BAD BLOOD (PART 2)
Disclaimers: I don't own Stargate SG1 or any of the characters within. I am only borrowing them to write this fanfic and then I will wash them off and return them.
Spoilers: I going to be nice and try not to do any but be warned, I have seen right up to the fourth season episode 'Watergate'.
Thanks: To DThunter and Morgase for their reviews of BAD BLOOD (PART 1). A special word for Morgase: You gave me an idea and now you have to live with it.
You couldn't really describe the General's reaction as one of cold feet. He'd sent people through the Stargate on a hell of a lot less knowledge on what was on the other side. Even so, this was a special opportunity. Once the Joint Chiefs had heard that a complete supply dump was possibly for the taking, they had tasked him with 'whatever the hell he wanted', to quote their exact words.
He would take them up on it.
The first thing to think about was simple. How the hell were they going to get the supplies from the dump to the Stargate? He could get some trucks down and through the Stargate but it would take a day or so to put them together. But if he could bring a truck down twenty-eight floors he could do the same with a chopper, and they were a hell of a lot faster. But speed wasn't a problem. He wanted to make absolutely sure that if the Goa'uld came calling after they had been and gone, there was going to be no trace of Earth's theft. Trucks left tire marks and both machines needed parking space, fuel and crews.
But for the moment the point was moot. First they had to find out if their guest was bullshitting them or not. He'd passed on the stuff about the Goa'uld exiles on Earth and met with a blank wall. He knew that the NID wasn't stupid and had probably been doing very subtle checks on its people and others for signs of possession. Especially since Seth had been discovered. Once they had the list that he had sent to every agency they would have to act on any of these exiles that they knew about.
* That'll be fun. *
Sam Carter was sitting in front of a console in the Gate Room, running checks on one of her little toys. The General looked down, watching her as she read off a series of numbers, checking each one off as Sergeant Siler said it back to her. It wasn't hard to see that she was burying herself in her work, more to avoid her father than avoid facing what he had done to this facility.
George frowned. He couldn't really face it himself. He had known Jacob Carter for almost as long as he had been in the Air Force and now that was different. Well that was slightly untrue. The first time he had seen something different was when his friend had stepped through the Stargate with one of the Tok'ra in his head. Seeing his friend walk down the ramp using a manner of walk that was completely different had sent a shiver down his spine. And then hearing that voice.
He shook his head. The decision of working with the Tok'ra wasn't up to him but to the politicians. As much as he hated them, politicians did have some uses.
* Back to work George. Enough with the woolgathering. *
"Major are you ready?"
Sam stood and gave him a thumbs-up. He nodded to the Senior Technician who immediately began hitting numbers. The massive ring of naquada started to spin in its housing, chevrons clicking into place every second until seven had passed. His whole world went blue for a second as the wormhole opened, joining his planet with one a couple of billion miles away. It still got to him at times like this. He commanded a base where people went across the galaxy in less than a heartbeat.
* It would make for a hell of a book. *
"Running probe to one hundred percent power."
Sam ran her hands over the remote control console. It was flat with no joystick for piloting the Remotely Piloted Vehicle, or RPV. Instead she had gone for the Star Trek look, using touch sensitive pads to steer the drone as it flew its mission. And since this was important she had made this her best job to date. The drone had more alien technology in it than human.
It was a Predator drone, the type used during the Gulf war, but there is where the similarity ended. The skin was a polymer metal mix that SG-4 had found on a deserted world. It was light, tough and very easy to shape. Treat it with some chemicals and it could take a lot of damage. The power cells, normally a quarter of the machine's weight, were replaced with a staff weapon's power cell allowing her to use a bigger and quieter engine, naquada and trinium based. The video package was the only thing that was wholly of this planet.
The panel was fairly simple. Two rings sat side by side with a bar to the left, a row of readouts along the top and a panel of buttons along the side. The left ring was for roll, the right for pitch and the rudder was controlled by the computer. The bar was for throttle control while the readouts showed engine temp, speed and other information.
She spared a second to look at the General and the Senior Tech and got two nods. Running her fingers up the central bar she saw the readout change to '120' and she slapped her hand down on the drone release. It shot free of its restraint and entered the wormhole. Sam didn't have to wait for the picture to clear. This drone had an added extra built in. As soon as the RPV registered light on its sensors it shot straight up, clearing the trees and their canopies.
Seconds later the picture cleared and Sam got a birds-eye view of P3X-921. For as far as she could see it was jungle, patches of green, yellow and brown leaves vying for the sunlight. As the RPV circled over the Stargate she covered the whole horizon. She enjoyed the virtual experience for a moment and went back to business when a memory entered her head. It was of her father taking her to Yellowstone National Park and they had looked down from a mountain onto a vista like this.
"Starting up Inertial Navigation System. INS reads active. Starting up recorders one through five."
The readout of power dimmed for a second as the numbers increased. Even with the power cell the RPV would only stay up a couple of hours.
"Beginning run."
The drone circled as she ran her hands along the circles, turning it in the direction of the planet's magnetic north. It took a second but a patch of light green could be seen some distance away, getting larger and changing shape as the drone neared it. Easing back on the power, Sam tapped the lower half of the right circle, bringing her creation into a slow climb. By the time the patch was directly underneath the drone would be just a speck in the sky and hopefully as hard to see.
******
Hammond watched as her hands danced along the controls for a second and activated the RPV's automatic pilot. Settling back in her chair she watched the screen, changing the camera angle on one recorder to keep the patch of light green the centre of its attention. But his attention was on something else.
Briggs had marched into the Gate Room with his four gorillas and their private weaponry. It wasn't the fact that there was weaponry in his, read that- his, Gate Room because that happens all the time. It was the fact that Briggs was carrying an M-16 with a very loaded grenade launcher attached. And that pissed him off.
"Captain Briggs. I assume that you are aware of the regulations regarding weaponry in this facility. I don't remember hearing or reading anything about a change in those regs."
The Captain shook his head, not understanding that the riot act was descending towards his head fast.
"Well then could you be so kind as to tell me why you have five men, including yourself, armed to the teeth to escort one prisoner."
"Sir all our weapons are loaded with bean bag rounds. Non lethal but very incapacitating."
"I don't care. Take yourself and your men back to the armoury and reissue standard sidearms. Dismissed."
"But the priso..."
"Dismissed."
John had a smirk on his face when the little chat between the two officers started and it bloomed into a full grin when Briggs and his animal troupe trudged off. He even managed a snicker as the young officer walked by, glowering at him.
"I asked you here for your help."
The angry look that Briggs stupidity had caused slid across to John, making him feel slightly unwanted. He was going to have to be diplomatic and he hated that.
"And I'm happy to give it."
Stepping forward he looked at the bank of screens showing the feed off the recorders. Only two showed a forward view, one a normal spectrum and the other an obvious infrared view that was almost pure white with viewed heat. A larger screen with a weird console sat to one side, the evidence of a jury-rigged job plain to see.
"Thirty seconds to target."
John and the General stood side by side as Jack, Daniel and Teal'c stepped into the room. They were silent as Carter directed the RPV over the site scanning every inch of the massive clearing. Nothing was apparent until the infrared view showed a dark mass in the clearing's centre giving truth to John's story.
"Can you detect any movement? Any signs of Jaf'far?"
Teal'c turned from the monitor and gave his superior his full attention.
"General Hammond, in a facility such as this the Jaf'far would undoubtedly be under instructions not to reveal themselves unless the base was under direct attack. Anything else would expose their position to the world."
The General heard every word and weighed their worth.
"In your estimation Teal'c how many Jaf'far would be stationed at this facility?"
The impassive Jaf'far heard the hesitation in those words and knew that whatever happened, Teal'c's answer would decide whether a mission was ordered or not.
"From the condition of those we encountered on our first visit, General Hammond, not many. If those few were any indicator then the majority of the garrison would be dead or dying from lack of food. Resistance would be light."
The General didn't hesitate.
"Thank you Teal'c."
Turning to Jack he formally started the ball rolling.
"Colonel, SG-1 has a mission."
"Sir."
Jack saluted and went off to get his team ready.
******
"General. I have a request to make."
The General's head shot up. He usually heard this tone from his grandkids when they wanted to wheedle something out of him. Hearing it from Jack did not sound good. And he'd just spent the last forty minutes in a screaming match with the Joint Chiefs.
Half of the men on the Goa'uld suspect list had died of unknown causes in the last few hours and the other half was running. A couple of impromptu autopsies had been performed and revealed the Goa'uld presence but that wasn't the problem. The real problem was that there was almost no chance of capturing a live Goa'uld when some agency was doing its best to kill every one of them.
And what was even worse was the fact that these men seemed to have been the driving force behind the thefts of technology that had nearly destroyed the SGC's relationships with three very powerful races. The reaction to that was anger and since these guys were dead or missing the anger had to be focused somewhere.
His only reply was to say that dead Goa'uld didn't bother him. The screaming had started from that point on.
"Spit it out Colonel."
Jack twitched his shoulders and set his face, waiting to set off an eruption.
"I would like to take Kelly with us."
"Out of the question. He assaulted..."
"Sir please let me finish. He has first hand knowledge of the terrain and design of the base. His abilities can be nothing but an asset on this mission."
"And I don't need to remind you that he assaulted two of our nurses and four security personnel..."
"None of whom are the worse for wear sir."
The General sighed.
"Do you trust him Jack?"
The question caught the commander of SG-1 off guard.
"Honestly. I don't know. Something about his story..."
"The bit where you and Major Carter are married..."
A little smile flitted across the General's lips.
"No, sir. It's just a feeling. But my gut says that we need him on this one."
"I... I'll allow it. Send him down to the Infirmary for a pre-mission medical. If Doctor Frasier gives him a clean bill of health he goes."
"Thank you sir."
******
It was a fairly quick medical. Janet had checked the staff weapon wounds only a few hours before a declared them fully healed, nothing short of a miracle. But when he was told of the mission, John had a serious request to ask.
"I need the ointment if I have to go outside. Otherwise I burn."
Janet turned away and smiled, waving over the two nurses that John had taken prisoner. They had both been offered time off because of what had happened but had declined. And now they had their revenge. They rubbed the cream into every inch of John's body that might be exposed to light. Waiting until he was totally relaxed they both brought their hands down hard on his ass, smacking it so loud that it could be heard a hundred feet away.
The scream was heard two floors away.
Limping to the armoury, John endured the stifled laughs and outright grins of all the staff. Checking out his gear under the watchful eye of Captain Briggs pretty much cheered him up again and he left grinning until he ran into another gang of smiling soldiers.
SG-1's locker room was only a couple of floors up from the Gate Room, with all the other teams. Opening the small backpack he pulled out an assortment of weapons. The familiar knife and sidearm were joined with four steel cylindrical tubes the size of an old glass coke bottle. The only feature was the tip of a spike from one end and a button on the curve. Jack picked it up and looked at it.
"What the hell is this?"
"Explanations are nowhere near as much fun as demonstrations. Point that tip at the wall and press the button."
Jack held the cylinder two handed like a golf club and pressed the button. The spike shot free of the cylinder and embedded itself in the wall. He walked over and pulled it free with some difficulty. The tip wasn't damaged and he raised his eyebrows.
"There's a car spring and a simple trigger in the tube. It was designed to get by Goa'uld personal shields. It's slow enough to pass through and fast enough that they can't dodge it. It does the job."
The last four words spoke volumes. They had been used in combat and they had done their efficient, deadly little job. Jack put the used weapon down and laid the spike down beside it. He'd tried, for a second, to reload it and failed. John just grabbed the spike by pinching the tip and forced it into the cylinder. There was a click and that was that.
Now they all stood at the base of the ramp and listened to the General's words.
"You are ordered to reconnoitre the base on P3X-921 and determine if it can be taken. If you are unable to make that determination or fail to return within forty-eight hours a device will be sent through. After forty eight hours your GED codes will be locked out of our database."
Jack saluted in his usual way, waving his hand in the direction of his forehead. Turning almost as one, SG-1 and their new friend stepped through the wormhole and onto a world half a galaxy away.
******
As soon as they cleared the Stargate, SG-1 was blind. The nights in jungles were as dark as any pit of hell. Waiting only to fit their night vision goggles, NVG's, they ran to the far end of the clearing and the cover of the forest. Making sure to avoid the hole that had the Quantum mirror, they made the trees in record time. Moving as far back into the forest as they could, they waited to see if they would have company.
Jack and Teal'c both lay down, pulling the ferns and creepers down to mask the hole they had cut to make the hide. The human took his NVG and trained it on the gap that the first Jaf'far had come through. The only problem that he could see was that the bodies hadn't been moved from where they had fallen. A click and the flash of a green light brought a stifled curse from Jack's throat.
"Carter. What the hell are you trying to do, get us killed?"
The Major managed a weak 'sorry sir' and went back to the tiny screen that she held in her hand. It showed a picture that changed rapidly.
"Sir. The RPV is not picking anything up from the supply depot. I'm reading temperatures as low as ten degrees C and I'm still not getting anything."
The Colonel got up and moved back to look at the screen for himself. It was just a mesh of greens and blacks that slowly resolved itself into a picture. The blurred image of a tunnel entrance could be seen against the warmer colours of the jungle brush and other growth. Looking around, Jack found that the screen's light had destroyed his night vision. He could make out the reclined form of Teal'c and possibly Daniel. The glint of glass made him move on to another form that was half blended into the tree it was lying against.
"John. Did you use the trail to get to the depot?"
He saw the figure shake its head.
"We tree hopped about two hundred yards off the trail and pushed through, parallel to the original path. It was slow going. Took us nearly two days to get to the dump."
Jack grimaced. Two days of pushing through jungle like this and trying not to make any noise was impossible. And he didn't really want to find out what the hell 'tree hopping' was. They had to move now. If they were lucky they could cover half the distance tonight and the rest tomorrow if the met no resistance. If they did they could cover the distance back in half an hour.
"Twenty minutes we move out. Carter, can that RPV to see if it can follow us or at least see us. It might give us some warning of an ambush. Teal'c you take point. John, you, Carter and Daniel stay in the middle. I'll be rearguard. Get ready."
"Colonel O'Neill, I should go point."
******
John had taken off the NVG's as soon as he had reached the trees. The light given off by the little screens was starting to give him a headache and that was the last thing he needed. Besides the night was his usual hunting time. It wouldn't do for the Colonel to know that when he had originally hit the planet it had been night, And that the real reason it had taken two days was because his team had holed up during the day.
And now the Colonel wanted to baby him.
"Colonel, I should go point."
He knew it was against every principle of SpecOps rules to question orders out in the field. If you were at home curled around a bottle with the lads it was fine but not in the field. He heard Daniel's little gasp, sure that the archaeologist wouldn't have even heard it himself.
"Sir, I can hear and see better in the dark than Teal'c and I can move faster if the need arises. Let me take point. Teal'c can stay with me."
He could see the Colonel make the decision and smell the beginning of the fear that usually comes from doing an op like this. It wasn't coming from either Teal'c or Daniel as much as the other two. And that was surprising. To him at least. He knew that the two were far from 'an item' in this reality, which was shocking.
He'd seen their reactions when they were near each other. Carter's pulse went up a notch and her scent changed. The Colonel was a lot cooler about it but he knew the man from his own world from a few games of poker. John knew that it wasn't exactly enough to be definite about but his gut said otherwise.
******
Carter watched her commander's face twitch for a second while he made up his mind. John's idea was common sense but she had sensed a lack of trust on the Colonel's part. It was almost the same with her but there was the disgust she felt for what he had exposed in her father. She had to blame someone and that was the Vampyr. He had been the one to change her father's status in everyone's eyes. He went from being a valued member of Earth, a decorated hero and general to someone who couldn't be trusted with Earth's safety any more.
Even worse for her, it was humiliating.
She forced the feelings down. She had to concentrate on the mission.
******
Jack nodded and John moved. It was eerie the way he slid across the ground. Jack followed his movement with his NVG's and saw his head move from side to side, sniffing the air and listening. A gap opened up between them that Teal'c quickly filled. The gap widened and the two men worked their way quickly to the far end of the clearing. Soon the two were shadows, only visible by the chemical sticks on their shoulders.
The Colonel, the Major and Daniel heard a double click come from their radios and they moved out slowly, following the same route that their two scouts had taken. When they reached the start of the trail Jack made out John's chemical stick farther up the trail, just short of a turn. The Vampyr came to a halt and dropped silently to the ground. Jack and Teal'c raised their weapons, focusing on John's hand as it came up. The hand signals were easy to see.
Two fingers.
Two Jaf'far.
The fingers clasped into a fist and punched down.
Two Jaf'far on sentry duty.
One finger came up out of the fist and pointed to each side of the trail.
One Jaf'far on either side.
John slowly moved back, keeping his eyes forward, watching the trail and waiting for the Jaf'far to attack. He reached SG-1 quickly and spoke quietly to Jack.
"They are sitting on the trail about twenty to thirty yards around the corner. There's no movement from either but that doesn't mean anything. I've seen these guys stay still for hours. One thing though, they smell different."
Jack's whisper was furious.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
John shrugged.
"It's the sort of smell you can get in a jungle but I think it's coming from these two. And they don't look healthy."
Jack exchanged a quick look with Teal'c and waved everyone further back.
"Carter. Can the RPV pick them up?"
She flipped the lid up from the screen and shielded the screen with her tunic as best she could. Daniel moved between her and where the Jaf'far were, trying to shield the light. She nodded to the Colonel who took a quick look. Two figures could be seen sitting on either side of the trail. Their heat signature was very hot, far hotter than their surroundings. Teal'c touched Jack's arm.
"O'Neill. It is possible that these are as unwell as those others were. If that is the case we should be able to take these silently."
John took two of his cylinders out of his backpack and held them up before him. Jack took one and started to move forward but the Vampyr stopped him.
"I can get closer, quicker than you can. If push comes to shove you come up behind me and cover my back."
Jack's eyes narrowed but he nodded his okay to the plan. Teal'c took his Zat gun from his belt and moved up behind the Colonel as the two men moved forward.
******
John crept along on his stomach, closely keeping an eye on each Jaf'far. They both had their helmets up and that was not good. The animal heads were far from just decoration. He knew from studies that the eyes had fairly advanced night vision systems built in that would turn this night's darkness into twilight for the Jaf'far. And the heavy metal would make a head shot impossible. If these two were sick and they saw him, one would go for him while the other warned the supply dump whatever way he could.
He pulled two tubes from his belt where he had stuffed them and rolled onto his back. He craned his neck and saw both of the Jaf'far just on the edges of his vision. Moving slowly he stretched out his hands and pointed the cylinders. He tapped the buttons and both weapons fired. One of the two went down without a sound while the other shot to his feet. A spike sticking out of his shoulder.
John flipped onto his feet as the Jaf'far raised his staff weapon. Using all of his strength, John smacked his hand down on the weapon, driving it from the guard's grasp. He grabbed the helmet and rammed his knee into the Jaf'far's stomach and then pushed him to his knees. Bracing his knee against the alien's back he pulled back on the helmet and heard an almighty crack as the Jaf'far's spine broke.
Standing silently with the dead man in his arms, John listened. He could hear the Colonel moving up with SG-1's Jaf'far behind him. From what he could hear the human was pissed at something.
* I wouldn't have a clue what it was. *
He turned his attention back to the trail and heard nothing bar the normal chirp of insects and the odd creature moving.
"What the hell was that?"
The Colonel didn't have to elaborate. John knew he had jumped into the Colonel's line of fire when he had gone after the second Jaf'far, an act that was stupid in the extreme.
"Sorry, sir. He was going to fire his weapon and that could alert the dump. I couldn't let that happen."
Jack glared at John for a second and pointed back to Carter and Daniel.
"Teal'c. Take point. I'll be behind you. Kelly, you stay back with Daniel and Carter."
The Vampyr shrugged and walked back to the two scientists. As he arrived the two stood and shut off the monitor. Carter walked by him without a word and started up the trail while Daniel stayed with John.
******
The archaeologist looked at John for what seemed to be the fiftieth time in as many minutes. They hadn't encountered any more Jaf'far since leaving the first two behind. Jack stopped the team every five minutes or so to use the RPV's sensors to probe the trail ahead. Each time it showed only the tunnel mouth and only once the sign of a single Jaf'far. They still moved quietly and carefully. Jack called another stop and soon John could hear the quiet hum of the RPV passing overhead.
John caught another glance from Daniel and moved back beside him.
"What's wrong? Is it zits, bubonic plague, chloracne? What?"
Daniel flinched and then shook his head.
"Sorry. It's just that when you talked about the SGC on your world you didn't mention Teal'c."
"Or you."
The young man nodded.
"I'll make it quick. When Klorel captured you, my version of you, in his ship, Apophis sentenced you all to death. But when Ammonet turned up she asked that you be turned over to her for 'special consideration'. Apophis said yes and decided to get into the act. He took Teal'c and left the Colonel and the Captain with Klorel.
They took their time with you.
When we hit Klorel's vessel, both of them were half dead. They showed us how to use the sarcophagus and we revived them. By the time we got to Apophis' vessel, Teal'c was dead. Apophis had removed his symbiote.
You were a different story. Ammonet really was having a bad time with her host over you and had a real Jones for sadism. She had her Jaf'far beat you half to death and then healed you. Then she had them shoot you with a Zat gun. They would wait two minutes and then shoot you again. By the time she lifted off, they had really worked you over. When she heard nothing from Apophis or Klorel when she entered orbit she had two of her Jaf'far take you to an airlock and threw you out.
You can sort of get the picture of what happened next."
Daniel's face was pure white from fear or pain, John didn't know and he didn't want to find out just now. He had fucked up, telling the man about what had happened to his 'mirror image'. He'd probably think about that for the rest of the approach.
* I'll have to keep an eye on him. *
******
Sam had to use her RPV twice more before they reached the clearing that the dump entrance lay in. The single Jaf'far that they had spotted from the sky had company now. From what the team could see they were out to reinforce or at least replace the two that John had killed. The crap would surely hit the fan when the bodies were found.
The only problem was whether to hit the Jaf'far when they were on the trail or before they got to it. Either way, getting all of the guards before they could alert the dump seemed a pretty hard thing to do. Then Carter had an idea.
"Sir. I know this world had been hard on drones so far so I think it should stay that way."
Jack's eyebrows rose into his forehead.
"What are you saying, Carter?"
"The RPV is nearly out of power. From my instruments it has less than an hour of flight time left, probably a lot less. I was thinking that if we crash the RPV at or near the mouth of the tunnel it might draw out any guards that would be there. It would certainly distract the Jaf'far coming this way."
Jack thought through the idea. It didn't have much in the way of flaws. There was no way that the Jaf'far would be able spot them now and crashing the drone would definitely not reveal their position. Any way it worked out they would see what forces they would have to face and they could make their move then.
"Go idea, Major. We'll go ahead with your plan but we'll need time to get ready to move. And I want to wait for dawn. If a small army swarms out of that hole when the drone crashes we run for it and I don't want us to be stumbling in the dark. If nothing happens we hit the guards as hard as possible and then check out the entrance."
The team stripped off their rations and sleeping gear. No matter what happened it was unlikely they would need either.
******
John was smearing the last tube of sunblock onto his exposed skin when he spotted the approaching Jaf'far. A second later the RPV sensors showed a dozen Jaf'far moving slowly in their direction. The drone was circling the mouth of the tunnel entrance at a good height, high enough that John could only see a speck. Then he heard a whine and the speck dove almost straight down.
Carter's hands had hit the console and driven the flying machine into a straight kamikaze run, right for a spot in front of the tunnel mouth. John looked back at the approaching Jaf'far and saw that the sound of the RPV's engine had been heard and their staff weapon's raised at the perceived danger.
The crash was fantastic. The drone was all of fifty feet from the ground when Carter went to level it out and the machine cartwheeled across the ground, ripping up chunks of grass and dirt. The Jaf'far were heavily distracted by the noise and shuffled back towards their post. Jack kept his eyes glued to his binoculars and saw no movement from the tunnel. Raising his hand he motioned them forward.
Teal'c and Jack went wide to the left while John, Sam and Daniel went right. They hoped to catch the Jaf'far in a cross fire before they reached the drone. As long as they were distracted, they were an easy target for SG-1. As long as they were distracted.
******
It was easy for Jack to see that the Jaf'far weren't in the best of health. Most of them seemed to be thinner than the average Jaf'far, for example, Teal'c. In fact the ones with their helmets up were having trouble running with such a top-heavy weight on their shoulders. As he thought this, the lead one stumbled and fell, his partner in headwear bending over to lift him up. And that's when things went pear shaped.
The Jaf'far bending down must have seen one of them and he turned fully towards them.
"JAF'FAR KREE!"
Helmet boy raised his staff weapon and was cut down by a blast from Teal'c's already aimed staff. Jack aimed his gun and cut loose a hail of rounds, walking them into the Jaf'far. Standing now, he kept up the fire, changing from a steady stream of fire to aimed bursts. The other members of SG-1 joined in the fight and it was over, SGC twelve, Jaf'far nothing.
******
It took Teal'c an hour and a half to get back to the Gate, running at a good steady lope. The team had slowly checked out the tunnel entrance and found nothing but fresh air. John had listened hard for any signs of other Jaf'far and heard nothing. Further examination only found what looked like Ammonet's surface throne room and her Jaf'far guardroom. The stench of death in the last was almost unbearable. Against orders John entered the room and found that the Jaf'far's drinking water was filthy, as was every other source of water.
They waited outside, hoping that no other Jaf'far patrols were combing the area. They all doubted it themselves but on an empty planet like this you couldn't know.
Daniel, over John's little declaration, decided to ask another question.
"The Vampyr, your people, how long have they existed on Earth?"
John stared at him for a long minute before deciding it was an honest question. He knew from descriptions of his Earth's Daniel that the man was, at the very least, honest.
"We lost most of our history during the Inquisition but as far as we know we came from Northern Europe. About six or seven thousand years ago we left that area and became nomadic, avoiding civilisation, or what passed for it in that era. As far as I know we moved east into what is now Tibet and West China. We stayed there for a while until differences of opinion over land drove us north into Siberia.
We sort of kept moving after that. You can guess that we hit Europe in time to get nearly annihilated by the Catholic Church's little Genocide-For-U Party. After that we didn't bother moving again, we just stepped back and blended in with the woodwork. We became stonemasons, carpenters and servants, and we managed to survive."
Sam digested all of this and shook her head when something occurred to her.
"How about the virus? How did you deal with that?"
John shrugged.
"We have a good idea it was herbal lore that kept us alive. That's what attracted the attention of the Church. The women of our kind were always experimenting with herbs and helping people in the process. The priests didn't like the fact that women were saving their flocks, that was their job.
Anyway, the virus only seems to become hyperactive in the minority of those born Vampyr and a good percentage of those turned. I'm one of the latter. But the benefits of the overactive virus are increased strength, stamina and healing ability. And to change the subject we have company."
John raised his gun and pointed it towards the trail where an approaching noise had caught his attention. He lowered his weapon before it came into view, looking at the others.
"It's a jeep."
A massive Humvee burst into view with Teal'c riding in the passenger seat. The front of another Humvee could be seen behind, dragging a trailer in its wake. By the time Teal'c's ride reached SG-1, Jack had counted a dozen of the military jeeps. The Jaf'far jumped from his seat before the jeep came to a halt. A tall, skinny, nervous looking man stepped down behind him.
"O'Neill, the General sent these to empty the supply depot. He said to say that you are in charge of this end of the operation. He also sent Lieutenant Murcherson with a 'shopping list' of required items."
As Teal'c spoke, SG teams jumped from the other trucks and began running to other areas of the clearing. Jack could see Stinger missiles being set up, their operators scanning the sky. Another jeep pulled up with a mobile radar station hooked up behind it.
"It looks as if the General thought of everything. Come on, I'll show you where everything is."
******
The General looked down from the conference room where several of the Joint Chiefs were standing, also watching.
The procession of boxes and other items had started to come through the wormhole not too long ago. The first few had been a novelty and each had been opened for the gaggle of generals to ooh and ah over. Zat guns, staff weapons, stun grenades seemed to be the majority of the load. But the real catch came in after a half an hour. Death Gliders, enough to establish at least two squadrons for the Air Force. The generals had started spinning so fast that they had almost reached generating speeds.
But George ignored the majority of this. He had too much to worry about.
He had stripped the local support base of personnel to prepare Level 23 as a temporary storage area for this theft. All personnel on leave had had to be recalled to help and now he had something approaching a hundred and fifty people, most of them non combatants, out on some Goa'uld world.
It was going too well.
******
Daniel started to feel like a third wheel, watching the soldiers load box after box onto the jeeps. The entire complex had been built on a low-tech design to avoid detection by Goa'uld sensors. He had tried to help but had been firmly but politely rebuffed most of the men knowing his reputation with large heavy objects, usually of the falling variety.
Visits to the Infirmary were not on their itinerary.
"Jack. I'm going back to the Stargate. I want to take a look at the ruins again. I have an idea as to the culture that built them."
Jack had looked up from some list he had been given and ticked off another hundred Zat guns.
"Knock yourself out and don't touch anything I wouldn't."
Sam walked behind a jeep to stifle her laughter at the face Daniel made.
Daniel grabbed a seat on one of the departing jeeps and disappeared off along the trail. Jack went back to the list.
* Another hour and we're out of here. *
He looked around at the area, checking the positions of the missile men and the radar operators. The last bunch were the ones to watch. If they started jumping up and down, screaming in terror then it would definitely be time to leave. He looked behind him and saw Carter holding a Goa'uld hand device, turning it over and over. John was helping the soldiers load another Glider, making that seventeen.
* The General must have emptied every motor pool on the continent to get these trailers. *
The Glider trundled off on the six-wheel monstrosity, churning up the earth even more. The last two hours had left a very definite trail from here to the Stargate.
"Sir. If you don't mind I'd like to get back to the SGC and out of the sun."
Jack whirled about and saw that John had patches of livid red skin on his face. The Vampyr didn't look too healthy.
"Are you all right?"
"The sweat knocks off the sunscreen after a while. Once I get into the shade the damage will be gone in a couple of minutes. Nothing to worry about."
"Go. And tell the General that I'd like to cut this short if possible. We could come back later if need be but for the moment I don't want to push our luck."
John gave a weary salute and started to jog off, preferring to get to the Gate by his own power.
******
It took the truck only twenty minutes to traverse the ten-mile journey, the road being so flat by this time. Once it entered the Gate's clearing, Daniel could see what a nice little operation was underway.
The whole area in front of the Stargate was covered in pierced steel planking, making it easier for the three little forklifts to get around. Every one of the loaded trailers was being backed up to the Stargate and unhooked from their jeeps. A forklift would come up and hook its forks under the trailer and push it through the Gate and into the waiting arms of the SGC.
* Nice. *
Daniel spent all of one second marvelling over the efficiency of the American military machine and then started to look at the ruins. For the most part they were being avoided, marker tapes having been placed around each structure's remains. Taking out his notebook for this world he started to draw the shapes and their order in relation to the Stargate. Wandering around he noticed that the hole with the red tag, the one with the quantum mirror, was directly east of the gate. It was as if once you left the gate you turned left and walked straight ahead.
But from what he remembered the mirror was partially embedded in the wall of the ruin. Starting for that particular pile of stones, he stepped under the tags and right into a Jaf'far emerging from the hole.
******
John hurried towards the gate. He was starting to feel the beginnings of nausea, and that was not a good sign. For humans it would mean possible sunstroke, for a Vampyr it could mean death. But as long as he got into cover, drank a crud load of water and ate a couple of gunge tubes or their equivalent, he would be fine.
He took the canteen that hung from his belt and doused his head and face with water. He downed the last few dribbles and pulled a cap from his pocket and jammed it over his dripping hair. He hated to wear the things. He couldn't see the sky while had one on. Grimacing with part pain and part anger at leaving his condition so late he picked up his pace, ignoring his stomach. The clearing was less than a few hundred yards away, a minutes jog and then blessed cool and darkness. He could already picture Briggs holding the cell door for him, turning off the lights and letting him sleep for a couple of days.
His dream was interrupted by a nightmare. The snap and hiss of staff weapon fire shocked him to a stop, and then he moved. Two bolts of yellow energy shot skyward and another along over the bushes. Diving and rolling he entered the clearing to see a group of Royal Guard Jaf'far, all clad in golden armour, firing into the mass of vehicles and people. Two of their own number had fallen to SGC security fire but they had more than made up for it. A good dozen green clad men and women were lying on the ground, dead or wounded.
John lined up his sights with the guards and squeezed the trigger. A tongue of fire flamed from the muzzle as he held down the trigger, hosing the Jaf'far down. And then he jerked the gun up as he saw the unconscious form of Daniel Jackson in among them. His fire had knocked down two, leaving another two to turn on him. He ran, dodging their shots, and dived behind a truck and into Captain Briggs, lying white faced and bloody.
Briggs aimed his gun at the Vampyr for half a second and then turned away to try and shoot at the Jaf'far. John held him back. He saw the Jaf'far move back towards one of the holes in the ground.
"They have Doctor Jackson. Cover me."
He dropped his gun and pulled both of his trinium blades, holding one up and the other down. As the first Jaf'far dropped into the quantum mirror's hole with his prisoner, John hit the remaining Royal Guard. The guard swung his staff, aiming high. John rolled into the attack, swinging his hand out and back, severing the tendons of the Jaf'far's knee. Bellowing in anger and pain, the injured man fell forward and John stabbed him in the heart, punching through the guard's armoured back with all his Vampyr strength.
Getting to his feet, he pulled his sidearm and stepped forward, preparing to fire down into the hole. Behind him, a bunch of SGC personnel were coming froward to help him. A rustling sound came from somewhere below and he waved the reinforcements to a halt and jumped forward, aiming the gun almost straight down. All he saw was a small silver sphere.
"Aw shit!"
Everybody behind him heard the words and dived to the ground. There was a massive blinding pulse of light and a weird shrieking noise that stunned everyone. John crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
******
Jack stood in front of the General, watching him read the butcher's bill for P3X-921. In all, six had died from blast wounds and another twenty were wounded. Maybe the worst bit of news was the abduction of Daniel, supposedly to this alternate reality of John's.
"From what Teal'c told me about these Jaf'far is that they belong to Ammonet's Royal Guard and are rarely out of her sight. He was able to identify two of them as Jaf'far from Chulak and a former member of Apophis' Guard. It would sort of fit. With their Apophis dead all his Jaf'far would go under her command."
A dissertation on Goa'uld/Jaf'far relationships wasn't what the General wanted to hear right now but it had to be said. When anyone is thinking an action against an enemy, knowing everything you can about that enemy helps.
"How is John?"
"He recovered pretty quick. The crew at the Gate put him through as a priority and Janet started him on some drip thing. From what I understood he was fairly badly off before he got hit by that Goa'uld grenade. Once he was back here he was fine. Sir, what are we going to do about Daniel?"
"What can we do Colonel? From what we know about these mirrors the only one that can access John's reality is in the hands of the Goa'uld in his reality. To go through that mirror would be nothing short of suicide. Until you or anyone else can come up with a plan that won't involve an act of total stupidity we can't help Doctor Jackson."
Jack stood straighter and nodded. He knew that the General was right but it didn't make him feel any better. In fact it made it worse. His best friend was a prisoner and he couldn't do a thing about it.
******
Waking to a splitting headache was never fun, something that John had done several times and something he had sworn not to do again. Shutting his eyes he patted himself down to check for limbs. When the count came up at four and a little extra he thought himself happy. And even better was the fact he was dressed. He took in a deep breath and coughed when the smells of his surroundings hit him head on. There was death and blood and burnt flesh and a lot more. It didn't help his head any.
A small hand pushed him back onto the bed when he tried to move. Opening one eye he saw the weary smiling face of Janet Frasier.
"Am I going to live?"
Her smile vanished and he understood where the smells were coming from now.
"How many?"
His question only made her shake her head. It was enough for him to be able to catch her meaning: too many had died. He rose again and grabbed her hand gently when she tried to get him down again.
"If I'm to get rid of this headache I need to get iron into my system. Is the mess hall still open?"
"Yes. I was told to tell you that Colonel O'Neill wants a quick word with you when you're ready."
John smiled at the little Doctor and nodded his thanks as he walked out the door. The Colonel's office was somewhere between the Infirmary and the Gate Room. He'd memorised the layout of his own SGC but they had a world of difference between the two. For the moment, however, he had food to worry about.
******
Jack wandered by the Infirmary, hoping to catch their guest before he went off somewhere. The Colonel had been wandering around the base, more from the need to do something than sit still and worry about Daniel. He'd checked the new storage bays that the General had cleared for the stolen gear. Seeing all those Death Gliders stacked like so many dominoes had been something else. It reminded him of the hangers in those Goa'uld attack vessels when they had attacked Apophis.
The thought brought back the memory of Daniel's sacrifice.
"Go. I'll watch your back."
The Colonel could still feel the wrench of pain that those words had wrought. He had had to walk away from other dying soldiers before but this was different. Daniel wasn't a soldier. If any of his old DI's ever heard him refer to his friend as a soldier they would have shot him out of hand.
* Jack, don't be an ass. *
He could almost hear the younger man say those words, chiding him for being so down in the mouth. He had business to attend to and that came first. He stopped a strolling security guard.
"Have you seen John Kelly?"
The man's face went a slight shade of green but he managed to answer.
"The mess hall sir."
Jack shrugged off the feeling of dread. The kid he had just talked to was fresh out of boot and in there they fed you slop that pigs would refuse. He turned one corner and went from stroll to fast walk, taking the next corner at speed and almost ran into Teal'c. The Jaf'far reached out and grabbed his shoulders to stop him falling over.
"General Hammond requests your presence sir. Along with that of John Kelly."
Jack smiled.
"I'm looking for the guy myself. He's supposed to be in the mess hall."
The Jaf'far turned and indicated with a nod that Jack should take the lead. The Colonel nodded back and began his hands in pockets stroll down to the end of the hall and the open door of the mess hall. A couple of people left the hall, al looking a little sickened.
* This does not look good. *
Jack stepped into the room and the first thing he saw was John sitting in front of a massive plate of something green. He felt his stomach rebel when he saw and smelt what the green was.
The SGC was one of those places that had a lifeform known as Green Vegetable Multi-form that appeared on the menu at least once a week. Each time it came under a different name, for instance mushy peas last week, shredded kale the week before. This week it was 'supposed' to be cabbage but not even Carter with her multiple degrees and that super-lab could ID this... gick.
And John had heaped two plates of the stuff and was bolting down the last of a third. Jack was almost ready to bolt himself but only as far as the nearest head. He had to stop the guy before he'd make half the base sick.
"John. The General wants to see us."
John nodded and got up, lifting a plate with him. Jack shook his head and pointed to the plate.
"Sorry. This is going to be a formal debrief."
John put the plate down and walked out of the Hall, only stopping to get a couple of packs of chewing gum. As he trailed the two warriors of SG-1 down the hall he wadded up a couple of sticks of gum and forced them into his mouth. When he felt the strong flavour of the gum burn into his palate he sighed in appreciation. Jack heard the sigh and stopped.
"How could you eat that crap?"
"Willpower, chuckles. Willpower."
And he walked on.
******
"First of all, Mister Kelly, I want to thank you for saving the lives of those who would have been killed had you not intervened. I would also like to thank you for your efforts to save Doctor Jackson. On behalf of all those at the SGC I thank you."
John squirmed in his seat at the General's words and just nodded in the old man's direction. Seeing that his thanks had been accepted he got down to business.
"Before we go any further I would like to know something. What chance would an operation have to retrieve Doctor Jackson from the mirror on P3X-921?"
John had to wince. To go from thanks to a hardball question like that without taking a breath was something else.
"Okay. Based on what I know of Ammonet, that bitch will have towed that mirror out into the open and posted a small army of Jaf'far around it. Even if you managed to get through them you'd have to deal with a couple of dozen Death Gliders that she would post nearby. In short, if you send anyone through the mirror, make sure you really don't like them because they would have zero chance of surviving."
John held his hands up and shrugged. The General had asked for his opinion and got it.
"So a rescue would be near impossible."
The General saw the little twinkle in John's eye and knew that the man had an idea and it was one he probably wouldn't be one he liked. But he had to let the Vampyr broach the subject and he'd draw it out of him after that point.
"Actually sir there is one way but you may not like it."
George wished that he had brought some Tylenol out from the office. He'd cracked the seal on another new bottle of the painkiller only a week before and had had to use them four times alone this week. And all his misery was partially due to the crap that John Kelly had stirred up.
******
John saw the colour fade from the General's cheeks and smelt the sudden change of the man's scent. It wasn't hard to see that he had just hit a line and the General was thinking of moving it further forward, the better to trip him with. He could play 'pull the tooth' or just go for broke.
"Several teams in my reality are sitting on Quantum Mirrors that have been found on quiet, resource-poor worlds. This isn't exactly approved by regulations but it gives us escape avenues if necessary. It's been used four times, once successfully."
George nodded. It made sense to do something like that but every report that Major Carter had supplied to him stressed the importance of avoiding the alien objects. Dragging in Goa'uld from a different reality by accident wouldn't make it any easier for their fight against the ones that were already here.
"The only one I know about in The Land Of The Light. We use the woods to night-time training missions. A cousin of mine was on the team that found it. He mentioned it to me."
The news that there was actually something that could be done for Daniel was too much for Jack to bear.
"Sir. SG-1 can be ready to go in an hour..."
"No you can't."
John held up his hand to stop the Colonel from jumping down his throat. Major Carter saved him from the O'Neill anger.
"Colonel, remember when my counterpart came over and she started experiencing the quantum schism. If we go we'll be in the same state after forty-eight hours. Any longer and we'd die."
The General saw the problem immediately.
"Does that mean that Doctor Jackson is already suffering from that problem?"
John shook his head.
"You have to have a living counterpart in my reality, General."
SG-1 got the message. Something had happened to the Daniel in John's reality. General Hammond decided to voice his opinion.
"Nearly four years ago a young man made a startling discovery that changed the destiny of the United States of America. While we have entered into a war that places the survival of this planet at stake, we must fight this fight. We face an enemy that is no different whatever the reality we exist in. We have been a lot luckier than others, including those of Mister Kelly's world and most of that luck is due to that young man. Mission approved. Colonel O'Neill, work out a mission profile for me to sign off on."
******
"I still say that this stinks."
John shrugged off Jack's complaint.
"I know Colonel but that's the way the cookie crumbles. At least in this case anyway. Look, the best way we can do this is in two stages. First, I go through the mirror with someone else, someone very dead in my reality. General Hammond would be the best example but he can't. Teal'c is the next logical choice. Once we go through, we use my Earth's intelligence to find Doctor Jackson and then we call you through. We can try a rescue attempt then and only then."
Jack still didn't like the idea of sending Teal'c through alone.
"Where is the most likely place for Ammonet to go?"
"I honestly don't know. She's been busy since the attack on Earth. We were half thinking on sending a device through to Chulak but it was thought that destroying a world would attract the attention of all the Goa'uld. Most of our missions are for recon. That's how we found the supply dump and that's how I got here."
Teal'c stood beside his commander and friend.
"O'Neill, if we are to find Daniel Jackson then we must use this one chance. I will accompany John Kelly through the mirror."
The Colonel threw his hands up in the air in resignation.
"Fine. But we'll go with you as far as the mirror."
******
SG-6 moved slowly through the woods, using the lights from their NVG's to light the way. Most of the Touched had been cleared from the woods, both by SGC teams and the people of The Land Of The Light, but a few still remained. At least that is what they had been told. So far they hadn't run into any problems.
Except for John's directions.
At first he'd led them directly north from the Gate along a game trail. After a mile and a half they came to a small clearing and that's where things started to get mixed up. He stood in the light and looked around, trying to see any indication of what his cousin had spouted on about.
"We need to find a small wall or just a pile of stones. If you find anything call me."
Two hours later they stopped for a break and sat in the clearing, eating their MRE's. Carter pulled out a couple of homemade sandwiches and everyone stared at her, then under her. She was sitting on a small mound, keeping her rucksack between her and the grass. When she had thrown her rucksack down in had torn the sod and exposed rock. John whipped out his compass and walked east for a few seconds, then disappeared in a flash of light.
The SGC personnel reacted in tune with their training. Whipping their guns up they trained them outwards, aiming at the trees and cursing themselves for being so lax in not setting a guard. With their food discarded they slowly made their way over to where John had stepped and he reappeared. Their guns went from pointing at the woods to him.
"Whoa there. I found it."
He pointed down at a matt black stone, its surface polished by a race long gone from the galaxy. The Vampyr knelt down and slowly scraped away the surrounding soil using his knife. Soon he exposed the mirror's base and stood it tall using ropes to pull it upright. Further searching turned up the handset and he went dialling through all the infinite choices.
It didn't take long.
The mirrors surface flashed and the image of a couple of men in SGC uniforms could be seen. Small pallets of standard US military supplies sat around where their mirror stood. But that wasn't what really drew their attention. It was the small red patches on their sleeves and a few spilled tubes of John's special gunge that told them they had what they wanted.
"Okay. We're sorted. Teal'c and I'll go through now. One way or another we'll be back in a few hours and we'll have news."
Setting aside his gun, John reached for the mirror and tensed himself before touching its deceptively innocent façade. He felt a tingle and his senses reeled as everything changed and stayed the same. The noises of the SGC team vanished to be replaced by the chatter of his Blood Brothers. And that vanished as they saw him standing by the mirror, unarmed. All of them ducked behind cover and aimed their weapons, their Vampyr reflexes making them blurs of motion.
"Don't you fucking move."
"Do me a couple of favours Dave. First, stop with the Robert De Niro. And second, have a shower."
The Vampyr in question raised his head.
"Johnny is that you?"
"And Dave takes the prize for asking the all time stupid question of the millennium! Of course its me you daft git. Now get your finger out of your arse and call the Gate. I've got some company."
The Vampyr soldiers stood and relaxed slightly, but stayed within inches of their cover. If this were a trap then they would be ready.
John turned and waved at the image of the SGC teams he had just left behind. Teal'c put aside his staff weapon and touched the mirror, flashing through to John's reality. The Jaf'far blinked, his only reaction to the transition. The Vampyr flinched at seeing the golden snake motif of a dead Goa'uld but their guns stayed lowered. Then one of them realised who it was.
"Master Teal'c."
The Jaf'far of another universe dipped his head on hearing his name and all the Vampyr came to a lazy form of attention. But their eyes said a lot more than their bodies. They were standing in front of one of their heroes, a man become greater by the telling of stories. John broke the silence.
"I need to get back to the SGC. Ammonet had kidnapped their Daniel."
He waved again to the mirror and the Vampyr saw the faces of two other heroes, Samantha Carter and Jack O'Neill. Dave raised his walkie-talkie.
"This is Blood Six to Gate Six. We have four heading your way, Gate Six."
******
Teal'c stepped out onto the landscape both familiar and alien to him. The Gate Room was darker and different, the blast door on the control room was down. A pair of rods rose from the floor and emitted lights that focused on the larval Goa'uld in his stomach. A whir sounded and two pinpricks of red landed on his chest. He didn't feel discomfort but still, to focus on that aspect of him in the SGC was never pleasant.
Several men were waiting at the bottom of the ramp, dressed in the overalls that all the SGC seemed to wear. One of them stepped forward and saluted with three fingers to his head. John strode down the ramp and idly returned the salute.
"Sir, I regret to inform you of the failure to destroy the Goa'uld supply dump on P3X-921. We were attacked by Ammonet's forces and our devices did not activate."
The officer tore his eyes off the Jaf'far and frowned at the young Vampyr. Teal'c could see the anger in his eyes build when he saw the mark of a Jaf'far on his head. With a rough accent he began to reply to John's report.
"We knew that it went wrong a day or so ago when Delta site failed to get word from your team leader. Another team is due to be sent to that destination in twenty hours. Until then we'll hold you for debriefing. Now can you explain this..."
The officer gestured up to in Teal'c's direction.
"I fell against a Quantum Mirror, sir, and landed in another world. This is Teal'c from SG-1 of that reality. He is here to make an appeal to General O'Neill."
The angry eye of the officer turned from Teal'c to John.
"Explain."
"Ammonet followed through the Mirror and grabbed their Daniel Jackson. If possible they would like to launch a rescue mission. Also I recommend that you hold off on any attempt on P3X-921. Ammonet most likely has guards positioned at the Gate and any team will not survive their arrival."
Every word from John's mouth seemed to anger the officer more and more. He turned away from John and gestured to the other men with him.
"Get security down here now. I want both of these taken to holding cells for further debriefing."
One of the officers left, the massive blast doors opening for him to leave. As the door opened a figure stepped in, blocking the departing man's path. There was a flash of annoyance that disappeared when he saw who it was. Saluting sharply, he stepped back and waited for General Jack O'Neill to make his disposition of the prisoners.
"What have we got here, Dimitri?"
The Russian saluted his commander and began his report.
"This man is from the missing Blood Unit that was sent by Beta Site to destroy the target on P3X-921. He reports a failure and demands that we do not attempt another assault. He also has this Jaf'far with him."
Teal'c began to walk down the ramp towards this Jack O'Neill. He saw much of his own O'Neill in this one except for one little thing. This one seemed tired, very happy and a lot more relaxed. He made his way past the officers and bowed.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, General O'Neill."
Jack hadn't moved an inch from where he stood. For all intents and purposes he was a statue. And then he moved.
"It's good to see you Teal'c."
John could see that his superior had immediately grasped the situation. This was not the man who had been his friend, just one of an infinite amount of possibilities. The General reached out and grasped the Jaf'far's shoulder, smiling in welcome.
"What can we do for you?"
******
The conference room was identical to the one that Teal'c had been in only a few hours ago but this one was separated by an entire universe and a couple of libraries of math books. He had tried to follow Samantha Carter's explanation of what the mirrors did and failed.
And now he had to rely on his knowledge of one Jack O'Neill to persuade another.
"We need your assistance in finding the location of Ammonet. She sent her personal guard through and they abducted Daniel Jackson."
John could see that mentioning the Doctor had an effect on his commanding officer. He'd never really met Jack O'Neill in this reality and only seen him once in public when he and his unit had been sent out to Beta site that first time. From what he knew, every unit got the same consideration.
"Mister Kelly, could you tell me what happened to your unit and how you got involved with these people?"
John gave him the cliff notes version, including his attack on the nurses and their revenge. But he didn't expect the angry response to his staying out in the sun so long during the supply dump episode.
"You're not the first of your kind to be that stupid and I doubt that you'll be the last. But I'm going to make damn sure that it'll be the last time for you. When you're finished here you can go up and get Doctor Kincaid to look you over and give you the lecture of over exposure. Dismissed."
John stood, saluted and left the room.
"Teal'c, if you follow me, we can try and help you but I can't promise anything."
The ride to the surface was quiet, the familiar chatter of his O'Neill missing from this one. Although this one seemed to be more at peace he also seemed to be distant.
"I would ask you a question, O'Neill!"
The General looked up at the Jaf'far, half in shock from the tone in Teal'c voice and half in anger at being disturbed in his thoughts.
"Go ahead."
"John Kelly has spoken much about the attack on this planet and about your marriage to Samantha Carter. How were you able to get past the regulations that restrain you on my world?"
Jack looked away for a moment and his lips thinned.
"Did he tell you what happened on the ships when Apophis attacked?"
"He only told us what he knew. That the Teal'c of this place died at Apophis' hands. Daniel Jackson perished on the orders of Ammonet. And that both you and Captain Carter were held by Klorel."
Jack looked up at Teal'c again and the Jaf'far could see the unbelievable rage in his eyes.
"They broke Sam's spine and made sure she lived through it. They tortured her to death and I was made to watch every second. Then they used the coffin on her and when she had recovered, they made her watch my being tortured. Klorel had finished with me and had brought over your body. I can still remember your face, the absolute picture of agony. Then Klorel gave the order and his Jaf'far were about to kill us both when the Vampyr arrived. They are the only reason we both survived."
The angry look disappeared.
"I lost two very good friends that day and I'll never forget that if I hadn't hesitated in letting you kill Klorel we would all still be here. But we're not."
"O'Neill, I was the one holding Klorel, not you. I chose your life over his. Know this now, in my universe, Ska'ra is back on Abydos, free from Klorel."
"And Sha're?"
"She died. Ammonet was about to kill Daniel Jackson and I fired."
Jack went back to staring at the wall again when the lift doors opened. The sight was a lot different to the one that Teal'c was used to. Instead of a tunnel roof and a forbidding row of guards there was open sky and forbidding guards. The whole side of the mountain had been swept away and was now a grass covered valley. There was a plaque mounted on a pedestal of granite just a few steps away from their exit point. Teal'c eyes swept over it.
DEFENDERS OF EARTH
He read down the length of the plaque and saw names all too familiar and some belonging to total strangers. He spotted Janet Frasier's, General Hammond's and Sergeant Siler's. The members of four SG teams were blocked together and then he saw that the names had been carved in order of death, the majority of the senior staff being the last to fall. He looked at Jack and the General saw the question in his eyes.
"When the dust had settled someone ran the security footage for the base. This monument was erected not long after. It was the right thing to do and the only way to remember soldiers."
Jack walked on and got into a waiting jeep. The driver waited until Teal'c was barely sitting and he took off. The forest was still there guarding the highway into the base but it felt different. And then he saw why.
A pair of Death Gliders flew overhead but with markings like none he had ever seen on one of those machines. Each was light blue in colour and had a triangle with a single rod pointing up from the apex. It was the Stargate symbol for the Tau'ri.
He turned to follow their flight-path and saw them slow, turn and land. They came into sight again as the jeep turned a corner and entered the gates of a massive military base. Teal'c glimpsed the name General George Hammond and guessed that this was the base that John had mentioned. Sweeping his eyes over the piece he could see, he saw other Gliders taking off and landing, soldiers running by, armed with Earth weapons and Zat guns.
The jeep sped on and entered the courtyard of a large building. It braked at the entrance and Jack jumped out, closely followed by Teal'c. Leading the way up to the doors, the General saluted the guards and mumbled something to them. A minute later they were inside a small empty room and had a bedraggled clerk rummaging through a filing cabinet. The General held his hand out and got a folder placed into it.
"The last we know, and that's sometime in the past twenty hours, Ammonet landed on Chulak. We have spies there with Goa'uld communication devices that give us daily reports. Apparently she seemed to be in a good mood. And she also had a guest that our informant couldn't identify."
He gave the folder to Teal'c, who flipped through it. The Jaf'far wasn't the fastest reader but could still follow some of what was written.
"So what do you do now?"
"With your permission, Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter will come through with SG-6 and attempt a rescue. With this location of Daniel Jackson's location we should be able to retrieve him."
"And if you can't?"
"We will."
TO BE CONTINUED
Disclaimers: I don't own Stargate SG1 or any of the characters within. I am only borrowing them to write this fanfic and then I will wash them off and return them.
Spoilers: I going to be nice and try not to do any but be warned, I have seen right up to the fourth season episode 'Watergate'.
Thanks: To DThunter and Morgase for their reviews of BAD BLOOD (PART 1). A special word for Morgase: You gave me an idea and now you have to live with it.
You couldn't really describe the General's reaction as one of cold feet. He'd sent people through the Stargate on a hell of a lot less knowledge on what was on the other side. Even so, this was a special opportunity. Once the Joint Chiefs had heard that a complete supply dump was possibly for the taking, they had tasked him with 'whatever the hell he wanted', to quote their exact words.
He would take them up on it.
The first thing to think about was simple. How the hell were they going to get the supplies from the dump to the Stargate? He could get some trucks down and through the Stargate but it would take a day or so to put them together. But if he could bring a truck down twenty-eight floors he could do the same with a chopper, and they were a hell of a lot faster. But speed wasn't a problem. He wanted to make absolutely sure that if the Goa'uld came calling after they had been and gone, there was going to be no trace of Earth's theft. Trucks left tire marks and both machines needed parking space, fuel and crews.
But for the moment the point was moot. First they had to find out if their guest was bullshitting them or not. He'd passed on the stuff about the Goa'uld exiles on Earth and met with a blank wall. He knew that the NID wasn't stupid and had probably been doing very subtle checks on its people and others for signs of possession. Especially since Seth had been discovered. Once they had the list that he had sent to every agency they would have to act on any of these exiles that they knew about.
* That'll be fun. *
Sam Carter was sitting in front of a console in the Gate Room, running checks on one of her little toys. The General looked down, watching her as she read off a series of numbers, checking each one off as Sergeant Siler said it back to her. It wasn't hard to see that she was burying herself in her work, more to avoid her father than avoid facing what he had done to this facility.
George frowned. He couldn't really face it himself. He had known Jacob Carter for almost as long as he had been in the Air Force and now that was different. Well that was slightly untrue. The first time he had seen something different was when his friend had stepped through the Stargate with one of the Tok'ra in his head. Seeing his friend walk down the ramp using a manner of walk that was completely different had sent a shiver down his spine. And then hearing that voice.
He shook his head. The decision of working with the Tok'ra wasn't up to him but to the politicians. As much as he hated them, politicians did have some uses.
* Back to work George. Enough with the woolgathering. *
"Major are you ready?"
Sam stood and gave him a thumbs-up. He nodded to the Senior Technician who immediately began hitting numbers. The massive ring of naquada started to spin in its housing, chevrons clicking into place every second until seven had passed. His whole world went blue for a second as the wormhole opened, joining his planet with one a couple of billion miles away. It still got to him at times like this. He commanded a base where people went across the galaxy in less than a heartbeat.
* It would make for a hell of a book. *
"Running probe to one hundred percent power."
Sam ran her hands over the remote control console. It was flat with no joystick for piloting the Remotely Piloted Vehicle, or RPV. Instead she had gone for the Star Trek look, using touch sensitive pads to steer the drone as it flew its mission. And since this was important she had made this her best job to date. The drone had more alien technology in it than human.
It was a Predator drone, the type used during the Gulf war, but there is where the similarity ended. The skin was a polymer metal mix that SG-4 had found on a deserted world. It was light, tough and very easy to shape. Treat it with some chemicals and it could take a lot of damage. The power cells, normally a quarter of the machine's weight, were replaced with a staff weapon's power cell allowing her to use a bigger and quieter engine, naquada and trinium based. The video package was the only thing that was wholly of this planet.
The panel was fairly simple. Two rings sat side by side with a bar to the left, a row of readouts along the top and a panel of buttons along the side. The left ring was for roll, the right for pitch and the rudder was controlled by the computer. The bar was for throttle control while the readouts showed engine temp, speed and other information.
She spared a second to look at the General and the Senior Tech and got two nods. Running her fingers up the central bar she saw the readout change to '120' and she slapped her hand down on the drone release. It shot free of its restraint and entered the wormhole. Sam didn't have to wait for the picture to clear. This drone had an added extra built in. As soon as the RPV registered light on its sensors it shot straight up, clearing the trees and their canopies.
Seconds later the picture cleared and Sam got a birds-eye view of P3X-921. For as far as she could see it was jungle, patches of green, yellow and brown leaves vying for the sunlight. As the RPV circled over the Stargate she covered the whole horizon. She enjoyed the virtual experience for a moment and went back to business when a memory entered her head. It was of her father taking her to Yellowstone National Park and they had looked down from a mountain onto a vista like this.
"Starting up Inertial Navigation System. INS reads active. Starting up recorders one through five."
The readout of power dimmed for a second as the numbers increased. Even with the power cell the RPV would only stay up a couple of hours.
"Beginning run."
The drone circled as she ran her hands along the circles, turning it in the direction of the planet's magnetic north. It took a second but a patch of light green could be seen some distance away, getting larger and changing shape as the drone neared it. Easing back on the power, Sam tapped the lower half of the right circle, bringing her creation into a slow climb. By the time the patch was directly underneath the drone would be just a speck in the sky and hopefully as hard to see.
******
Hammond watched as her hands danced along the controls for a second and activated the RPV's automatic pilot. Settling back in her chair she watched the screen, changing the camera angle on one recorder to keep the patch of light green the centre of its attention. But his attention was on something else.
Briggs had marched into the Gate Room with his four gorillas and their private weaponry. It wasn't the fact that there was weaponry in his, read that- his, Gate Room because that happens all the time. It was the fact that Briggs was carrying an M-16 with a very loaded grenade launcher attached. And that pissed him off.
"Captain Briggs. I assume that you are aware of the regulations regarding weaponry in this facility. I don't remember hearing or reading anything about a change in those regs."
The Captain shook his head, not understanding that the riot act was descending towards his head fast.
"Well then could you be so kind as to tell me why you have five men, including yourself, armed to the teeth to escort one prisoner."
"Sir all our weapons are loaded with bean bag rounds. Non lethal but very incapacitating."
"I don't care. Take yourself and your men back to the armoury and reissue standard sidearms. Dismissed."
"But the priso..."
"Dismissed."
John had a smirk on his face when the little chat between the two officers started and it bloomed into a full grin when Briggs and his animal troupe trudged off. He even managed a snicker as the young officer walked by, glowering at him.
"I asked you here for your help."
The angry look that Briggs stupidity had caused slid across to John, making him feel slightly unwanted. He was going to have to be diplomatic and he hated that.
"And I'm happy to give it."
Stepping forward he looked at the bank of screens showing the feed off the recorders. Only two showed a forward view, one a normal spectrum and the other an obvious infrared view that was almost pure white with viewed heat. A larger screen with a weird console sat to one side, the evidence of a jury-rigged job plain to see.
"Thirty seconds to target."
John and the General stood side by side as Jack, Daniel and Teal'c stepped into the room. They were silent as Carter directed the RPV over the site scanning every inch of the massive clearing. Nothing was apparent until the infrared view showed a dark mass in the clearing's centre giving truth to John's story.
"Can you detect any movement? Any signs of Jaf'far?"
Teal'c turned from the monitor and gave his superior his full attention.
"General Hammond, in a facility such as this the Jaf'far would undoubtedly be under instructions not to reveal themselves unless the base was under direct attack. Anything else would expose their position to the world."
The General heard every word and weighed their worth.
"In your estimation Teal'c how many Jaf'far would be stationed at this facility?"
The impassive Jaf'far heard the hesitation in those words and knew that whatever happened, Teal'c's answer would decide whether a mission was ordered or not.
"From the condition of those we encountered on our first visit, General Hammond, not many. If those few were any indicator then the majority of the garrison would be dead or dying from lack of food. Resistance would be light."
The General didn't hesitate.
"Thank you Teal'c."
Turning to Jack he formally started the ball rolling.
"Colonel, SG-1 has a mission."
"Sir."
Jack saluted and went off to get his team ready.
******
"General. I have a request to make."
The General's head shot up. He usually heard this tone from his grandkids when they wanted to wheedle something out of him. Hearing it from Jack did not sound good. And he'd just spent the last forty minutes in a screaming match with the Joint Chiefs.
Half of the men on the Goa'uld suspect list had died of unknown causes in the last few hours and the other half was running. A couple of impromptu autopsies had been performed and revealed the Goa'uld presence but that wasn't the problem. The real problem was that there was almost no chance of capturing a live Goa'uld when some agency was doing its best to kill every one of them.
And what was even worse was the fact that these men seemed to have been the driving force behind the thefts of technology that had nearly destroyed the SGC's relationships with three very powerful races. The reaction to that was anger and since these guys were dead or missing the anger had to be focused somewhere.
His only reply was to say that dead Goa'uld didn't bother him. The screaming had started from that point on.
"Spit it out Colonel."
Jack twitched his shoulders and set his face, waiting to set off an eruption.
"I would like to take Kelly with us."
"Out of the question. He assaulted..."
"Sir please let me finish. He has first hand knowledge of the terrain and design of the base. His abilities can be nothing but an asset on this mission."
"And I don't need to remind you that he assaulted two of our nurses and four security personnel..."
"None of whom are the worse for wear sir."
The General sighed.
"Do you trust him Jack?"
The question caught the commander of SG-1 off guard.
"Honestly. I don't know. Something about his story..."
"The bit where you and Major Carter are married..."
A little smile flitted across the General's lips.
"No, sir. It's just a feeling. But my gut says that we need him on this one."
"I... I'll allow it. Send him down to the Infirmary for a pre-mission medical. If Doctor Frasier gives him a clean bill of health he goes."
"Thank you sir."
******
It was a fairly quick medical. Janet had checked the staff weapon wounds only a few hours before a declared them fully healed, nothing short of a miracle. But when he was told of the mission, John had a serious request to ask.
"I need the ointment if I have to go outside. Otherwise I burn."
Janet turned away and smiled, waving over the two nurses that John had taken prisoner. They had both been offered time off because of what had happened but had declined. And now they had their revenge. They rubbed the cream into every inch of John's body that might be exposed to light. Waiting until he was totally relaxed they both brought their hands down hard on his ass, smacking it so loud that it could be heard a hundred feet away.
The scream was heard two floors away.
Limping to the armoury, John endured the stifled laughs and outright grins of all the staff. Checking out his gear under the watchful eye of Captain Briggs pretty much cheered him up again and he left grinning until he ran into another gang of smiling soldiers.
SG-1's locker room was only a couple of floors up from the Gate Room, with all the other teams. Opening the small backpack he pulled out an assortment of weapons. The familiar knife and sidearm were joined with four steel cylindrical tubes the size of an old glass coke bottle. The only feature was the tip of a spike from one end and a button on the curve. Jack picked it up and looked at it.
"What the hell is this?"
"Explanations are nowhere near as much fun as demonstrations. Point that tip at the wall and press the button."
Jack held the cylinder two handed like a golf club and pressed the button. The spike shot free of the cylinder and embedded itself in the wall. He walked over and pulled it free with some difficulty. The tip wasn't damaged and he raised his eyebrows.
"There's a car spring and a simple trigger in the tube. It was designed to get by Goa'uld personal shields. It's slow enough to pass through and fast enough that they can't dodge it. It does the job."
The last four words spoke volumes. They had been used in combat and they had done their efficient, deadly little job. Jack put the used weapon down and laid the spike down beside it. He'd tried, for a second, to reload it and failed. John just grabbed the spike by pinching the tip and forced it into the cylinder. There was a click and that was that.
Now they all stood at the base of the ramp and listened to the General's words.
"You are ordered to reconnoitre the base on P3X-921 and determine if it can be taken. If you are unable to make that determination or fail to return within forty-eight hours a device will be sent through. After forty eight hours your GED codes will be locked out of our database."
Jack saluted in his usual way, waving his hand in the direction of his forehead. Turning almost as one, SG-1 and their new friend stepped through the wormhole and onto a world half a galaxy away.
******
As soon as they cleared the Stargate, SG-1 was blind. The nights in jungles were as dark as any pit of hell. Waiting only to fit their night vision goggles, NVG's, they ran to the far end of the clearing and the cover of the forest. Making sure to avoid the hole that had the Quantum mirror, they made the trees in record time. Moving as far back into the forest as they could, they waited to see if they would have company.
Jack and Teal'c both lay down, pulling the ferns and creepers down to mask the hole they had cut to make the hide. The human took his NVG and trained it on the gap that the first Jaf'far had come through. The only problem that he could see was that the bodies hadn't been moved from where they had fallen. A click and the flash of a green light brought a stifled curse from Jack's throat.
"Carter. What the hell are you trying to do, get us killed?"
The Major managed a weak 'sorry sir' and went back to the tiny screen that she held in her hand. It showed a picture that changed rapidly.
"Sir. The RPV is not picking anything up from the supply depot. I'm reading temperatures as low as ten degrees C and I'm still not getting anything."
The Colonel got up and moved back to look at the screen for himself. It was just a mesh of greens and blacks that slowly resolved itself into a picture. The blurred image of a tunnel entrance could be seen against the warmer colours of the jungle brush and other growth. Looking around, Jack found that the screen's light had destroyed his night vision. He could make out the reclined form of Teal'c and possibly Daniel. The glint of glass made him move on to another form that was half blended into the tree it was lying against.
"John. Did you use the trail to get to the depot?"
He saw the figure shake its head.
"We tree hopped about two hundred yards off the trail and pushed through, parallel to the original path. It was slow going. Took us nearly two days to get to the dump."
Jack grimaced. Two days of pushing through jungle like this and trying not to make any noise was impossible. And he didn't really want to find out what the hell 'tree hopping' was. They had to move now. If they were lucky they could cover half the distance tonight and the rest tomorrow if the met no resistance. If they did they could cover the distance back in half an hour.
"Twenty minutes we move out. Carter, can that RPV to see if it can follow us or at least see us. It might give us some warning of an ambush. Teal'c you take point. John, you, Carter and Daniel stay in the middle. I'll be rearguard. Get ready."
"Colonel O'Neill, I should go point."
******
John had taken off the NVG's as soon as he had reached the trees. The light given off by the little screens was starting to give him a headache and that was the last thing he needed. Besides the night was his usual hunting time. It wouldn't do for the Colonel to know that when he had originally hit the planet it had been night, And that the real reason it had taken two days was because his team had holed up during the day.
And now the Colonel wanted to baby him.
"Colonel, I should go point."
He knew it was against every principle of SpecOps rules to question orders out in the field. If you were at home curled around a bottle with the lads it was fine but not in the field. He heard Daniel's little gasp, sure that the archaeologist wouldn't have even heard it himself.
"Sir, I can hear and see better in the dark than Teal'c and I can move faster if the need arises. Let me take point. Teal'c can stay with me."
He could see the Colonel make the decision and smell the beginning of the fear that usually comes from doing an op like this. It wasn't coming from either Teal'c or Daniel as much as the other two. And that was surprising. To him at least. He knew that the two were far from 'an item' in this reality, which was shocking.
He'd seen their reactions when they were near each other. Carter's pulse went up a notch and her scent changed. The Colonel was a lot cooler about it but he knew the man from his own world from a few games of poker. John knew that it wasn't exactly enough to be definite about but his gut said otherwise.
******
Carter watched her commander's face twitch for a second while he made up his mind. John's idea was common sense but she had sensed a lack of trust on the Colonel's part. It was almost the same with her but there was the disgust she felt for what he had exposed in her father. She had to blame someone and that was the Vampyr. He had been the one to change her father's status in everyone's eyes. He went from being a valued member of Earth, a decorated hero and general to someone who couldn't be trusted with Earth's safety any more.
Even worse for her, it was humiliating.
She forced the feelings down. She had to concentrate on the mission.
******
Jack nodded and John moved. It was eerie the way he slid across the ground. Jack followed his movement with his NVG's and saw his head move from side to side, sniffing the air and listening. A gap opened up between them that Teal'c quickly filled. The gap widened and the two men worked their way quickly to the far end of the clearing. Soon the two were shadows, only visible by the chemical sticks on their shoulders.
The Colonel, the Major and Daniel heard a double click come from their radios and they moved out slowly, following the same route that their two scouts had taken. When they reached the start of the trail Jack made out John's chemical stick farther up the trail, just short of a turn. The Vampyr came to a halt and dropped silently to the ground. Jack and Teal'c raised their weapons, focusing on John's hand as it came up. The hand signals were easy to see.
Two fingers.
Two Jaf'far.
The fingers clasped into a fist and punched down.
Two Jaf'far on sentry duty.
One finger came up out of the fist and pointed to each side of the trail.
One Jaf'far on either side.
John slowly moved back, keeping his eyes forward, watching the trail and waiting for the Jaf'far to attack. He reached SG-1 quickly and spoke quietly to Jack.
"They are sitting on the trail about twenty to thirty yards around the corner. There's no movement from either but that doesn't mean anything. I've seen these guys stay still for hours. One thing though, they smell different."
Jack's whisper was furious.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
John shrugged.
"It's the sort of smell you can get in a jungle but I think it's coming from these two. And they don't look healthy."
Jack exchanged a quick look with Teal'c and waved everyone further back.
"Carter. Can the RPV pick them up?"
She flipped the lid up from the screen and shielded the screen with her tunic as best she could. Daniel moved between her and where the Jaf'far were, trying to shield the light. She nodded to the Colonel who took a quick look. Two figures could be seen sitting on either side of the trail. Their heat signature was very hot, far hotter than their surroundings. Teal'c touched Jack's arm.
"O'Neill. It is possible that these are as unwell as those others were. If that is the case we should be able to take these silently."
John took two of his cylinders out of his backpack and held them up before him. Jack took one and started to move forward but the Vampyr stopped him.
"I can get closer, quicker than you can. If push comes to shove you come up behind me and cover my back."
Jack's eyes narrowed but he nodded his okay to the plan. Teal'c took his Zat gun from his belt and moved up behind the Colonel as the two men moved forward.
******
John crept along on his stomach, closely keeping an eye on each Jaf'far. They both had their helmets up and that was not good. The animal heads were far from just decoration. He knew from studies that the eyes had fairly advanced night vision systems built in that would turn this night's darkness into twilight for the Jaf'far. And the heavy metal would make a head shot impossible. If these two were sick and they saw him, one would go for him while the other warned the supply dump whatever way he could.
He pulled two tubes from his belt where he had stuffed them and rolled onto his back. He craned his neck and saw both of the Jaf'far just on the edges of his vision. Moving slowly he stretched out his hands and pointed the cylinders. He tapped the buttons and both weapons fired. One of the two went down without a sound while the other shot to his feet. A spike sticking out of his shoulder.
John flipped onto his feet as the Jaf'far raised his staff weapon. Using all of his strength, John smacked his hand down on the weapon, driving it from the guard's grasp. He grabbed the helmet and rammed his knee into the Jaf'far's stomach and then pushed him to his knees. Bracing his knee against the alien's back he pulled back on the helmet and heard an almighty crack as the Jaf'far's spine broke.
Standing silently with the dead man in his arms, John listened. He could hear the Colonel moving up with SG-1's Jaf'far behind him. From what he could hear the human was pissed at something.
* I wouldn't have a clue what it was. *
He turned his attention back to the trail and heard nothing bar the normal chirp of insects and the odd creature moving.
"What the hell was that?"
The Colonel didn't have to elaborate. John knew he had jumped into the Colonel's line of fire when he had gone after the second Jaf'far, an act that was stupid in the extreme.
"Sorry, sir. He was going to fire his weapon and that could alert the dump. I couldn't let that happen."
Jack glared at John for a second and pointed back to Carter and Daniel.
"Teal'c. Take point. I'll be behind you. Kelly, you stay back with Daniel and Carter."
The Vampyr shrugged and walked back to the two scientists. As he arrived the two stood and shut off the monitor. Carter walked by him without a word and started up the trail while Daniel stayed with John.
******
The archaeologist looked at John for what seemed to be the fiftieth time in as many minutes. They hadn't encountered any more Jaf'far since leaving the first two behind. Jack stopped the team every five minutes or so to use the RPV's sensors to probe the trail ahead. Each time it showed only the tunnel mouth and only once the sign of a single Jaf'far. They still moved quietly and carefully. Jack called another stop and soon John could hear the quiet hum of the RPV passing overhead.
John caught another glance from Daniel and moved back beside him.
"What's wrong? Is it zits, bubonic plague, chloracne? What?"
Daniel flinched and then shook his head.
"Sorry. It's just that when you talked about the SGC on your world you didn't mention Teal'c."
"Or you."
The young man nodded.
"I'll make it quick. When Klorel captured you, my version of you, in his ship, Apophis sentenced you all to death. But when Ammonet turned up she asked that you be turned over to her for 'special consideration'. Apophis said yes and decided to get into the act. He took Teal'c and left the Colonel and the Captain with Klorel.
They took their time with you.
When we hit Klorel's vessel, both of them were half dead. They showed us how to use the sarcophagus and we revived them. By the time we got to Apophis' vessel, Teal'c was dead. Apophis had removed his symbiote.
You were a different story. Ammonet really was having a bad time with her host over you and had a real Jones for sadism. She had her Jaf'far beat you half to death and then healed you. Then she had them shoot you with a Zat gun. They would wait two minutes and then shoot you again. By the time she lifted off, they had really worked you over. When she heard nothing from Apophis or Klorel when she entered orbit she had two of her Jaf'far take you to an airlock and threw you out.
You can sort of get the picture of what happened next."
Daniel's face was pure white from fear or pain, John didn't know and he didn't want to find out just now. He had fucked up, telling the man about what had happened to his 'mirror image'. He'd probably think about that for the rest of the approach.
* I'll have to keep an eye on him. *
******
Sam had to use her RPV twice more before they reached the clearing that the dump entrance lay in. The single Jaf'far that they had spotted from the sky had company now. From what the team could see they were out to reinforce or at least replace the two that John had killed. The crap would surely hit the fan when the bodies were found.
The only problem was whether to hit the Jaf'far when they were on the trail or before they got to it. Either way, getting all of the guards before they could alert the dump seemed a pretty hard thing to do. Then Carter had an idea.
"Sir. I know this world had been hard on drones so far so I think it should stay that way."
Jack's eyebrows rose into his forehead.
"What are you saying, Carter?"
"The RPV is nearly out of power. From my instruments it has less than an hour of flight time left, probably a lot less. I was thinking that if we crash the RPV at or near the mouth of the tunnel it might draw out any guards that would be there. It would certainly distract the Jaf'far coming this way."
Jack thought through the idea. It didn't have much in the way of flaws. There was no way that the Jaf'far would be able spot them now and crashing the drone would definitely not reveal their position. Any way it worked out they would see what forces they would have to face and they could make their move then.
"Go idea, Major. We'll go ahead with your plan but we'll need time to get ready to move. And I want to wait for dawn. If a small army swarms out of that hole when the drone crashes we run for it and I don't want us to be stumbling in the dark. If nothing happens we hit the guards as hard as possible and then check out the entrance."
The team stripped off their rations and sleeping gear. No matter what happened it was unlikely they would need either.
******
John was smearing the last tube of sunblock onto his exposed skin when he spotted the approaching Jaf'far. A second later the RPV sensors showed a dozen Jaf'far moving slowly in their direction. The drone was circling the mouth of the tunnel entrance at a good height, high enough that John could only see a speck. Then he heard a whine and the speck dove almost straight down.
Carter's hands had hit the console and driven the flying machine into a straight kamikaze run, right for a spot in front of the tunnel mouth. John looked back at the approaching Jaf'far and saw that the sound of the RPV's engine had been heard and their staff weapon's raised at the perceived danger.
The crash was fantastic. The drone was all of fifty feet from the ground when Carter went to level it out and the machine cartwheeled across the ground, ripping up chunks of grass and dirt. The Jaf'far were heavily distracted by the noise and shuffled back towards their post. Jack kept his eyes glued to his binoculars and saw no movement from the tunnel. Raising his hand he motioned them forward.
Teal'c and Jack went wide to the left while John, Sam and Daniel went right. They hoped to catch the Jaf'far in a cross fire before they reached the drone. As long as they were distracted, they were an easy target for SG-1. As long as they were distracted.
******
It was easy for Jack to see that the Jaf'far weren't in the best of health. Most of them seemed to be thinner than the average Jaf'far, for example, Teal'c. In fact the ones with their helmets up were having trouble running with such a top-heavy weight on their shoulders. As he thought this, the lead one stumbled and fell, his partner in headwear bending over to lift him up. And that's when things went pear shaped.
The Jaf'far bending down must have seen one of them and he turned fully towards them.
"JAF'FAR KREE!"
Helmet boy raised his staff weapon and was cut down by a blast from Teal'c's already aimed staff. Jack aimed his gun and cut loose a hail of rounds, walking them into the Jaf'far. Standing now, he kept up the fire, changing from a steady stream of fire to aimed bursts. The other members of SG-1 joined in the fight and it was over, SGC twelve, Jaf'far nothing.
******
It took Teal'c an hour and a half to get back to the Gate, running at a good steady lope. The team had slowly checked out the tunnel entrance and found nothing but fresh air. John had listened hard for any signs of other Jaf'far and heard nothing. Further examination only found what looked like Ammonet's surface throne room and her Jaf'far guardroom. The stench of death in the last was almost unbearable. Against orders John entered the room and found that the Jaf'far's drinking water was filthy, as was every other source of water.
They waited outside, hoping that no other Jaf'far patrols were combing the area. They all doubted it themselves but on an empty planet like this you couldn't know.
Daniel, over John's little declaration, decided to ask another question.
"The Vampyr, your people, how long have they existed on Earth?"
John stared at him for a long minute before deciding it was an honest question. He knew from descriptions of his Earth's Daniel that the man was, at the very least, honest.
"We lost most of our history during the Inquisition but as far as we know we came from Northern Europe. About six or seven thousand years ago we left that area and became nomadic, avoiding civilisation, or what passed for it in that era. As far as I know we moved east into what is now Tibet and West China. We stayed there for a while until differences of opinion over land drove us north into Siberia.
We sort of kept moving after that. You can guess that we hit Europe in time to get nearly annihilated by the Catholic Church's little Genocide-For-U Party. After that we didn't bother moving again, we just stepped back and blended in with the woodwork. We became stonemasons, carpenters and servants, and we managed to survive."
Sam digested all of this and shook her head when something occurred to her.
"How about the virus? How did you deal with that?"
John shrugged.
"We have a good idea it was herbal lore that kept us alive. That's what attracted the attention of the Church. The women of our kind were always experimenting with herbs and helping people in the process. The priests didn't like the fact that women were saving their flocks, that was their job.
Anyway, the virus only seems to become hyperactive in the minority of those born Vampyr and a good percentage of those turned. I'm one of the latter. But the benefits of the overactive virus are increased strength, stamina and healing ability. And to change the subject we have company."
John raised his gun and pointed it towards the trail where an approaching noise had caught his attention. He lowered his weapon before it came into view, looking at the others.
"It's a jeep."
A massive Humvee burst into view with Teal'c riding in the passenger seat. The front of another Humvee could be seen behind, dragging a trailer in its wake. By the time Teal'c's ride reached SG-1, Jack had counted a dozen of the military jeeps. The Jaf'far jumped from his seat before the jeep came to a halt. A tall, skinny, nervous looking man stepped down behind him.
"O'Neill, the General sent these to empty the supply depot. He said to say that you are in charge of this end of the operation. He also sent Lieutenant Murcherson with a 'shopping list' of required items."
As Teal'c spoke, SG teams jumped from the other trucks and began running to other areas of the clearing. Jack could see Stinger missiles being set up, their operators scanning the sky. Another jeep pulled up with a mobile radar station hooked up behind it.
"It looks as if the General thought of everything. Come on, I'll show you where everything is."
******
The General looked down from the conference room where several of the Joint Chiefs were standing, also watching.
The procession of boxes and other items had started to come through the wormhole not too long ago. The first few had been a novelty and each had been opened for the gaggle of generals to ooh and ah over. Zat guns, staff weapons, stun grenades seemed to be the majority of the load. But the real catch came in after a half an hour. Death Gliders, enough to establish at least two squadrons for the Air Force. The generals had started spinning so fast that they had almost reached generating speeds.
But George ignored the majority of this. He had too much to worry about.
He had stripped the local support base of personnel to prepare Level 23 as a temporary storage area for this theft. All personnel on leave had had to be recalled to help and now he had something approaching a hundred and fifty people, most of them non combatants, out on some Goa'uld world.
It was going too well.
******
Daniel started to feel like a third wheel, watching the soldiers load box after box onto the jeeps. The entire complex had been built on a low-tech design to avoid detection by Goa'uld sensors. He had tried to help but had been firmly but politely rebuffed most of the men knowing his reputation with large heavy objects, usually of the falling variety.
Visits to the Infirmary were not on their itinerary.
"Jack. I'm going back to the Stargate. I want to take a look at the ruins again. I have an idea as to the culture that built them."
Jack had looked up from some list he had been given and ticked off another hundred Zat guns.
"Knock yourself out and don't touch anything I wouldn't."
Sam walked behind a jeep to stifle her laughter at the face Daniel made.
Daniel grabbed a seat on one of the departing jeeps and disappeared off along the trail. Jack went back to the list.
* Another hour and we're out of here. *
He looked around at the area, checking the positions of the missile men and the radar operators. The last bunch were the ones to watch. If they started jumping up and down, screaming in terror then it would definitely be time to leave. He looked behind him and saw Carter holding a Goa'uld hand device, turning it over and over. John was helping the soldiers load another Glider, making that seventeen.
* The General must have emptied every motor pool on the continent to get these trailers. *
The Glider trundled off on the six-wheel monstrosity, churning up the earth even more. The last two hours had left a very definite trail from here to the Stargate.
"Sir. If you don't mind I'd like to get back to the SGC and out of the sun."
Jack whirled about and saw that John had patches of livid red skin on his face. The Vampyr didn't look too healthy.
"Are you all right?"
"The sweat knocks off the sunscreen after a while. Once I get into the shade the damage will be gone in a couple of minutes. Nothing to worry about."
"Go. And tell the General that I'd like to cut this short if possible. We could come back later if need be but for the moment I don't want to push our luck."
John gave a weary salute and started to jog off, preferring to get to the Gate by his own power.
******
It took the truck only twenty minutes to traverse the ten-mile journey, the road being so flat by this time. Once it entered the Gate's clearing, Daniel could see what a nice little operation was underway.
The whole area in front of the Stargate was covered in pierced steel planking, making it easier for the three little forklifts to get around. Every one of the loaded trailers was being backed up to the Stargate and unhooked from their jeeps. A forklift would come up and hook its forks under the trailer and push it through the Gate and into the waiting arms of the SGC.
* Nice. *
Daniel spent all of one second marvelling over the efficiency of the American military machine and then started to look at the ruins. For the most part they were being avoided, marker tapes having been placed around each structure's remains. Taking out his notebook for this world he started to draw the shapes and their order in relation to the Stargate. Wandering around he noticed that the hole with the red tag, the one with the quantum mirror, was directly east of the gate. It was as if once you left the gate you turned left and walked straight ahead.
But from what he remembered the mirror was partially embedded in the wall of the ruin. Starting for that particular pile of stones, he stepped under the tags and right into a Jaf'far emerging from the hole.
******
John hurried towards the gate. He was starting to feel the beginnings of nausea, and that was not a good sign. For humans it would mean possible sunstroke, for a Vampyr it could mean death. But as long as he got into cover, drank a crud load of water and ate a couple of gunge tubes or their equivalent, he would be fine.
He took the canteen that hung from his belt and doused his head and face with water. He downed the last few dribbles and pulled a cap from his pocket and jammed it over his dripping hair. He hated to wear the things. He couldn't see the sky while had one on. Grimacing with part pain and part anger at leaving his condition so late he picked up his pace, ignoring his stomach. The clearing was less than a few hundred yards away, a minutes jog and then blessed cool and darkness. He could already picture Briggs holding the cell door for him, turning off the lights and letting him sleep for a couple of days.
His dream was interrupted by a nightmare. The snap and hiss of staff weapon fire shocked him to a stop, and then he moved. Two bolts of yellow energy shot skyward and another along over the bushes. Diving and rolling he entered the clearing to see a group of Royal Guard Jaf'far, all clad in golden armour, firing into the mass of vehicles and people. Two of their own number had fallen to SGC security fire but they had more than made up for it. A good dozen green clad men and women were lying on the ground, dead or wounded.
John lined up his sights with the guards and squeezed the trigger. A tongue of fire flamed from the muzzle as he held down the trigger, hosing the Jaf'far down. And then he jerked the gun up as he saw the unconscious form of Daniel Jackson in among them. His fire had knocked down two, leaving another two to turn on him. He ran, dodging their shots, and dived behind a truck and into Captain Briggs, lying white faced and bloody.
Briggs aimed his gun at the Vampyr for half a second and then turned away to try and shoot at the Jaf'far. John held him back. He saw the Jaf'far move back towards one of the holes in the ground.
"They have Doctor Jackson. Cover me."
He dropped his gun and pulled both of his trinium blades, holding one up and the other down. As the first Jaf'far dropped into the quantum mirror's hole with his prisoner, John hit the remaining Royal Guard. The guard swung his staff, aiming high. John rolled into the attack, swinging his hand out and back, severing the tendons of the Jaf'far's knee. Bellowing in anger and pain, the injured man fell forward and John stabbed him in the heart, punching through the guard's armoured back with all his Vampyr strength.
Getting to his feet, he pulled his sidearm and stepped forward, preparing to fire down into the hole. Behind him, a bunch of SGC personnel were coming froward to help him. A rustling sound came from somewhere below and he waved the reinforcements to a halt and jumped forward, aiming the gun almost straight down. All he saw was a small silver sphere.
"Aw shit!"
Everybody behind him heard the words and dived to the ground. There was a massive blinding pulse of light and a weird shrieking noise that stunned everyone. John crumpled to the ground, unconscious.
******
Jack stood in front of the General, watching him read the butcher's bill for P3X-921. In all, six had died from blast wounds and another twenty were wounded. Maybe the worst bit of news was the abduction of Daniel, supposedly to this alternate reality of John's.
"From what Teal'c told me about these Jaf'far is that they belong to Ammonet's Royal Guard and are rarely out of her sight. He was able to identify two of them as Jaf'far from Chulak and a former member of Apophis' Guard. It would sort of fit. With their Apophis dead all his Jaf'far would go under her command."
A dissertation on Goa'uld/Jaf'far relationships wasn't what the General wanted to hear right now but it had to be said. When anyone is thinking an action against an enemy, knowing everything you can about that enemy helps.
"How is John?"
"He recovered pretty quick. The crew at the Gate put him through as a priority and Janet started him on some drip thing. From what I understood he was fairly badly off before he got hit by that Goa'uld grenade. Once he was back here he was fine. Sir, what are we going to do about Daniel?"
"What can we do Colonel? From what we know about these mirrors the only one that can access John's reality is in the hands of the Goa'uld in his reality. To go through that mirror would be nothing short of suicide. Until you or anyone else can come up with a plan that won't involve an act of total stupidity we can't help Doctor Jackson."
Jack stood straighter and nodded. He knew that the General was right but it didn't make him feel any better. In fact it made it worse. His best friend was a prisoner and he couldn't do a thing about it.
******
Waking to a splitting headache was never fun, something that John had done several times and something he had sworn not to do again. Shutting his eyes he patted himself down to check for limbs. When the count came up at four and a little extra he thought himself happy. And even better was the fact he was dressed. He took in a deep breath and coughed when the smells of his surroundings hit him head on. There was death and blood and burnt flesh and a lot more. It didn't help his head any.
A small hand pushed him back onto the bed when he tried to move. Opening one eye he saw the weary smiling face of Janet Frasier.
"Am I going to live?"
Her smile vanished and he understood where the smells were coming from now.
"How many?"
His question only made her shake her head. It was enough for him to be able to catch her meaning: too many had died. He rose again and grabbed her hand gently when she tried to get him down again.
"If I'm to get rid of this headache I need to get iron into my system. Is the mess hall still open?"
"Yes. I was told to tell you that Colonel O'Neill wants a quick word with you when you're ready."
John smiled at the little Doctor and nodded his thanks as he walked out the door. The Colonel's office was somewhere between the Infirmary and the Gate Room. He'd memorised the layout of his own SGC but they had a world of difference between the two. For the moment, however, he had food to worry about.
******
Jack wandered by the Infirmary, hoping to catch their guest before he went off somewhere. The Colonel had been wandering around the base, more from the need to do something than sit still and worry about Daniel. He'd checked the new storage bays that the General had cleared for the stolen gear. Seeing all those Death Gliders stacked like so many dominoes had been something else. It reminded him of the hangers in those Goa'uld attack vessels when they had attacked Apophis.
The thought brought back the memory of Daniel's sacrifice.
"Go. I'll watch your back."
The Colonel could still feel the wrench of pain that those words had wrought. He had had to walk away from other dying soldiers before but this was different. Daniel wasn't a soldier. If any of his old DI's ever heard him refer to his friend as a soldier they would have shot him out of hand.
* Jack, don't be an ass. *
He could almost hear the younger man say those words, chiding him for being so down in the mouth. He had business to attend to and that came first. He stopped a strolling security guard.
"Have you seen John Kelly?"
The man's face went a slight shade of green but he managed to answer.
"The mess hall sir."
Jack shrugged off the feeling of dread. The kid he had just talked to was fresh out of boot and in there they fed you slop that pigs would refuse. He turned one corner and went from stroll to fast walk, taking the next corner at speed and almost ran into Teal'c. The Jaf'far reached out and grabbed his shoulders to stop him falling over.
"General Hammond requests your presence sir. Along with that of John Kelly."
Jack smiled.
"I'm looking for the guy myself. He's supposed to be in the mess hall."
The Jaf'far turned and indicated with a nod that Jack should take the lead. The Colonel nodded back and began his hands in pockets stroll down to the end of the hall and the open door of the mess hall. A couple of people left the hall, al looking a little sickened.
* This does not look good. *
Jack stepped into the room and the first thing he saw was John sitting in front of a massive plate of something green. He felt his stomach rebel when he saw and smelt what the green was.
The SGC was one of those places that had a lifeform known as Green Vegetable Multi-form that appeared on the menu at least once a week. Each time it came under a different name, for instance mushy peas last week, shredded kale the week before. This week it was 'supposed' to be cabbage but not even Carter with her multiple degrees and that super-lab could ID this... gick.
And John had heaped two plates of the stuff and was bolting down the last of a third. Jack was almost ready to bolt himself but only as far as the nearest head. He had to stop the guy before he'd make half the base sick.
"John. The General wants to see us."
John nodded and got up, lifting a plate with him. Jack shook his head and pointed to the plate.
"Sorry. This is going to be a formal debrief."
John put the plate down and walked out of the Hall, only stopping to get a couple of packs of chewing gum. As he trailed the two warriors of SG-1 down the hall he wadded up a couple of sticks of gum and forced them into his mouth. When he felt the strong flavour of the gum burn into his palate he sighed in appreciation. Jack heard the sigh and stopped.
"How could you eat that crap?"
"Willpower, chuckles. Willpower."
And he walked on.
******
"First of all, Mister Kelly, I want to thank you for saving the lives of those who would have been killed had you not intervened. I would also like to thank you for your efforts to save Doctor Jackson. On behalf of all those at the SGC I thank you."
John squirmed in his seat at the General's words and just nodded in the old man's direction. Seeing that his thanks had been accepted he got down to business.
"Before we go any further I would like to know something. What chance would an operation have to retrieve Doctor Jackson from the mirror on P3X-921?"
John had to wince. To go from thanks to a hardball question like that without taking a breath was something else.
"Okay. Based on what I know of Ammonet, that bitch will have towed that mirror out into the open and posted a small army of Jaf'far around it. Even if you managed to get through them you'd have to deal with a couple of dozen Death Gliders that she would post nearby. In short, if you send anyone through the mirror, make sure you really don't like them because they would have zero chance of surviving."
John held his hands up and shrugged. The General had asked for his opinion and got it.
"So a rescue would be near impossible."
The General saw the little twinkle in John's eye and knew that the man had an idea and it was one he probably wouldn't be one he liked. But he had to let the Vampyr broach the subject and he'd draw it out of him after that point.
"Actually sir there is one way but you may not like it."
George wished that he had brought some Tylenol out from the office. He'd cracked the seal on another new bottle of the painkiller only a week before and had had to use them four times alone this week. And all his misery was partially due to the crap that John Kelly had stirred up.
******
John saw the colour fade from the General's cheeks and smelt the sudden change of the man's scent. It wasn't hard to see that he had just hit a line and the General was thinking of moving it further forward, the better to trip him with. He could play 'pull the tooth' or just go for broke.
"Several teams in my reality are sitting on Quantum Mirrors that have been found on quiet, resource-poor worlds. This isn't exactly approved by regulations but it gives us escape avenues if necessary. It's been used four times, once successfully."
George nodded. It made sense to do something like that but every report that Major Carter had supplied to him stressed the importance of avoiding the alien objects. Dragging in Goa'uld from a different reality by accident wouldn't make it any easier for their fight against the ones that were already here.
"The only one I know about in The Land Of The Light. We use the woods to night-time training missions. A cousin of mine was on the team that found it. He mentioned it to me."
The news that there was actually something that could be done for Daniel was too much for Jack to bear.
"Sir. SG-1 can be ready to go in an hour..."
"No you can't."
John held up his hand to stop the Colonel from jumping down his throat. Major Carter saved him from the O'Neill anger.
"Colonel, remember when my counterpart came over and she started experiencing the quantum schism. If we go we'll be in the same state after forty-eight hours. Any longer and we'd die."
The General saw the problem immediately.
"Does that mean that Doctor Jackson is already suffering from that problem?"
John shook his head.
"You have to have a living counterpart in my reality, General."
SG-1 got the message. Something had happened to the Daniel in John's reality. General Hammond decided to voice his opinion.
"Nearly four years ago a young man made a startling discovery that changed the destiny of the United States of America. While we have entered into a war that places the survival of this planet at stake, we must fight this fight. We face an enemy that is no different whatever the reality we exist in. We have been a lot luckier than others, including those of Mister Kelly's world and most of that luck is due to that young man. Mission approved. Colonel O'Neill, work out a mission profile for me to sign off on."
******
"I still say that this stinks."
John shrugged off Jack's complaint.
"I know Colonel but that's the way the cookie crumbles. At least in this case anyway. Look, the best way we can do this is in two stages. First, I go through the mirror with someone else, someone very dead in my reality. General Hammond would be the best example but he can't. Teal'c is the next logical choice. Once we go through, we use my Earth's intelligence to find Doctor Jackson and then we call you through. We can try a rescue attempt then and only then."
Jack still didn't like the idea of sending Teal'c through alone.
"Where is the most likely place for Ammonet to go?"
"I honestly don't know. She's been busy since the attack on Earth. We were half thinking on sending a device through to Chulak but it was thought that destroying a world would attract the attention of all the Goa'uld. Most of our missions are for recon. That's how we found the supply dump and that's how I got here."
Teal'c stood beside his commander and friend.
"O'Neill, if we are to find Daniel Jackson then we must use this one chance. I will accompany John Kelly through the mirror."
The Colonel threw his hands up in the air in resignation.
"Fine. But we'll go with you as far as the mirror."
******
SG-6 moved slowly through the woods, using the lights from their NVG's to light the way. Most of the Touched had been cleared from the woods, both by SGC teams and the people of The Land Of The Light, but a few still remained. At least that is what they had been told. So far they hadn't run into any problems.
Except for John's directions.
At first he'd led them directly north from the Gate along a game trail. After a mile and a half they came to a small clearing and that's where things started to get mixed up. He stood in the light and looked around, trying to see any indication of what his cousin had spouted on about.
"We need to find a small wall or just a pile of stones. If you find anything call me."
Two hours later they stopped for a break and sat in the clearing, eating their MRE's. Carter pulled out a couple of homemade sandwiches and everyone stared at her, then under her. She was sitting on a small mound, keeping her rucksack between her and the grass. When she had thrown her rucksack down in had torn the sod and exposed rock. John whipped out his compass and walked east for a few seconds, then disappeared in a flash of light.
The SGC personnel reacted in tune with their training. Whipping their guns up they trained them outwards, aiming at the trees and cursing themselves for being so lax in not setting a guard. With their food discarded they slowly made their way over to where John had stepped and he reappeared. Their guns went from pointing at the woods to him.
"Whoa there. I found it."
He pointed down at a matt black stone, its surface polished by a race long gone from the galaxy. The Vampyr knelt down and slowly scraped away the surrounding soil using his knife. Soon he exposed the mirror's base and stood it tall using ropes to pull it upright. Further searching turned up the handset and he went dialling through all the infinite choices.
It didn't take long.
The mirrors surface flashed and the image of a couple of men in SGC uniforms could be seen. Small pallets of standard US military supplies sat around where their mirror stood. But that wasn't what really drew their attention. It was the small red patches on their sleeves and a few spilled tubes of John's special gunge that told them they had what they wanted.
"Okay. We're sorted. Teal'c and I'll go through now. One way or another we'll be back in a few hours and we'll have news."
Setting aside his gun, John reached for the mirror and tensed himself before touching its deceptively innocent façade. He felt a tingle and his senses reeled as everything changed and stayed the same. The noises of the SGC team vanished to be replaced by the chatter of his Blood Brothers. And that vanished as they saw him standing by the mirror, unarmed. All of them ducked behind cover and aimed their weapons, their Vampyr reflexes making them blurs of motion.
"Don't you fucking move."
"Do me a couple of favours Dave. First, stop with the Robert De Niro. And second, have a shower."
The Vampyr in question raised his head.
"Johnny is that you?"
"And Dave takes the prize for asking the all time stupid question of the millennium! Of course its me you daft git. Now get your finger out of your arse and call the Gate. I've got some company."
The Vampyr soldiers stood and relaxed slightly, but stayed within inches of their cover. If this were a trap then they would be ready.
John turned and waved at the image of the SGC teams he had just left behind. Teal'c put aside his staff weapon and touched the mirror, flashing through to John's reality. The Jaf'far blinked, his only reaction to the transition. The Vampyr flinched at seeing the golden snake motif of a dead Goa'uld but their guns stayed lowered. Then one of them realised who it was.
"Master Teal'c."
The Jaf'far of another universe dipped his head on hearing his name and all the Vampyr came to a lazy form of attention. But their eyes said a lot more than their bodies. They were standing in front of one of their heroes, a man become greater by the telling of stories. John broke the silence.
"I need to get back to the SGC. Ammonet had kidnapped their Daniel."
He waved again to the mirror and the Vampyr saw the faces of two other heroes, Samantha Carter and Jack O'Neill. Dave raised his walkie-talkie.
"This is Blood Six to Gate Six. We have four heading your way, Gate Six."
******
Teal'c stepped out onto the landscape both familiar and alien to him. The Gate Room was darker and different, the blast door on the control room was down. A pair of rods rose from the floor and emitted lights that focused on the larval Goa'uld in his stomach. A whir sounded and two pinpricks of red landed on his chest. He didn't feel discomfort but still, to focus on that aspect of him in the SGC was never pleasant.
Several men were waiting at the bottom of the ramp, dressed in the overalls that all the SGC seemed to wear. One of them stepped forward and saluted with three fingers to his head. John strode down the ramp and idly returned the salute.
"Sir, I regret to inform you of the failure to destroy the Goa'uld supply dump on P3X-921. We were attacked by Ammonet's forces and our devices did not activate."
The officer tore his eyes off the Jaf'far and frowned at the young Vampyr. Teal'c could see the anger in his eyes build when he saw the mark of a Jaf'far on his head. With a rough accent he began to reply to John's report.
"We knew that it went wrong a day or so ago when Delta site failed to get word from your team leader. Another team is due to be sent to that destination in twenty hours. Until then we'll hold you for debriefing. Now can you explain this..."
The officer gestured up to in Teal'c's direction.
"I fell against a Quantum Mirror, sir, and landed in another world. This is Teal'c from SG-1 of that reality. He is here to make an appeal to General O'Neill."
The angry eye of the officer turned from Teal'c to John.
"Explain."
"Ammonet followed through the Mirror and grabbed their Daniel Jackson. If possible they would like to launch a rescue mission. Also I recommend that you hold off on any attempt on P3X-921. Ammonet most likely has guards positioned at the Gate and any team will not survive their arrival."
Every word from John's mouth seemed to anger the officer more and more. He turned away from John and gestured to the other men with him.
"Get security down here now. I want both of these taken to holding cells for further debriefing."
One of the officers left, the massive blast doors opening for him to leave. As the door opened a figure stepped in, blocking the departing man's path. There was a flash of annoyance that disappeared when he saw who it was. Saluting sharply, he stepped back and waited for General Jack O'Neill to make his disposition of the prisoners.
"What have we got here, Dimitri?"
The Russian saluted his commander and began his report.
"This man is from the missing Blood Unit that was sent by Beta Site to destroy the target on P3X-921. He reports a failure and demands that we do not attempt another assault. He also has this Jaf'far with him."
Teal'c began to walk down the ramp towards this Jack O'Neill. He saw much of his own O'Neill in this one except for one little thing. This one seemed tired, very happy and a lot more relaxed. He made his way past the officers and bowed.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, General O'Neill."
Jack hadn't moved an inch from where he stood. For all intents and purposes he was a statue. And then he moved.
"It's good to see you Teal'c."
John could see that his superior had immediately grasped the situation. This was not the man who had been his friend, just one of an infinite amount of possibilities. The General reached out and grasped the Jaf'far's shoulder, smiling in welcome.
"What can we do for you?"
******
The conference room was identical to the one that Teal'c had been in only a few hours ago but this one was separated by an entire universe and a couple of libraries of math books. He had tried to follow Samantha Carter's explanation of what the mirrors did and failed.
And now he had to rely on his knowledge of one Jack O'Neill to persuade another.
"We need your assistance in finding the location of Ammonet. She sent her personal guard through and they abducted Daniel Jackson."
John could see that mentioning the Doctor had an effect on his commanding officer. He'd never really met Jack O'Neill in this reality and only seen him once in public when he and his unit had been sent out to Beta site that first time. From what he knew, every unit got the same consideration.
"Mister Kelly, could you tell me what happened to your unit and how you got involved with these people?"
John gave him the cliff notes version, including his attack on the nurses and their revenge. But he didn't expect the angry response to his staying out in the sun so long during the supply dump episode.
"You're not the first of your kind to be that stupid and I doubt that you'll be the last. But I'm going to make damn sure that it'll be the last time for you. When you're finished here you can go up and get Doctor Kincaid to look you over and give you the lecture of over exposure. Dismissed."
John stood, saluted and left the room.
"Teal'c, if you follow me, we can try and help you but I can't promise anything."
The ride to the surface was quiet, the familiar chatter of his O'Neill missing from this one. Although this one seemed to be more at peace he also seemed to be distant.
"I would ask you a question, O'Neill!"
The General looked up at the Jaf'far, half in shock from the tone in Teal'c voice and half in anger at being disturbed in his thoughts.
"Go ahead."
"John Kelly has spoken much about the attack on this planet and about your marriage to Samantha Carter. How were you able to get past the regulations that restrain you on my world?"
Jack looked away for a moment and his lips thinned.
"Did he tell you what happened on the ships when Apophis attacked?"
"He only told us what he knew. That the Teal'c of this place died at Apophis' hands. Daniel Jackson perished on the orders of Ammonet. And that both you and Captain Carter were held by Klorel."
Jack looked up at Teal'c again and the Jaf'far could see the unbelievable rage in his eyes.
"They broke Sam's spine and made sure she lived through it. They tortured her to death and I was made to watch every second. Then they used the coffin on her and when she had recovered, they made her watch my being tortured. Klorel had finished with me and had brought over your body. I can still remember your face, the absolute picture of agony. Then Klorel gave the order and his Jaf'far were about to kill us both when the Vampyr arrived. They are the only reason we both survived."
The angry look disappeared.
"I lost two very good friends that day and I'll never forget that if I hadn't hesitated in letting you kill Klorel we would all still be here. But we're not."
"O'Neill, I was the one holding Klorel, not you. I chose your life over his. Know this now, in my universe, Ska'ra is back on Abydos, free from Klorel."
"And Sha're?"
"She died. Ammonet was about to kill Daniel Jackson and I fired."
Jack went back to staring at the wall again when the lift doors opened. The sight was a lot different to the one that Teal'c was used to. Instead of a tunnel roof and a forbidding row of guards there was open sky and forbidding guards. The whole side of the mountain had been swept away and was now a grass covered valley. There was a plaque mounted on a pedestal of granite just a few steps away from their exit point. Teal'c eyes swept over it.
DEFENDERS OF EARTH
He read down the length of the plaque and saw names all too familiar and some belonging to total strangers. He spotted Janet Frasier's, General Hammond's and Sergeant Siler's. The members of four SG teams were blocked together and then he saw that the names had been carved in order of death, the majority of the senior staff being the last to fall. He looked at Jack and the General saw the question in his eyes.
"When the dust had settled someone ran the security footage for the base. This monument was erected not long after. It was the right thing to do and the only way to remember soldiers."
Jack walked on and got into a waiting jeep. The driver waited until Teal'c was barely sitting and he took off. The forest was still there guarding the highway into the base but it felt different. And then he saw why.
A pair of Death Gliders flew overhead but with markings like none he had ever seen on one of those machines. Each was light blue in colour and had a triangle with a single rod pointing up from the apex. It was the Stargate symbol for the Tau'ri.
He turned to follow their flight-path and saw them slow, turn and land. They came into sight again as the jeep turned a corner and entered the gates of a massive military base. Teal'c glimpsed the name General George Hammond and guessed that this was the base that John had mentioned. Sweeping his eyes over the piece he could see, he saw other Gliders taking off and landing, soldiers running by, armed with Earth weapons and Zat guns.
The jeep sped on and entered the courtyard of a large building. It braked at the entrance and Jack jumped out, closely followed by Teal'c. Leading the way up to the doors, the General saluted the guards and mumbled something to them. A minute later they were inside a small empty room and had a bedraggled clerk rummaging through a filing cabinet. The General held his hand out and got a folder placed into it.
"The last we know, and that's sometime in the past twenty hours, Ammonet landed on Chulak. We have spies there with Goa'uld communication devices that give us daily reports. Apparently she seemed to be in a good mood. And she also had a guest that our informant couldn't identify."
He gave the folder to Teal'c, who flipped through it. The Jaf'far wasn't the fastest reader but could still follow some of what was written.
"So what do you do now?"
"With your permission, Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter will come through with SG-6 and attempt a rescue. With this location of Daniel Jackson's location we should be able to retrieve him."
"And if you can't?"
"We will."
TO BE CONTINUED