Life is All, Part I: Allons-y Alonso, Chapter 2

[amuly]

Title: Life is All Part I: Allons-y Alonso Chapter 2
Pairing: Jack/Alonso, mentions of past Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 1,588
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Alonso and Jack formulate a plan of action against the 456 home world
Warnings: Ianto!death angst
A/N: Eventually Jack and Alonso will get an actual sex scene. I have particular ones already planned out, no worries.

Chapter 1

            That night, Jack and Alonso sat in his room, huddled around a small, portable display. Alonso was telling Jack what he knew of the 456 – or, Iucunds, as they were apparently called – and showing him their history on the display. “They’re on the Cygnus arm of the Milky Way, out here,” Alonso pointed at a part of the display, and it glowed for a second, before zooming in on the region he indicated. “Both of our home planets are in the M39 cluster, over here…” again, Alonso indicated an area and the display zoomed in. Jack studied the entire thing intently. “Their star is this one, here: Iucundia. My home star is this one: Regis.”

            Jack gently pried the display from Alonso’s hands and zoomed out a little. “I’ve been near here before, I think…” he frowned. Some niggling memory was just touching at the tip of his mind. “Is there anything else prominent in that area?”

            “I…not really. It’s kind of the back-end of beyond, right now.”

            Suddenly Jack zoomed out again. Oh, right. He knew why he recognized it. A few thousand years from now, the Time Agency would send him there for training. It wasn’t where they were permanently stationed, which is why he didn’t recognize it at first. The M39 cluster was where they had a small training camp. Shit, it was where he had met John.

            “Never mind. Here.” Jack handed the telescreen back to Alonso. “What else do you know about them?”

            “Well, they try that children thing on a lot of planets. They tried it on ours, centuries ago. There was a whole war over it. We came to some sort of truce…” Alonso thought for a moment, then glanced over at Jack sheepishly. “Sorry, I never really paid too much attention in history classes.” He turned back to the screen. “But then they didn’t bother us again. I guess they kept snatching up kids, from different planets.”

            “And then they came to Earth.”

            Jack saw Alonso hesitate out of the corner of his eye. “I…”

            He shrugged. “So, how do we beat them? What’s their weakness?”

            The display flickered as Alonso’s fingers swept over the surface. “Well, their atmosphere is a mixture of Nitrous Chloride, Hydrogen Chloride, Nitrogen, Fluoride, Hydrogen Cyanide…”

             “Okay, so bringing our own oxygen is a must. Got it.”

             “Then they have basic biology: squishy bodies, if they get stabbed or shot they’ll probably die, that sort of thing. Their most vital organ is here,” Alonso pointed at the image of an Iucund, toward the middle of the torso region, “but I don’t expect you’d want to go around and kill every one of them by hand.”

            Jack remained silent. If it were at all feasible, he would. He would go to every single 456 – Iucund – and tell them exactly why he was killing them. Technically, he had all the time in the world: he could do it. But it was probably a touch impractical. Still, it felt good to imagine it, to picture ripping out the heart (or whatever they had) of every individual on the planet, to picturing torturing them individually for what they did to him, to Ianto…

            Jack heard Alonso cough, and he turned back to him. “Sorry. Got districted.”

            Next to him, Alonso nodded. “I was just saying, their atmosphere isn’t very combustible. But, it’s also carefully controlled: apparently, as they grew more technologically advanced, they needed more and more advanced climate and atmosphere controls to maintain their atmosphere and expel waste. But look,” Alonso tapped on the picture of the planet, and it zoomed in to what appeared to be a large, capital city. “Here’s where they have this big machine that keeps their atmosphere the exact mixture they need to survive. If you destroy the machine…”

            “They die. All of them.” Jack nodded. He stared at the flickering image on the screen. So it was that simple. Get down to the planet, blow up their atmosphere control. And they would die.

            Blinking, Jack shook himself from his reverie. “That’s good work, Alonso.”

            Next to him, Alonso beamed, shifting happily on the bed. “It’s no trouble. Just, trying to help.”

            Absently, Jack patted Alonso’s leg. “Alright. So where do we go first? We need to start stocking up on supplies for this. What’s your home planet like? Industrialized, advanced, what?”

            His hands moved over the screen briefly, and a new planet appeared: Regis 3. It was Earth-like: blue oceans, brown and green land masses, clouds dotting the atmosphere. The dark side in the picture was more lit up than Earth was in the 21^st century – an indicator of a more technologically advanced world. Alonso was leading Jack through the basics.

            “We’re a Class 7 planet, so we’re plenty advanced. Space-faring, all that. If you want, we could land there and get our supplies, rent a ship, whatever you want. Anything you need, we should be able to get there.”

            Jack nodded. “Alright. So we’ll hop over to the transport center tomorrow morning, book the first flight going that direction. Sound good?”

            Out of the corner of his eye Jack saw Alonso nod, then shift awkwardly. “So, I mean…we’ve got a few hours ‘til the flight, yeah?”

             For a moment Jack continued to look at the display screen, until what Alonso was saying sunk in. He turned to him, cheesy grin in place. “Oh, yeah. Guess we do. I guess you have some thoughts on how we should spend the time?”

            “I thought you were psychic?”

            Jack grinned. “Right. Well, tell me if I’m on the right track…” Jack leaned forward and kissed Alonso, pushing him back on the bed.

            An hour later, Jack was sitting in a chair in his hotel room. Alonso was sleeping on the bed, flush just starting to leave his face. Jack had a drink in his hand – a real drink, though it did next to nothing for him – and was sipping it. He watched the young man sleeping peacefully, chest lifting and falling with each breath.

            Iucunds. So that was the name of the 456. The Iucunds. Somehow they seemed less menacing, with a name to go with them instead of a number. The plan seemed so simple: get a ship, get some tools, sneak onto the planet, and destroy the atmosphere control. Then he would have his revenge.

            The thought he had so successfully ignored earlier came back, persistent and unyielding. Why would the Doctor want him to get revenge? The Doctor generally didn’t encourage things like revenge. Except, of course, when it came to the Daleks.

            Well maybe that was it. Maybe the Doctor knew something Jack didn’t: like the 456 would start working with the Daleks, or help develop the Dalek empire, or create some sort of biological weapon for them on commission. Maybe the Doctor just saw the 456 on the same level of evil with the Daleks: a race with no redeeming qualities, a race intent on death, a race that needed to be destroyed.

            So what was Jack, then? Doing the Doctor’s dirty work? That didn’t seem right, either. Whenever the Daleks needed to be destroyed, the Doctor always tried to take care of it himself, only using his companions as a last resort. And if the 456 were just sitting there, vulnerable, on their home planet…didn’t seem like a situation where the Doctor needed to resort to using Jack.

            Then what was going on? Why had the Doctor introduced them? It wasn’t just to get Jack laid; the Doctor knew that Jack didn’t exactly need his help in that department. Plus the Doctor had never really approved of Jack’s…philandering. Was it an apology? A token? That was kind of harsh to Alonso. Was he…Jack’s eyes roamed the figure on the bed…was he supposed to act as a replacement?

            That could be it. There were a lot of similarities: the age, the eyes, the height, the eager willingness to help…but that was just it. That’s where they were so different. Ianto helped Jack for himself: at first because he was using Jack to save Lisa, and then because they started screwing around. Ianto was always Jack’s right-hand-man because that was what Ianto wanted, because being around Jack made him happy. He got something out of it. This kid…it was more just a general attitude of being ready to serve, to help out. Jack frowned to himself. It sounded stupid to admit it, even to himself, but he liked Ianto because he was more selfish.

            Jack rubbed his forehead. This was getting ridiculous. He was trying to fathom the motivations of the Doctor – as if such an insane thing were possible. On top of that, he was trying to justify loving Ianto over Alonso: the man he had spent years with, versus some kid he had just met. Of course he cared more for Ianto, preferred him. Jack groaned. He needed to get out; he needed a distraction.

            As silently as he could, Jack slipped past Alonso and out of the room. He trolled the bars until the early morning, looking for someone to forget himself in. Just before dawn he slipped back into his room. Alonso was still sleeping soundly in his bed: one arm and one leg hanging off the edge, jaw slack and open in sleep. Jack smiled softly as he looked down at him, then reached a hand out to shake him awake. “Hey,” Jack stared down at a confused Alonso, blinking sleep from his eyes. “Time to go.”


Onto Chapter Three.

 

Comments

[amuly.livejournal.com]

Eee ^.^ I know I'm doing it right if you're looking forward to it Thursday.

[analia-the-1st.livejournal.com]

captainkatt, don't worry, your not the only one looking forward to "Fix-it Friday". I might be am already eager for the next one (and amuly just posted!). ;)

[amuly.livejournal.com]

Oh, speaking of which, the chapters/posts will definitely get longer, as soon as I get out of thesis-woods. So next week's'll probably be around this length, and maybe the week after, but then I've got more spare than I'll know what to do with, so expect to see nice long updates starting then.