Fandomweekly Challenge 110 - Safekeeping

[m_findlow]

Title: Safekeeping

Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Jack, Ianto

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG

Length: 1,000 words

Content notes: PG. Spoilers for Big Finish audioplay "The Torchwood Archive".

Author notes: Written for Challenge 110 - To the library at fandomweekly

Summary: On the outskirts of unoccupied space lies something secret.

Jack's fingers danced quietly over the keyboard as he put the final touches on the program that had taken up the majority of the past year. It had been hard, lonely work, but it would be worth the effort. The Torchwood Archive - everything the Institute had ever learned, collected and discovered, all stored away in one single location. A digital fortress and library all in one. The legacy of seven thousand years of sacrifice was now all but complete.

He didn't plan on coming back here for a long, long time. He just needed this place kept safe from the Enemy until the right person came along. Someone who was Torchwood, or at least co-opted by Torchwood. There would be a time when what was stored here would need to be accessed again. He hadn't worked for six millennia for it to all go to waste. It just needed a better way to be able to access the information stored here. Physical stores were so 20K.90.

Most was now stored on crystal chips, capable of being rematerialised if need be. In his opinion, most of it was junk, but junk he now couldn't bear to part with. Too many friends' lives had been lost in the gathering and safekeeping until now. He owed it to them.

'Time to test you out,' Jack muttered, bringing the program online. A young man in a suit appeared. Jack felt a flutter in his stomach. Ianto looked just as perfect as the last time he'd seen him. Of course he should, since Jack had programmed him that way.

'Um, hello?' he said, looking around slightly confused. 'How am I here?'

'You're not. Sort of,' Jack replied. 'You're a programmed effigy of the real Ianto Jones, here to protect the Torchwood Archive.'

Ianto paused, scrolling through his base programming. 'Ah. Clever.'

'I thought so,' Jack said, feeling a buzz at being able to talk to his long lost lover. Maybe he should have made a copy for himself, but the memory required would be far too large for anything other than the Archive to handle.

'What are we protecting? I mean apart from case reports on weevils and the recipe for retcon.'

Jack gave a grin. 'Behold the piece de resistance.' He hit a key and the image of a containment unit appeared with a ghostly item hovering inside.

Ianto frowned at the hologram of the silver locket. 'The Bad Penny.'

Jack nodded. 'Object One,' he confirmed. 'The most powerful object in the universe.'

'But it's not real. It's just a hologram.'

'You're right. But it's a place where it can be safely stored inside the Archive. Whenever we actually find it,' he qualified.

'You mean you don't have it?'

Jack looked uncomfortable under the scrutiny. 'I'm close to having it. When I do, I'll send someone here to finally lock it away for good. Lock it away?' he said, amused by the play on words. 'Did you like that?'

Ianto frowned, clearly not amused. 'That thing was always more trouble than it was worth. Why would we want to keep it here?'

'The Enemy can't be allowed to get their hands on it. The Committee of Erebus are trapped in a pocket universe and Object One is the only key that can unlock them. Torchwood is the only safe place for it.'

'Says you who spent most of his life trying to be rid of the bloody thing.'

'Hey! This is a library, not a debate hall. I've made my decision.'

'I don't see how we can be debating if I'm not really here. You've probably forgotten whole bits of me.'

'Never. Doesn't the fact that you want to argue about it prove that?'

'I suppose.' Ianto appeared pensive. 'Can I ask something? You made a copy of me, and Tosh, Gwen… Hell, even Andy is here, and that grumpy Mr Colchester, not to mention Queen Victoria. But…'

Jack arched an eyebrow at him. He knew what Ianto was going to ask and it amused him. 'Yeah?'

'Is there a copy of you?'

'I'm right here.'

'Well, yes obviously, but, I mean, when you leave.'

Jack grinned. 'Lonely without me?'

Ianto looked down at his feet. 'I might be a bit.'

'You don't have to worry about that. Why do you think it's taken me so long? I had to write a whole separate program just for the cheekbones.'

It was Ianto's turn to roll his eyes. 'Of course you did.'

'Hey, and I got us a dog. You never did let me have a dog in real life.'

'Because I'd be the one cleaning up after it. And feeding it, grooming it, taking it for six am walks…'

'You can do all that here.'

'Lucky me. Does it have a name?'

'Hmmm… hadn't thought of that.'

'Great. So it's "Untitled"?'

'I'll come up with something before I go and upload it. A dog called Untitled? That's just stupid. So… what do you think of the place? It was kind of your baby for so long.'

Ianto considered the question. 'It's more… digital, than I remember.'

'Improved upon. Couldn't fit the old Cardiff Archives in here, that's for sure.'

'And yet if I go searching…' he paused to scan the data banks. 'Yep, still a cluttered mess.'

'Well, it'll give you something to do when you're not hanging out with me and our dog.'

'Except I won't be getting paid.'

'You never did this job for the pay.'

'No. I did it for the shameless sex with the boss.'

Jack grinned. 'Well, that's everything done. See you round, Ianto.'

'Not if I see you first.'

'So, go find me. I'm waiting there for you in subroutine alpha six nine.' Jack gave a salute before disappearing in the hazy orange glow of his vortex manipulator.


There was a barking sound and then the all too familiar timbre of Jack's voice.

'Untitled! Come here, boy!'

Ianto sighed. 'Bollocks. He forgot to name that bloody dog.'