Disoriented Cosmos {A Torchwood Story} [COMPLETED]

5. My First Job

A few days after I've signed all the paperwork and been introduced to most of the equipment and the Hub, I'm awoken from my sleep on a camp bed in Jack's office - oddly, even though something about him feels wrong and he's too mysterious for me to trust thusfar, I'm content with sleeping in his office - early in the morning from Jack running up, speaking hurriedly into his comm.

"Tosh, Suzie, come in as soon as possible. There's an unknown alien species sighted around the bay area. Exact area unknown, apparently it's armed. Evelina, come on, time to participate in your first job!"

I roll off the camp bed and sleepily ask Jack, who is now sifting through papers on the desk in front of me, "What do I do?"
"Come on, Evelina," he says to his desk, "you can fight, you're intelligent, you have street smarts... we need you in the field to suss out where the alien would go, and why it's here, and possibly contain it."

I'm officially alarmed. "...contain it? Why can't you?"
"I can't do it by myself if it's a species I don't know about," he reasons, and then actually looks up at me and asks, "Could you get dressed please? I found some old clothes from past Torchwood officers and put them next to your bed when I went for a walk this morning, so you can finally get out of those clothes."
"Another batch of clean clothes?"
He nods as if it's obvious. "You're my employee - I know it's hard to swallow, but we do actually care here in this dungeon below the city."

I roll my eyes and go to the pile of clothes next to my camp bed, scoop up a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved plain top with a mauve leather jacket, and move into the ensuite bathroom Jack has in here that I've been using.
When I emerge, Jack can be seen down by the coffee machine slamming it repeatedly. I can hear his curses from up here: "Why don't you ever bloody work?! What's up with you, huh?!" I chuckle; despite still feeling off about him, I have to admit he's pretty hilarious.

I go down to the coffee station and lean against the metal cart laden with breakfast and beverage stuff, making myself a warm cup of tea and delightfully filling bowl of cereal whilst watching Jack wrestle an immovable object. Eventually, after he kicks it then grabs his foot in pain, I stop eating and say in a patronising tone, "Does that hurt?"
He glares at me, then mutters, "Shut up," before we hear the front door churn open.

We both walk to it, me still holding my bowl, and see Suzie walking through it looking neat and serious. She casts a brief eye over me, in which she looks incredibly contempt, and secures her gaze on our boss with a happy smile.
"You still got no more info on the alien?"

"Nope," Jack replies beeezily, and walks to the group of computers that I've come to learn is Toshiko's work station to show us live CCTV footage of the bay from different places - and in the middle, skulking around, running to sunny spots on the docks, is a small hunched-over humanoid with closely-patterned skin.

You try to peer closer. "What's that on its skin? It's covering its entire face and hands."
"I don't know," he says in his concentration voice, "I can't get close enough to recognize the species yet. Right!" he declares, so emphatic it makes me jump, then moves to the coat stand to grab his mysterious military coat and put it on before sitting at Tosh's chair; he puts his hands behind his head and in a cocky tone says, "Out you go, you two. To the bay."

Suzie and I exchange looks with alarmed eyes. Since I got here the other day, Suzie has been trying her best to avoid me: she's been giving me work by simply placing it on my desk that's next to Toshiko's; in meetings she talks at me without meeting my eyes; she even refused to go to the pub with us last night, which might actually be the reason Tosh isn't here yet.

Using my new sort-of friend as an excuse to not be alone with a woman whom possibly hates me for no reason, I ask slowly, "Shouldn't we wait for Toshiko? You know, to go out in the field with us?"
"Nope," Jack insists, swiveling in the chair and visibly enjoying our alarm, "when Tosh gets here she'll be monitoring at her desk, and before she gets here in the meantime, I'll be taking her place and watching you two. So go on, then!"

Us two women exchange awkward glances at each other once more before grudgingly walking to the front door. Suzie goes before me and the large metal cog grinds open for her, in which I swear I can hear Jack laugh out, "Play nice," but when I look back to him he's already at the screens following the alien. I turn back to the door and follow Suzie, dismissing it as a prank to make me lose my mind further.

We say nothing as we both go down in the lift, walk out the doors of the 'shop' that's meant to be our cover, and step onto the bay area in search of the alien. Our guns are in holsters attached to our waistbands and we've been taught to shoot only if there is no other option; which is quite nice, because I thought Torchwood was more of a 'shoot now ask questions later' kind of operation.
Our comms (mine is the shittiest, they didn't have any spare so Jack ordered one off Ebay of all places) are on and Jack can hear everything we hear and say - meaning that whatever Suzie has got about me, she won't be sharing it now. Guess we'll just have to keep on giving each other side glances uncertainly for a bit longer.

We split up to search different sides of the bay barrage, and I hear Jack in my ear saying, "Evelina, it's along your way - and there's a civilian following you from the last corner you turned. A man, about 30 years old."
At the mention of the man I snap my head behind me, and I hear a crack of foliage and a stumble.

I'm caught between wanting to see and contain the alien, and wanting to kick this stranger a new one. For my job, I decide to walk toward the alien, and a few moments later footsteps behind me start. Instinctively I reach for my gun and continue walking, until I stop in my tracks because I see the alien.

It walks about the barrage in the strong sunlight on two legs which are oddly bent, like it's ready to hop away to wherever it came from. It's clothed in some sort of quilted jumpsuit which seems to be blacker than deep night.
I peer at its face and hands, wanting to know what pattern it is... and it's scales. The alien is scaled finely, like a reptile.

In all my life, from the parts I can't remember to my time in the drug ring to now, I always believed in the existence of extraterrestrial life - but I never imagined they would ever look akin to anything on Earth.

I move closer to the alien, in my ear hearing Jack tell Suzie to come to where I was. One step on a loose slab of concrete alerts the alien to me, and I freeze in my tracks, hand still hovering over my holster.

The alien cocks its head, and says to me in a silky hissing voice, "Leave me be. I have not come for Earth."
What do I do? What do I say? Nobody taught me how to talk to aliens!
I softly respond, not moving an inch, "I just want to talk, and maybe help. Could I help?"

It tilts its head almost 180° in contemplation, then begins to say, "I need to-" before a commotion is heard behind me and we both look to the other side of the barrage. Standing there is Suzie with her gun pointed at a tall man with a salt and pepper beard opening a penknife looking straight at me.

I inhale sharply despite myself. I know him: he's one of Boss' lackies, sucking up to him by way of assassinations. My brows lift when I realise he wants me dead. He must've followed us from the bay and come to finish the job Jack stopped.

The alien on the other side of me hisses dangerously like a serpent, and I tell Suzie in a steady voice, "Go to it. I'll handle the dickhead."

At his affectionate nickname the man cocks an eyebrow, making me realise that's one of the reasons why Jack unnerves me, and as Suzie makes her way slowly to the alien I in turn make my way to stand off against my would-be killer.
He licks his lips, reminding me of the things he's already done to me, and says, "Boss wants to tell you he found a better name for you than Garbage Water."
"Oh yeah? Then why didn't he come here himself?" I challenge in a threatening tone, but I don't get to hear the answer because he lunges at me with his knife and I instinctively pick up my gun and shoot him in the leg.

Like a graceless elephant he falls, yelling in agony, and I hear behind me a blood-curdling scream of indignance and look to the alien just in time for Suzie to knock me out of the way as it makes a beam of hot white light cover the man. The light scorches my eyes and I cover them, looking away to the waters. When I look back, the man's gone. In his place... only a pile of dust.

Suzie and I stare silent and wide-eyed at the pile, then at the alien. It puts something in its belt, screams in that shattering tone again, and presses a button on its belt and disappears. On the wooden planks of the barrage, Suzie and I look to each other in shock. I manage to come out of my open-eyed coma long enough to point at the pile of dust, and ask shakily, "Did I just indirectly kill that guy?"