Before leaving for Colorado the next day, a conference call over the speaker phone had been done with Faith and Gunn.
"I think we're going to have to tell Jack about Hope. Right now he thinks the Nox gave us the energy to close the tears. But he's going to ask why someone or something is trying to find it when we tell him we need to hide it. He deserves an explanation." Alexander said.
"I don't like it." Faith said. "I'd prefer if as few a people as possible know about her. But you're right, he's going to ask and he does deserve to know. Alright, go ahead and tell him. I trust you and you trust him. It's enough."
"Thank you, Faith. Corda and I are going to leave now. Stay safe."
Not long after, the Altimah lifted off, heading for Colorado. They'd called ahead and let Jack know they needed to talk to him about something very important.
Once they were in Jack's office, Alexander pulled out his scanner and set a dampening field up again.
"Dampening field, Jack. What we have to talk about needs to stay between us. It's too important."
"Go ahead, if I have an objection to keeping whatever you want to talk about quiet, I'll let you know and we can discuss it."
"Jenny's search turned up a village in a remote part of eastern Europe were every person in the village went insane. Six months ago. There was also a monastery nearby with twenty registered members. Nineteen of which were tortured and killed. Brutally. Number nineteen escaped and I'll get to how we know that in a little bit. The insane villagers are being blamed but it's doubtful they actually did it."
"Well, since you've got a lot crazies in Sunnydale right now, I'd say that's probably a good bet."
"They may have a connection to Atlantis. They called themselves the Monks of Dagan. There was a planet called Dagan in the Pegasus Galaxy when our people were there. The world was known to have a number of religious orders."
"You're thinking some of them came back with your people?"
"The name could just be a coincidence but it probably isn't given what else I need to talk to you about. We think the monks were protecting something and whoever or whatever killed them was looking for it. We also think we know what it is."
"Okay, I'll bite. What is it?"
"The energy we're using to close the tears."
"The energy you got from the Nox a few days ago?"
"The energy the Nox helped us gain access to. You met Faith, on the recent trip to Cleveland. Faith has a sister, a thirteen year old sister. Who is neither thirteen nor actually her sister. Just before we went to the Nox world the missing monk showed up in Sunnydale. One of our group found him tied up in a warehouse. He'd been tortured and was barely alive. He lived just long enough to tell her, they made Hope, Faith's sister, from Faith and put that energy into her body."
"They made her? From Faith? How?"
"The specifics I don't know, but my scanner shows she's a clone, with her DNA tweaked slightly to avoid a twin appearance. Her aging was accelerated to make her look thirteen, but she's six months old. They must have downloaded general education knowledge into her mind and then they created memories of her being Faith's sister. Faith went into foster when she was fourteen. The memories they built, include Hope also going into foster care. She's in the system. You can check into it and there's a complete history of her. Jenny checked into it herself. She couldn't find any flaws. Everything from birth on, it seems to be known and yet she's only six months old. We went to the Nox to help us figure out that energy and get it out of her. If someone or something was willing to torture and kill people to get it, they'd do the same to her. That it helps us close the tears is great, but protecting her is more important. The memories before we knew may be fake, but not the ones made since then. She's a child who has no clue about any of this, she deserves a chance at a normal life."
"I hate people who use or hurt kids. I was once willing to risk court martial trying to protect a child from what I saw as abuse. That neither she nor her people saw it that way, doesn't change my feelings on the matter. No one will ever know from me. The cover story is just fine. The Nox gave you the energy. She never has to come into it."
"Thank you. But that brings us to another problem."
"They must have tracked the energy to Sunnydale, didn't they? Or maybe they followed the monk. But you've got crazies in your town. That's too much to be a coincidence."
"Yes, it is. We need to hide it off world, Jack. Hopefully, whatever is after it, doesn't have a means of tracking it off planet. Somewhere where we can access it when we find another tear. Which reminds me, there may be one on or around the moon. Giles found references to something that could be invited from the moon to come and kill insane people."
"Oh vey. I really would like to believe you're joking, but I've seen too much to not believe it's possible. Go, check it out, seal it if there is and I'll come up with an off world hiding place. You can take the Altimah to hide it."
"Thanks, Jack."
"The President doesn't want that energy in anyone else's hands, that's part of why he named you guys defense contractors. Too many people would try to exploit it somehow. Not to mention, you understand it better then we do
"True. Now if we could only find out how and why the monks had it in the first place."
"At this point, I'm pretty sure we're not going to get an answer to that."