Colonel Makepeace was sentenced to death by means of the electric chair on account of treason. He scowled at the judge in all his glory and looked at his orange overalls and number taped to his uniform as he was escorted out of the building by two guards to his left and one to his right. All the other men formally wearing grey were now dressed in attire similar to his own all receiving identical sentencing's – including Maybourne. They were terrified of death, but even more outraged at the prospect of Colonel Jack O'Neill once again thwarting their plans. The two groups SG1 and Maybourne's men had the same goal. The only difference was that some of those men were petrified about their planet being overrun by alien enemies. Each had sworn an oath to protect the country from enemies both domestic and foreign and Maybourne's men agreed that SG1's tactics were not direct enough. They agreed that what they were doing was wrong, they all knew it. But they had sworn in duty to protect their country and by proxy the whole planet. They thought that what they were doing was necessary – damn the consequences.
Fear had laced itself throughout all of Makepeace's veins as he was strapped into place. He could feel the pain as the charge of the chair was slowly increased. His tolerance held, but not for long. Soon the screams of a dying man rang out the room. The ward and guards presiding, had to cover their ears. Playing trumpet in high school and yelling at his men as a leader of SG-3 meant that the man had developed a good set of lungs in him. He learnt to use his diaphragm in basic training which meant that he could continue yelling for a considerable amount of time with no coarseness in his voice. The ward slowly increased the charge even more making the volume of Makepeace's voice unbearable. The caretaking men felt sympathy of pain at the thought of his torture. Each man, closed their eyes.
And when they opened them again, Makepeace was gone.
"Are you alright, Colonel Makepeace?"
Makepeace looked up and turned his head to the side. He gasped for air, still feeling the ghost pain of a severe electric shock. It was worse than drowning. Being a marine, drowning wasn't a foreign phenomenon. He had been ducked under water by his superior officers more than once in training, and he learned to love the burn of anoxia. Makepeace was a masochist. That's how he was able to progress so far. No one becomes a Colonel without a valid reason, guts and being a bit temperamental from time to time. He respected Jack; and understood why he went undercover like he did to overthrow their operation. But the Goa'uld were a much bigger threat then what Maybourne and his men could ever rise to become. Why Jack's attention was turned to them and not to the System Lords would forever remain an enigma in Makepeace's mind.
Makepeace turned to the little grey alien looming over his body like it was a specimen to be examined. "I am alive," He coughed, "why?"
"I am Thor." He stated firmly. "Supreme commander of-"
"-the Asgard fleet." Makepeace finished, lacking in any courtesy to his savior whatsoever. "Yeah, yeah. I read the mission reports." He said somewhat harshly, void of any emotion other than barely restrained anger. "So I ask again; why am I alive?" Makepeace brushed himself off the floor. His orange uniform standing starkly against the dull grey's, blue's and black's that usually composed Asgardian ships.
"Your questions will be answered in due course, Colonel," The little grey alien meandered back to the control panel and sent his ship into hyperspace.
"I want to know now." Makepeace rolled his eyes and ran his hands through his hair. His anger flared at the Asgardians patience. If he wasn't demanding he wouldn't get the results he needed when he needed them. That wasn't how the United States Marine Corps worked.
"I have been dispatched to earth to beam you aboard to take you to the high council." Makepeace's temper was deflating bit by bit, but he could still feel his blood boiling. Sometimes Makepeace got an adrenaline rush out of anger. He lived on his rage like how most people live on food. His ex-wife left him for it. It didn't hurt as much as what he thought it would. He pushed through it like trying to move brick walls that refused to budge. The marines motto was embedded in his nature like sand on a beach. What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. "I have set the co-ordinates on the computer to arrive on Orilla. In the meantime, I will answer any questions that you may have to the best of my ability."
Makepeace turned his head from side to side and glanced out the window. He could see the purple-bluish glow of hyperspace meaning he had already exited earth's orbit. "If you had of given us one of these bad boys, we might not have needed to do what we did."
Thor's big bulgy eyes that engulfed half his face, looked up at him indifferently. "Indeed, but the Asgard have problems of their own. I presume that you know of the replicators?"
Makepeace turned his face towards the little grey guy that took such a liking to Jack O'Neill and shook his head, almost feeling insulted. "I am a Marine, not stupid," he glanced upwards and saw that the alien had only blinked, his face remaining overall very neutral. "And I was the leader of SG-3. I had my own battles to fight."
"Then you know of the dangers they pose to the Asgard?"
"Yes," he snarled at his supposed ally. "And they will soon become a problem for us if you don't give us the things we need." Makepeace's temper once again, flared.
"Even so, the Asguard cannot spare the technology to do so." He moved one of the white stones on the control panel to open a room full of earthen supplies. Water, food, and BDU's equipped with a GDO and combat boots. The only thing missing were the weapons. The Asgard were very intelligent; Makepeace guessed that they knew he would likely shoot himself out given the chance. He wasn't one to think before doing; he followed orders. He was good at that. "You are more than welcome to change in there if it is what you please." The Asgard placed several stones on the control panel and moved them from time to time only stopping to glance up at the large display monitor off to the left, ignoring Makepeace almost entirely.
He set his jaw defiantly to the right and walked into the tiny room, Thor closing it behind him. He looked at the several boxes of supplies that were given to him. He wondered about the food and water, thinking that perhaps it was poisoned. If that were so, He thought, they intend to kill me. They want me alive. Otherwise they would have let me die. He unzipped his overall's discarding them and tore off his white t-shirt underneath and replaced it with a black one. He pulled on the unpatched BDU trousers and tightened the green belt around them. He laced up the black boots and tied them at the top of his ankle then tucked a military standard hat into his pocket. He tugged on one of the green jackets and looked himself in the mirror displayed in front of him.
He was never one for dress and looks but the more and more he changed out of the orange uniform the more and more he began to feel like himself. He hadn't ever had the patience to bother with style. He thought that the only people on earth – nay, the universe – that should care about their looks were girls. He had a soft spot for pretty girls and he was always so awkward around them, but boy, did he love pretty girls. He recalled one that he liked in high school. She had the blondest of hair and was the brightest girl he ever knew and ever thought that he would know. She looked very much like Samantha Carter only her eyes were brown, not blue.
Makepeace bristled himself and snapped out of his reverie. He wasn't in high school anymore that was obvious. He was now in his forties and his hair was beginning to grey. Wrinkles formed at the base of his chin and around his eyes, but were not yet defined like Jack's were. He was slightly less pale than he was in high school due to being out in the sun from all the training that he had to undergo in his years in the Marine Corps and being trapped off-world on planets that had three suns or more, but any women would have to be blind to deny that he still looked very handsome.
He sat on the ground, rummaging through the boxes for something to eat, finally settling on a red apple. He ate very lightly, taking only the bare minimum. He wasn't exactly hungry, but he had the feeling that the Asgard would not have interfered in his execution and compromised revealing their existence if it wasn't for a good reason. He was being taken to see the High Council; whatever he thought of the Asgard, that meant it was something serious, and something that he shouldn't walk into on an empty stomach.
After finishing the apple and tossing the core away, He used a bit of hand sanitizer to get the sticky feeling off of them. He took a swig of water from one of the bottles, then jumped to his feet. As he turned to the doorway it opened automatically, as if it knew that he was finished. He stepped through and found Thor still messing with the controls and flying in hyperspace. The tension building up inside of him.
"How much longer?" He crossed his arms over his chest and walked closer to the window, narrowing his eyes at it as if it was the source of all his troubles.
"A minute." Although the little grey alien didn't show it, Makepeace could hear a shrug in his tone. He stopped messing with the controls and looked up at Makepeace with his big glossy eyes. He watched as the monitor disappeared within the ceiling of the ship. They dropped out of hyperspace and then both he and Thor were beamed out in a blinding flash of white light.
Makepeace found himself standing on what appeared to be a hovering platform. He glanced above himself and saw about eight other Asgardians, besides Thor, descend in the same blinding white light that brought him there. He stood with his legs slightly apart with hands lazily dropped down by his side. He showed no sign of emotion. He looked at the Asgard, with a neutral expression on his face, but inside feeling queasy. He felt his heart drop to his stomach and suddenly the anxiety fell on him all at once. He thought maybe the Asgard had an even worse punishment then death planned for him.
"We, the High Council of the Asgard race, call upon you, Colonel Robert Makepeace, to answer for your crimes in theft from the Tok'ra, Tollen, Asgard and the Humans across the Galaxy."
Makepeace was growing impatient as he rolled his eyes. "Hey! We needed those things to defend ourselves!"
The Asgard took what the human had to say to heart. They knew the predicament that earth was in; it was a unique problem for a planet. They knew of freedom and were willing to rid the galaxy of the oppressors when so many others would simply bow but they also knew that Earth, at least for the time being, could stand on its own. "Are you aware that many planets were destroyed in taking from the Asgard?"
The difference in voice from Asgard to Asgard threw Makepeace off for a second – but only a second. He understood the gist of what the little grey alien was saying, nonetheless. He felt like a child being chastised by a parent, only his crime was worse than taking the last cookie out of a cookie jar. "My first priority is to earth."
"It is not," came the voice of another Asgardian. "Earth's technological development is at a unique stage in its progression."
"It is infantile enough to a point where the replicators pose no immediate threat, yet advanced enough to the point where your planet can oppose the System Lords. Many other planets under Asgardian protection cannot say the same."
"Some Asgard protected planets, including many you stole from, fall under the latter category and have become subjugated to Goa'uld control because the technology that would otherwise have saved them was illicitly in your possession."
"The denizens of your world have an inter-galactic obligation to other worlds to protect it. If you do not, the Goa'uld territory will only grow as the Asgard protected planets fall and the System Lords will eventually turn their attention towards you."
Makepeace's heart turned to stone as he realised the gravity of the situation; in trying to protect his planet he may inadvertently be responsible for its downfall. "In doing so, you have condemned many planets to the slavery that they have been freed from for countless generations and under Asgard law, that constitutes you as no better than the Goa'uld themselves, and therefore punishable by death."
"So kill me already!" He yelled and heard his voice echo around the vastness of the room.
"But laws can be changed."
"As the technological development of earth continues to grow, the goa'uld will turn their attention to you prematurely and you will have engaged them in an unwinnable battle."
Makepeace turned his head to each Asgard as he spoke. "Under these circumstances, we deem your actions to be understandable but not pardonable. To excuse such crimes among the Asgard, we set forth four separate tasks to demonstrate the strength of your character, purity of heart and knowledge and wisdom."
"If you pass all tests, then you will be welcomed among the Asgardians and appointed official liaison between us and all the humans of the galaxy, a position that we had originally planned to give to Colonel O'Neill,"
"then why are you giving it to me?" He yelled. "Why me?" He repeated.
"The high council is using this opportunity to save a life. We believe your reasons to be marginally misplaced but also sincere. The same cannot be said for your colleagues. Many wished that one day, their operation would surpass that of the SGC and then expand on their territory to other planets by means of the Stargate for the sole purpose of personal gain. The people of earth would effectively become the Goa'uld themselves and we could not allow that to happen. Colonel O'Neill was offered the position of being liaison after apprehending the opperation, but refused, by saying that his place was on his team. It was left to us to find another to take his place."
Makepeace rolled his eyes at the mention of the other Colonel's name. Flyboy, He thought, Sardonic, sarcastic, idiotic, arrogant, pain-in-the-ass, sad excuse for a Colonel. "If I fail?" He yelled making sure that he was heard.
"Then it will be your death. Do you accept?"
Makepeace didn't even flinch. He'd been in life and death situations before and his nerves were working in overdrive. He could feel the adrenaline working through his veins and he was excited about the prospect of finally leaving his cell. He was eager to get out in the field again, even if it was alone without SG3 to cover his six and if it meant certain death. It was this that he was trained for.
"I do." He said without hesitation. He did as he was trained. He stood in rigid formation with his hands clasped firmly by his side as his form snapped to attention. Before his eyes, one-by-one each Asgard disappeared until he found himself in an empty room until he was also engulfed back in the bright white light.