Torchwood: Fanfic: A Christmas Tale - Part four

[m_findlow]

Title: A Christmas Tale
Author: m_findlow
Characters: Torchwood Team
Rating: PG
Length: 22,304 words
Prompt: Torchwood_fest Prompt #6, submitted by badly_knitted(Members of the team have to assist Santa's elves by temporarily becoming elves themselves)
Summary: Santa is in trouble, can Torchwood save the day?

Owen was grateful he'd had the good sense to bring the laptop with him, and the good fortune to be able to still connect to the Torchwood servers back in Wales. Wherever in the world they were, at least they got good WiFi. Hopefully the database could find something useful based on the tests he was running.

Sandy had been running ragged trying to keep all of the patients cared for whilst Owen was busy running tests. When she eventually returned, she looked dead on her feet.

'Why don't you take a breather?' he offered.

'And who's going to look after this lot? As it is I've got a few of the milder cases trying to pitch in, but what they need is rest.'

'But so do you. Doctor's orders.'

She smiled and sank into a nearby chair.

'I never asked you, but Sandy, isn't that a bit similar to Santa?'

'Not as much as Sandra. That's why I changed it. It got too confusing. Someone says, "have you got that report ready for Santa?", and next thing I know someone is madly rushing up to me with a report in their hand.'

'Fair point,' Owen conceded.

'How are things going here?'

'Nothing yet. Well, not nothing, just nothing I can identify. It's some sort of virus and based on what I'm seeing, it looks airborne.'

'That makes sense given how quickly it's spread.'

'It's also progressing in some case like Jessie, causing swelling around the brain. What medical supplies do you have here?'

'Er,' she looked around awkwardly. 'Not much. Elves just don't really get sick.' She began rummaging through the cupboards in the lab. 'We've got these. Just basic pain relief, and even those are used sparingly.'

Owen squinted at the tiny white tablets.

'Any idea of their chemical composition?'

'Sorry, really not my area of expertise.'

'S'okay,' he took one and crushed it on the counter, taking a small amount of the powder for analysis. His computer quickly returned a result.

'Aspirin. Or close to.'

'Will that work?'

'Unlikely. Might relieve some of the symptoms but it won't cure much.'

'What do we do then?'

'We need to know more about the virus itself and where it came from. We need to start asking patients where they were before they got sick.'

 

Tosh had run several dozen iterations of the program, analysing each line of code as it executed, and trying to understand what subroutines were firing each time the program executed. Each time they ran the simulation, the program would produce a three dimensional image of the toy in question and Fletcher would inspect it against the design matrix.

'Still no good. This teddy only has one eye.'

'And you say the coding hasn't been altered?'

'Not that I'm aware of but Syd is such a perfectionist. It's possible he was trying to tweak the code before he got sick.'

'Alright, let's try running it line by line.'

She tapped a few more instructions onto the screen and executed the program again. This time, each line ran across the screen one by one, not actioning itself until Tosh gave it the okay. Surprisingly, she'd quickly gotten the hang of the binary coding they were using, and was already coming up with ideas for using it to modify the hub's most critical and complex systems.

'Stop,' instructed Fletcher. 'There, what's that?'

 

 

Rhys had thought the task of going through the lists would be boring. Instead he found himself completely sucked in by all the naughty kid profiles. It was like some sort of bizarre Jeremy Kyle for kids. He could just see it now.

'Eh, look at this,' he said, pointing at the screen, 'there's even one for Banana Boat! Thought they were only for kids. Well, he is a bit of a big kid, I suppose.'

'And what does it say?' Gwen asked distractedly, too tired from reviewing all the other files to care much, as she leaned her elbow on the desk in front of her.

Rhys gleefully began reading through the file.

'Oh,'

'What is it?' Gwen asked, now mildly curious.

'Er, nothing,' Rhys quickly covered, 'let's just say I don't think Banana qualifies for the nice list this year.'

'Why am I not surprised?'

 

 

The lists room.

It kept coming up as they worked their way around the room, trying to identify any commonalities between patients.

'I work in the lists room.'

'My brother got sick first. He works in the lists room.'

'Kristoff always delivers lunch to the design room and the lists room.'

'I think we can confirm where this all started,' said Owen.

'Jessie worked in the lists room as well,' Sandy added.

'Either there's something in there causing this or Jessie brought it in with her. I'm going down there to have a look around.'

'I'm coming with you!' she said chasing after him down the hall.

'And if there's something contagious down there?'

'I can take care of myself,' she replied determinedly.

'Fine,' Owen conceded, 'but you're taking basic medical precautions. That means a mask and gloves.'

'Okay.'

 

The lists room looked like the call centre Owen had worked in when he was studying at uni. Just a large space with rows of desks and computer consoles. There was no marble or mahogany here, just plain office interior. Around the room were dotted little signs with catchphrases like "naughty is relative", "everyone deserves a second chance" and "intention matters most".  

'Added motivation?' Owen asked, pointing up at one of the signs.

'It takes a certain kind of elf to work the lists room,' she said, her voice muffled slightly by the mask. 'They see the very best and the very worst of what people are capable of. That sort of thing can wear you down if you're not upbeat and positive.'

'So much for the idea that you're all happy and dancing around the place.'

'I've seen some of the films where you depict elves that way. But I've also seen your news. All the wars and the hatred, the pollution and the sickness.'

'It's not all bad,' Owen clarified.

'I know. But you ask me how do we stay positive in a world full of that? No amount of Christmas spirit seems able to cure it.'

'We do what we can, even when it doesn't feel like it's worth saving, because it is.'

'And Jack is your Santa? Full, of the good spirit that keeps you all going?'

'He's full of something,' Owen quipped and he was pleased to hear her tinkling laugh. It was a first, and given the situation, it was refreshing to hear.

They wandered about until they found what they were looking for.

On Jessie's desk sat a single personal detail. A small wooden reindeer. Not carved intricately or with any defining details, but merely shaped sufficiently to discern it's form.

Sandy picked it up with a gloved hand.

'That's a Santa original,' she explained. 'One of the first carvings made for the village children. It must have been passed down to her by an elder. It's beautiful and rare.'

Owen drifted around the room with his PDA, taking readings of the air in the room.

'Low levels of airborne contagions in here, no higher than those in the infirmary.'

'Well, that kills that theory.' Sandy pulled off her mask and gloves in response. Owen gave her a disapproving scowl but she chose to ignore it.

'Alright. Let's head back upstairs then. If we can't find the source maybe we can starting trying some antigens and see what effect they have on the virus.'

'Okay.' Before she left the room, she pocketed the tiny reindeer. They were meant to bring good luck and she got the feeling she'd be needing some.

 

 

Tosh pushed her glasses further up on to her nose and peered closer at the screen, inspecting the line of code. 'It's retriving the index from one of the mainframe directories.'

Fletcher leaned over her and studied it as well. 'No, but it isn't! That directory mapping is wrong. Those refer to legacy systems we don't operate anymore. Why would Syd have changed the code to access archived system logs?'

'I don't know. What's different about the legacy system logs?'

'The old systems were inefficient. The arrays weren't built for the volume of data required to produce that many design permutations. That's why we changed them.'

'So why change them back? He must have known something we don't. What would happen if you updated the mapping back to the new systems?'

'Let's see.'

Tosh stepped back from the console and allowed Fletcher to update the coding. She looked around at the enormous factory floor and tried to imagine it in full flight.

'Can I ask you, are there ever any elves that don't want to work for Santa? I mean, it wasn't why you came here originally. Do some ever want to go home or do something else?'

Fletcher fixed her with a look that suggested he'd never considered the question. 'Christmas spirit connects us all. I never met an elf who didn't love doing what they do. Every elf is unique and has their own skills, but everyone can help spread the joy of Christmas to the world. I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't be satisfied and fulfilled doing that. Don't you enjoy your job?'

'Sure,' Tosh said, 'I mean, the hours are a bit rubbish and there's no such thing as a weekend, sometimes it's filthy or exhausting or scary, but I wouldn't give it up for anything. I guess when you put it that way, it's the good that outweighs the bad and that's what keeps you going.'

'I think they would be very lucky to have you.'

'Thanks,' she blushed.

'Okay, let's try this again,' said Fletcher, 'the new code is inserted.' He hit the button and the lines of programming danced across the screen. He held his breath as the system tried to parse the new instructions, waiting for it to crash at the first line of updated coding. When the screen continued rolling, he almost couldn't believe it.

'It looks like it's working!' he exclaimed, then just as he said the words, the program crashed.

'I don't understand it! The new mapping was working. Why did it fall over now?'

'Can you run a diagnostic?'

Fletcher entered the commands and several graphs appeared on screen.

'Look at that,' Tosh said, pointing to a large green spike on the screen. 'The mainframe is trying to draw three times as much power as it can cope with. Not only is it causing the program to fail, it's overloading the mainframe systems, causing short circuitng.'

'That's why the circuitry I examined was burnt out,' he surmised. 'So the next question is what's causing it to draw so much power?'

'You said Syd changed the programming to map to the old system logs.'

'At a guess, but why? They're so old and slow.'

'Perhaps he was trying to compensate for the power consumption. Slow down the commands and reduce the energy requirements.'

'Toshiko you're a genius. Of course! The mapping code wasn't complete. He started trying to fix it but never finished it.'

'Can you reset the code to the old systems?'

Fletcher grinned madly at her. 'Does Santa wear a red hat?'

 

 

The main control room was like something out of a documentary about Nasa. There were banks and rows of computers and screens, maps and buttons and dials and blinking lights.

'Wow.'

'Welcome to Base Camp.'

Nearby a screen flickered into life and Ianto could see Santa's image projected onto it, larger than life.

'Brady, are you there?'

Brady walked over, bending down to pick up a headset and activate it.

'Base Camp receiving,' he announced.

'Excellent. We're just about ready to launch.'

In the background, he could see Jack and the two sleighs, loaded up with gifts.

'Just finalising the rift modelling and uploading it now.'  

Santa had explained to Jack that the reindeer were pretty good at knowing where to go, but that despite detailed modeling and prediction programs, the rift could still send you somewhere a bit off the beaten path. As a backup all of the mapping and directions information would be fed directly to them from the main control room and they'd be in constant contact with Brady and Ianto.

Brady handed a second headset to Ianto. 'You'll be monitoring Jack's route. This will provide you with direct communication and should also work with your teammates comms if necessary.'

Ianto took the proferred headset and slipped it expertly on.

'Jack?'

'Ianto? That you?'

'Yup. Navigator as usual.'

'Glad to have you aboard.'

'All set for your big gift giving debut?'

'Actually, I was thinking I should have a call sign. You know, something like Kris Kringle, or Sleigh Force One,'

'Or FedEx.'

'Very funny.'

'What about Jack Frost?'

'Ooh, I like that one. Put it on the short list.'

'Ahem,' coughed Brady. They both stopped awkwardly. Jack could see the stern look on Brady's face from the monitor. 'If you're both ready?'  

'Yup,' they both quickly agreed.

 

 

Jack sat in the front of the sleigh and grasped the worn leather reins. He'd just watched Santa take off and slip out of sight into the night sky. He made it look easy.

'Okay guys, time to save Christmas.' Three reindeer clicked and shook their heads in an affirmative way. Blitzen grumbled something akin to acquiescence.

'Well I guess that's the pre flight checks done.'  He snapped the reins and the sleigh took off wildly, hurtling along the snowy street before heaving into the air.

Jack pulled left on the reins, attempting a flyover the city. Instead Blitzen hauled sharply right, nearly tumbling Jack right out of his seat.

'Okay, okay, you're in charge then!' Jack conceded, slackening his grip on the straps.

'Jack? You okay?' came Ianto's voice.

'Fine! Just a little power struggle!'

'The rift is about one mile north of your position. Rift predictor says you should fly through in the next sixty seconds and you'll be just over England.'

'Roger that. It'll be nice not having to pay the toll for once.'

'You heard the man!' Jack ordered. 'England, full steam ahead!'

The reindeer charged forward and Jack felt the rush of excitement raging through his body as the sleigh sped through the rift.

Continues at part five...  http://m-findlow.livejournal.com/80637.html

Comments

[bk_forever]

Has someone sabotaged the systems by causing the massive power usage? Is someone trying to ruin Christmas?

At least it looks like Tosh and Fletcher are making some progress, which is good. Poor Owen and Sandy though, they're still no closer to discovering the cause of the infection, never mind curing it.

I hope Blitzen will help Jack rather than hindering him. there's a lot of work to be done.