July 1997
"Sweet Jesus, are we handling this?"
"In as much as we can possibly, there's a car currently en route to collect Colonel Jack O'Neill from the Stargate mission, he's to report to General Hammond's office, that's the best we've got. He and the remnants of his team, Majors Charles Kawalski and Louis Feretti are the only actual people who have had contact with the alien hostiles of this nature."
"Surely some of our Area 51 researchers have some expertise?"
"Well from what they've induced from Colonel O'Neill's mission report the entities from the Roswell crash have nothing in common with the extra terrestrial threat that lay on the other side of the gate. They've got nothing."
"And now this Ra character or whoever he is has come through the Stargate with an armed escort and abducted for want of a better word, one of our Air Force's NCOs?"
"Ra is dead Sir."
"Apparently"
"According to Colonel O'Neill – yes"
"How many aliens do you suppose there are that pose as Egyptian Gods?"
"Well…"
"Exactly. I want to know the moment Hammond has debriefed O'Neill, and I want to know exactly what your people plan to do about this, Major Davis, do not let me down."
"Yes Sir".
Click
"So you see from this piece of surveillance Gentlemen." said John Andrews, "and as the Americans have just become rather aware of, the Goa'uld threat is still significant. The Jaffa sunglider recently shot down by the converted Asgard weapon may only have been the beginning of a military onslaught against this planet. If they've now realised that the Stargate is a viable passage to earth we can expect a good deal more from them. You've all read the mission reports our overseas operative managed to obtain for us, though one Colonel Jonathan 'Jack' O'Neill declares the alien entity known as 'Ra' dead, and we ourselves know that our dear 'friend' The Doctor dealt with the Goa'uld Sutekh on earth, it is clear that the this race of beings are a far greater threat than we at first anticipated. They may have been driven from Earth, but most certainly not from the universe. We currently possess, despite numerous decades of operation, a viable means of protecting the Empire from a mass alien attack. We can possibly defend Britain for a brief amount of time, but should we be targeted from orbit, beyond the reach of the Asgard defence system, we will be helpless. We must step up Torchwood operations, both home soil and out of area. Unless we are actually happy to sit back and let the ignorant American administration remain in control of the Stargate, we must act now."
Andrews stopped talking and looked around the room of the Torchwood Cabinet. Filled with musty old men in black suits, each and everyone with a cigar in hand and a brandy in front of them. One of them spoke.
"And we're sure of all this?"
Andrews sighed and closed his eyes briefly.
"Yes Sir" he said, with considerably emphasis on the 'yes'. "Intelligence has provided us with a considerable amount of information on the NID and DoD files and intentions."
"It wouldn't do just to let the Americans retain control of the device"
"No Sir"
"How do you propose we gain control over it?"
"I have a few ideas Sir" smiled John.
--
Deep within Cheyenne Mountain, the Stargate burst into life and illuminated the room. From out of the wormhole's event horizon, an empty tissue box tumbled out with three words painted on the side…
'Thanks. Send more.'
--
The NID – The United States of America's most secretive organisation. So secretive that the meaning behind the initials was only known at the top level of government. National Intelligence Department. Tasked with protecting the United States and its interests from extra terrestrial threats. They were the original Men In Black… or would have been if Torchwood hadn't been formed a good deal earlier. Unlike Torchwood however, the NID was not discrete. It was the NID that were responsible for start of the MIB rumours. The NID however were nowhere near as advanced as Torchwood. Whether by lack of skill, poor judgement, or just bad luck, the NID had failed to gather the level of alien technology that Torchwood had. What they did have however, was studied intently in Area 51. Theoretically neither Torchwood nor the NID were supposed to know about the other's existence, although Frank Simmons was beginning to suspect the NID might have a British counterpart. The shooting down of an alien spacecraft just under a year ago by some kind of energy weapon had gained the attention of Intelligence officials at the highest level of the US Government.
Simmons was once again studying an intelligence report provided to him, this time by Air Force officers under Cheyenne Mountain, the location of the alien device, the Stargate. The ship shot down the year before had carried what he and his peers believed to be from the planet visited by the Stargate Mission team. And now one of the same species of Alien had come through the Stargate to earth. General Hammond had confirmed it. The alien's eyes glowed. As it turned out, O'Neill was the lying son of a bitch that Simmons thought he was. The nuclear device he'd been ordered to detonate in order to blow up the planet had only destroyed a hostile alien ship, the planet was intact, Daniel Jackson was alive, and now the two of them alongside a Major Kawalski were using the gate to pursue this new alien to another planet as he sat here…
The Stargate was dangerous. It appeared to open a doorway to a universe that the United States government knew next to nothing about. But the British… they'd shot down one of these alien ships. Recovered an alien body… Simmons had managed to ensure the co-operation of the British Deputy Prime Minister, through certain illegal means… there was an organisation, deep within British Intelligence… and they knew what America was about to face. It was Simmons' job to make sure he found out what they knew.
Simmons stood up and placed the document into a draw in his desk, closed it and locked it. He had a plane to catch.
--
Glasgow, Scotland. Fourteen Hours Later…Lieutenant Colonel Frank Simmons had been walking around Glasgow for the past hour or so. His intelligence sources had previously tracked the locations of the energy weapons fired at the alien ship to somewhere nearby. There were three of them, pinpointed by US satellite recordings to exact GPS co-ordinates. There didn't appear to be anything here… but then that didn't mean there wasn't. Simmons placed his hands in the pockets of his black suit. He moved closer to the area that the satellite had indicated. Just a normal building. Nothing strange. A tourist information office… except it was closed. During the middle of a weekday. Simmons walked up to the building and looked in through the door's window. Nothing. He pulled a small lock pick out of his pocket and began to use it on the door. There was a small click, as he was granted access.
Simmons stepped into the dark office. Everything appeared to be in order, the usual tacky maps and info leaflets…He moved to the door behind the desk and tried to open it. It was locked. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed a security camera, a small red dot flashing in the right hand corner of it. It was trained directly on him.
"Shit…" he muttered.
From the moment Simmons had arrived at the first of the points designated by the US satellites, Torchwood Two had been tracking him via the various security cameras throughout the city. The moment he'd made for the second of the three weapons installations Torchwood had sent a high priority communication to MI5 – the British Security Services.
'Urgent Message from Box 16 - Suspected Terrorist Bomb Threat in Progress, co-ordinates will follow'
A contingent of Armed Police officers roared to a stop outside of the tourist information office. Six officers wearing bulletproof vests and carrying rifles took up position outside of the building and proceeded to storm it.
Simmons smiled to himself from a few streets away. So. By simply breaking into a tourist information office he had drawn the attention of an armed police unit. He was on the right track. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a cell phone and dialled an international number.
--
"Sir, we're getting a message from GCHQ"
"What is it?" Asked Andrews.
"They've intercepted a telephone call made to the United States from Glasgow, a few streets away from the building currently under armed police control, it appears to be using veiled speech, but we can trace the other end and it's being received by a land line in the Pentagon."
"What did the caller say?"
"Have found the arrow, looking for the archer"
"So…" mused Andrews. "The USA is engaging in intelligence operations against Torchwood. Interesting…"