Okay, that had to be a coincidence. One of the craziest coincidences he’d ever seen, but every other possible explanation only got crazier.
Crazier than the Navy shooting down a UFO? Besides, Gibbs doesn’t believe in coincidences, remember?
Sighing, McGee went back to the beginning, calling up the information all over again and starting to wish he’d never checked it in the first place. Nothing changed. Weather satellites, local news stations, all still reported the same thing: the dense fog that had covered Norfolk for over a week? Had rolled in almost to the minute that Stockton said the UFO carrying Taylor was shot down and dissipated about the time Lieutenant Sawyer and the others reported coming back to themselves.
Aliens. He’d known Abby believed in them–and now he knew why–but he’d never really considered the idea himself. It was a little too out there, plus, he’d never seen any evidence of their existence that couldn’t be explained by other means.
But what was on his screen now looked like pretty solid evidence that someone–or something–had been manipulating the weather around Norfolk Naval Station.
He had to show this to Gibbs. Not a pleasant thought considering the way Gibbs had been stalking around like an angry tiger ever since they’d come out of MTAC. Right now he was leaning over something case-related with Ziva, but McGee knew one glance at this information would turn all that furious energy squarely on him.
Only the knowledge that keeping it from him would piss Gibbs off even more kept him from just deleting the entire screen and forgetting he ever saw it.
“Ah, Boss…?” Gibbs’ piercing stare pivoted to him and McGee swallowed nervously. “I, ah, think you should see this…”
Gibbs crossed the small space to McGee’s desk with Ziva at his heels. “What’ve you got?” he asked curtly.
“Umm…” Oh boy, how to answer that without sounding like he’d watched one too many episodes of The X-Files? As it turned out, he didn’t have to.
“Weather reports?” Ziva asked. “McGee, you’re not buying into this whole alien business, are you?”
“In my admittedly limited experience, if an Admiral is going to lie about something like this, he’s going to say it’s not real, not that it is. Besides, you have to admit the timing is a little…weird,” he defended himself. “By itself, it wouldn’t mean anything. But put it together with everything else…”
He glanced at Gibbs. The boss’s eyes never left the screen, his expression unreadable.
McGee swallowed again, mentally bracing himself for the inevitable backlash from what he was about to say. “Boss…I think we’re in way over our heads.”
Gibbs snorted. “Took you this long to figure that out, McGee?”
That wasn’t the answer he’d been expecting. McGee opened his mouth then shut it again while he tried to think of something, anything to say. He finally came up with, “So what do we do?”
Gibbs looked at him as if the answer should be obvious, which, to be fair, to him it probably was. “Our jobs. None of this changes the fact that we’ve got an Admiral to find.”
“And if he’s on some space ship somewhere halfway to another galaxy?” Ziva asked pointedly, her own disbelief still apparent in her voice.
Gibbs straightened up, pinning them both with a hard look. “Then I guess you two will be getting a few more frequent flier miles than you bargained on.”
+++
A few minutes later, the entire team, Admiral Stockton, the Doctor and Martha were gathered once again in Jenny’s office for what had to be the strangest debriefing Tony had ever experienced. Text messages from sub-atomic computers? Entire spaceships made of extraterrestrial blue Jell-O? It was like listening in on the writer’s room for some over the top sci-fi TV show. Not quite as strange as watching the Doctor interrogate Lieutenant Sawyer by telepathy, but definitely up there on the list of “weirdest things that ever happened to me on an investigation.”
By the time this case was over, it would probably occupy at least nine of the top ten spots on that list.
Gibbs didn’t appear to care. “Give me one reason why I should believe a word of this crap.” There was something odd in the way he said it, though, almost as if it were some sort of test rather than a sincere question.
Still, it got Abby’s attention. “Geez, Gibbs, doesn’t the fact that I vouched for him mean anything?”
Gibbs had a look on his face that said he would very much like to snap something–or someone–in two. Considering that someone would never be Abby, Tony was the next most likely candidate: never a comforting thought. Then again…right now that look was directed at Smith…the Doctor…whatever he was calling himself at the moment. Tony might be spared after all, a thought which cheered him up almost as much as Abby head-smacking the Doctor had.
“I trust your judgment, Abs,” Gibbs stated. “But–”
“But,” Director Shepard interrupted. “The entire story is, nevertheless, a bit incredible. Especially since we have only your word to go by. Evidence allegedly obtained by telepathy isn’t exactly admissible in court.”
“All right, then,” the Doctor bounced to his feet. “What say you and I and Admiral Stockton take a little trip to visit our friend the pilot, and I can prove it to you?”
Stockton, standing behind Jenny, crossed his arms and assumed a defensive posture. “Even if we did have such a creature in our custody, Doctor, that information would be classified. An agent of a hostile alien species–”
“Oh, don’t give me any of that!” the Doctor interrupted. “You’ve no idea if the species is hostile.”
“They abducted an Admiral of your country’s Navy,” Stockton answered stubbornly. “That seems like a hostile action to me.”
“Only because you were holding one of their own and they were looking for someone to negotiate his release,” was the reply. “What about on your end? Have you made any attempt to communicate with the pilot at all? For that matter, did you even stop to discover if the craft had any sort of weaponry before you shot it down?”
“As a matter of fact, an attempt at communication was made. It was ignored,” the Admiral answered calmly, secure in his convictions. “The craft was on a direct course to Norfolk and was ordered to break off. They ignored the command, so a decision was made to act preemptively.”
“They didn’t ignore it; they didn’t understand it,” the Doctor fired back.
“They understood enough to abduct Lieutenant Taylor and his squadron over forty years ago.”
“And for all you know, they were probably bringing the Lieutenant back, and Norfolk was just on their way to Pensacola.” The Doctor was fuming now.
Stockton squared his shoulders. “It was a risk we weren’t willing to take.”
“You…you…human!” the Doctor spat out. “How can a race with so much potential be so bloody thick? It’s a miracle you ever survived to see the end of the planet. And you Americans, well! You’re the worst of the lot!” He waved a finger at Stockton. “But you listen to me: you really don’t want to get in my way. You lot dragged Harry into this, and I am going to do whatever necessary to bring him home safely.”
Leaning over towards McGee, Tony whispered, “Damn, I should’ve brought popcorn.”
Ziva, who was sitting on McGee’s other side, stifled a snort of laughter, but said nothing. Abby shot them a defensive glare, but Tony just shrugged and smiled innocently in return.
“I’d listen to him if I were you,” came a new voice from behind them. Tony sat up a little straighter, exchanging surprised looks with McGee and Ziva before turning to see Ducky standing in the doorway.
He strode calmly into the room, both hands shoved into his pockets. He studied the Doctor for a moment before addressing Stockton and Director Shepard. “If this man really is the Doctor, then he has the ear of not only the highest levels of command at UNIT and their parent, the United Nations, but also Torchwood, NATO, the European Union and NORAD, to name but a few. If you doubt me, I’m sure Sir Alastair Lethbridge-Stewart would be more than happy to confirm what I’ve just told you. And more than that, he would also confirm that is it damned near impossible to prevent the Doctor from doing anything he wishes to do, so one might as well just let him get on with it.”
The Doctor eyed him. “Have we met, then?”
Ducky smiled. “Not as such, no. I was, briefly, Harry Sullivan’s replacement at UNIT for the year you’d run off with him in the TARDIS.”
Martha’s mouth dropped open and Tony heard her mutter under her breath, “Oh, now that’s just bloody weird!”
Stockton–rather stupidly, Tony thought–didn’t budge. “As I said, even if we had such a being in custody, no one in this room would be authorized for contact with it.”
“So, let me get this straight,” Gibbs stated, looking Stockton right in the eye. “Your precious little secret is pretty much out, and yet it’s more important to you to keep denying that than it is to bring Admiral Sullivan home safely?” He looked at the Doctor. “One of those connections of yours wouldn’t happen to be to the White House, would it?”
“The White House, no,” the Doctor answered ruefully. “Buckingham Palace, yes. Also Downing Street.” He frowned before amending, “Possibly. UNIT has, anyway.”
Stockton glared at Gibbs. “I thought you didn’t believe in this ‘crap’.”
Gibbs didn’t flinch. “I believe in doing my job, Sir, whatever it takes. And right now, the way I see it, that’s not something you’re letting me do. Which is kinda surprising: considering how much of an earful I got when the case started about avoiding an international incident.” Then he waited a beat before adding, “You gonna make that call, or is he?”