HomeNews & InfoFan FictionMessage BoardLinksEmail

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

For the first time, Alec felt a frisson of fear for his own safety.

"If you kill me, you'll only raise suspicions, make people believe that I might have been right," he declared.

"I have no intention of killing you, Mister Colson, even though I could do it in a way that any coroner would rule natural causes.  Instead, I'm going to show you the future, or at least try to."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

Daniel turned to her.  "When Anubis took possession of you, you and I communicated telepathically with mental images rather than words.  Since then, I've confirmed that I can telepathically speak with Teal'c, too, and I'm sure I also could with Jack.  I've never tried with anyone else."  Daniel's eyes fastened upon Alec.  "I think it's time to see if I can do it with others."

"Are we talking about mind reading here?" Colson asked, still skeptical.

"No.  Though I have sometimes sensed what Jack or someone else I know well is thinking, I can't pick actual thoughts out of people's heads.  This is different.  I can telepathically speak with some people and hear what they are mentally saying back to me.  I guess, in a way, that is mind reading, since I'm hearing what they are thinking at me, but the thoughts you have in your head are safe from me.  If I succeed in doing what I'm going to try, I will be . . . broadcasting to you the memories of what I saw in that vision.  You will see what I did.  I'll warn you, Mister Colson.  It won't be a pleasant sight."

Alec felt his nervousness escalate.  A voice inside him was telling him he should just listen to them and drop the whole thing, but Alec seldom listened to that voice.

"All right, let's go for it," he said.  "Show me what you've got."

Daniel got to his feet and approached Alec.  He sat in the chair next to the billionaire.  He placed the palm of his hand on Alec's forehead and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

Seconds passed.  Alec didn't know quite what to expect, but, when it happened, he was not prepared for it.  He heard a faint voice inside his mind, a voice that he recognized as Daniel's.  Then, suddenly, he was being bombarded with images, violent flashes of sights and sounds, visions of chaos and destruction.  He saw what Daniel had described, but it was a thousand times worse actually seeing it himself.  And then things got worse still.  He watched, horrified, as spider-like machines poured out of spaceships and overran everything and everyone, people dying in agony, structures decimated, thousands fleeing in terror only to be overtaken by the living machines, their bodies ravaged.

Alec cried out.  He flung himself backwards.  The chair he sat in toppled over, and he fell to the floor.  Above him was Daniel, whose haunted eyes reflected the horror Alec had just witnessed.

"God," the billionaire choked out.

"Now you know why you can't give your proof to the world," Daniel said.

With Sam's help, Alec got to his feet, still feeling shaky.  He picked up the chair and sat back down, running his hands over his face.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Daniel told him.  He rubbed a hand across his forehead.

"Daniel, are you all right?" Sam asked.

"Yeah.  It was just a lot harder doing it with him than it is with you or Teal'c.  It took a lot of effort and concentration to get through."

Alec stared at him.  "How many times have you seen things like that?"

"I've seen a lot of terrible things since I gained this ability.  I foresaw the war on Tegalus, the planet we told you about, but my warnings went unheeded, and I was unable to stop what happened.  That isn't going to happen this time."

Alec sighed.  "No.  No, it isn't.  You've convinced me.  I won't go public with the evidence I have.  In fact, I'll hand it all over to you so there's no chance that someone else will get their hands on it."

"Thank you, Alec," Sam responded in relief.

"There's something I need to know, though.  Even if the truth doesn't come out, and most of what you showed me doesn't happen, can you be sure that attack by those things won't?"

"No, but at least we'll still be in a position to know what's going on out there," Daniel replied, "and we now know about the possible danger we face from the Replicators."

"Forewarned is forearmed," Jack remarked, "something Daniel has illustrated time and time again this past year."

"There is one problem," Sam said.  "We've dealt with what Alec already showed the media, put enough doubt in the minds of people that most are going to accept it was a hoax, but what about the reason for it?"

"You're right," Alec said.  "I have no motive for perpetrating such a hoax.  People aren't going to accept it was a hoax without knowing why it was done.  There will be investigations."

Jack thought about the dilemma.  "Too bad you had to do this personally.  If you'd kept your face off the TV, we could have arranged to make it look like it was a setup, that someone did this whole thing to ruin your company."

An expression dawned on the faces of Jack, Sam and Daniel all at the same time.  They looked at each other.

"You think it would work?" Sam asked.

"I don't see why not," Daniel replied.

"Hell, look how popular those movies are," Jack said.

Alec looked back and forth at them.  "What are you talking about?"

"Mission Impossible, Mister Colson," Jack replied, grinning.  "Mission Impossible."


The press conference was held a few hours later.  Alec Colson stood on the podium before dozens of reporters, Brian Vogler off to the side, standing beside Sam.

"The last time I was standing before you, I showed you what appeared to be proof that alien life does exist in the galaxy," Alec said.  "Since then, claims were made that more proof would be given.  I'm here to tell you that I have no proof to show you.  That alien you and the rest of the world saw was a hologram, just like the one Colonel Carter here showed on Julia Donovan's show."

Loud murmuring arose among the press.

"Why did you do this, Mister Colson?" one man asked.  "What was your reason?"

"I wasn't the one who did it."

"What do you mean?" asked another reporter.

"Up until a few hours ago, I was being held captive by an organization that wanted to destroy Colson Industries.  This whole thing was a plot to drive my company's stocks down and ruin my reputation.  They intended all along to make sure that the so-called evidence of alien life presented would subsequently be proven as a hoax.  If the military hadn't figured out for themselves what that alien shown on TV really was, this organization would have arranged for it to be exposed."

"But you were right there, Mister Colson, personally making those claims and showing us the alien," a reporter pointed out.

"Ah, but was I really?"

Just then, two men dressed in military uniforms came into the room.  Between them, his handcuffed arms being held firmly, was another Alec Colson.

The room erupted with excited voices.

"This is the Alec Colson you all saw," Alec said.  "This man was given extensive plastic surgery in order to impersonate me.  If it wasn't for our military, who figured out what was going on, he'd have continued the charade until Colson Industries was in shambles.  Then he'd have snuck away, and I would most likely have been killed, the world being led to believe that I committed suicide."

"This is incredible," a woman said.  "Can you give us the name of the organization that is responsible for this?"

Sam stepped up to the microphone.  "Our investigation is still ongoing.  We do not have all the answers yet, but we will continue to seek the individuals responsible for this and bring them to justice."

More reporters began asking questions.  Alec held up his hands.

"That will be all for now.  All I want to do right now is go home, rest, and be thankful that it's over."

"One more question, Mister Colson," a man said.  "Do you or do you not believe in extraterrestrial life?"

Alec paused before replying.  "The universe is too vast for me to believe that we are all alone here.  I have not been secret with that belief, which is probably why this organization chose the form of attack that they did.  I hope that, someday, we will travel beyond our solar system and meet other races who will seek friendship with us and help improve our way of life here on Earth."

Alec left the room, followed by Brian, Sam and the two military offices holding the fake Alec Colson.  They all went to another room, and the door was closed.  The officers released the arms of the man with Alec's face and uncuffed him.  He reached under his shirt and pulled a device off his chest.  Alec's image vanished to reveal Daniel.

"That was spectacular!" Alec exclaimed.  "Those things you call mimic devices are a marvelous piece of technology.  I'd love to have one of my own.  I can think of more than one boring dinner party or function that I'd wished I could have sent someone else in my stead."

"Sorry.  These things are dangerous," Daniel said, putting it in is pocket.  "They've caused trouble for us more than once."

"So, is that it?" Brian asked.  "It's over?"

"Not quite," Sam replied.  "We're going to have to plant a lot of false evidence indicating that some mysterious organization was really behind all of this.  That's already in the works.  Of course, since the organization doesn't actually exist, we'll have to leave most of it a big mystery.  There will have to be a few fake trials, of course."

"And you and I need to have a long talk with all the people who know the truth, Brian," Alec said, "especially the scientists who were involved in creating that clone."

"Every one of them will have to sign a nondisclosure agreement preventing them from saying anything about what they know."

"But our employees have already signed nondisclosures," Brian said.  "It's company policy."

"Yes, but they'll be charged with treason, if they break these new ones," Alec responded.

"Hopefully, once the dust settles, everyone will turn their attention to other things in the news, and this will all be forgotten," Daniel said.

Alec held his hand out to the archeologist, who shook it.  "Thank you for preventing me from making the worse mistake of my life."  He glanced at Sam.  "I think I understand now why she said what she did about you."

Daniel looked at Sam.  "What's he talking about?"

"I'll tell you later."  Sam turned to Alec.  "We'll help you with any negative ramifications to your company that was caused by all of this.  Now that you know about the program, we'll be coming to you with more projects, so we want your company to stay healthy."

Alec smiled.  "I'll be looking forward to that.  Colson Industries might go through a rough patch for a while, but we'll get through it and land on our feet."  He noticed a deep frown on Brian's face.  "Don't worry, Brian.  Everything will be fine."  He turned back to Daniel and Sam.  "I've got one final question for you.  If I'd still insisted on going forward with my plans to expose the truth, what would you have done?"

The two members of SG-1 shared a look.

"There would have been some off-world friends of ours who'd have had the pleasure of your company for a very, very long time," Daniel replied.

"Ah, I see.  And while I was . . . permanently vacationing on another planet, you'd have cleaned the mess up, making it look like I ran off somewhere to escape the public embarrassment of the whole thing."

"Something like that."

A few minutes later, Daniel and Sam were leaving the building through a back door.  The press were hanging around out front, and neither one of them could afford to be questioned, especially Daniel.

"So, what did Colson mean by what he said?" Daniel asked.  "What did you tell him about me?"

They stopped at their car, and Sam put her arms around Daniel's waist.  "Alec was showing interest in me again, so I told him that I had a boyfriend.  He commented that my boyfriend was a lucky man."

"He's got that right," Daniel said, kissing her gently.

"I told him that I was the lucky one, that I'd gotten the better end of the deal."

Daniel's arms tightened around her.  "Oh, I definitely wouldn't say that."

Sam smiled.  "I would."  Then she kissed him.

They parted a few seconds later and got in the car, satisfied that another catastrophe had been averted.


Fifth walked down the hallway of the Replicator ship to the end.  An opening appeared before him, and he stepped into the room beyond.  He stared at the other human-form Replicator, whose back was turned to him.

"I do not understand your reasoning," he said.

"What confuses you?" the other Replicator asked.

"The weapon that was created by the humans and Asgard is deadly to us.  Many of us have already fallen because of it.  We are being hunted down and slaughtered by the Asgard, being forced to hide to survive.  We must do something."

"I agree, as I have already said."

"Yet you say that we should not take action yet."

"The only action we could take is to make ourselves impervious to the weapon.  We cannot do that without studying it.  All Asgard ships and worlds are now armed with the weapon, which is fired the moment any Replicator is detected.  We are unable to obtain a weapon to study.  Our only hope would be to get the data from the humans.  If we could go to Earth, it would have been possible that I could gain the knowledge through deception."

"How so?"

The Replicator turned and faced him.  Fifth looked upon the features of Samantha Carter.

"You created me with the memories of Samantha Carter.  Because of that, I know how she thinks, her strengths and weaknesses.  I could have formulated a plan to trick her into helping us.  But there is one standing in our way."

"Who?"

"The one named Daniel Jackson."

Fifth's face darkened in anger and hatred at the thought of the man he knew was loved by the real Sam.  "He is nothing."

Replicator Carter smiled gently and stepped forward.  "Your feelings for her are blinding you, Fifth.  You must see beyond them.  In her memories I have seen much about him.  He possesses great power.  Among those powers is the ability to sense what cannot be seen with the eyes.  He would know of my treachery and stop me."

"Then we must kill him."

"No, for he also possesses great knowledge, knowledge that we could use.  That knowledge is locked within his mind, but we could reach it.  Once we had it, we would be unstoppable."

"What do you propose?"

"First, we must find another way to counter the weapon.  It may take time, but we will succeed."  Replicator Carter stepped up to Fifth and laid her hand on his cheek.  He closed his eyes with pleasure.  "We must be patient," she said softly.  "When the time is right, we will take Daniel Jackson and get the knowledge from him."

"And then he will die."

She smiled.  "Yes.  Then he will die."

Fifth also smiled.  "And we shall rule."

Satisfied, Fifth left the room.  After he was gone, the smile vanished from Replicator Carter's face.

"And I shall rule," she murmured.


"So, I bet everyone is delighted that the Asgard agreed to give us a hyperdrive for the Prometheus," Daniel said to Sam as they walked down the corridor.

"You bet.  It'll take a while to get it outfitted, but, once everything is up and running, we'll have the ability to travel throughout the galaxy without relying solely upon the gate network.  Not only that, but we'll also be able to make large supply runs to Atlantis.  I calculated that a trip there would take roughly eighteen days."

Daniel nodded. "If we didn't already have a way to get to Atlantis, I'd probably be begging Jack to let me hitch a ride on the first trip there."

Sam smiled.  "And do you think he'd have let you go?"

"That I don't know.  It doesn't really matter now."

They entered Daniel's office and sat down.

"So, when is Teal'c leaving?" Sam asked.

"Pretty soon, actually.  He's looking forward to seeing Ishta.  I understand that Rya'c is there, too."

"That should be a nice visit for him."

"Yeah, if he and Bra'tac can calm Ishta down.  She's really going off about Moloc."

"Well, he is still sacrificing every female Jaffa that's born under his rule.  I can understand why she's upset."

"Me too, but she can't fight him alone.  She'll need the help of the other Jaffa in the Fifth Column."

Sam frowned.  "Fifth Column?"

"Oh, yeah.  That's, um, how the Jaffa rebellion is sometimes referring to itself these days.  They got the name from us.  A fifth column is a group of people that clandestinely undermines a larger group to which it's supposed to be loyal.  The term originates from a radio address given in 1936 by Emilio Mola, a nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War."

"Well, it does fit."

"Yes, it does, although the Jaffa are not quite as clandestine as they might have been if not for. . . ."

"If not for you?"

Daniel made a face.  "According to Bra'tac, many Jaffa are still rebelling in my name, or, rather, in Dan'yar's name, especially after they heard about what we did to Anubis and how I fought against him one on one.  Finding out that I brought someone back from the dead didn't help much either.  Sometimes, I really wish somebody would put a plug in the Jaffa grapevine."

Sam laughed.  "Poor Daniel.  I know you don't like the idea that the Jaffa are using you as a reason to rebel, but, as long as they don't go overboard and start worshiping you, if it will add to the size of the, uh, Fifth Column, then some good will come out of it."

"Yeah, I guess.  Have you seen Jack today?"

"No, he got called back to Washington.  You didn't know?"

"Uh uh.  I've been pretty busy.  So, what's that about?"

"I don't know, maybe about the Colson Industries stuff or the hyperdrive.  Did you hear the latest about Alec?"

"What's that?" Daniel asked.

"He found out that Brian altered the books several months ago.  Apparently, the company over extended itself.  The only thing keeping it going was the stock prices."

"And, when they began to fall because of this whole thing about aliens. . . ."

"Yeah.  Brian had no choice but to confess to Alec.  But there's more.  The Trust got to him."

"What?  When?"

"Six months ago," Sam replied.  "They found out about the Asgard Alec's company cloned.  Then, a couple of weeks later, the events in Antarctica happened, and Alec got hold of all that stuff from it.  The Trust started putting pressure on Brian because they knew he'd cooked the books.  If we hadn't brought them down, there's no telling what they might have done when Alec decided to go public with what he had."

"They wouldn't have let him do it.  If the program became public knowledge, they couldn't have taken control of it."

"Exactly."

"So, what's going to happen with Colson Industries?"

"We're taking care of it.  Like I told Alec, his company's a valuable asset now, and we want to keep it going.  Fortunately, stock prices are going back up."

"And Brian?"

"Alec's forgiven him.  Alec admitted that he hasn't been paying as much attention to the business as he should have.  He feels that he's responsible for what Brian believed he had to do to save the company.  They've known each other since they were kids, best friends their whole lives.  You don't throw something like that away."

"No, you don't."  Daniel looked at his watch.  "And, speaking of friendship, let's go see Teal'c off.  Then we can have a late lunch together."

"Sounds good."


Jack returned to the SGC the next morning.  He'd just gotten off the elevator and was heading for the control room when he bumped into Daniel.

"Hey, Jack."

"Hello, Daniel.  How's it going?" he asked.

"Well, you know that Teal'c is returning this morning from Hak'tyl, right?  This situation with Ishta is getting pretty bad.  Teal'c and Bra'tac believe that the only way to eliminate all of the System Lords is to recruit as many Jaffa into the Fifth Column as possible.  Now, only when their numbers are sufficient would it be possible to rise up and unilaterally destroy all the Goa'uld at once.  Even then, this unknown Goa'uld controls the supersoldier army, which cannot be turned."

An incoming wormhole was announced over the PA, the alarm going off.  Not pausing, Daniel continued speaking.

"So, even if the rebel Jaffa can someday take out the majority of the System Lords, there'd still be a massive war to fight.  The problem is, though, Ishta doesn't wanna wait.  Moloc is continuing to order the deaths of all female Jaffa born in his domain, and her underground railroad to Hak'tyl can't save them all."

Jack continued going straight, toward the control room, but Daniel turned right, toward the entrance to the gate room.  The general changed directions and caught up to the archeologist, who was still talking, seeming obvious to what just happened.

"Even now, she's organizing a rebellion to overthrow Moloc.  Now, Teal'c and Bra'tac are trying to convince her to see the . . ." he gestured toward the ceiling, "the bigger picture."

There was a brief pause, then Jack asked, "What was my question again?"

"Um, 'how's it going?'"

"It seemed so innocuous at the time."

Daniel and Jack entered the gate room just as Teal'c and Bra'tac came through.

"Fellas!  How was the trip?" Jack asked.

Teal'c frowned deeply.  "I have been betrayed by those I trusted most."  He then strode out of the gate room.

"That good, eh?" Jack called after him.

"His mood is foul indeed," Bra'tac said.  He nodded at Daniel and Jack.  "Greetings.  It is good to see you both."

"Bra'tac, what's wrong?" Daniel questioned.

"There was a complication."

"Ishta?" Jack inquired.

"She is well and as lovely as ever, O'Neill.  The problem, I fear, lies with Rya'c."

That concerned Daniel.  "Is he okay?"

"He is in love and plans to be married."

The Master Jaffa gave a slight shake of his head and a sound of disapproval, then left the gate room.  Jack and Daniel just stood there, confused and surprised.

"Okay, that's . . . news," Jack remarked.

"Apparently, not good news."

"Yes, I got that impression as well."

"I guess we'll have to ask Teal'c what the problem is," Daniel said.

"Yeah.  Maybe I'll invite him to a nice game of ping pong.  We'll chat while we lob the ball back and forth."

"Good luck."

"Thanks."


All things considered, maybe playing a game of ping pong with an angry Jaffa hadn't been one of Jack's brighter ideas – and he'd have the bruises to remind him of that fact, including one in a rather . . . delicate location.

At least Jack did learn about Rya'c and the upcoming nuptials.  They were going to take place in only three days.  Teal'c was angry that Rya'c had not consulted him before making the decision.  Teal'c believed that the girl his son was marrying had "caused all reason to leave Rya'c's head."  Ishta, on the other hand, was apparently not against the marriage, stating that tradition should persist at all costs, especially in the face of oppression.  But Teal'c was positive that Rya'c was too young to know what love is and that love inevitably weakened a warrior's resolve.

And what had Jack's words of wisdom been?

"Look, T, I'm not gonna tell you how to raise your kid, but I've always found that sticking your fingers in your ears and humming loudly solves a whole slew of problems."

Teal'c didn't stick his fingers in his ears.  Instead, he went with Jack to the control room in response to the announcement of an unscheduled off-world activation.  When Ishta's IDC came through, both men went down to the gate room to greet her.

She and the female Jaffa named Ka'lel appeared through the wormhole and came down the ramp.  They bowed their heads in greeting.  Teal'c did likewise to them.

"Greetings," Jack said.

"There is an urgent matter we must discuss," Ishta said.  "Hak'tyl may have been compromised."

Jack and Teal'c exchanged a concerned glance.

"Well, that's not good news," Jack responded.  He turned around and called up to the control room.  "Call Daniel and Carter.  Tell them they're needed in the briefing room."

"Yes, sir," the gate technician said.

Before the call could be made, the two people it would have been made to entered the gate room.

"What's up?" Daniel asked.

"There is trouble on Hak'tyl," Teal'c replied.

"Come on.  Let's go up to the briefing room," Jack said.

They all ascended to the briefing room and sat at the table.

"What's the trouble on Hak'tyl?" Daniel asked.

"We believe that Moloc is aware of our existence," Ishta replied.

"How do you know?"

"Yesterday, we were to meet one of our contacts, a high priestess stationed within Moloc's temple.  She failed to appear at the allotted time."

"You must evacuate immediately," Teal'c said.

"I agree, but we know not of another uninhabited planet like Hak'tyl.  Hiding a large group of female warriors and children within a populated planet in Moloc's domain is difficult and dangerous."

"Well, I'm sure we could help you folks out," Jack said.  He turned to Sam.  "Carter?"

"Uh, no problem.  We have a number of possible worlds on record, but they should be explored more thoroughly before you take up permanent residence."

"If Moloc is aware of our location, every moment my people remain on Hak'tyl puts them at greater risk," Ishta stated.  She turned to Jack, who nodded, agreeing.  Everyone looked at him expectantly until he finally realized what they were waiting for him to say.

"Oh.  Um . . . uh, uh, you're welcome to stay here."

Ishta nodded in agreement, her gaze then going to Teal'c across the table.

"I'll go start the paperwork," Jack said.

A while later, Daniel and Sam stood in the gate room, watching as women and children came through carrying supplies and personal belongings.

Daniel's eyebrows rose as a horse was led through.  "This could get interesting."

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

HomeNews & InfoFan FictionMessage BoardLinksEmail
Stargate-Horizons.com Home Page   |   Site Map of Stargate-Horizons.com