SGC: "So what is so vitally important that you're actually willing to contact me about?" asked Gus extremely curious.
"We'll discuss that later if we decide to," began Jack dismissively.
"What we're really interested in hearing what happened in the events before, during, and after what happened on PR-6308," Landry concluded. Gus sighed heavily at that, he'd expected that this would be the primary reason they wanted to contact them and he'd secretly wished it wasn't. By asking him these questions, it meant they hadn't found any evidence to clear him of wrongdoing yet.
"I'm not even sure where to begin," he admitted, a little defeated and also reluctant to go over those terrible events. It had taken him a long time to try and come to terms with what had happened and even then he sometimes woke up suddenly thinking about his old team of SG-8 and vowing revenge on those for what had transpired.
"Start at the beginning, you were involved with gathering intelligence about the Lucian Alliance," stated Landry looking at his notes on his desk that he had taken.
"Alright," Gus agreed sighing heavily but willing to be debriefed on the subject. It's not like he hadn't given most of this information out before when he had been put on trial for what had happened. "As you said, after the Goa'uld were defeated, a group of mercenaries and other factions came together to try and form an alliance to fill the resulting power vacuum. SGC and SG-1 were primarily concerned with the Ori at the time and so it fell to the other SG teams such as my team, SG-8, to try and uncover what information we could about their organization and their plans for the galaxy."
Landry nodded his head at that, he was well aware of those events having taken command of SGC by then. General O'Neill however had been the one to task SG-8 and other teams with finding out more about the Alliance and when Landry had taken command, he hadn't seen any reason to change that assignment.
"So we investigated a number of different worlds looking for whatever scraps of information we could obtain," Gus continued. "We didn't find much at first, but it was like a trail of breadcrumbs and we kept at it as the weeks rolled on. And then we came across more solid pieces of information about the Alliance that we couldn't ignore or set aside."
"Which was?" asked Landry now really interested. Any insight into cracking the Alliance was well worth it in his mind, even if the possible source was possibly unreliable.
"I don't know even know if I should tell you," Gus confessed leaning back in his chair. "I can't really prove any of it, now, beyond information that both SG-8 and now the SG-Infinity team discovered; information that is pointing me in the same direction that cost me SG-8. Even then I don't know if it's true or if someone is just baiting me along the path to ruin."
"Or else you're trying to create a situation to earn you a promotion," Jack figured aloud and then realized he shouldn't have said that. Gus and Landry looked at him shocked at that statement before Gus chuckled to himself.
"If I was that clever I'd be a general right now," he said offhand. "Not that I'd accuse you of that, Jack. Ha, ha, ha!"
Jack groaned at that as Landry chuckled inwardly at the comment before General O'Neill started laughing as well.
"Anyway, no," said Gus after a few moments passed. "If I am able to prove my innocence and the truth about the Alliance, and I will, I don't want a promotion or fanfare or anything. I just want to go back to work and I want the cadets absolved of all crimes over what happened when they left with me."
"So you're not responsible for what happened on PR-6308," said Jack a little angrily. An entire SG team had almost been lost and someone had to be held accountable for what had happened.
"I didn't say that," said Gus sadly. "In some ways I am responsible for what happened. My team did uncover evidence that led us to believe something big was going to go down on that planet. And I took it upon myself to issue the order to go there without any official input from Stargate Command. We went there, yes, but I didn't lead my team into an ambush that cost us a lot of good lives. We arrived late at night on that hellish planet and we were running on empty because we basically had to rush to get there. So we turn in for the night as lightning bolts are constantly flying overhead and hitting the giant crystals that grow on that world. The next thing I know I'm being woken up in the midst of a giant firefight with Alliance forces and arguing with SGC to let us through the gate since we were on a world we shouldn't have been."
"But the survivors claimed that…," began Landry a little accusatorily as he looked at the depositions.
"I know what they claimed!" Gus snapped at him before calming down. "They claimed that I led them into that ambush during the night. I swear that's not true but I also know they wouldn't lie about this, either. If I had led them into that situation I would accept responsibility for it and the punishment. But again, I didn't!"
Gus looked more and more sullen as he thought about what had happened that fateful night on some planet out in the middle of far edge of the galaxy.
"And then there was the situation at SGC after your trial," Landry continued, knowing that it would only cause the Major more pain, but it had to asked.
"I can't explain that either," said Gus also at a loss. "I was in the bay when the Iris opened. My niece, Cadet Stacey Bonner, and a couple other workers saw me there because they were working on the prototype vehicles for off world travel. Next thing we know the Lucian Alliance forces are pouring through the gate firing everywhere and I'm trying to lead a bunch of cadets to repel them and Cadet R.J. Harrison claimed that I was the one responsible for opening the Iris in the first place at the same time I was down in the bay. We meet up with Cadet Seattle Montoya and the scientist Ec'co who barely stopped the Alliance from getting a hold of the alien that we now call Draa'ga that they were studying with Doctor Daniel Jackson."
That was a story in itself, but Jack asked next. "How does that lead to you taking the prototype exploration vehicles through the Stargate?"
"You know me, Jack, I sometimes come up with crazy ideas and not worry about the consequences," Gus reminded him. "The Alliance reset the Stargate to take them back to their point of origin and I took the cadets and Draa'ga in her caterpillar form through the gate where we blew up their gate room after fleeing for another world that I had been to previously during my early days with SGC. I tried to come back but you changed the IDC codes and well I'd like to not be atomized before somehow proving my innocence."
Landry took all of that in slowly. He had expected to learn a lot from the Major and he had been right. The problem he was in was lack of evidence to support his case. While what Daniel had said earlier was true, that the ensuing investigation had turned up several inconsistencies, he knew General O'Neill had made the right choice in giving Major Bonner a guilt verdict with the information they currently had and Bonner's testimonial along with the remains of his team. True the survivors of SG-8 continued to profess that while Major Bonner did lead the team into the ambush on PR-6308, they still stuck by him even after all that had happened, but that didn't excuse that it had happened in the first place. Plus there was no evidence that Major Bonner was under the influence of anything, whether brainwashing, Goa'uld possession, Ori influence, or anything else at the time…or now. It was all so confusing on top of everything else SGC was currently dealing with in regards to the Lucian Alliance and the Wraith.
"I just want you to know one thing. I would never betray Stargate Command," Major Bonner promised. "I've been with this program practically since it started because I happened to be in the wrong place at the right time when Apophis's forces came through that gate all those years ago and Hammond was assembling SG teams to go through the gate to other worlds. I earned my current rank because of my work here and the day I assumed command of SG-8 was one of the greatest days in my life. Since then I have gone to places I could only have dreamt of and fought enemies that are beyond the worst things my imagination could come up with. But I would never betray SGC for anything."
That gave Landry even more to mull over and he couldn't think where to go next.
"Gus?" asked Jack intently about something Landry didn't fully understand. "What's the best world?"
Gus looked at him straight in the eyes. "The next one."
Landry could tell that O'Neill was having the same thoughts he was and then he realized what his next question would be. The one piece of the puzzle Bonner had failed to divulge during his impassioned speech.
"What were expecting to find on PR-6308?" he asked bluntly. Gus looked a little downtrodden at that, remembering what he was he had expected and failed to find.
"The truth," was all he could respond with. "The truth about the Alliance and how they came to be formed in the first place."
"Which is?" asked Jack intently, since this was the genesis of the downfall of Gus Bonner and SG-8 and the creation of SG-Infinity.
"Do you really want to know what I think it is?" said Gus warning them. "Because you'll never believe me, you'll think I'm crazy. And I don't have much evidence at the moment to prove otherwise."
"Just tell us," Jack insisted. He needed to know what would cause Gus Bonner to make a decision that would ruin his career. Gus for his part just sighed heavily at that.
"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you," he told them while sitting straight up and turning serious. "The more I learned about the Alliance, the more I became suspicious about how they came about in the first place. Yes, I can understand that there was a power vacuum needing to be filled, but the Alliance sprung up almost overnight after Anubis and his forces were finally destroyed. A collective like that can't just suddenly exist. It would take time to mature to reach an agreement all of them could agree on."
That had been a concern of O'Neill's and Landry's as well. There were a lot of things about the Alliance that made little sense on the outset, but their formation was one of the more confusing aspects of the organization.
"As my team uncovered more and more information, we began to suspect that there was more to it. The members of the Alliance are unknowingly being led by a shadow organization, a race of beings from another galaxy finally making inroads into ours," Gus revealed. "Based on what we uncovered, I believed that race was going to make an appearance on PR-6308 and that's why we went, to find them."
"And did this race have a name?" asked Landry in a hushed tone. Regardless of the validity of the story, it did make an intriguing one to hear.
"Yes," said Gus nodding his head. "They call themselves the Tla'kahn."
Another world: Daniel Jackson sat with Ec'co and Seattle enjoying some moss soup while keeping his eyes on Draa'ga who was seen through the nearest batch of trees looking around with childlike curiosity.
"How soon did she turn into that form from the larval stage we found in the sarcophagus?" Daniel asked. Stacey and Harrison had decided to go on patrol leaving them behind at the camp.
"Within only a few days after going through the Stargate," Seattle told him. "We were on a wooded planet when she entered into a cocoon and emerged into the form you see there. It came in handy, she managed to heal a race of woodland creatures that had gotten sick and help us fend off an Alliance attack on them."
"Amazing," said Daniel clearing feeling the same way. "We uncovered her six months before you left after being in that sarcophagus for who knows how long and all she did was squirm around in a small cage. I wonder what changed."
"Perhaps it was finally travelling through the Stargate," Ec'co reasoned. Daniel nodded his head at that.
"That's a good point," he told him with a smile. "See, I told you that you had something to contribute to SGC."
"Thank you Doctor Jackson," answered Ec'co, clearly pleased with the compliment. SG-1 had been the team to contact his people and while they were technologically advanced and had experience using the Stargate beforehand, Dr. Jackson had brought a number of contributions to their scientific understanding of the universe. As such he was a highly honored member of their society.
"Is it true she managed to open a Stargate with just her mind?" he asked next. Seattle nodded her head at that.
"According to Stacey and the Major's descriptions, yes," she told him. "Ec'co, Harrison and I were on a different world at the time to try and gather supplies and the Alliance came through the gate where they were. They had them trapped against the gate with no chance of reaching the DHD when Draa'ga somehow activated the Gate just by touching it. The ring didn't even move and none of the chevrons locked in, but it still created a stable wormhole just long enough for them to escape."
Daniel's jaw dropped at that. He'd heard the rumors about what the creature had done through reports obtained from captured Alliance bases, but to hear it firsthand was something else. Needless to say it made them very interested in her because that power being demonstrated meant that entire worlds could potentially be accessible once more.
"That's what we thought," said Seattle with a grin on her face.
"Well have you come any further in figuring out 'what' she is?" asked Daniel next. The two young scientists both shook their heads.
"Nothing definitive," Ec'co responded. "She is definitely connected to the Stargate, but how we're still not sure. I believe you first suspected she may have even been one of the original Goa'uld based on her original form, but dismissed it as her genetic structure had nothing in common with theirs. She is clearly not an Ancient either, but again her ability to manipulate the Stargate means her species must have had contact with them at some point. It is all so confusing."
"Well you could tell him Harrison's theory," said Seattle with a conspiratorial smile on her face before she drank some soup. If Ec'co's eye could have rolled at that suggestion, it would have.
"I'd rather not," he said dismissively and slightly embarrassed. Daniel looked at the two of them confused.
"I'd be more than willing to hear it," he told them. Any theory would be useful to help him further formulate a theory about what Draa'ga was.
"Fine," Ec'co huffed as Seattle's grin grew wider. "He suspects she might be a Furling, one of the four races that allied against the Goa'uld."
That was another idea Daniel hadn't considered. After all these years of never finding any evidence about the Furlings, even in the Ancient and Asgard Databases, he had almost given up hope of ever discovering them.
"Why does he think that?" the scientist implored. In the reports he'd read, Harrison was a hotshot pilot and not one particularly inclined towards the sciences. But if he thought that's what she was, he likely had a good reason for thinking so.
"Because he feels that Furling doesn't refer to her species having fur, but rather the un'furling' of her wings," Ec'co told him and then dropped his head into his hands too embarrassed to having actually told Dr. Jackson that. Seattle for her part was laughing so hard she nearly fell off the log she was sitting on.
Still, as goofy as the reasoning was, Daniel couldn't just discount the possibility. After all, a Furling having wings seemed less ridiculous than the thought of them being living Teddy Bears.
CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP
The two SG-Infinity members looked at the vehicles as Daniel narrowed his eyes wondering what that noise was coming from.
"I'll deal with it. It's probably hungry and I'll take it for a walk," Seattle offered and walked over to her motorcycle. Daniel watched her go confused.
"Do you have some sort of animal with you?" he asked. Having pets from other worlds wasn't a violation of SGC rules for fear of communicable diseases.
"Not exactly," responded Ec'co cryptically. "But Seattle likes to think of it as a pet."
Seattle went to a case attached to the rear of her vehicle and popped the two clasps on it to open it and then reached inside for something. When she turned around, Daniel was so stunned that he fell off his log.
In Seattle's outstretched hands was a Replicator.
Earth: "Tla'kahn?" asked Landry testing out this new word that he'd just learned.
"Yep," said Gus nonplussed. "They're supposedly a long lived race of warriors who may have even visited Earth long ago and been responsible for the Mayan Pyramids. Or at least, that's what I gathered from the scraps of information SG-8 found."
"Yeah, but from where?" said Jack a little doubtful about where he had found this information. "You said they were a shadow organization."
"That's right," Gus confirmed. "But from our investigations, we came across the remains of a few bases held by one of the Alliance factions. From the looks of things, they found out about these Tla'kahn and since they shadow organization couldn't let themselves be discovered, they came down on this Alliance member. And we recovered a group of badly damaged records accordingly."
"You sure it wasn't just put there for you to find?" Jack pointed out. He sincerely hoped that Gus wouldn't be done in by a hoax.
"That's what I thought at first, but we found similar pieces of information across multiple locations on multiple planets and these places were trashed almost beyond recognition. We found energy signatures that weren't in any of our records and wreckage that didn't correspond to anything else either. Evidently these Tla'kahn use some kind of fighter with a front bubble canopy to allow for a good line of sight to any target," Gus continued. "But like I said, these Alliance members were keeping track of where they thought these Tla'kahn were going and PR-6308 seemed like it was a likely destination and they were going to be there soon. We didn't have time to tell you back at base because by the time you responded we'd probably have missed them. And so we jumped. I think they knew we were on to them and that's why they planned that ambush. I just don't know how my team was supposedly led by me right into it."
Jack tried to run through his head all the things as he looked at the deposition reports and testimony that had been given to him during the trial.
"Do you regret that decision?" asked Landry wanting to know.
"Every day," Gus admitted slowly nodding his head. "That's why I have to prove my innocence and that the Tla'kahn are out there. It's the only way I can make it up to them."
Gus turned grim at that prospect but then shrugged and returned to a more neutral state. Undoubtedly he was well aware of what a difficult prospect that would be, especially without the help of SGC in finding an enemy that may or may not exist. Nevertheless, Landry jotted down a note about looking that name up in the databases later.
"Why didn't you mention all of this during the trial?" Jack demanded, a little irate. "You just said you were convinced there was an Alliance meeting on PR-6308. You said nothing about any Tla'kahn and a shadow organization."
"I wanted to," Gus insisted. "But after the ambush it became clear that someone was onto me. I couldn't risk telling that information publicly, especially without proof, and so I kept silent. I would've told General Landry in private but I didn't know him that well. I really wanted to tell you but I never got the chance. I'm sorry, I really am. I handled it poorly, I realize that now. But if I said something aloud, then who knows what these aliens would've done next. That they managed to frame me when attacking SGC to get their hands on that alien and are now trying to kill me as well I think is a message in itself. I couldn't take that risk then, especially with my team gone. And let's face it this story is so ridiculous even I can barely believe it."
Jack scratched the back of his head in a mixture of emotions from anger to understanding and everything in between. Landry again took all this information in as he weighed his judgment on the whole situation.
"Have you found out anything else since then?" asked Landry.
"Bits and pieces but again nothing concrete," Gus responded. "I'm pursuing a lead right now that I think might give me something solid on these aliens. I'd tell you more, but I need to do this alone. As for proving my innocence with the Alliance incursion, I was hoping to have the opportunity to do that while I'm still here."
"I see," said Landry noncommittally. "Well General O'Neill and I have a few things to talk about first. I'm afraid you'll have to spend some time under house arrest until we're done."
"I understand," Gus told them, expecting as much. "Well thank you for at least agreeing to hear me out. I'm just sorry I couldn't prove my innocence yet."
"If it was that easy, I doubt we'd have been having this conversation in the first place," said Jack trying to inject a little humor into the situation. Gus gave a light smile at that as Landry called in the troops.
"Please escort Major Bonner to Doctor Jackson's office for now," he ordered and the Major was escorted from the room. After he was gone and the door shut, Landry turned and looked at General O'Neill curious.
"What do you think?" he asked. Needless to say that was the question of the millennium when it came to Major Bonner and his problems.
"I need a beer," Jack concluded getting up.
"I hear that," Landry agreed and the two left the room.
Hallway: Lt. Colonel John Sheppard was wandering down hallway after hallway of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex before realizing he was hopelessly lost. He had stopped by to deliver his report to Colonel Carter who had gated in just to speak with him. He found his way to give her the report and then on his way back out to find a transport back to Atlantis found himself in the situation he was now in. The only saving grace was that McKay wasn't with him otherwise he'd likely be getting an earful right now.
"I think I'll go left," he decided at a new junction. He made his turn and was walking down the hall when he saw a curious sight of Daniel Jackson being escorted by a group of armed guards towards him. He wisely stepped to the side to let them pass all the while looking at the scientist who was lost in his own thoughts.
"Hi Daniel," John offered weakly to at least not appear rude. Daniel looked up at him with a weak grin.
"Hey Harley," Daniel remarked lightly and then continued off down the hall. John was about to head back down the hall when the weight of what Daniel had said to him sunk in and he immediately caught up with the doctor once more.
"What did you call me?" he demanded a little irate.
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Daniel lying.
"Sir, you shouldn't be here," stated one of the soldiers curtly.
"Can it!" said John in a rare outburst. "You called me Harley. Very few people know me by that nickname and only one really knows why I'm called that. So how did you find out? He swore he'd never tell anyone."
Daniel nodded his head and then gave a sly grin that John instantly recognized. "I'm hurt. You don't give me enough credit, Shep."
John looked at Daniel in shock.
"Gus?" he stated amazed. Daniel nodded his head.
"Been a long time, John," Gus admitted before looking at his rank insignia. "Congratulations on the promotion, I knew you'd get it before I did."
John stopped at that statement as Gus was silently escorted away. A moment later Vala Mal Doran appeared next to him.
"Are my eyes deceiving me, have my dreams come true?" she asked in a melodramatic fashion. "Has Daniel finally become a bad boy?"
John refused to give her the benefit of a response and just left her alone in the hallway. He had a lot to think about and he knew he wasn't leaving SGC anytime soon. Not without some answers first from his old friend, Gus Bonner.
Another world: Daniel backed away from Seattle and her little companion in her arms as she and Ec'co looked at him confused.
"What's wrong?" Seattle asked.
"Do you have any idea what that is?" he shouted at them. Seattle was a cadet and Ec'co a junior scientist, but they had to know the history of SGC and the major foes they had dealt with over the years.
"Yes, it's a Replicator," Seattle began slowly. "I'm not sure what the problem is."
"Those things have caused more damage to this galaxy than the Goa'uld, Ori, and Wraith combined!" Daniel shouted.
"Yes, but not this one," said Seattle petting the thing as if really were a pet. "He's domesticated and wouldn't hurt anyone. Let's go, Jetsam, I think we can tell when we're not wanted."
She then produced a leash and tied it to the machine and then set it down and the two walked off towards the forest as Daniel could only gape at the two of them. He certainly hadn't heard of the SG-Infinity team possessing something that dangerous.
"She's reduced one of the greatest scourges of the galaxy into a Chihuahua!" Daniel exclaimed to Ec'co. "I'm glad they Replicators are gone, but even I feel insulted by this!"
"I share a similar sentiment," Ec'co agreed. "My people had a number of outposts on other worlds that were devastated by the Replicators. But I also know what they're capable of and that's why we managed to reprogram this one unit to be obedient. Without it, we'd been in dire straits."
"How so?" asked Daniel doubtful, but willing to at least hear the alien out.
"You have to understand that we're out here pretty much dialing blind," Ec'co told him. "We can't go to many civilized worlds because we'd risk being discovered by the Alliance. But you know very well that there are Stargates out there that either don't have DHDs or are on worlds that are no longer habitable. But we don't have any Mobile Analytic Probes with us and if we did we'd have lost them rather quickly as soon as we discovered any uninhabitable worlds. We needed something that could not only go to another world and report back but also have the ability to activate the Stargate come back to us to be reused again and again. The Replicator was the best choice we had amongst the limited options available to us. It is docile unless someone is threatening us and only programmed to replicate under certain circumstances, each holding the same programming as the original, and then once the situation has passed or we issue the order, they break down until one remains. It works as a deterrent when faced with overwhelming odds."
Daniel still didn't like it, but desperate times did call for desperate measures. The IOA felt the same way not too long ago when they had custom made a Replicator to take out the Ori's Priors not to mention their entire civilization. But they acted true to form and had nearly destroyed the Odyssey in the process before finally being stopped. Daniel couldn't attest to the programming capabilities of this team, but as long as even one Replicator existed, the entire universe was at risk. He just prayed the programming held, but he needed to tell General Landry about this as soon as he got back to his own body.
"I sense you are not pleased," said Draa'ga having emerged from the forest in the meantime.
"You don't know the half of it," Daniel admitted before turning to the alien. "But don't worry about me and my concerns. What I really want is to have the chance to chat with you."
"I would be happy to 'chew the fat' with you," she said to Daniel's dismay at her using such vernacular despite being such a regal and innocent creature.
"What have you done to her?" he accused after turning to Ec'co.
"Blame Harrison," was the alien's response. "He felt her learning slang and other Earth idioms would better help her integrate with their culture."
"I'll kill him!" Daniel swore despite himself. Ec'co chuckled at that.
"You may need to get in line," he observed. From the treeline Harrison ran for his life as Stacey angrily raced after him in her ATV completely covered in mud as the fighter jock held his stomach he was laughing so hard at whatever had transpired.
Earth: Gus sat at Daniel's desk with his feet propped up as he read through a book the scientist had composed about the Ancients expecting Landry and Jack to be debating for quite some time on his situation. He was nevertheless surprised when the door opened a mere fifteen minutes later and John Sheppard poked his head on.
"C'mon, let's go for a walk," he ordered. Gus looked at him uncertainly at that.
"I don't think…," he began when John held up a hand silencing him.
"Since when are either of us one for the rules?" he pointed out with a grin. Gus chuckled at that.
"I suppose you have a point," he agreed. "Besides, judging from the way you were wandering down that corridor, I'd say you got lost, again, and need my help to find your way out of here. Am I right?"
"As your superior officer, I don't have to answer that question. But I do order to tell me just what the heck you've been up to for these past two years," John responded as both of them laughed hard down the hallway.
