"Your orders are to go directly to the designated coordinates, secure the entrance to the cavern, then seal the entrance with explosives," General Hammond stated.

The four members of SG-1 all sat around the table in the briefing room listening to the details of their next mission. Teal'c sat motionless while appearing to give the General and his guest his full attention. Carter's eyes kept drifting to the visitor, who would meet her gaze every so often. Daniel actually looked bored, seeing as this was a purely military mission. And Jack sat leaned back in his chair looking down at his hand tapping a rhythm on his knee.

"Did you get all of that, Colonel?" Hammond asked Jack with some exasperation in his voice.

"Yes, sir. Bury the rebels in their cavern. Could I ask a crazy question though? Why exactly are they rebelling?" Jack asked Hammond or Danwig, the commander of the Helvecon ship in orbit around Earth.

Danwig broke eye contact with Sam to give Jack a cross look.

"Colonel O'Neill, if you must know, these rebels consist of people we relocated from inhospitable living conditions. Many prefer their old laws and ways of justice to ours, and have decided to use violence as their method to enact change to society."

Jack could instantly tell that Danwig was lying through his teeth, and this heightened his suspicions even more than they already were.

Three months ago, SG-10 encountered the Helvecons on a routine trip through the gate, and found potential trading partners and military allies. When the Helvecons scanned the composition of the Earth, they discovered an abundance of the element Thatrium, which hadn't even been discovered yet by Earth's scientists. They use Thatrium in the construction of their ships, and offered significant defense technology in exchange for it.

It wasn't every day that they found a more advanced civilization willing to share technology, so the White House made securing a treaty with the Helvecons a priority. Those talks led to the current arrangement. Not only were they trading Thatrium for defense technology, but they had come to a mutual defense agreement. It seemed that while the Helvecons looked like regular humans, their military might was completely dependent on their ship and automated defense technology, where Earth obviously had significant experience in ground combat. In their first mission as member of this alliance, SG-1 was chosen to assist the Helvecons.

"General, do all of your soldiers question the orders of allies before carrying them out?" Danwig asked Hammond.

"Oh, don't worry Dimwit, the General will tell you that I question the orders of our own people too," Jack helpfully added.

"It's Danwig," he growled at Jack.

"Right. Well sir, that's all I've got," he brushed off Danwig and returned his attention to Hammond.

Jack could feel the glare from his second in command burning into the side of his face. Despite, or maybe in part because of, Daniel's excitement about the links between the Helvecons and a similarly named old Germanic tribe on Earth, Jack hadn't liked Danwig since he met him a couple of months ago. His skin crawled around him, and Jack was sure something was amiss. But he had no proof of anything, and sometimes he had to wonder whether the dislike was because of his interest in Carter, and her interest in him.

At first, he just took it in stride as another alien that was besotted with his Major, but when she reciprocated, it made Jack sick to his stomach. Funny enough, that's how he was pretty sure something else was up. When it was Sam on his mind, there was a bowling ball in his gut and knife in his chest, not the skin crawling, sense of danger that he often got around Danwig.

"Alright SG-1, you embark in an hour. Dismissed," Hammond ended the briefing.

…

After SG-1 stepped through the gate on P5G-292, they began in the direction of the rebel cavern that they were to destroy. The terrain was very arid with almost no vegetation in sight, and it was relatively flat and rocky with some small hills scattered around. Jack scanned the area and other than a lone building a short way in the distance, there was nothing else around. When they reached the building, Jack looked in the windows and saw what appeared to be holding cells. He figured it was some kind of prison, and he wanted to get in there to see if he could satisfy his curiosity about these rebels.

"Stop," Jack ordered them.

"What is it, sir?"

"In the briefing room, I could tell that Duncan was lying his ass off about the rebels. Before we go and blow up their cavern, I would like to find out what the real story is."

"But sir, those weren't our orders, and I get the feeling the General isn't going to be too happy if you improvise on this one," Carter told him.

"Carter, let me worry about our orders. You just worry about mine. Let's go kids."

Jack looked around the outside of the building for a way in, and saw a couple more windows in the back, but no other entrance other than the front door. The team then walked around to the front and up to the guard.

"Howdy there. We're here from Earth to take care of the rebel problem for you. We just wanted to see if there was any information we could find that would help us on our mission," Jack greeted the guard.

"All of the information you need was provided by Danwig," the hulking white clad man replied without any expression on his face. Jack was taken aback for a moment, wondering how this lackey out here in the middle of nowhere was so familiar with their mission.

"Really? So there's nothing in there that might help?"

"Visitors are not permitted."

"Right. Thanks."

Jack then led the team back around to the back of the building and tried to open one of the windows, but it was locked. He fished through his bag for something to try to unlock the window when the aforementioned guard walked around to the back of the building.

"What are you doing back here?"

"Just taking a leak, no need to get your panties in a bunch."

Jack pretended to zip his pants and led his team away from the building when he saw that the guard was just going to stand there watching them.

"That was a close one, Jack. I wouldn't mind learning more about the rebels either, but I don't know if we want to push our luck here," Daniel chimed in.

"I share O'Neill's curiosity on this matter," Teal'c added.

"I don't think it's a good idea, guys," was Sam's advice.

They continued their trek toward the coordinates of the cavern when suddenly, they heard Hammond's voice over the radio.

"SG-1, report back to base at once."

They all had puzzled looks on their faces.

"On our way, sir," Jack answered.

...

When they got back through the gate to Earth, Hammond called up them up to the briefing room immediately.

"Colonel, what the hell?" Hammond asked him before they even sat down.

"I'm sorry, sir?"

"I just got my ass chewed out by the president. Jack, I know I've always given you a lot of latitude out in the field, and for good reason, but you've been in the Air Force long enough to know that you have to follow orders."

"What are you talking about?"

"About ten minutes before I had to call you back, our gate opened up from P5G-292. We didn't receive any communications, but that doesn't mean our guests didn't."

"You mean Igor called his boss because I asked him to get into that building?" Jack was incredulous.

"It would appear that way, son."

"What the hell? They don't like us asking questions. They don't like us looking around. What are they hiding?"

"Sir, we don't know that they're hiding anything. Maybe they just expect our military personnel to follow orders," Sam growled at him.

"Jack, the higher ups aren't happy about this. I'll do everything I can to protect you, but I don't know what's going to happen. At least the rest of your team is safe because they were following your orders."

"Thanks, sir. It's really that big of a deal? I've done much worse before. Hell, I gave the drill instructors in boot camp a harder time than this."

"I know. I'll let you know when I hear something. Dismissed."