March 21, 2002 – P8C-220
As the four of them approached the one building that looked out of place, Jack had a bad feeling about this place, his sense for danger nagging him, but they saw no one around. They sneaked in the door to a room that looked remarkably modern, white painted walls, windows, finished floors. It looked like the place was pretty old and hadn't been kept up, but it was a far cry from the rest of the shacks they saw on their way here.
It was the middle of the night here, which was probably why they were able to get in undetected, but also made it hard to see. Jack was looking for a way down, which seemed to be a theme on these Aschen worlds. Finally, he found a door to a staircase, and they traveled down the stairs to a room with writings on the walls.
"Get out your camera, and make sure you get all of this. I highly doubt we'll find a paper copy."
While they looked at the walls, Jack noticed something.
"Hey, Louis, come here."
"What'cha got, Jack?"
"Does this look like French to you?"
Both Ferretti and Jack spoke fluent French, so they tried to put their heads together and translate some of the text.
"It looks like some sort of derivation, but it's off enough that I can't make much of it out."
Watching Daniel for years twist words around to help him translate gave Jack a better chance than Ferretti.
"I think it's a memorial for people who died from a great plague. It also mentions newcomers that saved them from the plague. We need to get this to someone who knows what they're doing."
After a few more minutes, six men armed with spears and bows-and-arrows surrounded them.
"Who are you? From where have you come?"
"We've come a farm far away. We were on our way to speak with the Aschen."
"Far away you say? They said you would come. Follow me."
What? Oh, crap!
"Who did?"
"Years ago, the Aschen told us you would return to poison our minds."
What the hell? At least it's not what I thought.
"The people that escaped from here, that's who we are," Jack realized, thinking out loud.
"Yes. They said you would come back to convince us to return to the old ways. Disarm them," he ordered his men.
Jack handed everything over, but when he went to remove his radio, he held down the button.
"How long are you going to keep us here? You know the others will come for us."
Vala got the message loud and clear.
"You will remain until the Aschen return in three days. They will deal with you."
Their captors all left, leaving them alone in the cell.
"Alright, kids, sitting in a cell sure never gets old. Hopefully Vala heard me on the radio and will be down here soon."
After sitting there for a few hours, they heard running from down the hall, and flying into the room was Vala.
"Hi, boys, and Jen."
"How many did you take out?" Jack asked her.
"Five."
She unlocked the door, and everyone geared back up.
Ferretti and Wilkins raised their eyebrows. Jack wasn't surprised at all.
"That means there's at least one more. Hailey, make sure that camera is in there."
"It is, sir."
"Let's get the last one and get the hell out of here."
They crept around the building and found that the last guy, their ringleader, was sleeping on a cot in an office. Ferretti zatted him three times before Jack could do it, presumably to spare him more suffering. After that, they carefully made their way out of the building and back to the ship.
"To Oz."
As the ship entered hyperspace, they all sat around in the back of the ship and ate their MREs.
"Here's what we know for sure, right now. At least three Aschen Confederation planets had advanced civilizations wiped out after meeting the Aschen, and they were replaced with primitive, agrarian societies with no signs of advancement at all, let alone progress toward where they used to be.
We know that one civilization had survivors that escaped from the plague that the Aschen 'saved' them from, and those survivors are not welcome back.
I'm pretty certain of my partial translation of the walls we just saw, and I'm also pretty certain the Aschen are the newcomers referenced in the text. It matches the accounts of several of the other Confederation planets, the Aschen saving them from a plague. I mean, how many planets did they stumble upon where people were dying from a rampant disease? Their bioweapons make more sense. I just don't know why. They aren't doing that on Earth, at least not yet. Is that what they do if you fight back? What is their first strike, then? I need more of the whys and hows."
"Sir, you've got a lot already. If you had this intel before, it would have slowed down or stopped the treaty," Hailey added.
"Probably so. We should have been doing these missions over a year ago, but my team blew me off. They were so damn gung ho and made such a convincing case to Washington, we were forbid from exploring further. But it's different now. We can't just come back with doubts. We are pretty much talking about overthrowing the government here. We need answers and solutions. Which means we need a lot more information than we have."
"Jen, can you get into the system and access old SG team mission reports?"
"Yeah, that won't be a problem. I would probably have to get in through the Pentagon now though, since they closed down Cheyenne Mountain."
"Try to search through them, and find any that mention any form of the French language. I want to see if we can find these survivors. Just be careful. Don't get caught. They are monitoring all traffic."
"Don't worry, sir. I know what to do."
"If we're dealing with their bioweapons, I'm going to have to get my hands on some hazmat suits. Ok, get some rest kids."