Chapter 09: An Electrode Interrogation
"The State Department has received a ransom demand." Says O'Neill to Granger as they sit in Hammond's office an hour and a half after he had informed everyone about the kidnapping of Jackson, Lee and Cochrane. "They have given us seventy-two hours to pay half-a-million US dollars or they will kill all three of them."
"Does your state department know who is behind it and do they know if these 'Spawn of Khyron' have any clue that the young lieutenant is a none Terran?"
"They haven't given any clue that he's not from Earth but the CIA believes that they've been taken by some Honduran anti-government revolutionaries' and the state department have said that they are going to follow the book on this one."
"By that you mean they're going to do what, exactly?"
"Well, the official line on any situation like this is that they don't have any intention in paying the ransom as it would leave us open to further blackmail attempts."
"And unofficially they are doing?"
"The U.S. government's ties with the Honduran government is at stake and no-one at state is willing to risk braking the 'official line' on this no matter what it could do to the fate of the Earth."
"Obviously these rebels are thinking that your nation's very tenuous relationships with both the Nicaraguan and Honduran government's will prevent you from launching forces."
"They're wrong. I've already spoken with major Davis who's informed both the president and commodore Hudson, and after that commodore of yours calmed down and stopped threatening to do something called a 'rain of death'?" O'Neill said curiously to see what Grangers reaction was.
"You don't want to know." Says Granger with a smirk, realising that even the Macross Fleet officer could lose his temper and act like Dolza did.
"Anyway, they're agreed to help and as we speak they've got the CIA gathering whatever intelligence they can, however it's my guess that the president won't be willing to risk a possible international public relations incident."
"Understandable given that this command of yours is still a black-ops command."
"I'll keep you in the loop, the moment that I hear anything from the state department." O'Neill says as Walter walks up to the door as Granger leaves and is escorted back to the mess hall.
-{[]}-
Thor, major Carter and general Hammond sat in stunned amazement as Hudson and Dvorak explained their arrival and what they were offering to the people of earth.
"Your predicament while amazing, I must confess that the Asgard have never encountered the Triolian's, but I am more curious as to what sort of support you are going to offer to the people of the Tau'ri."
"Well as I said before help in the construction of a practical space defence force and its support craft and structure, in the form of one man micro fighters we class as F-1400 Star Wolf fighter/ interceptors, battle crane combat cargo lifters, Argo multi-role transports and a practical mid-range bomber/ transport in the form of the Starmax class." Said Dvorak as images of the mentioned craft appeared on the screen in place of the Triolian.
"Interesting designs and since the designs look like they are something that only a human mind would think of, more importantly they would fit with the design of the ship that the Tau'ri have already come up with."
"Why are you doing this?" Asked Hammond thinking of the Eurondan's and their war of genocide against the other nations on their planet and Jonas and the people of Langarra who had stated several times during their first contact that they were only interested in gaining access to earths advanced jet and rocket technology.
"Well despite the fact that this isn't back home, we have this ship and her crew have sworn an oath to defend earth and her colonies, and the best way in which the command crew and I can see to do that is to help advance your space program." Said Hudson.
"Not to mention we have a saying back home, 'Inimicus inimico amicus' which loosely translates as the enemy of my enemy is my friend," Said Dvorak, barely holding in her anger at having to say that Zodiac republic saying, "and since those Goa'uld have attacked both our recon flights and this ship, we have a common enemy."
"I see," Said Hammond, shrugging, "I'll need to present this to the president, but given what you are offering and the assistance that you have given to the Prometheus, I am fairly sure that the president and the other nations in the know about the stargate will be more than happy to sign-off on this deal."
-{[]}-
"Apurate, gringo!" says one of the rebels who had taken the group hostage as he pushes Jackson forward with the muzzle of the AK-47 he was holding, "Rapido! Rapido!" before forcing him roughly into a chair.
"You have not had any food or water for almost two days now," Says the leader of the rebels as he took a very sloppy drink of water before making a very flashy show of thinking a bite of a piece of fruit, "Mmm, may delicioso," he says passing it under Jackson's nose, "This is the pick of the season, this is actually quite good. So today we are going to start slow." He says walking slowly around the table so that he was perched next to the ancient device from the tomb. "What is this?"
Staying silent Jackson continues to just stare straight ahead at the device attempting to figure out what the writing on it actually said.
"And once again, this is the part where you are not so talkative? Ok, Mmm." He says taking another very theatrical bite of the fruit and passing it once more under Jackson's nose in a teasing manner. "If you tell me what I want to know then you and your friends will get some of this lovely passion fruit." After waiting a few seconds and getting more and more exasperated at seeing that he was getting nowhere he switches tracks. "You know I'm not sure long the human body can go without food, but I am sure that I read in a book somewhere that the body needs water every two or three days."
"It is an ancient artefact." Says Jackson, speaking for the first time since they had taken them, which takes the rebels by surprise.
"Ah?"
"I said it is an ancient artefact."
"An ancient artefact?"
"Yep, we are an archaeological team." Says Jackson. "That's what we do, we look for… well ancient artefacts… and well guess what… we found one." Laughs Jackson, thinking about how his SG1 team mate will be laughing himself silly when he reads this in the report. "Look seriously I am an archaeologist, if you have a computer you can look me up on the internet that is if you want." He says as he looks around the room and notices that they don't have any type of modern technology other than an old style radio from about the eighties.
"That all makes perfect sense," Says the rebel, "you and your friends are nothing more than archaeologist's, you look for and study ancient artefacts'."
"It make perfect sense."
"Ok, I'm going to ask you one more time. What is this?" Says the rebel with a very angry tone to his voice, while turning the artefact over rather heavily. "And once again you are not so talkative. What gives you and your friends the right to come into my country and steal anything that you think is valuable! To think that you call yourselves scientist! You three are nothing but a bunch of thieves! You think that you are better than me and my associates simply because you have a fancy diploma, but you are wrong, we do what we do for a reason!"
"I don't doubt that." Mutters Jackson under his breath but not softly enough as he is pistol-whipped across the back of his head.
Realising that they won't get anything useful by using none violent means, the rebel leader nods to one of the other rebels. "Okay, the hard-way it is then gringo."
Behind Jackson the rebel that had been nodded to placed his AK-47 down and removes the cover from the table which was near to Jackson, revealing a car battery which is connected to a set of car jump leads with a metal plate welded onto the end. To show that it worked he touches the ends together forcing them to spark.
-{[]}-
After being brought up to speed upon his return from the Archangel with major Carter, general Hammond is in his office hanging up his phone he turns to face Granger and O'Neill who were sitting patently after being called to his office.
"The CIA's local operative in Honduras, one agent Burke, has reported to Langley that he has a strong lead as to the whereabouts of doctor Jackson, doctor Lee and lieutenant Cochrane." Says Hammond, as he takes a sip of his coffee.
"Burke?" Asks O'Neill with a worried look on his face.
Noticing this, Granger turns slightly in his chair to face O'Neill so that he could look him in the eyes. "Judging by the look on your face colonel, I'm going to assume that you have worked with this agent Burke previously?" He stated more than asked.
"Yes, I have." O'Neill says after a moment of thought.
"Colonel, is there anything that we should know, he's the only person with any form of information on this situation."
"And we are stuck with him, regardless of anything I might say?"
"That's right colonel."
After a few seconds of silence, in which O'Neill had a very strong argument with himself about whether or not he should say what he knows and thinks of agent Burke. When he finally realises that his friends' lives are on the line he answers with a straight face. "No sir, there is nothing that you need to be aware of."
"I see," Says Hammond, knowing that much of the colonel's work before the SGC was classified at levels even higher than that of the SGC by the pentagon, so he decides to drop the matter. "He has requested that you participate in the rescue, both the president and commodore Hudson have green-lighted the operation. Executor Granger the commodore has requested that you and two members of Devil squad accompany the colonel."
"Yes sir, I shall inform the land operations and the explosive operative that they are accompanying me." Says Granger knowing that the pair where to hand.
"Understood, also when major Sisko is it?" Asked Hammond to which he received a nod from Granger, "Heard that you were being sent on the rescue mission he sent down a crate of equipment for you, he said something about 'you might need this.' Anyway there is a C-130 waiting for you over at Fort Carson airfield, it leaves for Honduras in three hours."
"Yes sir." Says O'Neill as he and Granger stand up to leave, and once Granger was clear of the chair that he had been sat in clasps his fist over his heart in a traditional Imperial salute towards Hammond.
-{[]}-
A short time later in the room that was being used by the personal from the Archangel, Granger was checking over the equipment that had been sent down from the Archangel with a look of surprise at the sight of the latest Imperial combat hard-suit, a FN-116 collapsible assault rifle, a R-class Gauss sniper rifle, a pair of ERC-M9 Storm machine pistols with extended ammunition magazines, and a single Aegohr scorpion sticky bomb launcher.
"What the hell is all this?" Asks O'Neill as he looks at all the weapons and equipment that was in the case. "You do know that this is a rescue mission and a low profile one at that."
"Yes colonel I do, but we have a saying in my line of business, 'expectabit para bellum' which loosely means 'hope for the best, prepare for war'."
"Ok, so what is all of this?"
"Just a basic weapons pack for an executor, micro probe droids, Taser disks, silenced collapsible assault rifle, a pair of machine pistols, sniper rifle and a remote detonator with sticky bombs for just in case the situation calls for it." Says Granger with a small smirk that sent a shiver down O'Neill's spine.
"Okay, I think I'll go now." Says O'Neill slowly backing out of the room as Granger began attaching the weapons to hard points on his combat hard-suit, and walked across the hallway towards Carters lab.
Upon entering her lab he notices that she has about half a dozen different computer screens active which were showing designs for ships the likes of which he had never seen before, figuring that they was something that she was working on he just dismisses them.
Somehow realising that she wasn't alone in her lab any more Carter looks up to see who it had dared to enter into what many on the base considered the second most hazardous place, right after Siler's workshop, and give them a piece of her mind until she realises that it is her SG1 team mate and commanding officer. "Sir?" She asks when she noticed that he had a very pained look on his face.
"I'm being sent to go and collect space-monkey, again, and the others." He says trying to inject a little bit of his usual humour into the situation.
"That's good news sir."
"Look, this other mission…"
"Shouldn't be much of a problem sir." Says Carter, knowing that the mission would be anything but. "When do you have to leave?"
"Straight away I'm afraid."
"Good luck sir."
"To quote Ryan from SG6, 'I don't need luck, I have ammo.' besides its only Honduran rebels."
-{[]}-
After being subjected to the interrogation for nearly an hour, the rebels drag the unconscious form of Jackson back to the hut that they were holding their captives in. opening the door they throw Jackson's body in before dragging Lee out at gun-point shouting at him in Spanish. "A este Lado!"
"What, no, no, I don't know anything! I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!" Lee pleads as he is dragged away by the rebels.
"Are you ok doctor Jackson?" Cochrane asked crouching down next to the other man feeling for a pulse, while silently wishing that he hadn't lost his scanner glasses when the water had crashed in back at the temple.
"Urrg, I will be… just as soon… as these drums… in my head quite… I think that I'll… just have a little nap now." Slurs Jackson before passing out.
-{[]}-
"We have confirmed that Anubis does in fact have a base in the Tartarus star system of the star cluster that you Tau'ri call the Pax Noveria." Said Ocker sitting at the briefing room table in the SGC's main briefing room above the gate control room, having delivered the latest batch of intelligence as to the state of the ongoing war between the combined forces of the Goa'uld against the technological advantage of the rouge Anubis. "However there is a very powerful sensor array and ground to orbit weapons, these sensors where even able to detect our scouting Tel'Tak while it was operating in stealth mode."
"We need to learn how it is that Anubis is creating these warriors, confirm what we believe he is planning to do and if we can destroy the facility to slow down his plans." Said Hammond voicing what everyone around the table, be they Tok'ra, Zentradi, Free Jaffa or Tau'ri, was thinking.
"Well I think I can safely speak for the commodore on this, but an orbital strike is out of the question by the Archangel since we are repairing the damage from our defence of the Lantean homeworld back home, and if I am not mistaken that toy you call a 'battle cruiser' is back in the dry dock being retro-fitted to make it something more than a multi-ton moving target." Says Welsh from her seat next to Bra'tac, and getting an evil glare from Carter.
"Not to mention the small matter of that force shield which Anubis has in place similar to our own iris." Said Carter, sheathing about the dig regarding the design of the Prometheus.
"We need to gain access to the planet and then shut down the sensor network." Stated Teal'c in his normal mono-tone voice.
"That's a given," Said Welsh as she began to analyse the problem from the point-of-view as a cover-operations operator, "the question becomes one of actually gaining physical access to the planet without tripping every single alarm on the base."
"I will walk through the stargate." Volunteered Selmak/ Carter.
"Selmak?" Asked Hammond looking at his friend who the current host to the Tok'ra symbiote.
"Yes." Said Selmak/ Carter in that double flanged voice that all members of the Tok'ra and their cousins the Goa'uld spoke in.
"Come again?" Queried a clearly shocked Hammond about the plan that his long-time friend was suggesting.
"I will infiltrate the base through the stargate by wearing the armour of the captured warrior. According to the reports which were submitted indicated that he actually walked through the force field that was set up to trap it."
"Yes but we do not know what the physical cost was to the host." Says Bra'tac from his seat across from the two Tok'ra agents. "But we also have no-way of knowing either."
"The force field that Anubis has in place around his stargate has to be an awful lot more powerful than the one that we placed at the capture site."
"I'm sorry kiddo," Says Selmak's host, and major Carters father, "I'm with Selmak on this one, so you can stop worrying he'll protect me and keep me safe. Anyways does anybody else have any better plans?"
"Not me, since the best man I have for this sort of mission has gone with colonel O'Neill's team." Welsh says with a small laugh about the fact that she knew Newman would be sneezing his head off right about now after that comment.
"Once I have deactivated the sensor array the rest of the strike force can then approach the planet in a ship and then infiltrate the base using the same sensor jammer that doctor Jackson and Mr Quinn took the other week."
"What's the exfil strategy?" Asked Hammond realising that Welsh, Carter and Selmak/ Carter all had a look that they were working the plan through in their heads.
"The ship." Says Bra'tac, having already worked out that portion of the plan. "We hide it in the sensor shadow of the planet's moon, then once the team has been dropped off it moves to a location which is out of sight of the base but close enough that it can move in to recover the team at a moment's notice, and with its power lowered it should avoid detection by any gliders that are patrolling the area."
"In that case, major Carter your mission has ago."
Author's Notes.
Bonus points to anyone that can spot the two 80's cartoon reference that is hidden in this story as well as the weapons that I have given to Granger for use in the rescue mission :D
And sorry for the short chapter this time, as I am spending a lot of time having to watch the episode in order to remind myself of the original story line, but rest assured I have a plan to deal with the rebels and it will make what happened in the show and what the Goa'uld do seem pleasant compared to what I have planned, in fact even what the Wraith do when they are feeding is kind :evil laugh:.
