True Colors

[Zettsu]

True Colors

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Original date: 23rd Oct 2015

Everyone saluted as he walked towards his office on Norfolk shipyard. The long and boring journey trough the various corridors and levels is just that. Boring. Upon reaching his old office he opened the door, and noticed that nothing changed since he last visited this place. Nothing except that there wasn't a ton of paperwork to process. He slowly walked to his table opened the drawer and took out a pack of cigarettes he left here 2 weeks ago. Then he sat down and turned his chair towards the window and lighted a cigarette. For an outsider it looked like he was just staring stars or watching the ships passing by just like a ten year old kid would do. But in fact he was thinking about the last neural net transmission he got from his old "friend".

As the time passed after finishing a cigarette he quickly lighted a new one and a new one. This continued and the office though the ventilation was working it slowly started to be full with smoke. After some time someone was knocking on the door. "Come in!"

The door opened and Lieutenant Commander Sader entered the room. "Sir earlier you asked me to inform you in case he arrives."

Jack turned towards Sader. "And?"

"Well the dock control just reported his ship requested docking clearance."

"Good. Finally. John go down to the hangar and meet him with some guards then escort him here."

"Aye aye sir." With this sentence John turned around and left. Jack turned back back towards the window and enjoyed the remaining time and what was left from his cigarette.

"This is the Norfolk Shipyard docking and mooring control. Freelancer, you are clear to dock in bay three," the automated voice affirmed Zettsu's docking request. He put on his jacket and scarf as the autopilot directed his ship into the hangar. As the motion stopped, he opened the door and looked down at the gathering of people outside. Several Navy soldiers going towards a Defiant docked in the same hangar. One LPI officer marching towards the exit, carrying a cup of what could only be Sunbucks coffee. Civilian personnel taking care of the ships and moving around equipment carts with supplies and ammo. And finally, three men in uniforms with the familiar Fifth Fleet seals embroidered on their jackets.

He jumped off Taimou as they were obviously waiting for him. That was good, he didn't think of asking Jack for directions before, and his friend thought of it for him. His mismatched eyes gazed upon the soldiers. He nodded to the one looking like the officer. "Where can I find Jack O'Neill?"

Arriving in the docking bay with two marines John noticed Zettsu's ship and walked straight towards it. Upon arriving at the ship they saw as Zettsu opened the door and stepped down from his ship. He didn't really like the orders he got from Jack. From all of the officers why did he choose him to "babysit" someone and escort him but orders are orders.

"Greetings to you as well Zettsu. I'm Commander Sader. The Admiral is waiting for you in his office. Please follow us we'll escort you there. But before we move any further i have to ask you to hand over your weapons if you have any." He gave the sign to the marines who stepped forward and started to search. "Don't worry. It will be safely locked. You will get them back as soon as this little meeting."

He hesitated for a moment, closing his blue eye and looking for a few uncomfortable seconds at Sader. "Fine," he spoke, detaching his telescope stick and passing it to the soldier. He still had a couple of aces up his sleeves, but without the baton he was a lot more vulnerable. I should stop being so paranoid. This is a Navy station, for crying out loud. Without it, he felt slightly naked.

"All right, let's go then."

"Okay, let's go." They finally left the docking bay and after some walk they reached an elevator. Entering the elevator John took out his ID card and placed it into the scanner. The little screen blinked in green and the elevator stopped on deck fifteen. There after another short security check they went trough lots of floors and used many elevators. Actually 3 elevators and only then they reached the place where they where heading. The level where the 5th's offices where.

"Here we are. Its only a couple of meters away now." They've reached the door and John knocked on it. Jack's voice was clearly recognizable as he yelled. "Come in!"

John opened the door and Both Zettsu and John entered the office. "Ah hello there old friend. I hope your journey here trough the corridors was a fast one and that John wasn't very annoying during the escort." Jack turned towards Sader. "Thank you Commander, you're dismissed."

"Aye sir." John saluted quickly then turned around and closed the door of the office.

Jack now turned his attention to Zettsu. "Have a seat. Let's talk then. I hope you don't mind if i smoke." With this Jack took a cigarette and started to search for his lighter.

He sat down in a chair in front of O'Neill and looked around. He had never before been in such a place, office of a Naval officer. But after all Jack was his friend, he had known him since he had started working as a bounty hunter, saved his ass a couple of times, too. Olden times.

He drummed his fingers on the side of the chair as Jack lit his cigarette. "Have your boys ever worked with Outcast tech?" he smiled and reminisced of how he acquired the ship. How he and his Hogosha friend Adachi executed a superficially planned theft of the ship. And how it all went horribly well.

He took a deep smoke and placed the cigarette on to the ashtray.

"Well we have to start everything at some point, no?" He took another smoke then stood up from his chair. "Guess why I called you here? I wanted to be able to discuss the details. Also as i stated before it's not a hundred percent sure we will be able to anything with the ship." He pushed some buttons on the keyboard on the table and a hologram appeared. The hologram was a power core. "Here you have a standard Libertonian power core. You can find these on nearly all civilian ships. As you can see there are nine points where it is attached to the ship just so it's sitting there tight. And 3 points where it's actually connected to the energy distribution system." The mentioned parts started blinking as jack continued his little speech. "And here comes in the first question. And the reason i called you here. If you agree i will order a team of engineers to move your ship to the maintenance dock and take it apart to see whats going on. Okay?" Jack took one last deep smoke from his cigarette then dropped it to the ashtray.


Zettsu scratched his head. "If there's another way, I'd rather not..." He paused for a moment. Taimou was a really beautiful ship and he's gotten attached to her already. Seeing her taken apart might not be pleasant. But functionality is more important, and without a power core, he could not do his job.

He shrugged. "But if there isn't, I suppose we'd just have to do it. Possibly it's a good opportunity for the Navy to figure out how that clock even works."

"Well we have to examine the energy distribution system and see if it's compatible with our power core. So there is no other way."

Jack pushed some other buttons on the keyboard the hologram disappeared and a static noise was heard in the room for a moment. He turned on the internal communication system and called up the engineers. A loud noise was heard now in the room which came from the speakers in the room, the noise was similar to a dry dock where something is being constructed and a man started yelling. "THIS IS LIEUTENANT DRAKE FROM ENGINEERING. CAN WE HELP YOU OUT?"

Jack was a bit surprised. He never thought that Drake would be down today although he should have known. After all Drake was serving on the Odyssey, and if someone he should have known where his officers are assigned when the Odyssey is undergoing repairs. "Drake, this is O'Neill, Ineed you and a team of engineers in.., wait a moment," Jack turned his head towards Zettsu. "Where is your ship docked? What bay?"


He twitched at the engineer's shouting. "Bay two, hangar three. Shouldn't we be there too?" he asked with a vibe of concern.

I'm not particularly comfortable having them taking apart my ship without being there myself. But he threw that thought away immediately. They were professionals... apparently.

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