Chapter 24
Somewhere in Washington, DC
October 11, 2010
Crowded into the basement of a Washington basement was members of the Air Force and a scientific examination team, one of the scientists, Doctor Bill Lee studied the chest-sized device that was quietly humming.
“Fascinating, just fascinating,” Lee murmured beneath his breath as he walked around the device once again with an Earth made Universal Tricorder Device in hand looking at the readings on the screen. It had been ages since he had examined such a complex and ingenious device and his scientific mind was doing leaps of joy.
“I don’t care what you think about the device Dr Lee,” General Simmons snapped, “tell me what they are!”
Lee looked up from the UTD screen. “They?”
“Yes, there are more than this one,” Simmons said shortly.
“Can I see them?” Lee inquired eagerly.
“No, they’re in different locations,” Simmons answered curtly, “and are all the same. Tell me what they are.”
“Well, considering what they seem to be doing I’d say these are all… Anti-Aschen Tech devices that fulfill the purpose of electromagnetic field disrupters,” Lee replied. “Only of course these AATs work on Aschen tech, not electricity.”
“Okay,” Frank breathed through his nose to calm himself. At least now he’d gotten a straight answer about what the devices were. “One of my teams tried to move it but found them to heavy. Why’s that?”
Hearing the general had attempted to move one of the devices—if they truly were all the same—Lee looked very alarmed. “Oh, no General. You mustn’t move them!”
“And why not?” Simmons growled. “They’re disrupting—”
“They’re geo-locked!” Lee interrupted.
Simmons looked at the doctor blankly. “What?”
Lee gestured to the side of the AAT device that had a touch pad, “That’s a geo-lock manufactured by Colson Industries. Generally, it allows technology to be tracked so that it cannot be stolen. But it can also be used to restrict things to a certain geographical location.”
“So?” Simmons asked. “We contact Colson and get him to remove the locks.”
Lee looked pitying at the general. “Just because they’re manufactured by Colson Industries doesn’t mean that Colson has any more control over them anymore—I would say doesn’t actually, considering the sophistication of this device.”
Simmons huffed again. “If what you say is true, I still don’t understand why they couldn’t move it—don’t those geo-locks just set off alarms?”
“Generally yes, but in this case, considering that a large percentage of the device is made of refined naquadah it would be too heavy for just a group of men to handle. A good thing too.”
“Why is that a good thing Doctor?” Simmons asked sarcastically.
Lee adjusted his glasses and gestured to the touch pad again. “Because the geo-lock is attached to a detonator. If the GPS location coded had changed by a single decimal place the device would have exploded.”
Simmons jabbed a finger at the humming device. “You’re telling me that thing is a bomb?”
“No,” Lee adjusted his glasses again. “It’s an AAT but who ever designed it really didn’t want you to move it. And if the weight of the naquadah wasn’t enough, they added a gravity cup to the bottom of the device. They really didn’t want the device moved.”
“Gravity cup?” Simmons face screwed up.
Lee handed the UTD he was holding off to an assistant and accepted a notepad in return. Tearing a page off the pad he approached the chest like device and bending over, held the paper against the bottom. That done Lee pulled his hand back and the paper tore with a distinctive ripping sound. The edge of the paper remaining fastened to the bottom of the device and floor.
“Gravity cup,” Lee repeated. “Not only did they not want us to move the devices, they didn’t want us to accidentally move them and set off the detonators.”
“Why?” Simmons questioned.
Lee scrunched up his face in thought. “You said there were more of these devices, how many?”
“Three,” Simmons responded.
“Do you have a map of the city?” Lee asked.
Simmons ordered a map to be brought to the basement and within moments, it was spread out on a nearby table.
“This device is here,” Lee coloured in a red circle at their location and held out the pen to General Simmons. “Where are the others?”
Simmons looked at his aid who obligingly stepped forward and inked the other three devices onto the map and handed the red pen back to the doctor.
Lee took out a blue pen and inked circles around the four red dots on the map—the estimated extent of their Aschen tech killing abilities. That done he studied the map some more and then took a black pen and drew a circle that connected the red dots.
“Considering the extent of the blackout I would surmise that you’ll find more devices here,” Lee began inking eight small red X figures onto the black circle roughly equal distances apart taking into consideration city streets. “Judging from the distance between these two devices,” he indicated two circles, “they distributed the devices evenly along this circumference.”
Simmons passed the information on and soon the hunt was on for the other AAT devices. After a short time, confirmation came that eight more devices had been found in the areas where Dr Lee had indicated they would be. Studying the map Frank could not quite see the sense of the circle’s placement.
“Why here?” Simmons asked.
“What?” Lee looked up at the general.
“Why here,” Simmons traced the black circle on the map, “and not at the White House or the Pentagon?”
Lee looked at General Simmons strangely. “I thought it was obvious. It’s what is at the epicentre.”
Frank looked at the map and flushed a ruby shade when he realised what he had overlooked. The blackout at the White House had not been the focus of the attack, but the result of the president’s residence located near the outer radius of one or two of the AAT devices.
For right at the centre of the black circle was the J. R. Reed Space Terminal.
“My advice General,” Lee advised, “don’t try moving the devices or tampering with them in any way. If it was my design, I would only allow one chance to input the counter code for the geo-lock and then trigger the detonation.”
“How big an explosion would that be?”
Lee looked thoughtful and then picking up the pen again scribbled some equations on the outer edge of the map. Studying the answer, he frowned and did some more mathematic computations.
“Well, consider each device not only has a refined naquadah body and components but is powered by a naquadria generator…” Lee trailed off and muttering under his breath wrote more equations. “Triggering one device would start a proximity chain reaction with the other AATs… Then factor in the stargate….”
Lee muttered some more and studied the string of figures and numbers on the map he had just computed.
“Well Doctor?” Simmons demanded impatiently.
Lee looked up from his math and looking owlishly at the major general from behind his glasses said with weak humour: “Ah… Goodbye continental North America?”