tampered | Log; Completed

"If we don't, I certainly wouldn't mind too much," he said, flashing her another smile. "Just so long as we end up doing something together I'll be happy."

Tony gently pressed his hand to the small of her back and guided her into the restaurant, pressing himself close against her. He liked the way that Toshiko fit against him.

"You said you had a project you wanted to talk about?"

And Tosh adored when Tony stood close to her, with his hand resting on the small of her back. She was almost reluctant to go to their table, because it meant losing that contact.

"I wasn't planning on going anyplace that you weren't, myself," she replied, still smiling. "And yes, I've got an important personal project I'm hoping you might help me with. I've spoken a little bit with a few others about an early concept, but something Ianto said the other day, about the earrings you gave me, sparked what I hope is an actually viable idea."

"I'm glad you plan to be wherever I am, then I won't have to get the handcuffs out until we get back to my place," he quipped, giving her a bit of a wink. True to his nature though, Tony was also intrigued about this idea she had.

"What is it that you're looking at doing?"

"That's probably best, I don't think this is that kind of place," Tosh replied, laughing.

"I had the idea to build a device that could be used to pull someone back from their home dimension into the City, should they ever get sent away. It would have to be in two parts, one that would remain here and power the link between the two, the other to be carried with the person. I've been doing some thinking on possibilities for how best to power the kind of...energy pulse, I suppose, that would be capable of crossing the dimensional barrier without actually tearing into the fabric of it. And then Ianto said something the other day, that got me thinking that your nannites might be perfect for something like that."

As she talked, she leaned toward him, her hands unconsciously moving as she pictured the device in her mind.

Tony pursed his lips in thought at her idea. Back at his apartment his computer screen was popping up as he began to run some preliminary calculations on power sources and cross reference what he knew about dimensional transportation.

"In essence you're talking about a worm hole then?" he asked.

"Possibly. I've got to do some more research on the comings and goings of people here, but a friend of mine gave me access to all his records, and they're very detailed. I don't know much at all about cross-dimensional travel, but I do know a good bit about time rift manipulation. Or at least about maintaining the tech that controls it, and I've written programs to monitor and predict, so I'm pretty well versed in the types of energy patterns."

If Tosh had known about the computer back at the flat, already running calculations, she'd have been insanely jealous.

"Before I came here I was transported through time," Tony admitted as they made their way to their table. "I have a friend who's really good with working with alternate dimensions. While I don't have his particular genius in that are I have helped him build a lot of his equipment. That's one of the things I'm working on here. I'd love to hear more about the wormhole though."

Tosh knew she was on the right track when she decided to go to Tony with her idea.

"It's still very vague in the execution details," she admitted. "But what I want is a device that will maintain a continuous connection with some kind of receiver. My thought is to program in a logarithm that at a set moment in the time of the subject's home dimension, the device will increase the power or structure of that connection to pull the subject back across the dimensional barrier to the location of the device. And of course, without having any negative impact on either dimension."

Tony listened intently as they were seated, his mind already engaging in potential possibilities and problems that would be needed to overcome. Still, it sounded doable.

"So I would assume that the power all comes from the home side then?" he asked. "And that would be a lot of power to punch a hole through a dimension. Also things people don't consider is that to most teleportation devices, atoms are atoms. How does it know which ones are you and which are your clothes? That's why you have to either teach it what's 'you' or just have it transport a certain area around you."

"Yes, I think the power would have to come from the home side. The less complicated the better."

Tosh nodded, carefully noting Tony's suggestions and working over potential solutions as they spoke. "I was thinking that there must be something that already powers the coming and going of people here. It might even be possible to tap into that power source, if our own use was low enough not to create a noticeable drain."

Smiling, she raised a hand to her ear. "As for how it would know what needed to be transported back, I'd thought that might be one use for your nannites. If the... portable portion of the device were small enough to be worn or even implanted, it could be programmed to recognize the individual it was made for. That would also cut out the danger that someone might get hold of it and use it for their own purposes."

"That's very possible," Tony agreed. "The nannites could be programmed to know what exactly should be transported back. Again, the difficulty is in making them recognize what an 'individual' is. It's quite a bit different from what I was thinking on doing but I definitely think it could work."

Tosh smiled. "Well, part of the reason I wanted your help was because I wanted your advice too. What were you thinking? It might very well work better than my idea, especially since you know a lot more about what the kind of technology is capable of."

"What I was thinking," Tony began, settling into a comfortable position in his chair before he began. After all, this talk might take a while. "Each world someone comes from has to be slightly different. Even the different Earth's can't be exactly the same. I'm guessing each one has a specific sort of... frequency. I think if we can find each person and world's frequency then we can match it up and send anyone back."

Tosh's eyes widened, and she leaned forward, her attention fixed on Tony.

"That's brilliant. I'd been hoping that working on this project could help lead to a way to reverse it, and send people rather than retrieving them. Jack's assigned me to work on that -- the part about getting back is sort of my personal project."

Tony couldn't help but smile at Tosh's interest. How many people got to have a date like this?

"It's what we've done in the past on my world. It's kind of hard because it'sa shot in the dark when finding the frequency. A friend of mine, Reed Richards, found one called the Negative Zone when he was younger."

"I have access to some really detailed records on the City -- all kinds of information. But specifically I thought the details about arrivals and departures would be helpful."

It was possible Tony and Tosh would need to start having these discussions before dinner, because she for one didn't even notice the food on the table. "I've got a search program running, looking for possible patterns. And it's been suggested that the fountain might play a role -- for instance, when we were caught in the mirror city, you could communicate between the two via the fountain. And of course there's also the fact that it shows images of the lives people have left. It's... still a very vague theory, but I feel like making a study of the fountain could be a key."

"Yes, if there's some sort of pattern to the arrivals, that might helps as well," Tony agreed.

"The fountain could very well be important as well. I haven't really studied it as much as I could though. I guess I just assumed it was more magic than science."

"It may be more magic than science," Tosh replied, nodding her head in agreement. "But there still might be something to be learned. Ishiah suggested that even magic has to operate on some sort of energy, and all energy is essentially the same at the most basic level."

She sighed, taking a drink of water. "I have to admit that I'm still a bit scattered. It's all come together just recently, and I've got all these ideas and bits of information flying about in my head, that I haven't really got sorted yet."

Tony nodded in agreement with her. He had often said the same thing about energy being all the same. He had even fought a demon once under those principles.

"I think with all the magicians here that maybe they'd be able to help us with that too," Tony said. "I know some of the people here have used magic to leave, it would be good to get their notes."

"It would be. If we could compare notes between those who've left and returned using magic versus technology, it might give us some common starting point."

Tosh smiled warmly. It was exciting to be planning out a project like this, one full of puzzles and challenges, with someone with a mind like Tony's. The fact that she really enjoyed spending time with him anyway was a fantastic bonus.

"I don't know whether to be excited or violated about combining magic and technology," he told her. Even though he'd been around magic all the later years of his life since he couldn't do it he always felt it was untrustworthy.

"Of course, I suppose we could always try asking the deities."

"Well, until coming here I didn't even believe magic could exist, so I'm not sure how I feel about it myself," Tosh laughed. "But if it helps get this off the ground, then I'm all for it."

She shook her head. "I don't trust them. I'd rather hold that as a last resort."

"I wouldn't want to not believe in magic," Tony said. "It's good to have something to compare technology to. To remind me that there's so much out there than I don't know about and that some things you just can't learn."

"I feel almost sure it doesn't exist where I come from though," Tosh replied. "The things that seem like magic have always proven to just be of alien origin, or tech advanced beyond our time."

She ducked her head and smiled. "And I'm not sure I'm keen on the idea of there being something I can't learn."

"Sometimes they keep it really well to themselves," Tony said with a shrug. "How many people in your world are aware that aliens and the like exist?"

Tony could think of a few other examples of worlds where that had happened. It made him wonder if there were still things like that in his world he didn't know of. He doubted that though.

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