DW fic - The Tech and the Thief

[grlgoddess]

Title: The Tech and the Thief
Author: grlgoddess
Characters: Tosh/Christina
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1662

Summary: Tosh is sent to recover an artifact for Torchwood, but she's not the only one who's after it.

Disclaimer: Don't own

AN/Warnings: Written for doreyg for the dw_femslash ficathon. I claim wibbly-wobbly to the fact that it takes place pre-S2 finale for Torchwood and post Planet of the Dead for Doctor Who. Yay Morgan for betaing!




It was just supposed to be a routine rift alert. Tosh had been sent to recover an alien artifact housed in a museum. Simple. Jack had even trusted her to do this alone. She had gotten into the museum easily enough, just a flash of Torchwood ID and the security guard waved her in, albeit a bit reluctantly. However, once she got into the display room, she wasn't alone.

Standing directly across from her was a woman covered from head to toe in black. A thief. They ran for the artifact. It was nothing more than a lump of metal, Tosh had no idea why this thief would want it. The thief reached it first and quickly disposed of the case. Tosh quickly reached it as well, their hands brushing as they grabbed on to the small artifact at the same time. Tosh's hand tingled at the touch.

It was a stupid move. The world turned upside down. Everything was spinning, colours flashed across Tosh's vision until she finally fell into unconsciousness.

When Tosh woke, she was lying sprawled on a cold, flat surface. She looked up, the sky was pink. Great. Not Cardiff then. As she rolled her head to the side, she saw the thief crouched up, digging through her backpack.

"So, you're awake then," the thief said, walking over as Tosh stood up, "I'm Christina. Lady Christina de Souza, to be precise, and who are you?"

"I'm Toshiko Sato," she said, standing shakily, "I'm with Torchwood."

"I see. That artifact must be of alien origin. We must have set it off when we grabbed onto it."

"What do you know about aliens?" Tosh asked, suspicious.

"Oh, I've picked up a few things here and there."

"Where's the artifact?"

"I have no idea. It was gone when I woke up. But we're probably going to need it to get back." She turned back to digging in her backpack.

"You think you have what we need to find it in there?"

"Maybe."

"Well, I have exactly what we need." Tosh said, digging in her own bag.

"And what would that be?"

"This," she said, pulling out a temporal tracer.

"What is that?" Christina asked, leaning in for a closer look.

"It's a temporal tracer, tuned into the artifact's signal. We just have to follow it and we'll be good."

"Oh, you are brilliant!" Christina said, tossing her backpack over her shoulder, "Let's be off then."

Tosh nodded, blushing slightly at the compliment, and led the way. The readings were a bit confused. This was probably the planet the artifact originated on.

"Why do you want the artifact anyway?" Tosh asked.

"I could ask the same of you," Christina replied archly.

"I'm with Torchwood. Recovering potentially dangerous alien artifacts is in the job description."

"I suppose it is," Christina said, then fell silent.

"You didn't answer my question."

"No, I suppose I didn't."

"Well?"

"Well what?"

Tosh sighed, slightly aggravated by the posh woman's evasion. "Well, why do you want the artifact?"

"Oh that, no reason really. I just thought I would be able to use it to repair my bus."

"Repair a bus? With an alien artifact? Couldn't you just take it to a mechanic?"

"Of course not. For one thing, I'd be arrested, and for another, it's not exactly a normal bus."

What a strange woman. A thief on the run with an apparently abnormal bus. Tosh was intrigued. "What's so not normal about the bus?"

"It flies. Anti – gravity clamps on the wheels. It's very handy for getting out of scrapes."

They walked along. The ground was still flat and hard, and the sky was still pink, but there was starting to be signs of vegetation. A root poking out of the ground here, a small brown shrub there. Tosh wished she could stop and admire them. It was so fascinating. To her surprise, Christina stopped and knelt down next to a bush with blue flowers.

"I wonder if you could grow these on Earth?" Christina mused aloud. Tosh sat beside her and pulled out an instrument from her pack. She stuck it in the ground.

"It looks like you could. The climate here is almost identical to an American desert," Tosh said, "Easy enough to replicate in a greenhouse."

Christina stared at the bush thoughtfully. "I suppose … Right," she said, standing up, "We should get going."

"Yeah," Tosh said, standing up reluctantly and stashing the instrument away.


A while later, the vegetation had grown denser and taller. It was almost like a forest. It was dark like a forest. Suddenly, Tosh heard some rustling.

"Did you hear that?" she said, stopping to look around.

"Hear what?" Christina said, stopping as well.

"It's just … nothing," Tosh said. Her imagination was working overtime, that's all. There was bound to be some small aliens living in the forest. That's all.

Another rustle.

"No wait!" Christina said, "What is that?"

The rustling intensified. Tosh took out a scanner.

"There's lifeforms," she said, "All over. We're surrounded."

"That's probably not good," Christina said, setting her backpack on the ground to pull out a shovel. Tosh took out her gun.

"Maybe if we just walk away, slowly, we'll be all right," Tosh said.

"We can try that. But if that fails, we run on my count," Christina ordered.

Christina moved closer to her, protectively. Tosh tried not to focus on her closeness. There was more important things to worry about, like getting off of this planet in one piece. They walked forward together, hands brushing against each other. The rustling followed them, coming from all sides. They heard a growling sound, then another. The walking away slowly plan was looking less and less successful. The growling turned into barks and roars. The rustling grew closer.

"Be ready," Christina said.

A creature jumped out into the path ahead. It was about the size of a large dog, but far more fierce looking. Tosh shot it reflexively, and it fell, wounded.

"Run!" Christina shouted, grabbing her hand, as more creatures came out of the forest. They were all different shapes and sizes, the only thing they had in common was their angry eyes. Tosh and Christina ran off, trying to stay on the path the temporal tracer had set for them, all the while beating off the creatures. The pack was thinning slightly, but each of the wounded creatures would keep coming at them until an injury made it impossible. Tosh began aiming for their legs instead of their heads or chests, Christina slicing at them with the side of the shovel, using it as a sword rather than a club. There was too much going on. Tosh could barely keep the creatures at bay. The forest looked to be thinning up ahead, but Tosh couldn't quite focus on that. She had to keep the monsters at bay. She had to follow the tracer. She couldn't. She faltered.

Then Christina was there. "Come on Toshiko," she said, "We're almost out of the forest. Just a few more steps." Christina grabbed her arm, and led the way. Her shovel was still hacking away. Tosh leveled a few more shots, following Christina's lead.

Eventually, they burst out into the pink light. The creatures who were left shied away from the brightness and whimpered back into the forest. Tosh collapsed on the ground, Christina lying down beside her. Suddenly, Christina burst out laughing.

"That was brilliant!" she said.

"Brilliant? We were almost killed."

"But we weren't. And those creatures! Did you see the one that looked like a cross between a crocodile and an anteater?"

Tosh couldn't help laughing along. The creatures were pretty ridiculous looking, not to mention their entire situation, and Christina's enjoyment was infectious.

After a while of this, Christina stood up. "Come on," she said, pulling Tosh up alongside her. "We should get going before more creatures stumble upon us."

"Yes, of course," Tosh said, pulling out the temporal tracer. "It shouldn't be too far now, the signal's quite strong."

"Excellent."

They walked some more, following the tracer's signal down into a little valley. The valley was filled with the blue flowers they had spotted earlier. Near the middle of it was the artifact.

"I think we'll have to touch it at the same time to make it work," Christina said, and Tosh agreed. "All right then. On the count of three. One … Two … Three!"

They grabbed on to the artifact, and the world spun. This time around, it was slightly less chaotic, and both of them retained consciousness. They were back in the museum. Tosh took the artifact and slid it into her bag.

"Now that's not fair," Christina said, pouting.

Tosh smiled wryly. "It's not my decision. If it's alien, it's Torchwood's."

"Well, I suppose you can't win everything," Christina said, leaning in. "But you can win some things."

And then Tosh was being kissed. Christina's hand ran through her hair as her tongue slipped along her lips. Before Tosh could properly respond, it was over.

"I'll see you around," Christina said, smirking with satisfaction as she ran out of the room.

Tosh left in a bit of a daze. What an odd day it had been, even by Torchwood standards.


When she got back to the hub, she emptied out her bag. The artifact was gone. Christina must have taken it somehow. Probably when they were kissing. Tosh began to feel angry at being used, again, but then she spotted something else. A bit of the bush, with a single blue flower clinging to it. Pinned to the plant was a note.

Sorry, but I need it more than Torchwood. Give me a call sometime and maybe we can see what else this artifact can do. - Christina

Tosh smiled. She'd see Christina again, and it would definitely be interesting. Now all she had to worry about was explaining why she didn't get the artifact to Jack.

Comments

[wishfulaces.livejournal.com]

I love the ending--of course Christine snatched the artifact, but what a lovely thing to do, leaving the blue flower behind.

[grlgoddess.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much!

[doreyg.livejournal.com]

AW! This was adorable and lovely and had a great amount of adventure <3; and more Christina is always good- and she's great paired with Tosh! :D

Thank you! <33

(Also; sorry for taking so long to review ;;- my body decided to get randomly tired again)

[grlgoddess.livejournal.com]

Thank you soo much! I'm glad you enjoyed it! :)

[dariclone.livejournal.com]

Nice! I love Christina and she works very well with Tosh.

[grlgoddess.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)