"Whoa," Kate exclaimed softly as their escort drove through a heavily guarded checkpoint. "This place is serious."
"Yes, ma'am," the driver intoned solemnly. "The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is one of the most secure facilities in the world."
"More than Area 51?" Abby joked. The escort merely flicked his eyes to meet hers in the rearview mirror, his silence speaking volumes. Abby let out a small "wow."
"IDs," droned yet another guard along their route. Their current escort (the third) handed them over to a new camouflage-clad lad without a word.
"I'm Airman Cooper," their fresh guide said, serious but friendly. "Mike. I'll be taking you the rest of the way."
"Nice to meet you, Mike," Abby chirped enthusiastically, responding to the first display of humanity she had encountered in this place. "I'm Abby."
"Um...hello," Mike replied, slightly baffled by her exuberance. He stood blinking at Abby for a long moment before Gibbs stepped in.
"Airman!" he barked, uneasy in the highly charged environment and eager to get this strange case over with.
"Yes, sir!" Mike snapped to, turning a sharp about-face and leading them to (another!) elevator.
"Geez, how far down are we?" Tony muttered.
"Ten stories underground, so far," Mike responded without turning his head. "You're about to go down another seventeen."
The elevator opened, revealing another soldier in BDUs. This one wore a far more stern face than Mike; his severe features and intense stare were rather disconcerting. He held the door open until all five NCIS personnel, plus Mike, were inside, then pushed the button for level 27 after a fleeting visual sweep of the area.
Kate was surprised how comfortably the seven of them fit in the elevator. She didn't usually care for elevators -- though she wasn't claustrophobic, per se, she preferred open spaces -- but this one was large, more like a freight elevator than a passenger.
"Big elevator," she commented, trying to alleviate the oppressive silence.
Mike, who had been staring surreptitiously at Abby, started. "Sorry?"
"It's a big elevator," Kate repeated, gesturing to make her point.
"Oh, yeah," he agreed. "Back when the facility was a missile silo -- "
"Cooper!" the elevator guard growled.
"That's public knowledge," Mike defended himself, frowning. "Anyway, this used to be a cargo elevator."
"When was the facility converted?" Ducky asked, also making conversation.
"That is classified," the other airman scowled, glaring at Mike as if daring him to argue.
The elevator fell silent again, each passenger looking anywhere but at his fellow riders -- except for Gibbs and Mike. Mike was sneaking glances at Abby, a faint smile gracing his boyish features; Gibbs was staring at the elevator guard, his eyes narrowed.
"Level 27," the guard finally said, watching the team exit with something like distaste on his face. Clearly the man did not like outsiders.
"This way to the briefing room," Mike called, beckoning.
----------------
"Daniel, I have orders!" Jack exclaimed, annoyed. This was certainly not the first time he had had this argument with the scientist.
"But Jack -- " Daniel started, beginning to get a bit irked himself. He may have been working for the military for eight years, but certain aspects of the life still did not make sense to him.
"No 'buts,' Daniel," Jack warned, raising his eyebrows and pointing an admonishing finger at the younger man. Daniel's eyes crossed as he tried to focus on Jack's hand. "The President -- the President himself, Daniel! -- told me not to say anything to them that might, oh, how did he put it, 'jeopardize the secrecy of the Stargate program, and by extension the security of not only this country but the world.'" Jack's voice took on a mockingly haughty tone.
"If they don't have all the information, how can we expect them to draw valid conclusions?" Daniel argued, rubbing his forehead distractedly.
"That's not the point!" Jack all but shouted, flopping into his chair with a dramatic sigh. "For someone so smart, you sure have a hard time understanding some things."
"Yes, I do, because it doesn't make any sense," Daniel pressed. "The President can't honestly expect them to do their jobs with their eyes closed, can he?"
"Carter, help me out, please?" Jack begged, his voice muffled by his hands over his face.
Sam looked up from the report she was reviewing. Daniel and General O'Neill argued so often, and for so long, that she had learned to take advantage of the time to get some work done.
"Well, sir," she started, a bit hesitantly. "He has a point..."
"Not you, too!"
"Sir, imagine if we went through the gate without any preliminary MALP readings. We could be ambushed, or encounter an environment that wouldn't even support life. It'd be suicide," she argued rationally.
"Indeed, O'Neill," rumbled the final member of the quartet. "Is not the purpose of an investigation to gather facts? To withhold information from the investigators would be counterproductive."
"So I should just ignore my orders? Just toss them out the window?" Jack griped, in full sarcastic mode now. "Oh, wonderful! I've always wanted to be court-martialed. All those times I've come so close, now I can experience the real thing!"
"I think the risk is worth it to find a killer," Daniel said virtuously.
"Oh, please, don't give me that -- "
"Sir," Carter interrupted quickly. "You don't have to disobey orders at all."
Jack looked at her incredulously. "What?"
"The President said not to jeopardize the secrecy of the program, right?"
"Yeah..."
"We do have non-disclosure forms, sir," Carter pointed out.
"Oh, yeah, that'll go over real well," Jack rolled his eyes. "'Yes, sir, we did show them the most secret operation on earth, but it's okay! We made them promise not to tell.' I don't think so."
"O'Neill," Teal'c interjected. "Would not these forms accomplish the goal for which DanielJackson has been arguing so passionately, while also allowing you to see why, eh?"
"'See why, eh?'" Jack asked, staring at his large Jaffa friend.
"Um, CYA," Daniel explained, looking embarrassed. "He, um, must have picked it up somewhere."
"Right," Jack nodded, arching an eyebrow. "Somewhere."
"Sir, Teal'c is right," Carter steered the conversation back. "Having the forms signed in good faith gives us reason to believe that divulging certain sensitive information will have no effect on the secrecy of the program."
Jack blinked, then sighed. "Fine. Go get the forms, Carter."
-----------
Gibbs watched the people behind the glass with interest. They were apparently having a rather heated argument. The silver-haired one was obviously losing to the other three: a large man with his back to the "window" who didn't say much; a blonde woman, seated and reading something but occasionally jumping into the discussion; and a bespectacled young man with amazing pouting abilities. Finally, the older man succumbed to the others and sent the blonde out -- to get something, maybe?
"Agent Gibbs?" Gibbs and his team stood as the three men entered the room. "I'm General Jack O'Neill, this is Doctor Daniel Jackson," he gestured to the pouty man in glasses, "and this is Teal'c," he pointed out the large black man wearing a ski cap.
-------------
Kate heard the name "Jack O'Neill" and looked up sharply from fiddling absently with her nails. Sure enough, the grey-headed general welcoming the team was the same man she had met several months ago.
"Uncle Jack?" she blurted, forgetting herself in surprise. What was he doing here?
He turned to her, eyebrows knitting first in confusion and then in concentration. "...Aunt Kate?" he asked, finally connecting the dots. "What are you doing here? Is Grace okay?"
"She's...fine," Kate replied, still trying to wrap her head around this -- a task made more difficult by the song 'It's a Small World' running through her head.
"You two know each other?" Gibbs interrupted gruffly, unhappy with the unprofessional turn the conversation had taken.
"Gibbs," Kate explained, "General O'Neill is Grace's uncle."
--------------
"Well, since you already know Kate, General," Gibbs steered the conversation back to the investigation. "This is Special Agent Tony DiNozzo, Dr. Mallard, and Abby Sciuto."
Jack nodded to each of them, giving Kate one last look of bewilderment, before shaking his head to clear it, pulling out his chair and sitting heavily. Everyone followed suit, causing a short period of noisy settling.
"Colonel Carter's just gone to get some forms for you folks to sign," Jack explained. "I'll just let you know now: if you don't sign them, you might as well go home."
"What sort of forms?" Gibbs asked suspiciously.
"Non-disclosure agreements," Jack replied easily. "You're sitting in one of the most secret facilities in the world. We just want to make sure you don't go telling anyone what you've seen here."
"My team are hardly tattletales, General," Gibbs said, his eyes and his tone not smiling despite the slight upturn at the corners of his mouth.
"I didn't say they were," Jack responded, his voice saying that he, too, was not pleased with the situation.
"I'm sure you won't mind if we actually read these forms before we sign them," Agent Gibbs snapped, his patience clearly wearing thin.
"Look, Agent Gibbs," Jack barked. "We're doing you a favor. If you don't sign these forms, we can tell you nothing. Now, do you want to investigate this or not?"
"Here they are, sir," Carter announced, arriving to smoldering glares between the two leaders. She glanced at Daniel for an explanation but he just shook his head slightly. Deciding to ask Teal'c later, she gave a form to each NCIS team member.
"Please initial after each statement to indicate your understanding and acceptance of the terms, then sign and date at the end," Carter recited.
Jack scowled as Agent Gibbs, after giving Jack a pointed look, pulled out a pair of reading glasses and read the whole thing. When he finally signed the dotted line -- with a bit too much flourish, Jack thought -- he looked up, scrutinizing SG-1 and the general.
"I want an explanation."