Cleaning Up After The Ancients - Chapter 119

Chapter 119 - Minor Issues

Jack hadn’t exactly been surprised when the White House had received an emergency call about a persistent blackout around the Smithsonian. Not that he had been expecting the blackout in particular, but it had seemed a safe bet that something would go wrong given it was Daniel in a history museum with a pair of aliens.

So now Hayes was on his way to a secure bunker away from the general DC area, and Jack was arriving at the forward command post that was hastily being assembled in the park across from the Smithsonian.

“So what are we looking at?” Jack put forward as he ducked through the partially open tent flap.

“We don't know, sir.” Colonel Banner offered with an apologetic shake of his head. “All we’ve been able to figure out is that there’s a persistent deadzone around the building to anything that runs on more than the tiniest trickle of electricity.”

Jack considered that, looking across the various open laptops showing camera views of the Smithsonian building before focusing back on Banner. “You guys measure it out yet?”

“We have a pair of teams walking what we think is the perimeter now.” Banner said. “Cursory guess however is that we're looking at a sphere of about a thousand feet in diameter.”

Jack nodded, taking a few steps back out of the tent before reaching into his pockets to pull out his special cellphone. Quickly inputting the code that would connect him to the Prometheus, he held the disguised communication device up to his ear. “It's O'Neill, put me through to Colonel Pendergast.”

“Jack.” Pendergast's voice greeted after a moment. “Sorry to say there's been nothing new to report since you called us ten minutes ago.”

Jack hadn't expected there would be, but the Prometheus was their–

“Hold on.” Pendergast suddenly said. “Colonel Carter is saying she might have something, let me put her on.”

A click sounded out as the line switched.

“Sir?” Carter's voice echoed out.

“I'm here Carter.” Jack confirmed, leaving the conversation about just what she was doing on the Prometheus for later. “Whatcha got for me?”

“Well.” Carter began. “I was going over the scans the Prometheus took of the deadzone, and I think I recognize one of the patterns from the control chair in Antarctica.”

That was pretty much the exact opposite of what Jack wanted to hear. “Carter, please tell me Daniel didn't stumble onto some sort of remote control doomsday weapon?”

“No” Carter said, and Jake let out a sigh of relief only to suck in a sharp breath when she continued. “At least, I don't think so. See, it's not the control chair itself that the pattern matches. But the wireless transmission system that the chair uses to provide the drones with energy.”

Jack frowned, because that sounded a lot like what he had just described. “And how is that any different?

“Because the energy's not there for a doomsday weapon.” Carter answered with a slight hint of exasperation in her tone. “In fact, I'd say it's not there for a weapon period. It would be like trying to power the stargate with a diesel generator.”

“It's knocking out power across an entire block.” Jack reminded her, glancing back to the worryingly quiet building.

“Draining power, not knocking it out.” Carter corrected. “That's what I meant when I said the energy wasn't there, sir. My guess is that whatever Daniel found is drawing in energy and transferring it somewhere to try and do something.”

Okay, that it least made a lot more sense to Jack. Though unfortunately it didn't actually remove the possibility they were looking at some kind of weapon.

“Can you track where it's trying to send the energy it's draining too?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” Carter said. “I couldn't trace the subspace pathway it's transmitting the energy through. But on a hunch I had the Prometheus start searching for a matching signature in a few likely locations.”

“And?” Jack pressed, knowing Sam would be very likely to go down a tangent if he didn't.

“Well… We found one… In Italy. The ruins of the Temple of Diana to be specific.”

Letting out a sigh, Jack resolved himself to several days worth of long conversations with his European counterparts.

“All right, tell Pendergast to send a team down and secure the location. Once that’s done you can beam down yourself and see if there’s an, I don’t know, off button or something.”

It was doubtful they would be able to recognize it if there was, but he knew if he didn’t specify Carter would spend the entire time trying to figure out how whatever it was worked instead of trying to figure out how to turn it off.

A few seconds of silence went by before Carter's voice returned. “I relayed the message… Has there been any word about Daniel?”

“Nope.” Jack admitted. “But the blackout triggered a security lockdown, so the emergency team is still working their way through that.”

All things considered it was lucky they had gone to the extreme of closing down the whole building for this little tour, otherwise things would likely be a lot more dire.

“The cover story is going to be that someone tried to rob the museum during the systems upgrade they were performing today.”

“You know, sir.” Carter put forward in a hesitant tone that instantly put Jack on edge. “We could always try calling up Eventus.”

“Already tried.” Jack confessed with a sigh. “Our message just went to the Ancient equivalent of voicemail, and attempts to contact him through the Chinese had them tell us he’s currently too busy to deal with small matters like a museum losing power.”

“Ancient voicemail?” Carter repeated in clear confusion.

“There was one of those, sorry I can’t come to the phone right now, messages.” Jack told her, grimacing slightly at the memory. “Only, you know, more Ancienty sounding.”

He had of course left a message, but Jack had the distinct feeling they probably weren’t going to hear back from the Ancient unless things either got a lot worse, or the man finished with his vacation.

Colonel Banner stuck his head out of the tent. “General, looks like the rescue teams on their way out with Doctor Jackson."

Nodding in acknowledgement he held up a finger so the Colonel would know he going to wrap the call up.

“Looks like they found Daniel.” He relayed. “I’ll call you back if he can shed any new light on the situation.”

“All right, sir.” Carter returned.

Shutting the phone, he turned to the Colonel with one of his customary grins. “Two dollars on someone touching something they shouldn’t?”

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Author’s Notes: It seemed like a safe bet, and yes, the Chinese government absolutely knows Eventus is getting it on right now since the pair of them are not exactly being quiet about the whole thing.