I own neither Stargate nor the X-COM franchise. No infringement is intended, no profit is to made and I'm just not worth the hassle of suing anyway unless you want a share of the wages of an underpaid Civil Servant.
Hawaii – Earth – August 2000
Major Cameron Mitchell slowly started to push the throttle up as soon as he cleared land, he didn’t want to leave a sonic boom behind to ruin the surfing going on down there but once he was out over the Pacific it was time to have some fun. As the twin pulse detonation engines started to strut their stuff he felt himself pushed back hard in his seat and the mach meter dial being projected onto the Head Up Display in front of him started spinning upwards fast. He could have altered the display to give him a digital readout instead but he liked watching those dials spin as the fighter effortlessly went through the speed of sound and kept accelerating smoothly towards Mach 2 and beyond.
The guys back at base just called it an Interceptor, which was its function in a nutshell, but technically it was an XF-701 Sigrdrífa, and it was named for its spiritual ancestor the XB-70 Valkyrie bomber, a Nineteen-Sixties design for a very high speed bomber that could maintain high supersonic speeds for an unusually long time because of a little trick it had of actually riding its own supersonic shockwave almost like a goddamn surfboard, the beach bums being left far behind would have appreciated the technique. Once past the sound barrier the last third of each delta wing folded downwards to an angle of 65 degrees to best catch the wave and it was surf’s up dude as many an XF-701 Pilot was known to joke, even the ones not based in Hawaii.
When the UFO’s started turning up in ‘98 the various airforces that tried to catch them had run into one major stumbling block, the damn saucers were just too damn fast. The Japanese Kiryu-Kai flying F-15J’s never got close and even the Russians found that their notably faster fighters, the MiG-25’s and 31’s, couldn’t be vectored in quickly enough, they had the sprint speed but not the endurance to get where they needed to be before the unwelcome visitors made themselves scarce.
Earth needed a fighter that could get up to beyond Mach 3.2 and stay there, so they dusted off the 1960’s Valkyrie program, made a smaller scale copy and then as the piece de resistance stuck on two pulse-detonation engines that had come from the same stable as the Hypersonic Aurora Spy-Plane program. The result was a machine that could really haul-ass, and thanks to avionics, radar and electronics taken from aerospace firms all over the world, plus a decent weapons load, it could kick it too.
Mitchell headed towards his target as the XF-701 Sigrdrífa, named for one of the Valkyrie’s of myth, and which literally meant “Victory Bringer”, passed through Mach 3 and he was soon tearing across the sky going a thousand miles an hour faster than a speeding bullet. He maintained radio silence and had his own radar shut down, being vectored towards his target by X-COM’s base dug in up on Mauna Loa, the fighter was shielded against electronic emissions, and the particularly vicious ECM they used, but he certainly didn’t want to loudly advertise his presence until he was coming up on firing range.
Mitchell began humming a tune, this was his fifth interception which meant if the saucer went down instead of him, he was about to become the third guy to make ace shooting down alien spaceships. Not that he could boast about it anywhere but at the bar back at base, but he was itching to get that tiny saucer number five painted just below his canopy.
He was carrying a full war load, six of the AIM-54X Avalanche Missiles, an upgraded and modified version of the venerable Phoenix which sacrificed some of the range for greater speed and a larger warhead, usually a five kiloton yield nuclear device but this time the first two off the rails would be something special.
His father had been a test pilot but Dad had never got to try out something this special Mitchell thought as he approached the target, even with the shielded electronics and the heavy use of radar-absorbent-material in the airframe the bugs were bound to pick him up soon.
‘Crap’ he swore as the threat warning box indicated that the saucer had picked him up. There was no point in trying to be sneaky now, once they got a lock on you it stayed locked, so Mitchell powered up his radar, an AN/APG-79 from the F-22 program and started hunting.
As a fighter pilot going after them, the best thing you could say about the bugs was that, unless you ran into their very biggest ships, the Avalanche outranged their Plasma Beams. A couple of other X-COM fighter-jocks had found out the hard way about the reach of those big bastards and since then they only ever tried to tackle them on the ground, though that of course was hard on the poor bloody infantry instead. This thing looked to be one of their mediums, you could usually reckon to need several nearby Avalanche detonations to bring those down, and after the first couple they would typically throttle up and outrun your sorry ass which kinda sucked after you went to so much effort to fly over and offer them an extremely warm welcome to planet Earth. Hopefully this time was going to be very different, they wouldn’t be getting the chance to respond to the first howdy-do’s, it would be a done-deal with the first handshake.
Turning on his telemetry transmitter, so that the boys watching with interest back home could watch the action, Mitchell waited until he was a couple of nautical miles inside the maximum range on his AIM-54X’s and tried for a lock.
Their ECM and ECCM was good, but X-COM had taken apart a couple of the units stripped from UFO’s captured on the ground and knew how to avoid them breaking the lock like they used to at first.
‘Lock and tone’ Mitchell said to nobody but himself. ‘Fox-Three’ he added and launched the first two Avalanche Missiles from the rails which were partially recessed into the wings to reduce aerodynamic drag. The twin missiles tore off ahead of the Interceptor riding a trail of fire from their rocket engines, hurtling up to beyond Mach 5 and rapidly closing the gap with the alien ship.
‘If you’re listening to this on the charred remains of my black box flight recorder the geeks got the minimum safe distance wrong’ Mitchell observed wryly as he tracked both missiles and target on his radar. The aliens didn’t seem to have true stealth but rather an active cancellation system that left a lot to be desired because you could still track them even if only intermittently sometimes.
The UFO, one of the types X-COM had christened an “Abductor”, because of it’s primary and unsettling function, was just starting to accelerate away when the two missiles arrived within the range set for their proximity fuses and simultaneously detonated roughly eight miles above the Pacific and approximately three hundred and fifty miles East of the Hawaiian Islands.
X-COM had never used Naquadah enhanced warheads before but they instantly became huge fans when the Avalanches, their nuclear yields increase by well over an order of magnitude by only a few kilos of the material, promptly enveloped the alien craft in a thermonuclear fireball that was visible almost all the way back to Hawaii and which basically turned the thing to plasma in a nanosecond.
Extremely glad they had advised him to steer away, run like hell and keep his eyes squeezed firmly shut under a pair of aviator sunglasses Cameron Mitchell wondered if it still counted as a kill if there wasn’t really any physical evidence left that the target had ever actually existed in the first place? He also decided to advise them that a full load of six Naquadah enhanced AIM-54X’s was probably overkill and they might as well stick on one of the new Laser Cannons as a backup instead.
Yup, he was definitely glad he took the X-COM job when they offered it to him instead of quitting the Airforce, he decided. Well what were the chances he was going to be offered any other job remotely as cool as this one in the future if he had turned them down?
Shooting down ships crewed by a race everyone was starting to call the Asgard with a fighter named for a figure from Norse Myth was a damn fine notion too he decided, as he headed back to base wondering if a victory roll over the airfield would be too much?
Cheyenne Mountain – Earth – August 2000
Commander Russell Sharp, more usually addressed as Russ or “Sir”, noted to himself as he pounded his way along yet another corridor, that when you’ve seen one underground bunker you’ve seen them all. He had been met at the elevator by a USAF Master Sergeant named Harriman and with two of his Troopers in tow he was being led through the SGC Complex which basically seemed to be a greatly expanded twin of one of their own bases albeit with a lot of US as opposed to UN insignia and none of the ever-present variations on the X-COM logo emblazoned on personnel and equipment.
Wearing their grey X-COM jumpsuits, sleeves rolled up as always, a holstered laser pistol at their side and topped with a black beret the three newcomers stood out from the US personnel and they were getting assorted looks from those they passed in the corridors. Many seemed resentful of their presence, they were foreign interlopers in a United States military operation, others were merely curious having heard so much in the last few weeks about the other people out there keeping Earth safe from the alien threat but the most impressive glare came from a large black guy with a gold emblem fixed to his forehead. Sharp knew who he was of course, there was only one Jaffa in the SGC, but the Commander pointedly ignored him whereas one of his Troopers glared right back and meaningfully tapped his holster, goddamn extra-terrestrial asshole the Trooper thought as Teal’c looked them over dismissively.
‘First time in the mountain Sir?’ Harriman asked, as they finally approached their destination, General Hammond’s office.
‘Visited before back when I was still in the Canadian Military’ Sharp replied. ‘Didn’t get to see these levels though Sergeant’ he added. ‘Just NORAD upstairs.’
‘Well no Sir, we’re very need-to-know here at the SGC’ he said. ‘Top secret clearance just doesn’t cut it’ the Sergeant noted, as they arrived at the door and knocked.
‘Come in’ a voice responded from within the office and Harriman opened the door.
‘Commander Russell Sharp Sir’ Walter introduced the X-COM officer as General Hammond rose from his chair holding out his hand which Sharp took in his own as he entered the room.
‘Russ’ the X-COM Commander advised the General in charge of the SGC as they shook hands.
‘George Hammond’ the General responded. ‘I’m not sure how our ranks match up’ he admitted. ‘Which one is supposed to call the other one Sir?’ he asked with a grin.
‘Damned if I know George’ Sharp replied. ‘I’ll skip it if you will’ he offered reaching up to remove his black beret which held his rank insignia, a human skull with an X underneath it cast as a brass badge. The same insignia graced his shoulder patches under both the UN Flag and the standard X-COM logo.
‘Deal’ Hammond agreed readily. For one thing he was fairly sure that technically at least the Commander outranked him even if he was at least ten years younger and would most likely have never have been promoted up that high by now in an organisation that wasn’t quite as fluid as X-COM. Promotion was fairly easy in their job, the people higher up kept getting killed in action, freeing up the ladder.
Commander Sharp turned to the USAF non-com. ‘Master Sergeant can you show my two Troopers standing out their in the corridor to the canteen?’ he requested. ‘We’ve been stuck in the back of a Skyranger for an hour and a half and it’s not designed for a comfortable trip, I’d bet they’d sell their sidearms for a cup of coffee.’
‘That’s a deal too’ Hammond joked. ‘I’ve seen what you’re charging for them normally’ he interjected. ‘Walter escort them to the Canteen and give them a guided tour of the gate room afterwards’ he told the Master Sergeant, might as well be hospitable to them he thought, even if he’d rather they weren’t moving onto his turf. ‘Take a seat’ he offered, sitting back down himself as Sharp took him up on the offer, having to shuffle slightly because his oversized L1-A2 Laser Pistol got in the way at first, its holster hanging up on the arm rest.
Sharp smiled as he made himself comfortable. ‘You should have seen what Dwoskin our bean-counter wanted to charge for the gear’ he responded. ‘He nearly had a fit when he found out we were discounting the body-armour, we don’t have your budget and we needed the additional funds for expanding our R&D into Goa’uld tech’ he explained. ‘Be fair, our stuff is more than worth the money’ he added.
‘According to the glowing report I received from SG3 it is’ Hammond agreed as Walter made himself scare and closed the door. ‘You didn’t brainwash them or anything did you because I’ve never seen four grown marines act like my grandchildren wheedling for a present before.’
The Commander chuckled. ‘Sorry but we haven’t figured out how the bugs do the mind thing yet’ he replied. ‘If we had we would have circumvented them and probably put the whammy on you instead’ he joked.
Hammond frowned. ‘So they can really get into your head’ he asked. ‘These Sectoids I mean?’
Sharp nodded. ‘Only the ones we think are officers’ he replied. ‘The ordinary grunts don’t seem to be able to do it’ he continued. ‘We had a couple of guys put under direct control by the bastards on a mission over in South Africa only last week, some seem more susceptible than others to it’ he explained. ‘I’ve felt it myself, one tried to panic me, I felt it tingle in my head then I got this feeling of, well pretty much indescribable dread.’
Hammond’s eyebrows raised. ‘What did you do?’ he asked.
‘Blew the little fuckers brains out, felt better immediately’ Sharp replied with a grin, which he soon wiped from his face. ‘Other guys have freaked out completely, dropped their weapon, and like I said some get taken over’ he told the General. ‘We try and stun them but we’ve had to take our own people out sometimes before they shoot one of their own team.’
‘We’ve never encountered that kind of…’ Hammond began, ‘what do you call it?’ he asked.
‘Psionic’ Sharp answered.
‘Right’ Hammond noted, ‘any such Psionic power from the Asgard’ he told him. ‘Their technology seems fairly close to magical sometimes, but mind control? No that doesn’t sound like the little grey men we know.’
‘Like I said, some can do it, some can’t’ the Commander responded. ‘Maybe the one’s you’ve met before are from the former group?’ he suggested.
‘We prefer not to believe they’re in the same group as your Sectoids period’ Hammond told him flatly.
‘I’d like to think so too’ Sharp told him, ‘Aliens not try to abduct, mutilate and kill you seems a nice novelty to me, but until we get proof we’re assuming they’re the same people and preparing accordingly.’
‘Preparing how?’ Hammond queried.
‘That’s largely classified but let’s just say those Goa’uld-Busters you tried out once are firecrackers compared to some of the hardware we’ve got on the drawing board’ Sharp told him.
‘I think you’re badly underestimating the Asgard’ Hammond told him. ‘These are the people the Goa’uld have been too scared to cross for thousands of years.’
‘I’ve fought Jaffa a couple of times, seen Goa’uld weaponry in action’ Sharp responded. ‘In less than ten years they won’t just be scared of us they’ll be facing extinction’ he declared in a tone of voice that said that wasn’t just hyperbole as far as he was concerned. ‘If we can beat the Sectoids back, and put a few hundred X-COM platoons through the gate, then we’ll show the Galaxy that anybody who thinks Earth is a soft target is badly deluded’ he said. ‘And maybe burnt, bleeding or irradiated for good measure’ he added.
‘Part of the SGC mandate is exploration’ Hammond told him. ‘We don’t have your purely military outlook and for all my years in the service that’s how I like it’ he continued. ‘There’s a lot of archaeologists, botanists, astronomers and others on my staff I hope you don’t think that the mountain is going to suddenly become the staging area for some kind of Manifest Destiny galactic takeover attempt.’
Commander Sharp chuckled. ‘Nah we’re planning to use the other gate for that stuff where you bleeding-heart liberal pacifists can’t interfere’ he responded wryly. ‘We’re a UN operation, do you know how difficult it is to get things authorised for us sometimes?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘The Interstellar Conquest idea is going to be stuck at the committee stage for years and then it’ll have to be referred back for amendments’ he joked. ‘Defending the planet and retrieving technology to enable us to do so is all X-COM is about’ he added seriously.
‘We had problem with people retrieving technology before’ General Hammond said meaningfully.
‘I read the reports, NID types stealing from advanced cultures’ Sharp replied. ‘We don’t steal from allies, or potential allies’ he said. ‘If it’s enemy equipment we take anything not bolted down and bring bolt-cutters just in case, but you have to shoot at us before we loot from you, that’s how the politicians want it so like a good soldier that’s what I’ll do’ he said. ‘Okay I’ll admit we’re not going to play as nice as you do, but that’s because we haven’t had it as easy as you, and I’ll tell you straight George from X-COM’s perspective you people are too much speak softly and not enough big stick’ he opined.
‘Speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far’ Hammond quoted.
‘Thousands of light years so the guys with the high IQ’s tell me’ Sharp replied with a gentle smile. ‘Look I’m not stupid’ he said, ‘I know you don’t want us here, ‘but when the time comes that Earth needs that big stick rammed up someone’s ass, trust me you’ll see us in a new light. We’re not amiable, half my troopers are downright surly and a good chunk of what’s left might seem borderline psychotic to outsiders’ he continued. ‘We’re cynical, fatalistic and we’re not remotely subtle, but we are very good at our jobs because the one’s that aren’t are all dead by the third mission.’
Hammond nodded. ‘How many have you lost?’ he asked.
‘I don’t keep count’ Sharp replied evenly. ‘I’ve tagged twenty-seven aliens though, not including Jaffa, which makes me a decent scorer, and that’s the only thing we try to remember in my unit, we honour the fallen by fucking-up ET’s plans at every damn opportunity, we’re saving the mourning and the grieving until the hangovers fade after victory day.’
‘That’s no way to live Commander’ Hammond told him.
‘I’m on borrowed time General’ Sharp replied with a wry smile. ‘We all are in X-COM, one day the plasma with my name on it is going to send me to the great beyond and I just want to take plenty of the bastards along with me’ he said. ‘You know before they offered me this job I spent half my time teaching X-COM recruits the lessons to be learned from my boundless wisdom’ he told him, ‘I’m an old hand and I’ve only been doing this less than a year’ he noted. ‘Look I’ll lay this out on the straight and level, I’m not going to pull rank unless I have to, but if I think I’m right I will countermand your orders and do things the X-COM way because I know it works and you’ll have to convince me that your way does too’ he told Hammond honestly. ‘In reality it’s still going to be your base because in X-COM everyone fights from recruit all the way up to Commander so I’ll be in the field a lot if that cheers you up.’
Hammond smiled. ‘I’d be happier with me in the field and you stuck here’ but the USAF doesn’t like having people over the rank of Colonel getting regularly caught up in firefights’ he said.
‘Get a transfer’ Commander Sharp told him, ‘for us it’s expected’ he said.
‘I’ll talk to the wife’ Hammond joked.
‘Mention the pay but not the mortality rate’ Sharp advised deadpan, but fighting back a grin.
General Hammond opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a file. ‘One thing I do want to mention before we see about you’re people becoming established is SG1’ he said, opening it. ‘They’re my best people, practically legendary around here, and I think it would be a fatal mistake if you tried to interfere with the way they do things.’
‘As a gesture of good faith we’re reducing the personnel we’re adding to the unit to one’ the Commander replied. ‘They’ll be under Colonel O’Neill’s command, and other than a standing order to watch the Jaffa turncoat like a hawk they’ll simply be another member of the team’ he said.
Hammond nodded. ‘Teal’c won’t react well to the situation’ he said.
‘Like I could give a crap’ Sharp replied frankly. ‘I’ve already chosen the girl for the job, she’s a damn fine soldier with plenty of brains and more balls than half the men in X-COM which is saying something because two big brass ones is regulation issue along with the scruffy jumpsuit’ he joked.
‘A woman?’ Hammond queried in surprise.
‘We’ve got a higher percentage of women in the field than you do’ Sharp told him. ‘They tend to live longer than the men which helps, more likely to listen to advice, and not think they know everything before they’ve ever seen a plasma bolt in anger, is my guess’ he explained. ‘Rank of Sergeant so no chain-of-command friction with Major Carter either, unless it’s some female thing, but I can’t be held accountable for that’ he said. ‘She was on course for a field promotion any time soon, more than enough kills for even the die-hard misogynists to take her seriously.’
‘And she’ll kill Teal’c if she thinks he’s switching sides again?’ Hammond asked.
‘In a heartbeat’ Sharp replied. ‘She’s X-COM to the core.’
General Hammond sighed. He was already starting to miss the good old days when the only thing he had to worry about was Goa’uld Ha’tak’s bombing him from orbit.
Area 51 – Earth – August 2000
Major Samantha Carter couldn’t quite figure out why, but for some reason, and after less than a day of knowing him, the face of Area 51’s leading expert on Naquadah and the Stargate program was the one she would most like to punch on the nose of any on the planet, and probably a good proportion of the worlds of the Goa’uld System Lords for that matter.
Fortunately he was currently loudly arguing with one of the R&D guys X-COM had sent over, as opposed to insulting her intellect or making cringingly bad passes at her, which meant that free from the distraction that was Rodney McKay she could continue to monitor the power readings coming off the Elerium material being analysed in the test chamber on one of the computer terminals scattered around. The room was full of scientists from both Area 51 and various X-COM bases and they were all engaged in animated discussions about the various alien technologies they had encountered and studied. The few non-scientists present, including an almost catatonically bored Colonel Jack O’Neill, were propping up the refreshment table instead.
Eventually the X-COM guy threw up his hands and turned his back on McKay and stomped away muttering something in a language she couldn’t understand as he headed in her direction, though the meaning was pretty clear from both the expression on his face and the exasperated tone of his voice. Apparently McKay’s manner didn’t go down well other people too, a less than revelatory discovery as far as Carter was concerned.
‘How do you work with that man?’ the X-COM scientist asked Carter, moving slightly to one side so he could see the results coming up on the screen she was looking at.
‘I don’t, we only met yesterday, I work out of Cheyenne Mountain not Area 51’ Carter replied. ‘He’s really annoying, and condescending… and annoying’ she stated.
‘The man had the temerity to try and correct me on the ideal crystalline structure of Elerium’ the X-COM scientist said, gritting his teeth. ‘He did not even know it existed until recently, the team I’m on has already built working test-model engines powered by the material’ he told her.
‘His confidence in the notion that his theories are facts is unshakable’ Carter agreed. ‘Samantha Carter SGC’ she introduced herself, holding out a hand.
‘Radek Zelenka X-COM Science Division’ he replied shaking the proffered hand.
‘Your English is very good’ Sam told him, ‘better than my… where are you from?’ she asked, slightly embarrassed by the admission.
‘Czech Republic’ he told her. ‘Do not worry you could not place the accent’ he said. ‘To us, you Americans and the Canadians like McKay sound exactly alike though we are told you do not’ he said. ‘So what do you think about our Elerium?’ he asked. ‘Your Naquadah has certainly made many of my people overjoyed.’
‘Hard to believe they’re basically the same stuff’ Carter observed.
‘They’re what?’ O’Neill asked, walking over holding a canapé in one hand and a glass of orange juice in the other.
‘They’re the same element’ Carter told him. ‘Weren’t you in the lecture earlier?’ she asked in confusion, she'd swear she saw him there.
‘I was at the back, difficult to hear’ O’Neill told her. He didn’t mention he and one of the Area 51 Security Team were actually playing cards back there, it was the fact the guy had won ten bucks from him that was the clincher as to him not telling her the truth, he must have cheated, O'Neill's system was foolproof, or so he thought.
Carter sighed. ‘Naquadah and Elerium are both element 115, they’re a stable isotope of Ununpentium’ she told him, ‘the difference between them is that they’re different allotropes of the same element.’
‘Allotropes?’ O’Neill repeated, none the wiser.
‘Allotropes are forms of an element which are bonded together differently so they take different forms’ Zelenka told him, he was used to trying to explain these things to the military, X-COM soldiers were no more scientifically literate as a rule than soldiers generally.
‘Naquadah and Elerium don’t look anything like each other’ O’Neill pointed out. Naquadah was basically grey and metallic, Elerium was green, glowing crystal crap, he'd seen some earlier.
‘Neither do Graphite and Diamond but they’re both allotropes of carbon with nothing else in them, the atoms are just arranged differently which effects not only how they look but other things too’ Carter responded. ‘Diamond is hard enough to cut glass but graphite rubs off on a sheet of paper, Graphite conducts electricity, Diamond doesn’t.’
‘Diamond is a crystal you can see through like Elerium, Graphite isn’t, like ordinary Naquadah’ Zelinka interjected. ‘Same element, radically different properties’ he said.
‘They even behave differently radiologically, which they shouldn’t but they’re both so weird to start with that’s not remotely the strangest thing about them’ Carter noted. ‘Liquid Naquadah, the form that powers Staff-Weapons for example, is the third allotrope’ she told O’Neill, ‘it’s actually the Naquadah equivalent of Carbon Fullerine, Buckyballs I mean’ she said. ‘The atoms are arranged so that they form tiny molecular balls so it's like a sea of ball-bearings, that acts like a liquid in effect but isn’t really’ she explained. ‘Liquid Naquadah does share the green glow with Elerium so in some ways it apparently behaves as an intermediary between the other two’ she added.
‘Buckyballs?’ O’Neill queried, narrowing his eyes. He sometimes thought she was making up words on the spot, though not as often as he thought that of Daniel.
‘I’ll find a picture in a text book back at the SGC, it’ll be easier than trying to explain’ Carter told him.
‘The good news is that now we know this we may be able to find a way to produce Elerium from raw Naquadah’ Zelinka said. ‘This is wonderful news as we are woefully short of it, and although in some ways inferior to ordinary Naquadah for power generation, it is much easier to construct an Elerium powered spacecraft, especially a small fighter sized one.’
'Yeah?' O'Neill asked.
Carter nodded. ‘Elerium is used up a great deal faster in use but its ability to generate gravity waves in certain conditions is more than useful’ she said. ‘A hybrid powerplant that used an Elerium Engine only to provide motive force, and a Naquadah Generator to power everything else, weapons, radar, avionics etc. would drastically increase fuel efficiency.’
‘I liked the presentation by Professor Ross from X-COM North America and his idea for a liquid Naquadah afterburner unit’ Zelenka interjected, ‘though I am not sure of the feasibility.’
‘If you could get it to work it would be a sight to see’ Carter agreed, ‘but so would the engine exploding like a thermonuclear bomb if something went wrong.’
‘It would not be a project I would be overjoyed to be assigned to’ Zelenka observed. ‘McKay is approaching, I apologise for abandoning you and fleeing the scene though perhaps you could get your colleague here to shoot him?’ he suggested, indicating O’Neill.
As Zelenka gave a slight bow and left, ignoring McKay, Carter turned to O’Neill. ‘These X-COM people never cease to amaze me with how quick they can figure out the simple solution to seemingly insurmountable technical problems’ she told him.