Jack Harkness

Dear diary.

Running out of reasons not to strangle my team.

So, something identifying itself as the Kashtta Tower showed up on the journal networks, writing a locked entry to Martha, a bit ago. I have a few questions about this, as I can imagine Martha does, too.

Mercury, could this tie into the journal experiments you've been doing? Failing that, Owen, Mio, anything you've heard from the Tower's directions which might shed some light?

So. All of you should be aware that Ianto Jones, a Torchwood agent from Cardiff, came through the Rift about a week ago. I told him to take some time to familiarize himself with the political atmosphere before deciding if he wanted to work here in this universe.

He's just come back and admitted to being made into a psychic trojan.

I know what you're thinking: our jobs really weren't complicated enough.

Someone from his own universe wrote a volatile persona over his own identity, programmed to target, assault, and kill civilians, specifically young women. Apparently by the time he realized he wasn't in control, he'd already killed several people. Which gives us a problem.

I've put him in one of the dorm rooms on the third floor, for the moment. Mercury, Daniel, I need you to get a locking system on that door. I still don't know the extend of his programming, or if it'll kick in and shut down his cooperation. Owen, I need you keeping an eye on him just in case he does get up to something in the Tower.

Mio, Martha...I need options. Obviously there are laws that have been broken, and obviously there are special circumstances. And, obviously, something has to be done to address the damage in his mind. I just need to know what options we have.

[Locked to Mio Hongo and Sailor Mercury primarily; Torchwood Chicago as a whole; Elashte; Martha]

It looks like our roles as caretakers of the wanderer population are about to get a lot more literal.

From what I hear, current wanderers and any new ones coming through are not going to have anywhere to go unless they elect to head out to the Main Gauche, and from what I hear from Elashte, that may not be a sustainable option. At the moment, we're sitting on top of the largest facility available to house them: the Kashtta Tower.

We need to get the academic wings set up to handle an influx of refugees. See that we have a system to assign rooms, set up common areas, work out some sort of rotation with kitchen duties and determine access controls on consumables.

And we need to find a way to lock down the Tower proper – the basement especially, but I'd like to restrict access to the offices above the first floor. Above the second, if necessary; we can relocate up, but I don't want civilians tramping all over Torchwood HQ, and I certainly don't want them messing with the Rift in the sub-basement. Not to mention the corrupted hallway and Owen's morgue. We can't proceed with this until we take care of those security concerns.

I know it's a lot to ask, but I'm asking it, and at this point the city of Chicago is asking it, too. I want the Kashtta partitioned and ready to be inhabited within four days, if at all possible and possibly if not. By the time the sun sets on Wednesday, let's have a place for the masses to call home.

[Locked to Torchwood]

Right, everyone, the city's not fixing itself.

Take some time to introduce yourselves to each other; I want to see noise on these journals. Debate the great tactical problems. Develop schema for experimental technologies. Share brownie recipes; I don't care. For the next little while, and I know you're going to love this, Owen, we're going to be team-building to any extent we can. Plan on sleeping in the Tower and taking a few meals together. We don't know how to work together, we're pretty much screwed.

Anyone who hasn't gone through firearms training needs to see me to get that fixed as soon as possible.

I'm in the middle of an equipment audit to see what was left behind when everyone was taken. Everyone needs to see me as soon as possible to be assigned a headset and a mobile phone. Those of you without Torchwood-issue firearms also need to see me to determine what style fits you best.

Any questions, ask.


Back in my home universe, Torchwood was founded to protect the British empire from anything beyond the scope or knowledge of its usual protectors, and to serve the Empire's interests by securing alien technology. By the time it filtered down to my command in Cardiff, the imperative was to protect the city and monitor the Rift.

This is Torchwood Chicago. We don't have the institutional resources we did back home, but this is what we do: we take what we have and we make it work.

Torchwood Chicago's mandate is, primarily, to look after wanderer interests in this city – we're the only thing resembling a special response team that will and can. Protecting the city itself is an extension of that. Like it or not, this is where the majority of wanderers are going to be, and we're going to keep it standing. We don't have time to ease into this job, boys and girls; let's hit the ground running.

[Locked to Martha Jones]

...I spent a long time debating how to open this.

I've seen the updated lists of the missing. I... can't say how sorry I am. Much as I know that sorry fixes nothing.

I know I'm probably not the most reassuring person to pop up on the journal network right now, but it looks like we're not getting much choice in this. Owen drafted me into the Torchwood reconstruction at gunpoint, so here I am.

From what I've heard from Elashte, the entire Archangel command structure is gone and there's unrest on all the less-than-legal channels that talk to him. You and Elashte may be the last known authority figures left.

Look, I  want to help. If there's any way I can.

I can stop by the Conrad, if it'd be useful. Tomorrow?

[Locked to Martha Jones]

So I hear through the grapevine that someone tried to set up a hit on Commander Shepard and it went pear-shaped, leaving her both very much alive and very much wanting certain others dead.

You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?

[Locked to Julian Sark]

So I guess your crash course in assassination didn't quite work out the way you had planned.

[Locked to Martha Jones]

Martha, are you still alive, out there? I haven't seen you in days and I still need to talk to you. And the whole "vanishing without a trace" thing really worries me, when there's a Wanderer-murderer in the vicinity of the Hotel. Please tell me there's no need to organize a search party.

[Locked to the Doctor]

The basement's been compromised. Gwen is confirmed infected, and Rose is seriously ill with something. I've broen the quarantine, and I'm having them move everyone who's not testing positive into individual isolation rooms on the top floor. I wouldn't be so worried, but —

[Locked to the Sydney Jasper Research Team]

We have our first confirmed fatality native to this universe: the paramedic who flew to Texas passed away late last night. I'm waiting on the postmortem to see whether she had any prior health concerns which could have been complicated by this, or whether this is the time frame we should be expecting.

[Locked to Torchwood, Sam Tyler, Martha Jones and Nicholas Angel]

Sam, I really hope you accepted the post with Torchwood 4, because I'm about to give you your first assignment.

Sam, Gwen, I want the two of you to sit down, see if you can get that police angel Nick in, and talk about what we're going to do if we start getting a lot of frightened people in the basement. Put that police training to work and see what resources we have to keep everyone calm and safe.

And here's hoping that it'll never be necessary, but Ianto? Get Sam and Gwen maps of the city and floorplans of whatever buildings we think Calisto might have. God help us, if we need to mount any rescue missions —

Tosh, anything you need for those panic buttons, tell me and I'll get if for you if I need to raid an armory.

And Owen, I really hope we don't need you in the coming days. Keep your fingers crossed.

[Locked to Martha and Ianto]

Our Lady of the Room Keys,

After looking at the layout of this place, I don't think this little request will be too much to ask.

There aren't a lot of services here for wanderers, and going outside is going to get complicated. The Training Room and Common Room are great, but a more nuanced support system would be nice.

So, I want to get a line of rooms, pull out the usual furnishings, and fix them up for Wanderer support services. You know, a counselling room or two, a massage parlour — don't laugh, I've already got someone lined up (and you should never discount the morale benefits of a good massage) — , a reading room, things to combat the boredom and the stress of living underneath a war zone. And hopefully to reduce the need in some way to go outside, though there's only so much we can do about that. (But if someone wanted to knock out a few walls and make an indoor garden, I'll pitch in for full-spectrum lights.)



Ianto,

If this gets cleared, can you see that it gets done? Honestly, you're a lot better at organizing these things than I am.



~ Jack