Chapter 5 – Tempest
"TV's back up!" cried an anonymous voice as it passed briefly by the commissary door. Immediately the man behind the cash desk reached under for the remote control and aimed it at the set high up on the end wall. Those at the far end of the room rose from their seats, moving towards it for a better view, only to be greeted by cries of "Sit down!" from those already nearer who could now no longer see the screen. Eventually everyone stood to watch the pictures and strain for the sounds.
The snow-filled screen and less-than-perfect audio was a clear sign that the week-long global weather and communications crisis was not over. They saw the red banner across the bottom of the screen that was the trademark of the news broadcaster, but couldn't read the small text marching along it. The larger letters spelling out 'Sun Storm Latest' above were plain enough, though, and the pictures – intermittent as they were – left no doubts as to the consequences of the solar outburst. Alternate scenes of snow blizzards, torrential rain and high winds throughout the Americas were followed by brief clips of similar scenes from Asia, Africa and Europe. The announcer's voice came and went, but got the message across only too well.
"Photos flown in by reporters taking incredible personal…. No satellite data is coming…."
"Land line phones in some areas across the USA are working. But the government is urging people not try to use them except in extreme…."
"Three tempestuous days and nights of wind, rain and sudden temperature changes that no-one in living memory has ever experienced to this degree."
"Trading on the NYSE is suspended. Other world stock markets are not….."
"All world trade and especially oil shipments to the USA are severely interrupted, probably for some time to come. Gas supplies are being reserved for emergency services, law enforcement, the military and essential supplies like food deliveries…. Looters will be shot on…. Brown-outs can be expected…. Sparingly."
Occasionally the picture cleared enough to show the stress on the announcer's face or the graphic details of storm damage, but several times the sound and vision disappeared completely for a few minutes at a time. The SGC staff and the people present from the Russian, Chinese and Canadian delegations who had struggled to get to Cheyenne Mountain during the previous two days looked on in horrified fascination, exchanging hushed words until the picture cleared, when they returned their attention immediately to the screen.
"Our science correspondent, Tom…."
"Light at the end of the tunnel. The worst of the storms have been dying down, and…. Expect a return to some forms of normality within a few days, including limited air travel."
"Clouds of radiation and a heat burst were thrown at the Earth by a huge storm on the Sun a week ago. Those directly exposed to the Sun storm on the daylight side of the Earth for long enough time periods will have suffered skin damage, most probably ranging from sunburn and maybe more severe soreness…. Unluckiest will, or will have already developed some degree of skin cancer. These few pictures of queues of sufferers at hospitals and aid stations across Asia, Africa and Europe…. No pictures yet from Australasia, but we can assume the same effects there."
Gasps of horror and concern arose, and not only from the foreign delegates, but died away again quickly as the TV once more clarified for a few brief moments.
"Animals and especially livestock will have suffered too. To ease the suffering of the worst-affected creatures, culling is the only practical measure. However, absent the widespread means to preserve meat for long periods, this could lead to severe shortages later."
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"Now's your chance, Petey boy!" said Freddie Marquette with no small amount of glee in his voice as he entered the main office at the Colorado Springs Police Headquarters.
"Meaning?" snapped Pete Shanahan back at him. Buddies they may nearly have been a couple of weeks before, but he had no intention of forgiving the older officer for his part in Sam's humiliation of him that fateful night. The week's hectic activities of assisting the general public in appalling storms and the extra patrols watching for opportunist criminals in the wake of the severe weather damage had temporarily dimmed his memory, but not by much.
"Meaning you can arrest the perp who blacked your eye, of course!" laughed Freddie. "You know, the one you described as 'some kind of martial arts expert' in this very office a day later? Well, she's in with the Captain now." He stood back to see how Pete took the news of his ex arriving unexpectedly. He couldn't help looking at the gold and blue colour traces around his left eye, now almost invisible compared to the vivid marks of a week ago.
Pete didn't disappoint in his reaction. Surprise, shock, numbness. "What's she doing?" he started to say in a squeaky voice, before clearing his throat and repeating the words in a more normal tone.
"Search me." replied Marquette. "Probably come to accuse you of blackmail!"
Pete looked crestfallen, and Freddie relented. "I can't say, Pete. She arrived in a Marine Corps Humvee. It's parked out front now with a guy standing by it that you wouldn't argue with even if he wasn't packing an assault rifle. And if I'm not mistaken, that kid you asked my son to send your photos to is with him in the car."
"What?" Pete exclaimed. "Cass Fraiser? What the hell's going on here?"
His desk telephone gave him the answer moments later when his Captain's invitation to 'move his ass' left no room for other priorities. He walked swiftly down the corridor and rapped twice on his CO's door before entering. His first sight was of his ex-fiancee in camouflage BDU's looking emotionlessly at him. His eyes took in her matching cap clutched in her left hand and the holstered pistol at her waist. He had forgotten how she looked without makeup, and his thoughts flashed back to the first time he had seen her like that, a few weeks after he had 'moved in' with her.
Police Captain Orlovski was not in the best of moods. He brandished a piece of paper at the new arrival and practically snarled at him.
"Shanahan, God knows why, but you're wanted by the military!" He glanced over at Sam and continued in the same harsh tone, "If they think that sending one of your girlfriends over here would help soften me up…."
Sam's icy glare and Pete's wince made the Captain of Detectives realise for the first time that perhaps he wasn't dealing with Sam as an errand girl or a personal friend of his detective, and he changed his tone slightly.
"Look, so maybe Colorado hasn't been affected like other states, but I got orders to deploy all available resources to places that have been hit harder to help out. I can't spare anyone."
"Captain, this is Colonel Samantha Carter. She's a high-ranking officer at The Mountain. I'm sure this isn't anything trivial." Pete explained. "I'm well-acquainted with the work that goes on in…. NORAD," he stuttered, "and if they want me for something, then it'll be because I'm specially qualified. Or some such."
The Captain caught Sam's eye-roll as Pete bumbled on. He cast one more glance at the document in his hand, and checked once again the phrase 'acting on behalf of the US Government' and sighed.
"Take him, he's yours."
Pete beamed in response.
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"Sam!" he said to her back as she walked ahead of him out of the Precinct House. "I'm glad I got the chance to work with you again." She didn't stop her rapid walk to the waiting Marine escort, even though he blustered, "Look, I'm sorry about last week. It's just that….."
"Can it, Pete!" she replied. "If it were up to me, you'd not have appeared on the lists at all. But everyone who knows about 'certain aspects' of the work we do is being called up."
"Then what's Cass Fraiser doing here?" he retorted before the thought struck him. "You mean, she knows too? How come, Sam? She's just a kid. I know her mom worked at the SGC, but why would she be told? You can't trust teenagers to keep quiet about things like these."
"Not only teenagers, it seems." replied Sam icily. "Remember where you are."
As they approached the vehicle, Corporal Stevens checked that the safety catch on his weapon was on and secured the rifle in the Humvee, getting into the driver's seat. Cassie got out of the back door and looked sulkily at the pair approaching. She made to move to the front passenger door and muttered "So you can ride in the back with your boyfriend.", but was surprised at Sam's tough, no-nonsense reply.
"Get back in the rear seat and stay there." she barked. Turning to Pete, she added, "You can join her." They both complied without a word as Sam got in the front and thanked the Corporal for waiting.
It was just as well that the rear seats were divided by the central tunnel of the rough terrain vehicle. The interior noise level even on the streets was high enough so that neither passenger could communicate with raised voices, so they sat in wordless discomfort.
After a few minutes Sam turned back from the front passenger seat and said loudly, "We're stopping at your apartment so that you can collect your clothes and personal effects. Take what's essential and be prepared for a prolonged absence." She added nothing further and Pete's curiosity had risen to the point where he could temporarily forget their personal circumstances. He could not deny the thrill of getting into the SGC again to see the whole operation this time. He might even get to see the 'you-know-what'.
Cassie was quiet because she rightly associated an enforced visit to the SGC with some of the evils that she knew lurked throughout the Universe. Sam had not spoken to her since the night that she had asked her to send the photographs, until today's surprise visit to her college in Denver. She still thought that Sam had in some way gone back to betraying Jack, and was not about to forgive and forget. Then, the news of her 'call-up' to the SGC, the hasty packing and the arduous drive back to Colorado through heavy showers to collect the one person she least wanted to meet again. Sam had made no attempts to talk to her about what lay ahead, and because of that, she was getting worried as they neared their destination.
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General Landry looked harassed as he greeted the newly-arrived conscripts, who had been mixed in the same meeting room as the French and British delegations, the latter having survived fourteen-hours of turbulence in their flights from their homelands and been given only an hour's rest. Those adults with young children were doing their best to calm their fears and discomfort, but succeeding in only a few cases.
The General was not going to tell them about his increasingly fraught conversations with the Russian and Chinese senior officers, all of whom were demanding after only a day or two in the SGC that more of their countrymen be flown in immediately to take up an increased share of authority and responsibility at the off-world sites.
He began falteringly, his tiredness probably making him forget that some of his audience did not understand colloquial American English.
"Welcome to Stargate Command, ladies and gentlemen. This will be a brief transitional experience for you. You have been selected by your respective governments to spearhead a possible rescue mission for mankind."
"Qu'est ce qu'il dit, maman?" asked a child beside Cassie. "Ou sommes nous? Pourquoi il n'y a pas de fenetres dans ces chambres?"
The child's parents shushed her as they did not exactly know themselves where they were, or why the rooms had no windows. The girl reluctantly kept quiet while the grown-ups strained to follow the General's words. Landry went on to explain that they would soon be setting up their homes in new quarters on other worlds and how they would get there.
When the phrase "it's inadvisable to approach gate travel with negative emotions as this is causal to kinetically-induced negative after-effects" spilled from Landry's lips against a background of not-so-subdued audience chatter from both the French, whose dictionaries did not cover the full meanings of those words, and the British, several of whom were trying to re-arrange the words into a well-known phrase or saying, Cassie could stand it no longer. She had realised why they were all here and how she could contribute.
She stood up and said in a loud voice, "General! You are losing your audience!" She turned to Sam, whom she had seen standing at the side of the room. "Aunt Sam! Let me tell them, please!"
Sam looked towards the General, who shrugged and announced, "Be my guest, young lady." Cassie made her way to the front and stood on the dais.
"Hello ladies, gentlemen and children. I am Cassie Fraiser. Bonjour mesdames, messieurs et enfants. Je suis Cassie Fraiser." The audience sighed in relief.
"You have come here to travel by the Stargate to other worlds, where you will find new homes. Vous etes arrivees ici pour voyager par le 'Stargate' aux autre mondes, ou se trouve des nouveaux maisons." Gasps and 'oohs' were a gratifying response, and she continued more confidently.
"I came to this world nine years ago from the planet Hanka, and have lived here in Colorado among new friends ever since. Je suis arrive dans ce monde il y a neuf ans, et depuis j'ai habite Colorado avec des nouveax amis."
"Do not worry. Gate travel can make you feel sick for a short while after you arrive. Ne vous inquietez pas. Le voyage par Stargate peut vous donner un peu de maladie de voyage pendant quelques instants après l'arrivee."
She glanced round at General Landry, who gave her a smile and nod of encouragement. "Thank you. I will answer any questions as best I can after this meeting. Merci. Je repondrai aux questions le mieux que possible apres ce reunion."
The audience applauded Cassie loudly as she resumed her seat, smiling at Sam who returned the gesture. Now she knew exactly why she was needed at the SGC, and decided that personal issues had to be put aside for the time being. The children of new arrivals would need special attention, and she was the best-qualified person in the world for giving this. She noticed Pete Shanahan staring at her, and the mischievous thought entered her mind that he was probably wondering if all Sam's friends and acquaintances were aliens, and stored the fact for future use in the revenge department.
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Author's note 1- I'm sorry, but I can't update as quickly as some of you would like. Please bear with me.
Author's note 2 - Sandy!