reversedpolarity | [ddd; log; Jack]

Jack turned to look at the voice, more out of habit than anything else. Of course, people shouldn't be knowing who he is, or about his title, not on this ship, but there it was, someone addressing him as such, and he felt compelled to turn and figure out who it was, only having just registered the voice.

When he turned and saw that it was Scotty, his mouth widened into a grin, though it was definitely a few shades duller than his normally bright smile. This thing with the Master had left him more than a little bit shaken by all of it. He needed to know what was going on with his planet, why all of the people had turned into one person, where the hell the Doctor was and what he thought he was doing, whether he needed help, how Gwen was, considering her condition and the fact that she had been turned into the other man at the moment... Just about the only thing he didn't have to worry about then was Ianto, which was a small miracle, that the other man had already been off-world and therefore escaped the craziness.

"Scotty," he said, smiling at the other man from across the hall. "Fancy seeing you here..."

He started in the direction of the other man, offering him a smile in return, trying to quell a sudden flutter of nerves. So they'd flirted a bit on the community, so what? "I assume you've got clearance tae be aboard, so... Welcome aboard," he said, running a hand through his hair. It occurred to him suddenly, as he drew nearer, just how much taller than him Jack was, but then, he'd always been slight compared to most of his crewmates. He stopped a respectable distance away, his posture a bit on the diffident side; after all, even if Jack wasn't a Starfleet captain, that was his title, and old habits were hard to break.

"I was just headed tae the mess," he continued, gesturing over his shoulder in the direction he'd been heading in before he stopped. "But if you need anything, it can wait." After he'd managed to get past the initial shock of seeing Jack on the Enterprise, it had finally registered that his smile looked a bit strained, and considering Jim's stance on letting people aboard, it's not too far a stretch to assume that Jack's not here just for a friendly visit.

Jack's smile quirked a little bit, and he nodded. "Yeah, I... I had a bit of a talk with Jim, Captain to Captain. Hopefully the waters are cleared there, and everything. As for needing anything..." He stuck his hands in the pockets of his pants, rocking a little bit on his heels. For someone who didn't know him, it looked like a pretty normal gesture, and yet for those who did, it would've been obvious to tell that Jack was definitely a little bit less than okay at the moment.

"I...well. I don't really need anything in particular. I'm gonna be on this ship for a while at least--there's some trouble at home," he said, which was a gross understatement of course. "I was just trying to get the lay of the land, I guess. Figured I'd meet up with Ianto and Sulu at some point, possibly talk to McCoy, but. Obviously, that doesn't have to be now."

Trouble enough that he'd had to leave home, apparently. Scotty wondered about that, but he wasn't inclined to pry. After all, he still didn't know Jack all that well, and he didn't expect the man to simply open up and share all his troubles. "If you don't mind waitin' a few minutes while I grab a bite tae eat, I could show you around a bit," he offered. "Just got off shift, as luck would have it."

He was in fact a bit surprised that Jack hadn't mentioned the state he was in right off the bat; if anything, he was certain he looked in need of a shower far more than he had the day the video had posted when he was working on the helm relays.

The fact of the matter was, Jack was more than a little shaken at the moment, and so mentioning the state that Scotty was in didn't even come to mind. He noticed that the other man was covered in grease again, and figured that that was because of his job and all, but really that's where his thought process stopped. Because Gwen was turned into the Master, everyone was turned into the Master, he had absolutely no idea what was going on back on the planet or how to fix it and wouldn't until he could get into contact with the Doctor, and the only real relief was that Ianto was safe and that he'd reached an arrangement with Jim but. Oh, was Jack's head spinning, there.

"Well, I've got nothing else to be doing," Jack said, with a quirked smile, "so if you're game for that, then so am I." Of course, the minute he got the all-clear on the situation back at home, he'd have to bail, but. Who knew how long that might take? He wasn't going to let himself think about it too hard--thinking hard about that sort of thing always got him into trouble.

It was the lack of comment about how badly he needed a shower that really suggested that all was not well. Given what he knew of Jack, he didn't think the man was one to pass up an opportunity like that - not unless he had something else on his mind. He wished he'd had a chance to check the community; if Jack had bargained for a worldhop there, chances were he'd also given some explanation. Either way, for now he resigned himself to being left in the dark - not his place to pry, he reminded himself - and beckoned for Jack to follow along as he headed back in the direction of the mess.

"Come on, then. Down this way's the mess hall. Did the captain assign you guest quarters?" He could've found someone else to show Jack around, but other than getting some dinner he didn't have anything else to do. Besides, even if things were going badly for Jack right now it was nice to finally be able to talk to him face to face.

Jack bit his lip, trying to remember before shaking his head. "Honestly, if he did, I've forgotten where it was that he said it was." He sighed. "My... I'm sorry, Scotty, my mind's kind of not here at the moment." He smiled slightly at the other man. "Afraid you're not meeting me at my best, or anything like that."

It would be sort of exciting to be able to visit the mess hall, though. It'd been a long time since Jack was in the military, and even longer since he'd been in space in the military. Visiting a place like that was bound to be a bit nostalgic, even for him. After all, the last time he'd been on board here, he really hadn't been much for company. He and Sulu had taken to eating in Sulu's cabin, avoiding any sorts of questions or well...other people in general. It really hadn't been the best of times, even compared to the way things were going right at this moment.

Scotty waved a hand when Jack apologized, starting off toward the mess. "Don't worry about it. We'll see about gettin' you set up with the guest quarters after the mess hall, how's that?" While his chosen profession didn't necessarily mean that everything had to be about efficiency, moving through the halls of the Enterprise he kept up a brisk pace, still rather a bit stuck in Chief Engineer mode. It always took him some time after getting off duty to wind down, and the fact that he currently had a guest in tow meant he himself wasn't exactly at his best, at least not socially.

"If you don't mind me askin'," he continued, after a moment, glancing back over at Jack again, "An' believe me, I'll understand completely if you don't want tae answer - what's goin' on, that you've come here?"

Jack followed along behind Scotty, trying to memorize the route as well as keep up with the brisk pace that the other man was setting. At the question, though, Jack shook his head, running a hand through his hair and sighing. "No, it's fine. You'll be seeing about it on the community a little, probably, anyway, so."

"There's this guy," Jack said, smiling, although it was strained and pained and definitely not a very pleasant smile at all, "a Time Lord--an alien--and he's... Well. He's kind of a psychopath. And apparently he got his hands on this machine that came through the Rift that's supposed to be a medical machine. Like...if a virus breaks out, and there's someone that's immune to it, then you calibrate that machine and stick that person in it, and bam! Everyone on the planet is now immune too. Except... Well, he turned everyone on the planet into him. And...well, you see. Him and I, we kind of have a history, and I kind of don't want to run into him ever again, so. You can see my dilemma here, a little bit." Alright, so. That was the very, very short version of it all, but. At least Jack was talking, right?

"I'm not just abandoning my planet, though. There's well. The Doctor. He's going to fix it all. Says there's nothing I can do, I should just keep myself safe here, in case I need to come in for backup..." Fat lot of good that's going to do, though, Jack had absolutely no idea what he could do to make any of this better at all.

Edited 2010-12-17 08:51 (UTC)

He slowed a bit, as Jack began to tell him about what was going on. Even with what he'd seen in his years at Starfleet, it seemed almost fantastical, impossible. A machine that had the power to grant an entire planet immunity to a disease, a machine that had been used to turn an entire planet into one person? But, as he'd learned, there was very little that was actually impossible. Between his experiences at Starfleet and what he'd learned since discovering the community, he was receptive to the 'impossible', and perhaps a shade more willing to take what Jack said at face value than he otherwise might have been.

"I'm sorry," he said, when Jack was finished, and he meant it - for several reasons. He might not have been a captain himself, but he knew the sense of duty that went along with being a military man, and chances were Jack probably felt a bit useless knowing there wasn't anything he could do. And, he knew, feeling useless was not something men of their sort were much accustomed to, or much comfortable with. "If there's anything I can do..." He wasn't sure what he thought he would be able to do, but it was one of those situations where he had to at least offer. Maybe he didn't know Jack all that well, but truth be told that didn't really matter much to Scotty.

Scotty was right about that, though. It didn't matter whether he was in Starfleet or not, a military man was a military man, and Jack felt more than a little bit useless in a situation like this. He knew that there was nothing he could be doing, that it was out of his hands so he'd just have to wait and see, but he hated it.

At Scotty's offer, though, Jack shook his head. "Thanks, but. It's alright. You're doing what you can now, distracting me from thinking about it. It's out of my hands. I've got...I've got an old friend working on it, and he's never let me down about things like this before, so. I have faith that he's gonna get the job done. It's just the waiting part that's the kicker. So..." He smiled, lopsidedly, and yes, it wasn't his best smile but it was something. "Mess hall and then finding me somewhere to stay would be great, really."

"Mess hall an' findin' you a place tae stay it is, then," Scotty replied, smiling again. He understood that need for distraction, too. It wasn't uncommon for him to take the most dangerous jobs in the engine room, which sometimes resulted in trips to medical - which then resulted in being taken off duty for a few days. And when a man like him or Jack knew there was work to be done, and further knew that there was nothing they could do, distraction was really the only way to keep from chafing at the metaphorical leash.

He quickened his pace again, because his stomach had decided to start reminding him rather insistently that he'd had nothing to eat since breakfast. "In the interest o' keepin' you distracted," he said, after a moment of walking in silence, "If there's any questions you want answered about the ship, as long as it's nothing too specific I've got clearance tae talk about her. O' course, if there's anything else you'd like tae talk about, that's fine too. I'd start the conversation but I've never been much good at small talk."

"Unfortunately for us, I'm not really much in the way of small talk at the moment either," Jack said with a shrug, following along behind Scotty's quickened pace. "But we'll manage, some way or another..." He stuck his hands in his pockets again, looking to anyone else around like he was just taking a leisurely stroll along with the other man, rather than the situation that he was currently in. "How 'bout we start with what you were doing, before you ran into me. Not lubricating the piston shafts again, I hope. I thought you took care of those the other day." And there was a little bit of the flirt that Jack normally was, even if a little more subdued than usual.

"...think I could grab something to eat at the mess hall too?" he asked the other, after a moment. "I...kinda haven't had a moment to stop and breathe before now, let alone eat, so..." He couldn't really even remember the last time he'd eaten. Probably the night before, at some point.

He couldn't help the way his ears went a bit pink at mention of the piston shafts, but before he had time to think up a proper response, Jack was asking about grabbing something at the mess. Scotty chuckled a bit at that, and replied, "I certainly hope you don't think I was plannin' on sittin' an' eatin' in front o' you without at least offerin' you something. I'm sure no one'll mind if we coax an extra meal out o' the replicators."

He ran a hand through his hair then, before continuing, "As for what I was doin' before I ran intae you... Well." He grinned, and ran a hand through his hair again. "You'll be happy tae hear that the piston shafts are still properly lubricated. I'm afraid I've spent most o' the day today cleanin' plasma conduits, which is not nearly half as excitin' as it sounds."

Jack smiled, pleased at the reaction that he got out of Scotty, but that's as far as that went. He really wasn't up for any of the usual flirting that he got up to, after all. "Well, that's good at least. I mean, replicated food is a whole lot better than some of the stuff I've had to live on, after all. Trust me, you could be stuck with something a whole lot worse," he said, shuddering as he remembered WWII provisions.

He cocked his head at the mention of the technology, though. "Plasma conduits, huh?" he asked. "That's some technology there, Mr. Scott. It always amazes me, how different each of these worlds connected through the community is from my own. I mean. I've lived a long time, and I'm from way in the future from where you are right now, but. Either I missed something in my history lessons, or our technology must've branched off in a different direction than yours somewhere along the line..."

Scotty was perfectly content to go without being seriously flirted at; it was one thing to flirt a bit back and forth through the community, but he had no doubt that if Jack were to really get going, he'd be hard-pressed to keep up, let alone give as good as he got. He was out of practice when it came to the matter of dancing.

The subject of technology, however, was one in which he was more than knowledgeable, and - now that he had a better idea of what Torchwood actually was, thanks to Sulu's bare-bones explanation - he was a bit more willing to share. "Warp technology," he said, glancing at Jack. "From what I've heard around the community, our history is a great deal different from most. Most o' them seem tae have skipped right over the Eugenics Wars in the late twentieth century."

They came up on the mess then, and Scotty headed on in, pausing in his impromptu tech history lesson to give a brief demonstration of the replicators; as soon as both of them had their meal of choice, he launched right back into his speech. "In the early twenty-first century, the first warp engine was built, an' we've been perfectin' it ever since. What you're lookin' at here is about two hundred years' worth o' improvements from that first warp engine."

Jack shook his head. "Oh no, don't go reading me wrong, here," he said. "We've got warp drive technology. It comes a little bit later than here...26th century, if I'm remembering correctly. But it's not powered by the same sort of technology you've got here, I don't think. I mean... Human ships are powered on anti-matter, in that time. Although..."

Jack shrugged. "As you might be aware, anti-matter is kind of ridiculously dangerous to have to work with, so as soon as we figured out how to patch into the space-time continuum, we started being able to do simple teleportation, eventually moving onto star jumps, and then even the ability to travel through time itself." He put a hand on his wrist, feeling for where his vortex manipulator should have been. "I... I'd show you if I could, but. That's gonna have to wait until after we find my device in the rubble of the Hub. It should've survived everything, though. Pretty resilient and all, vortex manipulators..."

"As a matter o' fact," Scotty replied, holding up a hand, "I'm acutely aware o' how dangerous antimatter is tae work with." He lowered the hand, and then motioned to a nearby table, gesturing for Jack to sit as he did so himself. "Seein' as you know about warp capability... No harm in givin' you a proper rundown o' how it works around here, then." He paused to take a bite of his meal, before forgetting about it entirely as he prepared to launch into a full-blown lecture.

"The warp engines are powered by the matter/antimatter reactor - the mix column. The antimatter's stored in containment units an' funneled intae the mix column via the antimatter injector. The dilithium crystals in the reactor are non-reactive tae antimatter, an' those control the matter/antimatter reaction. The result o' that reaction is electro-plasma - which is where those plasma conduits come in. The plasma conduits take that electro-plasma an' funnel it tae the warp field coils in the nacelles."

By now, his plate was nearly entirely forgotten as he continued, "It's entirely possible that our technology is so advanced for the time period because of the Eugenics Wars - that's World War Three, if you will. Like I said, seems most places linked to the community skipped right over that point in our history." He seemed to remember that he was supposed to be eating then, and took a few more bites, although now that Jack had got him going it was going to be next to impossible to get him to stop. "I'd like tae see this vortex manipulator o' yours, though. I've already perfected transwarp beamin' - no easy task, that - an' I'm itchin' tae move ontae another project. Transdimensional beamin', maybe. I've already got several theories worked out."

Jack chuckled as he ate, listening to the other man talk as he did so. Bringing up the ship, Scotty's job, and the technology they had in this universe... It had obviously been a wise choice for him to make, considering the enthusiasm with which the other man was rattling off terms and explanations that Jack really felt like he should understand, even if he didn't.

"Well," he said, as Scotty stopped to take a breather and another bite of his food, "I'll definitely let you take a look at it, when we recover the thing. Possibly before I get it put back into a wriststrap, if you're very lucky. But you can't go messing around with it and then not put it back together the right way, mind. I kind of need it, for my job. I mean, it's not just a vortex manipulator. It's Agency issued, so it's got other little tricks it can do. Which comes in handy, considering the Doctor deactivated its travel capabilities, and all. I..." He shrugged. "I might be able to convince him to give that back, though. Recent events considered, and all."

"I'll take good care of it," Scotty assured him, "Assumin', o' course, I get a chance tae look at it." He tapped his fingers against the table once or twice, his eyes going a bit distant for a moment. "Mm. You mentioned teleportation - sounds like our transporters, that. Time travel... I know the theory, but I've never had a chance tae put it intae practice. Don't know how much Sulu's told you about our little corner o' the multiverse here, but..." He trailed off, going silent a moment, before shaking himself out of it. "Well. That's neither here nor there. I've dabbled a bit in multiversal theory, anyhow, an' if I can figure out how tae get enough power tae the transporters without blowin' them out, along with figurin' out how tae find multidimensional coordinates, the rest should be easy. Well. I say easy. I've no guarantee it'll even work, o' course, an' even then I'll have tae run tests before I can let anyone go through..."

Another pause, briefer this time. "You mentioned star jumps? I can't think o' anything we've got here that might be similar to that." He wasn't asking because he wanted to gain the technology so much as he just wanted to understand how it worked, whatever it was.

Jack nodded. "Yeah, star jumps. Patching into the space-time continuum to make a ship jump from where it is to anywhere else in the Universe. Granted, there are restrictions. I mean, it's a pretty big energy drain, to have to do that--the Shadow Proclamation has some pretty intense rules about when and where you can make one, because of it. But...yeah. That's a bit before my time, so I'm afraid I can't tell you more than that."

"As for how much Sulu's told me..." Jack said, trailing off. "Well, to be honest, he's probably told Ianto a lot more. Sulu spends a lot more time with him, after all, than he does with me." Jack's tone was pleasant while he said that, though, like it didn't bother him in the least. And the truth of the matter was that no, it really didn't. He really didn't mind the two of them together--they were good for each other, as far as Jack was concerned. And they were good for him. Wasn't that what mattered, in the end, after all?

He wished that he'd thought to bring his PADD with him; he ought to have been taking notes, jotting down ideas. Then again, if he'd had his PADD with him, he'd likely be paying more attention to that, rather than helping distract Jack by going on about the differences in technology between their two universes. "Patchin' intae the space-time continuum," he mused aloud, his eyes going distant again. "Now there's a thought. O' course, if the Klingons or the Romulans were tae get their hands on that sort o' thing..."

With some reluctance, he forced his attention back to the conversation at hand; he was supposed to be keeping Jack's mind off what was going on back on his world, not getting himself lost in thoughts of theoretical physics. He still wasn't aware that Sulu and Ianto were together - not that he'd care, beyond being mildly amused at the thought that they were taking the long-distance relationship thing a bit far. But Ianto hadn't mentioned it, the one time they'd spoken, and Sulu hadn't brought it up either.

But the reason Scotty had mentioned Sulu was because he didn't know if the helmsman would have mentioned Nero - and that was the path the conversation continued along, as Scotty spoke again. "I asked because we were talkin' about time travel, an' believe it or not, you're not the first person from the future I've managed tae run intae," he told Jack, grinning a bit. "I'll grant you, he wasn't from quite so far in the future, an'.." He stopped himself before he managed to make a fool of himself by trying and failing to casually mention that Jack was rather a bit more attractive than the older Mr. Spock. "Well. The reason I mention it," he continued, just praying that he hadn't gone and turned pink again, "The only practical experience I have with time travel is as the result of a wormhole."

Jack had really no idea whether Scotty knew about Ianto and Sulu, though he sort of doubted it. Neither of the men were really particularly talkative, especially concerning their private lives. Ianto might speak a little too fondly of the other man, of Sulu might seemingly go a little too far out of his way for Ianto, but beyond that they did a pretty good job of keeping things on the low-down. That didn't mean that Jack sometimes wished that they'd just be open with this so that he'd have a better gauge as to who he could say what to, and all.

"Wormholes, huh?" Jack asked, pausing in his eating to contemplate that. "Well, I'm not sure if wormholes work exactly the same here as they do where I come from, but. I mean, it's kind of like that. A wormhole's a lot more stable, though, connecting two different points, kind of like a passageway between them. The space-time continuum, though..." Jack shook his head. "It's a lot easier to mess things up, with that. I mean, my job is basically to monitor a Rift in space and time, and let me tell you, a lot of bad things happen thanks to that thing. Some good things too, but. Far more bad than good comes out of it. Rift storms, for one, are a freaking pain to have to deal with."

The topic of Ianto and Sulu was quickly forgotten as Jack explained how wormholes worked where he came from, and then mentioned the Rift again. Scotty's half-eaten plate was forgotten as well as he pushed it aside, leaning forward a bit to place a hand on the table. "If space an' time exist in four dimensions," he began, tracing a large circle on the table in front of him, "In a four-dimensional sphere, if you will, then travelin' from Point A tae Point B, like so--" He swept his finger in an arc, demonstrating. "Then even travelin' in what in three dimensions is a straight line, you're takin' the long way around. The wormhole--" This time, he drew a straight line from the first point to the second point. "--tunnels through space-time, as you said. A passageway. But around here, findin' a stable one is tricky, an' we haven't quite got the tech tae create them ourselves. The one that I've got experience with, that one was a mistake. Shouldn't've happened."

He hesitated, wondering how much he should tell, and finally settled on, "Two ships fell through, ships that shouldn't've been here. It changed history, changed our future. Branched us off intae an alternate universe, as you like. As I understand it, the other one still exists - or should still exist." He paused a moment, before reclaiming his plate and trying to at least make an effort at finishing a meal. "This Rift o' yours, though. If you don't mind me askin', what is it, exactly? If it's what it sounds like..."

Jack listened to what Scotty was saying, about ships falling through a wormhole, changing history, and he had to wonder...if these things didn't work differently here than it did where he came from. If the rules were different, or... "Well, it's no wormhole, but. What does it sound like then, Mr. Scott? What are you thinking? And, more importantly..."

Jack cocked his head at Scotty, leaning forward in his seat. "How do you know that it did that?" he asked, looking at the other man intensely across the table. "How do you know that it changed history, that it supposedly branched you off into another universe? Unless someone told you about it. In which case..."

Jack sat forward, propping his head in his hand. "Time travel is dangerous, you know. There are rules that have to be followed. At least, within your own universe, and all. If you travel back in time and meet yourself, but you can't remember meeting yourself to begin with, for example... Well, that's a paradox. And the Rift. It's not just a means of travel. There are creatures that live in there that love to come out and rip your universe apart, if you run around creating paradoxes like that."

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