Chapter 26
Colson Industries Headquarters, Seattle, WA
October 11, 2010
Daniel watched in a highly secured room of Colson Industries Headquarters in Seattle as the broadcast crew that he had just spent the last hours working with began packing up the equipment.
Ingrid Torrance, a member of Colons’s staff, appeared by his elbow again and gestured to the door, “Dr Jackson if you would accompany me please?”
“Why?” Daniel asked curiously. Miss Torrance had been his guide and intermediate with Colson throughout his stay but that did not mean he knew what was going on.
“The convoy to ferry you to the safe house is ready to depart,” Torrance replied pleasantly and gestured for him to follow her again. Having nothing else to do and recalling that there had been something mentioned about a Colson safe house in the files he’d been given, Daniel gathered his things and followed her into the elevator that would led to the building’s underground parking area.
“Is a safe house really necessary?” Daniel asked as the elevator began its decent.
“It is believed prudent,” Torrance responded pleasantly. “You are a very important figure Dr Jackson and it would be most regretful if anything was to happen to you. Especially while on company grounds.”
The door of the elevator opened and Torrance began to walk briskly from the elevator towards the only group of vehicles in this level of the underground parking lot. Daniel blinked at her departing back for some minutes before he got over his surprise at what her words had implied and hurried to catch up with her.
Before he could ask her more questions, Torrance had reached one of the dark coloured limos with tinted windows and opening the door, gestured for Daniel to enter. “Have a pleasant journey Dr Jackson.”
“Ah, yeah, thanks,” Daniel replied as he juggled his things and slid into the vehicle. It took only a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the dim interior of the vehicle and discover that he was not alone. Seated across from him was the other half of Colson Industries, Brian Vogler.
“Mr Vogler,” Daniel greeted in surprise.
“Dr Jackson,” Brian returned the greeting urbanely. “I must compliment you on how you handled the broadcast and say I am tremendously impressed by the number of languages you know.”
“Thank you,” Daniel returned politely. “If you don’t mind me asking, where exactly are we going?”
“We will be joining Alex at the airfield in approximately thirteen minutes.”
That was not quite the answer Daniel had been looking for but as Brian seemed perfectly content to spend the rest of the ride in silence, Daniel did not press the issue. He had already spent some time in the company of Alex Colson and his much more pragmatic business partner and while he’d only engaged in light conversation with Brian he knew the man to be much more closed mouthed than Alex.
As Brian said, thirteen minutes later the convoy was at the airfield and they were being ushered to a small business jet waiting on the tarmac. Boarding the plane Daniel found Alex waiting expectantly and shortly after the two men exchanged greetings, the plane was taxiing down the runway and airborne.
Alex informed Daniel about the length of their flight and as they settled in to their seats, Daniel took the opportunity after some light conversation to question Alex about what both he and Janet had wondered about four weeks ago while at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.
“Alex, I was just wondering how you became apart of this?” Daniel asked.
“They approached Brian,” Alex admitted freely. Daniel glanced over at Brian but the man had not even look up from his newssheet e-reader at the mention of his name. “It seems they profiled and deemed me a security risk to the resistance but they needed a media enterprise to pull off the Veritas broadcast on Earth.”
“So then they approached you?”
“No, Brian joined them and I probably would have never known if I hadn’t accidently picked up and activated Brian’s communication stone at a family dinner at his house about a year later. Needless to say,” Alex’s expression turned wry, “no-one was pleased by that.”
Daniel could believe that. Particularly Jack’s reaction—not just Alex’s at discovering that his childhood friend and business partner was a part of an underground resistance that was plotting to overthrow the Aschen Alliance and by association the US government.
“So how did they convince you to join?”
“They almost didn’t,” Alex admitted, “as I am sure you know of my conviction in freedom of speech and that people have the right to know what their government is doing.”
Daniel nodded.
“I was as you probably suspect hurt by Brian’s deception as well as angered by what the resistance was concealing about the Alliance and Aschen by not publicising what they knew. And probably would have sworn to blab what I knew left, right, and centre which would have the resistance taking some sort of drastic measure to quiet me—when Brian pointed something important out.
“I believe in the right of the people to know what their government is doing. The resistance is not a government and has no intention of becoming a government and perpetuate the mistakes of history. Knowing O’Neill as I do now, I also know that I can trust that the resistance never becomes a government as well.”
“That is a very fine line,” Daniel commented.
“Very fine,” Alex agreed.
Brian snorted as he put down his newsreader. “That was one point. What really changed Alex’s mind was that O’Neill made a point of showing in graphic detail how many had died by Aschen hands, by the Kinsey administrations, and how many would die if he did not in the very least learn to keep his mouth shut.”
Brian and Alex exchanged measured looks but Alex was the one to look away. The clash over the resistance had been one of the first times in their long relationship where Brian’s pragmatism had won over Alex’s idealism.
“Yes, that too,” Alex said pensively. “It seemed that in this case, if there was to be freedom of speech in the future for the galaxy then I would need to exercise control over mine first.”
Silence descended upon the three men for the last thirty minutes of their flight. Only when they were touching down at their destination did Alex seemed to rouse himself from his melancholy thoughts.
As they departed the business jet Alex smiled at the brown haired young man with blue eyes who had piloted their aircraft. The man was in his late twenties or maybe early thirties but it had gotten hard to judge a person’s age on Earth since the populations’ inoculated by the anti-aging vaccine.
“Excellent landing as always Jorge, thank you. I am glad you were able to make it to Seattle in time from the activity in Pierce to pilot us.”
“You are welcome,” Jorge returned respectfully in his strong Texan accent before turning to face Daniel.
“Yes, that was a very smooth landing,” Daniel said as he studied the face of the young man and wondered why the pilot’s face seemed familiar. He was quite certain that he had not seen him in Colson employment before nor when boarding the plane back in Seattle. His brows furrowing slightly Daniel asked, “I am sorry. But your face seems familiar. Have we met before?”
“Perhaps in another life, another time,” Jorge quipped with a grin and twinkle in his blue eyes.
Daniel shook his head in amusement at the pilot’s jovial response and dismissing the sense of familiarity from his mind, followed Alex from the plane. After Brian departed the business jet as well Jorge turned back to enter the cockpit.
“Definitely another life and in another time son,” Jorge Harmon drawled in a tone of voice that if Daniel had heard would have instantly had him connecting the youthful face of the pilot—a face he had seen before in 1969—with the dead man that had commanded SGC during its existence.