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fangrrl_squeesTitle: The Harkness Supremacy - Chapter 12 of 12
Overall Rating: 15 (some violence, a tiny bit of slash, strong language)
Total Length: 11,100 words - which is why it's been broken down into 12 parts!
Chapter Rating: PG-13 (language, innuendo)
Disclaimer: This is an homage. The characters are not mine.
Summary: What happens when a member of MI6, an assassin and a former time agent run into each other in Hong Kong? Quite a lot.
Part 1 - James Bond hated Hong Kong...
Part 2 - 'You're not about to win any awards for safe driving.'
Part 3 - 'I must have *really* pissed M off.'
Part 4 - 'One man's trash is another man's treasure'
Part 5 - It was only human to have a few drinks after hearing bad news...
Part 6 - Dr. Stuart Bell seemed to be pushing research along some very specific paths
Part 7 - It didn’t help that whoever designed the place apparently didn’t like sports, or America – or possibly both.
Part 8 - Bond wondered how much trouble he’d be in if he hogtied the American and left him in the closet for the duration.
Part 9 - 'You’re from the X-Files – a not very competent version of the X-Files, either.'
Part 10 - 'I thought I had a choice between getting shot and...'
Part 11 - 'You’re in a country renowned for a lack of human rights and you’re not even human.'
***
Like the rest of the campus, the high-energy physics lab was deserted. All of the students and staff were elsewhere, celebrating the New Year. The doors were locked, of course, but that wasn’t an issue to people like Bond, Harkness and Bourne.
The cinderblock-lined room was crammed with banks of equipment, computers, oversized transformers and at least one linear accelerator. The air hummed with electricity and stank of ozone. The place might be unsupervised but something was in the works. Jack could tell that much just by the taste of the air and the activity of the half a dozen network servers arrayed against a nearby wall.
“He’s going to freeze them.” Bourne explained. “Although I don’t understand how.”
“The Long March experiment,” Jack filled in, remembering the file he’d found in Bell’s office. “Swapping out a chunk of deep space for the local atmosphere. Bell wrote it up like it was going to be a small scale thing but I doubt he meant it. Do it over the harbor and smother and flash-freeze all at once. Do a transmat keyed to bring in the high-protein blobs in a given area and you’re all set.”
“How do you know what he’s up to?” Bond demanded of Bourne, deciding it was best to ignore what blobs implied.
“I hacked the computer at his place.” The assassin replied, as if stating the obvious. Then he looked annoyed. “A shame I missed the alien part.”
“Yeah,” Bond’s voice dripped sarcasm. “That would have saved us a lot of trouble.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Bourne said flatly. “His money was good.”
“When are you going to quit that, Jason?”
“When the money stops.” Another duh statement.
“Can it.” Jack snapped. “Save the tiffs for later.” Something was up with those two and, as deliciously salacious as it might be to contemplate, Jack didn’t have time for such thoughts right now. He surveyed the lab, trying to figure out what did what. Everything was unlabelled – or labeled in Chinese which, as far as Jack was concerned, amounted to the same thing.
“Now what?” Bond asked, feeling superfluous amongst the gadgetry.
“Don’t rush me!” Jack insisted. “I’m sure there’s a way to shut this down but it’s…” he looked exasperated. “Tricky.” He sighed and looked around the place again. “Damn. It’s at least five hundred years until you guys realize how superfluous most of this is.” He approached a likely seeming area – it seemed central to the facility – and started tracing wires. He didn’t want to spend ten minutes painstakingly defusing the coffeepot.
“How does all of this work?” Bond frowned.
“Would you accept that it’s really, really complicated and probably illegal on this planet?”
“Alright.” Bond wiggled the mouse of a nearby computer and stared at the monitor.
Jack winced. “Please don’t do whatever it is you’re doing. It probably won’t help.” Jack levered a panel up from a bank of controls and peered at some circuit boards. He was painfully aware there probably wasn’t much time but he couldn’t rush, either. What doesn’t belong here?
A few minutes later. “Found it.” Jack pointed to a mass of black plastic and silver-blue wires that had been soldered in between two apparently-normal circuit boards. “Tricky thing is going to be removing it without turning the city inside out,” he admitted as he levered up the rest of the control panel. “But at least we won’t know, right?”
“Great.” Bourne said, voice dry.
Bond watched Jack at work and decided he had a simpler solution. A floor-to-ceiling cage of electricity generating equipment stood to his left. The fact that most of the labels in the control box were in Chinese weren’t much of an issue to him. “There’s got to be…” he muttered.
Jack noticed Bond’s interest in the cage. “What are you –” The lights went out. “Shit!”
“Quiet!” That came from Bourne.
Jack listened and realized that not only had the lights gone out but everything had shut down. The computers, the linear accelerator – all of it shut down and sat quietly in the dim phosphorescence of emergency lighting strips.
Jack felt stupid. “James, tell me you didn’t just cut off the lab’s power.”
“Of course not.” The Brit replied mildly. “I should have shorted out most of the campus. We don't want any back-up generators cutting in, right?”
Bourne couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Always with the overkill.”
“Hush, you.” Bond replied with a half-smile.
Jack looked at them and settled on the most logical conclusion. “It beats having you two trying to kill each other.” He commented then added with a grin: “But I’d pay good money for a replay of the wrestling at Bell’s place.”
Bourne stared at Jack. “Is he always like this?” he asked Bond.
“I fear so.”
Bourne seemed to take this philosophically. “Is that it?” he asked, finally, gesturing at the lab around them.
“I think so.” Jack admitted as he ripped the alien equipment out of its cuckoo nest. “Sometimes the simple solutions are best.”
“That’s me – direct.”
Jack’s mouth acted ahead of his brain. “I should be so lucky.”
Bond looked at the other American. “See?”
“I think I do.”
“Hey!” Jack protested. “I’m a constant in a changing universe. Or something.”
“I’d vote for the something.” Bond said, thinking of the several unanswered – and perhaps unanswerable – questions he had about Captain Jack Harkness.
“Geeze. Tough crowd - where are you going?” This was addressed to Bourne, heading towards the lab’s exit.
He looked puzzled by the question. “Like you said, we’re done. I’m leaving.”
“Not alone, you aren’t.” Jack insisted. “I’ve got unfinished business with the pair of you. C’mon, James…”
***
Author's Afterword
Yes, I made fast and loose with just a bit of timing in this story. With luck, those areas weren’t too obvious or if they were, they were forgivable.
In regards to the continuity with Jason Bourne, I’m using pre-Bourne Identity Matt Damon for the look-and-feel, combined with the book’s plot - not the screenplay's. The first novel in the series made much of the fact that Bourne’s ongoing mission was to lure Carlos the Jackal out of his apparently invulnerable comfort zone, largely by taking credit for his kills and/or poaching assassinations that Carlos had agreed to do. Hence Bourne’s reputation, apparently steady state of mind and very little mention of the organization for which he worked in this story - as Treadstone had to give him a very long rein indeed, so that Carlos wouldn’t twig to what was going on.
Bond, obviously, is Daniel Craig’s take on the role, lock stock and barrel. Yum.
In terms of Torchwood timing, this is the vague area of time after Tosh joined the team, but before Owen did – and at least a year before Gwen came onto the scene. Given the mess that RTD et al have already made of Torchwood’s continuity, I think my playing fast-and-loose is acceptable.
My initial intention was to write some mindless PWP featuring the three characters, for my evil twin’s amusement. Unfortunately, a bloody plot horned in, insisted that I figure out why those three characters would be in each other’s vicinity and before I realized it, most of the PWP was gone and there were big steaming lumps of plot all over the place. Regardless of intentions gone awry, I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
PS. You know what's really scary about "The End Zone"? I based it off a real place. It's not as bad as all that - it's just a bar at the hotel where Gallifrey One is currently held, rather than a meat market, but the sports theme, the too-many-and-too-noisy-TVs and general lack of taste to the place are a direct lift. When I wrote the scene and had to envision the most annoying bar possible, that place immediately leapt to mind...
PPS,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
moviegrrl, if you want a filthy epilogue, I'm afraid it's on your plate, 'cause I'm just no good at teh smutty boysex. :)
Overall Rating: 15 (some violence, a tiny bit of slash, strong language)
Total Length: 11,100 words - which is why it's been broken down into 12 parts!
Chapter Rating: PG-13 (language, innuendo)
Disclaimer: This is an homage. The characters are not mine.
Summary: What happens when a member of MI6, an assassin and a former time agent run into each other in Hong Kong? Quite a lot.
Part 1 - James Bond hated Hong Kong...
Part 2 - 'You're not about to win any awards for safe driving.'
Part 3 - 'I must have *really* pissed M off.'
Part 4 - 'One man's trash is another man's treasure'
Part 5 - It was only human to have a few drinks after hearing bad news...
Part 6 - Dr. Stuart Bell seemed to be pushing research along some very specific paths
Part 7 - It didn’t help that whoever designed the place apparently didn’t like sports, or America – or possibly both.
Part 8 - Bond wondered how much trouble he’d be in if he hogtied the American and left him in the closet for the duration.
Part 9 - 'You’re from the X-Files – a not very competent version of the X-Files, either.'
Part 10 - 'I thought I had a choice between getting shot and...'
Part 11 - 'You’re in a country renowned for a lack of human rights and you’re not even human.'
***
Like the rest of the campus, the high-energy physics lab was deserted. All of the students and staff were elsewhere, celebrating the New Year. The doors were locked, of course, but that wasn’t an issue to people like Bond, Harkness and Bourne.
The cinderblock-lined room was crammed with banks of equipment, computers, oversized transformers and at least one linear accelerator. The air hummed with electricity and stank of ozone. The place might be unsupervised but something was in the works. Jack could tell that much just by the taste of the air and the activity of the half a dozen network servers arrayed against a nearby wall.
“He’s going to freeze them.” Bourne explained. “Although I don’t understand how.”
“The Long March experiment,” Jack filled in, remembering the file he’d found in Bell’s office. “Swapping out a chunk of deep space for the local atmosphere. Bell wrote it up like it was going to be a small scale thing but I doubt he meant it. Do it over the harbor and smother and flash-freeze all at once. Do a transmat keyed to bring in the high-protein blobs in a given area and you’re all set.”
“How do you know what he’s up to?” Bond demanded of Bourne, deciding it was best to ignore what blobs implied.
“I hacked the computer at his place.” The assassin replied, as if stating the obvious. Then he looked annoyed. “A shame I missed the alien part.”
“Yeah,” Bond’s voice dripped sarcasm. “That would have saved us a lot of trouble.”
“Don’t be so sure.” Bourne said flatly. “His money was good.”
“When are you going to quit that, Jason?”
“When the money stops.” Another duh statement.
“Can it.” Jack snapped. “Save the tiffs for later.” Something was up with those two and, as deliciously salacious as it might be to contemplate, Jack didn’t have time for such thoughts right now. He surveyed the lab, trying to figure out what did what. Everything was unlabelled – or labeled in Chinese which, as far as Jack was concerned, amounted to the same thing.
“Now what?” Bond asked, feeling superfluous amongst the gadgetry.
“Don’t rush me!” Jack insisted. “I’m sure there’s a way to shut this down but it’s…” he looked exasperated. “Tricky.” He sighed and looked around the place again. “Damn. It’s at least five hundred years until you guys realize how superfluous most of this is.” He approached a likely seeming area – it seemed central to the facility – and started tracing wires. He didn’t want to spend ten minutes painstakingly defusing the coffeepot.
“How does all of this work?” Bond frowned.
“Would you accept that it’s really, really complicated and probably illegal on this planet?”
“Alright.” Bond wiggled the mouse of a nearby computer and stared at the monitor.
Jack winced. “Please don’t do whatever it is you’re doing. It probably won’t help.” Jack levered a panel up from a bank of controls and peered at some circuit boards. He was painfully aware there probably wasn’t much time but he couldn’t rush, either. What doesn’t belong here?
A few minutes later. “Found it.” Jack pointed to a mass of black plastic and silver-blue wires that had been soldered in between two apparently-normal circuit boards. “Tricky thing is going to be removing it without turning the city inside out,” he admitted as he levered up the rest of the control panel. “But at least we won’t know, right?”
“Great.” Bourne said, voice dry.
Bond watched Jack at work and decided he had a simpler solution. A floor-to-ceiling cage of electricity generating equipment stood to his left. The fact that most of the labels in the control box were in Chinese weren’t much of an issue to him. “There’s got to be…” he muttered.
Jack noticed Bond’s interest in the cage. “What are you –” The lights went out. “Shit!”
“Quiet!” That came from Bourne.
Jack listened and realized that not only had the lights gone out but everything had shut down. The computers, the linear accelerator – all of it shut down and sat quietly in the dim phosphorescence of emergency lighting strips.
Jack felt stupid. “James, tell me you didn’t just cut off the lab’s power.”
“Of course not.” The Brit replied mildly. “I should have shorted out most of the campus. We don't want any back-up generators cutting in, right?”
Bourne couldn’t help it. He laughed. “Always with the overkill.”
“Hush, you.” Bond replied with a half-smile.
Jack looked at them and settled on the most logical conclusion. “It beats having you two trying to kill each other.” He commented then added with a grin: “But I’d pay good money for a replay of the wrestling at Bell’s place.”
Bourne stared at Jack. “Is he always like this?” he asked Bond.
“I fear so.”
Bourne seemed to take this philosophically. “Is that it?” he asked, finally, gesturing at the lab around them.
“I think so.” Jack admitted as he ripped the alien equipment out of its cuckoo nest. “Sometimes the simple solutions are best.”
“That’s me – direct.”
Jack’s mouth acted ahead of his brain. “I should be so lucky.”
Bond looked at the other American. “See?”
“I think I do.”
“Hey!” Jack protested. “I’m a constant in a changing universe. Or something.”
“I’d vote for the something.” Bond said, thinking of the several unanswered – and perhaps unanswerable – questions he had about Captain Jack Harkness.
“Geeze. Tough crowd - where are you going?” This was addressed to Bourne, heading towards the lab’s exit.
He looked puzzled by the question. “Like you said, we’re done. I’m leaving.”
“Not alone, you aren’t.” Jack insisted. “I’ve got unfinished business with the pair of you. C’mon, James…”
***
Author's Afterword
Yes, I made fast and loose with just a bit of timing in this story. With luck, those areas weren’t too obvious or if they were, they were forgivable.
In regards to the continuity with Jason Bourne, I’m using pre-Bourne Identity Matt Damon for the look-and-feel, combined with the book’s plot - not the screenplay's. The first novel in the series made much of the fact that Bourne’s ongoing mission was to lure Carlos the Jackal out of his apparently invulnerable comfort zone, largely by taking credit for his kills and/or poaching assassinations that Carlos had agreed to do. Hence Bourne’s reputation, apparently steady state of mind and very little mention of the organization for which he worked in this story - as Treadstone had to give him a very long rein indeed, so that Carlos wouldn’t twig to what was going on.
Bond, obviously, is Daniel Craig’s take on the role, lock stock and barrel. Yum.
In terms of Torchwood timing, this is the vague area of time after Tosh joined the team, but before Owen did – and at least a year before Gwen came onto the scene. Given the mess that RTD et al have already made of Torchwood’s continuity, I think my playing fast-and-loose is acceptable.
My initial intention was to write some mindless PWP featuring the three characters, for my evil twin’s amusement. Unfortunately, a bloody plot horned in, insisted that I figure out why those three characters would be in each other’s vicinity and before I realized it, most of the PWP was gone and there were big steaming lumps of plot all over the place. Regardless of intentions gone awry, I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
PS. You know what's really scary about "The End Zone"? I based it off a real place. It's not as bad as all that - it's just a bar at the hotel where Gallifrey One is currently held, rather than a meat market, but the sports theme, the too-many-and-too-noisy-TVs and general lack of taste to the place are a direct lift. When I wrote the scene and had to envision the most annoying bar possible, that place immediately leapt to mind...
PPS,
moviegrrl, if you want a filthy epilogue, I'm afraid it's on your plate, 'cause I'm just no good at teh smutty boysex. :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 08:26 am (UTC)I do love Bond's reaction to the whole alien thing, both before and after he got proof of aliens, and his reactions to Jack's usual inuendos.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 07:24 pm (UTC)And thank you for finishing it before posting - too many authors ramble on posting episodes without any clear idea of how the story ends.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 07:38 pm (UTC)Oh bloody hell. I knew I'd forgotten to restore something I'd cut from that scene. *mutters darkly and reaches for the retcon*
That aside, thanks for reading. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 07:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 07:54 pm (UTC)The final touch to an excellent fic.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 08:32 pm (UTC)My mind is hazing over with the thought of the three of them flirting -or doing even more!!- after the credits rolled on this one!
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 08:41 pm (UTC)That's why I didn't write it.
A) it would have deflated the entire story preceding it,
B) I doubt that my meager boysex skillz would have done the idea justice
and
C) I just can't focus on a keyboard with a head full of ideas like that! :)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 08:36 pm (UTC)Peace,
CS WhiteWolf
no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-30 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 12:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 08:29 am (UTC)I found some of the point of view shifts confusing, but the plot sucked me in and pulled me along - I wanted more! It was over far too quickly for me! There's definitely enough here for something novella length (at least!) Nice going for a stray PWP ;)
Much enjoyed, thanks :)
no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 02:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 07:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-03 07:11 pm (UTC)Much fun! Nice work.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 01:12 am (UTC)