[RL WITH SULU]

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto sat at his desk in the tourist office, idly flipping through a magazine that he'd read about fifty times already that day. Needless to say, things were particularly slow. Gwen had been given the day off to go spend time with Rhys, and Jack was god knows where, so Ianto'd sent a quick phone call out to Sulu, to see if the man was interested in taking him up on his offer of a tour of Torchwood, and was currently waiting for his response.

Comments

[parked]

"I've lived in a city my whole life," Sulu laughed, "The only sheep I ever saw were in petting zoos."

When the wall opened up, revealing an honest-to-God secret passageway, Sulu's eyebrows rose and he stared for a minute, taking a few steps forward before grinning and looking at Ianto. "Oh, yeah. You're definitely secret agent material." He had a feeling that he was seriously going to be putting Ianto's gawking to shame today.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto chuckled at that. It was hard to believe that anyone ever had to go to a petting zoo to see sheep, but then again, he'd never been to America, let alone to 23rd century America, so he really didn't know.

At the secret agent comment, he smirked, quirking an eyebrow. He was completely fine with being able to show off this time around--so much of his job sucked that to be able to be proud of it felt really rather nice. "I'm always happy to not disappoint," he said. He moved to the passageway. "Well, if you'll just come this way, then, we can go down into the Hub." He led Sulu down the hall, hitting a button on the wall next to the door, which slid open to reveal a lift that fit in with the whole "out of date, sewer-chic" that the place had going on. And yes, the lift really would take ages to get to the bottom this time.

[parked]

Sulu followed dutifully, though he looked a bit apprehensive about the lift. It was one thing when the outdated look belonged to bead curtains and ancient computers, but something that was actually expected to transport you safely who knew how many floors?

Oh, what the hell. "If this thing kills us, I'm going to be pretty upset."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto smiled at Sulu politely as he ushered him into the lift, and pushed the button for the main floor of the Hub. "Don't worry too much," he said, trying to be reassuring, as the doors slid shut behind them. "I get the thing inspected at least once a month. It's my life that's on the line too, y'know. We just don't have enough people to be able to stay here and watch all the workers replace it and keep track of the Rift monitor as well, should something go wrong."

The lift got brighter and darker as they passed various illuminations in the lift passageway as the machine started its way down. "If it ever breaks down, I suppose we could always use the stairs, though, but they're a right pain to climb up. This thing is more flash, anyway."

[parked]

"That's if it breaks down without you on it." He laughed, reassured by the fact that it was at least maintained well. He shoved his hands back in his pockets, watching the lights. "So, how far down does it go, exactly? The way I've been imagining Torchwood as pretty expansive, which, going by the stability of the buildings on the surface, you're probably not just under the street..."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto smiled and shook his head. "Nope, not just under the street." He leaned against the wall of the lift. "Torchwood Three, that this place, was created to the be outpost for Torchwood to manage this Rift we have here. Originally, all of them were up and running at the same time, and, well, it was the late 19th, early 20th centuries. The train was all the rage. So they created a train tunnel system to connect all of the Torchwood branches together, to transport back and forth as necessary."

He shrugged. "Naturally they had to put the tunneling systems pretty far below ground, so as to not raise suspicions, but yeah. At least in theory, we have a tunnel connecting us from here to London, so yeah. It's a pretty big place."

[parked]

Sulu whistled. "That's definitely big. Especially if it was started when trains were the most reliable source of transportation. But..." He frowned, trying to recall something, before shrugging. If he didn't remember, it was something he needed explained again. "I understand that you monitor the Rift here in Cardiff, right? Does that mean that the other centers were near other rifts, or... what did they do?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

"Not rifts, exactly, no," Ianto said. "The original Torchwood was set up by Queen Victoria in Scotland at a place called Torchwood Manor, hence the name of the organization. Basically, she established it so that there would be some sort of line of defense against aliens and everything weird and unable to be explained. Torchwood Manor was actually housing one of the biggest pieces of alien technology that they had at the time. Since then, the Manor has been largely just a museum, but."

"There was Torchwood One," Ianto continued on, "which was the biggest, a skyscraper because there was a temporal phenomenon that was rather high above the ground that they needed to get to and study. Then there's Torchwood Two, which is in Glasgow because they wanted to keep one in Scotland, but not very active, so there's only one man working there at the moment. Torchwood Three is here, Torchwood Four has gone missing and there's no real record we have on it, and Torchwood Five was in India because they wanted a branch in the British colonies there, but it shut down in 1924," Ianto concluded, only after doing so realizing he'd been rambling.

"I'm the archivist," he said, to explain it all. "I know everything."

[parked]

Sulu followed along easily enough, used to listening to people lecturing after four years at the Academy. The idea of any country being that prepared for alien contact at such an early stage was amazing to him; other than a few out-there groups, he knew that his Earth hadn't considered contact seriously until it had actually happened.

"It's good that you know. The whole history is really pretty interesting for me. In my universe, there weren't any government funded attempts to prepare for any sort of alien contact until 2063. To want to be that prepared, this early, is kind of bizarre." He paused; "bizarre" probably hadn't been his best word choice. "In a good way, I mean."

[torchwoodteaboy]

"Well," Ianto said, "it's not like the general public knows about the existence of aliens, surprisingly. For the amount of times they've tried to invade, the general public has been skeptic enough to believe every lie we've fed them to convince them otherwise. Everything from gas leaks to hoaxes to chemicals in the water causing mass hallucinations; we just have to think up a possible explanation besides aliens, and they're all for it."

The lift clunked to the bottom and the side opposite to the one they'd entered opened horizontally, revealing a shorter white-tiled hallway, once again sparsely lit, with a giant copper cog door at the opposite end. To their left, the entrance to the staircase could be seen, but Ianto himself didn't fancy going up or down 10 floors worth of stairs if he could help it. There was only a small window in the cog door, so it was hard to see what the rest of the place looked through it. Ianto approached the door, pausing at the buttons on the side. "Ready?"

[parked]

"Understandably." Sulu knew that the only reason humans hadn't had a hostile reaction to alien contact was because the aliens in question were Vulcans; the way Ianto painted the situation, the aliens involved here were the opposite of logical, rational, peaceful beings.

He followed Ianto out of the lift, keeping a respectable distance otherwise. The door was pretty intimidating, which seemed surprising considering the secrecy of the operation. "Ready when you are."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto nodded, hitting a code on the buttons on the wall. The cog door opened with the flashing of a yellow light and the sound of a siren, and the metal cage door beyond it swung open as well. Ianto stepped forward, leading Sulu into the main area of the Hub. "Welcome to Torchwood Three, Mr. Sulu," he said, sweeping an arm to indicate the whole area of the Hub. "It's no Enterprise, but we have our own version of flash, here."

Upon first stepping into the Hub main level, the first thing to notice would be the giant water fountain running through the center of it all. To the left of where they were standing were several computer work stations, while straight ahead the armory and hothouse could be seen, each on separate levels. The ceiling was ground level, meaning the place was absolutely massive in terms of big, open space.

((Sorry that took me bloody forever to do. I went through all the series for reference pictures--hopefully I have all I need for now. xP;; *is a bit obsessive*))

[parked]

"Oh, wow." Sulu had plenty of 21st century "secret lair" references in his memory, from all sorts of classic vids, but they didn't have anything on this. He took a few steps past Ianto, craning his neck to look up towards the ceiling before dragging them down over the fountain, the catwalks and greenhouse and everything within eyesight before finally looking back at Ianto.

"This is definitely awesome," he grinned, clearly impressed.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto grinned back, proud that he'd impressed someone who worked on a spaceship with his underground home away from home. "It is, isn't it? Not as bright as your ship, and it definitely doesn't have the great view, but it makes up for it in other things. Sort of."

He rocked on his feet, eager to be able to show off for a while. There were a list of things that Sulu might be interested in seeing, but he didn't really know where to begin, exactly. The whole place was pretty massive, and chocked full of various gadgets and trinkets here and there. Then again, maybe showing off the main area of the Hub would work for starters.

He led Sulu up to the base of the fountain. "This," he said, touching the metal of the structure, "is the Rift Manipulator. On this exact place, there is a rift in space and time that pretty much does whatever it damned well pleases. This thing is why we have our jobs at Torchwood Three in the first place."

[parked]

Sulu looked at the fountain, halfway expecting the Rift that Ianto talked about so much to open up just because there was a Starfleet officer around - or, you know, because Ianto was giving a tour. (For him, that made perfect sense.)

"Does it open up inside Torchwood itself? That would be kind of convenient." Less hassle, really, if you don't have to find the thing first. Still, he had a feeling that wasn't the case. "Any reason for the waterworks?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

"'Open up inside Torchwood itself'? Not really, no. It kind of stretches out across the whole city, but this spot is the center of it all. It pretty much spits things wherever it thinks is convenient, and takes things in the same sort of random, unpredictable pattern." He shrugs. "As for the fountain bit, well, I suppose they had to find some way to disguise it, and just having a giant obelisk sticking out of the ground in the middle of Raold Dahl Plass is a bit unsubtle, even for us."

He motions around. "Anywhere you'd like to see first? Myfanwy's eating at the moment, so we'd best leave her for last, but otherwise," he shrugs, "anything you'd like to see is pretty much available for viewing."

[parked]

"Good point. Really wouldn't want to disturb her," Sulu said, looking away from the fountain after a moment to check out what else he could see from there position.

"Well - come on, you saw my botany lab. If you really want me to turn into a kid in a candy store, just show me some plants." He grinned, completely unashamed of being ridiculously nerdy at this point in time. "Or, if you want to risk dragging me into your archives - honestly, you're the guide." He shrugged. "I'm interested in all of it, really."

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto smiled. "Alright, well. I'll show you the hothouse first, so that the anticipation doesn't make you think it'll be better than it actually is. It's definitely got nothing on your collection, but. Owen took good care of them and set up everything they could possibly need while he was still around. C'mon, it's this way."

He led Sulu across the walkway over the standing water from the fountain at the base of the Hub, around to where the armory was, before heading up a spiral metal staircase. He motioned to the complicated coffee machine on the way past. "If you'd like, I can make you coffee afterward. In preparation for stepping into my lair, and what have you. Some need to be fortified before they can really enjoy it, after all."

[parked]

"It could be a bunch of poppies and I'd probably still enjoy it, to be honest. I'm a simple guy." Sulu laughed as they passed the coffee machine, crossing his arms. "I'd like that, yeah, but do I have to address you as king to get some?"

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto chuckled. "No, no, that's only as a punishment to others. Unless you plan on doing something to make me angry at you, you can get coffee just for being here."

He led him up the spiral staircase and across the short walkway to the hothouse. "Like I said, it's not much," he said, opening the door, "but it's definitely a bit more than a bunch of poppies." The hothouse was much like a laboratory of some sort, with a big illuminated work station in the middle of the room, what little plants they had in their own little contained atmospheres encased in glass jars over the pots.

[parked]

Sulu was used to botany labs of all shapes and sizes, but this was definitely a new one. Small or not - that didn't really matter. He immediately wandered past the work station to look at the encased plantlife. He didn't think it'd be prudent to go tapping on the glass so instead he just leaned in, examining a few of them as best he could. "Are they contained because of possible toxicity or is this whole set-up to replicate homeworld environments?" Trust Sulu to leap right into it. "And the wiring? What's that for? I've never seen a layout like this."

[torchwoodteaboy]

There are some other, bigger plants out and standing in the open, not protected by glass, but the majority of the little ones had their own little domes. "Owen had set up a way to regulate when which plants needed what amounts of water. I think they might even have temperature regulators, so that they could be kept at their own homeworld environment as well." He shrugged. "Owen had a lot of free time on his hands in the last few months he was with us, this kind of became his pet project. I repair the apparatus if it needs fixing, and water the ones that are out here as per his instructions but..." He shrugged, moving a hand to brush what basically was a huge, palm-tree like fern. "I don't really know a lot about what's in here."

((Sorry, just checked the only other episode that has the hothouse in it, and it has bigger plants, because apparently, they change the layout later on in the season. Unfortunately, taking a screencap to show would largely be a screencap of Ianto and Jack, er, getting walked in on while they were "taking care of business," so it would be largely unhelpful in the long run.))

[parked]

"At the Academy, they made freshmen do all the caretaking," Sulu said, "Exactly because you really should know what you have in your greenhouse." He grinned at Ianto. "Well, that and it's gruntwork. This is a really good set-up, though, especially if you don't want to risk any aphrodisiacal pollen or allergic reactions or psychotic episodes from a toxic poison... Then again, that's how my universe works. You guys probably don't have all three."

Then again, you couldn't really apply the same kind of affection to a plant in a container, could you? But that was a weird sort of observation, so he kept it to himself.

((No problem! Sorry I'm not taking liberties with plants here, I honestly don't know if the hothouse is mostly alien or Earth plants or... you know. If any alien plantlife would actually be in the Trek universe. SO I'm mostly just rolling with it.))

[torchwoodteaboy]

"When Owen set his mind to anything, he did it fully. I mean, he designed this place, at any rate. Truthfully, I never really paid much attention to it before. It was his job to keep track of whatever sorts of plants he ended up keeping in here, and the rest of us just came in here when...we needed to relax." He used the term relax lightly, of course, because really, other than emergency hideout situations, the only other times he'd been in here not doing work was when he was, well, having sex with Jack, really.

"I'm sorry that I don't know more about these things," he said. "We really have no idea where they've come from, and Owen was the one doing the studies--he was the doctor. I just try to keep them alive. They seem to be doing alright, though. Only a couple have died in the year or so that I've had to take care of them."

((It's fine. We'll probably move on soon, because Ianto and I both don't have a very good grasp on plants. xD; No moving ones in here, so it's kind of boring in comparison to Audrey.))

[parked]

"Don't be sorry. Plants are kind of a specific study, you know?" Sulu gave up on visually dissecting one of the smaller plants, turning back to Ianto. "You could probably do with some kind of fertilizer, but they should survive as is."

He frowned as he looked around again, sort of wondering what, exactly, had happened to Owen, but that wasn't polite conversation material. "I could probably find something for you in my lab, if you really want these guys to thrive."

((That'll be fine. I know that you have to water plants... and something about sunlight. So I know exactly where you are. And I apologize for the long wait for tags; this is new RP territory for me - that is, not knowing what the hell I'm talking about. XD))