808 Covenant

Masters of War – Bob Dylan

Come you masters of war

You that build the big guns

You that build the death planes

You that build all the bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

...

You that never done nothin'

But build to destroy

You play with my world

Like it's your little toy

…

Let me ask you one question

Is your money that good?

Will it buy you forgiveness

Do you think that it could?

I think you will find

When your death takes its toll

All the money you made

Will never buy back your soul

Jack O'Neill never really cared for Alec Colson. It all started with the MALP. Colson had a humongous company with many subsidiaries. One of them produced the MALP. To be fair, more than likely they were given an endless list of specifications and not told where and what it would be used for. Consequently it turned out to resemble something typically designed by committee. And as much as O'Neill hated the slow awkward troublesome machine, he was glad for it. On those days when he no longer felt suicidal, he needed to protect himself and his fellow soldiers as they burst through the Stargate into hostile environments or the meat grinder of hostile enemy fire.

Colson Aviation made planes and god knows Jack loved planes and loved to fly but there was something about Colson that rubbed him the wrong way.

When O'Neill and Carter, and Teal'c and Bra'tac returned to Earth in Death Gliders via the shuttle Endeavor, there was an enthusiastic push to somehow retrofit them into crafts for the use of the Air Force. Carter was enthralled with the possibility and with the engineering brilliance of Alec Colson. And even though O'Neill truly wanted this new ship, Carter was bubbling over at the prospect of working with Colson, so much so, it had O'Neill grinding his teeth.

O'Neill first hated Colson when his company Colson Industries had a pivotal role with the development of the engines of the X-301. O'Neill thought Colson was trying to poach Carter away from the SGC, luring her away from the Air Force to work in industry. Carter was aware of the need for new blood, new ideas and the extra brain power Colson Industries could provide.

Maybe it was the X-301 and Jack and Teal'c's unexpected trip to Jupiter that truly soured O'Neill against Colson. Or maybe it was Colson's "friendship" with Carter. But more so O'Neill saw Colson as a profiteer. A man willing to expose tightly guarded secrets for his own vanity or profit. This man's chief products steeped other men's hands in blood while he kept his clean. Jack knew his weren't any too clean either. Jack saw Colson as a self-righteous asshole.

Colson was a bane to Jack's existence. And although he and Teal'c nearly died due to his incompetence, Sam stood up for him. She claimed he hadn't been read in totally and it was the dopes at Area 51 that missed the recall device. Colson had his sticky fingers all over government contracts and especially those of the SGC and he didn't even know it. Maybe.

Sometimes Jack felt he worked for Colson - all those damn missions looking for more and more naquadah and trinium for his toys. Yeah, they were Carter's toys too.

When Jack had his stay at Ba'al's house of horrors Carter again had some time with Colson. The half finished ship and its blueprint, found in Steveston, Oregon, were to be amalgamated into the design of the X-303.

There were delays and cost overruns galore for the X-303. Was this because Carter and Colson were distracted with one another? Jack, reasonably he thought there was nothing to it, however he couldn't help but feel jealous and wondered if they had been having an affair while he languished in Ba'al charnel house.

When the X-303 was hijacked with Carter aboard, O'Neill's wrath fell on everyone - Major Davis who was handy, the security detail and Colson for the ship's unfinished state. Amazingly the thing did fly with a little help from a Goa'uld. However if it weren't for the Asgard Jack was sure SG-1 would still be floating in space.

On one particular issue Jack actually agreed with Colson, Colson immensely disliked Kinsey. Colson may have had no use for Kinsey yet government contracts were the lifeblood of his industry. Kinsey may dole out the money but wanted his fingers and those of the Trust in every pie, to exert his influence and wield his political power. Colson's only saving grace was that he wasn't a member of the Trust. He'd only been duped by them and his company infiltrated by them.

Colson's company did help unwittingly to produce the fleet of X-302 which helped defeat Anubis in the battle over Antarctica. The battle which Colson's satellites managed to capture video of and was now attempting to use to force the government's hand. O'Neill knew all of this would come out some day but the decision for that was above his pay grade.

Sam spent many spare hours and most of her leave to work with Colson. Colson was on an intellectual par with Carter, he was fabulously wealthy and he was available. Was O'Neill jealous of her time spent with Colson? Absolutely not. Well maybe.

He had no hold on her but it didn't change how he felt.

Sam Carter enjoyed working with Alec Colson. He was her kind of genius, able to actualize some of the ideas rattling around in her brain. She had known him almost as long as she had known Jack O'Neill. Colson had attempted to recruit her right out of graduate school. And when collaborating on some projects for the SGC Colson did attempt to date the brilliant and beautiful Air Force officer.

When Sam needed to build a particle beam accelerator, to retrieve her Colonel stuck on Edora, it was Colson's work on the Large Hadron Collider she referenced. When engines were needed to be modified, the work was contracted to Colson Industries. It was good to have someone to bounce ideas off of, not the overly arrogant McKay, nor bumbling socially incompetents like Felger or Lee.

In fact when General Hammond and Major Davis held a conference in DC to announce to allies and other powerful nations of the work of the SGC, Sam was amazed Colson was not read in.

And then they were nearly blown to hell and then stranded on Tagrea. It was the damn Prometheus and it's Colson Industries engines. Jack hated that ship and it's chief contractor.

You'd think they'd learn but no. One of Colson's subsidiaries was given the DNA of the Asgard for sequencing. Colson was on top of all the scientific work of his entire company, the engineering as well as the biological division.

Finally after all this subtifuge the shit hit the fan.

Jack didn't think Colson was involved in crackpot conspiracy theories. But a man, a brilliant man involved up to his eyeballs in covert government projects could put two and two together. O'Neill conferred with his CIA agent Kerry Johnson and was told never mind the creation of the Asgard clone, more importantly Colson had concrete knowledge of the battle over Antarctica in the videos recorded by his own satellite. So too, she told the general, although Colson was scientifically astute, he was oblivious when it came to the financial dealings of his company. And due to these financial troubles the Trust sunk their hooks into Colson Industries.

Sam was the one liaising with Colson, well initially it was Daniel too but he was soon left behind. It was only practical since she knew the man. She was distressed that his plane was tampered with, nearly causing an accident but definitely sending Colson and his associate a message. Even after Thor took the clone and all data referring to it Colson did not get the message.

What more did he want? He was cocky, he knew better. He disliked secrecy and wanted to expose the truth.

Colson was cajoled, begged, strong armed, bribed and robbed in order to force him not to expose the existence of Aliens and the battle of Antarctica. Since Sam Carter was the one who had dealt with Colson the most in the past, she was the one O'Neill sent to deal with him now. Jack knew he'd do anything she asked, so why not Colson.

Sam pleaded to give Colson a chance and so Colson was beamed to the SGC, met Thor, saw the Stargate, and traveled through a wormhole to the Alpha site for a ride in a X-302. Carter was the one who took Colson for the joy ride. It didn't seem to help him keep his mouth shut. And finally Sam brokered the deal to save Colson's life and get him to safety, settled permanently off world.

And no, Jack was not fucking jealous.

"But the moment we know that we are not alone, that we are almost certainly not the most advanced civilization ever to have existed in the cosmos, we will realize that we've spent more funds developing the means to destroy all life on the planet than it would have cost to preserve it." Avi Loeb