Stargate SG1: Equestrian Arc

Chapter 1:

Abscond

02:36 Northern Atlantic Ocean, 750 nautical miles off the coast of Iceland.

The winds whipped violently, and the waves crested only feet below the choppers tail section as it flew low across the North Atlantic. Staying blow radar in a UH-64 Black Hawk meant staying as close to the water's surface as possible while avoiding the icebergs that floated everywhere. "Gotta love those crazy pilots," Jack said to himself as the craft slowly made its way to its destination.

Colonel Jack O Neill pulled his hood up on his parka and loaded his P90 compact assault rifle as the pilot brought the chopper around looking for a release point. He had dealt with him many times in the past, and Jack didn't like dealing with him anymore now than he did back then. Maybourne was a slime ball who was always looking for a handout while searching for a place to stick a knife in your back. He didn't trust him before, and he sure wasn't going to start now. But he had information, or so he said, on the location of the N.I.D. vessel out on the waters somewhere below.

There has been recorded gate activity for the last month or so, discovered only because of some dialing problems in the computer. They knew it wasn't the Russians because their Stargate was located in a sealed container under wraps of the Soviet Military. The activity still originated from earth, so it had to be someone else. It was also hard to pinpoint through seismic activity, but Major Carter discovered that it was in proximity to the northern end of the Mid Atlantic ridge probably to make it look like magma displacements. She had figured that, because seismic wave movement wasn't as strong as it should be, it must have originated near the surface and not on a ground base, which meant that it was possibly on a cargo ship or Goa'uld craft with a cloaking device.

But with the lack of physical evidence from the satellites, they had concluded that the gate moved from location to location to where every time the S.G.C. or the Air force got close, they would already be one-step ahead. Then after receiving a coded message, it turned out that Maybourne knew where the next stop was going to be.

Jack hated Maybourne but in the past, his information usually proved fruitful, but that still didn't make him a trustworthy. As always, Jack was going to paint on a smile and try to restrain himself from wringing his scrawny little neck.

Standing a small ice shelf at the edge of the northern pack, a lone figure stood next to a small watercraft and listened for the sounds of the helicopter on approach then pulled out a small red lens flashlight as the chopper flew around the final iceberg. He then threw the flashlight on the ice marking the landing point, the pilot, confirming the signal brought the Black Hawk around over the target location, and dropped the lines.

Jack looked over at his team, Major Carter, Doctor Jackson and Teal'c as they each hooked to their lines and descended to the surface. Jack patted one of the crew on the shoulders "As soon as I'm down get this bird out of here," and with that, he made his way down his line.

The Black Hawk didn't waste any time once Jack was on the ground it quickly flew off into the darkness leaving its passengers behind in the cold of the arctic north.

"Heck of a place you got here Maybourne. Cozy if you're a penguin." Jack said.

"Ya, I'm thinking about retiring here," said Maybourne returning the snide remark. "But let's get down to brass tax; the ship you're looking for is a cargo freighter called the 'Sorrel Roan' which supposedly sank during freak storms in the Bermuda Triangle a couple of years ago. But in truth, it was 'acquired' by the NID and its being used as a covert floating warehouse. It's disguised as an iceberg, which was why your satellites couldn't find it but we should still be able to see as it passes by which should be any time now."

"Any time," Jack questioned, "How many minutes in an 'any time?" Jack yelled irritated as he clasped his gloved hand together trying to warm them up.

"Soon," Maybourne said reassuring him as he pulled a small pouch from his pocket. "Now before you ask, I don't know where they got the Stargate from, but more importantly, is what they're doing with it. It seems that someone in the N.I.D. has come into a vast amount of wealth lately, enough to pay off some rather high up individuals." Maybourne grabbed Jack's hand and dumped the rather large diamond and several other gems into it. "And that's not all, Rubies, Sapphires, and Emeralds' the size of your fist.

"Enough to saturate the economy," Jack said rolling around one of the diamonds in his hand.

"Enough to start their own economy," Maybourne replied. And to top it all off many of these gems emit high levels of energy.

"How high are we talking?" Jack said putting the gems back into the bag.

From what I understand, I would say Naquadah levels. Like preloaded batteries," Maybourne said holding out his hand for the pouch.

"I agree, Carter said, "I can sense the Naquadah in them. Wherever they got these, the place must be rich with them, and if the Goa'uld got their hands on this, it could change everything.

Jack gave Maybourne a funny look as he placed the pouch into his own pocket. "Anything else?"

'Ya," Maybourne said annoyed at Jack and his empty palm "I've kept up my end of the bargain. You just keep your end like you promised," Maybourne said.

"I never promised anything," Jack said warming his hands with his breath.

"Come on Jack, I thought we were old friends," Maybourne said with a witted smile.

"We were never friends…" Jack said letting his aggravation show.

"O Neill!" Teal'c interrupted, "A ship approaches."

"All right everyone, Jack said calming down as he grabbed his gear. 'Let's get moving, Maybourne, after we get there, take off and meet us at the rendezvous point" he ordered as he placed his gear into the boat.

"Fine by me Jack, I don't want to be anywhere near that place when this goes down. You guys have a nasty habit of getting into trouble when stuff like this happens." Maybourne said as he fired up the engines.

They made their way across the water and approached the ship from the stern to avoid detection as the massive freighter slowly drove through the ice-filled water.

Maybourne brought the watercraft alongside, and Jack and Teal'c deployed the grappling ropes. "You know Jack; we should get together and have lunch sometime when this is all over," Maybourne offered.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up" Jack responded as he and the others made their way to the top of the ship.

Once at the top, Jack turned and breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Maybourne leave. Having him around made his skin crawl but you know what they say about 'friends' like that who needs enemies.

They quickly made their way across the stern of the ship and Teal'c and Carter dispatched two guards with a blast from their Zat-nik-tel weapons. Jack and Daniel went on to scout ahead as they threw the bodies into a dinghy raft then quietly they made their way to the interior of the ship.

Jack was uneasy as they moved along the long hallway towards the stairwell. They had met up with little resistance; in fact, they had not seen anyone as they walked onto the lower decks of the ship. "Well they didn't just abandon the ship, did they?" Jack thought to himself as he made his way down the corridor. After securing several rooms, they made their way down the last hallway they were just about to come to the last door when the ship began to shake violently all around them.

"Jack," Daniel said holding on to a railing, "I think this confirms that they do have a Stargate."

"This also means we're running out of time Sir," Carter added.

As they walked down the last corridor, there was an open door and Jack could hear voices inside the room. He could also hear the sound of the activated Stargate inside the room and he gave the hand signal to the others to hold for a moment as he crept up to the doorway to listen in on the conversation.

He couldn't tell who they were, but one voice was human, and the other was Goa'uld. "Great," thought Jack, "That's all we needed," he said under his breath, "Guess they were already in on this the whole time. I wonder if Maybourne new about it… probably."

The light of the Stargate filled the room as the Goa'uld spoke to the other in "The shipment will arrive in a few days. My Jaffa soldiers have already begun advanced mining operations on the planet, and I will go there myself to take control. The Chaapa'ai is yours to do as you will as we agreed. You will hold this position until then and when I return I will have everything ready for your NID counterparts."

"Ya, that's not going to happen," Jack said to himself as he pulled a smoke grenade off his belt.

As Jack went to toss the smoke into the room as the alarms went off. "Those guards must have come to," Jack said to himself as he followed the smoke into the room. Gunfire erupted from his P-90 and Jack took aim at the Goa'uld, but he wasn't fast enough. The alarm had given the Goa'uld enough time to use his hand device to place the personal shield before stepping through the portal and deactivating it before Jack could run after him.

Carter and the others followed him in taking out the other person in the room with a Zat, stunning him before he could fire a shot.

All right, Carter, Daniel, figure out where he went." Jack ordered. "Teal'c, did you happen to get a look at his crest?"

"Indeed." Teal'c replied in his usual calm voice, "He held the symbol of Ra."

Daniel and Carter sat at the desk looking over the computer monitors delving through the information. "Well we're not worried about Ra anymore," said Daniel digging through the information on one of the computer drives. "It could have been one of his remaining Jaffa, but what I find that's confusing is that this information doesn't talk about Ra, it talks about Khonsu."

"Khon-who?" Jack said puzzled.

"Khonsu…" Daniel said glaring at him. "Well as you know, Ra was the god associated with the sun. But Khonsu was more associated with the moon. His name means 'Traveler' and was said to be the watcher over the travelers of the night." Daniel spoke still sifting through the data. "Khonsu was revered as a gentle and compassionate healer who was said to have personally healed the pharaoh Ptolemy IV. But, he also had a darker side as his name also appears in the 'Cannibal Hymn,' which is part of the Pyramid Texts, and he is shown to be a bloodthirsty deity who helps the deceased kings to catch and eat the other gods.

"Oh." Jack replied even more puzzled than ever.

"Khonsu was also believed to be the son of Mut and Amun but others speculate that he may be the offspring of Sobek and Hathor." Daniel said.

"Now those last names I do know." Jack said.

Daniel shot him a look over his glasses. "What I don't understand is; why would a follower of Ra, have information on Khonsu," he said turning his attention back to his monitor.

"Either way O Neill," Teal'c added, "If he is indeed Ra or a follower pretending to be Ra, he must be stopped."

"Agreed," Jack said.

"I have the dialing address of where he went to," said Carter "It's definitely not one we had in out lists, but we need to get this information back to the S.G.C. for further analysis."

"Okay, let's pack it up and get out of here," Jack ordered.

Carter jacked in her portable computer and downloaded all the system files of the N.I.D. computer when they heard the explosions and the ship rocked violently.

"I think we set off a booby trap Sir," Carter yelled, "But I think I can still activate this Stargate before we lose power."

"Do it," Jack shouted "This place is going down."

Carter punched in the address into the computer "Got it," she shouted as the gate finished its sequence, and a portal opened up and water started pouring in from the doors. The ship started to lean when Teal'c Carter and Daniel jumped through the Stargate opening, and the last thing Jack saw was a wall of water rushing at him through the doorway.