Reading Time: 121 Minutes
Title: Finding Righteous
Series: Priceless
Series Order: 5
Author: SASundance
Fandom: NCIS, Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Criminal Minds; JAG
Genre: Crime Drama, Crossover, Hurt/Comfort, Science Fiction
Relationship(s): Gen, background pairing
Content Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Warnings: Rape/Non-con/Dub-con, Slavery, Torture, Violence – Graphic, Violence – Domestic and/or Against Children , Violence – graphic, offscreen torture, discussions of past and offscreen rape/non-con, issues around the loss of free will, loss of bodily autonomy, mind control, past murder of OC character, discussions of miscarriage and abortion, discussions of slavery and implications of mind control, non-consensual drug use, discussion of past domestic violence, discussion of canon vaccination and future vaccination programs, discussion of past canon unethical medical experimentation, character bashing (Elizabeth Weir and Ziva David). Not friendly to: McKay, Gibbs, Keller, McGee, Vance. Death sentences/executions (Note: slavery, mind control, autonomy issues are related to canon events)
Author Note: British Spelling
Word Count: 105,735
Summary: On Atlantis, the trials of the two Genii responsible for the torture and abduction of Colonel Sheppard are due to begin. Back at the SCG, Corp Joseph Favre faces a military trial for conspiring to abduct Colonel Sheppard and assaulting Dr Francesca De Rosa. On Winya, Hotch and Tony’s efforts to convince the Winyans to overturn the conviction of Lucius Lavins victims meet with mixed success. Tony thinks his alter-ego Thomas Magnum may have better luck with the Elders. However, Tony will need someone to impersonate him. When Tony and his alter-ego return to Winya, they find a badly injured child and the Magistrate, Wodren Drell asks them to investigate.
Artist: AngelicInsanity
“When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn from The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
Chapter 1
Admiral A.J. Chegwidden was an extremely unhappy individual at the moment. He felt a maelstrom of emotions, but fury and disappointment were most definitely at the top of the list. He was struggling to reconcile the appalling actions of two Navy judge advocates who he’d watched over as baby lawyers before his retirement, back when they were just starting out in their careers at JAG. It felt like a horrid betrayal of his trust in them, and it left a bitter taste in his mouth that they’d dishonoured their sworn oath to uphold the law.
As he tried to look at the situation a little more dispassionately and general failing to do so, he acknowledged that in some ways, Lt Cdr Mayfield’s lapse felt a tad more logical. Not a lot but at least she was being blackmailed for something she’d done that was incredibly dumbass. Gambling was never smart, especially when you got caught up with bookies and persons of dubious or even illegal bent. Lawyers were supposed to be intelligent, so Mayfield had demonstrated quite explicitly that she was foolish to get caught up with illegal gambling, so maybe it explained why she would panic and do something that was even more illegal and unethical than gambling in a ham-fisted attempt to cover it up, and to try to salvage her career.
He guessed that a lot of people might think that Lt Cdr Vukovic’s situation was more unfortunate, since he was also a victim, having been singled out for coercion purely because of his sexual orientation. But in Chegwidden’s opinion, the fact that Vukovic was being coerced into doing something because of who he was, not some idiotic choice he made to gamble or not, to take drugs or abstain, to break the law or not, actually made the whole situation much worse. Being gay, straight, bisexual, or anywhere else on the continuum was not a preference like choosing to gamble to excess or take illegal drugs. It was a part of who you were, and you could no more change that orientation than you could change being born Chinese, Tanzanian, French or Welsh. It just was!
In his previous appointment as Judge Advocate General, Chegwidden had always tried to impress upon his people how important it was to cultivate personal and professional integrity at all times. Honour was a crucial quality for being an officer of the court since you were holding your peers to a standard of law, which made it imperative to maintain at the very least, the same standard of comportment, if not strive for an even higher standard. Sadly, integrity was not only something you showed when others were observing you. It was how you behaved when peoples’ backs were turned. Vukovic had sadly demonstrated that he was lacking in integrity by allowing himself to be blackmailed for the sake of future job promotions, unbelievably for doing nothing wrong.
Oh A.J. wasn’t so credulous to underestimate the homophobic officers at the top of the armed forces hierarchy. He knew they existed and in all likelihood penalised service members who weren’t heterosexual, denying them promotions despite DADT being repealed in 2011. It was also the same unfair story with females in the military and people of colour who met with sexism, racism, and bigotry every goddamned day of their military careers. Minorities were always at a distinct disadvantage but that was also no excuse for them to permit themselves to be held hostage to factors they had no control over, either.
So, for Vukovic to try to argue for clemency from A.J. and JAG Santiago who presided over his case, based on homophobia which might affect his future promotions, had been disappointing. Surely, he could see that it was in no way even close to an excuse for him conspiring to falsely accuse a law enforcement professional in a highly sensitive position of committing a serious crime. That was beyond the pale. It spoke to Vukovic’s lack of moral courage, and it demonstrated pretty handily that he didn’t have the fortitude to deserve a promotion.
In fact, at his secret court martial, Chegwidden who was prosecuting had said as much in his closing statement. No, as far as he was concerned, Gregory Vukovic didn’t merit the right to wear the uniform of A.J.’s beloved navy, nor did he deserve to be a member of the US Bar and Admiral Chegwidden intended on seeing to it that he would no longer be eligible to do either. In fact, because of the highly classified nature of Atlantis and the Stargate Program, if he and Mayfield were lucky, they would remain in a maximum-security federal prison until such time as the Stargate Program was declassified. If they weren’t so lucky, they’d probably forfeit their lives, having already demonstrated that they were corruptible. That quite simply made them both a massive security risk and it was one that the program simply could afford to exist.
When the inevitable happened and Tali Mayfield and Gregory were found to have committed offences that resulted in them receiving Bad Conduct Discharges and were sentenced to indefinite detention in maximum security federal detention, both seemed genuinely shocked. Did they really think that because the coercion had come from the top of the chain of command that they would get off with a slap on the wrists? They couldn’t be so stupidly naïve as to believe that? Or could it be that because A.J. had been the JAG who had sworn them in and taken an interest in their nascent careers, they believed that he would go soft on them? If that was the case, they must have received a nasty surprise when the verdict and sentence had been announced.
To be honest, they were incredibly lucky that Tony…er Alex had spoken up for them, since the powers that be had been of one mind, which was to Zat them three times and be done with it. Executing them would solve concerns about them spilling secrets re the Stargate program but unlike the military types, the federal agent found the thought of killing them for the sake of expediency to be repugnant and argued for leniency. Considering their role in the conspiracy to frame him for an abhorrent crime, A.J. didn’t think he would have been capable of being anywhere near as benevolent, but Alex had just shrugged and said he had vowed never again to let revenge drive his actions as a cop. Still, he thought that the pair had gotten off a helluva lot easier than they deserved to.
Although AJ was relieved now that the courts-martial of Vukovic and Mayfield were out of the way and everyone could start getting back to normal, he knew that it was going to take time for people to put the events behind them. While the feelings of anger at the betrayal of their oaths still stung Chegwidden bitterly, he was feeling pissed off for more prosaic reasons as well. Looking at the timetable for the rest of the military trials, he was forced to do some rearranging. With both former Lt Cdrs Mayfield and Vukovic now held in top secret federal detention, they had no choice but would have to carry out the remaining eighteen trials with only eight judge advocates, so it was going to take extra time to complete them all.
The rest of the JAG contingent in Atlantis had been extremely shocked when Vukovic and Mayfield were taken into custody and charged with a raft of charges because, in the Naval JAG office, they had both been seen as up-and-comers. In some circles, they had been mentioned as possible candidates for the top job of Judge Advocate General one day in the future. So, it wasn’t surprising that their removal and disgrace stunned their peers and put a serious dent in morale, but JAG still had trials to prosecute or defend, depending on the flipping of a coin, deciding who would do what. As dumbfounded as the young lawyers were by the dramatic events which had unfolded before them, they were also keen to get back to Earth again. As Cdr DeShayne Jennings had expressed to Admiral Chegwidden, this whole assignment had been weird – learning about things that sounded like science fiction yet were real – and learning that there was a whole truckload full of alien unfriendlies wanting to destroy the planet had been unsettling, to say the least.
So, the trials of the rogue Genii continued as one by one the men were tried found guilty due to the outstanding evidence against them, despite the judge advocates doing their best to provide them with professional, effective defences. And that was another reason why the JAs were keen to return home. It was not exactly pleasant trying to get these men off of the terrible charges they faced, since they were obviously guilty, but it was part of the job, an important part of the process of justice. Unfortunately, quite a lot of the residents on Atlantis treated them as pond scum for doing their job and ensuring that everyone received a fair trial.
Due to the popularity of the dashing Air Force Colonel and CO of Atlantis for the past eight years and the terrible abuse he’d endured at the hands of the Genii mercenaries, it was understandable so many people saw them as the enemy. Understandable it may have been, but it was still difficult to have to endure, which probably contributed to the eight-judge advocates being very eager to return home to Earth asap. The fact remained that the remaining JAs were committed to carrying out justice, even when it was difficult or challenged their own sense of propriety. It was what they had all sworn to do and it was a point of honour, at least to the remaining eight, that they did their duty to the best of their abilities.
Fortunately, the two-Judge Advocate Generals understood just how much strain and pressure their people were under, and they had ordered that no one was to work on the weekends. Instead, they’d organised recreational activities to help them blow off much-needed steam. Last Friday night had been a karaoke night where everyone got tipsy on Athosian ale and a wild berry wine and tomorrow after dinner, General Santiago who was a mad trivia fan, had organised a base trivia night that everyone, judge advocates and permanent residents alike, was buzzing in excitement. Everyone was looking forward to an awesome battle of the Titans since it wasn’t all that surprising that quite a few scientists were trivia nuts. Sunday after lunch, Vala had organised a limbo contest and a bunch of novelty races and team games that the Atlantis kids would also be able to take part in too.
For the last weekend before the JAs were due to depart, Vala, Alex, Laura and their R & R committee had organised a talent night and on Sunday, a scavenger hunt would take place with teams competing against each other to find a treasure. With things to look forward to, it helped take everyone’s minds off the fact that the men who had taken John Sheppard and put Atlantis’ residents through months of suffering were there in the city. Meanwhile, Ambassador AuClair planned a celebratory dinner on the night of the last Genii trial to thank the lawyers for their efforts in upholding justice, before they would send them off the next day since the powers that be had decided that the last of the military trials, of Lance Corporal Joseph Favre would take place at the SGC. Witnesses from Atlantis would be permitted to testify via video link to save them from having to travel back to Earth and were already being deposed via video too. A.J. knew that Aoife and Alex were both relieved that they wouldn’t have to go back, either for depositions or to testify.
Then, after the final military trial back on Earth, of which various members of staff would be involved in testifying at the trial, the base would then have a short but much-needed hiatus to catch their breath. Afterwards, the city would get ready to host Earth’s Allies, who would be heading up the Interstellar Tribunal. The rationale for asking allies from the Milky Way rather than Pegasus was that if word got out about the dangerous mind control plant (which as far as they knew was indigenous to Pegasus), races in the Milky Way would find it very difficult if not impossible to obtained although they hoped it wouldn’t happen. The actual trials would take place aboard the Odyssey; the city of Atlantis would play host to the delegates to the tribunal since space was at a premium onboard the Odyssey. The delegates would eat (except for the mid-day meal), sleep, and hang out on Atlantis, so they would need to get quarters ready for them. For now, though, the JAGs still had to try the remainder of Porteus Kolya’s henchmen.
~o0o~
Ambassador AuClair had called a meeting to discuss the volatile situation on Atlantis with Captain Cadman as the head of base security, Alex Paddington and his investigator, Tobias Fornell, and the Acting CO Colonel Lorne. He’d fielded some complaints from the two JAGs about the level of hostility, which was being directed at their Judge Advocates, rightly so, since they were doing a damned distasteful job and doing it admirably. He’d heard isolated accounts of an increase in incidents amongst the rest of the population but wasn’t entirely sure what was causing it. So, it was hard to know what actions they could take to ameliorate the situation but clearly something needed to be done.
The JAs didn’t realise it, but they weren’t the only ones struggling to cope with the Genii trials. Tempers were raw among the military personnel and even more explosive with the scientists who didn’t have much experience dealing with the aftereffects of violence. Although the long termers in Atlantis had been exposed to more violence, death, and danger than the average geeks, they still lacked effective coping mechanisms and there were more recent arrivals who were even less experienced in dealing with their emotions. This was partly why it was easy to focus their feelings of rage at the judge advocates who’d been sent to Atlantis to do their job. But antagonism directed at the lawyer’s wasn’t the only consequence of people’s short tempers and stress.
Capt. Cadman and Alex were both quick to report a definite increase in them being called out to contain altercations. Arguments frequently led to screaming matches and even scuffles when anger boiled over, and punches were thrown. Couples fought, even those people who were normally happy and harmonious and some even split up, fighting over petty things that normally would be laughed off. For those in already strained relationships, petty fights quickly escalated to violence and several people had been charged already, with several more couples likely to be when they had the time to investigate properly. Even petty crimes such as destruction of property and public drunkenness escalated and kept Fornell, Tony and Cadman constantly run off their feet, trying to maintain law and order.
Colonel Lorne reported that the infirmary was kept busy patching up minor bumps, cuts, abrasions, and the odd concussion from all the skirmishes that had been taking place. Plus, people were queuing up wanting sleeping pills due to not being able to sleep, which also saw a marked increase in minor injuries due mostly to poor concentration or sleep deprivation, such as sprained wrists and ankles from slips and falls. Dr Keller and the other doctors and nurses also reported a dramatic rise in stress-related maladies such as tension headaches and migraines. Dr O’Shea reported similar levels of increased stress in her clients which included complaints of insomnia, nightmares, generalised anxiety, and difficulties in controlling anger.
Alex said, “To be honest, I’m not exactly surprised by the fact that the personnel are finding this all so stressful. The truth is that John Sheppard wasn’t the only victim of the Genii abduction and while the city has slowly been healing, along with her commanding officer, the trials have ripped open everyone’s part-healed wounds.”
Henri AuClair looked thoughtful. “l never really stopped to look at it like that, he remarked. “I just realised that I should have asked Dr O’Shea to attend the meeting,” he admitted.
Alex agreed. “I think having Aoife’s thoughts on this wouldn’t hurt.”
Janus Progenius appeared. “Would you like for me to see if Dr O’Shea is busy and if not, ask if she could report to the conference room,” the AI said, wanting to help.
Despite being caught off guard by J.P.’s sudden appearance out of thin air, Henri nodded gravely. “That would be most appreciated Janae Progenius. Thank you.”
Tony wondered if it wouldn’t have been safer to have issued the invitation via Atlantis comms than having J.P. drop in uninvited on Aoife. He hoped that she and Chegwidden weren’t engaging in romantic adult activities which might lead to some very red faces. Even more disturbing was the thought of J.P. coming to him and asking explicit questions, always keen to increase his knowledge of human behaviour. The very last thing that Tony wanted to do was to have the birds and the bees talk with the ten-thousand-year-old artificial intelligence. He was still dreading having to do it at some point with Tali.
When J.P. reported back that she was reading a journal and would be along in a few minutes, he felt relieved. Somehow people had begun noticing that J.P. required explanations he usually looked to Tony to explain which could easily give people the wrong impression. That he was able to control J.P.’s behaviour, which was far from the truth, sometimes he could reason with the AI but often J.P. did want he wanted. Fortunately, when Aoife turned up five minutes later, she looked more amused than disgruntled about having J.P. just drop in on her, so he figured she really had been reading.
After they filled her in on the purpose of the meeting she nodded at Tony’s assessment. “I agree with Alex that the whole base has been traumatised by Colonel Sheppard’s abduction and torture, even though most people are not au fait with the degree of torture he endured. Most people on Atlantis, be they military or civilian are highly observant and very intelligent so they can see that he was badly abused. The fact that he still hasn’t been cleared for duty as yet is another clear indicator that what he went through was horrific,” she told AuClair.
He nodded seriously. “I can see that perhaps we’ve been rather blasé about the effects on them after he was found. Everyone was cognizant of the low morale on base before Agent Paddington was able to locate him…even Atlantis was deeply affected. We shouldn’t just assume all that trauma would simply disappear when he returned,” he said thoughtfully. “I guess my question to you, Dr O’Shea is, what should we do now?”
Aoife nodded in approval. “These are unchartered waters,” she said musingly. I think that we mustn’t underestimate the very close bonds that form out here so far from home. Colonel Sheppard had demonstrated undeniable bravery and a willingness to sacrifice himself to save his people which has translated into civilian and military personnel all holding him in the highest esteem. People are genuinely very fond of him, although he seems not to be aware of how much affection that people feel for him.”
Cadman nodded. “It is certainly unusual for Marines to hold an Air Force officer in such high esteem, but the Marines on Atlantis would follow him wherever he asked them to go because they have absolute faith that he wouldn’t ask anything of them that he wasn’t prepared to do himself.”
Lorne nodded too. “I agree that Marines are pretty hard to impress,” he said with a crooked smile at the red-haired Marine. “I’d also point out that another reason why the Marines would go wherever he asked them to is because they know that he will go to the ends of the universe to bring them back home.”
Aoife looked intrigued. “And therein may be another issue at play here. Guilt that we weren’t able to bring him home until a rank outsider turned up and found him relatively easily.”
Tony objected, “It was far from easy, Aoife. It took a lot of painstaking investigation, experience, and training. Plus, I had help,” he looked pointedly at both Cadman and Lorne.”
Aoife grinned at him as she said, “Oh, I know that, Alex. But to the average person on Atlantis, it did seem as if you were some sort of magician – able to do what a whole base failed to achieve. And I think that we need to factor that into the unrest and volatility of our people, because you have become associated with saving Colonel Sheppard in many peoples’ minds.”
“Great, so now I’m the Sheppard Finder,” Alex mumbled under his breath, somewhat disgruntled. He knew that Atlantis favoured him for this very reason…and his Ancient genes, but he had spent too long having to hide his talents when he worked at NCIS and wanted more than that now.
“Hey, better than the B for Bastard Whisperer or his Loyal St Bernard,” Fornell teased him sotto voce, having been mostly silent through the meeting, still finding his feet in this new environment yet gratified to see how well the younger agent had adapted to it.
Alex pulled a wry face. He preferred none of them, but Toby was right, Sheppard Finder was probably the least offensive.
Aoife had been watching the exchange between the pair in amusement before returning to her treatise. “Then two outsiders come along and try to attack your credibility and have you removed from your position, and they see it as an attack on one of their own – someone who saved the Commanding Officer. No wonder they feel so hostile to the judge advocates, especially the ones who through the toss of a coin, decide who will have the unfortunate task of defending and trying free the mercenaries who almost killed John Sheppard.”
“Okay, when you put it that way, Dr O’Shea it goes a long way to explaining how we find ourselves in this powder keg. Perhaps it would be useful for you and me to get together with the JAGs, Admiral Chegwidden and General Santiago and brief them on your thoughts about what’s going on here and what we need to do to ameliorate it,” Henri said.
Aoife deliberately avoided making eye contact with Alex who was staring down at the table trying hard not to chuckle. “I think that would be beneficial, Ambassador and I’ll offer to hold a couple of debrief sessions for the judge advocates if the JAGs agree. I think they must be feeling angry and betrayed by their colleagues too.”
They continued to talk in a desultory fashion, everyone agreeing that they needed to move on from what happened but that wasn’t possible until the trials were out of the way. Therefore, they needed the trials over and done with and the culprits locked up as soon as possible. Yes, the city was hurting, which was why they’d come up with the plan of providing diversionary therapy, hoping it would relieve people’s stress levels and lower the emotional tone of the city which according to Janae Progenius, was incendiary.
Col Lorne looked at Cadman, remarking that while trivia nights and talent shows were good diversionary activities, they didn’t do a lot to get rid of the simmering rage. It was agreed that they would sentence people who were caught fighting to physical conditioning sessions on the mainland and the dreaded hand-to-hand combat training Pegasus style. Plus, they would run paintball games, also on the mainland, plus capture the flag competitions for all military personnel to take part in before they got into trouble. Aoife seconded the idea, saying that getting rid of pent-up anger and hostility through intense physical activity was a good idea, but it still left the civilians at a loose end. Everyone looked at Henri who grinned and said he would make it mandatory for non-military personnel to take part in a daily 45 minutes of martial arts or take part in the military games. Any civilians fighting would see them sent on the early morning runs undertaken by Ronon, Hotch and Alex which were usually eight miles around Atlantis and included quite a few flights of stairs. Everyone grinned at that, because a lot of the scientists were not huge fans of running and it hopefully would make them stop and think before they took a swing at someone.
Fornell offered to take offenders into the ring and let them work off their aggression with appropriate headgear and gloves and Aoife offered to run Taekwondo sessions as well. Everyone thought that their new plan of attack would hopefully go a long way to reducing hostility towards the judge advocates and the rogue Genii who were being held in the detention centre. Cadman suggested that the judge advocates should also be offered an opportunity to take part in the military games so perhaps some could be scheduled at a weekend which everyone agreed was a good idea.
Hopefully between the diversionary and cathartic activities they now had planned, the seething mass of emotions would subside. Then they could focus all their energies on getting the Genii out of the city and handed over to the Hebridians who would take them to the Milky Way for imprisonment.
~oOo~
Ambassador Auclair was relieved when the State Department and the POTUS, in consultation with the British Prime Minister and their Foreign and Commonwealth Office, had decided to try Lance Corp Joseph Favre under the British Service Justice System (SJS) as he was a serving member of the British Army. Although not for much longer, General Santiago had quipped to A.J. who’d agreed with the Air Force JAG. With the weight of evidence against him, courtesy of excellent investigative work by Paddington, Lorne, and Cadman, Favre’s goose was well and truly cooked.
The truth was though, that the trials into the rogue Genii underlings were still underway, and with everyone beyond tired, having a major case like Favre’s to have to prepare for would mean a lot of extra work. The judge advocates were all looking forward to heading back home at the end of the Genii trials and back to their lives again. While the animosity towards them by the residents (military and civilian) in the aftermath of Vukovic and Mayfield’s betrayal had settled down somewhat, they had all been tarred with the same brush to some extent.
Everyone on Atlantis felt relieved that the trial would take place back on Earth, at the SCG, giving them a short respite from having strangers in the city. After the volatility. in part due to the failed attempt to get rid of Agent Paddington, Henri was happy that he and the other witnesses were going to be permitted to give their testimony via video. And yes, it was a somewhat complex operation to set it up, having to use the 304s halfway between Atlantis, Midway and Cheyenne Mountain as relays but it was well worth the headache. He really didn’t trust the SCG to keep Alex safe and Dr DeRosa had also been reticent about having to return to the SCG and have to confront Lance Corporal Favre.
Plus, the British Service Justice system was not a part of the military so the barristers who prosecuted and defended Favre weren’t military – they were civilians. While the current Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forces in the UK was a Commodore of the Royal Navy, it wasn’t a prerequisite. This meant that the barristers taking part would not necessarily qualify for top-secret security clearance, making it problematic to hold the trial on Atlantis. And for that, Henri was extremely grateful.
~o0o~
General O’Neill was on an extended trip to Atlantis following the debacle with the former Judge Advocates, Vukovic and Mayfield, plus checking on the progress of the Homeworld team on Balara. Knowing he really needed to get back to Homeworld Command and check out what was going on back home he’d volunteered to fly the eight judge advocates and the Air Force Judge Advocate General back to Cheyenne Mountain. There was only so much that could be conveyed via the weekly data bursts, consisting of mainly the big-ticket items but there were a hundred and one other projects and ongoing investigations that he needed to have oversight on too. He also needed to report to the POTUS regarding the situation with the secret military trials of Vukovic and Mayfield and the top-secret military detention centre they were currently being held in, following their Bad Conduct Discharge from the Navy, one that Harry Maybourne, Clare Tobias, Neuman and Makepeace had all been acquainted with.
He also was hoping that the President had made good on his promise to extract retribution for those three bozos who had almost cost Atlantis their Associate Director of the ISBI. It was highly probable that Earth would facing a grave threat to turn its own people into mindless zombies if the plan by Ambassador Shen came to fruition had Paddington hadn’t discovered the massive coverup and it was highly unlikely that the zombification would have stopped on Earth. The rest of the Milky Way, fresh from defending themselves from the Ori, would likely have been the next targets on the eight billion people on Planet Earth had been zombified. Any wonder Jack was eternally grateful for Paddington’s fortuitous arrival that had uncovered the conspiracy while they still had an excellent shot of circumventing it.
Then there was the ever-present battle to unmask the Trust, which was a constant thorn in Homeworld Command’s side, infiltrating the SGC and the IOA, not to mention the NID and various other US intelligence agencies. There were also ongoing threats to other governments and their security agencies from the internecine and seemingly indestructible toxic entity known as the Trust, which honestly was the bane of Homeworld Command’s existence. Every damned time they thought that they’d finally destroyed the Trust, like when they believed that they tracked down every single Baal clone and exterminated them, the Trust popped right back up again, stronger than ever. It was disheartening, to say the least!
Another thing on Jack’s agenda was to get a sitrep on the whole fucked up situation and where things were at with Ziva David’s rise from the dead, and her prodigal-like return to NCIS. He was not willing to underestimate the former Mossad officer’s potential to cause a complete and utter SNAFU in her attempt to locate her daughter and her ex-partner. Plans were already in place to use her as bait, since they’d long ago profiled that once she completed whatever her business was that brought her back to DC, she would start tracking down DiNozzo and her daughter using her network of kosher and decidedly dodgy contacts.
Since she had amply demonstrated in the assassination of Ilan Bodnar for the suspected crime of killing her father, she would not rest until she achieved her goal, regardless of who she had to burn to succeed. Jack after studying her file, had swiftly concluded he’d much prefer to be the puppet master controlling her ‘hunt’ rather than trying to head her off. Should she become convinced that DiNozzo was deliberately hiding Tali from her, he knew she would pull out all the stops, calling in all her markers and basically would not rest until she found the daughter, she’d abandoned to go off chasing her archenemies. He was sure that she was sublimely confident that her actions were totally justified.
While it was extremely unlikely that she would be able to discover where the Paddingtons were now, it wasn’t impossible, particularly if she should team up with the Trust. And that was something he wouldn’t discount if she decided it was necessary to achieve her goal. But it was completely unrealistic to think she would be able to reach Atlantis, unless something completely catastrophic occurred like the Earth ended up zombified by that damned MCD –238β compound, which if he had anything to say about it was practically zilch. Still, she could definitely endanger them both in their new lives by trying to locate them and Jack was not willing to tolerate that, not even if Ziva was the reincarnation of Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama – which she most certainly was not! That meant managing the situation as aggressively as possible and he needed to assign someone to supervise the Op he’d code-named Wild Geese.
Jack was seriously contemplating using NID Special Agent Bates, having him seconded to Homeworld Command. As Paddington had pointed out, the man was a bulldog once he latched onto a theory, and he was immune to overtures by the Trust in the past when other agents had succumbed way too easily.
Chapter 2
The first of the four major trials, that of Lance Corporal Joseph Favre was about to begin. It had been decided after due consultation with the UK Judge Advocate General of the Armed Forced (JAGOF), Commodore James Blaxland, that it didn’t need to take place on Atlantis and as such, a floor of the Cheyenne Mountain complex in Colorado Springs had been dedicated to their needs. General O’Neill had decided to borrow level fourteen from NORAD (North American Aerospace Defence Command) to conduct the trial. They’d all agreed that the Lance Corporal should be tried for his considerable crimes under the justice system of his own military.
The only problem was the truly classified nature of where he’d been serving and the crimes he’d committed whilst on Atlantis. While the SJS was the basis for the disciplining of the British Armed Forces, the Judge Advocate General was the Judicial Head of the Service Courts, and the team of Assistant Judge Advocates General (A-JAGs) were civilian judges. They were appointed to the role from the ranks of seasoned barristers and solicitors just as Circuit Judges were selected by the Crown. As such, they’re being civilians created a quandary for the powers that be, since it was infinitely less problematic to try a felon in a trial where highly classified information was involved if the lawyers involved all had top-secret security clearances. With military lawyers, Top-Secret security clearance was a much more likely scenario, plus they were usually vetted but in this instance, only the JAG, Commodore Blaxland had formerly served in the Royal Navy and possessed an appropriate security clearance to be read in on the Stargate Program and the situation with L. Corp Favre when they needed a warrant to arrest him.
It was decided that he would preside over the trial, not just due to its classified nature but also because of the seriousness of the charges. Should Favre be found guilty or decide to plead guilty, the sentence would be draconian, not only because the crime was treason but because of the classified nature of the whole sordid affair. Commodore Blaxland had decreed that all of the classified information should be redacted and that the trial could also take video testimony by various witnesses including FBI federal agent, Alexander Paddington, Head of Base Security Laura Cadman, Dr Francesca De Rosa, Dr O’Shea and the IOA Representative and attorney, Richard Woolsey via video link, although Woolsey had decided to give evidence in situ. That meant the witnesses on Atlantis could be deposed and could testify without having to leave Atlantis and travel back to Earth and had proved to be popular with everyone involved.
Due to the serious nature of the trial, Admiral Chegwidden had opted to return to Cheyenne Mountain to attend the trial and assist in any way needed. Of course, A.J. had privately admitted to Alex that he was also curious to observe the trial processes of the British SJS. Plus, General O’Neill had tasked him with another secret errand that was going to cause a few raised eyebrows both in the Pentagon and back on Atlantis and had sworn him and Atlantis’ psychologist to secrecy.
It was ironic that his lover was the only other Atlantean who knew what was planned, since Jack had no clue that they were together, only Alex had glommed onto the fact almost from their first night of passion. Admittedly, an awful lot was happening, both on Atlantis and back on Earth that had Jack laser-focused on attending to it, but he was sure to be embarrassed when they finally announced their relationship. A.J. wasn’t sure if it was because of Alex’s prior awareness of his reputation as a lady’s man during his first tenure as JAG or Alex’s own experience which was rumoured to be extensive. It could even be that he had one helluva talent for reading people, which was probably closer to the truth. Still, there were going to be a few red faces when he and Aoife formally announced that they were moving in together when he returned to Atlantis which he now considered to be home.
As the reappointed Naval JAG and his peer Brig Gen Marc Santiago sat in what was commonly considered to be the public seating area, although the court martial was not open to all and sundry, they watched as the SGC SFs escorted the prisoner in and took up positions where they could maintain guard over L Corp Favre. Seated directly behind them was Major Ayesha Khan, the newly installed resident Judge Advocate for Stargate Command. Admiral Chegwidden and Generals O’Neill and Santiago had agreed with Paddington’s suggestion that the Stargate program was large enough to warrant a resident lawyer stationed at Cheyenne Mountain but able to flit between SGC, Atlantis and Area 51 as required to handle routine cases. Jack thought it was a brilliant idea and awesome utilisation of the resources since Major Khan was already screened and read in on the Stargate. Of the five Air Force JAs and three Navy JAs who’d conducted the rebel Genii military trials, Major Khan had ended up with the unanimous support of all the two Generals and a navy flag officer.
Having gotten up to speed on this trial, she’d requested special permission to sit in on Favre’s court martial hearing, as curious as Admiral Chegwidden and General Santiago were to watch the British version of military justice.
Chegwidden had watched tapes of the interrogation of L Corp Favre by Alex Paddington, and despite having worked with Paddington much earlier in his career, he was in awe of the man’s sheer brilliance. He’d witnessed the arrogance of the corporal at the start of the questioning on Midway II and how the sneering and confident body language had been apparent from the start, convinced that he was facing charges of domestic abuse of his former lover, Dr Francesca De Rosa. However, when faced with the reality that his treason had been discovered, he swiftly lost his smug air of complacency. Paddington had delivered a master class in how to wipe the sneer right off the little twerp’s features and by the time the veteran agent was done wiping the floor with him, Favre was a sobbing mess of tears, snot, pitifully begging for mercy. As a defence attorney it was a disaster for Favre, as a prosecutor, it was a thing of beauty!
A.J. watched as the defendant made his way into the court, three and a half months into his incarceration, the arrogant abusive little jerk seemed to have shrunk. He shuffled dejectedly rather than swaggered into the courtroom and his normal derisive manner had been replaced with a furtiveness, as he cast rapid glances around the courtroom. Since Alex and General O’Neill had insisted that the prisoner not be mistreated physically or psychologically, A.J. could only hazard a guess that the three months in high-security detention had caused the lance corporal to re-examine his future and reach some not-so-happy conclusions. Basically, he was pretty much screwed!
As Judge Advocate General Blaxland and his two Assistant Judge Advocates entered the courtroom, Marc exchanged an impressed glance at Chegwidden. The two barristers (Blaxland and the prosecutor) were turned out in black legal gowns with a sash called a tippet in army red with air-force blue and navy-blue borders. What was most striking, emphasising that this was not a US military or civilian trial was aside from the tippet, they all wore a bench wig on their heads. The female barrister for the defence who was a Queen’s Counsel (the elite amongst barristers) wore her own distinctive uniform that recognised her high status. It consisted of a short wig, wing collar, and bands and silk gown over a special court coat. A.J. had learnt that a Queen’s Counsel gown had given rise to the colloquial references to QCs as ‘silks’ and to the phrase ‘taking silk’ referring to their appointment. And yes, A.J. was forced to admit that the theatricality of the legal costumery lent a definite air of gravitas to the occasion, as did the solemnity of the trio, with an extra degree of weightiness that was often lacking in civilian trials. Chegwidden conceded that the Brits most definitely understood the power of pomp and ceremony in conveying the serious nature of what lay ahead.
Five male and female officers, all of the rank of major or above, and belonging to the Royal Marines or Royal Air Force, clad in dress uniform with chest candy proudly displayed and covers thrust under their left upper arms (even though they were inside) filed into the courtroom. All five of the officers’ eyes remained firmly fixed ahead of them; there was no rubbernecking or furtive peeking around the courtroom by these individuals as they marched in step towards the jury seating before turning a sharp ninety degrees and taking their seats as one. Again, it was an impressive display, meant to add to the seriousness of the court martial proceedings.
Considering the gravity of the charges it was fitting, A.J. felt and he could see that the atmosphere was weighing down upon the accused. Well good! Perhaps the seditious weasel might change his mind and plead guilty. They’d already told him that if he did so, there might be the chance of lenience one day when the Stargate Program became declassified, which given the number of people in the know was ultimately inevitable. They’d dangled the possibility of him being able to return to Earth to serve out his sentence if that were to happen, but the treasonous little prick had turned his nose up at the only concession that they’d been willing to offer him, and really, it wasn’t as if the lance corporal had anything of value to offer in return. So, it was almost a foregone conclusion that he would be sentenced to life imprisonment and serve it in a Hebridian prison where he would never get the chance to see his loved ones again.
The two US JAGs watched avidly as the five-person jury was duly sworn in and Commodore Blaxland gave instructions to the jury. In particular, he mentioned the highly classified nature of the trial. He also explained that much of the non-essential context, i.e., the location of the top-secret international military base, the identity of the insurgent mercenaries involved in one of the victim’s abduction, incarceration and torture and the other victim’s work on base had been deemed too sensitive for the trial. He reiterated that he had been read in on the highly classified information and agreed that it needed to be redacted and suppressed. Having perused all the relevant information personally, along with two US Judge Advocate Generals who presided over the trials for the insurgents, they had all signed sworn affidavits that the classified data was not only true but fully substantiated. He explained that the interrogation of L Corp Favre by the AFOSI Special Agent which would be entered into evidence during the proceedings, had to be edited to protect classified information and while the jurists were welcome to ask for clarifications, they may be refused access to extra details if they posed a risk to NatSec.
By the time James Blaxland finished instructing the jury, including informing the members that many of the witnesses would be appearing via video since they were stationed on a top-secret international military base which contained a contingent of civilian scientists contractors, the panel of three males and two females officers were sitting even more upright than before. It was apparent that while this court-martial was already taking place in the highly classified NORAD facility, a top-secret base with exhaustive operational security, it paled into insignificance to the court martial they were participating in. It was clear they were taking the responsibility of serving as jurists very seriously and the two US JAGs were gratified by that knowledge. Everyone vehemently desired that Joseph Favre would get his just deserts.
After Blaxland concluded his instructions to the jury, Favre’s Queens Counsel, Sheridah Wilmington QC, and the prosecutor, A-JA Ewin Morley addressed their opening remarks to the court. In this day and age, it was common practice for female attorneys/ solicitors to be sought out to defend males in rape, sexual crimes, and domestic violence cases. The subliminal message being portrayed was that the crimes were of misogyny and if the defendant committed said crimes he would never want a female lawyer to represent him, nor would a female attorney wish to defend such a vile feckless piece of shit. Therefore, if a highly professional and attractive and high-priced female chose to defend them, then they must be innocent of the crimes they’d been charged with, and the justice system had made a terrible and tragic mistake in charging them. The trouble with that overused ploy was that many jurors, particularly the females ones tended to see straight through that piece of manipulation, rendering it meaningless.
As A.J. listened to the two lawyers making their well-prepared and careful opening remarks he knew that Aoife was on standby to testify regarding the physical and psychologically abusive relationship of Francesca De Rosa PhD and the lance corporal. While she had been deposed already by the prosecution, it was almost certain that the defence would insist she testify so she could be cross-examined. The QC had zeroed in on the fact that Aoife was not a specialist in abusive relationships and probably thought that she would not hold up well to being cross-examined under oath. She was fishing to find out why Dr De Rosa was being treated by a generic psychologist and A-JA Ewin Morley objected.
“My Right Honourable colleague, Mrs Wilmington knows full well that the reason why Dr O’Shea is treating Dr De Rosa is classified since we already addressed this issue during the deposition of Dr O’Shea last month.”
Judge Blaxland concurred. “I must agree, Mrs Wilmington, having examined the records of those witness depositions, that this has already been dealt with. You don’t have the clearance to hear the classified information of why, and more importantly, it has no real relevance,” he told the Queen’s Council firmly.
“But your Honour, with all due respect, how can we be sure of that? How can the jury be sure of that,” she asked with a barely concealed grin because this was clearly going to be their defence.
Giving her a steely glare, Judge Blaxland volleyed back, “Because I have the security clearance and have been read in on the classified information and while I can confirm that it has significant national security ramifications, it is my learned opinion that it does not affect the basic tenets of the case against your client. I trust that you are not going to insinuate that I cannot be trusted to make such a determination, or that I am part of a massive conspiracy to railroad your client, Mrs Wilmington?”
While it was clear to Chegwidden that the QC would like to do exactly that, calling into question the verisimilitude of the Judge Advocate General, or indeed any judge presiding over the case you were going to try was nothing sort of professional suicide, and the QC bowed her head respectfully. “Of course, I would not dream of doing that, Your Honour,” she said with just the right amount of deference tinged with a minuscule note of cynicism.
If she wasn’t defending L Corporal Favre, a vile individual who’d betrayed his sworn oath by committing acts of treason, threatening the safety of Atlantis and the Pegasus galaxy, and harming Colonel Shepard and Dr De Rosa, then A.J. would feel some sympathy for the QC. He certainly didn’t envy Wilmington in her task, but given her client, all he could feel was schadenfreude. And yes, perhaps that made him a poor judge but then maybe it didn’t matter, since he wasn’t presiding over this court martial.
Meanwhile, Aoife was conducting herself admirably, refusing to be rushed or railroaded into saying anything that was even the slightest bit damaging to the case against Favre. She may present as benign and maternal, but she had a will of steel as he well knew. When it came to protecting her clients, he knew she was like a lioness and to have Dr De Rosa’s integrity questioned was bound to invoke her ire.
“Yes, I do believe that Dr De Rosa was naïve and way too trusting when the lance corporal rationalised his abuse as being typical of a BDSM relationship and she accepted his statements in good faith,” O’Shea said in her lilting Irish accent.
“But Dr O’Shea, I thought it was your testimony that Dr De Rosa was a much-vaunted molecular biologist,” Wilmington questioned in a quasi-reasonable tone of voice.
The Atlantis psychologist gave Wilmington her patented Dr Aoife clinical stare. Specifically, the one that said, do I look like I was born yesterday, Missy? She then proceeded to school the Queen’s Counsel that she wouldn’t permit her to trash her credibility by letting her play her little games.
“No, Mrs Wilmington, it was not. I said that Dr De Rosa was a world-renowned scientist, highly respected by her peers and exceptionally well-credentialed in her field of molecular biology. Much-vaunted gives the wrong impression, it implies that she was the subject of hype, bragging, and boastfulness without foundation and that is definitely not the case. Dr De Rosa has earned her enviable reputation by due to hard work, brilliant academic research, and impeccable credentials.”
Wilmington smiled humourless, before springing her trap. “My apologies, Doctor, but if Dr De Rosa is such a brilliant scientist, then how could she possibly be so incredibly naïve to not understand, if as you’ve testified, her relationship with my client was physically and psychologically abusive. Surely that is contradictory?”
Taking a sip of water as she framed her response, Aoife, began. “Well to the average individual off the street, I suppose they could be forgiven for thinking that, but the truth is that we’ve long ago come to recognise that a high intelligence quotient such as Dr De Rosa possesses does not equate to also having a high emotional intelligence. In fact, the inverse is frequently seen when working with brilliant scientists – the higher their intellect, often the poorer their social and emotional skills tend to be. Francesca’s emotional quotient or her EQ if you will, was severely lagging, making her easy prey for anyone to abuse her in a relationship.”
QC Wilmington was far too experienced to show her displeasure in not being able to gain the upper hand in their skirmish but after several more attempts to railroad the petite Irish woman and failing to land a blow, she hurriedly dismissed her from the stand. As the next witness FBI/AFOSI Agent Alex Paddington was called to the stand to testify and sworn in via video link, A.J. spared a few seconds to pity the defence barrister. He was a highly experienced witness, used to testifying, especially courts-martial. The Queen’s Counsel would not be able to impeach his testimony, Chegwidden thought gleefully.
As he was sworn in and A-JA Morley began taking him through the investigation into Colonel Sheppard’s disappearance, Chegwidden considered how well Alex testified in trials. Really, he was a dream witness, able to speak fluently without getting rattled. He stuck to unambiguous language, kept it respectful and didn’t try to make it sound like brain surgery. All of this endeared him to the jury, and he made a point of engaging the jury, using humour when appropriate, yet exuding just the right amount of gravitas to assure the judge and jury that he was a serious and dedicated professional. And he kept reiterating that the investigation had been a team effort. Chegwidden knew that people didn’t like arrogant asshats, so Alex’s personable nature was a boon to any prosecutor. Of course, cynics who didn’t know him might argue that the selflessness was a ploy to influence the jury but A.J. knew that Paddington really was a team player. He’d stayed on the MCRT for 15 years, playing second fiddle to a narcissistic bully, not getting the recognition due to him, even though he should have been leading a team of his own years ago.
He went on to describe how he’d developed a profile, then further narrowed down the search for the suspect with the assistance of Captain Cadman, head of base security. He believed that the suspect’s betrayal of Col Sheppard had been motivated by either revenge or jealousy and that was what they focused on, finding, and eliminating anyone who might feel a need to get even. He spoke about narrowing the search down to two individuals who fit the profile of suspects who blamed Col Sheppard when their relationships with their significant others ended. Alex outlined how the two females, a civilian and an Air Force pilot had been interviewed by himself and Aoife, which had resulted in charges being laid against L Corp Favre and a USMC sergeant for domestic violence against their ex-partners.
Having established that Favre was convinced that Col Sheppard had been having an affair with Dr De Rosa, despite her denials, he had decided to get rid of the man he blamed for Francesca’s perceived infidelity. Once they had narrowed down their suspect, it had been relatively easy to establish in all of the thousands of hours of security footage (that most people remained unaware of) to track L Corp Favre’s movements and gain rock-solid evidence that he had gained classified intel re AR1’s movements and their missions into enemy territory.
Chegwidden smiled at that phrase because Belkin wasn’t exactly enemy territory, but they could hardly explain it was a planet in another galaxy either. Moreover, every time a team went through the gate, there was the potential to encounter one or more of their enemies: Wraiths or their Wraith worshippers, Genii malcontents, the crazy faction of the now-extinct Thor’s branch of the Asgard, and who knows who else that had taken exception to the Ancient’s descendants from Earth. So technically, it might be stretching the facts a wee bit, but in reality, it wasn’t so far from the truth.
Hopefully, one day a permanent Tribunal could one day be established in Pegasus using a modernised revamp of the Ancients’ Code of Law. Dr Jackson had already seized upon that project, planning on having the modernised version ratified and adopted by all of the Atlantis allies. While several attempts had been made to do just that, it had never been all that fruitful since different planets had vastly different codes of law and order that were too disparate to work effectively. Now that they had acquired the Ancients’ rule of law, there was plenty of optimism that the nations and planets who made up the alliance would be willing to adopt the Ancestor’s (Ancients) code of conduct. It blew Chegwidden’s mind that the Ancients had created not only the Wraith in their gung-ho and intemperate pursuit of science without regard to consequence, but the nanite-based Asuran races if that wasn’t heinous enough when the results became too horrific to bear, they had done a mass bunk out, back to Earth, leaving the rest of the Pegasus to their fates and yet so many of those races still worshipped those beings. Many clung to the almost religious-like belief that the Ancestors would ultimately return and rescue Pegasus from the Wraith.
Meanwhile, Alex was explaining the photographic and video evidence they’d collected, and the prosecutor was submitting it into evidence of L Corp Favre illegally accessing and recording classified mission data about the AR1 team which Col Sheppard led. It was incredibly damning evidence and QC Wilmington had attempted and failed to have the evidence thrown out. Concerning the charges of treason, it was A.J.’s opinion that Favre’s goose was probably already cooked, and he thought the idiot should have listened to sound legal advice and pled guilty. Moving on, the AFOSI/ FBI agent explained how the lance corporal, who as a radar operator had no business accessing teams’ upcoming mission data had been arrested and initially charged under section 23 of the Armed Forces Act ~ Disgraceful conduct of a cruel or indecent kind, pertaining to Dr Francesca De Rosa as he outlined the formidable array of evidence to be used in the interrogation to discover who had abducted Col Sheppard.
Briefly, he spoke about the interview, how he’d informed Joseph Favre of the weighty list of additional military charges he was now facing, which was also tabled into evidence and the various statements given by his friends and colleagues attesting to his conviction that Col John Sheppard was having a sexual relationship with Favre’s girlfriend, Dr Francesca De Rosa and his vow to make Sheppard pay.
A-JA Ewin Morley asked. “And at this point, you began to question L Corp Favre about who he’d given the classified intel about AR-1’s mission to?”
“No Sir, I did not. I pretended to terminate the interrogation.”
“I don’t understand. Why would you do that when you needed to know who had taken Col Sheppard. Surely the whole point of the interrogation at that point was to find out who had taken him,” the prosecutor pressed the federal agent.
“Oh absolutely, but the quickest way of getting that information was to make him think that I believed that John Sheppard was dead and so he had nothing with which to leverage against us by way of getting charges dropped in return for information. Mr Woolsey, who was acting as his legal advocate was trying to argue the case for him to receive mitigation and I simply expressed my opinion that if Col Sheppard was already dead after five months in captivity, then the information about who took him was worthless to me. I told him that I’d rather ensure that he receive the full weight of the law for the crimes that he’d committed, and we’d catalogued his actions comprehensively.”
“I see, so it was a ploy?” Morley stated.
“Yes, it was, up to a point, although statistically, the odds of him still being alive were indeed minuscule. I did want the information about who he’d betrayed AR-1’s mission details to but I didn’t want to reward treasonous behaviour to acquire it. Once the lance corporal thought he didn’t have the leverage to blackmail me with, he panicked and blurted out that Col Sheppard was alive, who had taken him and where they were hiding out.”
“So, he didn’t volunteer the information about the victim out of a sense of remorse, in your opinion?”
Agent Paddington gave a cynical little smirk. “No remorse, just a well-honed sense of self-preservation, in my opinion.”
“And you can swear that the defendant was read his rights, including his right not to self-incrimination?”
“Yes, twice.”
“I beg your pardon. Can you be a little more specific,” Morley requested of the witness.
“Absolutely. He was read his rights when he was first charged under section 23 of the Armed Forces Act ~ Disgraceful conduct of a cruel or indecent kind, pertaining to Dr Francesca De Rosa. He was also advised of his rights by myself before my interview of him began, right before I advised him of the additional charges he was facing.”
“I understand that a well-respected lawyer, Richard Woolsey was present on both occasions and has signed a sworn affidavit about ensuring the defendant was read his legal rights. Is that correct?”
“It is. Mr Woolsey is very big on crossing his Ts and dotting all the I’s. However,” Alex said with a knowing look at the defence table where Sheridah Wilmington and L Corporal Favre sat, he said helpfully, “I’m sure that the defendant’s QC will have reservations about accepting our word, so we can view the portion of the video recording where I advised him of his rights.”
A-JA Morley nodded. “You read my mind, Agent Paddington,” he smiled as they proceeded to cue up the AV equipment to play the relevant section to the jury.
A.J. exchanged a meaningful look with JAG General Santiago. It was fairly obvious this was a setup but apart from quieting any doubts that Favre had been railroaded, it was sheer genius to show portions of the interview. Especially since to begin with, the lance corporal had started out acting belligerent and was exceedingly arrogant. He’d clearly been utterly unrepentant, and that would reflect badly on the jury’s impression of him which the defence was trying hard to rehabilitate. Kudos to the prosecution!
Chegwidden watched as Paddington professionally conducted the interview, advising the defendant of his rights and then proceeding to advise Favre of the additional charges before seeming to conclude the formalities. Obviously, they had to edit out the part where Alex had discussed how Favre could serve multiple life sentences if found guilty of the charges due to their allies finding the Ancient progenitor of the Goa’uld sarcophagus since that was classified. It picked up where Richard Woolsey was arguing with Paddington, trying to persuade him into seeking data on Col Sheppard’s whereabouts. Alex’s furiously impassioned response that was between himself and the lawyer was highly dramatic and reminded A.J. of that infamous line in the Jack Nickolas movie A Few Good Men where he yells, ‘You can’t handle the truth.’
When Alex professed that Sheppard was dead and he wanted Joseph Favre to serve the maximum time possible, the now desperate lance corporal, knowing they had him dead to rights had blurted out the information they desperately needed to rescue the Atlantis CO. It was a truly beautiful piece of interrogation, made even more delicious since it was clear as mud that the IOA attorney had been the unwitting dupe in tricking Favre into revealing the vital intel that saved a perilously injured Colonel Sheppard from dying at the hands of his Genii captors. It was a beautiful piece of theatre!
The rest of Alex’s testimony was somewhat mundane after that, even with the bare-bones account of his minor part in the rescue of John Sheppard. He and the prosecutor were tying up any loose ends in an expert and understated manner, which was completely at odds with the manic fury he’d briefly displayed during his argument with Woolsey.
“Your Honour, the prosecution has no further questions for this witness,” A-JA addressed the Judge deferentially.
Commodore Blaxland nodded. “Very well, then Mrs Wilmington may begin her cross-examination.”
Off camera, there seemed to be a disturbance with muffled voices in the background before Alex Paddington’s professional mien dropped away to show an expression of pure fear.
“Excuse me Your Honour, but I must respectfully request permission to postpone the rest of my testimony until tomorrow. I’ve just received word that my daughter has had an accident and my presence is required at the base infirmary asap.”
“Do you know the nature of the injury,” Judge Blaxland enquired, reluctant to disrupt the trial. “And may I ask how old is your daughter?”
“She is four years old and no, I don’t know the extent of her injury,” he said, his face conveying his genuine anxiety. “And I am a single parent, your honour,” he told the Judge Advocate General.
Sighing in reluctance Blaxland told him, “Very well, Special Agent Paddington. The court excuses you from completing your testimony today but please advise us as soon as you can about when you’ll be able to resume testifying and I hope that it isn’t anything too serious.”
Nodding briefly, Alex replied, “Understood, Your Honour. Thank you for your forbearance.” Giving a brief finger swipe across his neck gesture to someone off-camera, indicating the video link should be cut, the screen went to blue with the NORAD logo prominently displayed, continuing the fiction that whatever this top-secret program was, it was a sub-shoot of NORAD.
Addressing Sheridah Wilmington directly, His Honour remarked, “I’m going to pause the proceedings briefly to allow the next witness to be called to the stand. Unfortunately, you are unable to cross-examine Agent Paddington today, but I’m sure you agree that family comes first. The court will recess for fifteen minutes,” Commodore Blaxland ruled, wielding his gavel dextrously.
The QC was visibly frustrated, things were definitely not going her way. And while she seemingly accepted that it wasn’t some performative piece of theatre, nonetheless, A.J. knew that the interruption to her cross-exam was unfortunate for the defence. He recognised that it had helped paint a highly sympathetic picture of the witness she was going to do her best to impugn. Really, she had no choice but to try to attack him, but his credibility factor had just skyrocketed exponentially – single father, four-year daughter, rushing to be by his injured child’s side. Could it get any more Waltons Family if they’d tried to engineer it?
A.J. just hoped that Belle would be okay.
~o0o~
As soon as the video link to the court martial of Favre was severed, Janae Progenius materialised. Several days ago, he had changed his avatar yet again to the operations officer, Ensign Harry Kim from the Voyager crew. The AI program decided that while in many ways J.P. had a lot in common with the character Tuvok, he felt it was limiting his personal growth. Since the Kim character was supposed to be somewhat naïve and green, in many ways Tony thought it seemed to be a better fit, even if J.P. was ten thousand years old.
Seeing J.P., Alex demanded. “Do you know anything about what happened to Belle?”
Nodding, J.P. replied. “Belle was climbing on the jungle gym after lunch when she slipped and fell. She landed with her right arm underneath her and fractured her arm. Her teacher put it in a sling and carried her to the infirmary.”
Tony sighed in relief, a simple childhood accident, not some terrible attack by a Trust spy. “Has she any other injuries,” he enquired as he left the communications room they’d created so that Atlantis personnel could give video testimony in L Corp Favre’s court martial hearing, making a beeline to the infirmary.
“I do not believe so, although she was still undergoing an examination by Dr Beckett when I left to alert you. She is quite upset and requesting your presence, although I am unclear as to why. You are not a doctor so you cannot help.”
Tony shook his head. “No, but I am her father, and children when they are scared, hurt or sick want a parent or caregiver to comfort them. Particularly if they end up in the hospital, which can be a scary place, even for adults.”
J.P. processed what he had been told and then nodded. “I see. So, you provide emotional healing?”
Smirking briefly, Tony exited the transporter and headed down the corridor to the infirmary. “That’s the plan,” he said before slipping inside, wincing as the sound of Belle’s sobbing ripped at his heartstrings.
“Hey Baby, Papa’s here,” he announced soothingly as he made his way into the examination cubical.
Cassie was there, holding the child’s uninjured hand and she, like Belle relaxed visibly as they realised he’d arrived. Stepping aside she made room for Tony who moved in and scooped the child into his arms as she sobbed, but this time it was essentially cathartic tears before they diminished, settling into stuttered breathing before she finally dozed off in sheer exhaustion.
Beckett gazed at his small patient fondly. “The poor wee yin. She’s cried herself out. Perhaps it would be a good time to discuss her injury while she’d taking a much-needed nap, Agent Paddington?”
“Go ahead but I’m staying put,” he replied, since Tali was clinging to him tenaciously, even in her sleep. If he attempted to move her, she would undoubtedly startle, and he preferred for her to rest while they talked.”
“Aye, I can see that,” Carson said with a hint of mirth in his voice. “Well, the good news is that it’s a simple break of the ulna which is one of the two bones between the wrist and the upper arm,” Carson told the worried father.
Tony nodded, even though having studied physiology and anatomy as part of his sports science degree, he was well acquainted with parts of the body. Not to mention that he’d broken his ulna, radius, humerus, scapula, and clavicle at least once as a kid, during his time as a Buckeye or later as a cop, then a federal agent. But being undercover meant that he needed to keep those details secret and act clueless.
“So, the ulna, is that the smaller of the two bones, the one that lies on the same side as the thumb, he asked, knowing perfectly well it wasn’t?
“Nay, Laddie,” Beckett said. “That would be the radius except it is shorter than the ulna. Anyway,” he said, “it’s a clean break that should be simple enough to reduce without much fuss. It won’t need surgery, just a simple sedation to realign the bones so it mends properly then I’ll put a cast on it.”
Cassie asked, “Why not get Vala to heal Belle with the Goa’uld healing device?”
Carson shook his head. “I did consider it Lass, but Vala is off world with Dr Jackson. They are visiting Todraeya and likely won’t be back for several days at least. I understand that General O’Neill can use the device for less complex injuries, but he is back on Earth coordinating the trial of that jobbie.”
Staring down at the sleeping child, Cassie muttered, “Well that sucks. Sam can use it too but she’s not here either.”
“So, Alex, do you give consent to me setting and casting Belle’s wrist,” Carson asked.
Tony nodded. “Yeah, do I need to sign something?”
“I’ll get the forms and what I need. I know that on her medical records, it states that she has no know allergies to drugs but I’m just double checking if that is the case.”
“No, as far as I know, she has no allergies but I’m sensitive to a lot of pain meds.”
“I’ll keep that in mind, Laddie. I’ll be back in a bit, and you can sign the consent form,” Carson said, slipping out of the exam cubical.
Notes:
Queens Counsel – the highest level of barrister in Britain and is referred to as a Queen’s Counsel during Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. After he dearth and the ascent to the throne of King Charles III, they are referred to as King’s Counsel.
Jobbie – British slang for a lump of excrement
Chapter 3
An hour later, Tali was sleeping off the sedation her arm set and sporting a lime green cast on her arm when Aoife dropped by to check up on them. While the child was sleeping peacefully, Tony looked rough, despite being clad in an expensive suit and shirt. She knew he’d been testifying before Belle hurt herself and clearly hadn’t taken time out to change.
“How are you doing, Alex? You are looking a bit peaked if you don’t mind me saying so,” she asked sympathetically.
Carson chuckled, having arrived to hear her appraisal. “That’s exactly what I said,” he proffered.
Tony rolled his eyes. “No, it wasn’t, Carson. You told me, and I quote, ‘Yer lookin’ a bit peely wally, Laddie,’ which for the record, is nothing like what Aoife just said.”
“Close enough,” he told the stressed father cheerfully, giving him a friendly pat on the shoulder.
“Okay, gentlemen, can we focus here. Are you alright, Alex,” Aoife demanded.
“I’m fin…” he stopped himself from completing the sentence, knowing it would invoke the wrath of the feisty psychologist. “I mean I’m coping,” he demurred, only just managing to catch his faux pas in the nick of time. During their counselling sessions he’d gotten into hot water over his cavalier use of the phrase, ‘I’m fine.’ In fact, O’Shea had prohibited him from using it because it was meaningless.
The sassy Irish woman raised her left eyebrow, tilting her head to the side, to indicate she was aware that he’d nearly slipped but chose to refrain from commenting.
“But,” she questioned him, pointedly, knowing he was editing his answer and she wanted the unamended version. She also understood that he did it instinctively, used to downplaying his thoughts, feelings, and physical status, mostly often unaware of what he was doing. They were focused on it, trying to instil a mindfulness in him regarding his own needs, and were not always successful. Alex had been invested in keeping other people happy for far too long which inevitably led to him downplaying his own needs. It wasn’t healthy but it was hard breaking the habits of a lifetime.
Sighing long-sufferingly, he tried to frame his thoughts and emotions, finally offering, “When Dr Beckett set her ulna I felt nauseous and wanted to puke my guts up. I can handle my own pain. It goes with the job, but I can’t handle seeing Belle suffering,” he said in a moment of complete honesty as he stroked the sleeping child’s hair. “Her suffering hurts me a lot more.”
O’Shea tossed him a sympathetic look but said nothing. Tony was glad she hadn’t resorted to handing out some trite phrase like, ‘Welcome to parenthood’ but Carson wasn’t as discerning, unfortunately.
He chuckled. “It must have been traumatic for you during Belle’s birth then. Did you faint, Laddie?”
To be honest, Tony had forgotten he was there when he articulated his feelings to Aoife. Still off balance from the frank admission, he slipped and said, “I wasn’t there,” before realising what he’d just revealed. Luckily his psychologist saw his look of panic and stepped up to have his six.
“One of the disadvantages of being a cop, I’d imagine. Work getting in the way of family.”
Carson nodded. “Aye, same with doctors too, hard to make plans or have a life.”
Nodding weakly in agreement, Tony looked at Aoife, sending her a look and mouthing, ‘thanks’ in acknowledgement.
He needed to stay focused and not let his guard down again because their security was at stake. It wasn’t that he distrusted Beckett exactly, but he also didn’t trust him either. And perhaps it was unfair to blame Clone Beckett for what the original Beckett had done, they did share the same DNA. Original Beckett had demonstrated an astonishing degree of poor judgement after all. Not just the whole debacle with the Hoff and their ’virus’ but then not learning from the fiasco before plunging headlong into the idiocy with the Wraith into hybrid-humans that was a catastrophe costing hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. But even apart from those horrifying “feats” Tony couldn’t help remembering that Original Beckett had refused to terminate Dr Girard’s pregnancy after being raped by Lucius Lavin. Now maybe Clone Beckett would have done things differently, in light of the blood that the original Carson had on his hands but who knows how he might react.
Tony sure as hell didn’t and while Carson was a colleague, he would never truly trust him. Particularly when it came down to something as crucial as his daughter’s security.
~o0o~
The next morning after enduring a broken night’s sleep caused by Tali waking up in pain, plus the sedation having disrupted her routine, he dropped her off to class. He suggested that she stay home today but that proposal had been met with an instant refusal since she was eager to show off her brand-new cast. He finally learnt that Felix had claimed that boys were much better climbers than girls and so she felt compelled to challenge him and Torren to a race to see who could get to the top of the jungle gym first. Although she managed to reach the top a fraction before Felix who apparently could climb like a monkey, climbing down, Tali had been cocky, taunting her two classmates because she beat them. Losing her focus for a split second had been all it took for her to go plummeting to the ground and even with the soft rubber flooring, she’d managed to land with her arm scrunched up underneath her.
Deciding he would call into her classroom after he’d finished giving his abortive evidence in the court martial of L Corp Favre to see if she needed to go home, he made his way down to the witness testimony room they’d set up for the trial. He’d already notified the JAG, Commodore Blaxland of his availability and he was advised that after finishing up Richard Woolsey’s testimony, they would commence his cross-examination. He knew that after he’d been called away yesterday when Tali hurt herself that Laura had also been called in to give evidence. Since her testimony was basically reiterating what he had already given evidence about regarding the investigation and the interrogation of Favre, she finished after several hours.
It seemed that Woolsey, who had returned to the SGC for the court martial hearing, had been called to testify next. His part in the trial should be fairly brief – having taken part in the initial arrest and charging of Favre back on Earth and then sitting in as his legal representative during the interrogation that Tony conducted on Midway Station II. Settling in for what he doubted would be a long wait, he picked up his computer tablet and started working on one of the never-ending reports that he was required to write and file.
After ending his testimony hours later, he headed towards Tali’s classroom to check in on his daughter. As he expected, the excitement of showing off her cast combined with the poor night’s sleep left her tired and out of sorts. Cassie jumped at the suggestion he should take her home and after a quick snack, he suggested she take a nap. He made up a soft nest of blankets and pillows on the sofa and put on a DVD, knowing she probably wouldn’t make it even part way through, before making a cup of coffee for himself. He was having difficulty staying awake too.
As he sipped his coffee, a rarity for him these days, since he didn’t need to use it to help him stay awake for 40-hour marathon stretches since leaving the MCRT, he worked methodically, completing most of his reports while Tali slept. After two hours snuggled up on the sofa, he knew that he needed to wake her soon but decided to let her sleep a little bit longer. Much longer and she would have problems going to sleep at her normal time tonight.
Just as he started on the final report, Fornell contacted him via comms to give him a status report on the security check they were running on the latest bunch of transfers to arrive on Atlantis. So far, they’d identified eighteen questionable individuals and five others who they determined were almost certainly spies, although they were still trying to figure out who they reported to. Now that Tony had a skilled investigator working with him plus Nikki’s intelligence expertise and her network, they had decided that conducting their own security checks on new personnel would be prudent. Particularly since Homeworld Command was managing the MCD- 238β vaccine program and had ensured that security on what the project was actually doing was impenetrable, it seemed logical that the Trust, IOA and innumerable governments or their intelligence arms would start sending spooks to see if they could pick up chatter on Atlantis.
And their results seemed to have justified their suspicions. Tony was grateful that he was naturally distrustful, a legacy from a childhood of abuse that made him view the world through a jaundiced eye, even back then. It was probably what made him so good at undercover work since to be a successful UC operative, you needed to be able to cope with being in situations where you were unable to trust anyone around you. Thanks to many of his close colleagues betraying him in little and not-so-little ways, he trusted very few people with anything important. And when A.J. asked him when he would start returning to his normal hair and eye colour, now the JAG corps had returned to Earth, he’d shocked him.
“Not anytime soon.”
“But the judge advocates have all gone back to Earth.”
“True, but what about spies? We already know they’ve infiltrated the SGC, NID and IOA. We probably have them here too and now that I have the skills of a veteran FBI agent and CIA analyst at my disposal, we are going to start rooting them out.”
“And then we show them the door,” Chegwidden asked.
“Nuh, we kick their asses through the Stargate, destination to be determined,” Tony growled angrily.
~o0o~
Admiral Chegwidden watched the IOA representative and former Commander of Atlantis take his turn testifying at the court martial hearing of L Corp Favre, unsurprised at the measured and careful way he gave evidence. After all, he was a lawyer, even if he hadn’t been active since he began working for the NID and later on for the IOA. Still, all that legal experience was evident in his restrained speech and the amount of time he took to respond to questions from the prosecution and the defence. There was no way the guy was going to be flummoxed by any wily attorney tactics to trip him up or a Queens Counsel, for that matter.
When Sheridah Wilmington continually failed to trip him up, she became increasingly frustrated before finally informing the Judge, “The defence had no further questions for this witness, Your Honour.”
“Very well Mrs Wilmington, then we will commence your cross-examination of Special Agent Paddington since he was called away suddenly yesterday.”
After a couple of minutes as the communication techies established a link, Alex appeared on the screen dressed in a black Armani suit, snowy white business shirt and a pale blue silk tie and matching pocket handkerchief. A.J. would lay odds that Alex had purposefully picked the tie to enhance his blue eyes, of course, they were blue courtesy of the contact lenses he wore but still, he was experienced in presenting a professional mien to a jury when giving evidence and he certainly oozed confidence and charisma. Having witnessed him testify on any number of occasions in the past, A.J. was confident that the Queen’s Counsel would not be able to rattle him, and he was right. Wilmington tried to object when Alex refused to explain what was said during the interrogation that he conducted on Midway II which was redacted due to it containing classified information.
When she became frustrated and tried to imply that there was a coverup and he had threatened to physically harm her client if he didn’t confess, he denied threatening Favre. In fact, he had given orders to the SFs and MPs tasked with guarding him that he was to be treated humanely and not to be subject to physical or psychological harm or duress. When she challenged him, claiming he was making it up, Paddington merely shrugged and suggested she recalled Richard Woolsey to back up his claim. When she implied that Woolsey wasn’t a reliable witness, the federal agent shrugged.
“Well, if his word isn’t good enough, then perhaps you should call my boss Lieutenant General Johnathon O’Neill to the stand and ask him under oath, since I had numerous strongly worded conversations with him about ensuring that the lance corporal not be threatened or abused in any way while he was under his supervision. And Captain Cadman, Head of Base Security can also attest to the fact I gave everyone who was tasked with guarding him on our base the same orders.”
Sheridah huffed in frustration. A.J. once again almost felt sorry for her because he knew she didn’t want to call a three-star general to the stand in a court martial trial, least of all because he hadn’t been deposed, because that would be too risky. You never ask questions in open court if you didn’t already know what the answer was going to be. It was why any witness testimony by some supposed walk-in at the last moment was always objected to most strenuously in court since there had been no opportunity to depose them and analyse their testimony. Alex practically double-dog daring the Queen’s Counsel to call Jack was delicious because he knew it gave him credibility, by appearing to have nothing to hide while knowing she wouldn’t call him. Similarly, Laura Cadman had made an excellent impression on the jury of her fellow officers. Aaron Hotchner had done excellent work on witness prep with her because while she was a distinguished Marine, this had been the first trial that she’d testified in court.
Giving up the line of enquiry, and General Santiago exchanged a suppressed but gleeful smile at Paddington’s contrivances, as the furious QC glared at Alex. “Then why was that portion of the video right before his confession redacted if you didn’t threaten him, Agent Paddington?”
Without a hint of smugness or superiority, Alex answered, “I was discussing how he would be facing life-long imprisonment if found guilty of all the charges being brought against him and was describing some features of that confinement. It was redacted because it would reveal the top-secret location of our base of operations and that could endanger our troops.”
“So, you say,” she retorted acerbically, insinuating he was lying but not actually coming out and saying so.
Looking resolute, he said, “Yes, I do, Mrs Wilmington, and so does the POTUS and your Prime Minister and his national security advisors when they ordered that portion of the tape be redacted. All I can say is that I alluded to how bleak a future that the Lance Corporal faced and that I thoroughly approved since I believed that Colonel Shepard was already dead. I did not ask him to confess, indeed during the video you can see me arguing with Mr Woolsey that I didn’t want or need his confession, since I already had sufficient evidence to convict.”
Again, Alex had neatly blocked her grievance about the redacted video by pointing out how high up the chain of command those orders had been received. If she tried to assail two heads of government then she ran the risk of sounding like an unpatriotic conspiracy nut and if there was one thing that turned off military officers, it would be a conspiracy theorist.
Grasping at straws by this point, she said, “But you didn’t believe that Colonel Sheppard was dead.”
He didn’t reply and she went after him. “You must answer the question, Agent Paddington.”
“I apologise, Mrs Wilmington, I didn’t hear a question. I thought you were making a statement.”
Sighing exasperatingly, because he was right, she rephrased the question. “Did you really believe that Colonel Sheppard was already dead?”
He thought about his answer. “I honestly didn’t know. I hoped he was still alive, there was some unconfirmed chatter from a classified source that he may still be alive but most abductees in non-ransom abductions are often killed during the forty-eight hours after being taken.”
“So, your professed certainty that Colonel Sheppard was dead was a lie, then?”
“No, I would characterise it as more of an exaggeration.”
“Alright, then a ploy to coerce him to confess.”
“No, to reveal the whereabouts of Colonel Sheppard, dead or alive and failing that, to at least give us a lead as to who had taken him,” Alex stated calmly and reasonably. “I had enough evidence; I didn’t need a confession.”
“Don’t you think that you acted unethically in tricking my client into revealing highly self-incriminating and prejudicial data, Agent Paddington?”
Alex looked at the jury. “Not so much. A life was at stake. I had no way of knowing if Colonel Sheppard was still alive but if there was the slightest chance, then I had a duty to use every means possible to find him. In some states in the US, it is perfectly legal during interviewing suspects for the investigators to flat out lie to the suspect and tell them that a witness has already identified them as the perpetrator of the crime in order to gain a confession.”
He looked each member of the jury in the eyes as he continued to speak with utter implacability. “I already possessed all the evidence I needed to charge him, and I didn’t need his confession, nor did I ask for it. I actively told him I didn’t want to question him. He voluntarily offered that information in the hope it would mitigate his crimes because he recognised that the weight of evidence we’d gathered was overwhelming of his complicity.”
Nice job Alex! He’d neatly reminded the jury not only that Favre’s confession had not been voluntary, but it was also purely self-serving.
“How can you know that his information about the whereabouts of Colonel Sheppard wasn’t motivated by concern about the colonel rather than the desire to mitigate any charges laid,” the QC demanded tartly.
A.J. shook his head at the yo-yo-ing back and forth on narratives regarding her client. But then she really didn’t have a lot to work with. In this case, in lieu of a cohesive trial strategy, she seemed to have adopted the risky and desperate tactic of throwing everything against the wall and praying that something…anything stuck.
Alex gave her a look of pity before proceeding to shoot her down in flames. “Because he had over five months to have an attack of conscience and volunteer the information regarding John Sheppard’s location but only did so when I interviewed him and advised him of the additional and very serious charges he was facing. I think that speaks quite clearly to his motives, don’t you?” he addressed this last remark to the jury.
“Objection, Your Honour, Agent Paddington isn’t qualified to speak about what motived L Corporal Favre.”
A-JA Morley rose to his feet to respond. “I reject to my learned colleague’s assertions, Your Honour. Agent Paddington has been a federal agent for many years and his experience in investigation makes him amply qualified to give his expert opinion but aside from his experience, he is also a psychological profiler, having completed a PhD that makes him more than qualified to offer an opinion on the accused’s reasons for revealing Colonel Sheppard’s location.”
The judge nodded. “I’m inclined to agree with Mr Morley, Mrs Wilmington. Plus, you did open the door when you asked his opinion. Objection overruled.”
The two US JAGs grinned. British law was a lot more polite than the US courts. It was rather quaint to refer to the opponent as ‘my learned colleague’ when in reality you really wanted to seriously diss them.
~o0o~
After a few more abortive attempts to lure him into admitting he’d done something…anything wrong that could get Joseph Favre off on a technicality and failing miserably, Sheridah Wilmington gave up cross-examining him.
“I have no further questions for this witness,” she said, glaring daggers at him since she’d failed to land a blow.
Judge Blaxland responded, thanking Tony for his cooperation, and wishing his daughter a speedy recovery before calling a short recess so that the next witness for the defence, Dr Francesca De Rosa be called. The Atlantis communication technician, Corp Wilbur Rawlins flicked the AV link to Cheyenne Mountain into snooze mode as Tony stood up from the chair with a sigh of relief.
Rawlins grinned at him. “Nice work, Agent Paddington. She never laid a glove on ya.”
“Thanks, Corporal. She has a pretty thankless job. I almost feel sympathy for her,” he chuckled, as he exited the room bumping into Francesca who was accompanied by Aaron Hotchner who had worked with her on witness prep. He smiled at the nervous scientist, wishing her well before slipping next door so he could watch her testify via the large screen that was set up. Hotch was helping her to settle into the chair and giving De Rosa a few last words of quiet encouragement and he could see her calming down before he gave her shoulder a gentle little squeeze and departed. He also slipped into the adjoining room so he could watch her testimony.
As they watched her settle down after a nervous start, with A-JA Ewin Morley handling the victim with kid gloves, she soon became increasingly confident.
Turning to Hotch, he praised him. “You’ve done a great job on the witness prep, Hotch. She is sounding heaps more confident than when I first interviewed her. Well done!”
Aaron nodded, a small smile on his face indicative of his relief that Francesca was coping so far. The real test would be when the defence began their cross. Having concerns about her ability to deal with an aggressive cross, Aaron had shared these concerns with the prosecutor, and they’d decided to try to ambush her by addressing the issues first.
He asked her, “Were you cheating on L Corporal Favre with Colonel John Sheppard?”
“No, I was not,” she replied, maintaining eye contact with the prosecutor.
Clear, unequivocal without extraneous protestations. Yep, Aaron prepared her well.
“Did you ever attempt to make your boyfriend, Joseph Favre jealous by making him believe you were having an affair with Colonel Sheppard?”
“No, I didn’t. I don’t like playing those sorts of games. I believed at that time that we had a good relationship. I had no reason to want to make Joe jealous.”
“Alright, let’s return to your belief that your relationship was in a good place momentarily. What comments did you make to the Lance Corporal regarding Colonel Sheppard, Dr De Rosa?
“I commented on how kind he was to everyone and what a great leader he was. He never asks any of his people to do anything he isn’t willing to do and has earned a lot of respect because of it. After I went on a mission with him and his team, I saw how he managed three very strong-willed personalities with ease. I don’t like autocratic leadership. I was impressed and I mentioned it to Joe.”
“So, there was nothing you said that could be misconstrued as overtly sexual?”
De Rosa frowned. “I’m sorry, would it be possible for you to rephrase the question, please Mr Morley? English is my second language, and I don’t wish to accidentally perjure myself.”
Again, Hotch’s witness prep was paying dividends, asking for clarification, reminding the jury that English wasn’t her first language and showing that she was trying to be scrupulously honest were all helping to convey her trustworthiness as a witness.
“No, that’s fine Dr De Rosa, I admire you agreeing to testify without an interpreter,” he told her sympathetically.
Judge Blaxland interjected. “I must concur with my learned colleague, Dr De Rosa. Please do not hesitate to let me know if you don’t understand a question or decide that you need to have an interpreter to assist you in giving evidence,” he told her kindly.
She nodded and gave him a small smile. “Thank you, Your Honour. I will.”
The prosecutor asked you if you ever made comments that the lance corporal might misinterpret. For example, things about Colonel Sheppard’s physical appearance, his eyes, his hair, his body?”
“No, I did not. I made observations about his skills as a pilot because I don’t like flying. I told Joe that even though I do not normally go out into the field as a scientist, as I feel most at home in a laboratory, I felt surprisingly safe when he was piloting the aircraft that took us to and from the base.”
“Are you aware that Favre told his peers that you were cheating on him with Colonel Sheppard, Dr De Rosa?”
“Not at the time, Mr Morley, but later when Colonel Sheppard had been rescued I was informed. I was very upset to think that he was blaming me for his action betraying Col Sheppard’s location to a bunch of mercenaries…sorry mercenaries,” she said, using the Italian form of the word before self-correcting her utterance. “It made me feel angry since I didn’t cheat on Joe and never tried to make him jealous. I felt lurida, currotto.”
“Can you translate into English for the court please Dr De Rosa?” Judge Blaxland requested immediately, pre-empting Sheridah Wilmington’s objection, seeing her leap to her feet.
“My apologies, Your Honour. I didn’t intend to use Italian. Sometimes it happens without me even noticing when I’m struggling to find a word. ”Lurida means filthy, lurid and currotto in this context means tainted or corrupted.”
“Thank you, Doctor. Alright, let’s return to your previous statement, Dr De Rosa. You said that you believed that your relationship with the accused was in good shape.” He paused and directed his request at the judge. “Your Honour, could I request that the court stenographer please read back to us, Dr De Rosa’s direct quote?”
“The judge nodded. “Would Court Stenographer Lieutenant Cortez please read out the aforementioned response please?”
The Air Force officer located the relevant section and began reading.
Mr Morley asked, “Did you ever try to make your boyfriend, Joseph Favre jealous by making him believe you were having an affair with Colonel Sheppard.”
Dr De Rosa replied, “No, I didn’t. I don’t like playing those sorts of games. I believed at that time that we had a good relationship. I had no reason to want to make Joe jealous.”
“You said you believed at the time. Does that mean you have since changed your mind?”
“It does.”
“How would you describe your relationship now, Doctor?”
“With behind sight, I would have to say that it wasn’t healthy. After I went on the mission with Colonel Sheppard’s team, Joe became increasingly abusive towards me.”
“Verbally or physically, Doctor,” Morley interrupted his witness.
“Both, although I set aside my fears because Joe said that it was normal in a BDSM relationship. Since then, I’ve learnt that this is not the case. What occurred was not tipico…ah I mean it was not typical.”
“And I take it the decision to adopt a BDSM lifestyle was consensual,” Morley asked.
She nodded tentatively. “Joe wanted us to try it and I did not really know much about it, but I agreed. He said that it would spice up our sex life, that I was too uptight, and that I needed to loosen up. He told me that I needed to surrender control and pain would enhance my sexual piacere, I mean my sexual pleasure.”
“And do you think that was the case?”
“ No, I think that it was a manipolazione, scusa, I meant to say I think it was just manipulation. He wanted to control me and wanted to have an excuse to hit and abuse me physically and verbally and I was stupid, too ingenuo to see it.”
“For the record, Doctor could you explain ingenuo,” Morley asked before Commodore Blaxland did.
“Scusa, Mr Morley. Ingenuo means inexperienced, innocent, foolish.”
“So, you are saying you were too naïve?”
“Sì, I was too naïve.”
Morley did a good job of bringing up all of the issues that Sheridah Wilmington might try to exploit. By the time it was the defence’s turn to cross-examine Francesca, he’d pretty effectively cut the ground out from under the QC’s feet.
“Ms De Rosa, you say that you were naïve, yet you are a beautiful woman. Surely you cannot expect the jury to swallow that you are really that naïve, that inexperienced to not understand the principles of entering into a BDSM lifestyle, do you.”
Gracefully ignoring Wilmington’s obvious slight by addressing her as Ms, Francesca shrugged, “Why not, it is the truth.”
“Surely you have not been living under a rock. Have you not ever experimented with a blindfold or handcuffs with other boyfriends?”
“No, only with Joe. I only had one other sexual partner.”
“Only one. I find that hard to believe,” the Queens Counsel disputed.
“Sì, Umberto. We were together since I was nineteen. He died not long before I decided to accept the job working for…NORAD.”
Watching the jury, Hotch and Tony smiled because they were all responding to Francesca with obvious sympathy. Wilmington and the jury assumed just because Francesca was drop-dead gorgeous that equated to a lot of sexual partners.
“But surely you have heard of the movie or the book Fifty Shades of Grey?”
“I had heard people talk of it, but I work long hours in the lab, and I preferred to spend my time with Umberto or to paint. It did not really interest me.”
“And yet you agreed to enter a BDSM relationship with L Corp Favre. Why didn’t you do some research?”
“As I said, I was ingenuo…naïve. I wanted to make Joe happy because I loved him. I believed what he told me, and I paid dearly for my mistake,” she said sadly.
Uh oh, Wilmington finally realised she was humanising her victim and changed tacks.
“So, if you have no clear knowledge of what a BDSM relationship entails, then how are you possibly able to testify that Joe was physically and verbally abusive.”
Francesca who had seemed quiet and withdrawn took a deep breath and drew herself up straight, before responding. “Because after Joe ended our relationship and it became obvious that he was responsible for giving the militia Col Sheppard’s location, I decided to do research into BDSM culture. That is how I can testify that Joe was physically and verbally abusive to me and I never consented to that. He never even worked out a safe word between us so in what universe could that be called consensual? If I complained I was screamed at, beaten or both.”
~o0o~
A.J. watched on with admiration as the normally reticent introverted Dr De Rosa had risen magnificently to the occasion, testifying at her abusive former lover’s court-martial. Although clearly uncomfortable talking about such deeply personal matters of her failed relationship with that POS L Corp Favre, she had weathered the storm far better than any of them had hoped for. After hitting it out of the park on the issue of consent regarding her supposed BDSM relationship with the accused, Sheridah Wilmington was practically grinding her molars in frustration for being unable to land a blow.
In A.J.’s opinion, Aaron Hotchner deserved a lot of kudos for preparing De Rosa so well. His years working as a psychological profiler had really been a boon to his ability to work with the traumatised and retiring scientist, who because she looked like a supermodel who looked like she should be strutting the catwalks of Milan and Paris but was in reality an awkward geek. Hotch had a gentle touch when it came to victims and was doing a wonderful job working with victims. They were extremely lucky to have such a skilled attorney on Atlantis – he and Alex were doing their level best to clean up the godawful mess left behind by the first commander of the Atlantis expedition, Dr Elizabeth Weir.
Wilmington changed tacks. “Would you concede Dr De Rosa, that you were smitten by Colonel Sheppard and that given his extensive reputation for promiscuous behaviour, L Corporal Favre had every reason to believe both of you were cheating on him?”
Francesca responded. “I admired the colonel’s leadership skills and his unquestioned courage. He saved our military base on numerous occasions, with no thought to himself, but I was certainly not smitten by him.”
“But you spoke about him to a number of people, is that true?”
“Yes but…”
Cutting her off, she pressed home the point, “So it is quite possible that L Corporal Favre thought you were cheating on him?”
“It is possible I suppose but…”
Not letting her finish, Wilmington looked down her patrician nose at Francesca and said, “Oh I think it is highly likely, Ms De Rosa.” Then before the prosecutor could object to her editorialising, she told the Judge, “No further questions for this witness, Your Honour,” she informed him with a disdainful sniff as she resumed her seat
Looking at Ewin Morley who had leapt to his feet, Blaxland acknowledged him. “Does the prosecution wish to redirect, Mr Morley?”
“We do, Your Honour.”
“Very well, please proceed.”
Morley smiled at Francesca. “Doctor, you stated that you admired Col Sheppard, but you didn’t have a crush on him. Isn’t he considered to be very handsome, not to mention a hero?”
“Yes, he is,” she smiled a little.
Yet you stated that you weren’t smitten with him. Could you explain why since you got cut off by my learned colleague,” he gestured to Sheridah who was sitting beside Favre looking extremely bored.
“In my career as a scientist I have had to fight to be taken seriously mostly because of my looks, which have nothing to do with me and everything to do with my Madre and Padre… scusa Your Honour. My mother and father. My looks are the result of genetics, but my brain, my education, and my research are due to my own endeavour. I am generally not attracted to someone because of the outer packet even when they look like Col Sheppard; I focus on what’s inside.”
Morley looked over at Favre, who to be kind, was no John Sheppard. He was definitely average, almost non-descript in the looks department, except for his sneering countenance. A.J. admired the silent but effective theatrical touch. The look was highly successful in re-emphasising Francesca’s assertion that looks weren’t important to her.
“So, what was it about L Corp Favre that attracted you to him and made you agree to a relationship?”
“He seemed to look beyond the outer packet and appreciate my brain. He was loving and kind…at least at first. After we moved in together our relationship slowly went… downward.”
After Dr De Rosa was released from the stand, the prosecution called Dr Lam who testified about the perilous physical state of Sheppard when they rescued him. In her opinion, literally days away from dying. Beaten, starved, and tortured, she refused to give a laundry list of his injuries, stating issues of patient privacy. Morley also called an expert witness on domestic violence and victims of DV plus another expert on BDSM to repudiate claims that Favre’s abuse could be explained away by the adoption of such a relationship. Finally, they called to the stand several of his fellow Lanteans who testified that their colleague had made accusations about Dr De Rosa cheating on him with Col Sheppard and how he would make him pay for stealing what was his before Morley had rested their case.
Wilmington did her best, but the evidence was simply overwhelming, and Morley’s prosecution had been masterful. She wasn’t able to call any of his former girlfriends to the stand since they would have testified to being victims of physical a psychological abuse too. Nor did she want to put him on the stand to testify, knowing that would not end well so she was just left with a few character witnesses, work colleagues who had no idea that he was abusive since he deliberately hid that side of himself from his peers – particularly males. So, the defence case was short and sweet – by necessity. After closing arguments, A.J. and General Santiago were confident that the jury would render a guilty verdict but even they hadn’t anticipated just how quickly the jury deliberations would be.
Two and a half short hours later L Corporal was found guilty on all charges and by the next day, Judge Blaxland had sentenced him to three life sentences to be served concurrently, in an ultra-secret high-security prison and he received a dishonourable discharge. It had been an excellent outcome.
Chapter 4
As Jack’s flight from DC to Edwards Air Force Base neared Colorado airspace, he wondered if Bra’tac and Teal’c had arrived at the mountain yet for the trade treaty signing due to take place tomorrow. The agreement was between Earth, the Free Jaffa Alliance, and several other planets in the Milky Way, including the so-called Breeders from Euronda who the Euronda white supremacists had tried unsuccessfully to exterminate by taking refuge underground and pumping toxic gas onto the surface of the planet. After the war with the Ori, SG1 had run into a large number of refugees who’d fled Euronda and the SGC had helped resettle them on a new home world that offered them the potential to re-establish their culture again.
While the signing of the Treaty was wholly legitimate, Jack might have tweaked the dates somewhat to bring it forward a few days before the three trials began with the Interplanetary Tribunal on Pegasus. His plan was to subtly issue an invitation for Bra’tac as their most trusted of allies to pay a short trip to Atlantis since he’d never been there and naturally for Teal’c his old teammate to accompany his mentor too. Granted that Teal’c had already been to Atlantis before but since Daniel and Vala, two of his SG1 teammates were currently in the Ancient city, and Jonas Quinn would soon arrive too since he was serving on the Interplanetary Tribunal, it could be argued that they were having a long overdue catchup between teammates. If, while they were on Atlantis, the two senior leaders of the Free Jaffa States should be called upon to serve as members of the tribunal on the pending trials, Jack would consider that to be a serendipitous but completely unplanned circumstance.
Also on his agenda, before he headed back to Atlantis for the Interplanetary Tribunal, was a short detour via one of their close allies to hopefully recruit a temporary replacement for Dr McKay. While Dr Zelenka and Dr Kusanagi had been sharing the duties of the chief science officer, albeit reluctantly, knowing that McKay was not happy with them doing his job, they had told Ambassador AuClair and General O’Neill that they’d prefer it if someone else took over. They’d intimated that it would make their relationship with Rodney fraught when he resumed the job and Jack understood their concern. Dr McKay held onto grudges, real and imagined.
Aside from Radek and Miko’s reticence, he was aware that the powers that be, wouldn’t be satisfied with the two brilliant scientists in the role for much longer. Neither one had much time for politics or politicians and there was also the issue of both scientists being ‘FOREIGN’ and speaking English as a second language. While no one had come right out and said that they had a problem with them for that reason, Jack was pretty sure xenophobia was at the root of their reluctance to work with them. Those sorts of attitudes, especially since they had Allies from other planets, disgusted him, but seeing that neither scientist wanted to do the job, he had someone in mind that would tick all the boxes and shut down the objectors.
Dr O’Shea had made it very clear she wasn’t prepared to sign off on McKay’s return to the lab yet. Further, she’d hinted that it could be several more months before he was fit to resume his duties as Chief Science Officer. To be honest, it galled O’Neill that even though Rodney had been caught trying to break into Homeworld Command servers, in all likelihood all that he was likely to receive for his hacking was a pretty minor slap on the wrist. If anyone else but Rodney McKay had pulled a stunt like that they’d be joining Vukovic and Mayfield in some super-secret federal penitentiary until they drew their final breath. However, the harsh reality was that his expertise with Ancient technology was valued a helluva lot more than a couple of insignificant JAG attorneys having both been thrown out of the military with their well-deserved Bad Conduct Discharges.
As much as he hated political posturing, it was a fact of life for General O’Neill in his role as the director of Homeworld Command, which included protection of the Stargate program on Earth and beyond. Dealing with self-serving politicians of the ilk of former Vice President Robert Kinsey was one aspect of his job that he really abhorred and although his old nemesis was no longer a problem, sadly, there were always plenty of politicians attracted to the job for all the wrong reasons. Money, influence and ultimately power, were all things that did not interest him in the slightest which made it extremely ironic that he’d ended up in such an important job. He really desired nothing more than being able to retire, or perhaps settle for working as a consultant but with the potential threat to create a planet of mindless automatons that was not an option at this time.
As he considered his trip to lure a temporary replacement for Dr McKay to Atlantis, he knew that his temporary CSO would not be popular with some people, especially with McKay and Keller, but that was just too damned bad. He had to consider the needs of the whole of Atlantis, and someone who would keep the JCS happy so they would just need to suck it up. If McKay hadn’t been so damned egotistical and trying to access classified intel and getting his ass handed to him by Garcia, then likely as not, he wouldn’t have had a psychotic break. At least he wasn’t going to haul in Dr Kavanaugh as Rodney’s fill-in which had been the popular choice amongst some of the war hawks at the Pentagon but he recked he’d have a full-blown rebellion on his hands with the Lanteans.
Luckily, along with the beaming tech from aboard the Daedalus, Jack should be able to take care of that important errand in just a few hours. He would pop off right after the Free Trade Treaty signing concluded at their newly rebuilt Delta site on planet P316.
After the fiasco with the Goa’uld infiltrating both the Tok’ra and the SGC, creating za’tarcs – assassins subconsciously programmed by the Goa’uld to kill the US President and the Tok’ra Supreme High Councillor Per’sus and potentially destroy Earth’s stargate during a formal ceremony to sign an official Alliance Agreement, all subsequent treaties signings had taken place off-world. Although the previous Delta site had been destroyed by the Ori, a replacement had been considered a priority and now had all the latest bells and whistles to screen for Goa’ulds, za’tarcs, replicators, IEDs and all WMD currently known. Plus, a shit ton of personnel and sniffer dogs to make sure everyone was as safe as humanly possible.
Yep, he had a busy couple of days ahead of him.
~o0o~
Bra’tac had positively jumped at the chance to visit Atlantis, just as Jack guessed he would. After all, who could pass up the opportunity to visit the supercity built by the Ancients – the builders of the gate system – even if they were directly related to the Alteran Ori.
He said, “I would like that very much, Human,” a pleased smile gracing his battle-scarred features.
O’Neill rolled his eyes at the epithet. Despite having fought beside the Jaffa warrior for roughly a decade and a half, often in the grimmest of circumstances, saving each other’s sixes on more than a few occasions, Teal’c’s mentor always referred to him by the dismissive appellation rather than his name or rank. Even now, when he’d attained a rank above that of his old CO, Brig General George Hammond who Bra’tac referred to as Hammond of Texas and had shown due deference to as head of the SCG at Cheyenne mountain, he was always Human. He could have been petty and reciprocated in kind, calling him Jaffa rather than Master Bra’tac but out of deference to his teammate and warrior friend, Teal’c, he’d risen above any juvenile wish to be vindictive. Well mostly…although it still pissed him off just a tad.
Teal’c similarly leapt at the opportunity to return to Atlantis and catch up with his former teammates Daniel Jackson, Jonas Quinn and Vala Mal Doran. But he was particularly happy to be spending time on Atlantis with Ishta who was due to arrive these in forty- eight hours to prepare for the three interplanetary trials of Porteus Kolya, his second, Deuter Maden and Lucius Lavin. Jack could understand the attraction. They were both leaders of their own tribes amongst the free Jaffa and as such were probably subject to enormous scrutiny when they were together. On Atlantis, they would be relatively anonymous and blissfully free to take advantage of the stunning aquatic location and relative privacy.
Meanwhile, Teal’c and Bra’tac were enjoying the hospitality of Atlantis, the veteran Jaffa Master was in awe of the city of the Ancients when he and Daniel showed him around on their arrival. O’Neill recalled his reverence for the holy city of Keb where they’d run into Oma Desala when they’d been in search of the Harcesis child of Sha’re and Apophis. Atlantis was way more impressive than Keb, in Jack’s humble opinion. Even knowing that the city was in fact sentient and yeah that was more than a tad creepy it was still a mighty impressive feat of engineering!
Of course, he knew that Teal’c would be ecstatic (in his totally underwhelmed Jaffa demeanour) when he discovered that the Orbanian leader Kalan would be serving on the Interplanetary Tribunal and that his son Tomin was accompanying him. Tomin, like Merrin had been chosen to serve as a Urrone (which the Orbanians considered a great honour) and he’d been specially selected to learn all of Teal’c’s knowledge about the Goa’uld during their first contact with the Orbanians. Like Jack, the stoic fatherly Jaffa had bonded with the young Tomin, who like Merrin had realised just how crucial the information was that had Teal’c imparted to him about the Goa’ulds. It caused the young boy to push his father into bringing forward his Averium so that the information could be shared with his fellow Orbanians.
The Jaffa had been crushed when he encountered the young boy after his nanite harvesting ceremony, the Averium, who was left blank and like a zombie. Now, thanks to an extensive training regime and a lot of schooling, Tomin had become able to function as a normal young adult and live a fulfilled and regular life. He would be thrilled to meet the young man again, although Jack was saving Tomin’s presence as a surprise. So much of their interactions with people from other planets while serving on SG1 had been fleeting and left them with a sense of incompleteness…wondering how the people they’d encountered had fared after they’d departed and moved on to the next mission.
Jack couldn’t help wishing that Merrin would have accompanied Kalan and Tomin to Atlantis, but she was busy working as a teacher, educating other Urrone children. It was fitting that her career, post-Urrone was teaching other Urrones following their Averiums since she had been the only Orbanian to experience going to school when Jack kidnapped her and took her to Cassie’s old middle school. Although he hadn’t seen it personally, he did know she was doing amazing work, thanks to Cassie Fraiser, his surrogate daughter who’d travelled to Orban to help them set up their high school and tertiary Urrone training facilities as part of her Master’s coursework. As a former resident of Hanka, she had unique qualifications and insights into dealing with humans from other planets and made a valuable contribution to Orbanian. He knew that Cassie was as sad as he was that they wouldn’t get to see Merrin, since she had become close to the amazing young Urrone too, during her six months on Orban.
Still, it would be great to see Tomin, who by all accounts had turned into an impressive young man.
~o0o~
Deputy High Chancellor of Langara Jonas Quinn looked around as he exited the Stargate, back in the demarcation room at Stargate Command deep down inside Cheyenne Mountain on the planet Earth. For a time, he had lived and worked on this ultra-secret military base back when he was persona non grata with the Kelownans back on Langara. For a little over one Earth year, he’d tried his best to fill the void left after Dr Jackson had Ascended after he was horrifically injured saving Kelowna from a terrifying Naquadria explosion. One that would have wiped out a fair whack of the population and as they were to learn years later, set off a massive chain of Naquadria explosions that ultimately would have destroyed the whole planet.
Although it was Daniel’s quick thinking and heroic bravery which saved Langara, he’d been treated abominably by Quinn’s government in their futile and shabby effort to blame Daniel for their own failure. So, to make amends, Jonas had brought (smuggled) through the Stargate to the SGC, a small but valuable amount of Naquadria, claiming it was the least he could do to make up for the Kelownan government’s abysmal behaviour towards Dr Jackson. Likewise, his attempts to fill the void at the SGC that Daniel had left when he Ascended seemed to be a paltry way to make amends for his own cowardice, but it had been all he had to offer. Although the Kelownan was never arrogant enough to think that he’d actually succeeded in replacing the much-loved member of SG1. Jonas had felt like he was merely a placeholder and when Daniel return one year later he was more than happy to stand aside and let Dr Jackson resume his place on SG1.
Yet his time living with the people of Earth and his time serving along with the stoic Teal’c, brilliant and gorgeous Samantha Carter and watching the then Colonel O’Neill lead the SG1 into and out of hopeless situations had not been a waste of time. Seeing them save themselves and other planets regularly had been an indescribable gift. He had nothing but admiration for them and Daniel Jackson since he was still struggling to deal with his role in Anubis learning about Langara and the half-Ascended Goa’uld doing his utmost to destroy it. Jonas still had nightmares about his time spent as Anubis’ captive and being totally helpless to resist him gaining access to all of Jonas’ thoughts and knowledge. Even though the War with the Ori had become a more immediate and existential threat to the Milky Way and Langara, he still was traumatised by the events that took place during the horrific interrogation with Anubis.
Mind Healer Roark Medias had explained that in all likelihood, the trauma and the persistent nightmares would never completely subside, but they would continue to fade in severity and frequency unless something triggered them. Jonas knew that there was a strong possibility that being in the company of SG1 again, could trigger the trauma but he was still looking forward to meeting his old team and friends. He also knew that the three trials he’d been asked to adjudicate upon could be problematic because of the charges of the three accused suspects. In particular, those concerning Porteus Kolya and Deuter Maden of unlawful kidnapping, incarceration, and torture of Colonel John Sheppard, that they were likely to trigger what Mind Healer Medias has diagnosed as Past Trauma Syndrome. Roark had advised him against proceeding but even though General O’Neill had rightfully refrained from revealing details of the crimes, he had told Jonas that he had specifically picked the three delegates because there was highly classified information that would be revealed during the three trials. That information, in the wrong hands, posed a massive existential threat to not just Earth and Atlantis, but the entire galaxy should it fall into the wrong hands.
It was why he’d given the matter a great deal of thought and decided that his personal safety must take second place to the security of his and other planets. As Deputy Chancellor, it was his sworn duty to put the welfare of his people before his own and if he wasn’t capable of doing so, then Jonas should resign from office. So, it was with a strong dose of trepidation mixed in with the anticipation of seeing his former teammates once more, not to mention getting the chance to explore Atlantis and read the ancient document outlining their code of law, he journeyed back to the SGC to be greeted by General Hank Landry and Daniel Jackson.
It was odd not to be met by General Hammond, even though he knew that the former leader of the SGC had died some time ago. Even weirder was that his trusty aide, Walter Harriman was no longer working at Cheyenne Mountain either, having transferred to Homeworld Command under General O’Neill. Indeed, most of the personnel he’d worked with were no longer around. Some like Dr Fraiser had been killed in battle or had transferred to other jobs. At least Sgt Siler was still wandering around the base with his trusty wrench and Daniel told him that the man was as accident-prone as ever.
As he made his way around the base, Jonas learnt that he was the first of the tribunal members to arrive at the SGC and that Ishta and Kalan were scheduled to arrive within the next day or two. After grabbing a bite to eat in the Commissary, indulging in a piece of char-grilled salmon which had been a favourite when he’d lived on Earth, Daniel had dragged him back to his office (Jonas’ former office when Daniel Ascended) and presented him with a gift.
Jonas stared at the massive leather-bound book with interest. “What is it?”
Dr Jackson smiled at Quinn’s enthusiasm. Jonas might be a politician these days, but the man he considered a friend and colleague would first and foremost always be an academic.
“I took the liberty of having the Ancients’ Code of Law from Atlantis copied and bound. Consider it a personal gift from Homeworld Command and the United States to yourself Deputy High Chancellor and the people of Langara as a thank you for your assistance in helping us conduct trials in the Pegasus Galaxy. This is for you to keep and this one, he pointed to another equally thick tome is the translated version that you may borrow. I thought that you’d like to study it while we await the arrival of the other tribunal members.”
Jonas couldn’t help but grin. He’d requested that he be able to examine the Ancients’ Code of Law when he’d agreed to Jack O’Neill’s request for assistance, but he never imagined he’d be given his very own copy of such a priceless document. As he reached out a hand to fondle the spine of the book, Daniel smirked but it was not sarcastic, rather one of a fellow academic who recognised the unquenchable desire of a peer who when presented with an artefact of great significance was unable to resist.
“Oh my! I never expected to have a personal copy to keep, Daniel,” he enthused excitedly.
He couldn’t wait to start reading the historic document. Jonas Quinn was one very happy Langaran.
~o0o~
Tobias grabbed a plate of mixed sandwiches and a cup of coffee for lunch and sat down at a distance to where the pair of scientists who played chess every day, come rain, hail, or shine. He often chose to watch the pair as they played every day, enjoying their battles, mostly conducted in silence, oblivious to those people around them. It was fascinating and curiously addictive, and it somehow helped to soothe his grieving heart although he couldn’t tell you how.
He was slowly starting to get to know the names of everyone on Atlantis – well the long-term residents at least. Plus, he was getting super acquainted with the people who had transferred in at the same time he had although they arrived aboard the Zephyrus on its regular supply run. He on the other hand had flown here on a puddlejumper in a matter of hours, thanks to wormholes and midway stations straddling the two galaxies. There were also a few replacements who arrived aboard the Zephyrus on the last supply run just last week, although they were just for military personnel who had been killed or in one case, broken her leg in three places while on a mission and needed surgery. He was still hard at work combing through all of their files, having found a significant number with dodgy credentials which had led them to being identified as spies.
It was certainly an eye-opener, and it was shocking to the former Fibbie that so many people seemed to have been sent here to spy. He had found several that they were almost certain were CIA, which should be a surprise but wasn’t really. They found quite a few who the suspected were from intelligence organisations in different ‘so-called’ allied countries but he supposed if Spooks in their own government saw fit to send spies to Atlantis, it was hardly surprising that other countries did too. However, aside from all the dodgy intelligence agents floating around, they’d also marked half a dozen that they strongly suspected might have links to the Trust.
Much as DiN…Paddington wanted to toss them into a wormhole that led to an uninhabitable planet, General O’Neill had ordered them to be identified, then tagged with some fancy tech so they could be tracked constantly on Atlantis to see who they communicated with. He wanted to send them back to Earth, but not all at once, and for legitimate reasons so that they and the Trust never caught on they’d been identified. The plan was that when they returned to Earth with a bunch of contradictory, incomplete or just plain wrong intel, O’Neill’s operatives would place them under surveillance to try to identify their contacts. Frankly, it surprised Tobias how naïve some scientists could be, although they might have been spying for the Trust because they had somehow managed to obtain kompromat on the Brainiac’s he supposed.
As the Mess began to fill up for lunch, he noted one or two individuals who started towards his table to sit down, realised who was sitting there and turned tail and hoofed it out of the Mess. He stifled a chuckle, both men were individuals he’d investigated for minor offences, although Papadopoulos was reported by a neighbour for having several extremely loud arguments with his partner before he moved out, after Fornell started nosing around. The food sciences technician who worked in the botany department claimed to have broken up with his partner, although the partner had been less than convincing. Fornell still wasn’t sure if Papadopoulos wasn’t intimidating the younger man into lying to protect him.
If someone had told him twelve months ago that he would be investigating ‘minor’ assaults and domestic disturbances, he’d have scoffed. After all, as an FBI agent he’d been on various taskforces into terrorism, organised crime and murder over the years but even as a newbie, he’d never been involved with basic run-of-the-mill law and order type cases – that was the bailiwick of the cops. But here on Atlantis, having found out the hard way that seemingly minor difficulties between partners could quickly blow up into much bigger situations. They’d led to the Joseph Favre/ Dr De Rosa situation culminating if the base commanding officer’s abduction, he totally got why Captain Cadman and …Paddington were into community policing and staying on top of people’s interpersonal relationships. It was a lot easier to clean up messes before they started affecting the whole city.
But if the work differed from what he was used to, it was still far more preferable to searching for teens who were addicts, because his work as a PI had been just too close to his own reality. Being here on Atlantis, dealing with mostly military personnel and scientists, it was very different to trying to locate addicts for desperately concerned parents but in a good way. The people on Atlantis weren’t a constant reminder of Emily and while he still thought about her all the time, since he came here it was less about the dark times and more about the good times. Stepping onto his balcony in the morning to watch the sunrise or view the stars at night, he would find himself thinking about how much Em would love it here, or he’d recall a time when he’d taken her to the beach and how much fun they’d had.
Tobias was under no illusions, he knew he would never get over losing his precious daughter, but at least out here in a far-flung galaxy, he was starting to think about the good times too. Penelope, who had lost her parents as a young adult was also a great source of comfort to him. She’d warned him that the pain would always be there, but that time would allow him to remember happy memories, as well as the not-so-happy ones if he refrained from dwelling in his losses. She told him that it took her a long time to realise it but finally, she reconciled herself to the truth that her parents had loved her too much to want her not to try to move past what had happened. Which didn’t mean that she wasn’t sad at times.
He thought a lot about Penelope, who’d told him she’d gone through her own dark period – adopting the accoutrements of a Goth and getting into hacktivism, earning herself the handle of the Black Queen before Hotch caught up with her and gave her two choices. She could either don a white hat and use her computer skills to help others or go to jail which was how she ended up working for him at the BAU. Tobias had trouble picturing the bubbly and cheery woman with the picture she painted but he also couldn’t help comparing and contrasting her with Jethro. Garcia made it her goal to make life brighter for those around her, even when she had worked at the FBI while Gibbs’ attitude seemed to be if he was grief-stricken then no one else had a right to be happy either and he set out to ensure that was the case with everyone who he worked with. His head slaps when his SFA had dared to try lightening up the often grim atmosphere and yelling when agents didn’t get him the clues he wanted fast enough.
Fornell resolved that while he was never going to be able to pull off a persona anywhere close to Penelope Garcia, he also wasn’t going to permit himself to turn into a L.J. Tibbs either, thinking that everyone else should adopt sackcloth and ashes just because Diane had been murdered and Emily died of an overdose. So, when the dark moods overtook him at times and he wanted the world to suffer right alongside him, he would shut himself away and try not to inflict his pain on everyone else. Although, he was finding that those black dog moods seemed to be not quite as frequent or as vicious as they were before he arrived on Atlantis.
He knew that Tony…damn it…Alex deliberately tried not to talk about Belle, and he appreciated his thoughtfulness. Yet, over the last few weeks, he found himself watching her from across the Mess during dinners if he happened to be there early enough when she and her father were there with the other families. They had really settled in here and made the city their home and he looked at his boss, who looked much happier and relaxed, despite the apparent attempt to frame him so that the powers that be would have a reason to get rid of him. Honestly, he had to have the worst luck.
Despite that though, he was looking way better than the last time that Tobias had seen him, literally weeks before Ziva has supposedly been killed and the director of Mossad had turned up with Tali in tow with the information, “Surprise! It’s a GIRL!” on her lips. That had been the talk of law enforcement in DC at the time and there were plenty of people who thought he’d collapse in a screaming heap or turn tail and run. Well at least they got that bit right – he ran away, but he took Tali with him and ceased all contact with Gibbs and his former colleagues at NCIS. During his last year working on the MCRT, which was punctuated by incredible highs and terrible lows, DiNozzo had been looking increasingly rough. His outstanding performance working with Joanna Teague to bring down Daniel Bud and his terrorist organisation including the Lost Boys had not gone unnoticed, even while he was supervising McGee and Bishop and closing cases on the MCRT. It had been the talk of the alphabet agencies. Gibbs’ precipitous return to the team, despite not having medical clearance and shoehorning himself back into the lead in a vicious attempt to sideline the acting SSA, had been fodder for even more gossip.
Lord only knows why DiNotzo had stuck around while Gibbs tried to bench him from active cases for as long as he did. It was a shocking way to treat an agent who had been as loyal to Gibbs as he’d been for 15 years, but for someone of his outstanding abilities, it was unconscionable and extraordinarily grubby and unprofessional behaviour by Jethro. Fornell wished he knew why Jethro would throw away a friendship like that. Tobias found it interesting that Paddington never spoke to him about Gibbs or NCIS and the people he’d worked with for a decade and a half, although he was perfectly friendly, and they talked about people who worked at the FBI. But Alex never discussed his daughter and his status as a father with him either or the reason why Fornell had to resign from the FBI, although General O’Neill had confirmed that he knew about it – and had informed the Homeworld Director about him.
Fornell had often wondered over the years what might have happened if DiNotzo had accepted one of his half-assed offers to join his team at the FBI. Of course, in hindsight, he really should have made a much more serious attempt to woo the undercover expert and brilliant investigator than he did. The kid had probably thought he was offering him a job to piss off Jethro and Tobias couldn’t lie, he did enjoy jerking Jethro’s chain by offering DiNotzo a job, especially in the early years. However, if he was being honest, he’d have to say that the reason why he never really tried all that hard was that he could see how loyal the young agent was to Gibbs and how for a couple of years, Jethro seemed to truly appreciate the kid and his skills before the head slaps and barbed comment started up.
Fornell couldn’t help wondering if he’d succeeded in luring Tony DiNotzo over to his team, would he have still been an FBI agent too? Would Tony have been able to crack the serial murder case of Gabriel Hicks? The guy did have mad investigative skills and an uncanny ability to think way outside of the box when it came to finding leads and figuring out motives and suspects. But even if DiNotzo who was on Fornell’s team had failed to nail the SOB more comprehensively than he had, Tobias thought that he probably would have made his team leader hand over the eyewitness statement to the lawyers rather than pretending it didn’t exist. The kid had a reputation going as far back as when he was a rookie in the Peoria PD of incorruptibility. Ducky Mallard had always said that Anthony was the moral compass of the MCRT and Fornell knew he was right. The bottom line was that that failure to surrender the evidence even if he felt it was wrong, was what cost him his career.
Unfortunately, there was no point in crying over spilt milk. You couldn’t change the past, even if he wished that he had been able to persuade his current boss on Atlantis to leave Jethro and come work for him back when he was just starting out as a federal agent. Fornell suspected that if that happened, a lot of things might have gone very differently but that hadn’t happened. Still, for all that SAC Paddington never discussed anything about his relationship with Ziva or his daughter, nor talked about Gibbs and co at NCIS, in their first sit-down meeting, he expressed his deep sorrow and condolences for Tobias for the tragic loss of Emily. Fornell couldn’t help but recall his heartfelt hug and condolences after Diane had been sniped by Sergei Mishnev, recreating Caitlin Todd’s death.
As the chess match finished with barely a blink of an eye, let alone the hint of micro-expressions being exchanged between the two men, Fornell realised it was time for him to return to work. In between catching spies, he was still trying to wade through years of mission reports from base security and the various off-world missions. Paddington had suggested that it was a good way to get caught up on the history of Atlantis since the Earth Expedition took occupation eight years ago.
Chapter 5
Atlantis was abuzz with nervous expectancy. Delegates to the Interplanetary Tribunal that would preside over the trials of the three remaining criminals charged with John Sheppard’s abduction, incarceration and torture were due to arrive in the city. They would be stepping through the gate, directly from Earth any time now. The delegation would be escorted by Dr Daniel Jackson, who usually acted as Earth’s ambassador/ liaison to high-ranking dignitaries from other planets in diplomatic matters and Richard Woolsey representing the IOA. Waiting in the Atlantis gate room ready to greet the VIPs from the Milky Way were the current Commander of Atlantis, Ambassador Henri AuClair and his interim second in command, Lt Col Evan Lorne, acting Commanding Officer, filling in for Colonel Sheppard who was still on leave. Also in the welcoming party was Lt Gen Jonathon ‘Jack’ O’Neill, Director of Homeworld Command and his two guests from the Free Jaffa State, Masters Bra’tac and Teal’c. Ct Laura Cadman, Atlantis’ head of base security was also on deck with a small but highly effective team of security personnel.
Six days ago, the militarily conducted trials of the Genii mercenaries had concluded, every individual had been adjudged guilty of the crimes they’d been charged with. Most of the prisoners had already been transported to the Hebridean home world back in the Milky Way, to begin serving their sentences but there were still several Genii rebels who remained. The trio that included Bib and Bub had agreed to give evidence against Kolya and his deputy, Deuter Maden plus testify to Lavin’s role in the abduction. The three men, Lenko, Krepps and Fortum had pled guilty in return for a reduction in their sentences and for receiving new identities upon their release. Although General O’Neill and every person on Atlantis hated the thought of them getting even a slightly lighter sentence, they didn’t want to run the slightest risk that Kolya, Maden or Lavin might get away with their heinous crimes. Having the Genii trio testify against them would solidify the case against the three masterminds of Sheppard’s abduction and torture. Those three men were being held back on Balara to prevent Kolya or Maden from intimidating them, although once the Odyssey arrived and the three men were transported to the brig onboard, the three Genii witnesses would be transferred to the Atlantis brig.
As much as the residents of Atlantis were anticipating the tribunal finally handing out justice for the horrendous crimes against their much loved and admired Colonel Sheppard there was a smaller cohort of victims, family and friends who were nervously anticipating Lavin’s trial too. He was not only being charged because of his involvement in the capture of Col Sheppard but he was also facing charges concerning the Foothold situation on Atlantis six years previous. In particular, his sexual assaults against individuals on Atlantis when they had been under the thrall of his herbal compound. Teyla Emmagan and Dr Monique Girard were eager to give evidence against him, Miko Kusanagi was more ambivalent, finally deciding that she wanted to testify against him but requesting that she not be publicly identified. Dr Meier, Dr Sofie Danziger’s lover had all but demanded to be a witness, desperate to get at least partial justice for Sofie, even if Shen and Weir would never be held accountable.
Chuck Lyons, Atlantis’ long-serving technician who was driving the Stargate today, called out to Ambassador AuClair, “Sir I’m receiving Dr Jackson’s IDC code, requesting permission to proceed.”
Henri crossed to the technical desk and said, “Send confirmation and open the iris, Chuck.”
“Yes, Sir,” he acknowledged as the trinium iris was disengaged. Shortly thereafter, the gate activated as he reported, “Incoming travellers.”
The welcoming committee waited patiently, knowing that it took longer to travel between Earth and Atlantis due to the distance between the two galaxies although it was still much quicker than going via Midway II thanks to the 12-hour quarantine. Of course, the downside, and there was always a downside, was that it took a lot more power from the ZPM to establish a direct wormhole between the two bases. Which was why they tried to limit direct travel as much as practical.
Finally, the delegates, their aides and Daniel Jackson emerged through their gate ending up standing in the middle of the gate room as they looked around in wonder at the city built so many millennia ago, yet even now had a futuristic, modern vibe to its construction. Ambassador AuClair approached them, and Daniel proceeded to introduce everyone. Henri addressed the VIPs in a short but prepared speech, thanking them for their help and stating how much they appreciated them taking the time to participate in the interplanetary tribunals. Finally, he told them that he hoped that they would enjoy their stay on Atlantis and that when everyone had settled into their quarters and freshened up he would be more than happy to give them a tour of the city.
Then Daniel began introducing the delegates to the other people waiting in the gate room. Of course, some introductions were not necessary. Ishta was surprised but very pleased to see Teal’c and Bra’tac on Atlantis while Jack already knew all three delegates and welcomed the trio warmly. Seeing the tall, broad-shouldered young man with the tow-hair and a faint dusting of freckles standing beside Kalan, he looked askance at the Orbanian leader.
He asked, “Is this him?”
Kalan smiled proudly, “Yes, this is my trusted aide, General O’Neill.”
Jack grinned at the young adult and led the two Orbanians over to Teal’c and Bra’tac who were chatting with Ishta.
“Excuse the interruption folks,” he said cheerily. “T, old buddy, hate to break up the happy reunion between yourself and the lovely Ishta but there is someone that I would like you to meet. I’m sure you remember Kalan from Orban, and this is his trusted aide. May I present Urrone Tomin.”
Kalan’s son smiled, his eyes full of life and intelligence. “Master Teal’c. It is so good to see you again, it has been a long time since we last met,” he said.
Teal’c was known for his extreme stoicism; it was nearly impossible to shock him or perhaps that was an inaccurate statement. Rather it was more accurate to say that other people weren’t able to discern if he was feeling shocked, even when he was. Yet today, his momentary flinch before leaning in to examine the youngster’s features intently spoke volumes to Jack, Bra’tac and Ishta about how caught off guard he was by the introduction.
He looked at Kalan. “This is truly Tomin, your son?”
“It is, indeed, Master Teal’c,” Kalan said. “After his Averium I thought it was not possible to be prouder of him, but I was wrong. After graduating from our Urrone School, Tomin has become invaluable to me in my position as Orban’s leader. I couldn’t do without him,” he boasted, his pride in his son palpable.
Teal’c managed to regain his composure, bowing his head in acknowledgement. “Indeed, it pleases me greatly to see you again, Tomin. I hope we can spend time together during your time here on Atlantis.”
Tomin looked pleased. I’ would like that greatly, Master Teal’c, he said.
The two former SG1 teammates stared at each other. Teal’c stated with certainty, “You knew.”
“I did,” Jack acknowledged grinning. “So did Danny.”
“And this was why you invited me to Atlantis, O’Neill?”
“One reason, but not the only one,” he admitted flicking a smile at Ishta.
Teal’c bowed his head impassively. “Then I owe yourself and Daniel Jackson a debt of gratitude, old friend,” he said, looking across at Tomin meaningfully.
Jack grinned, knowing that he wasn’t just referring to bringing him to Atlantis but also his pig-headed interference in Orbanian internal affairs that resulted in the Orbanians’ change of attitude to their Urrones, post-Averium.
“It is a shame that Merin could not make the trip to Atlantis as well,” he noted.
Kalan smiled. “Unfortunately, she could not be spared from her teaching duties, but we are hoping that soon it may be possible to train a greater number of Urrone teachers than is currently the case,” he said, looking at Jack. “If our friends on Earth would be willing to assist us.”
Jack said, “We are happy to assist you in educating the Urrones, Kalan. Why don’t we discuss this after you have had a chance to settle in? Cassandra Fraiser is working here on Atlantis, and I know she’d love to sit in on our discussion, too.”
Kalan and Tomin both looked happy to hear that Cassie was on Atlantis too. Kalan nodded happily. “Yes, Jack, I would like that very much.”
Although everyone was eager to get the work of the tribunals underway, they hit a snag when the estimated arrival time of the Odyssey was pushed back several days. It had sustained damage from a meteor shower that had caught them completely unaware. Although they had not suffered any injuries to the crew or the passengers, the 304-battlecruiser had not been so fortunate. The Odyssey had suffered minor damage to the warp drive engines plus the shields had been affected and Capt. Krieger had decided to orbit behind a moon and carry out temporary repairs in space, rather than hoping they could make it to Atlantis to effect repairs.
Over the next couple of days, as they awaited the arrival of the Odyssey, the delegates settled into the city, finding plenty of diversions to keep them occupied in the interim as they waited for the Odyssey to arrive. Teal’c divided his time between his lovely but intimidating partner, Ishta and spending time getting reacquainted with Tomin. He was certainly a contented Jaffa, romancing his mighty warrior mate in a most beautiful city with its stunning ocean views, in privacy which was hard to come by back in the Milky Way. It felt like a special if totally unexpected interlude that each of them would cherish forever.
The bonus of getting to know Tomin as the young man he’d matured into was also something Teal’c viewed as a precious gift. He had often thought of the small boy who had soaked up all Teal’c’s knowledge of the Goa’uld, acquired over his years as Apophis’ First Prime and then his time on SG1 fighting them. Although in reality, Teal’c has spent less than a week passing on his knowledge to Kalan’s son, Tomin, he had developed strongly paternal feelings for the young boy. He’d been deeply upset when he’d witnessed the fate of the young Urrone after his nanites had been harvested. Tomin had been like one of those mindless zombies that he had seen in the Tau’ri movies he watched during his time at the SGC. It was heartbreaking to see. So, bearing witness to a young man who was animated and intelligent, able to communicate and interact socially, had been a great gift to the stoic Jaffa.
While Teal’c had been spending time getting reacquainted with Tomin, Ishta had seized the opportunity to spend time with the Athosians who lived on Atlantis, especially Teyla Emmagan. The two female warriors delighted in demonstrating their own unique fighting skills to each other, and that was not the only thing they bonded over. Both women knew the heavy burden of leadership, even though eight years ago, Teyla had chosen to step aside from leading her people so that she could join the Atlantis expedition to help defeat the Wraith who had decimated the Pegasus galaxy. Although they had only known each other a short while, each woman felt a degree of ease in each other’s company that they’d rarely experienced before when meeting a stranger. Others on Atlantis benefited from their friendship as well, especially while waiting for the trials to begin, they used their time demonstrating and honing their new fighting techniques. Chuck Lyons kept busy running betting pools on which one would emerge victorious from their bruising encounters.
Surprising everyone, Bra’tac and Ronon had struck up an unlikely friendship as Atlantis awaited the arrival of the Odyssey. While Dex had resisted any overtures of friendship offered by Teal’c when the then Commander of Atlantis, Colonel Samantha Carter invited Teal’c to come to the city to advise the Satedan on how to handle an IOA interview, Ronon had been less than appreciative of his overtures. Downright Churlish would have been a polite description for his demeanour and Dex was not well known for his sociability at the best of times. While the pair had made peace during their battle to save the SGC which was overrun with Wraith, it would be fair to say that they were not close friends. But Dex’s attitude to Master Bra’tac had been significantly different. He treated the Jaffa warrior with great deference, maybe because of the Jaffa’s age and experience. He was eager to learn Jaffa fighting skills from Teal’c’s mentor and trainer and it seemed that Bra’tac was equally impressed with the Satedan warrior, especially when he learnt about his background, surviving for seven years on the run from the Wraith with a tracking device implanted under his skin.
Teal’c had for months been worrying that Bra’tac was starting to think about stopping the Tretonin that acted as a synthetic larval Goa’uld and making a final trek to Keb to pass on. Even though his mentor and in reality his surrogate father, after Teal’c own father had been killed by the Goa’uld Kronos, had still been in excellent health, still a force to be reckoned with, the fire seemed to have disappeared from his eyes. It was as though, with the Goa’uld defeated, the Jaffa now free and the Ori banished, he had no more reason to live. Yet in a galaxy far from home, he seemed to have been fired up once again by the prospect of working with a youngster (in terms of Jaffa life expectancy) to who he could impart his great wisdom and ferocious hand-to-hand combat skills. Bra’tac had always thrived on training the next generation of Jaffa warriors and held onto hope that one day his proteges would be free from the shackles of Goa’uld oppression. Now that they had achieved that lofty goal, he’d found himself directionless. It seems that Ronon Dex may have given him back a reason to keep fighting and Teal’c was truly grateful that his old friend and brother O’Neill had persuaded them to make this journey.
Kalan, meanwhile, had seized the unexpected delay to organise a meeting with Jack, Cassie Fraiser and Daniel Jackson and surprising to them all, Janae Progenius was invited too and took a particular interest in the matter they were discussing. The Orbanian had caught everyone off guard with his surprising request, well he’d explained that the initial idea had come from Merrin about having Urrones travel to Earth to study didactic educational methods. After she and Cassie had long discussions during her time on Orban about how Earth treated stroke and acquired brain injuries, especially in adults, helping them to learn how to retrain their brains again, Merrin had decided that the older Urrones might also be helped to live more fulfilled lives, not just the child Urrones who had gone through the Averium. Plus, they needed more high school teachers for the Urrones and ironic as it seemed to Jack, they felt the best way to achieve their goal was to send an Urrone to learn how to teach older students since Cassie Fraiser had specialised in junior and middle school teaching and Merrin had shared her nanites about her experiences in attending the middle school that Jack had taken her too.
While the trio from the SGC were thrilled that the Orbanians wanted to help the generations of Urrones who had been sacrificed for the greater good of their people, Jack had noted that it would take time to set up. He could already see that placing Urrone children with allied health professions such as speech pathologists and occupational therapists, based inside military hospitals such as Walter Reed in DC, pretending they were family members was a feasible proposition, he was seeing a lot more problems have Urrones shadowing junior and senior high school teachers. Since the Stargate Program was still top secret, embedding some Orbanian Urrones was bound to rouse suspicions in the students and faculty. A suspicion that would not be easy to assuage.
At that point, Cassie made the ingenious suggestion that the Urrones could travel to Atlantis and work with Russell Speers, their high school teacher and any of the subject matter experts who were teaching specific subjects. Since J.P. was the computer and robotic tutor, it had become highly animated at the prospect of helping educate the Orbanians. The AI program/hologram had long discussions with Kalan and his son, striking up an unlikely friendship with the pair who were equally fascinated with the ten-thousand-year-old computer program. Since J.P. was fairly dismissive of anyone slacking the ATA gene, except for the Atlantis children and teens, and making an exception for his much admired Penelope Garcia and to a lesser extent the ex-Hankan, Cassie Fraiser, it was something of a surprise to everyone how he had taken to Kalan and Tomin.
It was Tony who offered a valuable insight that while the AI was ancient in the historical sense of the word, its development had only truly begun when it began interacting with the expeditionary members months before. In that sense, its maturation was still very much on par with a child and J.P. was curious about anything that was out of the ordinary. The Orbanian society was very much out of the ordinary in the way their society developed with the creative if creepy use of nanite technology, so it wasn’t surprising that J.P. would be keen to spend time with them.
The final delegate, Jonas Quinn had taken advantage of the unexpected delay of the Odyssey, which was to be used to hold the trials by spending the time catching up with his former teammates, Jack, Teal’c and Daniel. Although he and Daniel hadn’t officially served together on SG1, except for the last calamitous mission where Jonas was captured by Anubis, he still considered Daniel to be his friend. He was just regretful that Samantha Carter couldn’t be there on Atlantis with them, but she’d caught up with her former team, albeit via a video link-up which was better than nothing. Except for her hair, Jonas thought she really hadn’t changed much but he still wished she’d been able to be there in the flesh, she gave hugs like no one else did.
Jonas was also introduced to one of the later members to join SG1, a self-confessed space pirate and former host to the Goa’uld Qetesh, a flirty female who introduced herself as Vala Mal Doran. He learnt from Jack that Vala had certainly endured more than her own fair share of trauma and suffering; in addition to being a host, she was also the mother of the Ori Ancient known as Adria. He spent quite a bit of time swapping tales of their past traumatic experiences and their consequences and found it somehow healing to be around someone who understood his feelings of guilt and responsibility. Plus, it was fun to flirt with the very sexy woman, although he had a feeling that her heart belonged to another.
Apart from catching up with old friends, and making a new one, Jonas also got to hang out with the geeks on Atlantis. He was fascinated to learn how City had been built by the Ancients, using technology that was completely novel to the Langaran. He also learnt that the bad dudes in the Pegasus galaxy, the Wraith who the Ancients had foolishly created with their genetic tinkering, had used a similar type of technology to build their own flying vessel, which wasn’t surprising considering their antecedents were the Ancients. However, it was J.P. who captured Jonas’ inner geek, as he interrogated the artificial intelligence who was a walking talking reference library on the Ancients and the city. He’d declared to Teal’c that it was the best recreation break he’d had in forever or at least since he’d accepted a position in the Langaran government and become what Jack referred to ‘as the man’.
~o0o~
The Odyssey arrived almost 72 hours later than its original ETA, with an exhausted crew who’d been working overtime and then some, to make repairs to the hyperdrive and shields. No one had been comfortable with being so far from base with that level of damage as it made the ship too vulnerable. So, they’d been working practically around the clock to carry out the repairs. Once they’d docked at Atlantis to unload personnel and supplies, the Commander, Destine Kruger had ordered the crew on a 24-hour stand down so they could catch up on sleep before preparation for the trials commenced. Although Ambassador AuClair fretted at the extra delay, General O’Neill had backed Commander Kruger unequivocally. Since many of the crew on the deep space carrier would be serving as security detail during the trial, she wanted the crew to be well rested.
Many of the regular military and civilian residents who were not privy to the most graphic details of the crimes being tried had expressed confusion as to why Atlantis wasn’t hosting the trials as they had with the Rebel Genii military hearing, Jack had excellent reasons why he’d chosen to hold the tribunals on the 304-battle cruiser. Aside from the security crew and a skeleton staff to manage the ship’s systems the rest of the crew would be sent to Atlantis for R & R, thereby reducing the chances of Trust spies being able to report back highly sensitive data. The conference room was also equipped with a state-of-the-art SCIF (Sensitive Compartmentalized Information) in the conference room where they would hold the hearings. The communications techs who he’d temporarily assigned to the Odyssey for this flight would regularly scan the room, including every individual going in and out to ensure they didn’t have bugs or recording devices on them.
And finally, holding the hearing aboard the 304 meant it was much easier to restrict who attended the trials. Which served a dual purpose. The whole subject of Lavin’s herb and its active constituent which had been dubbed MCD –238β was so potentially dangerous not just to international security but had implications for the security of other worlds as well. They did not want anyone else getting their hands on such dangerous knowledge – too many unfriendlies, both domestic and interplanetary, already knew too much about it. The second very crucial consideration which had O’Neill opt for the Odyssey as the venue for the trials had been the graphic and highly personal nature of a lot of the information that would be disclosed at the trial. John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Monique Girard, Miko Kusanagi, Sofie Danziger and Lt Emilio Navarro were all victims of sexual assault. Jack and the rest of the individuals who consisted of the new Lantean-based law enforcement and justice organisations were determined to ensure that they were afforded the maximum amount of privacy as they could provide them with. For this reason alone, the trials were closed to the public and it was why they opted for a tribunal rather than a jury-based trial.
~o0o~
Nikola Bates was relieved when the 22 days of journeying to Atlantis finally came to an end. Getting caught in the Asteroid storm had not figured into her plans at all, and she’d been pretty damned freaked out about it. But Dr Emmanuel Umwali Nkusi, a psychologist who was assigned to Atlantis too and who Nikki had befriended during the voyage, had reminded her that even back on Earth, planes unexpectedly hit air turbulence. Thankfully, having a buddy, particularly a calm, logical psychologist to help keep her head in the game had been just what she needed to stop her overly hormonal self from getting too hysterical. Emmanuel reminded her that she was on the Odyssey because the SGC scientists had erred on the side of caution due to her pregnancy, pointing out that they had no idea what effects if any there might be on the foetus if Nikola had travelled to Atlantis via a wormhole.
Nikola conceded that they did have a point. At nearly five months pregnant she didn’t want to take any chances that might harm her baby. Rapidly approaching her forties, she was a realist – this might be her only chance to be a mother. It was a shame that she hadn’t chosen a better sperm donor than Mason Peters, not that she’d chosen him exactly, but what was done was done. At least she was far out of his clutches in Atlantis and the salary she was getting to head up the intelligence division of the newly formed ISBI would go a ways towards helping to reduce the medical debt she was still paying off for Eric’s medical bills. Plus, her healthcare (including obstetric care), food and lodgings on base were an added perk in addition to the generous remuneration. Since there weren’t a lot of things to spend your money on in Atlantis it meant that she would hopefully get her bills paid down and save money to be able to raise her child with some degree of financial security.
As the Odyssey docked on Atlantis, she looked around. Most of the cargo and passengers, largely civilian scientists with a few military personnel who’d been assigned to the base had already been beamed down. The ship’s doctor had recommended that Bates not beam down due to her pregnant status because like going through wormholes, they hadn’t been able to study any potential side effects on a foetus. Although Nikola had already been beamed aboard the Zephyrus when they were trying to take care of Mason Peters but the Odyssey’s doctor, Oliver Childs’ told her he was reluctant to authorise her to use it unless there was no other option, which was why she had to wait until the 304 physically docked with the Ancients’ supercity. She had two main concerns as she gathered her overnight bag, the majority of her stuff had already been beamed down. What she was going to do about childcare once the baby arrived and what was her boss going to be like? If he was an asshole, it was going to be a bit awkward, since she was stuck here in a far-flung galaxy, hiding out from Mason for the foreseeable future.
She had voiced those fears to General O’Neill when he’d turned up at Area 51 with the offer of a lifetime, as he’d sold it to her. He’d just smiled and said he was sure that she would get on like a house on fire with the new director of the ISBI or he’d burn his beloved Simpsons collection. On the subject of childcare, he’d promised that she could bring the baby with her when she was on duty, at least until it started walking and he would organise a creche close to her office, with one of the Athosian locals to act as a child care worker. He explained that many of the Athosian worked and lived on Atlantis, assisting the military as guides, and acting as agents in trading missing. He seemed confident that he could find someone suitable and appropriate to care for baby Bates. He also said there was a small but highly supportive group of parents, some single parents who rallied around to help each other out and they would no doubt embrace Nikola too,
So, while she trusted the general, after all, he’d totally kept his word and dealt with Mason and kept her and her baby safe, she was still a mite worried about her new life and what it would bring. Although, she supposed under the circumstances, it was totally warranted. It wasn’t every day that you travelled across the universe to a new galaxy while expecting your first child as a single mother. Taking a deep breath, she slung her overnight bag across her shoulders and forged down the gangway to start her new life as a Lantean. This was when she received her first big surprise. She kind of expected her new boss to be waiting for her or even the Homeworld director, since he said he would be in Atlantis when the Odyssey docked but instead was a buxom blonde with red glasses who proceeded to greet her warmly.
Penelope Garcia gave Nikola a friendly hug and told her, “ Welcome to Atlantis, Nikola.”
“Pen, I didn’t know you were here. Have you been transferred to Atlantis too,” she asked hopefully.
“Only temporarily, Hon. General Jack sent me here to do a risk assessment on a ten-thousand-year-old artificial intelligence entity,” she told the intel analysts. “I can’t wait for you to meet her,” she stated effervescently.
“Wow, I don’t know what to say to that statement, Pen.”
“I know, right? Anyway, moving right along…I’ve volunteered to be your tour guide, today. General Jack sends his apologies, but he’s tied up entertaining the delegates who are here for the trials that are being held aboard the Odyssey and the Associate Director of the ISBI, Alex Paddington felt it was more appropriate for him to greet you in private,” she explained to the new arrival.
“Look, I know you probably want to get settled in, but it is the protocol for all new arrivals to Atlantis to go straight to the Infirmary to undergo a medical before they can proceed to their quarters or anywhere else in the city. So, let’s get this show on the road then I’ll take you to your quarters and then to meet Alex.”
Feeling slightly overwhelmed and realising that although she was initially disappointed to have Garcia as her welcoming committee, she was now incredibly grateful. After hanging out with Penelope during the whole debacle when her ex, Mason Peters acted like the asshat he was, after she broke up with him, the two had bonded and become good friends.
“General Jack asked for you to be assigned a two-bedroom suite in the family wing,” Garcia prattled on as they headed to the Infirmary. “He reckoned you’d be more comfortable getting to know the other parents than staying in the singles section and moving later when the baby is born. Plus, they can keep an eye on you too.”
Several hours later, Nikola having received a clean bill of health, had dropped her bag off in the surprisingly spacious apartment, checked out the facilities in the rec rooms and eaten lunch in the Mess, asked Penelope if she could arrange to meet Alexander Paddington. Garcia had contacted him via her comms, and he’d told her to bring Nikola by in one hour. So, to fill in time, Penelope had given the CIA analyst a tour of the playground, built especially for the younger children, the new swimming pool that Atlantis had created for Colonel Sheppard’s rehabilitation and the science labs. She’d also explained how to use the transporters to navigate around the huge city and explained the places that were no-go zones for civilians without specific permission.
Finally, she’d introduced Nikola to Janae Progenius in her B’Elanna Torres incarnation. Penelope informed her that Torres was a young 25-year-old female who was a half-human half-Klingon fictional character in the Star Trek Voyager TV show. Although seemingly fond of the Tuvok persona and the holographic representation, J.P. decided to experience another female perspective and opted for another non-Earthling, this time the Klingon who had been given a field commission of Lieutenant junior grade and placed in engineering, later in the series promoted to Chief Engineer. Nikola felt rather dumbfounded by meeting the Artificial Intelligence who was a fan of a Star Trek show even if Penelope acted as if it was an everyday occurrence.
One hour later, Nikola was standing outside the door of her new boss, the Associate Director of the ISBI, although General O’Neill had already explained that Paddington would be appointed director when there was more staff. She was nervous but figured the sooner she got it over with the better. Waving her hand across the sensor which Pen had explained would activate a chime rather than having to knock, Garcia gave her a jaunty wave and whispered, “Good luck, Hon,” as they heard Alex call for Nikola to enter, as the door opened.
“Come in, Agent Bates.”
She walked in, noting a tall, athletic-looking man who stood up gracefully from his desk and made his way towards her. There was something annoyingly familiar about the man, but she was having trouble putting her finger on who he reminded her of. His longish dark blonde hair framed a strong and handsome face; his blue-grey eyes behind a pair of black-rimmed glasses sparkled with what she could only think of as merriment or mischief. Wow her new director was a looker!
The feeling that she knew him from somewhere was almost overwhelming, as she said, “Nikola Bates, reporting for duty, Director.”
“It’s Associate Director, at least for the present, Ms Bates,” he told her shrugging.
“Right, sorry Associate Director,” she corrected, feeling out of her depth as she reacted to his undeniable charisma, mentally castigated herself.
It was the pregnancy hormones, she told herself sternly, making her horny at the drop of a hat, because normally she was a very cautious individual when she was around strangers. Didn’t do hook-ups with strangers in bars or leap straight into sex with someone she was dating. Yet lately she was fantasizing about sex a lot, especially when she was in the company of hot guys. It was downright awkward!
Still as embarrassing as it was to be thinking about jumping the bones of her new boss, there was still this little niggling doubt at the back of her mind because he felt so damned familiar. Alexander Paddington looked a lot like someone she used to know, she was just having a hard time figuring out who it was.
Nikola decided to seize the bull by the horns and ask. “Excuse me Sir, but have we met someplace before?”
Exuding a joie de vivre, he said with a smile. “What makes you think that?”
“Because you seem so familiar and yet not.”
Sighing, Tony decided it was time to ‘fess up, he called out, “J.P., have you got a minute?”
Nikola was startled when the artificial intelligence program materialised – well as much as a holograph could be described as being substantial. Her surprise, in part because of the suddenness of its appearance but also to some extent due to the obviously alien-like facial features. J.P. nodded to Nikola, having exchanged a handful of words with her during a conversation with the Black Queen, before turning to Paddington with a smile.
“You called me, Alex?”
“Yeah, I did J.P., I was wondering if you’d mind running a diagnostic on my office to see if anyone has placed any listening devices,” he requested with a smile as Nikki flinched.
Looking around furtively, like she expected them to leap out of the woodwork, she asked, “The trust?”
“Them, or the IOA, various governments with the IOA or rogue elements of the NID,” Tony said airily, as she raised her eyebrows in surprise. “Take your pick.”
“This office is clear of listening devices or unauthorised recording devices,” the AI informed him, “So I’ll go back to my robotics class if you don’t need me for anything else,” she said.
“Nope, that was it. Thanks for the assist and I love what you’ve done with the new hologram, girlfriend, he joked as the AI looked perplexed. She nodded and winked out.
Seeing Nikola’s startled expression, he chuckled. “Yeah I guess when you aren’t used to it, Janae Progenius can be slightly creepy with the whole popping in and out thing,” he commiserated. “Okay why don’t we take a seat to discuss this,” he suggested sitting down for what going to be a complicated explanation.
“ Get comfortable. This could take a while, he warned her.”
