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aviv_b_artworkIANTO'S JOURNEY, PART V- REDEMPTION
TITLE: Chapter 83- Inquiry
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 83- G/PG
CHARACTERS:: Ianto, Mickey
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 2100
SUMMARY: The UN investigation into Torchwood's role during the invasion begins
Title is from: As one may bring himself to believe almost anything he is inclined to believe, it makes all the difference whether we begin or end with the inquiry, 'What is truth?' Richard Whately
Ianto's Journey begins here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/1972.html
All Chapter are linked.
A/N - while the various regenerations of the Doctor are discussed in this chapter this is not a cross-over chapter in any substantive sense.
The Head of the UN Security Council, Dr. Ing called the “Inquiry into the Conduct of Torchwood during the Invasion of the Toclafane” to order promptly at 15:00 hours London time. He reviewed a laundry list of items that would have made no difference in the outcome of the invasion but Ianto knew could be pretty damning for Torchwood if they were spun the right way.
"Specifically, we will be examining whether Torchwood disclosed all relevant information about the invasion at the earliest possible opportunity, whether they were part of a conspiracy with some member nations to leave other member nations ill equipped to face the invaders and finally, whether Captain Jack Harkness engaged in criminal conduct while absent from Torchwood during the critical battle.”
‘Well we know answers to all of those questions, but of course without Jack its going to be hard to prove our facts,’ Ianto reckoned.
But what really galled Ianto were Dr. Ing’s final remarks. “Based on the outcome of this Inquiry, the Security Council will make recommendations on actions to be taken by the General Assembly. These may include anything from resolutions declaring actions by specific parties as unsupportable to sanctions against nations or organizations to referral to the International Criminal Court for prosecution of war crimes up to and including genocide.”
‘I see, because some nations refused to prepare properly, we’re going to be charged with genocide,’ Ianto thought. It took all of his control to mentally calm himself. ‘Won’t help to go off on them, just make us look guilty.’
The format of the session was predictable. Evidence relevant to each item would be presented by the Council, followed by Torchwood’s presentation. The floor would then be open to questions from the other members of the Security Council to Torchwood or the UN presenters. Torchwood would then be allowed to follow up with questions of their own. The biggest problem that Torchwood faced was that the Security Council held all the cards. They decided whether items could be submitted as evidence, who could be questioned as well as how long questioning could go on.
The presentation by the UN on the issue of who knew what when dragged on for several hours. It was clear that the actual information the UN had on when Torchwood (and by extension Jack Harkness) first knew of the invasion was almost non-existent but that didn’t prevent them from asserting that Torchwood had information much earlier than thought. They also implied that critical data from the future were withheld to the detriment of many countries.
Ianto presented records of all the meetings that Torchwood had held with the UN starting with two years prior to the invasion. But he couldn’t answer questions as to how much earlier Director Harkness had this information prior to the initial disclosure.
‘Director Harkness released the information when authorized by the Doctor.’ Ianto explained. It proved very difficult to explain exactly who the Doctor was. ‘He’s a Time Lord; he makes sure that the Time Lines set in place aren’t violated.’
The Ambassador from France chuckled. “So you would have us believe that some man, some Superman from the future came to save Earth. And he knows Harkness personally, you say.”
‘Actually the Doctor is a Gallifreyan. And yes, the Doctor not only knows Director Harkness, he has met with Commanders from UNIT over the years as well as members of the Royal Family of the United Kingdom.’
“Yes of course, this sounds very plausible to me.” The sarcasm in the Ambassador’s voice was unmistakable.
“Now wait a moment,” the Russian Ambassador interrupted. “Are you saying that you don’t think the Toclafane came from somewhere other than Earth?”
“Well that’s what we’re here to determine.”
“That’s ridiculous; those invaders appeared simultaneously through several of the established rifts. You aren’t seriously suggesting that some government on Earth was behind that, are you?”
The French Ambassador just smiled and shrugged. He asked Ianto when they could expect the Director’s return.
Ianto of course didn’t have any specifics as to when Jack might be returning. ‘No we haven’t had any communication from him since the start of the invasion. We know he left Earth and this time to find the source of the invasion and destroy it.’
The Nigerian Ambassador spoke next. “So you really don’t know if Mr. Harkness is on Earth or not. He could have been directing the Toclafane from a secret base in the Himalayans for all you know.”
The American Ambassador was furious. “This is outrageous. If anyone on the Security Council actually believes that the invasion didn’t come from off-Earth, I’d like them to speak up now.” The silence was deafening. “Then I move that we leave discussion of this issue open for the testimony of Jack Harkness should he appear.” There was general grumbling but in the end the Security Council decided to do just that.
After a short recess, they continued the inquiry. The issues surrounding whether Torchwood favored selected nations in the preparations to defend the Earth, initially focused on the Doctor. All members of the UN Security Council had heard of the Doctor, but none had met him and few understood who he was.
The Chinese Ambassador signaled that he wanted to speak. “I would like to present evidence made available to us by UNIT. They have opened their archives and provided us with documentation as to their relationship with the Doctor. You will find portions of some of the documents redacted due to security concerns. UNIT has also been kind enough to provide us with a retired General who has met the Doctor personally and worked with him on several occasions. You could say he is the unofficial UNIT Historian. He will start by giving us a little background on the Doctor, as well as his contacts with UNIT.”
Ianto was shocked until he saw that it was General Chatterjee. ‘My goodness,’ he thought, ‘he must be in his mid-eighties!’ The General might have been ancient but his mind was still sharp and his memory excellent. He explained how UNIT had gotten to know the Doctor in the 1960s when the occasional alien incursion was being handled by the fledgling organization. “We didn’t realize there were rifts in the time/space continuum on earth at that point in time; we actually thought that we were being invaded directly from space. And mostly that wasn’t true.”
As he showed pictures of the Doctor, the Council was startled by the various images they were being shown.
“Wait a moment,” the German Ambassador requested. “Are you saying that these are all pictures of the same person…uh or being?” When the General answered yes, the Ambassador continued, “I don’t understand, is he a chameleon or does he put on different disguises? These pictures can’t possibly all be of the same person.”
“He has multiple lifetimes. When he dies he is regenerated. We don’t know how or why he takes a particular visage, but I have personally seen the Doctor in several regenerations. Before I joined UNIT, there was substantial contact with this Doctor with the white wavy hair. It was understood that he was the third incarnation of the Doctor. UNIT was just getting up to speed and he was instrumental in giving us the basic knowledge we needed to protect the Earth from alien incursions.”
“I was a young recruit when this one here, with the curly hair and long scarf showed up at UNIT. That was, let’s see, the mid- 1970s. There weren’t many alien attacks, but one of them was quite serious.”
“Never met the thin blond one, or the one with the bad taste in clothing.” Some quiet laughter was heard as the pictures were displayed.
“Now Doctor number seven, we had a lot of contact with him in the late 1980s,” the General said frowning. "He saved the Earth on several ocassions. Don’t know much about the next one but Doctor number nine helped the British Government fend off an alien takeover of their government in 2005. His regeneration only lasted a year or so, but he was very well respected by UNIT brass.”
“The tall skinny one, number ten, with the running shoes showed up in 2006 at ….uh…Torchwood One when it was at Canary Wharf. To say that he saved the planet, would not be an understatement.”
UNIT had no real contact with the next several Doctors, though I believe the Doctor in his thirteenth regeneration visited Torchwood briefly in 2020. Now coming to our final Doctor number sixteen, this ginger one is the current Doctor.”
The General also knew quite a bit of the history of the Doctor’s relationship to the Royal Family, specifically Queen Victoria.
“Now Queen Victoria thought he was a threat. Did you know Torchwood was created by her specifically to protect the Crown from the Doctor?” Ianto winced. “But later rulers, Queen Elizabeth in particular, were well aware of the role that the Doctor played in saving the Earth not to mention the British government.”
“You see, this is what we were afraid of,” the French Ambassador interrupted. “There is a special relationship between the Doctor and the United Kingdom.”
“While it is true that the Doctor knew the British Royals best, I do believe that he knew at least one French King, Louis the Fifteenth. Hmph, no I believe it was his Mistress Madame de Pompadour that he knew actually. Quite well in fact.” While the General wasn’t trying to be amusing there was some snickering from both Torchwood and Security Council members.
The General continued, “And I would hope Ambassador, that you would realize when I say that the Doctor has saved the Earth several times in the past that I mean all of us, not just the United Kingdom.”
The Jordanian Ambassador was still puzzled. “But why? Why does he keep saving Earth?”
“That’s a very good question,” the General replied. “He always said that the Earth had a special place in his hearts… Oh, I forgot to mention he has two hearts. I always thought that his people might have their origins from Earth but I don’t think he’s ever explained.”
The hearings were adjourned to be continued the following day. Ianto and Mickey grabbed a quick meal at the Torchwood cafeteria while Ianto browsed the Internet looking at the worldwide press reaction as well as political blogs from various nations.
‘Looks like we’re holding our own. People seem to be more curious about Jack than disbelieving. Speculation seems to be coalescing around…oh shit… that Jack died saving the Earth.’ Ianto’s typing stuttered his last word.
“Ianto, you know Jack can’t die, so don’t get yourself worked up over random speculation. I bet if you were to Google his name with just about anything you’d find someone putting forward some daft story. Here, give me your laptop.”
Ianto pushed the computer across the table to Mickey. Mickey hit a few keys and began to read. “Well look at this,” he said laughing, “I Googled ‘Jack Harkness anti-Christ’ and I got over one hundred hits.” Mickey began to read. “‘Any thinking person should realize that this Harkness is the anti-Christ.’ That’s from the Focus on the Children web site.” Ianto looked puzzled. “You know one of those nutter religious groups. This next is from the official Vatican Blog. ‘The only being that can be as powerful as God is the opposite of God.’”
He pushed the computer back to Ianto. Ianto continued to scan the entries and then snorted. Then he laughed.‘One of the responses on the FAUX News website to a blog entry titled Jack Harkness: Angel or Devil – We Report, You Decide, is, ‘No you are wrong. The Doctor is the Anti-Christ, Harkness is one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.’’
Ianto finally stopped laughing and wiped his eyes. ‘Thank you Mickey you really know how to cheer a guy up. Though if you’ve ever seen Jack try to cook, it is a bit like the end of the world.’
“Glad I could help. I think the worst Torchwood will come away with is a mild rebuke from the UN. It’s clear that the Americans and the Russians and perhaps even the Chinese will veto anything more negative. But seriously, I’m worried about Jack. Even if the Security Council doesn’t issue any sanction or recommendations for prosecution, there is nothing to prevent the International Criminal Court from going after Jack. And that could get very ugly. I’m still hoping that he’ll find his way home before the hearings end.”
‘Me too,’ Ianto agreed sadly.
Chapter 84 is here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/48910.html
