Aberrant: Stargate Universe - HG Jones

[Mr Fox]

HG Jones arrived at the run down facility and looked up at it as he got out of the unmarked black SUV. "THIS is where you guys are based out of? You've got to be kidding me. This place is a dump." Probably not the wises of things to say to his new employers the first day on the job, but what did he care. He had been loaned out to the United States, he still wasn't sure what the name of this agency was, just that they focused on protection from terror threats and might have need of a nuclear disarmament specialist. Of course HG Jones was a bit more than that, but supposedly that was what this NID wanted him for. They dealt with big threats, the kind that could put everyone at risk, or so his boss had told him in Iraq.

His driver and guide just chuckled and said, "We like to keep a low profile. The fewer people that know we exist the more fish we catch."

Jones had to nod, couldn't argue with that logic, and by the look of this building he was surprised anyone knew of them at all. Once inside he was no more impressed than outside, except that there were very sharp looking guards in black uniforms. They looked competent like they expected serious threat at any moment, what he would have called high alert. That opinion didn't change the more he saw of the place. Ever room was dirty and old and the only new things he could see were portable, the sorts of stuff that could be picked up at a moments notice and hauled away. If the folks that recruited him and put political pressure on his bosses to help convince him to join their team hadn't been so serious and impressive, he would have thought this whole thing some kind of big joke. No one, and he was sure not even the American intelligence agency's were this paranoid that their headquarters was disposable.

That was exactly what this place was though. Disposable. It was subtle, but he could see the cuts and wires. Directional charges attached to key support columns, concealed or disguised, but it was his job to look for those kinds of things. His skill at it had saved his own life dozens of times in Iraq. It was why they wanted him after all. He didn't say anything about it though, just kept it in mind to look into later. He wasn't about to work in a building long term and not have a kill switch on that bomb.

*****

He settled in pretty quickly and began learning what these people had to teach. It was hard to tell since he was new here but there seemed to be an awful lot of activity in the building for a secret facility that was trying to hide it's existence. The instruction seemed to be more in protocol than anything else. Jones grew bored pretty quickly and put just enough effort into it as he had to.

After a week of his being there he was approached by a man in a suit. He had the look of authority about him. He suspect the guy was a big cheese around the agency from the way the guards deferred.

"Mr. Jones. I hope your stay with us so far has been a pleasant one?" He didn't wait for a reply but continued, "I have something that I would like to show you and then an offer to put before you."

He motioned to someone standing in the hallway outside Jones' room. A man entered and placed a laptop on his desk and opened it to face Jones. He pressed a key and a video started playing. Several minutes of men and women doing things beyond human norm go by before the video ends. The second man picks up the laptop and leaves the room.

The unnamed first man speaks again, "We would like to offer you the opportunity to join the ranks of these people. We have developed a way to enhance our people to the point that they can do the things you saw on the video. What do you say?"

Jones looked dubious. "What's the catch?"

The man smiled, "Well, you would have to sign a form saying that you would never uses the abilities you gained against the United States of America or it's interests."

Jones shook his head and waved that away, "I mean what are the side effects. That sort of thing can't come without a price. What is the success rate of your volunteers? Have any died from the process or been permanently harmed?"

The man smiled again wider and friendlier this time as if Jones had just asked a wise question, "Those are all very good questions. First, not a single volunteer has been killed or permanently harmed as a result of the process. I won't say that it is absolutely safe, but as part of your physical we tested your genetics and you have the marker needed for the process to be successful. The likelihood of any serious side effects are very low. The worst side effects we have seen in those with your genetic heritage is a change in eye color."

Jones didn't pretend to be a human lie detector, but he considered himself a pretty good judge of character and though he didn't trust this man very much, he thought he was being told the truth about the experiment. "Sure. I'll do it."

The man seemed very pleased. "Excellent, I will have the forms sent up shortly and you can look them over and sign at your leisure. By the way, I didn't want to say this before for fear of influencing you by greed, but there will be a monetary bonus for joining the team in this new capacity. I will see you tomorrow after your procedure to congratulate you." Just as he leaves the room he turns back with a serious expression, "Oh, I should also tell you it is somewhat painful, but the pain last less than 30 seconds as the process begins. I just thought you should know."

How kind of you.

*****

The next afternoon he was surprised when they led him into a chamber and pointed to a strange stone statue in the middle of the room. "What's this? Are you people joking with me?" Great! he thought to himself, this whole thing was a big joke on the Welshman. Probably some cameras in the ceiling and he'd be the laughingstock of evening TV for some reality show. He shrugged and walked toward the statue. Might as well get this over with. A light came on in the stone shining out of a little rune shaped window. Jones sighed and reached out to it figuring confetti would drop from the ceiling or something when he touched it.

That slick bastard had lied! Somewhat painful my ass... That was his last conscious thought as the light and pain became his world.

*****

That afternoon the slick man came to his room where he lay recuperating. "Congratulations Mr. Jones. I look forward to seeing what you are capable of in the next week or so. Ten thousand pounds have been depositing in your bank account as a gratuity for joining our team. Welcome aboard." He looked entirely sincere and quite pleased.

[Rorx]

"You're lucky I don't feel up to coming over there yet. 10 grand isn't worth it for that amount of pain. Any ideas what my powers will be or is it random, or maybe you just don't know as much as you seemed to make out? Ah well, I guess I'll work it out as I go along."

With a throbbing head, that felt blissfully peaceful in comparison to the pain from the chamber, Gwyn pushed himself up on to one elbow to see if anything else in the room had changed, but nothing significant had. His sheets lay creased and damp about him, but otherwise he seemed intact.

With a "See you again when you're back on your feet." the smug, slick bastard left, closing the door behind him. Gwyn considered shouting something after him, but couldn't be bothered to expend the energy at the moment. He simply still felt too wasted by whatever was happening to him.

Come on now. No point in lazing about here. If I don't push it and get some exercise done I hate to think what state I'll be in tomorrow.

With some effort he managed to struggle out of bed, dumping the bedding in a pile near the door and sitting zazen meditation for half an hour. His cleansing done he gets to his feet and slowly starts working through some of his most basic kata for the various styles of martial arts he had dabbled with over the years. Although he found it difficult at first he gradually got steadily better until he was performing as smoothly as ever, and without feeling any signs of tiredness so far.

[Rorx]

Ok, lets move it up a gear. There a couple more complicated kata I can try in this limited space before I'd have to move to the gym, let's see how they feel.

To the observers watching on their screens a few levels below his room it is obvious that these were indeed more complicated and yet he performed them flawlessly and if anything was continuing to improve in the speed with which he did them. After an hour of these he stopped with no sign of fatigue and looked directly at the camera.

"I'm going to go grab a shower and then go to the cafeteria, so you guys can switch to another channel or take a break for a while if you want."

Gwyn smiled to himself as he left the room and headed for the cafeteria. Well I guess I got some improved agility and difinitely stamina from this thing, I wonder what else. Christ I'm hungry, but the clock in my room said I'd only been out for about a day. I suppose whatever changes it's made to my body must have used up a lot of resources.

When he arrived at the cafeteria Gwyn was surprised to be intercepted by a Sgt who redirected him to a smaller section of the cafeteria that Gwyn had assumed was for the higher officiers or something judging by how few people generally occupied that section. Now he was entering this 'elite' area, which looked exactly the same as the rest of the cafeteria and he could now see was serving exactly the same looking food. However, as he placed his order for a fried breakfast, cereal, juice and coffee he was surprised at the size of the portions he was given. When he tried to protest he was simply told that those were the orderlies orders, everyone in this section of the cafeteria was always served about 3 times as much as the regular section. Gwyn had already spotted that the section was currently empty but for himself so he had no-one with which to verify this. He half expected it to be a joke on him, but then he thought that he could probably put a fair chunk of his plates away so went with it and carried his heaving tray over to a nearby table. An hour later and he had finished the tray, and, to his own surprise, considering going back for a desert or three.

[Mr Fox]

Back in his room digesting the meal he was in a pretty decent mood. He'd eaten enough for at least three hungry people but all he felt was satiated. He should have been ready to explode. He smiled and thought that if he ever got out of the facility on leave he would love to see the face of the manager at the all you can eat buffet back home.

That was when the alarms began to sound. That couldn't be good in a facility like this. He thought back and remembered the building was primed for destruction. Somewhere in this building someone would either initiate a self-destruct sequence, or it had already been done. Either way, this was not a good place to be. He was on his way to the door to ask the guards to let him out when it opened in front of him. Two of the black uniformed men stepped through and raised their weapons.

Gwyn's init: 14

BG init: 11

[Rorx]

The intention was clear, if they were to blow the building then any tricky personnel should not be bothered to be moved in the limited time they would have.

Taking a leaf from a kata he had worked through earlier Gwyn attempted to dive into a roll in order to throw off their aim and come up into paired spear hand attacks to the solar plexus. As he did so he felt his hands becoming harder, heavier more metal like almost.

[Mr Fox]

Jones performed the roll just as normal and fully expected to come up in perfect position, but by a trick of fate his foot caught in the crack between the padding and caused the graceful roll to come up out of position to attack. The guards looked surprised but it didn't prevent them from firing their weapons.

They both sprayed the their weapons at Jones, but his roll, botched as it was did have one positive effect, as close as he was to them it spoiled their aim somewhat. Of all the bullets on one struck him and seemed to do only minor damage.

((1 health level of lethal damage))

[Rorx]

Back on his feet and now within range despite the delay, Gwyn attempts the planned spear hand attacks again.

[Mr Fox]

(StarGate_ST) rolls 7d10 and gets 4,8,9,10,10,8,1. [5]

(StarGate_ST) rolls 6d10 and gets 6,5,7,3,6,4. [2]

(Damage) rolls 11d10 and gets 6,2,9,8,10,1,2,10,2,3,1. [4]

(Damage) rolls 9d10 and gets 7,8,9,6,7,8,3,7,10. [8]

Gwyn was in perfect position and the guards didn't feel all that threatened by an unarmed man especially after he'd failed the first round to even strike them. They chose to stand their ground and just fire point blank into their victim. For one of the guards it was the very last mistake of his life. Gwyn's right hand stabbed up through his gut and actually pierced his heart causing a gush of blood from his mouth as he collapsed lifelessly to the floor. The second guard fared somewhat better, Gwyn's metal hard left hand met his ribcage breaking three badly and knocking him from his feet.

He hit the wall with a grunt of pain and lost breath, but he was a veteran soldier and still managed to fire off his weapon in a three round burst at the man who had just wounded him. Between the pain and being slammed into the wall all of his shots missed tearing small holes in the wall padding at Gwyn's back.

((Round 3))

[Rorx]

As Gwyn stepped forward to the remaining guard the heavy feeling he felt in his hands spread throughout his body and he could feel the floor beneath him reacting to the increased mass upon it. He drew back his fist to strike the guard, but it was a ruse and instead attempted to snap kick his downed opponent.

[Rorx]

The kick connected with much more force than Gwyn was expecting, the mans head exploded as his foot went through it, plowed through the padding causing a large puff of blood soaked padding to spread across the room and out into the corridor and finally his foot stopped after forcing it's way into several inches of the concrete and brick behind the padding.

With a murmured "Shit, got a kick like a jackhammer it seems." Gwyn picked up the rifle of the first guard, it being less gore covered than the latter ones, and cautiously looked out into the corridor.

[Mr Fox]

((This thread to continue in Team Romeo, you are in Round 3 now))

[Mr Fox]

Gwyn appeared to be pacing about the room, but the warrant officier reviewing the security camera did a double take when he realised that his feet weren't actually touching the ground! He'd been at it for almost an hour, varying his height of the ground and sometimes appearing to be actually walking before the door to the interview room he was in opened.

Caine comes in with a laptop computer and a sidearm. Otherwise, he is dressed in the fatigues you saw him in earlier this day in the NID facility. Caine puts the computer down on the table and opens it up. By the light reflected off the wall, the computer is on. Caine looks directly into Jones' eyes and says, "Greetings. Please state your name and nationality for the record."

Gwyn offers his hand as he says, "Good afternoon, Captain Caine wasn't it? Hywel Gwyn Jones, British. Would you like my place and date of birth? Or perhaps my British National Insurance number?"

"British National Insurance Number," he says as he shakes the hand. Afterwards, Caine looks at his own hand and shakes it slightly.

"Certainly it's NP672496A" Gwyn sits down on his side of the table appearing relatively relaxed, "Sorry if I hurt your hand, I seem to be quite a bit stronger than I was a couple of days ago."

The Captain types away for a few seconds. "Okay then, Jones, how did you come to be at the facility you were rescued from, and how did you know said facility was rigged to explode?" Caine's tone is surprisingly conversational.

"I'm a scientist, or perhaps you'd say an engineer with AWE in the UK. Part of my job, I suppose a major part is as a member of the ‘Button’ team. We are the first response team for any incidents involving nuclear weapons of any origin for the UK, so I'm trained in demolitions, although you could say I specialise in nuke bomb disposal. I have sometimes worked alongside people from Los Alamos, as do a lot of people at AWE on various projects. Recently I was seconded to LANL, only to be passed on to work with one of your alphabet agencies soon after I arrived. It was all very cloak and dagger type stuff I suppose, but on the way into the building I noticed it's general condition and the charges that had been rigged into it's structure."

Again, he types in the information. "Hmmm ... I think your NDA is still in effect, but the SGC - Stargate command will require you to sign another one." Caine comes around the table. "I'm Captian Damien Caine of the United States Air Force. The project the outlawed NID put you through involves technology stolen from a site the SGC was investigating. I imagine you've noted changes in yourself. We need to observe these changes for a few weeks to make sure you are not a danger to yourself,

or others. Genetic evolution at this level is quite frankly at the edge of what we understand."

"Now, as an engineer, would you be interested in what the SGC is about? Besides being a military organization, we come across various alien tech and we have to have people around who can make sense of it. Better yet, you get to know your work is making the planet a safer place. As I said, this is alien tech and not all aliens are friendly toward the earth. Several attempts against the security of the earth have already been thwarted, but its an uphill battle. Earth is really a backward planet and we need to catch up. Does any of this interest you?"

"NDA? I haven't had one before while working with LANL, I think it was normally covered by my UK Top Secret Atomic clearance, but if that's what you need then that's fine. Yeah, I've seen some changes in myself already, which I'll be happy to

pass on to whoever is appropriate. As for alien tech, I'd be more than happy to help you out with that [grins].

I'm not certain about my abilities yet, but they may be of more use in the field than in the lab, so please bear that in mind for the future."

Caine grins and nods, offering his hand again. "Welcome aboard then. We can have you go through our Civilian Operatives Program. Omar, the big Middle Eastern man on point with my them today, is such an individual. You can learn to work with him and people like him. As you will discover, we are a breed apart now. Some people call us novas, though I'm satisfied with calling us Specialists. I'll have your paperwork drawn up. You need to go to medical for your basic physical and then get something to eat. We tend to eat a lot more now too."

Gwyn stands and takes his hand, "Yeah, I noticed that. I assume I'll have an escort for the two weeks observation who can take me down to medical now?"

“Airmen," Caine calls out and two men appear at the door. To Gwyn, "These two servicemen will be your minders for the next two weeks or so. We have to be careful, after all. If you have any questions, you can ask for myself, Captain Caine, my superior, Major Carter, or the General himself, General O'Neil. You are dismiss ... you can leave now. Sooner we get you checked out, the sooner you can deal with that hunger."

"Well, thanks again for getting me out of there, and I suppose I'll see you around the campus? Oh, by the way, I noticed all the rock walls you've got here, I guess that makes this some place like Cheyenne?"

"No comment," grins Caine. "You will have to get your confirmation at a later date."

"Yeah, like once I sign that NDA and the 2 weeks are up I guess," Gwyn's grin is just as big as he turns to the door and floats out an inch off the ground. "Common guys, let's go find medical and then the cafeteria, and on the way you can tell me your

names and what other facilities this place has got in store for me for the next couple of weeks." His voice fades away as they go on down the corridor.

[Rorx]

By the time Gwyn had arrived at medical the rest of the 'Specialists', with the exception of the badly injured, had already been processed, and so there was only the medical staff to chat to as they processed him. It was pretty much like any other medical he had had, pulse, blood pressure, reactions, height, weight, blood test etc. Most of it went without incident although when it came to taking the blood sample they had to try a couple of different needles before finding one that would penetrate his skin. On the other hand he could see that they had several others of even bigger size on the tray, suggesting that some of the others had caused them greater difficulty during thier medicals.

The next two weeks were a busy time for Gwyn, not wanting to disappoint and so be left on the fringes he applied himself to not only practising what he could of practical skills for use in the field, but managed to find a library in order to try to improve his scientific, and engineering skills. This was added greatly following the second day when he realised that he didn't need to sleep anymore by the simple expedient of getting engrossed in a book and not realising the time until 8am the following morning when Geoff (one of his guardian airmen) knocked to ask if he was going down to breakfast.

After that he drew up a mental schedule which put the physical work during the day while living his copious reading for the night shift. Much of his day was spent in the Gym, doing weights/circuits, practsing his kata and occasionally getting a chance for a brief sparring session. He also spent an hour or so each day in his room with the furniture moved to one side while he attempted to practise with the few powers he had discovered he had. Of these his favourite was the power of flight, which he practised as much as he could in the close confines of his room.

After encountering Dr Jackson in the library one day at the doctors suggestion he started adding a variety of history and anthropological texts to his night-time reading.

Towards the end of the two week period he was in the gym as usual doing his circuit training when Sgt Perault and Specialist Donnigal did their martial arts demonstration. Seeing how far advanced they were in their techniques compared with himself and those he had found to spar with so far Gwyn took the oppurtunity to ask Sgt Perault if he would mind giving him some instruction. The man's cold calculating silver gaze was unusual, but the prospect of death at anytime had become a fact of life for the nuclear bomb disposal expert and so Gwyn was less effected by it than the airmen who made up the bulk of the base personnel.