The man looked at her curiously. "Sorry, who are you?" He asked in a mild American accent and she strode up in front of him.
"Captain Cassie Reynolds." She said firmly and puffed her chest out at him, trying to make up for the 10 inches between them.
"Ah," The newcomer smiled. "Well, Cassie, I'm Captain Jack Harkness, and I think you'll find I override the authority of everyone on this ship." He said confidently and Sam scoffed.
"What, even the alie-" He started but the Captain swiftly clamped a hand over his mouth.
"This is Sam Peers, my [mechanic?]." The Captain introduced him smoothly.
"Nice to meet you Sam." Jack winked and shook his hand warmly. Too warmly.
"Hi." Sam replied, unusually abashed and from in the shadows behind them the Doctor rolled his eyes.
The Captain then stepped back into the limelight and budged Sam out of the way with her hip. "So, 'Captain' Jack Harkness, how the hell did you just get onto my ship?" The Captain asked him with a threateningly sweet voice.
"Vortex Manipulator." He explained with a smug smile and tapped his leather wristband. "Can travel anywhere in time and space, so long as you have the right co-ordinates. I just latched onto the trail an old friend of mine. Speaking of that, where is-"
"Sorry," Clara burst out, unable to contain herself any longer. "But are you the Captain Jack Harkness?" She asked and Jack looked at her in surprise, but smoothly broke into a charismatic smile.
"The one and only." He replied flirtatiously. "And you are?"
"Clara," She smiled back. "Just kinda got caught up though, not part of the crew." She said and Jack smiled.
"Like a traveller huh? So," He started and looked over to the grey-haired man with a sceptical raised eyebrow. "Who's Grandpa?" He asked with a smirk and looked around at them when no one responded. Clara sniggered and the Doctor just raised his eyebrow even more, if such a thing was possible. Then Jack finally realised.
"Ah." He said lightly and checked out his old friend. "Doctor." He said and focused on the wrinkles around his eyes, of which he himself was proudly devoid. "Well, regeneration certainly didn't favour you this time!" He joked with a wink and turned around to the others. "I think I'll stick with the girls, no offence Sam." He added and Sam raised his hands in understanding.
"Nice to see you again too, Jack." The Doctor sighed, but smiled despite himself.
Then Jack noticed Maria who'd come up behind him and gave her a disarming smile.
"I'm sorry, I don't think we've been introduced? Although I can't imagine how that happened..." He said, giving her his best smooching voice and held his hand out for hers.
"Maria Blake, UNIT." She replied with a small smile and willingly placed her hand in his. His eyebrows raised.
"Well, sorry, but with no contact with your superiors, you're going to have to hand your 'mission' over to me-" He stopped and looked at her curiously as she tried to shake her head as subtly as possible.
"I'm just here for the ride home." She stressed. He still looked puzzled but thankfully accepted it for now.
"Then that won't be a problem, Miss Blake." He smiled again and finally raised her hand to kiss it.
"Well, I don't usually get that reaction, is she alright?" Jack asked as Sam rushed over to her.
"She just suffered from oxygen deprivation - she'll be fine in a minute." Sam explained and pulled her away.
"Why, what happened?" Jack asked in concern.
"Well if you've finished flirting with everyone, we lost the entire third sector of the ship, we have no docking bay!" The Captain stressed and Jack still looked at her blankly. "In case you haven't noticed, Captain Charisma, we are under attack."
"What? From who?" Jack asked and the Doctor stepped in.
"They're called the Hriekel, they came from Gallifrey but nobody's seen them since the Time War. They said they were here for something called 'The Architect', sound familiar?" The Doctor asked but it drew a blank and Jack shrugged.
"Sorry, never heard of it." He replied.
"But you said that there was something here you wanted, what is it?"
"I don't know. I got a tip-off from one of our contacts in UNIT that this ship was carrying something advanced, real advanced. Not just alien but from the future, then I saw your signal coming from the ship, latched on and figured you'd know." Jack explained. "I take it you don't?"
"Looks like none of us do. It's something then, not someone. We know that at least." The Doctor reasoned.
"Doctor, the TARDIS was in Sector 3!" Clara suddenly realised and grabbed his arm.
"Oh yes, so it was. How depressing." The Doctor feigned a dramatic sigh and spotted the Captain sporting a look that could almost be considered guilty out of the corner of his eye. He looked back at Clara's puzzled look and winked at her, putting his finger to his lips for her to keep quiet.
"No TARDIS, great!" Jack said sarcastically and laughed to himself. "So what's the plan?"
The Doctor sighed again and looked around him. "Torchwood and UNIT on the same ship? Someone must really hate me out there..." He complained.
"Hey!" Jack protested.
"Ok, well first we have to get these Hriekel to talk, I'm not killing anyone unless I have to Captain Jack Harkness, keep that in mind. Not until we've given them a chance."
"Looks like they weren't pretty keen on your 'chance' Doctor." The Captain said.
"That was one soldier!" The Doctor protested. "Ok we need to get to the control room in Sector 1, and we're at the bottom of Sector 2."
"The control room pretty much is Sector 1 though." The Captain added.
"That doesn't sound so bad... what's the catch?" Jack asked.
"We don't know where the Hriekel are. If they planned ahead enough to sabotage Sector 3 with us on it, they could be just waiting for us anywhere from here to Sector 1." Sam imparted and Jack smiled wryly as his suspicions were confirmed.
"Ok then, how about the Captain and I provide a little, ah, rough and tumble for them while you all run ahead and deliver your message?" Jack asked after a moment of thought.
"A distraction? That'll work fine if you can hold out long enough." Sam reasoned.
"Oh I can hold out more than long enough for you kid." Jack grinned and the Captain was still dubious about what he meant by 'rough and tumble'.
"Alright," The Doctor nodded. "If you're sure."
"Completely." Jack replied and made sure that the ammunition in his guns was full.
"You'd risk your life for this?" The Captain asked doubtfully.
"I'm not risking anything." Jack replied knowingly and went ahead. "So where to Sammy Boy?"
"Uhh there's a passage to the living quarters not far ahead, I reckon they'll come through that." Sam replied.
"Right. Don't take too long with the message will you? Dying, it kinda hurts" Jack asked with a wink and jogged up the hall with the Captain.
"Good luck!" Clara called after him.
"Right, Maria are you alright?" The Doctor asked her and she looked up from her bent over position against the wall, her eyes shining and wincing at the same time.
"Yeah, I just need a moment. I'll catch you up." She said and waved them on.
"Let's go then." The Doctor said to Clara and they followed Jack's footsteps.
