Purple Vortex [II]

The Sound of Drums Pt2:

Martha quickly walked into a warehouse, with a bag of takeaway in her hands, where the others were. The Doctor was sitting at the laptop while Jack fiddled with his Manipulator and Galaxy was sitting off to the side with Astro by her.

"How was it?" Jack asked, looking up. "I don't think anyone saw me. Anything new?" Martha asked. "I've got this tuned to government wavelengths so we can follow what Saxon's doing." Jack said. "Yeah, I meant about my family."

"It still says the Jones family taken in for questioning. Tell you what, though. No mention of Leo." The Doctor and he glanced at Galaxy with worry. She hadn't said anything since they took off. "He's not as daft as he looks. I'm talking about my brother on the run. How did this happen?"

"Nice chips." Jack said, eating some as he sat by Galaxy and she reached out and took some. "Actually, they're not that bad." The Doctor said. "So, Doctor, Galaxy, who is he? How come the ancient society of Time Lords created a psychopath?" Jack asked.

"And what is he to you? Like a colleague or..." Martha asked, looking at Galaxy who sighed. "A really good friend at first." She answered. "I thought you were going to say he was your secret brother or something." Martha commented and Galaxy just took some more chips off Jack.

"You've been watching too much TV." The Doctor remarked.

"But all the legends of Gallifrey and the stories Galaxy told me made it sound so perfect." Jack said.

"Well, perfect to look at, maybe. And it was. It was beautiful. They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. And on the Continent of Wild Endeavour, in the Mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords, the oldest and most mighty race in the universe, looking down on the galaxies below. Sworn never to interfere, only to watch. Children of Gallifrey, taken from their families age of eight to enter the Academy. And some say that's when it all began. When he was a child."

"The Master was taken for initiation, he stood in front of the Untempered Schism. A gap in the fabric of reality through which could be seen the whole of the vortex. You'd stand there, eight years old, staring at the raw power of time and space, just a child. Some'd be inspired, some'd run away and some...Some would go mad."

"What about you two?" Martha asked. "Oh, the ones that ran away. I never stopped." The Doctor said, grinning. "It was the inspired for me, though the running away bit I got from him." Galaxy said and the Doctor didn't complain, not when he was happy to see a smile on her face.

Just then, Jack's bracelet beeped. "Encrypted channel with files attached. Don't recognise it." He told them. "Patch it through to the laptop." The Doctor told him. "Um, since we're telling stories, um, there's something I haven't told you." Jack said as he fiddled with his Manipulator.

"You work for Torchwood?" The Doctor asked when he saw the logo on the computer screen. "I swear to you, it's different. It's changed. There's only half a dozen of us now." Jack said. "Everything Torchwood did and you're part of it?"

"The old regime was destroyed at Canary Wharf. I rebuilt it, I changed it, and when I did that, I did it for you two in your honour." He argued.

Galaxy joined them at the laptop as they brought the message up and saw a woman appear. "If I haven't returned to my desk by 2200 hours, this file will be emailed to Torchwood. Which means, if you're watching this, then I'm...anyway, the Saxon files are attached. But take a look at the Archangel document. That's when it all started. When Harry Saxon became Minister in charge of launching the Archangel Network."

"What's the Archangel Network?" Astro asked as a diagram of satellites around the world showed on the screen. "I've got Archangel. Everyone's got it." Martha said, handing her phone to the Doctor. "The mobile phone network. Look. It's gone worldwide. They've got fifteen satellites in orbit. Even the other networks, they're all carried by Archangel."