Chapter 13 – Inside Access
Warren Minchley (The Third) looked out at his back porch, having arrived home from an afternoon of tea with business acquaintances. "Bev dear, why aren't the back lights on? They should be on."
"The lights aren't on? They're programmed to come on by now," Bev shouted back from somewhere in the too-big house. "Check the globes. Perhaps the gardener broke them."
"It's not hedge day, Bev. More likely those lousy kids from next door." He poked his head outside and saw that the bulbs appeared intact – or were they? He found a torch, and with the increased light, saw that all the bulbs had blown. "The bulbs are fine, but the filaments are toast. They must have been installed together, because they've all failed at the same time."
"Don't be silly, the middle one was replaced last month."
"I'm only telling you what I'm seeing… oh!" He spotted something on the ground, close to the fence.
"Whatever is it, Warren?" Bev sounded annoyed.
Warren tentatively stepped closer. A girl lay prone on the grass. Her face was scratched, her clothes creased and grubby, and her arm bore a couple of obvious punctures. He jostled her shoulder with his foot (after ensuring there was no blood to foul his shoe) and received no response. "Some strung-out druggie. And this is supposed to be a good neighbourhood."
Bev – who had come to the door but remained inside – muttered something about rich kids affording drugs. Not wishing to stand the intrusion any longer than necessary, she picked up the phone and called the local police station.
Elsewhere…
Only two and a half hours passed before Ivan was woken. A loud rapping on the door startled him from slumber. "The bar's opening and the kitchen's taking orders," a female voice called, apparently ignorant of the ages of the room's occupants.
"Who's that?" Leah asked.
"The owner's wife… and she's a Goa'uld!" Ivan found himself faced with visions himself and Leah being stunned and dragged away as soon as they went downstairs, but as soon as he shouted, they vanished. Accidentally letting her know that they knew what she was had apparently altered the possible futures.
"You mean she's…" Leah's question was silenced by a hand over her mouth. Ivan was evidently trying to concentrate.
"Quick, the fire escape! If we run we should be able to beat her," he ordered loudly. Leah looked on quizzically as Ivan stood still, and then understood when he quietly opened the door and pulled her after him. The Goa'uld was evidently running around to the back of the building while they quickly escaped through the front. Ivan dropped the key on the desk, where the proprietor gave them an odd look.
The pair stopped to catch their breath when they were a safe distance away. Ivan had chosen a zigzag path between blocks, for which Leah assumed there was some good reason which she was unable to see. After a bout of heavy breathing she asked, "What was all that about?"
"That woman, she'd been taken over by a Goa'uld. She wanted to capture us alive."
"You're sure?"
"Positive. I saw… I saw it possessing her, only an hour ago. Also, she had a Goa'uld weapon," Ivan explained.
Leah looked concerned. "An hour ago? They must have known we were here. Whoever 'they' are."
"I assume it's the people behind that ship you photographed. They must have known we were in the area," Ivan guessed.
"But how?"
"Well, they would have matched up the photos and figured that you were behind the leak about the Stargate Program. Which means they know the Air Force is also after us."
"So they must have found out that we were at Area 51, implying a security leak and also that we've been identified as the people who got into Area 51," Leah completed.
Ivan agreed. "Yeah, that sounds logical."
"You're looking better for some sleep," Leah noted.
"It helped. Though I'm feeling a bit off after trying to see who sent that Goa'uld. I did get a bit of a look at it's memories but they were far too evil to handle for more than an instant. It's fortunate I'm good at blocking out my visions, or…" There was no need to finish the sentence.
"I figure we'd better get out of here now, before they find us again," Leah suggested.
Ivan responded with a nod and elaborated, "Public transport would be a bad idea. Hitchhiking would be alright, though."
Leah frowned. "Are you sure you know what you're getting into?"
"Yes," Ivan replied simply.
"Yeah, of course. But since everyone will be looking for us together, shouldn't we split up?"
"Definitely not. They'd be more likely to catch you on your own, and then they'd use you as leverage to get to me. You're much safer with me, and you're my responsibility since I pulled you into this."
"Huh? You saved me after I published those pictures. I'm more responsible for this than you are," Leah argued.
Ivan shrugged. "We'll stick together. We wouldn't be any safer apart and I'd kinda miss you."
"Kinda?"
"Yeah, it's nice having you around."
Leah smiled. "I can tell you're not looking into this conversation's future."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ivan wondered if she meant he'd said something wrong.
"When you do that, you hardly pay attention to what I'm saying, and only say what's absolutely necessary. This is much nicer."
"Oh, good. Um, we'd better go left here if we want to find a driver to take us out of here."
"Ivan, are we in great danger of being caught?"
"Shh."
"Sorry," Leah whispered.
"Just kidding, we're fine for now."
"Oh." She poked him with an elbow and asked, "But for how long?"
"Hmm… ten minutes?"
"Is that enough?"
"Barely. We'll be okay."
"Good." Leah felt a lot safer after that reassurance, so she followed in silence the remainder of the way.
Back at the Curtain Hotel, the owners wife put down the phone… and then wondered why she was standing with her hand on the phone. She hadn't been about to call anyone – not as far as she could remember. Perhaps she shouldn't have helped herself to the bar so early. She had a vague memory of calling people down for the bar and kitchen. Yes, she ought to get back to finishing that.
At the SGC…
General O'Neill had joined a few off-duty officers in the rec room, where they waited for Inside Access to begin. Jack counted this as something he had to see, since it might impact on the security of the base. He had briefly spoken with the president about the possibility of shutting the show down, but it hadn't been an option. American citizens had the right to speculate, and an attempt to squash the story would be seen as an admission. Curbing the right to free speech would not look good, and outright denial would probably not convince anyone, and would put the administration in bad light when the truth eventually came out.
The only option was to try to ignore the situation and hope it went away, with the help of some strategic distractions and counter rumours (and smoke and mirrors) to facilitate the 'moving on' of public interest. But for now, Julia Donovan had the right to do her thing, and do it she did. The theme tune played and the woman herself appeared onscreen.
"Good evening viewers! We're here with a panel representing a wide range of opinions and areas of expertise. Today the question on everyone's tongue is: Is the current administration and military covering up the existence of alien life and interstellar travel? I such a this even possible? Could this really have been hiding under our noses for thousands of years? If it's true, what effect does it have on our lives?
"Our first interviewee is a familiar face to regular viewers: Professor Robert Able, known to fans as Professor Probable. Professor: could a device such as this 'Stargate' – which allegedly can send humans instantaneously to planets throughout the galaxy - actually exist?"
The grey-haired gentleman cracked his knuckled, as was his habit. "If you had asked me a year ago, I would have said no. From what we knew of theoretical physics, it appeared that to hold open a wormhole – a tunnel forming a shortcut through space – would require exotic forms of matter which we can not practically produce or store, and which would interfere with actual travel through the wormhole. Also, the initial act of tearing a hole through space would require amounts of energy far beyond our reach and would be far more likely – almost certain – to cause massive destruction rather than anything useful."
"What happened to change that opinion?"
"I have since read a paper by a young PhD student named Cynthia Sanders, which provided an alternate approach to wormhole formation which avoids the problems of older theories. I believe she is currently researching practical wormhole physics. She recently published a preliminary report detailing her progress, which included opening some small semi-stable wormholes. This work is not widely known, but it shows the possibility of such a device as this Stargate actually existing."
Jack groaned at this turn of events. He had not considered that Cynthia's work could be held up as proof that the Stargate might exist, but it was too late to do anything about it now. At least she hadn't been connected to Sam or himself yet.
Julia seemed quite pleased. "Very interesting, professor. Do you think the rest of the story around the Stargate could be true?"
"I believe it is unlikely. While in principle it is possible, the claims sound like they were devised by a person who has been exposed to an unhealthily large dose of science fiction. In particularly, the idea that a creature could control the body of a host creature is quite far-fetched, and the claims of personal 'force shields' is quite ludicrous."
"How would you react if it was revealed to all be true?"
"It would be quite shocking. But since life has gone on so long without knowing such a thing, I would hope it shouldn't make too much difference. No matter what lies among the stars, we all face the same daily issues. At best, I would hope we could find the motivation and resources to improve the standard of living for everyone on Earth. And if these 'Goa'uld' really exist, it would be frightening, but it sounds like we've allegedly fought them off without too much trouble so far, so it wouldn't be a huge issue."
"Thank you very much for sharing your opinions, Professor. It was very enlightening. Next up we have Mr Brett Pearce, founder of a local UFO spotting society. Mr Pearce, do you think the government and military are covering up the existence of aliens?"
"Well, sure they are! But this Gow-old thing is all wrong. The aliens, they're grey, and they take people to experiment and try to cure diseases. They don't go around blowing things up and enslaving people."
"What about the Stargate? Does the idea have any merit, in your opinion?"
"Yeah, maybe it was a gift, from the Greys. If we mess up the environment too badly, we have a way to escape, see?"
"Yes, I see what you're saying. What would you do if everything in the article was found to be true?"
"Heh, I'd find a nice lush planet where I could live forever in harmony with nature, and there was lots of friendly likeminded people from all the races of the universe. And I'd start an alien orchestra, yeah that would be great."
Julia cut in before he could go any further down this wild path. "Thank you, Mr Pearce. That was… inspiring. Our third interviewee is Miss Roslyn Weeks, a local high school teacher with a degree in biology. Welcome, Miss Weeks."
"Please, call me Ros."
"What do you think of the suggestion that there are several other forms of intelligent life – both humanoid and otherwise – living in this galaxy, Ros?"
"Extremely unlikely. Many people think that because there is life on one planet, it could easily come to exist elsewhere, but that's not the case. The odds of life coming to exist even once under so-called 'ideal conditions' are so tiny that I can only believe that it happened because it's obvious. The chances of it happening more than once are unthinkably small."
"Could the existence of aliens and interstellar travel be something that has been intentionally concealed from the public?"
"I don't think so. It's too big a thing to hide, and there would be historical records supporting it. There's no way this could be real."
"What if it was?"
"I would be very upset that such a thing has been kept hidden. The military have no right to use our tax dollars to gain technology which they intend to keep to themselves. I would demand that the Stargate be sold to a public company so we can all have a say in how it is used, as shareholders, rather than the Air Force secretly using our money for its own ends. If they need to use it to defend Earth we can let them, but it should be used to benefit civilians first and foremost, rather than as a mere weapon."
Jack wondered how she had come to such a vocal opinion if she was so opposed to the possibility of it being true in the first place. Some people were rather vocal and inconsistent in their opinions, and that irked him.
Julia Donovan had not expected this tirade either, but she didn't let it show, and moved on to a different angle. "How would you react to the existence of hostile and technologically advanced aliens?"
"I'm sure it would be quite frightening, but… not completely terrifying. If they appeared in the sky and started attacking us and we had no way to fight back, that would be terrifying, but since they aren't here and we're not defenceless – if they really existed, which I very much doubt – I don't see why we shouldn't be able to handle the threat. There's war and terror happening around the world even now, but that doesn't stop me from getting out of bed every morning."
Jack wondered whether this optimistic ideal would bear out if the truth was revealed. Sure, some people would handle it, and others simply wouldn't care, but he was sure there would be plenty of people panicking.
"Thanks for your viewpoint, Ros. Now for our final speaker: the best-selling archaeologist, Doctor Steven Rayner."
Jack muttered a curse under his breath. So that's where the man had gone to.
"Thanks for having me on the show," Steven replied.
"Thank you for agreeing to appear. My first question for you is this: is there evidence of these Goa'uld having been present on Earth?"
"Archaeology has many mysteries, and many interpretations of the available evidence. The majority view is that no such evidence exists, but it's possible that it's there but we haven't found it or have found a way to interpret it that doesn't resort to invoking aliens. We obviously can't explain finds by using unknowns such as aliens, but that does not exclude the possibility that we have not found such unknowns because we don't know what to look for. In summary, there's no obvious evidence for them, but there's no categorical evidence against them either."
Now that was a clear-cut case of fence-sitting, if the General had ever seen one.
"Intriguing. What do you say to the claim that the 'goddess' Hathor was found in a sarcophagus by the Kleinhouse expedition, and that the artefact ended up in the hands of the USAF?"
"Kleinhouse's expedition definitely found a sarcophagus in a Mayan temple, and it did bear Egyptian hieroglyphs, including one of the Egyptian goddess Hathor. They are known to have been killed brutally in the vault, and the sarcophagus was clearly sent to my former colleague Doctor Daniel Jackson, due to his unique research on the cross-pollination of ancient cultures."
"Research which resulted in him being ostracised from the archaeological community," Julia added.
"Yes, it was not a popular idea. The existence of this sarcophagus shows there was some merit in the idea. Whether this means these 'Goa'uld' creatures once existed or not remains to be determined."
"Where is Doctor Jackson now that academia has no place for him?"
"He's been working on a classified Air Force project at the Cheyenne Mountain base."
"The alleged location of the Stargate," Julia filled in. "Do you know of any other anomalous finds?"
"There was an amulet which gave an unusually old date, but both it and the test results were lost in an unfortunate incident I would rather not discuss, for personal reasons."
Jack was rather relieved that the man had kept quiet about the Osiris situation for now.
"If this was the truth, what would you think of the government for covering it up?"
"I would say that the cover up was a mistake. If there are really aliens, and alien artefacts are sitting undiscovered on Earth, we should be warned about the potential danger. If we are really under threat of invasion, we should know about it so we can prepare! Hoping they can secretly defend the planet so we never need to know about it may seem like a noble sentiment, but we're much better off if we can appreciate the dangers."
"What would this mean for you as an archaeologist?"
"It would shatter a lot of the preconceptions we've held, which would be disruptive, but it would leave us open to new possibilities. Discovering such an incredible truth would give us a whole new understanding of history. And if it's really possible to easily step though a device to other planets where our ancestors were taken, then there is so much we could learn about human culture."
"You make some very good points. Thank you for sharing with us, Doctor Rayner. We'll be back with more revelations from Inside Access after a quick commercial break."
Meanwhile…
Cassandra Frasier awoke to a dark, cold, room. She was alone in the gloom, and surrounded by concrete walls. She sat up, rubbed her bleary eyes, and turned around. The fourth side of the small room – or cell – was barred. This meant she was yet again a captive. Strangely, her hands were free. She still wore the same clothes, which were grubby from her roll in the dirt, but her footwear had been removed. Apart from a camera watching her closely, she was alone.
Unwilling to remain locked up, she relaxed until she could sense the camera, or rather its electrical flows. After careful consideration and concentration, she was able to freeze the image, as far as she could tell. Sensing what was going on inside an electronic device was a very new and unique experience, so it was not easy to determine whether she had actually succeeded. As soon as she was done, she set to work on the lock, which was much easier. Since she could force the individual components separately, it was far more straightforward than picking a lock by hand.
She headed for the only door, passing a couple more empty cells. Voices on the other side of the door warned her that escape would not be easy. Her concentration had been broken as soon as she moved away from her cell, so she didn't have much time before someone noticed that she had vanished. In fact, they noticed quicker than she expected, and she was barely able to jump backwards in time to avoid being smacked in the head by the opening door.
Before the new arrival had time to react, Cassie had rushed through the doorway. She was greeted by unexpected surroundings. "What… why am I in a police station?"
"Don't move!" bellowed the voice of the uniformed man behind her.
The teen froze. "Okay, not moving."
"How did you get out of your cell?"
"How did I get into a cell?" she responded, unsure of what was going on, or who to trust. "What am I accused of?"
"Trespassing, vandalism, and suspicion of substance abuse," the cop replied.
"WHAT? Okay, I guess I was trespassing, but I was trying to escape from kidnappers, so I had a good reason to climb over that fence."
"Kidnappers?" The man did not sound very believing.
"Yes, they're the ones who drugged me. It was just some strong sedative, I think."
"I think she's just a victim here," interposed a friendly voice. Cassie turned to see a young man who she immediately categorised as 'cute'.
"Stay out of this, Cadet," the first man ordered. "She just escaped from her cell for goodness' sake!" He turned back to Cassie. "How'd you do that?"
"Classified," Cassie told him.
"You must think you're funny," he told her humourlessly.
Cassie shook her head. "No, I'm quite serious. My mom is a major at the Cheyenne Mountain military base."
"Do you have an ID?" he demanded.
"Uh, not on me, no. I thought you would know that."
The cop – Cassie hadn't bothered to read his name – opened his mouth to say something which was likely nasty, but the cadet was able to pre-empt him. "Since we brought her in for questioning, shouldn't she be questioned properly, rather than while standing in the corridor?"
"Fine. Follow me," the cop grumbled. Cassie followed him down the hall, giving a smile to the cadet. He returned it with a friendly grin. Obviously he didn't see her as a threat or potential criminal.
The trio passed the lobby where the TV was playing loudly. None of them paid much attention until Cassie jumped at the sound of a familiar voice. "Off-world activation!"
Author's Note: Wow, this somehow became rather long! Hope you all enjoyed reading :D