The Time Agency Academy: Month One
May. 19th, 2007 01:38 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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fh_alumniHe'd slept most of the way from Fandom to the Agency Academy. Now he was yawning and stretching in the foyer of a huge building while people swirled around him.
"Jack Harkness?"
"That'd be me." Jack gave the cockiest grin he could manage.
"Lieutenant Ward. Welcome to the Time Agency. Grab your gear and come with me."
"I'm not staying here?"
"No, we have something special in mind for you," he said, giving him a long slow look. "Which I think you already know."
"Yeah," Jack said, grin fading slightly. "I know."
"Then let's go."
~~~
They told him to pick a personal time, to be hardwired into his wrist-computer - and that made Jack twitch, because he recognised the one he was given.
He picked twenty-first century earth, eastern standard time. When asked why, he shrugged and said, "It's what I'm used to."
That garnered him suspicious looks, but no actual objections, and so Jack set himself to measure his personal existence in the universe according to the tick of the clocks back in Fandom.
~~~
"Jack!"
"Huh?" Jack looked up, blinking in surprise.
Jacob shook his head in mock sadness. "I can't believe you're still studying that stuff. We were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago."
He'd totally forgotten, been lost in the nuances of time travel mechanics. They were as much instinct as math, he'd decided, the first serving him when the second failed, and he was learning he was good at them. Good at identifying insertion points and critical junctures, better than almost anyone in the class.
As long as he didn't think about it. God, he wished Sam were here. In what had become an unconscious gesture, he rubbed the back of his neck, fingers touching the edge of the tattoo.
"Jack!" A balled up shirt hit him in the head. "You coming or what?"
He smirked and shoved the reader - and all thoughts of Fandom - aside. "Not yet, but the night's young."
Laughing, Jacob dragged him out into the night and all the distractions a fifty-first century city had to offer.
One thing Jack never lacked was company.
~~~
His instinct for time travel might not go over particularly well - they wanted him to explain his conclusions, even when they were one hundred percent right - but his instinct for weapons was a different matter entirely.
They allowed him to keep his pistol, the rifle they made him surrender, but the new weapons more than made up for it. By the time the first month was done he could hit anything he aimed for, moving or still, including the bullseye with his eyes closed.
They put him into flight training, and hand to hand, though he was never going to be as good at that as they would have liked. No patience, they decided, and kept pushing him.
He learned fast, and he learned well, and after a month they shifted him to a different training facility in another time, with no warning and no chance to say goodbye.
This time, he didn't get attached to anyone.
~~~
"Jack Harkness?"
"That'd be me." Jack gave the cockiest grin he could manage.
"Lieutenant Ward. Welcome to the Time Agency. Grab your gear and come with me."
"I'm not staying here?"
"No, we have something special in mind for you," he said, giving him a long slow look. "Which I think you already know."
"Yeah," Jack said, grin fading slightly. "I know."
"Then let's go."
~~~
They told him to pick a personal time, to be hardwired into his wrist-computer - and that made Jack twitch, because he recognised the one he was given.
He picked twenty-first century earth, eastern standard time. When asked why, he shrugged and said, "It's what I'm used to."
That garnered him suspicious looks, but no actual objections, and so Jack set himself to measure his personal existence in the universe according to the tick of the clocks back in Fandom.
~~~
"Jack!"
"Huh?" Jack looked up, blinking in surprise.
Jacob shook his head in mock sadness. "I can't believe you're still studying that stuff. We were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago."
He'd totally forgotten, been lost in the nuances of time travel mechanics. They were as much instinct as math, he'd decided, the first serving him when the second failed, and he was learning he was good at them. Good at identifying insertion points and critical junctures, better than almost anyone in the class.
As long as he didn't think about it. God, he wished Sam were here. In what had become an unconscious gesture, he rubbed the back of his neck, fingers touching the edge of the tattoo.
"Jack!" A balled up shirt hit him in the head. "You coming or what?"
He smirked and shoved the reader - and all thoughts of Fandom - aside. "Not yet, but the night's young."
Laughing, Jacob dragged him out into the night and all the distractions a fifty-first century city had to offer.
One thing Jack never lacked was company.
~~~
His instinct for time travel might not go over particularly well - they wanted him to explain his conclusions, even when they were one hundred percent right - but his instinct for weapons was a different matter entirely.
They allowed him to keep his pistol, the rifle they made him surrender, but the new weapons more than made up for it. By the time the first month was done he could hit anything he aimed for, moving or still, including the bullseye with his eyes closed.
They put him into flight training, and hand to hand, though he was never going to be as good at that as they would have liked. No patience, they decided, and kept pushing him.
He learned fast, and he learned well, and after a month they shifted him to a different training facility in another time, with no warning and no chance to say goodbye.
This time, he didn't get attached to anyone.
~~~
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