The Wizard's Guide to Timelords and Other Demons Book 1: The Forgotten War

Torchwood 2

Harold Saxon, the sole architect of the Valiant, had included in his original designs the placement of levitation field generators to provide the vertical lift required to keep the vessel airborne for extended periods of time. Limitations in available technology at the time had hindered the development of the levitators, so the first working prototype of the Valiant had instead utilized an array of high-powered turbofans to create the needed lift. Nevertheless, work on the levitation technology continued in secret, recently receiving a major boost from the reverse engineering of several captured Daleks, which used levitation fields as a principle method of mobility.

During the Dalek attack, the Valiant had been forced to land in an open field just before the Daleks had either disabled or destroyed all of the turbofans in an attempt to keep the ship grounded. Apparently, the Dalek's primary concern was the Jathaa Sunglider laser cannon mounted to the bottom of the ship, which had been causing them a great deal of grief during the battle. Once grounded, the weapon was no longer a threat, so the Dalek's had moved on, leaving the bulk of the Valiant intact.

After seizing control of the farm where the Valiant had landed, UNIT forces managed to conceal the downed carrier long enough to make repairs that would allow them to move it to a more secure location. This included fitting the Valiant with an array of the newly developed levitator prototypes, which succeeded in safely conveying the crippled craft to a secret dry-dock facility before burning out. The week that followed saw the eruption of the Cardiff rift, and the Valiant was returned to active duty as a sea-only vessel to assist with rescue and evacuation operations.

What General Mace had not been informed of until now was that a team of engineers, under the direction of Captain Oswald, had been working around the clock for the last four days and had managed to repair several of the burnt-out levitators.

"Her maximum altitude will be limited to 500 meters or less," the captain explained to the stunned general, "and it will be a mighty rough ride, but I'm confident the Valiant will be able to deliver Mr. Harkness and his team to Cardiff Bay with little trouble."

The powerful gravity fields generated by the levitators affixed to the bottom of the Valiant were not only successful in raising the massive carrier well above the tumultuous eighty-foot waves below, but also provided the added benefit of deflecting much of the one hundred knot winds that threatened to plunge the Valiant and its crew back down into a watery grave. Still, the trip up the channel and across to the bay had definitely been 'mighty rough' as the captain had promised. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of intense shaking, shuttering and close calls, the Valiant now hung suspended in the air above the remains of the Raold Dahl plaza, still listing and straining against the tornado-force winds engulfing it.

The Pierhead building below was an unrecognizable heap of red brick rubble, partially submerged due to the storm surge that had flooded nearly all of the seafront. However, what remained of its rooftop seemed the only flat, dry, area available where Jack could setup the portable manipulator. Since the Valiant was unable to land, Jack was lowered in a harness to a section of the collapsed roof. The wind-deflecting effect of the levitator fields made his descent far less perilous than it would have been had he been forced to negotiate the full fury of the gale-force winds. Once on the roof, he was mostly shielded from the tempest by the clock tower which had started to topple earlier and was now leaning at a strange angle.

The moment Jack's feet touched the roof, he could feel the rolling motion of harmonic tremors gently shaking the earth side to side, periodically accented by more rigorous shaking that made it difficult to stand. Jack carefully placed the leather briefcase on the rooftop, climbed out of the harness and reached up to wave-off the Valiant. The aft thrusters roared into action and the mammoth hull glided away, slowly at first, but then picking up speed until it had disappeared out of sight.