GEORGE WE'RE UNDER ATTACK

~ Ψ χ Ω ∰ ⋱  ℧ ℧  Ш χ Δ Σ Ψ ω ≡ ~

ℷ

Although they were all certain that the General's sight would return, they were also all unsure as to when that would be. Teal'c was very reluctant to use Nyan's device saying that they should first wait at least an acceptable amount of time to give the General an opportunity for his optic gear to reorientate by itself.

Colonel Carter wanted to whisk General O'Neill straight to the infirmary. The General however was most insistent that he should be taken home.

"Jack how are you feeling?"

"Excessively splendid."

"I'm sorry, stupid."

"No Daniel I'm sorry.. ..just freaking out a little, don't mind me."

"I will mind you Jack, all of us will."

The General liked hearing that but he didn't say anything. Having his Team with him, well one of his Teams.. ..having his friends with him was giving him a lot of strength and confidence. They were being most emphatic and he believed them that he would regain his sight. The darkness surrounding him was becoming mildly bleached.

Colonel Bladon had flown the plane himself. Teal'c felt sure it was by request of General Hammond. The plane was taxiing away and The General and SG-1 were climbing into a four wheeler. Daniel was terribly upset by the news and sight of General O'Neill. Colonel Carter really wasn't taking it very well at all.

"Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me!! Oh g_d! Sir, Jack, Jack, Sir. Teal'c you should have told me!"

"Come on Sam lay off him, he didn't tell you because they we're in the air and we was down here, theres nothing we could have done to help."

"Thank you Daniel Jackson."

"Teal'c.. ..I can't.. ..please.. ..its.."

"Yes Colonel Carter it is."

"Jack your sight will return."

"How do you know Daniel?"

"Because I've phase shifted and I know for a fact your sight will return."

"Thanks Daniel, thanks."

"Sir as soon as we get back to Base I need to run some tests on you."

"Em.."

"Colonel Carter General O'Neill has expressed the desire to stay away from The SGC. We will return to O'Neill's home."

"Em.. ..just.. ..just hold, em, no! Eh Teal'c, Sir I need to get you into the infirmary. I can do the tests myself. Nobody needs to know, but you're obviously taken a err.. ..ahh gawd, Sir em.."

"Look Carter its alright, I'm alright. You all seem to think I'll be okay so lets see what happens."

"Sir."

Colonel Carter seemed moved to tears, she didn't cry though, not while any of them was looking anyway. Daniel was damning the fact that he couldn't remember well enough if he'd ever been blinded by the light from a phase shift. He just couldn't remember, but he was sure he must have been. He would have been as inexperience as Jack in coping with the Ancient's ability. This same thing must have happened to him, he just couldn't remember.

"Jack I'm positive you'll be fine. I'm absolutely positive."

"Thanks Daniel, I hear ya, yeah that sounds good."

"I too am positive O'Neill."

"Thank You Teal'c."

Colonel Carter was biting her bottom lip and resisting the urge to put her arms around General O'Neill and tell him everything was going to be alright. She walked up to him, passed in between Daniel and Teal'c and took hold of his hand.

"Okay Sir, we'll go straight to your house then."

She squeezed his hand and led the way.

~ Ψ χ Ω ∰ ⋱  ℧ ℧  Ш χ Δ Σ Ψ ω ≡ ~

"Sir can you see anything?"

"Are the lights on?"

"Yes Sir."

"Then I can't see anything. Did Teal'c tell you what I want?"

Yeah he did Sir. Its all being dealt with. I've spoken to Lieutenant Hibbert and hes arranging for equipment to be sent over. Actually it'll be here very soon now. We'll get it wired up and then you can go straight on line.

"Okay. Look I don't want George knowing about this."

"Sir? General?"

"It's a very difficult time right now Carter. No need to make matters even worse."

"Sir he would want to know."

"I know.. ..I know."

Colonel Carter left to liase with Lieutenant Hibbert in the dinning room, to make sure the satellite microwave transmission tunnelling protocols were properly installed. SGC Logistics crews were expert at setting up field Comms. The over ridding concern always had to be the security afforded the mobile up link. Logistics were also expert in ensuring top level security on all voice and data transmissions.

~ Ψ χ Ω ∰ ⋱  ℧ ℧  Ш χ Δ Σ Ψ ω ≡ ~

"Carter come 'ere."

Daniel had just helped him to get cleaned up and get dressed. Even if it was something he'd have to learn to get used to, it would take a heck of a long, long time to do so.

"Carter come in here."

She entered his bedroom. He was sitting on the edge of his bed staring down at the floor, well, I suppose it wasn't really staring was it. She rushed over to him and threw her arms round his neck, she rested her head against his.

"Sir, Jack I'm so sorry."

He took hold of her, placing his hand on her arm, he held on.

"Sir you're going to be alright, I know you are. I know you are! You'll be okay."

He didn't say anything. He wanted to cry. He did cry. Inside.

"Carter.. ..Sam, I need you to test me."

"Sir I will, I'll do all the tests.."

"No, I need you to test me now!"

"Well, em.. ..okay. I'll em, I'll just go and em. I will, I just.. ..I need to phone the Base, get some equipment sent over."

"No. No Carter, not fancy tests. I need you to test the nerve at the back of my eye."

"Sir what for?"

"You know what for."

That stunned her. She thought about that one, she didn't know, she really didn't know what for.

"General em?"

"Nebulium Carter, Nebulium."

"But Sir you're not infected."

"No I know, I'm sure I'm not. But I'm also sure I passed out."

"Yes but Sir that was on your way down to Earth.. ..the sidewalk."

"That's what I remember. That's the way I remember it, but lets just make sure eh."

"General, Sir, that's why you didn't want to go back to Base isn't it?"

He didn't answer.

"Sir I'm reluctant to shine light into your eyes at the moment."

"Carter its not going to make much difference is it. Apart from which you said once a certain amount of time goes by the nerve goes back to normal."

"Yes Sir, it loses its swelling."

"Well then we'd better do the test hadn't we."

"General."

She called Daniel and Teal'c into the bedroom. The test was negative, all clear. General O'Neill wasn't infected, but he was blind.

~ Ψ χ Ω ∰ ⋱  ℧ ℧  Ш χ Δ Σ Ψ ω ≡ ~

Logistics left. They'd set up full conferencing facility in the General's dinning room.

"Sir everything's ready."

"No Colonel, believe me it really isn't!"

"Point taken Sir."

"George we're under attack!"

"People are missing Jack! We may have to elevate! Where are you there?"

"Em, thought I'd come straight home and get cleaned up."

"I think you need to be in the infirmary."

"No no its okay, I've got the kids here fussing."

"Well you're going to need to get checked out, you don't look so good."

"Later, I'm fine for now."

"General Sir, although we didn't think it was necessary General O'Neill ordered me to test the base of his auditory nerve. Theres no infection."

"I can see that, and it is good news. Although I was already convinced of that fact Colonel."

"Yes Sir so was I. All of us were."

"Just good old reassurance George."

"As long as you're alright Jack."

"Thanks."

"We've locked the place down. We've been through it top to bottom. Luckily they didn't have time to cover their track. The fifty fourth floor is a mess. As far as we know, everyone involved is missing."

"Can you tell me how come there was so many people at the meeting. More than ten, which came as a surprise. Ten George, for approval of one pre-prelim proposal."

"Well from what we can gather the infected agents contrived to bring together key figures. As you said earlier Jack, the people who where in attendance all have access to the top echelons. You yourself could have provided an inlet to the top positions in our Government and Military. Not only are you the top ranking military Officer in the Mountain, you're also the Commander in Chief of the entire Base. You've got senior level access to both Government and Military."

"General does this mean the Nebulium attempted to infiltrate the..?"

"Yes. Yes Colonel but thank g_d, thank heaven that General O'Neill escaped. Without Jack's alert we wouldn't be any the wiser. From all accounts once a person is infected, without the detail tests, you're hard pushed to detect the difference."

"George we're all clear here, they didn't attack Earth by gaining off world access to The SGC."

"No they didn't Jack, any ideas on how?"

"Sir theres no longer another StarGate on Earth."

"Shouldn't be."

"They don't possess ships do they?"

"We don't believe they've got ships George."

"So then at this point in time we're really not sure how they've managed to gain access to our world?"

"No. George whats the situation there?"

"As you can see I'm back here at TIGETS HQ. I have been medically cleared, in case you're wondering."

"Actually I wasn't wondering but I might have done later on."

"Of course. The situation as it stands, the first four floors have been converted into a medical station. People are being cleared. The cleared people are then housed on Level, on em floors ten to twenty. We've set up secure quarantine in the basement. Luckily its been very easy to lock the building down. It is after all one of the intelligence divisions. All the security directives are already in place. Lock down is now fully in force."

"People, visitors in and out?"

"From the camera surveillance of the entrance to the building there has been some movement. We have the visitors book, that angles being followed up."

"Infected?"

"It's a slow process but up to now Jack we've not found anyone infected. Nobody seems to be aware of whats actually going on.. ..although they are aware now it's a lock down. Thankfully the people we're dealing with here are all government security personnel, they understand the procedures so we're not having any problems from the staff."

"Em good. Good! Erm good."

"Jack how you feeling there? You really don't look.."

"I'm fine George really. I'm fine. We have to be quick on this one. Amerson? Davis?"

"No sign."

"General do we know how many are missing?"

"Only from General O'Neill's figures Colonel."

"We've found the blood you mentioned in the conference room. My people have picked up a trail in the corridor leading to the elevators. Its all being analysed. I'll let you know."

"Hey hang on George, we've got surveillance on all the exits?"

"There is."

"So..?"

"No. We've checked that Jack. That was one of the first things we did. Theres no sign of them having left the building."

"The em, the roof.."

General O'Neill cleared his throat. He was also wearing sunshades. General Hammond probably thought it was to tone down his bruising.

"What about the roof George?"

"We've been up to the roof. Theres signs of a big struggle up there. We're trying to piece that together, we don't know whats gone on up there. They've got the raised helipad but theres no em, well you know theres been no flight, we're in Washington here, err the zone.. ..no they haven't flown out."

"George that was me on the roof. All the tracks are mine. And the agents. I kicked the door down to get out onto the roof."

"We saw the door, its quite easy to see theres been one heck of a chase. I noticed the doors jack, short circuited, Black Ops, you don't see that one very often. I thought you may well be behind that. Jack how did you get out? How did you get down to the ground? It looked like a quite a struggle up there on the roof, how did you get clear?"

"George, we need to talk. But can it wait until I'm in Washington again."

"Important?"

"More than."

"Will it feature in you're Report?"

"No."

"Okay Jack."

"They remained in the building General Hammond?"

"Teal'c everything points to that, but we can't find them anywhere."

"How about if they phase shifted?"

"Daniel they can phase shift but they can only do that in their raw form. However once they're in their raw form in our atmosphere they're not phasing very well. If they did phase shift em, we'd have the em, infected shells lying around somewhere.. ..em, the infected, the people, there'd be evidence of that."

"Oh gawd damn."

"Jack?"

"No I'm just saying its em, its err, they don't have ships."

"Sir how can you be sure?"

"If they had ships they'd have to.. ..okay well they could have ships but this attack hasn't arisen from flying over here. They'd have to land. They'd have to get down here somehow. We would have detected it."

"But the Asgard Sir, they can get down here while remaining in orbit, undetected."

"Yeah that's true but.."

"Jack we've already seen how they've got similarities with Asgard technology, and they have phasing abilities similar to the Ancient's, I mean who knows what these Nebulium are capable of."

"Yeah who knows Daniel. I'm just sayin' I don't think they've come in ships."

"Can you be sure about that Jack?"

"As sure as I can be George. In fact I'm very sure."

"In that case we need to be looking in other places."

"Okay George, lets em. I need to make sure everythings good at The Base. We need to deal with this! Why don't I get in touch after I check up on the Base. "

"Standing by Jack. I'll keep you up to date with this."

"Thanks George. I'll speak to you."

"Right people, we keep in touch. SG-1 its not going to be easy but make sure you get your General to the infirmary."

"Yes Sir we will."

"Indeed we will General Hammond."

"Sure thing General, we'll get him there."

"Ciao George."

~ Ψ χ Ω ∰ ⋱  ℧ ℧  Ш χ Δ Σ Ψ ω ≡ ~

"Sir I'll go back to The SGC now. I'll stand in for you?"

"Carter I'll be alright."

"You will be alright General with more rest. I'm standing in for you, as soon as I get there I'll report in."

"Alright. Look do me a favour, fish out all the footage we've got on NID headquarters."

"Sir what are we looking for?"

"Carter I was just thinking about that. Well we're looking for a clue but.. ..have Siler get his hands on a copy of the building's blueprints will you."

"Jack what if they've got unmarked secret passages and things?"

"No its alright Daniel, if I'm asking for something like this, especially NID stuff, Siler will get his hands on a Bureau copy."

"Sir what would be good is if we could link up for a live feed inside the NID HQ."

"Perhaps General Hammond could arrange such a thing."

"Not necessary T. Our own people are there aren't they."

"They are not returning O'Neill?"

"Teal'c SG-5 are under TIGETS command now until they're cleared. I sent a combat unit in with the Griff helmets so they could help out when they got there. Daniel!"

"I'll do it now Jack. Sam I'll ask Major Harper to patch up. On your way back to Base can you ask Sergeant Harriman to allocate a channel?"

"On it Daniel."

"Colonel Carter is it possible for us to view the live footage here? We will be able to assist you in examining the premises."

"Yeah Teal'c nice idea. I'll have Walter stream it through so you can all look at it, Sir you could talk us through the, oh g_d, Sir, sorry, I'm sorry. I meant you two, Daniel, Teal'c, you two can look at it, em.."

"Its alright Carter."

"Sir how are you? Do you need anything?"

"Apart from the obvious. Its okay Carter.. ..really. Go on you take off."

"Sir, I'll report in as soon as I get there."

"Okay.. ..thanks."

"Sir."

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