Fans Fiction - Viva Torchwood by Doreen Freitag

(Translation by Birte Schieder)

Chapter One

It could have started better. Catherine looked around. Of course, she wasn’t for the first time in Cardiff today but, somehow, she acted like a country bumpkin. To her credit, the entrance to the building with the number 11 had hardly been visible on Google Street View. Every time she had tried to zoom in, for some reason the image was so blurry that she could only see colourful shadows.
She had already found number 10. So logically, the building next to it should be the one she was searching for; but it was more something of a ruin than a house. Was there really a state-of-the-art institute behind these crumbling walls?
All right, the job advertisement did say something about readiness to assume risks and field work, but these words gained an entirely new meaning in view of this building. She studied the letter in her hand for about the third time. She was right. It had to be here.
‘Fine,’ she said to herself, putting the paper back into her large handbag, and approached the ruin’s entrance. The door looked like it hadn’t been opened for ages. But now, standing right in front of it, she could see a small object in the upper left-hand corner of the old door frame. It seemed wrong there, this regular, anthracite-coloured plastic case.
Catherine couldn't help but grin. She hadn’t been wrong. Somebody inside this house should be able to see her on their screen right in this moment.
She mastered the following challenge of finding a door bell brilliantly - by not finding it. Only the ancient rapper in front of her offered the chance of getting noticed.
Candidates with less strong nerves would have given up by now, but Catherine wasn’t even thinking of doing that. Her curiosity was piqued. If the job behind this door was as interesting as the circumstances promised, it would be the perfect match for her.
She grabbed the rapper and hit it three times against the metal plate. What happened next wasn’t exactly what she had expected. She wouldn’t have been surprised if the door had opened itself to an ultra-modern hall with an elevator door at its end. An elevator that would bring her far below the streets of Cardiff, straight to the headquarters of the ‘Men In Black’.
Instead of that, the door was opened squeakily, accompanied by a burst of swearwords coming from a female voice. The stressed face of a young woman, wearing a red shirt, dark jeans and a tight black leather jacket, appeared in the clearance between door frame and door leaf. Her face was framed by dishevelled long black hair. When she started to smile engagingly, her big round eyes were sparkling and a lovely space between her front teeth was revealed.
‘Hi, my name is Gwen Cooper,’ said the young woman offering her hand in Catherine's direction. ‘Please, come in, Miss Bonnet!’ she said, stepping aside to give Catherine the chance to slip into the building.
Obviously they had known who had been standing outside. Neither of them would have reached the door that quickly after Catherine’s knock, nor did there seem to be any doubts about Catherine’s identity.
Both women reached the third floor of a narrow and creaky staircase. Catherine was sure that there was only the attic above them left.
The moment Gwen Cooper opened the door to the floor Catherine wasn’t able to hold back a surprised gasp. Behind the old fissured door there was placed a modern door of heavy iron without any visible locking mechanism. It was an unfamiliar looking small and oval object Gwen Cooper took out of her pocket that finally activated the opening process. She applied it to the door and it opened with a sibilant sound.
An enchanted magical land appeared beyond it. The floor was full of old furniture, ultra-modern computers and instruments Catherine had never seen before and a not manageable labyrinth of doors.
She loved it immediately and there must have been a smile slipping over her face, because all of a sudden, a male voice somewhere near to her said: ‘It looks like you like it here, Miss Bonnet.’
Alarmed, Catherine turned towards the speaker's direction. The man standing in the door frame with his arms crossed lived up to all expectations his voice had promised. He seemed to be around the age of forty, but maybe she was wrong with that. For the first time, Catherine, who had always been good at guessing someone’s age right, wasn’t sure about this man's age. The experience of life in his eyes was a big contrast to his harmonious and young face.
He was wearing grey suit trousers and a dark blue shirt with a white t-shirt underneath. But what caught Catherine's eye were his cream-coloured braces. A long, grey army coat hung at a cloak hanger near the door and Catherine knew immediately that it belonged to that man. He stepped away from the door frame and held his hand towards her.
‘Captain Jack Harkness,’ he introduced himself. ‘Very pleased to meet you!’
His words were accompanied by an appreciative gaze at her figure. He stopped at her feet and stared at her high-heeled ankle boots. Out of the corners of her eyes, Catherine could see Gwen Cooper rolling her eyes.
The Captain seemed to be a lady killer. Well, she could live with that. She wasn't someone to be taken in quickly by men. But on the other hand, she had to admit that she quite liked the interested way he looked at her.
‘Likewise,’ she replied cheekily and was glad about the steady sound of her voice.
Now Gwen Cooper took over and guided Catherine into a room with a conference table. There was also a big monitor at one of the walls. The functions of the other devices, however, didn't seem obvious for Catherine right away. Next to the monitor there was a kind of board with loads of photos and documents pinned onto it, like it is known from criminal investigations.
‘We don't want to leave you in the dark for too long, Miss Bonnet.’ said Gwen Cooper, who had sat down next to her at the table. Again, Catherine noticed that her name was pronounced correctly from the start - with French intonation.
Next to them, Captain Harkness had leaned against the wall, his hands deep in his pockets. But those pockets couldn't entirely hide a large leather band he wore at his left wrist. It seemed to have some sort of a hatch, which certainly didn't just hide a watch.
‘We're looking for someone with excellent computer knowledge and who is a quick learner,’ Gwen Cooper added. ‘You will be faced with new technology and new challenges all the time. Do you trust yourself to do that?’
‘Yeah, sure, but...’
‘Perfect!’ The Captain interrupted her. ‘When will you be able to start?’
In the next second, he was facing two women who stared at him thunderstruck. ‘What is it?’ he asked. ‘We know she can do it. Why else did we invite her to come here?’ He was looking at his colleague provocatively.
‘Don't you want to explain to Miss Bonnet what we're doing here first? Maybe she doesn't want this job.’
‘Would you like to have this job, Miss Bonnet?’ Jack Harkness asked Catherine.
‘Uhm,’ she said and opened her mouth just to shut it again. But before he could surprise her any further, she quickly said: ‘Yes, I probably would like to have this job, Captain Harkness. I love new tasks and I like it here. I really am interested to learn what all these devices are good for. But for the moment, it would help me to decide if you told me what you are doing here and what you want me to do.’
All of a sudden, the Captain showed a big grin and Catherine felt butterflies in her stomach.
‘You're here at Torchwood Cardiff, Miss Bonnet,’ he suddenly started to explain. ‘We're something like the X-Files department of this country. We're investigating on mysterious incidents, are saving the human kind of its doom twice or three times a week and shut away everything that could jeopardise the smooth daily routine of the people around us. Without our help, many children of this Earth would be in the hands of aliens and you might be as immortal as at times of Miracle Day. Did I describe that sufficiently, Gwen?’
‘Yes, Jack, I think you did,’ Gwen replied, and in the glances they exchanged, Catherine could see a real cocktail of emotions. It was a mixture of pride and ardour for the work they did, but the wistfulness and pure sadness she could also spot spoke volumes.
All at once, it became clear to Catherine that here and now her life would change completely - if she accepted the job. And just as clear she knew that she wouldn't hesitate for even a second to do so.
‘You would mainly have to supervise the technology from this base here when Jack and I are outside,’ explained Gwen Cooper. ‘And you will always have to be clear about the fact that our lives depend on what you're doing in here; on what you're telling us or what you aren't telling us.’
‘Prior-ranking your life, Gwen,’ the Captain corrected his colleague, smiling.
Did that mean he was on duty outside less often? Catherine didn't know what to make of that, but she didn't ask.
Captain Jack Harkness finally took his hands out of his pockets and stepped towards the table. He leaned on the table and smiled at Catherine. ‘But all of this doesn't deceive that there's a lot of extra work in here. There's always something that needs to be supervised, calculated or analysed. If you could write some computer programmes next to your work here, which could make our job easier, then I might put in a good word for you with the next alien.’
Catherine frowned confused and Gwen burst out laughing. ‘Take him at his word, he'll do it.’
‘Well, I almost believe you,’ Catherine replied and the Captain's grin got a bit bigger.
But one question was stuck in Catherine's mind and she decided to just ask it.
‘Just tell me one more thing. I don't have the impression that you offered this job to many more computer specialists than me. Why did you offer it to me?’
‘I did some research on four people in total,’ said Gwen Cooper. ‘You totally fit in. Your career, your knowledge and your living conditions also did.’ Catherine didn't ask the question what her living conditions had to do with this, because she actually knew the answer to it.
‘And I liked your red hair,’ the Captain tossed in and quickly ducked away from the table so his colleague couldn't nudge him.
‘Jack!’ Gwen shook her head indignantly.
‘Never mind,’ Catherine laughed, ‘I know that my hair is the first men look at.’ She hoped that she didn't drop a brick with this remark, but Jack Harkness just gesticulated, as if he wanted to tell Gwen he told her so and both of them joined in her laughing.
’Something just crossed my mind. There's one extra question I need to ask you before I can agree to your employment,’ the Captain suddenly said and Catherine felt queasy. There it was. Something she couldn't do and that would destroy all of her hope.
‘Can you make coffee? I mean, really good coffee?’
Gwen gave a loud groan. ‘Jack!’
‘No, it's fine. That's a legitimate question,’ Catherine reassured her future colleague.
‘And? Can you?,’ the Captain asked again.
‘Yes, sir, I can,’ Catherine answered and she couldn't help but notice the shadow on his face that followed the word ‘sir’. Nevertheless, she tried to make a joke. ‘I once had a colleague who wanted to date me just for my coffee.’
A happy smile suddenly let the Captain's face light up and the butterflies in her stomach turned into a glowing fireball.
‘I hope you gave him that chance,’ Jack Harkness said and turned towards the door, laughing.
‘I'll have to disappoint you, Captain Harkness,’ Catherine called after him. ‘Unfortunately, he wasn't my type at all.’
With a roaring laughter, the Captain walked away and disappeared in the depths of the nearby rooms.
‘I think that means you've got the job,’ said Gwen Cooper, offering Catherine her hand. ‘I'm Gwen, if you want to.’
‘Only if you call me Cathy then.’
Gwen's handshake felt strong and confident and Catherine thanked her new colleague by nodding meaningful.