9Author's Note: Going for shorter chapters with a less interwoven story compared to my other stories. I'm hoping this will mean more often updates.
Perfidy
Chapter One
Splinters
Colonel Jack O'Neill staggered slightly as he landed on the concrete floor. The jump through the Lambda Complex teleporter was always hard on his knees, but he was thankful for the dampening qualities the HEV suit managed to provide. That said, without the long-jump module attached to the HEV suit he wouldn't be able to make the jump in the first place and his knees wouldn't be complaining at all.
"Beginning power down procedure," said the scientist operating the teleporter.
What was his name? There were several scientists qualified to operate the teleporter and most of them were as annoying as the last. Taking a gander all he could make out through the armoured windows of the cockpit was a pair of thick glasses and a lab coat.
Carter and the airmen that had joined the on their trip to the borderworld were gathered around the other scientists, their weapons at the ready. It didn't often happen, but something about the teleportation process sometimes allowed the various sapient and non-sapient wildlife to follow them home.
"Carter?"
"Everyone accounted for, sir," replied the Major sharply.
"Good,"
"Colonel!" said a voice sharply.
O'Neill turned towards them to see his least favourite scientist.
"Yes, Doctor Mossman?" he asked dully.
"Your decision, Colonel, to cut the mission short has cost me my experiment!" she replied.
"… field destabilisers engaged. Holding for three, two, one … the teleportation field has completely collapsed…"
O'Neill gave Dr Judith Mossman a strained smile.
"My priority, Doctor, is the safety of everyone on a mission."
Aiming to cut her off before she could even begin, he turned away from the doctor. He caught Carter's eye for a second, sharing a moment of agreement. He remembered the first time Mossman had tried to override his order to leave.
Shaking his head he turned to Doctor Jackson. Daniel looked ponderous.
"Daniel?"
"Hmm?" he replied absentmindedly.
"… discharging primary capacitors…"
"You look a bit bothered."
"Ah, yes," he replied, pausing for a few seconds. "Wondering how long it will be before the Board asks I be replaced."
Yes, there was that, thought Jack. Daniel was one of the few scientists and the only non-military scientist he felt he wasn't constantly babysitting. Daniel had his moments, but he'd managed to gain a pretty decent head for the dangerous situations working on the Black Mesa Exploratory Team. Unfortunately while he was a very talented anthropologist, archaeologist and polylinguist, he (and everyone else for that matter) had made very little headway in understanding the Xenian species let alone communicating with them.
"I don't think you have to worry about that Daniel."
At that moment there was the heavy clunk of the locks on the blast door disengaging before the doors parted with the whirl of electric motors. A momentary glance at Dr Mossman before leaving the teleporter chamber revealed she was glaring daggers at him.
Daniel still looked a bit concerned.
"They're not going to sack you, Daniel. You work for the Air Force, not Black Mesa."
Daniel still looked skeptical as he scratched the neckline of his HEV suit.
o0o0o
"You've got a week's downtime, Carter," said Colonel O'Neill after finding her in her lab shortly after their physical and a shower. "Come on, get on the train before I make it an order."
Carter looked like shit – they all looked like shit – but he and Daniel had planned on getting back to their dorms as soon as possible. Carter just grumbled as he and Daniel lead her way from her lab.
As usual, the Black Mesa Transit System was painfully slow, the train regularly stopping for blast doors to open and for security checks to be performed. They then got off the high security train in the Area 9 Central Transit Hub and boarded a regular train to the Level 3 Dormitories.
Jack ate a quick frozen meal and headed early to bed. Three days at a constant state of high alert on Xen was gruelling on the body and mind.
After a good night's sleep he'd found Carter and Daniel talking over breakfast in the Level 3 Cafeteria. The cafeteria and some other amenities overlooked the transit system station for the nearby dormitories.
"Sir."
"Jack."
"How are you folks this morning?" he asked in greeting.
Daniel shrugged.
"So-so," he replied. "My flight for the conference doesn't leave until four. Didn't get as much sleep as I'd like."
Daniel shoved some egg into his mouth and unable to speak any more, Jack turned to Carter.
"Waiting for the test results from Anomalous Materials," said Sam. "Should be coming in a bit after nine-thirty."
"That's today, huh?" said Jack. "Did you figure out where that sample came from?"
"No, sir." Carter shook her head.
It continued to be a mystery.
"I still think Black Mesa is running a team behind your backs," said Daniel.
That seemed the most likely, but…
"I checked the logs, almost every bit of equipment is logging data. If they were running another team we'd know," said Carter with surety. "There's too much data to scrub and it would leave signs. We'd notice in the equipment maintenance too. We work the equipment really hard."
Daniel and Carter began to rehash the disagreement they'd had over the last few weeks. Carter knew the tech, but he and Daniel couldn't see how they got the sample any other way.
They continued the discussion for a few more minutes as Jack enjoyed his breakfast. Then, something caught his eye.
"Carter," he said, bringing the argument to a halt. "Didn't you say Freeman was running that test?"
Turning from her conversation with Daniel, Carter blinked at him a few times, trying to figure out what brought that question on.
"He is scheduled to, sir. Doctor Mossman was complaining about it."
He only spoken to the man once or twice; he'd tagged along with some of the Lambda personnel at a few Facility events. Jack had been warned not to mention too much to the man though as his Top Secret – Positive Vet clearance was still being processed. His mentor, Doctor Kleiner, seemed keen to get him in the Lambda Labs as soon as he could.
"And when was the test supposed to begin?"
"Zero nine-hundred sharp, sir."
Carter was looking at him curiously.
"And what time is it now?"
"Zero eight forty-seven."
"Uh huh," he replied.
Both Carter and Daniel were staring at him.
"So if the test is in thirteen minutes, why is Freeman getting onto a train?" he said, pointing towards the Level 3 Dormitory station across from the cafeteria.
Carter's head whipped around. She was silent for a good ten seconds, staring at Doctor Freeman as his train took off. He didn't look like he was very worried.
"I… I think he has a bit of a problem with his time management skills, sir."
"Hmm," replied Daniel. "Maybe add another fifteen or twenty minutes onto that start time?"
Carter gave a strained smile.
"Protocol says you have to wear an HEV suit in the test chamber. It will be a bit longer than that."
o0o0o
There was a rumble and a small tremor as the lights flickered.
Jack looked up from his newspaper. Carter was tapping away at her laptop unperturbed but Daniel caught his eye. Glancing at his mostly coffee cup he could see its contents vibrating slightly, strong enough that he could feel it himself.
Again, there was another tremor and the lights flickered for a full two seconds. Carter halted her tapping, her eyes trailing upwards towards the lights on the ceiling. The lights in the Lamba Complex sometimes flickered during powerup of the teleporter, but the Lamba Complex ran on a separate reactor. This wasn't because of the teleporter.
"Carter?" he questioned.
Carter watched the lights for a few moments before answering.
"I'm not sure, sir. Sector C's anti-mass spectrometer draws a lot of power and sometimes does this. We still haven't nailed down why."
Jack gave Carter a strained smile. They did know what's causing this then, even if they hadn't figured out exactly.
He tried to ignore the occasional rumble and flickering, going back to his newspaper, but was cut off again by the lights cutting out for a good ten seconds followed by the automated announcement system.
"Warning … main power failure on level … three, five … and eight."
Jack sighed and put his paper down. Daniel was looking to Carter and Carter looked pensive. The emergency lighting system turned on despite main power having come back on.
Carter was about to say something when there was a much heavier rumble and the lights cut out again and warning alarms came to life.
"Warning… extreme … electromagnetic field hazard detected in … Sector C."
Carter was wide eyed. He was about to ask for an explanation when the fluoro lights above them blew out with a flash of light, raining fragments of glass down on them. The cafeteria descended into darkness as even the emergency lighting flickered out. There were a few yells from scientists and other technical staff before jack noticed the green glow and crackling sound of a forming portal.
Almost everyone turned to the source of the green light as it quickly grew before suddenly collapsing. Jack let out a breath he didn't realise he had been holding when nothing appeared in the nascent portal.
"Carter, what the –" he said before he was cut off by the loud crack of another portal.
As the green light quickly dissipated, Jack could see the tall form of an alien slave before him. The cafeteria was speechless as the alien move its disfigured head with its large red eye around the room in confusion.
Jack grasped for a gun on his belt that he didn't have before the alien got over its momentary confusion and quickly began charging an attack. Quickly regaining his wits he grabbed Daniel by his collar before dragging him across the table as Carter managed to grab her laptop before he upturned the table as a shield between them and the alien.
It was for naught though as the alien directed the bolt of plasma and electricity at one of the scientists gawping at it. The victim didn't make a sound as they died where they stood, but the cafeteria descended into panic as people made for the door.
There was the sudden crack of gunfire as a security guard on break drew his side arm and began firing. His aim was poor, but out of the half a dozen shots he fired he managed to land one true. Wounded, the slave quickly charged an attack before hitting the man with a bolt of electricity causing him to jerk and fall to the floor.
"We'll pin it with the table," ordered Jack.
He glanced at Carter and Daniel who nodded.
Gripping the table by its legs, Carter and Daniel took one end while he took the other.
"One, two, three!" he said quietly before they picked up the table and advanced on the alien slave.
It took a moment for the three of them to get in sync, advancing at the same rate. The slave just stared curiously a them for a moment before realising what was happening might be a danger to it. It tried to charge an attack but too late, the flat top of the table struck it, knocking it flat, before the table was dropped on top of it and the three of them climbed on top.
The slave struggled against the weight of three people pinning it down.
"Have you got it?" Jack asked as he directed Carter to the other end of the table.
Carter shimmied over the top before Jack got off and went to grab something. Slightly relieved of its burden, the slave struggled some more before Jack came back with a small fire extinguisher. He swung its heavy steel body at the creature's head, silencing it instantly.
He glanced around the room. There were still a few people hiding behind things and a few who had been paralysed with fear in the open. One of the cafeteria ladies stuck her head up over the food warmers, a tenderising mallet in hand.
Daniel swore as he got to his legs, staring down at the alien. They shared a look; an alien, here in the heart of Black Mesa's low security section was bad news. Out the window, Carter could see several more alien slaves running about the voluminous Level 3 Dormitory transit station.
"Carter, what should we be doing?" asked Jack as he took the deceased security guard's weapon. As he searched the man's body for extra ammo Jack couldn't help but notice the copious electrical burns all over his body.
Carter remained silent for a few moments as she considered the question.
"We'll need to get to the Lambda Complex. They'll have the equipment we'll need to start figuring what was going on."
As she said that, in the distance another portal opened dumping out a houndeye. She winced, realising how bad this might get.
Once Jack had scavenged little ammo the man had carried, he went to the phone on the wall and tested it. There was no sound at all meaning the line was completely dead.
"Right, we'll head in that direction, but on the way we'll need to make sure the military is up to speed," said Jack. "The HECU's ready battalion will be here three hours from the word go, light infantry is nine hours later and all their heavy equipment should be here in twenty-four. We need to make sure they know. The faster they know the faster they can start putting down aliens."
The Hazardous Environment Combat Unit was a combined arms marine brigade dedicated to supporting Black Mesa's operations. The Xen teams pulled marines from the unit as needed and they had some of the newest toys provided by Black Mesa. The military mostly treated it as a testing ground for new technologies, but on paper it existed to deal with exactly this sort of situation; alien incursion.
"If we get topside we might be able to get cell reception, but the cell towers are connected to Black Mesa's landlines. No guarantee they'll work," said Carter.
Jack thought for a moment.
"We may as well get topside anyway. Even if we can't fid a cell we might be able to track down a sat-phone or a radio; not to mention with the transit system probably out it will be easier to get to the Lambda Complex across the surface."
Suddenly there was a scream outside the cafeteria.
"Help, somebody!"
As he raced towards the door, Jack realised this situation was going to be a nightmare.
Sorry guys, but no Teal'c. I just couldn't figure out how to fit him in.
