Disclaimer: All characters, names, settings etc belong to their respective copyright holders, only Night Wolf and a few other things are of my own creation (but inspired from many things under copyright, which aren't mine).
Chapter 10
Thomas Birmingham, head of the Sorcery department of Night Wolf Command watched through the series of images a third time and then listened to the recording of the phone call and read the brief report he'd received yesterday.
The images were over a week old, but it had taken that long for them to reach him.
Birmingham pushed himself away from his desk, memory stick in hand.
"Alistair."
"Birmingham, you have the concerned look about you, don't tell me another invasion." Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart, General said as Birmingham walked into the office a worrisome mask over his face.
"I received this, it's a phone recording which is the tip of an iceberg."
"Titanic or Vodka and tonic?" Lethbridge Stewart asked rasing an eyebrow.
"A little of both." Birmingham said sitting down into the chair as the audio recording started.
"Look I need to speak to Lieutenant Potter." It was an American voice, annoyed, slightly strung out.
"Lt Potter is presently not able to be contacted Agent Gibbs." There was a pause of silence as Agent Gibbs swore under his breath.
"Fine. I need to speak to someone on a secure line."
"Standby."
"This is UNIT-UK. You have information regarding your previous contact with Lt Harry Potter?"
"Yeah." There was a slurp of liquid. "I've got some…hinky stuff."
"Can you be more specific Agent Gibbs?"
"A man with a pouch in his stomach, reports of mind control rougher than anything we cooked up in the Cold War days."
"Do you have a report you can brief us on?"
"No."
"Agent Gibbs."
"I'll work with Lt Potter, that was enough for you the last time, send one of your UNIT guys around and they'll get a report. But I work with people I know."
"Standby Agent Gibbs. A UNIT operative with be with you shortly."
Alistair raised an eyebrow at Birmingham and pulled up Harry's file and searched for an 'Agent Gibbs', he knew it rang a bell.
"This is the same Gibbs that Harry worked with on his holiday?"
"An association we ordered him on." Birmingham added. "The report is attached."
"And the photos?" Alistair looked from the screen to Birmingham who frowned slightly.
"MI6 operative, they were taken a week ago, only just getting to us."
"I'll have a word with M the next time we meet."
Birmingham waited as Alistair read through the some what lacking report, and then the pictures.
"Analysis?"
"The craft and the description bares more than a strong resemblance to the debrief of the Goa'uld that the Prometheus crew gave." Birmingham answered.
"Add to that the analysis of the remains and the destructive potential based on what we know."
"If the US do have access and problems to this we could be looking at another…" Birmingham was cut off by Alistair.
"Yes. Based on Harry's past experience this Gibbs trusts him enough to contact us." Alistair mused.
"Harry's report indicated that Agent Gibbs was capable and trustworthy." Birmingham added. "Though if we hold on this other agencies might take control."
"As they attempted the previous times." Alistair acknowledged in an annoyed tone, dealing with the US especially with regard to subjects usually under UNIT's purview was like fighting off vultures in the middle of a desert from a fresh piece of meat.
Alistair scrolled through a list on his computer and grabbed the phone on his desk.
"Oliver. Get onto UNIT Moonbase, get them to teleport General Jack O'Neill down here while the Defiance is still in orbit." There was a pause. "No it isn't, tell coms to lock in for long range coms to the ASCS Hattah, bounce it off the usual areas and utilise Research Base One jump gate and use the un-finished hyperspace buoy to punch through the interference. Good man."
Birmingham raised a questioning eyebrow.
"General O'Neill's evaluation came through a week ago, he's been wanting to be 'out and about on Earth'. There's no one from the Prometheus within justifiable reach if it is a Goa'uld related problem."
"Sending an Air Force General to deal with an NCIS former Gunnery Sergeant?"
"Get onto adjusting an identity for the General Birmingham. Also get a kit ready and prepare to brief him on everything. We don't want the US agencies getting jumpy."
"And Harry?"
"Will be in for a 10 hour flight in a Thylacine I'm afraid. The research the Hattah is performing is something we've waited months to see."
"I'm sure Harry will be in a motivated mood when he finally arrives here. So we're sending the General in alone?" Birmingham asked as he rose from his chair.
"Yes." Alistair looked up as Birmingham stood. "Do you think there will be a problem?"
"No." Birmingham paused thinking for a moment. "He's loyal and intelligent, sneaky enough, and seems to enjoy annoying people. I'm sure he'll work well with NCIS."
--/
"Communications relay coming through Colonel Rogers, long range comm. signal."
"Put it up." One of the screens on board the bridge of the ASCS Hattah flickered into life, the image was mostly broken up by digital interference throughout the whole screen.
"Applying filters and re-buffering signal, sensor analysis say it's the interference from…" Captain Harry Potter trailed off. "Everything in the system."
The image broke up again before resolving into an image of General Lethbridge Stewart.
"Colonel Rogers."
"General, checking in on our progress?" Rogers asked curiously as he unconsciously sat a little straighter in his chair.
"Not quite Colonel. We need Captain Potter back on Earth, I'm ordering his recall immediately."
Harry almost said 'Why?', but held his tongue, he was visible within the communication as were others on the bridge, but his friendship with the Brigadier not withstanding Rogers was the superior officer and the one being spoken to anyways.
"Why sir, we're just coming up to the final phases with the asteroids."
"Colonel if I might…" Alistair nodded towards Harry.
"Sir."
"Captain Potter, NCIS Agent Gibbs contacted UNIT, he wants our assistance."
Harry sighed. "And he'll only deal with me."
"Something like that, full briefing when you arrive."
"Harry sir?" Rogers asked.
"The Hattah will remain Colonel, Captain Potter is to make the journey in a Thylacine." The image flared.
"Signal strength dropping." Harry reported.
"Night Wolf out."
Colonel Rogers turned around to face Harry a smile that annoyed Harry on his face.
"Well Harry, bet flight to prep a Thylacine for a long range flight." Rogers turned away to look at the screens. "10 hours if I'm not mistaken in a thylacine, in hyperspace."
Harry just nodded grimacing, that would serve him actually being qualified for said long range flights, had he not gone to the trouble he wouldn't be able to be ordered…but then they'd have to take the whole ship from here to Earth. Plus there were all the scientists they had outside in the platypuses, monitoring and feeding all the information into the the ship, interesting enough to watch them do, and kinda interesting to see happening but not totally exciting.
Not that 10 hours in hyperspace would be interesting, more boring and…mind numbing.
Harry stuffed his small bag into the compartment behind the seat that you sat into in a sort of standing sitting manner as the final checks were made over the thylacine. It had extra powerpacks giving it a good 48 hour range. The standard power packs would be enough for his journey but when you left the general proximity of the ship it was the regulations. Plus he was going into hyperspace which meant after the getting in via the Hattah's engines he'd only be able to get out via Research Base One or Earth's jump gate, or a ship, with jump engines. But in practise the two jump gates were the only fixed certainties.
Still 10 hours within nothing to stare at but red, black and instruments, Harry patted his ipod that sat within his suit's pocket with a gloved hand.
Technically speaking you shouldn't be able to hook an ipod up to the internal systems and communications of the thylacine. But that didn't mean you couldn't, plus 10 hours with practically nothing to do.
He could catch up on the recordings of those lectures Hermione had said he should listen to or alternatively listen to everything that say at the bottom of his playcount playlist. It was better than pondering why and for what he was flying 10 hours in hyperspace back to Earth for.
--/
Jack shook himself as he stepped out of the transmat, no, the teleport, the transmat felt like a bad night out on a planet that hadn't invented the bathroom yet.
At least he was back on Earth, after two or so weeks on the moon at least it was different. Not that the moon hadn't been cool, he'd even got to see the moon landing site.
That was what he got for saying he was curious about the moon, that was Carter's fault, he should have just said something else, like he wasn't curious about the moonbase, maybe curious about somewhere tropical and they would have asked him if he liked to go there, Italy maybe, maybe UNIT had a base he could go to there and experience being attacked by a weird silicon based life form there, instead of the moon.
He hoped that Daniel, Teal'c and Carter were having as much 'fun' as he was here in close proximity to the Earth.
"That slimy snake bastard, never knows when to die quietly." Jack said aloud upon seeing the photos.
"I want you to liase with NCIS until Captain Potter arrives, you'll continue to work with him upon his arrival." General Lethbridge Stewart told him.
"So got to ask why me, not that I didn't enjoy my extended stay on the moon, just don't expect me to be breaking out any Bart Howard songs soon." The General gave him a familiar look, Hammond used to give him similar glares. Jack smiled.
"Your expertise regarding the Goa'uld is invaluable, and by your own regard you can think on your feet and deal with the 'unknown'". Jack winced, the General was quoting what he'd written on one of the forms he'd had to write up.
"Right, when do I leave?" Jack asked after a few moments of silence.
--/
Jack thought he'd be going in a plane, or through the transporters (or whatever they were called, stuff that beamed you), or something.
Not on a boat.
Okay ship. He decided as he sat at a console on the bridge, which looked for the most part like the inside of the UNIT space ships he'd been aboard.
20 Minutes Earlier…
Jack looked down the pier he'd been directed towards at the ship, or rather he tried to.
He knew there was a large catamaran there, he'd been told so…but…every time he tried to look for it, every time his eyes landed on it he wanted to leave and go somewhere else. Fishing maybe. Except he was standing on a pier and walking towards a ship.
Jack shifted the weight of the pack on his back and tried to remember to old adage about ships and boats.
"A boat can fit on a ship, but a ship can't fit on a boat." Jack said aloud to himself with a smile as he tried not to look at the thing that he was not looking at and instead tried to distract himself from not, not looking at it by studying the wood that the pier was made of.
Supposedly the USA was a little jumpy about new aircraft, and especially most things to do with UNIT, he could understand that. So the General had said the quickest way to the US was the UNIT vessel, UNS Hillingar.
"Colonel O'Neill?"
"Yeah." Jack squinted up against the harsh cold light of day at the hulking mass of the ship he'd been trying to not look at.
Present.
Jack read back through the notes that Sorcerer Birmingham and General Lethbridge Stewart had given him to read, on his very, very short trip between the UK and the USA.
No wonder this ship had…whatever it had on it "active and passive stealth". The notes at the top laid out his 'identity', mostly they'd just vagued up everything, oh and they'd demoted him back down to Group Captain in Britain's Royal Air Force, because obviously he couldn't be from the US, but for his UNIT rank he was now a Colonel.
Exactly where he obtained his accent, at a dime store sale obviously.
"Power systems."
"Ready."
"Engines."
"All in the green."
"Coordinates?"
"Locked in, hazard avoidance system is ready, manoeuvring parameters set."
"Move us away from the pier and sound all stations."
Jack looked up and around, the light flashed blue for a moment and then he heard the low key thrum of power.
Then he was practically squashed into his seat as the catamaran accelerated to a speed generally considered impolite for less than most expensive aircraft.
"Sweet." Jack exclaimed around the g-force.
--/
Ziva looked up from her desk as elevator doors opened expecting to see Tony, but he was still off on his 'break'.
The man who had been in the elevator walked around and over to her desk and looked down at her and smiled.
She looked at him, greying hair, though not as much as Gibbs, smiling, something he looked like he did more, more than Gibbs at least.
"Who are you?" That was Gibbs.
Jack turned and looked at the man who'd asked the question.
"Me, looking for Agent Gibbs, you him?" He asked innocently.
"Yeah, who are you?"
"Colonel Jack O'Neill." Jack paused, he liked calling himself a Colonel, just a bit. "UNIT." That felt a bit unfamiliar.
"McGee." Agent Gibbs turned and barked a name.
"Yes boss?"
"Colonel Jack O'Neill, confirm who he is."
"Right boss."
Then Gibbs turned back to him and stared at him.
"You know, you might be a bit more on the down and easy if you laid off the coffee." Jack leaned closer and further into Gibbs' personal space than Gibbs was already in. "Because coffee cologne is soo last year."
"Where's Lt Potter?"
"Delayed Agent Gibbs, UNIT ain't on NCIS's beck and call."
"Boss." The McGee guy called over Gibbs, Jack followed him.
"Nice picture, I asked for a bit of photshopping, maybe a touch-up around the hair, maybe a different outfit, they wouldn't bite."
"McGee."
"But…" He started Gibbs stared at him. "Colonel Jack O'Neill, member of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Formerly with British Royal Air Force."
"Number of years."
"Classified, sorry boss." McGee apologised.
"Fine."
"Boss."
"What is it McGee?"
"There's no evidence of Colonel O'Neill officially entering the United States."
"Oops." Gibbs turned around and stared at him. What was he going to do, read his mind? No, just stare at him.
"I usually go on a second date, or exchange some witty banter before I get this close and personal with someone."
Gibbs just stared, then his phone rang, then he walked off.
"Ziva, McGee!" he said when he rounded the second cubicle.
Jack looked around and then looked at the map he'd been given when he'd walked in.
Jack breathed in the cool air.
He hated morgues, always places of danger, or zombies.
There was no sign of anyone, well no one that was Agents Gibbs, McGee and whatever Ziva's last name was, or maybe that was her last name.
Jack made a mental note to ask her and keep out of her way, something about the way she moved…he shook his head.
"Can I help you with something." Said an Englishy sounding voice behind him.
"Yeah, I'm Colonel O'Neill from UNIT, we got a report of a body."
"Bodies Colonel, if you could give me some identification I might be able to help you."
Jack turned around, he'd been talking to the tables, not ready to turn around, just in case someone was pointing a weapon at him, after all he was in a morgue.
He removed the UNIT ID from his pocket he'd been provided with no less than 5 hours ago.
The guy with the Englishy voice took it studying it.
"Colnel Jack O'Neill, United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. And what is a pilot, a lapsed one at that doing investigating for the UN?"
Jack stared at the guy, the pathologist unless NCIS made a habit of keeping guys with English accents in the basement to up the weird factor, you never knew with some agencies.
"The way in which you twisted your wrist to remove your pass from your pocket Colonel suggests training inside craft made for high G-forces, the lines around your face indicate that you've been exposed to certain forms of UV present at high altitudes, the lack of more recent expose means you haven't been flying lately."
"Or I could just not be flying under the sun." He quipped as the doors opened and allowed in the three NCIS agents. Agent Gibbs was pointing a gun at him.
"Hi guys."
"Your pass Colonel O'Neill."
"He done anything Ducky?"
"What precisely is he to have done Jethro?"
"Breathed NCIS security." Agent McGee offered, looking to Gibbs.
"Come on! You guys walked off, I walked down here." Jack made a walking motion with his fingers.
"So you could contaminate the evidence." McGee offered.
"Hey." Jack waved a hand. "You guys called me."
"I called for Lt Potter."
"For crying out loud, you got on the phone and made a call, you don't always get what you want, what are you 10?"
"Ducky show him the bodies."
"What were Abigail's findings Jethro?" 'Ducky' asked as he walked over to a series of cabinets against the far wall. He opened three of them.
Jack looked from the bodies to the gun then shrugged, he thought dealing with the Gunnery Sergeant was going to be a little bit odd, but this was pushing it…or maybe he was just a megalomaniac, that could work.
"Ah…crap." He said as he saw the tattoo on the middle guy's head. "Oh…crap." Jack said again to himself, the guy had the mark of Ba'al and a pouch.
"Did'ja happen to find anything inside the pouch?" He asked as casually as he could as he reached inside he coat pocket for the compact weapon he'd had a quick training in, he'd set and left it on the kill option.
"Like what?" Jack couldn't tell if Agent McGee's question was a mumble or worry or curiosity.
"Anything?" He asked looking around and focusing on the doctor.
"Anything to explain why an overtly healthy man should have a cavity within his abdomen Colonel, then no." He moved over to where Jack was standing looking down at the middle body. "What do you believe should be in there Colonel?"
Jack looked at the pathologist and then around to the three agents, waiting for their eyes to glow and for one of them to start shooting at him. His money was on Agent Gibbs, who still looked ready to shoot him.
"Something slimy and clichéd."
"The cavity contained a mucus like substance with an antibody membrane that was already starting to break down despite the body's constant refrigeration."
"But it was empty."
"Yes. Colonel." The pathologist confirmed.
"What were you expecting to find in there?" Jack turned slightly, didn't this Gibbs have any idea of personal space?
"What'd he die of?" Jack asked pointing down at the dead Jaffa, he vaguely knew the answer, he'd herd Teal'c talk about it, thought probably not in the same…hang on…
"Immune system, or lack there of, this man despite his body being in the total picture of health had no immune system at all, short of being exposed to a certain degree of radiation, for which there is no evidence of it's a myster…though I do recall a case of a colony of orang-utan in a south Indian zoo…"
"Ducky. You didn't say anything before about his immune system."
"That's because Timothy you left barely half way through my autopsy, you can't expect the action sequence when you leave before the first commercial break."
Jack looked around Gibbs had returned his weapon to his holster, Jack tuned out the…whatever these people were talking about.
The other two guys had vacant expressions on their faces, real vacant. Jack grimaced at what he was about to do and looked around for the rubber gloves.
Hell what was he doing? Jack thought to himself as he snapped on a glove and walked back over to the bodies.
None of them had snake entry marks, which was as good as it was bad.
--/
Jack leaned back in the office chair and played with the remote to the large plasma screen on the wall.
"News, News, tracking report…"
He was bored.
After the whole dead body incident they'd gone to see their lab technician, there was a whole load of techno-stuff.
Which amounted to a whole bunch of unknowns and questioning looks from the goth girl in his direction, he couldn't do the Carter speak.
This was why he needed his team here.
But they weren't his team anymore, technically speaking, though now that he was 'demoted' to Colonel he could have them.
Excepting the fact that they were on different planets at the moment.
Probably having more fun than he was.
Jack pushed himself forward and picked up the detailed report that they'd decided to give him.
The three guys had been transferred (once they'd been discovered dead and all) off the USS Bunker Hill, part of a 'covert' specialist group operating in 'classified' waters on what was probably a covert classified mission. Jack would have named this an NID operation, if he was in his universe, that would have been easy.
A pain in the ass, but easy.
Agent Jethro Gibbs had gone off to the 'MTAC', to which he'd been barred, he sensed the guy didn't like him.
Supposedly they were chatting to the commander of the ship that transferred the three guys, the three dead guys to NCIS.
Why he'd needed to be rushed from the Moon, heck, the Moon! He could be having lunch and watching them water the plants at the moment, instead he was sitting around inside a military office in the USA.
It was like being at the SGC, with a view of ships instead of…aircraft and concrete, plus these guys had a serious decorating problem, photos with big crosses against them. Admittedly he'd suggested it to Hammond when he'd actually been a Colonel and had it vetoed, three times.
This was why he hated investigating.
Going out and doing, that was fun, interesting, Daniel had the right idea, at least that space monkey was out there digging his hands in the dirt.
Not endless reports, looking at technobabble and typing on keyboards and flashy pictures from microscopes or anything.
Jack grabbed the remote again and flicked to the most interesting thing he had access to.
It was 1 minute of footage recovered from an unsent email on one of the guy's cell phones, obviously not the jaffa's.
Jack squinted at the image, it showed the outline of one US ship in the background and then a Goa'uld cargo ship streaked across the image before going out of shot.
Jack skipped back to the start, watching it again trying to have one of those moments of realisation that Carter was so good at.
On the fourth viewing something happened.
"That is a rather bad indicator." Said a familiar voice beside him, Jack tried not to be shocked when he turned and saw Captain Potter standing beside him. He was getting used to the wacky way that Potter dealt with somethings, but the whole appearing out of thin air, quietly at that still got to him.
"Potter, you took your time." Jack said as he took in Potter's appearance, he had dark bags under his eyes which were also slightly bloodshot.
"10 hours plus getting here, that I had to do myself consciously Colonel. Play it again." He said nodding to the image. Jack thumbed the control.
"This is altogether not the best thing, definitely more than one source recording." Potter mumbled to himself.
"You should see the bodies in the basement." Jack quipped.
"Yes, we should." Potter sighed dragging a hand through his hair.
"Down to the basement?"
"Yeah." Potter said.
"What about the nice Agent pointing her weapon at you?" Jack asked casually as he stood.
Potter shrugged. "Not the first time, doubt it'll be the last."
"Stay where you are." Said agent Ziva David who was keeping and even distance from both of them.
"Ya think it's because you don't have a visitor's pass or do you just inspire people to pull guns on you?"
Potter shrugged. "Bit of both probably. Where's Kate Todd?"
"Dead."
"Agent Gibbs."
"Lt Potter."
"Captain now. I'm sorry." Harry said sincerely to the voice above him.
"Yeah." Harry heard a sip of coffee.
"What took ya so long?"
"You wouldn't believe where I've been, and if I told you I'd only have to wipe your memory anyways, that's always messy, you might end up liking tea."
"Gibbs?"
"Ziva put the gun down, this is Lt Potter also of UNIT."
"Captain." Harry corrected.
"Tell McGee to pack up the travelling gear we're going to the Bunker Hill."
"Gibbs?"
"Go Ziva."
Harry then turned around and looked over at Agent Gibbs.
"You look like hell Captain."
"So everyone keeps telling me."
"Must be some distance away for a man of your talents."
"Very possibly Agent Gibbs. The bodies, Colonel you've got kit from UNIT?"
"Yeah, right here." Jack said hauling it up.
Harry looked down at the two bodies that weren't A) alien and B) from another universe.
They were a puzzle, wrapped inside a sleeping back thrown down the chute of an annoyance.
Harry grimaced at his mental analogy and decided not to think on it. On top of the however many hours he had been on duty the flight through eternity hadn't been the most relaxing.
"Hand me the yellow dust Jack."
"That's Colonel, Potter." Harry could hear the grin in his voice.
"Colonel me again and you'll spend the next 10 minutes as a frog." Harry muttered to himself as he took the yellow test tube and removed the stopped, tipping a small amount over the eyes of the first man, muttering the incantation written on the tube.
The dead man's eyes glowed, very briefly, too briefly for Harry's tastes.
"Now the blue one." Harry repeated the process before moving onto the other man.
Jack watched as Potter methodically applied his weird tests on the bodies, there was a distinct detachment from what he was doing, like, not that it didn't matter but that he was focusing on the job, nothing more.
He'd seen it in Potter's eyes when he'd first met him, and saw it again in the way he moved now, Potter still hadn't really talked about his past, Jack never really did, live for the present and all that.
"Well?" Jack asked after a moment, Agent Gibbs was hanging back watching like an eagle.
"This guy was definitely under a series of curses, central to mind control and manipulation. He was also killed via sorcery, wand based." He turned to the other guy. "This one…I'm not sure. There are signs of mental degradation and manipulation, plus elements of some form of control, it's showing up as an element concentrated around the nose and mouth, though off the top of my head I can't think of any…" Harry trailed off looking at O'Neill's expression.
"Colonel…Jack?"
"Crap. Crap and Hell. Nishta." Harry didn't recognise the word but Agent Gibbs had perked out of his vague curiosity, grappling inside his pocket Harry through a cloud of dust into the air and murmured out a line of unintelligible words as he pulled Colonel O'Neill close to him as the cloud encompassed him.
"Hey…! What?"
"It's just an interference cloud, stops him getting in, interferes with pretty much anything. Lasts about 3 minutes. What's Nishta?"
"Goa'uld mind control. You inhale it."
"Ah." Harry chewed his cheek.
"The other guy he was killed by magic?"
"Yeah. Both of them have been in contact with magic, both have had their minds probed, only one of them by magic…I remember reading from your debrief…." Harry was cut off by O'Neill.
"Yeah, the snakeheads can do the whole mind probe deal."
"Crap."
"Indeed as Teal'c would say if he were here." Jack threw the comment direct at Harry.
"Not my fault. Jack since we're supposed to be working together."
"Fine, what do we do, since you're the expert. Do you trust him?" Jack shot a look through the haze that encompassed them.
"Mostly. Though two of the people I met the last time I was here, one's dead the other's on leave."
"Could be a coincidence." Harry gave him a doubtful look.
"What about him? He's like Teal'c right?"
"Except this guy would have had a snake in his belly."
"Oh merlin, you mean?"
"Yep, there's probably a guy with a snake in his head."
"Like Ba'al, flashing eyes, flanged voice."
"Clichéd, grandiose and just a bit camp, yeah that's them." Jack said with a grimace that might have been an annoyed smile.
There was a fizzing in the air and the haze around them broke down, Agent Gibbs was staring at both of them.
"Finished?"
"Yeah." Jack drawled.
"These two men were affected by mind control confirming your initial report, this guy" Harry indicated the one probably effected by Nishta "by a nerve agent of sorts, who was he?"
"2IC on the USS Bunker Hill." Gibbs responded.
"Marvellous. I'll be accompanying you to the Bunker Hill." Harry said looking at Gibbs as he said so.
"Fine." He nodded, Harry raised an eyebrow and started to pack up the equipment.
"McGee? What's all that stuff for?"
"My equipment boss, we're on a flight to the Ronald Reagan then we'll be briefed on ship before transfer to specialist group code name; Chrysopoeia."
"Great McGee, you're stayin here." Gibbs said not breaking his stride.
"Why boss?"
"Because I'm telling you to, work with Abby to work out the rest of those substances we found with the dead guys." Gibbs practically shouted over the cubicle walls as he walked into the elevator, not waiting for Jack and Harry to go in.
"Looks like we're catching the next one." Jack said to Harry as he jabbed the button repeatedly.
"The stairs would be a better use than that." Harry turned and saw Ziva David standing behind him.
"Still don't trust us Agent David?"
"Gibbs trusts you."
"DiNozzo would trust me, where is he by the way?"
"Leave." The elevator doors opened. Jack looked over at Harry, Harry shrugged as they walked in.
Jack could never get comfortable on these planes, probably because they weren't built for comfort, though Potter didn't seem to be having any problems resting, though considering he had looked wiped that wasn't much to go on.
Jack wanted to know why Potter hadn't done his…sorcery turning to mist thing.
Maybe it was because he didn't know where this 'Chrysopoeia' group was. Not that he pretended to know how he did that, nor the whole wings out of the back thing, that was weird.
--/
Harry stood out on the deck of the USS Ronald Reagan.
"Bracing isn't it?" He said to Jack O'Neill who had his hands stuffed inside a jacket against the brisk air of the sea.
"Yeah the same way the desert is warm."
"Which desert?" Harry asked curiously.
"Why didn't you insist in being included in the briefing?"
"Anything useful they won't tell us, anything interesting we'll need to find out on our own."
"Right. Why are we talking out here? Instead inside where it's warm?"
"Like the desert?" Harry asked as a plane took off watching O'Neill watch it wistfully.
Jack ducked into the cabin of the Seahawk, Potter was already inside, he didn't know where they were going, but what they would find was gnawing at him.
Snakeheads, his luck there'd be more than one.
Though knowing the way luck treated him he'd probably find a bunch of snakes swimming in the ship's ballast.
--/
5 Hours Later…
"Is this how missions usually turn out for you?" Harry asked curiously.
"No usually there's some torture and general threats thrown."
"Yeah I've had that too."
"You will remain silent!" Said the man holding the weapon in front of them.
"Okay." Harry admitted. "There's the threats."
"Try a pitch higher and we won't even take you the slightest bit seriously." Jack added.
"Where's Agent Gibbs and David?" Harry asked as he looked around and wondered how many people were actually ready to shoot them and risk hitting the canisters of gas behind them.
"They are my prisoners." Said a deep flanged voice down a corridor from them.
"Oh crap." Jack bemoaned.
"Booming voice and hiding in the shadows." Harry said to no one in particular. Then added. "Glowy eyes…" He turned to Jack. "The last guy I met face to face ended up in a sun."
"You will bow be forth our lord…"
"Lord..?" Jack trailed off just as the seaman did.
"Oh crap." Harry said as the Lord…whatever his name was came into full view, he was holding a wand, not Harry's.
"A curious world, with even curiouser devices of torture, powerful yet intriguing."
"Try not to bite your tongue." Harry said as he clasped his hands within the bounds of the cable ties that held his hands together.
"Why?" Jack asked slowly.
"Crucio!" The light enveloped both of them.
Harry fought off and show of pain instead electing to stare into the eyes of their torturer. Why, couldn't anything be simple?
The investigation had been going so well too, Gibbs and David seemed to have fallen back into their element, in that they weren't pointing guns at him and Jack.
Then they'd found the lab with the potions inside and the interface from what looked like a Tzun battlecruiser, half finished control mechanisms from Dalek scout craft, plus a variety of other partially deconstructed systems.
There was also a communications globe Jack found which 'iced the cake'.
It had been too much to find the canisters of 'Nishta' next to the secondary biological hazard filtration systems.
That's when they'd been 'zatted' as Jack had said, Harry briefly wondered when he'd started referring to him as 'Jack'…that's when the Cruciatus ended.
Harry revelled in the mind cracking headache, the stiffness in all joints and the odd feeling of blood trickling into his palms from where he'd tensed against the ties holding his wrists together. It was this that worried him the most, and the noises Colonel O'Neill was making, the first Cruciatus was always the hardest.
Actually the second, third and other times didn't do you any favours either.
Harry allowed the 'Lord's' minions drag them away as he considered their next move.
--/
Jack woke up feeling like he'd gone toe to toe with an Unas.
"Chew this." Said an overly loud person and forced something into his mouth. It smelt strongly of liquorish.
"Wha…?"
"Chew it, it'll reduce the after affects of the Cruciatus." Said Potter who was standing by a bulkhead door.
Jack resigned himself to chewing the whatever it was and rubbed his sore wrists.
Jack looked around the room and saw two cable ties on the ground.
"How'd you get free?"
"Magic." Potter said walking the short distance between them and sat down beside him on the ground. "They tried to gas us. That nishta stuff I'm assuming."
"Why'd you let us get cursed if you could just escape?" Jack asked as he swallowed the last of the whatever it was, his hands weren't shaking any more, but his back, knees, joints and head still were aching.
"Gibbs and Ziva were obviously affected by something."
"Paranoia." Jack offered. Potter nodded.
"More than that, selective memory of some events. They wouldn't be Goa'uld would they?"
"Someone had to have taken the snake out of the jaffa's pouch and into that guy."
"They don't just leap out?" Potter asked.
"How did you survive the gas?"
"You're not worried about yourself?" He countered.
"Been exposed, doesn't work a second time, like the chicken pox."
"Bubble head charm stretched over the whole body, I put one over you anyways." He smiled.
"Didn't they search us?" Potter looked at him again. "Right magic, so why don't you magic us out of here?"
Potter frowned again. "There's a biomorphic jamming field operating here."
"That means?"
"Means I can't personally move…so we do it old school." He said pushing himself up. "Or we could just wait around and pretend to be minions of their Lord?"
"Nah, been there, donned the cotton shirt, it ain't pretty." Potter shrugged.
"I bow to your experience with this particular brand of parasitical megalomaniac, here's your weapon." Potter handed him the stun kill device. Jack stared at Potter he didn't ever remember giving it to him, nor the pack he'd had which wasn't here either.
"Where's the pack, if Lord whatever gets it…" Potter patted a pocket.
"Magic, right, that's what I needed when I was moving house."
Potter removed his…his wand from a concealed pocket and aimed it at the door, some shiny sparks and a muttered word later the door was open.
"So where're we heading?" Potter shrugged.
"The lab we passed before we found the nishta gas and got…"
"Zatted." Jack said in a low voice. "What about the NCIS guys?"
"How do you break the nishta?"
"Electric shock."
"Charming. We should work out what the Navy were doing here first."
"It's your planet."
"Set you weapon to stun." Potter said holding up a similar weapon as the rounded a corridor.
Jack nodded and followed him in. The weapon had no recoil and practically no noise, Potter was already moving around the lab for the second time today.
"They've moved stuff around since we were last in here." Potter said after he'd completed a loop of the lab.
"And…?" Was Potter waiting for him to make an 'intuitive leap' like Carter did, staring at him with wide eyes expecting him to see that the puzzle in front of him was actually that particular race's instructions on how to make the perfect super weapon.
"Whatever they must have left out here was left for us to see, I thought it wasn't much when we were in here."
"What about these?" Jack gestured with his weapon at the empty beakers of potions.
Potter crossed the small distance over to where he was and sniffed gingerly at the beakers.
"Nothing catastrophic, generally deadly, mostly…" He trailed off staring at one beaker. "Pass me that scalpel." He murmured as he picked up a set of wooden tongs.
He gently lowered the tongs onto the remaining liquid paste in the beaker. Had Jack not seen it for himself…the moment the stuff touched it crept along the scalpel turning it to…
"Rock, or something very like it."
"What for?"
"This operation is called Chrysopoeia." Potter said dropping the tongs.
"So?"
"It relates to Alchemy."
"Don't tell me that's real?"
"I've seen a philosopher's stone Jack. It's real."
"Ya mean turning stuff into gold?" Potter nodded.
"Though I doubt it's something as mundane as just gold."
"Now we should find out what they're up to." Harry said as he looked around. He didn't like leaving Gibbs and David to…whatever was going on with them. But this alchemy thing was worrying him, the name was enough to get him concerned, but finding the an alchemical potion base, that was definitely worrying. Though why the Americans would do all of this out on a ship, and why they'd need a few ships, from what he'd gathered eavesdropping on Gibbs there were probably three ships.
He wished Hermione was here, she at least knew more than the background on alchemy and could postulate further why…
"Why they'd need matter conversion and alchemical processes…I have a bad feeling about all this." He muttered to himself.
"What?"
"Nothing, just talking to myself." Harry said as they rounded another corner, into three soldiers, waiting with guns, bullet guns.
"Oops." Harry spun around and into a doorway, Jack stepped into one opposite.
A few minutes later they were on the deck of the ship.
"You sure this is the best place?"
"Better than any other, one entrance, and unless they look straight up they're not going to see us."
"And if they do?"
"Shoot them." That was when an alert noise went out throughout the ship.
"I think they heard you." Jack said to him, Harry glared at him.
Harry was about to say something when a missile roared out of a silo on the ship and into the air.
"Got any binoculars in your bag of tricks?"
"There's a ship, south-south west." Jack gestured.
Harry gazed through the binoculars, there was a flash just as he'd got the focus correct and something exploded above the ship.
It seemed to shimmer and then, then sink.
Harry passed the binoculars back to jack.
"What happened."
"Alchemy, is one of the processes of trasmutating matter into something else at its most basic form. It's related to transfiguration, but that can be undone simply enough…alchemy is like…" Harry looked at Jack who appeared lost.
"It's like." Harry paused and shook his head. "Nup, can't think of a good metaphor."
"It's a weapon."
"Yeah."
"Developed by the US Navy."
"Yep."
"That was a Navy ship."
"Yeah. Obviously your snake guy is testing it out on any ships in the area."
"Why?"
"Good question, Though whatever the answer is I think we should stop whatever it is at this point."
"Good idea, how?"
"A ship this size there's…" Harry looked at Jack.
"What're you looking at me for?"
"You're in the American military."
"You're in UNIT!" Harry shrugged.
"About 300 or so people."
"That's not good." Harry said after a while.
"No. What about the ship I came on?"
"Already tried when you were knocked out, jammed."
"Great."
"How good are you at re-wiring?" Harry asked after a moment.
--/
"This will never work."
"Why not? The ship is metal, metal conducts electricity, this is a fifth generation emergency fuel cell back up power furnace. Should work."
"Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't electricity you know, kill?" Jack said as he finished hacking through the circuit breakers Potter had told him to do.
"That's the ampage…which I think I've got right." Potter said pushing himself out from under a console and removing his wand from a pocket and started to sketch things onto the console, they looked like symbols.
"What's that for?"
"As you pointed out before it would be pretty stupid if anyone could do this to a ship, this is a bit of sorcery thrown in to counteract anything like that."
"And rubber soled shoes, insulation, sneaky snakes?"
"That too, find the chalk in the bag and draw a circle, big enough for both of us."
"Chalk?"
"Classic sorcery, a chalk circle with a focus protects you from a lot of dangers."
Jack couldn't believe what he was doing, sitting cross legged in the middle of a chalk circle, with a knife between him and Potter, Potter had his eyes closed. Jack could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end, he didn't know if it was the do-hicky Potter set up to do…whatever it did or the knife circle thing.
"Think alarm clock." Potter murmured a warning noise went off and all the lights went out.
There was a smell of ozone and burnt wires throughout the ship.
"Where you going?" Jack said as Potter turned a corner.
"To find Gibbs and David."
"Nah. We're going to find the Goauld." Potter nodded.
There was a stronger smell on the bridge of burnt wires and a bit of burnt flesh.
It didn't seem anything life threatening though.
"You!"
"Us. Hey" Jack waved at the Goa'uld on the floor, the metal hand device seemingly conducted and intensified the electricity.
Harry squatted down and felt for a pulse on the Goauld.
"Hey, Potter keep back he might…leap out."
"Oh." He stood up quickly. "Where's Ba'al gone?"
"What?" Jack said.
"It's reasonable to ask, he's not here, and you said someone had to have taken him out of the belly of the Jaffa."
"He also died during that battle." Jack said. "But, he does like his clones." Potter nodded.
"I will tell you nothing!"
"Again with the clichés." Jack teased.
"I never thought I'd actually need to do this against an alien." Potter was muttering to himself as he removed his wand and stood a small distance away from the Goauld's head.
"Do what?"
"Legilimens."
"Ah crap." Jack said to himself as Potter's eyes went blank and the Goauld's eyes went permanently glowy. "Legilimens." He said again to himself, admittedly it had been a while since the whole 'stuck in a time loop, thing'. But Daniel had made him learn Latin, one annoying day at a time.
It certainly sounded Latin-y. Or it could just be magic, sorcery stuff.
Mens…was mind and…oh crap.
Jack looked up as Potter fell stumbling back. Jack aimed his weapon quickly thumbing the switch to kill and zapped the smug snake.
"Mind reader?"
"Yeah." Potter croaked out.
"Name, rank, home planet?" Jack said firmly.
"Potter, Harry. Captain. Earth."
"Well?"
"Ba'al was here."
"Damn."
"Seemed curious about sorcery."
"Where'd he go?"
"Give me a second, it's not often you have to dive into two minds Jack."
There was noisy thump across the bow of the ship. Jack craned to look over the window.
"Don't want to rush you Potter, but we're being shot at." The ship rocked as something exploded nearby.
"Yeah…right. I hope the…" He mumbled. "Raven to Hillingar, Raven to Hillingar. Coordinates for direct movement to bridge."
"Raven, coordinates are as follows…" A latitude and longitude followed. Then Harry pushed himself from the console and hugged him.
"Hey…what?"
"There's still background of the jamming field I need you close to my biomorphic field to make sure no bits of you get left behind."
"Okay…"
"Don't worry, you're not my type."
Then the ship disappeared or evaporated or something, then he was standing on the bridge of the ship he'd arrived in, and he was holding Potter up who'd crumpled and become dead weight into unconsciousness.
--/
Okay, another late chapter. But this one is about double the length of my regular chapters so I think it's alright that it's come in later than usual.
There were places to split this into two chapters, plenty of cut points in fact.
But I wanted this to be the only chapter to involve NCIS, so it's the only chapter that's a double crossover (plus a throw back reference to Alexandria Auction).
The USS Bunker Hill is a real ship, which I chose at random but if anyone is curious it's a Ticonderoga class cruiser. The whole emergency power supply that appears is just a creation of mine.
I know in my 'trailer' last chapter it was going to be Jack and Teal'c. But Teal'c story will have a different feel to this chapter so it'll be dealt with in the next (or so) chapter.
The same goes for Sam, Carter's story will be resolved next chapter (probably).
All these stories, Jack & Harry's, Sam Carter, Daniel Jackson and Teal'c's are all occurring at roughly the same time, give or take a few days or a week or so.
I won't write a trailer for next week, as I'm not sure which characters I'll be focusing on specifically.
But here's a deleted alternate scene that was unwritten and redone:
Deleted Scene – Alternative Harry intro scene
quite nasty I would imagine." Said a voice with an odd accent inflection behind all of them by the doors. "Agent Gibbs please don't shoot Colonel O'Neill."
"Give me a reason why?"
"Because then there would be paperwork, so I'd obviously have to shoot you, in the leg or something, just to make it worth it." Said the voice, slightly annoyed and sounding tired.
Thanks for reading.