Chapter 15
Heliopolis Base
Catherine had been on Heliopolis for a few days, spending time with Ernest and providing her insights on the castle. It had been a little rough; some of the men there, scientist and soldier alike, questioned what place a woman had on the base. They didn't exactly hide their displeasure and disapproval, either. It had somewhat slackened off when Ernest had mentioned that she was the reason the entire project existed; without her suggestion to use direct current, it was unlikely they could have powered the gate successfully and safely. Now, though, what was meant to be a dream come true, was becoming more of a nightmare.
Catherine stared at her father. "What do you mean, lockdown?"
Paul sighed. "Until Camp Roosevelt is certain that they don't have any additional xenoparasites infesting people, no gate travel is allowed from it. And, since Ernest was on Camp Roosevelt to talk to the prisoners the expedition took, that includes him."
"But he never went through to ES-2!"
"But several men came back from ES-2 before they learned the situation. It's possible one or more of them could have infested during the transfer of the prisoners and bodies, and the parasite or parasites may have jumped hosts. It should only be a few days, a week or two at the most, before they've cleared everyone and lifted the quarantine."
Catherine crossed her arms and and narrowed her eyes. "No! I won't be away from my husband for weeks while he's poked and prodded because there's some small chance that he's been taken over by an alien!"
Paul shook his head. "Catherine, listen to me! If the xeno that took over Powell is any indication of the norm for the species, then we could be looking at dealing with an extremely hostile, potentially even outright homicidal threat that could be masquerading as anyone! We can't risk compromising the entire program like that!"
"Then let me join him! Let me go through!"
"No! I'm not going to let you put yourself at risk Catherine! And I'm certain Ernest wouldn't want you to do so either"
"This is ridiculous dad, I can make my own decisions!"
"Catherine, I want you to be safe, that's all!"
She glared at him for a moment, then walked out of the room silently. Moving through the corridors she found her way back to her quarters and sat on the bed, clenching her fists. She knew her father was right about his concerns, but after having to deal with being separated from Ernest when he was stuck on Heliopolis, she wasn't eager to repeat that experience again.
After sitting for several more minutes, she heard commotion outside, looking out she saw the various medical personnel attached to Heliopolis gathering in one of the smaller messes. Curious, she entered.
". . .And so that' the situation, Earth will be sending a load of machines through in several hours to Fort Roosevelt. We're going to go on ahead and prep the area for their arrival and assist in maintaining the quarantine. Furthermore, the doctor's at Fort Roosevelt are requesting that we prepare for a potential triage. Any questions?"
"Why do more people need to go through, don't they already have doctors there?"
"They do and they've started the initial examinations, but given the situation of potential parasites, they want some outside medical personnel to go in and take over for them. It's not ideal and opens the door to some more risk, but now that proper protocol should have been initiated, we can take over at a smaller risk to ourselves."
The small crowd murmured for several more minutes before falling silent.
"Okay, meet in the embarkation room in fifteen minutes, make sure you have what you need, but try and pack light"
With that the collection of doctors and nurses scattered, the doctors in particular seemed to have a lot on their minds.
This gave Catherine an idea though. Stepping out of the room, she made her way to the laundry area of Heliopolis. While Area 52 handled a lot of sanitation and shipping, they still found it necessary to make an area to handle smaller loads of clothes and lines so they didn't have to bother Earth for fresh shirts and underpants as well as uniforms. Stepping into the loud hot room, she scanned the various racks until she found what she needed.
Yanking a plastic wrapped package she stole away to her quarters and quickly began throwing books into a bag, as well as several extra cloths. Opening the package, she extracted a pristine khaki nurse uniform. The nurses on Earth wore more traditional white uniforms, but since the nurses on off-site bases were expected to respond to potential situations on different worlds, they used the more versatile khaki uniform.
Quickly slipping into the uniform, she grabbed her bag and sprinted to the embarkation room, slipping on the cap completing her disguise.
She just hoped that it would be enough. . .
Meanwhile, Paul was finishing a conversation with President Truman via ear piece. It would be the last time they could connect with Earth until the situation resolved.
"Have the personnel at Fort Roosevelt learned anything else about the aliens?"
"So far no, its only been a couple hours, but apart from an autopsy on one of the snake like aliens they haven't learned much apart from the basic internal structure of these creatures. They'll keep Earth informed about this as it develops, as well as the medical team we're sending through on this end. Once the team goes through, I'll go back to Earth and monitor everything there."
After a pause the president spoke.
"Okay sounds good, now the final obvious question, what's going to happen if the base is compromised and there's no way to extract personnel? We can't just leave a base with all our technology there for the aliens to find, especially with people who know where Earth is."
"Assuming Agent Marcus isn't compromised, he has his orders on how to proceed, we're also sending him written instructions as well. If he is, we'll implement Contingency B."
"Are you sure you'll be able to do that? If the base is compromised they'll likely put the Portcullis over the gate, then it won't be able to get through."
"If that happens, Area 52 has been authorized to use the one staff weapon we have at the base to fire through to Fort Roosevelt. We've ran some test firings with it and it turns out that on high settings, the material we used for the Portcullis will melt down under a number of firings. So we'll melt the Portcullis and send Contingency B through."
"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that."
"I couldn't agree more, Mr. President."
"Well, good luck and Godspeed Paul, we'll fill Atlee in on this as soon as possible. We've got our meeting with the Commonwealth ambassadors next week. . .This will make things interesting."
As the president signed off and the gate deactivated Paul looked down, out of the corner of his eye, he was that some of the medical personnel were starting to assemble. Good.
Examining several files, he began to organize them on the table. New personnel dockets, equipment requisitions, assignments, exploration orders. All were pushed to the side as several new pieces of paper were placed down. Turning to the assembled men in the area, they began to brainstorm various new policies that the SGI would have to implement in the event of infiltration by these aliens. So busy were they, that Paul hardly noticed the gate activate as the medical personnel began to embark to Fort Roosevelt. Looking up, he walked over to the microphone and activated the intercom.
"Good luck to all of you going to Fort Roosevelt, I hope this will be brief, watch over our men there."
The various personnel looked and nodded as they began to filter through. Paul watched them as they left. As a large group of nurses prepared to file through, he squinted his eyes. One looked familiar. Before stepping through, she turned around and looked up at the booth and Paul found himself looking into the eyes of his daughter.
Scrambling, he slammed a fist on the intercom.
"Catherine! Don't. . ." was all he managed to say as she quickly stepped through the gate.
"go" he said softly as he stood up straight.
Breathing shallowly, he began to silently hope that neither neither Contingency would need to be activated.
Temporary holding quarters, Camp Roosevelt. ES-3 - Three Hours into Lockdown
Ernest had been utterly shocked when, in the middle of examining the armor from one of the corpses, it had been announced that Camp Roosevelt was under lockdown, effective immediately. He'd immediately gone off to the temporary holding quarters being set up, hoping to get some insight into what had caused the base to invoke that particular procedure from the people involved.
After being cleared through by a large group of guards at one of the warehouses two entrances, and getting Agent Marcus's blessing, he'd managed to get in.
The entire inside had rapidly been converted. Large sheets of corrugated metal, originally slated for the next round of building, had been nailed into wooden poles and used to erect improvised cells. Sheets with a small hole cut into the bottom and a small window in the middle were used as doors. There were no roofs, on the walkways at the top of the warehouse, soldiers patrolled with their weapons drawn, ready to fire down into and of the cells if need be. Ernest was amazed that this was all assembled in roughly an hour, but with the somewhat haphazard layout and spacing of the cells, he realized that the job was far from perfect.
Listening for almost fifteen minutes, he almost couldn't believe his ears as Don explained the situation. Alien parasites using humans as hosts, with the ability to take over bodies …
"I don't believe it." he muttered.
"You should, Doctor. Smashed one of the fuckin' worms' heads in myself." Don said. "I don't have a reason to lie about that."
"I know you're telling the truth; it's just. . .it's very difficult to wrap my head around."
"Tell me about it, I mean. . .Christ, one minute he was fine, the next he was on that machine gun. Ernest, no matter what, we've gotta make sure no one else got taken."
Simmons spoke up, talking from the cell next to him, given their ranks, they both got individual cells rather than having to share. "How the fuck are they going to go about this? I mean, how are they gonna make sure we haven't been infested? Are they going to cut our stomachs open, poke around in there, look for a hidden pouch? Cut our necks open, search in there?"
"The thing dropped out of Powell's neck. I already passed that on to the medical personnel, told them to look for any sign of an entry point there." Hammond said. "Presumably, if that's the case, all they'd have to do is check our necks for wounds. . .I really hope its that simple."
"However they do it, they should test the fuckin' niggers first!" A voice called out from one of the cells across from Don's. Looking over, Ernest saw the face of a tall, sandy haired soldier.
"And why the hell is that?" The voice of Staff Sergeant Shepard demanded, and then Ernest heard a fist hit the metal. It turned out the cells were next to each other.
"Who's that?" Ernest whispered.
"Corporal Jacob Douglas, he and a few others are part of a group that was very vocal about Shepard and his crew being here. I don't have proof, but all those pranks on Shepard and his men, I'm pretty sure its been Douglas and his group."
Hearing another loud bang of fist to metal, they looked over at the cells.
"I'll ask you again, why the hell should we be the first round of guinea pigs?!"
"Because, Sergeant, didn't you notice anything about those bodies we dragged back here? Every one of those bastards was a goddamn black." The corporal smacked the wall, a metallic echo bounced around the cells. "That tells me that the snakes like their meat dark, probably took a liking to you and your men. Means you're the most likely to be one of them. The one that got Powell was probably just desperate, took what it could get."
"If you're gonna make an accusation, go ahead and make it, corporal."
"Fine. You're a fuckin' snakehead nigger. There, you happy?"
Don looked out and smacked a fist against his door, getting the pairs attention.
"Sergeant, Corporal..." he half cautioned, half yelled from across his cell.
"Sir, please, let me handle this. The corporal here doesn't have a problem with you. He has one with me, my men, and my skin." Shepard said
"Both of you, stand down." Don said calmly.
"No, sir. I can't do that, sir. Not when the lives of my brothers are at risk." Douglas said. "See, I don't believe in letting an enemy sit around with us. I'm tellin' you, if anyone in here got infested, it's them! It's them!"
"And I sure as hell am not standing down until this asshole does!" Shepared retorted.
"Look, Jacob, let's be honest with each other. This isn't because you think he's got an alien in his head; I know you've been pulling shit against Shepard and his men and now that we're locked up just want someone to blame so you can get out of here."
"Sir, look at the evidence. Every one of the Eagles is a nigger. Every goddamn one! Seems like the snakes are racists like that."
Don decided to try another approach. "Let me ask you a question, corporal: Why'd you enlist?"
"Sir?"
"Why did you enlist in the Army, corporal?"
"Because I wanted to protect my country, sir. Because I was willing to fight for my country, sir."
"And are you willing to die for your country?"
"Yes sir I am!"
Don turned to Shepard. "Same questions, Sergeant. Why'd you join the Army?"
"Because I love my country, sir, and I'm willing to fight and die for it."
Don turned to Douglas. "You're willing to fight and die for your country. He's willing to fight and die for his country, a country that lets be honest, hasn't been treated colored people with a lot of respect. Sounds to me like you two have a lot in common. Hell, sounds to me like he's more of an American than you. Could you do the same, in his shoes? Could you find it in you to fight and die for a country that treated you like shit?"
The corporal went silent for a couple seconds, Ernest could see him looking down through the small cell window.
"Stop trying to start something corporal, go back to your bunk, and I don't see the need to drag you out for insubordination. Walk away, and this doesn't have to be a problem. Keep it up, and you'll only add disobeying a direct order to the list, and that's something I can't ignore."
Douglas looked up, then hit his cell wall one last time, then turned away. "This isn't over." he said. Then raising his voice so it carried through a large portion of the impromptu cell block "Just wait. We'll go to sleep, and none of us will wake up in the morning except those niggers and the snakes in their heads!" he called out loudly.
Murmurs began to spread among the men, and Don regretted that he was unable to tell if they were agreeing with Douglas or not. He motioned Simmons and Ernest to come closer.
"Well that could have gone better. Ernest, I don't want to yell this across the cell block, I need you to tell Harold this: I want you to keep your men close, they're all in that cell so it shouldn't be too hard, but also once we start getting out of here. Simmons, do some asking around either through the cells, or once we start getting out after we get a clean bill of health, see how many of the men agree with Douglas or at least sympathize. This could be a problem, both now and later on and I'd rather not have something like this fuck up our unit down the line if shit ever hits the fan worse than it has."
"Sir do you really think it could be that bad?"
"I don't know, we're all soldiers, and we'll do as we're told, even Douglas will do that, but its one thing to work together with clenched teeth, it's a whole different ball game when you're backs are to the wall ans you don't trust each other."
"I'll do what I can on my end Don." Ernest said. "I'll pass along the message."
After Ernest talked with Shepard and his men (in low voices to avoid their next door neighbor), Ernest made his way to the main building. He'd been under the watchful gaze of a half dozen troopers while he was in the cell block, so agent Marcus felt comfortable letting him back in. As he entered, he saw the gate was online, Marcus and a group of troops were nearby.
"Group coming in?" he asked
"Yeah, we've got some doctors and nurses coming in from Heliopolis, they're going to take over the main medical examinations and handling of treatment. We're getting stuff prepped for some gear that's arriving from Earth, X-ray machines and that stuff, anything that might help."
"Sounds good" Ernest said as the doctors and nurses began to appear "Let me know if I can do anything. . .CATHERINE?!" he yelled over Samuel's shoulder at a woman coming down the embarkation ramp.
Sam turned around and saw Catherine walking down the ramp removing a nurse's cap, carrying a large rucksack on her back.
"What the hell? Suddenly his earpiece cracked to life.
"Agent Marcus! My daughter just went through the gate!"
"I know, she's standing right here."
"Look, I know the rules and protocols, but is there any way you can just send her back here right now? I mean she's only been there a few seconds."
Looking down and lowering his voice Sam spoke "I'm sorry sir, but protocol is clear, no one leaves this base while the lockdown is in effect. If I allowed that, that would severely undermine our position here and anytime in the future if god forbid we have to lockdown a base again. Making exceptions, especially for the family of the main base administrator would look incredibly bad."
"Okay. . .Sam I know you have a lot on your plate, but please, just keep her safe. . .oh god if we have to activate any contingencies. . ."
"We won't have to do that as long as we act smart and play it safe, Professor."
"Just. . .just be careful." he hear a crackle as the ear piece turned off. Looking over he saw Ernest arguing with Catherine, shoving his way past a pair of scowling soldiers, he grabbed the couple one by each arm and marched them out of the embarkation room and into his office. Looking at Catherine, he exploded.
"What the fuck do you think you're playing at?!"
"I wasn't going to sit on Heliopolis like a schoolgirl while my husband was knee-deep in danger! I have a skill set I can use to help and I don't have to sit back worrying my ass off!"
"Catherine, I know you can do shit, I know you're competent, that's not the problem. The problem is, you just made it look like the daughter of the boss can run roughshod over rules and protocols. Do you realize how tense the situation is here?"
"It's true, I just got back from the cell blocks, there's already some tension in the base and this whole thing with the parasites has only been exacerbating it."
"Everyone's on edge and the fact that no one can leave, or more importantly escape, doesn't help. Its not bad now, but if things deteriorate, when it becomes life or limb what'll keep people in line is the rules and the ability to enforce the rules. When it looks like the boss's daughter can do whatever she wants, it looks bad and it undermines the effectiveness of command!"
Breathing in for several seconds, he gestured at the two. "It's too late to do anything about it now, you two go and work on what you need to work on, we'll discuss this later after we don't have to worry about getting killed by parasites."
As the two left, Sam, pulled out a silver cigarette case and quickly lit the white stick, savoring the moment of peace each inhale brought him. After a minute, an assistant came in with a manila envelope for him. Unpacking it as the man left, he scanned its contents, the instructions were brief.
Agent Marcus,
You are hereby instructed to prepare Contingency A for activation pending the compromise of Fort Roosevelt. Activation of the contingency will be left to your discretion.
Hand's shaking slightly as he repacked the envelope, he dropped the cigarette and stamped it out as he left the room. Making his way to the command room, he saw it was a hive of activity and various personnel went about their tasks. Stepping behind an armored door, he closed it gently behind him and made his way to a wall safe at the other end.
Entering the long combination he finally opened the metal vault, inside were a trio of bright red knobs and a metal pedestal with another combination tumbler on it. Taking a deep breath, he twisted all three to the right as far as they would go. Satisfied, he closed the safe and left the room.
Beneath his feet, various pipes and tubes began to pump natural gas into a series of large canisters buried in each building in Camp Roosevelt. In the wall and ceilings, smaller canisters filled as well. Each would be filled to a high level of pressure until they would reach a near breaking point. Next to each canister was a sharp metal spike attached to a pneumatic actuator and in front of the spike was an electronic lighter. If the secondary portion of the contingency was activated, the spike would puncture the tanks while the lighter was simultaneously lit. Vents in the walls and leading to the buried canisters ensured that sufficient air and, more importantly, oxygen reached the canisters.
Fort Roosevelt was now one giant bomb waiting to go off.
Seven Hours Into Lockdown
In a temporary medical wing established in a side storage room, the medical personnel of Heliopolis and Fort Roosevelt worked diligently, going over all the dead bodies brought through the gate. Each one was carefully placed on a gurney and then slid into a clear plastic tube, where working with thick gloves, the doctors slowly began the laborious process of dissecting the bodies, all under the watchful eye of soldiers patrolling the catwalk above the medical area. A courier on the catwalks scurried back and forth between the medical area and the cell block to speak with Specialist Jean David, the medic attached to Alpha Squad whenever one of the doctors had a question. Given that he'd been the first person with medical experience to both see the aliens and witness a possession, the doctors were curious to hear his observations and opinions. All this occurred while the bodies were slowly being examined.
The first to be looked at were the bodies that had badly mutilated, they already had a short shelf life and needed to be cleared away fast. Little was gleaned from those initial bodies, apart from checks of the pouch area (assuming it survived) and an examination of the effect high explosive or shrapnel based weapons had on the aliens and their hosts.
Next were the intact bodies, they were first placed in the tubes and had their pouches examined. Once the parasite inside was confirmed to be dead, the body was then sent over to an X-ray machine where several pictures were taken. Afterwards, they were again placed in the tube where the more laborious dissection and autopsy process began. All in the meanwhile, an occasional flash bulb would go off as photos were taken of the bodies and other parts at different intervals. All the while, several recording devices were capturing the doctors words and keeping them for posterity as they discussed amongst themselves and stated facts aloud for the microphone.
With around 80 to 90 bodies (not counting the parasites they had to catalog and examine) and only three work stations and one X-ray, the examination process would take a long time.
However, after they finished the first round of autopsies on the aliens, they next turned their attention to Lieutenant Powell's body. First he was loaded into the X-ray to get his inside photographed, and then he too was placed inside the tube.
"Beginning examination of Subject 029, Lieutenant Richard Powell. Initial COD would appear to be a trio of gunshot wounds to the torso. Subject was believed to be possessed by a xenoparasitical life form which caused him to attack and kill a number of his squadmates. Initial X-rays show the presence of no life form inside Powell, but concurrently, we're working on an autopsy of Subject 30, one of the alien entities recovered from ES-5. According to reports, this alien creature was believed to have exited Powell's neck upon his death, where Lieutenant Hammond killed the creature."
"Given Hammond's description of events, we're rolling the body over to examine the neck area, luckily Powell was not shot around his head, so the area has been well preserved."
"Rolling body over now."
"On the back of Subject 29's neck there is in incisional mark that already appears to have rapidly coagulated. Prior medical records for the subject indicate that this mark was not present on his body prior to the ES-2 mission. The incision appears to cover an area spanning the cervical vertebra, covering the C2 Axis down to the base of the C3. Subject 30's head to too badly damaged to correlate its size, but examination of subjects 03, 17 and 22 would indicate that this cut would be large enough for the creatures to fit through, and the incision matches the type of cuts the mandibles of the creatures would make."
"How's the blood work coming along?"
"We've run the blood of the Subject 29 and 30 through a TEM, at first glance there appears to be no match or correspondence between the two. However, further examination revealed traces of an unknown element in the blood and spinal fluid of Subject 29. This element is more strongly present in the blood work of Subject 30. We're currently running more tests on the previously examined subjects, but if the pattern holds, it would indicate that these creatures possess a unique compound in their bloodstream, which can then be transferred to their host."
"As of now, we are uncertain how the parasites are able to effect control of their host, its possible this new element might play a role in that, acting as a chemical inhibitor of the brain's main functions to allow control, but again, it is too soon to tell."
"I would like the record to reflect that the fact the parasite went for Powell's neck would indicate that possibly the creatures use an unknown medium at this time to latch onto the vertebrae and directly interfere with the bodies motor function through the spine."
"It's possible, but at this time, so far all of this is conjecture. In addition the presence of abdominal pouches indicate that it is possible these creatures don't make their home in that part of the body. We'll continue to run tests on Subjects 29 and 30 while we continue to autopsy the aliens."
"Subjects 01 and 02 continue to be under sedation at this time, heavy guard has been placed on them. So far both subjects have displayed a remarkable resilience to anesthetics; we've had to nearly triple the dosage to keep them under. In an average man, the amount we've had to give them would have possibly been lethal."
"We have confirmed the presence of a live xenoparasite in pouches in both of the subjects, as of now, we're leaving them be, we don't know the nature of the relationship between the parasite and the host and are concerned that should attempts be made to remove the parasite alive from the subjects, it may harm or kill the subjects. Command wishes to interrogate the pair first before any attempts such as that are made."
"Base tests upon the deceased subjects that appear to act as hosts for the parasites, as well as observations made on Subjects 01 and 02 indicate that structurally, they are identical to humans. Autopsies so far have revealed obvious physiological differences between the Subjects and humans. There are no different organs, compared to humans; the only difference noted so far is the presence of a small pouch located in the abdomen, which appears to act as a nest of sort for the parasites. Even then, this pouch appears to minimally affect the body apart from its presence and direct opening to the outside. It seems to not have change the make-up of the subject's intestines, stomach, heart, lungs, diaphragm, or even appendix and gallbladder."
"Blood work for the hosts have revealed a significantly smaller white blood cell count compared to normal humans. It could be possible that the presence of the unknown element acts as an immune suppressor to allow the parasite to take nest in the subject without fear of being rejected by the body."
"Again, this is conjecture, we'll know more as we continue the autopsies."
"Now beginning autopsy of Subject 31, cause of death appears to be. . .
Fifteen Hours into Lockdown
After it had been cleared, some of the equipment and artifacts recovered from ES-2 were finally being brought in for a more thorough analysis. Ernest, Catherine and a couple other persons gathered around and eagerly began to look at each object hoping to learn more.
"Look at this!" Ernest said pointing to a symbol on a set of armor "The Eye of Horus, also known as the Eye of Ra, or Wadjet. It was a fairly important symbol in ancient Egypt for protection."
"Do you think the aliens used it for a similar purpose?"
"Possibly, according to the autopsy pictures, all of the hosts had this symbol tattooed to their foreheads in addition to having the symbol on their armor. Since they appear to be soldiers or warriors, it would make sense for them to possibly try and invoke some kind of divine protection for themselves."
"Ernest, I remember you telling me that one possibility were that these aliens were masquerading as god and conquered humanity. Given what we're seeing now with the symbols and their uses, do you think its possible that the aliens instead just conquered humanity and through cultural osmosis the Egyptians adopted their symbols and such?"
"It's possible. If the aliens have a habit of tattooing themselves and invoking divine symbols of protection, then we might have had it wrong. Depending on how long they might have had a presence on Earth the cultural bleed through of invader to the conquered could have happened fairly quickly, especially if humanity was in an incredibly primitive state."
"My biggest question is how might human culture have developed when the humans weren't on Earth." Catherine chimed in
"What do you mean?"
"Don't forget, the people we just fought were humans, yes humans that have an alien parasite in them, but humans. Barring any kind of biological or technological immortality," she said to the chuckles of everyone on the room, "then it's likely that if humanity was conquered in the past, the aliens took some of our ancestors off world and sent them somewhere else. If they need hosts then they'd probably need a large pool of individuals."
"That makes sense, the biggest question is though, where would they be?"
"I'm not sure, and I think an even bigger question might have to be, how many humans are out there?"
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it Ernest, humanity has a fairly fast reproductive rate; a woman can be fertile for a decent amount of time, having about one child a year, or more if she has twins. Now in the past this was because science hadn't caught up so a lot of children died young. But now imagine the possibility, if humans were taken off world and placed under the auspice of alien technology, then they could have large number of children and have those kids survive to have more kids. If the aliens wanted to have a large breeding pool of humans. Assuming the aliens wanted this, they could have a few generations of exponential human growth and see a small pool of humans grow into a massive group. If multiple groups were taken by aliens thousands of years ago, there could very well be far more humans off world then there are here on Earth, that is again, assuming humans taken were allowed to reproduce and have communities."
Catherine's speech hung in the air for several seconds as each person in the room absorbed the implications of what he was saying.
"My God." was all Earnest said.
"Again that's just a possibility, for all we know humans taken were kept like pets, or were severely curtailed. We just don't know, but if the aliens had this kind of presence on Earth that could allow such a cultural bleed through, and if they had technologies like the Stargate and if they wanted humans for hosts, then it would make sense to have populations off world and they would have had plenty of time to relocate populations."
"If that's the case, if there are other humans out there. . . where could they be?"
Area 52- Twenty Five Hours into Lockdown
With fully half the total military support for the Initiative locked down, including most of their senior staff, full operational command the Area 52 facility had fallen to six-months-out-of-Fort Benning OCS 2nd Lieutenant Howard Bennett. While Bennett had technically been in command of the facility since he'd been brought into the program shortly after Lieutenant Hammond had effectively transferred full-time to Roosevelt, it had essentially been merely a subordinate position to the Lieutenant. Now, though, things were likely to change. It had already been discussed that offworld exploration operations should now be effectively divided between the two military bases, so that, in the future, they wouldn't be crippled by a quarantine of one facility.
As he watched the Stargate Embarkation Room through the narrow window from the command center, he thought back to when he'd been approached about the program. It had started when General Marshall paid a visit to Fort Benning. From what he understood, Marshall had asked to see the performance records of everyone currently in the OCS program, and had approached him in particular, due, according the general, to the fact that Bennett had been in the 13th Airborne. He explained that the 13th as a whole was slowly being integrated into a new program that took pages of nondisclosure agreements and numerous assurances that he could keep a secret before the general was willing to discuss it fully.
At first he'd been hesitant, secret programs and the like tended to give him the willies, but then the General mentioned that Hammond had been apart of the program for a while now. That piqued his interest, he had meet him on several occasions and he always seemed like a level headed kind of guy, the kind who always looked out for the men first. If he was comfortable in that kind of a secret program then Bennett figured it might warrant another look.
He agreed to go through an assessment and background check as part of selection for the program. After about a week of interviews he was invited with a small group of other people to sign on to the program. They had to sit through hours of document signing and talking to some spooks from an intelligence agency he'd never heard of before, until finally they were invited by the General to sit down and watch a briefing.
Two hours later, Bennett's world had been shattered and reformed after he saw the footage and heard all the details of the program. Aliens, space travel, exotic new locations, the safety of Earth. It was almost overwhelming, but he absorbed it fairly well and was eager to start.
Unfortunately, given the conservative nature of the programs exploration efforts, he'd yet to go off world, a fact that left him somewhat disappointed, but he understood the inherent risks and accepted them.
The biggest issue they'd run into so far, with the lockdown in effect, had been power. It had turned out that, with present resources, they could only keep the gate active for thirty-eight minutes, give or take a few seconds. Since powering the gate was an exhausting process taking millions of joules of energy and several hours to complete from Earth's end, revisions had been made to the plan. Now, Heliopolis was being used as the primary connection to seal Fort Roosevelt, since apparently the pedestal had more than enough power to dial in quickly and repeatedly. When data needed to reach earth, it was transmitted to Heliopolis, then the connection was broken and Heliopolis immediately dialed to Earth, since it was deemed unlikely that a wormhole could connect to an active stargate. This minimized the risk of a potential escape to Earth or Heliopolis.
Now though, he was standing with several other officers, NID agents and professor Langford as they pored over the latest data sent via radio from Fort Roosevelt.
"According to this information and assessment, including conjectures by the cultural and science team, we now have reason to suspect there could be human life outside Earth and our bases."
That left the room silent, the implications that humanity could be out there in space, possibly under the yolk of alien oppression.
"Anyways, I've been talking with the President and Prime Minister and we're all in agreement, the possibility of humans being out there gives us a new impetus for our mission. While we have to continue to try and find ways to protect Earth, we now might have a secondary mission. Pending interrogation of the two captives will tell us more, but for now we need to contend with the possibility that humans are out there off world. If the prisoners can confirm this, then the SGI will have a new mission apart from protecting Earth. We'll need to find our lost brothers, The reason you're all here is once the situation on Fort Roosevelt has been resolved, we intend to increase our exploration efforts. If there are humans out there, we need to find them. . ."
Fort Roosevelt- 28 hours into lockdown
"Examination of Subject 67 beginning, checking pouch to confirm the presence of xeno parasite. . .Huh. . .Oh shit!"
"Phillips? What is it?"
"I'm peeling back the layers here, there's no parasite in here! This wasn't a body that had been tagged for a removed parasite either!"
"Oh fuck! Where is it?!
Meanwhile
It waited, watching. There was little chance to act now, not with everyone so high-strung and on alert. It had seen what could happen even if these men were caught off-guard. The one called Lieutenant Hammond had not hesitated to fire on his counterpart when the foolish prim'ta that had overtaken that man had acted rashly. The division caused by one of the men could help, though, keep them distracted so they didn't look too hard at what was right in front of them. But they would pay. Somehow, it would find a way to make them pay. Its host's memories were full of information, and it slowly browsed through that, gleaning all it could about this place, about the intruders.
They were from Earth, a distant memory for his people, their hosts came from the hundreds, if not thousands of pacified worlds that played obedience to their betters, to their gods. Now though, it seemed that the Tau'ri had returned, ignorant to their past, and their servitude to the gods. They had advanced greatly since they were last subjugated, before they had the gall to rebel. It drew from its queen memories passed down to recall as much as it could.
If they were allowed to proceed unchecked, they could pose a small measure of concern to the Goa'uld, but for now? They're world was still primitive, a handful of Ha'tak could rain fire down upon them and return them to their proper place. His lord needed to know, he had to escape. He just needed to bide his time and wait for the right moment. The Zat'nik'tel he'd hidden would likely come in handy for his escape. . .