The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) (116 page)

He nodded as Major Evans called him and went to help with removing the stone fragments from the chair. They were big but he still had strength, strength that excided the one that the normal humans had. He was old but not that old yet.

It took them almost half an hour to clear the fragments and open enough space that the scientists could check the Chair and start the operation of removing it.

“Wow. We have a jack pot here.”

The call came from Ovens one of the scientists that were checking for any useful information.

“What do you mean?”

Radek looked at his younger colleague.

“This outpost never used its drones Radek. There are thousands down there.”

It took just a second for everyone to digest the information. As soon as they did they all smiled.

Teal’c remembered the magnificent view of the drones when O’Neal activated the Antarctica outpost. He remembered the destruction of Anubis’s fleet. It was the day that he truly started to believe in the impossible, the day that he realized that the dream might become a reality.

“Hammond if you copy we have coordinates for you to beam something.”

Radek heard Sam answering.

“What do you have Radek?”

“Sam this outpost has a full load of drones, enough to replenish both the Antarctica base and Atlantis.”

Sam looked at the faces of the bridge crew as they heard the words of Zelenka. Humanity now had powerful defenses and weapons thanks most of all to the Asgard but as well to their other allies but the drones were the ultimate weapon.

They were weapons designed by the Ancients, weapons that could go through any shield and armor and destroy any ship that could threaten mankind.

They had a right to smile. Even if the chair was not operable this still meant that this mission was a success.

She looked at Lt. Summers.

“Lieutenant I want you to transport them to the cargo bays and every storage room as soon as they disconnect the chair.”

“Yes ma’am.”

  Radek looked at Miko and at Lieutenant Jamison. They were the only people who had the natural gene in the team. It was time to test if the chair was working. He wished he had Sheppard here. He knew that with a gene like his it would have been easy to see if the chair was operational.

The marine was the first one to try. He followed the instructions but he didn’t manage to activate it. After several unsuccessful attempts Miko took his place. Her gene was strong not as strong as the one present in Sheppard or O’Neal but he hoped that it would be good enough.

It took just a second after she sat down for the chair to activate.

As soon as it did he exhaled realizing the breath he was holding back.

“The chair is operational.”

“Yes. Hell Yes.”

He looked startled at Miko. It was strange to see her like this.

She returned his look. He could see through her visor that she was smiling.

“What?”

He was caught unprepared by her question.

“Nothing… nothing just not used to seeing you like this.”

She smiled again.

“Now I have a story to tell. And maybe even a chance at using the Atlantis chair.”

Radek smiled at that. That chair was a dream for every member of the expedition.

He smiled as he remembered Dr. Becket.

“Well almost everyone. There was always a black sheep in the family.”

He smiled at the thought and at the guilt in his consciousness. It was not fair to call Carson that. But it was funny.

“Well time to get back to work. We need to remove the chair. You all know what to do.”

It took just a moment and he was replaced by the team that started working on the chair. They did the same job in Antarctica and were intimately acquainted with the procedure.

He knew they had a lot of work before them so he moved to the scans and the downloading of the information that was contained in the memory core of the base. He could notice that there was a lot of damage and that probably they would not get much, but even a small bit of information was welcomed.

Three hours later they all smiled as a sign of relief.

“Sam the job is done you can remove it.”

Carter just nodded at her officer and a moment later the Chair appeared in a special room next to the bridge. Moments later Lt. Summers started transporting the drones.

Six hours later the USS George Hammond broke orbit and started its voyage for Earth.

On the bridge Carter exchanged smiles with the rest of the team that knew the real reason for the mission. In a way it was the final nail in the coffin of the IOA.

Atlantis would go where it should. And now no one would be able to stop it.

                                           
IMORTALITY

From the Dawn of Time we came,

Moving silently down through the centuries.

Living many secret lives.

Struggling to reach the Time of the Gathering,

when the few who remain will battle to the last.

No one has ever known we were among you...

until now.

James and his partner Diane moved slowly towards the empty clearing in the woods just outside of Washington. He turned towards his younger partner and signaled her to watch his back as he rushed forward towards the place where their target went. His name was Michael Koran or at least it was supposed to be like that considering that the baby that had that name and that birth date was dead just couple of minutes after arriving on this world.

James was part of the FBI for more than twenty years, a veteran among the many, much younger colleagues among them Diane included. He was fifty three years old, a former marine who joined the FBI right after leaving the marine core. His black hair was now showing signs of gray a clear sign that he was getting old. He still had a rock solid body a legacy of the long service and physical workout but he could feel the years and his age getting to him from the aches in his joints. As he watched his target rushing forward the far younger man with false identity moving fast he shacked his head.

“
I’m getting too old for this. It might be time for a desk job.”

He thought for a long time about getting reassigned to an office and a desk but there was always something new some new case that would get him drawn. And this was just one of those. The false name wasn’t the only reason he was drawn to this case. False names were not something uncommon in today’s world. But decapitations and sword fights were. Four decapitated bodies found in four different parts of USA and Canada in the last eight months. All four had several things in common. All of the people that were killed had false identities, and Michael Koran was sighted in all four towns at the days of the murder.  All were done by decapitations and several slices on the victims, all were done on remote locations and more importantly everywhere there were signs of electrical discharges or something similar. On one location several homeless people actually exclaimed that they saw lightning and huge explosions, strange mist and people fighting with swords. And that was the part that was strangest of all. They were really fighting. Fighting…with swords.

In this era of modern technology that was more than strange. It was insane.

And one of the scenes revealed a dead biro agent who tried to stop the murderer. He wasn’t on duty both he and his wife were just passing by when the murder happened and they both lost their lives. The agent’s name was Bob Sullivan and he was a personal friend of James. A former partner and a man with a family who didn’t deserve to get his heart pierced by a sword. The merciful thing about his and the death of his wife was that it was quick. Bob fired the gun at his attacker. He fired six shots before going down. It was strange that the suspect wasn’t hit not once. The only explanation was that he must be wearing some kind of protective vest.

Three of the victims were male, one was female. The girl and one of the boys were at a young age of just twenty two, the other were older. And according to the medical reports they were in perfect health. Their homes and possessions revealed a large array of swords, knifes and other ancient weapons, and many priceless artifacts, they all had large bank accounts and many estates across the world. His investigation revealed that similar murders were discovered all over the world, hundreds of unsolved cases, it even revealed several strange beheadings in 1985 in New York. There was a pattern there but it eluded him. But he didn’t really care about them. This case was personal. A friend of his died from the hand of the man he was now following and he wanted a payback. And tonight he was sure that he was going to get it. They noticed the suspect following another man the past few weeks right here in DC. His name was Gregory Heist, a forty seven years old owner of several stores across America and Europe. There was nothing strange about the older man except that the name was false again. The investigation revealed that Gregory also owned swords. They warned him but he shrugged them off. Something in his gut was telling him that there was something more to this, something that he wasn’t seeing. He motioned towards Diane to come forward. And while he was thinking of the case his younger partner was thinking something entirely else. Something else, because she knew the secret, she knew what both Michael and Gregory are. But she didn’t know who they are. She was a watcher, a member of a secret organization that had a single mission. To watch and record, to observe those that walked among mankind, to record their history. An organization that predated the modern era, predated Christianity, went back in time almost to the entire known history of man, an organization that watched the Immortals and their battles.

Her main mission was along with the other colleagues that worked in the FBI and other agencies to remove the evidence when there was any and to observe those immortals that worked with them. She watched an immortal that worked in the biro and now used the name Met Striker but was in fact an immortal that was born in Rome more than two thousand years ago under the name Aurelius Maximus.

And she knew that tonight her colleague will know the truth. She tried to stop him but he wasn’t listening. Beside her there were two other watchers present here tonight, and the reason was simple. The last murders caught even the watchers unaware. All four victims were immortals but only one was recorded, only one had a watcher assigned, until the day they died, the organization had no idea the rest existed. She knew that there were gaps that not all immortals had watchers assigned to them, that not all of them were in the database. And these immortals were old, and powerful. Even now before the battle was joined the sky darkened as if the weather knew what was going to happen. Gregory had a watcher assigned to him and so did Michael now and they were here to record and most importantly to stop James from interfering. 

As she noticed James nodding to her she started moving…

As the agents closed in and the watchers observed the two men they were following came outside on the clearing. To any ordinary man they would seem as two normal human beings but in reality they were anything but. They knew each other from time now long forgotten, a history that was now gone not even present in the legends. They both knew the legend that some of the younger of their kind mentioned about an immortal named Methos being the oldest of their kind still alive and inside they laughed. He was old, much older than the years that were mentioned but compared to them he was but a child. The one named Gregory watched his opponent.

“It has being a long time Maniakes …”

The one that looked younger but was in fact older smiled as he pulled out his sword.

“Indeed it has Pretorius…”

As they spoke they spoke in a language that was long forgotten now spoken by just a small number of immortals that still lived.

As the man named Michael pulled out his sword James prepared to go out and arrest him. But before he could do that he noticed two men closing in. They were on him before he could turn and they managed to make him drop his gun. They were far younger but he used his military training to his advantage and with fast and strong strikes learned long time ago in his military career he managed to drop them.

“Whoever you are you picked a wrong guy to mess with.” He spat and pointed his gun at them.

He turned towards Diane hoping to get her support but instead saw her pointing her gun towards him.