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Chapter 1
=IFF=
Part 3
=IFF=
11 February 2525
Ford Storage Center, Arizona
North American Republic, Earth
Sol system, UEG space
Specialists in fully-sealed hazmat suits carefully gathered the last pieces of equipment left by the invaders. They put them in thick containers for transport before sealing them in. Jack glanced at the now dormant portal, chock-full of all the crates that could fit in, propped up by assorted crap to hold them in place. Doing like their new buddy gesticulated almost certainly proved life-saving because it tried to activate not long after O'Neill's ODST began sealing the portal. Its inner ring began rotating, a symbol lit up and locked in place with a clang, and then it all ceased. Jack could make the educated guess that a safety protocol had kicked in, preventing the thing from activating.
After that, he made sure to keep very close attention to what the old man was trying to say, and things escalated from there. Why did the next surprise have to be alien snakes in people's guts?! That made everyone paranoid, almost got their new friend shot, and Jack had to put the whole region under quarantine just in case.
At least they were finally about to leave for decontamination, medical examination, and after-action reports. As importantly, Jack had letters to write to the families of the Marines he lost today. However, he wasn't sure what he could tell them beyond that their relatives died protecting Earth. This time, that wouldn't be an exaggeration in any shape or form, though Jack knew it would still be cold comfort.
"Charley, command wants me to be in the first group to leave so I can be debriefed on this mess. Our buddy will be leaving with me. You'll be in charge of this circus until further notice," O'Neill told his XO.
"I'll do my best to wrangle everyone, Jack," Kawalsky told him as they walked past a Scorpion tank blocking most of the entrance to the warehouse with the portal. They then went to a nearby, mostly empty warehouse that currently held their prisoner.
The old man was sitting on a crate, still without the upper half of his armor, though at least a shirt hid that thing in his gut. His eyes were closed, and he appeared to meditate as if caring not for the soldiers around him.
"Hello there!" Jack cleared his throat.
The old man's eyes opened slowly, and he looked around before focusing on the Colonel and nodding. No, it was Jack's turn to pantomime, trying to tell the prisoner they would be leaving. That earned him a raised eyebrow. The old man slowly stood up and stretched before looking expectantly at Jack.
"We're leaving. Command wanted us out of here yesterday," O'Neill told his men guarding the prisoner. He waved for the old man to follow, who did so, along with the Marines. They headed outside, past many warehouses, not crawling, with Marines setting up defensive positions. As far as Jack knew, High Command hadn't decided yet where to stash the portal. This place might be good enough for now if it wasn't for New Phoenix nearby. If the Navy had to drop MAC shells on Earth to stop an enemy incursion, the middle of a desert was as good as you got to mitigate collateral damage.
A ponderous-looking Albatross roared above the storage facility and landed just outside, waiting for them. ODST from a different unit disembarked, taking positions around the rear ramp of the heavy lifter. Jack needed just a glance at the patches on their shoulders to recognize them—21st Shock Regiment, Chekhov's unit.
"Colonel, I'm afraid you and anyone with you will need to disarm before embarking," The Lieutenant in charge told Jack. "This is a precaution if any of you has been compromised, sir."
"Allen, you're staying behind for now and policing our gear," Jack told one of the Corporals with them and began removing weapons and explosives from his harness, with his ODST following suit.
Chekhov's troops boarded back first, taking seats and positions near the cockpit's entrance. Jack and his people had most of the cargo compartment to make themselves comfortable—it was configured for troop transport and could have held a whole platoon with gear and supplies, so there was ample space.
A monitor lowered from the ceiling, one of a few bolted in the standard troop compartments for Albatross lifters meant to facilitate last-minute briefings. It came alive, showing a young man with messy sandy hair.
"Hello…" Whatever he was about to say was lost when he sneezed loudly. The man grimaced and pulled out a paper tissue before leaning away from the camera to clear his nose. "Sorry about that, allergies. I am Dr. Daniel Jackson. I am to talk with a prisoner to facilitate communication?" he asked.
"That's our new best buddy right here," Jack pointed at the old man, looking up at the monitor. His eyebrows were up again, conveying amusement and interest in a most expressive way.
Jackson nodded and looked at the prisoner. Then, he began to babble like the old man did when he was trying to empathize with his gestures. Almost immediately, it became clear that communicating wouldn't be as easy as a linguist chatting him up. The old man spoke slowly back at Jackson, in words that kept sounding practically alien, in a tone one would talk to a young child with.
The Doctor spoke away, this much more slowly, carefully, and less sure.
Jack leaned back in his seat and watched the exchange, wondering if there would be useful progress before they arrived. He was likely hoping for too much in that regard.
=IFF=
ONI facility X-Ray Zero, Alaska
North American Republic, Earth
Sol system, UEG space
When they arrived, the Albatross landed on a landing pad that could barely accommodate it nested within the snow-covered forest. Considering the length of the journey, Jack decided they were somewhere in northern Canada or perhaps even Alaska.
ODST and ONI personnel in sealed armor awaited them outside. They led the old man away and guided Jack and his people to a small but modern underground hospital, where more security and medics in sealed environmental suits waited for them. They had all kinds of scanners and big needles and weren't shy about using them. By the time the doctors from hell were done with him, Jack's rear was tender, and he was down at least a pint of blood. On the bright side, they declared him snake-free.
At that point, the ONI Commander Jack spoke with during the briefing before the drop walked into the medical wing, wearing the same protective clothes as the doctors.
"Colonel O'Neill, it's good to see you again. I am Commander Margaret Paragonsky, ONI. Please walk with me."
Jack followed warily. The spooks were always bad news for one reason or another.
"AI analysis of your prisoner reveals that your interactions in Arizona might have created rapport, which could be useful going forward. I will be interrogating the subject and will request that you be present as a friendly face to put him at ease," Paragonsky explained.
"What kind of interrogation are we talking about?" Jack asked warily. This was ONI he was dealing with now.
"I will be using a soft approach. By all accounts, the subject has been helpful and cooperative," the Commander said, giving him a pointed look. "Besides, torture doesn't work to get reliable information. People will tell you what they think you want to hear to make the pain stop. Often enough, the human mind has a way of convincing itself it's telling you the truth, and itself when under sufficient duress. We in ONI prefer useful types of leverage."
"You people have a certain reputation. You can't convince me it isn't earned," Jack pointed out.
"I am not trying to. We do what must be done to protect the UEG and its people. Torture is not a useful tool. Will you cooperate, Colonel?" Paragonsky demanded.
Jack grumbled and followed the Commander. What he got out of the exchange was that ONI would gleefully torture people if they thought it would work.
=IFF=
Part 4
=IFF=
11 February 2525
ONI facility X-Ray Zero, Alaska
North American Republic, Earth
Sol system, UEG space
Before they went in to interrogate the prisoner, Jack got to visit the mess hall, put away some food, and replace all the blood drained by the vampires in the medical center with criminally good coffee. The reason for that luxury was simple—to give the linguists more time to do their job, paving the way for a proper interrogation, slash, and debriefing.
An hour after escaping the medics with the big needless, Jack was back in his armor, walking beside Paragonsky.
"We should be able to communicate reasonably well. Dr. Jackson and a linguistics-focused AI will act as translators and provide context to the best of their ability," The Spook explained.
Ideally, they would have had the luxury of waiting until the language barrier was no longer an issue. However, Jack could imagine many unpleasant reasons why time was of the essence.
Paragonsky led O'Neill to a small, cozy conference room, where the old man sat in a comfortable-looking leather-bound chair. Jackson and an AI with an avatar wearing a toga of some stripe were chatting up the prisoner – both present through teleconference. Jack was pleasantly surprised that the Spook hadn't been kidding about the softball approach they would be using. This was nothing like one might imagine an interrogation room to be.
"I believe introductions are in order," the Commander chirped. Paragonsky's bearing was completely different now; she acted and behaved like a cheerful middle-aged woman with no care in the world. "Dr. Jackson, Horatio," She nodded at the linguists.
The words the pair and the old man exchanged sounded no less alien to Jack's ears than before.
"Commander, Colonel," the AI greeted in a deep baritone. "Let me introduce you to Prime Bra'tac of Chulak." The AI nodded his gray head towards the old man. From the word salad that followed, Jack recognized only his rank and name, followed by those of Paragonsky.
"Colonal O' Nail, Comandaar…" Bra'tac tried to greet them themselves, completely butchering their rank and names.
"Jack and Comandar might be good enough for now, Bra'tac'…" O'Neill tried his best not to show how amusing this all sounded. Someday, this might make a great story to laugh about over a beer. After what happened earlier today, the language difficulties were an obstacle to overcome instead of an amusing anecdote that could lower the tension.
"Prime Bra'tac of Chulak, could you tell us why you attacked us?" Paragonsky tilted her head to the side, likely listening to a tiny comm hidden in her ear or even an implant. If this wasn't how she would have begun the interrogation, it didn't show on her face or in her voice.
Bra'tac listened carefully to Jackson, frowned briefly, and then began speaking slowly, possibly doing his best to convey his meaning. Jack was half-expecting real-time translation. Instead, the doctor and AI waited for Bra'tac to finish before explaining.
"Bra'tac has been ordered by an entity calling themselves Apophis to investigate gateway addresses…" Daniel trailed off. "No, that's not quite right… Gate to the stars?" It was clear when something clicked in the researcher's mind. "Stargate! That's what that portal thing is!" Jackson exclaimed. "He has been ordered to investigate Stargate addresses."
Jack's eyebrows went up on their own volition. This was precious information right here. There were more of those portals then, which led to other places. The implications of such this were even more profound than a single point-to-point transport system covering who knew what distance. That would have been an incredible game-changer by itself. However, from what Jack just heard, there might be a whole network of these Stargates, and if you could dial them like a phone… That was a capability the UEG would kill for, even if the portals were just useful for getting messages in real-time from place to place! And Jack knew for a fact that the portal was capable of vastly more than just that!
The interrogation went downhill from this first high point, and it wasn't because Bra'tac refused to cooperate. On the contrary, he was more than eager and perhaps even desperate to spill as much information as possible. It soon became apparent why that was, and Jack didn't like that at all.
"Why did the raid happen?" Paragonsky asked.
"Because of the war."
"What war? Why attack us if you are at war?"
That was a harder question to answer properly. It took some back-and-forth between Bra'tac and the linguists before Jackson could elaborate. Meanwhile, the AI's avatar had a vacant expression, clearly processing something for all it was worth.
"From where he stands, The Goa'uld, the people Bra'tac serves, have been at war for about five years. We don't have a way to give you an estimate compared to a standard year," Daniel informed them.
Unsurprisingly, a standard year for the UEG was an Earth year.
"They've been fighting a religious empire of many alien species. I can't be positive on this, Colonel, Commander, but it sounds like the aliens might be genocidal. Either way, they've been killing people out of hand, according to Bra'tac," Jackson grimly continued.
"What about the Goa'uld? How would they react to us? Would the aliens fighting them fight us as well?" Paragonsky asked the critical questions.
More back and forth followed, and Horatio soon joined.
"It appears that the Goa'uld offer slavery or death, while their enemies want both humans and Goa'uld dead. I can't stress this enough; the translation has some ambiguity, even if everything Prime Bra'tac is telling us is wrong!" The AI told them.
"So warring aliens stumbled upon us. Great," Jack groaned. "Can someone ask why Bra'tac looks like us and what's with the snake in his gut?" Jack waved in the general direction of their guest, who looked questioningly at him.
"That thing might be a Goa'uld… and if that's the case… It doesn't make sense, but I'm no xenobiologist!" Jackson exclaimed and waved his hands in the air in exasperation.
Bra'tac pointed at himself. "Jaffa," he said. Then he pointed at Jack and Paragonsky. The word was utterly unfamiliar and odd-sounding.
"I think he said you two are human; congratulations," Horatio translated.
Cheeky AI.
Finally, Bra'tac pointed at his gut. "Prim'ta. Goa'uld," He slowly pronounced the odd-sounding words.
"He keeps claiming that the thing in him is a Goa'uld. And that he serves the Goa'uld. What Prim'ta means, we can't be certain beyond the obvious. It might be a term for a Goa'uld in the stomach of a Jaffa, as Bra'tac called himself. It might be a term for their young if he's somehow carrying it like a Kangaroo carries their young if that makes any amount of sense…" Horatio trailed off. "This is both exciting and vexing!" the AI cheerfully added.
At least someone here was happy, Jack decided.
Meanwhile, Bra'tack kept babbling and gesturing. It was clear he wanted to tell them more, but he was also frustrated by the language barrier.
"I think he claims we are the Tau'ri…. First People world? Of the first world?" Daniel shrugged and looked at the AI.
"People of the First Word might be the literal translation, though we obviously miss vital context…" Horatio trailed off.
At that point, Bra'tac and the linguists spoke rapidly with each other, and Jack could only get the odd until they finally calmed down a bit. Horatio retreated into himself again, undoubtedly updating the language database, while Jackson looked sick.
"I think we just got an answer for you, Colonel. Ra, first of the Goa'uld, flew to a distant world on his star chariot, a spaceship of some kind, obviously, and found us. He used Stargates, what Bra'tac calls Chapa'ai, to spread people around, turning them into slaves, Jaffa or, well, those snake-things might be parasites that take over people, I can't be certain. And the other aliens want to kill us all, Jaffa, human, and Goa'uld, if I'm getting this right."
"And the Goa'uld?" Jack asked for clarification.
"Slavery or death. I am reasonably sure that if you didn't listen to Bra'tac and block the Stargate, his superiors would have sent a big bomb through," Daniel looked sick. "I don't think we'll get Sarah or the others back in one piece…"
Jack winced at that. The odds of mounting a counter-raid against fixed defenses and likely enemy orbital control were minimal, if nonexistent, from the start. Going through such a choke point when the enemy's infantry weapons blew through the best infantry armor in the UNSC as if made of wet paper tissues would be suicide.
