Title: Troubling news
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,864 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 372 - Type
Summary: Jack files a report, detailing troubling developments.
Attn: Officer in Charge
Torchwood Institute - Cardiff Branch
Llandaff, Cardiff, United Kingdom
You sent me here to India to keep an eye out for anything bad. I told you it was a waste of time. I suspect you were hoping that might be the case. The real alien threats are right back at home in Cardiff and London. I wish you'd been wrong but you were right. And what I found here is worse than anything we could have imagined.
I've been in charge of the second company of the Indian Army's Third Division. We were posted to Lahore on the order of keeping the peace. Not that there's much to keep in order. The odd scuffle between Hindu and Muslim, but find me a city where religions don't clash. Even so, it's usually over the price of melons or saffron. The real trouble here won't kick off for a few more decades, and not until they get the British out of here first. For the most part it's peaceful. Nobody wants trouble from the British and Indian Army. We're more of a curiosity to them than anything else. Sorry to say it hasn't been the most taxing assignment you've ever sent me on. The food is great, and far less bland than British fare. The dysentery from the poor drinking water however I could do without.
Anyway, I digress. You want to know what I found. To be clear, it found us, and it's not alien. Herein are the files from Army Command. No point rehashing the details.
Commander in chief, Adjutant-General
Northern Command
3rd Division (Lahore)
19 June 1909
Sir,
It is with regret to report on an incident that occurred on 17 June with respect to the company of which I was in command.
During the evening's leave, my men had left to partake in some local establishments, whereupon they were consuming alcohol whilst off duty. On their return to barracks, having procured a vehicle from Supply, they were travelling back at a late hour. The roads were dark and difficult to navigate. I'm reliably informed that they were not travelling with any great speed on account of the conditions. Even so, a young girl who had been playing in the street was inadvertently run over by the vehicle. None of the men saw the girl prior to the collision. Further to this, none of my company appeared to have been inebriated to the point of complete irresponsibility.
Whilst I wasn't present during the incident I was promptly informed and roused from quarters to attend the situation and take charge of defusing the matter. Upon arrival it was clear that it there was nothing that could be done to revive the child. Her injuries were too grievous for medical intervention. Fortunately, it appeared that the child would have died quickly and suffered little. Her parents were located not far from the incident and were naturally hysterical. I took charge and advised them what had happened. I saw to it personally that we collected the girl's body and delivered it to the nearest hospital, where the family could make the necessary funerary arrangements as fitting local custom. The men of my company were returned to barracks to await final debrief.
Locals have been temporarily placated and assured that the army company will be leaving the village tomorrow (Lieutenant Major Williams' official orders pending). Agree that it would be in the interests of the men to put the incident behind them and have them refocus on new objectives. Further to this will be more stringent leave conditions, and I will take personal responsibility to supervise their movements and activities.
I have taken the liberty of interviewing each of the men in my company, and have formed the opinion that they were not culpable of recklessness. To a man they were visibly remorseful and the guilt of having been implicated in the death of a child weighed heavily on each of them. It was, I believe, an unfortunate accident, and one that could have happened under similar circumstances regardless of our presence in the area.
Capt. Jack Harkness
2nd Company, 3rd Division (Lahore)
Interview transcript
Commander in chief, Adjutant-General Enfield and Captain Jack Harkness (Commanding Officer, 2nd Company, 3rd Division)
Northern Command Headquarters
1st Division (Peshawar)
22 June 1909
Adj-Gen Enfield: Don't make yourself comfortable, Captain. God alone knows I'm not comfortable having this briefing so you shouldn't be either.
Capt. J Harkness: Yes, sir.
Adj-Gen Enfield: I want to know exactly what happened.
Capt. J Harkness: I wrote my report and submitted it, sir.
Adj-Gen Enfield: I don't want to read your report, Captain Harkness. I want you to tell me what the bloody hell happened. A whole company of men don't just die inside a train carriage. Start from the beginning.
Capt. J Harkness: We were redeployed on Lieutenant Major Williams orders after an incident in Lahore during our previous posting.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Your men ran over a child in their army issue truck.
Capt. J Harkness: An accident.
Adj-Gen Enfield: For brevity's sake let's say I agree with you and that they weren't drunk whilst on liberty.
Capt. J Harkness: We were headed south towards our new posting. We left as scheduled on the troop train at midday, and expected to arrive no later than three pm. The Company was allowed liberty within the confines of barracks until six am the following morning, whereupon we would commence official patrol duties.
Adj-Gen Enfield: And your men? What state were they in?
Capt. J Harkness: Good spirits, sir. Content with playing cards and singing songs to pass the time. Those train carriages aren't the most comfortable of places on a hot Indian day. We were passing through some hilly terrain, old bedrock. There was a tunnel traversing the two sides of the hills. The train went through the tunnel and our carriage was temporarily plunged into darkness. Then it went quiet. Only the sound of a few startled birds flying through an open window. There was a brief moment when I felt strange, short of air, like I couldn't breathe, but I wasn't overcome. When we came out the other side, that's when I saw them. All fifteen of them collapsed where they sat, suffocated. I attempted medical first aid but there was nothing I could do.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Why not you when everyone else was dead?
Capt. J Harkness: I can only attribute my survival to sheer luck rather than any specific action on my part, sir.
Adj-Gen Enfield: What can cause a whole carriage of men to suffocate in just a few brief seconds? This is quite unheard of.
Capt. J Harkness: A build up of noxious gasses within the tunnel would be my guess, sir. Specific type unknown, but most likely caused by illegal mining in the area. A venting shaft would be easy enough to excavate, and shortest where the tunnel intersects the mines, allowing the gasses to exit through into the tunnel and away from any main mine shaft where they might be working. Most of the time it would be harmless. Few trains pass through there, and only a few with open windows such as on a troop train.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Why no other carriages?
Capt. J Harkness: I couldn't say, sir. Perhaps we had more shutters open. As I say, it was a hot day. Perhaps it was just a pocket of leaking gasses that coincided with us passing through.
Adj-Gen Enfield: All sounds highly speculative to me. Not a mark on any of the bodies. But for that I'd say you must have murdered them.
Capt. J Harkness: They were good men, sir. Some of the best I've served with since joining the British Indian Army. Not a grievance between any of them. They were content under my command.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Not to mention your commendations from your previous deployments. Are you suggesting it was yet another unfortunate accident? Twice in one week for you, Captain.
Capt. J Harkness: They were good men. They were my responsibility.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Indeed. But perhaps a leave of absence might be in order. Just until you are cleared by Army Medical.
Capt. J Harkness: I'm fine, sir, but whatever you need to satisfy yourself that I'm fit for duty.
Adj-Gen Enfield: If you've nothing further to add to this mystery, then you're dismissed.
Capt. J Harkness: Yes, sir. Just… Please express my sincerest condolences to the families of the men whose lives were in my charge. I wish I could have done more for them.
Adj-Gen Enfield: I will include it in my letter, Captain.
Capt. J Harkness: Thank you, sir.
Interview concluded.
What I didn't include in my reports to my commanding officer is this. Those men didn't just suffocate. They were murdered. When we came out of that tunnel, they were slumped where they'd been, red rose petals spilling from their mouths like they'd been stuff full of them. I removed them all and cast them out of the train window. It was over an hour before the train pulled in and I could alert anyone to what had happened, giving me time to figure out my cover story.
I stole one of the bodies from the Army Medical morgue afterwards. Cut it open and did a proper autopsy on it. There weren't just petals in their mouths. I dissected the trachea and the lung and found both full of them. You couldn't get them that far down into the human body if you tried. There hadn't been even the slightest sound of choking in that carriage. This was instantaneous asphyxiation. I don't know why they spared me the same. I can only guess it was because I wasn't there when they ran over that child. And yes, the two are connected. This was revenge for taking away the life of that child. Their Chosen One.
I never used to believe the stories about the Mara. That's what they're called. It's where the word nightmare came from. Beings that control the elements of the natural world - wind, water, earth. Part of nature and the most unnatural creatures of all. I assumed they were just a story. Now I'm not so sure. Legends speak of them watching over children, protecting them. I think it's more than that. I think that's how they've survived all this time. Our children are their children. All throughout time they've chosen new blood to join with them. Not just any child will do; they're selective. I can't say what makes one child more worthy than the next, only that once they've chosen, there's nothing that will stop them. If they can kill fifteen men in an instant, heaven knows what else they're capable of.
They're here - the one place in the universe I prayed I'd never find them - and they've shown us what they'll do if we take away one of their own. Unless we find a way to control the elements, we've no way of fighting them. All we can do is hope that we don't stand in the way of the ones they want.
Report ends.
Captain Jack Harkness
Torchwood
Attn: Officer in Charge
Torchwood Institute - Cardiff Branch
Llandaff, Cardiff, United Kingdom
You sent me here to India to keep an eye out for anything bad. I told you it was a waste of time. I suspect you were hoping that might be the case. The real alien threats are right back at home in Cardiff and London. I wish you'd been wrong but you were right. And what I found here is worse than anything we could have imagined.
I've been in charge of the second company of the Indian Army's Third Division. We were posted to Lahore on the order of keeping the peace. Not that there's much to keep in order. The odd scuffle between Hindu and Muslim, but find me a city where religions don't clash. Even so, it's usually over the price of melons or saffron. The real trouble here won't kick off for a few more decades, and not until they get the British out of here first. For the most part it's peaceful. Nobody wants trouble from the British and Indian Army. We're more of a curiosity to them than anything else. Sorry to say it hasn't been the most taxing assignment you've ever sent me on. The food is great, and far less bland than British fare. The dysentery from the poor drinking water however I could do without.
Anyway, I digress. You want to know what I found. To be clear, it found us, and it's not alien. Herein are the files from Army Command. No point rehashing the details.
Commander in chief, Adjutant-General
Northern Command
3rd Division (Lahore)
19 June 1909
Sir,
It is with regret to report on an incident that occurred on 17 June with respect to the company of which I was in command.
During the evening's leave, my men had left to partake in some local establishments, whereupon they were consuming alcohol whilst off duty. On their return to barracks, having procured a vehicle from Supply, they were travelling back at a late hour. The roads were dark and difficult to navigate. I'm reliably informed that they were not travelling with any great speed on account of the conditions. Even so, a young girl who had been playing in the street was inadvertently run over by the vehicle. None of the men saw the girl prior to the collision. Further to this, none of my company appeared to have been inebriated to the point of complete irresponsibility.
Whilst I wasn't present during the incident I was promptly informed and roused from quarters to attend the situation and take charge of defusing the matter. Upon arrival it was clear that it there was nothing that could be done to revive the child. Her injuries were too grievous for medical intervention. Fortunately, it appeared that the child would have died quickly and suffered little. Her parents were located not far from the incident and were naturally hysterical. I took charge and advised them what had happened. I saw to it personally that we collected the girl's body and delivered it to the nearest hospital, where the family could make the necessary funerary arrangements as fitting local custom. The men of my company were returned to barracks to await final debrief.
Locals have been temporarily placated and assured that the army company will be leaving the village tomorrow (Lieutenant Major Williams' official orders pending). Agree that it would be in the interests of the men to put the incident behind them and have them refocus on new objectives. Further to this will be more stringent leave conditions, and I will take personal responsibility to supervise their movements and activities.
I have taken the liberty of interviewing each of the men in my company, and have formed the opinion that they were not culpable of recklessness. To a man they were visibly remorseful and the guilt of having been implicated in the death of a child weighed heavily on each of them. It was, I believe, an unfortunate accident, and one that could have happened under similar circumstances regardless of our presence in the area.
Capt. Jack Harkness
2nd Company, 3rd Division (Lahore)
Interview transcript
Commander in chief, Adjutant-General Enfield and Captain Jack Harkness (Commanding Officer, 2nd Company, 3rd Division)
Northern Command Headquarters
1st Division (Peshawar)
22 June 1909
Adj-Gen Enfield: Don't make yourself comfortable, Captain. God alone knows I'm not comfortable having this briefing so you shouldn't be either.
Capt. J Harkness: Yes, sir.
Adj-Gen Enfield: I want to know exactly what happened.
Capt. J Harkness: I wrote my report and submitted it, sir.
Adj-Gen Enfield: I don't want to read your report, Captain Harkness. I want you to tell me what the bloody hell happened. A whole company of men don't just die inside a train carriage. Start from the beginning.
Capt. J Harkness: We were redeployed on Lieutenant Major Williams orders after an incident in Lahore during our previous posting.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Your men ran over a child in their army issue truck.
Capt. J Harkness: An accident.
Adj-Gen Enfield: For brevity's sake let's say I agree with you and that they weren't drunk whilst on liberty.
Capt. J Harkness: We were headed south towards our new posting. We left as scheduled on the troop train at midday, and expected to arrive no later than three pm. The Company was allowed liberty within the confines of barracks until six am the following morning, whereupon we would commence official patrol duties.
Adj-Gen Enfield: And your men? What state were they in?
Capt. J Harkness: Good spirits, sir. Content with playing cards and singing songs to pass the time. Those train carriages aren't the most comfortable of places on a hot Indian day. We were passing through some hilly terrain, old bedrock. There was a tunnel traversing the two sides of the hills. The train went through the tunnel and our carriage was temporarily plunged into darkness. Then it went quiet. Only the sound of a few startled birds flying through an open window. There was a brief moment when I felt strange, short of air, like I couldn't breathe, but I wasn't overcome. When we came out the other side, that's when I saw them. All fifteen of them collapsed where they sat, suffocated. I attempted medical first aid but there was nothing I could do.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Why not you when everyone else was dead?
Capt. J Harkness: I can only attribute my survival to sheer luck rather than any specific action on my part, sir.
Adj-Gen Enfield: What can cause a whole carriage of men to suffocate in just a few brief seconds? This is quite unheard of.
Capt. J Harkness: A build up of noxious gasses within the tunnel would be my guess, sir. Specific type unknown, but most likely caused by illegal mining in the area. A venting shaft would be easy enough to excavate, and shortest where the tunnel intersects the mines, allowing the gasses to exit through into the tunnel and away from any main mine shaft where they might be working. Most of the time it would be harmless. Few trains pass through there, and only a few with open windows such as on a troop train.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Why no other carriages?
Capt. J Harkness: I couldn't say, sir. Perhaps we had more shutters open. As I say, it was a hot day. Perhaps it was just a pocket of leaking gasses that coincided with us passing through.
Adj-Gen Enfield: All sounds highly speculative to me. Not a mark on any of the bodies. But for that I'd say you must have murdered them.
Capt. J Harkness: They were good men, sir. Some of the best I've served with since joining the British Indian Army. Not a grievance between any of them. They were content under my command.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Not to mention your commendations from your previous deployments. Are you suggesting it was yet another unfortunate accident? Twice in one week for you, Captain.
Capt. J Harkness: They were good men. They were my responsibility.
Adj-Gen Enfield: Indeed. But perhaps a leave of absence might be in order. Just until you are cleared by Army Medical.
Capt. J Harkness: I'm fine, sir, but whatever you need to satisfy yourself that I'm fit for duty.
Adj-Gen Enfield: If you've nothing further to add to this mystery, then you're dismissed.
Capt. J Harkness: Yes, sir. Just… Please express my sincerest condolences to the families of the men whose lives were in my charge. I wish I could have done more for them.
Adj-Gen Enfield: I will include it in my letter, Captain.
Capt. J Harkness: Thank you, sir.
Interview concluded.
What I didn't include in my reports to my commanding officer is this. Those men didn't just suffocate. They were murdered. When we came out of that tunnel, they were slumped where they'd been, red rose petals spilling from their mouths like they'd been stuff full of them. I removed them all and cast them out of the train window. It was over an hour before the train pulled in and I could alert anyone to what had happened, giving me time to figure out my cover story.
I stole one of the bodies from the Army Medical morgue afterwards. Cut it open and did a proper autopsy on it. There weren't just petals in their mouths. I dissected the trachea and the lung and found both full of them. You couldn't get them that far down into the human body if you tried. There hadn't been even the slightest sound of choking in that carriage. This was instantaneous asphyxiation. I don't know why they spared me the same. I can only guess it was because I wasn't there when they ran over that child. And yes, the two are connected. This was revenge for taking away the life of that child. Their Chosen One.
I never used to believe the stories about the Mara. That's what they're called. It's where the word nightmare came from. Beings that control the elements of the natural world - wind, water, earth. Part of nature and the most unnatural creatures of all. I assumed they were just a story. Now I'm not so sure. Legends speak of them watching over children, protecting them. I think it's more than that. I think that's how they've survived all this time. Our children are their children. All throughout time they've chosen new blood to join with them. Not just any child will do; they're selective. I can't say what makes one child more worthy than the next, only that once they've chosen, there's nothing that will stop them. If they can kill fifteen men in an instant, heaven knows what else they're capable of.
They're here - the one place in the universe I prayed I'd never find them - and they've shown us what they'll do if we take away one of their own. Unless we find a way to control the elements, we've no way of fighting them. All we can do is hope that we don't stand in the way of the ones they want.
Report ends.
Captain Jack Harkness
Torchwood
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