Chapter 3

Back in Las Vegas Agents Mulder and Scully were just arriving. "Excuse me," Mulder was saying to the lady behind the desk. "I'm Special Agent Mulder, this is Special Agent Scully. We're here as consultants on a case…"

"Yes, Mr. Grissom is expecting you, right that way to his office," the receptionist said, pointing down the hallway.

Looking down the hall to where the girl was pointing, Mulder turned back to her saying, "Thank you." Then quickly he strode down the hallway, Scully in tow.

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"Grissom, I heard about that knew case Catherine has," Sara said as she stepped into Grissom's office. "What's up with that?"

"I'm not sure yet. The evidence is not adding up on this one. That man, by all rights, should not have been alive to make it up to the top of that roof. The wound that was found in his stomach had obviously been there a long time but had not killed him. In fact, it's still a mystery on what did kill him."

"Wow. So a man, who had no rights to be alive in the first place, winds up dead and it looks like before he went, he made sure another guy went with him?"

"Well we're not sure if both deaths are connected. The other guy, who we have identified as a Lt. Joseph Maynard, may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time or he just chose that day to leap from the building of his own accord."

"Lieutenant? He was with the army?"

"Air Force actually. It seems he was an officer at the base north of Vegas."

"You mean Area 51?"

Grissom indicated she was correct with his typical Grissom head cock.

"So now what?"

"Well, I called in an occult specialist from the FBI, he and his partner should be here soon."

"So you think that this has something to do with the occult?"

"I…"

At that moment Agent Mulder was at his open door, lightly tapping on the glass to get the two CSI's attention.

"Mr. Grissom?" Mulder asked.

"Yes, that's me. This is Sara Sidle, CSI 3. I assume you are Agents Mulder and Scully?"

"Yes sir," Mulder answered as he stepped into the room.

"Please, have a seat," Grissom said, indicating the last remaining chairs in the room since Sara now occupied one.

"Thank you," Scully said as both she and Mulder sat down.

"Have you had a chance to go over the information that I sent over to you?" Grissom asked.

"Yes, we have. It certainly seems that you have an interesting case on your hands Mr. Grissom," Scully replied.

Grissom nodded before asking, "And what do you think? Do we have a new occult on our hands?"

Scully opened her mouth to answer but Mulder beat her to the punch. "I'm not convinced that the occult has anything to do with this case, sir."

Raising an eyebrow, Grissom said, "Really? Why do you say that?"

"Well, it's more of a feeling than anything definable. You see, the man you found just doesn't seem to fit into an occult heading. True he had a stylized, almost religious figure tattooed on his forehead, in a place consistent with many beliefs of being the location of a third, or spiritual eye. But the hole in this guy's gut seems to speak of something much deeper here than a new occult on the rise."

"Well I must tell you, Agent Mulder, that I am a man of science and I prefer not to go by feeling, but rather by following the evidence."

"Well Mr. Grissom, in our line of work, we find that the evidence is all too often doctored or misleading and it is much more important to go by gut instinct than anything."

The room suddenly turned cold as the two men had a mini stare down across the desk. Scully was about to again say something to break the tension when another tap on the glass door made them all jump…

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Greg was just finishing up on whatever he was constructing from the different lab equipment pieces when he noticed two military dressed people walking by. One was a graying, yet fit man who looked like he belonged on some old T.V. show. And the other was an attractive woman with short blond hair and a set to her jaw that said "Don't mess with me just because I'm female."

Greg watched as they passed by and saw them enter Grissom's office which seemed to be getting rather crowded now. Turning back to his project at hand, Greg reached into his pocket and pulled out the last piece that he needed to activate his device, the glowing green power source that he had taken from the staff weapon earlier that day…

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"Hello? Are we intruding?" Jack asked as everyone in the office gave a jump at his knock and turned to look at him and Sam.

"Perhaps, and you are?" Grissom asked.

"Well, I am General Jack O'Neill, two L's, of the U.S. Air Force and this is Colonel Samantha Carter."

"Do high ranking Air Force officials pop up here regularly?" Mulder asked, turning back to Grissom.

"No, I don't believe we have gotten a visit from our Air Force neighbors before," Grissom answer. "I would assume this has something to do with the man we found from your base?" Grissom asked.

Sam and Jack exchanged a look before Sam asked, "What man? What base?"

"You haven't heard? The man that seemed to have jumped from the top of the building where we found a more interesting body worked at Area 51," Sara said.

"You're kidding," answered Sam.

"Carter," Jack warned, worried that she may be giving away too much.

"Sorry sir."

"If you're not here because of him, then why are you here?" Sara asked.

"We heard about the other, more… interesting, body that you found and we were worried that it may have been exposed to some very nasty bio contagions that we need to check for," Sam began to explain.

Mulder smiled and sarcastically answered, "Sure, bio contagions. I'm sure that's what this is all about."

"I assure you that the safety of you and this lab is our main concern for coming here," Sam said.

"Yes, you were so concerned for our welfare that two very high ranking officials from the U.S. Air Force personally come down here to this CSI lab to determine if there is a contagion on the new strange body that they have found. Never mind that there is no way that you should ever have even known of this body's existence in the first place and you couldn't just send some private or even captain or lieutenant to check it out. Or maybe even faxed the lab a warning to check the body themselves. But no, this was something so important that you two had to come down here, from God knows where, to check on it personally…" By now Mulder had gotten from his seat and was almost nose to nose with Jack. He would have continued on his tirade had Grissom not calmly interrupted.

"Agent Mulder, this is my lab and I don't need you talking to our guests in that manner. Now please sit down."

Mulder glared at Jack for another moment before returning to his seat.

"If you must know, this man was part of an ongoing investigation. He was suspect in leaking vital information pertaining to national security and we had been keeping close tabs on him for some time now," Jack answer in his pleasant, yet pissed off sarcastic tone.

Silence settled on the room for a moment as Jack's words were taken in by everyone in the room and quickly found to be a load of bull, even by Jack. Five sets of unbelieving eyes turned to the General as they wondered what he would come up with next.

Trying and failing to stare the others down Jack finally broke and began, "Alright, of course I'm lying to you. Carter, explain to them what is really going on here and why we have to take the body with us." Stepping back, Jack allowed Sam to take the floor. It was time that she showed off her fast thinking brain to these egg heads.

"Well, you see…" was all the further she got before being interrupted yet again by another visitor.

Greg poked his head in the door asking, "Ah, Grissom? I need to have a word with you when you get the chan…" but that was all the further he got before noticing Sam. He stared right at her as she stared him right back. Both reached for their respective weapons almost simultaneously. Unfortunately for Sam, Greg pulled his newly acquired strange gun before Sam had her pistol in aim. First Sam, then Jack, found themselves the recipients of what appeared to be an electrical blast as a flash of light could be seen behind Greg's eyes. Sam fell over, being braced from the floor by both Scully and Sara. Mulder reached for his own gun as Jack stumbled and grabbed at Greg who was really only inches away from him. Grissom stood from his chair, mouth a gap, trying to figure out what had gotten into Greg and where that new gun had come from.

This was all any of them were able to do when a flash of light filled the room, sweeping everyone there away and bringing them to a completely different setting where Earth could be seen just outside a window beside them.

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As soon as they appeared on the ship the commotion continued. Greg grabbed Jack by the shirt and threw him across the ship, causing him to slam into the wall. Scully and Sara finished lowering Sam to the floor before they stood up, and looked around bewildered at their new surroundings. Mulder was slowly lowering his gun as a look of awe and vindication began to spread dumbly over his face. Grissom simply looked around at his new surroundings, wondering how he had gotten there and what that place was.

After a moment of gauging his new location, Greg spun around and brought his gun around to bear down on Mulder, but before he could fire another shot, he alone was beamed away yet again.

Everyone was silent for a moment. Jack still lay unconscious slumped against the wall and Sam was trying to pull herself back to awareness from where she laid. Finally she was able to sit up with a grunt of pain, muttering to herself, "So much for not giving anything away."

"Where are we?" Sara asked as she saw that Sam was awake again.

"We're on an alien ship, probably in orbit around Earth," Sam answered as she continued to clear her head.

"Why were we brought here?" Scully asked, rather afraid to hear the answer.

"Don't worry. No one is going to be hurt. The aliens that brought us here are our allies."

"Sure they are. Allies to help you take over the world and decide who is worthy to live and die," Mulder intoned.

All eyes turn to him with a look of contempt. He was clearly taking this over the top. Even Scully was looking at him like he had lost his mind, and she had seen some evidence of what he was talking about.

"What are you talking about?" Sara asked.

"Only that we are standing in the proof that the government has been covering up alien involvement and conducting secret experiments on the people of Earth for years."

"Alright. Yes, we have had alien contact that has been covered up for almost eight years now. But this secret experiment stuff is new to me. I can assure you that there has been none of that going on," Sam answered as she hobbled to her feet.

"Owie!" could be heard from Jack as he woke up from his ordeal with the Goa'uld.

"Sir," Sam said, making her way to Jack's side. "Are you alright?"

"I've just been shot by a Zat and thrown against the wall, yet again. Of course I'm not alright," he said as Sam helped him into a sitting position.

"Zat?" Grissom asked, as he began to wander about the room looking around.

Jack looked to Sam, trying to decide if they should tell these people what was going on. Sam said to him, "Sir, it obvious that they're not in Kansas anymore. I think that we need to tell them the truth on what is happening so we can have the CSI's help in getting their man back to himself and to keep the FBI's from digging around after we return them."

Nodding, Jack rose to a stand using the arm that Sam offered him. "Alright. Welcome to the Asgard ship… Which one is this?" he asked turning to Sam. She shrugged her shoulders.

"You are once again on board the Daniel Jackson," a strange voice said from across the room. Everyone looked to see who the new voice was coming from. There was a great intake of breath from the four newbies to this situation as they looked at the little grey being coming towards them.

"Thor! Old buddy, thanks for picking us up. I assume that you have the Goold… somewhere."

"That is correct O'Neill. He is being held in suspended animation in another part of the ship."

"Well, as much as I love your timing and am grateful that you were able to help us out, but why did you bring these guys along with?" Jack asked the Asgard.
"I felt that it would be better to bring those aboard who had witnessed the actions of the Goa'uld to explain things to them, rather than have you two and their friend disappear before their eyes and leave them wondering what happened."

Jack thought about that for a moment before answering, "Yeah, I could see where that would be a bad thing."

"Excuse me, Thor? The Norse god of Thunder? And Asgard, the Norse heavenly dwelling of the gods and heroes?" Grissom asked.

"Yeah, it's a long story," Jack answered.

"And what about Greg? Why was he acting so weird and what have you done with him?" Sara asked.

"Also another long story," Sam answered this time.

"A story that must wait until I send all of you back to the SGC. I just received a message from the Asgard high command and it seems that I am needed back in my galaxy immediately." Thor informed them.

"Ah, what about our new Goold?" Jack asked.

"I am sure that the Tok'ra will be able to help you in that matter. I will beam him down in the containment field so he shall be easy to deal with. But I must leave now," and with that Thor turned to the pedestal and moved a crystal, instantly enveloping the group in light and beaming them directly into the gate room with Greg strapped on a crystal looking stretcher, seemingly asleep.

"Not exactly where I would like to have been taken!" Jack yelled at the ceiling.

The four visitors stared wide eyed at a great ring that sat before them. "What is that?" Scully finally was able to voice.

"Another long story," Sam said again.

Just then, the door to the gate room opened and Teal'c and Daniel walked in.

"It seems that our contact with the Asgard worked," Teal'c said as he walked over to the stretcher where Greg laid.

"Yes, they came through again," said Jack

"Hello, I'm Dr. Daniel Jackson. Who might you all be?" said Daniel, addressing the visitors.

Jack walked up to the group and said, "Yes, I don't think I caught any of your names myself."

Mulder pulled his eyes away from the stargate just long enough to tell Daniel his name. Scully walked up to him and shook his hand saying, "Dr. Jackson, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Special Agent Diana Scully. My partner here would, no doubt, be glad to meet you too if he wasn't so distracted." She looked back to where Mulder was ogling the stargate again.

"Sorry," he said, turning back again. "What are you talking about Scully?"

"This is Dr. Daniel Jackson, Mulder. You're the one who had me read his work. You know, the archeologist."

"Oh, yes. Dr. Jackson. I'm sorry. I loved your theories on what the ancient pyramids were actually made for. Alien landing platforms I believe."

"Yes, that's what I theorized," Daniel answered with a bit of pride. It looked like he wanted to say more but he looked to Jack first before continuing.

"You can tell them all about it later. It's gonna be hard to keep this from them now," Jack answered his look.

Grissom now stepped forward and took Daniel's hand, "Hello, Dr. Jackson, I'm Gil Grissom, head of Las Vegas CSI night shift. I would also like to hear about your theories on the pyramids."

"Well thank you, but I have since proven them and they are no longer theories."

"I think I can remember reading one of your papers once, Dr. Jackson. Those were some pretty awesome theories that you came up with. I give you credit for even publishing them," Sara said as she stepped forward.

"Thank you…" he cut off, trying to remember if she gave him her name.

"Sara Sidle, Las Vegas CSI."

"Ah yes, thank you, Sara."

"Well, now that we are all acquainted, Danny, how about you show our guests to the VIP room where we can all meet in a while to talk about… everything," Jack said.