Chapter 6
A lab in Atlantis…
Sheppard has now been missing for nearly five days…
Dr. Radek Zelenka looked up from his laptop in great surprise. If what he had uncovered was accurate, it could be a tremendous break in their efforts to find Colonel Sheppard. It had to be.
He and several colleagues had been working for hours on end investigating the computer hacking incidences that Caldwell had wanted them to look into. They had been making frustratingly slow progress in figuring out what had happened. The incursions had started several months, perhaps even up to a year, ago, although they had only been recently detected. Various types of files had been targeted, but Radek's innate curiosity had been drawn to the logs of Ancient and Wraith technology acquisitions. It seemed logical to him that a chance to get their hands on alien devices would be a primary reason why anyone would risk trying to infiltrate the SGC top-secret database.
He had been perusing the large files, which contained both written and photographic information on scores of objects, hoping that something might jump out at him. And it just had. On a hunch, Zelenka re-visited the Atlantis personnel records that had also been breached.
"Rodney, please to come and look at this!" he called urgently over to McKay, who was hunched over his own computer, surrounded by empty coffee cups and looking extremely sleep-deprived. He had not been working on the hacking case; finding Sheppard was all that mattered to him right now.
"What is it, Radek? If you haven't noticed, I really don't have time for…"
"It is somehow connected to the Colonel's abduction, I am quite certain." Radek wanted their friend found as much as anyone.
"What?!" McKay hurried over to Zelenka's workstation. He was startled by the familiar image on the laptop's screen – a photograph of the mystery object from MM4-287, Lorne's last mission.
"What on Earth has that got to do with Sheppard?" he declared angrily.
"This file shows tampering by the hackers."
"So?" Rodney snapped. Why was Radek wasting his time?
"Look at the date, Rodney, when the object was found."
More than six months ago. "It's not the one we have," McKay said, his voice trailing off.
"No, it is not."
McKay's bluster returned. "But how's it related to Sheppard? And, and…," he stuttered, something suddenly occurring to him, "Why don't we know about this? I mean, shouldn't Inouye and Savitz have found it in the system? It should have registered a hit in our records right away."
Radek elaborated, "The object, it seems to be listed in a special log, a file I found by accident and had a very hard time accessing. It does not appear to be part of inventory data I am familiar with. And I don't know where the object came from – the entry doesn't reference a mission or person. It does list the date found, as you saw, and there is also what looks like a coded identifier – a short sequence of letters and numbers, but I do not recognize it as part of a system used in SGC record keeping. Rodney, there are many other Ancient and Wraith artifacts in this log. Maybe there is a good reason, but I think it is very odd that their existence is isolated in this way."
"As for Colonel Sheppard, someone has looked at his personnel file, many times. The mission logs he has filed, dates when he has travelled on or off Atlantis. It is all very curious," Radek said with concern.
"Can you figure out what the log is for? There has to be a reason it exists, and why it's apparently so important it had to be buried in the database. Do we know if John's connected to it?"
"I have no idea," Zelenka answered, noticing how Rodney had used the Colonel's first name. "I have only just discov…"
"Well, hurry up and find out!" McKay interrupted. He then turned away and tapped his headset. "Richard, it's about Sheppard, I think we've found something!" For the first time in days, Rodney saw a glimmer of hope.
Richard Woolsey's office, 20 minutes after Radek's important discovery…
"Dr. McKay, Dr. Zelenka, please come in. What's this urgent development? And, for goodness sakes, please sit down before you fall down, you look absolutely exhausted." The disheveled condition of two of his best scientists concerned Richard greatly.
They entered, Rodney's anxious state in sharp contrast with the dignified, professional atmosphere of Woolsey's well-appointed office. McKay started talking, rapidly, before even taking a seat. "We – uh, actually, Radek here – he's just found something really weird. Maybe it's a stretch, but I think it's connected to Sheppard's disappearance." Zelenka, rather surprised that Rodney was deferring to him, quickly directed their attention to his laptop.
"First of all," he began, "I have learned that whoever the hackers are – remember, we are investigating them on SGC's orders – they have breached Colonel Sheppard's personnel files many times in the past several months. Please, let me return to that in a moment," he added, as Woolsey was opening his mouth to comment.
"You remember the Ancient find the other day, from Major Lorne's mission to MM4 – 287?" Actually, Woolsey barely did; his attention had been pulled in so many stressful directions recently. He nodded anyways as Radek continued, "What is the expression, 'long story, short.' Well, we logged it as a new find, as that is what we thought. But apparently not so."
"Well, I guess that's…interesting?" Woolsey was puzzled as to exactly where Zelenka was going with all of this.
"What is interesting," Zelenka continued, "is that in one of the files targeted by the computer hackers, is a record of an artifact similar to the one we have. It is part of a…"
McKay interrupted, his customary impatience getting the better of him. "We found the entry in a file, buried deep in the SGC database, that lists all kinds of Ancient and Wraith technology that doesn't seem to be part of any official records. The object was found months ago, but we have no idea who found it, where it came from; the only thing we have to go on is that it was assigned some sort of specially coded, unique ID."
Woolsey sat up slightly straighter at the mention of the coded identifier.
Radek spoke up again, taking advantage of McKay needing to take a breath. "The file is very large, so I came up with an idea. I decided to filter the log entries to only display items which used the same designated ID, thinking maybe it was a way to link objects that were connected to each other in some way. Like categorizing inventory by type of product, you know, how they keep track of stock in a factory or warehouse? And, we found this." He hit a key, and the screen changed to display…what was, even though they didn't know it yet, the Ancient machine kept in Nash's facility. "We do not know what this is either, but if you look closely," Radek hit the "zoom in" feature, "you can see it has slots of some kind, some empty, some occupied. We think the artifact we have, and the one found about 6 months ago, are both part of this larger object."
"And I don't know why," Rodney jumped in, "but I swear it's not just a coincidence that Sheppard is kidnapped right around the time that we conveniently find an artifact just like one that's being kept on a secret list. Sheppard's personnel file and this mysterious list both being hacked isn't coincidental, either." McKay's tone was becoming strident.
Richard Woolsey coughed uncomfortably as he surprised the two of them by saying, "Um, I, ah, may know something about what's going on. I'm not sure how Colonel Sheppard's abduction fits into this, but I may be able to clarify the situation somewhat. Please instruct Teyla, Ronon and Major Lorne to meet us right away in the conference room."
A short time later, they were all around the conference table. McKay had briefed Teyla, Ronon and Lorne on what he and Radek had learned, and they were eager to hear what Woolsey had to add. They all looked expectantly at him.
"As you know," Woolsey began, "Stargate Command and the IOA maintain certain…special relationships with private industry, as a way to maximize the potential of what we learn through Stargate explorations."
"Maximize, as in make money," McKay said scornfully.
"I don't think it's an unreasonable arrangement, even though some of the specific dealings may be questionable. But please, what I'm saying doesn't mean I've forgotten the unfortunate experience you and your sister, Dr. Miller, had with Devlin Medical Technologies."
Rodney certainly didn't.
Woolsey took a breath and continued. "SGC reviews acquisitions on a regular basis. If it determines an item may be of interest to one of our…partners, the item is transferred to the special log that Dr. Zelenka found, and its record is deleted from the overall inventory listings. Each company or individual that SGC deals with has been assigned, to preserve confidentiality and to maintain security, a unique ID. That ID is also used to label the artifacts we have set aside for them to consider."
"How is it we don't know about this?" Rodney asked indignantly. "The mission teams, the scientists, we're the ones that find everything and do a lot of the work."
"I can appreciate that, Dr. McKay, but SGC and the IOA make the rules, not I. Given my role on Atlantis, I of course know about this system, but I've not been at liberty to share the information with any of you."
Woolsey then brought out his own laptop. "Dr. Zelenka, can you please tell me the ID number you found in the records." He then inserted a flash drive into the port and spent a few moments pulling up files. "According to my information, this cipher is assigned to a company called EcoEnergy. Um, please bear with me." He spent a minute or two deeply absorbed in whatever he was reading. "OK. Twelve months ago, this company took delivery of that large piece of equipment. This item was found during a Milky Way mission. The artifact was large but SGC was able to disassemble it and transport it back to Earth. It says here that several of those smaller objects with the odd Ancient language were found contained in it." He scrolled down. "The planet where everything was located has been revisited frequently by science teams, since it apparently has extensive ruins to be explored. A little over six months ago, another one of those small objects was located during a follow-up mission."
"Does your information say why EcoEnergy wanted these things, what they're doing with them?" McKay asked.
"It says that they specialize in "green" technology, especially the development of alternative energy resources. I imagine they think this combination of artifacts has something to do with that."
Lorne then asked a question; something had been playing on his mind, and Woolsey's revelations seemed to tie into it. "My mission to MM4-287, how did that get assigned? With all of this talk I'm thinking, like Dr. McKay's said, it wasn't a coincidence that we went there."
"Let me call up the mission history of that planet," Zelenka said, quickly typing away. "Uh, that is odd. MM4-287 was visited 8 months ago by Major Cappelli's team, apparently just an ordinary mission. So why did we go back…?" he muttered to himself. Several agonizing minutes passed. "Hmm, the request to return came directly from SGC. Ah! Rodney, this small object from MM4-287 we have, you said it had unusual Ancient markings on it?" McKay slowly nodded. "Well, according to Major Cappelli's report, a wall fragment was found inscribed with some unusual text. Look at this photo from the report, Rodney," Radek said, pivoting the laptop around so Rodney could see it. "Are the markings similar to the ones Dr. Savitz is currently studying?"
"Yes!" Rodney exclaimed. "So," he mused, light slowly dawning, "OK, pay attention as I try to sort this out: a picture of the unusual markings on the wall fragment gets entered into the mission report. SGC reads it. They cross-reference the report with the criteria they have on file for EcoEnergy. The artifacts that the company has, they must have the same markings on them – I mean, we know the two little ones do that we've seen, the ones that apparently also fit into the big object. EcoEnergy thinks, hey, maybe Major Cappelli's team missed something, maybe there's some more stuff on that planet that our company would be interested in. So they use their influence to get our people to go back. And bingo, we find another small one."
McKay then added, "I also think this company is behind the computer hacking. Now, why they would hack into that special log, when SGC keeps them in the loop on items they might want, is beyond me. Maybe they got impatient about what SGC had on tap; maybe they wanted to know about items meant for other companies. And I'm still not sure why they would want access to Sheppard's files."
"My head's starting to hurt," groused Ronon.
Teyla then spoke, looking deeply concerned over what she had been hearing. "Dr. McKay, Mr. Woolsey, this all sounds very intriguing. But how is it connected to Colonel Sheppard? I do believe it involves him in some way, but I find it extremely complicated. Do the records show that he has ever encountered the technology that interests this company?"
"I don't think so. When he was asked to try and activate it the other day in Dr. Inouye's lab, he seemed as puzzled by it as she was," answered McKay.
And then, suddenly becoming very pale, he turned urgently to Dr. Zelenka. "Radek, that large object, the photo, can you enlarge it some more? As big as you can. And turn on that '360 degree virtual tour' function. Jesus, this better not be what I think it is."
Radek, alarmed at his colleague's reaction, immediately re-opened the file.
McKay tore the laptop from his hands. "Oh, no. Lorne, you couldn't activate the object, right?" Lorne shook his head, 'no.' "But Sheppard could, because he has the strongest gene in the City, stronger than everybody else's in the Stargate program except General O'Neill. This explains why they were going after his files. They needed to keep track of where he was…"
"Dr. McKay, what are you getting….," started Woolsey.
"Look, look," Rodney said, manipulating the image. "I thought I saw this before. At one end of the artifact – those large, empty spaces, like alcoves."
"Yes?!" Woolsey was getting anxious.
"They're big enough to hold a person. Richard, I think EcoEnergy took Sheppard because they think he can operate whatever this thing is."
"Dr. McKay, you're…"
"Really reaching, yeah, I know. But what else do we have to go on? We have to check this out; I have a bad feeling…"
Woolsey took a look around the room. His colleagues were in agreement. He consulted his confidential file again. "Oh my. Their corporate headquarters is located in Colorado – 50 miles from Cheyenne Mountain."
He turned to Major Lorne. "Major, I want you to coordinate a strike force immediately. I agree with Dr. McKay – this company is somehow involved."
SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA SGA
Within hours, Sheppard's team, along with Major Lorne and eight Marines, were breaking down the main entrance to EcoEnergy, while a second unit covered the other exits. Several very startled executives were dragged out of their offices, plunked down in a conference room, and confronted by Major Lorne and a seething Ronon.
"I'll just get straight to the point, gentlemen," announced Lorne. "Where is Colonel John Sheppard? We know that he is either being held here, or…" and he leaned in uncomfortably close to one of the extremely unhappy businessmen, "that you know where he is." At Sheppard's name, two of the men flinched. Lorne immediately turned his attention to them. "Do you have something to tell us? It's really in your best interest to cooperate."
One of the men replied, "We know it is. But he'll kill us if we do."
"And I will gladly kill you if you don't!" Ronon threatened, brandishing his particle gun. What little self-control he had was rapidly disappearing.
"Ronon…," warned Lorne. He then asked the executives, "Who is 'he'? Please note that I am authorized to offer you certain protections if you help us." Silence. Lorne moved in even closer. "Best deal you're gonna get today, guys. Or I can leave you to whoever you're so afraid of…"
"Marcus Nash, president and CEO of Nash Industries. We're a subsidiary of his corporation," practically squeaked one of the men. "We often act as a go-between for him, for certain…transactions."
"Colonel Sheppard being one of these 'transactions'?" Ronon growled. "Where is he!"
"Nash owns an abandoned hospital, the property is about 20 miles from here. That's where your man is." He gave them an address. "But you have to know, he has very good security and they're very well armed."
"So are we," said Lorne.
TBC…..
(Disclaimer: Nash Industries, Inc., and EcoEnergy are figments of my imagination. Any resemblance to real businesses is coincidental and unintended.)