OSI Interview: Major Jacob Asher

Posted on Tue Apr 30th, 2019 @ 11:18pm by Major Jacob Asher & Special Agent Mathew Richards & Special Agent Mark Badger & Special Agent Brick Johnson

Mission: Interlude 1
Location: Cheyenne Mountain: Project New Dawn, Conference Room
Timeline: Current

Jake entered the conference room. "Major Jacob Asher, reporting as ordered for debriefing."

"Welcome, Major Asher," Matt said. "I'm Supervisory Special Agent Matt Richards. These are Mark Badger and Brick Johnson, also OSI. Please, sit. We'll try to make this as painless as possible."

Jake shrugged and took a seat. "I know you have a job to do. Just keep in mind that I do, too. I'm happy to answer any relevant questions you ask me. All I ask is that you don't make this take any longer than it has to."

Matt nodded. "Fair enough," he said. "I've been leading a lot of these interviews, so I'm going to let my colleagues lead the interview, at least for now." He nodded at Brick and Mark. "Gentlemen. You have the floor."

"Major, why don't you start by recounting the events that are the subject of this investigation, including the prelim work and when you returned," Badger said. "Start with the forty-eight hours before you entered the Gate and went to the planet."

Jake recounted the relevant details of the days leading up to the mission, including reviewing the probe feeds a few days before the mission briefing. "And before you ask, no, I didn't tell anyone I was going out of town, I never post travel plans on Facebook and I only use Facebook from my home, so there's no location tags placing me in this facility, and I don't use Twitter. Birds Tweet. I don't. Anyway, we had feeds from the probe. We knew there was something there, just not what it was. General Wolf set the team line up and sent us through the gate. I took Captain Hawkins, Doctor Andrews and Salara, Doctor Braeden, and Doctor Azad to the device and left Shae and Staff Sergeants Corvus and O'Connor to try and draw out the children, which they did relatively quickly." Jake continued on about discovering the age of the 'children' and that the team had been given a disease of some kind, about the hologram, the teams efforts to solve the mystery of the device... and the arrival of the 'CDC' Team. "I should have realized that something was bogus when they showed up. I'm not sure why I didn't."

Jake told them the story of the dog attack, minimizing Shae's part in that, and saying nothing about what happened between them. He knew that Corvus suspected, and for all he knew said something. He just didn't care. Nathan had already asked about that part of the report and when Jake said that it wasn't relevant, Nathan had dropped the subject. If OSI didn't like his description of events, they could all go fuck themselves.

Jake explained Jeremy's harebrained scheme, but also explained that the PJ had been suffering from regression at the time and how that might have contributed to his overall stupidity. He told them about being knocked out, coming to, and everything that happened after.

"So we gathered all of the evidence we could find and came home," he finished. "I know those bogus asshat Jaffa didn't come through here. Have you guys figured out where they came from?"

"It never occurred to you that Wolf sent through a team of people after you told the others you were on your own and Wolf wouldn't order people to certain death?" Badger watched Asher's body language and he was sure the major was trying to hide something. Now it was time to try to dig that out, to see where it fit into the investigation.

"They told me that they had volunteered," Jake said. "In conversation with them, I asked how that came about. They told me General Wolf had contacted the CDC to ask for advice on the situation and that they had volunteered to take the risk. I know that the General had made sure that select people from USAMRIID and CDC were read in on Project New Dawn in case something like this happened, or worse, something got through the gate. I had no reason not to believe them at the time. In retrospect, I should have sent Hawk back to the gate to call PND and ask for confirmation of their story. But as far as I knew, the PND gate was the only active gate on Earth, I had no reason to believe that Doctor Valenti and her team weren't from Earth, so I accepted their story. I was concerned about sending Hawk to trudge back to the gate because Andrews was tied up with device, Braeden and Azad weren't combatants, and Corvus, O'Connor, and Shae were younger than us and had fewer years of mental and physical development to lose. I had actually been about to go over to the camp and take over from Sergeant Corvus when the CDC people showed up, so I walked them over there."

"And when you 'walked them over there' did you supervise their interactions with these mentally compromised staff sergeants?" Badger asked. "One of whom had reported that he asked to have just this kind of response hours earlier, right?" Badger asked, still not sure where Asher was 'fudging' details, so the fishing trip would be ongoing. "Were the staff sergeants so mentally compromised they couldn't be trusted with verifying the arrival of the CDC?"

"First of all," Jake said. "One of those Staff Sergeants, Corvus, has been mentally compromised since he got here. Secondly, we informed General Wolf of our situation. I left whether to send anyone up to him. He's a General, you know. It says so right in front of his name. The call wasn't mine, it was his, so I left it to him. As for whether or not my sergeants could handle verifying the arrival of the CDC, I wasn't at the camp, so I couldn't know that--without walking down there, which I did. Then I found out Shae had run off. I had to make a call as to whether or not to call Hawk down and leave the Brain Trust unprotected, or leave Corvus and Ree to their own devices, find Shae, and bring her back as soon as I could. I was gone less than an hour. During that time, Sergeant Corvus had come to believe the CDC personnel were--he thought they were Goa'uld. He had his reasons, and they were good ones, which surprised me to no end once he told me what they were. Unfortunately, the hormonal changes Shae was experiencing due to the regression infection had by that time attracted a pack of very large wolves. We tried to shake them and get back to the camp, but they followed us. We bypassed the camp and went to the Altar. We fought off the wolves at the Altar, Corvus and Ree fought off the wolves at the camp. In one of his surprising displays of competence, Corvus ran some ammo that we ultimately didn't need up to the Altar. And then the dumbass got himself bit by a wolf, shot up the CDC tent, and told Sergeant O'Connor that he'd already taken all of the antibiotics and told her to tell me that so we'd go to Valenti for help. Corvus, who was mentally about 18 or 19 at that point and as you can tell, a bigger dumbass than usual, was assuming Valenti wasn't actually a doctor and didn't have supplies. When we looked through their stuff after, we found out that they actually did have medicines and medical supplies, all of it US government issue as far as we could tell. Anyway, when he told me about his thoughts, I determined that if, in fact, they weren't human, that they were likely Jaffa. We knew that Jessica had the condition and that only Salara was keeping her alive. All of the reports I'd read from the old SGC indicated that no Goa'uld would risk getting stuck on the planet if they couldn't solve the problem. But they wouldn't have a problem sending Jaffa. Of course, Jessica did something that solved the problem of the device, albeit inadvertently, and then we were all taken down before we could do anything about our suspicions regarding Valenti and her team."

Jake shook his head. "The bottom line of all of that is that I had to be in too many places at one time and since there's only one of me, I had do a little triage."

"Gone less than an hour?" Mark asked as he picked up one of the files and opened it, flipping through several pages until he found what he already knew was there. "'I asked to have containment suits sent through, some more equipment. I wanted us to be able to provide samples or have equipment to run tests ourselves. Nobody answered.'" Mark read. "'I was upset by this because we were just given a death sentence and I didn't even have a chance to have a last call to my family. Major Asher told me that General Wolf wouldn't order anyone to certain death. He wouldn't let them volunteer either. We had to solve this on our own. Major Asher has served with General Wolf for a long time and knows him well enough to be insubordinate with him. That's why, after she hit me that hard, I started thinking and I came to realize there was a problem.'"

Mark dropped the file onto the table in front of him. "That's from 'dumbasses' after action report. How long does it take to issue an order to return to the Gate and contact Command to verify that medical help was sent? Or is Staff Sergeant Corvus lying in what he says here, that you told him help wouldn't be sent by Wolf?"

"I did tell him that I didn't think Wolf would send help," Jake said. "We had reason to believe that solution lay with the device, not with medicine. But, as usual, Corvus freaked out and lost situational awareness. He thought only of himself and not about the team or the mission. He didn't want those things to help us. He was scared shitless, ignoring the risks to anyone else, and thinking only of himself. And again, who was I supposed to order back to the gate and when was I supposed to do it? Things unfolded very quickly. And why would I do it? Where else could they have possibly come from?"

This guy... Mark thought, reminded of some of the admin where he first worked. "Okay, so Sergeant Corvus couldn't be trusted to go back to the gate. What's your excuse for not sending O'Connor? Or did she also lose sight of situational awareness and thought only of herself? Cause it's starting to sound like you had no control over anything during this mission. Your sergeants aren't trusted to carry out a simple task, your civilians couldn't be trusted not to be on their own for a bit, in fact, you had to go chasing after one that ran off."

Mark glared at Asher. "Why was it so important that you went running off after her and spent nearly an hour leaving all these incompetent, selfish dumbasses on their own?"

"That was my call," Jake said. "And I made it. I explained everything that needed to be explained on that matter in my report and to General Wolf, who ordered the matter closed. I tend to follow orders, gentlemen, so if you want to know more about that, you'll have to get him to tell you. Next subject."

"So, I want to make sure I have this right for the record. You don't trust your personnel to do anything correctly, you don't trust the civilian advisors to do their jobs correctly without you around, yet once the CDC people show up - after you've already told your people you were all on your own because that's the way Wolf would handle it - you don't do jack shit about verifying their identities or that they should even be there? You thought, instead of verifying something that you said wouldn't happen, running after one civilian advisor was more important than the mystery right in front of you. Or was it because it wasn't a mystery, that you were already aware of the situation and conveniently something else came up to take you away from the CDC personnel and what they planned?"

"So," Jake said. "I'm going to ignore everything you said that sounded like it should be coming from my immediate superior, because that's not you, and just focus on that last line. That last thing you said is about the dumbest goddamn thing I've ever heard. I’ve earned both a Bronze and a Silver Star. They don't hand those out to traitors, asshole. Did I make mistakes? Yeah. But that's between me and General Wolf and not your concern. Now, arrest me and get me JAG representation, or end this interview."

"Major Asher," Matt said. "Jake. I don't think that Mark actually believes you are somehow connected to the Jaffa. But even I think you're hiding something. So let me put it to you this way: does what you're not willing to tell us somehow connect or is it somehow relevant to our investigation."

Jake visibly relaxed. He looked at Mark. "Sorry," he said. "You're right. I made mistakes left and right. This was just one more clusterfuck. To answer your question: No, what I'm refusing to discuss is not relevant to your investigation. It was something that happened due to the effects of the regression infection. If it was just me involved, I'd tell you and suffer the embarrassment, but there's someone else involved and I don't think they deserve to be humiliated because of something that was beyond their control."

"Okay," Matt said. "You mentioned that Shae experienced some kind of hormonal issue due to the infection. Did it involve that?"

Jake bristled, then relaxed. "Yes," he said.

Matt nodded. "If I assumed that her hormones were out of whack and that she went into heat? And that it...affected you?"

Jake's eyes narrowed. "Yes," he said.

"Did this issue affect your judgement?" Matt said. "Did you miss the CDC ruse because of it?"

Jake shook his head. "It didn't affect me until after I left the camp in search of Shae, and it didn't affect me for long. I was concerned about a member of my team who might be in trouble. Those three kids: Corvus, O'Connor, and Shae, they were getting too young to be treated like responsible adults. I wanted to keep them all in one place. I gambled that Corvus and O'Connor could hold it together long enough for me to find Shae and bring her back. That just took a bit more doing than I'd planned, and, unfortunately, the wolf pack had picked up Shae's scent. We couldn't exactly leave her to get gang raped, so I had to deal with that situation. Then Corvus pulled the whole getting bit by a wolf bullshit, then he told me about his suspicions, then we got taken out."

Jake shook his head. "Shae was in fox form and not 100%, O'Connor was regressing into a teenager, and Corvus was, too, AND he could hardly walk. Jessica was leading the Brain Trust's efforts to figure out the device, Hawk was up their with them and two Jaffa. I was at the camp with two of the Jaffa and three compromised team members. I was thinking about how to pull off a quick take down without killing them outright. What if we were wrong? If we just put them down and we were wrong, we would have assassinated four innocent people. Then Jessica had her happy accident, and then the Jaffa put us down. That's the story. Whatever else I might be guilty of, I'm not a traitor."

"Okay," Matt said. "I have no further questions. Mark, without starting a fight again, do you have any other questions? Brick?"

Mark picked up the file and then let it fall on the table again. "Shit, Major, why didn't you just say?" He shrugged. "I'm sorry, but you were exhibiting classic guilty behavior." He opened the file again. "You don't think very well of Sergeant Corvus and I see he's knew to this project as well, coming here out of the blue. You think he could sell out his own kind?"

"Nope," Jake said. "Not intentionally. Not even accidentally, I don't think. Like I said, he's good. I just wish he would just do what comes naturally to him instead of breaking his ass for no reason trying to prove what everyone would know if he just got out of his own goddamn way."

"Gotcha," Badger said. "Looks like someone stole my toilet, I had nothing to go on." He shook his head. "Brick?"

"It was me, I stole your toilet," Brick said, then shook his head ever so slightly to indicate that he had no questions.

"Okay, Major," Matt said. "You can go. We'll be in touch if we have further questions. And you can count on our discretion."

"Thanks," Jake said. He rose and left the room, upset with himself for letting his temper get the better of him. What the Hell is wrong with me lately? I'm sloppy on missions. I'm short tempered. Get it together, Jake, forth-fucking-with!

"Interview terminated," Matt said. He shut down the recording equipment. "Okay. Off the record, give it to me. Your impressions before mine."

"This team is fucked up. We don't need to worry about anybody else destroying our world, we've got these guys who are doing it for them," Badger said. "Despite any problems we may still find, and we've got the one doctor and staff sergeants left don't we? Despite anything there, none of this actually helps us. But sure as hell helps the enemy. They don't get it together then what we find won't matter." Badger shrugged. "But, that's outside the scope of our investigation. It's larger picture stuff so, it's yours to worry about. I've got enough with Ravi's equipment to go through and whatever else we find."

He glanced over. "And get Brick something to eat, just grosses me out that he's thinking about eating toilets."

Brick ignored the comment and went in to his assessment. "The lack of coordination suggests that they were thrown in to the field too rapidly without adequate time to train together to build unit cohesion," the statuesque man said, still unmoving from his position. "Is it a train wreck? Yes, but I see the potential in the team if they could sort out their issues. Do I see any signs of duplicity or subversion? Absolutely not, they seem committed to the cause, even the little alien girl."

"That's basically what I think as well," Matt said. "Asher, though... I'm going to have a talk with the General about suggesting to Asher that he see someone from Mental Health Services. He seems a little worn at the edges. They've known each other a long time, did you know that. A really long time. A younger Jake Asher carried a wounded Wolf out of Taliban held territory on his back. Goes back farther than that. Wolf met Asher right after Asher completed the old Combat Control Officer pipeline, so... a decade or so? Wolf's mentor of sorts to the guy." Matt yawned. "Okay, send in the next one."