fh_alumni | Earth Orbit - Satellite Five

Jack was grinning as he looked around. The space station - Satellite Five, he corrected himself - was decked out for one hell of a party, as were the other guests.

Though, technically, he wasn't a guest and neither was Kane.

Something was happening here, or was going to happen, or hadn't happened when it should have. Whatever it was, it was big, the echo of its possibility sending ripples through the time vortex.

	Situations like this were the reason the Agency had Kane. "Keep your eyes open and stay out of trouble," he told Jack when they arrived. "If you can manage it. Try not to start any wars. If you could flirt equally with everyone, that'd probably help."
	Far be it from Jack to disobey a direct order. He was slowly working his way through the guests. He'd already absented himself - discreetly, mind you - more than once, sending them back to the party with a smile on their faces. Or, in the case of the Ambassador from the Forest of Cheem, a happy rustling in his leaves. It was far more interesting than watching the pale and creepy host address the adoring masses.
	"…ladies, gentlemen, multisexed, undecideds and robots -- welcome to Satellite Five. The future of knowledge is here. We are the news, we are the journalists, we are everything that anyone needs to know and anything that everyone needs to know and I," he gave a small bow, "have the honour to be its humble Editor."
	Jack mentally added arrogant as hell to his assessment as he returned to the celebration, just in time to catch the end of the speech. He was discreetly rolling his eyes when someone ran into him. "Woah, careful," he said, catching his balance and grasping her arms to steady her. "Or not," he added, smiling as he smoothed his thumbs across her skin.
	She gave him a blank stare. "Excuse me."
	"Oh, always." The blank stare was not a normal reaction, but she hadn't pulled away. "Anytime you feel like running into me, I'm happy to oblige."
	She looked down at his hands, still wrapped around her arms, then up at his face. "What?"
	Jack had the distinct feeling that she was only just noticing him. "You could join me for a drink or three and I could explain it." He was getting a weird feeling from her, but he couldn't quite pin it down.
	"Not interested." She yanked her arms free, and her smile was brittle as she pushed past Jack, making her way through the crowd.
	Okay, that wasn't normal. Totally resistant to his charms? Yeah, maybe he could buy that, maybe, but there was something off about the way she was pushing through the crowd, leaving disgruntled and grumbling partygoers in her wake. Casual, he pressed a series of buttons on the vortex manipulator strapped to his wrist, and was rewarded with a low vibration as numbers flashed across the screen. Her chronoreadings were off the chart. Whenever she was from, it was a hell of a long way from now. Jack followed, easy and smooth, like a shark tracking the scent of blood, sliding through the party without even a ripple to mark his passage. Which, as it turned out, was a damned good idea.

* * *

	He was all alone, standing in an offlimits part of the floor, watching the ebb and flow of the party on a bank of monitors, with his back to the entrance. "Everyone just accepts it," he muttered, sounding gleeful. "This will be easier than I thought."
	Jack eased to a halt, watching his quarry slowly cross the floor towards Mr Pale and Creepy, waiting to see what would happen. Could you make yourself more of a target?
	"Not everyone."
	"Really?" he asked, slowly turning to face her. "You think there's someone here who doesn't think Satellite Five is a wonderful idea?"
	"Yes." She lifted her chin, glaring at him. "Me."
	"You," he scoffed. "And who are you?"
	"Suki Saint Julienne, Freedom Fifteen. I know what this place is, what it will become. And I," with a triumphant smile, she drew a gun, "intend to make sure it never happens."
	He just smiled and clapped his hands together. "Oh, very impressive! You managed to get that through the security screenings! I have to admire your dedication."
	Jack reacted without thought, drawing his weapon and firing. At the last second, he abandoned the head shot, instinct whispering that Kane would want her alive.
	One bolt through her shoulder, the other through her knee, and she crumpled, unable to hold back a brief wail of pain and rage as her hand refused to work.
	He ran forward and scooped up her gun with one smooth move, aiming his right between her eyes. "I would hate to ruin that cute face with an energy bolt, but if you so much as breathe wrong, I'm not going to have much choice." He grinned at her. "Which would be a shame."
	"Oh, well done, young man. Well done." He pressed his hands together and smiled. "Very elegant."
	Jack didn't look away from the woman. "Just doing my job." The guy gave him the serious creeps.
	"You don't know what you're doing. You don't what the future is going to hold. The whole system is corrupt. If I stop him now," she pleaded. "If I stop him, Satellite Five will never go live. We can change the future. None if it has to happen."
	"You don't change the future," he said bluntly. "You suck it up and deal with it."
	"But you don't understand. My sister, we're fighting them. They're lying to the pe--"
	"Harkness." Kane appeared in the doorway, taking in the scene, cutting off the girl's impassioned plea. "What part of stay out of trouble didn't you understand?"
	Jack's eyes narrowed. He'd done his damn job; a bit of credit would have been nice. "So you would have preferred I let her kill him?" He gestured over his shoulder. "It's probably not too late. She's still willing."
	He was watching, eyes bright, looking absolutely delighted. "If I get a say in this, I'm going to go with not."
	Jack flashed a grim smile. "He'd prefer not. What about you?" he asked, knowing he was going to pay for this later. Right now, he was pissed off and he didn't care.
	"Harkness," he growled. "Enough." With swift efficiency, Kane took over, securing the girl, ignoring her whimper of pain.
	Relegated to bystander, he holstered his gun and watched.
	Kane lifted his head and gave Jack a long look. "This would be where you go."
	Jack went.

* * *

The party had lost some if its appeal, and Jack wandered until he found himself in an observation deck, private and empty. He dropped to sit on the platform, legs dangling over the edge, looking down at the Earth, so different from last time he'd seen it.

"What the hell else was I supposed to do?" he muttered. Obviously something else, or Kane wouldn't have been so angry. Maybe he should have just killed her? But they had no way to get answers from a dead woman. "Whatever."

* * *

	"I was wondering where you ended up."
	Jack had been sitting there for a couple of hours now, and he started when a hand appeared over his shoulder, holding a beer. He took it automatically and looked up into Kane's face, trying to hide his surprise. "You wanted me gone. Figured this would qualify," he said bitterly. "Can't get into trouble in an empty room."
	"Now that I'm not so sure of. You can get into trouble in your sleep." Kane sat next to him, nursing another bottle of beer. "You did the right thing."
	Jack blinked. "What?"
	Kane rolled his eyes. "You know what."
	It was the most human thing he'd ever seen Kane do, and beyond unexpected. "There wasn't time to get you," he said neutrally. "And I thought you'd want her alive."
	"You thought right. There's no way she acted alone. Given her signature, and how crude her tech was, we'll be able to trace when she came from, and deal with whoever sent her."
	He'd known that was what would happen. It didn't bother him - you screw around with time, you accept the risks of getting caught, and the Agency was one of those risk - but he still found himself hesitating before saying, "Good."
	Kane gave him a long look, before turning away to watch the Earth. "The things we have to do. They’re rarely nice. But if they were nice, they wouldn't need people like us to do them."
	That resonated with Jack, and he relaxed, for the first time comfortable in Kane's presence. "Yeah, I know."
	"I know you do." Kane clapped him on the shoulder, giving it a little squeeze. "There's a reason I agreed to take you." He fell silent for a long time. "You did good tonight, Jack. I'm proud of you."
	Warmth spread through him and he grinned. "Thanks," he said quietly, rolling the bottle between his hands.
	"Don't get used to it." Kane bestowed another flickering smile. "And drink your beer."

* * *

Earth - The year 199,999 - Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire

It was easy to find them. With a name to work from - Freedom Fifteen - and a chronsignature that she hadn't had the technology to hide, it only took Jack and Kane a few hours to track down when she'd come from. They passed it up the line, and the Agency passed it to the appropriate authorities in the year 199,999.

A day later the Freedom Fifteen ceased to exist, all its members dead, except for one.

Eva Saint Julienne wasn't there. Word was passed to her by those sympathetic to their cause that the others had been killed, and she fled, never looking back.

She knew what it meant. The mission had failed.

If she was the only one left, she'd have to get inside. Get inside, get to the top, and she had the emergency persona to do it with, ready to be dropped into the system. With a grim smile, she made one tiny alteration to it, adding her sister's name.

Six days later, Suki Macrae Cantrell, with the records to prove she'd been born in the independent Republic of Morocco, was accepted for basic training on Satellite Five.
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[ooc: Okay, very minor spoilers for The Long Game, the backstory of which I played fast and loose with, including borrowing some dialogue directly from the episode. NFB, NFI, but ooc comments are always love!]