jfr07--You're right that Krayt's going to be disappointed in Kyle. But he will be quite interested in Goa'uld sarcophagi. He's also actually going to have a lot more to handle than he expected.
Voration--Thanks. In the AU of this story, all Humans were supposed to have evolved from a small group of Antarans whoc rash-landed on Coruscant. This was the Epilogue of my story Gods of Dark and Light. That said, I was really off with the date I used. I should have placed the Epilogue much, much earlier. But that's what I intended. Hence Kyle Katarn and Siana are actually direct descendents of the Ancients, much as the humans in the Pegasus galaxy are.
Snowfur--Actually, he's just been cheating time using the time-dilation effect of relativistic speed. However, Krayt doesn't know that. All he knows is that somehow Kyle's been around for a century longer than he should have. Just like jfr07 said, Krayt will be a bit disappointed.
Jfr07's comments bring up a very good point, and I'll reiterate it again later. Heaven Falls was written BEFORE the final identity of Darth Krayt was revealed. And so this story is also AU in the sense that Krayt is not the same person as is in canon. I could have gone back and tried to fix it retroactively, but I felt there were benefits with the rest of the story to let it remain different. So for my few and favored readers, just be aware of that difference.
Thank you for the reviews, and for reading!
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Disclosure
Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Thursday, January 24, 2002, 10:00 a.m. EST
The ambassadors of China, France, Russia, and Great Britain took their seats at the circular table in the basement briefing room of the Pentagon. All wore their VIP visitor badges.
General Jack O'Neill stepped into the room with Secretary of State Beatrice Franklin. "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming on such short notice," the secretary said. "I have with me Brigadier General Jack O'Neill, who has come to discuss an ongoing United States program that may have an impact on your respective nations."
"You have no idea," Russian Colonel Chekov said.
"Chekov," O'Neill said, half in warning, half in irritation.
The Russian colonel grinned.
"General, you may begin," Franklin said.
"Thank you, Madam Secretary," O'Neill said.
"Ladies and gentlemen, a day ago each of your countries received a list of possible terrorist agents whom the United States believed were working to destabilize the political structure of the entire world. We here in the U.S. have identified over a thousand such agents, and we are, as we speak, hunting them down."
"How did you come about this list?" the Ambassador to Great Britain asked.
"The answer to that question is in large part why we asked you all here today. These agents, ladies and gentlemen, are genetically engineered human-alien hybrids acting on behalf of an extra-terrestrial invasion force which we believe may be en route to Earth even as we speak. And the reason we know about it is because the United States Air Force has been sending personnel to other worlds throughout the galaxy by means of a system of gates that create artificial wormholes all across the galaxy. It was through this gate, and also from an alien crash, that we became aware of the full extent of the threat to our planet."
France coughed. "This joke is in very poor taste," the ambassador said.
"If only it were a joke," Colonel Chekov said. "Russia has known about the U.S. Stargate program for some time. Let me assure you, it is no joke. And we also have recently found out about the agents in our country, and that is no joke as well. Our world is under attack."
"Are you ready for this?" Agent John Doggett asked.
Michael Guerin shrugged and ran a hand over his new, close-cropped haircut. He did not like it, but if he was going to start playing the part of the good guy, he had to look the part. Or so Agent Doggett insisted. Personally, Michael thought Doggett was biased when it came to short hair.
They were on board the U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN65), currently docked in Norfolk Naval shipyard for a one-year extended refit. According to the master list Tess gave them, there were at least three of the hybrid supersoldiers aboard.
Behind Agent Doggett came Special Agents Leroy Gibbs and Tony DiNozzo of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, as well as two marines.
"Why is the kid along again?" Gibbs demanded for the third time.
"Special weapons expert," Doggett lied, supplying the cover story behind Michael and the silver weapon he carried. "These men have been dosed with a special drug that makes them seem almost impervious to traditional weapons fire. Agent Guerin has received special weapons training to specifically counteract this effect."
Behind them, Agent DiNozzo snorted.
They entered the engineering section of the Enterprise, which was the first of America's nuclear-powered carriers. At over forty years old, the ship still hummed with power and lethal vitality.
They maneuvered through the maze of twisting pipes and corridors, until they arrived at the main reactor of the ship. There they found Chief Warrant Officer Walter Garrant and Petty Officers Donald Parlor and James Hasslebeck standing together talking.
All three turned as the FBI and NCIS agents emerged with the marines and Michael Guerin behind them. They showed mild alarm at the agents, but when their eyes focused on Michael, all three attacked.
One of the marines who stepped forward grunted as Petty Officer Parlor snapped his neck with a single chop of his hand and relieved him of his assault rifle. Doggett was already firing before the other two got close. When Agents Gibbs and DiNozzi saw that neither the Chief Warrant Officer nor Petty Officers were going down, they also opened fire.
Michael lifted the silver "ray-gun", focused, and released a burst of power not directly at the attackers, but at the Antaran weapon. The silver seemed to absorb the power of his mind, augment it, and then spit it out in a tight beam of white light that ripped through Parlor and sent the man flying in pieces back against the reactor.
The other two hybrids, bleeding black ooze from a dozen gunshot wounds, tried their best to wade through the agents to Guerin, but not before he was able to shoot them as well.
Into the stunned silence that followed, Michael said, "I like this thing!"
"These Goa'uld tried to invade us in 1998?" the Chinese Ambassador said. She glanced around the table inquiringly. "We were told that was a meteor shower!"
"We lied," O'Neill said with a shrug. "So, now we know about the Goa'uld. They're out there, and they don't like us. But some things happened just recently that have changed everything."
"You are referring to that UFO crash last week, are you not?" the British ambassador said.
"We are. You see, it turns out that there are humans everywhere, not just in our galaxy, but in other galaxies as well. And one of those humans from another galaxy happened to crash on our planet last Thursday night and things just kind of went nuts after that."
Siana held the hilt of her lightsaber at the ready while Isabel took a deep breath beside her. Around them, rain poured down the massive trees surrounding Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Beside the two young ladies, Special Agent Dana Scully knelt in the wet mulch of the wooded grove and looked at the road with her binoculars. Just as their sources at the Nuclear Labs and Department of Energy had said, Dr. Sumpta Azago stopped her car along the edge of the grove. A moment later, a black SUV pulled up bumper-to-bumper with the nuclear physicist's car and two hybrid supersoldiers stepped out.
"Remember, I'll arrest Azago," Scully reminded them. "You take care of the supersoldiers.
"Of course, Agent Scully," Siana said.
With that, the Jedi Padawan exploded from the tree line in a Force-driven leap that took her across the twenty feet to the road, where she landed just on the other side of the hybrids and Dr. Azago.
"What is the meaning of this?" the physicist demanded.
Ignoring the woman, Siana Force-pushed one of the two hybrids off the road toward Isabel, and then lit her saber. Azago watched in horror as the lone hybrid on the road fell to the ground in pieces and then seemed almost to melt into black goo. She turned as two more women stepped from the trees. The other hybrid lay on the grass, his chest blackened. The younger of the two lowered her hand while the red-head continued up the side of the road.
She flashed her badge. "Dr. Azago, I am Special Agent Dana Scully of the FBI. You are under arrest for treason and espionage. You have the right to remain silent…"
Siana stepped down the road to Isabel. "Are you okay?"
Isabel nodded. "It seems to be getting easier to kill them. Is that bad?"
"Taking life, even life as twisted as theirs, is never easy," Siana said. "But that said, it has to be done for the sake of your home. And your strength is never something to fear." She gave Isabel a hug and watched as Scully called in the support team that had been on standby.
The Chinese ambassador had a hard time keeping her mouth shut. "And so these supersoldiers are working with elements of our own governments?"
"That's right," O'Neill said. "Our information showed that the original date of invasion was 2012. But when this UFO crashed, one of the occupants killed a hybrid supersoldier, which sent the Antaran syndicate here nuts. There were two people aboard the UFO, one good, one bad. The Antaran agents tried to recruit the bad one to kill the good one. That didn't work, and all the Antaran agents involved were killed. And so the Antaran fleet is supposedly en route."
"When will we see them?" the French ambassador asked. "Like your movie, what is it, 'Independence Day'? When will our satellites see them?"
"The Antarans, like the Goa'uld and Sith, have a faster-than-light method of travel. In all likelihood, they are just going to pop out of nowhere right on top of us. There will be no advanced warning. We won't see them until they start shooting at us."
"Then why bother trying to stop their agents on Earth?" Colonel Chekov demanded. "Even with magnetite in the bullets, it still takes an entire magazine to bring one of these monstrosities down."
"Because the Antarans want the planet intact," O'Neill said. "We're hoping that means they won't do anything to blow up the whole planet. If they are going to engage in ground combat, then we are better off with them NOT having agents already in place."
Mulder, Max and Liz walked into the Sandia National Laboratories wearing FBI jackets to ward off the winter chill. Behind them walked ten Department of Energy special agents. The receptionist stood to intercept them when one of the DOE agents held up a piece of paper.
"This is a raid, Ma'am," the DOE agent in charge said. "Remain at your seat and make no calls." One of the DOE men stayed in the lobby to ensure the orders were obeyed.
They walked through the halls of the installation to the shocked expressions of the researchers and scientists working there, until they arrived at one of the many lab rooms. Inside were three hybrids in lab coats. They were setting the timer on a bomb against what appeared to be a small reactor.
"Freeze!" Mulder cried. The hybrids ignored them and continued working on their bomb.
"You can't shoot in there!" a researcher said, running up the hall. "That's the coolant for the reactor. If you breach it, it'll kill us all!"
Max and Liz shared a look and stepped forward. One of the hybrids saw Max, muttered a curse, and lunged just as Max and Liz held hands and raised their free hands up. The hybrid stopped mid-step and then exploded into black goo. The two turned their attention to the second hybrid and killed him as well. They turned to the third, who was grinning. "Too late," he said just before dying.
Mulder ran forward to examine the goo-covered bomb. He turned back to Max. "Ten seconds!"
Max rushed forward, pulled the bomb off the side of the reactor—it had been secured with double-sided tape, Max noted with grim humor—and threw it into a corner of the room.
"Everyone out!" Mulder cried. Then, with Liz at his side, Mulder crouched down behind Max. The bomb went off just as a field of blue energy burst from Max's hand. Fire flashed around them and through the corner of the room that led into the hallway and administrative rooms beyond. Behind Max, Mulder and Liz watched as fire flashed around the coolant chamber, but never against it.
A minute later, the fire ended. Max swayed, but they caught him before he fell. "That was hard," he muttered. They looked up and saw that the entire corner of the room, the hall behind, and the entire other side of the building leading to the exterior, was gone.
"You did it, Max," Liz said as she leaned over to kiss him. "You saved the whole city."
"Yay for me," Max smiled up at her. "Will you marry me?"
"In three weeks, loverboy," Liz said, kissing him again.
"So, that's what's going on," O'Neill finished. "We are telling you now because of the threat of impending invasion, and the need to coordinate our efforts in tracking down the agents. We do have a small group of specialists who are uniquely qualified to hunt down and deal with these hybrid aliens, but with five thousand possible aliens spread all over the world, every country represented in this room is going to have to make an effort if we as a species are going to survive."
China shook her head. "General, Madam Secretary, with all due respect, all we have heard today are words. For something with the magnitude you describe, my government will need more than mere words."
Just then, as if on a prearranged schedule, the room glowed before a flash of bright white light. When the light faded, those around the table gasped at the sight of a thin gray alien with a bulging head and huge black eyes.
"General O'Neill, I have grave news," Thor said. "We have located the Antaran fleet, and they are coming as we speak."
The Asgard turned and looked at the ambassadors. "I see you have finally informed them of the Stargate. Although the Asgard try not to instruct others how to govern themselves, it is about time."
"Ehh, I don't do politics well," O'Neill said. "So, with the Antarans, how much time do we have?"
"They will be here in thirty-six hours. But there is more."
"What?"
"We believe the Imperial-Sith ship has also determined your location and is en route."
"Could it get any worse?"
"Yes."
"Yes?"
"Anubis, the most powerful Goa'uld, has joined forces with the System Lords to assemble the largest fleet in Goa'uld history, and they are also coming to Earth."
"Why now?"
"I told them you had a super weapon of the Ancients here."
"What?" O'Neill blinked. "Thor, why did you do that?"
"It was my hope Anubis and the Antarans would destroy each other over your planet since both are similarly armed. However, we did not anticipate the Imperial ship entering this galaxy. It was a tactical error, I am afraid."
"Can you do anything to help?"
"I did," Thor said, blinking. "I am telling you now."
