Chapter 25
The Washington Post Headquarters, 1150 15th Street NW, Washington, DC
October 11, 2010
In the news room of The Washington Post speechless investigative reporters and photographers watched the Veritas broadcast. Recorders on and fingers flying across notepads as all but one thought, ‘How could I have missed this story?’
The one that did not think that thought, Dominic Klerk, merely sat back in the chair at his desk and appreciated Daniel Jackson’s showmanship on screen. The forty-minute broadcast ended and began again only this time Dr Jackson was speaking in Mandarin as he repeated the broadcast.
Dominic knew that the broadcast was being filmed live in multiple languages, with only the few languages that Dr Jackson did not speak, that would be translated and subtitled by a fluent speaker.
“Alright,” Marcus Brauchli began, “the first person who can get their copy to me—”
A flash drive whizzed through the air and Marcus caught the gadget and turned to look at who had thrown the device. Journalist Dominic Klerk held his boss’s gaze and schooled his features to look obliging.
“You…” Marcus trailed off for a moment as his face began to get a bit red as he realised what was meant by Dominic already having the flash drive prepared. “You knew? And did nothing? You sat on this story!?”
“For an exclusive interview with the people who compiled the Veritas report, yes, I sat on it.” Dominic answered calmly. “On the flash drive is a transcript and video recording of the Veritas broadcast as well as my write up.”
Marcus’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. An expression that none of the people in the newsroom had ever seen the senior editor sport.
Marcus coughed, recovered, and raked a hand through his short hair. “Okay, okay. That’s good, that’s really good.”
It was better than good and Dominic knew it. This would surpass the papers investigation into the Watergate Scandal in the 1970s and his exclusive and inside track would ensure a Pulitzer Prize for him.
“Okay people,” Marcus called out to everyone, “let’s get this to press and in the air. We have a story to break!”
The newsroom exploded into a flurry of action as Marcus plugged the flash drive into his computer and before opening up Dominic’s article to read he attached the Veritas transcript and recordings and distributed them to everyone in the office. The noise of voices chatting on phones and into recorders as well as keyboards clattering filled the room again as everyone got to work reading what Dominic had supplied and began their own research.
Dominic went back to working on the article he had been writing before the Veritas broadcast had began. This one about the blackouts experienced by areas of Washington and AF shipyards throughout the country engineered by the resistance against the Aschen to neutralise their technology.
The rest of the world did not know yet, but Veritas was just a part of Phase II of Operation Quarantine. Earth was just a minor player in a much larger resistance that encompassed one thousand one hundred ninety-two planets of the galaxy and led by a falsely discredited man who was about to regain his place in history as the hero he was.
Even now Dominic was still awed thinking of his meeting with Jack O’Neill. He knew, that even with the exclusive rights to personal interviews with Jack and Samantha so that he would not break the story until the resistance released the Veritas broadcast—that the man would be difficult to interview to put things mildly.
‘Closed mouth’ was an adage that applied all too well to O’Neill and he seemed to epitomise Sun Tzu’s military treatise. It was a good thing Cassie had given him the book and insisted he read it to understand her ‘Uncle Jack’ a bit better to interview him more efficiently.
Samantha O’Neill would also be an interesting challenge and, even without her commanding the coup of Earth, an investigative triumph on her own. As far as the public of Earth was concerned Samantha O’Neill née Carter was a missing person. Disclosing her presence on Earth, and that she’d been living on a Montana farm since 2004, would stun a lot of people, especially the conspiracy theorists.
Not that those people had not gone nuts ten years ago with the Stargate program’s disclosure and the alliance with the Aschen Confederation.
The next article he was already composing in his mind was regarding the certain activities of President Kinsey before the senator had gained the presidential office and activities that had occurred once he had been in power. The resulting scandal Dominic was certain was going to be much, much worse than Bill Clinton’s scandal involving a White House intern.
In Kinsey’s case, the public and legal censure would be far harsher and totally deserved by the man. He was looking forward to countering whatever excuse Kinsey offered to the public for, because of his connection via his wife with the resistance leaders, he had far more damaging ammunition on the man than he even suspected could exist.
It was going to be an interesting week. He could hardly wait to see how things unfolded.
. . .
Hearing her newssheet e-reader chime, Cassandra Klerk paused her reading of a medical journal online. She reached for the device that she had set on the desk beside her in anticipation of this event and activated the e-reader to see the first page of The Washington Post displayed.
Dominating the front page was the headline THE TRUTH. Beneath the headline was a large picture of a studious looking Daniel that Cassie knew had been captured from the broadcast itself as well as the article written by her husband.
The headline, picture, and article had the front page to themselves. She did not think since the end of one of Earth’s world wars had a single event dominated the front page.
Cassie smiled with pride at seeing Dominic’s name as the writer. Reporting on this, Operation Quarantine, and the interviews with the O’Neills would get his name into history but she knew that he had the sensitivity to handle the information that Jack and Sam handed him respectfully.
She settled in to read her husband’s words and once reaching the end of the article clicked on the offered link for a copy of the Veritas file which was offered along with a transcript of Daniel’s broadcast and video recordings as well. All provided to her husband for the paper she knew by the O’Neills.
Scanning over parts of the thick report Cassie did not spot anything immediately that was different from the file that had been shown to her, Dominic, and her mom when the O’Neill family had visited her mom back in September. It seemed that the file had been released whole cloth.
But in Dominic’s article, or anyone else’s, there was no mention of the blackout around the Reed Terminal in the city or other blackouts at certain AF installations around the country, particularly the spaceship yards and the infamously named Area 51. Wondering if those blackouts were even known yet, Cassie set the newssheet e-reader down and turning her attention back to her computer, started checking out twitter, facebook, forums and other online discussion sites for more news.