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Contact: Revelation
Posted By: Bronzemage<mrbronzer@hotmail.com>
Date: 15 April 2005, 2:10 AM
Read/Post Comments
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1934 hours, May 4 (Military Calendar), UNSC Sensor Station Pythagoras.
After showing the ONI crew the inner workings of the station, the normal residents of Pythagoras had retreated to their cabins, feeling about as useful as a fifth wheel. McGall and the weapons officer, Hay, were standing in a corridor quietly talking about the spooks. The Lieutenant seemed on edge, even anxious, something that Hay didn't miss.
"Sir? Are you feeling alright?" he said, noticing the almost permanent look of weariness on his commanding officer's face.
"Fine, fine. Just... bad dreams," McGall answered. "Go back to sleep, there's nothing else to do around—"
He was cut off abruptly as they both heard the piercing whistle of an incoming transmission. Both heads turned towards the sound, and Li-Mang poked her head out of her cabin nearby, wondering what was going on. She appeared to have had as little sleep as the rest of the crew.
"Is that the HighCom beacon?" she wondered, casting a worried look in the direction of the bridge... and the ONI agents. She didn't need to say aloud the second thought. They all knew from her worried expression.
"I'll go and answer it," said McGall, and they hurried to the bridge, concern etched on all their faces. Whatever the signal was, they had a feeling it wouldn't be good.
________________________________________________________________________
When they reached the bridge, the first thing they saw was Tanner, leaning casually against the Ops panel wearing his customary smirk. In his hand he had an earpiece, which he handed to the Lieutenant.
"Lieutenant, here, take this call" he smirked.
McGall snatched it from him, and placed the earpiece on his head, still shocked by his own anger. There was something about that man that made him want to—
His thoughts were interrupted by an official sounding voice on the other end of the line.
"Lieutenant Scott McGall?" the voice said sounding bored, apparently not concerned about who he was talking to or what the message was.
"Yes, who is this?" The Lieutenant asked, still confused about the call, and why the Tanner was looking smug... even more smug than usual.
"I'm Corporal Jacobs, UNSC Melbourne. I've been sent to give you a message from Admiral Hawkes."
UNSC Melbourne, UNSC Melbourne... where had he heard that before?
With a rush of realisation, it hit him. It was the flagship of the UN Security Council... The Secretary General was coming to Pythagoras. Although he was about as angry as a man could be about this latest development, he refrained from throwing the earpiece at Tanner. Barely.
Instead he answered the Corporal, struggling to keep the tone of his voice under control. Only one person in the room noticed his hands were clenched and shaking, and she was a specialist.
"Go on, Corporal"
"Sir, Admiral Hawkes says that he will be inspecting the recent events at Pythagoras station along with an escort fleet and the UN Secretary of Defence and the Secretary General."
Standing next to the Pythagoras crew, Roundtree was listening to the conversation on his personal communicator. He whistled appreciatively as he heard the entourage that was coming their way. The ONI agents stared at him with no obvious confusion. The soldiers had already been briefed by Tanner, and the specialists either didn't know or care.
McGall, however, was anything but happy. This was exactly the kind of thing he hated. If his team had been left alone to figure out the signal, none of this would have happened. He again forced himself to remain calm and continued his conversation.
"Did the Admiral mention a time?" he said, once more controlling his feelings of anger, not with a little effort.
"Yes sir," the other man said, sensing something was wrong despite the Lieutenant's best efforts at keeping the emotion out of his voice. "He said that he will be arriving with the Secretary General and the fleet in five hours as of when you get this message. That is the all sir. He wished me to end this conversation immediately after I told you."
It was fortunate the Private had ended the talk when he did, as he would not have had to hear the Lieutenant's outburst, aimed directly at Colonel Tanner.
"You!" he said, stepping very deliberately at the Colonel, disregarding all protocol and etiquette.
The smirk on the senior officer's face broadened as he watched the younger man's anger manifest itself. Behind him, a woman watched with interest, her eyes taking in everything, and her face expressionless.
"Is there something wrong Lieutenant? I simply alerted the Admiral to our little finding here and he was happy to call in the UN. I wasn't aware you would be so... affected by our prescence here."
The Lieutenant took no notice of Tanner's speech and continued his advance, this time flanked by Hay and the burly Zulu, Nwamba. The smug look on Tanner's face dropped a little, but he still convinced himself he was in control of the situation.
The Lieutenant opened his mouth, his face pale and eyes wild.
"You knew we discovered the signal, you knew we wanted this discovery for ourselves, YOU KNEW! Why did you come here, why damn you, WHY? ANSWER ME DAMN IT! The Lieutenants face was haggard, and his mind was full of betrayal and anger that he had kept bottled up in the conversation. It was his station, his dreams, his signal, damn it!
With a start, the wild frenzy in his eyes increased, and he lunged at the Colonel. Hay and Nwamba grabbed his arms and held him back, but just barely. They could see the strain on McGall's face, but they weren't about to get him thrown into the brig, especially with the head of ONI on the way. Tanner could easily shift his story and make it looked like it was an unprovoked attack.
The Lieutenant could see he was getting nowhere, so he stopped his wild attempts to strike the Colonel and hung limp between his two men. He seemed diminished, somehow, as if that outburst had cost a lot of his strength. He turned away in disgrace and started to walk to his cabin. Tanner let him go.
Turning, McGall passed his eyes over the ONI soldiers, and received no response, no sympathy. He glanced at the male specialist, but he was looking anxious... scared even. He didn't seem to know what had just happened. McGall was about to turn back to the doorway when his eyes passed over those of Grace Benson. She nodded silently to him and put a finger to her lips. McGall took the hint, and retreated silently, all the while thinking.
Tanner switched his attention from McGall to the crew of the Pythagoras, watching them with amused eyes. The Colonel was a man who liked to watch people squirm before he spoke. It gave him extra... motivation.
"You're lucky that he didn't attack me, you know", he said, his voice matter-of-fact. "I daresay the Admiral would be displeased if he found him in the brig."
He laughed as the crew filed out, and turned towards his own people. The soldiers' faces were impassive, as always, it was one of the reasons he had selected these few for his mission, he needed men that had no values. The techs, however, were looking around nervously, as though he might attack them, too.
He frowned as he noticed one of them; a woman, looked sympathetic towards the retreating crew. She would have to be dealt with, and soon. Before she became a liability... He had his own methods of convincing people to like him, and none of them were particularly pleasant.
2145, May 4 (Military Calendar), UNSC Sensor Station Pythagoras, Commander's cabin.
Lieutenant McGall was having a restless few hours sleep before the Admiral arrived when he heard a gentle knock at his door. He looked at the small screen mounted on the door control, and saw the face of Grace Benson looking back at him, a strange expression on her face.
"Can I come in?" she asked, her voice gentle.
"What is it you want?" the Lieutenant asked wearily. "If it's about today—"
"No. I just want to talk."
With an exhausted sigh, McGall ran his hand through his hair and typed in the opening command, fingers shaking with lack of sleep. The door opened with a hiss to admit the woman.
"Thank you." she said. "I know it must be hard for you, having that bastard around all the time, but don't worry... I'll deal with him."
She lent closer to the Lieutenant and whispered softly.
"What I tell you know will never leave this conversation Lieutenant... Do you understand?"
McGall made to question him, but was silenced by a kiss. His eyes went wide and he slowly stood up, momentarily forgetting his weariness. He rested his hand on the small table near the bed and tried to comprehend what was happening.
"Wha—what?" he stammered.
"I had to shut you up somehow" she laughed, her expression briefly showing its true form, hidden under layers of training and discipline.
The Lieutenant gave a hoarse grunt that may have been a laugh, then sat down heavily on the table, taking a swig of a jug of fresh water nearby... one of the perks of being in the middle of an Oort cloud.
"Alright, Ms Benson, what do you have to tell me?
She laughed again, and whispered:
"I wonder if you know, Lieutenant, the number of empires throughout history that have fallen because of their intelligence agencies? The very organisations they have created to gather intelligence on their enemies wiped them out. Five years ago, when I was still living on Earth, I was arrested by ONI for broadcasting on restricted signals.
My arresting officer was James Tanner... the man you see here today. He was very much the same, then. A twisted bastard who enjoyed watching people suffer. He...beat me, on the prison shuttle there. I was under a different name then, and they changed my appearance but—"
"Who's "they"?" interrupted McGall, feeling confused and just a little intrigued.
"All in good time, Lieutenant. As I was saying, I was arrested and sentenced to one year in prison. Fortunately, I didn't serve a week of it. An officer came to see me on my first day and asked me how I'd bypassed the ONI safeguards protecting the restricted channels. I told him, and he busted me there on the spot. Tanner never knew.
They told me that a high ranking Admiral in the UNSC has founded an organisation dedicated to monitoring ONI and their actions, in case of an attempted takeover. They trained me, gave me a home, and a purpose. I'd been doing routine surveillance up until now, when I was told that Tanner would be overseeing this investigation. I signed up and, because of my radio antics when I was younger, accepted for this mission.
I have a plan, Lieutenant, that if used correctly, will get us both what we want. Are you interested?"
Sitting on the table, now with the full realisation of what was happening before him, Lieutenant McGall again reached for the water beaker and nodded once.
Just once...
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