An Old Wolf

Chapter 1

Highlands of Scotland:

He hiked silently through the trails. In over 200 years the land had changed yet remained the same. The same air, the same beauty… the same smell of cow dung. Scotland didn't change. Fortunately up here the wind blew most of any foul scents away. He kept walking. It would be here somewhere. The humans had found Merlin's lab in England, but there were no records of them or anyone finding the other caves and hideaways. Some had been set up for Merlin's research and others had been made long after Camelot's fall. The technology of putting treasures out of phase with the rest of reality was a useful way to hid away secrets and tools that He did not wish in the hands of others.

He stopped at the top of one hill and looked around him. What a sight. Nothing but green, lush and full and vibrant land. A contrast to the desert that had been his home for centuries. Cities were amazing feats of technology and men's ability to dominate their world but nature had its own wonders. He turned his head around and took it all in.

3 days. I have been looking for this place for 3 whole days. Time was I would have found it in a matter of hours. Well, I have time. Enjoy the journey.

As he set to walking again memories of the past wars that had been fought on this land sprouted in his mind. The barbarians as he thought of them running around fighting screaming like devils. A hardy people, still were in many way. There was a time He had lead a small group of Roman legionnaires through these lands to assassinate a chieftain. Only 13 of the original 30 came back to Rome. 4 had died of disease, 3 to accidents on the road, two got into a fight and one killed the other so they had to kill the winner for the lack of discipline. And the others had died as they were chased off…after killing the chieftain.

After smiling at the idea of tribes running over the hills he then started to flash back to the funeral of Alice Kinsey. He had wanted to attend but He knew that it would be watched and a fight was not what was needed now. The memorial was televised. The life of a Vice President's granddaughter was not worth the news but her death certainly was. It was reported she had died in a car accident, no reason, no drunk driving just a bad turn. How sad. The lies might have made the government feel more secure but it was still a lie. She had died fighting off aggressors, she died a solder's death on a field of battle in a withdraw. There were no such things as retreats, not in his mind. But she would never be known to anyone but him as a solder, just some other man's granddaughter, shame. He didn't need to be at a service tainted by lies, besides; he could visit her any time.

That thought of not being in any rush to pay his respects brought with it a sense of calm and a touch of sadness. Many people wanted closure for the ones that had died. That was what a funeral was for. The dead didn't need any services, it was more for the living and those left behind. But He was not so sensitive or in need of such comforts. People died. It was an inevitable conclusion given to them at their birth. It could be stayed and even avoided at times but it was ever present. And it was not something to fear. In truth He did not miss Alice; she provided a sense of security that only came when you were accompanied by people that you know will not betray you. For all his mistakes, she was not one of them. Those memories were what she left behind. He would remember but her death was only a step to something else not an end.

He said a prayer for her the day after he had arrived at the safe house up north. But that had been as far as his grief took him. Alice and Eric and so many others were now beyond his reach and there was no point feeling sorry for himself. And the most he could do for them was send his condolences to their families, and explain what had happened as best as he was able by letter, if the families ever received them. The government possibly could be going through such documents to prevent any leak as to what really happened being known. On their behalf he sent their earnings to their families as well. Even set up a trust so that Eric's younger sister would be able to attend hire education. But there was no breaking down into tears for him. There was no second-guessing of what He should have done or would have done. There was moving on, the best way to show respect for those comrades that have past was to move on and let them rest in disserved peace.

He did not smile at the memory or the thoughts but filed them away as simply fact and moved on. He came over a hill top and there it was. He turned his head from side to side before noticing it. A small cave deep in the tree line. Most humans would not have been able to see it in that distance or with the cover the trees provided but he saw it. The small black whole was still there. He had found it.

Daniel Jackson's apartment:

The phone rang waking Daniel from a deep sleep. Groggily he reached for the phone by his bed and lifted it to his ear. With his other hand he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and index finger. "Jackson". What time is it? He thought to himself.

"WHAT…" Daniel rose into the sitting position all traces of sleep gone. "Alright, I'll come in right away."

Daniel jumped out of bed and ran to grab some pants.

SGC:

Landry hadn't left the SGC all night. He had been catching up on reports and finally took a rest in his base quarters. Perhaps he and Carolyn could grab a bite later that was till he got the call. Now he was in his office on the phone with the secretary of defense.

"Yes, Sir…I understand Mr. Secretary but…Sir how can we…" He just stopped trying to get a word in till the man stopped talking. "Yes, Sir."

He hung up the phone. Damn, Damn, Damn, he silently cursed. He looked out his window into the briefing room and saw SG-1 come in. Teyla had gone back to Atlantis via the Dedilus weeks ago when the wraith now officially documented as BILL hadn't surfaced for over a month. He had half a mind to send word that he wanted Col. Carter to come back but that wasn't necessary. Let the woman keep her command, they could get along without her...maybe.

"General," Mitchell stood up as did several other officers who had come in following SG-1.

"At ease, everyone." Landry took his seat. "Well, Vala, first off you were right, He got back at us. You are all going to Nevada.

"Area 51, Sir?" Daniel asked. It had been a little while since he was last out there.

"No, Dr. Jackson." Replied Landry, "You are going to go investigate what is left of Area 51."

Area 51:

Daniel and Vala both looked at the burned buildings and trashed vehicles. There were holes in the ground were explosives had been blown off. The above ground facilities looked like it had been hit with an air strike.

"What happened?" was all Mitchell could say. Teal'c just stood silently.

All around them cleanup crews were going through ruble and holding machines that recorded things none of them understood.

"Sir," a man in air force class As came up to them. "I am Major George Hart, second in command of Area 51."

"Where is Col. Hazard," Mitchell asked.

"Sorry, Sir, you have not been briefed on what has happened?"

"All they said was our Wraith had been here and caused some trouble but…" Mitchell looked around.

"Yes, come with me." The major walked away and SG-1 followed.

They were led to a command trailer. Inside were people on computers and mapping out salvage crews. A small separate section acted as the Major's office. It was cramped but they all fit in around the small desk and computer. "Here," the Major handed Vala who was closest to him a print out. "That is a copy of a letter found in Col. Hazard's front pocket…after he was restrained."

"Uh," Vala looked at the letter and handed it to Daniel. Daniel took it and started silently reading.

"Jackson?" Mitchell asked.

"It is in ancient. We would have had one of our translators look at it but…they are also restrained. Can you read it Dr. Jackson?"

"Yah, it says 'Payback is a…" he looked at Vala and then to the Major, "bitch."

"How do you know it is the wraith?" Mitchell asked.

"He signed it," Daniel held out the paper to Mitchell and Teal'c. It was in ancient alright, but the bottom half was written in English.

Your friendly neighborhood life-sucking,

Intergalactic, 10,000 year old,

Pain in Ass, WRAITH.

Then it went to some other language, Daniel read it aloud. "P.S. Hello Daniel, Vala, Teal'c and Colonel Mitchell, sleep well with the idea that I had you in mind when I did this."

"He wrote it in Russian." Daniel said.

"Well…" Vala said. "That was nice of him." Everyone, including the Major looked at her. "What, he said hello?"

Daniel and Teal'c walked among the crews. The others had spread out. An engineer/IOA agent assigned to the salvage effort, one of several at Aria 51 was guiding them around. Some of the buildings had caved into the ground when the underground structures caved in or were blown up.

"How many were killed in the Attack?" Teal'c asked the agent.

"Not in the attack as far as we can tell. Three were killed when the special forces tried to re-take the base." The man answered. He wasn't taking them anywhere special just around the damage to see if anything they noticed was connected to the wraith.

"Re-take the base from who?" Daniel asked to clarify.

"Somehow all the personnel on the base were…put under some kind of mind control or something. At 0300 this morning, the base personnel started blowing up their own facilities. Setting fires, using the base's own munitions to destroy the support structures. Labs, files, equipment, projects, everything here that was being studied was damaged or completely destroyed. We are still trying to get into the lower levels to see what is left, if anything."

"And the base's own personnel did this, how do you know?" Daniel asked amazed.

"When the first explosions happened we tried to regain contact, but there was no response. Special forces were dispatched and breeched the perimeter at 0355. They were fired on immediately by base security. There was a fire fight. That was how the three men died. Back up was called and by using gas and conclusion grenades we managed to capture all of them but the base was already a disaster.

Teal'c looked around for the first time amazed. "How are the captured personnel?"

"They are all being held under observation. They all came back to themselves at sun rise." The agent answered. "And they have no idea how anything happened to them or what they were doing."

Daniel and Teal'c looked at each other.

0032 that morning:

A MP at the guard house looked up at a noise he thought he heard. No one was there. Greg his partner snored next to him. Nothing ever happened on night shift. He went back to reading his book. He had some time before he had to go out on patrol again anyway.

The Guard did not see Him. He stood just outside the door and smiled to himself. He pulled his cloak around him even tighter confirming that it obscured him from all sight. With ease and no rush he walked past the guards and into the base known in the world of Science Fiction and sci-fi as Area 51. He walked across the paved streets always mindful of who was around him. Not many not including the many guards but they were just on patrol. He refrained from performing any functions till they moved past.

He turned in a small circle looking for a way inside the underground facilities. Above ground it was nothing much to look at accept a few administration buildings, a barracks and a lot of planes and helicopters. But underneath was supposed to be a treasure trove of stolen and salvaged technologies that the SGC and now Atlantis had brought back for earth's exploitation. It was a treasure, and treasure translated into money. What better way to make the polotitions and other burocrats hurt than by attacking not their men but their pocket books? Men, sadly enough could be trained and more were always born, but relics, rare items who's forgers were long dead, those could not be born or trained again. Take them and the loss would hurt on every level, political, financial, and personal, there would be no end to the blame and arguments. And best of all would be the fear. To know that one of this country's most secure bases in its own isolated dessert, was able to be breached, that would scare everyone.

This was not about revenge or Justice. No He wanted to do this not just to 'earn his bones' as the expression went, to join the Trust, but to just be a pain in the government's side. This was not done, out of spite because of Eric and Alice. It was done because he wished to make his presence felt to those who thought they were untouchable. Any life lost would be ignored but the technology would be invaluable. He started moving through the base searching for an entrance, starting with the administration building.

He slipped in as someone else opened the door. Was not much. He wandered unchallenged from room to room till he found it. An elevator nice and deep in the heart of the elevator. It occurred to him that he probably could have saved time by going through the airfield, they must have had a way to get large machines out and that would have been the best way but since he was now here. He looked from side to side. No one was watching. He pushed the down button and entered.

Dr. Alexander Goodman was on his way up to report to the Colonel. He stood in front of the elevator to Administration level waiting for the doors to open. After a little while they opened up and he entered the elevator alone.

Once in and the doors closed he noticed that it kept going down. Aw'well he would just have to wait. He crossed his arms and waited for the elevator to reach the next level down when he detected a smell. A smell that was not normal in the sterile labs and sub-levels of Area 51. It had a kind of leather sent and oil, polish maybe…

"Excuse me."

Goodman jumped and spun around. Standing behind him was a monster. He saw the pail greenish skin and the nearly glowing yellow cat eyes. It smiled at him showing shark like teeth. "Doctor…" is spoke…

"AHHHHHH…AHHHHH…!" Goodman screamed like a little girl before he was grabbed up by his neck and lifted off the ground. Air, he couldn't breathe to scream.

"Doctor…" the creature spoke again. The smile vanished hiding the teeth behind its lips. "I do not like loud noises. Now I'm going to put you down and you are going to be quiet, alright."

Goodman couldn't manage a full not but a kind of wiggle of his entrapped head seemed to work. The thing lowered him to the ground. "Now, that is better. Dr…." it reached and took a look at his picture ID card hanging around his neck. "Goodman. I'm here to make a withdrawal…of sorts, and I think I can use your assistance. Will you help me, please?" It spoke in a light town except for the echo in its vice.

Goodman in near petrified fear looked the thing up and down. It was taller than him with broad shoulders. He couldn't see what it was wearing because a long black cape was completely covering it from shoulders down to its feet. Its head looked down at him. It had a small ruby red stud in its left ear lobe and its white silver hair was long and wavy resting free on his shoulders. "Do, I have a choice?" he felt the world come out of his mouth more than he willed them to come.

"No," it shook its head from side to side, "not really. I was just trying to be polite." The elevator door opened at that moment and Goodman turned to run but before he could take two steps he was caught by the back of his shirt and pulled back in. The doors closed and he was spun around. "Doctor," the creature spoke again, "Please guide me to a place where I can make an announcement over the intercom. I would like to address the base."

Goodman walked down the halls of sub-level 4 to what was nicknamed the control room. It was a nerve center for most of Area 51 research. Kind of a storage room for all final data and if need be a way for the administrators to contact other sections without having to go all the way back up to the top floor. He was nerves and perspiring. He passed several people but was unable to ask for help.

Right behind him he could feel the creature silently following and watching him with those terrible eyes. The creature had pulled up a hood of its cape and vanished before his vary eyes but the unseen force of its reach turned him and he heard its voice whisper in his ear, "don't do anything stupid, or I'll go mid-evil on your Hinny." That was a line from a Weird Al Yankovic song.

He knocked and entered the control room. A security guard was sitting at a table of monitors watching the corridors. And another researcher was just getting off a phone to someone upstairs. "Haaa…hi guys…" Goodman didn't get a chance to say anything else. The door shut seemingly of its own accord and the guard was thrown against the wall and knocked unconscious a second later by…nothing. Then it appeared again as its hood fell away. It looked at the other researcher and outreached its hand and the cape fell away from the arm. A glowing gantlet like device with a red gem in its palm immediately identifiable as a Goa'uld hand device shot a red beam that blasted the research into identical unconsciousness.

The creature turned back to Goodman. "Thank you, Doctor, don't move." Goodman watched helplessly as it went over to the desk with a microphone and several switches. It reached into its cape and pulled out a small wood box about a foot or more long. Opening the box it took out a flute like instrument that was a rusty reddish brown. On one end was clearly a mouth piece and the other widened up like a trumpet or clarinet. It started to flip the switches opening channels to all sections of the base. It leaned in to speak. "Ladies and Gentlemen, please direct your attention to the information to be put forth…" then it started to play the pip like instrument. A melody came forth and Goodman for one moment thought how sweet before the world went black.

He withdrew the instrument from his lips and held it away. Turning back to the microphone he spoke into it. "Everyone please go about your normal routine. Except Colonel Hazard. Colonel, please select 30 men and come meet me in your control room on sub-level 4. Bring carts and other means to carry stuff away."

He turned off the intercom system and waited for his "help" to arrive. The good Doctor Goodman stood there were he had once been cowering and now stood completely at ease. A small smile was on his face. "Doctor, you may go about your business and thank you for your assistance."

He waited with his hood down for the Colonel and 30 other strong SFs and MPs. "Colonel," If you could please take your men and myself to your storage facility and volts, where ever you hold your valuable technology." The colonel, a holder balding man, kept a small grin as he led the way to sub-level ten were they stored a bunch of their un-tested or to be studied later projects.

He took a look around. And something instantly caught his eye under a white sheet like it was old furniture. "This, take this…" for the next hour he directed the men and the Colonel to take various objects and relics from off world missions upstairs and start loading them into trucks. Before long the sublevels had been cleared of almost everything that even remotely looked interesting.

He caught a female researcher who also smiled in that serine way that they all did. The woman he directed to start downloading all the recorded research data to a portable storage unit and bring it back to him. She went about her task without any complaints.

By 2:30 A.M. he had a caravan of covered trucks ready to go, loaded and ready to go. He inspected them with Colonel Hazard in tow. He took a piece of paper off of a clipboard from a passing researcher and borrowed a pen from the Colonel. Writing on it briefly he folded it up and placed it in the Colonel's front pocket. He checked his watch. Good timing, the thought to himself.

He went to another comm. station and made another announcement to the base. "Everyone, at 0300, put down what you are doing and start destroying your laboratories and burning your notes. Cause as much damage as you can short of a nuclear explosion to the base. Please, do not risk your own lives and do not harm one another in your efforts. When the sun rises you will remember nothing. To reinforce his commands he took out the pipe again and played another tune. Satisfied he got into a truck with a driver and He and his caravan drove off.

Note: Hope you guys out there liked this. Not much action but I think a good start for a new "episode" as it were. Please review. Keep in mind that I'm planning on exploring more what the wraith intends to do with the Trust and reveal a bit more about His relationship with Merlin. The history is all well and good but something needs to be reveal or it goes stale. Thanks for reading and don't hesitate to criticize as long as it is criticism not complaining. Thanks again.