THE MOMENT
The room suddenly went quiet. The silence was so jarring that Susan finally looked up from inside her transparent cell. Half a dozen agents in black suits, men and women, were all arguing at the top of their lungs; then, they all shut up at once.
Susan spotted a black portal hovering in the center of the room and she felt her hopes swell. The agents surrounding the portal readied their weapons.
It was Susan's first traversal that landed her in the cell; though, not directly. After a whirlwind of events, the three-eyed woman surrendered peacefully. She hoped to find someone to explain her situation to but they were still arguing about who gets to talk to her. She hoped the portal meant someone was there to help her.
Two men, a short one and a tall one walked out of the portal with their arms raised as if they expected the armed reception. They wore the same dark suits as the rest of the agents in the room. Susan found it kind of interesting that the short one was now the shortest agent in the room, and the tall one was now the tallest. Before that moment, she hadn't realized until then that the rest of the agents were approximately the same height.
"Who are you?!" One of the agents, a woman, was the first to ask.
"B.A.A.," the short one said. "She's ours." The tall one cast a glance at Susan in the cell and gave her a warm smile; she instantly felt at ease.
"B.A.A.?" a different agent asked. His question was followed by murmurs amongst the rest of the group. After several moments they all seemed to reach an agreement.
"Never heard of you," one of them said. None of the armed agents lowered their weapons. The short agent smiled.
"There was no need until now," he said. He wiggled the fingers on his right hand to draw their attention, and he slowly dipped it inside his coat pocket. He withdrew his hand, still moving at a snail's pace, holding three medium manilla envelopes. "These are from your superiors."
The short agent extended the envelopes outward.
"Our superiors sent us here," one of the female agents said with a thick layer of snarkiness.
"Torchwood?" the short agent asked. As Susan watched the interaction, she noticed the short one did all the talking. The woman nodded. "Yours is from the Prime Minister and endorsed by the Queen," he said. One of the men took the three envelopes, looked them over, then handed them out to two others, including the woman from Torchwood. The agents that accepted envelopes holstered their weapons to read but, the rest remained trained on the pair of newcomers.
"It's official," one of the agents gave a heavy sigh. He nudged one of the other agents and convinced him to lower his weapon, the rest eventually followed suit after the okay from their partner.
"What puts her in your jurisdiction and out of ours?" one of the agents asked while the tall one walked toward the transparent cell.
"For one thing, she's human," the short one replied.
"She has three eyes!" one of the agents blurted out in annoyance. "And they're pink!"
"She's also from a different universe. Humans are adaptable and will find a way to thrive in any universe they're in," he shrugged. "Sometimes that takes three eyes. We've seen humans more alien than some aliens we've encountered."
“What does B.A.A. stand for?”
“Bureau of Alternate Agencies,” the short agent replied.
"What's that smell?" all the agents, except the short one, lifted their noses to the air for a better whiff. They all slowly turned toward the cell in time to see Susan stepping through a giant melted hole; the tall agent helped her through. As if suddenly realizing all eyes were on him, he turned to face the agents with a sheepish look.
"It was locked," he said by way of explanation. A black portal appeared next to him, and he eyed his short partner. "Ready?"