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Fortune Favors...

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Lieutenant_Q:
(Last one for the accelerated Schedule, I'll get back to a more normal one per week schedule now, but I had put a self-imposed deadline of March 11 to start this new chapter, and as you can tell I missed it.  Not because I didn't have stuff written, I did, but as I said the battle was incredibly tedious to write and took almost four weeks longer to write than I expected it to.  I did, however get about ten parts done in that time, which allowed me to catch up once I got it finished)

19:45 Zulu

“Captain.”

James looked down into the pit from his position over Ammanda's shoulder, where they were going over Damage Control response time from the drill.  He could tell by the tone of Sam's voice that she was not terribly thrilled with the news she was about to relay.

“I have the assistant Deputy Director of the NSA on the line for you.”

He stood up and fixed her with a stare, “Him?”

She nodded, “Yes, sir.”

He nodded and began to walk around the upper tank, “I'll take it in my office.”  He wasn't in a hurry to make it to his office, but unfortunately for him, he found precious little to distract him on his walk there, instead different mindsets warred for control of his thought process.  He had never met, or spoken to Robert Thomas before.  He was present in the call just under two months ago when Sam had abruptly given him her resignation, but Director Thomas should have been unaware that he was watching.  He knew the man to be a weasel, as most spies had to be, often times talking out of both sides of his mouth, and his ass at the same time.  He could only imagine what this call was about, and whether or not he should spring on him that he knows what they were planning.

He wasn't worried too much about the threatened court-martial, he had enough without Sam's “breach of faith” to pin him down and eviscerate him.  Nicole had managed, late last week, to decode the messages between the two of them.  That, coupled with information that Khan had been secretly providing him were just another way of confirming the truth of what was in Sam's report.  James didn't want to assign guilt to the entire US Government, Major Christopher's Trailblazer project was still in the planning phase, and he had good working relationships with the DoD and even the State Department.  Sooner or later, though, he was going to have to confront the NSA on their plot, he just wondered if now was the best time.

The doors closed behind him, and as a courtesy, he locked them.  Sam didn't mention if what was about to be discussed was in anyway secret, but it was always better to err on the side of caution.  He rounded the desk and deactivated his magnetic boots, he always found it more relaxing to not be anchored to anything during stressful conversations.  He pressed the button on his terminal to bring the call up.

“Captain Atkinson.”  The man's face was familiar, but neutral, not betraying any information that he was about to give.

“Assistant Deputy Director Thomas,”  James made sure to pronounce every syllable of his full title, slowly, for effect. “What can I do for you today?”

He raised an eyebrow, “I was unaware you knew who I am.”

James smiled back at him, “You'd be surprised who I know in the US Government.  Granted, I only know you by reputation.”

“Ah, good things?”

He shook his head, “In your line of work, not really.”

He feigned disappointment, “Oh, well, such is my job.  Anyways, to business.”

James steeled himself, “Go on.”

Robert took  a deep breath, “At 14:13 Central Daylight Time, we lost contact with all twenty seven drone over the city of Houston, Texas.  All the drones were lost.  At the moment, we don't know how.  We were hoping you could help us in our investigation.”

Now it was James's turn to express shock, “I'm not sure what is more disturbing, the fact that you had twenty-seven drones flying over the fourth largest city in the US, or the fact that you lost all of them at the same time.”

“Only ten were ours, Captain.  The other seventeen belonged to other entities, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Houston Police Department, Central Intelligence Agency, among others.”

“What do you need from me?  I'm almost three-hundred thousand kilometers away.”

“We're aware that you have some assets in the area, and would like a confirmation that it was not your doing.”

James chuckled, “Knocking twenty-seven drones out of the sky at once, that would be quite an accomplishment.  If we had a point-defense system that good, I would sleep soundly every night.”

He frowned, “Telemetry from the recovered drones indicated that they did not immediately crash following the loss of signal.  We suspect that someone, or something, jammed them.  There was no unusual activity reported by the National Weather Service, nor was there any radiation surge in the surrounding area that might have interfered with their transmitters.”

James had shrunk his image down to a smaller window as he queried his Houston facility, “Was there anything else?  A power failure at a relay station? Electromagnetic interference?  You're going to have to give me more than that if you expect my help.”

He hesitated, but then apparently decided that what he was holding back wasn't that secret. “Johnson Space Center lost their direct link to the International Space Station's main computer for fifteen minutes, they never lost radio, or video signal, but they did lose their control link.  It cleared up by itself precisely fifteen minutes after it had started.”

James nodded, “I see, something jammed the drone channels, but didn't jam Radio, or Television channels.”

“Correct, none of the broadcast facilities, Radio or Television, reported interference with their operations.  No complaints of satellite or internet interruptions.  It was specifically targeted at Drone Channels.”

James shook his head as he brought his picture back to the full screen, “I've got nothing that went on at my Houston Facility.  In fact, my Chief Engineer was conversing with them at that time, and they made no mention of any interference.”

He looked skeptical, “May I ask what they were conversing about?”

James shrugged, “We're trying to re-arrange our transport schedule, get the third reactor up here faster, it might not be easy because they are behind schedule in building it, and we can't afford the overtime.”

“No electronic devices are being built there?”

James shook his head, “No, they only build the Fission Reactors there.  Any electronics that we develop are built at our West Texas Facility.  Far enough away from the major metropolitan areas that if they did have the ability to do what happened over Houston, we'd only be knocking down drones we really don't want there in the first place.”

“We don't have any drones over your West Texas Facility, Captain.”

“Bullsh*t.”  James waved off his response, “Mr. Thomas, I trust you about as far as I can throw you.  And you think your stealth systems are so good that we can't spot them.  You should have realized by now that your stealth systems just don't work well against LIDAR.  The reason we haven't shot them down is because we don't care that they are there.  We're annoyed, especially when they take their sweet time to get out of our launch space, but until they become more than a nuisance, we're more than willing to pretend we don't see them.”

“Captain... I...”  Robert was nervous, maybe for the first time James had seen him look it too, “You're right, Captain.  I apologize.  It's Agency policy to deny it.”  He was trying hard to extricate his foot from his mouth, “We should have known that you knew.  I forget sometimes that your capabilities rival, and even exceed ours at times, which is why we were contacting you for assistance in the first place.”

James smiled, “Now you're flattering me.  I know that we don't exceed you in any place.  We match you in several, but the only place we exceed you is that some countries are more willing to be more open to us than they are to you.  Our neutrality, our willingness to stay out of Terrestrial Affairs, has given us easier sight around the world, along with the superior positioning of our assets.”

He stared at the screen and a smile began to form, “I was hoping that you'd still feel some nationalist pride, and offer any information that your 'neutrality' has provided you.  We'd make sure that no one got wind that you helped us, and we could reward you in other ways too.”

<i>Guess it's time to drop the shoe</i> James thought, “I'm not so sure I trust your method of keeping secrets, Mr. Thomas.”

His face fell, “What do you mean?”

James glared at him, “Emperor Khan has provided me some, interesting, reading regarding your previous communications to my station.”

Robert stared blankly at the screen as he tried to form his face into a mask of impassiveness, “I don't know what you're talking about, Captain.”

James smiled, “I'm sure you don't.”  He reached for the comm button, “You might want to have someone go over those encryption algorithms of yours.  L-1 Out.”  James pressed the button, terminating the call.  He had pressed the button hard enough that he had pushed himself upwards and had to reach down to grab the desk before he needed to wait to hit the ceiling to come back down.  While he was reaching down, he pressed the intercom button to call Ops, “Sam, could you come in here for a moment?”  As he pulled himself down he unlocked the door and settled back into the chair.

She entered a moment later, “Yes, sir?”

He waited for the door to close completely behind her before responding, “I hinted.”

Her face was expressionless, “I see.”

“Ok, I did more than hint.  I outright told him that Khan had provided me some interesting reading on his interactions with this station.”

She relaxed slightly, “And?”

“He tried to deny it, and I didn't give him a whole lot of opportunity to respond.  I didn't need to hear him try to wriggle his way out of it, but that's not why I wanted to see you.  How's the Fusion Reactor project coming?”

She looked at him confused, “We discussed this yesterday, I'm at an impasse.”

“Could a change of scenery help just a bit?  You've been working awfully hard on it, and maybe you just need a break.”

“You're not sending me away, are you?  I thought...”  She stopped, “I thought we were rebuilding our relationship.”

“We are.”  He raised his hand to stop her next statement, “And yes, I'm sending you back to Earth, temporarily.”

“How temporary?”  She tensed for an answer she didn't really want to here.

“A month, maybe less.”  He paused for a moment as he considered how to word his next statement, “I need your brain down there, and your connections.  Somewhere in Houston, someone has built an extremely powerful, and extremely selective, electronic jamming device.  I want it. But so does the NSA.  The NSA is going to be willing to go to some lengths to get it, they may even be willing to kill for it.  I'm not willing to go that far, but needless to say such a device could help us immensely up here.  If it can jam Drone Channels, I'd imagine that it could do a passable job of jamming targeting systems too.”

She nodded, “Where do I begin?”

James thought for a moment, “You begin at the local power stations, Centerpoint Energy I believe is the primary power provider in the area.  Such a device would have to take in a lot of power to operate for fifteen minutes.  But you'll have to be quick about it, the NSA is bound to be just in front of us on this.”

“I can call the power stations from here, but I'll obviously need to get to the surface quickly, and Micheal isn't heading back until next week.”

He nodded, “I'll have Carl put an extended tank on a shuttle, you can jettison it in orbit, and Micheal can pick it up when he arrives.”

She looked out the window behind him, Earth was beginning to enter the view, “Anything else?”

“Better pack a weapon.”

Lieutenant_Q:
23:10 Zulu

James held himself up on the promenade railing as he waited for Sam's shuttle to leave it's launch bay. He stared out into space, Earth rising in the window, lost in his thoughts.  He wondered if he was making the right decision.

“Are you sure this is such a good idea?”  Micheal slipped on to the railing beside him, echoing his thoughts.

“Not really, no.”  James sighed as he shifted his stance slightly to open himself up to his friend. “We were supposed to have another talk tonight, but I don't know just how much more I can get out of our conversations.  I want to trust her.  But I can't bring myself to do it just yet.”

Micheal shook his head, “So this is a trust-building exercise?”

James turned his head and looked at him as though that thought had not occurred to him, “I could have come up with a safer exercise.”

Micheal nodded, “Yes, you could have.  Instead you sent her off on a wild goose chase that could wind up with her being arrested, or killed.  And she's going to do it, because she wants to get back into your good graces.”  Sam's shuttle rocketed away from the station, thrusters going full open as she sped off towards Earth.  “There she goes.  She's going to get tangled up with the NSA again, something she has tried hard in the last two months to distance herself from, and then you had to let the cat out of the bag that you knew why she was here.  Had you just stayed quiet about her spying for them, they probably wouldn't even care that she's snooping around down there.  Now they may want her to find out just what she told you, and they'll find out.  And it will be her hide.”

James nodded, accepting the criticism as Sam's shuttle flare was lost to the distance involved.  He closed his eyes, “That may not have been my first mistake I've made since getting up here, but it's the first one that may cost someone their life.” He slammed his open palm down on the railing, his gravity boots kept him in place as the sound echoed through the promenade and drew more than a couple of stares, “Damn it!  Why did I have to be so damned cocky?”

Micheal placed his hand on James' shoulder, “You could still recall her.  She doesn't have to land.”

James shook his head, “No, she won't turn back now.  Even if I begged.  I've had to be careful in my conversations with her.  Even a suggestion, an off handed comment, and she does it.”

Micheal frowned, “If she won't turn around, then is there anything you can do to help her?”

He frowned back, “You know we don't have those kind of resources.”

Micheal nodded, “But you know people that do.”

James turned sharply on him, “If they find out, they'll hang her for sure!  If they don't she'll be sure that I don't trust her.”

Micheal placed both hands on his shoulders to calm him, “She doesn't have to know that she's being helped.  And right now, if she does get caught, I can't see them not locking her up and throwing away the key.  Are you willing to risk a jail-break to get her back, or will you just let her rot in Fort Leavenworth?”

James stopped, “Maybe we don't have to do either.”

Micheal tilted his head, curious, “What do you mean by that?”

James smiled, “Maybe it's time to see just how deep the rabbit hole goes.”  He pushed himself away from the railing and started to walk.

He raised his eye brows, “I don't follow...”

James placed his arm around Micheal's shoulder, ushering him along as he moved to the lift, “Spy business, the right hand doesn't always know what the left hand is doing.  Its possible that this is a rogue operation, its possible that the entire NSA knows what's happening, but no one else does.  It's also possible that this plot originates from the Oval Office.  Let's find out just who knows what, and why.”

Micheal shook his head, “What is that going to accomplish?”

James grinned mischievously, “If it's a rogue NSA operation, a call to General Alexander will put a stop to it.  If it's the NSA that's gone rogue, a call to Secretary Hagel can shield her somewhat from it.”

Micheal shook his head, “If the order comes directly from the President?”

James nodded, “Then perhaps it's time I answered those messages from the Republican National Committee.”

Lieutenant_Q:
Ellington Field
Houston, Texas
15 June 2014
07:10 CDT

Sam wasn't out of the shuttle for more than five minutes before she regretted not bringing lighter clothing.  The first thing she noticed was the humidity, such a stark contrast to the carefully controlled climate on board the station.  Even at 7 AM local time, the sun was barely over the horizon, and it felt like she was walking into a sauna.  The temperature at the moment wasn't much different than the twenty-two degrees it was kept on the station at all times.  But she knew that the air was going to get much hotter as the sun rose above the morning haze.  Summer had almost arrived in Houston, the high temperature was forecast to be in the upper thirties.

She chose Ellington Field for its proximity, or lack there of, to Bush Intercontinental, she did have one possibility over in that area, but with Intercontinental being a major air traffic hub, it was where she was most likely to run afoul of the NSA, or the CIA.  It was also close enough to a couple of possibilities, and while not off the beaten path, certainly less likely to draw attention, and James had made sure that the single Air-Traffic Controller on site “missed” her landing.

Of course, they had to know that someone was here in Houston, it would have been hard to miss her shuttle enter orbit, and it would have been even harder to miss her descent.  While they may not know who is down here, they know someone is, and they probably know what that person is looking for, and they had almost a day's head start on her.

Ellington field also had her best choices of resources.  The local Coast Guard Air Station was here, as was National Guard Air Posting.  While not Air Force, she knew at least one of the soldiers at the post, and he was willing to loan her his car.  That was what she was waiting on right now, as she waited she reviewed what she had from Centerpoint and Reliant, the two major electricity providers in the area.  One of her potentials was in Clear Lake, just on the other side of the drainage ditch that separated Ellington Field from Clear Lake.  The likelihood of an EM device being there was low, the proximity of Johnson Space Center made it too easy to discover.  Another possibility was just north of here, in Pasadena, although she ranked that one as low too, a couple of refineries were very sporadic in their energy usage leading up to the event, and even now are continuing.  Probably as a result of ongoing maintenance at the facilities.

A silver Ford Sedan pulled up in front of her, and with the passenger window down she heard a voice she hadn't heard in years, “Samantha Carter.”

She smiled as she leaned into the open window, “Peter Thompson.  You regret going Air Guard yet?”

The red-haired man opened the door to allow her to get in, as she sat down he grabbed her bag and put it into the back seat, carefully setting it along side the empty infant seat, “Not at all, with all the trouble you've gotten yourself into lately, I was going to ask you if you regretted going Air Force, yet.”

She spared a glance at where he set the bag down as she buckled herself in, “Not a chance, I am where I want to be now.  How's Becky?”

He offered a sheepish grin as he put the car into drive and made their way to the exit, “She's fine.  Not happy that I'm spending my off day chauffeuring you around town, rather than with her and the kids, but it's not every day you get to spend it with an astronaut, even around here.  She said she'd forgive both of us if you stopped by to see Matthew.  He's eight years old now, and he can't decide if he wants to be a pilot like his dad, or an astronaut.”

She looked over at him astonished, “Has it really been eight years?”

He nodded, “Katie's five, and Billy turned six months, yesterday.  Where are we going first, Sam?”

“River Oaks.”  Sam picked the first one at random, it was a mostly residential area with a few medical buildings near the loop.  Over the last three months, it has seen a significant increase in energy usage, more usage that she could logically account for.

“River Oaks is mostly residential, I thought we were looking for something more, industrial.”

“We're not looking for something that's being mass-produced.  I'm looking for something that is most likely in a prototype stage.  It could very well be in someone's garage, although with the amount of power it would need to work, I doubt it.  I have three places in River Oaks I want to stop by.  The first one is a storage facility on San Felipe.”

Peter turned the car onto the Gulf Freeway's feeder and sped up to match the morning commute traffic, it was slow, even for a Sunday, and he had no difficulty merging into traffic.  “You really think someone is going to work on a Jamming Device in a storage facility?”

She shook her head, “Not really, but a storage facility provides a way to stay out of sight of people that know you, and could get curious.  24 hour access.  Given how infrequently storage facilities are used, it's also a pretty private place.”

“Getting power into one of those facilities is not easy though.”

“No, but the reason I'm looking at this one in particular is that it is not far from a power sub-station.  While it wouldn't be easy, it wouldn't be difficult either.”

He nodded, “You have the address?”

“4200 San Felipe.”

Peter keyed the address into his GPS, “Looks like about a twenty five minute drive.”

She noted the distance and the size of the city in general, “You Texans don't do anything small do you?”

“You're one to talk, just how big is that station of yours?”

She laughed, “It was designed by a Texan.”

“I see.”  He made a move to pass a slower car in front of him, “So just what kind of trouble are you in, Sam?  You didn't elaborate in your last couple of messages.”

She shrugged as she looked out the window, “I got tangled up in the darker side of the Government.  NSA.”

He looked at her apprehensively, “Did you cross them?”

She scowled, “They crossed me.”

“What happened?”

*****

07:40 CDT

“Yeah, I see the power station, just on the other side of the rail line.”  Peter pointed up at a transmission tower as he got out of the car, “And then look at this, it would be a rather simple matter to hook it up to this tower.  It's literally only a couple feet from the building.”

“They'd have to step down the power current to make it useful, but if they've developed a method of jamming drone signals, making a step down device would be child's play.”  Sam closed her door and opened the rear passenger door.  She fished through her bag for her pistol, and tucked it into her waist line.

Peter regarded her for a moment, “You have to keep that concealed here, and that's assuming you have a CHL.”

She smiled, “I'm an active duty officer, I'm allowed to carry in a high-risk zone.”  She wrapped her uniform shirt around her waist to cover the pistol.

He half frowned, “I'm not so sure Houston would be classified as a high-risk area.”

She nodded, “It's a point that could be argued, which is all I need to be able carry it.”

Peter turned his attention to the lettering on the office door, “They open at ten today, did you call in advance?”

“I did.”  Sam walked up to the office door and peered through the glass, “The lady said she'd be up here early... There she is.”  Sam waved at a woman inside the office.

A moment later the older Hispanic lady opened the door, and looked at the two of them expectantly, “Can I help you?”

Sam smiled at her, “Captain Samantha Carter, United States Air Force.  We spoke over the phone yesterday.”

“Ah, Sí.  Yes, come in.”  She pushed the door open for them to enter.

Sam pointed at a camera as they walked in, “I was wondering if we could start by reviewing the footage from that camera from yesterday?”

The lady nodded and led them into the back of the office.

Captain Sharp:
Liking! Keep it up, sir!

And was very jolted by the 'Computer, end program' line. Guess the fight scene roped me...

--guv

KBF-Frank:
is the same sam carter from sg1?

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