Chapter 3 – The Other Shoe
Gibbs just stared at him. What. The. Hell? He knew that this smelled funny. Either the President of the United States was nuts or someone was playing an elaborate joke on him. Gibbs tried to find the hidden joke, but the President was completely serious. Oh God, the President believed it. He was completely cracked. Do you humor him or report him to one of his handlers? What is the proper protocol for telling the most powerful man in the USA that he was crazy?
“Uh...” Gibbs started, trying to find a polite way to quickly make his escape.
But President Hayes just continued to smile at him and pulled out a cell phone, “Helen, tell Colonel Caldwell to send him down.”
Gibbs tried to feign calm acceptance. Tried, but even his normal reserve was failing.
“Sir…there must be some kind of mistake,” Gibbs said while backing away from President Hayes.
Hayes just chuckled at him, “Oh, I know what you must be thinking. But trust me. It is all true.”
“What is true, Sir?” Gibbs asked calmly. Since the President didn’t seem to be making any hostile moves, he was willing to let this play out. Maybe the President would give him something to report on his way out that wouldn’t make Gibbs sound crazy.
President Hayes considered his answer, “It’s kind of a long story and it sounds more than a bit…unbelievable. But, it is true and the amazing people involved in it are real, flesh and blood people.” Hayes shook his head, “I don’t tell it nearly as well as Dr Jackson, but here goes…In 1928, Professor Langford discovered an ancient alien artifact in Egypt. He brought it back to the US where the Army and eventually the Air Force funded research to discover what it did. In 1996, Dr Daniel Jackson finally solved the riddle and opened the Stargate and the first team was sent through to another planet. For the last 10 years, our country…our world has been sending teams out to explore this galaxy. They have made amazing discoveries, forged new allies, and…made new enemies.”
The President paused trying to gage Gibbs’ reaction. Gibbs was proud of the fact that he was able to maintain his mask. The President was starting to look a bit worried, but he still pressed on, “In 2000, we formed a special treaty with Russia and brought them into the Stargate Project. In 2002, we invited in China, France and Great Britain and renamed our treaty the Stargate Alliance. When the Atlantis Expedition was formed in 2004, the Stargate Alliance had expanded to 30 countries with various levels of involvement.
“O-kay...” Gibbs said as he gave him a wane, disbelieving smile.
“I know what you are thinking…Just imagine my reaction when they told me on my first day on the job,” the President said trying to put Gibbs at ease, and failing.
Suddenly, a bright light enveloped a corner of the room. Gibbs turned in surprise as a man was revealed. No, Jon O’Neill. Gibbs stood shocked at the sight. Where the hell had he come from?
Gibbs turned to the President and was surprised at the relieved expression he had, “Jon, welcome and excellent timing,” the President greeted loudly.
“Mr. President, it’s a pleasure, as always. Nice to see you again, Agent Gibbs,” Jon returned the greeting casually.
Gibbs turned to the President and gave him a pointed look, “Wh-what...what is going on here, Sir?”
“Jon O’Neill is here to show you that I’m not crazy and that everything I’ve told you is true. He is real and so is everything he will show you. Trust me…life would be much simpler if it was all still science fiction.” Hayes turned to Jon, “Take good care of him, son.”
“Don’t worry, Sir. Carter’s on the controls. He’s in the best of hands,” Jon quipped back.
Jon tossed Gibbs a watch. Gibbs deftly caught it and sent him a questioning look as he displayed his own watch, but Jon just smiled cryptically.
Jon pulled out a radio and simply stated, “Two to beam out.”
Gibbs felt nothing as he was enveloped in white light. The light faded momentarily and he was left with the impression of a large room with a huge window. Outside the window, Gibbs could easily see Earth as if viewed from orbit. The light returned and when it faded once again, he was in his basement with his current project boat. The detail was perfect, right down to the dirty mug he had used the night before still perched on one of the support beams.
“Whoa!” he exclaimed before he had a chance to stifle the expression.
“Yeah,” Jon replied casually, “Not how you expected to get home was it?”
Gibbs carefully eyed his basement and took in the half-finished shell of the skiff he was building, he was looking for discrepancies, anything to help him identify that this wasn’t real, but finding nothing. What if it was real? How had he gotten here? Did he lose time? He glanced at his watch. Nope, only seconds had passed since was eating lunch with the President. Could the food have been drugged?
“What just happened?” he asked the O’Neill kid coolly. He was certain that the kid was in on it.
“We beamed from the White House to your basement,” the kid was grinning at him. “Think Star Trek.”
Gibbs eyed him skeptically, “That was fiction. That kind of device isn’t real.”
The kid just grinned wider, “You’re right. This is way more accurate than the device portrayed in that show. That watch is a locator beacon. The ship in orbit can detect the signal and lock on your position…” Gibbs immediately tossed the watch onto his shop counter. The kid chuckled at his action before continuing, “…and beam you to any point within its sensor range…or in this case, specific coordinates.”
Gibbs glared at the kid’s as the information and its applications scrolled through his mind. The military applications alone were overwhelming. When his distrusting, suspicious side voiced its opinion on the potential criminal applications, he blanched. Holy hell, what have I gotten myself into?
He turned a paranoid eye back to the kid. This kind of technology was so black…so classified that merely knowing about it could get him killed. And somehow, eyeing the kid, he knew that it was just the tip of the iceberg. The President’s words returned... ‘10 years…exploring the galaxy…amazing discoveries.’ Damn…it could be true.
“Why are you showing me?” he finally stated in a gruff voice. He didn’t like surprises and as far as surprises go, this was a huge one.
Jon continued to smile at him, “Because you need to believe. I can’t show you what you really need to know until we leave…for security reasons. I need you to believe that it is real and I need you to be prepared to believe the unbelievable. This whole case hinges on it.”
Gibbs felt some of his equilibrium return. The kid’s argument actually made sense. The fact that it was missing a complex technical explanation just made it more believable. But he didn’t want to believe, not quite yet. This was too big to swallow whole. “Everything has a reasonable explanation. Drugs, holograms, hell, I could be dreaming,” he stated more to himself than his company.
“True. The question is will you understand the explanation? Or better yet, will you consider the explanation reasonable?” the kid replied, smugly.
Gibbs frowned at the kid. The kid was too carefree and unworried. Why? Has he done this before? Explained the impossible to others? “And that could be a problem?”
Jon laughed, “That is usually the problem. You’ve seen one piece of our classified technology…although seen is more of a euphemism than a fact…anyway, how would you reasonably explain it using existing earth-based technology?”
Gibbs took a deep breath and tried to formulate an answer, but technology just wasn’t his strong point. Finally, he gave up and shook his head, “I can’t.”
“Ah, but I can find a scientist who can…I just wouldn’t understand his explanation, and I seriously doubt you would have the patience to sit through the whole briefing…the tech geeks can go on for hours…literally,” Jon said affectionately, reminding Gibbs of his own affection for a certain tech geek with a penchant for babbling on. His expression softened momentarily and he realized that his gut actually agreed with the kid. Heaven help him, but Gibbs was going to believe him.
“Okay,” Gibbs stated suddenly, “I’ll accept that, but why should I trust you? Hell, explain to me why I should take you along. I’m not keen on endangering kids in general. How do I know that I can depend on you for backup?”
Jon’s smiled faded a bit, “I don’t expect you to trust me…not like you trust your team. But I’m not a kid. I have more combat experience rattling around in my head than you do.” Jon sighed and turned away briefly, “I’m one of those things that, when explained, sounds completely unbelievable.”
“Try me,” Gibbs retorted, what could possibly be more unbelievable than exploring the galaxy using alien artifacts?
“Alright, but don’t say that I didn’t warn you,” Jon said as he carefully sat down on a nearby stool. “The short version is that I’m a clone of General O’Neill. I have all his memories up to about 3 years ago. Since then I have led a separate life.”
Gibbs blinked and tried to absorb the short explanation. The kid was right, it did sound crazy. But the kid asked him to believe the unbelievable, so he reached for the information he did know on the kid. One fact glared at him. “That’s why the fingerprints matched,” he stated evenly. He clearly remembered trying to rein Abby in when she wanted to investigate the match more closely. She called it a scientific impossibility. Only the next case had distracted her from trying to explain why they matched.
“And if we had allowed you to run our DNA that would have been an exact match as well…” Jon elaborated, “…well, at least at your lab’s current level of technology.”
Gibbs was curious. Having established credible evidence for the impossibility, he was more open to finding out the whole story. He relaxed against the workbench, understanding now why Jon had picked this location for this talk. This was Gibbs’ home turf and at some level he felt comfortable here. Yup, definitely going to have to watch this one closely. He made a vague continue gesture, “And what is the long version?”
Jon chuckled, “That’s the version that makes me sound crazy.” He gave Gibbs a wary glance before continuing, “Earth has several alien allies. One of these allies is very advanced…space ships, cloning, big honking space guns, the whole nine yards…They are fond of the general. They say he is advanced for a human and at one point in time thought that he might be the key to their genetic problems. As it turns out, they were wrong, but not before one of their rogue scientists kidnapped and cloned him.”
“You?” Gibbs stated more than asked as he watched him closely.
“Yeah,” Jon said with a sigh, “I was a defective clone…like all of the ones he created. I didn’t mature properly.” He gestured to his face, “I was put in Jack’s place on Earth while the scientist completed his experiments.” Jon held up a quick hand, “Obviously, the kidnapping didn’t go unnoticed. I worked with Jack’s team to capture the renegade and then we contacted our allies. They were kind enough to stabilize my DNA before I died. Since, then I’ve been helping out when I can and pretending to be a normal teenager the rest of the time.”
Gibbs continued eyeing Jon, hoping to find a crack in his armor. Or better yet, hoping his gut would stop agreeing with the kid. He couldn’t detect a lie. He couldn’t even detect a part of the story that was left out, though he was sure there were plenty more details. No, his gut was saying that the kid was still telling the truth. His gut reaction was to trust the kid. Heaven, help him.
Finally, Gibbs nodded to himself. “Fine. I’ll take you along, but I didn’t see anything in the general’s file that suggested he had any experience in investigating criminal cases. That makes you just as ignorant. I expect you to act like any other probationary agent. You do what I say, when I say it. Got it?” he asked gruffly. This was his case and he would run it the way he saw fit. He needed to define the chain of command early so there was no confusion in the future.
“Yes, Sir,” Jon replied smugly.
Gibbs nodded, “Then get us back to the White House. We’ll take my car back to NCIS headquarters.” Gibbs reached out and tentatively picked up the locator beacon, almost afraid of it, before he nodded.
Jon clicked his radio, “You still there, Carter?”
“And waiting,” a sharp female voice replied.
“We’re done. Send us back,” Jon replied.
Instead of a reply, they were both enveloped in white light.
--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG
TBC
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