Title: Galactic Adventurers
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1447
Summary: Jack and Ianto never know what they might stumble across next while exploring out on the rim.
Spoilers: Nada. Set in my Ghost of a Chance ‘Verse.
Warnings: None needed.
Written For: Challenge 460: Thirst.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood or any of the characters.




To work for Torchwood, you needed to be an adventurous sort, with an open mind, and nerves of steel. Ianto hadn’t considered himself adventurous, definitely hadn’t believed he had nerves of steel. An open mind? Maybe. Probably. But the rest? He’d always preferred things quiet, calm, orderly. He’d run with a gang on the estate when he was a teen, but that had been unavoidable. You had to fit in, otherwise you became a target.

He’d left as soon as he was able, headed to London, not for adventure, just to get away from a dead-end life of slaving in a factory. He’d wanted something better for himself, and he’d thought he’d found it at Canary Wharf, until it had all fallen apart, and he’d fled back to Cardiff with Lisa, bound and determined to save her, no matter what.

That hadn’t worked out, Lisa had been too far gone to save, but instead of executing or retconning him, Jack had kept Ianto on, worked to integrate him with the team. Faced by rural cannibals and a fridge full of body parts, Ianto’s nerves had trembled, faltered, strung taut as guitar strings, but mostly held. He’d survived, kept going, and in time, had discovered more of a thirst for adventure within himself than he’d ever suspected.

Of course, he’d died before he’d had the chance for much adventuring, but Jack was the stubborn sort and had worked tirelessly, searching for a way to bring him back, and when he’d finally succeeded, off they’d gone together, out into space, in search of the kinds of adventures they could have never found on earth.

It was good. Better than good, really. So many planets to visit, so many wonders to see, so many new things to try. Every day was an adventure. Some of it was the quiet, stress-free kind, strolling unhurriedly through space stations and alien marketplaces, playing tourist on some of the most culturally diverse planets in the universe, or exploring undiscovered worlds. Some of it was the dramatic, death-defying kind, battling space pirates, defending the innocent, delivering food and medical supplies to colonies hit by plagues, or natural disasters. Sometimes the death-defying was less than successful and resulted in actual death, which was less fun, but that could be classed as an occupational hazard. Not that either of them stayed dead for long even on the worst occasions, but in time even that became just another part of the adventure, to be avoided wherever possible and put up with when unavoidable.

It was an exciting life. There was never any shortage of work, hauling cargo from place to place, and usually plenty of entertainments on offer wherever they ended up. Well, except when they were out on the rim of known space, on one of their voyages of discovery. There was precious little in the way of civilisation out there. In fact, there wasn’t much of anything, and that included life.

They were out on the rim now, ridiculously far from the nearest colonised planet, poking around, searching for deposits of various minerals and metallic elements on uninhabited planets, moons, and asteroids for one of the big mining conglomerates. They were being paid well for their time, and would also get a share of the profits, but that wasn’t why they’d taken the job. Sometimes, it was just fun to go where no one had gone, see things that, as far as anyone knew, no other living being had ever laid eyes on before.

And sometimes, what they found wasn’t too happy about it.

“I thought you said this planet was uninhabited!” Ianto yelled at his husband as they ran flat-out across the undulating, grassy plain towards where they’d left their shuttle.

“It’s supposed to be!” Jack yelled back. “Nothing was registering on the shuttle’s scanners except for plant life!”

“That…” Ianto flung one arm out, pointing behind him, “is not a plant!”

“We don’t know that for sure. It could be! Mobile plants do exist!”

“And how many of them have ten-inch-long teeth?”

“No idea, you’ll have to check the lifeform databases when we get back to Galactic Central.”

“I don’t need to; I can tell you the answer right now: NONE! Plants don’t HAVE teeth, not even the carnivorous ones!”

“Then why did you ask?”

“I was making a point! Now shut up and run; it’s gaining on us!”

A few hundred yards behind them, the alien was in hot pursuit, formidable teeth gnashing, and dozens of short, stumpy legs scuttling away beneath a segmented body that resembled a string of yellowish-brown sausages, propelling it across the ground deceptively fast.

Even so, they made it to their shuttle well ahead of their pursuer, dived inside, scrambled into their seats, and were airborne before the sausage creature could even attempt to stop them.

“That was too close!” Ianto said from the pilot’s seat. “Mark this planet as one to avoid.”

“But there are deposits of berethium down there!”

“And that’s where they’ll stay, as long as there’re fifty-foot-long, multi-legged sausage monsters guarding them.”

“We don’t know it was guarding anything; it might just be a stranded traveller.”

Ianto arched an eyebrow. “Really? I didn’t notice you trying to communicate with it.”

“It didn’t look like it was in the mood to talk.”

“No, it didn’t.”

“Maybe we should have another try.”

“Go ahead if you want, but don’t expect me to go with you. I know when I’m not welcome even if you don’t.”

“What happened to your thirst for adventure?”

“I left it back on the planet. Right now, my only thirst is for a restorative cup of coffee. I’m parched. All that running is thirsty work.”

Jack rummaged in the shuttle’s emergency supplies. “Sorry, no coffee; you’ll have to make do with water until we get back to the Wanderer.”

“That’ll do for now, but as soon as we’re back onboard, I’m making coffee, and then we’re going to do a thorough scan of the planet, find out why we didn’t detect our friend down there, and put up warning beacons to keep anyone else from landing and getting themselves eaten.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t have eaten us.”

“You saw the teeth, Jack! No way that was a herbivore.”

“Fine.” Jack passed a bottle of water to his husband. “It was a carnivorous sausage monster.”

“Thank you.” Breaking the seal, Ianto took a drink; it wasn't the much-needed coffee, but the water was cold and refreshing, and probably better for quenching his thirst than coffee would have been.

“Maybe it’s a burrower,” Jack said, opening a bottle of water for himself as they left the planet’s atmosphere and Ianto set course to intercept the Wanderer, in orbit above the planet. "If it lives underground, the berethium deposits might have hidden its presence from our scanners. If we set them to ignore the berethium…”

Ianto nodded. “You can do that while I make the coffee.” Setting his empty bottle aside, he guided the small craft towards the Wanderer’s shuttle bay, gliding smoothly in and closing the barn door behind them, before setting the shuttle down on its pad, automatic clamps locking it securely in place. They had to wait for the bay to repressurise, but as soon as it did, they headed out, Jack to the bridge and Ianto to the galley.

“Coffee is served,” Ianto announced, entering the bridge a short while later with two steaming travel mugs and a large thermos jug. “Any luck with the recalibration of the scanners?”

“Oh yes,” Jack said darkly, reaching for the nearest mug. “And I was right, our sausage-y friend does live underground, along with all his buddies.”

Leaning over Jack’s shoulder, Ianto stared at the screen which showed a patchy image of what appeared to be a network of underground tunnels, peppered with dozens of moving heat signatures.

“Hah! Now will you agree to the warning beacons?”

“Looks like I don’t have a choice. Inhabited planet, pre-industrial civilisation, not to be interfered with. They have the right to evolve at their own pace.”

“Well, let’s hope they never advance far enough to develop space travel.” Ianto slid into his seat and took a drink from his mug, sighing contentedly. “Ah, that hits the spot!”

“Mmmmm,” Jack agreed, sipping from his own mug. “Not that I don’t still enjoy the adventure, but if there’s one thing I’ll never lose my thirst for, it’s your coffee.”

“Just my coffee?” Ianto arched an eyebrow.

“The coffee, and the man who makes it,” Jack corrected himself. “One without the other would be unthinkable.”

“That’s better. Wouldn’t want to think you were losing interest.”

Jack laughed. “Never going to happen.”


The End