Ficlet: Minor Malfunction
Sep. 29th, 2025 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Minor Malfunction
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Ianto, Jack.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 742
Spoilers: Post-Children of Earth, set in my Ghost of a Chance ‘Verse.
Summary: Being out in space is proving a little unnerving for Ianto, thanks to what Jack calls a minor malfunction in one of the ship’s systems.
Written For: The prompt ‘Any, any, malfunction,’ at
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threesentenceficathon.Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
Space was not Ianto’s natural habitat; out here in the blackness between worlds, he felt hopelessly out of his depth, although he was doing his best to learn the basics necessary to not only survive but to embrace his new life so far from everything that was familiar. It was just that there was so much he didn’t know, so much that was possibly beyond the comprehension of even the astronauts, astronomers, and astrophysicists of the twenty-first century. Ianto suspected most of it went far beyond mere rocket science.
Back at Torchwood Three, the team had thought he knew everything, mostly because he’d told them so as a joke one time. He did have a near photographic memory, which helped to make it seem that he knew a lot more than he did, but very little of Ianto’s knowledge and experience amassed throughout his short life was much help at present.
Spaceships were far more complex than cars, or even earth-based aircraft, not that Ianto had the faintest clue about aircraft mechanics, never having had any reason to study the subject. Jack, of course, knew spaceships inside and out, not all makes and models but certainly the most common ones, and could figure out pretty much any kind of craft designed for space travel, or even atmospheric travel. The Time Agency had no doubt given all cadets a crash course in both subjects, preparing them for whatever they might need to deal with on missions, and Jack had proved how knowledgeable he was on countless occasions back on earth, fixing various craft that had been damaged as they were dragged through the Rift.
Knowing that Jack was so experienced was reassuring, because being out in space, far from any planets or space stations, and having their ship malfunctioning, was a bit alarming for someone who still wasn’t used to being out here in the vacuum between stars. Ianto was uncomfortably aware of the nothingness surrounding them, a nothingness that was being held at bay by nothing more than the hull of the ship they were in. He knew that if something pierced that outer shell, they’d be in big trouble; they could lose all their atmosphere, and then where would they be? Dead in a punctured tin can, no doubt, floating powerless in the void, perhaps never to be seen again.
“Would you relax, Ianto?” Jack said, glancing at his lover, sitting tense in the co-pilot’s seat, knuckles white, fingernails digging into the padded armrests. “It’s a minor malfunction in the navigation systems, that’s all, probably a short circuit. I’ll have it fixed in no time.”
“That’s easy for you to say, but what good will fixing it do when we’re already off course and have no idea where we are? We could be lost out here forever! We might never find our way back to civilisation!”
As if the situation wasn’t already bad enough, Jack had the nerve to laugh at him. “That’s never going to happen.”
Ianto turned a baleful glare on the immortal. “I’m so glad you’re finding this amusing,” he said, meaning the complete opposite.
“Someday you’re going to look back on this moment and laugh at what you just said.” Jack grinned, unfazed by Ianto’s gloomy outlook on their situation. “We’re not lost, and we can’t GET lost; once everything’s working properly again, the navcomp will be able to triangulate our exact position the way sailors used to navigate back on earth. By studying the stars. We’ll be back on course before you know it, so stop worrying and let me get on with repairs.”
With a huff, Ianto slumped back in his seat; it was hardly his fault he didn’t know things like that. “Doesn’t this ship have an operations manual or something?”
“Should be a copy clipped under your seat,” Jack said from beneath the navigation computer.
“You couldn’t have told me that sooner?” Reaching under his seat, Ianto extracted what appeared to be an electronic book of some sort, like a very advanced version of a Kindle. He found a switch and turned it on.
Jack peered up at him. “Now what are you up to?”
“I think it’s about time I started learning something about spaceships, this one in particular.” Ianto turned to the first ‘page’ and settled down to read; maybe if he knew more about the craft that was now his home, he wouldn’t panic the next time something stopped working.
The End
Back at Torchwood Three, the team had thought he knew everything, mostly because he’d told them so as a joke one time. He did have a near photographic memory, which helped to make it seem that he knew a lot more than he did, but very little of Ianto’s knowledge and experience amassed throughout his short life was much help at present.
Spaceships were far more complex than cars, or even earth-based aircraft, not that Ianto had the faintest clue about aircraft mechanics, never having had any reason to study the subject. Jack, of course, knew spaceships inside and out, not all makes and models but certainly the most common ones, and could figure out pretty much any kind of craft designed for space travel, or even atmospheric travel. The Time Agency had no doubt given all cadets a crash course in both subjects, preparing them for whatever they might need to deal with on missions, and Jack had proved how knowledgeable he was on countless occasions back on earth, fixing various craft that had been damaged as they were dragged through the Rift.
Knowing that Jack was so experienced was reassuring, because being out in space, far from any planets or space stations, and having their ship malfunctioning, was a bit alarming for someone who still wasn’t used to being out here in the vacuum between stars. Ianto was uncomfortably aware of the nothingness surrounding them, a nothingness that was being held at bay by nothing more than the hull of the ship they were in. He knew that if something pierced that outer shell, they’d be in big trouble; they could lose all their atmosphere, and then where would they be? Dead in a punctured tin can, no doubt, floating powerless in the void, perhaps never to be seen again.
“Would you relax, Ianto?” Jack said, glancing at his lover, sitting tense in the co-pilot’s seat, knuckles white, fingernails digging into the padded armrests. “It’s a minor malfunction in the navigation systems, that’s all, probably a short circuit. I’ll have it fixed in no time.”
“That’s easy for you to say, but what good will fixing it do when we’re already off course and have no idea where we are? We could be lost out here forever! We might never find our way back to civilisation!”
As if the situation wasn’t already bad enough, Jack had the nerve to laugh at him. “That’s never going to happen.”
Ianto turned a baleful glare on the immortal. “I’m so glad you’re finding this amusing,” he said, meaning the complete opposite.
“Someday you’re going to look back on this moment and laugh at what you just said.” Jack grinned, unfazed by Ianto’s gloomy outlook on their situation. “We’re not lost, and we can’t GET lost; once everything’s working properly again, the navcomp will be able to triangulate our exact position the way sailors used to navigate back on earth. By studying the stars. We’ll be back on course before you know it, so stop worrying and let me get on with repairs.”
With a huff, Ianto slumped back in his seat; it was hardly his fault he didn’t know things like that. “Doesn’t this ship have an operations manual or something?”
“Should be a copy clipped under your seat,” Jack said from beneath the navigation computer.
“You couldn’t have told me that sooner?” Reaching under his seat, Ianto extracted what appeared to be an electronic book of some sort, like a very advanced version of a Kindle. He found a switch and turned it on.
Jack peered up at him. “Now what are you up to?”
“I think it’s about time I started learning something about spaceships, this one in particular.” Ianto turned to the first ‘page’ and settled down to read; maybe if he knew more about the craft that was now his home, he wouldn’t panic the next time something stopped working.
The End
(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-30 09:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-09-30 09:30 pm (UTC)Thank you!