Winter companion: The great race (Part two)

[m_findlow]

Title: The great race
Author: m_findlow
Prompt: 2 - Lucy, races, flag, on a holodeck at wintercompanion
Rating: Thirteenth Doctor/Jack Harkness
Pairing: PG
Content notes: Spoilers for all seasons of both series, and the Torchwood Big Finish audioplays.
Length: 33,192 words
Author notes: Beta'ed by beesandbrews. I don't own them, they belong to their respective creators.
Summary: A new adventure awaits two old friends as they compete in the greatest race of a generation.

Lucy frowned when she saw Jack returning, an attractive blonde woman in tow. Trust her to partner up with some ladies' man. She also noticed than he'd returned empty-handed.

'You were supposed to be getting us tools,' she said, furious that she'd been foolish enough to agree to taking him on as a partner.

'I did one better,' Jack replied. 'I brought a friend.'

'I can see that,' she seethed.

'Lucy, this is the Doctor. And our ticket to first place across the finishing line.'

Lucy felt less than impressed. 'Unless she knows her way around a Flux drive, the pair of you can just go. I don't need to be mucked around.'

The Doctor slipped a slim looking device from the inner pocket of her coat. 'Do you mind if I?'

Lucy stepped across her path. 'You wanna mess with my ship?'

'No, I want to fix it.'

'Trust her,' Jack implored. 'She's an old friend of mine. Wow.' He chuckled. 'That still feels weird saying that.'

The Doctor slipped under the craft, and with a few bursts of violet blue light emanating from the top of the device in her hand, she was done. 'Tuned like a fine piano, now,' she reported. 'Can't have you randomly crashing into stuff. So, are we ready to go?'

'We?' Lucy said, eyebrows raised high.

'Oh,' Jack said. 'I might have convinced the Doctor to come along with us. You could always use a spare pair of hands, couldn't you?'

Lucy set her hands on her hips. 'Rules strictly forbid more than three crewmembers aboard any vessel.'

'Well, then it's lucky there's only three of us,' Jack replied.

'If you exclude Jack's ego,' the Doctor quipped.

'Hey!'

'You're a doctor?' Lucy asked. 'Doctor who?'

The Doctor gave her an amused smile. What was so funny? Lucy wondered. Why was that such a strange question to ask?

'Just the Doctor,' she replied.

She scrutinised the pair of them, both standing there looking rather eager. 'About the prize money,' Lucy began.

'Don't worry. I'm not interested,' the Doctor replied.

'Speak for yourself,' Jack muttered. 'I've had to bargain down from a fifty-fifty split to a sixty-forty.'

'It's my ship,' Lucy countered. 'It should be seventy-thirty, so be grateful.'

'It's a cute little ship,' the Doctor said, running a hand over the dappled bronze and gunmetal surface.

'It's bigger on the inside,' Lucy replied, not wanting her vessel insulted for its overall stature. People had been picking on her for years about her own, but she'd show them.

The Doctor smiled at her again. 'Aren't the small ones always?'

'Can we go now?' Jack asked. Lucy could see him eyeing off the ship, as if he were itching to get inside to see what else he could tinker with. There was something contagious about his enthusiasm that gave Lucy a new found confidence about their chances of winning.

Lucy sighed. 'We probably do need to start making our way to the starting grid. There's a bunch of preflight checks still to be done. And I'm going to have to show you how to fly her, assuming I let you at all. '

'Trust me, I know my way around a ship,' Jack said.

Lucy slammed a palm against the release button, letting the back cargo door drop with a gentle hiss. She paused and turned to face her now two racing companions. 'You two aren't some kind of couple, are you?' Lucy asked. 'Only the last thing I want on board is a pair of bickering exes.'

The Doctor pointed innocently between the pair of them. 'Who, us?'

'We never bicker,' Jack replied.

'And we're definitely, definitely, not a couple.' The Doctor glared across at Jack who merely gave her a flirtatious twitch of his eyebrows.

'Uh huh,' Lucy said slowly. 'I think I'll reserve my right to throw either of you out of the airlock.' She gave them one last uncertain glance before stepping inside.

Jack grinned, grabbing his coat. 'Age before beauty, Doc,' he said, gesturing her inside. 'Bet you've missed this.'

'I think I'll reserve my judgement as well.'

Lucy led them from the small cargo hold through to the main flight deck. As promised, the inside was spacious enough that they wouldn't need to sit in each other's laps. There were the two seats positioned in front of the main console and a third that sat just behind the co-pilot's seat. A fourth more rudimentary bucket seat could be pulled down from the wall on the right-hand side if needed. She'd always considered the ship more than ample for their needs.

'Nice digs,' Jack said. 'She's bigger on the inside,' he added, looking at the Doctor and laughing.

Lucy frowned. Why was everything so amusing? It was as if there was some kind of joke she wasn't privy to.

'Now can you show me which systems haven't been fully optimised, yet?' Jack asked. 'I can't guarantee I can have them up and running before we go, but give me twenty-four hours and I can have this baby humming.'

Lucy looked towards the woman who called herself the Doctor, wondering if she might not be the better ally of the two, both of them being female. 'Is he always like this? Kinda bossy and full of himself?'

'Only most of the time,' the Doctor replied.

Lucy wiped her blackened hands down the thighs of her coveralls before realising the Doctor was watching her, feeling embarrassed by the rather crude motion.

'You're very young to be attempting something like this,' the Doctor mused. 'I've heard it's quite demanding.'

'Nothing I can't handle, I'm sure,' Lucy replied, confident and assured. She didn't necessarily need the Doctor's approval, but with the slightest inclination of her head she seemed to have given it.

'Still,' the Doctor said, folding her arms. 'How did you come by a ship like this?'

Lucy strolled over to the main console, flicking switches and lighting up the heads-up display. 'Like I told, Jack. It was my brother's, but I took it. He wasn't using it.'

'Determined to go off and have a few adventures of your own?'

'Something like that. Not that you'd probably understand.'

The Doctor came across and stood in front of the flight console. Through the curved windscreen she watched the hive of activity going on outside. 'Actually, I do. When I was younger I stole a ship and took off for the stars. I wasn't really keen on taking on the responsibility that was expected of me, either.'

Lucy huffed. 'I have responsibilities. That's why I'm here. Did they ever catch up with you, the people you stole the ship from?'

'Nope.' The Doctor grinned. 'I took off and never looked back.' She frowned. 'Speaking of,' she said, leaning back to glimpse Jack. He was already pulling a panel out from under the console, engrossed in the control boards, sandwiched together like a dozen layers of pastry. 'Jack, where's your ship?'

He craned his head to look up at them. 'Don't have one.'

The Doctor raised her eyebrows. 'Really? I didn't realise you were that hard up for money.'

'It's not the money. I just don't like being tethered down. This way I can hitch a ride whenever I want. I'm a free agent.'

'You have changed. Last time we traveled together you couldn't wait to get back to Earth.'

'Times change,' he replied. 'So do planets.' He leant back and began pulling out the power boards one by one, examining them in detail.

Lucy watched the curious exchange. There was an awkwardness to it, like they were two friends who'd last parted on bad terms or left something unresolved. Should that worry her?

The Doctor turned to Lucy. 'So, what do we need to do before we get underway?'

She dismissed the mystery of her two new companions for the time being. There were other more pressing issues. 'I've got a sticky bucket reverser if you think your magic torch can do anything to sort that out.'

'So long as it's not made of wood, then lead the way.'

Lucy hated to admit it, but by the time they were idling towards the starting grid, she felt a lot better about the state the ship was in. She realised she hadn't known quite so much about its finer workings as she'd thought, not that it mattered once the Doctor took control of matters. There wasn't much she couldn't fix and Lucy quickly warmed to her easy-going nature. Even Jack wasn't so bad; a bit of a flirt and an ego to match, but he seemed well-meaning. She'd still keep an eye on them, though. If they meant to double-cross her, she'd have something to say about it. She'd be damned if she brought more shame to her family.

She twiddled the small chip in her hands containing the mapping data that would help them navigate their way to the first checkpoint, before puffing out a breath and inserting it. She cast a glance across the field of spacecraft, all waiting in their allotted grids. Off to the starboard side, she caught the silver glint of Drax's much larger cruiser. She might have had a better handicap than he did at the start of the race, but there was no doubt in her mind that he'd quickly be at the front of the pack. He was flying solo, just as she'd been intended on doing, only he was probably doing it alone because everyone else was too scared to fly with him.

'Forget that jerk,' Jack said, following her line of sight. 'What's he got that we don't?'

'Uh, maybe a ship that's better, and about a million hours of flight experience?'

'Well, you know what they say,' the Doctor said. 'The bigger they are...'

'The more fun it is to kick their arses,' Jack finished.

A roar went up amongst the crowd and Lucy felt a nervous tugging in the pit of her stomach. The race was about to begin and a deafening tannoy began making announcements.

"A reminder of the rules for contestants. You will be required to navigate the course that has been established. A copy of this should have been downloaded to your respective vessel's computer systems for the journey to checkpoint one. There will be seven checkpoints along the course, at which you will be required to dock or land as is appropriate, retrieve a flag which has been left there for your team, and return to the holodeck to be registered as having successfully retrieved it. Points will be deducted for any team that scans an incorrect flag or that has the flag scanned by any person other than one designated as part of your team."

'Oh, no,' Lucy said. 'I didn't get a chance to log you, Doctor. That means only Jack or I can register our flags.'

'It's fine.' Jack reached across and put a reassuring hand on Lucy's shoulder. 'We can manage it between us.'

'No offence, Jack, but you're even older than her.'

'Me?' Jack sputtered. 'But-'

'He's more spritely than he looks,' the Doctor said, putting a hand on Jack's arm before he could get a proper head full of steam. He grunted his disapproval at the inference.

The announcements continued. "The course has been specifically designed to test all of your abilities, however we remind contestants that whilst your success is desired, it is not guaranteed. Failure to capture and log any flag will result in automatic disqualification. Collusion between any two contestants will result in disqualification. Failure to navigate accurately to any checkpoint will result in disqualification. Death of all of a contestant's crew will result in disqualification."

'Sheesh,' Jack muttered. 'Is there anything that won't get you disqualified?'

"Contestants are asked to please prepare their vessels. The race will commence in sixty seconds."

Overhead, an enormous timer lit up for racers and crowd alike to see. Lucy flipped switches for the three thruster engines and gripped the steering column hard, her eyes flicking constantly between the clock and the field of racers in front of her on the grid.

'Here we go,' Jack said, as the clock dropped to single digits. He cast a glance back at the Doctor, her eyes glinting with excitement.

As soon as the clock hit zero, Lucy pushed the column forward, jolting the ship forward as fast as it would go. It was a bold move, with every other ship clamoring for pole position, or just to escape the crush from the starting grid. The Doctor hooted with delight and Jack laughed out loud as several slower, heavier craft drifted behind them, the sky growing darker as they exited the atmosphere and headed out into the depths of space. There were still a good many ships that zipped past their own, the most noticeable being the enormous silver spear of Emin Drax, but they held firm. At least they weren't trailing the entire pack.

'It's only a short distance to the first checkpoint,' Lucy said, studying the star map. 'They're all going to get there before we do.' She watched the flock of ships out in front speed further and further ahead.

'It's only the beginning of the race,' Jack reminded her. 'We'll make up that small amount of time. I'm still optimising a couple of the power units. Once those are back online, we'll cruise past some of those old clunkers.'

'What do you suppose they meant when they said they'll be testing all of our abilities?' the Doctor asked, slipping into Jack's seat next to Lucy as he vacated to finish working on a panel at the back of the main flight deck.

Lucy shrugged. 'It's a race, so I imagine they'll just make the course difficult to fly.'

The Doctor leaned forward, studying the map for herself. 'Looks like a small uninhabited planet. Barely more than a bit of space debris. Not even an asteroid field in its wake to navigate. That's disappointing. What's a great race without a little heart-pumping action along the way?'

'Yo, Lucy Goosey,' Jack called out, 'you wanna try opening up that fifth gear now?'

'Don't call me that!' she growled. 'And this thing doesn't have a fifth gear.'

Jack came over to stand behind her seat, chuckling. 'Oh, she does now. Go ahead and try it out.'

She flipped two more switches and eased the column further forward. The ship surged with newfound energy, quickly overtaking a handful of other contestants. 'Awesome!'

He gave a wink and a smile. 'That's me.' They passed Markle's hulking green Mach Two Star Jumper with ease. 'Ha!' Jack waved as they flew by, leaning on the comms button to hail the vessel. 'Be waiting for you at the finishing line, old man!' Markle replied with a rude Kondori hand gesture.

The Doctor jostled Jack out of the way and poked her tongue out at the passing ship in the most childish manner before it was out of sight. She caught the odd expression on Jack's face. 'What?'

Jack poked out his tongue in a poor imitation of her own efforts. 'That's the best you could do?'

'He was being rude. On Gallifrey, that would have been really offensive.'

Jack rolled his eyes. 'You Time Lords need to get out more.'

'We're less than two minutes from the first checkpoint,' Lucy reported. 'We should be ready to leave straight away, grab the flag, get it scanned and go,' she added, trying to keep them focused on what was important.

The Doctor threw off her blue coat, revealing an equally long sleeveless grey one hidden underneath, along with a striped top. Masculine braces held everything else in place. 'I am so ready!' she declared.

Lucy gave Jack a quizzical look. 'Is she always this excited?'

He grinned back. 'Different face, same Doctor.'

Part three...

Comments

[bk_forever]

Things are hotting up!

I'm guessing the real challenge isn't the spaceship race between checkpoints but what happens at the checkpoints as the teams try to locate and retrieve their own flags. this is fun!

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

The checkpoints will definitely test them. They have no idea what they're up against yet!