste your balls.”

“That’s not the only reason! I happen to like them.” Jack pouted.

“Fine, you can have some prawn balls with your order. What else do you want?”

“You know what I like; surprise me.” Jack set off for the cells, leaving Ianto to get on with his own chores.

Ianto’s first visit after quickly washing the mugs and putting them away was to the alien dragonfly, where he’d settled it in a quiet corner of the Hub beneath one of the spare heat lamps Owen used for his plants. He’d considered putting the insect in the hothouse, which was the warmest area of the Hub, but quickly discarded the idea, worried that the moist, humid atmosphere might corrode it. Dry heat seemed like a better environment for a creature made of living metal, the damage it had suffered when it crashed was bad enough, the last thing it needed was to go rusty.

“Hi there, brought you some food, of sorts. Not sure it’s what you’re used to, but it’s the best I can do right now.” He set the small assortment in front of the dragonfly, arranged on a saucer so it could pick and choose.

The dragonfly showed immediate interest, cocking its head to one side as if studying the saucer’s contents. After a moment’s consideration, it reached out with one of its front pair of tentacle legs, using the sticky tip to pluck up one of the small pieces of a soft and flexible alien metal which Ianto had sliced into narrow strips a couple of centimetres long. Placing the fragment on the rock and holding it down with its foot, the creature bent its head and its mandibles went to work, shaving off tiny particles and transferring them into its mouth. Ianto watched in fascination. It didn’t take long for the insect to consume the whole strip, and next it reached for a small scrap of copper.

This time, instead of chewing bits off the harder metal, it licked with its rasp-like tongue, coating its meal with sticky saliva that made the surface of the metal bubble, then licking it away repeatedly as the copper dissolved. Ianto realised its saliva must be a kind of acid solution, just strong enough to melt harder pieces of metal to a sticky consistency that could be lapped up. The dragonfly used the same method to consume one of the titanium screws, followed by chewing up two more strips of the alien metal. That seemed to be enough for the moment and it settled comfortably on its rock, presumably digesting its meal. The whole process had taken no more than five minutes.

“I’ll leave the rest so you can snack whenever you get hungry,” Ianto assured the dragonfly. “Tomorrow Tosh and Owen will take a look at your wing and see if they can figure out some way to fix it. I just hope that’s not going to hurt too much.” With that, he set off for Myfanwy’s aerie with her evening meal. It wouldn’t do to keep her waiting too long; she might come looking for him.


OoOoOoO


Some time later, Ianto, Jack and Tosh were sitting around the coffee table eating their own dinner, including the prawn balls that, as expected, Jack had offered to Tosh, making her laugh and blush. Sometimes Ianto wondered if Jack would ever grow up.

“I was watching the dragonfly eat earlier,” he told the other two. “It was amazing, it uses its forward pair of legs almost like hands to pick things up and hold them in place. Kind of odd to see it eating metal though.”

”As long as it doesn’t get the munchies during the night and start eating our equipment, it doesn’t look like it’ll cause us any problems,” Jack joked.

“It doesn’t seem to have a huge appetite anyway,” Ianto said with a grin. “It wouldn’t be able to make much of a dent in the Hub’s systems, just a little nibble here and there. Besides, I doubt it’ll stray far from the heat lamp and it can’t fly right now anyway, not with a broken wing.”

“The tools I asked Ianto to order should get here sometime tomorrow, so I’ll take a closer look at the damaged wing in the morning, make some comparisons with its good wing and put together a set of detailed schematics to work from. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to repair it well enough for the poor thing to ever fly again though.”

“All you can do is try, Tosh. I know you’ll do the best you can.” Jack took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Now, go home and get some sleep, you’ll need to be well rested.”

“You two just want the place to yourselves so you can get up to something kinky,” Tosh giggled. “You might as well just admit it.”

“You’re right, Tosh,” Ianto deadpanned. “Jack just loves doing kinky things like helping to wash the dishes and then laying on the sofa, watching DVDs.” He winked at his friend. “I’ve tried to persuade him to take off all his clothes and hang upside down from the catwalk while I lick chocolate sauce off him, but he told me he’s already done that a million times, and it’s not as much fun as it sounds.”

“You are getting as bad as Jack!” Tosh scolded, shaking her head in mock disappointment, eyes sparkling with suppressed laughter. “And as for you!” She pointed at Jack. “You should be ashamed of yourself, corrupting my best friend with your kinkiness!”

“Hey, don’t blame me!” Jack raised his hands. “I’m innocent! He was already kinky when I got him, it’s one of the reasons I was attracted to him in the first place.”

“It’s true,” Ianto admitted with a sigh. “We’ve corrupted each other.”

“But only in the fun sense of the word,” Jack added with an outrageous leer.

“You are both certifiable!” Tosh laughed. “Have fun, but don’t stay up all night. You both need your rest too.”

“We’ll be good,” Ianto promised.

“I’ll only keep him up for half the night,” Jack promised solemnly. “Goodnight, Tosh.”

“Goodnight, boys.” She leaned over and gave each of them a quick kiss on the cheek. “See you in the morning.”

“We’ll be here.”

Tosh slipped into her coat, picked up her bag and headed for the exit, the sirens on the cog door announcing her departure.

“Alone at last.” Jack leaned in for a kiss, but Ianto evaded him.

“Dishes first, then we’ll have the rest of the evening to do whatever we want.”

Jack pouted, but obediently followed his lover to the kitchenette. There wasn’t much to wash up anyway, so with Ianto washing the dishes while Jack dried and put them away, they were done in ten minutes.

“Set everything to night mode while I check on the dragonfly and let Myf out,” Ianto told Jack.

“Since when have you been the boss?”

“Since you put me in charge of running the Hub.” Ianto’s smile was positively smug.

“Oh. Right, I’ll just set everything to night mode, shall I?”

“You do that.” Ianto gave the captain a quick peck on the lips. “If you’re good, I’ll give you something nice.”

“Yeah?”

“Yep! A gold star on your report card.” Laughing at the expression on Jack’s face, Ianto strode away to do the last of his chores while Jack attended to his own assigned tasks.

The dragonfly was preening its wings when Ianto decided to check on it one last time before going down to Jack’s recently expanded quarters for the night. It looked happy enough, as far as he could tell with a creature so familiar and yet so completely alien. As an afterthought, not knowing if it needed fluids of any particular kind, he set a small pot of water and another of high grade lubricating oil just beyond the pool of light from the heat lamp. That was as much as he could do in an attempt to ensure the creature’s comfort overnight, so after wishing it a good night, he left it in peace. Jack was no doubt getting impatient.


OoOoOoO


Morning came, as it always did, to the accompaniment of a much too loud alarm clock, and Ianto dragged himself from the warmth of Jack’s new and improved bed just after six. A quick shower and a shave later, he dressed in one of the suits he kept at the Hub and climbed the ladder. Usually, his first task was to make coffee, but instead of going straight to the kitchenette, he made a detour to check on their guest.

The dragonfly was still alive, which was a positive start to the day. It was perched on its rock, but had turned to face in the opposite direction. Ianto checked the various dishes and found it had eaten some more of the metal, the water didn’t seem to have been touched but about half the oil had gone. Whether the insect had drunk it or simply used it to clean and lubricate itself was anybody’s guess. Ianto wished he’d thought to set up a motion-activated camera to record the creature’s movements; he’d have to see if Tosh could get anything from the CCTV footage.

“Hello, how was your night?”

The dragonfly cocked its head and fanned its wings gently. Ianto frowned and leaned closer; he wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but the left wing didn’t seem to be as crumpled as it had been the night before. Maybe Tosh was right and it was starting to heal. If true, that would be good news. Humming to himself, Ianto went to make coffee before starting his morning rounds. Jack joined him in the kitchenette just as he was filling their mugs with the steaming brew.

“Our guest seems to be doing okay so far.”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, I swung by to have a look at it; is it just me or does its wing look a bit better?”

“I noticed that too. When I left it last night it was sort of preening, maybe it’s making repairs, using its saliva to soften the metal then reshaping it.”

“Interesting theory.”

They’d barely sipped their drinks before the cog door alarms started to blare and Tosh entered, taking off her coat as she made her way over to her workstation, putting her bag in her bottom drawer and turning on her computers to warm up.

“Morning, Tosh,” Ianto called to her. “You’re not supposed to be in for at least another hour!”

“I know, but I woke up before my alarm and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I thought I’d get an early start.” Hanging her coat on the coat rack, she walked into the kitchenette. “Not interrupting anything, am I?” she asked as she accepted the mug of coffee Ianto offered her.

“No, not at all, we were just discussing the dragonfly; we’re not certain yet, but you might not have to do anything to its wing after all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Unless we’re both seeing things, the injured wing doesn’t look as bad as it did. We think our visitor might be able to make any necessary repairs by itself, given enough time, warmth, and whatever raw materials it needs for the job.”

“Really?” Taking her coffee with her, Tosh scurried over to the Dragonfly, grabbing the magnifying goggles from her desk as she passed. When she reached the little creature beneath its heat lamp, she set her mug to one side, slipped the goggles on, and leaned in to study the damaged wing from every angle.

Jack and Ianto wandered over to join her.

“What d’you think?”

Once again, Tosh jumped at the unexpected voice, pulling off her goggles to glare at Jack, who just smirked, amused at startling her for the second time in two days. “You did that on purpose!”

“Of course! Gotta keep you guys on your toes.” Jack was completely unrepentant. “So, the wing?”

“You’re right, there’s a definite improvement, I can even see tiny spots where the metal is shinier, newer looking than the rest of the wing, like fresh repairs. It must use its mandibles as tools.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Ianto agreed. “They have the most incredible dexterity, I noticed that when it was examining my hand on the way back from the Beacons, as well as when it was eating.”

“Looks like all we need to do is keep it warm, fed and lubricated while it fixes itself.” Jack smiled in satisfaction. “Our job just got a whole lot easier!”

“Our job?” Ianto raised an eyebrow. “Tosh and Owen are the ones who would’ve been trying to repair our guest, and I’m the one looking after it. I don’t remember you volunteering to help.”

“I’m the boss!” Jack pouted. “I supervise!”

“Yes, and you do it so well.” Ianto patted him on the shoulder. “Now, Tosh and I have a lot of work to get on with, and so do you. Why don’t you go up to your office and ‘supervise’ the piles of paperwork on your desk? I’ll bring you another coffee with your breakfast in a bit.”

Jack waited until Ianto turned away to get started with his daily tasks, then stuck his tongue out at him.

“I saw that, Jack! Put your tongue away before it sticks like that.”

“I swear he has eyes in the back of his head,” Jack muttered, shoving his hands in his trouser pockets and shambling away in the general direction of his office, grumbling about people having no respect for authority these days.

Smiling, Tosh returned to her workstation; Ianto was right; she had more than enough work to keep her busy. Even so, she wasn’t sure whether she felt relieved or disappointed that she wouldn’t have to try her hand at repairing a dragonfly’s wing.


OoOoOoO


When Owen finally arrived over an hour later, Ianto quickly filled him in.

“Repairin’ itself? This I have to see.” Borrowing Tosh’s goggles, he went to look at the dragonfly, which was working away busily on its wing. Setting up a camera to record everything, Owen fetched a stool and settled down to observe, fascinated by the creature’s skill and patience. It was clearly slow and painstaking work, with frequent pauses to eat or rest, but the wing was gradually being straightened out, each tiny strut being carefully manipulated into its proper position and secured with drops of fresh liquid metal, almost as if the insect were welding the joins.

It took nearly three days before the injured wing’s framework was straightened out. The team took turns watching the process, all of them quickly realising that the wings were nowhere near as rigid as they had originally seemed. While they held a specific shape when left alone, they were extremely flexible, able to be twisted and bent in all directions as the dragonfly worked, yet springing back into their natural shape as soon as they were released. It was as though they were made out of some kind of memory wire.

“If it always goes back to its proper shape no matter which way it’s bent, how did the wing get broken?” Gwen wanted to know. It was a good question.

“Maybe it got too cold,” Tosh theorised. “Some metals get brittle at very low temperatures so when the dragonfly got blown into something hard, most likely the rocks, bits of the wing broke, circulation was impaired, and its elasticity was lost.”

Owen nodded. “Sounds about right. Now it’s warm enough it’s managed to restore proper circulation and the alloy its wings are made of is behaving like living tissue again, instead of inert metal.”

Even after the basic structure of the wing had been straightened out, there was still a lot left to repair and it took the patient dragonfly another three days to replace the filmy, transparent material that made up the wing’s surface. After its accident, what had remained on the creature’s left wing had been shredded and tattered, just a few scraps left clinging like torn rags to the damaged struts. The team had stood around the heat lamp watching in amazement as the dragonfly ate the last remnants before starting to lick its wing, spreading an opaque, silvery saliva across a gap between struts then leaving it to dry. As it dried, the substance became translucent, mostly see-through but with a faint coppery sheen that refracted light like a muted rainbow, beautiful but strange. Once a section was fully dried into a tough but stretchy material with similar properties to skin, the dragonfly moved on to the next area. It had started the job at its shoulder, where its wing joined its body, and then worked its way millimetre after millimetre out to the tip. Every time they checked on it, the job had progressed a little further.

Finally, less than a week after being brought to the Hub, the metal insect appeared to be completely recovered from its ordeal, its broken wing restored to full working order.

They were left with one problem: What were they going to do with it now?

Away from the lamp that kept it warm, the Hub was too cold for the dragonfly, and while living on a small rock and basking in artificial light and heat was fine while it was healing, that was no life for a creature designed for flight. It would be a miserable existence for it to be so confined.

Releasing it into a desert was out; the blowing sands would quickly erode its wings, if it didn’t starve to death first from the lack of suitable and readily available metallic elements. The hot and humid rainforests were out too; such a damp atmosphere would surely cripple the metallic insect with corrosion.

If they all worked together, they could perhaps construct a sort of vivarium here in the Hub, with integrated heat lamps and enough space for short flights, but that would still mean caging something that didn’t deserve to be locked away.

They opted to leave the dragonfly where it was until they could come to a decision about the best course of action. Their convalescing guest spent the next few days exercising its newly repaired wing to strengthen it, holding tightly to its rock and flapping for longer periods each day. On the fifth day after completing its self-repairs, it let go of the rock to make the first of several short flights about the Hub, leaving the warmth of the lamp for a few minutes at a time before returning to warm itself up again.

Over the following week, the test flights continued, increasing in frequency and length. They could all tell the little creature was gaining strength daily, and it was eating at regular intervals, no doubt fuelling itself for its vigorous exercise sessions and perhaps replenishing its reserves. Yet still no solution to the problem of what to do with it came to mind.

In the end, just over three weeks after its arrival, the dragonfly solved the problem for them.

It was flitting about the Hub on one of its test flights when it abruptly stopped, hovering in mid-air. There was an audible ‘pop’ of displaced air, and the dragonfly seemed to wink out of existence, reappearing almost immediately with another ‘pop’ a dozen or so metres away.

“Teleportation!” Tosh jumped to her feet, sounding as excited as she looked. “It can literally jump from one place to another! I wonder what its range is.”

“If it can teleport, why didn’t it just jump to safety when it arrived?” Gwen was frowning in puzzlement.

“Maybe it was disoriented from its trip through the Rift,” Owen suggested.

“Possible, though we’re still not certain that’s how it got here,” Jack reminded them.

Tosh shook her head. “It looks like it needs to hover before making a jump, maybe so it can orient itself on where it’s jumping to. But if it popped up in the middle of a gale, it would’ve been helpless, just swept along with no chance to pause and see where it was or where it was going.”

“That makes sense,” Jack nodded. “Poor little fella just had some really bad luck.”

They watched at the dragonfly continued to flit about, popping in and out of existence, usually vanishing from one part of the Hub to reappear on its rock where it would rest briefly, or have a bite to eat, before flying off again. When Tosh scanned it, she discovered that it seemed to be building up an electronic charge inside its body, in one of the organs Owen hadn’t been able to identify.

“Maybe it needs that to teleport,” Ianto suggested.

“I’m not sure,” Tosh admitted. “It’s more as if the act of flying, and of making those short hops, is adding to its store of electrical energy instead of using it. Like it’s charging its battery.”

“Could the stored electricity be its defence mechanism? To zap anything that threatens it?” Jack asked.

“I don’t know, I suppose that’s one possibility. It could certainly give someone a nasty shock.”

The stored charge continued to build throughout the day, and the dragonfly was eating a lot more than it had while it was healing. It was less choosy about what metal it ate too, leading Ianto to believe that before, it had been consuming only the raw materials that it would require to reconstruct its wing. Now it was eating for a different purpose.

By the middle of the following day, the dragonfly’s mass had doubled though its size remained the same. Tosh’s scans also indicated that the strange organ in the creature’s thorax was charged to capacity. There was a strange sense of expectation hanging in the air and every member of the team felt like they were waiting for something to happen.

After eating one more big meal and lapping up almost a full dish of lubricating oil, their guest took to the air again, flying from one member of the team to another, landing on each of them briefly before taking off again. It visited Ianto last of all, alighting on his outstretched hand and sitting there, staring at him with whirling, kaleidoscopic eyes.

“I guess this is goodbye then,” Ianto murmured. “It was nice having you here; take care of yourself.”

The insect lowered its head to nibble gently at his fingers then jumped into the air, flying up to hover about three metres above the floor. As they watched, there was a louder than usual popping sound and what looked like a shimmering spherical force-field snapped into existence around the dragonfly. It hung there in midair for a few moments and then with a final ‘pop’ it was gone.

Everyone let out a breath they hadn’t realised they were holding.

“Where do you think it’s gone?” Gwen asked softly, as if unwilling to disturb the silence that had fallen over them.

“Home, I hope,” Tosh replied, equally quietly.

“Maybe it’s an explorer, visiting other worlds. Think about it; if you can create and teleport inside your own safety bubble, you could go pretty much anywhere you wanted as long as you could find enough fuel,” Ianto mused.

“Spacefaring dragonflies,” Owen huffed. “Now I really have seen it all.”

“Well, wherever it’s going, I wish it a safe journey.” Jack looked at his team, smiling. “We rescued another lost traveller and sent it on its way, that’s something we can all feel good about.”

“Calls for a celebration, I think,” Ianto declared.

“Good idea!” Jack agreed. “Everything’s quiet right now so grab your things, we’ll go out for lunch, my treat!”

No one was about to say no to that, so doing as they were instructed, they closed down computers, fetched their coats, and headed for the cog door.

Ianto started after his friends then paused and went back, turning off the heat lamp over the rock where their guest had sat for the past few weeks. “Good luck,” he whispered. “Be well. We’ll miss you.”

“Ianto, you coming?” Jack’s voice rang loud in the silence.

“Be right there.” Picking up his overcoat and shrugging it on, Ianto jogged across the Hub and fell in beside Jack, hurrying through the cog door, which closed behind them with a familiar cacophony of noises. He smiled; the universe was so full of extraordinary, wonderful things and he felt privileged that once in a while, he was lucky enough to see some of them.


The End