Continuing Stargate

[Lt. Col. Mcoy]

Wow...I leave for a few days and come back to this...


INCREDIBLE!!



But do I smell the Katana Fleet aka the 'Dark Force'?

[Crazy Tom]

Wow...I leave for a few days and come back to this...


INCREDIBLE!!



But do I smell the Katana Fleet aka the 'Dark Force'?

Diehard fans. Pffffft.

What are you talking about?

[Lt. Col. Mcoy]

Oh, nothing. s09119 will know what I mean.

[Crazy Tom]

Oh, nothing. s09119 will know what I mean.

Don't make me use The Internet!

[s09119]

Wow...I leave for a few days and come back to this...


INCREDIBLE!!



But do I smell the Katana Fleet aka the 'Dark Force'?

I don't know, do you? It is a war in the stars, so possibly...

[Crazy Tom]

Mckoy, how you remeber this stuff is utterly beyond me.

[Lt. Col. Mcoy]

Ahh, so you found it, Tom? The answer's simple; I have a phonographic memory. I say it aloud to myself, and I remember it 95% of the time.

And yes, s09119; I definitely smell it.

[Vampyr]

But do I smell the Katana Fleet aka the 'Dark Force'?

Yeah, I saw the resemblance to the Katana fleet too, I am such a SW geek.

Thrawn ftw.

[Lt. Col. Mcoy]

The 'Nuruodo house produces the best tacticians ever.

[Commander Thor]

Katana fleet what the hell?
anyway good story s09119
ps sent you a PM reply back
on my forum thread please
easeir for me as that is where
i go most of the time. lol

[Crazy Tom]

Yeah, I saw the resemblance to the Katana fleet too, I am such a SW geek.

Thrawn ftw.

Not me, the soft tech has driven me away.

Yeah. One of my favorite characters.

[Lt. Col. Mcoy]

Yes, he's like the ultimate villain. I haven't seen him topped yet.

[Crazy Tom]

Yes, he's like the ultimate villain. I haven't seen him topped yet.

He's not dead yet? I don't relly know.

[Lt. Col. Mcoy]

Hmm?

Well, it's tricky to say with Thrawn.


But I think this thread is getting off topic...

[s09119]

14x12 "The First Amendment"
Synopsis: Political dissent rocks Earth, and Dr. Talbot takes a stand for morality as the government cracks down on war-related protests. But when she disappears, SG-1 is forced to investigate.

Spoiler:

((30 second recap of "Conflict of Interests"))

Sitting in her office, Danielle Talbot is scrolling down the website of The New York Times. The first article, accompanied by a large picture of SG-1 in its current form, states, "Public Confidence in Stargate Program Falters." Other articles on the page include, "Three Jaffa Worlds Fall to Der'kal" and, "Major Wrath Offensive Underway in Pegasus."

Sighing, the base commander exits out of the webpage and begins aimlessly flipping through a few of her folders. When that doesn't make her feel any better, she finally just stands up and paces around her office a few times, then jumps when there's a knock at the door. She turns to see Vala standing outside, waving at her to come into the briefing room. Not seeing anything better (or more meaningful) to do, Talbot heads out to greet her.

Vala explains she was rather bored herself and figured there was no harm in paying her a visit... well, that, and she'd like permission to head offworld the next day to meet an old business contact on one of the core-clustered Jaffa worlds. Talbot sighs, waving her hand in approval but muttering if anyone ever wants to just visit her for the sake of saying "Hello!" Now feeling a bit bad, Vala says she'd be happy to do that more often, but with the war and the search for Pandora's Box and everything else, no one really has the time.

Suddenly, someone in the control room shouts for Talbot to get down there, so she and Vala descend the spiral stairs and find the crew huddled around the monitors, watching an MSNBC news report; a Der'kal spy has been uncovered hiding out in Germany and siphoning intelligence reports off the European Union's main computer systems. World governments have been thrown for a loop as they struggle to purge their own organizations of any possible alien compromising, but it's slow going. As they stand watching, Vala asks how bad this could get if anything else is discovered, and Talbot quietly remarks that this is, historically speaking, where liberty begins to seem less important than security... and that can only ever be bad.

The next day, SG-1 is assembled in the briefing room (Vala realizing that now may not be the best time to leave) with Dr. Talbot, going over recent events. Danielle remarks that Washington's on the verge of passing an emergency measure allowing the Department of Defense, the FBI, and the CIA to investigate any operation or business they feel could have "alien influences," supposedly in an effort to make it impossible for the Der'kal (or any others) to sneak onto Earth again. This is being met with mixed reactions around the globe, with most of Western Europe warning President Hayes not to do this and China and Russia already pushing such laws through in their own countries. Most of Asia is expected to follow the latter course of action.

Carter flips through a packet she's holding, frowning at something written there. She says she's worried that Congress doesn't seem to have a problem with this sudden surge of alien paranoia, especially given how instrumental aliens have been to protecting Earth lately. Vala mutters something about putting her life on the line more than once for the ISGC, and Mitchell agrees that this is just going too far; one of the measures being passed would allow the immediate arrest of any alien on Earth, legal or not, for little to no reason.

Surprisingly, it's Daniel that suddenly speaks up in defense of Washington, pointing out that the Der'kal are siphoned dozens of classified documents over the past few months, and they don't really know the full extent of the security breach. While he thinks these edicts certainly need revision before they go into effect, he agrees that the basic premise of them is needed now more than ever. Staring on in shock, Carter asks Daniel if he actually thinks locking alien visitors up is the best of ideas, and Jackson tries to explain his position better; that bit of it may be a bit extreme, but the idea of more oversight into alien activities on the planet is a good one, given how accessible Earth is.

Regardless, there's nothing anyone here can do about it, not really. The ISGC wields no political authority, and therefore they have no real say in the affairs of Washington or New York. For the time being, they have to play the waiting game, and Talbot dismisses them.

As they leave for the elevator, Daniel and Mitchell continue to debate the pros and cons of what's going on in regards to aliens. Carter and Vala head off in the opposite direction, and Talbot returns to her office to finish some work. The two men step inside the lift and thumb the button for the surface; it's just about time for them to go off-duty, and both of them are clearly tired. As they wait to arrive in the NATO section of the base, the talk turns towards the situation in the galaxy at large. Mitchell mentions a newly-received report indicating the Der'kal just sacked a minor Tok'ra outpost on the fringes of space bordering Dakara. He thinks it's only a matter of time before they make their move on the planet itself, and if Dakara falls, the last bastion of Jaffa power on that side of the galactic core will be gone, leaving Earth wide open for the taking.

Finally, the doors open and the two step out to a scene they never expected; two marines are muscling a young-ish technician out of the hallway, all the while trying to order the man to shut up. But the technician refuses to stop, shouting all the way down the hall about the unconstitutionality of the government. After glancing at one another, Daniel and Mitchell rush over, the latter ordering the two marines to release their quarry immediately. The soldiers let go at once, and the technician thanks the two SG-1 members for the assistance. Jackson, worried, asked what he did to cause the commotion, and the angry techie replies that all he did was make a comment about the rubbish Washington's spewing out to a colleague. The next thing he knew, he was being dragged from his desk on charges of "alien-related treason."

Cameron looks sickened by that news, and Daniel's eyes widen in shock. They turn to the soldiers and ask who gave them the order to arrest for such things, but they only shrug; it came down the channels from Washington. Whatever the case, orders are orders, and they were just doing as told.

Two more personnel at the ISGC are arrested for speaking out against the new policies from Washington, and things nearly boil over when Sergeant Siler is taken into custody over one such outburst. Fearing that all Hell is about to break loose, Dr. Talbot telephones the White House itself and gets President Hayes to exclude Stargate Program employees from these new measures, given their proximity to alien affairs.

Vala is stopped trying to leave the base by a group of NATO marines, who demand she turn around and head back down to the ISGC. The SG-1 member protests, pointing out that she's lived on Earth for years now and is just going to drop a file off for Daniel Jackson, but she still is confined to the base.

Outraged at the way this is being handled, Talbot holds a press conference outside Cheyenne Mountain the next day, publicly challenging Congress to think about what they're doing, and defying their mandates by proclaiming the ISGC as a free outpost for aliens to come and go as they please.

For a few days, nothing happens, and it seems Washington has come to its senses over the matter, despite Chinese and Russian insistence that more countries pass anti-alien laws immediately. Then SG-1 comes in for work one day and finds Dr. Talbot gone, replaced overnight with a hardliner; General Matthew Franklin. His first order of business is the dissolution of the frontline team itself, assigning Mitchell to head up a new SG-1 consisting of green recruits, Carter to working exclusively on gate diagnoses, Daniel to deciphering more of the Asgard knowledge base, and Vala to working with the ISGC's small intelligence department.

Stuck apart from one another, the team tries to find ways to re-unite, but it's hard with Franklin keeping the closest of eyes on them. Carter calls Talbot's home in Colorado Springs and gets no response, trying again the next day to the same result. Hoping that she went back to the United Nations, she calls there, but no one in New York has any information for her. It would seem that Danielle Talbot has vanished into thin air.

Over the course of the next week, SG-1 is steadily forced to work on menial projects that have almost nothing to do with the rest of the galaxy. Mitchell tries to slip in reports from the Tok'ra from time to time, but they're discouraging at best.

Finally, Daniel manages to get a lead on what happened to Dr. Talbot; a woman matching her description was seen outside the state penitentiary here in Colorado. Chances are she's being held there. As soon as they are let off-duty, the team (minus Vala) meets in Colorado Springs and heads out for the jail.

In the facility itself, Talbot has been locked in a cell for the better part of two weeks, doing nothing and seeing no one. But then the cell door opens, and she looks up to see a man standing there in a business suit. He is alone, and sits down on the edge of her bunk, introducing himself as a member of the Trust. Talbot says that's impossible, noting that the organization was dismantled over Ankgor when their entire operation fell apart ("Total War").

The man insists that he is, essentially, the sole survivor of that group, and that he has been influencing things since then behind-the-scenes. He reveals that he was the one that blackmailed Talbot into exposing Carter and Vala to danger when they attempted to restart the Jupiter project ("Conflict of Interests"), and he has been making sure certain powerful people continue the push for more anti-alien legislation.

(Start of "The First Amendment," see the next post for end.)